Elster worked on maintaining the UNSC's vehicles. From Pelicans to Warthogs to tanks, the girl hadn't rested a bloody day as they travelled Slipspace for their unknown destination. Random jumps were apparently fairly monotone. Who knew? She thought to herself as she gently pulled the control panels of the Scorpion she was now working on off. She pulled out a few tools from her belt and started working on the vehicle's wiring, parts of which seemed fried by overuse. Or plasma. She didn't really know if the Autumn's tank battalion had been deployed, but, at least, the mental exercise kept the unwanted 'guest' she'd found herself with after Reach's Fall tuned out.

She scoffed as a small electrical current coursed through her finger. She checked the wire to see that the rubber had partially melted, revealing a chunk of the inner conductor. She clipped it with one tool and started quickly replacing the rubber sleeve in the affected area as best she could. Moments later, she was done. In truth, she was mostly doing this to really keep her mind off of... Everything.

Not just Lilith.

Everything.

Climbing out of the tank with a huff, the girl took her helmet from the left and jumped off the vehicle from its back-right track, before looking around at the hangar she was in, watching the crews do final checks on the vehicles. An engineer approached and extended to Elster a datapad. She took it, clipped her helmet to her belt and started writing out the report at about three words every second. Two minutes was all it took for her to properly compile everything that was wrong with the tank, simply handing it back to the man.

She walked off, sliding her helmet onto her head and entering one of the armories. A Marine quartermaster greeted her, "Sarge. Came for the daily?" to which she nodded. The man pulled an MA5 assault rifle off one of the racks and slid it underneath the glass window, then did the same for an M6 Magnum pistol. Alongside them, he handed her about a dozen mags of AR ammo and four mags of pistol ammo.

Sliding each into a pouch, Elster stepped off toward the Range, rifle in hand. The chatter of Marine rifle fire echoed all around her as half a platoon of men trained at the various booths. She ignored the stares for now, shouldering the AR. She slid a fresh quad-stack magazine into the back of the weapon and hefted it, aiming through the SmartScope system toward the target at about average engagement range.

She squeezed for barely a quarter of a second before three rounds burped out of the weapon, each striking a fairly centralized area in the alien silhouette target's body. Impressive ROF for something with sixty rounds in a magazine. Made sense, too... With a sigh, the girl took a more capable stance. Left foot forward, right back and perpendicular to the left's axis, a slight slouch forward and the rifle properly pressed into her armored shoulder.

She squeezed again, for a second. A burst of nineteen rounds left the barrel in a tight grouping. A few Marines whistled, with one of the men commenting, "Damn. That's the new bot we got? She's got a helluva good aim," his thickly Australian accent fairly obvious. Elster tried to ignore the gawking and comments for now, though she kept steady on the range.

"Was with Spartans beforehand, amigo" Another, with a strange accent, commented, "Hey, Bisenti, you saw her in action."

"Yeah. She's good," The guy replied, watching as she aimed and fired again, then stated, "She's something else entirely, though. Scary shit, apparently. Whisper is ONI, maybe, but I'm not sure," as he slung his own rifle onto his shoulder. The woman fired another burst, trying to ignore the stares and the rounds once again landed dead onto where she'd aimed them.

With a sigh, she lowered her rifle, dropped the half-empty magazine and pulled the bolt back to retrieve the bullet inside. A familiar voice spoke to her, "Getting stage fright, Tin Can?" with the most smug tone of a voice ever. Elster almost jumped out of her synth-skin, her eyes shifting to see Lilith there, leaned against the booth in her combat uniform, a grin on her face. She mocked, "Oh, sorry. Did I scare you?"

The Replika took a moment, scoffed, then swiveled around and marched out toward the door. A blink later and Lilith was waiting right there, a grin on her face. "Can't get away from me~," she declared, "I'm in your head, after all. Or are you in mine?" then she paused as she watched Elster walk off. With a roll of her eyes, Lilith's form disappeared from next to the door, but her disembodied voice continued to mock, "C'mon, bot. It's no fun if you don't answer. Might even make me think I'm crazy."

Elster did the smart thing as she walked to surrender her weapons, surprising the quartermaster at the lack of expended ammo. She shut off her armor's external speakers and replied to Lilith, "I'm not in the mood. Can you just do me a favor and erase yourself like the errant bit of code you are...?" only to stagger as she turned around to see the Itou woman standing about a foot from her.

Lilith almost sang, "No can do, kiddo~! We're together come hell or high water and you won't get rid of me that easily~!"

"Does putting a bullet in my skull shut you up, I wonder?" Elster murmured a rhetorical question as she walked out of the armory and down one of the many walls through which the honeycomb braces of the Autumn's armor and superstructure passed through, marching by deck crew, Marines and even one of the janitors. A short laugh from Lilith told her that it would, in fact, only kill them both. And she couldn't do that while the Covenant still existed. She couldn't let them go for-

"Ooh," Lilith joked as she started walking by Elster, "I can feel that fury. Good. A little bit of me is still in that copycat head of yours."

"Obviously," Elster shot back derisively, "You're still talking to me," And she looked forward to see a pair of Marines armed with MA5s marching by. They gave Elster a quick nod as she walked. She simply nodded back too them, watching one of the Marines walk clean through the apparition of Lilith. She thought for a moment if she was in the final stages of her Persona Degradation.

Lilith answered the unasked question rather openly. Though the tone grew a bit more... Respectful, low, tired, "I'd say we are at that stage..."

"Don't speak like you're me," Elster hissed, "You're just a Ghost... A leftover that they should've deleted with the rest of this template. Replaced with a proper LSTR Persona Template instead," only to almost double over as Lilith appeared ahead of her, a burning glare marked by one good eye of two meeting Elster's own stunned one. The figure took a step back, a bloody gash marking where her right eye used to be. Elster felt a stinging in her own eye, to the point she put a hand against the cold, polarized glass of her SPI suit's visor.

"Without me, you wouldn't have been able to bond with your Ariane as well as you did," Lilith shot back, walking around the Replika within the now-empty hallway. Her voice was cold and focused, "Without me, you would not have seen the resemblance between her and Alina Seo. My Alina," then she stopped in front of Elster again, growling, "You wouldn't be you without me, you deranged, broken little machine! Be grateful I died so you can live, because, without me, you're NOTHING!"

Elster was about to reply, though the words caught in her throat, mouth open, face morphed into an expression of anger. She grit her teeth, biting back the remark. Because she knew Lilith was right? Because she didn't want to seem crazy for arguing with herself? The AI bit of Cortana Six and NOBLE had delivered was probably following her around through the cameras, so it was best not to give her a reason to eighty-six her.

So, Elster put on a poker face and replied, "Maybe... I was nothing before Ariane. I am nothing again," in a deadpan, "And you're the same kind of Nothing as me since we are stuck together..." then she walked through Lilith's apparition. Why was she arguing with her own mind? She thought to herself that maybe, just maybe, she would have been better off putting a bullet in her own head now. She'd failed Ariane, finally broke and now had this piece of shit soldier girl screaming into her brain about it.

"No," Lilith replied, once again walking by Elster's side, both eyes back, a deadpan look on her face and her garrison cap sat on her head. The same cap Elster had worn aboard the Penrose-512. She spoke, "You aren't nothing, you moron. You can still get revenge. I died before I knew if I had to avenge my Alina, bleeding in a hole in her arms. I died when the Imps let hell rain down on our heads. You? You still have some time to do what has to be done. And I'm here to guide you into doing that. Maybe we'll both get some damned closure afterward."

"Hm..." Elster thought for a moment, "Keep quiet while we're fighting. I don't like distractions."

"You sure?" Snorted the girl, though that wasn't derisive, more amused. She told her, "I saved your and that Sniper's asses on board the Station just before we departed."

Elster paused, "That callout... That was you?"

Lilith nodded, her grin returning, "See? I'm useful. So, how about you through that high-and-mighty queen bitch attitude out of the airlock and let me help you get some payback on these hinge-jawed freaks and their stout little suicide units?" only to pause as Elster turned to face her. They were outside the range of any camera and in an empty hall.

Elster crossed her arms and answered, "Fine. Only callouts."

"Aww, no girl talk?" Chuckled Lilith, "You hurt me so, Elster," and she smirked. She extended her hand, but then paused and realized Elster couldn't exactly shake it. Instead, she gave a slight nod of her head that only Elster would pick up and be able to replicate. And replicate it, she did. Lilith's grin grew into an actual smile, her crazy eyes fading for a second, "... It's nice to have a second chance. Give'em hell out there, Tin Can."

"Will do, Schizophrenic Hallucination," Elster murmured, which got a laugh out of her.

"I like that! Haha!" She snorted, "Just call me Lilith, though."

"No," Elster said monotonely, garnering another laugh out of Lilith. She could hear Lilith think, 'This is gonna be a great friendship' as she laughed. The two only paused, however, when her HUD flashed and a message text box appeared on the left. Cortana's message. It said, 'The Captain wants to talk to you on the Bridge'. She sighed and turned around, then marched over toward the bridge, with Lilith quieting down for now and retreating to the back of her consciousness.

Walking into the bridge, Elster was surprised to see the deck crew active as ever. She marched up to the front, watching the Captain and Cortana debate something from afar against the holographic screen that separated him from the forward gunners of the Pillar of Autumn, men on chairs that hanged above a perceived void, though separated from said void by the windows of the ship.

Cortana, though a hue more purple than prior, turned to face her. She smiled and waved her over, to which Elster took a step forward, reactivating her external speakers as Lilith said, "Y'know, if I was an AI..." but then cut herself off with, "Nah, nevermind..." even though Elster had heard the thoughts she was about to speak and shuddered a little. With a light sigh, she stopped in front of captain Keyes and Cortana, snapping a salute.

"Captain, sir. Sergeant Five-One-Two, reporting as ordered, sir..."

"At ease," Keyes nodded, "Good to finally meet you properly, Elster. Cortana was just telling me everything I needed to know about you, but I wanted to hear it from the horse's mouth, if you'll pardon the euphemism..." And he took a puff from his strange pipe. She nodded, waiting to be asked anything and Keyes obliged, asking, "Look, I know things are tough, Sergeant... And I know what you think you lost, but trust me. If there's anyone who's going to survive what happened at Reach, it's doctor Halsey and anyone who's with her."

"... Thank you, sir..." She spoke, slightly reassured by her words. He gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder, then nodded.

Then, he turned and continued, "I should ask, though, what is a Replika? Reports haven't been forthcoming."

"Sir. A Replika is a worker automaton built out of Titanium, polyethylene and synthetic skin, as well as biocomponents meant to replicate human functions to a degree," She replied calmly, "Each of us is specialized in one role, though there is the rare multirole Replika out there. I am... Was an Engineer meant to support a colony and exploration ship, but, as you can see..."

"Necessity is the mother of invention," The man nodded, "Glad to see you've adapted."

"Mostly due to my Persona Template, sir," The girl replied. A slight confusion crossed Keyes's face, but Elster answered the question ahead, "Each Replika also has a Persona Template implanted into their artificial brains. Mine's apparently from some soldier that fought on one of the fronts our homeland had opened during their rebellion with the Empire..." And she was a mouthy bitch, Elster thought, but didn't add. Lilith laughed a little at that.

Keyes nodded, "Then your skillset's welcome any time. I have one more question and something to tell you. First things first, why'd you tag in with us?"

"No other options, plus your people healing Ariane," She replied, "Her cancer..."

"Right," The man nodded, "Got it... Now, onto what I wanted to tell you," and he looked to Cortana. She approved him telling her, which gave him the chance to say, "We have a destination."

Confusion streaked across Elster's eyes, though it wasn't visible. She spoke, "Sir, aren't we on COLE PROTOCOL? Random jumps?"

"This is technically a 'Random Jump'," Cortana chuckled, "A destination I found in an artifact buried under SWORD. We'll be hitting that spot now... Maybe we'll be able to find something to turn the tide of this damn war already. Captain figured it'd be a good idea to tell you about it, for you to be ready for when we deploy. BLUE's gonna need their new tech bot."

... Despite it taking a moment for Elster to adjust to this new info and Lilith speaking some comment that the girl ignored, the Replika simply nodded and said, "Alright... I got it. Let the Chief know I'll be ready for anything they need me for," then took a moment to think. This was gonna be one hell of an operation if it was some form of ancient alien super-weapon.

Maybe they'd find their payback there, after all...