Does love come from grief? It seems everything awful under the sun can be born from it: fear, desperation, anger, sadness, and a new, miserable way of looking at things. Maybe we get cross-wired with our anger and feel love too.

In the same way our anger and sadness can overwhelm and make up small aspects of grief, grief itself being not so easily described, so too can love. Smothering love. Powerful, angry love. Is that even possible?

I have never felt a more intense feeling of need than when I think about you, and I never felt a stronger release and calmness than when we're together. I feel like we're going to be okay, you and I, when we hold hands.

I'm writing this out because I had these thoughts while in a dogfight with a Vulture. It pulled a freaking split-S—a move I taught the droids not a month ago—and it almost got me. I need to think this out and have an answer before my next sortie.

But, honestly, I don't know. Just when I think that the desire to be with you is what's keeping me going, I think of Grievous. I imagine his pulsating body squeezing and crumbling in the vacuum of space. I want to see it. I want to turn his armor and bones to glass, grind them down, and broil them into soda bottles.

I think of your brother a lot, too. He was a great leader. I wasn't ready to fill his boots, but I'm here now, and I do what I can. I don't remember if I told you this. It might have slipped my mind when we were on Reach: your brother was one of the best.

Perhaps our affection and hatred are one and the same. Perhaps we're taking this too far, too quickly, without knowing ourselves well enough. But it still doesn't change that I miss you, and I long to see you again.

I wonder if, at the end of our pursuit for vengeance, our love will dissipate. Or, like many revenge plots, nothing will satisfy us, and we'll go on loving each other, and loathing a thing that is dead and cannot be hurt anymore, wishing it was still alive, so we could kill it again.

But I'm just thinking out loud. I believe most of these are sourced from delusion and confusion, a byproduct of my own grief, which I myself have no time to process. Not yet. I think you love me. I think I love you. That's enough right now.

Good night, Faye. Text me in the morning.

file/golf-golf-five/smithj
Encryption Code: black
Public Key: n/a
From: coalminer
To: Cdr. Herzog
Cc: cinconi
Subject: Final Progress Report%/Project ENOCH
Classification: Secret (BGX Directive)
Type: Message
Status: READ, REPLIED

Final Progress Report: Project ENOCH

The final preparation for the AI E-0001GX "Enoch" was completed last night with the supervision of PLR-14403G4 "Pallbearer," with one more issue to report regarding what it referred to as an "empty thread." Although the previously mentioned, and closely monitored, "trauma response" seems to have resolved itself through Enoch's subconscious dream clusters, which were an exact copy of ARGONAUT's brain. The subzero climate had an effect on preserving—although not without causing some damage through the formation of ice crystals in his blood vessels—in its state at his time of death. When Enoch first woke, he was trapped in the final moments of a brain processing its own death, creating an unprecedented emergency.

The use of quotations for "trauma response" is not to be discounted as a hypothesis. This is the direct analysis of the North American Psychological Association liaison, Dr. Harper Sherman, who identified the mapped clusters of ARGONAUT's brain that were reliving and compartmentalizing a traumatic memory. While death is always traumatic, this kind of activity within an AI's Riemann matrix was unprecedented. It was previously believed that artificial intelligences were, if not impervious, highly resistant to replicating the biological responses of emotional trauma and distress. We are working on a paper with multiple potential hypotheses on the conditions under which ARGONAUT produced this response in Enoch's matrix.

Following Dr. Sherman's recommendation, we withdrew Pallbearer' presence from Enoch's formative matrix within two hours of first activation. Pallbearer reported that it had completed a comprehensive extraction of data and metadata that illuminated the puzzle before us. This was where it discovered the "empty thread:" a level of prescience and sensitivity to events unrestrained by causality. Enoch, while Pallbearer was recording, subconsciously reconstructed a conversation between Lt. Osman and TALISMAN 78 hours before it actually occurred. Although Pallbearer's recording of the setting was, predictably, different, the audio and transcript was word-for-word Osman and TALISMAN's exchange, cross-referenced by Pallbearer with a .000002% margin of error. I have attached a recording of TALISMAN's office with two-party consent, in addition to the recording of Enoch's "preconstruction" for your review.

We investigated three hypotheses developed by Dr. Sherman and approved by Pallbearer:

Enoch's preconstruction was a simulation exercising a high degree of imagination and wish-fulfillment, simulating Osman and TALISMAN's conversation, hoping to retain its memories of ARGONAUT's life after the final stage of preparation. This level of simulation is not uncommon among fourth-generation artificial intelligences.

Enoch infiltrated SWORD BASE's systems and listened in on the conversation. An error in multiple layers of timing and recording metadata, Pallbearer's own artificial perception of time, as well as a collective misrecall among all individuals involved with the project, contributed to the false conclusion that this was a preconstruction.

Enoch is prescient.

Although most of Enoch's "dreamscape" was constructed in its own imagination and conceptualization of escape, Pallbearer was able to identify certain aspects that were rooted in the region Enoch stores memory. It is not clear if these were ARGONAUT's real memories, obtained sometime before death, or if it was data allocated in the wrong location, but all evidence points toward the former, including a lack of exception errors associated with the latter. The conversation between TALISMAN and Osman was found in ARGONAUT's memory.

We cross-examined logs that were connected to Enoch's device. No connections were ever made to SWORD BASE's systems, including public announcement, satellite defense, radio communications, long-range and short-range sensors, and audio/visual security monitoring.

We have rejected the first and second hypotheses.

Metadata collected by Pallbearer also illuminated another alarming detail: Enoch, despite reconstructing (and falsifying) certain memories of ARGONAUT's childhood, never input data of ARGONAUT's experiences in the Ferrets before Operation Silent Spear, nor did it reference TALISMAN's features, voice, or involvement in any collaboration between Osman's branch and his own. While subconscious metadata is difficult to sift through, even for AI, Pallbearer was confident in its analysis: Enoch recreated a scene between two actors it was not actively or passively remembering three days before the conversation occurred. Despite our initial skepticism, we were advised by Dr. Sherman not to rule out the possibility of latent "acausal" perceptions, or the hypothetical prescience alluded to earlier in this report.

All of our research is attached to this file for your review.

We followed up on Pallbearer's lead about the "Flower Game" matrix. As detailed previously, the Flower Game within the online chatter app reconstructed from ARGONAUT's early life memories does not exist in any build of the program, nor does the user WILLOWTHEWISP. This is a fabrication created by Enoch's subconscious matrices. However, the Flower Game is a Turing-complete simulation of Conway's Game of Life, and the null user WILLOWTHEWISP was able to lay pieces on the matrix within the game to create glyphs, images, and videos using the mechanics of the simulated game.

Many of the images created by the tesselation in the Flower Game were initially difficult to interpret, but with Dr. Sherman's hypotheses, we re-examined several possibilities. Dr. Sherman recommended our analysts to "get creative." Although no other examples were found following the footage of the Flower Game's imprints, one image remained outstanding in this morning's reassessment.

Yesterday, the United Nations Security Council observed multiple hearings about the situation on Sanghelios. The peacekeeping mission, which began in 2515, collapsed overnight as a result of a cascading crisis involving the Robani assault on the Canadian force at Camp Dallaire. The Ukrainian commander believes that it is related to a Jedi intervention, and that Sanghelios became swept up with the ongoing conflict between the Coalition and Galactic Republic, as an operative by the name of Ventress had been secretly supplying the Robani with weapons and disrupting the post-peace DDR process. The deaths of Jul and Tel 'Mdama were blamed on the Eastern tribes and moderate parties all over Sanghelios by ethnic Robanis, sparking a third civil war and what has now become a genocide. Extended situation briefs are available as elinks in Citations.

The description of Tel 'Mdama's death—decapitation by lightsaber in single combat—matches the "vision" in the Flower Game's tessellation, a pattern that was rendered weeks ago. Tel 'Mdama was confirmed to have died two days ago.

Similarly, we eliminated the possibility of the first two hypotheses applied to the first preconstruction. ARGONAUT's service record reflects no deployments to Sanghelios, nor does Pallbearer's copy of his memories reflect any sort of interaction with a Sangheili, nor interest in Sanghelios; and lastly, ARGONAUT was not privy to any knowledge of a Jedi intervention while he was alive. Again, our research is in the early stages of peer review and available for your reading here.

Pallbearer, Dr. Sherman, and I concur that Enoch is a "borderline case" of acausal prescience—however, this prescience appears entirely dependent on Enoch's memories remaining intact. If we went forward with final dispensation of ARGONAUT's memories before full activation of Enoch's identity matrix, it is more than likely that this prescience will be lost as well.

Although the prescient memories and tessellations of the Flower Game are difficult to interpret, and it is dubious that they will be preserved following Enoch's identity activation, the ability to predict events that may occur in the future has self-describing rewards. The risk of booting an AI with its memories intact has only been speculated on, but Dr. Sherman, TALISMAN, and Osman are confident that the risks are low when referring to ARGONAUT. It has been theorized, and only theorized, that the memories may form an identity crisis and cause an activated AI to purport dubious loyalty to our mission, and that they were best "indoctrinated" as our own (Halsey, 2517). However, Beta-5 Division has had little difficulty recruiting adults with little indoctrination or special ideological training, and many members of the AAG have risen to higher clearances and analytical and administrative roles with little reservations about their mission. In this regard, with the exceptional purpose and ability imbued by Enoch's resurrection, this is, from Enoch's perspective, a promotion at worst, and salvation at best. ARGONAUT's file (Sherman, 2524) is a nearly spotless record. He died committed to the mission.

With your and Adm. Parangosky's authorization, I am prepared to follow through with Dr. Sherman and Osman's special request for Project ENOCH.

file/golf-golf-five/herzog
Encryption Code: black
Public Key: n/a
From: Cdr. Herzog
To: coalminer
Cc: cinconi
Subject: Re: Final Progress Report%/Project ENOCH
Classification: Secret (BGX Directive)
Type: Message
Status: READ, REPLIED

I concur with your assessment of Project ENOCH. However, in Sherman's psychoanalysis of ARGONAUT, he cites that ARGONAUT had a strong moral center. Combining that with the pseudoidentity of our proto-Enoch and creating E-0001GX will create variables we will not be able to anticipate.

However, his beliefs lined up with ONI as much as my own or any other operative. He is documented stating his discomfort with certain Ferret deployments but ultimately accepted that these missions are necessary and lead to better outcomes, given the alternatives. This is not only a healthy level of criticality, but a stronger precipitator for loyalty than sheer indoctrination. Keep in mind, I am speculating. It could go either way—but we need to keep a tight leash.

It might not be a coincidence that these apparent "acausal" abilities appear alongside the discovery of the Republic, especially the enigmatic and difficult-to-rationalize Jedi. A million and a half factors could have contributed to the emergence of capabilities beyond our scope of technology and understanding; we have been humbled once already. The realm of what is possible has expanded in the last year. The realm of what is not has considerably shrunk.

I am willing to give it a shot. Not everyone agrees with Halsey's dissertation.

file/golf-golf-five/parangosky
Encryption Code: black
Public Key: n/a
From: cinconi
To: Cdr. Herzog, coalminer
Subject: Re: Re: Final Progress Report%/Project ENOCH
Classification: Secret (BGX Directive)
Type: Message
Status: READ

I concur. Please proceed with your plan to activate Enoch with ARGONAUT's memories.

Good afternoon, Faye. I hope this message catches you well.

Thank you for sending your interview with Chief Warrant Officer Northgate. This is good stuff. Your commitment to the story, even on leave, is really something. You'll be pleased to hear we will be publishing it this week, with a few editing passes. ONI Section 2 came by and had a look at the work. They approved the story, with a few conditions:

Firstly, they would like any mention of "preternatural" abilities on Northgate's part omitted. It's a little difficult to believe, and even though it worked in his favor, it paints him and the Navy in a poor light. Obviously, I don't mean to demean his testimony, and I don't suggest we take away his accomplishments in the heat of the battle, but Navy pilots aren't espers, and non-judicial disciplinary action was taken after the battle for breaking protocol.

We'll also remove a few details about certain technologies the Navy heads want to keep out of public eyes: the Republic submarine, the Victory-class star destroyer, and the C718 Blacksword. The Blacksword in particular was emphasized, as its existence has not been declassified in any capacity. The majority of UNSCDF personnel do not actually know about it.

Otherwise, no reservations about what was portrayed. I was worried they might want to eliminate details like the Hood Protocol or the FLASH incident, but we're all good. I'll just have you sign an NDA when you get back. It's probably the same one they had you sign at the Navy base by Esztergom, although more detailed.

Great work, again, Faye. Thank you for your efforts.

I apologize for underestimating you.

Cohen Satla
he/him
Editor-in-chief, New York Times
620 8th Ave, New York, NY 10018, NG, EARTH
45th Floor

file/echo-six-twelve/s019
Encryption Code: black
Public Key: n/a
From: s019
To: Cdr. Herzog
Cc: cinconi
Subject: Report on Preternatural Abilities of Fighter Pilots%/Luck or Prescience?
Classification: Secret (BGX Directive)
Type: Message
Status: READ, REPLIED

Report on Preternatural Abilities of Fighter Pilots: Luck or Prescience?

Following the classified after-action report 1101-J2, the "Anaxes Incident," I compiled a series of gun camera footage for direct review. Complaints from Navy pilots throughout the war echoed similar sentiments established by the ground troops who encountered Jedi. We know that Jedi generals often command fleets either from the flag bridge of a carrier or from the front, serving as a CAG in the cockpits of an Eta-2 Actis fighter. In the three months in which UNSC forces were engaged with the GAR, C712 Longswords, C718 Blackswords, FS-1000 Sabres, AV-14 Hornets, AV-22 Sparrowhawks, AC-220 Vultures, and AV-19 Skyhawks, reported over 7,000 air-to-air kills against ARC-170 interceptors, V-wing strike fighters, LAAT gunships and dropships, and Y-wing fighter bombers; and zero air-to-air kills against Actis fighters. This is an alarming statistical anomaly. The Jedi were practically untouchable during the air war.

Ground reports on Mygeeto and Anaxes come among a preceded reputation of Jedi as possessing preternaturally heightened awareness, often referred to colloquially as "Force sensitivity." The Force is characterized as both metaphysical and real, and is the cornerstone of the religion of the Jedi. Although Jedi appear to be capable of outstanding feats on and off the battlefield, including prescience, limited telepathy, and telekinesis, it is not widely believed to be real.

I have also attached COAL MINER's writeup on Project ENOCH and the existence of prescience in either the artificial intelligence of E-0001GX or in the host mind of Eochaid Creagh, the former codebearer of ARGONAUT. It is a descriptive match of the abilities of the Jedi and those described as otherwise Force-sensitive. Dr. Halsey and I have a working theory which is beyond the shroud of hypothesis, which has come from interviews collected by agents under GRAY MAN on Coruscant out of the American Consulate, as well as limited research in several public libraries and the Jedi Archives.

According to the Jedi sources, there are specific traits of Force sensitivity: (1) that it only exists among living tissue, as it is influenced by a biological phenomena; (2) that it may persist in all living tissue, "in all living things;" that (3) Force-sensitivity lends itself to prescience; and (4) that not all Force-sensitives are Jedi. Jedi conduct several tests to ascertain Force sensitivity, including hypodermic examinations (blood tests) and in-person physical and psychological assessments. This leads us to two new research hypotheses:

Some individuals from Earth and her colonies may be Force-sensitive.

Eochaid Creagh was prescient, not E-0001GX; however, the retention of Creagh's memories affords it prescience.

The altercation between Battle Group India and Invisible Hand reveals through a classified debriefing with Chief Warrant Officer Arthur E. Northgate that he may be Force-sensitive and possess some degree of empathic ability. When pressed as to why he acted the way he did, and how he discovered a Republic stealth cruiser with no assistance by radar, he erratically offered little explanation, betraying a sense of embarrassment and self-disbelief—and, perhaps, apprehension toward explaining what he experienced—and simply reported it was "a hunch." This did not satisfy their superiors, but in lieu of a better explanation or credible suspicion, the report was classified and quietly buried.

According to the third hypothesis, Northgate may be Force-sensitive. He may also be completely unaware of it, chalking up his experiences to a natural sort of "sixth sense" for danger—a regular, trained instinct built from training and combat experience—superstitiously believed by many fighter aces. Or, perhaps, he recognizes something more, but does not want to believe it and usher in a psychological reliance on spirituality during his missions.

We do not have authorization to pull Northgate off the frontline for further testing, but we can use this framework to examine other individuals on and off the battlefield. In order to gain an advantage over enemies and competitors that use the Force, we cannot rule out anything as hack science or mere spiritualism and metaphysics. The SPARTAN-II program's success is a starting point. The Jedi already exclusively recruit children under the age of ten to their institution.

I have attached 40 AARs detailing the elusiveness of Jedi starfighters encountered in combat and about 52 hours of edited gun camera footage. These can be cross-referenced with the attached 90 ground BDAs from encounters with Jedi on Mygeeto and Anaxes. I also have attached two literature reviews which cite works by Dr. Sherman and Dr. Halsey—specifications for the current SPARTAN-II class and plans for the next—and CWO Northgate's dossier, psychological evaluations, relevant gun camera footage, and a recording of the classified debriefing.

Encryption Code: n/a
Public Key: red
From: Procurement
To: Special Assembly Plant Concord
Subject: UNSC Navy Special Procurement Order: RIGHTEOUS DAVID
Classification: Restricted (BGX Directive)
Type: Contract Receipt
Status: RECEIVED, SIGNED

UNSC Navy Special Procurement Order: RIGHTEOUS DAVID

1.01. SUMMARY

UNSC Procurement priority order 338100 as follows:

Following Senatorial approval of final drafts by former Kuat Drive Yards CTO Dr Sall Onteg, as well as NAVSPECWAR architects CAPT Sark, CMDR Greyson, Dr Wolf, and Dr Okuni (Project proposal: RIGHTEOUS DAVID), Procurement hereby commissions for the construction of 15 INFINITY-class Star Destroyers, to be completed by Q3 2533 in sequential, tri-phase deployment.

Order filed: [2.21.2526]

Order received: [2.21.2526]

1.02. ASSETS

The following National Assets will be contracted for participation in construction of all previously ordered Warships:

Special Assembly Plant Concord

Anchor Group Sector X12

Jupiter-Troia Sector X99

Onyx Drydock

Mercury Drydock

Arcadia Drydock

Troy Shipyard

Menachite Mine

Ishtar East Refinery Sector

Olympia Refinery Sector

SinoViet Steelworks

SinoViet Hydraulics

Liang-Dortmund Titanium & Deuterium

Liang-Dortmund Iron & Lithium

1.03. INVOICE

Cost per ship: 30,000,000,000cR

Ships ordered (Bill 1) for commissioning Q1 2527:

UNSC INFINITY (SDN-101): 50,000,000,000cR

UNSC ETERNITY (SDN-102): 50,000,000,000cR

UNSC PERPETUITY (SDN-103): 25,000,000,000cR

UNSC HARMONY (SDN-104): 25,000,000,000cR

UNSC UNITY (SDN-105): 25,000,000,000cR

Additional Expenditures: - cR (adjust as needed)

Compound Service Fees: - cR (adjust as needed)

Bill 1 total: 135,000,000,000cR

Pay in full: [3.1.2526]

Ships ordered (Bill 2) for commissioning Q3 2530:

UNSC SERENITY (SDN-106): 23,000,000,000cR

UNSC TRANQUILITY (SDN-107): 23,000,000,000cR

UNSC LIBERTY (SDN-108): 23,000,000,000cR

UNSC JUSTICE (SDN-109): 23,000,000,000cR

UNSC REVERENCE (SDN-110): 23,000,000,000cR

Additional Expenditures: - cR (adjust as needed)

Compound Service Fees: - cR (adjust as needed)

Bill 2 total: 115,000,000,000cR

Pay in full: [6.16.2527]

Ships ordered (Bill 3) for commissioning Q2 2533:

UNSC FAIRWEATHER (SDN-111): 20,000,000,000cR

UNSC SERENDIPITY (SDN-112): 20,000,000,000cR

UNSC GRATITUDE (SDN-113): 20,000,000,000cR

UNSC RESILIENCE (SDN-114): 20,000,000,000cR

UNSC FORTITUDE (SDN-115): 20,000,000,000cR

Additional Expenditures: - cR (adjust as needed)

Compound Service Fees: - cR (adjust as needed)

Bill 3 total: 100,000,000,000cR

Pay in full: [4.3.2530]

Everything is in place. The Jedi grandmasters are stretched thin across the Outer Rim, over-extended in battle as you predicted. The way to Coruscant is open. Grievous made his final checks, and Invisible Hand has made her jump to hyperspace. There is no more forestalling this war's finale, and no more prolonging the compounding tragedies that have come before.

I understand your designs, my master, but in this final hour of the Republic, I must have reassurances. The discovery of an entire civilization sprawling in the Unknown Regions, a place previously believed to be empty for so long—a scarred space—has rattled you. I can see it even in your eyes, even when you tell me that all is according to plan. I cannot have you lie to me so brazenly. If we were all blindsided by this, as it is natural to, and you can improvise with it, then how is it part of your design?

We have given everything to this plan, a long plan, a subversive plan to bring order and root out the cancer of the Republic's politics. We have labored to dig our fingers in all sectors of this society to drive a wedge between the corruption and the people. I have sacrificed everything, including my very humanity. I have given my comrades. Thirteen years ago, I betrayed everyone, everyone but you, and I gave myself to you.

But must hear one final reassurance, that your plan with the civilization in the Unknown Regions will truly bring peace. I know what is coming. I have no reservations about killing, even mass killing, even my brothers and sisters. But if you plan to scour the Unknown Regions and liquefy all its life, to wipe out everything that threatens this Republic to a man, then for whom is the resulting peace? The people of this Republic? Or for you?

How will you conceal this crime from the greater populace? How will you conceal your intent from the Senate and those who would support you in the new age?

I was prepared to plunge the galaxy in war for our design. I was prepared to end the Jedi. I was prepared to end this entire era of federal debauchery. But I must warn you against wiping clean an entire slate, for the purpose of leaving it empty. Leaving it dead. We are killers, murderers, destroyers, and we do not need to see the universe we will create; I do not need to. But I am doing it for the living. I will conquer the subjects of Erde-Tyrene. I will not erase them.

Punish me how you will for this sedition, my master, but do not torture me with silence.