Disclaimer, I own nothing

Halo is owned by 343 Studios and Microsoft

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is owned by Nintendo and Monolift software.

() Author side note

"Cortana talking"

'Cortana thinking'

'Someone Thinking'

any sMaLl font, underlines, or r nd0m k3ys pressed together are signs of rampancy.

Chapter 4: The super soldier and the smart AI who ascended up the space station.

Cortana pov:

She wanted to let him rest more. After all, he'd been awake for almost a week, always on the move, staying vigilant, and never stopping to slow down unless he needed to. Even then, it was with one eye open. He couldn't even eat the bark off of a tree because they were all dead, nor drink any water, despite his body enhancements and armor's filtration. Any water they did stumble across was too irradiated or dirty to the point it would have been poisonous. After all, the surface had been nothing but a wasteland with only the ruins of two dead advanced civilizations left standing for who knows how long.

With the exception of only a few U.N.S.C. staff or soldiers, the Master Chief would have appeared moderately fatigued. Despite his weariness, he could press on if granted a few moments to recuperate. However, from her perspective, the instances she'd witnessed him in such an exhausted state could be counted on both hands. Understanding the extent of his injuries and the progression of his illness only intensified the concern. Yet, who could blame him? Certainly not her.

The lift they had been on was beginning to slow down on its ascent, much sooner than she had anticipated. John only managed to get about twenty minutes of rest. Much as she would have preferred the idea of not waking him. She pulls up his vitals and sees how his nutrition levels are low and his hydration levels are even lower.

Even worse was how his body's temperature was currently at a hundred and one degrees Fahrenheit. Without the fever, he would've had a little over twenty hours left until he died of dehydration. However, because of his illness, he only had about twelve hours. She was almost livid at the fact for the entire duration of their time on the surface. ITH d nOt rained once, despite the constant lightning and thunderstorms telling her it could have been the contrary.

It's also no help that she isn't in much of a better state than he is. Sure; throughout their journey on the surface, she had been very meticulous in choosing which neural links to sever, ensuring she could still function without accidentally showing signs of rampancy. For the most part, things had been fine. She served as his eyes and ears during rest periods and was there whenever he sought conversation—though, admittedly, those instances were infrequent, often revolving around inquiries about nearby hostiles or deciphering faded-out English text they came across.

'She should try to get him to talk or interact with other people more, not just her or those that he was familiar with.'

It wasn't until they had reached the base of the elevator that they were exploring the ruins and came across what might have been a map of an evolution tree. A majority of the links that she had been severing had been her processing power and ability to multitask quickly. So in one moment of poor oversight, She had accidentally severed her max scanning range of about 15 feet. That mistake had Chief unprepared for the ambush that creature had unknowingly acted on. That encounter with that beast had nearly cost John his life.

She takes a moment to ponder how much longer she can keep going without John noticing. It's a miracle he didn't question her further when they escaped those flood-like creatures on the surface. For now, she has some excuses ready in case he starts probing about her condition, but even then, it would only stall him for so long. The delicate balance of maintaining her functionality and hiding the toll it's taking on her will grow an ever larger constant concern as they press on.

So, as the doors open and with a heavy heart, Cortana begins to wake up the Master Chief.

Normal pov:

"Hey. We're here; it's time to wake up."

It takes a moment for him to stir, and a few seconds later, he's up on his feet and doing some stretches.

"How long was I out?"

Cortana sighs in disappointment before looking at him with guilt and worry in her virtual blue eyes. "Not even a full twenty minutes."

He simply grunts in acknowledgment while taking in his surroundings.

"So... this is the place," Chief says more of a statement than a question.

"Yup, kind of reminds me of a UNSC ship now that I think about it. Just a lot wider, and no people to say hi to, and possibly only hostile robots. I'm gonna stop trying to compare the two now."

Chief exhales in amusement while shrugging as if to imply "if you say so," as he finishes the last of his short wake-up routine without hurting himself, picks up his carbine, making sure it's fully loaded, and continues to a fork in the hallway.

"So. Which way should we go? Left or right?"

As if on cue, four hostile signatures appear on his HUD toward his left, and nine more appear to his right.

"Left it is then." Cortana drawls.

Now slightly smirking in amusement at Cortana's question being answered for her, Chief activates his active camo module as he jogs past the robots. Three of them being small and only reaching up to Chief's knees, sport an orange hue with a single red light denoting their optics, forming an x-shaped pattern in a lighter shade. The fourth one is pure white, shaped like a nail, and features four glowing red optics, enabling it to see in all directions.

"One of them shares the same design we've seen from the surface. As for the rest. Those three have a bit of an odd choice in design, no?"

"I'm sure they've had their reasons for designing it the way they did. However, I'm in no mood to test if it's effective or not."

Easily evading the advancing security, they reach the end of the hallway, finding an elevator blocked by a terminal. Chief walks over to it, placing his hand above the terminal, prompting Cortana to emerge and work her magic.

Turning away to watch their backs, he notices the wall he had been walking beside leads to another dead end. A single pole with two glowing rings surrounds it, and Chief assumes it's some sort of alarm system. Although, he was a bit confused about how it had not picked him up.

"This place doesn't seem to have the best security."

"Well, that just means I did a good job with that active camo module then. Aaaand done, Chief yank me."

Not a moment later the elevator door opens and Chief strolls in while picking up his AI companion. As he closes the door behind him he deactivates his camouflage module and as the elevator begins to rise a thought occurs to him.

"Couldn't you have hacked into those drones and made them our allies or neutral at least?"

"It would have been a waste of time. Unless it's like a terminal that will give me access to controlling all of them at once, it would be a waste of time trying to take control of one at a time. Something we don't have the luxury for. You can use the active camo to walk past them anyway. Not like these ball and screw robots sensors can detect you with it activated."

'Besides, I'm worried if I do too much at once, I'll end up accidentally showing signs of rampancy again. Or worse I'd accidentally break something in his armor. That's a subject John can't afford to concern himself with right now.'

A quiet and short trip later Master Chief exits and is greeted by a short hallway with a closed door at the end. "Wonder what we'll find behind door number one?"

Chief decides to answer by walking through said door. As he strolls through it, he realizes that his path is no longer confined to a hallway with walls and a ceiling. Instead, he finds himself on a wide metal bridge with railings, leading to another building where two white box robots with legs patrol. Beyond them, a door displays a projected map of the floor he's on. Reactivating his active camo, Chief looks up, pausing briefly to absorb what he sees.

Above him is a bridge connected to another building further up. Then, above that, is another metal bridge with a glass floor in the middle, leading in two directions. One path leads to another elevator, while the other is cut off from the building, blocking the view.

"Speaking of what we'll find, I'm picking up two faint life signals on that glass bridge above us."

Unsheathing the carbine to see what Cortana meant, Chief aimed it in the general direction of where she pointed. However, From his perspective, he can't see anything that would indicate where the two faint signals would be.

"Are they hostile?"

"I don't think they are. From what I can tell, my readings say they're under the same condition a person would be in cryo-stasis. Although when I said faint, I mean they are on the cusp of death faint. So I'd recommend we hurry over and see what we can do to help them."

With her words in mind, Chief quickly walks over to the elevator's terminal and puts Cortana over it so she can work her magic.

"Is this place Forerunner? Or did these planet's people have access to Forerunner technology?"

"You'd think that but no. This whole place seems to be man-made. Or, and this is my theory, they found something else or similar to help them."

"Is there anything you can find that tells us what this place is and why the surface is the way it is?"

"Not even from this terminal. I've been trying to get into this place's codes and data when you went to sleep. And so far, I haven't been able to get into anything aside from the elevator terminals you shove me into. And even then it's only a password to open it and another terminal that's connected to the same elevator. So our best bet would be to find an archive library or something similar."

This information causes the Chief to be concerned about their situation. It was starting to remind him of a similar predicament back on Installation 04 Alpha Halo. He only hoped when they reached their destination it wouldn't be a repeat. That event still messed with him whenever he tried to rest.

"Okay, that about does it. Yank me."

Quickly retrieving Cortana, Master Chief swiftly strides into the elevator, deactivating his camouflage as the doors close. The ascent is brief and silent. Upon reaching the top and exiting, his HUD alerts him to five hostile signatures on his right flank. Pressing himself against a nearby wall, he engages his camo module once more, surveying the immediate surroundings. Two of the familiar orange ball robots are rolling away, while another is more formidable, at least compared to the two spheres. Another white nail robot is entering an adjacent room. A staircase looms ahead, leading to a structure with a metal bridge extending from its side.

Leaving his hiding spot, Chief easily avoids the approaching mechs, walking up the stairs that lead into another long hallway with a higher pathway next to him. Both paths lead to a staircase that leads to another floor above him. Looking to his right is only a single nail mech leaving the area and closer to his right is an archway that leads outside of the building. Uncertain about his surroundings, he looks at his radar, only to not see anything on it.

"Cortana."

"I'm already looking." A few seconds pass. "I'm not picking up anything aside from the nail robot. So we should be okay for the moment."

With his uncertainty resolved, Chief presses on. Reaching halfway up the ramp, he momentarily pauses in confusion. Before him, a motorcycle robot is drifting in circles another orange sphere robot.

"It almost looks like there playing with each other. Oddly enough, in my opinion, it looks kinda cute." Cortana coos, while Chief takes a moment to observe the peculiar scene. Ultimately, he internally shrugs off the oddity and proceeds forward, maintaining a cautious distance.

Suddenly, Chief hears metal screeching. "Chief the motorcycle behind you!"

He snaps his body to look behind him to see the motorcycle drifting toward him. Rolling out of the way to avoid being hit, one of his feet gets knicked by the back tire, deactivating his active camo. Realizing he's exposed, Chief drops any notion of getting through this area based on stealth and makes a mad dash for the stairs ahead of him. However, from behind him, the bike and ball robot chase after him while an alarm can be heard coming from them.

Chief's HUD fills up with several hostile signatures all around him, as in front of him are three more box robots running toward him to engage. Chief pays them no mind as he sprints up the staircase only to be intercepted by the motorcycle robot that hit him earlier halfway. The robot's top transforms into a humanoid being with its arms being Gatling guns.

Before the motorcycle-humanoid robot can unleash its heavy storm of bullets, Master Chief seizes it by the torso, exerting tremendous effort to hurl it behind him. The airborne adversary collides with several other pursuing robots below, creating a chaotic pile-up.

Exploiting the distraction, Chief ascends to the top staircase, only to be met with a sudden onslaught of electricity, depleting twenty-five percent of his shields. Four more box robots confront him, armed with weapons protruding from their lower torsos. Despite losing an additional thirty-five percent, Chief sprints past them and enters an open arch to the left.

Cortana alerts him to the sight of an elevator—a potential means of escape. "Chief, look! An elevator, our ticket to get away. All we have to do is get through..."

Cortana's voice trails off as they both register the unfortunate reality ahead of them—an entire room filled with water.

"Well, that's just unfortunate."

"Set up a waypoint. We'll come back later once we lose our pursuers."

Chief quickly assesses the room. To his right, a closed sliding door hints at a potential control room for the water. Up ahead, another room with closed doors might lead to the water control area. To his left, a platform leads to the elevator outside the room.

Without hesitation, Chief makes a running leap. Using his jetpack, he lands on the platform, swiftly dashing out of the room toward the terminal beside the elevator. All the while Chief whizzes past several plasma bolts and takes an additional 10% damage to his shields.

Placing his hand above it, Cortana slides out of his hand and promptly begins working on opening the door to get in.

"Our two P.O.I's are just up this floor"

"Is there anything that you can do to stall them?"

Cortana stutters for a moment before responding. "Da, uhm, yes! maybe? When we reach the top I might be able to install some temporary locks to stall them for a few minutes at best. Another way that might even stop them is if you use the plasma grenade to blow up the lift."

Chief shakes his head "No. Can't afford to."

She then claps her hands while proclaiming. "Alrighty then, temporary locks it is! Yank me!"

Grabbing Cortana and entering the elevator, the ride is quiet, tense, and a bit demoralizing for Cortana. After a few seconds, the Chief's shields recharge to 100%. The lift reaches the top, and Chief squeezes through the opening door, sprinting over to the terminal next to the elevator. Inserting her to install the locks, Chief looks around to locate their points of interest, but he doesn't see anyone.

"You said they'd be up here."

"They should be! My scans are telling me we're on the same floor as them. Perhaps they are trapped in those small blue glowing crystals on the floor over there."

Using his in-built binoculars to zoom in to where she set a waypoint over, he sees two blue glowing crystals on the ground. Noticing the blue glow instantly put Chief on edge, the way they glowed reminded him too much of those creatures with how they shared the same color.

"And you said they were in trouble. Not that they were hostiles." He accuses.

"I said they might and they're not, the crystals could be some sort of miniaturized pod and they need to be unlocked. Yank me."

Grabbing her once again, Chief runs over to the crystals and stands before them. Still apprehensive about interacting with them.

"Run your scans for anything on them."

She wants to argue with him, but second-guessing herself she goes along with his demand. "Scanning for anything that might be dangerous or odd."

A few seconds pass.

"Not picking up anything."

"Do it again."

A few more seconds pass by.

"Still nothing."

Eyeing the things suspiciously, He slowly goes in to grab one of them.

"SWISSH! Stomp, stomp, stomp,"

Only to snap his head to the left where the loud marching noises came from. To his surprise, in that direction are six more of the white box robots escorting a giant humanoid one. It sporting bright cyan lights and markings all over its chassis, a giant gun on its right arm, and a small shield for its size on its left. As the hulking behemoth marches over to him, Chief drops all sense of apprehension, grabs both crystals with his right hand, and makes a run for the elevator on the other side of the bridge.

Upon making contact with the crystals, an unprecedented wave of agony engulfs Master Chief, a pain unlike anything he has ever experienced before. Cortana immediately detects the crystals glowing intensely, emitting an alarming amount of energy and heat. Chief, in a state of panic, attempts to throw them away, only to discover the crystals are inexplicably stuck to his hand. Abandoning his carbine, he desperately tries to pry his hand open, seeking answers from Cortana about the bizarre phenomenon.

"Cortana, what's happening?! What's it doing?!"

"I, I, I don't know! The moment you grabbed them, they just started lighting up and emitting an ever-increasing heat. What's worse is that I'm even using the armor itself to pry your hand open, but it's not working!"

Fueled by desperation, Chief resorts to dragging his fist with the crystals in hand across the floor to try and pry them open, the heat intensifying with every passing moment. When even that failed he began considering severing his hand with his energy sword to rid himself of the potential threat. He ignites the weapon and initiates the swing but halts abruptly. Unimaginable pain surges through his hand, spreading rapidly throughout his entire body. Legs weakening, stomach churning with nausea, Chief collapses to the ground, groaning and occasionally screaming involuntarily. Cortana's panicked warnings echo in the background as the armor loses its shields due to the crystals' escalating heat.

In a bid to prevent vomit from getting inside his helmet, Chief attempts to remove his helmet, disregarding Cortana's panicking protests.

"Release the urrg, seals on my bleuch."

"No Don't! Removing your—"

Whatever Cortana tried to convey was lost on Chief as he managed to pry off the helmet and tossed it aside. Still wracked with pain and dry heaving, he closed his eyes against the blinding glow of the crystals. Feeling something wet in both of his eyes, he tried to wipe it off to see the issue, only to find his hand coated in blood. To his dismay, he could hear his robot pursuers slowly marching toward him from the barely audible marching sounds behind him.

Not willing to go down without a fight, Chief wipes some of the blood on his armor, and unsheathed one of his plasma pistols. The first shot was fired, and he rolled to the left, turning around to face his foes he fired off two shots that perfectly hit the gun protruding from the midsection of two robots on the left, causing them to fall over, destroyed by burning plasma damage.

Quickly strafing right, he fired another three bolts, destroying three more to his right, though the shots were less precise. His efforts weren't without consequence as he was hit on the right shoulder, midsection, left knee, and one final shot to the chest that caused him to fall on his back. Taking aim at his last attacker, he fired off three more bolts, with two missing and the last one hitting the last robot squarely in its face, destroying it.

The skirmish had lasted only about 10 seconds, but with the pain from the crystals growing more agonizing and additional pain from being hit, Chief was left panting heavily and unsteady.

Looking ahead, Chief saw the giant white robot aiming its weapon at him. As it began charging its weapon, Chief did the same with his plasma pistol. The two stared each other down, and before the behemoth could fire, its entire right arm was blown off from the resulting explosion by Chief firing first. The resulting explosion caused a huge smoke cloud.

For a few seconds, there was silence, only broken by Chief's shaky breathing and the occasional groan that escaped him. He remained still, shakily aiming his plasma pistol into the smoke and ready to fire at the slightest movement. As the smoke began to clear, and before Chief could get a proper look at the damage, the robot charged at him, much faster than he anticipated.

With not enough time to charge his weapon again, he desperately fired at its left leg in the hope of stopping it from advancing. However, his efforts were in vain as it charged right up to him and punted him across the bridge, causing him to impact the wall above the elevator door. The kick made him lose his pistol and fall off the bridge, and to make matters worse, he could guess that his impact on the wall crushed his assault rifle and shotgun as well.

Coughing out blood, Chief slowly and shakily picked himself up. He looked on to see that the robot's cheap shot had not gone unpunished. Its left leg was sporting several plasma burns, making it difficult for it to walk. However, despite being highly damaged, the mechanical monster still looked ready to fight. Groaning in exhaustion and frustration at its durability, Chief grabbed his other energy sword, ready to rush in and finish it off.

However, before he could charge at the behemoth, another sudden surge of excruciating pain from the crystals finally overwhelmed his senses, causing him to faint on the spot. The chaotic ordeal and burst of pain left Chief unconscious, and the last thing he barely heard as his mind faded into darkness was Cortana calling out to him in a mix of panic and desperation.

"-jOhN! d0n't l3ve mE &l0ne-"

Cortana Pov:

"-&Gain!"

'What the hell just happened?'

Was all Cortana could think of as she watched in horror as he fell to the ground. Spartan 117, The Master Chief, savior of humanity, her partner! fall to the ground unconscious, bloody, and defeated. His face was covered in his blood as well as the same bright blue energy that was emanating from the crystals that finally fell out of his hand.

And what was worse, was that she couldn't have done anything to help him the moment he removed his helmet. All she could do was look at his quickly deteriorating health from his vitals and watch him helplessly as he desperately fought the oncoming hostile robots while the crystals continued to hurt him.

Her mind desperately raced with theories of where she might have gone wrong. It all happened so quickly, that despite her abilities as an AI she still couldn't understand fully the situation in front of her.

Could she have accidentally severed another one of her abilities to keep her rampancy at bay? No, she couldn't have, she made sure to have been more careful with what links she chose to cut.

Were the crystals made up of some sort of material component that her scans couldn't have picked up? It's possible.

Were those crystals just the creatures they had dealt with on the surface and managed to get here only to remain dormant until some poor unfortunate soul made contact with them? The possibilities made-

Whatever Cortana's thoughts were on the subject were interrupted as the two crystals had brightened once again and even she had trouble seeing what was happening. The brightness lasts a few seconds, and as the brightness dims, Cortana is confused at what she sees. In front of John's unconscious form are two floating weapons.

The first weapon captured her attention with its unfamiliar design—an intricate golden-shaped T with a barrel cutting into the bottom. It boasted four grips on the top, adorned with the same bright blue light markings seen on the crystals.

As for the second weapon, well she wasn't sure if it even was one because all she could see was a purple stick with two small wing-like protrusions hanging off it. A spear maybe?

Cortana blinks in confusion at the sudden change of events, but before she can even question why those weapons suddenly appeared. Two bright lights pop out of both weapons and slowly float to the ground in front of them. As they touch the ground the two lights almost instantaneously morphed into two women. From where John had thrown his helmet, she could only see them from behind.

The first one was relatively short, she sported fair white skin, Pastel blue hair falling to her waist, and a large white, black, and red helmet that covered her forehead. She wore white armor plating on her legs, arms, and torso, with black, red, and blue detailing along with a black neck brace. While leaving her shoulders, lower hips, and upper legs exposed. Her left arm also matched the same black color with red detail as her neck brace.

The second woman was the same height as her newly appeared companion. She also sported waist-length hair, the difference being her hair was white instead of pastel and she was dark-skinned. Wearing a similar helmet except it was purple with gold inlays and an armored dress with a pleated skirt and high boots sharing the same colors. She left herself just as if not much more exposed than her fair-skinned companion, as her skirt was nearly see-through and her back had no armor.

Despite their different appearances they shared two traits with each other. The first was both sharing bright light markings adorned on their outfits, and both had energy wing-like structures protruding from their helmets, shoulders, and waists. As for their differences, The fair-skinned woman's markings shared the same bright blue color as the crystals and her wings were bright pink while the other dark-skinned woman's markings and wings were bright purple.

The two look around a bit, taking in their new surroundings and the first thing they notice is the damaged robot that John had managed to disable. The dark-skinned woman grabbed the floating stick with one hand, and with the other pulled out a purple revolver out of nowhere and shot it, destroying the robot. Meanwhile, the fair-skinned woman turned her magenta eyes toward John's unconscious form. Without hesitation, she approached him, prompting Cortana to panic. "GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

The sudden outburst caught both women off guard, as they scanned the area, having only seen John and the destroyed robot. The magenta-eyed woman swiftly identified the source of the voice, but her companion was still looking around.

"Who is there? Please identify yourself," she asks robotically. The other woman hearing the fair-skinned woman's voice turned around with a curious expression on her face as they both looked at the helmet.

"Who are you talking to?" the dark-skinned woman asks, sheathing her revolver and making the purple stick disappear in the same way she made her gun appear, crossing her arms as she looks around again. "The only things I see here are a destroyed robot, done in by yours truly, and an unconscious meat bag who I can only assume is our new driver." Her confusion shifted into a sneer as she glanced back at her companion.

After having a small debate with herself she quickly realized that these two were her best bet, much to her, chagrin at getting John to safety. So with a hint of reluctance, she made herself known by appearing on his helmet.

Normal pov:

"That would be me, and I don't appreciate you calling my partner a meat bag," Cortana replied, crossing her arms. The pastel-haired woman tilted her head in interest, while the silver-haired woman snapped her head back to Cortana with slight surprise.

"Fascinating. Are you perhaps a blade?" the curious magenta-eyed woman asked.

Bewildered by the question, Cortana refocused on the issue at hand. "I, what? No, I... Look, that doesn't matter right now. What is the main issue is that if he doesn't get any water in his system within the next two hours, he is going to die of dehydration."

Her revelation about the Chief's condition caused the pastel-haired woman to frown and look over at him, and the silver-haired woman walked over to Chief.

"Hmmm. That is highly concerning. My scans have indicated several small, medium, and high levels of injury all across his body. He is suffering from a high fever of about 104 degrees Fahrenheit. He is also very malnourished and almost fatally dehydrated, as you have said."

This surprised Cortana a bit, not expecting the pastel-eyed woman to be able to make such assessments. As she finished her observation, the woman looked back over to Cortana.

"Do you know any nearby water sources?"

"Yes, in fact, we ran by one not too long ago, just down that elevator shaft behind you," Cortana pointed.

Authors note: So. What do you think should the Master Chief's driver or weapon-arts be? Because I don't have any ideas.

I had like three different versions of how I wanted to introduce Kosmos and Telos and I think this was the best I could come up with. The first had Chief and Cortana coming upon them without Chief getting hurt by the core crystals and just them talking and moving on, the second was when he was ambushed and surrounded by the robots. and this was the third version of the third scenario of him getting hurt by the crystals.

On the other hand, Does anybody know Alrest's calendar? The game only gives us like one named month and it's called Amathatober, not even sure it's spelled right and I can only assume it's October. Just that Amalthus decided to shove his first name in front of it.

I'd like to thank Chat GPT for fixing up this chapter. Is it lazy? probably. But I'm the one who's primarily writing it. The last one took forever primarily because of constantly having to fix grammar mistakes and make them sound cohesive.

Please leave a review. Every review helps me improve.