Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Chapter 48
Integration
March 4, 2558
Requiem
USS Voyager
Naomi-010, born Naomi Sentzke, was a naturally curious person. Whenever she encountered something new, she sought to understand it.
After she was conscripted into the Spartan-II program at age six, Naomi became fascinated every time she trained with a new piece of equipment, especially weapons and armor. Oftentimes, her instructors would find that she had figured out a way to improve the equipment in some small way, despite their manufacturers spending millions of credits developing them.
That talent became her greatest asset when the Human-Covenant War began. During those early years, she became one of the first humans to figure out how to wield a Covenant carbine in the heat of battle.
After years of frontline engagements and top-secret missions, she'd played with just about every piece of alien tech that didn't require five doctorates to understand. Now, she was in the midst of a giant playhouse filled with toys she couldn't wait to get her hands on.
From what little she'd seen of Voyager and its technology, she was going to have a field day with whatever they let her touch, which was very little at the moment.
With all of the chaos leading going on outside sickbay's walls, this little group of heroes hadn't bothered to ask if she was willing to stay or not.
Granted, she hadn't asked for the opportunity, but it made her wonder exactly when they were going to.
Fred-104 had given her the high-level details, but that had just boiled down to who the bad guy was, where this ship was from, and what the overarching goal was.
So much was left unsaid, like how this all started in the first place, what happened if they won, and why Blue Team had just willingly signed up and gone AWOL.
Those nitty-gritty details were what she lived for in situations like this.
Until things settled, she volunteered to watch over the Master Chief as he recovered in sickbay.
Still, without her MJOLNIR armor and weapons, she wasn't exactly equipped to deal with a serious threat, but she'd fiddled with some of the medical tools lying around, and a laser scalpel was now neatly tucked into her new cargo pants as a result.
Watching the tan garments appear in a whirl of light had been a fascinating and terrifying experience.
Kalmiya had called it a replicator.
What manner of weapons could that thing produce at the push of a button? It sounded like a security nightmare.
To take her mind off her concerns, she concentrated on John-117's heartbeat with her ears and his vital stats with her eyes. She knew the computer would alert the Doctor, the only name he'd given her to call him by, should anything happen, but it was something to do.
If anyone in the universe were worthy of her undivided attention, it was him.
Franklin Mendez watched over his own charges fifteen feet away as they slept soundly on the same bio-bed.
Tom had been resuscitated with little effort from the ship's medical officer. He'd seen some miracles over the years, but the effortlessness in which the balding man did it was nothing short of amazing.
Even after hours of exhaustive surgery on the Master Chief, the Doctor hadn't looked the least bit winded and had immediately switched patients once John had stabilized.
In fact, the tireless man had even checked himself and Lucy over again just to make sure they were fully on the mend!
Lucy had obstinately ignored the advice. She was in an unfamiliar place surrounded by people she had little intel on and no reason to trust.
Eventually, though, Mendez convinced Prone to Drift, the Huragok they'd befriended years ago, to slip Lucy a sleeping agent when she wasn't looking.
The floating creature's sleight of hand had been impressive to witness. Mendez didn't have to wait long before Lucy was yawning and glaring at her friends as the medicine took hold.
"Traitors..." she'd whispered before climbing next to Tom on the Spartan-sized bed and tucking herself under his arm.
When the Doctor had appeared a few minutes later, he held a gentle smile on his face and summoned a blanket from the replicator. Both of them were too out of it to even register the blanket's weight as he draped it over them.
That had been nearly five hours ago, and neither showed signs of waking up anytime soon.
Mendez himself had slept a bit the previous night, but too much was weighing on his mind to get any real sleep.
The old navy non-com, now 'retired,' was as fit as an ODST half his age. He could survive a little sleep deprivation even at 67 years old.
That being said, sitting still for long periods of time was not as agreeable to his joints as they used to be. To relieve the stiffness, he got up and began to pace the comically small medical bay to loosen everything up.
"Feeling antsy, Chief?"
Once a senior chief petty officer, Mendez wondered if John would awaken simply because he was the default 'Chief' whenever he was in the room.
Alas, his former student slept soundly still.
"I'm retired, Naomi."
"So I heard," she replied. "Chief of Security instead of Senior Chief Petty Officer."
As a man who rarely let his emotions show, he did not flinch nor grimace at the reminder that Paxopolis had been turned to ash.
Naomi, however, wasn't fooled.
"Apologies, Chief. I heard what happened on Onyx."
Calling the Shield World 006 'Onyx' was a misnomer. Onyx was the name of the artificial planet that housed and protected the shield world in its shrunken state.
At the end of the Human-Covenant War, the Sarcophagus had been brought into real space after Onyx had dissolved into trillions of Onyx-class sentinels.
ONI had named the massive construct after Kurt-051's original surname: Trevelyn.
Since Mendez had trained and then served under Kurt for a total of twenty-six years, he preferred the name of the man he respected greatly.
Later Trevelyn had been officially reserved specifically for the ONI research facility housed inside of it, and where his role as Chief of Security had come into play.
"Did he? How much have they told you?"
"Not enough," she replied with a hint of exasperation coloring her tone. "What've they told you?"
"Even less, I imagine. We've been in sickbay since Connor had us transported here."
"Cortana didn't say much of anything before grabbing me with their teleporter."
The blue AI wasn't someone Mendez was wholly familiar with, but he knew of her. "Why'd she do that?"
Naomi shrugged one of her shoulders. "I'm not sure," she held back the 'sir' since he'd asked her to. "This group seems to be gathering as many Spartan-IIs as they can. The rest of Blue Team are here, along with a few others."
He wasn't surprised, considering how hard Lucy and Tom had to fight to defend the portal.
"Given what we saw..." he trailed off as images of mangled corpses, both human and elite, flashed before his eyes.
Naomi was not surprised. "Halsey said the whole shield world had fallen. Given the security they had there, it must be serious."
The revelation that his old boss was aboard flared many emotions in his chest, but that's as far as he let them rise. "They really are gathering all the heavy hitters." He mused as his eyes drifted back to the Master Chief.
"Are you thinking about joining them?" she asked.
It was not an answer he was prepared to give. "I know what their answer will be," he nodded his head towards Tom and Lucy.
"Not you?"
He shook his head. "I'd just be in the way, Naomi. I'm sure ONI will find some use for me."
The Spartan's lips downturned minutely. "Not everyone on this ship is a Spartan, Mendez."
Just as he was about to explain further, A burst of pink light heralded the arrival of Kalmiya.
Her tall, slender profile instantly drew their attention as her pink eyes fixed on Mendez.
"Actually, we've plenty of use for you," she smirked as her arms crossed over her chest. "The Spartan that extracted you is a newbie. She's from the same universe the machines come from. She can teach you how to fight them, and you can teach her how to be a better soldier."
Mendez flinched like he'd been slapped.
"Don't," the AI warned. "The technology we've gained easily exceeds what we've shared. We can assemble a Gen 1 Mark VI in under two minutes from base elements and revive the dead. Every bit as useful as the augmentation tech."
Naomi-010 stared blankly as Mendez exhaled sharply.
"You know High Command isn't going to let that slide," he warned.
Kalmiya set her hands on her hips, "We are well aware. I just hope they appreciate the kind of threat we're dealing with and that keeping state secrets might prove to be detrimental to our continued existence."
The man said nothing further, clearly seeing that Kalmiya and Cortana were fully aware of the consequences of their actions.
Naomi wasn't as concerned about the augmentation tech as much as she was about Kalmiya's other bit of info.
She'd seen a glimpse of what this vessel and its tech were capable of. If it could produce a set of MJOLNIR armor in such a short amount of time, why did they need tech from a society less advanced than theirs?
It was a question she'd discover only if she stayed.
Sparing a glance at John, she knew that she could not leave him to face this threat while she was on the sidelines. Despite all the alien tech, she'd find a way to make herself useful.
She always did.
"Mendez," she addressed her old trainer, "if this AI is pulling out all the stops, we're going to have to as well. Even if it means breaking a few rules."
The man didn't even get the chance to remind her that you typically disappeared or ended up dead when you broke ONI's rules.
A sharp inhale snapped everyone's attention to the biobed.
John's eyes were open and alert.
The Master Chief greatly disliked the influence of pain killers or any other mind-altering substance, regardless of their necessity in certain situations.
With great effort, he opened his eyes and drew in a deep breath.
He'd drawn attention from someone in the room, but his vision was blurry, and he blinked to clear his vision.
Two people hovered over him, and a third he could hear somewhere past the end of the biobed.
With his vision still clearing, he couldn't tell who they were, but Kalmiya's pink glow was easy to identify through the haze.
"Easy, Chief," she warned while pressing her holographic palm against his shoulder to keep him from trying to move.
He tried to speak, but all that came out of his parched mouth was raspy nonsense.
Before he could really register that he needed water to speak, as the drugs were still wearing off, Kalmiya squirted a little water from a long-tubed water bottle into his mouth.
He swished it around for a moment and then swallowed it.
"Thanks."
"More?" she asked and tipped the bottle toward him.
"Not yet," he replied. "What happened?"
'Always to the point,' Kalmiya mused. "Jackel sniper got you. Cortana kept you alive with her holomatrix long enough to get you into the Doctor's hands."
"Mission status?"
"Completely off the rails," she sighed. "A lot has happened in the last 24 hours, Chief."
The leader part of him screamed for the details, but the more rational bit knew that he likely wouldn't remember any of it once the exhaustion pulled him back under.
"How is she?"
Kalmiya's featured softened at his concern for her sister. "She wasn't well when we brought you in, but we've had plenty to distract her with."
"Tell her..." he struggled to put words to his emotions, and his physical state didn't help things. "Thank you."
The pink hologram didn't let him know how inadequate that response was and gave him some more water.
As the cool liquid soothed his sore throat, John-117 turned his head at the sound of a person sitting by his left side, opposite Kalmiya.
It took only a split second for him to register what his eyes were seeing.
"Naomi?"
She smiled. It had been many years since the Chief had seen her face.
"It's been a while, Chief."
"How?" He slurred. The edges of his vision were beginning to dim, and he began to realize how badly he'd been injured. As a Spartan-II, he could normally power through it enough for a good debriefing, but not this time.
"It seems your 'companion' has a penchant for kidnapping, just like her mother," she teased lightly, earning a confused look from Mendez.
Some part of John's brain registered what she said, but as he continued to sink back into oblivion, it simply slipped away.
A few mumbled words pass through his lips before he slipped back into unconsiousness.
Kalmiya observed him for a few moments, adjusted a few things on the biobed, and updated his records, all while figuring out how to engage Mendez and Naomi in a meaningful conversation that would satiate them for the time being.
"We planned to give you the whole recruitment speech we've all been given, but that was before the Shadow of Intent showed up with the Didact," she began. "We've been busy going back and forth with Captain Lasky, the Arbiter, and the Didact. Not an easy crowd, mind you."
"What about Jul' Mdama?" Naomi inquired.
Kalmiya crossed her arms, "'Subdued' is how the Didact put it when the Arbiter asked about him."
Naomi couldn't imagine that being any sort of fun for the troublesome Sangheili, but she hardly cared at the moment. "So the Didact took control of his forces?"
The AI nodded, "and the Prometheans. He's taken command of the Remnant's CAS-class Assault Carrier, Song of Retribution since Requiem has no more Forerunner vessels for him to command."
"And you're certain he won't cause any more 'problems,' Mendez asked with tempered skepticism coloring his voice.
"Seven is certain," Kalmiya clarified. "Cortana is not, and neither am I. He's too much of a wild card for any of us AI to be entirely comfortable allying with him."
Mendez's jaw shifted as he mulled that over. He knew who the Forerunner was due to his position as head of security. "I'm guessing you're working on a backup plan in case he becomes a problem?"
"We have a few ideas in mind," she assured as a small smirk appeared at the edge of her avatar's lips. "The Doctor will be back in a little bit to do a more thorough checkup on these two," she indicated Tom and the Chief. "For now, I hope you'll settle on getting your armor back."
Naomi's eyes narrowed slightly as she pondered their intentions for re-arming her but came up with nothing conclusive. "Alright," she replied, "lead the way."
In contrast to her sibling's somber mood on Voyager, Alice-130 was busy dominating her own variant of King of the Hill in Infinity's War Games simulator.
She'd already beaten ten different Spartan-IV fire teams on her own and was showing no signs of slowing down.
Behind her gold visor, a grin crinkled the corners of her eyes. It had been exhilarating to train with people who could actually take a hit!
The rest of the Spartan-IIs she knew too well for it to be any fun, but these people, these Spartan-IVs who'd lived and fought in the Human-Covenant War, were something else entirely.
While they weren't nearly as talented as the Spartan-IIs she'd been raised with, the sheer variety of talent and experience forced Alice to adapt to every single engagement like it was a real battle. She never knew what to expect from them.
These were the moments she lived for in her downtime.
There was no Spartan-II who loved a challenge more than Alice did.
"You're going to have to try harder, DeMarco!"
Said 'Soldier' clad Spartan groaned as Alice lept off of his locked-up armor and back into the simulated jungle ruins.
Madsen, who was watching from his perch in a tree, stifled his laughter as his buddy's hubris got the better of him. "I'm going to circle and see if I can get a better angle on her."
Thorne and Grant acknowledged him immediately, but Hoya was silent.
Before he could even ping him for his status, Grant's voice streamed from his helmet's speakers. "Uh, I think she got Hoya."
"How's she spoofing his bio-sig?" Thorne wondered aloud as he swept the area for any sign of the Spartan-II. For a game mode that emphasized taking the 'hill,' they did their best to stay away from it.
If they could lure Alice away long enough, Madsen might be able to sneak in and take control of the hill long enough to win.
The chances of that happening had dropped to less than half after DeMarco got caught out in the open.
With his pistol drawn and his sniper rifle attached to his back, he made his way through the foliage and kept behind cover as best he could. One thing he kept an eye out for was traps.
One of the other teams had lost most of their members from a trap hidden in the brush.
"Well, hello there..." he whispered to himself as he spied a freshly replanted shrub. The dirt had been disturbed but in such a way that most people would overlook.
Madsen was a Spartan partly because he paid attention to the little details.
He'd bet money this mine was deliberately left out to force the victim into a secondary trap deeper into the jungle or out in the open closer to the hill to be picked off.
With Thorne and Grant distracting Alice for the time being, he opted to wait until he was certain the S-II was occupied before he skirted around the trap.
"Got eyes on her, Thorne?"
"No," came tensely out of Madsen's comm. He frowned at Thorne's response. "She automated her chaingun, had us pinned down until the belt ran out!"
Madsen suddenly felt like a tarantula being hunted by a tarantula hawk.
Picturing the Spartan-II as a giant wasp was fitting in this situation. She was faster and more agile than he was, and she was most certainly a highly trained hunter.
The best he'd be able to do was force a draw if she engaged him.
"If she goes after me, get up that hill!" He ordered as he rounded the range of the mine and dived back into the cover of the jungle.
His heart pounded in his chest as he fought to stay calm. After swallowing hard, he checked his motion tracker but found nothing.
He inched forward, still prone on the ground, until he was behind a ruined wall tall enough to crouch behind.
Once he scanned the surrounding ruins, Madsen realized he'd walked right into another trap.
Dozens of infrared laser trip sensors were placed all over the broken walls and fauna, essentially trapping him in a maze made of ruins, fauna, and live explosives. While it didn't look impossible to get out of, he knew Alice was hunting him.
"Shit," he said to himself, realizing just how screwed he was. While he maneuvered through the field, it gave her plenty of time to finish him off.
But he did have one crazy idea that just might get him out of this pickle: a grenade jump.
With a running jump and a well-timed grenade throw, Madsen was able to launch himself over the maze boundaries and back into the jungle proper... and right into another Lotus tank mine.
He didn't even have time to warn his teammates before his armor locked up, and he was thrown out of the match.
Alice-130 chuckled as she lowered her DMR. Watching Madsen do exactly what she'd hoped he'd do was satisfying in its own right, but the girly screech he'd let out right before the faux mine had detonated had been a delicious cherry on top.
Another upstart down, two to go...
They had potential, she knew, and their skill sets were more diverse than those of the numerically limited Spartan-IIs. Unfortunately, they just weren't as bright or as disciplined.
With her victory nearly assured, Alice turned her attention back to Thorne and Grant.
Grant had commandeered her chain gun while Alice had been busy toying with Madsen, and Thorne had just reached the top of the hill.
She'd left another ammo drum next to the chain gun on purpose, and the redheaded Spartan-IV had taken the bait. As soon as the woman opened fire, it would trigger a hidden bomb and knock her out of the match.
Alice switched her focus to Thorne and began running towards him as he entered the hill's capture zone, figuring Grant would be out of the picture momentarily.
It would take several seconds for Thornes presence to trigger a win, more than enough time for her to take him out.
Everything was going according to plan until Thorne shouted out to his teammate.
"NOW!"
In that split second after she registered the words coming out of his mouth, she realized that Grant wasn't lining up her shot. She'd been stalling.
Both of them lobbed cooked grenades in her direction, one landing behind and one ahead, forcing her to dive to the left as they exploded with timed precision.
Her proximity to the explosions dropped her shields by a quarter, and they continued to drop as both Thorne and Grant pumped round after round into them. With her shields nearly gone, Alice scrambled for cover.
Right after disappearing behind a piece of ruin, two of her own grenades went flying in Majestic's direction. They served as her distraction to regain some control over the situation and fired back at Grant right as the grenade exploded at her feet.
A few well-placed shots to her center mass knocked Grant out of the match.
Thorne proved to be a better shot than she thought and put her 'health' bar in the red range before she managed to disable his weapon with her own, and he had more than enough shield strength to close the distance before she was able to eliminate him.
They grappled with her DMR, and he bent the barrel as she moved to elbow him in the helmet, forcing him to back off.
"Nice moves," she purred, "but killing me won't win the game. I respawn, you don't."
He knew that, and he knew she was just wasting time while his progress on capturing the hill bled off. With that in mind, he drew his sidearm as fast as he could and unloaded round after round into Alice until the game knocked her out of the match.
As soon as that happened, he ran for Grant's weapon and snatched it up along with her ammo as the warzone simulator moved Alice to a spawn point not far away.
By the time he made it back to the hill, Alice was already hunting him again.
He took a knee and swept the area he knew she'd have to come from. It'd take another twenty seconds before he captured the hill, and that was more than enough time for her to finish him off.
At fifteen seconds, two rounds pinged off his helmet's shields and drained them. He rolled to the side and returned fire in that general direction. A grenade followed right behind the shots and blew out his shields entirely. He had one grenade left, and he wasted no time using it when he saw Alice emerge from behind the ruins and began sprinting with her weapon trained perfectly on him.
He'd planned for this, of course. Otherwise, he'd taken his chances in CQC instead of killing her. He'd picked up a bubble shield in her stash when he'd first tried to take the hill.
It came up just in time to protect him from a volley that would have ended the game.
At ten seconds, she charged his position doing her best to dodge his fire with weaves and rolls that allowed only glancing blows off her shields.
With five seconds remaining, Thorne threw his own DMR aside and rushed Alice as she uncurled from another roll. He knocked her rifle aside and slammed into her chest with enough force to blow both of their shields.
Thorne knew he'd never beat her in hand-to-hand combat, but he didn't need to. He just needed to knock her back far enough to keep her from contesting his control of the hill, and then he'd win the round.
But how do you outsmart a Spartan-II? Especially one as cunning as Alice?
He'd been pondering that question before Majestic had even walked into the simulator.
The only viable strategy he'd been able to come up with was to throw her off guard.
To do it, though, he'd have to take some inspiration from Madsen and DeMarco.
After crashing into her, he picked her up by the shoulder and threw her down. Using that momentum, Alice sent her boot straight into his jaw and launched him into the air a few feet.
Thorne's GEN2 MJOLNIR absorbed most of the damage, but from the way his jaw rang from the impact, he knew there would be a bruise later. He landed on his feet, thank goodness, while Alice was in the middle of launching herself back onto her own.
With the momentum from her kick spinning him around, he added a little thruster burst and kicked her legs out before they had the chance to gain a solid footing.
Thorne crashed on top of her and brought down his knife as she began to unload her sidearm into his chest and cleaved the barrel in two. The action had left him unable to pin Alice, and she took advantage of that by throwing him off of her and then proceeding to pin him before he could retaliate.
He knew he was down to his last chance to end this, so he grappled with her as she tried to stab him with her knife until he found an opening.
"Bit of an awkward position," he ground out as he deflected the knife to the side, "You know, with everyone watching and all?"
"For you," she retorted as she shifted to get better leverage.
"I mean, you could always drop by after I'm off duty; no need to put on a show!" he continued as he managed to shift his hips into the right position he needed to break free.
For a split second, Alice was distracted by his unprofessional talk. She didn't fully comprehend what he was getting at until she recalled all the vulgar things various marines and ODSTs had said over the years, and then it dawned on her.
That little revelation threw her off just long enough for Thorne to get his opening. He thrust his hips up as violently as he could into her crotch plating, throwing her off balance and allowing him to shift her knife thrust to the side and into the dirt next to his head. He then rolled them over so that she was on the bottom and then pinned her arms above her hand.
He knew she'd break free just as he'd done, so he let her think he was going to keep pinning her for a second before directing his thrusters to the side and pulling her by the arms as he regained his footing and then proceeded to swing her around and toss her away from the hill, leaving him uncontested.
The bar finished filling before Alice even hit the ground.
It took a quick second for him to realize that he'd actually won the round for Majestic.
He'd somehow outsmarted a Spartan-II!
While he let that sink in, the war games simulation ended, leaving him and everyone else on millions of sinking pneumatics risers that had made up the topography.
Grant gave him a thumbs up since he couldn't see her smiling, and the rest of his team was chanting his name in celebration.
Alice observed him for a moment before approaching him. If it weren't for the Spartan-IIs' sterling reputation for professionalism, he might have been worried about a quick, retaliatory strike of some kind.
Instead, Alice walked towards him as his team was in the midst of congratulating him as a group. Her posture and temperament had returned to the stereotypical Spartan-II stoic, professional aura.
"Nice distraction, Thorne," she complimented evenly.
"Not as good as yours," Madsen grumbled as he rolled his shoulder. He'd been so sure he'd gotten out of that situation Scott-free.
"Thank DeMarco," Thorne said as she walked past him, "he gave me the idea."
"Of course he did," Alice almost rolled her eyes. It hadn't taken her long to peg DeMarco as a lady's man.
The man in question objected, "I didn't teach you that! Palmer would kill me!"
Majestic collectively sniggered.
"Acadamy records, Team Leader," Thorne clarified as a knowing grin broke across his face. He could almost hear DeMarco's jaw drop.
"Wha... why would you dig through my Acadamy records!?"
"I went through all of yours, actually. Gotta know who I'm working with, right?" He shrugged as if it were obvious.
The silence from his teammates signaled that perhaps he'd taken his research just a little too far, but Alice came to his rescue.
"Smart," she commented, "Knowing your teammate's quirks and tactics ahead of time can be valuable on the battlefield."
"And now she's complimenting you," Grant sung, "You'll be running the whole joint by the end of the week!"
Thorne did his best not to blush, despite his face being hidden by his helmet.
"Alright, clear the deck!" The announcer ordered as the floor fully flattened, and the bulkhead doors opened. Alice walked ahead of Majestic as they filed out.
As they exited the simulator, Alice turned around and called out to Thorne.
"I don't have much experience when it comes to dating," she said with an intentionally innocent tone in her voice, "but aren't you supposed to buy the lady dinner before you try to fuck her?"
Majestic howled with laughter as Thorne's cheeks burned bright red, and he didn't have to take off his helmet for everyone to know it.
Alice walked away with a little swagger in her step just to add icing to the cake.
When Majestic finally collected themselves, Grant had a sudden revelation. "Wait, did she just ask you out?"
Thorne didn't even entertain the idea. Madsen just laughed, "She's messing with you, man! You got lucky, and she's making sure you know it!"
"Well, let's hope that luck sticks around; we're going to need it," he said demurely, killing the mood almost instantly.
Hoya was especially thunderstruck by his response, "Jesus! Are you sure he's not one of them?!"
On Voyager, Cameron was busy working on the new Spartan Medbay.
What was once Cargo Bay 1 on Deck 4 was now a heavy-duty medical facility designed to more easily handle augmented humans.
It had been a secondary priority until this point. Now that the roster had expanded sooner than they'd planned, it had become a top priority on Voyager's upgrade list.
Allison and Six had moved the newly finished biobeds off the cargo transporter and onto their floor mounts.
Six had left a while ago to patrol the ship while Allison assisted Cameron in hooking everything up.
She didn't know why her human counterpart had decided to stay, but Cameron didn't mind the extra set of hands.
They hadn't interacted much since coming to the Halo universe, beyond training sessions in the holodeck.
"Have you finished connecting the EPS relay to biobed 7?"
"Not all of us are robots, Cameron," Allision chided as she carefully manipulated the hyperspanner to lock down the plasma conduit.
The cyborg said nothing in retort.
A few moments later, Allison sighed with a hint of exhaustion in her voice as she closed up the access panel on the bio bed's base. "Seven down, three to go, right?"
"Yes," Cameron deadpanned while pointing at the three behind her.
Without another word, Allison went headlong into the remaining plasma connections. Cameron monitored her as she worked, making sure there were no mistakes. There were a few times Allison had to make corrections, but she'd caught the mistakes herself. The woman left nothing that wasn't up to standard by the time she finished.
After completing the last connection, she leaned against the biobed to test its strength and disguise her increasing exhaustion.
She'd been in one measly battle and the easiest rescue she'd ever heard of, and she felt ashamed that she felt exhausted for having done so little.
What really had done her in was the 48 hours of continuous activity and no sleep.
The Doctor had reminded her, more than once, that she was still acclimating to her augmentations and recovering from the neurological damage inflicted by Skynet.
Regardless of the reasons, she hated being vulnerable.
While Allison was lamenting her health issues, Cameron finished hooking the biobeds up to the network.
The new sickbay was circular as opposed to the squareness of the old cargo bay. Each corner of the room had been converted to hold storage between the circular walls and rectangular bulkhead.
In the center of the room was a circular terminal station with a chair in the center.
From here, you could monitor all the functions in the new sickbay, and Cameron made her way over to it to do just that.
A glance at the read-outs was all she needed to see that the beds were connected properly. The Doctor would handle the full certification later.
That being said, Allison was still in her MJOLNIR armor, and the armor removal system needed to be tested.
"Allison."
The woman snapped out of her thoughts and faced her doppelgänger. "What?"
"The ARS needs testing and calibration."
She glanced up at the ceiling and then back to Cameron. "Don't pull my arm off," she drawled while climbing onto the biobed she'd been leaning against.
Cameron ignored Allison's quip and quickly typed in the activation sequence for the ARS.
After grabbing the calibration tool from the maintenance cart, Cameron directed the ceiling-mounted device to the bed.
Once a quick diagnostic was completed, the cyborg began the calibration program.
The grav plating under the beds had an extremely fine resolution, which allowed easy manipulation of super-heavy Spartans.
They pushed and pulled at Allison until she was suspended above the bed in the perfect position for the arms to do their job.
One by one, Cameron tested and calibrated the arms, leaving Allison to relax in her armor.
With the exhaustion weighing her down, she became relaxed enough to fall into light REM sleep.
Cameron didn't need to look at the biobed monitors to know she was asleep and worked quietly so she wouldn't disturb her.
Unfortunately, she couldn't let her sleep very long. The ARS needed to perform a full armor removal, down to the skin, for the Doctor even to consider using it in an emergency.
Waking someone as high-strung as Allison was not something you did lightly. To be safe, Cameron reset the ARS to get the arms out of the way.
Knowing that hearing Cameron's own voice, the same voice Skynet had stolen from Allison and tortured her with, was probably the worst way to wake her up.
The one voice that she might respond well to was her own mother's. After the 'Allison from Palmdale' incident, Cameron had occasionally pondered how speaking to Claire Young would change Allison's future.
When John had jumped to the future with Weaver, most of that speculation became moot.
The woman before her was definitely more traumatized than the one she'd killed. The other Allison had lived in relative safety thanks to Future John's resistance providing a significant buffer against machine raids.
With all that in mind, she modulated her voice to emulate Claire's as best she could.
"Allison," Cameron whispered near her ear. "Nap time's over, honey."
She couldn't see what was going on behind the red helmet, but the subtle movements of her limbs and her increased breathing rate told her she was waking up.
"Mom?"
Laden with sleep and only half awake, Allison's voice sounded like a young teen waking up after an all-nighter doing homework. It was an odd sound to hear coming out of an MJOLNIR Mark VI's speakers.
A second later, Allison took in a sharp breath and searched for the source of the voice. All she found was Cameron standing next to her.
"How long was I out?"
She sounded despondent.
"A few minutes. You needed the rest."
Allison said nothing for a moment and avoided looking at Cameron. Her eyes eventually landed on the ARS. "I guess it's time to test it then?"
"Yes."
"Let's get on with it then..." she sighed before relaxing her body once more.
Cameron activated the program without further preamble and watched the read-outs as the ARS removed the outer armor shell.
With smooth, fluid movements, the ARS latched onto the armor and began undoing the latches and locks that held it all together.
Piece by piece, the red armor peeled away until only the muscle layer, and the helmet remained.
The ARS threw an error when it tried to remove the helmet, earning a groan from Allison. Cameron stepped in and paused the program. It took only a second to realize why the system had halted.
Allison was smaller than almost every Spartan, save Lucy-B091, and the ARS had been programmed with the larger Spartans in mind.
With a few adjustments, the ARS grabbed on and unlocked Allison's helmet without issue. It set it aside and continued peeling away the armor bit by bit until she was left with only her bio-suit.
"Wait, we're not testing..."
A small smirk spread across Cameron's face as she triggered the final sequence.
Allison's face screwed up as her discomfort became evident.
The bio-suit was hooked into her body in various places, and underneath it, there was nothing but skin. It was complicated and uncomfortable to remove.
The ARS's arms switched tooling and went to work peeling off the skin-tight layer.
She grimaced as it pulled the ports out of her body along with all the health monitors, but at least it didn't rip any of them out. She'd already done that once, or twice, on her own.
Allison hadn't really been out of her armor, fully, for a while now. The bio-suit was self-cleaning, meaning she never had to shower if she didn't want to.
She watched as the ARS pulled the suit away, leaving her skin bare to the cold air surrounding her.
Her skin prickled with goosebumps and her nipples hardened as a shiver rippled across her limbs.
Allison grimaced at her reaction to the temperature change. The temperature moderated armor had spoiled her.
Cameron noted her discomfort and warmed the biobed surface before letting her down from the suspension field.
The cyborg noted how Allison settled onto the warmed, plush surface. She was still exhausted.
The woman's eyes were alert, but sleep was still pulling at the edges of them.
"Was that you?" She said after several minutes. Cameron finished the final calibrations at the main console, forcing her to pause and look towards her.
It didn't take Cameron much time to realize what Allison was asking about.
"Yes," she answered softly.
Tears were pricking at the corners of Allison's eyes. She tried to hide them before realized how pointless that was. A shaky sigh left her lungs as she tried to maintain her composure.
"Why?"
"Hearing my voice would only set you on edge."
She laughed mirthlessly. "You could have chosen any other voice but that one!"
"I calculated that her voice would be the least jarring way to wake you."
"Of course you did!" Her laughter echoed across the room. "But did you think about how I'd react when I found out?"
Cameron wasn't going to play into Allison's little crisis. She needed to curb it.
"I didn't want you to break the equipment. We need it."
That little revelation cut Allison's laughter short. "Right, of course."
Neither of them wanted Cameron to explain her logic, and so she didn't. PTSD and living on the edge of sanity in post-apocalyptia tended to make people more than a little twitchy when sleeping.
Another minute passed while Allison tried to figure out exactly how she felt about the whole situation but ended up just feeling mixed up and angry.
Instead of taking it out on Cameron, she shifted the conversation to the other question floating around in her head.
"How?" And this time, she met her doppelgänger's eyes.
Now it was Cameron's turn to look uneasy.
"Remember how I told you I was damaged after an explosion?"
"Yeah," she swallowed, "you said you chose to protect John instead of killing him."
"I did," Cameron affirmed, "but the damage caused other issues. Not long after, I fell back into the infiltration routine that I used to try to get into General Connor's secret base."
"The one based on the other me?"
"Yes," she replied. "She told me enough about herself that I knew your mother's name and where she lived. I called her, actually."
"You called my Mom? And talked to her?"
"Only for a moment. The person trying to help me talk to her mostly, but I heard everything. She was pregnant with you at the time."
Allison's head rolled back onto the pillow as she tried to process this insanity. She'd never wanted to watch the show. There were too many other important things to do, and she didn't think it was relevant. She thought she'd been told all she needed to know.
"I kept reliving her interrogation in flashes," Cameron continued. "At first, I remembered almost nothing, but as time went on, I remembered how much she wanted to go home. That's why I called her."
Allison took deep breathes to keep herself calm.
Since before she was even born, her life had been intertwined with Cameron's. It was not a pleasant thought.
"I may have accidentally named you, as well."
The blood drained from Allison's face.
"That's it, I'm changing my name," she spat. "I can tolerate being around you, but..." she drew in a sharp breath and held it to keep herself from losing control.
"Would you prefer if I changed how I looked?"
That broke what little composure Allison had left. She launched herself out of the biobed and pinned Cameron against the wall.
"DON'T YOU DARE!"
Allison was taller than Cameron by eight inches, and she was strong enough now to lift the cyborg off her feet and hold her at eye level.
"You took her identity, her story, her memories!" Her breathing was heavy, and her arms strained against exhaustion and Cameron's immense weight. "You're going to wear that face until the day you die, so help me, or I will kill you down myself!"
Allison refused to let Cameron erase her other self's existence, even for her own benefit. In her mind, the cyborg should have to bear her likeness so that the cyborg could never forget what she'd done.
Cameron's expression did not change. She knew Allison's issues ran deeper than just have to work with a cyborg that looked and sounded like her.
She also knew anything she said would only upset Allison further. She was tired, angry, and frustrated, but at what, she wasn't sure.
But she had a good idea.
When Allison didn't get a reaction out of her, she threw her aside with a primal scream.
Cameron didn't move after she landed on the floor. She did not want to escalate this, and neither did Allison.
Instead of engaging her again, Allison's lithe, muscled form collapsed to the floor.
Her breaths shook with emotion as tears ran down her cheeks.
"I thought I was over this..." she whispered.
"You've lived a life full of pain," Cameron pointed out softly. "Sarah, Derek, and John had to live and fight with their trauma just like you. It never goes away."
Allison knew that, as did any resistance soldier. "They fought because they had John Connor. He was their hope. What the fuck did I have? Nothing but a quick death."
She wasn't wrong. Future John's victories and his leadership style had saved many people from self-inflicted ends. He gave them hope for a better tomorrow. This Allison never had that.
"This is about Skynet," Cameron revealed. The AI's genocide of the Sangheili on their homeworld, its capture and subjugation of an actual Forerunner, and the annihilation of an entire city without any effective resistance were absolutely terrifying to Allison.
When she'd become a Spartan, Allison felt like she actually had a chance to make a difference, to have some modicum of control over her own destiny, and a chance at revenge.
"Of course it's about Skynet," Allison bit back. Her arms were wrapped around her legs, holding them against her chest. "It's always ten steps ahead! Even when with all the opportunities we've been given, it just happens to come across the keys to the entire Forerunner Ecumene!"
But that was where she was wrong. Skynet was limited in its power and design. John Henry knew this, Cameron knew this, and so did others on the crew. It would never be powerful enough to brute force its way into the Forerunner's systems, not with all the AI's and other systems still protecting them.
At least, not for a long time. Skynet and John Henry both evolved as their knowledge grew. In a way, they were superior to nearly every AI ever built in any of the universes they'd encountered.
But it didn't need to be an all-power AI to accomplish its goals, just enough weapons to hold them off while it fired the Halos.
"The new models aren't unbeatable. Tom and Lucy proved that."
"And they both nearly died," Allison reminded, "and they've had years of training..."
"You're letting yourself spiral," Cameron pointed out. "We still have the element of surprise. Skynet never figured out how we destroyed its probe. It doesn't know we have Voyager or Spartans or that we are even here. If we act quickly, we'll be able to strike hard enough to give John Henry an opening."
Allison chuckled. "I know all of that. But I didn't want another repeat of every timeline where we win, and Skynet just finds another way to cheat death! I wanted to overwhelm it so completely that it'd have no chance of escaping."
Cameron shared her desire. The more advantages they held over their enemy, the better chance they had at ending the threat permanently.
"I agree."
Her statement only made Allison's breathing hitch for a moment before it continued. "About what?"
"That we need more advantages. I believe the Didact will share our opinion. He's the key to neutralizing any Forerunner-based threat Skynet possesses. Without that..."
She let Allison draw her own conclusions.
"Don't forget, he hates humans," she countered softly. "He's not our friend."
Cameron's head tilted slightly as she pondered how one would take out a Forerunner with over a thousand years of battle experience against humans.
At that moment, the main sickbay doors opened, revealing John Connor still dressed in full ODST armor.
He made it about three steps in the door before he paused to take in the sight of his cyborg girlfriend's ruffled cloaths and his best friend sitting naked, on the floor, in the midst of an emotional breakdown.
John wanted to ask a million questions, but the small shake of Cameron's head made him hold his tongue. Instead, he removed his helmet and set it on the nearest bed while making his way over to one of the supply closets.
He pulled out a large robe and approached Allison with it in hand.
"Oh, look, it's John Connor! He's here to rescue me from the evil Terminator!"
It may have sounded like a joke, but John knew it was just self-deprecating humor.
"I thought you were supposed to be rescuing my ass from the 'evil Terminators'?" he deadpanned while wrapping her body in the baby-blue garment.
"They've stripped me of my armor! Do you want me to fight them naked? You don't make her fight them naked!" She pointed at the cyborg in question, whose head was tilted in confusion with a matching expression on her face.
"Yes, he does."
John actually paused while helping his friend to her feet; his cheeks colored while imagining Cameron fighting hordes of T-800s bare-skinned.
Allison was a little quicker on the uptake. "Getting your flesh burned off doesn't count!"
Finally, on her feet, she wrapped the robe around her frame and tied it so it would keep her warm. "I really need to gain some weight," she grimaced.
Augmentations had stretched out her already minimal fat reserves, resulting in her chiseled image and reduced bust. Eventually, her natural proportions would return, as it had for all Spartans who'd survived the augmentation process.
"I hear the biobeds are warmed," John replied.
"They are," Allison gushed. "You should try them sometime."
"The goal is to stay out of sickbay, Allie."
She snorted at his bland retort and laid back down on the biobed she'd occupied earlier.
"Beds are nicer," she murmured while settling into the warmed surface.
John had not seen Allison act like this since they were in the resistance, and she'd been very, very drunk.
Something was wrong, and judging by the perturbed look on Cameron's face, he wasn't alone in the observation.
As subtlety as he could, he motioned Cameron to leave and get help.
After she'd left, he noticed Allison relax even more than she already was.
"She's going to get the Doctor, isn't she?"
She knew him too well. "Yeah, unless you want me to figure out what's wrong with you."
"I'm good," she squeaked.
John laughed, "I thought so."
They were quiet for a moment as Allison settled down.
"I still don't get it," she grimaced, her eyes closed while she spoke.
Connor rolled his eyes. "I know you don't, and I don't expect you to."
"Do you even get it?" She asked him honestly.
He pulled up a stool and sat down behind the head of the biobed. "Why don't we have that conversation when you'll actually remember it?"
"I'll remember it," she taunted.
Without furthering the argument, he removed his armored gloves and set them on the floor.
"Relax, Allie. You've had a long couple of days," he said softly. "We need you well rested so you can kick metal ass with the rest of us."
The corner of her lips turned up at the thought.
While she was in her happy place, he prepared himself to do something he'd seen Kyle perform when she was overwhelmed like this.
He brought his hands forward, rested his palms on either side of her jaw, and then began tracing circles with his thumbs over her cheekbones.
Then he rested his forehead on the crown of her head and continued the motions with his thumbs. All the tension left her body at that point, and she became fully relaxed.
"You were watching..."
"I was trained to be observant," he murmured. "Relax."
At this point, she couldn't help it. Whatever was affecting her was weighing her down more and more.
"Six... she's gonna be so... disappointed..."
"No, she won't," he assured. "Let it go, Allie. Relax."
She didn't want to, all of it was really important, but she felt like she was being sucked into a black hole.
The conversation ended right there, and she finally drifted to sleep.
He kept up the ministrations for a few minutes more, just to be sure, and then turned to the biobed monitors to see if she was alright.
Nothing critical, as far as he could tell, and the Doctor hadn't materialized like he would if it were an emergency.
John put his armor back on and hid his face behind the polarized visor. Seeing Allison like this was difficult on a level that surpassed just being concerned about a dear friend.
A raw pit in his gut still burned with guilt whenever he was reminded that his selfish decision to jump to the future had cost humanity the entire war.
It was only one version of the War Against the Machines, but they were still talking about billions of lives. Allison's current state was his fault, not hers.
The people of Ziera bunker were dead because of him, not Allison giving up the info under torture.
He could not let it eat at him, though. He refused to let his past mistakes weigh him down when there was still work to be done. The final fight against Skynet was growing closer, and John Connor could not afford to be distracted by things he could never change.
Cameron's journey to the old sickbay was a short one. Across the corridor, down the turbo lift, and then right across the corridor on Deck 5.
The doors swept open automatically, and she walked right through them without preamble.
Everyone in the room turned their heads at her entrance, including her target. With other ears listening, she sent him a private message via the network.
She knew John would want to keep Allison's condition quiet for now.
"I see," he grimaced before turning back to Tom-B292. "We'll have to finish your post-op physical later."
"With the kind of work you do, I'm not sure I need one," the 24-year-old Spartan chuckled, earning an eye roll from the Doctor.
"Just what I needed, more stubborn, bullheaded, jokesters."
With that, he gathered his equipment and headed for the door. "One more thing, Cameron."
"Yes?"
"You need to figure what we're going to do with your 'friend.' I need the storage space if we're going to have enough spare organs on hand for the Spartans."
Her hand twitched at his words. This was not a topic she wished to dwell on.
"I'll... think of something."
"Good, I'll keep Mr. Connor informed." And with that, he left.
Cameron knew he meant he'd keep John informed of Allison's condition.
When the doors closed behind the hologram, Cameron knew she'd become the single most interesting thing in the room to the three people alert and awake.
The Chief was still recovering in the surgical bay, with Franklin Mendez at his side keeping watch.
The others were Tom and Lucy.
She ignored their calculating stares and passed by them into the lab on the other side of the Doctor's office. One of the walls was a grid of stasis draws used for containing lab samples or other dangerous materials, such as Borg implants.
Cameron had used it for a more, unconventional purpose.
The Doctor had moved things around since she'd been in here last, and she had to access the inventory to find what she was looking for.
The answer was known to her in the blink of an eye, and her finger navigated over to the control to open the unit.
The stasis drawer opened with a hum, revealing its contents.
"Who's that?" inquired a quiet, feminine voice.
Cameron didn't need to look up from the stasis cell to know it was Lucy-B091 standing in the doorway.
"A friend."
The woman didn't probe any further. She could sense from Cameron's demeanor it wouldn't be welcome. Lucy would know better than anyone.
"Are you one of the cyborgs?" Her voice tone shifted ever so slightly to reflect the apprehension she was feeling.
At that, Cameron did meet Lucy's penetrating gaze. "Yes," she replied and let her skin go translucent.
The pint-sized Spartan stood even straighter than she already had been, and Cameron detected a build-up of adrenaline as her fight or flight instincts flooded her system.
Despite that, Lucy's external features barely hinted that she was even scared by the mechanical marvel in front of her.
The whirr of a transporter beam-in turned their attention to the center of the room—a coffin-sized container raised on antigravity units now occupied a good chunk of the lab's floor space.
John Henry was looking out for her.
Being uninterested in continuing the conversation with Lucy, Cameron opened the self-contained stasis unit and removed the bed inside. The bed was on anti-grav thrusters, allowing Cameron to easily move the body from the stasis drawer.
Normally when someone died on Voyager, their body was moved to the mortuary, located down a side corridor next to sickbay. Unfortunately, those containers weren't designed for long-term storage like the stasis drawers were.
Lucy watched as Cameron carefully placed the corpse in the stasis unit and noted the emotions playing out on her pseudo-flesh.
Without saying anything else, Cameron transported the unit away after sealing it up.
After it disappeared in a dance of blue light, she cleaned up the stasis drawer and closed it. When she turned to leave, she found that Lucy had been joined by her cohort, Tom.
She'd been so distracted; she hadn't consciously registered his presence.
They both were blocking the door to the Doctor's office, not that it mattered. The med-bay lab had its own exit, and she had the transporter.
Cameron strode up to them, keeping eye contact the entire time.
"Can I help you?" She asked in a toneless voice.
"Some answers would be nice," Tom replied in a similar tone.
Though she still had a lot of work to do, the other AI on the ship agreed to rework the schedule if she took the time to lay things out for them.
All of that happened in the blink of an eye, and Cameron responded seamlessly. "This will take a while."
"We've got nothing better to do," the larger of the two shrugged.
With that, she motioned them back into the main part of sickbay and began retelling the lengthy tale that had led them all to the point.
Shadow of Sundered Star, nicknamed the Didact by his students long ago, was not a stranger to high-stakes meetings where the fate of billions would be decided.
Now that he'd fully subdued the Covenant Remnant and regained control of his Promethean horde, he was ready to meet with various human factions.
The Shadow of Intent was chosen as a middle ground. Jul M'dama was at his side, quiet yet brooding at his fellow Sangheili just a few dozen feet away. Thel 'Vadam, the Arbiter, ignored the Remnant's leader and focused on the Forerunner.
The other three groups were yet to arrive—one from the Spirit of Fire, one from Voyager, and one from Infinity.
The Didact could sense they were near, however, and their shuttled became visible moments later. As their shuttles landed, his eyes were locked on the one from the trans-dimensional ship.
The one carrying John Henry.
Shadow of Sundered Star was no stranger to building AI, and he was looking forward to talking with this supposed brother of Skynet.
The rest were mostly irrelevant to him, save the two Spartans that accompanied John Henry's group.
He recognized them as the same breed of warrior as the Master Chief. A part of him simmered at their presence, but the rest of him was pleased that more warriors of the Chief's caliber were joining the fight against the machines.
Even with the advantages presented, he knew there was a lot of bad blood between the groups assembled here. The two Sangheili factions wanted to be at each other's throats, and the human factions felt the same about him.
Despite all of that mutual loathing, he'd do what need be done. He'd set aside any amount of pride if it meant ending this threat he'd inadvertently brought to their doorstep.
The previous day...
Skynet had wiped out all remaining resistance against its forces in under three hours. The Huragok had tried to resist, but they'd quickly found that their adversary knew more than enough about Forerunner protocol to halt any attempt to expel it.
Those who resisted falling in line were swiftly executed, leaving the rest to bow to its command.
Experiments were being carried out on the carcasses to judge if the bio-engineered beings could be permanently bound to Skynet's service.
Preliminary findings suggested that Borg nanoprobes were worth their weight in latinum. The Huragok would be no more than flesh drones reprogrammed for the express purpose of assimilating more Forerunner technology into Skynet's arsenal.
Skynet directed the one's cooperating willingly the portal that the Spartans had escaped through. It had to know where it led to determine how much of a threat their escape posed to its plans.
It didn't take the Huragok long to determine where the portal once led.
Requiem.
There was a high probability that the UNSC had set up some kind of presence there after the Didact's defeat.
While the AI was certain that the UNSC was aware that something was causing chaos on the fringes of their territory, it didn't want the humans to know exactly what was threatening them.
Losing the Didact had been bad enough, but he was a known variable, and the Sangheili he escaped with posed little threat to Skynet.
They would not go crawling to the UNSC begging for help. It knew that just from the Didact's stolen memories alone.
The UNSC, on the other hand, was made of humans. Dangerously unpredictable as ever, humanity had likely had scavenged and studied numerous Forerunner technologies since the end of the Human-Covenant War.
That was too many unknowns for Skynet's preference.
The escapees had to be dealt with.
Seven hours after Mendez and his Spartan comrades escaped through the portal to Requiem, Skynet commissioned a new fleet to go to Requiem and wipe out every living thing.
The time to build these new small, Narada-derived vessels was 52 hours.
In the meantime, it would study the technology this massive Forerunner construct had to offer and do its best not to trigger any automated defenses...
March 4, 2558
2200 hours
After spending three hours answering questions from Lucy, Tom, and Mendez, Cameron left them to figure out whether or not they wanted to join Voyager's crew or not, and then she made her way down to Deck 8.
Cargo Bay 2 was a labyrinth of supplies and spare parts. It had always been more than just Seven of Nine's domain after she joined the ship during Voyager's seven-year journey home.
It was also where Cameron had beamed the stasis unit, and it remained on the transporter pad waiting to be labeled and stored.
She wasted no time in doing just that. The motions were methodical, mechanical, as befit her nature, but her mind was conflicted by torrents of emotion.
John Henry had left the fate of James Anderson in her hands for reasons she did not understand, and it was a responsibility she felt wholly unqualified to bear.
It would have been easy if he was truly beyond saving, but the Doctor believed he could revive Jim.
"It'd be tricky," he'd said. "But not impossible."
She'd originally considered reviving him and letting him live out the life he had before he'd met John Henry. She'd even thought about asking the Doctor to erase his memory if it were possible since he was a member of a pre-warp civilization.
But then Skynet had shown up, and they'd been forced to leave Jim's reality behind. But before they'd left, they'd accidentally revealed their presence when Voyager had plummeted into Earth's atmosphere and subsequently setting off a massive explosion that destroyed the UDE and the farm that Jim had treasured.
The US government would investigate, and Jim would be linked to the strange events. If he ever returned, he'd be on the run for the rest of his life. She could not do that to him, not after the kindness he'd shown both her and John Henry.
Since coming to the Halo universe, Cameron had not been able to decide his fate. She saw little reason to revive him and let him join their crew. He had no marketable skills or resources to offer. He'd likely end up dead permanently.
Neither could she let him slip away.
Standing next to the stasis unit preserving his body, Cameron had settled on a course of no action.
He would stay here until this was all over, win or lose.
Only later did she come to regret her indecision...
A/N: Well, I'm under the six-month mark this time!
Anyway, I wanted to focus on the TSCC characters more this time around, and I hope I accomplished that. More to come on that front since Derek got zero screen time.
We'll be switching back to Savannah and her crew next chapter, followed by another Halo one after that. I'm slowly getting to the point where they meet. I want everything set up right for the final arc.
I'm also in the process of outlining the sequel as well, which will focus on a new set of characters, mostly, and hopefully have a tighter cast.