Two - Cortana
Dr Elizabeth Weir had commanded Atlantis since the arrival of her expedition in the Pegasus Galaxy she was in her forties and had been born in America on Earth but she had travelled extensively across her homeworld and was a seasoned diplomat. She had briefly commanded the Stargate Program on Earth before moving onto the Atlantis Expedition like most members of the Expedition she wore the grey civilian jumpsuit with red accents. Beside her walked a younger woman who was native to the Pegasus Galaxy, Teyla Emmagin, she, and her people the Ethosians had become their first ally since their arrival from the Milky Way. Despite being a permanent member of the expedition and a member of Sheppard's off-world team Teyla had never formally adopted the uniform of Atlantis and instead she wore a beige crop-top and skirt made from local materials that she had worn since her time on Athos.
Since her arrival Weir had disagreed several times with Sheppard over his decision making and today was one more of those moments. Entering the puddle jumper bay she walked around the small ship just as Sheppard walked out the back of the ship. "Major, welcome back"
"Thank you" he said smirking, seeing her face he guessed she wasn't amused.
"So, you go out looking for a weapon capable of defending Atlantis from a fleet of enemy ships and you come back with…" She began as the Master Chief stepped out behind Sheppard his olive green and black under-armour towering over the Major and his gold visor reflecting her image and revealing nothing.
"Dr Elizabeth Weir, this is Master Chief Petty Officer Sierra-117, Chief this is Dr Elizabeth Weir the leader of this expedition." Sheppard said introducing the huge soldier.
"N-nice to meet you" Elizabeth stammered looking up at herself reflected in the visor, the figure screamed violence even with his inaction. "Welcome to Atlantis."
"Doctor, I would like to volunteer to help defend this facility." He said cutting straight to the point he was a soldier.
"Thank you, Master Chief, Major not quite the defence satellite but you found something." She said looking at the Major who smirked in response. "Master Chief, would you like to follow me to the conference room and I can explain our situation here?"
"Affirmative"
A short time later they were in the conference room, the Master Chief remained standing, his armour was nearly a ton in weight he would be surprised if any chair they had could hold him, his armour remained fully on while he listened about their time on Atlantis. It sounded like one struggle to the next for the small expedition, much like his war against the Covenant. Along with Dr Weir, Teyla, Major Sheppard, and Lieutenant Ford a scientist named Dr Rodney McKay had joined them. The Chief had met with many scientists over the years but his main contact had been with Dr Catherine Halsey and her team who had created the Spartan Project. Every time he had spoken to her it was like she knew everything and knew the questions before anyone else did McKay seemed to be like Halsey but far more arrogant, and at this juncture bored.
"They really have no idea what a true conflict is do they" Cortana said still speaking only with him "Chief, I've been trying to access their information network."
"They are on our side" Chief responded speaking just with her.
"I'm just making sure" she said mischievously, "their computers are tougher to interrogate than the city's I am not familiar with the way the computers are formatted, the city's computers are more like the Forerunner's… oh… erm… Chief, I'll be back." She said suddenly she disappeared from his mind he could feel she was gone.
"Cortana…" the Chief called inside his suit but she was gone, he suddenly felt quite alone.
"Master Chief, are you alright?" Weir asked noticing a change in his stance.
"Yes, mam" he responded; he recognised Weir as a person who knew how to command.
"Please allow me to apologise on behalf of the Master Chief he's a little out of sorts…" a female voice suddenly said causing everyone to look around "oh… sorry" she said suddenly a blue coloured female form stepped out of the Master Chief's armour, she was beautiful, her body covered in strange data chevrons and in multiple different colours of blue. Her form left to the imagination; she looked like a human female with the appearance of a near naked frame. Sheppard had his sidearm Beretta in hand and had partially raised from his chair. "UNSC Smart AI CTN-0452 but you may call me Cortana." She said glancing over her shoulder at the Chief almost seeing through his power armour "what am I the weirdest thing you've seen today?" She joked turning back to Dr Weir.
"Cortana, sorry we were not aware of your presence." Weir said rising from her chair glancing at Sheppard who shook his head "welcome to Atlantis, may I ask how exactly are you appearing here?" She asked looking at the AI
"This body is the avatar of my program; I have travelled with the Chief for many years" Cortana answered glancing back at the Chief again. "I realised that the systems of your city were similar to some that we have dealt with previously" she explained. "The Chief trusts you, I have chosen to appear to you now as another show of that trust." She said looking at Dr Weir "your facilities holographic technology is quite impressive."
"Wait, wait, wait, you aren't interfaced with any of our systems directly how exactly are you using the projectors?" McKay asked raising a finger "also I'm quite familiar with this room there are no holographic projectors in this room to use?" He said triumphantly as if proving something "by the way I'm not sure if you heard I'm Dr Rodney McKay lead scientist."
"I did hear Doctor" she answered "your city has holographic technology throughout it, it is like your ancients interacted with holographic technology on a regular basis, I simply activated that technology to appear in front of you. Or had not you noticed it, Doctor?" She asked embarrassing the man into sitting back in his seat, she had read his personal file in fact she had already read all their personal files she probably knew them better than they knew each other.
"We've been a little busy defending ourselves against the Wraith" McKay replied looking at Weir defensively "I'm sure there are many mysteries we can still discover."
"Yes, there is" Cortana marvelled as she was dug deeper into the City's records looking for its link to the Forerunners. The systems were like that of the Halo Rings, but how? They were in a different time and a different Galaxy; she had not heard of the Forerunners travelling outside the Milky Way before.
"Cortana…" the Chief said, she thought he had been standing behind her but now he was facing her.
"Yes, Chief? Chief, this place is Forerunner I am sure of it, but I do not understand how it got here. We are in the Pegasus Galaxy?" She said excited beginning to ramble a little.
"There's time for that in the Future" the Chief said "for now we need to concentrate on the here and now."
"The Wraith" she said quietly activating another projector in the system suddenly a Wraith warrior appeared in front of them all he was tall with white hair and a pale complexion. While he had a universally human appearance with two arms and legs, the face was where the most immediately with additional nostrils on the cheek, on both hands there were additional holes as well where the Wraith fed on the prey.
"Well, that's unsettling" Sheppard noted looking at the life-like hologram. "With their tralls they are quite formidable." He warned looking at the Master Chief who stood motionless. The Chief looked at the Wraith it lacked the armour of the Brutes and the shields of the Elites.
"Cortana, show them our enemy" the Chief said the Wraith disappeared and moments later a larger, powerful creature which resembled a massive armoured ape appeared, it looked fat in places but in truth the species was heavily muscled. From its waist it drew a red rifle sized curved weapon and from the front of it several pulse blasts fired over their head.
"The Covenant's Jiralhanae species known to humanity as the Brute species they are the strongest species still allied to the Covenant leading multiple other races within the alliance." Cortana narrated as the Brute replaced its pulse laser and drew a cannon from its back, on the rear of the weapon there was a vicious looking blade which was easily as long as a grown adult human's torso. "They are capable of vicious hand to hand battles and can literally tear human opponents limb from limb."
"And the Sangheili" she said the Brute was replaced by a taller slim and agile beast with four mandibles which made up is screaming jaws its arms spread wide from one of them a double-sided white blade emerged. "The Sangheili led the Covenant until the Great Schism and they were replaced by the Jiralhanae both species are formidable in a wide variety of combat forms. They are the backbone of any Covenant attack leading multiple other races during their attacks."
"Dr Weir, I have done an analysis like our Covenant enemy your Wraith have two advantages, numbers and space superiority." Cortana said after a pause "even with the Master Chief and myself present you will be hard pressed to secure this facility. If you had a full inventory of drones then perhaps you would have been able to put up a fight." She noted "but you cannot do much with six."
"SIX!" McKay shouted in surprise "there should be thousands of drones." He said looking at Sheppard and then Weir in surprise.
"Perhaps there was once upon a time Dr McKay but it appears the inventory has been depleted." Cortana answered "and the automated manufacturing plant has been disabled."
"Manufacturing plant?" Sheppard asked suddenly interested returning his sidearm to its holster.
"We haven't seen any sign of…" McKay started but Cortana interrupted him.
"Affirmative, it appears the facility has been taken offline due to power use requirements." Cortana explained "these zero-point-modules are interesting but limiting Fusion Energy Plants are far more efficient for long term power generation." She said the AI was rapidly moving from one topic to the next… "perhaps these came before they chose to move on as an efficient clean alternative."
"Cortana focus, could we manufacture anymore?" The Chief asked
"With local power manufacturing capabilities and the time until the Wraith arrive in force, negative." She said rapidly "if we could bring down the Dawn her remaining power generation would solve all of their problems… but there's no way to bring her down safely or integrate her power network… if we had a heavy lift craft that may help…"
"Cortana, we need to focus…" the Chief said trying to rain in the AI
"Wait, wait, wait!" Rodney shouted standing up looking at Cortana "if you can read our power levels then you have access to the City's critical systems." He accusing Cortana of infiltration.
"Affirmative, when I integrated with the City's systems, I gained full access to all of your computers." She admitted, "the intrusion was unintentional as you have connected your network to the City's it was inevitable." She warned
"We take our privacy quite serious." Weir said looking at the AI angrily
"I would have thought your survival was more serious." She shot back beginning to walk around the room muttering to herself. "If only we could use the Dawn's reactor this would be easy…" she repeated "but there is no way for her to survive re-entry, and we don't have an available heavy lift vehicle…"
"Master Chief, your AI appears distracted, could we do anything to help her?" Teyla asked glancing between the two.
"Sometimes there's a simpler solution" the Chief said turning to Weir "Doctor, can you get me on one of their ships?"
"With what intention?"
"To do what he does best" Cortana replied triumphantly coming out of her momentary trance "Spartans are quite capable warriors."
"There are likely hundreds of Wraith onboard that ship" Sheppard warned "you haven't seen these guys in combat, you'll be overwhelmed."
"You have some of these weapons on the base I take it?" The Chief asked Sheppard nodded they had captured dozens of the Wraith weapons known as Stunners.
"Let's see" the Chief challenged them. "Cortana, work with Drs McKay and Weir, I'll be in touch." He said
"I'll be watching"
Soon after Sheppard, Ford and Teyla were in one of Atlantis' armouries with the Chief each of them armed with a Stunner. Sheppard levelled the long over shoulder rifle at the Chief and after a moment fired on the armoured warrior the white energy bolt crossed the room and enveloped the Chief's armour in a wave of light. "Wow" Sheppard whispered as the Chief stood up to the blast.
Inside his armour the Chief felt a strange wave pass through him and saw his suit's shields had dropped by a percent by the blast as he raised his assault rifle at Sheppard. "Again, double shot" he ordered lowering the weapon. This time Sheppard fired two blasts into the Chief yet again he raised his assault rifle. This time he felt a greater sense of nausea as he moved still, he was able to bring the weapon up and in line with Sheppard.
"Are you alright Master Chief?" Teyla Emaggan asked stepping forwards towards him seeing the Chief waver.
"Affirmative" He said lowering the assault rifle "three blasts, two" he said to Sheppard and "one" he said pointing at Teyla. This time Sheppard fired the shoulder mounted weapon twice and Teyla fired one of the same weapons that Sheppard held but this time at waist height. There was no way for either of them to miss all three blasts enveloped the Chief's suit in waves this time he felt even more dizziness and his reaction times were significantly slowed as he aimed first at Sheppard and then around at Teyla. "I'm out of ammo!" He called out simulating real combat "Ford fire!" He ordered moving his rifle towards his back even though he had spoken the command it took Ford a moment aim and fire the Chief drew his Battle Rifle from his back dropping to his knee absorbing the blast once again as he aimed at the Lieutenant. "That's a kill." He declared.
"That was incredible!" Ford said having watched the entire display even after seven blasts in total, one or two blasts alone were normally enough to put down one of the expedition. "Major, did you see that?"
"You speak a lot for a dead man Ford" Sheppard replied to the Lieutenant looking at the Chief "you do understand that's what will happen to you if the Wraith are actually able to put you down?"
"But Spartans never die" Cortana's voice said as she appeared stepping into the room seeing the surprise on their faces "it's an old Spartan phrase" she explained "not entirely accurate, well except for this one." She said looking at the Master Chief.
"The Wraith don't care who they are feeding on, the Master Chief will just be a greater source of food for them." Teyla warned
"It's going to take a lot" he promised her and the others. "The Wraith have to hit first, and survive me."
"Absolutely not Major" Weir said looking at Major Sheppard as he outlined his proposal. "Even if the Master Chief was as good a fighter as you say there are three Wraith Hive Ships approaching this world, you cannot take them all out."
"If we take out one then Becket can use the six Drones, we have to target the remaining Hives, it'll give you more of a chance." Sheppard said "Cortana will stay here; she can help guide your fire on the remaining Hive."
"The fighters carried by those ships alone will be enough to level Atlantis. We need to continue our plan to evacuate Atlantis."
"The Chief can do this!" Sheppard complained, he saw a possible solution to their troubles "Elizabeth listen to me, I've never seen someone move like him."
"But he can't fly, and he can't control a jumper, so you'd have to go as well?" She said he could see the worry in her eyes, her pleading for him not to say the next words.
"I'm going with him, me and Ford." He confirmed "we need to do this; it is the best chance for Atlantis and the best chance that any of you get away. If Groden fails we will attack the remaining two Hives when they get into near orbit as they launch their fighters." He said looking at Elizabeth "We are going to stop them and buy you time to set the self-destruct and evacuate this planet.
"You'll die" she said a tear running down her face.
"You'll live" he said walking out leaving Weir in her office above the Gateroom alone with her thoughts.
"Their plan has a high chance of success Dr Weir" Cortana's voice crept in, Weir didn't need to turn round to know her hologram had appeared behind her "the Master Chief doesn't know how to fail."
"You heard it all I take it?" Weir asked glancing right over her shoulder she could see the hologram in the corner of her eye, Cortana's avatar looked worried.
"Yes, and the heightened emotional levels from both of you it is clear you care for each other deeply." Cortana said finishing on an awkward pause before silently disappearing.
"Where are you Cortana?" Weir asked the air around her.
"Everywhere" Cortana responded with finality Weir suddenly felt a cold worry, the AI clearly had full control over Atlantis' holographic systems god only knew how much other systems she had fully subverted control over. Weir wondered even if they successfully defeated the Wraith had they created a bigger problem by bringing the Master Chief, and more importantly Cortana, to the city.