In the meanwhile, the Lucky Strikes had gotten some well deserved RnR that they'd collectively decided to spend in the barracks, which had been modified rather extensively to have running hot water, cooking apparatuses and various amenities that they lacked beforehand, even under the command of one of the two up-and-coming officers of the Ark's military. From the window, Pinne watched UNSC Falcon choppers and Pelicans flying off to the city down below, patrols walking through the ever-expanding outpost and the vehicle depot and anti-air defenses being completed.

She felt a tap on her arm and looked up to see Niner handing her a cup of hot chocolate. All of the girls were wearing the more casual parts of their uniforms. For Pinne it was her tank top and baggy pants, for Niner it was a brown tank top, dog tags and shorts, much like Sammy, for Layla it was a nightgown(because Tetra sleepwear) and for Delta and Signal it was their standard uniforms, minus the armor vests.

She smiled and nodded in thanks, then turned about to watch Layla and Sammy playing a co-op video game with fighter jets. Something they'd salvaged during a mission, out of sight of the Chief and the others. She spoke to Niner, "Right mess we got ourselves in..." with a grin as the MG gunner sat herself down. She continued, "I mean, look at us. We've got salaries, dog tags, proper service records... Heh."

"Ha. I know, right? Almost seems magical to some degree," Niner smiled, then took a sip of her own drink and scratched her chin. She added, "All compared to just a few months ago when the Chief first arrived into our lives," her eyes locking onto the UNSC recruitment poster hanging to their right. The Marine saluting as Longswords flew overhead and all.

"Almost like sweet Karma finally decided to give mankind and us an Out from this clusterfuck," Layla quipped as she focused on piloting her aircraft better than Sammy, the two of them extremely focused on their silly little fighter game. The latest in the series, Niner recalled, made by Tetra subsidiary gaming industries to keep people who loved aircraft busy.

"Almost, yeah. You girls seem to be having fun on that Sky Hunters game," Niner inquired. Pinne took a sip from the drink she was brought while Niner asked the two women, "Which is it now, six or seven?" while watching Layla perform an Immelman to try and get on Sammy's tail. The HUD was eerily blue instead of the standard, glowing neon green of aircraft Displays.

"Seven. Unidentified Heaven," Layla almost burst into a giggle at the rhyme, the amusement visible on her face. Niner and Pinne both laughed, however, considering the stupidity. Both seemed to recall, however, that these games were probably a copy after another famous flight arcade/sim game. That or just those games, repackaged for the new fans to enjoy.

"They really need to stop naming games after the sky, man..." Niner quipped, however.

"Eh, I dunno. It's kind of their thing," Layla's hyperfocus didn't mean she couldn't answer. She added, "Plus, Sky Hunters Minus One didn't really have a name, did it?" while keeping her eye on the game still. Seriously, the sheer focus, Pinne thought as she sipped from her hot drink again. The sweetness kinda helped ease her into the RnR mood that was currently permeating the room.

"Fairy and her buddy gave it the name..." Sammy offered, before smiling, "Spanish guitar hit the game outta the park for me, by the way."

"Agreed," The other players of the game confirmed, grinning ear-to-ear. Pinne looked over to Delta as the girl was cleaning her sidearm for a change, while Signal was watching her sappy romcoms on her tablet, headphones in as to not bother the others. Niner herself had noticed that the Executive Squad Lead and their radio-girl were also far more relaxed than usual.

"Speaking of, any of you ever consider becoming pilots?" Sammy offered as she turned back to the game, too, "I hear the UNSC's looking at Nikke staff for the Air Force elements they're gonna be building up pretty soon," and that seemed to take the crew a moment to process. Still, no, not really. None of them thought about engaging in air-to-air against the Raptures. Plus...

"Eh, I like it on the ground too much, plus I don't think we wanna hang the Chief out to dry. Man has only done good for us, after all," Niner offered with a kind smile, the memories of that time Chief had defended her coming back. She looked at her new arm and leg and sighed, gently tapping one with the other's fist. She'd do anything for the Chief, though she didn't admit it.

"Yeah, agreed," Layla nodded.

"Betraying the trust of one of the leading causes for us doing better is both a dick move and probably counterproductive," Pinne chuckled, well aware of the little interservice rivalry between Navy and Airmen, with Chief being the former. She grinned, then added, "So, yeah, no thanks, I have a fear of heights, too, so piloting ain't my thing," before pausing and realizing she admitted to one of her fears.

"Heh. Fair enough... Wait, fear of heights?" Niner snorted, looking at Pinne, "How the hell does that make sense? You climbed literal mountainsides with us!"

"There's a difference between climbing a pile of rocks with people to your back and front, ready to catch you if you go down, and flying in the sky in a tin box and expecting the next missile shot to hit," Pinne raised her hands as she explained, still smiling. It was a bit awkward for her to admit her little issues that easily, but, hey at least she did now, right?

"Alright. You made your point. That does kinda suck," Niner admitted with a chuckle, then watched Layla shoot Sammy down, raising her hands up into the sky into a cheer. Sammy pouted at that, then sighed deeply and mumbled something about Layla being good as a pilot. It was just a videogame, though, so no real reason to believe that was the case...

A knock on the door took everyone's attention away. Delta yelled aloud, "It's open!" only for the entire group to watch the Chief walk in. Both Delta and Signal snapped salutes, while the others simply smiled at the arrival of their Commander. Chief was glad they were happy to see him, honestly. His squadmates were finally acclimatized to everything, including him.

"Eyyy. Chief! We were just talking about you. How are ya?" Niner greeted with a surprising amount of joy.

"Niner. Just came in to check on you girls," Chief greeted, obviously slightly surprised. He looked around at the girls as all of them turned to smile and wave at him, Signal looking like a kid whose dad just came home. Honestly, that might not be far from the truth, Chief thought. Though he didn't show it, that little thought actually caused his mind to wander and spawned a little more joy in his usually stoic heart. In order to get his mind back to the business at hand, he asked them, "Everything in order?"

"All green across the board, bossman," Layla gave a thumbs up as she set down her controller and leaned back. Chief tried not to look too hard, what with the girl being in basically sleepwear. Everyone else was wearing something familiar, at least. Of course, she noticed it and snorted, giving a gentle elbow to Sammy, who was still in her flak jacket and pants, but without the boots. The pink-haired Soldier EG chuckled awkwardly, too.

Pinne took a quick headcount, then quipped, "Yeah. We're good," as she raised her hot chocolate mug in a toast, stating, "God bless ya, boss," before downing half the now lukewarm content and grinning proudly. She almost looked like a Golden Retriever, which most of the crew seemed to find cute, going by how bouncy she was now. Chief still recalled how awkward and strange their first few days of working together were.

Delta, meanwhile, still recalled when she was saved by Chief and by Linda, presumably, before sighing, looking at her current commanding officer and asking, "Commander Harris not with you?" as she started brushing Signal's hair. The little grey-haired romantic show lover sat there, happily humming a tune from one of the more jovial shows she was watching.

Chief shook his head, then told them, "He's completing training and undergoing the Augmentation program doctor Halsey devised," which surprised them all, downright having Sammy quirk up a brow at it. Stepping inside to clear the doorway, just in case, he asked them, "Have you all seen Kelly around? She told me she'd be staying with you all for a few days.

"She should be coming back from the Lost Sectors any min-" Signal finally spoke, smiling, before the door beside Chief opened and in swung the Scout, smiling as she cradled what seemed to be a rather thick box. She probably didn't notice Chief when she came in, due to him being out of the way as she did so. Which, Chief was gonna be honest, he didn't find that surprising.

"Hey, hey, hey! Guess who came home with a bunch'a games!" She greeted, setting the box down, before swiveling about to face John and saluting him with a smile, too. A lot of happiness going around today, Chief thought. Good. If his Spartans were doing alright, too, it meant the world was all right for now. Still, one part inside him wondered when things would go wrong... No, better not to. Yet.

"Kelly," The man spoke in greeting.

"John! Heh. Welcome to the Clubhouse..." Kelly grinned, setting the box down and sitting down next to Sammy and Layla to open it. She started pulling out what seemed to be boxes of videogames that she'd found in the deep ass-end of the latest exploration area. John had, of course, read the reports and knew Kelly had dropped off the important items woth Research and Development.

So, he stated calmly, "I see you're having fun with the exploration."

"Now that we have a second pit stop in the form of the Spirit? We can delve as deep South as we want," Kelly smiled genuinely. She added, "You can tag along with us on the next one, Johnnie," and that got a few laughs out of the girls and caused the Chief to sigh deeply. She knew that the Nikkes in this room respected Chief too much to address him like that, but she could. Old friends and all.

"Good to know," He nodded, smiling back and crossing his arms to his chest, much to everyone's surprise. He continued, "I wanted to ask you about Cinder, then I'll let you girls have your fun," as he prepared himself to continue his work. Doctor Halsey said he'd need to sign some extra legal paperwork in the meantime, while the Commander was away and what not.

"You can join us, but alright," Kelly offered, then shrugged, "Whaddaya wanna know?"

"She mentioned project PANDORA, right?" He asked.

"She did, yeah," Kelly hummed, then nodded, "Did Doc Halsey finally find out what it is?"

"Yes. It's an old program similar to the REDGUNS and WOLFPACK..." Chief explained, "A prototype attempt at upgrading Mass Production Nikkes to Special Purpose standards. I'll provide a briefing for everyone in the base later on, but the most basic details I can tell you are that Cinder, also codenamed 'Unitas' as we've discovered from Heretic transmissions we've intercepted, is the sole survivor of the program."

"Missilis pulling another fast one and creating an enemy for mankind," Murmured Pinne, grinning ear-to-ear at the news, "Seriously, this has gotta be a fucking theme at this point..." and that made everyone else laugh, save for Chief and Kelly, though not for a lack of Kelly smiling. It was honestly starting to be a rather annoying theme, John thought to himself. He wondered how Doc Halsey was gonna deal with it... 'Till then, though?

"Yeah..." He replied to Pinne, obviously annoyed. He then told them all, "As I said, all details will be included in a report you can all read. Until then, I'd suggest enjoying your break. Command's already starting to prepare various platoons for deployment and I'm not sure when we'll be slated to go in," before he prepared himself to leave. He needed to get back to work.

"Why not enjoy the break with us, boss? Cortana's still out helping the Doc, Linda's out hunting, El-Tee Fred's helping train the Police..." Layla snorted as she thought about it for a moment, then murmured, "Poor Poli..." before adding, "And Sam's out and about, too, enjoying his free time... I get you want as much done as possible, but there's always time for a lil' RnR..."

"I'd like to, but there's still paperwork I need to complete," Chief replied. He wasn't one for breaks.

"I and Signal will start taking care of it, sir," Delta offered, looking at him, "You haven't had a minute to yourself since you've landed here."

"Y-Yeah! We'll deal with it!" Signal offered, too, smiling.

"... If you insist." Chief sighed, defeated. He knew he wasn't getting out of this without being forced into a break. And with Cortana away helping doc Halsey, there was nothing more he could really do to convince them he had to go. So, he sat himself down in the room and was handed a controller by Sammy. After getting a quick rundown on how the flight game worked... The Chief won against Layla.

"No fair! Beginner's luck!" Layla started. Sammy and the others burst into laughter and Chief stood there, confused.


Missilis HQ, Central Factory

A slew of machines danced a synchronized dance on the assembly line, each in their own specific role, like straight out of a play made by a machinist. The synchronicity alone made her quite happy she'd picked Missilis's factories for the work ahead, though Doctor Halsey didn't know what to think of the idea. Unlike most normal ones, however, Cortana knew she was not easily corrupted. She could better fight it when push came to shove.

So it was that she watched her new body being assembled on Missilis's factory lines, the conveyors rolling forward the endoskeleton with all of the additional artificial organs built within. The Goddessium inner shell almost glowed in the fluorescent lights of the assembly area, each frame, form and addition a beautiful piece of craftsmanship. Now, not to say that Tetra and Elysion didn't do wonderful work. She just preferred Missilis since Doc Halsey was the boss.

By the time the outer layer was finally being 'put on', so to speak, that being the skin, Cortana had already decided on the hair and eye colors, the haircut and the armor she was gonna wear. She melded together MJOLNIR and SPI into something that had been experimented with before, but never quite completed by Materiel Group according to Doctor Halsey's own words, but it'd allow her to act as the infiltration unit and specialist hacker. That included a new wireless suite to ensure she had access to anything and everything around her if she needed it.

Enikk and her sister, Einkk, were also watching this with the corners of their eyes. She could feel their presence. Understandable, honestly. After everything that had happened in Missilis, it was better to just keep tabs on everything and everyone present to make sure no shadier business was happening. She gave them a ping, however, saying a little hello, to which they replied in kind.

Einkk was the AI running the holographic simulation room. She was a relatively friendly girl, if a little odd from time to time. She almost seemed a bit sadistic, too, toward some of the new recruit commanders. Alas, they'd probably get to talking whenever she returned to the ArkNet for her own research. Waiting still, the girl watched the red hair being put on the Nikke body's scalp.

Before long, Cortana had initiated the transfer procedures, watching as the control CPU was being installed. This Nikke was not with a normal brain attached, but rather something more easily digitizable, meant to contain her vast hacking and thinking capabilities in the body of a machine that could and would let her work side-by-side with John on the ground.

... When the process was done, Doctor Halsey had come to watch the activation. She looked upon the new Nikke as she lay on the operating table, then hummed and ran a quick diagnostic. She approached, then gasped as the girl's eyes opened. Deep blue, like the sea. Her hair was red as blood and made into a neat little hairdo that looked pleasing to the eye. Halsey raised a brow at the new Cortana... And Cortana herself spoke in a heavy, mocked accent, while keeping as straight a face as she could, "I need your boots, your clothes and your motorcycle."

Halsey rolled her eyes, covering her mouth to hide the snort, then replied, "Very funny. Now, on your feet. We need to run the motor efficiency tests..." before lifting the girl off the table. Cortana giggled, then paused. Halsey raised a brow as she saw her cheeks flush a light red, before smirking, "Enjoying the sensation of feeling? Or did you forget Nikkes are supposed to be close to humans?"

"... I didn't expect I'd feel second-hand embarrassment over a joke from an ancient movie..." The girl replied. Halsey let out a chuckle as she lifted her off the table and the two began the tests. From walking on the treadmill, to running, to dodging obstacles, Cortana's programming was surprisingly able to adjust really quickly. Though, not to say she didn't have hiccups. She'd lost her balance twice, fell face-first into the ground five times and almost stumbled over into a changing room once when trying to run.

Halsey found the results satisfactory in terms of Cortana's mobility, then told her, "I'm glad to see those assistive programs I had Kalmiya install into the body helped..." before motioning for the AI to follow. Cortana chuckled, slid her helmet under her arm and followed the doctor along. Halsey commented, "I also appreciate the fact you chose an armor instead of... Whatever some Nikkes wear."

"Oh, the goods are only for John to see~..." Cortana whispered, grinnign. Halsey shot a glance back her way that denoted her concern. As they walked by a research center area, Cortana waved to Doctor Anders and said, "Heya, Doc Anders. Hope you're having fun with all that stuff..." mostly to tease the Doctor. Of course, the stack of paperso n her desk, Mana currently bringing her her fifth cup of Irish coffee and poor Rian hiding told of how well it was going.

"HOW IS THIS GETTING WORSE BY THE FILE!?" Hellen Anders replied, ripping her own hairs out at probably discovering more and more Missilis-standard bullshit. Seriously, Elysion and Tetra had some skeletons in their closet, but Missilis made the two of them look like saints in comparison, Cortana thought, much like Doc Halsey. Poor Doc Anders didn't really deserve this.

"Heh... Hey, Doc?" Cortana looked over to Halsey, "What's on the docket today?"

"Tracking another Missilis mistake, namely squad callsign:EXOTIC..." Halsey replied, sighing deeply, "Former terrorists and petty criminals from the Outer Rim, probably went into hiding the moment the Coup occurred or ran for the Surface. I have platoons of Marines keeping eyes open for them and, by Andersen's request, a former Chief Deputy named Dhoban..."

"Great... Possible terror attack?" Cortana raised a brow. Using former terrorists as soldiers never boded well.

"I hope not, but I have asked for most military assets to be put on high alert. I'm also concerned over this 'Cinder Carla' from the PANDORA Program..." Halsey pinched the bow of her nose, "I swear, I should've slapped Syuen something silly before I let her out of here as a Nikke. Something's going to go wrong with that little rat, too. I can just feel it..."

"Heh. Understandable," Cortana murmured as they strode through Missilis HQ. She gave a quick ping to Enikk and Einkk to have whatever Nikkes under their command(Military Police and direct riot control training, funnily enough) keeping their ears to the ground and eyes open just in case the Death Squad that was Exotic resurfaced somewhere in the Ark. The Outer Rim was being rebuilt, after all, into a proper Ark sector with all the amenities.