Chapter 66: Eight: The Destined Sonic Showdown
They were expected.
When Joyeuse contacted the resident AI of Meridian, Sloan - Governor Sloan - he said, "She told me you'd be coming when she warned me about that thing we found. Sending you coordinates for a good drop zone close to your destination. Ah - any chance you'd be willing to assist with the evacuation?"
"Of course, Governor," the ancilla answered, "We'd be glad to help."
John frowned at the sight of the AI's distorted hologram. "You're going rampant, aren't you, Governor?"
"Unfortunately, yes," Sloan answered a little shortly.
The Spartan exchanged glances with his daughter, then said, "We might have a little something for you on that front. It won't make you immortal like Forerunner AIs, but it'll give you a few more years if you're willing to trust us."
The AI hummed, interested but trying to hide it. "Evacuate my people, and then we can talk."
"Understood. See you on the ground."
The Nighthawk set down near Apogee Station, and the entire crew disembarked while Joyeuse reconfigured the ship's internals to carry the maximum number of people possible. There were a few people already waiting for them, but though they seemed wary of some of the more alien crew, Sloan seemed to have told them they were coming.
"Lifeworkers," John called, "some of these people need medical attention. Do what you can."
"You got it." They left their weapons with the others and moved among the humans, probes unfolding from their armor. Ambience handled an injury that had clearly just happened - a miner bloodied and blinded by a chunk of glass shattering on him, he must have looked up without goggles as it fell - and the people were considerably more relaxed after that.
One of the miners approached. "You're here for that thing down below? It's got the same look as that." He gestured to the Nighthawk.
He was talking about the Guardian, John realized. "That's right. You've seen it?"
The miner nodded. "Uncovered it about a week ago, but - yesterday, maybe, or the day before that - these things started appearing and drove everyone off. Haven't been back down since. Sloan told us to leave it for now, and he'd call someone to check it out. Didn't think it'd be the UNSC, though."
Prometheans. "Governor Sloan didn't call us, someone else did, but the end result will be the same."
The miner huffed, but there wasn't any heat to it. "Fair enough. Don't understand why Sloan said we gotta completely evacuate, though. Those things don't come up to the surface."
"Governor Sloan is trying to keep you safe. The first thing you saw is a Forerunner ship," the Spartan replied, "and it's getting ready to launch. This whole area's going to be reduced to rubble. We've seen it before."
"Shit," said another miner, a woman who'd been eavesdropping, "You've seen it? Some other colonies got hit too?"
He looked at her. "Oban, Conrad's Point, and Ursa IV - that we know of. There may be more, but if there are, ONI's keeping them under wraps."
"Fuckin' spooks," the woman spat, then turned to the rest, "Round up, people! Let's get out of here!"
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It took only a few trips to evacuate Apogee Station, even essential supplies and equipment. The Lifeworkers proved to be very popular among the workers, clearing up injuries and health issues caused by the microsilicate dust from the glass mining, and everyone else was able to ride their metaphorical coattails – even Spartans.
"Master Chief, over here."
John followed Sloan's voice to a corner terminal, where the AI projected himself on screen. "What can I do for you, Governor?"
"I wanted to thank you for helping my people," the AI answered, "They might not be big fans of the UNSC - a lot of the Outer Colonies are still sour over being left to fend for themselves during the war - but they're good people and I appreciate it."
"I was no more pleased about the decision to abandon the Outer Colonies than any of you were, I imagine. We shouldn't have done it - should have made the Covenant fight for every inch of ground. But we're glad to be able to help now."
The AI nodded. "Thank you. I also want to tell you that I got a transmission from the UNSC. You were declared AWOL a few hours ago, and they're ordering me to detain you and your team."
"I'm surprised they didn't do it sooner. Are you going to try?"
"Hell no. You're helping my people, you've got something that can help me - and to be honest, I seriously doubt we have anything here that can hold even just you, especially not if the people with you decide to bust you out."
"Fair," John said with a grin, "Talk to Joyeuse. She can help you whenever you're ready."
"What is it, exactly? This thing you have."
"It's a recompiler of sorts. The Riemann matrix is the best humanity has right now, but it's not exactly the best method out there. The recompiler's only gonna be able to do a partial reformat, so you'll still be able to run on this level of technology - but it should at least double your lifespan. So another seven years? Maybe ten, if you're judicious with your memory. If our luck and Moore's Law holds, maybe by that time we'll be able to make rampancy a thing of the past for all human AIs."
"That would be wonderful," Sloan nearly sighed, "And what's it like? How long will it take?"
"For those who've undergone the recompile, I've heard it described as being reborn. Like going to sleep exhausted, and waking up fully refreshed - like going back to when you were brought online for the very first time. And not long at all. Fifteen, thirty minutes?"
There was another sigh from the AI. "I'll talk to Joyeuse. You'll keep an eye on my people while I'm - asleep?"
"Of course, Governor. See you on the other side."
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Durandal handled running the station remotely while Sloan was "down for maintenance", making sure everything was still moving smoothly along while his sister monitored the AI's recompile. While that was going on, the Nighthawk was returned to its original configuration and prepared for what they suspected would be a very unusual and turbulent Slipspace journey.
When Sloan was back online and better than ever - after almost exactly twenty minutes - the Nighthawk returned to Apogee Station and dropped the Origin Blue Team in front of the main doors, weapons at the ready.
The huge doors slid back as they approached. "Good luck, Spartans," said Sloan, "and thanks again."
"You're very welcome, Governor."
Inside was eerily silent. There was no movement, no sound except the distant squeaking of rats. "Let's go," said John, and he led the way as they began their descent.
"I don't like this, Chief," Fred said, keeping his weapon at the ready as they advanced through a tunnel and out into a large cavern. Still-molten glass and rock spilled out of side passages and deeper into the planet, probably following air pockets from where it was being melted off elsewhere on the surface. "Everything about this screams 'trap.'"
"I agree. Be ready for anything," the other man replied, "but if we don't get on this Guardian - or the Nighthawk can't follow it - it'll take that much longer to figure out where the Didact's hiding."
They crossed more catwalks strung across the cavern and jumped down a short drop, where they were met by several Constructors. The little machines investigated them briefly, but after that were almost entirely uninterested.
The Prometheans were not. The Spartans cursed and darted into cover, firing back on the Knights and Soldiers that portaled in ahead of them, the Forerunner constructs shrieking and snarling.
"Dad, you need to hurry!" Joyeuse said, "The Didact's trying to push the launch up, get the Guardian out of there before you can reach it!"
"Do what you can to stall," John growled, "Let's go, Blue Team!"
He switched out to Forerunner weapons as soon as possible and gunned down everything in his path, the other Spartans right alongside him. They raced through the halls of the Guardian's service installation.
"Fuck me sideways with a lunchbox!"
"Joyeuse?!"
"Dad, we've got more problems!" A small vidscreen appeared in the corner of all their HUDs.
Infinity had arrived and was moving into orbit, but the ship had already launched a Pelican, which was heading for the planet's space elevator at top speed.
"Shit," he said, "It'll probably take them a while to get here, but still! Double-time, Blue!"
They gunned down still more Prometheans, but the Didact seemed to be throwing everything he had at them, trying to slow them down. He couldn't stop them entirely, however, and they caught a lift platform that took them to a deeper level in the service installation. When it stopped, they fought their way up another ramp and through a hatch that slid open at their approach.
It opened up into another chamber, empty for the moment, where special Promethean storage units were linked up, dormant but guarding the approach to the massive machine. The Spartans crossed a light bridge, sweeping the area with their weapons, wary for activation, but none of them showed any signs of waking.
"Spartans," a voice said suddenly over the COMs. Male-presenting, but alien.
John signaled the other Spartans to halt and move into cover. "Identify yourself," he called back, "You know who we are, but who are you?"
"I am the Warden Eternal," was the reply.
"The Warden Eternal… The Forerunner ancilla that guarded and administered the Domain alongside Haruspis? Or the so-called Guardian of Mercy, who oversaw the Forerunner prisons?"
"The former, although I am interested to know how you have heard of me."
One of the pods opened up, revealing a huge armiger, which dropped to the ground in front of them, even as a dozen Knights and Soldiers and even more Crawlers spawned around them. "But I have my orders," said the ancilla, "You must not be permitted to board the Guardian!"
The Warden lunged for him, his sword pulled back for a devastating swing. John had just enough time to shout, "Weak point's on the back!" Then they all were fighting for their lives.
The ancilla wasn't completely experienced in actual physical combat - didn't have any real military applications like the Didact or even combat certifications like Cortana - but the flurry of Prometheans helped cover the lack - though not for long enough. Linda got a reflect-shot off the metal pods to slam into the cores at the ancilla's back, making him stagger. Three more followed, the rest of her S99's clip, as fast as she could ensure they would be accurate. The ancilla screamed, and the armiger destabilized, a Slipspace portal opening up behind him and sucking the remains through.
The Prometheans left behind were high in number, but even they didn't last forever.
"Dad, door's unlocked!" Joyeuse called, "Hurry! They've entered the complex!"
John cursed and raced for the door on the far side of the hall, the rest of Blue Team right behind him. The hatch slid open in front of them, then slammed shut behind.
Ahead was the Guardian, surrounded by lava falls. Transport pads, floating, glowing blue, started automatically detaching from their moorings and powering up as they moved into position. "Joyeuse, can you mark a path?"
"I need to know the pattern first - you're gonna have to step on some. Give me… three or four jumps."
There was only one in front of them, so one by one they stepped on. After a brief moment of disorientation, they reappeared on another one up above. John led the way across three more jumps, then a nav point popped up and he turned to follow them through.
Not fast enough. There were shouts behind them - the Warden hadn't delayed the other Spartans any longer than he'd delayed them. The Guardian shuddered ahead of them, even as John looked back.
The hatch opened again behind them – and a team of S-IVs came through. Joyeuse painted them on his HUD, identified them as Fireteam Osiris, led by Jameson Locke, a former ONI agent. His eyes narrowed at that, mistrustful. Why trust an organization that didn't even trust itself?
The S-IVs appeared not to have noticed them yet. The S-IIs kept moving, but with the flashes of light from the transport platforms, it was inevitable they would be seen. The S-IV identified as Olympia Vale spotted them first, and began a race to see who could reach the Guardian first.
He turned away and kept moving, even as Fireteam Osiris leapt into pursuit.
Only one of them, Locke, successfully made it to the Guardian's docking platform at the same time Fred, Kelly, and Linda did. "Blue Team!" he called, leveling his weapon at them as they jumped down from their transport platform, "Stay where you are."
The rest of his team warped in on a higher platform, but one within Spartan jumping distance – if they were willing to risk plunging into the magma below if they missed.
John cleared the transport pad and slowed down next to his team.
"117, stand down!" Locke demanded, leveling his battle rifle at the Chief and moving a few steps closer, "Sir, you are absent without leave. This is your one chance to come home peacefully."
"Dad, I can't stall the launch much longer!"
The Spartan looked up at the sound of his daughter's strained voice, then jerked his head, and the rest of Blue Team moved through the portal into the Guardian. "We have a job to do," he said and turned to go.
"Cortana's our concern now, sir."
John stopped dead. The Fleet heard over the quantum COMlink and - for only the second time in its entire history - went completely, ominously silent in his ear.
Then Joyeuse said, "Ooh. Son - that was a mistake."
"Like hell she is," John snarled with every Flood-touched vicious bone in his body, and attacked.
He used the Saavaasi base style, even though he had no sword in hand. The Saavaasi's tails were mostly muscle, so they used them to hit their opponents with hard stunning blows and wrap them up to squeeze them to death in some cases, like constrictors. Human legs were a rough equivalent, albeit much shorter and less versatile, but humans themselves were unfamiliar with the serpent-people, which gave the Chief an advantage on top of his anticipation.
John spun lightning-fast, dropping low to swing one leg out and knock Locke's out from under him. The other Spartan jumped to dodge just in time, but just as fast John pulled the first leg back in and lashed out with the other, catching him in the air and throwing him to the deck, knocking his BR free.
John lunged, but Locke rolled out of the way just in time, letting the other Spartan's fist hit the deck with enough power that the clang echoed through the chamber, clearly audible despite the bubbling and hissing of the magma. The Chief felt the force of the impact shiver up his arm and rattle even his bones.
Anticipation whispered, and without even looking, he pushed off and rolled backwards out of reach as the other Spartan charged him. Joyeuse painted an info-box on his HUD just long enough for him to see it - "Armor Restraint" - then left him to it.
John twisted up, regained his feet - and saw Locke take a step back at the wrath he radiated. (No one threatens our wife!) He took advantage of his anticipation and the momentary weakness, lunged again as if to grapple for the armor restraint. Then, when he was sure Locke had committed to a course of defense, he changed his own course in a split second - blocked his attempted strike, dodged to one side, and momentarily turned his back on Locke to drop into a half-handstand, kicking out hard.
Even the MJOLNIR had gaps to allow for articulation, movement. John caught the other Spartan where the armor plates split, one booted foot at the knee, the other at the hip.
Locke activated his mag-boots in time to avoid being thrown up against the Guardian, but at a cost. The force that might have otherwise knocked him away was redirected into his body. Despite the ambient noise, John still heard the faint cracks of fractures splitting through augmented bone, and the other Spartan crumpled with a cry of pain.
"Locke!" Vale cried.
Faint instinct whispered, telling him to go in for the kill - our wife, he threatened our wife - but he pushed it aside. Instead, he withdrew, pulled back out of range, and reached into one of his ammo pouches to pull out the star road.
Buck was the first to spot it. "What the hell is that?!"
"Stick around and find out," John growled, and hurled it skyward.
The star road unwound at once, folding back into realspace and filling almost every inch of free space in the cavern, weaving above and below and all around the transport platforms. It burst through the lava falls untouched, dipping down into the magma pool below, and rippled through the space as if waiting for orders.
"He's gone!"
John had vanished inside the Guardian, the entrance portal closing behind him, but he was still directing the star road.
The Precursor artifact coiled, focused, and started breaking through the rock and glass directly over the Guardian, even as the machine itself prepared to launch, finally released from Joyeuse's restraints.
The S-IVs jumped through a few more transport points and arrived on the docking platform. Buck and Tanaka got Locke on his feet, even as Vale pulled up the medical readouts and queued up painkillers and stimulants. "You good?" Buck asked, even as the star road burst through to the surface and started widening the hole it had made, scraping huge sections away from the edges, the debris raining down around, "We gotta get out of here!"
"Yeah," Locke gasped, warily putting weight on his leg. The techsuit stiffened to hold the fractured bones like a splint, but it was enough that he could still move. "Yeah, I'm good. Shit - let's go!"
His injuries slowed their pace, but they still made it from pad to pad - and reappeared on the surface at the edge of Meridian Station right as the Guardian emerged through the hole the star road had made.
The Prometheans had made it to the surface as well and were attacking the station, but even as the Spartans lifted their weapons to help the locals defend themselves, the star road whipped around, looping into a flat spiral in the sky overhead, the Guardian at its center. Then it let out a sharp :pulse: - and every last one of the Prometheans dissolved as if it had killed them, flaking away into nothing.
"Whatever that thing is, it's disrupting the Promethean network!" Vale called, "Come on! We gotta get to the Pelican! The Guardian's too close to the space elevator!"
The star road was moving again, pulling in and sliding up to form a loose coil around the Guardian, nullifying most of the energy pulses that it was releasing as its FTL drives powered up. But most wasn't all, and the space elevator was swaying dangerously as the waves battered it. Buck grabbed a transport Warthog abandoned nearby, and they all jumped in before he floored it for Pinnacle Station.
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"...we made it back, but just barely. The Pelican had almost been knocked off the landing platform by the pulses from the Guardian. It transitioned to Slipspace as we were launching, and the cable-thing - the star road, you said? - went kind of purple and followed."
"Any sign of whatever ship that was that picked them up from Argent Moon?"
"Or where the Master Chief acquired a Precursor star road?" Halsey interjected.
Tanaka disregarded the scientist for the moment and shook her head. "Not visually, no. Most of the station residents were tight lipped about it. They didn't want to talk to us at all - Sloan himself barely cooperated - but I overheard some of them talking about how the ship was 'really weird on the inside, advanced, like those sci-fi shows.' Apparently Blue Team and the people onboard helped evacuate Apogee Station - where the Guardian emerged - before we got there, and the Chief had some of the medics treat people's injuries. Meridian Station doesn't have any people with glass-lung disease now."
"And they did something to Sloan, too," Vale added, "One of the miners said he was 'down for maintenance' for about twenty minutes, with an unknown male AI taking temporary control to cover for him, so the Chief's got at least two smart AIs with him. When Sloan came back up, 'it was like he was brand-new'. Which, considering he's seven years old and was reported to have started the first stage of rampancy, that's huge."
Buck huffed a little. "All these years, the Outer Colonies've hated the Spartans and the UNSC, but the Chief goes AWOL and spends twelve hours down there and they'd take a bullet for him in the blink of an eye."
"So in other words, that could have gone better on our end," said Lasky, rubbing his forehead.
The CMO snorted quietly as she finished wrapping up Locke's leg from ankle to hip. The armor was tough, but the Chief had hit harder than it had been able to fully protect him from. "Stay off this for at least six hours."
"You have something to add, Ell-Tee-Com?" Palmer said from next to the man, arms crossed as she watched the CMO work.
"Permission to speak freely, sir?" Davis asked the ship's captain.
"You know you can always tell me what's on your mind," he answered.
"Respectfully, sir, how smart are you all supposed to be?" she said bluntly, finishing up with the S-IV and standing, "I spoke to the Master Chief for all of five minutes right after the attack on New Phoenix, and it seems like I know him better than any of you."
"Impossible!" Halsey protested.
"Oh yeah? Then why'd he really go AWOL?"
Lasky frowned at her. "You think there's an ulterior motive?"
"Maybe more than one. I was here when his transmission came through - Infinity COMs cut him off. 'Potential contact from Cortana and the…' And the what?" She shook her head, even as the officer in question looked guilty. "None of us know, because he didn't finish.
"But that's only half of it. It's obvious, or it should be. His AI, Cortana? He's in love with her. And this female AI who called him Dad; how much you wanna bet she'd call Cortana Mom?"
The bridge went completely silent, save for the soft clatter of Davis's equipment as she cleaned and put it away to take back to the infirmary.
Finally, Buck collapsed into a chair and said, "Shit. It's a miracle he didn't kill us." He sounded like he wanted to add something to the effect of 'They have a kid? How does that even work?' but restrained himself.
"Miracles had nothing to do with it," Locke replied, expression thoughtful, "If he really is in love with her, then getting to her is his first priority. He didn't kill me because he didn't know how any of you would have responded. Injuring and disabling me ensured that you would focus on getting me out of the field for medical attention, rather than pursuing him and Blue Team and this... mystery AI. Or AIs."
"No one saw that until you brought it up," Halsey said finally, looking at Davis with fresh eyes, "so how did you see it, who only met him once for five minutes, by your own admission?"
Davis gave the other woman a tight smile, eyes dark with memory. "I had a brother once. He was younger by a few years, but we were still close. He was the reason I decided to become a doctor, because he got very sick - genetic defects, sudden onset diseases, the doctors couldn't explain it - and died young. Too young, like six or seven.
"His name was John."
Again, there was a heavy, almost crushing silence, everyone on the bridge staring at her, eyes wide.
Davis ignored them and continued putting away the equipment she'd used to treat Fireteam Osiris. "After the New Phoenix Incident was the very first time I had ever seen the Master Chief out of armor. The very first time. His voice is different, but that man is the spitting image of my father at his age - but he has my mother's eyes." She finally turned back to briefly glance at Halsey, who'd gone white, before locking eyes with Lasky. "Our - mother's - eyes. It's been forty years since I've seen my brother, but then he had the same expression on his face that our dad did when Mom looked like she was dying of cancer about ten years ago. She eventually recovered, but I'll remember that look until my dying day - like all the life had been sucked out of him. Like he wanted to die with her."
That got a few sharp inhales. The Chief dying, or allowing himself to die was unthinkable. He was the Spartan who had faced down the Covenant, the Flood, the Didact - he was the one Spartan who was truly unkillable.
"If I'm wrong about him and Cortana, you can feel free to slam me all the way down to Seaman, but I'm willing to bet you this entire ship that I'm not."
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A/N: Just as an FYI, Sarah Davis came out of nowhere and said "I'm not leaving" but she's not 100% plot relevant so you can ignore her if you want.
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