章 72: Fourteen: Prelude to Ruination
Tom Lasky had been fifteen when the Covenant had attacked Circinius IV. He'd seen the space elevator shot down, he'd seen the Corbulo Military Academy wiped off the map, he'd seen his best friend (almost girlfriend) die in front of him.
He'd also met the Master Chief. Even then, the Spartan had seemed larger than life - older, experienced, the kind of soldier every Marine aspired to be.
It wasn't until just recently that he learned that the Chief was actually six months younger than him - and from the Chief's own sister at that, who'd believed him dead for forty years and then ended up meeting him onboard the Infinity.
(He'd had Roland verify her claim, of course. He wasn't about to take risks with the life of the Master Chief himself.)
(It was true.)
It was hard to say exactly what Davis thought about her brother being kidnapped by ONI and shaped into a super soldier straight out of legend. She kept her innermost thoughts well-concealed on the subject, and even when he had been onboard, she had made no attempt to actively seek him out, only watched from afar as he interacted with Blue Team for mission prep.
It was even harder to say what she thought of him not coming back with Osiris. Tom knew that HIGHCOM would never tell her exactly what had happened on this Forerunner planet "Genesis", and he'd felt guilty about it - and a little angry and frustrated too. He still remembered what it had been like, hearing that his own brother was dead but not how he'd died or who he'd even been fighting. So he'd quietly sneaked her into the briefing room under the guise of medical attention for Osiris when they came aboard. Palmer and the Spartans themselves hadn't said anything, so he assumed that they didn't disapprove, at least.
Lasky had submitted their briefing on Meridian with the officers as well, but HIGHCOM was taking the opportunity to really review it with the Spartans now before they got into the events of Genesis. Just like he had, he saw the officers jolt in surprise when the Chief threw the thing - the star road, Halsey had called it - into the air, and it exploded outward into a writhing mass of strange metal. Despite there being no visible means of control, it clearly followed the Chief's directions and, same as it had the last time he'd seen the recording, started arching up, carving a path to the surface for itself and the Guardian.
Admiral Osman paused the helmetcam recordings and zoomed in on one, rewinding and replaying. The star road whipped through a magma stream, sending a spray of red hot molten rock through the chamber, but the thing itself was utterly untouched. "Not even warm, I'd bet my entire budget on it," said Osman, "We don't have anything like that, not even in development."
Which was a hell of a thing to admit to, if she was actually being honest. Lasky wasn't sure, but he'd give her the benefit of the doubt for now.
"Doctor Halsey called it a 'star road'," said Locke, "Said it was 'Precursor' rather than 'Forerunner', if that's significant."
Osman pursed her lips. It seemed like once again Halsey had been getting into things she shouldn't have. Regardless, the head of ONI pressed on. "It's known - in certain circles - that the Precursors were the predecessors of the Forerunners, hence the name, and that their technology was destroyed by the Halo Array - or supposedly destroyed."
"So where did this come from?" Hood finished her thought, then added, "And this - AI, you said?"
He played back the audio. "Dad, I can't stall the launch much longer!"
"Unknown, sir," said Locke, "We saw her later, and the male one who handled Meridian Station, but we don't know if they're actually AIs or-" He hesitated, then forged on, "Or people or Forerunner ancillae."
"That's an interesting theory, Spartan Locke," said Osman, leaning in, "What makes you think they might be ancillae?"
"That will come later on, Admiral, during and after the fight on Genesis."
"Black Box, make a note."
"Already done," said the AI.
They kept moving, saw the star road form its flat spiral and disrupt the Promethean network, then block the full force of the Guardian as it launched, following it into Slipspace with that odd purple fringe of light. It was unlike any other Slipspace transition he'd ever seen, and he'd seen quite a few.
It was the Master Chief they were most interested in, so they largely glossed over what had happened on Sanghelios. Still, Tom was pleased to see that the Spartans had acquitted themselves well amongst the Sangheili - and that his own decision to trust Jul had been well-founded. He'd agonized over it before he'd made the call, but Osiris had needed a guide on the ground - one Arbiter could afford to lose. Still, he was glad Jul hadn't died and, even better, seemed to have reconciled with the Arbiter, at least a little.
Then… the planet Genesis. The star road, like rolling thunder in the distance. The Monitor the Chief had Cortana direct to Osiris.
The Didact.
Several officers on the call actually shot to their feet at that, their faces white. It had been over a year since New Phoenix, but they had all seen the reports, heard the calls over the COMs - "MAC defenses ineffective against enemy vessel, it's still approaching!" Some of them had even seen what was left of New Phoenix after the Didact was done with it.
Osiris fought their way through the Prometheans and the Covenant, who were fighting amongst themselves as well.
And Cortana came over the COM, provided intel and support, such as it was. Tom felt briefly guilty that he'd condemned her so fast - especially given how attached the Chief was to her - but he reassured himself that he'd been acting on what intelligence he'd had at the time. Nothing ill had come of it, and now he knew better. They all did.
When they reached Osiris linking up with Blue Team and fighting for their lives, Osman again paused the playback, rewound, and replayed, humming.
"Something on your mind, Admiral?" Hood asked.
"I've noticed it a few times, on other mission recordings since his return, but this is probably the most outstanding example I've seen of the Master Chief responding to a threat before it's presented itself," she said, playing with the footage, "Here. He looks up at the wall - but the wall itself doesn't even start to flake away until a full three seconds later, and the Crawler doesn't appear until three seconds after that, at which point his first bullet kills it. He fired to intercept before it had even appeared - almost like he knew exactly where it was going to be."
The other officers murmured amongst themselves at that. "What exactly are you suggesting, Admiral?" Hood stated more than asked, "That the Master Chief is working with the enemy?"
"I think it's reasonably safe to say that that's not the case," Osman answered, "Only… perhaps he wasn't entirely honest when he told us what the Librarian did to him on Requiem."
Locke shifted at that, his expression odd. "Admiral, a bit further on, when the Didact and the Warden were sending in Prometheans as we were making our way to them, the Chief was able to mark the portal locations before they had even begun to form."
There was silence after that. Then General Hogan leaned forward. "All right, since no one else seems willing to ask, I will. Did this Librarian give the Master Chief the ability to see the future?"
"Black Box?" Osman asked.
The AI was silent for a long moment. Then he said, "As… unusual as that explanation may seem to be, it actually is the most plausible option. Although it doesn't seem to extend very far in advance; I've taken the liberty of reviewing all of his helmetcam footage since he was augmented by the Librarian on Requiem, and it seems like it's roughly a three-to-five-second window."
"Not very useful," said General Strauss.
"Useful enough for him; it's well within his response time."
The human inclined his head at that. "I was more referring to 'not very useful for us'. But there's not much we can do about it now, so let's set that aside for the moment and continue."
No one but Osiris reacted when they heard the Chief was wounded. Tom examined the Spartans' faces, noting the reaction; Buck had gone chalk white, and both Vale and Tanaka looked a little sick themselves. Even Locke was unsettled, which alarmed the officer. Of the four of them, he was the hardest to shake; however wounded the Chief was, it had rattled him badly.
Still, they said nothing, and let the recording continue.
When they heard the Chief's plan, Hood paused the recording and eyed them. "I take it by the fact that you're here that you succeeded."
"Yes, sir."
"Then I'll reserve judgement."
The playback resumed - until the Domain started talking to them. Well, "talking".
"Something happened, Spartan Buck?"
"Yeah, something happened," the man grunted, "It - I don't really know how to describe it. This Domain thing, it somehow put its thoughts inside our heads. It agreed with what the Chief said, that it didn't like the Didact and would have thrown him out if it could, and just after-" He gestured, and the playback resumed briefly, long enough for the Chief to give the order to advance. "Right then, when he told it to protect Cortana, it basically said, 'I hear and obey.'"
"It knows him," said Osman.
"Seems that way."
"One question after another," Hood murmured, and Osman made a noise of agreement. "Resume."
They were mostly quiet through the rest of the recording - until the strangers arrived. "Spartans?" Hogan said in disbelief, "Where did these Spartans come from?"
"The resemblance is unmistakable, but that armor definitely isn't ours," said Osman.
"Are they actually Spartans, though?" Strauss asked, "Or did the armor just take that shape?" Still, he seemed as stunned as the others were.
"And there's those AIs again," said General Dellert, "Still calling the Chief Dad. 'Joyeuse and Durandal'."
"And we have a name for that ship," Hood finished, pulling up an image from the Infinity's external cameras of the strange 'tail-less manta ray' ship that had collected Blue Team from Argent Moon, "How much you wanna bet that this is the 'Nighthawk'?"
"I'm not taking that bet."
The review continued, with mostly inaudible murmurs from the officers. Though at one point, Tom distinctly heard Osman say, "God, those shields. What I wouldn't give…"
He had to agree with her there. The newcomers' shields never drained once throughout the entire firefight; they barely seemed to need to take cover, though they still did it.
Then the Spartans were captured, and the visuals switched over to what Genesis's Monitor had pulled from the Domain for them. It rendered as a three-dimensional hologram in full color - such as it was.
The ruins didn't last, and Lasky couldn't help but shudder at what the Chief changed them into.
"A Flood Hive?" Hogan half-asked, "He could have made this Domain into any battlefield or terrain in existence, and he chose a Flood Hive?"
"Not just any Flood Hive," Hood said quietly, "That's High Charity."
Everyone went dead silent when the Primordial appeared on the battlefield. With Exuberant's rendering, he saw the Chief take its shape, but the sight of that thing still sent visceral terror racing through Tom's body like a flash flood, and he was willing to bet his entire military pension that everyone else felt the same - especially when the Chief laughed with its voice.
Osiris hadn't actually "seen" it happening, but now they did. Both Buck and Tanaka whooped when the Chief and Cortana took down the Didact, and Hogan and Strauss laughed. Even Osman smiled in satisfaction.
Then-
"We are coming! We are coming for you! And this time there will be no mercy - only judgement!"
Silence.
There was silence as the last of the Warden disappeared. There was silence as the Chief worked out the beginnings of a plan to stop the invasion. There was silence as the additional "Spartans" departed the Domain to prepare to fight. There was silence when the Chief bade farewell to the Domain and promised to return.
When the recording prepared to switch back to the Spartans' helmetcams, everything exploded at once. Well, not exploded exactly; Hood stopped the recording and buried his face in his hands. Osman sat back in her chair to stare at the ceiling, taking shuddering breaths with a white-knuckled grip on the arms of her chair. Both Strauss and Dellert rested their elbows on the table and folded their hands - tight enough that their knuckles went white. And Hogan actually got up and walked out of view of the camera.
There were several long minutes of silence. Finally, Osman sat up, composed herself, and said, "I'll get word to my teams on the Ark, see if we can get some kind of deep-space sensor array online to verify this. If it is true… I say we give the Chief everything we've got that might be of use and let him handle the defense. Based on just what the Nighthawk has, the only thing we have that could come close is the Infinity."
Hood composed himself as well and said softly, "Agreed. What other option do we really have? But let's finish up here first. Black Box, if you would please be so kind as to retrieve General Hogan."
"Certainly, sir."
After a moment, the man returned, and the recording resumed.
Tom saw Davis react for the first time when she saw the state her brother had been in when the MJOLNIR came off. His own reaction was much the same in terms of how horrified he was, and he saw her face go white, eyes wide and starting to tear up, hands coming up to cover her mouth. Still, neither of them threw up like Dellert and Hogan did, darting for trash cans out of view.
And the Chief had been fighting like that?!
Palmer cursed, clearly audible to all of them, but no one called her out on it.
Whoever these aliens were, though, they seemed to be friends of the Chief and Cortana, and saw to the Spartan as much as they could, then brought Osiris back to Sanghelios with plenty of supplies for them to get home.
"Fuck," Davis said fiercely when the recording ended. After a moment, she added, "And fuck it. If they actually manage to get him healed again, declare them Gods of Medicine, 'cause that's beyond our skill."
"Amen," said Osman, "BB, Ark, ASAP."
"Yes, ma'am."
Hood leaned forward. "Captain Lasky."
Tom stepped forward at attention. "Sir."
"You heard the Master Chief. ONI will work on intel, but if the Flood really is coming… Eternity still won't be complete for a number of months yet, so are you willing to take Infinity out to link up with the Chief and fight?"
There was no hesitation. If the Chief could kill the Didact in that state, he could do anything – even stop a Flood armada. "Yes sir."
-------------------------------------------
ONI's Prowler arrived at the Ark just in time to see a Forerunner frigate - Until Justice Prevails - steal Installation Zero-Nine from the Foundry.
"Well, I guess we know where they're getting their Halo ring."
週次パワーステータス
-- 推薦
ランキング 
-- 推薦
チケット