Under the Surface: Crashing the Party [Halo]
Warnings and disclaimers in Part 1.
July 17, 2552 (Military Calendar)/
North America, Reach UNSC Military Complex,
Omega Wing-Section Three secure facility
"I take it you saw Jacob's request."
Terrence stepped into Catherine's lab, looking at all the various screens and tablets she had laying on her desks. She waited until he pulled his gaze away from her work to answer. "You know I keep tabs on the two of them."
"Then you know I have approved their transfer."
Catherine nodded. Cortana and John were no longer a project under the umbrella of the ONI, but now active members of the UNSC's most elite special strike force: Alpha Team. "Did you already tell them?"
"Not yet. Though I suppose if you know, then Cortana already does."
The doctor ignored his comment. Her feigned ignorance on the AI's side activities had kept her out of trouble so far. "They are on their way here right now. We're working on some last minute upgrades to John's armor," Catherine said.
As if on cue, the doors to her lab slid apart. The two of them walked in tandem as they walked inside her lab. "I'm telling you, Chief, I have no idea how Ackerson got assigned to Hong Kong," Cortana said dryly as they entered Halsey's lab together.
"And the emails?"
"What can I say?" She shrugged. "Not every man is as noble as you."
It was John who noticed Lord Hood standing next to the doctor. He straightened up. "Sir! Ma'am!"
"At ease, Master Chief."
Cortana cast a smile in their direction. "I'm assuming we're here because of the memo that passed over your desk this morning."
Terrence looked at the doctor, unsurprised.
Catherine frowned slightly. It was one thing for Cortana to tell her about her hacking endeavors; it was another to fill the admiral in on those details. "The one that was marked 'For Eyes Only'?"
"Did it say that?" She looked at the admiral with wide, innocent eyes. "I only accessed the file because it had my serial number embedded in the file. I wanted to make sure I didn't miss any important orders."
Catherine knew the admiral didn't believe a word Cortana said, but he let the subject drop. He looked at the two of them closely. "Effective today, the two of you are assigned to Alpha Team."
John somehow straightened even more. "Thank you, sir!"
"You both earned it, Master Chief. You impressed Captain Keyes and a lot of the brass with what the two of you did with the rescue mission. Saving the Autumn was no easy task." Terrence slid the tablet with the dossier across the table for him to read. "Here are your new orders."
Catherine watched as Cortana passed it to John as she wirelessly accessed the file. Before Terrence came in, she had read the mission orders herself. Cortana wasn't the only one who knew how to hack into High Command's systems.
They were to take control of the main port in the Panama Canal. The Covenant forces were thin there, nearly a half-world away from the main center of the Covenant in Rome. While the leaders, the Prophets, didn't see South America as much more than a land mass they could control, the UNSC desperately needed that port so that ships would refuel and resupply without having to go around the entire continent.
Alpha Team was going to meet up with Noble Team in El Salvador to coordinate the double fronted attack. Although the Covenant didn't use the Panama Canal as an important hub, preliminary recon hinted of a database in their system. The Alpha Team was going to use a newly acquired Phantom and attempt to infiltrate the dropship that was stationed above the canal while the Noble Team tried to secure the canal.
"The two of you need to meet with Captain Keyes at 1600 hours."
"Understood, sir." Cortana flashed a smile at John. "Told you we'd get someone's attention."
The admiral started walking towards the door. "Good luck."
When the doors closed behind Terrence, Catherine looked at John. "John, you need to go to the main lab so you can get suited up while Cortana stays here to update the software to your HUD."
John nodded curtly and turned away.
"Don't miss me too much," Cortana called, not turning back to him.
He paused briefly, but didn't say anything back.
After the door closed, Cortana half-smiled at the doctor. "I'm determined to get him out of his shell."
Cortana had a better chance of expecting the Covenant to surrender to the UNSC, but Catherine didn't make a comment. Instead, she spun another monitor in the AI's direction. "I assume you've had time to review the latest software update."
The AI nodded her head. "I think streaming would be more effective if you stripped out several lines of redundant code. I know they are there for backup, but I'm less concerned with fail safes as I am with making sure our connection doesn't suffer due to the interference."
"How are the headaches?" the doctor asked, cutting to the heart of the issue.
Cortana had reported feeling headaches after her and John's last mission. When she boosted the signal between them over fifty percent, the link would cause an echo effect, causing the AI to have migraines. Catherine knew there was a possibility of that happening; when they had returned from Reach, she and Cortana had worked together on creating a filter to screen out the unnecessary bounce back from the signal.
The AI waved off her question, annoyed. "Managable. Nothing a couple of aspirin can't control. Besides," she said, nodding towards the computers, "with the latest batch of upgrades, that issue should resolve itself." Cortana must have noticed her reluctance to believe her. The AI crossed her arms. "We have time to run another simulation before I need to get to the Autumn. You'll see that everything will be fine, Doctor."
Catherine let out a long silent sigh at Cortana's stubbornness. She hoped for the sake of Cortana and John, the AI was right.
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"I can't believe they hijacked a Phantom." She looked at John as he walked into the armory. "I've run the scans and it seems to still be in working order." She was impressed.
John, however, seemed unsurprised. He gave a half-shrug. "Noble Team is one of the best teams in the UNSC," he pointed out.
"Well, it will make getting to the drop ship that much easier," Cortana said quietly. "I've already hacked into the Carrier's mainframe. Getting on the drop ship shouldn't be a problem. Getting off of it..." Her voice trailed off.
"We'll be fine." He slid on his helmet and Cortana saw the quick gold flash of his shield being activated.
She wished he had his optimism. Even with the relatively good intel they had on the ship's schematics, being stuck on a Covenant Cruiser nearly a mile above the ground was a dangerous situation.
She frowned. Why was she so worried? Certainly the mission to save the Autumn had been more dangerous with them having no backup. She let out a frustrated sigh. Halsey. The doctor's concern had unnerved Cortana, but now was not the time to lose focus. Not when the mission was this dangerous.
He reached in the weapons locker and pulled out a pistol for her as she put on her much maligned flak jacket. She grabbed the butt of the firearm and slid it into her shoulder holster.
"Damn right, we'll be fine." Johnson walked up to the two of them with a smoldering cigar between his lips. "I don't know how things are over in the ONI, but Alpha Team doesn't do anything less than the best."
Cortana raised an eyebrow. "Then we'll fit right in."
Johnson's grin widened. "After what the two of you did with the Autumn, I'd say that's true." He grabbed an assault rifle and nodded towards the exit. "The captain's waitin' in the cargo bay for us."
The three of them made the short trip to the small bay. Cortana saw the six-member Noble Team huddled together in the far corner of the room while Captain Keyes was standing by the Phantom, pipe in hand.
Cortana knew that the captain normally took a more active role in participating in the missions, but because of the two pronged attack, he was forced to stay behind in the Autumn and make sure things flowed smoothly. Cortana watched him as he took in the three of them.
"I trust that all of the Covenant protocol has been uploaded to your matrix," he said to her without preamble.
Cortana nodded. "We'll be able to board the ship without a problem, sir."
"Noble Team is going to need some time to get to the control room, so discretion needs to be used. Carter will contact the Autumn when his team has secured the area. If you run into any trouble..." His voice trailed off.
They were on their own.
Johnson huffed. "Then the Covenant are going to regret it."
Cortana allowed herself a brief smile. Johnson certainly added some sprightliness to the conversation.
Keyes nodded. "Good luck, Alpha Team."
She led the two men to the Covenant vessel and sat in the pilot's chair. When Johnson and the Chief were situated, she disembarked from the Autumn. She piloted the craft several miles away from the ship's position before tapping the controls, sending out a transmission signal to the Cruiser.
As they approached the Assault Carrier, they were granted docking clearance.
"The secondary hub should be here," Cortana said, pointing at the holographic layout of the ship. "I'll access the database from there."
John nodded. "Johnson and I will secure the quadrant."
Seconds later, the system's controls were overridden by the Cruiser. "Now we just sit back and wait."
She looked out the Phantom's windows and saw nearly three dozen Ghosts, Banshees and Phantoms going back and forth from the large vessel. She hoped with the high amount of traffic, their Phantom wouldn't cause any sense of alarm. According to her calculations, Noble Team was going to need the better part of an hour to secure the base below them.
The ship glided into a docking bay. "Purple, huh?" Johnson said, looking at the walls around them. "Somehow I didn't picture the place looking so damn cheery."
Cortana saw three Grunts, who were busy talking to each other. She scanned the room for any other hostiles, but the bumbling soldiers were the only security in the room.
"It's almost too easy," Johnson said as the Phantom settled on the ground. "You'd think they weren't expecting company."
Cortana released the rear hatch. The three of them slipped out of the ship and crept to the darkened corner of the room. The Grunts didn't look in their direction.
"I've got this." John pulled out his pistol, his eyes never leaving the targets in the room.
Three Grunts against a single-minded Spartan? They didn't stand a chance.
Johnson nodded towards the cargo containers. Cortana followed the sergeant as they watched John silently make his way to the first unsuspecting Grunt.
His method was quick and effective. In less than a minute, there were no Grunts left alive in the room. He gestured for them to move forward to the large doors.
Together, they made their way through the assault carrier. They avoided the patrols easily; the Covenant were not expecting the UNSC's finest to board their ship. The ride down the gravlift was unmemorable.
"Think they are all sleeping?" Johnson asked, snickering.
At the intersection, John carefully looked around the corridor before pulling back and held up two fingers. She watched as he aimed his pistol and fired twice. The three of them made their way to the single door at the end of the hall. Johnson pulled out his snake cam as Cortana hacked into the console.
"It's clear."
Within a second, she hacked the security code and the locks to the doors released. John opened the door and allowed Cortana to walk in. She gasped slightly.
This was what they had been looking for.
Several dozen large computers towers, three meters high, were in the center of the room. Lights flashed, fans hummed. Cortana could almost feel the power course through her.
"Bingo." She was unable to keep the excitement out of her voice.
Johnson let out a long whistle.
"I'll take it from here," Cortana said as she approached the database. "You two should be able to reach the armory and find some goodies to take back to ONI there."
"Are you sure you'll be alright?"
Cortana looked at John, surprised by his question. Why if she didn't know any better, she would have thought he was openly concerned for her.
"Well, I have gotten used to having a Spartan bodyguard, but I think I can manage." She offered him a smile. "Infiltrating the security grid will be my first priority. If I sense any trouble, I'll transfer out of the system."
He seemed to hesitate briefly, but before she could say anything he nodded. She watched the two of them leave the room before transferring herself into the ship's systems.
Suddenly, the world exploded in ones and zeroes around her. Though she preferred the flexibility to move around in her human body, Cortana felt at home in the data stream of information.
Schematics of various bases, planned attacks, and the hierarchy structure of the Covenant...all of it and more were at Cortana's fingertips. Greedily, she amassed all the data she could find.
Within seconds, she had full access to the ship's security grid. She spun off a subroutine to monitor John and Johnson's progress. She was tempted to open a channel to John, but decided against it. She didn't need to advertise the fact she was in the database.
Terabytes of information came rushing into her matrices. She noticed that most of the information was new and unknown. The information she was processing would allow give the UNSC a desperately needed advantage over the Covenant.
Cortana nearly lost track of time as she categorized each data cluster that she uploaded. As she continued making her way through the information, a disturbing piece of data streamed by her. Quickly, she accessed it.
She froze as the irrefutable data plainly presented itself. It was impossible, she thought. But, as she hacked and accessed the security camera from the hangars, one sinking truth stuck out.
They had been discovered.
She opened a comm channel to John. "We need to get out of here. Now."
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"Let me guess. Someone finally figured that we've crashed their pad?" Johnson looked at the Chief knowingly.
John nodded before speaking to Cortana. "What's going on?"
"They've got an Elite special forces team headed to both of our positions." Her voice came out of his helmet speakers.
"Damn it," Johnson grumbled.
"I've already transferred out of the system. Their ETA is in five minutes. You need to get back to the Phantom before they lock down the cargo bays."
"What about you?"
"I'm going to have to improvise."
John frowned at the snag in the mission.
"They are closer to my location and I can't see a way back to the Phantom, but I think there is an emergency bay available," explained Cortana. "I'll keep you updated."
"Were you able to get all the data?"
"Of course." She sounded almost offended at the idea that she hadn't completed her mission.
The comm channel closed and John focused on escaping the Cruiser. He and Johnson started backtracking in the direction from which they came.
As they approached the gravlift, John noticed a half dozen Covenant on the pad. The Elite's light-bending armor made them almost invisible, but John had learned long ago how to detect the clocked soldiers. "I'm counting four hostiles."
Johnson looked closely before nodding. "I see the bastards."
Before the Elites stepped off the elevator, the two men fired. The quick secession of the shots caused the cloaking device to malfunction. The three Covenant soldiers stood there exposed. Their black armor, sleeker and less bulky, than John's almost seemed to glisten in the ship's light.
The Elites ignored the damage they had taken and wasted no time in firing at the two UNSC officers. John tucked and rolled away from the gunfire while Johnson hid himself behind the closest wall. John watched his shield levels go down as he took a couple of shots from the plasma rifle.
The Spartan fired his assault rifle at the Elites. Johnson gave him covering fire, allowing John to pull out a plasma grenade. He pulled the pin and held it in his hands for two seconds before hurling it in the soldiers' direction.
It stuck on the Elite closest to him.
The two other Elites tried to escape, but there wasn't enough time for them to take cover. John ducked slightly as the grenade went off. Bodies flew from the force of the explosion.
"Not bad," Johnson replied, as he made his way to the Spartan. Together, they crossed the room to the gravlift. "I hope it still works after all we put it through," the sergeant said as they stepped over the fallen Covenant soldiers.
John said nothing as he pushed the holographic console in the center of the lift. To his relief, the unit started moving upwards. Several seconds later the lift stopped and he and Johnson disembarked from the lift. He raised his rifle, looking for any other Covenant.
As they started going down the path Cortana had marked, her voice cut through the comm channel. "They are anticipating for you to go that way, Chief. I'm uploading a new route to you now." Her voice sounded tense.
"Everything alright?"
"It's nothing a couple of painkillers on the Autumn won't fix."
John's eyebrows pressed together. She was still having headaches? The new buffer she and Doctor Halsey had been working on was supposed to prevent that from happening.
The new destination point that appeared on his HUD distracted him from pursuing their conversation any further. "This way."
He led Johnson to an access door which slid apart. Inside, there was a long, narrow corridor. Johnson looked around the Chief and frowned. "You think you're gonna fit in there?"
It was going to be a tight fit, but John knew that Cortana wouldn't have given him this path unless she knew that he would be able to use it. "I'm sure."
"I'm going first." Johnson stepped forward. "No offence, Chief, but if you get stuck I don't wanna be trapped here with you."
The passage was filled with curves and dead ends, but Cortana's careful planning kept them from getting lost in the vast corridors. Finally, they reached the end of the passage. John tapped the console to release the door.
Nothing happened.
He tried again, but the panel didn't respond.
He closed his eyes briefly, wondering what Cortana was doing.
To his surprise, as he concentrated on the AI, a fuzzy image filled his mind. An Elite was shooting in his direction. A slender, decidedly female, arm came into view. It was holding a pistol. Four shots were fired in quick succession. John watched at the prized soldiers slithered to the floor.
It took him several seconds to realize he was seeing through Cortana's eyes.
He pulled his thoughts away from the AI and their link. What this part of the new software they had integrated into his armor? Or was this a side effect they hadn't been expecting?
Before he could ask any more questions, Johnson spoke up. "Chief, I think we might be having some company."
John listened. The sound of the Covenant's footsteps echoed throughout the corridor.
"Cortana, we're boxed in."
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So was she.
Cortana ducked behind a corridor and waited for the frag grenade to explode. She stormed past the remaining Grunts and set the security locks in the emergency cargo bay she had found. Convinced that, for the time being she was safe, she turned her focus on trying to get John and Johnson to the cargo bay.
She transferred her primary system to John's armor and started hacking the system. "All right, I'm in," Cortana said.
She tried to break through the firewall, but the Covenant had an adapting-encryption program. They were smarter than what she had thought, but still no match to her. The only flaw was that she needed to boost the signal between her and John so that she could transfer more of her subroutines to the console. She calculated the risk and before she could second guess herself, Cortana pushed the link to the maximum level.
Her eyes slammed shut as pain pummeled into her skull. A burst of ones and zeroes scrolled before her eyes.
"Chief..." she whispered.
Her host body was sluggishly responding to commands from her neural lace. She staggered forward, nearly tripping over her feet. She leaned against the wall in reprieve as she focused on the carrier's security system.
There.
The encryption file was in front of her, silently challenging her to decipher it. She was going to delete the code line by line. Unfortunately, the pain coursing through her nervous system bogged down her ability to quickly delete the code.
She pushed aside her pain and focused solely on the security code. She ignored through the superfluous lines of code and focused on accessing the firewall directly. Trillions of characters came whizzing passed her as she continued the hack.
Her subroutines were screaming at her to terminate the link, that there was a fifty-seven percent chance of lasting nerve damage to her brain. But she couldn't let John and Johnson down, couldn't let the mission fail.
"Cortana?"
"I'm doing the best I can," she hissed.
She vaguely registered that she was about to pass out. The intensity of the pain made it nearly impossible for her the concentrate on anything outside of the code she was trying to crack. She pushed herself forward and finally managed to hack the code.
"Hurry, John. They're sending out more strike forces."
"Understood."
She quickly terminated the link and allowed herself the relief of no longer feeling the intense pain as she transferred herself back to her main matrix chip. Doctor Halsey and she were going to have some things to discuss when she returned to Reach.
As the worse of the headache started to fade away, Cortana saw her means of escape: a row of Banshees was before her. Cortana walked to the closest Banshee and climbed inside.
It was certainly snug, but the knowledge that her life was in grave danger silenced her irrational fears of claustrophobia. She activated the bay doors as the engines purred to life. She accessed John's position and noted with satisfaction that they had made it back to the hangar and were preparing to board the Phantom.
"The Autumn's position in marked on your HUD."
The Banshee screamed out of the cargo bay. Cortana was tossed around the cabin as a shot from the assault carrier nicked the ship. "I guess they're going to miss us," she muttered.
"Get to the Autumn. We'll hold off the carrier."
Cortana was tempted to argue with the Chief. Her pride didn't like the fact that she needed anyone's help, even John's. But, the information that she held would help the UNSC in their fight. Her safety was the priority right now.
"Be careful, Chief." She piloted the unfamiliar craft in an unpredictable flight pattern. She zigged and zagged through the air as the carrier unsuccessfully shot at her.
She frowned as she monitored the Chief's position. They were far too close to the Covenant ship. "You might want to-"
The assault carrier aimed at the Phantom and fired its deadly plasma weapons. The stolen craft started spiraling towards the ground, smoke pluming from the cabin. Despite the damage it had taken, the Phantom's passengers would survive the fall, Cortana calculated as she dodged another attack.
Now that she had no more support, Cortana did her best to avoid the attack, but the gunman on the carrier was too skilled and the Banshee was too easy of a target. A direct hit from the plasma beam caused the Banshee to spin violently. Cortana could barely get her bearings and she tumbled around the small cabin.
She wasn't going to survive this, she grasped with a sickening realization.
The only chance she had was to attempt to pilot the fallen Banshee in the water and hope the air-tight lock of the shell would hold at the impact.
John would save her.
She issued several commands. The failing engines struggled to respond, but after several attempts, the engine started pulling to the east. She closed her eyes as the ground came racing towards her. There were only a few seconds before impact.
The ship slammed on the top of the water. Cortana's head slammed in the back of the Banshee.
Then, everything went black.
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John slowly opened his eyes. His shields were squealing, his head was roaring, but no was no humming in the back of his mind.
Cortana.
He opened a comm channel to her, but got no response. He forced himself to push himself from the wreckage of the Phantom. Johnson lay semi-conscious on what remained on the passenger seat.
"Johnson."
The older man twitched.
"We need to get out of here." And he needed to figure out where Cortana was.
He jostled Johnson's shoulder slightly. Finally, he started to move under his fingers. He sat up and coughed, blood spattering the destroyed controls. "Hell of a landing there, Chief."
"Are you going to be alright?"
Johnson winced as he pulled himself upright. "Of course. I went through worse going through basic training."
John took in his appearance. He was bloodied and a little shaken, but he didn't seem to have any major injuries. "You need to get back to the Autumn."
Johnson's brows furrowed. "Where are you going to be?"
"I can't contact Cortana."
Johnson swore under his breath. "You think the Covenant shot her down?"
"Maybe."
Johnson clasped the Chief's shoulder. "All right, but Chief?" He handed him his assault rifle. "Here on Alpha Team we stick together. We're going to look for her."
John nodded as they walked away from the wreckage. He closed his eyes and tried again to establish some kind of link with Cortana, but he was unable to duplicate his ability to "see" through Cortana's eyes as he had on the ship.
He needed to let Keyes know. He opened a comm channel to the Autumn. "Sir, we have a situation here."
"I know. We're uploading Cortana's position to your HUD now." There was a long pause. Finally, Keyes spoke again. "You and Johnson proceed with finding her. Now that Noble Team has secured the area on the ground, I've got Noble Two headed to the assault cruiser. She's going to give the Covenant a little surprise."
Keyes sighed. "You need to find Cortana, Chief."
John knew he did. "Yes, sir."
They carefully made their way through the rocky coastline. As they approached the position, John realized that signal was coming from the water. He paused their trek. Johnson followed his gaze out of the choppy ocean.
"She's out there, isn't she?"
John scanned the water. There. Approximately ten meters from the coast, he saw a Banshee floating in the water. "Cortana, please respond."
Silence.
He took a step in the direction of the ocean. Johnson put a hand on his chest. "I didn't think Spartans could swim."
Technically, Johnson was right. The weight of the armor made swimming a difficult prospect, but John would do what it took to get Cortana off the ship.
"Here." Johnson thrust his rifle at him. "You hold this and I'll get Cortana."
John frowned as he considered Johnson's offer.
"I'm not going to lose her, Chief."
Finally, he nodded. John stayed alert for any random Covenant while he watched Johnson swim in the dark waters. The sergeant moved swiftly and reached the Banshee without incident. John watched as he gingerly lifted Cortana, who seemed unresponsive, into his arms.
With practiced ease, Johnson started swimming back to shore with the AI in his arms. As he approached John, he looked at the Spartan remorsefully. "I don't know, Chief."
He placed her on carefully on the ground, allowing John to look at her. Her face was smeared with blood; pieces of glass were embedded in several long cuts across her jaw. Her eyelids were fluttering, her mouth was moving imperceptibly.
"Cortana?"
Her eyelids opened slightly and she started to speak. "Sierra-117, UNSC AI CTN0452-9 has sustained catastrophic damage to data clusters 100.123-795.98. Suggested course of action: activate killswitch. Proceed?"
John's gut tightened. "Negative," he told the AI. He turned to Johnson. "We need to get her to the Autumn."
Johnson took point as John scooped her from the ground. They cautiously made their way to the hidden vessel. The half-mile hike took much longer than John anticipated. He looked up at the Battlecruiser that hovered overhead, wondering what Noble Two had planned.
As they got close to the ship, John tilted his head to Cortana who was still unresponsive. Johnson looked at her before nodding towards the direction of the Autumn. "Come on, Chief. The captain already has Doctor Halsey on a comm channel."
They crossed the wide field. When they got close, the light shifted as the Autumn decloaked and came into view. Captain Keyes stood on the loading platform. A deep frown passed over his lips as he took in the sight of Johnson and Cortana. "We've got Med Bay two ready for you two," he said to the sergeant.
Keyes looked out towards the Battlecruiser and frowned. "Sir?"
"There have been some complications, Chief." He twisted the pipe in his hands. "It's in Noble Team's hands now."
Another snag in the mission, John thought with a frown and he and Johnson made their way to the medical room. He laid Cortana on the closest examination table, Johnson didn't bother sitting down. He rummaged through the drawers and pulled out several medical supplies.
As soon as John released Cortana, the screen to the side of her bed activated.
It was Doctor Halsey. She looked at Cortana through the video feed and frowned deeply. "What happened, John?"
John described as best he could what had happened after they had fled from the cruiser.
When he was finished, Halsey sighed. "I need you to remove the chip from her neural lace, John."
He hesitated briefly. Wouldn't that kill Cortana?
"She'll be fine," Halsey replied, picking up on the Spartan's thoughts.
Carefully, he rolled Cortana to the side. John reached around and pushed her hair out of the way, giving him access to Cortana's neural lace. He pressed the release and the chip slid into the palm of his hand.
It was had a deep crack running through it.
John didn't miss the panicked look that flickered over Halsey's face when he held the chip up for her to inspect. "Will she be alright?"
Halsey pressed her lips together. "I don't know, John." She pushed her glasses up. "I don't know."
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It had been three weeks.
Three weeks since the death of Noble Six. Three weeks since the Panama port had been secured by the Alpha and Noble teams, offering hope to the war-wearied soldiers in the UNSC. Three weeks since he had found Cortana floating unconscious in a nearly destroyed Banshee, hoping that Cortana would be able to recover from her injury.
John and the rest of Alpha Team, along with Cortana's temporary replacement, Noble Two, had returned to Reach earlier in the day. As he had finished his debriefing with Lord Hood, Halsey had contacted him, requesting for him to stop by her lab.
It had to be about Cortana.
He made his way through the ONI building, stopping as various security checkpoints. Cortana had been locked away since her arrival on Reach; neither he nor any of the other members of Alpha Team had been able to see her. Halsey had contacted him once, two days after her crash, to inform him that Cortana would survive, but it would take time to repair the damage that had been done to her matrix chip.
It was quiet in his mind; the hum he had come to associate with the AI had been unnervingly quiet.
His heavy boots echoed down the near-empty hallway. There were few people here; each of them looked at him suspiciously until they took in his name and recognized who he was. At the end of the hall, Doctor Halsey stood, waiting for him.
When he approached her, she accessed the security panel next to the large double doors. John waited as the computer ran a retinal scan. The locks released and Halsey walked forward with John following her. "We're ready to reestablish the link between the matrix chip and Cortana's host body," she said, approaching another security door with a small window. John saw a woman lying on the bed in the center of the room. Cortana. "But, with the shard in your neural lace, we need you here in case there are any complications."
Together they walked into the room. John looked at the still form of Cortana on the bed. In many ways, she looked worse than she had when he and Johnson had first found her. Her black hair stood out starkly compared to her pale face and lips. Her cheeks were hollowed. Halsey had done her best to mend her wounds, but there was still a long, raw scar running across Cortana's jawbone.
She looked frail.
The doctor allowed John several more seconds to look at the AI before she reached for her tablet that was on the table next to Cortana's bed. The door opened again as one of her techs stepped into the room. "Are you ready, Doctor?"
Halsey nodded. "Yes." She turned to face John. "We are going to monitor your vitals closely during the activation. Though the buffers Cortana and I created are still in place, we don't know how they will work with the damaged chip." She pointed to the chair next to the bed. "Do you want to take a seat?"
"I'll be fine."
"Very well," she said before tapping in several commands on her tablet. She nodded to the tech who started working on her own computer.
John remained motionless as he waited for the women to finish the final preparations. "PSI wave patterns have been synced, Doctor. We're ready when you are."
Halsey looked at John before turning her gaze to Cortana. The silence from the AI was disturbing to John. He wondered if it was as strange for the doctor.
"Activating the neural link."
Instantly, John felt liquid ice pour in his skull and a familiar hum in the back of his mind. He resisted the urge to stumble forward at the intensity of the link and grabbed the railing on the edge of Cortana's bed.
"John?" Halsey asked, concern entering into her voice.
"I can feel the link again," he said.
"A promising sign," Halsey said with a small smile. "It will take a while for the link to fully establish itself, but so far there is nothing to indicate her host is rejecting the chip." She stood up with her tablet. "I should inform Lord Hood of her condition." She led her tech out of the room and left John alone with Cortana.
He looked at the woman in front of him, looking for any signs that she was wakening.
There were none.
There was nothing for the Spartan to do but wait for Cortana to wake up or Halsey to return.
Nearly ten minutes passed before John saw her right hand twitch slightly. He took two steps to stand next to her bed.
"John?" Her voice was raspy, raw.
"Yes."
She opened her eyes slightly and gave him a small smile. "Miss me much?"
It was meant in jest, but the playful question reminded John how much he had missed her over the past three weeks. "How are you feeling?" he asked, deflecting her question.
"Confused. Which for an AI is not a good thing," Cortana retorted. She looked around and took in her surroundings. "How did I get back on Reach?"
He shifted slightly. "I'd better let Doctor Halsey tell you."
"Keeping secrets?" she asked, slightly annoyed. "Can you at least tell me how long I've been here?"
"Three weeks."
"What?" Cortana pushed up weakly, trying to sit up. She looked at him, her blue eyes panicked. "How is that possible?"
He was saved from answering her question when the door opened. Halsey walked in and appraised the AI. "Cortana," the doctor greeted with a rare smile.
John knew that Cortana was in not in a mood for chit chat. She pinned the doctor with a glare. "I've been here for three weeks? Why don't I have any recollection of that time?"
The doctor didn't waste any time in answering her questions. "When you crashed landed in the canal, you slammed your head and damaged your matrix chip. You were practically non-responsive when they found you. Your systems immediately went into standby mode. When you were brought back, the techs and I spent nearly two weeks repairing the damage done to your chip. It was touch and go for a while, but we managed to repair most of the damage."
"Most?"
Halsey frowned slightly. "There will be some noticeable lag in your core processes, but you are still the most advanced AI we had in the fleet."
Cortana pressed her eyebrows together.
The doctor pressed forward. "High Command didn't want to risk losing the information you had obtained, so they insisted that all data acquired from the mission was to be transferred to ONI before we could reunite your matrix chip to your host body." She stepped forward and placed a hand on Cortana's arm.
"You're lucky to be alive," she said softly before straightening. "I know you're going to be eager to get back on your feet, but you won't be cleared by ONI until we make sure that everything with your system is green. They have ordered a full-scale analysis of your programming."
"Wonderful," she said dryly.
"Kat has been temporarily assigned on Alpha Team until you are given clearance," Halsey continued.
Cortana frowned. John knew she didn't like the idea of being replaced.
"If all goes well, you should be active within a week," Halsey continued. "I'll give you access to your files. No need to waste your energy on hacking into the database," Halsey said before walking out of the room.
John watched her as she experimentally moved. "Lucky, huh?" she said dryly.
The image of her lifeless body as he carried her back to the Autumn came to his mind. She should have been dead. "We didn't think you were going to make it when I found you," John said.
"You found me?" she asked, interested. He waited several seconds as she undoubtedly accessed his mission logs from Panama. "You did miss me," she accused.
He didn't refute her claim.
"Thank you for saving my life," she said, reaching out and grabbing his hand. She gave it a squeeze.
A voice in the back of his head warned him not to get too close, to pull away from the desire to think of Cortana beyond the boundaries of a fellow soldier. But, as he stepped back and allowed her hand to fall back to her bed, he wasn't sure if that was a battle he could-or wanted-to fight.
Finally, he gave her hand a squeeze back. "You're welcome, Cortana."
Part 4: Pushing the Boundaries
July 17, 2552 (Military Calendar)/
North America, Reach UNSC Military Complex,
Omega Wing-Section Three secure facility
"I take it you saw Jacob's request."
Terrence stepped into Catherine's lab, looking at all the various screens and tablets she had laying on her desks. She waited until he pulled his gaze away from her work to answer. "You know I keep tabs on the two of them."
"Then you know I have approved their transfer."
Catherine nodded. Cortana and John were no longer a project under the umbrella of the ONI, but now active members of the UNSC's most elite special strike force: Alpha Team. "Did you already tell them?"
"Not yet. Though I suppose if you know, then Cortana already does."
The doctor ignored his comment. Her feigned ignorance on the AI's side activities had kept her out of trouble so far. "They are on their way here right now. We're working on some last minute upgrades to John's armor," Catherine said.
As if on cue, the doors to her lab slid apart. The two of them walked in tandem as they walked inside her lab. "I'm telling you, Chief, I have no idea how Ackerson got assigned to Hong Kong," Cortana said dryly as they entered Halsey's lab together.
"And the emails?"
"What can I say?" She shrugged. "Not every man is as noble as you."
It was John who noticed Lord Hood standing next to the doctor. He straightened up. "Sir! Ma'am!"
"At ease, Master Chief."
Cortana cast a smile in their direction. "I'm assuming we're here because of the memo that passed over your desk this morning."
Terrence looked at the doctor, unsurprised.
Catherine frowned slightly. It was one thing for Cortana to tell her about her hacking endeavors; it was another to fill the admiral in on those details. "The one that was marked 'For Eyes Only'?"
"Did it say that?" She looked at the admiral with wide, innocent eyes. "I only accessed the file because it had my serial number embedded in the file. I wanted to make sure I didn't miss any important orders."
Catherine knew the admiral didn't believe a word Cortana said, but he let the subject drop. He looked at the two of them closely. "Effective today, the two of you are assigned to Alpha Team."
John somehow straightened even more. "Thank you, sir!"
"You both earned it, Master Chief. You impressed Captain Keyes and a lot of the brass with what the two of you did with the rescue mission. Saving the Autumn was no easy task." Terrence slid the tablet with the dossier across the table for him to read. "Here are your new orders."
Catherine watched as Cortana passed it to John as she wirelessly accessed the file. Before Terrence came in, she had read the mission orders herself. Cortana wasn't the only one who knew how to hack into High Command's systems.
They were to take control of the main port in the Panama Canal. The Covenant forces were thin there, nearly a half-world away from the main center of the Covenant in Rome. While the leaders, the Prophets, didn't see South America as much more than a land mass they could control, the UNSC desperately needed that port so that ships would refuel and resupply without having to go around the entire continent.
Alpha Team was going to meet up with Noble Team in El Salvador to coordinate the double fronted attack. Although the Covenant didn't use the Panama Canal as an important hub, preliminary recon hinted of a database in their system. The Alpha Team was going to use a newly acquired Phantom and attempt to infiltrate the dropship that was stationed above the canal while the Noble Team tried to secure the canal.
"The two of you need to meet with Captain Keyes at 1600 hours."
"Understood, sir." Cortana flashed a smile at John. "Told you we'd get someone's attention."
The admiral started walking towards the door. "Good luck."
When the doors closed behind Terrence, Catherine looked at John. "John, you need to go to the main lab so you can get suited up while Cortana stays here to update the software to your HUD."
John nodded curtly and turned away.
"Don't miss me too much," Cortana called, not turning back to him.
He paused briefly, but didn't say anything back.
After the door closed, Cortana half-smiled at the doctor. "I'm determined to get him out of his shell."
Cortana had a better chance of expecting the Covenant to surrender to the UNSC, but Catherine didn't make a comment. Instead, she spun another monitor in the AI's direction. "I assume you've had time to review the latest software update."
The AI nodded her head. "I think streaming would be more effective if you stripped out several lines of redundant code. I know they are there for backup, but I'm less concerned with fail safes as I am with making sure our connection doesn't suffer due to the interference."
"How are the headaches?" the doctor asked, cutting to the heart of the issue.
Cortana had reported feeling headaches after her and John's last mission. When she boosted the signal between them over fifty percent, the link would cause an echo effect, causing the AI to have migraines. Catherine knew there was a possibility of that happening; when they had returned from Reach, she and Cortana had worked together on creating a filter to screen out the unnecessary bounce back from the signal.
The AI waved off her question, annoyed. "Managable. Nothing a couple of aspirin can't control. Besides," she said, nodding towards the computers, "with the latest batch of upgrades, that issue should resolve itself." Cortana must have noticed her reluctance to believe her. The AI crossed her arms. "We have time to run another simulation before I need to get to the Autumn. You'll see that everything will be fine, Doctor."
Catherine let out a long silent sigh at Cortana's stubbornness. She hoped for the sake of Cortana and John, the AI was right.
0-=0-=0-=0-=0-=0-=0-=0-=0-=
"I can't believe they hijacked a Phantom." She looked at John as he walked into the armory. "I've run the scans and it seems to still be in working order." She was impressed.
John, however, seemed unsurprised. He gave a half-shrug. "Noble Team is one of the best teams in the UNSC," he pointed out.
"Well, it will make getting to the drop ship that much easier," Cortana said quietly. "I've already hacked into the Carrier's mainframe. Getting on the drop ship shouldn't be a problem. Getting off of it..." Her voice trailed off.
"We'll be fine." He slid on his helmet and Cortana saw the quick gold flash of his shield being activated.
She wished he had his optimism. Even with the relatively good intel they had on the ship's schematics, being stuck on a Covenant Cruiser nearly a mile above the ground was a dangerous situation.
She frowned. Why was she so worried? Certainly the mission to save the Autumn had been more dangerous with them having no backup. She let out a frustrated sigh. Halsey. The doctor's concern had unnerved Cortana, but now was not the time to lose focus. Not when the mission was this dangerous.
He reached in the weapons locker and pulled out a pistol for her as she put on her much maligned flak jacket. She grabbed the butt of the firearm and slid it into her shoulder holster.
"Damn right, we'll be fine." Johnson walked up to the two of them with a smoldering cigar between his lips. "I don't know how things are over in the ONI, but Alpha Team doesn't do anything less than the best."
Cortana raised an eyebrow. "Then we'll fit right in."
Johnson's grin widened. "After what the two of you did with the Autumn, I'd say that's true." He grabbed an assault rifle and nodded towards the exit. "The captain's waitin' in the cargo bay for us."
The three of them made the short trip to the small bay. Cortana saw the six-member Noble Team huddled together in the far corner of the room while Captain Keyes was standing by the Phantom, pipe in hand.
Cortana knew that the captain normally took a more active role in participating in the missions, but because of the two pronged attack, he was forced to stay behind in the Autumn and make sure things flowed smoothly. Cortana watched him as he took in the three of them.
"I trust that all of the Covenant protocol has been uploaded to your matrix," he said to her without preamble.
Cortana nodded. "We'll be able to board the ship without a problem, sir."
"Noble Team is going to need some time to get to the control room, so discretion needs to be used. Carter will contact the Autumn when his team has secured the area. If you run into any trouble..." His voice trailed off.
They were on their own.
Johnson huffed. "Then the Covenant are going to regret it."
Cortana allowed herself a brief smile. Johnson certainly added some sprightliness to the conversation.
Keyes nodded. "Good luck, Alpha Team."
She led the two men to the Covenant vessel and sat in the pilot's chair. When Johnson and the Chief were situated, she disembarked from the Autumn. She piloted the craft several miles away from the ship's position before tapping the controls, sending out a transmission signal to the Cruiser.
As they approached the Assault Carrier, they were granted docking clearance.
"The secondary hub should be here," Cortana said, pointing at the holographic layout of the ship. "I'll access the database from there."
John nodded. "Johnson and I will secure the quadrant."
Seconds later, the system's controls were overridden by the Cruiser. "Now we just sit back and wait."
She looked out the Phantom's windows and saw nearly three dozen Ghosts, Banshees and Phantoms going back and forth from the large vessel. She hoped with the high amount of traffic, their Phantom wouldn't cause any sense of alarm. According to her calculations, Noble Team was going to need the better part of an hour to secure the base below them.
The ship glided into a docking bay. "Purple, huh?" Johnson said, looking at the walls around them. "Somehow I didn't picture the place looking so damn cheery."
Cortana saw three Grunts, who were busy talking to each other. She scanned the room for any other hostiles, but the bumbling soldiers were the only security in the room.
"It's almost too easy," Johnson said as the Phantom settled on the ground. "You'd think they weren't expecting company."
Cortana released the rear hatch. The three of them slipped out of the ship and crept to the darkened corner of the room. The Grunts didn't look in their direction.
"I've got this." John pulled out his pistol, his eyes never leaving the targets in the room.
Three Grunts against a single-minded Spartan? They didn't stand a chance.
Johnson nodded towards the cargo containers. Cortana followed the sergeant as they watched John silently make his way to the first unsuspecting Grunt.
His method was quick and effective. In less than a minute, there were no Grunts left alive in the room. He gestured for them to move forward to the large doors.
Together, they made their way through the assault carrier. They avoided the patrols easily; the Covenant were not expecting the UNSC's finest to board their ship. The ride down the gravlift was unmemorable.
"Think they are all sleeping?" Johnson asked, snickering.
At the intersection, John carefully looked around the corridor before pulling back and held up two fingers. She watched as he aimed his pistol and fired twice. The three of them made their way to the single door at the end of the hall. Johnson pulled out his snake cam as Cortana hacked into the console.
"It's clear."
Within a second, she hacked the security code and the locks to the doors released. John opened the door and allowed Cortana to walk in. She gasped slightly.
This was what they had been looking for.
Several dozen large computers towers, three meters high, were in the center of the room. Lights flashed, fans hummed. Cortana could almost feel the power course through her.
"Bingo." She was unable to keep the excitement out of her voice.
Johnson let out a long whistle.
"I'll take it from here," Cortana said as she approached the database. "You two should be able to reach the armory and find some goodies to take back to ONI there."
"Are you sure you'll be alright?"
Cortana looked at John, surprised by his question. Why if she didn't know any better, she would have thought he was openly concerned for her.
"Well, I have gotten used to having a Spartan bodyguard, but I think I can manage." She offered him a smile. "Infiltrating the security grid will be my first priority. If I sense any trouble, I'll transfer out of the system."
He seemed to hesitate briefly, but before she could say anything he nodded. She watched the two of them leave the room before transferring herself into the ship's systems.
Suddenly, the world exploded in ones and zeroes around her. Though she preferred the flexibility to move around in her human body, Cortana felt at home in the data stream of information.
Schematics of various bases, planned attacks, and the hierarchy structure of the Covenant...all of it and more were at Cortana's fingertips. Greedily, she amassed all the data she could find.
Within seconds, she had full access to the ship's security grid. She spun off a subroutine to monitor John and Johnson's progress. She was tempted to open a channel to John, but decided against it. She didn't need to advertise the fact she was in the database.
Terabytes of information came rushing into her matrices. She noticed that most of the information was new and unknown. The information she was processing would allow give the UNSC a desperately needed advantage over the Covenant.
Cortana nearly lost track of time as she categorized each data cluster that she uploaded. As she continued making her way through the information, a disturbing piece of data streamed by her. Quickly, she accessed it.
She froze as the irrefutable data plainly presented itself. It was impossible, she thought. But, as she hacked and accessed the security camera from the hangars, one sinking truth stuck out.
They had been discovered.
She opened a comm channel to John. "We need to get out of here. Now."
0-=0-=0-=0-=0-=0-=
"Let me guess. Someone finally figured that we've crashed their pad?" Johnson looked at the Chief knowingly.
John nodded before speaking to Cortana. "What's going on?"
"They've got an Elite special forces team headed to both of our positions." Her voice came out of his helmet speakers.
"Damn it," Johnson grumbled.
"I've already transferred out of the system. Their ETA is in five minutes. You need to get back to the Phantom before they lock down the cargo bays."
"What about you?"
"I'm going to have to improvise."
John frowned at the snag in the mission.
"They are closer to my location and I can't see a way back to the Phantom, but I think there is an emergency bay available," explained Cortana. "I'll keep you updated."
"Were you able to get all the data?"
"Of course." She sounded almost offended at the idea that she hadn't completed her mission.
The comm channel closed and John focused on escaping the Cruiser. He and Johnson started backtracking in the direction from which they came.
As they approached the gravlift, John noticed a half dozen Covenant on the pad. The Elite's light-bending armor made them almost invisible, but John had learned long ago how to detect the clocked soldiers. "I'm counting four hostiles."
Johnson looked closely before nodding. "I see the bastards."
Before the Elites stepped off the elevator, the two men fired. The quick secession of the shots caused the cloaking device to malfunction. The three Covenant soldiers stood there exposed. Their black armor, sleeker and less bulky, than John's almost seemed to glisten in the ship's light.
The Elites ignored the damage they had taken and wasted no time in firing at the two UNSC officers. John tucked and rolled away from the gunfire while Johnson hid himself behind the closest wall. John watched his shield levels go down as he took a couple of shots from the plasma rifle.
The Spartan fired his assault rifle at the Elites. Johnson gave him covering fire, allowing John to pull out a plasma grenade. He pulled the pin and held it in his hands for two seconds before hurling it in the soldiers' direction.
It stuck on the Elite closest to him.
The two other Elites tried to escape, but there wasn't enough time for them to take cover. John ducked slightly as the grenade went off. Bodies flew from the force of the explosion.
"Not bad," Johnson replied, as he made his way to the Spartan. Together, they crossed the room to the gravlift. "I hope it still works after all we put it through," the sergeant said as they stepped over the fallen Covenant soldiers.
John said nothing as he pushed the holographic console in the center of the lift. To his relief, the unit started moving upwards. Several seconds later the lift stopped and he and Johnson disembarked from the lift. He raised his rifle, looking for any other Covenant.
As they started going down the path Cortana had marked, her voice cut through the comm channel. "They are anticipating for you to go that way, Chief. I'm uploading a new route to you now." Her voice sounded tense.
"Everything alright?"
"It's nothing a couple of painkillers on the Autumn won't fix."
John's eyebrows pressed together. She was still having headaches? The new buffer she and Doctor Halsey had been working on was supposed to prevent that from happening.
The new destination point that appeared on his HUD distracted him from pursuing their conversation any further. "This way."
He led Johnson to an access door which slid apart. Inside, there was a long, narrow corridor. Johnson looked around the Chief and frowned. "You think you're gonna fit in there?"
It was going to be a tight fit, but John knew that Cortana wouldn't have given him this path unless she knew that he would be able to use it. "I'm sure."
"I'm going first." Johnson stepped forward. "No offence, Chief, but if you get stuck I don't wanna be trapped here with you."
The passage was filled with curves and dead ends, but Cortana's careful planning kept them from getting lost in the vast corridors. Finally, they reached the end of the passage. John tapped the console to release the door.
Nothing happened.
He tried again, but the panel didn't respond.
He closed his eyes briefly, wondering what Cortana was doing.
To his surprise, as he concentrated on the AI, a fuzzy image filled his mind. An Elite was shooting in his direction. A slender, decidedly female, arm came into view. It was holding a pistol. Four shots were fired in quick succession. John watched at the prized soldiers slithered to the floor.
It took him several seconds to realize he was seeing through Cortana's eyes.
He pulled his thoughts away from the AI and their link. What this part of the new software they had integrated into his armor? Or was this a side effect they hadn't been expecting?
Before he could ask any more questions, Johnson spoke up. "Chief, I think we might be having some company."
John listened. The sound of the Covenant's footsteps echoed throughout the corridor.
"Cortana, we're boxed in."
o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o
So was she.
Cortana ducked behind a corridor and waited for the frag grenade to explode. She stormed past the remaining Grunts and set the security locks in the emergency cargo bay she had found. Convinced that, for the time being she was safe, she turned her focus on trying to get John and Johnson to the cargo bay.
She transferred her primary system to John's armor and started hacking the system. "All right, I'm in," Cortana said.
She tried to break through the firewall, but the Covenant had an adapting-encryption program. They were smarter than what she had thought, but still no match to her. The only flaw was that she needed to boost the signal between her and John so that she could transfer more of her subroutines to the console. She calculated the risk and before she could second guess herself, Cortana pushed the link to the maximum level.
Her eyes slammed shut as pain pummeled into her skull. A burst of ones and zeroes scrolled before her eyes.
"Chief..." she whispered.
Her host body was sluggishly responding to commands from her neural lace. She staggered forward, nearly tripping over her feet. She leaned against the wall in reprieve as she focused on the carrier's security system.
There.
The encryption file was in front of her, silently challenging her to decipher it. She was going to delete the code line by line. Unfortunately, the pain coursing through her nervous system bogged down her ability to quickly delete the code.
She pushed aside her pain and focused solely on the security code. She ignored through the superfluous lines of code and focused on accessing the firewall directly. Trillions of characters came whizzing passed her as she continued the hack.
Her subroutines were screaming at her to terminate the link, that there was a fifty-seven percent chance of lasting nerve damage to her brain. But she couldn't let John and Johnson down, couldn't let the mission fail.
"Cortana?"
"I'm doing the best I can," she hissed.
She vaguely registered that she was about to pass out. The intensity of the pain made it nearly impossible for her the concentrate on anything outside of the code she was trying to crack. She pushed herself forward and finally managed to hack the code.
"Hurry, John. They're sending out more strike forces."
"Understood."
She quickly terminated the link and allowed herself the relief of no longer feeling the intense pain as she transferred herself back to her main matrix chip. Doctor Halsey and she were going to have some things to discuss when she returned to Reach.
As the worse of the headache started to fade away, Cortana saw her means of escape: a row of Banshees was before her. Cortana walked to the closest Banshee and climbed inside.
It was certainly snug, but the knowledge that her life was in grave danger silenced her irrational fears of claustrophobia. She activated the bay doors as the engines purred to life. She accessed John's position and noted with satisfaction that they had made it back to the hangar and were preparing to board the Phantom.
"The Autumn's position in marked on your HUD."
The Banshee screamed out of the cargo bay. Cortana was tossed around the cabin as a shot from the assault carrier nicked the ship. "I guess they're going to miss us," she muttered.
"Get to the Autumn. We'll hold off the carrier."
Cortana was tempted to argue with the Chief. Her pride didn't like the fact that she needed anyone's help, even John's. But, the information that she held would help the UNSC in their fight. Her safety was the priority right now.
"Be careful, Chief." She piloted the unfamiliar craft in an unpredictable flight pattern. She zigged and zagged through the air as the carrier unsuccessfully shot at her.
She frowned as she monitored the Chief's position. They were far too close to the Covenant ship. "You might want to-"
The assault carrier aimed at the Phantom and fired its deadly plasma weapons. The stolen craft started spiraling towards the ground, smoke pluming from the cabin. Despite the damage it had taken, the Phantom's passengers would survive the fall, Cortana calculated as she dodged another attack.
Now that she had no more support, Cortana did her best to avoid the attack, but the gunman on the carrier was too skilled and the Banshee was too easy of a target. A direct hit from the plasma beam caused the Banshee to spin violently. Cortana could barely get her bearings and she tumbled around the small cabin.
She wasn't going to survive this, she grasped with a sickening realization.
The only chance she had was to attempt to pilot the fallen Banshee in the water and hope the air-tight lock of the shell would hold at the impact.
John would save her.
She issued several commands. The failing engines struggled to respond, but after several attempts, the engine started pulling to the east. She closed her eyes as the ground came racing towards her. There were only a few seconds before impact.
The ship slammed on the top of the water. Cortana's head slammed in the back of the Banshee.
Then, everything went black.
o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0
John slowly opened his eyes. His shields were squealing, his head was roaring, but no was no humming in the back of his mind.
Cortana.
He opened a comm channel to her, but got no response. He forced himself to push himself from the wreckage of the Phantom. Johnson lay semi-conscious on what remained on the passenger seat.
"Johnson."
The older man twitched.
"We need to get out of here." And he needed to figure out where Cortana was.
He jostled Johnson's shoulder slightly. Finally, he started to move under his fingers. He sat up and coughed, blood spattering the destroyed controls. "Hell of a landing there, Chief."
"Are you going to be alright?"
Johnson winced as he pulled himself upright. "Of course. I went through worse going through basic training."
John took in his appearance. He was bloodied and a little shaken, but he didn't seem to have any major injuries. "You need to get back to the Autumn."
Johnson's brows furrowed. "Where are you going to be?"
"I can't contact Cortana."
Johnson swore under his breath. "You think the Covenant shot her down?"
"Maybe."
Johnson clasped the Chief's shoulder. "All right, but Chief?" He handed him his assault rifle. "Here on Alpha Team we stick together. We're going to look for her."
John nodded as they walked away from the wreckage. He closed his eyes and tried again to establish some kind of link with Cortana, but he was unable to duplicate his ability to "see" through Cortana's eyes as he had on the ship.
He needed to let Keyes know. He opened a comm channel to the Autumn. "Sir, we have a situation here."
"I know. We're uploading Cortana's position to your HUD now." There was a long pause. Finally, Keyes spoke again. "You and Johnson proceed with finding her. Now that Noble Team has secured the area on the ground, I've got Noble Two headed to the assault cruiser. She's going to give the Covenant a little surprise."
Keyes sighed. "You need to find Cortana, Chief."
John knew he did. "Yes, sir."
They carefully made their way through the rocky coastline. As they approached the position, John realized that signal was coming from the water. He paused their trek. Johnson followed his gaze out of the choppy ocean.
"She's out there, isn't she?"
John scanned the water. There. Approximately ten meters from the coast, he saw a Banshee floating in the water. "Cortana, please respond."
Silence.
He took a step in the direction of the ocean. Johnson put a hand on his chest. "I didn't think Spartans could swim."
Technically, Johnson was right. The weight of the armor made swimming a difficult prospect, but John would do what it took to get Cortana off the ship.
"Here." Johnson thrust his rifle at him. "You hold this and I'll get Cortana."
John frowned as he considered Johnson's offer.
"I'm not going to lose her, Chief."
Finally, he nodded. John stayed alert for any random Covenant while he watched Johnson swim in the dark waters. The sergeant moved swiftly and reached the Banshee without incident. John watched as he gingerly lifted Cortana, who seemed unresponsive, into his arms.
With practiced ease, Johnson started swimming back to shore with the AI in his arms. As he approached John, he looked at the Spartan remorsefully. "I don't know, Chief."
He placed her on carefully on the ground, allowing John to look at her. Her face was smeared with blood; pieces of glass were embedded in several long cuts across her jaw. Her eyelids were fluttering, her mouth was moving imperceptibly.
"Cortana?"
Her eyelids opened slightly and she started to speak. "Sierra-117, UNSC AI CTN0452-9 has sustained catastrophic damage to data clusters 100.123-795.98. Suggested course of action: activate killswitch. Proceed?"
John's gut tightened. "Negative," he told the AI. He turned to Johnson. "We need to get her to the Autumn."
Johnson took point as John scooped her from the ground. They cautiously made their way to the hidden vessel. The half-mile hike took much longer than John anticipated. He looked up at the Battlecruiser that hovered overhead, wondering what Noble Two had planned.
As they got close to the ship, John tilted his head to Cortana who was still unresponsive. Johnson looked at her before nodding towards the direction of the Autumn. "Come on, Chief. The captain already has Doctor Halsey on a comm channel."
They crossed the wide field. When they got close, the light shifted as the Autumn decloaked and came into view. Captain Keyes stood on the loading platform. A deep frown passed over his lips as he took in the sight of Johnson and Cortana. "We've got Med Bay two ready for you two," he said to the sergeant.
Keyes looked out towards the Battlecruiser and frowned. "Sir?"
"There have been some complications, Chief." He twisted the pipe in his hands. "It's in Noble Team's hands now."
Another snag in the mission, John thought with a frown and he and Johnson made their way to the medical room. He laid Cortana on the closest examination table, Johnson didn't bother sitting down. He rummaged through the drawers and pulled out several medical supplies.
As soon as John released Cortana, the screen to the side of her bed activated.
It was Doctor Halsey. She looked at Cortana through the video feed and frowned deeply. "What happened, John?"
John described as best he could what had happened after they had fled from the cruiser.
When he was finished, Halsey sighed. "I need you to remove the chip from her neural lace, John."
He hesitated briefly. Wouldn't that kill Cortana?
"She'll be fine," Halsey replied, picking up on the Spartan's thoughts.
Carefully, he rolled Cortana to the side. John reached around and pushed her hair out of the way, giving him access to Cortana's neural lace. He pressed the release and the chip slid into the palm of his hand.
It was had a deep crack running through it.
John didn't miss the panicked look that flickered over Halsey's face when he held the chip up for her to inspect. "Will she be alright?"
Halsey pressed her lips together. "I don't know, John." She pushed her glasses up. "I don't know."
0-=0-=0-=0-=0-=0-=0-=
It had been three weeks.
Three weeks since the death of Noble Six. Three weeks since the Panama port had been secured by the Alpha and Noble teams, offering hope to the war-wearied soldiers in the UNSC. Three weeks since he had found Cortana floating unconscious in a nearly destroyed Banshee, hoping that Cortana would be able to recover from her injury.
John and the rest of Alpha Team, along with Cortana's temporary replacement, Noble Two, had returned to Reach earlier in the day. As he had finished his debriefing with Lord Hood, Halsey had contacted him, requesting for him to stop by her lab.
It had to be about Cortana.
He made his way through the ONI building, stopping as various security checkpoints. Cortana had been locked away since her arrival on Reach; neither he nor any of the other members of Alpha Team had been able to see her. Halsey had contacted him once, two days after her crash, to inform him that Cortana would survive, but it would take time to repair the damage that had been done to her matrix chip.
It was quiet in his mind; the hum he had come to associate with the AI had been unnervingly quiet.
His heavy boots echoed down the near-empty hallway. There were few people here; each of them looked at him suspiciously until they took in his name and recognized who he was. At the end of the hall, Doctor Halsey stood, waiting for him.
When he approached her, she accessed the security panel next to the large double doors. John waited as the computer ran a retinal scan. The locks released and Halsey walked forward with John following her. "We're ready to reestablish the link between the matrix chip and Cortana's host body," she said, approaching another security door with a small window. John saw a woman lying on the bed in the center of the room. Cortana. "But, with the shard in your neural lace, we need you here in case there are any complications."
Together they walked into the room. John looked at the still form of Cortana on the bed. In many ways, she looked worse than she had when he and Johnson had first found her. Her black hair stood out starkly compared to her pale face and lips. Her cheeks were hollowed. Halsey had done her best to mend her wounds, but there was still a long, raw scar running across Cortana's jawbone.
She looked frail.
The doctor allowed John several more seconds to look at the AI before she reached for her tablet that was on the table next to Cortana's bed. The door opened again as one of her techs stepped into the room. "Are you ready, Doctor?"
Halsey nodded. "Yes." She turned to face John. "We are going to monitor your vitals closely during the activation. Though the buffers Cortana and I created are still in place, we don't know how they will work with the damaged chip." She pointed to the chair next to the bed. "Do you want to take a seat?"
"I'll be fine."
"Very well," she said before tapping in several commands on her tablet. She nodded to the tech who started working on her own computer.
John remained motionless as he waited for the women to finish the final preparations. "PSI wave patterns have been synced, Doctor. We're ready when you are."
Halsey looked at John before turning her gaze to Cortana. The silence from the AI was disturbing to John. He wondered if it was as strange for the doctor.
"Activating the neural link."
Instantly, John felt liquid ice pour in his skull and a familiar hum in the back of his mind. He resisted the urge to stumble forward at the intensity of the link and grabbed the railing on the edge of Cortana's bed.
"John?" Halsey asked, concern entering into her voice.
"I can feel the link again," he said.
"A promising sign," Halsey said with a small smile. "It will take a while for the link to fully establish itself, but so far there is nothing to indicate her host is rejecting the chip." She stood up with her tablet. "I should inform Lord Hood of her condition." She led her tech out of the room and left John alone with Cortana.
He looked at the woman in front of him, looking for any signs that she was wakening.
There were none.
There was nothing for the Spartan to do but wait for Cortana to wake up or Halsey to return.
Nearly ten minutes passed before John saw her right hand twitch slightly. He took two steps to stand next to her bed.
"John?" Her voice was raspy, raw.
"Yes."
She opened her eyes slightly and gave him a small smile. "Miss me much?"
It was meant in jest, but the playful question reminded John how much he had missed her over the past three weeks. "How are you feeling?" he asked, deflecting her question.
"Confused. Which for an AI is not a good thing," Cortana retorted. She looked around and took in her surroundings. "How did I get back on Reach?"
He shifted slightly. "I'd better let Doctor Halsey tell you."
"Keeping secrets?" she asked, slightly annoyed. "Can you at least tell me how long I've been here?"
"Three weeks."
"What?" Cortana pushed up weakly, trying to sit up. She looked at him, her blue eyes panicked. "How is that possible?"
He was saved from answering her question when the door opened. Halsey walked in and appraised the AI. "Cortana," the doctor greeted with a rare smile.
John knew that Cortana was in not in a mood for chit chat. She pinned the doctor with a glare. "I've been here for three weeks? Why don't I have any recollection of that time?"
The doctor didn't waste any time in answering her questions. "When you crashed landed in the canal, you slammed your head and damaged your matrix chip. You were practically non-responsive when they found you. Your systems immediately went into standby mode. When you were brought back, the techs and I spent nearly two weeks repairing the damage done to your chip. It was touch and go for a while, but we managed to repair most of the damage."
"Most?"
Halsey frowned slightly. "There will be some noticeable lag in your core processes, but you are still the most advanced AI we had in the fleet."
Cortana pressed her eyebrows together.
The doctor pressed forward. "High Command didn't want to risk losing the information you had obtained, so they insisted that all data acquired from the mission was to be transferred to ONI before we could reunite your matrix chip to your host body." She stepped forward and placed a hand on Cortana's arm.
"You're lucky to be alive," she said softly before straightening. "I know you're going to be eager to get back on your feet, but you won't be cleared by ONI until we make sure that everything with your system is green. They have ordered a full-scale analysis of your programming."
"Wonderful," she said dryly.
"Kat has been temporarily assigned on Alpha Team until you are given clearance," Halsey continued.
Cortana frowned. John knew she didn't like the idea of being replaced.
"If all goes well, you should be active within a week," Halsey continued. "I'll give you access to your files. No need to waste your energy on hacking into the database," Halsey said before walking out of the room.
John watched her as she experimentally moved. "Lucky, huh?" she said dryly.
The image of her lifeless body as he carried her back to the Autumn came to his mind. She should have been dead. "We didn't think you were going to make it when I found you," John said.
"You found me?" she asked, interested. He waited several seconds as she undoubtedly accessed his mission logs from Panama. "You did miss me," she accused.
He didn't refute her claim.
"Thank you for saving my life," she said, reaching out and grabbing his hand. She gave it a squeeze.
A voice in the back of his head warned him not to get too close, to pull away from the desire to think of Cortana beyond the boundaries of a fellow soldier. But, as he stepped back and allowed her hand to fall back to her bed, he wasn't sure if that was a battle he could-or wanted-to fight.
Finally, he gave her hand a squeeze back. "You're welcome, Cortana."
Part 4: Pushing the Boundaries