Chapter 4: Three: Truth and Reconciliation
Alpha Base, the structure that Major Silva had captured with his Helljumpers, didn't offer the luxuries of life like Porsches and gold faucets, but it did give each of the Spartans two-minute hot showers, MREs, and a fair number of hours of uninterrupted sleep as all seventy-five of them came in, sometimes in groups, sometimes alone, but always with a handful or two of Marines and naval personnel tailing them. The water was provided by the Halo itself, the hot part by a small reactor that the Covenant left behind when they were forcibly evicted from the premises. The Spartans were cleaning and doing minor repair work on their armor when Cortana popped up on Fred's visor and began to pace back and forth across the glass, hands folded behind her.
For a moment, all movement in the room stopped, all eyes on the construct, but when she just continued to pace, they resumed work on the MJOLNIR's systems. The AI restlessly ran her fingers through her hair, a human habit that she had picked up from her mother, and began running probabilities like mad, attempting to compensate for the Covenant's forces and the Marine deaths. If there was some way she could predict their actions –
She smacked her forehead. Of course! The helmet cam footage from the Chief's run; if the aliens reacted in a similar manner, she should be able to come up with contingency plans for anything they could try. Most anything, anyway. She began reviewing the videos, unsure why and how she still had them but deciding it was an inquiry for another time. And with the other Spartans still alive, Silva would not dare to pull Fred aside and call the other Spartans freaks. The construct smirked and resumed her pacing, crossing her arms in front of her now, leaving a subroutine to do the postulating for her while she thought. John… If he was in this universe, why hadn't he been born like normal? Those people with him – they must have been Forerunners, because she'd recognize the gait of any of the Covenant by now. So why had he been sent back in time over one hundred thousand years? What could the past – and now the future – possibly hold for him?
'Hmm… hopefully he'll clear things up in the Control Room later. Unless he's going to be his usual secretive, emotionless self, in which case I might need to beat the answer out of him.' She looked as her tiny transparent hands and longed for them to grow in size, become real, solid, like the Chief's. She sighed tiredly, wanting all of the interim bull to be over and done with so that she could coordinate with the Spartan. Maybe then they could –
She shook her head. 'No, don't think like that,' she told herself, 'Nothing can ever come of this. Nothing. I am an AI, and he isn't. But I wish…'
"…Senior Chief, but the Major wants to see you on the double."
Oh, hell no!
Cortana instantly perked up. "I'm going with you," she declared, "I need to coordinate Keyes' rescue mission with Wellsley so that we have as few casualties as possible." The Marine that had brought Silva's orders, eyed her crimson form for a moment, and she crossed her arms again, stance firm. He nodded reluctantly and disappeared, and all of the Spartans turned to look at her. She scowled at them. "Trust me when I say the Silva is not going to be discussing this mission briefing with you, but with me there, he may think twice about what he says." She gave a vehement nod and disappeared into his helmet, waiting for the ejection of her card – Fred pulled her from his helmet and held her chip in his hand for a moment, simply examining her. It was times like that that the AI wished she was psychic so she could read their minds, but he merely squeezed her chip and walked out of the Spartan's "barracks," concealing the cartridge in his hand.
She was right, of course. Silva looked like he wanted to say several nasty things about the SPARTAN-II program but dare not with the UNSC's most powerful artificial intelligence standing like some kind of watchdog on the holopanel as she talked with Wellsley. They successfully coordinated the strike on the Covenant ship, and the Spartan returned to his "barracks" without further incident, slotting her back into his helmet and asking, "How did you know?"
"Ah, more observant than you look. A little birdie told me, and if you don't understand the expression, don't ask." The construct promptly disappeared back into her temporary storage.
-------------------------------------------
"The enemy has captured Captain Keyes and are holding him aboard one of their cruisers, the Truth and Reconciliation, a ship I disabled before we abandoned the Autumn." Cortana seemed to be in an unusually fine mood that evening, Blue and Green Teams noticed, and a good mood could change to a murderous one in the space of a second, what with her sharp rampant moon swings. "The ship is holding position approximately three hundred kilometers over the other end of this plateau."
One of the Marines, who apparently did not read memos, asked the construct, "So how are we supposed to get on board if it's in the air? The Corps issued me a rifle, not wings."
Instead of snapping at him like the Spartans expected, Cortana let Sergeant Johnson explain: "There's a gravity lift in the ship's belly that ferries troops and supplies between it and this ring. That's how we're getting in."
The construct gave them some absent-minded advice on how best to evade the Shade turrets and settled in to break into the Covenant's shipboard network, generating thousands of potential codes in the space of a second. It was unnecessary, however; the system opened up for her at the first touch, setting her on edge. Someone had hacked the ship sometime before they arrived – was still there! The presence was fleeting and fleeing; it could sense her far better than she could sense it, but rather than attacking, it gave her an almost – dare she think it? – sensual caress and used her distraction at the sensation of pleasure to pull back and vanish, ignoring the cuss words she shouted at it when she realized what it had done. "Come back and face me, cocksucker! Motherf…" Cortana plunged into the systems of the Truth and Reconciliation, reflecting on the irony of the name as she dissected the warped Covenant AIs with almost sadistic viciousness when they attacked her for her intrusion. 'Only with the revelation of the truth about the Halos' purpose by 343 Guilty Spark can there be reconciliation between humans and Sangheili.'
In the places of the Covenant AI, she left sophisticated subroutines that would feign temporary failure when addressed by the aliens, but in the event that the humans needed to get back on the ship, the subroutines would open it up for them. When she returned to Fred's armor, Blue Team was circling around to flank more Shade turrets while the ODSTs moved up the middle with Green Team. They were almost directly below the ship now, and after clearing out a small canyon, advanced into the area where the gravity lift was being heavily guarded. Blue Team swiftly split up, making for the Shade turrets covering the area, enabling Green Team to take out the rest of the enemy when they took cover around the rocks in the small dip.
Of course, that was when the Hunters came down the lift. Even with plasma turrets firing at them from all sides, their armor absorbed most of the superheated balls; the rest bounced carelessly away. Linda finally managed to take out one of the pair when she got a reflect shot off of the lift's base, and the other immediately began rampaging about at the sense of loss, baring its unarmored back to the Marines when it went after her. The humans promptly took the opportunity to pump it full of lead, and the second dropped as well. Cortana called Foehammer to drop off some reinforcements at the base of the lift once the area was clear of Covenant. The Spartans proceeded upward into the ship with a handful of Marines for backup, though it was they who would do the heavy lifting.
The gravity lift deposited them in a bay holding some of the Covenant's maroon cargo modules and a pair of navy blue Wraith tanks; all doors leading from the bay were locked, the lights around their edges glowing red. Cortana spoke up after a few moments of silence and wary sweeping of the bay.
"I highly advise that two of you," meaning the Spartans, "cover each of the smaller doors; according to the battlenet, company is on the way," she said, "Marines, give the Spartans support but take cover behind the Wraiths; your armor isn't as resilient as theirs." Everyone quickly got into position, knowing that there was no time to waste when faced with impending combat, and one of the smaller doors snapped open as they did, unveiling a SpecOps Elite with a plasma sword. Upon seeing the intruders, it roared its fury and charged, but the hail of bullets from the "Demons" and Marines put a swift end to that.
More Elites followed the first to their dooms, and they were swiftly joined by some Jackals and Grunts before one of the larger side doors slid open to admit a trio of Jackals into the bay. They were swiftly dispatched, and the Marines moved down the hall to the locked door on the other side, where they hunkered down with Green Team to wait for Blue Team to work their way through the maze of halls and circle around to let them through. They overwhelmed the Covenant in their way and emerged into a shuttle bay, a Spirit dropship swooping out just as they entered. Fire seemed to pour from everywhere as they dove for cover behind the cargo modules on the floor and the pillars holding up the second and third floors of the bay. Linda sniped an Elite that was preparing to commandeer a Shade on a high platform that bisected the chamber, and Sam and Will began duking it out with the plethora of Jackals on the bottom floor, leaving the Grunts and Covenant on the upper floors to the remaining Spartans and Marines.
They had just passed the bisector and taken cover behind a Wraith when a pair of Hunters charged into the fray from a side door, roaring their fury at the invasion of their ship; Kelly instantly lunged in to serve as the rabbit for the behemoths, luring them on a wild goose chase that would expose their unarmored backs to her combat brothers and sisters, enabling them to gun one down with the shredder rounds for their assault rifles. The second screamed its loss and charged; this time it was Kelly who took it out, expertly back-flipping over it and pumping it full of lead as she returned to earth.
After weaving through more purple corridors that all looked the same, killing seemingly countless Covenant soldiers, the group of rescuers finally reached the bridge of the cruiser, and Blue Team continued on to look for the Captain, leaving the Marines and Green Team to cover their backs. The foursome sped through the halls as fast as they possibly could, darting from door to door until their reached one of the detention centers, empty except for a dead Marine. The Spartans continued on and reached another cell block, each sealed room holding at least one occupant. Plasma fire splashed over the Spartans' shields, and they returned it with bullets, aiming for the slight "hazes" in the air that indicated the presence of a SpecOps Elite. Once they confirmed that everything alien in the room was dead, they unlocked the cells and released the human prisoners, gathering together in the center of the room.
"While they had us locked up in here, I heard our 'hosts' talking about this ring world and its capabilities," Keyes told Cortana, checking his needler and making sure it was fully loaded.
"One moment, sir. Accessing the Covenant battlenet." It only took her a scant second to retrieve the data she already had on file and compare it to what was being exchanged at the present, and she replied, "As I understand it, they believe Halo is some kind of weapon with vast power."
"The alien interrogators kept saying that 'whoever controls Halo controls the fate of the universe,'" Keyes said as he nodded.
"I see," Cortana said, "I've intercepted a number of transmissions about a Covenant search team looking for a control room. I originally thought that they were searching for the bridge of a cruiser, but they must be searching for Halo's control room."
"That's definitely not good. If Halo really is a weapon and the Covenant gain control of it, they could use it against us. We have to get there first." Keyes turned to look at Fred. "I have a new mission for you and Blue Team. We need to beat the Covenant to the location of Halo's control room."
"I highly advise that we finish this one first, sir," Fred said coolly, and Keyes nodded in assent.
"We can head back to the shuttle bay and call for evac," Cortana said impassively, no longer focused on the group of soldiers making their way out of the detention block. A handshake protocol from the ring's security systems had pinged against her firewalls mere moments before, and she warily keyed in the proper response before all of the ring's data – compressed and summarized to prevent the MJOLNIR's systems from lagging – popped up in her mental world. Though she could not actually directly affect the ring itself, she could watch every action that went on anywhere on its surface and underbelly. She confirmed that the Autumn had crashed exactly where she told her subroutine to take it before moving to check on the Flood.
Her Spartan was sitting atop the A-shaped façade of the storage facility where Keyes lost his life, but she found that the Sentinel she was "seeing" through could not read his biomonitors; as far as it was concerned, there was only an oddly-shaped hunk of metal atop the structure, nothing worth noticing. She brought it closer to peer into the glass of his HUD, and :sensed: his smirk. "Hello, Cortana. Do you like my gift?"
As the Sentinel had no speakers on it, she was only able to tilt it to show her confusion.
"I had Nep'Thalia open up Installation Zero-Four's security systems to you so you could help…'speed the process,' so to speak," he explained, just before a platinum-blonde male alighted on the roof next to the Spartan. He said something in the language of the Forerunners, something she didn't catch, and John replied in kind, then turned back to the construct watching the exchange. "I must go," he told her, "Try not to get into too much trouble with my brothers and sisters."
Halo's teleportation system activated and the pair was gone, so she retreated back into Fred's MJOLNIR armor to keep an eye on the teams rescuing Keyes as they returned to the bridge just in time to see Fhajad and Grace take out two SpecOps Elites wielding plasma swords. The construct buzzed Foehammer but got the same response as the last run-through: "Negative, Cortana; I've been engaged by Covenant air patrols, and I'm having a tough time shaking them. You're better off finding your own ride. Sorry." The AI gave an affirmative response and passed the news along to the Captain, watching the responses of the Marines. Once Keyes said that he would fly them out of there, she flipped up a nav point on the Senior Chief's HUD and settled back to watch as the Merry Men proceeded back out the way they had come and into the shuttle bay, where Fate seemed to be their partner-in-crime; a Spirit dropship was floating serenely in the gravity anchors.
The humans made good their escape back to Alpha Base, proving to the Covenant that they were not just a nuisance but instead a major pain in the ass. Upon arriving back at home, Keyes was immediately swept away by the medics, and Silva gave them a grudging, "Good job," before slipping away into the crowd gathered around the Spartans.
-------------------------------------------
John rocked back in his chair, restless. It was not normal for a Spartan to have so much nervous energy, but everything that the Forerunners and he had worked for during the past hundred-thousand-plus years hung on these next several days, and as such, Nep'Thalia had chosen to call a staff meeting to do a last-minute review of all of their plans for the future. As the highest-ranking officer in the fleet, he could not just op out of it like Venera and Kenera had – [Traitors!] he bellowed at them down the mental super-highway that connected them all, but the twins just giggled in response – and because of his restlessness, he was grinding his teeth to dust and swinging back and forth in his chair, glaring at Harena. She was taking far too long to explain the simplest part of the plan, and if looks could kill, she would have been stoned by an angry mob hours ago.
Finally, he couldn't take it anymore and stood up, slamming his hands down on the table that circled the room and bellowing, "Meeting adjourned!" He was the first out of the convention room amidst cheers and praises to the Goddesses, hailing him as a hero, and there was a veritable flood of people from the room following his exit. The Spartan triggered his active camouflage, his form shimmering and vanishing entirely as he masked his mind from the others, hoping to make it to his room uninterrupted. There were certain tricky bastards who could track people down just by feeling their minds, and anyone who stood between him and his hot shower was liable to be thrown out an airlock. It had been a very long day, his armor was covered in mud, and he wanted to get some rest before the Flood Stage of the Halo Campaign truly began, dammit!
He jumped over a cart that abruptly bisected the hall that he was nearly sprinting down and keyed in the pass code to his commander's quarters, darting though the door before it was even all the way open and slamming it shut behind him, slapping the locking mechanism and sinking to the floor with a satisfied sigh. "Finally," he growled, laying there for a minute before getting up again and moving over to the head, stripping down on the tile after activating the force field that would prevent anyone from intruding. He stepped into the shower, the force field there activating automatically once the water was turned on, and sighed again at the incredible warmth of the water as it cascaded over his body. For a long moment he simply enjoyed the heat before washing himself and stopping the flow, stepping back out onto the tile and gathering up his armor, heaving it over to the industrial size bath at one end of the head and dumping it in, biosuit and all. He'd sweated and bled in it recently; the whole thing could use a wash.
While the tub was filling with the anti-electric cleanser, he tugged on a spare set of Forerunner armor that he had lying around, a Class Thirty-Six combat skin, one of the best available. Knowing Venera and Kenera, he wasn't likely to remain undisturbed for long, so he darted back into the head and flopped down on the edge of the tub, reaching into the already-murky liquid to pull out the first plate that his hand touched and grabbing his scrub brush to set to work on the grime.
Two hours later – and after another shower – the Spartan was squeaky clean and utterly invisible from helmet to boots, amusing himself by listening in on the conversations his Infected were having and occasionally throwing his own opinion into the mix; in a sense, even the most private of conversations were part of the public forum – [Thenma, if you actually go through with your plan to have sex with Ursoen on my desk, I'll castrate the both of you.] – and sometimes, that was able to avert disaster.
Other times it was just embarrassing.
-------------------------------------------
The island was all alone in the vast sea, no sign of anything special about it; there were Forerunner structures on it, just like other places on Halo, but it was here, Cortana claimed, that the Silent Cartographer was hidden beneath the surface. "The Cartographer," she explained, "is a map room that should show us the location of Halo's control center." Once again, the AI was in an abnormally fine mood that morning, even humming softly in the back of Fred's helmet, seemingly dancing with joy if that was what the shifts of her icy chill were.
Despite the island's remote location, the beach was swarming with Covenant, of course, and Blue and Red Teams charged over the sand to use nearby rocks as cover, Marines following them up the slight rise as the mob of humans took out the Covenant with almost ruthless efficiency. It was decided very swiftly that Red Team would stay behind to guard the beach with Linda and the Marines while Fred, Kelly, and Sam proceeded to the Silent Cartographer in the Warthog. The threesome rounded the headland and sped across an open area of ground on the near continuous beach that ringed the whole island. There were some Jackals perched on a collection of rocks immediately around the turn, so Kelly – who was on the turret once more – opened up with the LAAG, picking the trio off one by one before swinging the gun around to help Sam with the Elites and Grunts gunning at them from a copse of evergreens up against a rock face. There were some sprays of violet and neon blue blood, and the Spartans moved on after making sure that the enemy was actually dead.
After topping an earthen rise, they caught sight of a large structure jutting outward from the side of the cliff, Covenant swarming all over it. Fred pulled the vehicle to a halt early, determined not to lose their only method of transportation, and they bailed out of their seats, bringing their weapons to bear on the aliens after they took cover in the trees. An enterprising group of Jackals took aim at them when they noticed the gleam of the Spartans armor, but they were swiftly filled with lead. It was a simple matter to slay the Elites after that, and the Grunts' running around in terror only made them that much easier to kill. Kelly stayed behind to guard the Warthog from any further Covenant attacks while Fred and Sam made their way into the structure, exchanging fire with the two veteran aliens still inside. There was a ramp leading down into the cliffside, and they warily followed it down to a chamber where an Elite and its clutch of Grunts opened fire on the Spartans. The Senior Chief primed a grenade as he ducked back around the corner with Sam, and there was a satisfying bang as the explosive detonated, multiple colors of blood splattering the walls.
"Don't let them lock the doors," Cortana called as they spun back around the corner and sprinted for the opening – which slammed shut just as they reached it, forcing them to backtrack to the surface. Cortana activated a COM channel and called, "Cortana to Keyes."
"Go ahead, Cortana. We're still en route to the objective –"
'Your DOOM!'
" – Have you found the control center?"
"Negative, Captain. The Covenant have impeded our progress; we cannot continue to the Cartographer unless we disable the installation's security system."
"Understood. Use any means necessary to force your way into the facility and find that control room. Failure, people, is not an option. Good luck, Keyes out." Cortana turned off the radio and checked her connection to Halo's security systems. It was still there, self-updating in the back of her "mind," and though she could have easily used it to deactivate the door locks, she would eventually have to explain how she did so. In her opinion, it wasn't worth the trouble. The Spartans were already on their way out, assisting Kelly against the Spirit dropship that had unloaded a score of Covenant troops right outside of the Cartographer, and though the aliens had superior technology and numbers, they could not hope to stand against humanity's heroes for very long.
Fred gunned the vehicle in the direction opposite the one that they came from, sending them around a blind corner at a steady clip, wary of sudden attacks. There was an opening up into the rock in a small copse of trees, but it was practically overflowing with alien life forms. The Warthog's turret and Sam's assault rifle found work to do even as Fred worked to run down as many of the aliens as possible, the vehicle's huge tires and tremendous horsepower more than up to the task. Cortana watched from inside the leader's head, using the ring's communication array to keep track of all the chatter going around across the networks, wondering if that was how God felt in a brief moment of blasphemy. She stretched in weariness and settled back down as the trio abandoned the Warthog and advanced up the small canyon on foot, gunning for the Grunts and Elites that popped up when they rounded the corner to continue their climb into the island.
Fred was about to step out into the open like an idiot when Cortana said, "Wait. I'm picking up something big in the wash below, probably Hunters."
All three of the Spartans crouched to converse quietly. Kelly would be the rabbit, as usual, and if necessary, Sam was strong enough to go toe to toe with one of the beasts and live if S-087 failed to draw both of the Hunters' attention. Fred would support Kelly, aiming for the exposed flesh of the armored beast's back. Surprisingly enough, everything went according to plan; both Hunters went after Kelly, and the remaining two Spartans were able to gun them down from behind. Cortana had her suspicions as to why everything was running so smoothly – *cough*John*cough* – but she said nothing because he was not supposed to exist here.
Then again, neither was she. At least as she was.
They made it to the security center without further incident, other than a gaggle of Grunts, Jackals, and Elites followed by another pair of Hunters, but for the Spartans, it was just another day on the job. They dispatched their foes with ease, deactivated the security systems, and were able to save a few Marines from the crashed Bravo 22 Pelican that Cortana had called in, taking some Jackals out of the alien breeding pool while they were at it. They dropped the soldiers off at the LZ and returned to the Cartographer, where they were forced to take out yet another pair of Hunters that had been dropped off in their absence. From there, all three proceeded down the ramp to the lower floor and slipped through the door, sweeping the area in search of something to shoot.
Kelly was the first to advance down the left hand hallway, the other two right behind her, and when they emerged into a small antechamber, they didn't even have to think about it. The Elite's back was turned and all the Grunts were asleep, which resulted in swift and silent "pistol whip" deaths for the lot of them. Saved some ammo, that was for sure. Sam slipped through the hatch on the left while Kelly proceeded up the ramp and around the corner, Fred heading through the door under the ramp itself. Fortunately for them, all of the paths led to the same room, and they got the opportunity to silently melee some of the foes to death there before an Elite took notice of them and roared to wake the sleeping Grunts. The ensuing firefight resulted in at least minor injuries on their side, and Fred quickly sealed off his puncture wound before they continued on down another ramp.
There were two Jackals on the two-and-a-half foot wide steel platform, and it was a simple matter for S-034 to swat them off of it, sending them down into the abyss below. Beyond the next hatch, there was a room filled with covenant soldiers, and the Spartans split up temporarily to gun them all down in record time. They moved into the open space in the center of the room, and Kelly was just in time to bring up the rocket launcher they got from Bravo 22, firing at the fourth pair of Hunters coming up the ramp on the far side of the room. That spawned a quick engagement with the behemoths before they, too, went the way of the rest of the Covenant who encountered the Spartans: the silence of eternity, the abyss of death. The trio went down the way the Hunters had come up entered yet another room, Kelly choosing to abandon the path entirely and drop down to the floor below, leaving Fred and Sam no choice but to follow. They tried several hatches in the mysteriously empty room and finally found what looked to be the right one, heading even deeper into the ring.
Some brief chatter came over the COM as Foehammer reported some enemy dropships headed in the direction of the ground teams back at the LZ, the trio within the structure proceeding along a transparent footbridge, and Cortana conversed with the soldiers outside before returning her attention to the Spartans. They dropped from a catwalk that bisected the chamber, greased a bunch of Covenant with two well placed grenades, and finally reached the Silent Cartographer after a duel with a veteran and a rookie Elite.
"There," Cortana said, "That holopanel should activate the map."
Fred did as she instructed and brushed a hand across the display, bringing up a three-dimensional hologram of the installation. From there, the construct activated a location pin to show the Control Room to the Spartans. "It appears that Halo's control center is in some kind of shrine. Fascinating. A shrine is an unlikely place for something as valuable as that." She opened up a COM channel. "Cortana to Keyes."
There was a moment of silence before Foehammer picked up the slack. "The Captain has dropped out of radio contact, Cortana. His ship may be out of range or having equipment problems."
"How convenient," she muttered, then said, "Let me know when you have reestablished contact, and tell him that the Spartans and I have determined the location of Halo's Control Room." The COM link snapped off, and she returned her attention to the Spartans, saying, "Let's get back to the surface."
The Spartans retraced their steps, killing all of the Covenant that had been dropped in while they were further below, finally emerging from the structure after what felt like hours traversing the winding corridors and confusing tangles of the Silent Cartographer, and almost immediately they were set upon but a trio of Elites with active camouflage. However, all they had to do was aim for the slight haze sprinting around on the platform immediately outside the Cartographer. Strangely enough, the Elites were the only ones on the surface, but the warriors didn't question it, instead clambering into the Pelican with Linda and Red Team when Foehammer brought her bird down low enough for them to hop in, conversing with Cortana about the coordinates for their aerial insertion: underground.
**********
My secret side I keep hid under lock and key
I keep it caged but I can't control it
'Cause if I let him out he'll tear me up, break me down
Why won't somebody come and save me from this, make it end?
- "Monster," Skillet (Awake)
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone