A MESSAGE FRPOM THE AUTHOR: So inspired right now! Hope you like it!

Chapter 4: Project Delphi

POV: Lucky

We had just arrived on the Pillar Enterprise when we were pulled off to another briefing with the captain of the ship.

"What's this about?" I demanded as Annabeth shot me a glare that meant she wanted me to shut up.

"This is about the real mission." The captain began as another officer entered the room.

The woman that entered was wearing an ONI uniform and had a hologram disk in her hand.

"Hello Spartans." She greeted as she activated the hollo table and pulled up a file of an ONI tower. "This was the ONI research facility in Hearth. It was over run during the initial invasion. On the top floor was a new AI that was being developed for the fleet's pillars. It would handle all the sub routines and even some of the larger ones so the we can risk less lives on the ships and the few people on board can focus on fighting rather then things like air flow and fuel."

"Sounds useful." Luke commented.

"Oh, it will be." She said with a smile. "I designed it myself. I based it off my brain scans to ensure it has the right intentions."

"Who are you exactly?" I asked her as Annabeth shot me a death glare.

"Dr. Halsey." She responded shortly. "My name is Dr. Halsey."

Every one stared in shock.

She had created us, the Spartans. She was the reason we were who we were. Now she was asking us to do a mission for her.

I felt conflicted on this.

She had made me so strong but took my childhood and my whole future away but did so to save lives. I was struggling with how I should feel.

"The AI must be saved." She told us. "It's called Cortana and it is the most promising, ship board, AI we have made to date."

"We'll get it for you, mam." Luke assured her with a nod.

She gave him a nod.

"Good." She said. "This is priority one. If the aliens get their hands on this AI it could end us all."

We all nodded.

"Now," She began. "I must ask that Spartans 311 and 333 accompany me to med bay four."

Annabeth and I eyed each other, a little on edge, and followed her from the room.

"What's this about?" I demanded as I followed the doctor down the hall.

"I'll tell you in med bay four." She assured me as Annabeth shot me a death glare.

"Shut up, Lucky." Annabeth whisper growled in my ear. "She could have you shot if you piss her off."

Was that why she was taking us away? To kill us?

When we got to the med bay we were met by another ONI woman with red hair and green eyes.

"This is the Spartan I requested?" She asked, turning to Annabeth and I.

"Yes." Halsey answered.

"Then I'll take it from here." The red head said. "Thank you Dr. Halsey."

Halsey nodded and left.

"My name's Rachel Elisabeth Dare." The red head introduced herself. "I'm the lead worker of Project Delphi, an advanced AI program designed to help Spartans in combat to fight more efficiently."

"We heard, mam." Annabeth began. "Crotona sounds amazing."

Rachel scoffed.

"That's Halsey's AI for the fleet." She said. "It's only deigned to interface with hardware but project Delphi is surgically implanted to assist the troops by taking over root functions like heart rate, kidneys, digestion and other functions to make the trooper more combat capable. Faster, stronger, and smarter. It combines it's processing capabilities and knowledge with the trooper's intuition and human ability to adapt despite the absurd logic and make a perfect Spartan."

"This thing stuck in Hearth too?" I asked. "Dam, talk about putting all your eggs in one basket."

"RED is not in Hearth." She assured me.

"RED?" Annabeth asked.

"RED was the first success we had but it took a bit too much of the original host's personality and will only respond to her name or nickname."

"Who was the host?" I asked, confused on why they called this thing red.

"Me." Rachel said. "Rachel Elizabeth Dare. R. E. D."

I nodded and turned to Annabeth to make sure she was following. She seemed to be. At least one of us is.

"Why are we here?" I asked after a moment.

Rachel smiled.

"Your team is about to face a threat like no other." She said. "I wish to give your team the tools it needs to survive."

"You should talk to Luke then." I said. "We're just the grunts of the group."

My comment was rewarded with an elbow to the arm from Annabeth. Even with the armor on it still hurt and almost made me drop my helmet.

"I was given approval from Halsey to install my best AI into one of her Spartans." Rachel continued. "So I had RED go over the files of all the Spartans to select a Spartan to be her new host. Your fire team's record jumped out at her. Along with personality profiles. There is one other reason though." She paused for a moment. "The AI must remain safe. It cannot be captured under any circumstances." She paused. "Spartan 311 you are smart, fast, an excellent shot and a natural leader." She turned to me. "You, Spartan 333 are strong, impulsive, brave, and lucky. The pair of you make for a good team so I know the AI will be of good use to you two and it is for that reason that your squad was picked for this mission."

"So we're getting AIs?" I asked in shock.

"No." Rachel answered. "Only one of you will. RED has already made a choice but wanted her to meet her Spartan before being implanted to make sure that it was the right choice."

"And I believe it is." Came Rachel's voice from a hollo monitor on the wall to my right.

Then it flickered and a, red, holographic version of Rachel appeared on the wall.

"We should begin the operation immediately." RED stated. "I'll shut down for transfer."

The hologram shut off as the Annabeth spoke.

"I volunteer." She said and began to walk to the surgery table as Rachel put an arm out to stop her.

"As I stated earlier." She began. "RED has chosen her Spartan and she Chose Spartan 333."

I stared at her in shock.

"Me?" I asked. "Why?"

Annabeth was shooting me a look now. It was a glare like I had just stabbed her in the back.

"Like you said," Annabeth began. "He's impulsive. That might not end well."

'Thanks!' I thought sarcastically.

"But he will fight to the end to protect her." Rachel said. "It's his one weakness, to never give up on friends."

"Wouldn't it be wiser to instill an AI in a leader?" She asked.

"And its moments like this that RED rejected you despite my trying to get her to see otherwise." Rachel said. "You are too prideful, Spartan 311. It could get you killed but even worse it might drive you to let her get captured instead of destroying her."

"How would I destroy her if she's implanted in my head?" Annabeth demanded. "This makes no sense!"

"Yes it does." I said somberly.

"Then how?!" Annabeth screamed at me. "The stupid thing wants you to rip it out or what?"

I shook my head and pulled out a spare amo mag that I had on my belt and held it up.

"With this." I said. "They can't use it if the host is dead."

Rachel nodded sadly.

"RED thought you were not only driven enough to fight and survive but loyal enough to die if the mission called for it." Rachel said.

I nodded and walked past a stunned Annabeth to the operating table and laid down.

"Just make sure I'm out solid." I said. "Augmentation hurt bad enough, I don't want to be awake for another one."

As doctors came over and put a mask over my mouth I turned to see Annabeth standing next to me with her hand on my shoulder as she smiled down at me with a tear running down her face.

"You better wake up." She warned me. "If you die on this table I'm going to kill you."

I laughed weakly as the gasses filled my lungs from the mask.

"Sounds good." I told her as I blacked out.

When I came to I was too groggy to open my eyes.

"Take it easy." I heard Rachel tell me. "You've been out for two hours."

I groaned and nodded.

My head was killing me.

"He's awake!" I could hear Annabeth shouting.

"Oh, good." Rachel said. "Spartan 333, can you hear me?"

I nodded again, not opening my eyes.

"Is RED functioning?" She asked.

"Tell her that I am." Rachel's voice answered her own question.

My eyes snapped open.

"What?" I asked and looked around.

"Is RED functioning?" Rachel asked me.

"Just tell her I'm fine." Her voice was saying at the exact same time.

It was too much, I felt like I was going crazy and my head was killing me.

I sat up and clutched my head.

"Take it easy, you're still recovering." Rachel's voice said.

"Spartan 333, please answer the question." The Rachel standing next to me ordered.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" I shouted. "Both of you!"

The Rachel next to me paused before smiling.

"Both?" She asked. "You hear another one of me?"

I nodded, grateful that she didn't answer herself again.

"Then RED is working!" She cheered. "The other me you her is her. It's RED talking to you."

I paused in shock.

The AI was in me! It was actually in me and could talk to me!

Then a red hologram appeared in front of me.

It was a digital Rachel that I recognized as RED.

"Holy shit!" I cried out in surprise. "You can still do that?"

She shook her head as Rachel and Annabeth exchanged looks.

Rachel began to ask me questions but I raised a hand to silence her so RED could speak without confusing me.

"Only you can see and hear me." She told me. "My name's RED and you are Lucky. It's good to finally meet you in person."

"Nice to meet you too." I told her. "But why can't they see you?"

"I'm projecting myself into you're vision not into the real world." She told me. "It's not like I'm hooked up to your armor's hollo projector, I'm in your head. You should totally ask by the way." She said with a smirk.

"Ask what?" I asked her, very confused.

"You know what." She said before frowning. "Huh, you really don't know. We'll maybe you'll remember the dream some time but until then I won't spoil it."

"What are you talking about?" I asked, getting very confused.

"Lucky?" Annabeth asked, taking a step closer. "What's going on in that head of yours?"

RED started to laugh.

"What's so funny?" I demanded, addressing the A.I.

"From their point of view it looks like your talking to yourself." She said. "Sorry, but that's funny."

I groaned as Annabeth spoke again.

"What did that A.I. do to him?" She demanded. "He's not responding to anything we say and he's talking to himself!"

"I can hear you." I said to her. "And I'm not talking to myself, I'm talking to the weird A.I. person that's in my skull now."

"I'm not weird!" Red protested as Annabeth opened her mouth to speak.

"So, what's it like?" Annabeth asked me. "Do you feel any different?"

I shook my head.

"Not really." I said.

Just then everything slowed down as I found myself looking around the room in normal time. Everything around me was moving so slowly they might as well have been standing still.

"Wha…?" I began as RED cut in.

"This is the perks of having me with you." She said, still projecting herself into my eyes. "We share thoughts and rudimentary functions on such a level that you can access my processing speeds on demand, allowing you to take in all that is happening much quicker but from our point of view time is slowing down."

"This is how you see the world?" I asked in surprise.

"Nope." She said. "It's usually much slower for me but having you access my processing unit is slowing my systems down."

"Holly crap." I muttered. "And I can move like this? Will it hurt me to move at these speeds?"

"I can override your muscle control and use your thoughts to allow you to move quicker for short periods of time but if it lasts too long we risk serious injury to your body." She said. "That being said your augmentation should help you withstand the effects of moving and processing things at the speed of an A.I."

It was at this point time sped up to normal.

"We'll, that's a shame." Annabeth said once time had returned to normal.

"Annabeth!" I screamed out in excitement. "RED just slowed everything down using some sport of processor thing and time was at almost a stand still!"

"What?" She asked in disbelief.

"Oh, good!" Rachel cheered, clapping her hands together. "She let your brain access her processors so you perceived time passing at such a high rate that it appeared to slow down, we were hoping that would work! What about the muscle hijacking?"

"Muscle hijacking?" Annabeth demanded, looking worried.

"RED can take over motor-control of Spartan 333's muscles to slow down or speed up their movements based on how fast she can send signals to them." Rachel explained. "So in combat it is possible for Spartan 333 to move at incredible speeds until his muscles wear out from too much use in such a small amount of time." She turned to me. "You must be careful not to over use it or the intense speeds might kill you."

"Yah," I began. "Red mentioned something about that."

And so time seemed to get away from us. Eventually Annabeth suggested we grab twenty before we arrive at Nantoon.

As I climbed into my bunk and shut my eyes I could hear RED going over statistics in the background.

"Can you be quiet?" I asked her. "I'm trying to sleep here."

"RED won't shut up?" Annabeth asked from her bunk across the walkway as she shut her eyes to get some rest.

I nodded.

"Not easy to adjust to having two people in your head." I said.

"Sorry." RED said. "I'll power down for a while."

"No problem." I told her. "I'm gona shut down for a while too."

Time Break!

"Get moving!" RED screamed in my head. "Now!"

My eyes snapped open to see the emergency lights were lit and an alarm was blaring.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"The Captain announced battle stations, apparently we have an enemy ship on our six and according to my sensors it's gaining on us." She said. "We'll be in drop range in fifteen minutes so grab your gear."

Just then Annabeth came running in.

"We're under attack!" She screamed.

"One ship on our six and closing." I cut her off as I scrambled to my locker. "Drop's in fifteen minutes."

"How…" Annabeth began.

"Red told me." I said as I grabbed my AR and sprinted past Annabeth to the loading dock.

Once there we boarded a pelican and took our seats amongst the squad.

"Where the hell have you two been?" Luke demanded as I locked myself into my seat.

"Sorry." Annabeth said. "Lucky was sleeping and I went for a walk to try and calm myself down."

Luke shook his head and took a seat.

Then there was a lurch as we took off and the back ramp sealed to keep the air in the ship.

There was a lot of bouncing as the Pelican dodged enemy fire and a lurch as we plowed into the atmosphere.

'Shit!' My mind screamed. 'Keep it together!'

"Statistically speaking you're more likely to die in actual combat then in a drop ship crash." RED intoned, picking up on my fear.

"Not helping." I growled back at her.

"You're fine, Lucky." Annabeth whispered to me. "We've been through this a thousand times. I'm right here for you."

I nodded my thanks to her as the ship shuddered again under fire.

The interior lighting then turned red as the ramp lowered.

"Get ready!" Luke called out. "We jump on my mark!"

I stood up shoulder to shoulder with Annabeth, ready for whatever came next.

The light turned green and look shouted "Move!"

Two by two the whole squad jumped out the back of the ship, Annabeth and I jumped last.

As we fell I saw purple light all around us, illuminating the sky.

"Watch that fire!" Luke called over the mic.

"Copy that!" Jason called, rolling to his left to dodge a purple light.

Nico wasn't so lucky. He swerved to his left to dodge a shot but was hit by a second one, directly in the chest.

"Ah!" He screamed out as his mic went dead.

His fall became erratic and it was clear he wasn't conscious anymore.

"Nico!" Will screamed. Angling his fall to try and intercept the Spartan.

"Deploy the packs!" Luke screamed out, firing his jetpack.

The whole squad followed suit but will hesitated, not wanting to leave Nico to die.

"He's gone Will!" Annabeth called out. "And even if he's not the armor will lock up so he'll be ok!"

Will nodded and fired his pack, closely followed by Annabeth.

"Don't you dare!" RED screamed in my head. "I recognize that thought pattern! There's two of us in here now!"

I ignored her, intent on doing what I always do in drops.

"Lucky!" Annabeth screamed after me. "Don't do this! Not now!"

Again I ignored the advice, deploying my pack so I stopped a foot above the ground.

"You almost got us killed!" RED screamed at me.

"You picked me." I responded. "That means you deal with me and all my habits."

I looked up to see where my squad was. I figured I had thirty seconds before they landed so I scanned the aria.

I was standing in a backyard on the outskirts of the city. There weren't any aliens here but I was feeling uneasy, like I was being watched.

"RED," I began as I heard my squad's packs landing in the aria. "Scan for lifeforms."

"On it." She replied.

"Lucky, come in." Annabeth's voice came over the radio. "I'm on our Privet line, I thought you said you wouldn't do that anymore! I get your scared but getting yourself killed won't fix that."

"What ever happened to the armor will save us?" I questioned.

"We both know that Will wouldn't have left Nico if I hadn't said it." She said, in a warning tone. "Nico was dead, Will wasn't. I'm not going to apologies for trying to save Will."

"I'm in a back yard." I told her, not knowing how to respond to her words.

"Same place you landed?" Annabeth asked me.

"Yup." I responded.

"Then stay put." She said. "I'm on my way to you."

And so I crouched down behind a shed and aimed my weapon at the one entrance to the yard, incase an Alien came.

Nothing came.

"Life form approaching." RED warned after a few minutes. "Wait, it's Annabeth."

Sure enough the, her grey armor emerged from around the corner.

"You promised me you would stop doing that." She said as I emerged from behind the shed. "One of these days you're going to botch it and go splat!"

"I promise to stop every time we jump." I told her. "I'm sorry but I can't stay up there."

"Listen to her." RED intoned. "I'd like to survive too."

"Not now RED." I grumbled.

Annabeth shook her head.

"We should get moving." She said. "After you went HALO jumping (High Altitude Low Opening, look it up, it's a real thing!) the squad took heavy fire and scattered on landing."

"Give me a second." I told her as I put a finger to my helmet. "Luke, I'm with Annabeth. What's our orders?"

No reply.

"Jason?" I tried. "Come in."

Again, nothing.

"Barracks three, come in!" I said, putting anger into my voice.

"Coms are dead." Annabeth said. "I already tried. I guess we're lucky our fire team line still works."

"Yah, not luck." RED said. "I sensed a radio jammer nearby but was able to shield the fire team line from it."

"RED says she was able to shield our line from a radio jammer nearby." I told Annabeth. "So I guess we know what our first priority is."

She nodded.

"Re-establish coms and find the squad." She said. "Then we retrieve the A.I. and gather intel on the enemy."

I nodded in agreement.

"Two Spartans and an A.I. take on an army of advanced Aliens." I said with a nod. "This should be fun." I say with sarcasm.

A MESSAGE FROM THE AUTHOTR: Like it? Then post a review to let me know you want more.