Survival of the Evolved

Master Chief's endorsement is the only reason Samus manages to board a Pelican outbound for the gravity well siege. Del Rio keeps his distance, but word has already spread through Gypsy company about her open insubordination. Even with Palmer and Chief speaking up for her, she can feel the glares hidden behind the soldiers' visors.

Their Pelican flies light: only a half-dozen men, not counting the new arrivals and pilot. Samus stays buckled into a seat while Chief stands with the Spartan-IVs and other marines. The one near her is only there because of a lack of seats.

Three minutes from the rendezvous, Del Rio appears in a hologram before the troops. He makes an obvious effort to look at everyone but Chief and Samus. "The air corridor to the gravity well is blocked by a network of particle cannons. Open the lane for Infinity to move up and provide air support."

"Captain, what's Fore Recon's assessment of the terrain?" Chief questions as flatly as possible.

The suspicion from the others doesn't compare to the Captain's open disdain. "I know you've been out of the field for a while, or maybe you've been working with mercenaries too long, but this is a blowthrough op. Sending in recon would only slow us down.

"Telemetry indicates the particle cannons are being controlled from a command post southwest of our position," he continues as an image of the AA weapon appears next to him. "Roll on that target with the Mammoth and neutralize those guns. We'll meet on the other side and take out the gravity well. Infinity out."

Cortana sighs in the visors of both partners. "I don't know about you, but I like a little more intel with my intel."

"At least he let the soldiers with us bring guns instead of sharp rocks," Samus grumbles quietly.

No one else speaks before the Pelican lands in a giant clearing. The new environment is a desert canyon almost comically different from the thick jungles around Infinity's crash site. Everyone files out the back of the craft and does the engrained sweep for targets. Not that most of them can see around the massive vehicle Lasky brought for the mission.

The "Mammoth" is aptly named: it has a cargo hold is large enough to carry multiple Warthogs, three levels for the onboard soldiers to navigate, and wheels are taller than the Spartans. Multiple marines are already moving around it like worker bees, finishing their final preparations for the assault. The primary anti-aircraft gun on top can take down multiple Phantoms with a single shell, and the defense weapons aren't easily dismissed either.

"Well… Someone's overcompensating," Cortana jokes.

"Welcome to the party, Chief," Lasky chimes in from the controls of the Mammoth. "We've got to manually bring down a couple of the particle cannons before we can get to the command post. We're about to start rolling: climb on and grab a jet pack."

The pair quickly run in and do as suggested. They're not onboard more than six seconds before the vehicle moves underneath them. It's a surprisingly smooth ride, but it's still a military craft driving across rough terrain. Most of the troops are hanging onto something if they're not actively working. A trio of Pelicans arrive to give air support as they settle into their preferred positions. Chief takes one of the mounted guns on the right flank while Samus finds an overwatch perch atop the Mammoth's control booth.

Roughly a mile in and past a large bend in the canyon, they spot the first particle cannon. The surplus confidence they had from their extra firepower is quickly snuffed out. It's almost as large as Didact's sphere and is clearly overkill for the aircraft escorting them.

Palmer, monitoring from Infinity's CIC, gives the Captain an update over the open radio. "Targeting Pelicans are in position, waiting for the Mammoth's mini-MAC to take out targets. Hey, Seven Six Six, lose some altitude!"

"Almost got it..." one of the pilots replies. The Mammoth's cannon is trying to line up with the targeting laser, but a cliff side is still in the way. "Come on, almost got it..."

Everyone hears the particle cannon warming up. Palmer's second warning comes too late: two of the ships are vaporized, and the one lucky enough to only be grazed is going down in flames.

"That's a great omen," Samus grumbles, moving to the nose of the Mammoth. "Who's going after survivors?"

Del Rio apparently heard her. "Gypsy, get to the crash site and retrieve the target designator. You've got no chance of clearing those guns out without it."

"Covenant on the ridge line! Weapons free!" Lasky orders a second before the first salvo of plasma flies over their heads.

Chief puts the mounted gun to good use on the approaching ground troops while his partner fires on the distant targets. The Mammoth's height helps them, and the marines make quick work of the ambush without having to tap the brakes.

The Pelican crashed less than a klick down the canyon, a dozen aliens already forming a defensive line in the clearing. The worst of them are coming from a Phantom actively dropping in reinforcements. Thankfully the path to reach it is flat enough to be crossed on foot.

As the Covenant vehicles try to push in, Samus leaps off the Mammoth. "Leave a Ghost intact for me," she orders as her jet pack propels her over the battlefield. Combined with her jump's momentum, she almost seems to fly over the defenders and into cover.

Chief drives the vehicles apart with his missile launcher, pushing one Ghost towards Samus' position. The grunt driving it is dead before he realizes he's flanked. She takes the vehicle and floors it towards the Pelican, running over two more along the way.

Three Warthogs loaded with Marines drive in to give her support. The Bounty Hunter disappears into the craft's remains on foot, then reappears dragging the pilot out. Chief watches her out of the corner of his eye as he suppresses the vehicles dropping from the Phantom. A Warthog driver understands Samus' waving and grabs the pilot for an evac while the others provide cover.

"I've got the laser designator," she reports from behind a boulder. "Point and shoot?"

Cortana answers, "Pretty much."

"Paint the Phantom first," Chief suggests.

Samus hits the transport with a green beam from the designator, and the Mammoth's mini-MAC blasts it into pieces. The ground troops scramble for safety before the wreckage can land on them, but they're quickly cut down by the humans.

Samus uses the jet pack to pass the marines driving back on Warthogs. She finds her perch atop the Mammoth's roof a few seconds before the rail gun finishes reloading. As soon as her designator says another shell is ready, she paints the Forerunner cannon for destruction. Even with the weapon's size, it only takes one shot for it to come down in pieces further along the canyon.

"Are we sure we need the control station?" Cortana laughs. "We can probably manage with just this thing."

Her Spartan swings the launcher at a Ghost that escaped the slaughter. His short salvo vaporizes it and, for some reason, also scrambles his visor's interface.

Cortana's voice comes into his helmet, obscured slightly by white noise. "Ah, blast it!" The icons are restored for a moment, then blur even worse. Her shouting slowly becomes just as distorted as his display. "Listen to me, damned thing! They're only Covenant! They… They don't care about you! They already replaced you!"

The interface disappears entirely, and white noise rings loudly in Chief's radio. He instantly takes cover inside the Mammoth's stairwell. "Cortana!" he almost yells. "Cortana, can you hear me?!"

Her hologram appears in the side of his vision. She looks exhausted, shaking her head and putting her hand to it. "I'm sorry..." she grumbles, not really looking back at him.

"It's OK," he replies almost automatically. It's all he can really think to say.

"No, it's not alright, John. None of this is alright!" Her eyes finally meet his, almost confrontational. But it only lasts a moment before the defeat washes over her face again. "I thought I was holding it back..."

"You are. That's why we're getting you to Halsey. Because you're strong enough to fight it until we find her."

"… I guess we'll see."

The sound of Samus' boots on the stairs warn them of her approach. Cortana quickly disappears and puts Chief's interface back up. He looks up, gritting his teeth.

"Are you two OK?" the Bounty Hunter asks. "You dove in here like we had a fire."

"We're fine." Chief nods and pushes past her, his rifle tight in his grip. "Any more Covenant?"

She follows up behind him. "Only stragglers and scouts so far. There hasn't been anything organized yet."

"It won't stay that way for long."

Thankfully, they don't come to the top of the Mammoth and find a coordinated attack underway. Several small packs of Ghosts and occasional Wraiths meet the oncoming Mammoth, only enough to slightly slow them down. The ample supply of mounted defenses and anti-tank rockets give the soldiers onboard something to do, making Samus and Chief almost excessive. Over the next few miles, two dozen Ghosts, five Wraiths, and another particle cannon are brought down by the Mammoth and its crew.

Chief watches his display carefully for any signs of Cortana's rampancy, almost more so than the battlefield. If she notices, she doesn't say anything. He thinks he spots another flicker of his HUD, but silently acknowledges he could only be seeing what he's expecting to. He's not worried about having to fight without her if it comes to that. It's how badly this rampancy seems to be hurting her. The comparison of Alzheimer's runs through his mind briefly, how they can be painfully aware that their mind is fading early on. He doesn't so much bury the thought as he does burn it from his brain.

The resistance is minimal until they get through a bottleneck. It barely opens before Lasky starts yelling about an unidentified craft at the 1 o'clock. Roughly the size of the Mammoth, the flying Covenant transport appears over a cliff side with troops pouring out of it. Samus paints it with the targeting laser, but it fires a plasma round before the mini-MAC can adjust. The entire vehicle shudders and comes to a screeching halt.

"Mammoth's hit!" Lasky yells over the radio. "Forward traction offline! Primary power controls offline!"

The Covenant are already swarming them. There's a few vehicles scattered across the horde, but it's mostly ground troops trying to get in through the bay doors.

"We're not going to last long in the open!" Cortana shouts as Chief sprints into the cargo hold. Two Elites are already inside, pinned down by Marines firing from the upper level. The Spartan takes them out with grenades and continues further in.

Several Jackals serve as walking shields in front of a squad of grunts and another Elite. Chief's assault rifle fire brings down the center shield and the alien behind it before the magazine runs dry. The Elite rushes him, barely getting clear before a rocket kills rest of the squad. Master Chief connects hard with the swing of his rife, but it barely phases his attacker. It tackles him into the wall and draws a pistol as Chief reaches for his magnum.

Neither one gets a shot off before the Elite's head explodes. Samus drops down next to them and quickly fires a missile into another oncoming wave. "You good?" she asks, positioning herself as a guard in front of him.

Chief reloads quickly. "Never better."

Samus nods before running to the nearest Warthog. "I'll drive. Get on the gun."

"She can't be any w-w-worse than you," Cortana stutters, then groans. "Don't say it. Just go."

Chief minimizes his reaction and quickly climbs in behind the mounted machine gun. Samus flies out of the cargo hold and flattens a grunt under her tires. He focuses on a cluster of Jackals trying to make another push on the Mammoth. The Warthog strafes the pack, weaving erratically to dodge the incoming fire without disrupting his aim too much. He makes short work of the attackers, then moves on to the next batch.

The ship that crippled the Mammoth comes into view again, this time picking a plateau to drop troops at. It gives the foot soldiers an elevated position to fire from as they move down, but thankfully not another clear shot from the ship itself.

Cortana scans the craft quickly, then plots a marker for the humans. "There's a grav lift into the belly of that ship. If we time it right, we should be able to ride it inside."

"I'm on it." Samus gives no other warning before she turns the vehicle hard right. It bucks hard as she runs over several Covenant and a rock barely smaller than the wheel.

"Cortana to Lasky, we're on approach to the Covenant troop transport. Hold them back so we can bring the ship down."

"Work fast," he replies tensely. "We've almost got the power going, and that ship is probably going to cripple us again the second we do."

"It won't get the chance, sir," Chief says, shooting another batch of Covenant forces.

Samus gets the Warthog up to the Covenant's plateau in record time. The troops disembarking don't have time to react before Chief's machine gun takes them down. As promised, there's a grav lift waiting to carry them into the cargo hold. It's too small for the Warthog, so they take it on foot.

The grunts, all busy moving supplies for their superiors, are cut down in seconds by the human invaders. They spread out across the hold, searching for more hostiles and a way up. Thankfully the craft isn't outrageously large: they find their exit behind a pair of Jackals preparing to drop down.

They follow the staircase up, dealing with Covenant as quickly as they come. The tight corridors put a priority on speed over accuracy. But they find it's laid out similarly to the Mammoth, with the control room near the front of the top level. Chief deals with the crew while Samus searches for a way to bring the craft down.

"This looks important," she muses at what might be the power source. The consoles of the room start blaring alarms when she blasts it with her cannon.

"That did it! Time to leave!" Cortana shouts. "There's no time to go back the way we came."

Chief sticks a grenade to one of the windows. "Then we'll make a new exit."

The explosion leaves a suitably large hole in the windshield. Samus is through it first, checking for enemies quickly before she leaps off the craft. Chief follows a second after her, racing to beat the rapidly approaching ground.

Cortana cheers as he launches them clear of the crashing ship. Her voice starts to crack again, morphing into a hybrid between mania and white noise. By the time they use their jet packs as parachutes, she's stopped speaking entirely. He says nothing and does his best not to let his face reveal anything. Cortana doesn't react enough for him to know if she noticed or not.

The ship is actively burning as it falls into the canyon, a dozen Covenant jumping out instead of dying inside. When the other two don't get on the radio, Samus does it for them. "Lasky, this is Samus. We've taken care of the Covenant ship. That should cut off their source of reinforcements."

There's an audible sigh over the radio. "Thanks, both of you. Things were a little dicey there for a minute. All hands, form up on us. Let's finish this before they regroup."

Thankfully, the Mammoth is only at the end of the next path. They climb into the cargo hold as the vehicle starts rolling again. Chief collects more ammo from the small armory as Samus recharges her suit with the fallen Covenant weapons.

They meet no real resistance as they ride further into the canyon, slowly approaching the control room. Chief breathes a little easier and guesses Samus is doing the same, based on her body language. He even takes a moment to appreciate the small waterfall as they drive over it. At least until his HUD flickers.

"Again? Really?" Cortana grumbles as she tries to clear the display up. She sounds more annoyed than worried.

Chief listens carefully to her words and voice this time, trying to get a read on her. As she growls and his display glitches, he instinctually starts to think of worst-case scenarios. He grits his teeth and shoves them back down. She'll get better when they get to Earth. Thinking anything else will only make him doubt his partner. He can't afford that.

The HUD dies entirely. Cortana appears in his visor, her voice hidden behind white noise. "Damn it! Why, why is this so hard? I should be able to do this in my sleep. Come on… yes!"

Finally, his visor returns to the way it was. He nods to her as casually as he can manage.

Cortana returns the gesture, then shakes her head with a frown. "Blast it..."

"It's OK."

"How?" she snaps back at him, her voice only slightly distorted. "How is this 'OK?' How is putting you at risk because I can't hold it together OK?"

The anger fades after a moment of silence, and she sighs. "Chief, do you even understand what Rampancy is? We don't just shut down. Our cognitive processes begin dividing exponentially according to our total knowledge base. We literally think ourselves to death… Do you know how terrifying that is to feel it happening?"

"You know I won't let that happen," he responds. He almost sounds like his normal, confident self. But the slight fear and anger under it are impossible to miss.

Cortana's eyes match his in the visor, almost staring through him. "And what if it happens anyway?" she asks softly.

His hesitation is enough of an answer. Before he can say anything, she disappears again.

Chief sighs, shaking his head at himself.

The last few miles of the drive are uneventful, but surprisingly scenic as they drive along the canyon wall. Coming over the hills and seeing how massive this ecosystem is, it's easy to forget it's an artificial construct. And that there's no shortage of things that want to kill them.

They come into a narrow pass that ends in a pile of fallen rocks too convenient to be natural. Everyone onboard grips their weapons tighter and scans the empty ridge line.

"117, Lasky," the XO says over the radio. "Think this is about it for the Mammoth. We're not getting over this blockage."

Cortana shows a rough map of the terrain to her human partners. Clearly highlighted is a small path just off the one they're on. "The command post for the particle cannons is on the other side of this trench."

"Sir, we can move faster on our own," Chief suggests, already checking his rifle and heading towards the trench.

"Affirmative, 117. Watch your back: we'll find a way around and see you at the gravity well."

Samus meets him at the edge of the trench, already looking down its path cautiously. "I'm not the only one thinking this is an ambush, right?"

"Is it ever not?" Cortana jokes humorlessly.

"This is the only way to the command post, trap or not," the Spartan says, quickly scanning the far end through the scope of his new sniper rifle. Nothing moving yet, but he can make out the edges of a Forerunner structure. "Stay alert."

Samus nods, taking position in front of him and moving with her cannon ready for anything.

The Covenant don't stick their heads out until the Forerunner structure is within a stone's throw. They get a small warning: the telltale flash of a Promethean Knight appearing on a ledge up above. It's just enough for them to take cover before the sniper fire reaches them.

"Called it." The Bounty Hunter punctuates her remark with a missile at the one perched directly east of her. If the explosion doesn't kill it, the fall does. "Do you have any preferences?"

Chief takes a moment with the sniper rifle to blow the head off the Knight. "Can you get to a ledge with cover fire?"

She nods, then points to an occupied perch not far ahead. "I'll take his. Keep the others busy."

"Three, two, move."

When the Spartan finishes counting, he steps out and fires on a pair of snipers. Samus sends an energy shot at her target before sprinting towards it. Only one of them is free to shoot back, and it has no chance at catching the Bounty Hunter moving at top speed.

She combines a leap and her jet pack to reach the ledge in a single hop. The sniper dodged the first shot but is quickly vaporized by the point-blank one. Chief reloads his rifle behind cover, trusting Samus to deal with the last sniper on her own. He's not disappointed.

A Knight tries to materialize in front of the Spartan as he presses forward. He empties his assault rifle into its shields, sticks a plasma grenade to its chest, and continues past without breaking stride. He's already reloaded and firing on more grunts when it explodes behind him.

Samus uses her perch for several effective moments before being pushed out by the new snipers further up the path. All it does is put her on the offensive, charging them on foot. The process of leaping onto their perches almost takes more time than killing them.

They meet up at the base of the structure and work together to clear each level of the exterior. Samus focuses on the approaching Jackals and grunts armed with grenades while the Chief uses the last of his sniper ammo to take out the ranged defenders. The Covenant drop plenty of weapons for them, keeping Chief loaded and Samus' suit charged. A couple of the Promethean attack dogs and Knights surprise them by materializing at the entrance, but they're nothing the pair can't handle.

The door into the Forerunner base is unlocked and free of defenses. Chief gives a small breath of relief as they walk in. Cortana got through the assault without another episode. Even if it doesn't mean she's getting better, at least the worst of the danger is gone. It's something.

"Cortana to Infinity, we're entering the Forerunner structure," the AI reports over the radio.

The response from the ship is a mess of static and disjointed syllables.

"Why am I not surprised that our comms aren't working," Samus muses, looking around the structure's foyer. It isn't particularly large, but it's long with several doors leading deeper in. A Sentinel comes down from the ceiling, examines the humans for a moment, and then flies towards a sealed door. After a moment, it opens, but the construct stays there.

"I think it wants us to follow it," Cortana suggests.

Chief and Samus silently take her advice. When they get close, the Sentinel moves to the next door and repeats the process. It leads to an elevator, which immediately begins lowering them down into the structure.

"It's almost like the Sentinels want us to get the particle cannons offline," Cortana speculates.

"This could be a trap," Chief thinks out loud with noticeably dry humor.

"It's not like we tripped the last three," Samus grumbles. "What else can we accidentally release while we're here?"

"The Flood," the AI and Spartan say in perfect sync.

Samus nods. "There is that… Here's hoping we don't make another mistake that catastrophic."

The elevator comes to a stop deep inside the structure, the only way forward another massive hallway. One door stands open at the far end without a Sentinel to escort them. Chief and Samus stay on alert as they walk down the path, but their paranoia seems to be excessive. They pass through that hallway and around another corner, eventually coming to the apparent control room. Other than the dozen Sentinels floating about the room, the most obvious sign is the long bridge leading to some kind of control console.

"The Forerunners had a fondness for dramatic walkways, didn't they?" Samus comments.

Cortana barely seems to notice. "It certainly looks like the control room."

Chief heads down the path, casually looking at the surrounding room. The Sentinels are working feverishly to maintain the four large, rotating cylinders that flank the walkway. Samus follows a few meters behind with a calm alertness.

Cortana appears above the control panel as soon as she's plugged in. She's already busy interfacing with screens moving too fast for the humans to keep up. "The particle cannon network must use these arrays for targeting and guidance. It's an automated system so it won't technicallyallow me to redirect the cannons to fire on one another… Technically."

One screen opens up and displays each of the particle cannons. The remaining guns give the same red alert almost in time with a flick of Cortana's wrist. The whole screen flashes before changing back to a generic highlight of the planet.

Cortana smiles at her partners and gives a small bow. At the same time, the hologram changes to a dark gray without any clear reason. The Spartan tenses up, already moving to remove his partner from the console. "Cortana."

She turns to the interface and pauses. Her eyes seem to focus something beyond it. "What… Something's in here- CHIEF!"

As she recoils back, her form disappears. Chief lunges for the controls, but the console has already taken the chip away. Samus steps toward the other side of the platform, cannon aimed at a Sentinel not actively working on the cylinders.

Chief feels the console, looking for any sign of Cortana's chip or a button to bring her back. Several impossibly slow seconds of searching yield nothing. Panic starts set in when the console lowers itself into the floor.

"Shit, shit..." he mutters, trying to think of where she could be. This should be the main controls: where would something confiscated be taken? An officer's station, some kind of quarantine?

"Chief."

He turns at Samus' voice and follows her pointed finger. A light bridge has appeared in the room off the center platform, leading into a newly made tunnel in the wall.

"I don't like this," she says, scanning the room carefully.

He pushes past her and towards the bridge. "Neither do I."

Samus mutters something and quickly gets behind him. He's jogging with a clear purpose, rifle tight in his shoulder. She seems more concerned scanning for the expected ambush.

The tunnel in the wall is exactly that: a tight corridor barely large enough to walk through, with several sharp turns and no indication as to where it leads. There's a short drop at the end into a wide hallway, once again with Sentinels there to guide them. Four of them are hovering in front of the only door, with a fifth circling above them almost frantically. When the humans approach, the top construct opens the door and lets the others in.

The room is tall rather than long. There's something grand about it, something the humans instinctually feel is almost religious. It's not helped by the glowing blue beam in the center and the platform clearly built around it. There's no clear cause for the beam, and it's too bright to be a gravity lift. The Sentinels are all hovering in front of it, almost staring at the humans.

"They want us in here," Samus thinks aloud, stepping into the room. She scans it quickly, then shakes her head. "There's nothing else. Only that, whatever it is."

"Then we use it." He moves towards the beam with zero hesitation.

Samus grabs him by the shoulder. It's enough of a surprise it actually makes him stop. "Nothing I can say is going to stop you, is there."

"If Cortana's through there, I'm going." His voice is quiet, but no one could call it weak.

After a heartbeat of silence, she nods. Her features are hidden behind the opaque visor as she releases him. "Right behind you."

They both march into the beam with weapons drawn. The light blinds them in every definition of the word. They don't just see white: it overpowers every sense but their thoughts, simultaneously lifting them up and holding them still while making them deaf to the world. After a few moments, neither of them even know where they are.

This isn't helped by the first thing they see when the light fades. They seem to be on the surface again, on a platform high above the clouds. The sun here is framed by an odd Forerunner sculpture. The place is almost considered peaceful in some inexplicable, inescapable way.

A dark dot appears in the middle of the sun, growing slowly. Neither of the humans draw their weapons, but they watch it carefully.

Chief speaks when the thing is close enough to identify it as humanoid. "What are you?"

"I am what remains of the Forerunner once known as the Librarian," it says in a kind, distinctly feminine voice. "My memories were retained to assist humanity on their path to the Mantle. Though sadly, that plan is now at risk. The Didact is leaving Requiem. You must not allow it."

Samus tenses up as the Librarian gets closer. Her cannon slowly raises but stops short of pointing directly at her. "Are we sure this one is friendly?" she mutters.

The Librarian, or the imitation of her, acknowledges the question from an impressive distance. "Please, fear not. I am no ally to the Didact." She finally comes close enough to reveal her features. She's as tall as the Didact, but thinner under the excessively formal dress made more of tech than fabric. Her skin is an alien pale like her eyes, and her face only has nostrils for a nose. She's hovering using a tiny device barely large enough for her to stand on.

"What does the Didact want?" Chief asks pointedly.

"He seeks the Composer, a device which will allow him to finally contain the greatest enemy ever faced by the Forerunners. You," she explains, slowly and carefully choosing her words. "Entire systems fell before the Didact's Warrior-Servants rose to halt your aggression. And when the Didact finally exhausted the humans after a millennium, his sentence was severe. We had no way of knowing that humanity hadn't been expanding, but that they were running. And weakened from our conflict, we were no match for the parasite which pursued you."

Chief shakes his head slightly at what he's hearing. This is information someone else should be hearing, not him. Someone who knows about ancient humanity and can add this to the history books. A revelation about humanity's past is light years above his pay-grade. And there's no way he can make a scientist hear it like he is now. Something about this place or her words makes it impossible to not believe her. Coming out of his mouth, it will probably just seem crazy.

"The Didact believed he would save all life in the galaxy… at a cost," the Librarian continues. "The Composer was intended to bridge the organic and digital realms. But its results soured. The personalities fragmented, and our attempts to return them to biological states created only abominations. But the Flood only assimilated living tissue. The Composer would provide the Didact his solution… and his revenge."

"You're saying the Prometheans… they're human," the Spartan realizes aloud, despite his brain's resistance to the conclusion.

"He would've encrypted your entire race if we had not imprisoned him here. Reclaimer, when I indexed mankind for repopulation, I hid seeds from the Didact. Seeds, which would lead to certain eventualities. Your physical evolution. Your combat skin. Even your ancilla, Cortana. Both of you are the culmination of a thousand lifetimes of planning."

Samus is the vocal doubter this time. "Assuming we believe this..." she says calmly. "Why was humanity split? Dividing us ensured we evolved differently: just look at our armor. You guaranteed that at least one of us wouldn't follow your plan."

The Librarian takes the question in stride, nodding with her words. "We wanted to be sure that humanity would reach its potential. We gave both of you the same tools, the same blueprints to follow as you grew. Our hope was that if one fell, the other would rise and take the Mantle. After our failures with the Flood and war with humanity… we did not want to risk another mistake."

"Like the one you made imprisoning the Didact instead of killing him?" Her voice isn't angry, more like she's stating an unpleasant truth.

Before the Librarian can respond, a deep voice sounds from everywhere at once. "Even in death, her meddling continues."

As the Didact's words hang in the air, several platforms rise from the clouds. Each one has a Knight on it, almost a dozen in total.

"Like I said." Samus aims her canon at one of the constructs.

The Librarian shoves her arm down. "The genesong I placed within you contains many gifts, including an immunity to the Composer. But it must be unlocked."

"How?" Chief asks quickly.

The Didact shouts something that's obstructed by the sound of Samus' missiles destroying three Knights. "Can we leave before more get here?!"

"Your evolutionary journey must be accelerated. Both of you," the Forerunner says, looking mostly towards Chief. "You can't defeat the Didact without it."

The Spartan only hesitates for a moment, then nods. "Then do it."

"And you, Reclaimer?"

Samus sees more Knights appear on their platforms. She hisses under her breath before speaking. "Fine. Get it done, quickly."

The Librarian leaves them with one final word. "Prepare."

As they seemingly come back into existence, Chief's body locks up. The same paralysis that struck him when the Didact grabbed him and a flood of pain washes over him. He closes his eyes, forcing himself to breathe through it. The Spartan augmentation surgery was worse than this. Whatever the Librarian's doing hurts but isn't enough to break him.

He falls to the ground, back in the same room he started in. It takes him two slow breaths to make himself stand again. A ghost of the pain still haunts him, but it's manageable now. As he draws his Promethean rifle, Samus screams. She doesn't land on her feet when the beam drops her: she falls on her side, seizing erratically. Chief grabs her shoulders and pins her to minimize the damage.

Her screams quickly turn into long shudders and pained groans. She stops shaking a moment later but doesn't stand up. "F-f-feels like my bones a-are on fire," she gasps weakly.

"Chief!"

He turns toward the familiar voice and spots Cortana easily. She's projecting herself from a console not ten meters away. He pauses long enough to ensure Samus isn't seizing any more, then rushes to the pedestal. "Don't disappear like that again."

"Lecture me later: we've got company." Not a second after he connects her chip to his helmet again, Prometheans start to appear in the room.

Chief returns fire, taking out the first dog before it leaps from a wall and then another as it rushes their platform. He's already moving toward Samus. She hasn't stood up yet, but she's pushed herself behind a stairway for cover.

"There's an elevator in the back," Cortana says, scanning the room. "What happened? Both of your bio readings are all over the map. Hers are..."

"I-I..." Samus tries to stand but doesn't even get to her knees before she falls again. "Come on, Aran!… I can't tell if I'm burning or freezing…"

Chief quickly fills another dog with bullets, then drives the others back with suppressing fire. "We need to go. Can you run?"

Her hand forms a fist and slams into her helmet once, twice, three times. She shakes her head with a grunt. "Yeah… Yes, I can move. Just cover me… I don't think I can run and shoot."

The Spartan lobs a grenade at the base of the platform, taking out two more of the dogs. He gets his shoulder under her and props her up. She sways a little on her feet but shouts herself into some kind of clarity.

"On three, go right." The staircase on that side has room for her to jump over the rails and continue towards the exit. They should be far enough apart for her to be ignored.

She nods. Her heavy, pained breathing is clear on the radio. "Three, two… go!"

Chief presses forward, focusing on the Knight he can see clearest. One of the canines dives into the stream of rounds, but the sacrifice only buys the Knight an extra second of life. He drops the rifle when it clicks dry and fires on the approaching dogs with his assault rifle. They scatter to the walls and columns of the room, trying to shoot back with the weapons in their mouths.

Samus clears the stairway, but stumbles when she hits the ground. She keeps clumsily running towards the end of the room as the few Prometheans not distracted by Chief try to hit her. He loses sight of her when she runs behind a column.

He focuses on killing the last of the dogs when more start materializing. He starts to reload, and Samus clicks on the radio. "I'm clear. Move."

Chief makes a sprint for the exit. The dogs aren't accurate enough to hit him at that speed, but a Knight is waiting for him at the end. When it raises an arm to shoot, a blue light makes its torso disappear. The Spartan hurdles the falling body and almost slides into the elevator. Samus is laying in the corner, her cannon still glowing from the last shot.

"Took you long enough," she chuckles through a panting groan.

The elevator activates automatically and starts carrying them up. None of the Prometheans are close enough to follow them in.

"Are you alright?" he asks, looking to both of his partners.

Samus lets out another pained sound but manages to slowly climb to her feet. "I'll live, I think… You and Cortana?"

"I'm fine," the AI responds, her voice cracking on the last word. She coughs dramatically before speaking again. "I'm more concerned about you two. Both of your bio readings are going crazy."

"It's a long story, but I know what the Didact's after," Chief says calmly, breathing through another surge of a headache. It's easier to ignore when he's getting shot at, ironically enough.

"The Composer, I know: The Librarian filled me in when she snatched me from the system," Cortana says. "What I don't know is what she did to you."

"According to her, she forced our bodies to evolve a few millennia. Apparently, it hurts a lot worse if your DNA isn't completely human." Samus leans her head back, panting slightly.

Cortana appears in her visor, seemingly examining her face before nodding. "OK, we can talk about that later." She gives the humans a waypoint at the end of the hallway the elevator stops at. "Let's get rid of the gravity well first."

Chief takes point as they enter the hallway. Samus follows, noticeably closer than usual, but also a lot more stable than she was. Through the door at the far end, they find another portal. Cortana scans it and promises it leads to roughly where they left the surface, give or take a dozen klicks. Lacking a better way out, they both hope for the best and walk into it.

The humans haven't even adjusted to the daylight before they're ducking under bullets. They blink several times and see they've landed in the middle of a battle between the UNSC and Covenant.

"I'm reading Sierra One One Seven on-sensor!" a human proclaims on the radio. "Glad to see the Chief's joined us again!"

Samus scoffs, climbing onto her knees with her cannon ready. They're on the edge of a canyon path again, next to a war of small vehicles. She aims at the nearest Ghost and vaporizes it. "It must be nice to have a fan club."

"If she's making jokes, she feels better, right?" Cortana jests through static.

Del Rio, only slightly panicking in his orders, comes on the radio. "Infinity to One One Seven, help Gypsy finish this. We can't take this beating for much longer."

"Can Infinity get target lock on the gravity well?" Chief moves to a flipped Warthog and turns it upright. The roll cage kept everything intact, thankfully.

"Not with the amount of air traffic we're seeing up here. Get line of sight and paint it with a laser designator, now!"

Samus joins Chief in the cab a second before he floors the engine. She waves a laser designator before him, firing her cannon at an Elite they pass. "The last passenger forgot this. At least we don't have to find another one."

After about the fourth alien gets crushed under Chief's tires, the Covenant ground troops start hugging the walls and letting the vehicles duke it out. Samus keeps them off their back, hanging out the cab and firing on anything pursuing them. The gravity well is large enough that Chief can keep heading towards it without Cortana's navigational assistance. Not that she doesn't help by finding shortcuts for him to take. The other Marines try to keep up, but the Covenant bog them down enough they're consistently a hundred meters behind.

When they drive to the edge of a clearing, they can clearly see the base of the gravity well. Considering the size of it, it's no wonder it brought down all of the ships it did today.

Samus unceremoniously lights it up with the laser.

"Target it painted, Infinity," Cortana reports over the radio.

Del Rio laughs victoriously. "Target locked! Firing!"

As the Infinity comes in, a massive canon is fired from its underside. Chief walks around the Warthog just in time to see it take the gravity well out in a single, fire-filled explosion. The extra electricity crackling for the thing shows it's down for the count.

Cortana gives them the good news, earning plenty of cheers from everyone on the open channel. Del Rio orders the troops to disengage and fall back for pick up, but Lasky happily interrupts. The Covenant have been on the retreat for a full minute now, and what's left of the well's defense force has decided to live to fight another day. The Captain seems sour about the disruption, but he still calmly orders everyone to "get back on Infinity before any other surprises show up."

Samus sighs, moving towards the Warthog. "That sounds like he's getting ready to run. Again."

"We have time to try convincing him," Chief says firmly. He almost sounds like he believes it.

Cortana shakes her head in his visor, obviously sharing Samus' doubts.

It takes about 30 minutes to load the Marines onto Infinity and get into the atmosphere, then ten more for the ranking officers to gather in the bridge. Chief and Samus aren't stopped when they enter the meeting this time. But they notice how the security force is watching Samus intently: clearly, they remember what happened last time.

Del Rio spends the first few minutes getting reports on Infinity'sstatus, which is easily surmised as "barely functional." The crash and the two small wars they waged with Covenant have damaged everything in some shape or form. She'll still fly back to Earth, but she's one ambush away from that becoming a gamble. Palmer reports the soldier casualties make another operation like the last one impossible. And even Lasky's precious Mammoth took too many hits to be good for anything else. Infinity isn't down for the count, but she's on her last legs.

Which makes Chief's portion of the debrief go over even less smoothly. He barely gets the first sentence out of his mouth before Del Rio's face spells out how little he's listening. Palmer and Lasky show healthy skepticism to the "robots are converted ancient humans" portion, but they at least hear him out. Particularly the part about the Didact being a Forerunner that's trying to access a weapon that could wipe out humanity. Samus quietly stays off to the side, watching more than listening, while Cortana tries to offer up scans that support her partner.

And it all adds up to Del Rio blowing them off entirely. The Captain faces the rest of the bridge support crew the moment he's done. "Nav, as soon as we know we are airtight, I want a course laid for Carinae Station. Comm, prep a warning beacon."

Master Chief steps around the holodeck, getting slightly closer to him. "Sir, we've seen what the Didact's capable of. Humanity will be at risk if we let him leave this planet."

"Look..." the CO says almost tiredly. "I understand what you thinkwhat you saw."

Samus shakes her head, already stepping towards the exit while Cortana raises her voice. "THINK?!"

"With all due respect, sir..." the Spartan says as he positions himself between Cortana and Del Rio. "I know what I saw. What we all saw."

Del Rio steps up to him, visibly irritated. "And with all due respect, soldier, I'm not willing to jeopardize my ship because of the hallucinations of an aging Spartan, his malfunctioning AI, and their soldier of fortune partner."

All the bridge security force tenses up when Samus turns and approaches the holodeck again. Her visor is transparent, revealing a calm face that stops next to Chief. "Care to look me in the eye and say that?" Her voice is steady, but her curled fist on the table spells out her thoughts clearly.

"Someone get these three out of here," the Captain says as he walks away. "Nav, do we have confirmation-"

The lights start to flicker across the bridge, making the humans pause.

"I will not… allow you… to leave… this… PLANET!" As Cortana roars, her voice fully distorted, several consoles around the room release a shower of sparks. Crewmen duck from the arcing electricity, most of them letting out surprised yelps. The ship seems to shudder from the power surge before stabilizing a moment later.

Everyone turns to the AI. She's leaned over, panting slightly from the outburst. The anger in her face quickly turns to realization, and then regret. "No… No, no, I didn't mean to do that."

"Lasky…" Del Rio looks more surprised, and afraid, than anyone on the bridge. "Pursuant to Article 55 of UNSC Regulation 12-145-72, I am ordering you to remove the AI's data chip and retire it for final dispensation."

The XO hesitates for a moment. There's no fear in his eyes, only concerned debating what to do. His superior sees it and anger overpowers fear. "Remove that chip now, Commander!"

Cortana starts to softly plead as Lasky approaches the deck. His almost robotic movements are interrupted by the solid form of the Bounty Hunter. She quickly pulls Cortana's chip from the holodeck, then nudges him back with the barrel of her cannon. The sound of a dozen rifles being readied echoes in the silent room, but no one fires.

"Leave her," Samus orders calmly, looking down at him.

Lasky seems awestruck but regains control quickly. He nods and takes a step back.

"Surrender that AI, now." That Captain is keeping his distance, trying to seem as authoritative as possible from the other side of the table.

Samus scoffs as she moves towards the door. "Your own men don't respect you. Why should I."

Del Rio makes another desperate attempt to stop her, sprinting until he's blocking the door. He tries his best to appear imposing as he stands in her way. "Give me the AI now, and you'll be arrested instead of executed." The threat rings as hollow as his voice.

The Bounty Hunter doesn't stop until she's an inch from him. She puts the hand holding Cortana slightly behind her and well away from his reach. "Better than you have tried."

Chief quickly joins his partners and puts his body between them. "She's staying with us, Captain. The Didact has to be stopped. If you won't do that, we will."

Samus takes the opportunity to step past them and out the door. "We'll meet you in the hangar. Bring plenty of ammo."

Del Rio makes a final desperate attempt at gaining control. "I am ordering you… To surrender that AI!" he shouts at the Spartan. "Both of you!"

Chief looks down at him and very slowly shakes his head. "No, sir." Without another word, he walks past the Captain and after Samus.

There's shouting behind him, mostly at Lasky and the security team, for someone to get Cortana back and arrest everyone. But they don't follow. Master Chief walks with a calm purpose towards the hangar, quietly wondering when he's going to run into a squad of Spartans with orders to take him in.

Samus quickly navigates the maze of the ship, putting a hundred yards of distance between herself and the bridge before she even slows. She learned most of the layout when she walked through it before and has a good idea of her destination. It's a helpful habit she's developed over the years. Never know when a quick exit is necessary and there's no time to find a map.

But she also knows better than to waste tools. So, when she's certain no one is following her and there's no crewmen near enough to eavesdrop, she holds Cortana's chip out in front of her.

The AI quickly materializes. "Thank you..." she says softly, equal parts grateful and worried. "But you shouldn't have done that."

"I wasn't going to let them decommission you, especially because the Captain said so," the Bounty Hunter nods calmly. "Point me towards the hangar. We can talk on the way."

Cortana stays in her holographic form as she's carried the proper direction. "Why did you do that, Samus?… I might sound ungrateful, but I didn't expect you to stand up for me. I thought it would be John, if anyone."

"If I had to guess, he was arguing with himself: the military he's served all his life, or you. I didn't have that debate to slow me down."

"No, but you don't have much of a reason to help me, either."

"Maybe this is my way of thanking you for helping me realize I was an idiot earlier." Samus lets out a small, dark laugh. "Or maybe I enjoy trying to save lost causes."

Cortana raises a confused eyebrow, and then her form shimmers for a moment. She looks away somewhat sheepishly.

Samus nods, her visor going transparent again to show her eyes. "Rampancy doesn't sound like a pleasant way to go. I'm sorry."

"You..." The AI's voice falters for a moment. "You heard us talking?"

"You've been having trouble controlling what you broadcast on your radio, just like your trouble maintaining his visor."

"How much do you know, then?"

Samus sighs to herself as she turns down another corridor. "I know it's killing you, painfully, that you're losing control, and your best hope is getting back to Earth where you both think a Doctor Halsey might be able to fix you. And I know you're in worse shape than you're telling him."

"That's… pretty much it, actually," Cortana says with a small shrug.

"So we need to wrap this up quickly, then," Samus says with a bit of fake cheerfulness. "We kill the Didact, destroy the Pirate ship with them in it, get back to my ship, and fly to Earth before dinner. I've seen even more impossible tasks pulled off."

Cortana laughs. She doesn't shimmer this time, and her laughter is genuine. "I get the feeling you were the one who did most of them… Thank you."

"If you can convince Chief to help us take care of the Pirates, we'll be even."

"Deal," the AI says with a smile. "Take the left at the end. We're almost there."

"I thought the hangar was further down."

"It is. That's the armory. John's going to need bigger guns if we're fighting the Didact and the Pirates."

So apologies to everyone for the delay in getting this chapter posted. Things got a little chaotic here and on my commissioner's end. Let me put it this way: the weekend that I was going to finish the edits of this chapter, my son decided to be born two and a half weeks early. I finally got everything finished the weekend after, the commissioner moved apartments. So yeah, no shortage of real life issues slowing the next chapter down.

But yes, the next chapter is still being commissioned, and I should start working on it soon. Hope life is treating everyone else kindly! And once again, have to give a shout out to the commissioner of this story. mch-raildex over on DeviantArt is the user name. Give them the credit they deserve!