I feel the firm grip of this man. Which is an impressive feat as most people who I shake hands with, and actually feel, are other Tenno. I already am starting to like this guy. Given he is probably very old I should refrain from such thoughts. But hey, there is no problem with developing a like.

As soon as he lets go he asks me one question. "Where is Simaris? I need to know for sure now." I smirk under my Nyx mask and nod slowly. I know Simaris won't give knowledge for free. And while he is there, I can listen in. Win win. Making my way out of the room and back towards the elevator opposite of Simaris room. I like going in Simaris' room. He just gives me extra payment for doing what I do best. Kill and collect. Watching the door slide open I walk inside. Seeing another Tenno in conversation with Simaris, so I patiently wait for him to finish.

"This specimen is my latest obsession. Hunt for it Tenno, so I can perform the synthesis I require." The giant golden hologram of the Cephalon looks down at the Tenno before me. The Tenno nods and runs out of the room. Passing me and taking a long look at Sierra-117 before running off to the elevator.

"Tenno, I can see you seek knowledge. But Knowledge comes at a-… what is this? Come to bring me an unknown specimen?" Simaris slowly locks the door and gets real close to Sierra-117 with its giant hologram. John backs off a little having had his fair share with A.I.'s like that and aims his magnum at it immediately. "T-312… why is the door locked." John grits through his teeth.

"Only to ensure you won't escape specimen. Now please, come with me so I can perform synthesis." Simaris quickly responds, only to be stopped by the Tenno. "Stop? You must have a very good reason to stop synthesis on a subject that holds knowledge to the universe." The hologram backs off a little and keeps looking at John.

"Cephalon Simaris, this specimen is not for synthesis, but we came for knowledge. This is 7500 years old and needs to know for sure we are not withholding information from him. In exchange, he will tell you what you want for as long as his protocol allows." The Tenno expertly handles. Making both Simaris and John ease up.

"I will share what I know, but knowledge that old is rare to come by. I will have to look long and far into my database. Stay here, and don't let anybody in." the hologram disappears leaving the room in a neon blue glow. T-312 sits down with her knees close to the Nyx's chest and elbows placed on the knees. Sierra-117 on the other hand stays standing and alert for anything trying to trick him.

It takes about 5 minutes before Simaris' voice sounds again. "I only have limited data, but I am sure that your friend can fill in blanks. After that I will show him what has happened in the last 7500 years. If you would be so kind as to step up to the console and let your friend type and talk." Simaris goes back to his original position showing the now glowing console. Chief walks up to it and takes the data chip with Cortana out of his helmet. Injecting it into the console and waiting. "A fellow Cephalon?"

"No Simaris, I am Cortana, an A.I." she smiles a little appearing on the pad. "I'll gladly give you the information you need as far as protocol allows me. This will only take a minute."

"I am certain you are a Cephalon Cortana, you seem to have been built the same way as any other I have encountered. But if you would prefer the term A.I. then I will call you as such."

The console starts glowing and rapidly typing information. Both Simaris and Cortana make little gasps as they see what the other knows.

I watch John as he stands motionless before the console. The more I look at him, the more he starts to look like a robot to me. Just no emotion at all. I slowly walk up to him. "You okay?"

"I'm fine." He says with his monotone voice. I don't know whether I should treat him like a woman and keep asking to see what's wrong, or like a man and he is actually fine.

"Are you sure? You look a little… not fine to me." I try to start conversation with him. Liven up a little. Sure we are killing machines, but we have a heart too.

"I'm Fine." He responds a bit more harsh to which I recoil I decide not to question it anymore.

"Sorry? Just trying to start conversation. Because I imagine you are going to be stuck here." As I say that, I realize he can either take that really bad, or really well and open up.

"Thank you for the reminder." He says without looking at me. Guess he took it as a mocking gesture. Damn, this isn't going the way I intended to. I mean, I get it that he is alone and lost now. But he can be friendly. "You like jokes?..." I repeat the sentence in my head and groan. Smooth Tenno… smooth…

"No" he answers as emotionless as usual. I sigh and sit down, simply waiting for Cortana and Simaris to finish. I saw them moving data files from one to another and a soft hum and gasp every now and then coming from both sides. It took 2 full minutes before they both went silent.

"Is it done?" I ask getting up and walking up to the pedestal with the A.I. who Cortana shows emotions of sadness whilst Simaris just looks.

"I have shared as much as I was able to. Your A.I. might have taken too much data and corrupted some of her own. She is unharmed. The data she provided seems helpful and I will keep it for further research and theorizing."

Cortana is, in simple terms, having a mental breakdown. She indeed is lost, with John, and more than 7446 years over rampancy. And all that Simaris told her about the covenant war and how they actually won the human covenant war… it simply is too much. "We lost John… W-we actually lost the human covenant war… all our sacrifices and offerings for nothing. Humanity survived out of pity by some covenant. Only a handful of 10.000 managed to survive… none were Spartan nor ODST… just civilians. 10.000 survived because a forerunner monitor took them away to safety." Cortana breathes slowly and gets back up.

"The covenant had reached more Halo Rings and activated them almost immediately. Wiping all live as expected. But the lucky 10.000 survived because of a forerunner monitor. The monitor 'Oro Da' had control of a rather unique forerunner installation. One that would ignore the Halo's effect and save humanity. But only Humanity. The rest of the galaxy was gone. Just gone. We were alone again."

"The ten thousand that survived build with what the monitor could offer them. They thrived as a small community. The survivors were of course grateful that the monitor helped them. So they called their kind now after the monitor. Oro's kind, also known as the Orokin. The monitor got rampant after a long course of time and had to be put down. Making the Orokin have a need to expand again, to look for more resources. So, they tried making slipspace travel again. Only, it failed. They followed the exact reactors, but instead of slipspace, they found the void. Something baffling and confusing. Being nicknamed a blinding hellspace. Making them able to travel much larger distances than ever before."

"Using this newfound technology, humanity thrived. Or rather, the Orokin thrived. Exploring space again and building settlements in their graceful forms. Discarding anything that looked UNSC as they didn't remember it anymore and replacing it with Orokin technology. They were fast builders, but needed more manpower. So they started cloning. They cloned the strongest of the whole Orokin to be slaves that were easy to manipulate, and the smartest of the Orokin to become engineers. The Grineer slaves, and the Corpus crewmen. But even that wasn't enough for them. They wanted more than the UNSC had. They used the void travel to go further than anyone has gone and anyone would go. They made another project for that task. To explore planets and adapt to the surfaces. But to be able to adapt, they had to be sentient. Send out to build relays and settlements on the planets. But because they were adaptable and sentient, they made themselves nigh-indestructible. This project was put on hold, for security reasons."

"The Zariman Ten Zero, was a ship, one of the earliest ships to enter the void. A mechanical error made the ship uncontrollable and made it float around in the void. It was deemed lost forever by the Orokin. However, the ship was much later found completely intact and undamaged, but with no crew on board. The only living beings on board were children, even though there was never a record of children ever boarding the ship. When the scientists found the children, the scientists were attacked by the children and came back with severe burns. The discovered children were considered freaks by the Orokin and were ordered to be immediately executed. They would have been killed if one scientist hadn't resisted."

"The scientist made a motherly connection with the children and promised to maintain them. Keeping them in control through the process of transference. A process that would place the unconsciousness in a safer body or conduit. The Orokin still demanded for the children to be killed, but the loving scientist kept resisting. She defended the children with her live, literally. The scientist was executed but the children survived. Now that they saw they had control over the children, they couldn't throw away a weapon like that. A weapon made by the void, and they can control it. "

"The Orokin wanted to keep exploring further. To make their empire bigger. So they re-opened the project of the Sentients mentioned before. The Orokin had already foreseen the threat if they became too aware of themselves. The machines would turn on the Orokin, and because they are ever adapting, would crush the Orokin if needed. So they made one flaw in the Sentient project. The void, would be like poison to them. The only mean how to get back would be their death, so they cannot return but do build the settlements."

"The sentient beings realized it rather quickly and tried to find ways to travel back to the Orokin to destroy them. And… after many many years, they found a way. The Sentients had found a way back to the Orokin and started their slaughter. Whatever the Orokin build against them, the Sentients would adapt and continue."

"Meanwhile, The Orokin kept traveling further out and eventually, found a Halo ring. And with it, they found the flood. The Orokin saw it as another perfect weapon. Contaminating it and experimenting. They mutated it so it could not only infect organisms, but also machinery. They released the infection as a weapon against the Sentients. But it backfired horribly. This event became a milestone in history called The Great Plague. The flood, or now named Infestation may have looked primitive and dumb. But they showed treats of coordination and group strategy. The weapon wasn't perfect, but not uncontrollable either."

"The continuing war with the Sentients and Infested outbreak began to take its toll on the Orokin Empire. The Grineer slaves started favoring survival over their programmed work effort and commands. But they were still not the smartest, so they started rebelling and killing the weaker Orokin and taking higher Orokin as prisoner to fly spaceships."

"After all these heavy blows the Orokin Empire had taken, they saw no other option than to unleash the freak children. To let the essence of the void itself, which was poison to the Sentients, fight. The transference was still holding strong. They gave the conduits names. Warframes. An army of techno organic humanoids. Piloted by the out casted children of the Zariman Ten Zero. The Zariman Tenno."

"After facing the wrath of the Tenno, the Sentient leader Hunhow accepts defeat and retreats, but swears to take revenge. Hunhow sends an offspring of himself to spy on the Tenno. Natah, became an ally to the Tenno, but also a spy for the Sentients. Waiting for the perfect moment to destroy the Tenno from within."

"At the celebration for the Tenno winning the war against the Sentients, the Tenno unexpectedly slaughter all the Orokin. This brought an end to the Orokin Empire. The motivation for their action, was most likely Natah, but it could also have been revenge for being out casted."

"Natah's last mission was to exterminate the Tenno from within. She was ready to do it, but a fatal injury changed her mind. She was still sentient but did travel through the void, making her unable to make new offspring. Natah decided instead of killing the only children she had control over, to become a mother figure for them. She became, the Lotus. Hiding the transference children away in the void and putting the Warframes into cryostasis."

"After the downfall of the Orokin, the Grineer became an unchecked force that was ever expanding, led by twin queens. The corpus became masters of greed and commerce also ever expanding. The nightmarish infestation kept evolving on planet Eris and aboard abandoned vessels in space. And the Sentient threat came back."

"Natah, or the Lotus, was still active and had to reactivate the Tenno so the Sentients won't kill her and all life in the Origin system. The Tenno successfully protect the Origin system, but the Sentients keep them surrounded. Preventing them from ever leaving. And… that is where it stops. Here we are, surrounded by the Sentients, fearing the infestation and preventing the Corpus and Grineer from growing too strong."

The Spartan and I are silent. I am silent because I already know my story. After a short while I hear him speak up. "No way back?" he says. I know he tries it without emotion, but I could see him almost slip.

"No way back… I'm sorry John, we are stuck here. But hey, at least we know our saviors aren't hostile." Cortana smiles bitterly.

"I thank you for your contribution to the Sanctuary A.I. Cortana. May your knowledge be cherished and teach future generations about the galaxy." The booming voice of Simaris knocks me out of my thoughts and I jerk my head upwards.

"Yea… uhm. T-312? May I ask you… something?" Cortana's hologram turns to me. I just nod as an indication it is alright.

"You're a child soldier too aren't you?" Cortana asks. And I could just feel the pain shoot through my Warframe and into the transference pod at the mention of that term. I breathe slowly and nod.

"I am so sorry… I… or should I say, we know what you have been through." She answers not daring to look away from my Warframe. I am rather uncomfortable that they know I am just a kid behind this strong conduit, but… as new allies they will have to know about it.

The room was silent for some seconds except for the soft hums of the machine. Simaris spoke up suddenly. "A.I. Cortana, You said you have gone over Rampancy and corruption. I am not saying that I will help you, but another Cephalon here called Suda would be glad to help you in exchange of some data."

"That would be very much appreciated. How long would it take?" Cortana suddenly beams turning to Simaris

"Approximately with your progression of corruption and rampancy it would take 50 earth cycles… and a dedicated Operator to make the physical adjustments."

Cortana's projection flickers red and her expression turns sour and angry. "50 days?! I WoULD rAthEr R-R-Rot I-n RamPaNc-Y ThAN 50 dAYs L-lEaVIn-g J-JoHN"

I am so sorry that I don't update frequently. on any of my stories. Its just... I don't know what to write anymore. Luckily I was able to make friend on this website who helped me with this chapter and figuring out some lore. So a big thanks to SirMandoKarla for helping me :3

Sincerely, the voice you hear in your head while you are reading this.