Eighteen: Uprising

The rings of brilliant, glowing gold were the only warning any nearby creatures would have had before the Arbiter appeared and was dropped unceremoniously onto the cliff edge. He rubbed his wrist irritably, glad to be out of the Gravemind's clutches but wondering where he was. There were no enemies in sight, but that meant nothing; they could just as easily be lying in wait for him elsewhere. He picked up a plasma rifle that lay at his feet and moved forward out of the open, heading into the brush before him, where he found the sources of the mysterious blood stains all over the place.

His brethren.

One of them managed to gasp out with his dying breath, "The Brute have betrayed us. The Councilors..."

The Arbiter gritted his mandibles in fury and took up the fallen Sangheili's plasma sword, continuing further into the forest and slaying the Brute he came across, switching out his plasma pistols for one of their Brute shots; it was far more effective against the beasts when they were berserk, and despite its weight, it packed a powerful punch.

He panted for breath when he paused outside of a Forerunner structure and was surprised when it slid open, a Minor in blue stepping out to greet him. "By the Prophets," he murmured, "What have these Brutes done? They have shed our brothers' blood, and for that they must die." Thel had just expressed his agreement when several drop pods fell from the sky, escaping from their overrun ships, and the Minor grunted, "So much for a stealthy advance."

The Arbiter was willing to take whatever he could get, however, and five fighters were better than two. They moved into the structure, emerging into a cavern where some Jackals were chasing terrified Grunts about on the upper levels while Brutes stood by and laughed, their foolish backs to the door. The Sangheili took them out and then moved to save the Unggoy from their tormentors before continuing further into the structure.

The next room had two levels, and they'd emerged on the upper tier, the unfortunate Jiralhanae and Kig-Yar on the floor below. Their plasma grenades were sufficient to slay the Brutes, and they took care of the Jackals personally, pausing to murmur a soft prayer for the fallen. The next room was also multi-tiered, and they dropped down each successive level after firing and dropping grenades on the foes of the level below.

In the next transitory room, they found the corpses of more of their brethren, which only served to infuriate them but make them cold and calculating, ready for vengeance. The Brutes in the next room stood no chance against the driven warriors, and they fell with ease, barely halting the Elites' advance through the complex. They passed through another room and out into the open, where a squad of Brutes and Jackals waited to kill them.

They were not successful by any means, and the Sangheili met the Brute captain in the subsequent canyon with humming plasma swords and furious snarls. The Elites stole their Ghosts and moved on at a much faster pace, clearing the way and killing the drivers of more Ghosts in the following canyons until everyone was mounted.

It was then that the Arbiter caught a vague flash of movement out of the corner of his eye, but when he turned to look, no one was atop the cliff where he saw the motion. He paused, then moved on.

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'Phew. That was close.'

[What happened?]

'The Arbiter, he almost saw us.'

[Oh?]

'Yeah, well, you know how our moving active camo and our stationary active camo are two different systems? Well, there was a bit of a momentary delay in my armor's switch, so I was visible for about two seconds. No one noticed, though.'

[Take a break and re-cycle your armor through the start-up procedure. That should get rid of the problem.]

'You got it, Commander!'

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They continued on in the same fashion until they reached the end of a waterfall at two circular canyons. There were Brutes everywhere and two Wraiths in the next canyon over; by unspoken consent, the gold-armored Field Major and the Arbiter went off to challenge the Wraiths while the others clear the path to the next door, then fired on the tanks from the stone bridge dividing the canyons. It took a grand total of sixteen minutes to finish all of the fights and move to the door. Inside was a small armory, and they took the time to switch out their weapons before moving on.

The four Brutes were not much of a challenge for the Sangheili, nor were the other foes that emerged from a tunnel hidden in part of the structure. They followed the trail of corpses back to their source and found an immense blast door, which slid open as they approached, letting them out onto a beach. Even as they jogged out onto the smooth sand, a Wraith rounded a corner and approached them, but just as it drew close, it deactivated, and - Rtas 'Vadumee appeared from inside. "By the Rings, Arbiter," he growled, and none of the Sangheili had ever been so happy to see the SpecOps Commander, "The Councilors - are they -"

"Murdered," Thel replied, mandibles set into a grim line, "by the Brutes."

"Vile, disloyal beasts," the SpecOps Sangheili snarled, slamming his fist down against a section of armor on the tank, "The Prophets were fools to trust them."

The Arbiter was about to explain that it was the Prophets who ordered it when a Phantom swooped overhead and stopped at the door of the Control Room, depositing Tartarus, a few of his Brutes, and a human female on the platform, whereupon they promptly proceeded inside.

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The Spartans arrived just in time to see the last of the Phantoms take off from the tower, no doubt carrying their target. Behind his visor, Fred gritted his teeth, then noticed movement. One of the two remaining Prophets had been abandoned on the tower platform, and he paced over to it. "Your pal. Where's he going?" It was phrased as a question, but his tone brooked no argument as the other Spartans joined him in ringing Mercy.

"Earth," the Prophet gasped, "To finish what we started. And this time, none of you will be left behind." He cried out in pain when Fred tugged the Infection pod off of his throat, and it popped in his grasp, causing him to make a face and wipe off the gunk on Mercy's robes.

Cortana abruptly materialized on Mercy's throne and said, "That structure in the center of the city - it's a Forerunner ship! And Truth is heading straight for it! If he leads the Covenant fleet to Earth, they won't stand a chance; you have to stop him."

"That Brute has the Index - and Miranda and Johnson," Douglas interjected, "He can activate the ring."

"If he does, I'll detonate In Amber Clad's reactor just like we did the Autumn's. The blast will destroy this city and the ring. Not a very original plan, but we know it'll work." Fred reached for her, but she took a step back. "No. I don't want to chance a remote detonation. I need to stay here."

Way in the distance, "GOD DAMMIT, WOMAN!"

Just then, a Pelican - being piloted very inexpertly - swerved over and crashed onto their platform, disgorging a veritable flood of combat forms in their direction. A few of the Spartans cursed as they lifted their weapons and began firing at the parasitic lifeform as it charged them. "Flood-controlled dropships are touching down all over the city," Cortana told them over the COM, "That creature beneath the Library - that Gravemind - used us. We were just a diversion. In Amber Clad was always its intended vector."

"Asshole."

Cortana chose to ignore that. "There's a conduit connecting this tower to the ship. Head back inside; I'll lead you to it." She was already preparing her countermeasures against the Gravemind, already dropping off her message, already activating certain protocols that would temporarily shut her down and keep her that way until John came for her, preventing the Gravemind from accessing her data.

[AH-HA! Gotcha!]

'Wait, what? Got who?'

Just as they were about to advance on the Flood, the bright gold rings of Halo's teleportation network spun into existence, dropping White and Gray Teams onto the platform next to them.

'Ah. That's who you've got.'

[Can't very well leave them here, now can we?]

'Point.'

For a moment, everyone simply blinked at one another - and then Epheria in Shard form decided to pop up.

"I thought you were staying with Commander Keyes."

Well, she told me to get the hell out when the Brutes captured her, so I've kind of just been... lurking.

[That makes her sound like a stalker. Is that the "Shard" that wants to talk to me?]

'Yes. Just hear her out before you start shooting, okay? And it can wait until you're back on Earth.'

Fred scooped her up and bolted for the door, swiftly backpedalling and firing at the Covenant that came out before charging back in once they were dead. They moved around the partition immediately beyond the door and charged across the room, where they were met by a pack of Brutes fighting Infected Elites and humans. The Spartans mowed through the foes and plowed into the next room, which was completely dominated by a gravity lift. "Going up," Cortana muttered in their ears, then said as they ascended, "I'll disable this grav lift once you reach the top. That should slow them down."

The next room was more of an immense cavernous space, and a platform descended from somewhere above them to fill the area in front of their very short platform. They swiftly realized what its purpose was when it bridged the gap between it and them, and a pair of horizontal grav lift points activated on it; it carried them all over to the next platform, where they were forced to gun down all of the Covenant and the pair of combat forms fighting them. All of the Spartans were on edge, and they just about had heart attacks when they reached the door on the next platform over - revealing another set of combat forms.

"!"

The hall beyond that was eerily silent and filled with a faint green mist, signaling the presence of Flood. Indeed, there were two more combat forms there, and after they had been dispatched, Fred called a halt, a pause in combat for them to calm themselves down; Kelly had actually gotten injured on that last round, and both her and her suit needed to be patched up as quickly as possible to prevent Flood spores from getting into the wound.

They moved on when their "cool" had returned, coming across Covenant and Flood fighters both and blowing them to gory bits, as well as some carrier forms, before passing through the curved hall that had once been their battlefield. Beyond there, they could clearly see things beginning to take root and grow on the walls, making them shiver in disgust as they passed and reminding them that the Gravemind from Alpha Halo - if it had been such - was about a civilized as they came.

The further they went, the more bloody corpses they came across, limbs torn from their original bodies, blood splatters all up the wall, chunks of flesh strewn about with reckless abandon; they arrived in another garden, and a battle whose result they had already seen was taking place on the various ridges and logs in the area. Both the Covenant and the Flood took little notice of the Spartans as they passed through, and those that did were slain immediately as Truth ranted over the PA system; they ignored him with practiced ease - until the Gravemind came over the line. "Arrogant creature," it boomed, its voice magnified a thousand times, "Your deaths will be instantaneous, while we shall suffer the progress of infinitude!"

[I agree with Alice. He's an asshole.]

The winding paths and halls were filled with growing things, and not by any means the pleasant kind; Cortana was saying something about the security systems in this part of the tower, but they couldn't pay attention to her. Their ears were filled with a strange, throbbing, pulsing sensation not unlike the beating of a heart, and Truth came over the PA system again, saying, "Who so ever is gripped by fear, take heed. I am the Prophet of Truth, and I am not afraid. Noble Mercy is here at my side, his wise counsel near to my ears."

Even more sinister now, the Gravemind: "We exist together now; two corpses... in one grave."

They found themselves tightly packed together on an elevator of some kind, all of them just barely managing to get on, and Kelly bent an arm at a truly uncomfortable angle to activate it and send them soaring upward. "These are the Prophet Hierarchs' private quarters," Cortana told them as their mind began to clear, "their inner sanctum." They were out of the worst of the Flood mist, now, but they were not out of the woods yet; they could hear arms fire as they spilled out onto a walkway, grateful to be free of the incredibly close quarters on the elevator.

"Not too far now," Fred gasped out as encouragement before shaking himself free of the strange stupor that consumed his mind. The other Spartans used similar methods to "wake themselves up," Kelly actually slapping Linda when she was unable to throw off the daze on her own.

The Brutes and Jackals guarding the chambers gunned for them the moment they were spotted, but they were no match for one Spartan, much less sixteen, and the lot of them advanced to the door on the opposite side of the hall - just as a Flood screech filled the room. Fred took a deep breath to calm himself and turned back to the room at large just in time to see some combat forms drop from overhead and tear off in their direction. His shotgun blew bloody holes in their ranks, sending viscera and limbs flying; there were only about ten of them, swiftly dispatched.

"Almost there," Cortana told them, "Head through the door on your right and up the grav lift." She was having no problem stalling the launch sequence; the fragments of Mendicant Bias on the ship had been programmed to recognize her commands as ones to be obeyed so long as they did not contradict an order given from a higher-ranking officer.

The Spartans flew out of the grav lift one after another and raced across the loading zone, ignoring the Flood and the Covenant until they reached the actual boarding area. There, those that weren't next in line for the conduit turned and engaged all enemies in sight, even as beam rifle shots whizzed past them from the Dreadnought. Fred was last, and Cortana initiated the launch sequence as he cleared the last accelerator, sending him sliding inside, where the other Spartans were already waiting.

Along with the Gravemind from Alpha Halo and a number of his combat forms. He turned his head to the tower where Cortana's hologram could just barely be seen on maximum zoom, murmuring, "After I'm through with Truth..."

"Don't make a girl a promise... if you know you can't keep it."

The Dreadnought accelerated through the opening in High Charity's ceiling, jumping to Slipspace the moment it reached the minimum safe distance.

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"What is that place?" the Arbiter asked Rtas, nodding at the Control Room of Halo, and the Sangheili followed his gaze.

"Where the Councilors were meant to watch the consecration of the Icon. The start of the Great Journey."

The Gravemind's words echoed inside the Arbiter's head: "There is still time to stop the key from turning." "I must get inside," he told Rtas, and the other nodded.

"Then mount up, Arbiter. I know a way to break those doors." Rtas heaved himself out of the Wraith and let the Arbiter take over, jogging over to the Spectre that had just arrived and climbing into the gunner seat, leading the way through the canyons of foes and stone, helping Thel blow the Wraiths and Ghosts that stood in their way to oblivion. All the while, the Arbiter wondered what Rtas could possibly have up his sleeve that could defeat the might of the Forerunners - until he saw the legs of the Scarab. He blinked, then thought, 'Yes, that would about do it.'

"There, Arbiter," the SpecOps Commander called, "That Scarab's main gun will break the Control Room's door. At the far end of the beach there's a passage into the cliff. It'll take you up to the Scarab." Though the other could not see him, Thel nodded and guided his Wraith over in the direction Rtas had said, encountering two Wraiths standing between him and his destination. As he bombarded them while evading their own plasma bombs, 'Vadumee spoke again: "The Brutes control the cruiser, Arbiter. I'll remain here, make sure no reinforcements get in behind you. Then, I'm going to take the cruiser back!"

He grunted an acknowledgement as he destroyed the last of the Wraiths and began work on the individual ground troops, lobbing bombs into tight knots of Brutes as they charged his tank like idiots. He entered through the blast door and drew up short when he found himself nose-to-muzzle with a fuel rod gun, and another Sangheili called, "The Arbiter? I thought he was dead! Hold your fire!" he said to the two Mgalekgolo before returning his attention to the other Elite, "The Hunters have come to our aid, Arbiter. They will fight by our side."

The Sangheili looked up at the two armored behemoths and said, "It is good to have you with us."

The pair acknowledged his subtle praise with a quiet rumble before following them into the next room and through the door, around a bend and out into the open floor of the chamber beyond. All four opened fire on the Brutes holding the upper level, but it was the Hunters who were most effective and for obvious reasons.

Beyond the door was a short stretch of tunnel that opened up into a wider cavern, and the platforms in it were virtually covered in Brutes with Brute shots. The Hunters proved invaluable in this section of the battlefield, as they were able to fire their fuel rod guns across the gap in the U-shaped platform, their tough armor protecting them from the Brute shots while the Elites circled around and flanked the enemy. Coming at them from two sides proved to be very effective, and they moved on to a bridge guarded by Jackals and Drones, a Phantom hovering between the bridge and the Control Room, the doors of the latter still tightly sealed.

The Jackals died in an incandescent explosion via a grenade, and they began firing on the Yam'ee as they buzzed around overhead, narrowly evading the Phantom's plasma fire by ducking into the opposite hatch. They fought their way to a room that served as a prison for a pair of Councilors and another set of Hunters. "Free our brothers!" the other Sangheili shouted, "Death to the Brutes!"

The Arbiter moved to break open the prison cells while the other Elite and Hunters fired on the Brutes that spilled out of the door on the far side of the room, and it did not take long for the Councilors to prove that their plasma swords were functional as well as ceremonial, putting the Brutes to the edge of the blade. They passed as one large group through the final hall and emerged onto the platform where the Scarab stood, and as they charged out into the open, they could hear the Brutes talking about executing their prisoners. Rather than slay them as they originally would have done, the Elites slew the guards and freed the humans, and just as the Arbiter was turning to board the Scarab, it activated on its own.

"Listen," Johnson growled over the Scarab's external speakers, "you don't like me and I sure as hell don't like you. But if we don't do something, Mister Mohawk's gonna activate this ring, and we're all gonna die."

"Tartarus has locked himself inside the Control Room."

"Well, I just happen to have a key." The panels covering the Scarab's firing mechanism folded away, the emitter glowing a livid green. "C'mon. Grab a Banshee and give me some cover. They're gonna know we're coming."

Johnson guided the Scarab away from the platform as a pair of Banshees glided over and landed nearby, one of the pilots unhesitatingly turning over his vehicle to the Arbiter for use. The Sangheili flew up over the Scarab and hovered overhead while Johnson got the Scarab up to speed, and he moved ahead, gunning for the Wraiths that fired on the Scarab. There were Ghosts skittering about, but they could wait; the tanks were a greater threat. The human and the Elite made their way back through the canyons, slaying their mutual enemies as they approached the door to the Control Room, and Johnson chuckled.

"Hey! Bastard! Knock, knock!" The great gun on the front of the Scarab began to charge as the protective panels folded away, and it released a long stream of plasma at the blast doors, the excess slag from the conversion process dripping free of the barrel below the four-legged weapon of war.

The Arbiter moved in first, flying straight up to the door and bailing out of the Banshee, not worrying about any foes because any that had been stupid enough to get close to the doors when Johnson was firing would be dead. There was another blast door a short distance beyond all of the destruction caused by the Scarab, but it slid open at his approach; at the same time, another blast door on the far side of the room spilled a group of Brute Captains out into the area, each carrying either a Brute shot or a carbine. Rather than engage them directly, the Elite activated his camouflage unit and slipped over to take them from behind.

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"Come, human, it is easy," Tartarus growled, attempting to coax Miranda into inserting the Index, "Take the Icon in your hands..." When she refused yet again, he snarled furiously, slamming his hand down onto the console, "And do as you are told!"

From beneath one of the other Brutes' arms, 343 Guilty Spark piped up, "Please, use caution! This Reclaimer is delicate."

Tartarus snapped at the Monitor, "One more word, Oracle, and I'll rip your eye from its socket!" He turned to Keyes and pushed her forward, making her grunt as the breath rushed from her lungs when she impacted against the Control panel. "Which is nothing compared to what I will do to you."

"Tartarus, stop."

The Chieftain gasped and whirled around, shocked to see the Arbiter standing between them and the doors, almost entirely unharmed. "Impossible!"

"Put down the Icon," he said firmly.

"Put it down?" Tartarus' voice was filled with disbelief. "And disobey the Hierarchs?"

"There are things about Halo even the Hierarchs do not understand."

The other Jiralhanae stepped forward menacingly, prepared to punish the Sangheili for daring to doubt the Prophets, but Tartarus waved them off, growling, "Take care, Arbiter. What you say is heresy!"

"Is it?" he demanded, then turned to Spark. "Oracle, what is Halo's purpose?"

"Well, collectively, the seven—" Guilty Spark began, but was cut off when Tartarus grabbed him and snarled, "Not another word!"

"Please ..."

Sergeant Johnson was now at the Arbiter's elbow, holding a beam rifle aimed at Tartarus' head. "Don't shake the light bulb." The Brute captains moved threateningly forward, but Johnson lifted the rifle into firing position, snapping, "If you wanna' keep your brain inside your head, I'd tell those boys to chill."

The Chieftain gritted his teeth and barked the command in the Brutes' snarling language, forcing the others to stand down.

"Go ahead," Johnson said, nodding to the Arbiter but still keeping his weapon up, "Do your thing."

The Sangheili nodded back, then said to Guilty Spark, "The Sacred Rings, what are they?"

"Weapons of last resort, built by the Forerunners to eliminate potential Flood hosts, thereby rendering the parasite harmless," the Monitor said in his usual cheerful tone, making the Arbiter's, Johnson's, and Miranda's unseen guards claw at their ears from the nails-on-a-blackboard sensation they got whenever the Monitor spoke.

"And those who made the rings?" the Arbiter prompted, "What happened to the Forerunners?"

"After exhausting every other strategic option, my creators activated the rings. They and all additional sentient life within three radii of the galactic center - died, as planned." Spark saw the Arbiter lower his head in sadness and seemed to do the equivalent of shuffling awkwardly and dropping his gaze, sensing that he had touched on a sensitive subject. "Would you... like to see the relevant data?"

"Tartarus," Thel said finally, "The Prophets have betrayed us."

Tartarus appeared temporarily frozen in disbelief, then threw 343 Guilty Spark at Johnson's head, knocking him to the ground. He grabbed Miranda and forced her to insert the Index into the console, making her reel back in horror when he released her to take up the Fist of Rukt.

"Now, Arbiter," the clearly unstable Jiralhanae snarled, energy shield spinning up around him,

"the Great Journey has begun! And the Brutes, not the Elites, shall be the Prophets' escort!" Behind him, grinding and groaning like the ancient machinery it was, the main platform spilt into three separate levels with a central current of energy acting like a gravity lift to tie the whole thing together. The Chieftain turned and leapt to the platforms, forcing the Arbiter, Johnson, and the Sangheili that had just arrived to deal with his captains before the aliens followed him to the platform.

Even as the Elites engaged the Brute, the now-free Monitor was already observing the firing procedure. "Charging sequence initiated. Primary generators coming online."

"Well, shut them down!" Miranda snapped at him as she took cover behind part of a console.

"Apology," Spark said, zooming around beyond the platforms, "Protocol does not allow me to interfere with any aspect of this sequence."

"Then how do I stop it?"

"Well, it will take some time to go over the proper procedures, I—"

"Quit stalling!"

"Under more controlled circumstances, I would suggest the Reclaimer simply remove the Index."

"That's it? Johnson, I'm on it!"

"Hang tight, ma'am!" the Sergeant growled, "Not until that Brute is dead!" He fired his beam rifle at the Brute, knocking his shield down with one shot, but the Arbiter was not close enough to kill him right then. It took a handful more tries and cost at least eleven Sangheili their live, but finally Thel was able to bash the Brute' skull in with the grip of his carbine.

Miranda jumped onto one of the platforms spinning around the central three and ducked to avoid another that whizzed perilously close overhead before leaping again, this time down onto the middle platform. She sprinted forward as fast as she possibly could and snatched the Index from within the beam just as the whole room began to shake.

Overhead, a built-up ball of energy fired skyward toward the focus of the circle the Halo formed, melding with a gathering ball of golden energy in the center and turning it a brilliant sky blue immediately before it compressed and exploded outward into the shape of two spires fused at the base, temporarily throwing the darkness of space into brilliant illumination before fading into nothing.

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Miranda stood before the hologram of tightly packed characters of incomprehensible gibberish, hearing a humming and turning to look at Guilty Spark as he approached with Johnson clinging to his casing. "What's that?" she asked the Monitor as he dropped the S-I off next to her.

"A beacon," he replied.

"What's it doing?"

"Communicating a superluminal speeds with a frequency of -"

"Communicating with what?"

"The other installations."

"Show me," she ordered, and the Monitor triggered an unseen mechanism, expanding the hologram to show all seven of the Halo rings, one of them flashing a critical message.

"Failsafe protocol," the Monitor explained, "In the event of unexpected shut down the entire system will move to stand-by status. All remaining platforms are now ready or remote activation."

"Remote activation? From here?"

In a patronizing tone, "Don't be ridiculous!"

"Listen, Tinkerbelle," Johnson growled at the construct, "Don't make me..." but he trailed off when Keyes laid a hand on his shoulder to quiet him.

"Then where?" she asked, "Where would someone go to activate the other rings?"

Spark paused, seeming momentarily confused or searching his database. "Why, the Ark, of course."

"And where, Oracle," the Arbiter asked as he walked up behind them, "is that?"

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The Forerunner Dreadnought dropped out of Slipspace at Earth, where UNSC and Covenant ships were already engaging one another. Over the open radio, an officer's voice reached the Spartans, "Sir, we're got a new contact, unknown classification!"

The Spartans lifted their heads to listen; "It isn't one of ours," Lord Hood came on the line, "take it out."

Shit!

"This is SPARTAN-104, can anyone hear me? Over."

"Isolate that signal!" Hood barked immediately, then asked, "Senior Chief? You mind telling me what you're doing on that ship?"

"Sir, finishing this fight." He decided to mention their unexpected ally who was now clearing the hall before them of foes and claiming their corpses to expand his army, later. Much. Much. Later.

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High Charity, once the crown of the Covenant empire, now a hive infested with Flood, bearing no hope for survival for any still left on board. The air was filled Flood spores, filling every crevice with mist and shadows and dropping visibility to practically zero, but the place was not silent as expected; a broken door kept trying to shut deep within the inner sanctum, making a rhythmic banging noise when part of it impacted against the bulkhead.

"Silence fills the empty grave, now that I have gone..."

The voice echoed within the silence of the Council Hall, seemingly a thousand times more malicious than usual.

"...but my mind is not at rest, for questions linger on."

Cortana sensed the approach of her warden and materialized on the holopanel as it said, "I will ask, and you will answer."

She smirked. "Alright. Shoot." She had already planted her message on the ship the Gravemind was sending to Earth, disabled her indexing, and set every single one of her processing strings - no matter how petty or vital - on mutating codes so that the data was never the same from one second to the next. She only hoped that it would be enough.

**********

Oh my, here we go...

Another loose cannon gone bi-polar

Slipped down, couldn't get much lower.

Quicksand's got no sense of humor.

I'm still laughing like hell.

You think that by crying to me

Looking so sorry that I'm gonna believe,

You've been infected by a social disease.

Well, then take your medicine.

- "Sound of Madness," Shinedown (The Sound of Madness)