Four: Infinity

The rainforest that the Infinity had crashed in was as all rainforests were: thick, green, and wet. The Spartan could see the occasional billow of fog settled in hollows in the ground. The moisture slicked his armor, made it gleam in the sunlight that filtered through the canopy. The Chief jumped down off the fallen log that he had been using as a bridge and kept walking forward, his suppressor at the ready.

"Stay low," Cortana warned, "Recon sortie heading this way."

He dropped into a crouch, ducking his head as two Phantoms full of troops zipped by above him, accompanied by Banshee escorts. They were moving to support the Didact, no doubt; the Forerunner was scanning the UNSC ship and probably hacking its systems, too. "The ship looks intact," the AI reported.

"Something tells me that's only because the Didact wanted it that way," John replied. He would have said more, but another voice came over the COM.

"This is Lasky to UNSC Infinity! We're up to our necks in bad guys down here! Does anyone read?!"

"This is Sierra One One Seven of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn," the Chief stated, "We're on-station, ready to assist."

"Negative copy," was the staticky reply, "Sounded like you said Forward Unto Dawn? Come again-" But then the signal faded.

"Signal's bouncing in and out," Cortana reported, "I can't clean it up."

John nodded in acknowledgement. "Light up their friend-or-foe tags," he told her, "We're gonna need something to zero in on." The Spartan waited patiently for her results, staying crouched to avoid additional Phantoms and Banshees that flew overhead.

"I'm seeing multiple IFF tags below the tree line. Painting the closest one on your HUD." Cortana put up an objective point about two hundred meters away.

The Spartan straightened and moved toward it. As he did so, the voice of the captain came over the COM: "Infinity to Commander Lasky, we've lost contact with your Pelicans! Report in!"

"They must not have received his distress call," John said quietly as he dropped off another ledge. He skirted the edges of a couple of sunny clearings, then crept through a narrow tunnel in the foliage. A handful of enemy contacts appeared on his motion tracker – a trio of Knights in the midst of a squad of dead Marines. They portaled away before he could engage them. John clenched his teeth, then asked, "Lasky?"

"One of them's an officer," Cortana supplied, "Check his IFF tag." When the Spartan accessed it, she said, "The tag ID's him as Jiminez, Paolo J."

"Then Lasky's still out there somewhere." He pocketed their dog tags and kept moving.

The Knights hadn't fled very far, but they had called in reinforcements in the form of a flurry of Crawlers. The Spartan had picked up a DMR, and began picking the Prometheans off one by one. One of the Knights roared and released its Watcher, which zipped over to begin reconstituting one of the Knights he had already destroyed. The Chief promptly blasted it out of the sky, before destroying its Knight as well. He mowed through another clutch of Crawlers, picking up another familiar weapon in the process: a binary rifle. He left his suppressor behind, reasoning that he could always pick up another one.

He rounded a corner just in time to see a Marine detonate a grenade and take out the third Knight, which had impaled him on its blade arm. The Spartan immediately moved in, noting the rest of the Marine's squad also lying dead. He sighed and shook his head, collecting their dog tags while being mindful of the other Prometheans circling nearby. John was about to move on and engage the other digital beings when Cortana piped up. "Wait! What was that he dropped on the ground over there?"

John picked it up. It was a Promethean Vision module – he and his Infected had used them during the Forerunner-Flood War in places thick with fog and spores. He activated it and lifted his DMR as he approached the edge of a short drop.

One of the Prometheans spotted him and began firing. He fired back, taking out the Crawler with a headshot. Then he moved on to the others, avoiding the lone Knight's autosentry. After its timer ran out, the Spartan gunned the Knight down and hopped off the ledge.

There were more Prometheans portalling in, blocking the path up out of the foggy hollow. His DMR out of ammo, John traded it out for the suppressor one of the Alpha Crawlers had left behind. He unloaded an entire clip into the Knight leading the charge, not wanting to waste the ammo in his binary rifle. Fortunately, the one clip was enough to break the Knight apart, leaving him free to take cover and reload without having to worry about how long it would take for the AI construct's shields to recharge.

The Crawlers charged him. He beat them back, took them apart, and kept moving through the rainforest. "We've got another IFF on the far side of this thicket," said Cortana as the ground leveled off. The Spartan pushed through the foliage and knelt next to the corpse of the Marine.

Lasky's voice came over the playback. "We should get eyes out there, looking for the others."

A strong female voice affirmed his orders. "Peters, you heard Commander Lasky."

Peters' voice was last. "CFB, ma'am. Bulldogs! On me! We're going for a walk."

"Lasky's been through here, recently by the timestamp," Cortana informed him, though he could have worked out that first part by himself. The Chief didn't mention it.

More Prometheans around the bend; more Crawlers. They were meant to fight the brainless Flood and the careless Gravemind behind them, not an enemy who could learn faster than they could. The Flood overwhelmed their opponents through sheer numbers rather than any real strategy, so it was starting to get rather dull. He kept moving anyway, falling into the rhythm of the skirmishes. The Prometheans all tended to stay still when shooting more often than not, and their targeting systems had trouble locking on to singular moving targets. Normally, there were so many infected Flood hosts that they could spray hard light bullets everywhere and be guaranteed a hit. The Chief didn't have that problem, and dodged around while firing, even moving out of the way just in time to knife the Lancer that charged him.

"I've got another IFF tag," the AI informed him as he walked on, "but as far as I can tell, we're moving into a choke point. This may end up as a dead end."

John bobbed his head in acknowledgement and began climbing up some half-rotted fallen tree limbs that were forming a sort of ramp upwards. There were still more Crawlers ready for him, but in the tighter quarters of the short spiral formed by the wood, it was harder to destroy them, the trunks impeding his view as much as they were protecting him from enemy fire.

Finally, he stepped off onto an overgrown Forerunner structure. Its door was sealed tight, and there were a few crates of UNSC gear scattered nearby. "There's the friend or foe tag," Cortana pointed out, and objective point appearing over the piece of tech, "but where's whoever it belongs to?" The transmission that played back implied that Lasky and his men had come under heavy fire and taken cover inside the relay station. In confirmation, Cortana marked movement on the far side of the door. "Multiple ID's! Chief, they're friendlies!"

He lowered his weapon right before the door hissed open. Three soldiers in armor not unlike his own emerged and swept the area for hostiles. John turned his head to follow the closest one, then looked back at the approaching officer. "Afraid we're gonna have to give you an IOU on that welcome home party," he said, extending a hand before John could salute, "Tom Lasky, First Officer of the Infinity." They shook. "Never thought I'd see you again."

Tom Lasky – the name was familiar. The same terrified little cadet who had acted as live bait for a Hunter? Huh. Stranger things had happened, he supposed, spines rippling.

A helmetless Spartan moved in close, looked him over. Female, auburn hair, and inch shorter than him out of armor – her ID said "Palmer, Sarah" with a Lieutenant's insignia on his HUD. "I thought you'd be taller," she grinned.

The Chief raised an unimpressed eyebrow behind his visor. A radio transmission cut off anything he might have said, pulling their attention away. Del Rio was on the air; "…ground forces are ordered to return to Infinity immediately!"

The Marine manning the radio waved them over. "Commander! Radio's hot!"

"You don't fucking say," John muttered under his breath, and heard Cortana giggle in his ear as he followed the S-IVs inside.

"…respond to COM…" the captain was saying, "…on what frequency? What frequency, dammit?!"

Lasky knelt next to the radio. "Infinity, this is Commander Lasky," he said, "Pelican recon teams are down, repeat, all birds are down. We've got numerous casualties and require immediate assistance, over."

"Finally," the captain responded. The arrogance in his tone made John narrow his eyes. "Did you get the coordinates for that gravity well?"

"Affirmative, sir," Lasky answered, "but we're gonna need a bus out of here!"

"Make it happen!" He snapped off.

The Chief scowled. This was how Del Rio treated the men under his command? He'd never spoken that way to any of his subordinates without being under a hundred times the stress and further behind enemy lines than this. The Infected had been able to tell that there had been no real venom behind the words, that he hadn't meant them. And he had never snarled at Nep'Thalia or Cortana like that.

Lasky seemed equally dismayed.

"You were sent on a scouting run in the middle of an attack on the ship?" Cortana said incredulously over his armor's external speakers.

"The captain thought Infinity could provide us cover and hold off the attack at the same time."

Palmer approached the other officer. "Sir," she said quietly, "We'll never get the wounded back to the ship on foot."

Lasky sighed through his nose, silently agreeing. John briefly twitched an eyebrow upward behind his visor, exchanging a glance with Cortana. The Spartan-II shifted his weight, bringing the officer's attention back to him. He could see the realization flash across the man's face the moment he remembered who he had at his disposal. "I don't know if it's too soon to ask you for a favor, but…" Lasky said, standing up and taking a few steps closer, "we're gonna run out of breathing room here real quick. I don't suppose you're any good at clearing LZs?"

"On occasion," the Chief responded, "We'll send out an all-clear once the area is secured."

One of the other S-IVs escorted him through the facility where they had taken cover. It was a simply relay station and maintenance node for the power grid, but it was also connected to Requiem's information network. If he still had his Flood-based abilities…

But no. He'd retained some telepathic power, that was true, but a direct interface with machinery was now beyond him, something he sorely missed.

As the S-II emerged from the facility, Cortana spoke up. "A topographical scan of the area shows a break in the foliage north of here," she informed him, "Should be big enough to bring in a dropship for evac."

More of the Didact's soldiers were there waiting for them when they stepped out into the open. The Chief used two of his precious rounds in the binary rifle to take out the Knight Lancers before they could charge or release their Watchers, then switched back to his suppressor to deal with the Crawlers.

As he continued toward the LZ, John passed a radio that had been left behind during the retreat to the relay station, just in time to hear someone shout, "Infinity's being overrun!"

"The ship's as big as a city! How's it being overrun?!"

Each of the Fleet of Shadows' ships had been "as big as a city," too, and faced longer odds than the Infinity without being overrun by the enemy Flood. They had spent entire decades behind enemy lines in Flood-controlled territory. Poor decisions were being made somewhere, and the Spartan already had his suspicions about where. His eyes narrowed.

His motion tracker showed contacts around the bend where the path he'd been following up from the forest floor passed between two fallen trees. There was no cover there, forcing him to fire on the Prometheans beyond while trying to dodge in the tight space. The Marines with him fell back to let him handle the heavy lifting, but the instant the least of the digital beings broke apart, they were charging after him through the narrow pass.

As they exited the sniper alley, the Chief spotted some more Marines under fire nearby, right before Lasky came over the COM. "Chief, it's Lasky. We're getting reports of friendlies pinned down near your position. Can you assist?"

The S-II moved forward to fire on the Crawlers and Water preventing them from advancing, leaving Cortana to respond with, "Commander, this is Cortana. We're on our way." She seemed to be keeping it together rather well, considering the fact that she had needed his help. To be fair, a lot more time had passed in the Parallel than the Origin following the beginning of her rampancy.

John moved to join the Marines when all the hostiles were dead, halfway listening to the shocked murmurs of the other soldiers.

"Who's that?"

"What. The. What?"

"Holy mother of…"

"I thought he was dead."

A handful of Knights portaled in with their entourage further up the slope ahead. The Chief was not eager to find out exactly what the Watchers were materializing. Unfortunately, he only managed to take one out before it finished the job. He heard the familiar whine of a charging turret, saw the red-orange-gold glow out of the corner of his eye, and rolled backwards out of the way as it fired.

The S-II focused on the turret and the Knights, leaving the Crawlers to the Marines. When the coast was clear, they all advanced up the slope. There were a handful of bodies under and overhang with a tightly sealed door set into the wall. "The Marines got trapped trying to get through the doors," said Cortana, "Look for an interface."

The Spartan was already making for the console by the door. As he slotted her in, he swore that he felt something – just a little something, an impression of a :wall:, but the sensation was gone before he could analyze it. "These doors open up into a cave system with a space large enough for an LZ," the AI reported, her avatar taking the shape of a sphere made of coding, "Hold them off long enough for me to open the doors!"

And just as she finished speaking, more Prometheans portaled in. John lost track of time for a bit, wave after wave of Prometheans charging up the rise to attack them. At last, he had a moment to breathe and asked, "Cortana, how close are we?"

"YOU-U DO YOUR-R JO-O-OB AND I'LL DO MINE, O-OKAY!?"

The Chief flinched at the rampant shout, his spines trying to stand on end despite the unforgiving press of his armor. He smoothed them flat again, but there was no time for him to reach out to the construct. Another wave of Prometheans threw themselves at the hill, and he and the surviving Marines moved to defend.

When the last Knight broke apart with a crunch, Cortana spoke up. "Got it!" she called, "Passageway's unlocked. Come and get me!"

John jogged over to the console without hesitation and pulled her from it, slotting her back into his helmet. Indeed, the door opened at his approach, and sealed behind them, cutting off the pursuit of still more Prometheans. The pink-violet-blue distortion of his HUD appeared again before Cortana spoke. "Sorry about back there," she said softly, "That hatch's security was more difficult than I expected."

"It's alright."

"It's not alright," she hissed, "Nothing about it is alright."

"Cortana," he said gently, stopping his advance and dropping to one knee so he could focus entirely on her. When he was sure he had her attention, he continued, "In the Parallel, I didn't know you were shutting down until it was almost too late. It took me a year to get you stabilized, even with the best Forerunner minds and AIs working with me. So by all means, shout at me all you want – it lets me know you're still alive. As long as you're still alive, there's still hope."

The AI's gaze softened. "Oh, John."

They continued down the passageway made of tree roots and stone. Vines dangled down from the arches overhead and dragged wetly against his armor as he passed, making him shine in the shafts of sunlight. The tunnel eventually opened up into a larger cavern, but blocking their way was-

"Knight! Wait, what's he doing?!"

-a Lancer very distinctly directing a clutch of Storm Covenant to take up positions around the cavern. The Spartan's light rifle was not nearly as effective as his binary rifle, which he had been forced to abandon after he used up all the ammunition for it. It worked perfectly well against the Unggoy and Kig Yar, however.

The Knight reappeared on the other side of the cavern, and brought a friend with it. They fired on him, forcing him to retreat, providing cover for the Phantom that swooped in to unload another wave of troops. Two more Knights portaled in – "Battlewagons;" he recognized them by their distinctive crystalline spines. Primarily close range combatants, they were already bouncing over toward him in their own insect-like way.

His suppressor now out of ammo, the Spartan laid hands on a weapon his HUD ID'd as a railgun. He charged the weapon, fired – and watched with wide eyes and raised eyebrows as a Jackal and all three of the Grunts went flying. "I think I'm going to like this almost as much as the Incineration Cannon."

"What's that?"

"Forerunner weapon," he answered, bringing the railgun to bear on the Knights, "relative of the rocket launcher. Projectile explodes on impact into a bunch of smaller projectiles that dissolve the bodies of the casualties the same way the Knights do when they die."

"I'd like to see that in action," said the AI.

"If I can find one, I'll show you."

A few minutes more, and Cortana got on the horn with the Commander. "Cortana to Lasky. LZ is secured."

"Roger that, Cortana," he answered, "I'll get you the coordinates for the-"

"Mayday, Mayday, Code Red!" Del Rio, on all local channels. "Hostile elements attempting to gain access to the Infinity bridge!"

"They're outside the hatch!" someone shouted in the background.

"Doors breached! Doors breached!"

Del Rio came back on. "All units return to Infinity immediately! That's an order!"

To his credit, Lasky didn't hesitate. "Chief, I'm redirecting the Spartan-IVs to rally point Alpha Sierra Foxtrot. Until we catch up, you have tactical command of the forward assault force! Rendezvous with those men and take back that ship!"

"Yes, sir."

"Good luck, Chief. Lasky out."

The Pelican to take the two of them to the rally point swooped in through one of the openings in the cave wall and swung around so the Spartan and AI could board. They ascended the ramp, hearing the pilot say, "This is Pelican Five Nine Five. We have the Chief on board and are outbound for rally point Alpha Sierra Foxtrot."

-------------------------------------------

The transport dropped them off right alongside the Infinity. Several squads of Spartan-IVs were already there, already engaging the Covenant pressing through the damaged segments of the ship. "Weapons free, Chief," said Cortana, "Let 'em have it!"

The S-II did exactly that and gunned down alien after alien. Then he noticed the Scorpion tank sitting nearby, unmanned. When all of the Covenant in range of his guns were dead, he made for it and climbed in. Cortana ran a quick diagnostic after he turned it on, then told him, "We're good to go, Chief. Let's show these Spartans how it's done."

John allowed a small smile to pull his lips up. "Just the two of us against the rest of the world, huh?"

"I'd like to think I helped you get your 'hyper-lethal' designation."

"There's no doubt in my mind about that."

A squad of IVs hopped up onto the side panels of the tank to provide close range cover. When they were all settled, the vehicle started forward. Two Ghosts came skittering forward to challenge them, but the Chief simply blasted them apart. As the group passed under a thick arch of stone, John's radio crackled. "One One Seven, Lasky. We're touching down just north of your position. Proceed to starboard hangar two-dash-one-nine, and we'll link up with you there."

John flashed an acknowledgement and kept moving, shifting the tank aside so the much-faster Warthog could zip by and take the lead. The passageway widened after a bit, letting the S-IVs manning the LRV take advantage of its speed and maneuverability, but there were also a lot more enemies in the more open space. The S-II spotted a Wraith in the shadows when it lobbed a bomb their way, and swung their tank to bear on it. Two rounds, one right after the other, put it out of commission. He moved on to the Ghosts, letting the IVs handle the infantry.

On the journey to the hangar, the Chief noticed that the Spartan-IVs were more like Marines with fancy armor than actual Spartans. With the exception of the twins (who had special dispensation), even his crazy Infected conducted themselves more professionally on the battlefield. They didn't waste ammo on enemies that were clearly already dead. They didn't jeer at one another about their shooting skills or challenge one another to contests in the middle of battle. John could see that the S-IVs had skills, yes, and were necessary now that there were only a handful of S-IIs still on active duty, but their training left a lot to be desired. The prestige of their predecessors would only get them so far.

The squad reached the designated hangar with no casualties and only a few injuries, brought about when a Wraith bomb flipped over the Warthog. "Commander," the AI said over the COM, "the hangar bay doors look sealed tight."

"Roger, Cortana," Lasky responded, "We'll find a way inside and free up one of the mooring platforms. XO out."

John blasted away the Covenant vehicles harrying the ship's defenders and navigated the tank onto a lift. After a minute or so of waiting, he heard the grind of metal on metal, and the lift carried them up into the ship. There were Covenant inside the bay, including two Hunters. The S-II swung the gun around to point at the Mgalekgolo, and if other Storm Covenant happened to die with them, all the better. He was careful not to do too much damage to the ship.

The Chief dismounted from the tank. As he did so, his radio crackled yet again. "John-117, this is Captain Del Rio." He said it slowly and clearly, and in a tone that silently set the Spartan off. "Lasky just radioed. Chief, you picked a helluva time to rejoin us."

"Sir, what's our status?" Translation: Is it safe for me to put Cortana in the system to offload data?

"That satellite took down the ship's defenses and is extracting data from the ship's mainframe as we speak."

So that's a no. "Can we break the connection?" How can I make it safe for her?

"Main point of contact is on the ship's upper hull. The fastest route is through the maintenance causeway. There's a Mantis docked inside the door. Take it. You'll need the extra firepower."

A nearby hatch clicked and ground open. John walked through and headed up the ramp to the docking platform. The system alerted him that operating the Mantis was prohibited without prior approval when he tapped the panel to raise it. The platform settled, and he climbed up the back of the Mantis to hop into the cockpit. The Spartan took a moment to acquaint himself with the controls while it warmed up.

"The hatch to the maintenance causeway is jammed," Cortana informed him, "Let's do something about it."

"Sometimes," said John, activating the weapons systems, "it seems like you enjoy blowing things up more than I do."

"Only sometimes?"

"Okay, all the time." He charged and launched all of the rockets in the left pod, then switched to the chain gun in the right pod. The hatch finally burst open, leaving them free to move into the causeway.

Which was, of course, filled with enemies.

After he cleared out the first squad, finishing with a Knight, Cortana said, "The 'Incineration Cannon' makes them dissolve like that, huh?"

"Yep," John replied, guiding the Mantis to turn a corner and fire down a longer stretch of causeway, "It was primarily in use during the Forerunner-Flood War. Developed specifically for it, as a matter of fact, to decrease the number of enemy Infected without leaving bodies behind to be re-infected."

"Fascinating."

The ship's systems continued giving the crew alerts as they moved through the causeway and onto a lift that Cortana informed him would take them topside. The AI was able to remotely trigger the lift, and as they began their ascent, his radio crackled yet again. "Chief, it's Lasky. Come in!"

"Go, Commander."

"We've identified several Covenant jamming devices on the outer hull."

"That must be how they're blocking the Infinity's defenses," said Cortana.

"Exactly what we were thinking," Lasky agreed, "Neutralize them so we can get our guns back online and show that satellite we're more than just a big paperweight."

"We're on it, Commander. Cortana out."

The lift let them out into a short hallway. The airlock at the end opened at their approach. The MAC cannons sat inoperable on their mounts, unable to return fire on the CCS-class battle cruisers in the distance. "I see the jammers," the AI reported, "Three of them. Shoot them down." She put up objective markers on them. When the last one exploded, the AA guns perked up and began firing on the Banshees and Phantoms that were swooping overhead. The MAC gun didn't move.

"Del Rio to John-117. The rate that thing's searching our systems just doubled! I think it knows what you're up to."

"I'm not used to this much chatter over the radio," said the Spartan, "Not even during the Forerunner-Flood-War."

"All mental?"

"All local communication was mental, yes. I never got any deep-space mental messages, though I heard it was possible." He shot apart three Banshees, one right after the other, then helped one of the anti-air batteries destroy a Phantom before it could drop off its load of troops.

"Captain Del Rio to Sierra-117. The MAC network's reading operational, but our EM relays are malfunctioning. You'll have to initiate the link manually."

The Spartan guided his Mantis over to the panel and hopped out once the coast was clear. The manual restore was simple enough to do: a simple push of a button to reset the system. "That's it!" said Cortana, "MAC controls restored!"

"Forward MAC batteries, get that damn orb away from my ship!" Del Rio shouted, "All cannons, fire at will!"

The slugs from all of the Infinity's forward guns hit the Cryptum hard. Even through the muffling effects of his armor, John could hear the sharp reports echoing off the surrounding rock faces, making him flinch a little at each one. His flesh crawled at memories of orbital bombardments in quarantine zones, people screaming as their planets burned.

"There are no unstoppable forces in this universe," he said quietly, barely a breath of sound, looking across the gap to the Didact's Cryptum, "There are no immovable objects. Everything gives if you push hard enough. And you? You have been irresistible and immovable for too long.

"Now it is your turn to give."

-------------------------------------------

"What I want to know, people, is: where the hell did those things come from?" Del Rio demanded of the officers and Spartans gathered on the bridge.

Cortana shot a glance at her Spartan, saw his minute shake. Then she said, "It's possible that they're native to Requiem, or whatever counts as native for a Forerunner AI."

Del Rio exhaled sharply through his nose. "We've never seen this kind of offensive reaction from any of the other installations."

"'Other installations?'" the Chief repeated, praying that ONI hadn't been stupid enough to break quarantine on the Halos.

"Mr. Lasky," the captain growled in the direction of his first officer.

The XO stepped up to the holotable. "Infinity's mission has been to locate the remaining Halo rings," he said, bringing up a holographic example that rotated slowly at an angle, "and establish permanent bases to study them for decommission. We've got locations up and running around Installations Five and Three," and there he brought up an example of a base in an asteroid field of some kind, "but lately they've run into some setbacks."

Del Rio clearly thought Lasky was being too slow and decided to move things along. "A science team got zapped excavating a Forerunner artifact," he said, "This sensor data is all that was left."

The Spartan tensed and drew himself up. The one thing that he had wanted to avoid at all costs, had happened anyway – ONI had the Composer. What the captain had pulled up was an advisory to stay away from Requiem's airspace with the Composer, the Didact's sigil at the core.

I have to get it away from them.

John looked up, realizing that Del Rio was speaking again. He responded automatically, knowing that letting the Didact as he was loose into the galaxy was a terrible idea. He could reclaim the Composer and finish what he started so long ago, but the Spartan had no power to override Del Rio's orders.

'I miss my fleet.'