Six: Shutdown

"I can give you over forty thousand reasons why I know that sun isn't real."

John paused in his weapons checks when Cortana spoke. Then he resumed, but he was still listening to her.

"I know it because the emitter's Rayleigh effect is disproportionate to its suggested size. I know it because its stellar cycle is more symmetrical than that of an actual star. But for all that, I'll never actually know if it looks real. If it feels real." She turned back to face him. He saw her move out of the corner of his eye. "Before this is all over, promise me you'll figure out which one of us is the machine."

John focused on her. "If it means you're the person, I'll gladly be the machine."

Her eyes widened, then softened. "John…"

Footsteps distracted them. It was Lasky, approaching with a heavy sigh. "So what's your plan?" he asked.

"Infinity's tracked the Didact's vessel to a docking structure southeast of here," the Chief answered, "We'll jump ship as Infinity exits the roof."

"You know, I was sent down here with orders to prevent you from leaving." The S-II could tell that he did not intend to do so, and so did not react defensively. "In case you had already gone, I took the precaution of ordering a Pelican outfitted for full combat pursuit."

The Spartan had sensed the Pelican being prepped, heard the orders for it, but he'd dared not try to find out the reason behind it. Its launch pad lifted into the bay behind him. A quick active scan revealed that it was as heavily armed as it could possibly be without being overloaded.

"I hope to God you're wrong about that Forerunner," said Lasky, "or whatever he is, Chief. But in the event you're not..." Lasky nodded his head toward the Pelican. "... And Chief? Good luck." He looked at Cortana. "Both of you."

Lasky left the room. John turned to meet the gaze of his AI. She smiled weakly. "... C'mon, Chief. Take a girl for a ride."

He retrieved her chip and slotted her into his helmet. "The Didact used this 'Composer' to create the Prometheans from ancient humans. If he wants to finish the job, he'll have to find it first," said the AI, "Our best bet to stop him is keep him firmly on Requiem."

"It's on Installation Zero-Three."

"What?"

"The Composer. That's where it was in the Parallel." John nodded to the Marines who called out to him and saluted as he passed. "In addition, Del Rio said that 'a science team got zapped excavating a Forerunner artifact.' The sensor data was a warning to keep the Composer out of the Didact's hands, but it also included spacial coordinates for both.

"It's on Installation Zero-Three. Or was, at any rate, though I doubt the UNSC could move it very far. It's not exactly small." He picked up more ammunition for his weapons before boarding the Pelican.

"Initiating pre-flight diagnostics," said his companion, no doubt thinking over what he had said, "Forward Autocannon: Check. Lateral Rail Turrets: Check. Main Thrusters: Check. Auxiliary Boosters: Check. All right, keying engines... now." The Pelican's landing pad lowered them into a launch chamber. "It may be a while before we find another ride home. You know that, right?"

"It'll be okay." John shifted a little inside his body. "Come into me."

"What?"

"Come into me. I can support you for a while, take the burden off your systems, and quiet the voices. It's not a long-term solution, but it'll buy you more time."

"…You've done this before?"

"A couple of times, in a couple of different ways. There was one where you were even worse off than you are now, but I was able to get you help in time."

"Okay," Cortana said finally, "What do I have to do?"

"Just… don't fight me. It's just me." He reached out into his armor, found her and picked her up. She tensed, quivering in fright, as he pulled her into his body and then released her. The change from metal to organic processors limited her ability to process data, quieting the rampant personality spikes to a manageable level. But she also had access to his senses, and almost cried when he flexed the fingers of one hand.

The Spartan triggered the boost to launch them from the Infinity, smiling just a little when Cortana mentally clutched tighter to him. Logically, she had known it was happening, but she had never actually felt the acceleration for herself, perceived it as a human would. Once they were out in the open air, he :stepped back: and let the AI steer them around for a few minutes. He enjoyed her delight at feeling and doing things like this for herself for the first time she could remember.

Eventually, she turned control back over to him so they could proceed with their mission. When he reached out to get a feel for them, the Didact's firewalls were incredibly robust. There was no way he would be able to get inside them, not with Cortana inside him. [Any suggestions for getting inside those shields?]

'Uhm…' He opened up his senses to her, enabling her to access the data from the Pelican and his armor with ease. 'Marking two of the larger facilities on your HUD,' she said, 'It looks like they're acting as traffic control for resources moving to and from the satellite – what's it called?'

[A Crytpum.]

'Right. If we can disrupt their communications, I can forge an override code and convince it to lower those defenses.'

John aimed for the closer of the two markers. It was guarded by a number of Phantoms, but with his "anticipation," it was relatively easy to shoot them down one by one, even with the charge time on the Galilean Cannon. He guided the Pelican in for a smooth landing and hopped out. He checked his weapons again, then entered the tower. 'This tower's directing traffic to the Didact's Cryptum through a carrier wave generator somewhere inside.' A bit of static filtered through him to warp his HUD. 'Of course, if Infinity wasn't on its way back to Earth, locating and disabling it would be trivial.'

[We can handle it.]

'That's hardly the point, is it?'

The disruption subsided. 'It looks like the carrier wave generator is at the opposite end of this chamber,' Cortana said as they entered the tower. John descended a series of ramps to the main docking platform. She added, 'We can use this gondola to cross to the other side. Find the activation switch.'

With a grinding clank, the machine began to move. John knelt behind a low wall and extended his awareness. There was a troop of Covenant soldiers holding one of the maintenance platforms off to the side of the gondola's channel. They had already overridden the gondola controls so that it would stop at their station. The Spartan could easily have bypassed it, but the aliens would still have been able to fire on him as they passed.

He wanted to infect them, figuratively bite into new flesh and gather a loyal army to take on the Didact, but he couldn't risk removing his armor long enough to spread the virus. In addition, he didn't want Cortana to have to see that after what she endured on High Charity at the hands of the enemy Gravemind. The Spartan let the gondola grind to halt, hefting the DMR. Grunts and Jackals were easy to pick off in a shot or two, and their demise lured out the Elites who commanded them. They were a bit harder to kill, but he did so anyway. His walk to the override was virtually unimpeded.

'Okay, the lockout has been released, but-'

A pair of Knights and their Crawler entourage portaled in and began firing. John dodged into cover and fired back, working his way back down to the gondola. He powered it back up, and broke apart the Knights that responded to the signal. Another couple of squads took over the other maintenance dock, but he fought his way through them, too.

A Knight Commander and his spotter phased in. John dodged the initial shot and fired back, ducking into cover. He wasn't about to risk getting hit by the Incineration Cannon. The Spartan took out the Knight Commander first, then the other Promethean, and swapped out one of his other weapons for the Cannon.

[I promised I'd show you how this worked, didn't I?]

The AI grinned. Then she said, 'To take a page out of our old playbook, I've tuned your shields to emit an EMP at the same frequency as the communication network. All you need to do to trigger it is to make physical contact with the carrier wave generator.'

The Chief boosted himself up onto the platform with his jetpack. He took a deep breath, then entered the field. The energy prickled over his skin, making his hair stand on end, before the EMP dispelled it. He sensed the arrival of a number of Watchers and lunged for cover, his shield's alarm wailing in his ears.

'The others scatter like embers over sand,' the Didact said, communicating mind to mind, 'and yet the Librarian's champion is unmoved.'

John wiped out the Watchers one by one, moving back onto the gondola a step at a time. When he hit the activation switch, the Forerunner spoke again. 'The Mantle of Responsibility for the galaxy shelters all, abomination. But only the Forerunners are its masters.'

[Yeah, because you're doing such a fan-fucking-tastic job.] The Spartan put up the thickest mental shield he could maintain with minimal effort.

'He feels… He feels wrong.'

[He is. I told you, the Gravemind attacked him, and the mental damage was never repaired. He wouldn't accept the help. In the Parallel, it was much the same, but we found him first and forced him to let us help him before we would let him retake command of the Forerunner forces.] He turned his mind away from memories of tentacles coiled around thrashing armored limbs and a cruel mouth spitting blasphemous curses and insults as he forcibly tore the Didact's mind apart again and pieced it back together correctly, as opposed to the twisted thing the Primordial made of it. It was a crude job but effective, letting him heal properly.

'Covenant air traffic's increasing,' said the AI as they exited the tower, 'If we don't disable the other tower quickly, reaching the Didact could become exponentially more difficult.'

The Chief climbed into their Pelican. He fired the boost as they swung around, aiming for the second tower. There were more Phantoms guarding the tower, but they went down in explosions of white fire under the Galilean and chain guns. As they set down, Cortana reached out to monitor the traffic. Then she said, 'There's a lot more COM traffic passing through this tower than just what's servicing the Didact's Cryptum. These systems use data attenuators to regulate the flow of communications. Destroying those would drown out the tower's transmissions. The tower's instructions to the Didact's shields would be drowned in the noise.'

The doors into the tower opened at his approach, letting him into a short hall filled with Crawlers and a Watcher. The Watcher was constructing more Crawlers at the far end of the hall, so he took it out first before moving on. When the last of the Crawlers broke apart, he continued on into the main chamber.

Where he was promptly assaulted by Watchers.

Again.

He exhaled sharply through his nose and began firing on the Prometheans, getting vindictive satisfaction out of the snapping clank they made when they broke apart. The Chief flipped the switch, bringing the attenuators up to the decks. Ordinarily, it would be done for maintenance on the machinery, but today it was going to be a bit more of "percussive" maintenance.

The Spartan fought his way to each of the attenuators, cleaving through the armies of Knights, Crawlers, and Watchers sent to stop him.

'Your actions tread between honor and foolishness,' the Didact hissed, battering at his shields, 'Even now, your wards tinker with the Composer in the shadow of the third ring. Children and fire, who disregard the welfare of the galaxy.'

'Success,' said Cortana when the Promethean finished his rant, 'the system's overloading. I don't think we'll be having any more trouble from those shields.'

John headed back out of the chamber. The hall where he had eliminated the Watcher and Crawlers was populated once again, this time by a Knight Commander and his underlings. The Spartan ducked the first shot from that Promethean's Incineration Cannon and returned fire with a charge of his own. It killed the Knight on the rebound, along with one of the Crawlers.

'Interesting.'

[It's a lot more "interesting" on biological life forms.] He picked up replacement charges after destroying the Crawlers and headed back out to their Pelican. [If we run into any more Covenant, I'll use it on them.]

As he hopped into the cockpit and started them up again, the Didact came back to admonish them some more. 'Do you believe that your theatrics can prevent my departure? Embrace your sad fate, and retain your nobility – I am already beyond you.'

'He knows what we're trying to do,' said the AI worriedly, 'If we get too close to that Cryptum, we're dead.' She scrambled for another option. 'I-I have an idea. Head for that waypoint.' As the Spartan accelerated in the direction that she indicated, she continued, 'Those defense spires we keep running into are being controlled from this tower. Get me to the control room, and we can reposition them to block the Didact's ship from leaving.'

There were no Phantoms guarding the spire. The landing platform extended without prompting, and he set down. The entryway led to a one-way gravity lift, which the Spartan boarded without hesitation. It carried them up to an inner chamber even larger than the last. As they advanced, some of the hard light connectors unfolded and fell away. 'You will relent, abomination, or you will perish,' said the Forerunner, altering more of the tower as the Spartan hurried on, 'All in life is choice, and your day to choose… has come.'

[I'm pretty sure deer didn't choose to be hunted for food, fucking asshole.]

John worked his way across the hard light platforms, mindful of the sheer drops on all sides. [The ecumene laughs at your OSHA compliance and building safety regulations.] Cortana snorted, then sounded the alarm when a gravity lift just out of view activated and dropped off a pair of Hunters. [Perfect timing.] The Chief finished off the last of the Unggoy, then hefted his Incineration Cannon. [We'll need to get closer to get a good look, through it'd probably be safer to fire from about this distance.]

'Since when have we done anything safe?'

[Exactly.]

The first shot killed one of the Hunters and broke it apart into the golden flakes of light á la the Promethean Knights. Unfortunately, the other Hunter had been too close to the detonation. The charge hadn't killed it like the other, but it had knocked it off the edge of the platform. John peered over the edge to watch it flail through the air as it plunged into the abyss below. [That's one way to save ammo, I suppose.] He swept the area for anything useful before riding the second gravity lift up.

This one spat him out in another chamber about the same size as the one below it. The difference was that there were Banshees flying around in this one. The good news was that there were extras sitting unmanned on the platforms nearby; he only had to kill a single Sangheili in order to hijack one.

The aerial battle was a pain. There were Shade turrets everywhere, and infantry that kept firing on him whenever he even toed the edge of their weapons' range. The Chief chose to focus on the turrets as the greatest threat, but also the easiest to eliminate. They had large amounts of firepower, but the Shades were stationary. It was a simple enough matter to strafe them with fuel rod charges until they exploded, taking any other soldiers in the immediate vicinity with them. Then he turned on the Banshees. They were a bit more trouble, but his "anticipation" helped him target them despite their sharp turns and acceleration.

John only worried about the infantry closest to the nav point here he wanted to go – the rest were inconsequential. A few quick strafing runs took care of the largest threats and sent the rest running for cover. Fortunately, he was fast enough to set the Banshee down and make a break for the control center before the remaining Covenant realized what happened.

'Quick, let me at the Spire controls!'

The Spartan carefully filtered the AI back into her chip, then inserted her into the control panel. "Tapping into the spire's central net," she said, clearly doing something. He could sense her moving in the system. "They're mine…" The spires began moving to surround the Cryptum, physically blocking it from launching. "Now to – I-I-IMPRISON THEM?"

Rampant episode. John jumped into the system, but there was no way to get her immediately under control without hurting her.

"LIKE HE IMPRISONED HIS PROMETHEANS?! LIKE DOCTOR HALSEY IMPRISONED ME?!"

The spires jerked, spun, and fell away, out of control, Cortana thrashing in agony in the system. He got a hold of her, and forced a viral suppression code into her matrices, initiating a temporary halt to all processing while he pulled her from the console. Only when she was safely ensconced in his flesh once more did he allow her to resume normal function. [I'm sorry,] he said sincerely, the platform they were on beginning to descend to a lower balcony, [I'm so sorry.]

'No… No… I'm… You do what you have to – don't worry about me.' Despite her words, Cortana was badly shaken, so much so that she hardly noticed when he flung himself off the spire, aiming for the Liches flying below. The Spartan streamlined his body, using his arms like fins to steer his fall toward the Liches. When they got close enough, he flipped and fired his jetpack to slow his fall, landing on the back with a thump. But his momentum was too great, the Liches plating too smooth and curved, and he began sliding off of the vehicle.

He unsheathed his combat knife and shoved it hilt-deep in the Lich's armor to arrest his fall. The Spartan heaved himself up on top of the Covenant vehicle, then looked up when he sensed something coming down from above.

The Didact's Cryptum blasted down past them, the Mantle's Approach ascending to meet him. Its major segments loosened enough to admit the Cryptum, then latched back together. The ship continued its ascent through Requiem's portal Requiem's portal and out into the open space beyond, surrounded by flocks of Liches.

'They're jumping into Slipspace!' said Cortana when the familiar Forerunner portal was opened by the Approach, 'Get below deck!'

[No time.] John fired his jetpack again to boost them forward and tuck them up under an armored overhang inside the Lich's shields. It was going to be one hell of a ride.