Eight: Light Born from Darkness

"All right," said Keyes when the cheering died down, "Cortana, options for getting home."

"We're beyond the edge of human space," the AI answered, "and none of our ships' transmitters are strong enough to send a signal that far, nor will oxygen last long enough for a reply, let alone rescue. Given the Covenant in the area, I advise we capture one of their ships. Also, if there is time, we can look for any jettisoned cryotubes."

She was already scanning for a ship or the spatial distortion of an impending arrival, praying to whatever benign higher powers heard the prayers of AIs that the Ascendant Justice didn't appear right in their midst-

"Ah. Speak of the Devil, and he shall appear."

The ship in question emerged from Slipspace a little over five kilometers away, three frigates and a destroyer attending. They were momentarily dead in space, and Cortana took the chance that provided, taking control of their tiny fleet and sending them darting forward toward the Justice. Every microseconds' advantage was more precious than all the Forerunner tech in the galaxy. If they could just-

No good. If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. The Justice's power came back online, shields coming up, turrets swinging around, barrels warm with a brightening glow-

-Just as suddenly, something hit the ship's shields. She saw the point of impact even as the shields came down, calculated - the attack against the ship came from behind them. It only took down the shields, but that was really all they needed this time, which John had known very well.

Cortana brought all of their transports into the Justice's starboard shuttle bay, landing them gently despite the harrowing flight to the flagship.

The Spartans were the first to mobilize, disembarking and sweeping the bay for threats. When they signaled the all clear, the rest of the humans emerged and followed behind. As they did so, Cortana worked to encrypt their COM channels, then said, "This ship is called the Ascendant Justice. Personnel rosters indicate there's only one hundred Elites and a light company of Grunts. The rest are Engineers. TEAMCOM and SQUADCOM are now secure, by the way."

"Thank you, Cortana," said Keyes, ignoring one of the Marines who said, 'Only a hundred?' "We need to capture whatever passes for the bridge."

The AI directed the humans to a large hexagonal door and also presented routes to take other secure areas - Engineering and the main armory. The human force split into three groups, each with two teams of Spartans; Keyes, Blue, and Black aimed for the bridge, while Lieutenant McKay, Green, and Silver went for Engineering and Silva reluctantly took Red and Orange to the armory.

Even though the vast majority of the ship's fighting force had been dispatched to fight on Halo, the main passage to the bridge was still heavily guarded. Keyes and his team were forced through a small maintenance access way, and the Spartans had to power down their shields and turn sideways in order to fit, much to Cortana's amusement. But still she said, "There's a data port on your left, 104, left and down twenty centimeters. Put me in; I can better assist from inside the ship."

Fred hesitated, but only for a moment; rampant though she was, she hadn't done anything actively malicious against them (yet). And Doctor Halsey had assured them that she was as committed to defending the UNSC as they were, though her reasons for doing so were her own. "How is it?" the Spartan asked, ready to pull her out if necessary.

"Different," the AI answered immediately, "Proceed down this passage for thirty meters and turn left."

While they continued towards the bridge, she went tearing through the Covenant's systems, hunting the alien AIs that had caused her so much trouble the first time around. But she wasn't alone this time; Winterspell joined her, along with two other ancillae who introduced themselves as Stormwatch and Soulseeker. The three of them were only archeon-class ancillae (unlike their two metarch-class and one Contender-class ancillae), but they still far outstripped anything the Covenant could field - or the UNSC, for that matter.

The four AIs scoured the system, shredding every Covenant AI they came across. The nav controls were disabled, as Cortana had expected, so she headed for the weapons systems instead, swinging the ship around to fire on the other attendant ships. While she did that, the ancillae handled pumping atmosphere from Covenant-controlled areas, rewriting code to be more efficient, and generating sensor ghosts to fool survivors into chasing imaginary humans. The Huragok were told to retreat to safety and ignore any humans they saw. Winterspell also took it upon herself to process and index all of the Halo data for the UNSC AI, which let her breathe easier and focus on what really needed to be done.

Such as defending their Slipspace drive. She tried to electrocute the person doing it, but even if she succeeded in killing the one responsible, they succeeded in disconnecting the drive. She hissed a curse, but McKay was still on the way to Engineering, so that would have to wait - but she did upload strict instructions to everyone's neural laces, saying to leave the Huragok alone. Once Engineering was secure, she could direct the floating creatures to repair any damage to the ship.

By the time the last of the escort ships had fled, Keyes' team had taken the bridge and killed or driven off all Covenant save the Huragok huddling in a corner. Once the fighters lowered their weapons, Cortana communicated with them, letting them know - with a much more refined software, courtesy of the Fleet - that they were free to return to their duties and that the Reclaimers meant them no harm. One of them distinctly huffed, but they all drifted out of their corner to start fixing the damage from the bridge fight.

Keyes and the Spartans watched them for a minute or two with more than a little bemusement, the officer chewing a little on the stem of his pipe before he shook himself and tucked it away. "Cortana, status?"

The AI appeared on the bridge, her red avatar casting everything in bloody light. "Major Silva has taken the main armory, sir," she answered, "and Lieutenant McKay has arrived at Engineering. However, someone has taken the Slipspace drive offline; I'll need to send one of the Engineers down to reconnect it before we can go anywhere."

Keyes nodded. "Well, we're secure enough here for now, and we have a ride home."

"Sir?" Fred stepped forward, head tilted.

The captain turned to him and shook his head. "I know, Master Chief," he said, "We were meant to start RED FLAG at this point, but that was before we lost Reach, and more than three-quarters of your Spartans with her. Not to mention, without the Autumn as backup, even naval personnel are along for the ride, and we're down more than half the crew with this as our only ride home. If this ship gets captured or crippled, there's no hope of extraction. We need to cut our losses, take this ship to Earth and let Section Three have at it."

The Spartan nodded, reluctant but understanding, and stepped back.

Keyes turned back to the AI. "Cortana, as soon as we get that Slipspace drive back online, set a course for Earth and-"

"I'm sorry, sir," the AI interrupted, "I cannot do that. Cole Protocol dictates that no enemy vessel may be brought to the Sol System without an exhaustive search for tracking devices, which we have neither the time nor the personnel to perform. I suggest an intermediate destination: Reach."

"Logic?"

"The Covenant already knows the location of Reach, so there is no breach of protocol," she answered, "In addition, it's likely that the Covenant glassed Reach and moved on, in which case there may be a serviceable derelict to make the trip to Earth. If they haven't left, it's unlikely that they would fire on one of their own ships - or what they think is one of their own, anyway."

Keyes thought it over for a moment, then nodded in assent. "Fair enough. How do we get the drive back online?"

"I'll need one of the Spartans to clear a path for the Engineers, and ideally take at least one with them. I told them to go to ground when we came on board in order to protect them, but we can't afford to delay long enough for them to get to Engineering on their own. They can move, but they're not Speedy Gonzalez."

Kelly stepped forward. "I'm the fastest. I'll go."

Cortana nodded, then gestured to the creatures. "Take your pick."

She waded into their midst and scooped one up. It squealed angrily until Cortana told it she was taking it to fix something and to hang on tight and stick close. It was considerably calmer after that and looped two of its tentacles around her waist so she could pull it along behind her.

The AI loaded the map to her HUD, and she set off with the alien creature in tow, sprinting down the hall before dropping down and internal gravity lift between floors. The doors at the bottom were sealed tight, but the Engineer pushed a button on a wall console and they wrenched themselves open.

There was some activity on her motion tracker. The doors cleared just in time for her to see a clutch of Unggoy flee down the hall, taking fire from human forces. She headed that way and came face to face with half of Green Team defending the approach to Engineering.

Both Maria and Joshua did a double take when they saw the Huragok hanging off Kelly. "Is that an Engineer?" Maria asked, "I've never seen one up close before."

"Affirmative," Kelly replied. The other two Spartans escorted her to Engineering, then returned to their post. The Engineer squeaked in upset when it saw the damage that had been done, and it got to work right away.

The Spartan saluted Lieutenant McKay when she came over. The woman nodded to her, then raised an eyebrow at the Engineer before shaking her head and walking away.

A few minutes later Sam arrived, Fred behind him, with a conga line of eight Engineers stretched out between them. "Cortana had us do a loop," Sam explained as the aliens let go of him and each other and drifted off to start repairs.

One of them approached Otto-031, who was covering the main entry at range. "Hey! What-?"

Cortana came over TEAMCOM. "I've instructed it to repair your armor, 031. I know your shields were damaged in the fight, and some of the plates are compromised."

He flashed an acknowledgement at her and reluctantly stood up to allow it complete access. That left Blue Team free to return to the bridge, which they did. Along the way they came across more Engineers coming out of hiding to enact repairs - such as the bridge doors. They'd been forced to short them out in order to gain access to the bridge, but the Huragok had fixed them up.

Keyes was standing on the elevated platform at the center of the chamber, supervising Cortana as she fought back against other Covenant ships. They were moving into a very low orbit over Threshold in an attempt to use the gas giant's gravity well and magnetic field to disrupt the plasma torpedoes being fired at them. It was reasonably effective.

Meanwhile, one by one the Forerunner ancillae completed their supplemental tasks and bade Cortana farewell, returning to the unseen Forerunner ships. But when they all had gone, someone else arrived.

She had never in her life felt her Spartan's presence in the circuitry with her, but she recognized right away that it could only be him; no other Gravemind would be so gentle when "taking her hand."

And she could feel him - something like the tactile synesthesia that the enemy Gravemind had weaponized against her on High Charity. The techsuit of his armor was mostly smooth and faintly cool and squishy - rubbery, this was what people called rubbery.

His helmet was off; she reached up to touch his face. He was clean-shaven, but there was still the faintest rough rasp of stubble under her fingers from the still-growing hairs. His skin was smooth, less rough than the stubble but still faintly textured, and oddly rippled where he was scarred.

And he was warm, so alive under her touch.

Cortana had known all the descriptions of weeping available to her, but she hadn't actually experienced it until he fed her the data - warm and wet and salty tears, runny nose, tight chest and shuddering breaths. She stepped into his embrace - though smooth, his armor was cold and hard, but she could feel it - and he held her as she cried for a second that lasted an eternity in the Justice's systems.

At last, when she'd worn herself out, letting out all the rage and grief and fear and despair when she thought she was alone, he stepped back and said, "We'll be waiting for you at Delta Halo."

"We'll be there."

The Spartan gave her a small smile and slipped away - but not before giving her a half-dozen other sense memories. The rich tart sweetness of warm apple pie. The crisp, chilly air of the first autumn cold snap. The faint grit of fine sand between her toes, standing on an alien shore, cool and crystal clear waves rolling over her feet. The taste of fine chocolate bursting on her tongue.

The simple warmth of the bright sun.

And then the Justice was in Slipspace, even as several of her personality spikes gasped, "A collection of lies, that's all I am! Stolen thoughts and memories!" But she pulled herself together and steered the ship for Reach.

If her outburst had been noticeable, no one commented on it. Instead Keyes asked if she'd found any useful data in the Covenant systems. She briefed him on the Covenant "AI" and its translation matrices, as well as the encoded Covenant subchannel.

But then she straightened. "ETA five minutes," she said, "All hands, prepare for arrival at Epsilon Eridani. Let's see what's waiting for us." At the appointed time, she said, "Exiting Slipspace in three… two… one."

The lights dimmed in response to the reactor drain from the pinpoint jump. The Ascendant Justice dropped back into realspace, momentarily inert, but then the ship came back online. Cortana brought them about, saying, "We are seven hundred thousand kilometers from system center, close enough to see what's going on, far enough away to recharge and reenter Slipspace if there's - oh my."

All the humans turned to look.

Reach was burning.

From pole to pole, the major populations centers had been vitrified in one fell swoop. Once-sprawling military complexes had become pits of slag and despair, and the mountains and forests of the Spartans' home were crumbling and burning. A black hurricane of ash and dust was raining pollution down into a dying ocean, and everywhere they looked they saw pools of glass, some still hot and glowing.

"Wait. What do we have here?" Cortana zoomed in on a part of the planet near the equator. There was a small section of untouched land, still blue and green amidst all the black and orange. "That's ONI's CASTLE Base," she said, "and the Covenant doesn't just miss spots."

"Whatever it is, it warrants a closer look," said Keyes, "If the Covenant are interested in it, then we should be too."

"We're being hailed," said the AI, "preparing proper counter response and moving into high orbit."

The captain chewed on the stem of his pipe again, then said, "Master Chief, take your squad and one other down to the surface to investigate. We need to find out what they're so interested in. If you can bring it back with you, so much the better, but if not…"

"Understood, sir."

"And if there are any survivors down there, bring them back too."

The Spartan nodded and signaled for Blue and Red Teams to meet him in one of the shuttle bays. The rest of the Spartans were sweeping the ship, killing any non-Huragok aliens they encountered while the Huragok themselves trailed in their wake, repairing the damage from the skirmishes.

Meanwhile, Cortana programmed responses to queries into the dropship's onboard computer, giving the subroutine in charge a limited capacity for extrapolation. When she retreated and scanned reach again, she saw what she had seen Before: the Covenant were using tugboats to move the remnants of the UNSC's fleet into massive graveyards. "They're cleaning house, like they intend to stay a while," she said, "I've also received a response from the fleet; they're curious about why we're here, but not enough to question our authority."

"Any idea why they're sticking around?"

"Not yet. Although, they are referring to 'holy relics' in more transmissions than usual - wait. Distress call, E-band." She played it back, and the Spartans jolted.

Oly oly oxen free.

Fred stepped forward. "That's one of our signals, sir," he said to Keyes, "There are Spartans down there."

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

The Shard was suspended perfectly straight over the perfectly circular platform in the exact center of the room. Each of its thousand facets gleamed with an internal light, the glow steady even as its bright misty core rippled and swirled. The illumination seemed more intense than it actually was because of the countless mirrored wall panels reflecting its light.

"This must be what the Covenant are here for," Halsey thought out loud.

"Which means we can't let them have it, so let's grab it and go, ma'am," Kurt-051 growled. He was watching the exit and so missed the disparaging look the scientist sent him, but she obliged and approached the pedestal.

But when she crossed some arbitrary line, the crystal turned red, and she froze in place. Something was looking at her through the crystal, examining her, everything she was laid bare before some unknown, intense, alien minds.

There was an impression conveyed without words. Ah… it's you. Very good.

And then it was gone just as fast as it had come, the red glow turning back to blue-white.

Kurt didn't seem to have noticed anything. When Halsey glanced back at him, he was still covering the exit, assault rifle at the ready; if it had affected him too, he would have said something.

None of the other Spartans seemed to have experienced anything either; they were still holding the tunnels against waves of Covenant trying to take them down. But even as they did that, there was more gunfire than there should have been, taking down the Covenant between them. When they were all dead, the scientist and the Spartans emerged from cover - and found themselves among friends, UNSC personnel - and more Spartans, including Blue and Red Teams, who had fled Reach on the Autumn.

Halsey was relieved to see them all - but only for a moment. Another larger Covenant force stormed in to engage them, pursuing the crystal that Halsey held. Yet none of them fired, save two Hunters.

Kelly was in motion before anyone else, putting herself between Halsey and the Covenant firing at her, and Fred and Sam darted in front of Vice Admiral Whitcomb, the rest of the Spartans following their lead to protect the other ordinary humans, but the shots never came. Instead, the crystal pulsed, and the plasma bombs vanished through a ripple in space, reappearing some distance away to crash harmlessly to the ground.

A thousand more shots rang out, and again the Spartans braced themselves for an attack that never came. Every shot was directed at the Hunters who'd fired on them. The pair raised their shields to defend themselves, but the metal was meant to protect them against a few weapons' fire, not a few thousand; the Spartans caught only a brief glimpse of them through the haze of plasma before they were vaporized completely.

A Sangheili in gold armor roared something at the Covenant forces that whispered through the humans' translators a moment later. "Take them - but the next one to fire on the holy light will be skinned alive! Go!"

SpecOps Sangheili started rappelling down from the gallery above, Kig-Yar following close behind. The Spartans and everyone with them fled but still unloaded clip after clip of bullets into their pursuers as often as they could. Hundreds of bodies tumbled to the floor, tripping up those who followed too close; many more were trampled by their fellows in their eagerness to claim the crystal.

The humans made it to their dropships, some of them newly "liberated" from the Covenant, and piled inside. It was very tight, especially with all the Spartans in their armor, but they got airborne before the aliens could really catch up.

The dropships swooped out of the central chamber and into the tunnel leading outside. When they emerged, they were shocked to find three times as many ships hovering around the entrance as when they'd entered. A carrier was in orbit directly over their evac path and seemed to have reversed its grav lift in an attempt to force them back to earth, but thanks to the now-green and vaguely flower-shaped crystal, they didn't feel it. Instead, something exploded in the carrier, and then something else and something else, leaving them free to streak away as the carrier limped off.

The Ascendant Justice was shooting down ship after ship with laser-like bursts of plasma, but even drawing additional power from the UNSC Gettysburg, hard-docked to its top, there were more ships than plasma turrets. But the dropships made it into her shuttle bays - barely; they went full throttle on approach until they'd had to brake or risk crashing.

The instant the last one was aboard, Fred shouted for Cortana to get them out of there, and the construct did just that. The conjoined ships swung around to a seemingly random orientation and jumped away from Reach, entering Slipspace through another pinpoint jump. The AI was surprised that Slipspace appeared normal for the most part, despite having the Forerunner crystal on board, but she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

The whole crew snapped off salutes when Vice Admiral Whitcomb stepped onto the bridge. He waved them off and said, "At ease, soldiers. You've done amazing work, capturing a Covenant ship intact. Section Three will love you, I'm sure, but I'm curious to know if you've got any immediately actionable intel." He turned to Cortana.

"Unfortunately, yes," she answered, "The Covenant have discovered the location of Earth."

A pin drop would have been deafening in the silence that followed.

"God have mercy on us, because these alien bastards sure won't," Whitcomb gasped, running a hand over his face.

"It gets worse, sir."

"I don't see how it could possibly get worse than that."

"I've learned never to say that, sir; the universe seems to view it as a challenge," she replied, and then she told them.