Two: Reborn Hatred for Humanity

The portal spat them out on a platform in a short hall elsewhere in Requiem. It shut down moments after they passed through, but John didn't have to be as smart and quick as Cortana to know it wouldn't stop those things from following them. The shield world had a portal network; it wasn't exactly a stretch to imagine that they could tap into it and portal in and out under their own power. Doubtlessly, they were already on their way to their location.

Still, there was one thing he didn't know. "What were those things? We've never seen anything like them before."

"Unknown," the AI answered, "Some kind of advanced defense AIs, native to Requiem - or whatever passes for native. Relatives of the Sentinels, if I had to take a guess."

The Spartan hummed in acknowledgement. "This planet's just a ball of sunshine, isn't it?" He walked down from the platform and across the hall. The door slid open in front of him, revealing a platform in a large chamber, aglow with purple light.

He paused for a moment, eyeing the construct at the center of the chamber. It was something massive, to be sure, surrounded by the crackling, pale violet energy of a stay field - an advanced form of suspended animation. But there wasn't time to think too deep on it; he continued forward up to the console on the platform, and slotted the AI in.

"This is Requiem's core, all right," said Cortana, "but Infinity is definitely not here." An information panel popped up in front of her. She slid a few things around on it. "That construct at the center is amplifying the ship's broadcast like a relay."

"Maybe we can use it to respond."

"Perhaps." She shuffled a few more panels around on the display. "Those stay field beams coming off of it are creating the interference we've been experiencing. We'd have to take them out to contact Infinity. Opening a gate to the first beam pylon. Pull me, and let's go."

John tugged her chip from the console, then dropped down from the upper platform and walked through the gate, weapon at the ready. Cortana spoke again. "There wouldn't be an active stay field here if there wasn't something - or someone - to hold in suspended animation. What do you think is up there?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. Probably better," the Spartan answered, then stopped again and lifted his weapon as a dozen little animal-shaped machines fled at his approach. They flickered at the edge of his motion tracker's range, and the sight of them made his skin shiver and crawl.

But they couldn't afford to linger. He kept advancing, and the Crawlers came back, one of them screaming at a pitch that made his hair stand on end. Most importantly - to him, at least - they dropped Forerunner weaponry - boltshots, suppressors - when he destroyed them, letting him lay hands on guns that he was now more familiar with than UNSC gear.

Then he activated a light bridge and moved across - only to throw himself backwards out of range when one of the larger constructs jumped down on him from the canyon wall. It flared its face panels as it screamed in wrath – he got off a shot that caught it right between the eyes. As it dissolved in a swirl of golden flakes, the Chief clambered back to his feet. "What the hell was that?"

"From that peek under the hood, I'd guess that these constructs are mimetic in nature."

He nodded in acknowledgement and kept walking, then paused and drew back a little when more of the constructs phased away as he exited the narrow stretch of canyon. "More of them?" When the AI mentioned it, he realized he could sense the things' portaling activity as a very faint crawling on his skin, almost like static electricity.

Then they came on in a wave, the little animals charging at him for the most part, while the big ones stayed back and shot at him from afar. The Spartan gunned them all down, like he had everything else in his path. One of the big ones, however, released a third kind of construct, a little floating one with hover rings on either side, which zipped over and started reconstituting one of the big ones that he destroyed. "Hey! Fuck you!"

Cortana laughed softly in his ear. When all of them were destroyed again, she pulled up a screen on his HUD. "I've discovered something interesting about our new friends. When the big ones explode, that momentary flash we're seeing is actually a data purge."

"Can you tap into it?"

"So far, I've pulled multiple strings referring to the big ones as Promethean Knights. Beyond that, though… believe me, you're better off not knowing."

He tilted his head down, glanced to one side, remembering too late that she was in his armor again rather than by his side. But she seemed to understand the reason behind the action, because he felt her heat shift in his neural lace, like she was trying to get closer.

He stayed there for a moment, briefly mourning their inability to help each other, then continued. They picked up another transmission from Infinity, but it was almost completely drowned in static. "The relay interference is increasing. We must be getting close to the pylon," said the AI, right before the Spartan's HUD began glitching.

Before she could apologize, the Chief said, "It's fine. Don't worry about it."

"It's not fine!" Cortana snarled, before forcing herself to be calm. "It's not fine," she repeated, quieter, "I'm scared."

"So am I."

Anything Cortana might have said in reply was interrupted by their arrival at the target. The entrance was shielded by thick barriers of hard light, but fortunately, the power sources for said barriers were nearby. "When we get back, we really need to discuss the strategic positioning of control panels and power sources."

A number of Knights and the little animal ones - "Crawlers" - portaled in to protect the area, but they were all gunned down in clumps, by the Chief himself or by the autosentry he picked up off one of the Knights. There were a few more enemies up on the ramps leading to the tower, but they didn't have any more luck stopping him than their earlier relatives.

The Spartan sprinted toward the core. "Chief," Cortana piped up as he ran, "You're going to want to see this." She brought up a shaky image off to one side on his HUD. It depicted Requiem from the outside, complete with the position of the Infinity. "They're not inside the planet at all," the AI said, "They're moving into orbit!"

John stepped onto an elevator inside the tower and activated it with a quick push of a button. As he did so, another garbled transmission came over the COM, "This is Captain Andrew Del Rio to any survivors of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn, we are approaching your last known location…" but the rest faded into static beyond anything he could make out.

"I distinctly heard 'Forward Unto Dawn.'" Del Rio? Mm. I wonder how long it'll take him to make a mistake this time around.

"They must have intercepted our distress beacon," Cortana said.

The Spartan saw an immediate problem with that. "The beacon was pulled into Requiem with us," he said, "If they try to follow it…"

The AI may have been deteriorating, but she was not slow on the uptake. "…they'll get caught in the gravity well! I'll keep trying to warn them – you just get that beam down."

She didn't need to tell him twice. When the doors opened, he raced to grab the manual shutdown handle. The amount of time since Requiem's construction and the powerful charge from the beam made it difficult for him, but the Spartan was more than equal to the task. As the last of the stay field's purple light faded, the emitter folding down into the tower, his suit's COM systems picked up another transmission from the ship: "FLEETCOM Actual, we are detecting a faint UNSC signal from somewhere inside the planet."

"They haven't hit the gravity well yet." Once the protective panels locked into place over the emitter, John sprinted across them to the portal that opened up beyond.

Cortana was silent for a moment, then said, "There's still too much interference to warn them without taking down that other beam; it's too strong. What's in this stay field?"

"Hopefully not the Flood."

"Amen. We've got to disable that other beam before the Infinity's pulled inside like we were."

The portal dropped them off on the very first platform, looking out over the construct at the core. Another portal opened up opposite the one they had taken to the first beam pylon. As the Chief approached it, a handful of Covenant ships transitioned back to realspace near the core and began making for the second pylon.

"I was wondering why the Infinity hadn't encountered the Covenant yet. But what are they doing here? Surely they would have more interest in ships or weapons caches elsewhere on the planet?"

"I don't know. It doesn't make any sense to me either." The Spartan leapt through the portal, took a beat to orient himself, then continued forward.

The sounds of the Storm Covenant and Prometheans battling it out ahead made him pause. He decided to let them weaken each other before he moved into the fray. "Cortana."

"Yes?"

"I don't know what we're going to find up there. Whatever it is, it's caught the Covenant's attention as well. Are you gonna be good to react on the fly?"

"What other option is there?"

"The one that ends with both of us dead." The sounds of gunfire were winding down. He could hear two Sangheili and at least one Knight still running around, probably with its Watcher. The Spartan tilted his head, indicating he was waiting for a response.

Finally, Cortana said, "I can do it."

He didn't ask if she was sure.

He left cover. The Sangheili were close enough to one another that he pitched a grenade at their feet, then used the time until detonation to gun for the Watcher. After it fell out of the sky, he whipped back around to the Covenant. Without their shields, two quick headshots were sufficient to put them down.

The Knight had initially been out of sight, but once the aliens were dead, it came looking for their killer. The Chief scooped up more ammo for his boltshot and charged it fully to knock down the digital being's shields, then momentarily dropped the Forerunner pistol to grab his suppressor and fire at its center of mass until it dissolved in a swirl of golden flakes.

It was much the same all the way to the tower: let the Covenant and Prometheans wear each other down, then come in from behind and clean up the mess, picking up a Ghost along the way to speed up their advance.

The tower itself was held by the Covenant, with only the broken remains of Prometheans to show that there had ever been a fight. John slammed the boost and sent his Ghost darting forward to mow down the Sangheili making a break for a nearby Banshee. The Spartan took the vehicle instead and launched them into the air, evading fire from the other Banshees as he did so. It was an older model, not nearly as maneuverable, but he adjusted quickly and shot down the other Banshees. Then he moved to strafe the troops on the ground and bombed the hell out of the power sources, the hard light barriers flickering out one by one.

John set the Banshee down on the second level of the ramp leading into the tower and sprinted across the light bridges to this tower's elevator. As he did so, Captain Del Rio came over the COM again, this time as a blurred image, "UNSC Infinity to Survivor Forward Unto Da-a-a-a- We're reading a faint IFF near the pla-anetary core. Do you read?"

"The planet's core?" Cortana repeated, "They know we're here!" She began trying to signal the ship while the Spartan activated the elevator. "Infinity, this is UNSC AI Cortana! Do not approach Forerunner planet! Repeat, do not approach –"

"UNSC asset," said the captain, "Forward Unto Dawn, we read you, but you're breaking up." He turned to someone off screen, "Helm, increase speed by point-seven. Get us in there!"

"NEGATIVE, Infinity! Do not approach the planet!"

Del Rio went on, "If you can read us, keep transmitting!"

"No!" the AI shouted, "Chief, you have to get that beam down now!"

When the doors opened, the Spartan ran for the pylon controls and shut it down as fast as he could. As the emitter folded away, Cortana once again attempted to hail the Infinity, but to no avail. "The interference is gone, but your suit's transmitter's not strong enough. It looks like we have no choice."

The Chief nodded in assent. "Move us up to the construct."

"Already done, go!"

The portal he stepped through dropped them back at the main platform once again. He ran as fast as he could for the portal and jumped through.

Then he stopped dead for an instant, then scrambled for cover. A Cryptum, a Warrior Keep. Again there was the ominous skin-crawling sensation, but there was no time. "How soon until Infinity hits the gravity well?" he demanded as a Phantom swooped overhead and dropped a load of troops in front of him, mostly Grunts.

"A minute or two, max!"

John sniped the Storm Covenant with his new lightrifle as he tore down the ramp. There were doors on either side of the entryway; he picked one and moved through, hugging the innermost edge of the battlefields beyond. The Covenant and the Prometheans were more concerned with each other than him, and so he passed mostly uncontested.

"Chief," said Cortana as he approached the ramp to the interface, "You need to hear this!"

An unfamiliar female voice came over the COM this time: "Detecting a slight gravimetric disturbance near the planet's opening. Suggest alternate approach vector one seven two k dash one five zero k dash one two k."

"They're not diverting from the opening! Hurry, Chief!"

The Spartan dodged a turret and more fire from Prometheans. "Are you ready?!" he shouted over the sound of gunfire.

"Yes!"

He laid his hands on the interfaces and kept a sharp eye on his motion tracker, pushing all other thoughts from his mind. "Infinity," he said over the COM, "this is Sierra-117 of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn. Do you copy?"

The Cryptum echoed his words back at him, rising and rotating slowly to face him, making him briefly tighten his grip on the interfaces before he let them go. The Spartan drew his weapon once more. "Cortana?"

"I'm sorry – I don't know what –"

"Find us an exit," he interrupted.

"Don't wait around on my account!"

John vaulted over a low wall and took cover behind it as the Cryptum rose ominously, then released a shockwave that knocked over all of the combatants. The Chief didn't need to look to know what happened next – the Cryptum's plates retracted from the "molten" core, releasing whoever had been locked inside. He tensed, tightened his grip on his weapon when he heard the clicks and clanks of old-style Forerunner armor assembling.

"So fades the great harvest of my betrayal."

The Chief's hair stood on end. "Divines have mercy on us," he whispered, "The Ur-Didact."

Then a fresh wave of horror hit. In the Parallel, he had been able to help when the Primordial – the Gravemind – had mind-raped the Promethean commander, but for him to have been imprisoned here, the alien must have had no such aid or, if he had, had refused to accept it.

The Covenant were bowing to the Forerunner even as the Prometheans were reprogrammed to obey their master once more. "Even these beasts," said the Forerunner, "recognize what you were oblivious to, Human. Your nobility has blinded you, as ever."

John felt the wall beginning to give under his shoulder, saw the hard light flake away like a dying Promethean out of the corner of his eye. He shot up and leveled his weapon – only to be snared in a constraint field, against which he had no defense. He writhed in the other's grip, lips curled into a snarl behind his helmet.

The Ur-Didact sneered at him. "The Librarian left little to chance, didn't she? Turning my own guardians – my own world – against me. But what hubris… to believe she could protect her pets from me forever. If you have not even mastered these beasts, then Man has not attained the Mantle. Your ascendance may yet be prevented.

"Time was your ally, human … but now it has abandoned you. The Forerunners… have returned." The panels of his helm curved around his head and connected, articulation points flaring bright. "This tomb… is now yours."

The Promethean threw him away. John automatically tucked to minimize damage, but he was unable to hold in his shout of pain when he hit a support beam, then fell onto and then off of another low wall not unlike the one he'd just been taking cover behind. He groaned and rolled onto his stomach, groping for his gun.

"Chief?!"

The concern in Cortana's slightly warped voice brought him back to himself as much as the charge crackling over his skin did. He didn't think – just reacted, forcing his feet under him and flinging himself under the ramp he'd fallen next to, throwing his arms up over his head, hands folding over the slot where Cortana's chip jacked into his helmet.

And then the second, much stronger shockwave rendered him unconscious.

Again, it was Cortana's voice that brought him back. "Chief, please," she whimpered, "We've gotta go! That - Didact, he manipulated Infinity's signal to get us to release him! Get up!"

John shook his head, and forced himself back to his feet, staggering a little and wincing when a cracked bone shifted. The suit's medical systems weren't doing as much for him as he'd hoped. "What's happening?" he demanded.

"Moving the satellite to Slipspace destabilized the core!" the panicked AI reported.

Two Phantoms, caught up in the powerful quantum currents, collided overhead, then crashed nearby, close enough for him to feel the wash of heat through his armor. He reflexively shielded himself from the impact, again curling his hands over his head to protect Cortana's chip.

"The Didact's leaving!" she shouted, "We have to find a way out of here before the whole network collapses!"

John snatched up his rifle and nearly threw it onto his back panels, then raced toward the crash site. If there was something, anything-

The crashed Phantoms had dropped their cargo of Ghosts when they collided. He picked the one that was in the best repair, jumped on it, and took off. The Spartan felt the kick when the Ghost's boost began receiving power from his shields, but other than that, he remained entirely focused on speeding through the collapsing core, his instincts screaming at him to move, to get away as fast as possible.

The sudden drops and random spurs of rock shooting up in front of him played havoc with his ability to control the Ghost, but at last, he saw the swirling, blue-edged darkness of a portal up ahead and aimed his vehicle for it, accelerating as fast as he could go. They entered it with only a little time to spare, the now-welcome juddering chaos feeling like a saving grace.

I see you, Reclaimer.

They emerged in bright sunlight, but there was no time to bask in the freedom of it. They had arrived on a cliff edge, aimed off of it. John swung the Ghost to one side, then leapt off of it, transferring as much of his momentum to it as he possibly could. He was successful – he and Cortana came skidding to a stop at the very edge of the cliff. The damaged Ghost went flying off and exploded as it fell.

"Chief, there!"

John looked up. The Infinity broke through a bank of clouds, electricity arcing along the length of the ship. "Mayday, Mayday!" came over the COM, "This is the captain of the UNSC Infinity! We're without power, on a collision course with an unidentified Forerunner planet!"

The Spartan turned to follow it as the ship roared overhead. "Track its descent."

"Marking," Cortana responded, "Impact predicted seventy-seven-point-eight kilometers due north."

His skin crawled in warning, right before he heard the hum of the Didact's Cryptum behind them. Instinct took over; he pulled out his gun and whirled to face the Forerunner machine, but it ignored him entirely. It scanned the area and zipped off after the Infinity at the command of the Didact.

"You know where he's headed."

"Same place we are." John said, then started walking.

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

The rainforest the Infinity had crashed in was as all rainforests were: thick, green, and wet. It reminded him of Earth, fighting his way to the extraction point after jumping from the Anodyne Spirit and landing on Earth.

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. He jumped 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 flew by above him, accompanied by Banshee escorts. They were moving to support the Didact, no doubt; the Forerunner Cryptum 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-117 of the UNSC Forward Unto Dawn," the Chief answered, "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; I can't clean it up," Cortana reported.

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.

After a moment, she said, "I'm seeing multiple IFF tags below the tree line. Painting the closest one on your HUD." The AI 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 activated it, she quickly read the data and said, "The tag IDs 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: a small flurry of Crawlers. The Spartan had picked up a DMR from the dead Marines, 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 shot it out of the sky, then destroyed its Knight as well. He mowed through another clutch of Crawlers, coming across another familiar weapon in the process: a binary rifle. He left his suppressor behind in favor of it; he could always pick up another one.

He rounded a corner just in time to see the squad's last Marine detonate a grenade and take out the last Knight, which had impaled him on its blade arm. The Spartan immediately moved in, noting the rest of the soldiers lying dead in the muck. He sighed and collected their dog tags, keeping an eye on his motion tracker; there had to be other Prometheans 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?"

He 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, on the rare occasions they actually infiltrated Flood-infested planets. He activated it and lifted his DMR as he approached a low cliff.

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, staying low to avoid the lone Knight's autosentry. After its battery ran out, the Spartan gunned the Knight down and hopped off the ledge.

There were more Prometheans portaling 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. That one clip was enough to break the Knight apart, and he took cover to reload. The Crawlers with it 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," Cortana told him as the ground leveled off. The Spartan pushed through the foliage and went to one knee next to the corpse of another 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 said.

There were still more Prometheans around the bend; just Crawlers this time. John kept moving, falling into the rhythm of the skirmishes. More often than not, the Prometheans would stay still when shooting, and their targeting systems seemed to have trouble locking on to singular moving targets. The Chief didn't have that problem, and dodged around while firing, even darting out of the way just in time to knife a 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 nodded quickly in acknowledgement and began climbing up some half-rotted fallen tree limbs that formed a ramp upwards. There were still more Crawlers waiting for him, but in the tight quarters of the short spiral formed by the wood, it was harder to destroy them, the trunks impeding his view as much as they protected him from enemy fire.

Finally, he stepped off onto a Forerunner structure, nearly overgrown by the jungle. 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 it, "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 IDs! 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, recognizing them as S-IVs, 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 – now 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, briefly thinking of the Parallel.

A helmetless Spartan moved in close, looked him over. Female, auburn hair, and inch shorter than him out of armor. He recognized her - Sarah Palmer - and it took everything he had not to say where is your helmet Sarah we trained you better than that. Things were different here. He stayed silent, and didn't comment when she grinned and said, "I thought you'd be taller."

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 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 went to one knee next to the radio. "Infinity, this is Commander Lasky," he said urgently, "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. He'd never actually met the man in the Parallel, and now he was glad of it but also wished the trend had continued. 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 more stress and far further behind enemy lines. The Infected had been able to tell that there had been no real venom behind the words, that he actually hadn't meant them. And he had never snarled at Nethalia 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're never gonna get the wounded back to the ship on foot."

Lasky exhaled 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, the slight noise of his armor 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 now 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 simple 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 faint sensory ability, that was true, but a direct interface with machinery was well 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?!"

Most 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. The Spartan's eyes narrowed again. Poor decisions were being made somewhere, and it didn't exactly take any great leaps of logic for him to guess who was behind them.

His motion tracker showed contacts around the bend where the path he'd been following 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. Just then 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 Watchers 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, all things considered. To be fair, she said she'd gone back to a partial Riemann matrix, which seemed to have bought her a little more time.

John moved to join the Marines when all the hostiles were dead, smirking a little at 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 teleported in further up the slope ahead, together with their entourage. The Chief was not eager to find out exactly what the Watchers were materializing, but he only managed to shoot down one 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 and slotted her in. "These doors open up into a cave system with a space large enough for an LZ," the AI reported, her avatar shrinking to a sphere of code, "Hold them off long enough for me to open the doors!"

As she finished speaking, more Prometheans portaled in. John briefly lost track of time, wave after wave of Prometheans charging up the rise to attack them. When he finally had a moment to breathe, he asked, "Cortana, how close are we?"

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

The Chief flinched a little at the rampant shout, but there was no time for him to respond. 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 and pulled her from it, slotting her back into his helmet without hesitation. 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, "Shout at me all you want – it lets me know you're still alive. As long as you're still alive, there's still time."

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 some 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 when he ran out of 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 and forced him to retreat, providing cover for the Phantom that swooped in to drop another wave of troops. Two more Knights portaled in – "Battlewagons", going by the 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. "Ooh. I think I'm going to like this one."

"Is that so?" Cortana laughed.

John grinned and brought the railgun to bear on the Knights. 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. Then, "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."

Their Pelican 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, smoking faintly amidst the wreckage of both ship and forest. Several squads of S-IVs were already engaging the Covenant pushing through the damaged parts of the ship. "Weapons free, Chief," said Cortana, "Let 'em have it!"

The S-II did exactly that and gunned down all the aliens he could see. 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?"

"Always," Cortana said, soft, fond, and he smiled unrestrained.

A squad of IVs hopped up onto the side panels of the tank to provide close range cover. When they were all settled, the tank started forward. Two Ghosts came forward to challenge them, but the Chief just blasted them apart. As the group passed under a thick arch of stone, John's radio crackled. "117, 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 race 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 and brought their main gun around. Two rounds, one right after the other, put it out of commission. He moved on to the Ghosts, letting the S-IVs handle the infantry.

On the journey to the hangar, the Chief noticed that the Spartan-IVs were more like Marines than the S-IIs. Even his Infected conducted themselves more professionally on the battlefield, though off of it was another story. 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. The S-IVs had skills, yes, and were necessary now that there were only a handful of S-IIs still on active duty, but whoever was in charge of their training left a lot to be desired. The prestige of their predecessors would only get them so far.

Despite that, the squad reached the designated hangar with no casualties and only a few injuries, brought about when a Wraith bomb flipped 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 the Covenant vehicles harrying the ship's defenders and steered the tank onto a tight 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 again, and if more Storm Covenant happened to die with them, so much the better. Still, 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 set the Spartan off. But he stayed quiet as the captain continued, "Lasky just radioed. Chief, you picked a helluva time to rejoin us."

"Sir, what's our status?"

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

"Can we break the connection?" If he could get Cortana into Infinity's systems, she could encrypt and offload data to ease the burden on her subroutines, but he wasn't going to do that if it wasn't 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 almost painfully. John headed up the ramp to the docking platform, where 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."

The Spartan charged all of the rockets in the left pod and launched them one right after the other, then switched to the chain gun in the right pod. The hatch finally burst open, letting them head into the causeway.

There were more enemies there, Prometheans and Covenant alike, because of course there were. The ship's systems continued giving the crew alerts as they cleared the causeway and stepped onto a lift that Cortana said would take them topside. The AI remotely triggered 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, but only for a moment; it seemed that one of the bridge crew overrode the normal decompression procedure.

The MAC cannons sat inoperable on their mounts, unable to return fire on the CCS-class battlecruisers in the distance, floating on either side of the Didact's Cryptum.

"I see the jammers," the AI reported, "Three of them. Shoot them down." She put 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."

Banshees swooped in to harry him. He shot them apart, 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; John heard the 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.

At last the Cryptum retreated, but privately John doubted it because of the Infinity's fire; the Cryptum hadn't taken so much as a scratch. More than likely, the Didact had gotten what he wanted from them.

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

"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 as they had seen in the Parallel.

"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 seemed to think 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. One of the many things he had wanted to avoid had happened anyway – ONI had a Composer. What the captain had pulled up was directions to Requiem, where the Promethean Knights were built, 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 loose into the galaxy was a terrible idea, but with the UNSC, the Spartan had no power to override Del Rio's orders.

'I miss my fleet.'