Three: For Love's Sake

Cortana waited until he'd secured their quarters and subtly disrupted his helmetcam's recorder before she spoke. "What's this Composer the data mentioned? You never said anything about it before."

"Because I had them destroyed," he answered, briefly testing the bed to make sure it could hold his weight before lying down on it. Then he looked up at her. "The Forerunners intended to use them for a lot of things, but the most relevant is that it was used to capture the essences of people infected by the Flood, then imprint them in clean flesh."

"I take it that it didn't work. We would have heard about it if it had."

"Correct. It… it was worse than a failure." He shook his head a little, gaze going distant. "I saw it used once… Like the Forerunner-Flood War, that memory will never leave me. It was…" He shuddered.

Cortana laid down on the holopanel as if she was doing so next to him, and he reached out to rest a hand on the edge, careful not to block the emitter, expression flat but eyes full of sympathetic pain. She reached back, her immaterial hand resting on his solid one. "The Didact killed the Infinity's onboard AI," she said quietly, "While we were on the bridge, I managed to send out a message on the usual channels, but I don't know when or even if we'll get a response, or what we should do if it does or doesn't come."

He met her gaze with calm determination. "Whatever it takes."

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

"Infinity to Gypsy Company…"

John opened his eyes when the holoprojector flickered on, the image of Del Rio appearing in the Pelican's troop bay. He pushed himself up off the hull of the Pelican and stood in silence as the officer briefed them.

"The air corridor to the gravity well is blocked by a network of particle cannons," said the man, standing at parade rest, "Infinity's shields are still down. Open the lane for us to move up and provide air support."

Was that all the intel the man was going to give them? There had to be more than that. "Captain, what's Force Recon's assessment of the terrain?" John asked.

The man gave him a nasty look, making him raise his eyebrows behind his visor. "I know you've been out of the field for a while, Master Chief," he said derisively, his tone making some of the Marines shift uncomfortably, "but this is a blow-though op. Sending in recon would just slow us down."

Taking additional time to minimize casualties - and repair the shields - was being "slowed down"? The Spartan exchanged a look with the AI when she opened a vidscreen on his HUD.

An holo of one of the particle cannons appeared in front of the officer. The Spartan recognized it - a Z-8060. The Fleet used them on occasion, as stationary, close-range defense. Over time, though, theirs had been strengthened and streamlined compared to Requiem.

"Telemetry indicates that the particle cannons are being controlled from a command post southwest of our position," Del Rio continued, "Roll on that target, and neutralize those guns. We'll meet on the other side and take out the gravity well." He shot one last ugly look the Spartan's way, then growled, "Infinity out."

The hologram flickered off. Cortana hummed, then said in the Common Tongue of the Ecumene, "Divines, throw some brains from the heavens."

"Or stones, as long as they hit the mark," the Spartan added and stepped forward as the Pelican came in to land in the canyons leading to the particle canyons. For a moment he thought they were going to have to make their way to the command post on foot. Then he headed towards the tunnel ahead of him, guarded by two Marines who saluted as he approached. He returned the gesture and kept walking.

His radio crackled. "Chief, Spartan Sarah Palmer in Infinity CIC. Commander Lasky's waiting for you on the Mammoth."

The Spartan raised an eyebrow. What the hell was a Mammoth? "On our way." Both eyebrows went up when he exited the tunnel.

"Well," said Cortana, sounding just as surprised as he was, "someone's overcompensating."

As its name indicated, the Mammoth was mammoth. A single tire alone was two, maybe three times his height and easily eight times his weight while he was in armor, and the vehicle had more than a dozen. The actual body resting on those tires was even larger. It was effectively a mobile command station, though he didn't think it would actually move very fast.

The Spartan boarded. Lasky was waiting for them on the uppermost deck. "Chief, Cortana," he nodded to them, "Unfortunately for us, we've got to manually bring down a couple of particle cannons before we can get to the command post."

"Chief, Palmer again. The Mammoth's got jetpacks onboard. If I were down there, I'd want one."

Cortana set a nav point, and her Spartan followed it to a storage rack. It was fairly intuitive, so he had it hooked up in a heartbeat.

This time it was Del Rio who came over the radio. "Gypsy Company, this is Captain Del Rio; the board is green. Let's shut down that gravity well so we can go home. Infinity out."

Lasky was right behind him. "Okay, Gypsy, time to work for it. Let's shake some dirt."

The Mammoth started to move, rolling out of a short canyon and onto a narrow path on the edge of a sheer cliff. Three Pelicans joined them, flying slightly ahead of the Mammoth but otherwise keeping pace. Palmer reported in on it. "Captain Del Rio, targeting Pelicans are in position near the particle cannons; waiting for the Mammoth's mini-MAC to take them out." Then, as the Pelicans rounded the bend up ahead, "Seven-six-six, lose some altitude; you're inside the kill box!"

"Almost got target lock," was the earnest reply, "Just a little more…"

The Mammoth rounded the bend, finally getting line of sight on the first particle cannon. As it came into view, its targeting sensors locked on to the foremost Pelican, and the cannon itself started charging.

"Pelican, fall back!"

The cannon fired and incinerated the two trailing Pelicans instantly. The one that actually tripped the sensors received only a glancing blow and went down somewhere ahead of them. "Infinity, Pelicans down!" Lasky shouted.

"Get to the crash site and retrieve that target designator, Gypsy," the captain ordered, "You've got no chance of clearing those guns without it."

When he snapped off, Lasky followed once more. "All teams, we've got Covenant squads digging in up on the ridgeline. Weapons free, people!"

John jumped onto one of the rocket turrets and began launching salvos at the aliens, a squad of S-IVs assisting, and the Mammoth slowed to help their aim. When the last of the aliens fell, they sped up once more, and rolled to a halt near the crash site.

"There's Gypsy Seven's Pelican out in the muck," said Palmer, "Anyone still alive?"

"We're here," was the reply, "We're alive! We've got the target designator!"

"We'll get to them and retrieve the target designator," John said, already descending. There were some Warthogs inside the Mammoth that he could take to reach them faster, and the LAAGs would provide good cover fire.

When they saw him approaching, some of the S-IVs mounted up to join him, and he jumped in the driver's seat to send them out.

What seemed like a dozen Phantoms were dropping off troops, Ghosts, and even a Wraith between them and the crashed Pelican. It took both of the LAAGs just straight emptying rounds into the Wraith to destroy it, but once it was down, they started taking care of the Ghosts while the S-II ran down the infantry. Finally, he was able to jump down and scoop up the designator.

"Target those Phantoms for the rail gun to shoot down," Cortana suggested. The ships were weaving through the air, but he marked one without too much difficulty. His luck made itself known once again, because there were two Phantoms close enough together that when the mini-MAC fired, both were destroyed.

While the rail gun was reloaded, the Spartan escorted Gypsy Seven's survivors to the Mammoth, then climbed to the uppermost level to mark the particle cannon.

It, too, exploded. "Target suppressed," said Lasky, "Nicely done, Chief."

'If I was still what I used to be, we wouldn't have needed to destroy it,' John thought as the Mammoth started to roll again, 'Cortana and I could have taken control of the entire planet, turned it on the Didact - but it does no good to dwell on what might have been. All that matters is what is.'

"Lasky to Infinity, first contact cleared by no joy on additional targets. Gypsy moving on to secondary battle position but requesting evac for casualties."

"I'm on it, Commander. Palmer, out."

The Mammoth kept rolling. More Phantoms and a squad of Banshees swooped out of cover to shoot at them, but a few salvos of rockets sent them running.

Then they reached the barrier. "Force field," Cortana reported, some small distortions in her voice, "barricading the far side of this canyon. I'm seeing three power sources. Shut them down so the Mammoth can move through."

John flashed an acknowledgement on his HUD and dropped to ground level, creeping forward to scope out the situation. There were a few Ghosts patrolling the area, together with a bit over a dozen infantry, with a Shade turret overseeing it all. The Spartan's eyes narrowed, and he looked back at the Mammoth.

The rocket turret on the port side was close enough to get a target lock on one of the Ghosts, then the other when it came to investigate the destruction of the first. Clearing them out made it safer for him to head down again and finish off the infantry, then destroy the first generator. But as he headed for the second, he spotted the Wraith. He looked back at the Mammoth, which rolled up to the barrier.

"Really? Again?" Cortana said after the second generator went the way of the first and he boosted himself back onto the Mammoth.

"I'm taking advantage of available resources."

"Is that what we're calling it now?"

The Wraith wasn't in range at first, but when the Spartan fired on the infantry, it glided closer to try to get him inside its own range. A few salvos were sufficient to destroy it, and the Covenant tower with it. Then he jumped down again to destroy the final generator.

"I really like these jetpacks," he said as they returned to the Mammoth, "Shame they don't come built-in."

"That sounds like an accident waiting to happen, especially with you."

"Eh, maybe a little."

He marked the second particle cannon. After a moment, Lasky said, "Shot's good! - Wait. All units! Unidentified Covenant vehicle incoming!"

The Covenant ship fired on the Mammoth, shorting out almost everything, but the side turrets were still operational. The Spartan destroyed every Covenant vehicle the Phantoms dropped off, killed every alien that drew the short straw and disembarked from the "Lich", settling in over the rise nearby, "I like this idea of yours now," said Cortana as an Elite went flying.

"It is one of my better ones. And the captain didn't skimp on the ammo for the Mammoth, so we can afford to burn a few rounds."

Unfortunately the rockets weren't enough to penetrate the Lich's armor, which meant boarding it the old-fashioned way and destroying it from the inside. "You'd think the Covenant would have learned by now," John commented as the gravity lift carried them up into the ship.

"You'd think, but apparently not."

The Spartan fought his way through the crew of the Lich, but after a certain point he didn't even bother with his gun, instead throwing, tripping, or otherwise pitching the aliens out through the open sides of the ship. It was only when he kicked the last of the Sangheili out that he pulled out his gun again and headed for the power core. At full strength, the butt of the rifle was enough to destroy the shield protecting the core, and a single plasma grenade did the rest.

He threw himself out the side of the Lich and triggered his jetpack to control his fall, landing atop the mini-MAC with a solid thump.

"Thanks, Chief," said Lasky, "It was getting a bit dicey there for a minute." He paused a moment while the Lich exploded in a flare of blue-white light, very like the Scarabs. "All hands, form up on us."

The S-IVs returned to the Mammoth. As they did so, Del Rio came on. "Lasky, this is Infinity. Status."

"Mammoth's in pretty bad shape, sir. She'll make it to the objective, as long as nobody starts throwing rocks at us."

"Not a chance we can take," the CO snapped back, "I'm sending teams out to pull some of their fire off you so you can make it to the gravity well."

"Roger that, sir. Gypsy, let's move."

John went to one knee on top of the Mammoth, listening with only half an ear as the captain deployed more teams of S-IVs. He was more intent on examining the surrounding terrain, especially given that Force Recon hadn't been sent out to scout for them. Right now it was pretty calm, only the path and a few waterfalls spilling over it into the gorge below, but he stayed vigilant.

He didn't miss Cortana's slip, however. "They don't care about you - they replaced you!" one personality spike snarled before she got control of it again. "Blast it!"

"It's okay," the Spartan said gently.

"How?" she demanded, appearing in a vidscreen on his HUD, a bit of distortion coming through again, "How is this okay? How is putting you at risk because I can't keep it together okay?"

"You're still here. Everything else I can handle."

That made her sad, brows furrowing and curving up, lips curving down. "Oh, John… you shouldn't have to."

Again, their moment was interrupted. "117, Lasky."

John sighed and said, "Go, Commander."

"We've got significant blockage up ahead," the man reported, "Think this is about it for the Mammoth."

"The command post for the particle cannons is through that trench." Cortana was putting on a good front. Only John could see the now-constant blue and pink haze at the very edges of his HUD.

"Sir, we can move faster alone."

"We'll see you back on Infinity, Commander," Cortana agreed.

Once they received the go-ahead, John collected as much ammo as he could carry, both for his assault rifle and his new sniper rifle. Then he jumped down from the Mammoth and scaled the rock walls of the canyon, gunning for the Jackal snipers he knew were lying in wait. They tumbled to the ground one by one, followed by their fellow Storm Covenant below.

The Spartan followed the aliens back to where Covenant and Prometheans alike guarded the entrance to the command post. But the Spartan had faced longer odds than this, and killed them with bullets and grenades and his own body.

Finally, he approached the doors to the facility. As he did so, his wife said, "Cortana to Infinity, we're entering the Forerunner structure." There was a garbled response, and she said, "Breaking up, but coordinates received, Infinity."

The first door closed behind them as John descended the ramp, and the second one opened in front of them. Beyond was a short v-shaped hall that formed a T with another passage. A Sentinel closed the door immediately in front of them but led the way down the hall to a lift. It took them deeper into the structure.

"Chief…" Cortana said warily, "This might be a trap."

"Could be. We'll just have to be ready."

The lift came to a stop, and John stepped off. They were in another hall, metal panels glowing blue on all the walls. It was beautiful, and reminded the Spartan so much of the Fleet that he had to blink back tears, chest tight. Another Sentinel led them to the control center, which was also the location of the reactors that powered the gun network.

The Spartan exchanged an exasperated glance with his AI. It made their job easier, but really? Was it really a good idea to have them so close together? He shook his head, then continued to the control panel, slotting Cortana in to let her do what she did best. "The particle cannon network uses these arrays for targeting and guidance. It's an automated system, so it won't technically allow me to redirect the cannons to fire on one another. Technically." She turned back to look at him as she spoke. He heard the rumble of the guns like distant thunder. "Cortana to Infinity, the guns should be offline. How's it look from up there? Infinity?"

John noticed her growing alarm. "Cortana?"

"Something's in here-" She flinched away, doubled over as if she was hurt. "John!" She vanished from the holopanel.

"Cortana? Cortana!" He looked around for something, anything that would let him help her, but he was unfamiliar with this planet's systems, so old as to be obsolete or near enough – at least to him.

His skin crawled, and he whipped around just in time to see a light bridge activate. It led to a maintenance hatch nearly identical to the ones on the Fleet, sliding up to admit him. He paused to eye the Sentinels, then crossed the bridge and followed the path through to an active contact chamber. He glimpsed Cortana within and stepped into the beam.

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

Requiem's artificial sun may have been fake, but it blinded him like a real one. He lifted a hand to block a little of the light, blinking to clear his vision of spots. Despite the bright light, he glimpsed someone approaching - not Cortana. "Who are you?"

"I am what remains of the Forerunner once known as the Librarian."

That made him relax a little. The Librarian was a known quantity - at least the Parallel's version of her. He hoped that they weren't different enough to cause problems.

"My memories were retained to assist humanity on their path to the Mantle," she continued, "Though sadly, that plan is now at risk." She drifted down to be roughly level with him. "The Didact is leaving Requiem. Soon. You must not allow it."

"'Leaving?'" John repeated with a frown.

"He seeks this. The Composer." She gestured behind him, and he turned to see a hologram of one floating above them. "A device which will allow him to finally contain the greatest enemy ever faced by the Forerunners… You."

That made him look back at her. Surely the Flood had been a bigger threat - but it had been a heartless, hopeless parasite, not fellow sapient beings with lives and families and dreams of their own.

Images played before his eyes as the Librarian kept speaking. "Mankind spread into the stars with an unexpected, desperate violence. Entire systems fell before the Didact's Warrior-Servants rose to halt the aggression. When the Didact finally exhausted the humans after a millennium, his sentence was severe.

"We had no way of knowing that the Forerunners were not your only enemy. Humanity hadn't been expanding - they were running. Weakened from our conflict, we were no match for the parasite which pursued you."

John remembered much of the horror of the Forerunner-Flood War - much, much better than he would have liked. If given the choice, he would have endured a hundred – a thousand Human-Covenant Wars to be spared fighting that one again.

"The Forerunners made plans for a final great journey, but the Didact refused to yield our Mantle of Responsibility. He would save all life in the galaxy… at a cost.

"In the Forerunners' quest for transcendence, the Composer had been intended to bridge the organic and digital realms. It would have made us immortal. But its results soured. The stored personalities fragmented, and our attempts to return them to biological states created only abominations."

He remembered that, too, and wished that he did not.

"Such moral concerns faded from the Didact's attention. The Flood only assimilated living tissue. The Composer would provide the Didact his solution… and his revenge."

Even within the contact chamber, his skin crawled like the prelude of a shift. Cortana had said that it was better if he didn't know. "The Prometheans - they're human?!"

The Librarian looked grief-stricken. "They were only the beginning. He would have encrypted your entire race if we had not removed the Composer from his care and imprisoned him here. Reclaimer… when I indexed mankind for repopulation, I hid seeds from the Didact - seeds which would lead to an eventuality. Your physical evolution, your combat skin, even your ancilla, Cortana. You are the culmination of a thousand lifetimes of planning."

"Planning for what?" the Spartan demanded. Surely she couldn't have known what would happen to him-?

A ripple passed through the realm of the contact chamber. The Librarian looked up. "He has found us."

John automatically went for his gun when pillars rose up out of the clouds below, a hundred pillars with a Knight on every one - all that remained of this world's ancient humanity.

"Even in death," the Didact snarled, "her meddling continues!"

"Reclaimer!" John glanced back at the Librarian. "The genesong I placed within you contains many gifts, including an immunity to the Composer, but it must be unlocked!"

"How?" With all the contortions he'd already been through, including the transit to and from the Parallel, it still wasn't active?

"Your evolutionary journey must be accelerated," said the Librarian, even as the Didact roared, "Relinquish your contact, essence!"

"Can I defeat the Didact without it?"

"No."

"Then do it."

"Prepare."

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

He came back to himself sharply, painfully, with a sense or crawling inside him, like and yet so very unlike the Flood-borne Change, deeper, more alien, more invasive. Yet at the same time, there was a wordless query, and with his assent, the crawling intensified, especially in his nervous system, his brain, and his eyes. It was agony, but if he cried out, he didn't hear it.

Eventually the contact chamber - and whatever other equipment was attached to it - released him, and he dropped to all fours, panting. He wanted to take a moment to breathe, but there was no time. He forced himself upright just as some Knights portaled in at the back of the chamber.

Almost immediately, he noticed something off about his vision. When he focused on a particular foe, a translucent image of it appeared and played out its actions in advance - almost like the Gultanr foresight, their predictive resonance. How had-?

There was no time to wonder. The Prometheans started firing on him, and he scrambled for cover, groping for his own weapon to return fire. He had destroyed three of them, following the play of their movements, when there was a flare of light in the corner of his eye. "Chief!"

Cortana. He pitched two pulse grenades into the Prometheans' midst, then ran for the plinth where she'd appeared. In a moment, she was back in his armor, leaving him free to turn his guns back on the Knights and Crawlers. "Did it work?" the AI demanded, appearing in a corner of his HUD.

His eyebrows shot up, but then he remembered. Both Cortana and the Parallel's Halsey had been fascinated by the Gultanr's predictive resonance, and they spent nearly a century studying it - and only it. Had they…? "Yeah," he said, "yeah, it's working."

She grinned widely, then went slightly shy, looking away, cheeks darkening. "I'd been working on it for a while," she said, "and with us adrift, that's what I decided to focus my time on. Thought it would be the most useful."

"Cortana." When she looked back up at him, he said, "You're amazing, and it's perfect."

Her grin returned. Then the vidscreen vanished, letting him focus fully on the Prometheans. They were barely a challenge now, and he won handily, then ran for the lift at the back of the chamber. It took them down to where a portal swirled open for them, releasing them back onto the battlefield.

The Mammoth seemed to have been moved, because it was there alongside a pair of tanks and half a dozen Warthogs, facing off against Covenant vehicles and heavy weapons. John lifted his weapon to gun for the infantry, and Sergeant Stacker came over the COM soon after. "I'm reading Sierra-117 on-sensor. Everyone, form up on the Chief!"

A Scorpion rolled to a stop next to him, the S-IV in the driver's seat bailing out to let him take over. He nodded in thanks and opened up a COM channel. "Sierra-117 to Infinity, what's our status?"

"We're taking a beating up here!"

Of course they were. "Does Infinity have a shot on the gravity well?"

"Negative," the captain answered, "We'll never be able to get a target lock with all the air traffic we're seeing!"

"Captain, what if we can spot the target for you with the laser designator?" Cortana was rampant, but still brilliant.

"Do it!" the man ordered, "TACCOM, find the Chief coordinates for somewhere with line of sight!"

The ability - which Cortana designated simply "anticipation" - worked on the vehicles as well as the personnel, letting him see the Wraiths and Ghosts before they moved or fired. It let him target them with ease, as well as get out of the way when they targeted him.

"First line clear!" Stacker reported as the two tanks and their LRVs rolled up the slope, "Check it off, push forward! All eyes on the Chief – he's lead dog!"

The only real problem he had now was the Scorpion's response time; his body had been enhanced a little to be able to respond better to what his anticipation showed him, but the vehicle had no such augmentations. Still, what he had was enough; it was just inconvenient and frustrating.

He led the way through to the next canyon, where the Covenant had tried to halt their advance by putting up another barrier. John pulled the gun around and fired on the infantry defending the barrier's power generators. The smart ones retreated under the barriers the generators had, but that kept them pinned in place when John signaled the S-IVs forward while he and the gunner turret laid down cover fire. It didn't take the squad long at all to kill them or herd them out for the tank to finish off. Then one by one, they destroyed the generators.

The S-II turned the tank over to them and jumped the rock wall blocking its advance, heading for the cliff edge. He could see the glow of the gravity well beyond. "Infinity, we're at the gravity well," said Cortana.

"Then paint that damned target so we can get out of here!"

John hissed softly, fortunately not over the COM channel. He hated Del Rio talking to her like that, but there wasn't much he could do about it. Internally, though, he seethed.

He scooped up the target designator the Infinity had dropped and painted the target, then watched as a missile from the ship destroyed it and sorely wished he could do the same to the ship's captain.

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

The Spartan told the captain what the Librarian had said, implying that the Forerunner had imparted what he'd retained from the Parallel. But he already knew it was a futile effort; he could see in the man's stance, in his eyes, that he'd already made up his mind and fighting his decision was just going to piss him off. Still, John wanted it on record what he was doing when he slipped out of the Infinity.

"Infinity cannot handle that kind of punishment, not again."

"This isn't about us or the ship anymore!" Cortana protested.

"Sir, we've seen what the Didact is capable of," John said, keeping his voice level, reasonable, "If he can do this to the Infinity, the most advanced ship the UNSC has to offer, then the rest of the fleet is already scrap. If we don't do something, he's going to make Truth's bombardment of Earth look like child's play."

Del Rio clenched his jaw. The Spartan was right and everyone on the bridge knew it, but for whatever reason, the man didn't want to go back on the decision he'd already made.

doesn't want to appear weak - he's a political appointee, not a real officer

"Look," he said, trying to play at being sympathetic, "I understand what you think you saw."

"All due respect, sir, but I know what I saw," John said, not rising to the bait.

That just seemed to piss the other man off. "And with all due respect to you, soldier, I'm not willing to jeopardize my ship because of the hallucinations of an aging Spartan and his malfunctioning AI!"

John had to kill his external speakers to hide the growl he couldn't stop, even as Lasky stepped in to try and mediate. But the captain shot him a look of such intense disgust that the man flinched, though he didn't look away. "Nav," Del Rio said, "as soon as we know we're airtight, I want a course laid in for Carinae Station. COM, prepare a warning beacon."

The S-II only had a split-second's warning, not enough time for even Flood-augmented Kelly to react. "I - will not - allow you - to leave - this - PLANET!" Cortana - no, one of her personality spikes shrieked, sending an electrical discharge through the bridge, but it was gone as quick as it had come. The AI shied back, looked to her Spartan.

But before he could respond, Del Rio did. "Commander Lasky, pursuant to Article 55 of UNSC Regulation 12-145-72, I am ordering you to remove that AI's data chip and retire it for final dispensation."

And there it is. Big mistake.

John didn't need the Tuavan's telepathy to radiate fury and menace. Without even a second's hesitation, he reached over and ejected Cortana's chip from the system, slotting her back into his armor. He didn't assume a combat stance, keeping his hands by his sides, but the stance he did take made it clear he was very much prepared to fight his way off the ship in order to protect her. He said quietly but clearly, "The Didact has to be stopped. If you won't do it, then this 'aging Spartan and his malfunctioning AI,' will."

"I… am ordering you… TO SURRENDER THAT AI!" the captain shouted, spittle flying from his mouth.

"No, sir." The S-II's tone didn't permit any argument, and promised painful things if he tried for Cortana again.

"Lieutenant!" Del Rio shouted at Palmer, "Arrest that man!"

"Captain…" Lasky tried.

"ARREST HIM!"

"Captain!"

The Chief looked to Infinity's XO. Again, he didn't need to be a mind reader to know that Lasky agreed with him and thought that trying to argue against the S-II's sound logic was pointless, even if the captain was really just trying to get the ship and her crew to safety. It would cost them in the long run, because this was bigger than all of them. When he glanced her way, Palmer's thoughts seemed to be along the same lines. "Get word back to Earth that trouble is coming," John ordered in the tone of a suggestion, allowing them to obey Del Rio without challenging the Spartan, "Cortana and I will do what we can from here."

When Lasky nodded, the Spartan left the bridge behind.

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

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

John paused for a moment while checking over his guns, briefly wishing for Forerunner armor as well. But if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. He continued, but shifted himself to let Cortana know he was listening.

"I know it because the emitter's Rayleigh effect is disproportionate to its suggested size," Cortana went on, almost wistful, "I know it because its stellar cycle is more symmetrical than that of an actual star. But for all that, I'll never really know if it looks real. If it feels real." She closed her eyes and seemed to bask in its light - but that light was just as ephemeral as she was.

She opened her eyes again and turned to face him when he approached the holopanel. He let the suppressor fall over his shoulder, caught on his back panels, then went to one knee to be level with her. "Cortana… It's going to be alright."

She reached out and brushed an immaterial hand against his helmet. He leaned just slightly into a touch no more substantial than fog. "Don't make a girl a promise, if you know you can't keep it."

Their moment was ruined yet again, but both of them just sighed and accepted it. Being who they were and in the situation they were, they were unlikely to get a moment alone out of combat anytime soon.

It was Lasky. He sighed heavily, then asked, "So what's your plan?"

"Infinity's tracked the Didact's vessel to a docking structure southeast of here," the Spartan answered, getting to his feet and standing relaxed but respectful, "We'll jump ship as Infinity exits the roof."

Lasky sighed again and nodded. "You know, I was sent down here with orders to prevent you from leaving."

The Spartan could see that he had no intent of doing so, let alone equipment to do it with, so he didn't react other than to tilt his head in curiosity.

"In case you'd already gone," the man continued, "I took the precaution of ordering a Pelican outfitted for full combat pursuit."

The Spartan glanced back to see a launch pad bringing it up into the bay behind them. To his well-trained eye, it was as Lasky said; she was full up on weapons, ammo, and power. He looked back at the officer, who said, "I hope to God you're wrong about that Forerunner, or whatever he is, Chief. But in the event you're not…" He tilted his head toward the Pelican, then turned to go - but paused. "And Chief? Good luck. Both of you."

Lasky departed, and John turned to look at his wife. She smiled weakly. "C'mon, Chief. Take a girl for a ride."

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

"Indeed. What's your bet, Five or Three?"

"Pardon?"

"Commander Lasky said that the UNSC set up bases near Installations Five and Three to study them for decommissioning, which was where the 'science team got zapped' by the Composer. What's your bet? Zero-Five or Zero-Three?"

Cortana thought about it as he made his way to the Pelican, inclining his head respectfully when Marines saluted as he passed. As he climbed into the cockpit, she said, "I never entered the systems of Zero-Five, but I can't imagine that the Gravemind wouldn't have found it if it was there. I'm gonna go with Zero-Three."

"It's not a bet if we're both picking the same option."

She laughed softly in his ear, then ran the preflight diagnostics. As she did so, the landing pad lowered them into a launch tube. "It may be a while before we find another ride home. You know that, right?"

"It's gonna be okay." The Spartan took the controls and triggered the launch, sending them streaking out of the Infinity towards the Didact's Cryptum, surrounded by a red-orange-gold barrier. "How do we get inside those shields?"

Cortana was silent for a moment. Then she said, "Marking two of the larger facilities on your HUD. It looks like they're acting as traffic control for resources moving to and from the satellite. If we can disrupt their communications, I can forge an override code and convince it to lower those defenses."

John aimed for the nearer of the two nav points. It was guarded by a number of Phantoms, but thanks to the "anticipation" Cortana had given him, it was simple enough to destroy them. As he brought them in to land, the AI said, "This tower's directing traffic to the Didact's satellite through a carrier wave generator somewhere inside." The static at the very edges of his HUD was a constant thing now, but it briefly intensified with her anger. "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 dimmed back to the edges as they entered the tower. John swept his gaze across the chamber within, both for himself and for the AI. After a moment, she said, "It looks like the carrier wave generator is on the opposite end of this chamber."

He saw the machinery she meant and nodded, then descended a series of ramps to a docked gondola that reminded him of the ones from Delta Halo. "We can use this gondola to cross to the other side. Find the activation switch."

He found it and pushed the button, then took cover behind a low wall and swept the area. He saw a problem almost immediately; the Covenant was guarding one of the maintenance platforms on one side of the chamber. As a result, he was unsurprised when the gondola ground to a halt next to the platform.

The Chief fought his way through them to the control panel and released the lockup - only to have half a dozen Knights and their Crawler attendants appear and attack. He darted back into cover and returned fire, sending them back to wherever they were stored when not in use (if indeed they were stored and not simply erased when destroyed).

He finally returned them to the gondola and started it up again, but he was unsurprised again when they stopped at the second platform. This time it was just Knights and Crawlers, and he chased them up to the controls, where he ended the lockup once more before focusing on destroying them.

A Knight Commander and his spotter phased in. John's eyes went wide at the sight of the weapon in the Commander's hands, and he cursed and raced for cover as the biomechanical being fired at him; he wasn't going to risk getting hit by an Incineration Cannon. He managed to find a spot that let him stand behind a pillar with only his lightrifle and part of his helmet exposed, aiming for the Commander.

When it and its spotter broke apart, he went down and claimed the Incineration Cannon for his own. Cortana snickered in his ear, then said, "To take a page out of our old playbook, I've turned 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 Spartan boosted himself up onto the platform and stopped before the field. He took a deep breath and stepped into the field. When the EMP dispersed it, he ran for the back of the chamber and dropped off the edge of the platform, shield alarm ringing in his ears. As it died, he heard the hum of Watchers, but he waited until his shields were fully recharged to pop out of cover and start firing on the floating machines.

Yet as he did so, the Didact spoke directly to his mind. 'The others scatter like embers over sand, and yet the Librarian's champion is unmoved.'

Ice filled his veins. It wasn't the words that alarmed him, but the touch of the Forerunner's mind against his own - it was twisted, corrupted by the Primoridal and his long isolation in the Cryptum with nothing but his own madness for company.

Grief tightened the Spartan's chest. Once, he had held the Forerunner in the highest respect, respect he reserved for people like Jacob and Miranda Keyes, Johnson, Halsey, Mendez, and Lord Hood. But this - this thing wasn't that Didact, not any more. It was just a monster, a creation of the Primordial wearing the face of the legendary Forerunner. He hardened himself and stood to fight again.

'The Mantle of Responsibility shelters all, human. But only the Forerunners are its masters.'

John ignored him and returned to the gondola, sending them back across the chamber, then ascended the ramps to the exit. A small army of Crawlers was in the hall, but a single round from the Incineration Cannon took care of the lot.

He climbed into their Pelican and sent them shooting back into the air, bringing them around and firing the boost. They closed quickly with the second tower, destroyed its guards, and landed on the platform the tower automatically extended for them.

There were more Crawlers in the hall, along with a Watcher escort. He fired on the Crawlers to draw out the Watcher to shield them, then destroyed the Watcher and hurled a grenade into the Crawlers' midst. It took out most of them, and he shot one of the survivors and kicked the other into a wall when it charged him. Both of them broke apart and let him advance.

When he entered the main chamber, he got swarmed by Watchers. He snarled a curse and backpedaled to take cover in the hall behind them, zooming in with his lightrifle to fire straight at the machines' hearts to destroy them faster. When the last of them fell, he headed for the center of the chamber and activated the switch to pull the attenuators up to their decks. Ordinarily it would have been done for repair work, but today it was for "percussive" maintenance.

The Spartan fought his way through to each attenuator as fast as he dared, knowing that every second he wasted was another grain of sand running through the hourglass of Cortana's life. As he went, the Didact spoke to him again. 'Your actions tread between honor and foolishness. Even know, your kind tinkers with the Composer in the shadow of the third ring. Children and fire, who disregard the welfare of the galaxy.'

John let out a soft laugh at that, and Cortana made an inquisitive noise. "The Didact's been talking to me. I guess it's mind to mind if you haven't heard it," he answered, a thin veneer of cover, but enough for their purposes, "He just confirmed that the Composer's at Installation Zero-Three."

That earned a soft laugh from her, too. Then, "Success! The system's overloading. I don't think we'll be having any more trouble from those shields. Let's get back out there."

The Spartan headed up to the exit - where a Knight Commander and his underlings waited. John dodged the Commander's first shot, letting it fly out through the open door behind him, even as he dropped his lightrifle to go straight for his own Incineration Cannon. It was much tighter quarters for the Knights, and a single shot from the Cannon was enough to take them down. He swept the area briefly, then returned the Cannon to his back panels, along with the Commander's extra ammo, and picked up his lightrifle once more.

As he boarded the Pelican, the Didact returned once more. 'Do you really believe that your theatrics can prevent my departure? Embrace your sad fate, and retain your nobility - I am already beyond you.'

Cortana seemed to realize as well. "He knows what we're trying to do," she said worriedly, "If we get too close to that satellite, we're dead! 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 weren't any Phantoms guarding this spire. The landing platform extended, and he set the Pelican down. The entrance to the tower was a one-way gravity lift, and John peered up it before stepping into the beam.

The lift carried them up to a chamber many times larger than the ones before. As they advanced, some hard light sections of the path uncoupled from the rest and vanished. "He's altering the tower!" Cortana cried.

'You will relent, human, or you will perish!' the Didact growled, changing more of the tower as the Spartan hurried on, 'All in life is choice, and your day to choose has come.'

John ignored him and kept moving, wary of more alterations but also the sheer drops on all sides. They were hundreds of feet in the air, at the very least, but it wouldn't be the fall that killed him.

(Or would it kill him at all? He'd jumped from orbit and survived…)

The Covenant were the ones holding this tower, but they were no more of a challenge for him now than they had been before, especially not now that he had Forerunner weapons at his disposal. Not even when they dumped a pair of Hunters on him from the second gravity lift; the blast from the Incineration Cannon killed one right off the bat, and made the other stagger enough that a follow up grenade sent it tumbling off the edge into the abyss below.

John swept the area for ammo and grenades, then rode the second lift up.

The chamber above was about the same size as the one below. There were more Covenant, of course, but also Shades and Banshees. Some of the latter sat unmanned on a nearby platform.

Good.

The Spartan had learned something more of stealth and patience in the Parallel, so he slipped into cover and waited just long enough for the Sangheili patrolling nearby to come in range.

It was dead before it hit the ground, leaving him free to claim one of the Banshees for his own. The enemy Banshees spotted him quickly and raced in pursuit, but one of them was piloted by a greenhorn less familiar with the fighters than even the Spartan. John took immediate advantage, shooting the other fighter out of the air, then turning on its companion. It kept trying to lure him down in range of the Shades, but he refused to take the bait, instead bombing the turrets and infantry from on high whenever the other flew too far away.

At last, he trapped it against one of the chamber walls and destroyed it with a fuel rod round, then returned to strafing everything else. When it was all finally clear, he set the Banshee down and made a break for the control center.

"Quick!" said Cortana, "Let me at the spire controls!"

He pulled the chip from his helmet and slotted her in. She appeared almost immediately and pulled up a holopanel. "Tapping into the spire's central net," she said, starting to type away at it, "They're mine…" The spires moved to surround the Cryptum, physically blocking it from launching. "Now to – I-I-IMPRISON THEM?"

Rampant episode. "Cortana?!"

"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. John had never felt so helpless; he'd grown so used to having the Flood's power at his fingertips that he'd forgotten what it was like without it. He couldn't even reach out to hold her as she writhed in the grip of the personality spike, but finally it released her. "Chief…" she gasped, "I'm sorry, I don't know what…"

"It's alright," he said, "Come on. His ship's online - they're leaving." He pulled her from the system and back into his armor, even as the platform they were on began to descend.

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 but used his limbs like fins to steer their 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 Lich's plating too smooth and curved, and he started sliding off the back of it.

The anticipation briefly stretched far enough forward for him to see an ugly end for them both amidst the ruined spires below - and the shadow of absolute destruction hanging over all humanity. He unsheathed his combat knife and twisted to slam it hilt-deep in the Lich's armor, arresting their fall. The Spartan heaved himself up on top of the Covenant vehicle, then looked up when he heard something coming down from above.

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

"They're jumping into Slipspace!" said Cortana when the familiar Forerunner portal opened in front of the Approach, "Get below deck!"

"No time." John fired his jetpack again to boost them forward, and tucked them up under an armored overhang inside the Lich's shields. Then he hunkered down and hoped it would be enough. "Installation Zero-Three… we'll see what's waiting for us there."