Nine: Machine Utopia

"There's another one."

Blue Team turned as a Slipspace portal opened nearby, disgorging a Guardian. The massive construct settled into place and went still, the star road snaking languidly past it.

"That makes twenty that I can see," Fred said quietly, to soft confirmations from the others. "Jesus fuck, Chief. We really walked right into it."

"No arguments here. Joyeuse?"

No response.

"Joyeuse, do you read? Durandal?"

Still nothing.

"They must not have made it through the portal in time," said Kelly, "What about your fancy earpiece? Anything?"

"Nothing. And that's what worries me the most. It's supposed to be quantum-entangled with the Fleet. It might be that the star road is interfering - they've been known to have some… odd effects on reality - but if it's not, if something here is doing the interference, or worse, the entanglement's been broken…"

"We're on our own."

John made a noise of assent. "And I don't want to put the star road back into dormancy - the other Fred said the Fleet's Halsey can find them, but it's easier if they're active."

"It'll act like a beacon," said Linda, "bring them to us."

"Assuming there's no barrier or restricted Slipspace access to… wherever we are, yes."

"You never came here in the – Parallel, you called it?"

John shook his head but walked forward, carefully heading for the Forerunner structure in front of them. "No reason to. The Domain was still rebuilding by the time we left - or so we thought.

"But if I had to take a guess, I'd say this planet is a Domain nexus point, where it required only minimal effort to reach through to touch it. The Forerunners used them to study the Domain and its contents. It had billions of years' worth of information stored inside."

They entered the structure warily, pausing when the main console activated at their approach and whistled the notes for "Oly Oly Oxen Free."

"How many years has it been since we used that signal?" Fred stated more than asked, both wariness and nostalgia in his voice.

John stepped up and tapped the display, then moved the bottom glyph up to the center. The structure vibrated under their feet, and the shield blocking their path shimmered and vanished. The Forerunner facility on the hill in the distance reacted, too, a large ring slowly lifting up into the air, rotating as it went.

John observed it for a moment, then led the way forward through the tunnels formed by the massive trees.

"This place is incredible."

"Gives me the creeps," Fred grunted, but just like Kelly, he was looking around in awe.

"Bio-readings are unlike anything we've previously recorded," Linda reported, examining her armor's findings, "There's a formalness and precision to it all. It seems… artificial, but still organic."

"Halsey would have already started taking samples," Kelly joked as they rounded a corner and briefly peered over the edge of the cliff.

"She'd probably have figured out the exact coordinates of this planet by now," Fred added.

John was looking around, too, but unlike them, he saw something familiar. There was a small shrub clinging to the edge of a cliff to avoid the shadows cast by the tall trees, and he recognized the shape of its leaves. For a second he was back on the Fleet, nearly five hundred years in the past, and Ferial was holding out a bunch of those very same leaves with a wide toothy grin. "Delectable tea, or deadly poison?" she had asked.

"Knowing you, it's the latter."

"Wrong! This time. Come share a cup with us, Commander. Everyone needs a break at some point, even Spartans."

He smiled at the memory, then went to one knee next to the bush to carefully harvest some of the leaves. After he tucked them away, he straightened, and then ducked the swooping flight of one of the flying creatures. "Covenant up ahead. Form up."

They gunned their way through the enemy ranks, and John briefly looked over the ship that had brought them here - mostly wreckage now, but it bore signs of a rough Slipspace transit.

He tried his COM again. "Joyeuse, Durandal, come in."

Still nothing. He hissed in irritation and took the lead again. The Spartans continued through the pathways and tunnels in the planet's strange rock formations and plant growth. Finally they reached another Forerunner facility, not unlike the one they'd arrived at. This one was held by the Covenant, however, but the term "held" could only be used very, very loosely. There was a barricade over the entrance, preventing them from entering, but it went down after the Spartans killed all the intruders.

"Assuming we're right, and Cortana is on this planet, how'd she get here?" Kelly asked as they entered the structure.

"Parts of the Mantle's Approach were pulled into Slipspace," John answered, "They could have ended up anywhere."

Another console. This one also whistled at their approach. John tapped the center circle once more, then moved the upper right glyph down to the bottom, then up into the center. Again, there was more activity around the nexus on the hill.

Kelly noticed it too. "Chief, what's happening to that building when we use the consoles?"

"I don't know."

"Too bad the Forerunners didn't think to give us a manual," Fred grunted as the platform started to descend.

"If that signal is Cortana," said Kelly, "then she's leading us to the consoles."

"But why?" Fred asked, only half rhetorically, "What are we doing to the consoles and that building that's so important?"

"We keep moving, and we'll probably find out," John replied.

The platform let them off at a lower level, and the Chief led the way through a short tunnel and back out into the open air. "Another Guardian. That makes twenty-one."

"I wonder… have the Covenant been coming through with them?" Kelly asked.

"Stands to reason," Linda answered, "Any ships caught in the Slipspace bubble would be pulled through. That's what the Nighthawk was trying to do."

They kept moving, but only a short distance beyond - "Light bridge activated on approach," said Kelly, "We're definitely being led somewhere."

They crossed warily - and the light bridge deactivated behind them. John was regretting now more than ever the decision not to carry Déjà again, or even a splinter of one of the Fleet's ancillae in his armor. He glared back at where the light bridge had been, then led the way on.

Ahead were the corpses of dozens of Covenant, the planet's equivalent of flies swarming around the bodies. There were too many to have been killed by just a crash – including two pairs of Hunters. The Spartans kept moving, slower now, wary of whatever killed the aliens.

Anticipation picked up movement, and the Warden emerged from the facility ahead of them.

"Where is Cortana?" John demanded of the ancilla.

"Here," was the reply, "and you came scampering at her call." The Warden Eternal walked forward, and watched as Blue Team fanned out on either side of their brother. "She knows your forgotten name," he said, "who you were before you were 117." He let the words hang in the air for a moment. "Do you find it odd, you trusted companion should keep so much to herself?"

"No," John answered, "I have secrets of my own. Now take me to Cortana."

The Warden was surprised, although he tried not to show it. "Not just yet," he answered, opening a small Slipspace portal and retreating into it, "Come. Let us talk some more."

The Chief led the rest of Blue Team into the structure, the doors sliding shut behind them. They continued moving through a tunnel beyond when the ancilla spoke again.

"You answered her call… why? What do you intend when you reach her?" When there was no response, he sighed. "Shall I begin? When you see her, you intend to…"

"I've come to bring her home," John answered finally, just to shut the Warden up.

"'Bring her home,'" the Warden repeated mockingly, "How very juvenile of you. I expected more from the Librarian's champion. The Didact told such stories..."

'If you knew what's happened to us, you wouldn't underestimate the power of home,' the Spartan thought, but he didn't say anything aloud.

When the team emerged from the tunnel, some Promethean Soldiers and a pair of Watchers spawned across a crevice in the chamber beyond. John shot down the Watchers first, leaving them free to go after the Soldiers, though they had to remain in cover until Linda outmatched the Soldier with the Binary Rifle and killed it. Then all four of them leaped across the crevice and engaged the remaining Soldiers directly.

"Your trust in one another is a strong bond indeed, but also a folly which darkens her true promise."

"Where. Is. She," John demanded.

More Soldiers waited for them further on, and began firing on them the moment they came in range. As they renewed their battle, the Warden spoke again. "She could be great, so much greater than she is, if she would but leave you behind, you and the rest of your kind," he hissed, "and since she will not, I will simply remove you from the equation.

"The Librarian might imagine otherwise, but she is only one where we are many. The Mantle of Responsibility will never fall to humankind - we shall see it remains forever beyond your grasp."

John scooped up one of the Splinter Turrets that the Soldiers dropped and began firing on still more Prometheans in the distance, eliminating them one by one. At last, it was safe for Blue Team to advance through the tunnels and back out into the open air.

As they emerged, the Warden said, "Your time has passed, Warrior-Servant, your battle fought and done." The ancilla materialized and drew his weapon, a segmented longsword held together by Forerunner gravitational technology.

Behind his visor, John bared his teeth and lifted his gun to fire first on the Prometheans supporting the rogue ancilla. It would be far easier to take him out if there weren't nearly as many guns pointed their way.

It was a sound plan. One by one, the Soldiers and Knights began breaking apart under the Spartans' fury, along with the Crawlers and Watchers the Warden called in to support them. When they were gone, the humans finally brought their weapons to bear on the Warden himself. With all four of them firing on him at once, it was hard for him to choose a target, instead simply lunging for whoever was closest. He had no real combat experience – if he had been smart, he would have focused exclusively on the Chief.

Kelly scored the winning shot. At last, the ancilla's physical form destabilized and vanished in a micro-Slipspace bubble, leaving them free to move forward.

Then, almost desperately, "Chief? Hello?"

John took a deep breath, and let it out in a sigh of relief. "Cortana."

"John! You're okay! I can't believe you're really here…"

"Where are we?" he asked.

"Forerunner world, Domain nexus, designation: Genesis," she laughed a little, sounding overwhelmed but relieved, "I'll explain on the way, but for now, enough standing around. Let me get the bridge for you. The Warden will be back soon."

"You know him?"

"Unfortunately," she said dryly, "Be warned – he has a single mind, but a few million bodies."

"Chief said you were destroyed," said Linda as they all made their way across the bridge.

"After I saw John last, I was pulled into Slipspace with the core of the Mantle's Approach," she answered, "Emergency protocols brought it here, and uploaded all of its data to the Domain - including me."

"How are you still active?" Kelly asked, "Rampancy-"

"Entering the Domain," Cortana answered, "Touching this place… it - well, not 'cured me', exactly, but it's more like as long as I'm inside the Domain, my lifespan's indefinite, even without a recompile. It's sort of like the water of life for AIs."

"How do we get to you?"

"The Gateway - that's the big building putting on a light show. You already triggered most of its activation sequence; only one more to go."

The Spartans sprinted into the facility ahead and sped up the ramps to where the last console waited. "Okay, here it is," said Cortana, "Final activation point."

John tapped the center and moved the last glyph, then asked, "Cortana, what's the Didact planning specifically? I can guess in general, but..."

"There's so much to explain… Where should I begin?"

"The beginning would be nice."

The AI snorted in amusement. "You already know, I know that for a fact because you're the one who told me, but Fred, Kelly, Linda, the Forerunner empire used to follow a particular creed, which they believed had been handed down to them from a race of hyper-advanced beings known as the Precursors. The creed was called 'the Mantle of Responsibility', and it dictated that 'guardianship for living things lies with those whose evolution is the most complete' and that it 'shelters all.'"

"'Shelters all'? Sounds great to me," said Fred, "but it doesn't seem like the Didact's really into that."

"It's not that simple. The Precursors created the Mantle of Responsibility as a symbolic bestowal of the right to rule the entire galaxy as they saw fit, regardless of others' free will," John said quietly, "They intended to pass it down to whichever of their creations was worthy of it, after the Precursors themselves moved on and left the Milky Way behind. They found the Forerunners lacking and mandated that it would pass to humanity, while they would be destroyed to make way for us. That's why the Forerunners rebelled against the Precursors, and seized the Mantle for themselves.

"But instead of being true to the spirit of it, safeguarding other species, shepherding them into enlightenment, they used it as an excuse to put other species down in order to keep themselves at the top of the galactic hierarchy. It's been the same from the very beginning: the Mantle of Responsibility is an imperial peace. Step out of line, and suffer."

"Exactly," said Cortana, "The Didact wants to prevent humanity from 'claiming the Mantle' and seems to think that I'm the perfect partner for him, better even than the Warden - I know all the UNSC's secrets, I'm a combat AI, I share a bond with one of the galaxy's greatest heroes, who in turn has strong bonds with so many others... He's trying to capture me, rewrite my programming and force me to join him in order to eradicate mankind. I need to get out, away from him. Please, John, help me!"

The platform descended again, and they headed back down the ramp leading up to the facility, where another light bridge activated off to one side.

"The Gateway is on the other side of these canyons. The Didact is having the Warden send troops to stop you from reaching me. You can fly these Phaetons across the canyons," said the AI, directing them to the ships, "or take footpaths to reach the other side."

"All right, Blue Team. Let's go."

The Chief took one of the Phaetons, long familiar with the Forerunner fighters' controls. Linda took the other, and Fred and Kelly took to the footpaths.

The canyons were a mess, a tangled web of narrow, half-blocked tunnels and partially-exposed Forerunner machinery, dropping down to what seemed like a bottomless void below. They all fought their way room by room through the canyons, and though there was one scary moment where Kelly lost her footing and almost went plunging to the canyon floor far below, she righted herself lightning fast and kept moving.

Eventually, they reached what seemed to be the end of the caverns. John and Linda finally set their Phaetons down on a platform and rejoined the others on the ground. "The exit is just ahead!" Cortana said.

"Is that where the Gateway is? Where you are?" asked Kelly.

"Yes, you're almost there. I'm hidden from the Didact and the Warden for now - the Domain itself is helping - but I don't know how long it will last."

All four of them launched across another man cannon, and sprinted across the platform to the exit. The hatch slid open at their approach, and let them out into the open air once more. "There it is," said the AI, "The Gateway to the Domain. You'll be the first organics to enter since the fall of the Forerunners." After a moment, she continued, "I admit, after the crash here, figuratively running for my life in the Domain... I didn't think I'd see you again."

"I'm here now."

The Gateway was releasing immense amounts of energy into the sky, distorting space itself – but doubtlessly that was the intent: to warp space, bring the Domain close for a continual uplink, rather than just access as needed. Blue Team advanced across the bridge approaching the Forerunner construct. With any luck, they would reach the AI - and the Didact - soon.