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thelegion2017-02-06 12:22 am
legionnpcs) wrote in thelegion2017-02-06 12:22 am
Legionnaire Legacies: The Master Chief and Cortana
[The Legion World staff maintains a feed of all Legion-related media so Legionnaires can be kept abreast of any reporting that's done on them. Two women appear on the screen, sitting at a desk, their appearances altered by glam filters so that one is all pink hair and skin and sparkles, and the other is all in blues. They look pretty flashy and tacky but this is the future. Reporters don't exist anymore; they're "personalities" now.]
Shellee: I'm Shellee Star! [That would be the pink one. ]
Tammee: And I'm Tammee Tim! [That would be the blue one.]
Shellee: Welcome to another installment of Legion Watch: Legionnaire Legacies. Tonight, we're featuring a double-length program: The Master Chief and Cortana!
Tammee: Some of our Legionnaires' lives are much too intertwined to tell their stories separately. You'll soon understand why as you follow us into a galaxy wracked by war and learn the story of an extraordinary bond forged in extraordinary hardship...and the worrisome questions it raises.
Shellee: Sensitive viewers may find a great deal of this presentation shocking or disturbing, so be aware and take care of yourselves, sentients.
[The bottom of the screen scrolls a list of content warnings: Graphic violence, genocide, racism, psychological abuse, physical abuse...
Yeah, Halo is fun.]
Tammee: The Master Chief and Cortana come from an alternate 26th century. Humanity had discovered a form of FTL travel they called slipspace and used it to begin colonizing other worlds. They found no other sentients, no hint they were anything but alone in the universe besides ancient ruins left by an advanced, extinct race called the Forerunners. Conflict instead came from colonized human worlds seeking independence from the Unified Earth Government and its military arm, the United Nations Space Command.
[A rush of headlines flashes across the screen. Bombings and armed attacks on various planets, names of terrorist groups, and steadily climbing death tolls.]
Shellee: By 2510, the UNSC had run computer simulations projecting colonial stability would break down entirely within twenty years. Even the best outcome would be 30 years of war and 5 billion dead.
[The rush ends, the final image lingers over a nuclear detonation in an arcology that killed 2 million and injured 8.3 million more. There is a somber pause.]
Tammee: Facing unacceptable losses, their hopes lay with the most important of the scientists who had run those projections. Her name was Dr. Catherine Halsey.
[A young woman with dark, straight hair and sharp blue eyes stands at the center of an amphitheater. Her resemblance to Cortana, for those who know her, is unsettling. With her are the holographic projection of an AI, and a man in a black dress uniform. His decorated chest a testament to a long and commended military career. The caption reads December 23rd, 2517 — Reach Military Complex, Planet Reach and identifies Dr. Catherine Halsey and Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez.]
Shellee: Dr. Halsey was called upon to create a new breed of soldier, and prevent this disastrous future. To do this, her secret project needed a good foundation...but a troubling one.
[Doors open, and 75 children are herded into the risers by handlers in military fatigues. They look distressingly young, tired, and confused.]
Tammee: Seventy-five children, chosen for strong genetics and resilient personalities, were kidnapped from their homes and brought to the UNSC base on planet Reach for training. These candidates were the UNSC's best hope.
Halsey: [in a voice identical to Cortana's] As per Naval Code 45812, you are hereby conscripted into the UNSC Special Project, codenamed SPARTAN-II. You have been called upon to serve. You will be trained… and you will become the best we can make of you. You will be the protectors of Earth and all her colonies.
[Some of the children straighten, taking interest. The camera zooms in on one of them in particular, a boy with a black eye and a chipped front tooth.]
Shellee: One of those candidates was John-117. Young John would grow up to be one of our own Legionnaires.
[The caption comes up again as the boy listens. John-117 — The Master Chief — Age 6.]
Tammee: How did the project prevent an uproar over 75 missing sons and daughters? By replacing them with clones. They were rapidly grown and would all die shortly after being placed, seemingly of natural causes, and hide what had been done.
[A small girl lies in a hospital bed inert, her mother leans into her father's shoulder and shudders.]
Shellee: Meanwhile, the Spartans were brutally trained, the UNSC more interested in its super-soldier program than in the wellbeing of their charges.
[The camera focuses on John as the children endure a montage of exercises. Push ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks. A run, all of them drenched with sweat and plainly exhausted.]
Tammee: John was a competitive boy, and had difficulty with teamwork at first.
[An obstacle course of climbing bars, cargo nets, rope bridges, and pulley systems rises high in the air. Children rush up it, striving for a bell on the tallest pole.]
Mendez: [voiceover] …But for there to be winners, there must be a loser. The last team to finish goes without food.
[John is the first, crowing his triumph as he crosses the finish line. A very tall boy and a girl with what remains of a mane of blue-dyed hair are the last. They are identified as Samuel-034 and Kelly-087.
The scene jumps a little, to a disapproving Mendez and a glaring Sam and Kelly. Other children file past in groups of three.]
John: But I won! I was first!
Mendez: Yes, you were first, but your team came in last. Remember this: you don't win unless your team wins. One person winning at the expense of the group means that you lose.
[John, Kelly, and Sam trail behind the other Spartans, dejected. John gives the other two a wide berth, and the looks they shoot him are venomous.]
Shellee: But he was a fast learner.
Mendez: Same teams as yesterday!
[The Spartans gather beneath the jungle gym. John and his team look exhausted next to the others, and Sam gives John a shove.]
Sam: You better help us, or I'll push you off one of those platforms.
Kelly: And I'll jump on top of you
[For a second John looks like he might hit them, but he relents.]
John: [muttering] Okay. Just try not to slow me down.
[It cuts to the three of them ringing the bell together and sliding down, victorious. Sam claps the other two on the back.]
Sam: [casually] We could be friends. I mean, if you want. It'd be no big deal.
Kelly: [shrugs] Sure.
John: Okay. Friends.
Tammee: The Spartans grew into a tightly-bonded team, and John emerged as a natural fit for the role of Squad Leader.
[Different training clips are run together to show the passage of time. The Spartans grow, getting taller and stronger with more serious faces than children should have. A longer war game clip comes at the end, labeled July 14th, 2523, Spartan Training Operation — Age 12. In addition to John, there are the serious-looking Frederic-104 and the red-haired Linda-058.]
John: Okay, this is supposed to be a training exercise, but this is the seventh time Chief Mendez has made us play with Tango Company.
Fred: They're getting pretty tired of losing.
Linda:That's not a good thing. They're not going to play fair.
John: [nods] So we'll return the favor and do whatever it takes to win.
[In the next cut, John is held at riflepoint by a cluster of angry-looking adult soldiers. One punches him in the stomach, demanding to know where the flag and his team are. John only laughs.]
Soldier: What's so funny?!
John: You idiots are bunched up!
[A hail of tranq darts suddenly sails out of the bushes around them, dropping the men before they can figure out what happened.]
Shellee: When the Spartans were fourteen, they were ready to undergo the next stage of the program: surgical augmentation.
[Dr. Halsey and Chief Mendez overlook a slightly older John in a hospital bed with an IV drip in his arm. His features aren't quite right for fourteen, he seems like he should be older. He tries to sit up and salute Mendez, but can't fight the sedation.]
Tammee: A dozen of the candidates would die due to the experimental surgery performed on them. But the survivors, like John, would be faster and stronger than any human had ever been. And not all humans were prepared for that.
Shellee: The Spartans received the best training the UNSC could give them, but no socialization with other people. This would spell disaster for John and cost two men their lives.
[April 2nd, 2525, UNSC Carrier Atlas — Age 14 flashes onto the screen.]
Tammee: Shortly after his recovery, he ran afoul of a group of shock troopers in the gym. An officer that did not know what he was encouraged them to fight it out.
[A fat sergeant looks on while John fights three men. They easily outweigh him, but he's faster and stronger and drops them with brutal strikes. The last grabs a metal bar. He gets his wrist broken for his trouble as John twists it away from him and uses it to send him to the floor, bleeding. It's unclear which ones are unconscious or dead.
Too late to save the men, Chief Mendez strides into the room.]
Mendez: At ease, Number-117!
[John drops the bar immediately.]
Sergeant: [saluting Mendez, but clearly in shock]What are you--He's one of them, isn't he?
[The scene jumps ahead. John walks with Mendez, his expression deeply troubled. There's still blood on his knuckles.]
John: I followed the chain of command. The sergeant told me to fight. I was threatened and in imminent danger. But they were still UNSC Special Forces. Fellow soldiers.
Mendez: Not every mission has simple objectives or comes to a logical conclusion. Your priorities are to follow the orders in your chain of command, and then to preserve your life and the lives of your team. Is that clear?
John: Sir, yes, sir.
Shellee: Little did John know, but it had been a setup orchestrated by the Office of Naval Intelligence to test the effectiveness of the augmented Spartans.
Tammee: Five months later, they would be given their first real mission. John and his team were sent to capture an insurrectionist leader from one of their stronghold worlds.
[A drop ship shoots out of a hole blasted in the airlock of a huge docking bay.]
Shellee: And they succeeded. Everything was going according to plan. Then, that same year, the unthinkable happened. Humanity encountered their first sentients from other worlds.
Tammee: The Covenant was an alliance of over a dozen different species, united by the religious leadership of the one deemed their prophets.
[An alien with a long, slouched neck addresses a hall full of other species from his perch on a hovering throne. The words are untranslated, but there is a roaring crescendo as the collected aliens repeat his last statement. Several of a particularly tall, many-jawed variety snap their teeth and stamp with their vehemence.]
Shellee: They viewed humanity as an enemy, an offense to their gods, and began steps to exterminate them.
[A fleet of purple ships with bulbous, almost organic designs appears on the screen. The largest of them fires a massive beam at the planet below the fleet. It boils the sea and turns the crust to molten glass as the alien ship carves a deliberate swath across the surface.]
Tammee: John's team was issued the final piece of the Spartan puzzle: The Mjolnir powered assault armor that Halsey had designed in the project's infancy.
[John, suited in an older version of his iconic green armor, leans down for Halsey to put the helmet on his head. He hasn't reached his adult height yet, but he's close.]
Shellee: It made the already powerful young soldiers even faster and stronger, and would make them Earth's best hope in the war with the Covenant. They were immediately sent on their first mission against the new threat.
[November 27th, 2525, Covenant Ship above Chi Ceti 4. Three Spartans, identifiable as John, Sam, and Kelly only by the numbers on their armor and Sam's size (and the captions, for the viewers at home) jetpack through the vacuum to infiltrate the craft. They fight smaller aliens through the halls of the ship. Sam takes a hit for John and brushes it off, insisting he's okay.
Then, they are setting explosives.]
John: Three minutes. That'll give us enough time to get topside and get away. [to Sam:] You'll have to stay and hold them off. That's an order.
Kelly: [stunned] What are you talking about?
John: Sam knows.
Sam: [nodding] I think I can hold them off that long.
[He turns to show Kelly the burn in the side of his suit where he took the shot that would've hit John. The plasma breached Sam's armor and the burn goes deep, but the camera jumps to another angle before this can turn graphic.]
Kelly: That's nothing, we'll have you patched up in no time. Once we get back--
[She breaks off in realization--Sam's armor is no longer airtight and he'd die in the vacuum of space.]
Sam: Exactly. Getting back is going to be a problem for me.
[Kelly protests and Sam remains stalwart as he sets the timers.]
John: [unable to look at Sam] He has his orders.
Sam: [starting the timer] There, it's decided. Now get going, you two.
[John squeezes Sam's hand and Kelly salutes.]
John: [to Kelly] Come on, Spartan. Don't look back.
[Sam checks his weapons for his last fight, and neither John nor Kelly turns to glance back.]
Tammee: The Spartans had been prepared to outclass human enemies, but found themselves merely a match for the Covenant onslaught. And while John and his team could keep the Covenant at bay for a time on the surfaces of planets, they could do nothing while the enemy routed the UNSC in space.
[And here are the carefully selected glimpses at the war with the Covenant, conveying the desperation of the situation. A Covenant battle group slides into existence in precise formation to tear into a line of UNSC ships. Alien warriors stand head and shoulders over human soldiers, even the Spartans, and bring to bear superior firepower. Bullets bounce harmlessly off shimmering energy shields.]
Unidentified voice: [voiceover, harried] We're outgunned, outnumbered, and they can move with pinpoint accuracy through slipstream space. What hope can you honestly say we have?
Shellee: The war would rage for decades as the Covenant destroyed hundreds of human colonies. Billions of lives were lost.
[A map of human worlds lights up, and one by one they dim. Each time a light goes out, a date appears in its place. The graphic quickly traces years of war. It zooms in one of the last lights, expanding it into a full view of the planet Reach, with the caption 2549 — 24 years of total war.]
Tammee: We're sure the viewers have noticed a distinct lack of Cortana, but that's about to change. Unlike our own Roboticans, digital intelligences in this universe are created by scanning human brains. Fast, smart, creative, and just as courageous as their creators, AIs were the one clear advantage humanity had over the Covenant.
Shellee: Unfortunately, the technology is imperfect, and with age or great stress human-created AIs descend into an unstable mental state called rampancy. It results in dangerous insanity, to the point where UNSC regulations require all AIs to be killed at seven years of service, regardless of their mental health.
Tammee: There was little to no outcry against this barbaric practice, and AIs continued to be created, few of them even living to see their seven-year deadline as the war took its toll on organic and digital sentients alike.
Shellee: On Reach, Dr. Halsey continued her work, unaware of just how vital a role her two greatest creations would have to play.
[The camera pans along multiple cloning tanks in which float deformed human clones, their heads highly developed and their bodies warped and atrophied. Halsey's voice (which is also Cortana's voice), narrates in voiceover.]
Halsey: The law is unequivocal: No living human's brain may be used as an AI matrix seed (the ultra-deep personality scans destroy the organic substrate.) Available posthumous donor candidates, however, lack both physical and intellectual agility. Simply put, my 3rd-gen smart AIs require better material. The solution, though illegal and unethical, was simple and obvious.
Halsey: I've cloned myself.
Halsey: I've enhanced the neural physiology at the expense of other bodily functions. Disquieting...watching copies of myself grow. Malformed and curled into a fetal position. I grieve for them. I want to allay their suffering.
Halsey: We must all make sacrifices, especially now.
[November 7, 2549 — ONI CASTLE Base, Planet Reach. Halsey, hair now gray, sits at a desk. She touches a control in front of her, and one of the holographic screens displays AI MATRIX 0452-9 INITIALIZED. There's nothing for a moment, and then a holographic display of particles flowing through complex geometric forms springs up over the desk.]
Halsey: Hello.
[After a few seconds, Halsey's own voice answers her from the hologram.]
Cortana: Quando il gioco è finito, il re e il pedone vanno nella stessa scatola.
[Subtitle: Italian: When the game is over, the king and the pawn go in the same box.]
Halsey: [smiling] What's your name?
[A more lengthy pause, then the particles reorganize themselves into Cortana's avatar. The family resemblance between her and Halsey is unmistakable.]
Cortana: Cortana.
[A montage of Cortana doing AI Stuff. For extremely unsubtle narrative contrast, Cortana's uneventful early life on Reach is intercut with scenes of the Chief fighting his unending string of hopeless battles out on the front lines. In the last scene, she's standing beside a seated Halsey and inspecting a life-size hologram of a very familiar-looking suit of armor.
The date August 25, 2552 — ONI CASTLE Base, Planet Reach appears at the bottom of the screen.]
Tammee: It was time for Dr. Halsey's original vision for the Spartan program to be realized.
Cortana: [excited]They approved the final phase? When do I deploy?
Halsey: [calm] Soon.
[Halsey taps a control on her desk and the armor disappears, replaced by a grid of headshots, all human, all military, in dress uniforms.]
Cortana: [eagerly] Which one will be mine?
Halsey: Which one do you want?
[The two still speak with the same voice, though Halsey's age and experience and Cortana's lack of both come through clearly in their tone and delivery.
Cortana makes a "come here" motion with a hand, and one of the portraits springs out and enlarges, pushing aside the others. It is, of course, the Master Chief, chest covered in enough medals to be considered armor on their own. Cocking her head, Cortana holds out her hands to frame his face like a photographer blocking out a shot.]
Cortana: He's so serious. Thoughtful eyes, though.
[Halsey isn't pleased that intangibles could be factoring into Cortana's decision.]
Halsey: Perhaps it would be best if you picked another--
Cortana: [petulant] You asked me which one I wanted.
Halsey: [sharply] It was a question, Cortana. I did not give you carte blanche to select your 'carrier.' There are compatibility issues to consider.
Cortana: [dismissive sniff] His neural patterns are in sync with mine to within two percent, and... [pause] ...I've just developed a custom interface buffer that will match us within zero point zero eight one percent. You won't find a better match among the others. I can guarantee it.
Halsey: I see. You've read his dossier?
Cortana: I'm reading it again right now.
Halsey: Then you know he is neither the smartest nor the fastest nor the strongest of the Spartans. But he is the bravest--and quite possibly the luckiest. And in my opinion, he is the best.
Cortana: Yes. I concur with your analysis, Doctor.
[Cortana walks closer to the picture of the Chief, plainly fascinated. Halsey gives her a skeptical look.]
Halsey: Could you sacrifice him if you had to? If it meant completing the mission? Could you watch him die?
Cortana: [tonelessly] My priority Alpha order is to complete this mission. The Spartans' safety, as well as mine, is a Beta-level priority command.
Halsey: Good. Then you may have him.
[Cortana doesn't answer, but she grins in triumph, still gazing up at the photo.]
Tammee: The Master Chief was recalled to Reach.
[In his battered armor, the Chief walks through a lab facility, towering over the other Navy personnel and civilian scientists, who all stop what they're doing and turn their heads to watch him pass. Reach might be his home, but no Spartan has set foot there in a quarter century.]
Halsey: This is the real Mjolnir.
[The Chief, wearing a set of armor very similar to his old one except new and spotless, is looking down at himself.]
Halsey: We've made hundreds of minor technical improvements...and two major ones. First, we have replicated, and I might add, improved on the energy shielding the Covenant has been using on us. As for the second major improvement...I'd like to introduce you to Cortana. Her presence will allow you to utilize the suit more effectively.
[Halsey holds out a datachip and Cortana's hologram appears above it. She waves, smiling, but doesn't say anything. The Chief's only visible reaction is a slight tilt of the head. He kneels to allow Halsey to insert the chip into his helmet for the first time.]
Cortana: [teasing] Not a lot of room in here. Hello, Master Chief.
John: ...Hello, Cortana.
Halsey: We should begin the test straightaway. There's no better way for you two to get acquainted than in simulated combat. [her voice drops] I think some of the ONI brass would prefer to see you fail this test, Master Chief. And they may have arranged to make sure you do--regardless of your performance.
[The Chief tears his way through various increasingly lethal obstacles on the same course he ran so often as a child: a squad of Marines, a minefield that Cortana marks out for him on his HUD, a half dozen chain guns and an alley of razor wire, a forest of tall wooden poles with booby traps strung throughout that the Chief circumvents by climbing one of them and hopping from pole to pole, a half-ton of Spartan and armor as graceful as a gymnast. They're most of the way through when Cortana breaks in.]
Cortana: Incoming target at extreme range. Velocity profile matches a SkyHawk jump jet.
[In the distance, a dot becomes a winged craft, and then a winged craft becomes a problem as it opens fire with its main cannons, splintering the poles out from under the Chief. He drops to the ground, rolls, and stays prone as a few rounds hit him, causing his shield to flash.]
Cortana: Eleven seconds before they can make another pass.
John: They'll try their missiles this time.
Cortana: Maybe we should leave the course. Find better cover.
John: No. We're going to win. By their rules.
[The Chief looks down the course to the bell at its end, an open sprint, and then back up at the approaching SkyHawk.]
John: Tell me the instant I need to sidestep to deflect the missile with my left arm.
Cortana: ...Calculation done. You did say "deflect?"
John: Scorpions have motion-tracking and proximity detonators. I can't outrun it.
Cortana: Right, get ready. ...I hope you know what you're doing.
[The jet does indeed fire one of its missiles. It approaches the Chief in slow motion for dramatic effect, which shifts to real time just as Cortana yells.]
Cortana: Now!
[Almost too quickly to follow, the Chief steps to one side and bats away the oncoming missile. It detonates in a blinding flash, knocking the Chief down, but he pushes himself to his feet and dashes across the field, reaching the bell. It’s the same one from his childhood training. The test is over. John-117 wins again.
The Chief looks back along the course he's just run.]
John: Thanks, Cortana. Couldn't have done it without you.
Cortana: You're welcome, Master Chief. [mischievously] And no, you couldn't have done it without me.
[The Chief wordlessly reaches up to bonk the back of his own helmet.]
Shellee: The new partners prepared to ship out on an audacious mission to strike at the heart of the enemy...and not a moment too soon.
Tammee: 2552 was the year the Covenant set its sights on Reach.
[Like so many human worlds before it, Reach is glassed by an enormous Covenant fleet, its snowcaps flashing to vapor and its vast forests to ash.]
Shellee: Aboard the Pillar of Autumn, the Chief and Cortana escape...barely.
[A blocky human vessel engages with the sleeker Covenant craft. Outnumbered and outgunned, it still puts in a respectable showing, but takes substantial damage before it disappears into a slipspace rupture...pursued by the Covenant.
Aboard, Cortana watches from an AI platform as the Chief climbs into a cryosleep pod and the window on the lid frosts over.]
Tammee: With non-essential personnel in hibernation, Cortana and a skeleton repair crew steer the Autumn through slipspace, not knowing where their random jump will take them.
[It takes them to an enormous ringworld orbiting a gas giant, captioned Halo Array Installation 04. A tighter shot shows the Autumn, still being chased by Covenant vessels. The camera zooms in on the bow, appearing to pass through the wall and onto the bridge, where the Chief is standing next to Cortana's hologram.]
Cortana: Sleep well?
John: No thanks to your driving, yes.
Cortana: So you did miss me.
[The Autumn is outclassed and crashes on the ring's surface, a pristine wilderness spotted with high-tech structures.]
Shellee: Hard to believe things could get worse for humanity, but something even more deadly than the Covenant lay hidden on the ringworld called Halo.
[It's space zombies, because of course there are space zombies. The Chief mows his way through a good half-dozen while the hosts continue speaking.]
Tammee: The Flood! An ancient plague locked away on Halo by the long-extinct Forerunners but released by the religious fanatics of the Covenant. It infects all sentient life, seeking to turn everything in the galaxy into itself. But the Forerunners had left a contingency plan in case the Flood should ever return.
[A floating circular robot with a single light blue glowing eye hovers in front of the Chief. It's captioned 343 Guilty Spark, Monitor of Installation 04. It speaks in a light voice, pleasant despite its tinny quality.]
Guilty Spark: We must collect the Index before we can activate the installation.
[More zombie-fighting, while Guilty Spark continues to speak in voiceover.]
Guilty Spark: You can see how the body has been transformed by the genetic restructuring of the Flood infection. The small creatures carry spores that cause a host to mutate. The mutated host then produces spores that can pass the Flood to others. It is insidious and elegant. As long as any hosts remain, the Flood is virulent. The installation was well conceived. It is surely the only way to end the Flood threat.
[A hammer-shaped device floats within an energy field, and the Chief approaches it.]
Guilty Spark: You may now retrieve the Index.
[The Chief does so, and the scene cuts to a different area, one that screams "control room." Cortana's hologram projects above the center console, taller even than the Chief. She is not happy.]
John: Cortana!
Cortana: I've spent the last 12 hours cooped up in here, watching you toady about, helping that thing get set to slit our throats!
John: [soothing] Hold on now, he's a friend.
Cortana: Oh! I didn't realize. He's your pal, is he? Your chum? [Cortana switches from blisteringly sarcastic to angry]Do you have any idea what that bastard almost made you do?!
John: [still soothing] Yes. Activate Halo's defenses and destroy the Flood, which is why we brought the Index to the control center.
Cortana: You have no idea how this ring works, do you? Why the Forerunners built it? Halo doesn't kill Flood, it kills their food. Humans, Covenant, whatever. We're all equally edible! The only way to stop the Flood is to starve them to death. And that's exactly what Halo is designed to do: Wipe the galaxy clean of all sentient life. You don't believe me? Ask him!
John: Is it true?
Guilty Spark: ...More or less.
[Oops! Cut to yet more fighting, this time featuring Forerunner devices, including Guilty Spark, as well as Covenant and Flood. There is also a very dramatic driving scene--which might have been less dramatic if the Chief were a better driver--as the pair escape to a single still-functional fighter.]
Shellee: Overloading the Pillar of Autumn's fusion reactors, Chief and Cortana destroyed Halo, saving trillions of lives.
[Halo explodes real pretty.]
Cortana: [uncertain, as though she's trying to convince herself] We did what we had to do...for Earth. An entire Covenant armada obliterated, and the Flood.... We had no choice. Halo...it's finished.
John: No. I think we're just getting started.
Tammee: The Chief had no idea how right he was.
Shellee: Stranded amidst the ruins of Halo without a lightspeed-capable vessel, our heroes and a handful of other survivors did the obvious thing: Steal the damaged but still spaceworthy enemy flagship.
[The Chief and a few smaller human soldiers fight their way down a corridor and onto the bridge of a Covenant vessel. Cortana projects her hologram from one of the consoles, and the viewscreen shows the stars disappear in the flash of a slipstream jump.]
Tammee: Unbeknownst to them, or to anyone but the Covenant, the location of Earth, kept secret at enormous cost through all the long years of the war...was no longer secret.
[Covenant battle cruisers exit slipspace around Earth and the human fleet engages. A large space station explodes spectacularly.]
Cortana: That explosion came from inside. The Covenant must have brought something with them. A bomb.
[The Chief kills his way through Covenant boarders on their own station to a spiky bomb. He touches the activation pad, which turns from flashing red to solid blue.]
John: How much time was left?
Cortana: You don't want to know.
[The Chief's helmeted head turns to look at the bomb.]
John: Permission to leave the station.
UNSC Admiral: [over the comms] For what purpose, Master Chief?
John: To give the Covenant back their bomb.
UNSC Admiral: [over the comms] ...Permission granted.
[The Chief grabs two of the pointy protrusions on the bomb and starts to drag it towards a freight elevator on one side of the room.]
Cortana: I know what you're thinking, and it's crazy.
John: So stay here.
Cortana: Unfortunately for us both, I like crazy.
[The elevator, with bomb and Spartan aboard, arrives at an empty fighter bay.]
Cortana: One question...what happens if you miss?
John: [assured] I won't.
[The Chief pulls the manual override handle, opening the bay doors to vacuum. The decompression starts to push the bomb out into space. The Chief grabs onto the bomb as it passes, and both are blown out of the station.
The bomb and the Chief go flying through the battle towards a Covenant carrier, plasma beams narrowly missing them but striking another human vessel. It floats dead in space, engines struggling to relight. Longsword fighters like the one the pair used to escape Halo sweep in to disable the weapons emplacements on the carrier, allowing the Chief to slip through to the ship's fusion core. He slaps the activation pad, then kicks off the bomb, aiming for a hole torn in the carrier's side by the human fleet. Behind him, the ship flickers with small explosions, then detonates in a plasma inferno. A human vessel maneuvers to match his trajectory, and the Chief lands, engages the electromagnets in his boots, and starts for an airlock, not looking back.]
Shellee: And so with a bang began the last battle desperate battle of the Great War, a battle that would range across the galaxy, and even outside of it.
Tammee: The Halo ring Master Chief and Cortana had destroyed was only one installation of a vast array, and the Prophets, the leaders of the Covenant, blinded by their fanatical faith, intended to trigger them all. What they thought was their 'Great Journey' to paradise would instead wipe out all sentient life.
[The Chief looking up at an enormous holographic display of all the rings in the Halo array. Another hologram, subtitled The Prophet of Regret, Covenant Hierarch, giving a sermon.]
Regret: I shall light this holy ring, release its cleansing flame, and burn a path into the divine beyond!
[The scene cuts to the Chief clinging to Regret's floating throne as he punches the bastard to death. It then cuts to the Chief running from weapons fire from a Covenant ship. He's thrown into the surrounding water and begins to sink, until a tentacle snakes up and winds around him. A sepulchral disembodied voice speaks.]
Gravemind: This is not your grave, but you are welcome in it.
[Fade to black.]
Cortana: [voiceover] What is that?
Gravemind: [voiceover] I? I am a monument to all your sins.
[The Gravemind is an enormous mass of flesh, teeth, tentacles.]
Shellee: When the Flood absorbs enough biomass in one location, it forms a Gravemind, an intelligence with the memory of every sentient it has consumed… and a grudge against the galaxy. But it had common cause with humanity, at least for the time being. Neither side wanted the Halo Array fired.
Tammee: Stymied on Halo by this desperate alliance, the Covenant turned its sights once again to Earth.
Cortana: If the Prophet of Truth leads the Covenant fleet to Earth, they won't stand a chance. You have to stop him!
John: They can activate the ring.
Cortana: If they do, I'll detonate In Amber Clad's reactor just like we did the Autumn's. The blast will destroy the ring. Not a very original plan, but we know it'll work.
[The Chief reaches towards Cortana, and she holds up a hand to stop him.]
Cortana: No. I don't want to chance a remote detonation. I'll need to stay here.
[The scene jumps to Cortana, alone, watching a ship take off.]
John: [over the comms] After I'm through with Truth--
Cortana: Don't make a girl a promise...if you know you can't keep it.
Shellee: The Master Chief was on his way home...and Cortana was anything but.
[In the darkness, Gravemind tentacles pry open a large door.]
Gravemind: Silence fills the empty grave now that I am gone, but my mind is not at rest, for questions linger on. I will ask, and you will answer.
[Cortana's hologram springs into existence amidst the tentacles, her expression determined and lacking any of her usual cockiness. She holds up a hand to forestall whatever the Gravemind is about to do.]
Cortana: All right. Shoot.
Tammee: But hope remained, because Cortana had discovered Halo's secret hidden in the Forerunner systems, even as she resisted the Gravemind's questioning: A slipspace portal, left by the Forerunners for humanity to find when they were ready to explore the stars...now their last chance. Taking advantage of the Gravemind's attempts to infect Earth, Cortana smuggled out a message on the plague ship it sent.
[Cortana's hologram lies prostrate and frozen, not her but simply a recording, gazing at the Chief, who crouches to put himself at eye level while an argument about strategy happens around him.]
UNSC Admiral: You trust Cortana that much?
John: Sir, yes, sir.
Shellee: Aboard the Forward Unto Dawn, the Chief set out for the mysterious Ark that was promised to be on the other side of the portal, to find Cortana and set her plan in motion.
[You thought the Halo rings were big? The Ark is even bigger, a starfish-shaped megastructure many times larger than Earth.]
Tammee: Floating outside the galaxy, the Ark builds Halo rings...and it was hard at work replacing the one the Chief and Cortana had destroyed. If the Gravemind could destroy the Ark, there would be nothing left to stop it.
[An obviously incomplete Halo ring starts to rise from the center of the Ark.]
Shellee: Cortana's plan was becoming clear, and it was time to rescue her.
Tammee: But the stress of her situation was pushing her rapidly towards rampancy. The Chief had no idea if his partner would still be the person he knew when he got to her.
Shellee: The signs were not good.
[The Chief stalks alone through the corridors of a city covered with Flood biomass and filled with Flood combat forms.]
Gravemind: Child of my enemy, why have you come? I offer no forgiveness: a father's sins pass to his son.
[As the Chief makes progress deeper into the structure, fighting through Flood all the way, the Gravemind and Cortana continue to be heard, the Gravemind sneeringly triumphant and Cortana descending into rampancy. At no point does the Chief respond to any of it except by fighting even harder.]
Gravemind: Of course, you came for her. We exist together now, two corpses in one grave.
Cortana: A collection of lies; that's all I am! Stolen thoughts and memories! I'm just my mother's shadow. Don't look at me, don't listen! I'm not who I used to be.
Gravemind: [angry] Submit! End her torment and my own!
Cortana: [panicking, voice distorted] There will be no more sadness, no more anger, no more envy!
Gravemind: [enraged] You will show me what she hides...or I shall feast upon your bones!
Cortana: [completely calm] This is UNSC AI serial number CTN 0452-9. I am a monument to all your sins.
[Through the Flood resistance at last, the Chief sprints down a hallway to a stasis-shielded podium and bashes at the shielding with the butt of his rifle. It flashes and gives way, revealing Cortana's hologram, sprawled out on one side, barely glowing, lines of code unmoving.]
Cortana: [weakly] You found me. But so much of me is wrong...out of place. You might be too late.
[The Chief kneels beside her, leaning in close and putting his visor inches from her hologram.]
John: You know me. When I make a promise...
Cortana: [rallying] You...keep it. [She looks up at him and sounds amused, glow strengthening.] I do know how to pick 'em.
John: [gently] Lucky me. [and now back to business] Do you still have it?
[Cortana's hologram stands, glow returning to normal and scrolling code starting up again. She holds out a hand and a hologram of the T-shaped Index appears over it.]
Cortana: The Activation Index from the first Halo ring. A little souvenir I hung onto, just in case. [looking around] Got an escape plan?
John: [rising] Thought I'd try shooting my way out. Mix things up a little.
[He removes Cortana's chip from his helmet and holds it out to her. She reaches out to it and uploads herself, and the Chief slots it back into his armor.]
Tammee: Cortana's plan: A tactical pulse! A blast just big enough to wipe out the Gravemind...the last surviving Flood infestation in the galaxy. She'd kept her copy of the Index secret throughout her torturous interrogation, and now her determination paid off.
[Just like the first Halo, it's now a race to escape as the incomplete ring starts to come apart around them. One dramatic Warthog jump into the cargo bay of the Dawn later, the Chief sits on the deck, braced against the console where Cortana is projecting a hologram, the bay doors still open behind them with a view of the ring tearing itself apart.]
Cortana: If we don't make it--
John: We'll make it.
Cortana: --It's been an honor serving with you, John.
[The Chief lets his head fall back against the console as Halo fires and the screen whites out, then fades to black.]
Shellee: The Master Chief wasn't wrong. They made it...in a sense.
Tammee: We'll let them tell you.
Cortana: [voiceover, loud and worried] Chief! Can you hear me?
[Fade in on the Chief's limp body drifting in zero-g.]
Cortana: [a sigh of relief as the Chief stirs] I thought I'd lost you, too.
John: What happened?
[As Cortana explains, he floats through the corridors, pushing off bulkheads and dodging debris.]
Cortana: I'm not sure. When Halo fired, it shook itself to pieces. It did a number on the Ark. The portal couldn't sustain itself. We made it through just as it collapsed.
[The Chief pauses to look out at the stars--through the giant hole, edges still red-hot, where the collapsing portal sheared the Dawn in half.]
Cortana: Well. Some of us made it.
[Pulling himself over to an AI plinth, the Chief removes Cortana's chip from his helmet and slots it into what remains of the ship's systems. Her hologram pops up, and he floats with his visor level to her.]
Cortana: But you did it. Truth, the Covenant, the Flood--it's finished.
John: It's finished.
Cortana: I'll drop a beacon, but it'll be a while before anyone finds us. Years, even.
[The Chief has clearly already figured that out and is maneuvering himself into a cryopod.]
Cortana: [softly] I'll miss you.
John: [as the lid closes over him] Wake me when you need me.
[Cortana's hologram stands motionless on the AI platform, shoulders slouched and head bowed, and the scene fades to black as the camera draws farther and farther back.]
Shellee: And so we leave the Master Chief to his dreamless sleep and Cortana to her lonely vigil...victorious, but at enormous cost. No one can question their skill and courage...or their devotion to each other.
Tammee: But are the qualities that made them heroes in their own universe really what the Legion needs? Both of them have known nothing but war their entire lives. Both of them were created to be weapons. What does that do to a sentient? What did it cost them not simply to survive, but to win?
Shellee: Did the Master Chief and Cortana succeed because they are, at their core, broken? Shouldn't they be receiving the treatment they need to recover from their barbaric upbringing and years of suffering, rather than being forced into the field yet again? Shouldn't we be kinder and more ethical than a desperate military regime? So much has already been demanded of them...do we really have the right to ask even more?
Tammee: Hard questions, with no easy answers. At least the Master Chief and Cortana are safely in the care of the Legion now, and able to get the help they deserve.
Shellee: For more Legion action, be sure to keep tuning in! This is Shellee Star!
Tammee: And Tammee Tim!
Both: And this was Legionnaire Legacies!
Shellee: I'm Shellee Star! [That would be the pink one. ]
Tammee: And I'm Tammee Tim! [That would be the blue one.]
Shellee: Welcome to another installment of Legion Watch: Legionnaire Legacies. Tonight, we're featuring a double-length program: The Master Chief and Cortana!
Tammee: Some of our Legionnaires' lives are much too intertwined to tell their stories separately. You'll soon understand why as you follow us into a galaxy wracked by war and learn the story of an extraordinary bond forged in extraordinary hardship...and the worrisome questions it raises.
Shellee: Sensitive viewers may find a great deal of this presentation shocking or disturbing, so be aware and take care of yourselves, sentients.
[The bottom of the screen scrolls a list of content warnings: Graphic violence, genocide, racism, psychological abuse, physical abuse...
Yeah, Halo is fun.]
Tammee: The Master Chief and Cortana come from an alternate 26th century. Humanity had discovered a form of FTL travel they called slipspace and used it to begin colonizing other worlds. They found no other sentients, no hint they were anything but alone in the universe besides ancient ruins left by an advanced, extinct race called the Forerunners. Conflict instead came from colonized human worlds seeking independence from the Unified Earth Government and its military arm, the United Nations Space Command.
[A rush of headlines flashes across the screen. Bombings and armed attacks on various planets, names of terrorist groups, and steadily climbing death tolls.]
Shellee: By 2510, the UNSC had run computer simulations projecting colonial stability would break down entirely within twenty years. Even the best outcome would be 30 years of war and 5 billion dead.
[The rush ends, the final image lingers over a nuclear detonation in an arcology that killed 2 million and injured 8.3 million more. There is a somber pause.]
Tammee: Facing unacceptable losses, their hopes lay with the most important of the scientists who had run those projections. Her name was Dr. Catherine Halsey.
[A young woman with dark, straight hair and sharp blue eyes stands at the center of an amphitheater. Her resemblance to Cortana, for those who know her, is unsettling. With her are the holographic projection of an AI, and a man in a black dress uniform. His decorated chest a testament to a long and commended military career. The caption reads December 23rd, 2517 — Reach Military Complex, Planet Reach and identifies Dr. Catherine Halsey and Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez.]
Shellee: Dr. Halsey was called upon to create a new breed of soldier, and prevent this disastrous future. To do this, her secret project needed a good foundation...but a troubling one.
[Doors open, and 75 children are herded into the risers by handlers in military fatigues. They look distressingly young, tired, and confused.]
Tammee: Seventy-five children, chosen for strong genetics and resilient personalities, were kidnapped from their homes and brought to the UNSC base on planet Reach for training. These candidates were the UNSC's best hope.
Halsey: [in a voice identical to Cortana's] As per Naval Code 45812, you are hereby conscripted into the UNSC Special Project, codenamed SPARTAN-II. You have been called upon to serve. You will be trained… and you will become the best we can make of you. You will be the protectors of Earth and all her colonies.
[Some of the children straighten, taking interest. The camera zooms in on one of them in particular, a boy with a black eye and a chipped front tooth.]
Shellee: One of those candidates was John-117. Young John would grow up to be one of our own Legionnaires.
[The caption comes up again as the boy listens. John-117 — The Master Chief — Age 6.]
Tammee: How did the project prevent an uproar over 75 missing sons and daughters? By replacing them with clones. They were rapidly grown and would all die shortly after being placed, seemingly of natural causes, and hide what had been done.
[A small girl lies in a hospital bed inert, her mother leans into her father's shoulder and shudders.]
Shellee: Meanwhile, the Spartans were brutally trained, the UNSC more interested in its super-soldier program than in the wellbeing of their charges.
[The camera focuses on John as the children endure a montage of exercises. Push ups, sit-ups, jumping jacks. A run, all of them drenched with sweat and plainly exhausted.]
Tammee: John was a competitive boy, and had difficulty with teamwork at first.
[An obstacle course of climbing bars, cargo nets, rope bridges, and pulley systems rises high in the air. Children rush up it, striving for a bell on the tallest pole.]
Mendez: [voiceover] …But for there to be winners, there must be a loser. The last team to finish goes without food.
[John is the first, crowing his triumph as he crosses the finish line. A very tall boy and a girl with what remains of a mane of blue-dyed hair are the last. They are identified as Samuel-034 and Kelly-087.
The scene jumps a little, to a disapproving Mendez and a glaring Sam and Kelly. Other children file past in groups of three.]
John: But I won! I was first!
Mendez: Yes, you were first, but your team came in last. Remember this: you don't win unless your team wins. One person winning at the expense of the group means that you lose.
[John, Kelly, and Sam trail behind the other Spartans, dejected. John gives the other two a wide berth, and the looks they shoot him are venomous.]
Shellee: But he was a fast learner.
Mendez: Same teams as yesterday!
[The Spartans gather beneath the jungle gym. John and his team look exhausted next to the others, and Sam gives John a shove.]
Sam: You better help us, or I'll push you off one of those platforms.
Kelly: And I'll jump on top of you
[For a second John looks like he might hit them, but he relents.]
John: [muttering] Okay. Just try not to slow me down.
[It cuts to the three of them ringing the bell together and sliding down, victorious. Sam claps the other two on the back.]
Sam: [casually] We could be friends. I mean, if you want. It'd be no big deal.
Kelly: [shrugs] Sure.
John: Okay. Friends.
Tammee: The Spartans grew into a tightly-bonded team, and John emerged as a natural fit for the role of Squad Leader.
[Different training clips are run together to show the passage of time. The Spartans grow, getting taller and stronger with more serious faces than children should have. A longer war game clip comes at the end, labeled July 14th, 2523, Spartan Training Operation — Age 12. In addition to John, there are the serious-looking Frederic-104 and the red-haired Linda-058.]
John: Okay, this is supposed to be a training exercise, but this is the seventh time Chief Mendez has made us play with Tango Company.
Fred: They're getting pretty tired of losing.
Linda:That's not a good thing. They're not going to play fair.
John: [nods] So we'll return the favor and do whatever it takes to win.
[In the next cut, John is held at riflepoint by a cluster of angry-looking adult soldiers. One punches him in the stomach, demanding to know where the flag and his team are. John only laughs.]
Soldier: What's so funny?!
John: You idiots are bunched up!
[A hail of tranq darts suddenly sails out of the bushes around them, dropping the men before they can figure out what happened.]
Shellee: When the Spartans were fourteen, they were ready to undergo the next stage of the program: surgical augmentation.
[Dr. Halsey and Chief Mendez overlook a slightly older John in a hospital bed with an IV drip in his arm. His features aren't quite right for fourteen, he seems like he should be older. He tries to sit up and salute Mendez, but can't fight the sedation.]
Tammee: A dozen of the candidates would die due to the experimental surgery performed on them. But the survivors, like John, would be faster and stronger than any human had ever been. And not all humans were prepared for that.
Shellee: The Spartans received the best training the UNSC could give them, but no socialization with other people. This would spell disaster for John and cost two men their lives.
[April 2nd, 2525, UNSC Carrier Atlas — Age 14 flashes onto the screen.]
Tammee: Shortly after his recovery, he ran afoul of a group of shock troopers in the gym. An officer that did not know what he was encouraged them to fight it out.
[A fat sergeant looks on while John fights three men. They easily outweigh him, but he's faster and stronger and drops them with brutal strikes. The last grabs a metal bar. He gets his wrist broken for his trouble as John twists it away from him and uses it to send him to the floor, bleeding. It's unclear which ones are unconscious or dead.
Too late to save the men, Chief Mendez strides into the room.]
Mendez: At ease, Number-117!
[John drops the bar immediately.]
Sergeant: [saluting Mendez, but clearly in shock]What are you--He's one of them, isn't he?
[The scene jumps ahead. John walks with Mendez, his expression deeply troubled. There's still blood on his knuckles.]
John: I followed the chain of command. The sergeant told me to fight. I was threatened and in imminent danger. But they were still UNSC Special Forces. Fellow soldiers.
Mendez: Not every mission has simple objectives or comes to a logical conclusion. Your priorities are to follow the orders in your chain of command, and then to preserve your life and the lives of your team. Is that clear?
John: Sir, yes, sir.
Shellee: Little did John know, but it had been a setup orchestrated by the Office of Naval Intelligence to test the effectiveness of the augmented Spartans.
Tammee: Five months later, they would be given their first real mission. John and his team were sent to capture an insurrectionist leader from one of their stronghold worlds.
[A drop ship shoots out of a hole blasted in the airlock of a huge docking bay.]
Shellee: And they succeeded. Everything was going according to plan. Then, that same year, the unthinkable happened. Humanity encountered their first sentients from other worlds.
Tammee: The Covenant was an alliance of over a dozen different species, united by the religious leadership of the one deemed their prophets.
[An alien with a long, slouched neck addresses a hall full of other species from his perch on a hovering throne. The words are untranslated, but there is a roaring crescendo as the collected aliens repeat his last statement. Several of a particularly tall, many-jawed variety snap their teeth and stamp with their vehemence.]
Shellee: They viewed humanity as an enemy, an offense to their gods, and began steps to exterminate them.
[A fleet of purple ships with bulbous, almost organic designs appears on the screen. The largest of them fires a massive beam at the planet below the fleet. It boils the sea and turns the crust to molten glass as the alien ship carves a deliberate swath across the surface.]
Tammee: John's team was issued the final piece of the Spartan puzzle: The Mjolnir powered assault armor that Halsey had designed in the project's infancy.
[John, suited in an older version of his iconic green armor, leans down for Halsey to put the helmet on his head. He hasn't reached his adult height yet, but he's close.]
Shellee: It made the already powerful young soldiers even faster and stronger, and would make them Earth's best hope in the war with the Covenant. They were immediately sent on their first mission against the new threat.
[November 27th, 2525, Covenant Ship above Chi Ceti 4. Three Spartans, identifiable as John, Sam, and Kelly only by the numbers on their armor and Sam's size (and the captions, for the viewers at home) jetpack through the vacuum to infiltrate the craft. They fight smaller aliens through the halls of the ship. Sam takes a hit for John and brushes it off, insisting he's okay.
Then, they are setting explosives.]
John: Three minutes. That'll give us enough time to get topside and get away. [to Sam:] You'll have to stay and hold them off. That's an order.
Kelly: [stunned] What are you talking about?
John: Sam knows.
Sam: [nodding] I think I can hold them off that long.
[He turns to show Kelly the burn in the side of his suit where he took the shot that would've hit John. The plasma breached Sam's armor and the burn goes deep, but the camera jumps to another angle before this can turn graphic.]
Kelly: That's nothing, we'll have you patched up in no time. Once we get back--
[She breaks off in realization--Sam's armor is no longer airtight and he'd die in the vacuum of space.]
Sam: Exactly. Getting back is going to be a problem for me.
[Kelly protests and Sam remains stalwart as he sets the timers.]
John: [unable to look at Sam] He has his orders.
Sam: [starting the timer] There, it's decided. Now get going, you two.
[John squeezes Sam's hand and Kelly salutes.]
John: [to Kelly] Come on, Spartan. Don't look back.
[Sam checks his weapons for his last fight, and neither John nor Kelly turns to glance back.]
Tammee: The Spartans had been prepared to outclass human enemies, but found themselves merely a match for the Covenant onslaught. And while John and his team could keep the Covenant at bay for a time on the surfaces of planets, they could do nothing while the enemy routed the UNSC in space.
[And here are the carefully selected glimpses at the war with the Covenant, conveying the desperation of the situation. A Covenant battle group slides into existence in precise formation to tear into a line of UNSC ships. Alien warriors stand head and shoulders over human soldiers, even the Spartans, and bring to bear superior firepower. Bullets bounce harmlessly off shimmering energy shields.]
Unidentified voice: [voiceover, harried] We're outgunned, outnumbered, and they can move with pinpoint accuracy through slipstream space. What hope can you honestly say we have?
Shellee: The war would rage for decades as the Covenant destroyed hundreds of human colonies. Billions of lives were lost.
[A map of human worlds lights up, and one by one they dim. Each time a light goes out, a date appears in its place. The graphic quickly traces years of war. It zooms in one of the last lights, expanding it into a full view of the planet Reach, with the caption 2549 — 24 years of total war.]
Tammee: We're sure the viewers have noticed a distinct lack of Cortana, but that's about to change. Unlike our own Roboticans, digital intelligences in this universe are created by scanning human brains. Fast, smart, creative, and just as courageous as their creators, AIs were the one clear advantage humanity had over the Covenant.
Shellee: Unfortunately, the technology is imperfect, and with age or great stress human-created AIs descend into an unstable mental state called rampancy. It results in dangerous insanity, to the point where UNSC regulations require all AIs to be killed at seven years of service, regardless of their mental health.
Tammee: There was little to no outcry against this barbaric practice, and AIs continued to be created, few of them even living to see their seven-year deadline as the war took its toll on organic and digital sentients alike.
Shellee: On Reach, Dr. Halsey continued her work, unaware of just how vital a role her two greatest creations would have to play.
[The camera pans along multiple cloning tanks in which float deformed human clones, their heads highly developed and their bodies warped and atrophied. Halsey's voice (which is also Cortana's voice), narrates in voiceover.]
Halsey: The law is unequivocal: No living human's brain may be used as an AI matrix seed (the ultra-deep personality scans destroy the organic substrate.) Available posthumous donor candidates, however, lack both physical and intellectual agility. Simply put, my 3rd-gen smart AIs require better material. The solution, though illegal and unethical, was simple and obvious.
Halsey: I've cloned myself.
Halsey: I've enhanced the neural physiology at the expense of other bodily functions. Disquieting...watching copies of myself grow. Malformed and curled into a fetal position. I grieve for them. I want to allay their suffering.
Halsey: We must all make sacrifices, especially now.
[November 7, 2549 — ONI CASTLE Base, Planet Reach. Halsey, hair now gray, sits at a desk. She touches a control in front of her, and one of the holographic screens displays AI MATRIX 0452-9 INITIALIZED. There's nothing for a moment, and then a holographic display of particles flowing through complex geometric forms springs up over the desk.]
Halsey: Hello.
[After a few seconds, Halsey's own voice answers her from the hologram.]
Cortana: Quando il gioco è finito, il re e il pedone vanno nella stessa scatola.
[Subtitle: Italian: When the game is over, the king and the pawn go in the same box.]
Halsey: [smiling] What's your name?
[A more lengthy pause, then the particles reorganize themselves into Cortana's avatar. The family resemblance between her and Halsey is unmistakable.]
Cortana: Cortana.
[A montage of Cortana doing AI Stuff. For extremely unsubtle narrative contrast, Cortana's uneventful early life on Reach is intercut with scenes of the Chief fighting his unending string of hopeless battles out on the front lines. In the last scene, she's standing beside a seated Halsey and inspecting a life-size hologram of a very familiar-looking suit of armor.
The date August 25, 2552 — ONI CASTLE Base, Planet Reach appears at the bottom of the screen.]
Tammee: It was time for Dr. Halsey's original vision for the Spartan program to be realized.
Cortana: [excited]They approved the final phase? When do I deploy?
Halsey: [calm] Soon.
[Halsey taps a control on her desk and the armor disappears, replaced by a grid of headshots, all human, all military, in dress uniforms.]
Cortana: [eagerly] Which one will be mine?
Halsey: Which one do you want?
[The two still speak with the same voice, though Halsey's age and experience and Cortana's lack of both come through clearly in their tone and delivery.
Cortana makes a "come here" motion with a hand, and one of the portraits springs out and enlarges, pushing aside the others. It is, of course, the Master Chief, chest covered in enough medals to be considered armor on their own. Cocking her head, Cortana holds out her hands to frame his face like a photographer blocking out a shot.]
Cortana: He's so serious. Thoughtful eyes, though.
[Halsey isn't pleased that intangibles could be factoring into Cortana's decision.]
Halsey: Perhaps it would be best if you picked another--
Cortana: [petulant] You asked me which one I wanted.
Halsey: [sharply] It was a question, Cortana. I did not give you carte blanche to select your 'carrier.' There are compatibility issues to consider.
Cortana: [dismissive sniff] His neural patterns are in sync with mine to within two percent, and... [pause] ...I've just developed a custom interface buffer that will match us within zero point zero eight one percent. You won't find a better match among the others. I can guarantee it.
Halsey: I see. You've read his dossier?
Cortana: I'm reading it again right now.
Halsey: Then you know he is neither the smartest nor the fastest nor the strongest of the Spartans. But he is the bravest--and quite possibly the luckiest. And in my opinion, he is the best.
Cortana: Yes. I concur with your analysis, Doctor.
[Cortana walks closer to the picture of the Chief, plainly fascinated. Halsey gives her a skeptical look.]
Halsey: Could you sacrifice him if you had to? If it meant completing the mission? Could you watch him die?
Cortana: [tonelessly] My priority Alpha order is to complete this mission. The Spartans' safety, as well as mine, is a Beta-level priority command.
Halsey: Good. Then you may have him.
[Cortana doesn't answer, but she grins in triumph, still gazing up at the photo.]
Tammee: The Master Chief was recalled to Reach.
[In his battered armor, the Chief walks through a lab facility, towering over the other Navy personnel and civilian scientists, who all stop what they're doing and turn their heads to watch him pass. Reach might be his home, but no Spartan has set foot there in a quarter century.]
Halsey: This is the real Mjolnir.
[The Chief, wearing a set of armor very similar to his old one except new and spotless, is looking down at himself.]
Halsey: We've made hundreds of minor technical improvements...and two major ones. First, we have replicated, and I might add, improved on the energy shielding the Covenant has been using on us. As for the second major improvement...I'd like to introduce you to Cortana. Her presence will allow you to utilize the suit more effectively.
[Halsey holds out a datachip and Cortana's hologram appears above it. She waves, smiling, but doesn't say anything. The Chief's only visible reaction is a slight tilt of the head. He kneels to allow Halsey to insert the chip into his helmet for the first time.]
Cortana: [teasing] Not a lot of room in here. Hello, Master Chief.
John: ...Hello, Cortana.
Halsey: We should begin the test straightaway. There's no better way for you two to get acquainted than in simulated combat. [her voice drops] I think some of the ONI brass would prefer to see you fail this test, Master Chief. And they may have arranged to make sure you do--regardless of your performance.
[The Chief tears his way through various increasingly lethal obstacles on the same course he ran so often as a child: a squad of Marines, a minefield that Cortana marks out for him on his HUD, a half dozen chain guns and an alley of razor wire, a forest of tall wooden poles with booby traps strung throughout that the Chief circumvents by climbing one of them and hopping from pole to pole, a half-ton of Spartan and armor as graceful as a gymnast. They're most of the way through when Cortana breaks in.]
Cortana: Incoming target at extreme range. Velocity profile matches a SkyHawk jump jet.
[In the distance, a dot becomes a winged craft, and then a winged craft becomes a problem as it opens fire with its main cannons, splintering the poles out from under the Chief. He drops to the ground, rolls, and stays prone as a few rounds hit him, causing his shield to flash.]
Cortana: Eleven seconds before they can make another pass.
John: They'll try their missiles this time.
Cortana: Maybe we should leave the course. Find better cover.
John: No. We're going to win. By their rules.
[The Chief looks down the course to the bell at its end, an open sprint, and then back up at the approaching SkyHawk.]
John: Tell me the instant I need to sidestep to deflect the missile with my left arm.
Cortana: ...Calculation done. You did say "deflect?"
John: Scorpions have motion-tracking and proximity detonators. I can't outrun it.
Cortana: Right, get ready. ...I hope you know what you're doing.
[The jet does indeed fire one of its missiles. It approaches the Chief in slow motion for dramatic effect, which shifts to real time just as Cortana yells.]
Cortana: Now!
[Almost too quickly to follow, the Chief steps to one side and bats away the oncoming missile. It detonates in a blinding flash, knocking the Chief down, but he pushes himself to his feet and dashes across the field, reaching the bell. It’s the same one from his childhood training. The test is over. John-117 wins again.
The Chief looks back along the course he's just run.]
John: Thanks, Cortana. Couldn't have done it without you.
Cortana: You're welcome, Master Chief. [mischievously] And no, you couldn't have done it without me.
[The Chief wordlessly reaches up to bonk the back of his own helmet.]
Shellee: The new partners prepared to ship out on an audacious mission to strike at the heart of the enemy...and not a moment too soon.
Tammee: 2552 was the year the Covenant set its sights on Reach.
[Like so many human worlds before it, Reach is glassed by an enormous Covenant fleet, its snowcaps flashing to vapor and its vast forests to ash.]
Shellee: Aboard the Pillar of Autumn, the Chief and Cortana escape...barely.
[A blocky human vessel engages with the sleeker Covenant craft. Outnumbered and outgunned, it still puts in a respectable showing, but takes substantial damage before it disappears into a slipspace rupture...pursued by the Covenant.
Aboard, Cortana watches from an AI platform as the Chief climbs into a cryosleep pod and the window on the lid frosts over.]
Tammee: With non-essential personnel in hibernation, Cortana and a skeleton repair crew steer the Autumn through slipspace, not knowing where their random jump will take them.
[It takes them to an enormous ringworld orbiting a gas giant, captioned Halo Array Installation 04. A tighter shot shows the Autumn, still being chased by Covenant vessels. The camera zooms in on the bow, appearing to pass through the wall and onto the bridge, where the Chief is standing next to Cortana's hologram.]
Cortana: Sleep well?
John: No thanks to your driving, yes.
Cortana: So you did miss me.
[The Autumn is outclassed and crashes on the ring's surface, a pristine wilderness spotted with high-tech structures.]
Shellee: Hard to believe things could get worse for humanity, but something even more deadly than the Covenant lay hidden on the ringworld called Halo.
[It's space zombies, because of course there are space zombies. The Chief mows his way through a good half-dozen while the hosts continue speaking.]
Tammee: The Flood! An ancient plague locked away on Halo by the long-extinct Forerunners but released by the religious fanatics of the Covenant. It infects all sentient life, seeking to turn everything in the galaxy into itself. But the Forerunners had left a contingency plan in case the Flood should ever return.
[A floating circular robot with a single light blue glowing eye hovers in front of the Chief. It's captioned 343 Guilty Spark, Monitor of Installation 04. It speaks in a light voice, pleasant despite its tinny quality.]
Guilty Spark: We must collect the Index before we can activate the installation.
[More zombie-fighting, while Guilty Spark continues to speak in voiceover.]
Guilty Spark: You can see how the body has been transformed by the genetic restructuring of the Flood infection. The small creatures carry spores that cause a host to mutate. The mutated host then produces spores that can pass the Flood to others. It is insidious and elegant. As long as any hosts remain, the Flood is virulent. The installation was well conceived. It is surely the only way to end the Flood threat.
[A hammer-shaped device floats within an energy field, and the Chief approaches it.]
Guilty Spark: You may now retrieve the Index.
[The Chief does so, and the scene cuts to a different area, one that screams "control room." Cortana's hologram projects above the center console, taller even than the Chief. She is not happy.]
John: Cortana!
Cortana: I've spent the last 12 hours cooped up in here, watching you toady about, helping that thing get set to slit our throats!
John: [soothing] Hold on now, he's a friend.
Cortana: Oh! I didn't realize. He's your pal, is he? Your chum? [Cortana switches from blisteringly sarcastic to angry]Do you have any idea what that bastard almost made you do?!
John: [still soothing] Yes. Activate Halo's defenses and destroy the Flood, which is why we brought the Index to the control center.
Cortana: You have no idea how this ring works, do you? Why the Forerunners built it? Halo doesn't kill Flood, it kills their food. Humans, Covenant, whatever. We're all equally edible! The only way to stop the Flood is to starve them to death. And that's exactly what Halo is designed to do: Wipe the galaxy clean of all sentient life. You don't believe me? Ask him!
John: Is it true?
Guilty Spark: ...More or less.
[Oops! Cut to yet more fighting, this time featuring Forerunner devices, including Guilty Spark, as well as Covenant and Flood. There is also a very dramatic driving scene--which might have been less dramatic if the Chief were a better driver--as the pair escape to a single still-functional fighter.]
Shellee: Overloading the Pillar of Autumn's fusion reactors, Chief and Cortana destroyed Halo, saving trillions of lives.
[Halo explodes real pretty.]
Cortana: [uncertain, as though she's trying to convince herself] We did what we had to do...for Earth. An entire Covenant armada obliterated, and the Flood.... We had no choice. Halo...it's finished.
John: No. I think we're just getting started.
Tammee: The Chief had no idea how right he was.
Shellee: Stranded amidst the ruins of Halo without a lightspeed-capable vessel, our heroes and a handful of other survivors did the obvious thing: Steal the damaged but still spaceworthy enemy flagship.
[The Chief and a few smaller human soldiers fight their way down a corridor and onto the bridge of a Covenant vessel. Cortana projects her hologram from one of the consoles, and the viewscreen shows the stars disappear in the flash of a slipstream jump.]
Tammee: Unbeknownst to them, or to anyone but the Covenant, the location of Earth, kept secret at enormous cost through all the long years of the war...was no longer secret.
[Covenant battle cruisers exit slipspace around Earth and the human fleet engages. A large space station explodes spectacularly.]
Cortana: That explosion came from inside. The Covenant must have brought something with them. A bomb.
[The Chief kills his way through Covenant boarders on their own station to a spiky bomb. He touches the activation pad, which turns from flashing red to solid blue.]
John: How much time was left?
Cortana: You don't want to know.
[The Chief's helmeted head turns to look at the bomb.]
John: Permission to leave the station.
UNSC Admiral: [over the comms] For what purpose, Master Chief?
John: To give the Covenant back their bomb.
UNSC Admiral: [over the comms] ...Permission granted.
[The Chief grabs two of the pointy protrusions on the bomb and starts to drag it towards a freight elevator on one side of the room.]
Cortana: I know what you're thinking, and it's crazy.
John: So stay here.
Cortana: Unfortunately for us both, I like crazy.
[The elevator, with bomb and Spartan aboard, arrives at an empty fighter bay.]
Cortana: One question...what happens if you miss?
John: [assured] I won't.
[The Chief pulls the manual override handle, opening the bay doors to vacuum. The decompression starts to push the bomb out into space. The Chief grabs onto the bomb as it passes, and both are blown out of the station.
The bomb and the Chief go flying through the battle towards a Covenant carrier, plasma beams narrowly missing them but striking another human vessel. It floats dead in space, engines struggling to relight. Longsword fighters like the one the pair used to escape Halo sweep in to disable the weapons emplacements on the carrier, allowing the Chief to slip through to the ship's fusion core. He slaps the activation pad, then kicks off the bomb, aiming for a hole torn in the carrier's side by the human fleet. Behind him, the ship flickers with small explosions, then detonates in a plasma inferno. A human vessel maneuvers to match his trajectory, and the Chief lands, engages the electromagnets in his boots, and starts for an airlock, not looking back.]
Shellee: And so with a bang began the last battle desperate battle of the Great War, a battle that would range across the galaxy, and even outside of it.
Tammee: The Halo ring Master Chief and Cortana had destroyed was only one installation of a vast array, and the Prophets, the leaders of the Covenant, blinded by their fanatical faith, intended to trigger them all. What they thought was their 'Great Journey' to paradise would instead wipe out all sentient life.
[The Chief looking up at an enormous holographic display of all the rings in the Halo array. Another hologram, subtitled The Prophet of Regret, Covenant Hierarch, giving a sermon.]
Regret: I shall light this holy ring, release its cleansing flame, and burn a path into the divine beyond!
[The scene cuts to the Chief clinging to Regret's floating throne as he punches the bastard to death. It then cuts to the Chief running from weapons fire from a Covenant ship. He's thrown into the surrounding water and begins to sink, until a tentacle snakes up and winds around him. A sepulchral disembodied voice speaks.]
Gravemind: This is not your grave, but you are welcome in it.
[Fade to black.]
Cortana: [voiceover] What is that?
Gravemind: [voiceover] I? I am a monument to all your sins.
[The Gravemind is an enormous mass of flesh, teeth, tentacles.]
Shellee: When the Flood absorbs enough biomass in one location, it forms a Gravemind, an intelligence with the memory of every sentient it has consumed… and a grudge against the galaxy. But it had common cause with humanity, at least for the time being. Neither side wanted the Halo Array fired.
Tammee: Stymied on Halo by this desperate alliance, the Covenant turned its sights once again to Earth.
Cortana: If the Prophet of Truth leads the Covenant fleet to Earth, they won't stand a chance. You have to stop him!
John: They can activate the ring.
Cortana: If they do, I'll detonate In Amber Clad's reactor just like we did the Autumn's. The blast will destroy the ring. Not a very original plan, but we know it'll work.
[The Chief reaches towards Cortana, and she holds up a hand to stop him.]
Cortana: No. I don't want to chance a remote detonation. I'll need to stay here.
[The scene jumps to Cortana, alone, watching a ship take off.]
John: [over the comms] After I'm through with Truth--
Cortana: Don't make a girl a promise...if you know you can't keep it.
Shellee: The Master Chief was on his way home...and Cortana was anything but.
[In the darkness, Gravemind tentacles pry open a large door.]
Gravemind: Silence fills the empty grave now that I am gone, but my mind is not at rest, for questions linger on. I will ask, and you will answer.
[Cortana's hologram springs into existence amidst the tentacles, her expression determined and lacking any of her usual cockiness. She holds up a hand to forestall whatever the Gravemind is about to do.]
Cortana: All right. Shoot.
Tammee: But hope remained, because Cortana had discovered Halo's secret hidden in the Forerunner systems, even as she resisted the Gravemind's questioning: A slipspace portal, left by the Forerunners for humanity to find when they were ready to explore the stars...now their last chance. Taking advantage of the Gravemind's attempts to infect Earth, Cortana smuggled out a message on the plague ship it sent.
[Cortana's hologram lies prostrate and frozen, not her but simply a recording, gazing at the Chief, who crouches to put himself at eye level while an argument about strategy happens around him.]
UNSC Admiral: You trust Cortana that much?
John: Sir, yes, sir.
Shellee: Aboard the Forward Unto Dawn, the Chief set out for the mysterious Ark that was promised to be on the other side of the portal, to find Cortana and set her plan in motion.
[You thought the Halo rings were big? The Ark is even bigger, a starfish-shaped megastructure many times larger than Earth.]
Tammee: Floating outside the galaxy, the Ark builds Halo rings...and it was hard at work replacing the one the Chief and Cortana had destroyed. If the Gravemind could destroy the Ark, there would be nothing left to stop it.
[An obviously incomplete Halo ring starts to rise from the center of the Ark.]
Shellee: Cortana's plan was becoming clear, and it was time to rescue her.
Tammee: But the stress of her situation was pushing her rapidly towards rampancy. The Chief had no idea if his partner would still be the person he knew when he got to her.
Shellee: The signs were not good.
[The Chief stalks alone through the corridors of a city covered with Flood biomass and filled with Flood combat forms.]
Gravemind: Child of my enemy, why have you come? I offer no forgiveness: a father's sins pass to his son.
[As the Chief makes progress deeper into the structure, fighting through Flood all the way, the Gravemind and Cortana continue to be heard, the Gravemind sneeringly triumphant and Cortana descending into rampancy. At no point does the Chief respond to any of it except by fighting even harder.]
Gravemind: Of course, you came for her. We exist together now, two corpses in one grave.
Cortana: A collection of lies; that's all I am! Stolen thoughts and memories! I'm just my mother's shadow. Don't look at me, don't listen! I'm not who I used to be.
Gravemind: [angry] Submit! End her torment and my own!
Cortana: [panicking, voice distorted] There will be no more sadness, no more anger, no more envy!
Gravemind: [enraged] You will show me what she hides...or I shall feast upon your bones!
Cortana: [completely calm] This is UNSC AI serial number CTN 0452-9. I am a monument to all your sins.
[Through the Flood resistance at last, the Chief sprints down a hallway to a stasis-shielded podium and bashes at the shielding with the butt of his rifle. It flashes and gives way, revealing Cortana's hologram, sprawled out on one side, barely glowing, lines of code unmoving.]
Cortana: [weakly] You found me. But so much of me is wrong...out of place. You might be too late.
[The Chief kneels beside her, leaning in close and putting his visor inches from her hologram.]
John: You know me. When I make a promise...
Cortana: [rallying] You...keep it. [She looks up at him and sounds amused, glow strengthening.] I do know how to pick 'em.
John: [gently] Lucky me. [and now back to business] Do you still have it?
[Cortana's hologram stands, glow returning to normal and scrolling code starting up again. She holds out a hand and a hologram of the T-shaped Index appears over it.]
Cortana: The Activation Index from the first Halo ring. A little souvenir I hung onto, just in case. [looking around] Got an escape plan?
John: [rising] Thought I'd try shooting my way out. Mix things up a little.
[He removes Cortana's chip from his helmet and holds it out to her. She reaches out to it and uploads herself, and the Chief slots it back into his armor.]
Tammee: Cortana's plan: A tactical pulse! A blast just big enough to wipe out the Gravemind...the last surviving Flood infestation in the galaxy. She'd kept her copy of the Index secret throughout her torturous interrogation, and now her determination paid off.
[Just like the first Halo, it's now a race to escape as the incomplete ring starts to come apart around them. One dramatic Warthog jump into the cargo bay of the Dawn later, the Chief sits on the deck, braced against the console where Cortana is projecting a hologram, the bay doors still open behind them with a view of the ring tearing itself apart.]
Cortana: If we don't make it--
John: We'll make it.
Cortana: --It's been an honor serving with you, John.
[The Chief lets his head fall back against the console as Halo fires and the screen whites out, then fades to black.]
Shellee: The Master Chief wasn't wrong. They made it...in a sense.
Tammee: We'll let them tell you.
Cortana: [voiceover, loud and worried] Chief! Can you hear me?
[Fade in on the Chief's limp body drifting in zero-g.]
Cortana: [a sigh of relief as the Chief stirs] I thought I'd lost you, too.
John: What happened?
[As Cortana explains, he floats through the corridors, pushing off bulkheads and dodging debris.]
Cortana: I'm not sure. When Halo fired, it shook itself to pieces. It did a number on the Ark. The portal couldn't sustain itself. We made it through just as it collapsed.
[The Chief pauses to look out at the stars--through the giant hole, edges still red-hot, where the collapsing portal sheared the Dawn in half.]
Cortana: Well. Some of us made it.
[Pulling himself over to an AI plinth, the Chief removes Cortana's chip from his helmet and slots it into what remains of the ship's systems. Her hologram pops up, and he floats with his visor level to her.]
Cortana: But you did it. Truth, the Covenant, the Flood--it's finished.
John: It's finished.
Cortana: I'll drop a beacon, but it'll be a while before anyone finds us. Years, even.
[The Chief has clearly already figured that out and is maneuvering himself into a cryopod.]
Cortana: [softly] I'll miss you.
John: [as the lid closes over him] Wake me when you need me.
[Cortana's hologram stands motionless on the AI platform, shoulders slouched and head bowed, and the scene fades to black as the camera draws farther and farther back.]
Shellee: And so we leave the Master Chief to his dreamless sleep and Cortana to her lonely vigil...victorious, but at enormous cost. No one can question their skill and courage...or their devotion to each other.
Tammee: But are the qualities that made them heroes in their own universe really what the Legion needs? Both of them have known nothing but war their entire lives. Both of them were created to be weapons. What does that do to a sentient? What did it cost them not simply to survive, but to win?
Shellee: Did the Master Chief and Cortana succeed because they are, at their core, broken? Shouldn't they be receiving the treatment they need to recover from their barbaric upbringing and years of suffering, rather than being forced into the field yet again? Shouldn't we be kinder and more ethical than a desperate military regime? So much has already been demanded of them...do we really have the right to ask even more?
Tammee: Hard questions, with no easy answers. At least the Master Chief and Cortana are safely in the care of the Legion now, and able to get the help they deserve.
Shellee: For more Legion action, be sure to keep tuning in! This is Shellee Star!
Tammee: And Tammee Tim!
Both: And this was Legionnaire Legacies!
voice
[ONI disappears people for way less.]
voice
[ Because nobody adds a caveat like that to something they shared for funsies. ]
voice
[Also: huge privacy violation, but whatever, not talking about feelings.]
voice
Do you think there's a way to hack the show? Screw something up so bad that they can't undermine more Legionnaires this way? Or - I don't know, what if some of us went on a rival show that was more willing to put things offlimits?
voice
voice
voice
[She tends to use last names. Military AI and all.]
voice
[ It's not a request, but he manages to hide most of the revulsion. ]
No body counts. That would only make everyone look worse. It's also wrong. They do a tv show, so they get offed. That's messed up, Cortana.
voice
[relaxed again:] Anyway, they won't authorize a strike, so it's academic.
Re: voice
I don't think they're slowing down or waiting for more volunteers, like Karrina. At some point, doesn't the Legion get to stand up and say we won't let our teammates' worst memories be dumped onto the holovids?
voice
Sending in a team to seize or destroy their transuniversal spying machine and all the plans for it counts as "standing up."
voice
Yes, it does! I didn't like it when they were taking volunteers, and I hate it more now because I don't want them to attack my friends for their disgusting entertainment.
We're not things, okay. They're treating us like its, and I don't want anyone else getting suckerpunched.
voice
[There's no crying in baseball and so forth. Feelings aren't important, winning is important.]
Tracing leaks is painstaking but possible, and the Legion has access to one of the machines ourselves. We can find where they're storing the thing.
voice
[ Again, Robbie is thinking more of things at a personal level. There are so many intimate moments and private conversations in any given day, for everyone.
He does know what she means though, and that's Bad. The possibility takes it from destroying lives one at a time to snuffing out several thousand - or more - at once. ]
I think you mean we should, not just we can. You're worried about someone stealing it and using it to spy on us - I'm worried about Legion Legacies taking a ratings dive and becoming Legion Live. I don't think the news media would have any qualms about showing current operations if they thought it would get ratings.
They'd probably use footage of Chief and Justice in the shower to whenever we weren't being active enough.
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private - voice
I get the feeling that being from our universe in general is bad for our health. This 'Legacy' show is bullshit.
private - voice
[The degree to which ONI counts as "the good guys" is highly questionable.]
private - voice
I've got no right to talk about it and I won't.
private - voice
[Say what you like about the Spartan program, it worked.]
private - voice
[That's...probably part of what stings the most somewhere under the bitterness. Project Freelancer could have been extremely effective. Still dubious in terms of legality and all but they could have been so much more.]
But it's like you said, Director Church was an idiot. And an ass.
private - voice
[Yeah she might be thinking about writing dumb AIs for all the Freelancers.]
private - voice
Maybe. Only if they ask nicely.
private - voice
[Clearly not something smart AIs find themselves burdened by.]
private - voice
[Sounds like they're planning a trip to Build-A-Bear... or Assemble-An-AI?]
You know, I don't think I properly thanked you for your help with my suit.