dappered | (no subject)

(no subject)

[ Cortana doesn't sleep. Ever. Which is maybe why she had spent a good majority of her time watching John sleep instead, from her chip on the table next to him. She didn't need sleep, ever, got along just fine without it, and she had never been really sure if that was one of the quirks or the downsides of being inhuman.

At least she doesn't miss much.

Still, this isn't something that should have happened. Whatever it is, whatever it was, Cortana doesn't understand how she could be in one place one second, staring out the hangar of the Forward Unto Dawn, and then -- here, the next. There's no lapse of what she would call consciousness, no falter in her program, she's just there, and then she's not, and for once, Cortana doesn't understand at all.

The sun is stretched high above her, high above the chip from which she's currently standing on, fingers outstretched as if waiting for something. It takes her a moment to look down, to look around, and then finally, to figure out where it is she's at.

Her commands are a little shaky, her various programs slightly off-balance from whatever apparent instantenous journey she had just made, but it doesn't take her long to determine she's not far at all from Valhalla.

Which is. Great. Just what she needed. ]

Chief? . . . John?

[ And, of course, she's met with silence. ]

Scanning and analyzing area --

Retreating back into chip. [ And with that, the holograph disappears back into the data chip, hiding her under the grassy green field. ] Unidentifiable lifeforms. Total, 7, possibly more. Analyzing further. Human. Non-human. Non-human. Human. Human. Human. Human. Closest human lifeform, approximately three-fourths of a mile away.

Damnit.

[ But she had no choice, either way. ]

Releasing distress beacon. Chief, if you can hear me, standby.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ A glance sideways. ]

It's nice that none of you are taking this seriously in any way. Almost like our lives aren't at stake and all.

Listen, Washington, I don't exactly have the longest lifespan, so I have to make the most of situations as they come.

Like being taken "hostage," for instance. Definitely didn't see that curveball coming.

Yeah, we didn't either.

Quite frankly, Cortana, a hostage is the last thing I need right now.

You're quite welcome to put me back in that grassy field you found me in.

No.

You sent a distress signal. It may not be the UNSC that answers.

Then quit complaining and deal with it. I told you I'd assist you, and regardless of what you believe of my intentions, I'm a woman of my word. Besides, I have some time to kill before Chief wakes up from his little nap.

Now. Was there something you needed?

[ slfslj pushy AIs ]

Look. Whatever is hunting them is now hunting you, because you came here and because it looks suspicious, given this place's history, and maybe that's no one's fault but it's also a fact. So I'd like to be honest with you before our cross purposes get us all killed or worse.

All right? I'm listening.

...

...

[ Okay this is hard to talk about, which is probably why he starts out a little confusingly. ]

They're both AIs. You knew that already. They were... hurt.

The younger one went rampant.

What do you mean, hurt?

[ Right. Chronology. ]

Project Freelancer was an experimental program, run without military or government oversight, hoping to increase combat stats by implanting soldiers with AI programs. The Director was only able to secure one smart AI from the UNSC, though. The Alpha.

He had dozens of soldiers to try and outfit. So he. Took the Alpha, and secretly tortured it until it went insane and fractured into fragments of personality. The fragments were harvested. Given to soldiers, put inside their heads. We didn't know. The core, what remained of Alpha, was locked away.

[ Breath. His voice is slowly getting less steady. ]

Some of the fragments were unstable, naturally, and they drove their human partners insane. Accidents happened. People died. And I--

[ He realizes that he's gripping the table so hard his knuckles are white, and releases it, turning away and taking a few steps away from her. ]

[ As calmly as he can. ]

The Project finally created something it couldn't control. One of the Agents went insane and began killing other Freelancers and absorbing their AI, collecting them. They have an instinct to become whole again, you see. And to find the Alpha.

We called this Agent the Meta, and I hunted him, and found the Alpha before he could. I tried to destroy Freelancer HQ and the Meta at the same time but only managed the first. I used an EMP to wipe their files and.

And to delete all of the failure AI fragments they had been holding there.

You mentioned the younger one went rampant. He appears to be fine, now, so -- did he reach metastability?

No. He's just blocked the memories of it.

He tried to kill himself while implanted in his partner's mind. It drove that Agent insane and he spent a nice vacation in the psych ward, and Epsilon went to the reject ward in HQ. It's almost inevitable that he'll go rampant again.

And the Meta, he's still active?

Likely. His body wasn't found.

I can help you.

You would be betraying the UNSC.

Betraying their trust is not what this is about. I can help you, but I need Sierra-117 to do it.

I need John. Do you understand?

...

You can't be serious. You--

[ No. Just. This is a trick. ]

Why would he agree to help us? Why would a person like him risk it?

Because all he's ever done is risk everything for the sake of everyone else. Please. I -- he can help you. If what you're saying is true, then he'll want to help.

[ NOT BELIEVING YOU and maybe not watching his mouth like he should ]

Really. He'd help an escaped convict, a rampant AI, and a mass murderer.

Are you listening to yourself? What you are, what they are, it's all irrelevant compared to the seriousness of the actions that UNSC has taken, especially where all Artifical Intelligence units are concerned.

If this isn't taken care of now, then I can't say how far it'll go, or what'll happen if this man, the Meta, isn't found. I don't even know how deep this particular brand of corruption runs; all I can say is that I'd rather not ignore it now when I could have done something to prevent anything like this from happening ever again later.

But I can only do so much without Chief.

[ And. She's right, she's very right, and this is perhaps more her problem than it is his, but Wash has gotten so used to not depending on anything, on assuming everyone had an agenda and he was the only one in the entire goddamned galaxy that he could count on.

So he calms himself down. ]

The Director is in jail, but-- you're right, there's too many loose ends to simply hope that no one else will take up what he left behind. A lot of the remaining Freelancers and their AIs aren't accounted for.

[ quieter. ]

If you think that Master Chief would help us, then I'm in no position to refuse. But let me make one thing clear.

I'll be the one to put down Agent Maine.