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Chapter 33: A Change of Leadership
June 11th, 3239, 2107 hours
Manhattan Island, New York City
Ground Level
Sally felt sick to her stomach leaving the shop behind as she followed the group. The fact that they needed to keep the sick Captain literally tied up made her wonder if they were treating him like a criminal. Bunnie noticed this though and clapped her metal hand on the Princess' shoulder. Sally felt the weight, but still felt numb. This whole situation had taken a turn for the unusual to say the least, but now there were additional pressures on her now. She knew that she was thinking the obvious, but she didn't need her Human to die.
John had taken command at this point. Originally Abigail would have been the highest ranking officer, but she immediately abdicated command to the Spartan. Sally thought it was ironic though that they were following a military command structure since all of them would be considered outcasts. Nevertheless, John explained that a unit cohesion would allow proper flow of thoughts, and it was accepted by everyone that he was the undisputed expert on combat and even stealth.
Before leaving the shop, the objective was decided to infiltrate the government building at the north end of the island. Getting there would be easy, but actually getting into the building itself would be outstandingly difficult.
"Can we just assume that Marshall will let us walk in like he let us walk out of Tokyo?" Hera asked.
"That wouldn't be smart to assume, Major." Cortana said. "Marshall let us leave that facility, but I think that us approaching him would provoke a response. The personnel of the building might be a bit more hands on."
"Not to mention all of the regular cops." Reyes added.
"Then only a few of us can go in." Sonic said.
"Sal, if anybody deserves to knock Marshall on his ass, it's you." Bunnie said nodding solemnly.
"I can help in there." Sonic added. "They won't catch me." He gave a small smile. "Should be fun."
Hera's ear perked. "Permission to tag along, Highness?"
"Don't see why not." She shrugged. "Don't get overzealous, OK?"
"I'll certainly try my hardest." Hera assured.
Their weapons had been disassembled and placed within their packs. While they wanted to adhere to the philosophy that they did not want to fire upon UNSC personnel, that desire was becoming harder and harder to stick to as common UNSC forces would be likely to engage them, and to keep their own lives, the motley group would need to shoot back. If they were backed into a corner, they might not have been a chance to talk their way out of a problem. Sonic may have quipped that perhaps there would be a way to knock out any guards, John shook his head.
"No. There may be one or two Spartans in the Spire." He have what could be interpreted as a dry laugh. "They're not really easy to knock out."
"It was a suggestion, what do you want from me?"
So their realization of the situation was painful, but understandable. Nearly all of them were soldiers anyway; they knew that there was a time to fight and when to pass by.
"We shouldn't go together." Sally suggested. "Until we get to the Spire, we split up. Bunnie, Hera, Reyes, with me. John, you, Sonic, and Konstantinos are together. Borne, Jackson, Rouge, and Roan are group three.
"Can't I go with you?" Sonic asked her, looking a bit concerned.
"No. We'll look way to suspicious together. ONI washed some of your dye out too, right?"
"Don't remind me. That hose is terrible." He shuddered. "Yeah, I'm not as blue now, right?"
"I think it's permanently soaked in." Sally noted.
"Fine with me." he smirked.
The plan was to immediately split up and head to different parts of the city in order to dispel suspicion. A few of them gulped as they saw their faces scroll across billboards. Roan laughed.
"What's up?" Hera asked. "I just saw your face!"
"That's me when I had a full beard." He pointed out.
"So why is it funny?"
"I hated that beard. I look like my dad. Being in a Communist prison will do that to you."
Jackson shook her head slightly. "Don't even ask."
"Looks like they haven't had time to update it with any new faces." Cortana noted. "Notice that only a few of our compatriots are out there. None of the Mobians are up there."
"Most likely the Captain is still the priority." Reyes said. "They did not choose a good picture of him."
His picture was a digital reconstruction that made him seem much more sinister than he was. Chris' face was tense, his brows furrowed, and a deep frown above his chin. For some reason, they decided to portray him with a goatee.
"Um, why the beard?"
"Classic villain facial hair." Konstantinos said. "I personally would have preferred the Errol Flynn swashbuckler."
"I don't understand the mentality. What the hell is Marshall going at?" Sally asked.
NICOLE added, "Maybe a few people in the government are trying to cover Mobius, you know, maybe the president slipped up."
"Or it's not part of the plan just yet." Reyes suggested. "Bus is coming. If you want to want to get on, now's the chance."
There was indeed a bus coming down the crowded street. The automated transport had two cars joined by a flexible bridge between the two. Advertisements scrolled across the outside and the sign on the front read in flashy letters, 'UPTOWN'.
"Alright. We'll use radios to keep in contact. No public phones or video booths." Sally said. "Good luck everyone."
"Wait." Hera said. "What about weapons detectors?" she whispered this.
"Cortana and I can help you there I think. Still, we won't move into any secure areas before that." NICOLE said.
"Shouldn't be tough." The other AI added. "I've broken through tougher."
The bus coasted to a stop and opened its doors. A group of people dressed in various styles got up and into the bus. A few aliens, including Mobians were among them. A few of them threw a few quick double takes at the group of fugitives but shrugged it off. The Mobians didn't believe that the Princess would be out and about like a common person. John, Sonic, and Alex went with them into the bus. "See you soon." Sonic nodded. He was the last one on and the bus' doors closed.
"I'm sure Cortana has some change for the fare." Hera chuckled.
With that, the bus pulled away and into the heavy traffic of the city, and a third of their infiltration team was on its way. Sally wondered if John and Sonic would stand out too much, but banished the thought. She needed to be on the ball, not wallowing on doubts.
From there, they started walking. It wouldn't take as long as she thought to find another mode of transportation. She ensured that the collars of her jacket were popped high so that she wouldn't draw attention to herself. Jackson seemed unremarkable enough in her own right. A Mobian rabbit cyborg on the other hand stood out like a sore thumb.
"Jamie." She said to him.
"Highne... yes?" he said, stopping himself before he gave them away.
"You have a jacket?"
"In the bag, yeah."
"Give it to Bunnie."
He pursed his lips for a second and said, "That's... uh, covering the 'stuff'."
"Bunnie stands out; that's more important than anything else."
Reyes nodded and ensured that he opened the bag slowly. He pulled out the jacket, ensuring that the gun components were still covered by the top flap, and then threw it over to Bunnie. She snagged it, nodding in appreciation and slid it over her shoulders. It wasn't perfect, but unless one was looking for her in the packed streets of Lower Manhattan, Bunnie Rabbot would be a hard woman to find, especially with the din of the surrounding crowd to disorient spotters. To make it even more difficult, she folded her ears behind her and tied them with a rubber band, similar to how Hera was.
Sally pushed through the crowd with Bunnie by her side and Hera a second behind them. Two seconds behind her were Borne, Jackson, Roan, and Reyes. An odd group, but one that still moved undetected in the city for the most part.
"Heads up everyone. Subway coming up fast. Might be a good time to split up again." NICOLE announced.
"Agreed. Team 2, get your passes ready."
"I've slipped into the NYTS. Child's play. They really need to change their encryption protocols... oh you've got to be kidding."
"What's wrong?" Sally asked, suddenly concerned.
"The ticket server's password is Adonis. Someone's full of themselves."
"Sounded like it was easy to crack." Sally said.
"If you're looking for the right things, it's easy to find."
It turned out that hacking was a lengthy process even for an AI. Usual decryption software looked for patterns in the code that tended to match up with what was in the database. Piece by piece, passwords and encryption could be picked away with a chisel until the whole thing stood clean. A Human would sometimes brute force it. Effective, but slower and more prone to detection unless they were trained. AIs worked much quicker and tended to try to crack other systems at the same time while they were at it. It turned out that most people tended to carry over passwords from one account to another, so by using simple logic, it would be easy to assume that one password could potentially unlock five or more systems. Some people tended to mix it up by replacing letters with numbers or added things like '000', '111', '222' and so on to the end of usernames or passwords. Cute, but trivial. Finally, sometimes people got really creative and used random encryption generators that made each password unique whether they wanted it or not. This was where hacking got difficult since there was really no information pool to draw on, which led to a lot of trial and error, even with AIs. Systems needed to be frozen, alarms needed to be confounded, and numbers needed to be tried and tried again. Eventually, things worked out, and by the time the system thawed, the database showed all green; no alarms triggered.
Thankfully none of that happened here. The ticket official (who was definitely not Adonis by any stretch of the name), simply posted a sticky-note on his monitor and a quick glance at the camera would show that.
"You are now all on CityPass. Don't worry, you all have falsified identities graciously provided to you by the city of New York. Nobody's going to give you trouble."
"Excellent." Roan said. It was another two blocks to the subway station. They played it cool by walking with the crowd looking like any other New Yorker, Human or otherwise. Everyone except Reyes and Reyes kept on looking all over the city in wonder of the bigness of it all. To be fair, they did come from small towns and cities and they were not used to skyscrapers and such.
"This is where you guys get off." Hera noted. Allen, William, and Sam nodded, and peeled off from the group. They didn't look back as they descended down the stairs leading to the subway tunnel.
Shortly after, John's voice buzzed into her ear.
"Status?"
"Group 2 is away, Lieutenant." Sally responded. "What about you, Spartan?"
"We're still mobile. Just passed 43rd Street."
"Anybody stare at you, John?"
"Not for long. I stare back. Out."
Sally shook her head at his attempt at humor. He must have smacked his head sometime after they met for the first time. Nevertheless, she herself blew more air out of her nose than usual. For the remaining members of the fugitives, the long road lay ahead. Even if Marshall's men could outmaneuver both Cortana and NICOLE, scan the city and locate two different forms of transportation scattered around the city, and furthermore locate which vehicle the potential infiltrators were gathered in, the third group was ready to throw a monkey wrench into things. They weren't riding at all. They were going to walk the rest of the way.
Chris had been hit in the head hard. How hard was something that he really could not quantify so well, so he had to make a guess. The slush which was what was left of his brain fired up; neurons flared and struggled to ignite some form of conscious thought. His body responded, and his eyes slowly and painfully started to open. His vision was foggy, and he struggled to make heads or tails of his surroundings.
"Ugh... Tails..." his mouth managed to say. It sounded garbled to him. He might not have even said anything meaningful at all. If he was in a proper state of observation, he may have diagnosed himself with a concussion. To be quite fair, he had been hit in the head often these past few weeks. He came to the conclusion that Reyes must have hit him again, doing only what he was ordered to do, and Chris couldn't fault him for that. However, when he tried to move his mouth again, he found that it was nearly impossible to do so. He wondered with a start whether or not his jaw was broken to keep him from talking, but he found out that he had been gagged. Tape stuffed in his mouth covered by more tape around his neck and face. He reached up to try and rip it off, but he couldn't. His arms had been bound as well as his legs. He found out what had happened, but the idea shocked him. He had been tied up and had been left behind. He looked around to try and see where he was. He believed that he was still inside Rycorp, but he didn't recognize this room. It was large and empty.
And silent.
This scared him too much. He pulled at his bounds, but it didn't work. He was strapped to a support pillar at the corner of the room.
They left me. They left me and they tied me up! THE BASTARDS!
He thought this with such anger, but not long after this, a door opened and a man walked forward.
It's Marshall. They sold me out! I knew it, I knew they would do this to me!
But it wasn't Marshall at all. It was Bing, who walked towards him with what looked like a jug of water in his artificial hand. A cigarette hung in his mouth and he puffed on it.
"Looks like you're awake." he said with a sigh. "You've been out for over a day. You've popped in and out, but that was only for a moment or two."
Chris stared at the colonel with angry eyes.
"Look, you tried to blow your head off; don't look at me like that. The only reason you failed was because you didn't charge the damned thing. I don't know if you're a religious man, but that's Providence if I ever saw it." He placed the jug on the ground. "You talk in your sleep, you know that?"
Like a crazy man?
"It's gibberish. I didn't know it at first, but now I can see you pose a danger to yourself and others. This is the best place for you. If you were a soldier and if you served under me, you'd be in a military prison faster than you could kiss my ass." He shook his head sadly. "I pity you, Captain, but if your friends are right, then there's no fixing you."
That's where you're wrong. They can fix me. They can help me.
"Anyway, I thought you might be thirsty. Had to forcefeed you last time. Maybe you're up to it now." He unwrapped the tape and took out the gag. Bing expected the young man to snap at him, but Chris remained quiet. "How are you, you crazy bastard?"
"Comfy." Chris said in a raspy voice. "Let me out."
"No." Bing responded. "Heads up." He took the jug and put it in the Captain's mouth. Water flowed, and the Captain swallowed, but spat when he got a bit too much.
"Jesus! Watch the arm."
"Sorry." Chris apologized. "Where are the others?"
"They're out." Bing responded, giving Chris another drink. "The Spartan tied these knots himself. They wanted to make sure you didn't do anything stupid."
Chris tried to move his arm, but to no avail. "I should be out there with them."
"No, you shouldn't, and I'm going to tell you why." The colonel said. "You have proven to them that you are absolutely out of your mind. Now, I know you've got some information in your head that's making you do this, and under different circumstances, I'm sure you're a stand-up guy. Right now, you're a suicidal, hallucination-seeing lunatic."
Chris glared angrily, and was somewhat glad and upset that the bindings were holding him back. "If you've seen what I've seen..."
"Then I'm sure I'd be a stark wacko too." Bing finished. "But even then, I'd be asked to be put in chains." He placed the jug under his arm. "Besides, the last thing you want right now is public exposure. You're one of the most recognizable men in North America right now. You might need a face lift before it's safe to come out for air again. Anyway... I'll be down to check on you in a few hours. Or I'll send one of the bots to do that. Want a sedative?"
"No."
"Suit yourself." the colonel said.
"What if I've got to piss?" Chris asked in bitter humor.
"I dunno, scream or something; it'll carry." He nodded, turned on his heel, and then walked away. At least he didn't put the gag back in.
Chris watched Bing walk away, still struggling to get free, but he was stumped by the expertly tied knots. "God dammit, John." he whispered. "Good job."
He hung there for what felt like hours, and Bing nor a robot had come to see him. It was uncomfortable to hang against this support pillar, but there was not much he could do about it. So he stood there in silence. He itched, and was not able to satisfy it. He wasn't thirsty, but he was hungry. He was scared, but did not call for companionship.
He didn't think of Sally once in all that time. But he did think of the Librarian. For some reason, thinking of the enigmatic Lifeworker brought him a sense of peace that he couldn't find with anybody else. Upon thinking this, there was a warmth that he had not felt before. He opened his eyes, and there she was, standing in the darkness enveloped by a column of light. She said nothing, and moved not an inch, but the Captain's face broke into a smile. He almost shed a tear.
"My sweet Hamanue."
"Lifeshaper." he said, invoking her title.
"There is more."
His eyebrows shot up. "More?"
"Indeed. Are you prepared?"
He wasn't sure. He tried to say something, but couldn't find the words. All he could do as stare at the Forerunner and simply try to comprehend her. She simply stared at him intently and waited for his
response. He found his voice a moment later. "Yes."
She nodded once, and the they were gone. Pain spiked up and down his spine and his brain lit up. Stars flew past, and galaxies pinwheeled in the void. Light flew by so quickly that it was something like a blur. They were moving at speeds dictated impossible by physics. Moving through the galaxy in this manner seemed unreal, but with the dark blood red nebulae tugging at his vision, it may as well have been a nightmare. A black hole passed so close to his face that it warped space, startling the Captain. But then they stopped near the core. A dark brown planet covered the horizon. Chris could see that it was an ancient rock, covered with impact scars from billions of years ago. Its poles were wrapped with pasty white clouds, and an old and salty ocean sat near the equator. Shadowed against the nebula, a lonely moon orbited this forgotten world. Far in the nebula, young stars ignited for the first time, drawing even further attention from this place.
"Where are we?" Chris asked.
"There is no word for it in your language. To the Lifeworkers, this world was known as Parl-625d. Its true name has been forgotten to the ears and tongues of the galaxy, but its image was always the same. To the Ontagbri, it was the place where the souls of the damned were sent. To the Ool, it was the star of the Three Devils. To the Ll'lk, the point of the sky where battles where to be honored and it was prayed to in times of war.
"Seems like hell." The Human said.
"That may not be far from fact. Come, hamanue."
The planet of old drew closer, and soon they stood on its charred surface. Wind blew, and dust puffed along the horizon. A volcano spewed smoke into the air, and not a single point of life was visible. He could see himself now, and felt solid. The Librarian stood next to him, wearing her dress and floating plates of metal.
"Were you here, Human, the air would scorch and choke you. It is not for your lungs nor was it ever.
Chris wondered what the point was then. "So why bring me here? If... if this planet is dead, what am I gonna learn?"
The image of the Librarian got close to him, and it said, as if scolding him, "You will see what I wish you to see, and you will not raise your voice to me. While my love for he Humans is great, I am still Lifeshaper, and you will respect my office." She gathered a handful of the soil. "We studied this planet for over a century, probing its depths and its uniqueness. The Miners wanted it. I argued against it. Thankfully the Council saw reason in this.
Chris didn't pretend to understand. He just went with the flow.
My Lifeworkers studied the history of this planet, and we concluded that the whole star system was not native to this galaxy."
Chris had to understand that. A whole star system came from another galaxy?
"Yes indeed." The Librarian said, responding to his thoughts just as the Didact had. "It is a wanderer. Older than this galaxy in fact. Probably older than many galaxies in this group. When my fellow Lifeworkers though tried to find where it's parent was, we could not find anything."
"What do you mean?" Chris said, struggling to understand what she meant.
"Its parent galaxy was gone. The path where it came from pointed to nothing but empty space."
"Maybe it was destroyed." the Human suggested.
"Perhaps." the Lifeshaper said. "It will forever be a mystery to us. What we do know though was that it braved the loneliness of the void, the sky lit by nothing but the brightest galaxies... and it ended up here eventually, caught in the pull of the central black hole."
"The prison."
She nodded.
"So... um..." he looked around and kicked a rock on the ground. "Did... anybody live here?"
She looked as if she had been waiting for that question. "One of the greater mysteries of the Lifeworkers. Come, hamanue."
She walked, and he followed. Chris saw the landscape fall away, and a pool of magma lay before him, fed by the nearby volcano. Chris suspected that if he had really been here, he would have roasted before he had even gotten close. The Librarian walked along the boiling river grabbing a handful of the volcanic ash and let it fall from her outstretched hand. They walked for quite some more time along the edge of the pool, following a run off that led further down hill. To pass the time, Chris looked into the sky, and he saw the bright nebula that he saw from orbit. It was so bright, it seemed to serve as a second sun, shining brightly upon this forgotten world. The orange sky seemed almost like perpetual sunset.
"Let me ask you a question."
The Lifeshaper did not even turn around. "Yes?"
"Why near the core of all places? Why did it come here?"
"Perhaps luck?"
That didn't fly. Forerunners implanted 'luck', the geas as evidence. "I don't buy that."
"Then perhaps you may have answers that we don't?"
"No." Chris said after a moment of silence. "It just seems... off, that's all."
"Then be silent." she gently said, then pressed forward. "We are near."
They were indeed. Chris' eyes lit up as he saw a massive pyramid, stretching nearly a mile at its base, and half a mile high. Chris actually wondered why he didn't see this immediately upon appearing here. The Librarian led him down to the pyramid's base, but then stopped.
"Are we going inside?" Chris asked.
"No."
"Why not? Lost the key?" He smirked.
"Because I won't open it. We never did."
"Why?"
"This planet had been studied for millions of years by the Lifeworkers, but they never would have stepped within. The reason is this symbol." she held her arms out. A triangle appeared between them.
"It's a triangle."
"It's a symbol."
Chris shrugged. "So... what does it mean?"
"It depends on the society. Even within the Forerunners, this symbol meant any things. To the Lifeworkers, it represents the continuity of life, spirit, and body. To the Juridicials, it's the trio of Justice. To the Engineers and Builders, it is a shape that holds its own strength to a remarkable degree. But here, hamanue? It means nothing, at least, none that we could determine." The symbol disappeared and she rubbed the wall. "Every being in this galaxy has a connection of some sort. This is alien to us."
"You're smart." Chris quipped. She glanced over at him. "Well, you are. Your people should have had the resources and funds to crack this."
She gave a sad laugh. "That's the tragic part. By the time the council got over its collective bungling... that's when the Flood reared its head."
"Oh."
"We said that we would get back to this when it was all over, but that never happened."
He didn't say anything that time.
"It was the belief of the Lifeworkers that this world and the Prisoner were linked in some way. I will give upon you its location within your mind. When you need it, it will become available. Until then, it will sleep. Remember the symbol. Its importance may help you unlock these secrets. Maybe you'll find things the Forerunners have not."
The image shifted one more time. The Librarian was gone, and he expected to be brought back to his own world, but he wasn't there yet. A booming voice called out. "Warrior, I have a final warning for you." He turned around in confusion, and saw the Didact right behind him. He jumped in terror at the sight, but steadied himself. Hopefully the Didact's image did not see this.
It didn't appear so. It was only a simple message. "Should you or your kind go after what my wife has shown you, I give you this warning: do not attempt to control it. Follow my example, and destroy it. If the Librarian is correct and this forgotten rock is indeed linked to the Prison and its tenet, then it should be eliminated as soon as possible."
"Why?"
"Why?! You ask why?!" The Didact barred his teeth in anger. "You saw what the Prison did to us?"
"That was a black hole!"
"But it did not harm the station! We wanted to know why!"
"You're right. I won't make such a tactical error."
He snarled, and then steadied himself. "If you value the existence of this galaxy, then you will do as I say! The Prisoner may have failed last time, but that was luck, no matter what my wife might lead you to believe otherwise. This time, you may not be so fortunate. Aya, now you may go."
He awoke with a start and burning pain in his head. He couldn't reach it, but he shouted in pain. He thought that this would draw Bing or one of the service robots, but he was disappointed. He struggled to keep his reactions in check, but the pain did not dare go away. He tried to recall the Librarian's words, but it felt like a dream that he couldn't remember. The planet that the Librarian mentioned was a whisper and its location was impossible to recall, but he remembered the triangle. What did it represent? Why was a simple triangle so prominent? He wasn't in any shape to ruminate on it.
"Bing!" He shouted, hoping he was hearing. "Bing! I need to talk to you!"
He didn't come. A voice did come from the darkness though.
"Christopher."
The voice was sweet and alluring. He knew it, and was frightened by it.
"Who's there?"
"My love."
"Who's there?!" he repeated, agitated.
Two bright pinpoints of light appeared in the dark. They grew closer and closer. A woman appeared. She wasn't a Human, but she could have been one. Dark brown fur, red hair, and blue eyes. She would have been beautiful had she not been covered by blood from head to toe.
"I've finally found you." She whispered. Her voice echoed in the room, and she crept closer to him. A light burst, spraying sparks all over the floor. Darkness followed her, but the two pinpricks of light in her blue eyes were always visible. Chris struggled to get free, but could not. He grew more and more scared as the bloody woman walked closer with red footprints in her wake.
"Don't touch me!" He stammered.
"Why not?" She asked, seemingly concerned. "But I love you."
"I don't even know you!"
She stopped a foot away from him. He smelled the terrible tinge of copper in the air. He closed his eyes and hoped that it would go away, but when he opened them again, it was still there.
"That's OK, my sweet Human. We'll make new memories." She took her lips and planted them on his.
He felt violated. Blood flowed over his face, into his eyes, and into his mouth. He gagged. He tried to break way, but his bindings prevented it. It was the perfect trap.
Then the pain came again. Before he passed out, he saw more points of light appear in the dark. He felt small and helpless. He was afraid. When the rest of the shades started to move in and violate his mind...
...And he was helpless.
June 11th, 3239, 2107 hours
Manhattan Island, New York City
Ground Level
Sally felt sick to her stomach leaving the shop behind as she followed the group. The fact that they needed to keep the sick Captain literally tied up made her wonder if they were treating him like a criminal. Bunnie noticed this though and clapped her metal hand on the Princess' shoulder. Sally felt the weight, but still felt numb. This whole situation had taken a turn for the unusual to say the least, but now there were additional pressures on her now. She knew that she was thinking the obvious, but she didn't need her Human to die.
John had taken command at this point. Originally Abigail would have been the highest ranking officer, but she immediately abdicated command to the Spartan. Sally thought it was ironic though that they were following a military command structure since all of them would be considered outcasts. Nevertheless, John explained that a unit cohesion would allow proper flow of thoughts, and it was accepted by everyone that he was the undisputed expert on combat and even stealth.
Before leaving the shop, the objective was decided to infiltrate the government building at the north end of the island. Getting there would be easy, but actually getting into the building itself would be outstandingly difficult.
"Can we just assume that Marshall will let us walk in like he let us walk out of Tokyo?" Hera asked.
"That wouldn't be smart to assume, Major." Cortana said. "Marshall let us leave that facility, but I think that us approaching him would provoke a response. The personnel of the building might be a bit more hands on."
"Not to mention all of the regular cops." Reyes added.
"Then only a few of us can go in." Sonic said.
"Sal, if anybody deserves to knock Marshall on his ass, it's you." Bunnie said nodding solemnly.
"I can help in there." Sonic added. "They won't catch me." He gave a small smile. "Should be fun."
Hera's ear perked. "Permission to tag along, Highness?"
"Don't see why not." She shrugged. "Don't get overzealous, OK?"
"I'll certainly try my hardest." Hera assured.
Their weapons had been disassembled and placed within their packs. While they wanted to adhere to the philosophy that they did not want to fire upon UNSC personnel, that desire was becoming harder and harder to stick to as common UNSC forces would be likely to engage them, and to keep their own lives, the motley group would need to shoot back. If they were backed into a corner, they might not have been a chance to talk their way out of a problem. Sonic may have quipped that perhaps there would be a way to knock out any guards, John shook his head.
"No. There may be one or two Spartans in the Spire." He have what could be interpreted as a dry laugh. "They're not really easy to knock out."
"It was a suggestion, what do you want from me?"
So their realization of the situation was painful, but understandable. Nearly all of them were soldiers anyway; they knew that there was a time to fight and when to pass by.
"We shouldn't go together." Sally suggested. "Until we get to the Spire, we split up. Bunnie, Hera, Reyes, with me. John, you, Sonic, and Konstantinos are together. Borne, Jackson, Rouge, and Roan are group three.
"Can't I go with you?" Sonic asked her, looking a bit concerned.
"No. We'll look way to suspicious together. ONI washed some of your dye out too, right?"
"Don't remind me. That hose is terrible." He shuddered. "Yeah, I'm not as blue now, right?"
"I think it's permanently soaked in." Sally noted.
"Fine with me." he smirked.
The plan was to immediately split up and head to different parts of the city in order to dispel suspicion. A few of them gulped as they saw their faces scroll across billboards. Roan laughed.
"What's up?" Hera asked. "I just saw your face!"
"That's me when I had a full beard." He pointed out.
"So why is it funny?"
"I hated that beard. I look like my dad. Being in a Communist prison will do that to you."
Jackson shook her head slightly. "Don't even ask."
"Looks like they haven't had time to update it with any new faces." Cortana noted. "Notice that only a few of our compatriots are out there. None of the Mobians are up there."
"Most likely the Captain is still the priority." Reyes said. "They did not choose a good picture of him."
His picture was a digital reconstruction that made him seem much more sinister than he was. Chris' face was tense, his brows furrowed, and a deep frown above his chin. For some reason, they decided to portray him with a goatee.
"Um, why the beard?"
"Classic villain facial hair." Konstantinos said. "I personally would have preferred the Errol Flynn swashbuckler."
"I don't understand the mentality. What the hell is Marshall going at?" Sally asked.
NICOLE added, "Maybe a few people in the government are trying to cover Mobius, you know, maybe the president slipped up."
"Or it's not part of the plan just yet." Reyes suggested. "Bus is coming. If you want to want to get on, now's the chance."
There was indeed a bus coming down the crowded street. The automated transport had two cars joined by a flexible bridge between the two. Advertisements scrolled across the outside and the sign on the front read in flashy letters, 'UPTOWN'.
"Alright. We'll use radios to keep in contact. No public phones or video booths." Sally said. "Good luck everyone."
"Wait." Hera said. "What about weapons detectors?" she whispered this.
"Cortana and I can help you there I think. Still, we won't move into any secure areas before that." NICOLE said.
"Shouldn't be tough." The other AI added. "I've broken through tougher."
The bus coasted to a stop and opened its doors. A group of people dressed in various styles got up and into the bus. A few aliens, including Mobians were among them. A few of them threw a few quick double takes at the group of fugitives but shrugged it off. The Mobians didn't believe that the Princess would be out and about like a common person. John, Sonic, and Alex went with them into the bus. "See you soon." Sonic nodded. He was the last one on and the bus' doors closed.
"I'm sure Cortana has some change for the fare." Hera chuckled.
With that, the bus pulled away and into the heavy traffic of the city, and a third of their infiltration team was on its way. Sally wondered if John and Sonic would stand out too much, but banished the thought. She needed to be on the ball, not wallowing on doubts.
From there, they started walking. It wouldn't take as long as she thought to find another mode of transportation. She ensured that the collars of her jacket were popped high so that she wouldn't draw attention to herself. Jackson seemed unremarkable enough in her own right. A Mobian rabbit cyborg on the other hand stood out like a sore thumb.
"Jamie." She said to him.
"Highne... yes?" he said, stopping himself before he gave them away.
"You have a jacket?"
"In the bag, yeah."
"Give it to Bunnie."
He pursed his lips for a second and said, "That's... uh, covering the 'stuff'."
"Bunnie stands out; that's more important than anything else."
Reyes nodded and ensured that he opened the bag slowly. He pulled out the jacket, ensuring that the gun components were still covered by the top flap, and then threw it over to Bunnie. She snagged it, nodding in appreciation and slid it over her shoulders. It wasn't perfect, but unless one was looking for her in the packed streets of Lower Manhattan, Bunnie Rabbot would be a hard woman to find, especially with the din of the surrounding crowd to disorient spotters. To make it even more difficult, she folded her ears behind her and tied them with a rubber band, similar to how Hera was.
Sally pushed through the crowd with Bunnie by her side and Hera a second behind them. Two seconds behind her were Borne, Jackson, Roan, and Reyes. An odd group, but one that still moved undetected in the city for the most part.
"Heads up everyone. Subway coming up fast. Might be a good time to split up again." NICOLE announced.
"Agreed. Team 2, get your passes ready."
"I've slipped into the NYTS. Child's play. They really need to change their encryption protocols... oh you've got to be kidding."
"What's wrong?" Sally asked, suddenly concerned.
"The ticket server's password is Adonis. Someone's full of themselves."
"Sounded like it was easy to crack." Sally said.
"If you're looking for the right things, it's easy to find."
It turned out that hacking was a lengthy process even for an AI. Usual decryption software looked for patterns in the code that tended to match up with what was in the database. Piece by piece, passwords and encryption could be picked away with a chisel until the whole thing stood clean. A Human would sometimes brute force it. Effective, but slower and more prone to detection unless they were trained. AIs worked much quicker and tended to try to crack other systems at the same time while they were at it. It turned out that most people tended to carry over passwords from one account to another, so by using simple logic, it would be easy to assume that one password could potentially unlock five or more systems. Some people tended to mix it up by replacing letters with numbers or added things like '000', '111', '222' and so on to the end of usernames or passwords. Cute, but trivial. Finally, sometimes people got really creative and used random encryption generators that made each password unique whether they wanted it or not. This was where hacking got difficult since there was really no information pool to draw on, which led to a lot of trial and error, even with AIs. Systems needed to be frozen, alarms needed to be confounded, and numbers needed to be tried and tried again. Eventually, things worked out, and by the time the system thawed, the database showed all green; no alarms triggered.
Thankfully none of that happened here. The ticket official (who was definitely not Adonis by any stretch of the name), simply posted a sticky-note on his monitor and a quick glance at the camera would show that.
"You are now all on CityPass. Don't worry, you all have falsified identities graciously provided to you by the city of New York. Nobody's going to give you trouble."
"Excellent." Roan said. It was another two blocks to the subway station. They played it cool by walking with the crowd looking like any other New Yorker, Human or otherwise. Everyone except Reyes and Reyes kept on looking all over the city in wonder of the bigness of it all. To be fair, they did come from small towns and cities and they were not used to skyscrapers and such.
"This is where you guys get off." Hera noted. Allen, William, and Sam nodded, and peeled off from the group. They didn't look back as they descended down the stairs leading to the subway tunnel.
Shortly after, John's voice buzzed into her ear.
"Status?"
"Group 2 is away, Lieutenant." Sally responded. "What about you, Spartan?"
"We're still mobile. Just passed 43rd Street."
"Anybody stare at you, John?"
"Not for long. I stare back. Out."
Sally shook her head at his attempt at humor. He must have smacked his head sometime after they met for the first time. Nevertheless, she herself blew more air out of her nose than usual. For the remaining members of the fugitives, the long road lay ahead. Even if Marshall's men could outmaneuver both Cortana and NICOLE, scan the city and locate two different forms of transportation scattered around the city, and furthermore locate which vehicle the potential infiltrators were gathered in, the third group was ready to throw a monkey wrench into things. They weren't riding at all. They were going to walk the rest of the way.
Chris had been hit in the head hard. How hard was something that he really could not quantify so well, so he had to make a guess. The slush which was what was left of his brain fired up; neurons flared and struggled to ignite some form of conscious thought. His body responded, and his eyes slowly and painfully started to open. His vision was foggy, and he struggled to make heads or tails of his surroundings.
"Ugh... Tails..." his mouth managed to say. It sounded garbled to him. He might not have even said anything meaningful at all. If he was in a proper state of observation, he may have diagnosed himself with a concussion. To be quite fair, he had been hit in the head often these past few weeks. He came to the conclusion that Reyes must have hit him again, doing only what he was ordered to do, and Chris couldn't fault him for that. However, when he tried to move his mouth again, he found that it was nearly impossible to do so. He wondered with a start whether or not his jaw was broken to keep him from talking, but he found out that he had been gagged. Tape stuffed in his mouth covered by more tape around his neck and face. He reached up to try and rip it off, but he couldn't. His arms had been bound as well as his legs. He found out what had happened, but the idea shocked him. He had been tied up and had been left behind. He looked around to try and see where he was. He believed that he was still inside Rycorp, but he didn't recognize this room. It was large and empty.
And silent.
This scared him too much. He pulled at his bounds, but it didn't work. He was strapped to a support pillar at the corner of the room.
They left me. They left me and they tied me up! THE BASTARDS!
He thought this with such anger, but not long after this, a door opened and a man walked forward.
It's Marshall. They sold me out! I knew it, I knew they would do this to me!
But it wasn't Marshall at all. It was Bing, who walked towards him with what looked like a jug of water in his artificial hand. A cigarette hung in his mouth and he puffed on it.
"Looks like you're awake." he said with a sigh. "You've been out for over a day. You've popped in and out, but that was only for a moment or two."
Chris stared at the colonel with angry eyes.
"Look, you tried to blow your head off; don't look at me like that. The only reason you failed was because you didn't charge the damned thing. I don't know if you're a religious man, but that's Providence if I ever saw it." He placed the jug on the ground. "You talk in your sleep, you know that?"
Like a crazy man?
"It's gibberish. I didn't know it at first, but now I can see you pose a danger to yourself and others. This is the best place for you. If you were a soldier and if you served under me, you'd be in a military prison faster than you could kiss my ass." He shook his head sadly. "I pity you, Captain, but if your friends are right, then there's no fixing you."
That's where you're wrong. They can fix me. They can help me.
"Anyway, I thought you might be thirsty. Had to forcefeed you last time. Maybe you're up to it now." He unwrapped the tape and took out the gag. Bing expected the young man to snap at him, but Chris remained quiet. "How are you, you crazy bastard?"
"Comfy." Chris said in a raspy voice. "Let me out."
"No." Bing responded. "Heads up." He took the jug and put it in the Captain's mouth. Water flowed, and the Captain swallowed, but spat when he got a bit too much.
"Jesus! Watch the arm."
"Sorry." Chris apologized. "Where are the others?"
"They're out." Bing responded, giving Chris another drink. "The Spartan tied these knots himself. They wanted to make sure you didn't do anything stupid."
Chris tried to move his arm, but to no avail. "I should be out there with them."
"No, you shouldn't, and I'm going to tell you why." The colonel said. "You have proven to them that you are absolutely out of your mind. Now, I know you've got some information in your head that's making you do this, and under different circumstances, I'm sure you're a stand-up guy. Right now, you're a suicidal, hallucination-seeing lunatic."
Chris glared angrily, and was somewhat glad and upset that the bindings were holding him back. "If you've seen what I've seen..."
"Then I'm sure I'd be a stark wacko too." Bing finished. "But even then, I'd be asked to be put in chains." He placed the jug under his arm. "Besides, the last thing you want right now is public exposure. You're one of the most recognizable men in North America right now. You might need a face lift before it's safe to come out for air again. Anyway... I'll be down to check on you in a few hours. Or I'll send one of the bots to do that. Want a sedative?"
"No."
"Suit yourself." the colonel said.
"What if I've got to piss?" Chris asked in bitter humor.
"I dunno, scream or something; it'll carry." He nodded, turned on his heel, and then walked away. At least he didn't put the gag back in.
Chris watched Bing walk away, still struggling to get free, but he was stumped by the expertly tied knots. "God dammit, John." he whispered. "Good job."
He hung there for what felt like hours, and Bing nor a robot had come to see him. It was uncomfortable to hang against this support pillar, but there was not much he could do about it. So he stood there in silence. He itched, and was not able to satisfy it. He wasn't thirsty, but he was hungry. He was scared, but did not call for companionship.
He didn't think of Sally once in all that time. But he did think of the Librarian. For some reason, thinking of the enigmatic Lifeworker brought him a sense of peace that he couldn't find with anybody else. Upon thinking this, there was a warmth that he had not felt before. He opened his eyes, and there she was, standing in the darkness enveloped by a column of light. She said nothing, and moved not an inch, but the Captain's face broke into a smile. He almost shed a tear.
"My sweet Hamanue."
"Lifeshaper." he said, invoking her title.
"There is more."
His eyebrows shot up. "More?"
"Indeed. Are you prepared?"
He wasn't sure. He tried to say something, but couldn't find the words. All he could do as stare at the Forerunner and simply try to comprehend her. She simply stared at him intently and waited for his
response. He found his voice a moment later. "Yes."
She nodded once, and the they were gone. Pain spiked up and down his spine and his brain lit up. Stars flew past, and galaxies pinwheeled in the void. Light flew by so quickly that it was something like a blur. They were moving at speeds dictated impossible by physics. Moving through the galaxy in this manner seemed unreal, but with the dark blood red nebulae tugging at his vision, it may as well have been a nightmare. A black hole passed so close to his face that it warped space, startling the Captain. But then they stopped near the core. A dark brown planet covered the horizon. Chris could see that it was an ancient rock, covered with impact scars from billions of years ago. Its poles were wrapped with pasty white clouds, and an old and salty ocean sat near the equator. Shadowed against the nebula, a lonely moon orbited this forgotten world. Far in the nebula, young stars ignited for the first time, drawing even further attention from this place.
"Where are we?" Chris asked.
"There is no word for it in your language. To the Lifeworkers, this world was known as Parl-625d. Its true name has been forgotten to the ears and tongues of the galaxy, but its image was always the same. To the Ontagbri, it was the place where the souls of the damned were sent. To the Ool, it was the star of the Three Devils. To the Ll'lk, the point of the sky where battles where to be honored and it was prayed to in times of war.
"Seems like hell." The Human said.
"That may not be far from fact. Come, hamanue."
The planet of old drew closer, and soon they stood on its charred surface. Wind blew, and dust puffed along the horizon. A volcano spewed smoke into the air, and not a single point of life was visible. He could see himself now, and felt solid. The Librarian stood next to him, wearing her dress and floating plates of metal.
"Were you here, Human, the air would scorch and choke you. It is not for your lungs nor was it ever.
Chris wondered what the point was then. "So why bring me here? If... if this planet is dead, what am I gonna learn?"
The image of the Librarian got close to him, and it said, as if scolding him, "You will see what I wish you to see, and you will not raise your voice to me. While my love for he Humans is great, I am still Lifeshaper, and you will respect my office." She gathered a handful of the soil. "We studied this planet for over a century, probing its depths and its uniqueness. The Miners wanted it. I argued against it. Thankfully the Council saw reason in this.
Chris didn't pretend to understand. He just went with the flow.
My Lifeworkers studied the history of this planet, and we concluded that the whole star system was not native to this galaxy."
Chris had to understand that. A whole star system came from another galaxy?
"Yes indeed." The Librarian said, responding to his thoughts just as the Didact had. "It is a wanderer. Older than this galaxy in fact. Probably older than many galaxies in this group. When my fellow Lifeworkers though tried to find where it's parent was, we could not find anything."
"What do you mean?" Chris said, struggling to understand what she meant.
"Its parent galaxy was gone. The path where it came from pointed to nothing but empty space."
"Maybe it was destroyed." the Human suggested.
"Perhaps." the Lifeshaper said. "It will forever be a mystery to us. What we do know though was that it braved the loneliness of the void, the sky lit by nothing but the brightest galaxies... and it ended up here eventually, caught in the pull of the central black hole."
"The prison."
She nodded.
"So... um..." he looked around and kicked a rock on the ground. "Did... anybody live here?"
She looked as if she had been waiting for that question. "One of the greater mysteries of the Lifeworkers. Come, hamanue."
She walked, and he followed. Chris saw the landscape fall away, and a pool of magma lay before him, fed by the nearby volcano. Chris suspected that if he had really been here, he would have roasted before he had even gotten close. The Librarian walked along the boiling river grabbing a handful of the volcanic ash and let it fall from her outstretched hand. They walked for quite some more time along the edge of the pool, following a run off that led further down hill. To pass the time, Chris looked into the sky, and he saw the bright nebula that he saw from orbit. It was so bright, it seemed to serve as a second sun, shining brightly upon this forgotten world. The orange sky seemed almost like perpetual sunset.
"Let me ask you a question."
The Lifeshaper did not even turn around. "Yes?"
"Why near the core of all places? Why did it come here?"
"Perhaps luck?"
That didn't fly. Forerunners implanted 'luck', the geas as evidence. "I don't buy that."
"Then perhaps you may have answers that we don't?"
"No." Chris said after a moment of silence. "It just seems... off, that's all."
"Then be silent." she gently said, then pressed forward. "We are near."
They were indeed. Chris' eyes lit up as he saw a massive pyramid, stretching nearly a mile at its base, and half a mile high. Chris actually wondered why he didn't see this immediately upon appearing here. The Librarian led him down to the pyramid's base, but then stopped.
"Are we going inside?" Chris asked.
"No."
"Why not? Lost the key?" He smirked.
"Because I won't open it. We never did."
"Why?"
"This planet had been studied for millions of years by the Lifeworkers, but they never would have stepped within. The reason is this symbol." she held her arms out. A triangle appeared between them.
"It's a triangle."
"It's a symbol."
Chris shrugged. "So... what does it mean?"
"It depends on the society. Even within the Forerunners, this symbol meant any things. To the Lifeworkers, it represents the continuity of life, spirit, and body. To the Juridicials, it's the trio of Justice. To the Engineers and Builders, it is a shape that holds its own strength to a remarkable degree. But here, hamanue? It means nothing, at least, none that we could determine." The symbol disappeared and she rubbed the wall. "Every being in this galaxy has a connection of some sort. This is alien to us."
"You're smart." Chris quipped. She glanced over at him. "Well, you are. Your people should have had the resources and funds to crack this."
She gave a sad laugh. "That's the tragic part. By the time the council got over its collective bungling... that's when the Flood reared its head."
"Oh."
"We said that we would get back to this when it was all over, but that never happened."
He didn't say anything that time.
"It was the belief of the Lifeworkers that this world and the Prisoner were linked in some way. I will give upon you its location within your mind. When you need it, it will become available. Until then, it will sleep. Remember the symbol. Its importance may help you unlock these secrets. Maybe you'll find things the Forerunners have not."
The image shifted one more time. The Librarian was gone, and he expected to be brought back to his own world, but he wasn't there yet. A booming voice called out. "Warrior, I have a final warning for you." He turned around in confusion, and saw the Didact right behind him. He jumped in terror at the sight, but steadied himself. Hopefully the Didact's image did not see this.
It didn't appear so. It was only a simple message. "Should you or your kind go after what my wife has shown you, I give you this warning: do not attempt to control it. Follow my example, and destroy it. If the Librarian is correct and this forgotten rock is indeed linked to the Prison and its tenet, then it should be eliminated as soon as possible."
"Why?"
"Why?! You ask why?!" The Didact barred his teeth in anger. "You saw what the Prison did to us?"
"That was a black hole!"
"But it did not harm the station! We wanted to know why!"
"You're right. I won't make such a tactical error."
He snarled, and then steadied himself. "If you value the existence of this galaxy, then you will do as I say! The Prisoner may have failed last time, but that was luck, no matter what my wife might lead you to believe otherwise. This time, you may not be so fortunate. Aya, now you may go."
He awoke with a start and burning pain in his head. He couldn't reach it, but he shouted in pain. He thought that this would draw Bing or one of the service robots, but he was disappointed. He struggled to keep his reactions in check, but the pain did not dare go away. He tried to recall the Librarian's words, but it felt like a dream that he couldn't remember. The planet that the Librarian mentioned was a whisper and its location was impossible to recall, but he remembered the triangle. What did it represent? Why was a simple triangle so prominent? He wasn't in any shape to ruminate on it.
"Bing!" He shouted, hoping he was hearing. "Bing! I need to talk to you!"
He didn't come. A voice did come from the darkness though.
"Christopher."
The voice was sweet and alluring. He knew it, and was frightened by it.
"Who's there?"
"My love."
"Who's there?!" he repeated, agitated.
Two bright pinpoints of light appeared in the dark. They grew closer and closer. A woman appeared. She wasn't a Human, but she could have been one. Dark brown fur, red hair, and blue eyes. She would have been beautiful had she not been covered by blood from head to toe.
"I've finally found you." She whispered. Her voice echoed in the room, and she crept closer to him. A light burst, spraying sparks all over the floor. Darkness followed her, but the two pinpricks of light in her blue eyes were always visible. Chris struggled to get free, but could not. He grew more and more scared as the bloody woman walked closer with red footprints in her wake.
"Don't touch me!" He stammered.
"Why not?" She asked, seemingly concerned. "But I love you."
"I don't even know you!"
She stopped a foot away from him. He smelled the terrible tinge of copper in the air. He closed his eyes and hoped that it would go away, but when he opened them again, it was still there.
"That's OK, my sweet Human. We'll make new memories." She took her lips and planted them on his.
He felt violated. Blood flowed over his face, into his eyes, and into his mouth. He gagged. He tried to break way, but his bindings prevented it. It was the perfect trap.
Then the pain came again. Before he passed out, he saw more points of light appear in the dark. He felt small and helpless. He was afraid. When the rest of the shades started to move in and violate his mind...
...And he was helpless.
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