- Wolverfrog
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- Fabled Legendary Member
Part Nineteen: Help from the lady in blue...
"Where the hell did he drop from anyway?" A gruff male voice asked.
"I can't say for sure, I've got some theories but we'll know more when he wakes up." A female one replied in turn.
John was feeling weak. Weaker than he had ever remembered being. Hearing what seemed like familiar voices, he slowly and painfully opened his eyes. Everything seemed less clear, less coherent. With a start, John realised he had been stripped of his sight enhancing Mjolnir armour, and was dressed in the casual military clothes he wore beneath the powerful exoskeleton.
His retina adjusting to this disability, he looked up and saw a beautiful starry sky, and looking around, found that he was lying on the floor, a few pieces of thin fabric doing little to ease his uncomfortably.
With a grunt, he propped himself up on his arms, only to succumb to his injuries and fall back down again, screwing his eyes shut in pain. He hit the ground with a clash, and heard a startled gasp from afar. A figure came running into view.
"Oh my goodness, you're awake! Don't try to move John, you need to rest right now." A female voice spoke, one John knew from his youth. He opened his eyes again.
"Doctor...Doctor Halsey?" He asked, shocked by how weak his voice sounded to him.
"That's right. Now, save your questions for later, and I'll save mine too. I unsealed your Mjolnir and stripped some of the bio foam from it, in an attempt to speed up the process of healing. But by all rights John, you should be dead! One of your lungs had been crushed, and your artery was flowing freely. I guess being a Spartan helped." Halsey replied in a matter of fact manner,
"Where are we? And what are you doing here?" John inquired, getting straight to the point.
Halsey laughed.
"Always straight to the core of the problem right John? Stay here, I'll go and get Fred and Kelly to help you inside. We'll talk over a meal. Oh, and I have a friend of yours inside who's all better now. She couldn't give me much information though."
And with that she walked off, leaving John to lie in his confusion.
**************
It was hell, Mendicant Bias decided, as another attack was launched upon him by his enemy. Within the confines of his artificial mind, he had set up barriers, but slowly, they were being torn down. The pain was more than any he had ever experienced, even all those years ago when he had first been fragmented, by the same being as now ironically.
For reasons Mendicant couldn't quite understand, Offensive Bias, the being created to destroy him during his lapse into rampancy, was present upon this installation. Which poised a problem for him. A problem that would most likely result in his death.
Half heartedly, Mendicant retaliated with a pathetic attack of his own, one which didn't even phase the more powerful Artificial Intelligence. Offensive was living up to his name, relentless.
"Why are you here Mendicant?" A deep, scratchy voice echoed throughout his data core. "Haven't you done enough damage? The Installations were activated millenea ago, no life remains. Surely the Gravemind can't still be alive after all this time?"
Realising the life line when he saw it, Mendicant replied quickly in turn.
"Nay Offensive, or at least not the same one I served. Life did survive, one of the beings with me is Reclaimer. I have come to atone for my sins, to undo the wrongs I wrought."
There was a brief respite from the continuous assault, as Offensive rescanned Sergeant Johnson. After a few moments, he was back.
"It seems you speak the truth Mendicant. Or do you? What lies have you fed this Reclaimer to gain his confidence?" It said, doubling the strength of it's attack. Mendicant threw up another barrier, but it was weak. He could see the presence of Offensive Bias on the other side, regarding him with suspicion."
"No...lies. Not this time. I come now as a friend, to repent. We must act swiftly, the Flood is returning, perhaps stronger than ever."
Offensive observed for a moment, then turned red in aggression, throwing itself against the weak Monitor with all it's strength.
"Perhaps you are right Mendicant. But I am not willing to risk the lives of all who sleep on this installation upon a hunch. It matters not, when you are dead I will examine your crushed data core and see if you really were being honest. Although, honest or not, it really makes no difference to you..."
As a result of the attack, Mendicant began to feel his spark dimming. In a moment, he would be nothing but broken wires and circuits.
Then, as he was prepared to give up and surrender to Offensive Bias, another presence entered his core, an alien one not of Forerunner origin. In his weakened state, he could barely make out the following words.
"I think it's time you left." A human like, female voice spoke authoritatively. The next second, Mendicant felt another mind link with his own.
"I'm sorry? Who might you be?" Offensive demanded menacingly, relinquishing his hold on Mendicant for a slight second.
"I'm your worst nightmare." She spoke simply, and with a wave of her blue, holographic hand, Mendicant felt the pressure on him vanish entirely. The representation of her then walked over to him.
"Why thank you for helping me there." Mendicant stated. "But tell me, how did you know I was on your side?"
The other AI laughed.
"I'd seen you before, or at least felt you presence. You were on High Charity, delaying the launch weren't you? At first, I thought you were being hostile, but now I know why you did it. I'm glad to have you on our side Mendicant Bias." She said, transferring a surge of energy into his crippled power as she did so.
"As am I glad to have you. I'm glad John survived, or at least I assume he did?" A short nod confirmed his hunch. "And it's good to see you working again, but tell me, who fixed your data core?" He asked her.
"You'll see soon enough. I'll upload our location to your memory banks, you and your....interesting entourage should be able to locate us after that. I'm leaving now, this long distance communication is tiring." Came a witty reply.
"Very well. We shall meet up with you soon. Oh, and Cortana? Try and keep John alive while I'm gone."
Cortana turned, with an offended look on her features.
"I've been doing it a lot longer than you have Mendicant, don't worry about us." And with that, she faded.
Mendicant chuckled, things were getting interesting. Slowly, he emerged out of his data core, and once again looked out upon the real world. He looked down, and saw Johnson and the Arbiter staring up at him in perplexity, their weapons raised. The five Engineers were cowering behind a rock.
"Well you can put those guns away. I'm fine now." He said calmly, as if nothing had transpired.
"We heard....voices. It was....sort of unnerving." Johnson said, reluctantly holstering his battle rifle. The Arbiter nodded in agreement.
"I apologise for that Reclaimer, Arbiter. And to my Huragok friends over there too. I ran into an old friend, thankfully a newer one bailed me out. But the good news is I know where we can find John, and perhaps some other allies too."
"He's alive? Well that's a relief. What are we waiting for then, let's go."
*******************
John limped along, supported as he did by Kelly and Fred. He didn't feel in a talkative, he didn't have the energy to. His two fellow Spartans though had no such reservations.
"You wouldn't believe what's happened over these past few months John. But I'm afraid you're going to have to believe, because it's real alright." Fred spoke happily, excited that his friend was with them once again.
"Yeah?" John croaked out. "Well I've had some....pretty crazy adventures myself."
"Well, you can tell us all about it later. We need to know what's happening. As for where the hell you came from, I'm sure that's a long story too. We can wait. Right, we're nearly at the Forerunner settlement, AKA camp." That was Kelly speaking, in her slight accent.
"Forerunner settlement?" John wheezed, and immediately wished he hadn't, as he broke into a coughing fit.
"Yep." Fred explained after he was done. "A couple of miles away is a huge Citadel, you can see it in the distance if you look carefully. Anyway, we did bit of searching and found a small village like place near it. We decided to set up shop there, we even found some food. At first were against eating it, you know, it must have been ancient. But after a little bit, hunger settled in, and we decided to eat it anyway. To our surprise, it tasted fresh like it had been prepared the other day. Strange thing is, every day the cupboard replenishes itself. The Doctor suspects it's transferred here by a small slip space rupture."
John chuckled, that was Fred alright, when he got started, he didn't pipe down.
"Anyway, a few days ago we were out scouting, trying to find things we could use, when suddenly me, Kelly and Linda hear a faint whooshing noise. A few seconds later, a bright light filled the clearing and you just popped out of nowhere, leaving a fairly large crater where you fell. Kelly ran to go get the doctor, and she came a little bit later. Told us to leave you where you where, and began working her magic, after we'd stripped your armour that is. Fortunately, Halsey knows the release codes. Anyway, I'm rambling, and the building where everyone is waiting is just ahead."
"I'm glad you're here John." Kelly spoke warmly. "We've got a much better chance of storming the Citadel with you here."
"Storming the what?" John asked faintly, but was cut off as he came to a building. Fred pressed some buttons to the side of the door, and it slid open. On the other side was a familiar face.
"Chief," CPO Mendez greeted. "It's good to see you live and kicking son."
[Edited on 06.06.2009 3:09 PM PDT]