Fandom: Halo
Rating: Er, PGish...maybe T for swearing
Category: AU, UST, Angst, Adventure
Word Count: ~11,000
Summary: After the fall of Reach, the Alpha Team set out to find Forerunner artifacts to help them in the fight against the Covenant.
Author's Notes: Yes, this is a Halo story, but it's a very, very AU Halo story.  You could, in fact, probably know nothing about Halo and understand what's going on (but then you would miss all the inside shout-outs to the game). 
Notes about the AU: Takes place on Earth. No aliens or off-world action here.

It was too damn hot, Cortana thought as she pulled her hair back in a ponytail.

Not that she, or any of the rest of the men in the group, had any say in it. They were there to find another artifact and nothing, including the oppressing heat and humidity that surrounded them, would stop them from achieving their goal.

It was high noon and the sun was beating its relentless rays on the campsite. She turned the solar-powered fan towards the laptop in front of her, attempting to keep it cool from the intense heat. Sweat trickled down her temple as she shifted her chair, turning away as best she could from the sun. As the data trickled into her matrix from the M12 Force Application Vehicle, an earth-burrowing machine with two large "tusks" which had earned itself the nickname Warthog, Cortana had to wonder what in the world possessed the humans to use the Brazilian rain forest of all places to hide their technology nearly five hundred years ago.

It had been four days since they made camp -much too long to be considered safe- but Keyes had been insistent: they were not leaving until they found something. She had worked nearly non-stop since they arrived, only stopping when her body demanded rest, but even then, her mind was still busy at work.

There were definite perks to being an AI, she thought.

She watched the video feed on the tiny computer as her matrix chip communicated directly with the Warthog. The atmospheric conditions were similar to the underground ruins where they had found other artifacts at previous dig sites. She instructed the Warthog to continue its trajectory as she heard unmistakable footsteps approaching from behind her.

"Did you find anything yet?" he asked stiffly.

The Master Chief leaned forward, putting his hand on the desk next to the keyboard. He had just finished working out, Cortana noted as his dirt-smeared bicep came into view. It was his third workout of the day. Cortana knew he was getting restless.

She turned slightly to face him. He had folded his camo bandanna over itself and tied it around his head, catching the beads of sweat that threatened to roll down his face. The humidity caused his olive green t-shirt to cling to his body. His duel holster was taut against his sides. He looked every part the Spartan that he was.

"Not yet, though we do have some encouraging data coming in," she replied, avoiding the piercing glare he was giving her. "Like the other sites, we’ve got plenty of dead bodies and no signs of radiation. But I haven’t found the database yet."

Cortana knew he wouldn’t be happy with the news. She knew they needed to find something soon. After the takeover on Reach and the subsequent loss of the eastern seaboard of the North America, hope in the UNSC was starting to fade. They still held the majorities of the Americas and parts of Africa, but they were making no headway on reclaiming Covenant-occupied land.

He pressed his lips together as he scanned the trees around them, most likely looking for Elites hiding in the branches. "How much longer?"

"I don’t know, Chief," she said shortly.

He looked at her suspiciously, as if he suspected she was keeping something from him and the others. It was a look that Cortana had, unfortunately, become used to seeing from him since the fall of Reach.

"Is there something on your mind?" she asked curtly.

"Just tell me when you’ve found something," he said gruffly, standing up straight. He nodded to Johnson who was leaning against the tree closest to the laptop before walking away.

"He still doesn’t trust me," she commented offhandedly, glancing at her friend.

Johnson set down the combat knife he had been cleaning on the desk and looked at Cortana. "It’s going to take some time for him to come around," he said with a sigh.

She laughed bitterly and shook her head, causing the ponytail to swish back and forth. "You’ve been saying that for weeks now and it’s not getting any better."

"Now, wait a minute, he’s been talking to you, hasn’t he?" Johnson asked as he looked at the Chief making his way to the center of camp. "Reach is still too fresh in his mind."

Cortana rolled her eyes. "All of us suffered losses there, Johnson, and I don’t get the impression from anyone else in the UNSC that I am not to be trusted."

He reached inside his vest pocket and held out a cigar for Cortana. She shook her head, declining the offer. "But you know that he was Halsey’s favorite," the sergeant countered. "Her deflection to the Covenant..." He shook his head. "It’s damn near impossible for anyone of us to believe what she did. So you can sure as hell believe it‘s going to be hardest on him. And it doesn’t help that every time he looks at you, he sees her."

She had heard the same argument from him before and it still riled her up, just like it had every time he defended the Chief. "I can’t help that my core processing comes from Halsey’s cloned brain anymore than you could change your genetic heritage," Cortana shot back.

"You know what I’m talking about. You look like you could have been Halsey‘s twin if she was about thirty years younger," Johnson said, slipping the cigar into his mouth.

And that was the crux of it all, Cortana thought with a wave of frustration. She would never be seen for who she was, but only for what her origins were. It wasn’t her fault that she was a fourth generation smart AI, the first of its kind with a human host and a matrix chip that acted as the central nervous system.

When she had first been activated, still limited in a holographic avatar on the Reach base, she had been given the choice of what she would want her body to look like. She remembered how, after accessing the DNA profile of Catherine Halsey, her creator, she chose to mimic the doctor’s genetic makeup. There were differences between the two of them; perfect cloning was still several years away, but there was no mistaking she was a Halsey.

That decision would haunt Cortana for the rest of her life.

"It’s not my fault she betrayed us."

"I know that," he said sincerely. "So does Hood or else you’d never be on the Alpha team. And, hell, deep down, the Chief does too, but," he said, gently placing a hand on her shoulder, "he’s as stubborn as you are. So for right now you‘re S.O.L."

Cortana turned back to the computer, frowning. "Thanks for the pep talk, Johnson. You sure know how to brighten a girl’s day," she replied dryly.

He grinned. "Just call me your personal ray of sunshine."

Cortana suppressed a sigh. She knew Johnson was right, John wasn’t going to change any time soon.

If things were going to change she would have to do it herself.