![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Cortana was soaring.
Despite the fact that accessing the Forerunner system was proving to be as difficult as Bias had claimed it was going to be, Cortana was still entrenched in new data for her to devour. Data that hadn’t been accessed in a hundred thousand years were at her fingertips.
Information about the Forerunners, their Installations, their history, their flaws and strengths, were waiting for Cortana to consume.
For now, the data was a steady trickle of knowledge. Cortana was peeling back layers and layers of code, getting more access to the ancient base. She already had partial access to the security systems; the Sentinels were under her command.
Still, most of the secured systems, including the Key and the purpose of the building John was in, remained elusive to the AI.
Now that the Sentinels had been unleashed, she quickly burrowed herself into the trillions of lines of code in front of her and started unravelling, line by line, the firewalls and encryption the system was throwing her way. Thanks to her new algorithm, she could sift through the encryption with much more ease; a hack that normally took several minutes took a fraction of the time.
However, the Forerunners had encrypted the encryptions several times over, which made Cortana’s job that much more difficult.
She didn’t mind the challenge though. It felt incredible to be able to go back to doing what she did best without the limitations of rampancy affecting her.
“Cortana.”
Instantly, she knew there was something wrong. John’s one word carried a myriad of emotions. Immediately, Cortana spun off several subroutines to keeping decrypting the information while she turned her focus to the Spartan.
“Yes Chief?” she asked, purposely keeping her voice light. There was no reason to advertise the fact she knew something wasn’t right.
She established a long distance uplink with his armor, allowing her to see what he saw and hear what he heard. It took nearly five seconds for the link to establish.
When it did, she couldn’t hold back a gasp. The Prophet of Truth was silently staring back at them.
“Well, that would explain what get the Covenant’s attention,” she commented sardonically.
“How is this possible?”
She frowned. How was that possible? Suddenly, the Key became secondary as she started scrambling to look for the files that entailed, exactly, the purpose of the building. She weaved through irrelevant data, looking for the files she needed to figure out how Truth was there, despite being killed by the Gravemind on the Ark.
“That would explain the faint life signs I detected,” she muttered. “As much as I hate to admit it, I don’t know how he got here, Chief. I’m attempting to decrypt the data, but it doesn’t seem as though the Forerunners wanted anyone to know about their side project.”
“Do you think Bias knew about it?”
She considered his question for a second. “I doubt it. From what I do know about this installation, the Forerunners created it after he defected to the Gravemind.”
“Chief.” She heard Johnson’s voice. “You need to look at this.”
Cortana’s uneasiness grew. She had never heard the sergeant sound so shaken.
She watched through the video feed as John walked away from Truth and approached another capsule where Johnson was standing. His eyes were wide.
John turned and faced the front of the chamber.
Miranda Keyes was inside.
“What the hell is going on here, Chief?” Johnson demanded.
“I’m working on that, Sergeant Major,” Cortana replied through John’s speakers. “Right now, I’d say we have a mystery on our hands.”
It was, unfortunately, a mystery that was going to take Cortana a while to solve. Despite dedicating most of her subroutines to solving this secret, she was only beginning to access the data about the puzzling capsules.
“I need to inform Captain Keyes,” she said to John. “And when I figure out what is going on, I’ll let you know.
“Understood.”
She terminated the video feed and opened a comm channel to the Light. “I need to talk to the captain.”
Seconds later, she heard Keyes’ familiar voice. “What’s going on, Cortana?”
She drew a long breath. “Sir, you need to come down to the Hive immediately,” she answered evasively.
“Why?”
How to answer that impossible question, she wondered. Direct honesty had always been her policy. “Sir, the Chief and the rest of the team found an area that the Forerunners apparently used as some kind of stasis chamber. The Chief and the others already found two pods. One of them had Truth--”
“Truth?” he sputtered.
“Yes, sir. And the other pod...” She took a breath. “...Miranda is in the other one.”
“I’ll right be there.”
As soon as the channel ended, a wave of guilt washed over Cortana. Should she have informed Halsey of their discovery even though she made the decision to cut all ties between her and her daughter?
She didn’t have time to analyzes her actions. She still needed to get the Key and figure out how and why Miranda and Truth were not as dead as everyone thought them to be.
Chapter 16: One Big Happy Family
Despite the fact that accessing the Forerunner system was proving to be as difficult as Bias had claimed it was going to be, Cortana was still entrenched in new data for her to devour. Data that hadn’t been accessed in a hundred thousand years were at her fingertips.
Information about the Forerunners, their Installations, their history, their flaws and strengths, were waiting for Cortana to consume.
For now, the data was a steady trickle of knowledge. Cortana was peeling back layers and layers of code, getting more access to the ancient base. She already had partial access to the security systems; the Sentinels were under her command.
Still, most of the secured systems, including the Key and the purpose of the building John was in, remained elusive to the AI.
Now that the Sentinels had been unleashed, she quickly burrowed herself into the trillions of lines of code in front of her and started unravelling, line by line, the firewalls and encryption the system was throwing her way. Thanks to her new algorithm, she could sift through the encryption with much more ease; a hack that normally took several minutes took a fraction of the time.
However, the Forerunners had encrypted the encryptions several times over, which made Cortana’s job that much more difficult.
She didn’t mind the challenge though. It felt incredible to be able to go back to doing what she did best without the limitations of rampancy affecting her.
“Cortana.”
Instantly, she knew there was something wrong. John’s one word carried a myriad of emotions. Immediately, Cortana spun off several subroutines to keeping decrypting the information while she turned her focus to the Spartan.
“Yes Chief?” she asked, purposely keeping her voice light. There was no reason to advertise the fact she knew something wasn’t right.
She established a long distance uplink with his armor, allowing her to see what he saw and hear what he heard. It took nearly five seconds for the link to establish.
When it did, she couldn’t hold back a gasp. The Prophet of Truth was silently staring back at them.
“Well, that would explain what get the Covenant’s attention,” she commented sardonically.
“How is this possible?”
She frowned. How was that possible? Suddenly, the Key became secondary as she started scrambling to look for the files that entailed, exactly, the purpose of the building. She weaved through irrelevant data, looking for the files she needed to figure out how Truth was there, despite being killed by the Gravemind on the Ark.
“That would explain the faint life signs I detected,” she muttered. “As much as I hate to admit it, I don’t know how he got here, Chief. I’m attempting to decrypt the data, but it doesn’t seem as though the Forerunners wanted anyone to know about their side project.”
“Do you think Bias knew about it?”
She considered his question for a second. “I doubt it. From what I do know about this installation, the Forerunners created it after he defected to the Gravemind.”
“Chief.” She heard Johnson’s voice. “You need to look at this.”
Cortana’s uneasiness grew. She had never heard the sergeant sound so shaken.
She watched through the video feed as John walked away from Truth and approached another capsule where Johnson was standing. His eyes were wide.
John turned and faced the front of the chamber.
Miranda Keyes was inside.
“What the hell is going on here, Chief?” Johnson demanded.
“I’m working on that, Sergeant Major,” Cortana replied through John’s speakers. “Right now, I’d say we have a mystery on our hands.”
It was, unfortunately, a mystery that was going to take Cortana a while to solve. Despite dedicating most of her subroutines to solving this secret, she was only beginning to access the data about the puzzling capsules.
“I need to inform Captain Keyes,” she said to John. “And when I figure out what is going on, I’ll let you know.
“Understood.”
She terminated the video feed and opened a comm channel to the Light. “I need to talk to the captain.”
Seconds later, she heard Keyes’ familiar voice. “What’s going on, Cortana?”
She drew a long breath. “Sir, you need to come down to the Hive immediately,” she answered evasively.
“Why?”
How to answer that impossible question, she wondered. Direct honesty had always been her policy. “Sir, the Chief and the rest of the team found an area that the Forerunners apparently used as some kind of stasis chamber. The Chief and the others already found two pods. One of them had Truth--”
“Truth?” he sputtered.
“Yes, sir. And the other pod...” She took a breath. “...Miranda is in the other one.”
“I’ll right be there.”
As soon as the channel ended, a wave of guilt washed over Cortana. Should she have informed Halsey of their discovery even though she made the decision to cut all ties between her and her daughter?
She didn’t have time to analyzes her actions. She still needed to get the Key and figure out how and why Miranda and Truth were not as dead as everyone thought them to be.
Chapter 16: One Big Happy Family
Leave a comment