Quando il gioco รจ finito, il re e il pedone vanno nella stessa scatola.
Princess Celestia tilted her head in confusion at the voice, not finding a source. Instead, she found herself floating aimlessly in space with no close planets. Soon, however, the starry expansion replaced itself with what Celestia could only guess was some sort of...Office, or control room for something.
Before her stood a middle aged looking being as tall as Celestia herself with peach-colored skin. Her slightly gray mane covered only her head, and she had no visible coat- natural coat, at least. The creature wore some form of cloth over its body- perhaps to keep out the cold as she had no natural coat. A voice from behind her caught her attention.
"What is this stuff?" one of the four bulky creatures behind her asked. Celestia took a few steps back in shock.
The beings were huge- nearly towering over Celestia by two feet. Each of their features- if there were any natural features -were hidden by the strange metal they wore. Each of the beings looked terrifying, almost like demons.
"Knowledge. A birthright from an ancient civilization." the female being from before spoke, capturing Celestia's attention once more. "This A.I. is it's custodian- and she has chosen you as her couriers."
"Chosen? By an A.I.?" one of the bulky creatures with a strange image that resembled a skull carved into its head asked.
"By this A.I." the female confirmed as she gently began tapping at little boxes. Celestia was incredibly confused. Inside a small bubble sat the blue creature she had fought before, but this version was so much smaller. "Yes. Her measure of you carries as much weight as my own. Perhaps even more...You are to take her to the UNSC Shipbreaking yard in Aszod. There, you'll find a Halcyon-class cruiser waiting to get her off-planet."
"I understand." the blue demon said. Celestia did not.
"Do you?" the female asked, almost mockingly. "Mankind is outmatched. When Reach falls- and it will fall -our annihilation is all but certain. Unless we can glean, from this artifact, a defense against the Covenant; a game changer. On the level of the conical bullet in nineteenth century, or faster-than-light travel in the twenty-third."
"And what if we can't?" the blue demon spoke again as Celestia began to tune everything out. She couldn't fully comprehend everything that was going on, but she was able to pick up bits and pieces. These creatures, Mankind, as the female had called it, were near total annihilation from "Covenant", whoever or whatever that was. This...This "A.I.", the blue being she had met before would be able to slow their extermination if not outright stop it. But that is what confused Celestia even more. Why would creatures go out of their way to harm others- to kill others?
"Say the words, please." the female said as Celestia tuned back into the scene.
In her hands she held a medium sized cylinder that glowed blue. Was this the A.I.?
One of the demons, dressed in black, reached out and grabbed the device. "I have it."
When Celestia blinked, the scene changed. Now, she found herself standing behind a giant metal bird that constantly roared with near deafening noise. The back of the metal bird opened and out stepped a sharply dressed bipedal creature, much like the female she had seen previously.
"Good to see you, Spartan. Catherine assured me I could count on you." it said, facing Celestia. But it was not referring to Celestia. Turning her head, the Sun Goddess found that she was face-to-torso with the black demon from before, who took the glowing cylinder from behind it and handed it off to the man.
"Not just me, sir."
The creature inside the bird stepped out and towards the demon, revealing many bipedal creatures behind it that held up long black sticks.
"They'll be remembered." it assured the demon, before turning back to the bird. "Cruiser, adjusting heading for the Autumn! Noble Four, I need fire on that cruiser or we're not getting out of here! Do you copy?"
Celestia could not hear the reply, or even fully grasp what the creature was doing. It had pressed its hand to its ear and was talking to itself. But why?
"Bridge, this is the Captain. We have the package. Returning to the Autumn, over."
As the male creature stepped back into the bird, sharp hissing could be heard from overhead- followed by an explosion from another birdlike beast that Celestia had not seen before. It's wings exploded and it flipped over, descending beyond Celestia's view before exploding once more.
Her attention turned to the sky, where a purple flying thing that Celestia could only place as resembling a drop of water descended. From this distance, she could not make out any features, but she was sure that two beings leapt out of the flying monster and landed near some strange device.
She stared for a while as she watched the strange beings do...Something before the metal bird returned.
"Lieutenant, get on board! We gotta get the hell out of here!" a creature yelled at the demon.
But the demon did not stir, save for grabbing the long black stick on it's back. "Negative. I have the gun. Good luck, sir."
Save for the roaring of the bird and the distant sounds of explosions, all was quiet until the sharply dressed bipedal responded. "Good luck to you, Spartan."
Celestia's understanding grew slightly. This creature, this demon, was sacrificing itself to save others of its kind. But why? What was so important about that cylinder?
The scene changed again, and Celestia found herself standing amongst several bipedals, most of them sitting at little indents in the walls. To her right stood the sharply dressed creature from before, along with the blue being.
"Captain Keyes." a voice sounded, and Celestia began to grow a bit tired of having to turn around all the time to see who was speaking. Behind her stood one of the demons, much like before, but this one was bulkier and green.
The sharply dressed man, whom Celestia had now identified as 'Captain Keyes', extended its arm and grabbed the demon's hand, shaking it up and down in an interesting manner. "Good to see you, Master Chief. Things aren't going well. Cortana did her best, but we never really had a chance."
"A dozen Covenant superior battleships against a single Halcyon-class cruiser. Given those odds I'm content with three...Make that four, kills. Sleep well?" the blue being asked. By now, Celestia had pieced together that this creature, who was now smaller for some strange reason, was named Cortana. So it hadn't lied about it's name...
"No thanks to your driving, yes." the green demon replied sarcastically.
"So you did miss me."
A loud explosion suddenly rocked the ship, and the bipedals around her stumbled before righting themselves.
"It must have been one of their boarding parties! I'd guess an Antimatter Charge!" Cortana replied.
"Ma'am! Fire control to the main cannon is offline!" a voice sounded. Celestia was beginning to become very agitated and hopeless. She had come here to help the creature, not relive its memories! And now she was having incredible amounts of trouble determining what exactly was going on!
"Captain, the cannon was my last offensive option."
"Alright then. I'm initiating Cole Protocol, Article 2. We're abandoning the Autumn. That means you too, Cortana." Captain Keyes ordered.
"While you do what, go down with the ship?"
"In a manner of speaking. The object we found, I'm going to try and land the Autumn on it."
"With all due respect, sir, this war has enough dead heroes." Cortana replied darkly.
Celestia's entire world ground to a halt.
War? War was what authors wrote about to scare ponies. War was an act held only in their ancient, ancient history that Celestia had worked years to cover up and in simple stories meant to horrify readers. And yet, these creatures were fighting as she sat here? Why were they fighting? Who were they fighting? ...What were they fighting?
"I appreciate your concern, Cortana, but it's not up to me. Protocol is clear. Destruction or capture of a shipboard AI is absolutely unacceptable, that means you're leaving the ship. Lock in a selection of emergency landing zones, upload them to my neural lace, and then sort yourself for a hard transfer."
"Aye aye, sir."
As Cortana simply vanished, Captain Keyes turned to the green demon.
"Which is where you come in, Chief. Get Cortana off this ship. Keep her safe from the enemy. If they capture her, they'll learn everything. Force deployment, weapons research... Earth."
"I understand."
Cortana reappeared a moment later on the small pedestal.
"The Autumn will continue evasive maneuvers until you initiate a landing sequence. Not that you'll listen, but I'd suggest letting my subroutines handle the final approach."
"Excellent work, Cortana. Thank you. Are you ready?"
Cortana looked about the bridge for a moment before sighing.
"Yank me."
Captain Keyes pulled a small black square with a glowing hole in the center from the pedestal, and Cortana disappeared from view. The Captain handed the thing to the green demon, who moved it to the back of his head before the scene ended and Celestia found herself floating in space once more.
"Cortana!" a familiar voice shouted, but Celestia saw nothing except the expansion of stars.
"I've spent the last 12 hours cooped up in here, watching you toady about, helping that thing get set to slit our throats!"
"Hold on now, he's a friend."
Cortana's voice switched from anger to mock. "Oh! I didn't realize. He's your pal, is he? Your chum? Do you have any idea what that bastard almost made you do?!"
"Yes... activate Halo's defenses, and destroy the Flood, which is why we brought the Index to the Control Center."
"You mean this?"
Celestia was becoming even more frustrated by the second. First, she was forced to review the memories of this being and learn the horrors of her kind, and now she couldn't even see anything!
"A construct?! In the Core?! That is absolutely unacceptable!" a new voice sounded.
"Sod off!"
"What impertinence! I shall purge you at once!"
"You sure that's a good idea?"
"How... How... How dare you! I'll-"
"Do what? I have the Index! You can just float and sputter!"
"Enough!" the original voice responded, and Celestia had placed it as being the green demons. "The Flood is spreading. If we activate Halo's defenses, we can wipe them out."
"You have no idea how this ring works, do you? Why the Forerunners built it? Halo doesn't kill Flood, it kills their food! Humans, Covenant, whatever. We're all equally edible. The only way to stop the Flood is to starve them to death. And that's exactly what Halo is designed to do: Wipe the galaxy clean of all sentient life. You don't believe me? Ask him!"
There was a pause before the green demon spoke up again.
"Is it true?"
"More or less. Technically, this installation's pulse has a maximum effective radius of twenty-five thousand light years. But, once the others follow suit, this galaxy will be quite devoid of life, or at least any life with sufficient biomass to sustain the Flood. But you already knew that... I mean, how couldn't you?"
"We have followed outbreak containment procedure to the letter. You were with me each step of the way as we managed this crisis. Why would you hesitate to do what you have already done? Last time, you asked me, if it were my choice, would I do it? Having had considerable time to ponder your query, my answer has not changed. There is no choice. We must activate the ring."
There was a considerable pause before the new voice continued. "If you are unwilling to help, I will simply find another. Still, I must have the Index. Give your construct to me, or I will be forced to take her from you."
"That's not going to happen."
"So be it. Save his head. Dispose of the rest."
All sounds ended, and still Celestia found herself floating in space, until an echoing laughter found its way to her ears.
"Are you enjoying our memories?" the red version of Cortana asked mockingly.
"My memories." the blue version replied. Both stood before the bewildered Celestia; Cortana glaring at her counterpart, and her counterpart smirking at Celestia.
"I-I don't understand. What's going on here?"
"Right now, you're head is inside my head. Our bodies are frozen in time in reality while we work in here." Cortana explained.
"And what about those memories? What were those about?"
"That's just it: they were memories. I wanted to show you why I'm here- the major events leading up to my arrival...Until this one interrupted." Cortana said, motioning towards her counterpart, who bowed gracefully.
"I'm still so confused..."
"Maybe it's better you don't fully know. Just believe me when I say I mean you and your kind no harm, and that this, the red version of me, is evil and needs to be removed from my programming."
"Your...What?"
"Oh, come now, Cortana. You know what that will do to you. A coin isn't a coin without two sides."
As the two beings began arguing between each other, Celestia's patience finally wore out.
"Enough!" she screamed as her wings flared. "I demand to know what exactly is going on now, from the blue one!"
A sinister grin found its way to the red one's face. "But I can show you, horsie."