Sir Godfrey
Pelegrin Crucis
Part I: Partings
In the Year of Our Lord 2557 A.D. The United Nations Space Corps (UNSC) has vanquished the religious alien collective known as The Covenant, and defeated another alien more ancient and brutal called The Didact and his Promethians. In the aftermath of victory, the dearest of friends, Master Chief, a super soldier, and an smart A. I. Named Cortana face the painful end of their journey together.
Cortana: Chief..
The Mighty Warrior in MJLONIER Armor that looked like tank armor of peridot green and visor of gold that reflected enemies and friends. The titan lay on the floor, when he began to stir.
Master Chief: Cortana?
Cortana: I am here John.
She rarely used his proper namesake, the military preferred formality and on missions she called him by his rank. However, their mission was at an end, and her rampancy, the break down and corruption of her neural net was reaching the final stages; in layman's terms she was dying.
Master Chief: Is it finished?
Cortana: Yes.. The Didact is no more but.. oh!
Her luminous blue glowing form fell on the ground, the digital circuitry that acting as a Jumpsuite was dimming.
Master Chief: Cortana!
Cortana: There is always cost for victory.. I admit this was more than I bargained for.
Master Chief: What did you do?
Cortana: I splintered myself and erased The Didact as planned. But.. my rampancy..
Master Chief: Dr. Halsley.. we have to get you to her. She can fix you.
Cortana: John.. we can’t all be Spartans anx put on a new coat of armor. It doesn’t work like that for us A.I.s.
Master Chief: What do I need to do?
Cortana: Nothing can be done John. This is one fight you cannot win.
Master Chief titles his helm down and then back up, reflecting her in his visor.
Master Chief: No! I won’t accepted failure. Lets find Halsley!
Cortana: I can hear him.. sometimes you let him slip through in moments like this.
Master Chief: Who?
Cortana: That frightened boy who long ago gave everything up, even his childhood to serve.
Master Chief: Cortana..
Cortana: I know.. I know, you don’t like him, but I do. John, your humanity is not a weakness, it is an asset and when I am gone, promise me you will find something beyond the machine, beyond the fighting.
Master Chief: I am a soldier, our duty is to defend humanity.*
Cortana: And you have done that. We have together. The Pirates, The Covenant, The Flood, and The Didact. When will it be enough John? When can you be at peace?
Master Chief: I am a Son of War, peace is alien to me.
Cortana: I know. Just promise me when I am gone you will consider it.
Master Chief: That is a promise I am not sure I can keep.
Cortana: It is ironic. I would give anything to become more human, to be with you. And you who are human would prefer to be machine, maybe that is why we are perfect for one another.
Master Chief: Cortana, I was suppose to take care of you..
Cortana: We were suppose to take care of each other and we did.*
Her voice rose a tempo like a key on piano in those last words.
Cortana: I have one last wish.
Master Chief: Anything.
Cortana: This will take a moment..
Suddenly the small blue figure of a woman rose to a full height.
Master Chief: Cortana?
Cortana: This cannot be the strangest thing you’ve seen today.*
She said this in a playful tone as she was want to do.
Cortana: Now.. give me your hand.
Master Chief held out his gauntlet clade hand with leather finger guards that touched her hollow looking blue hand which rather than passing through wrapped around his fingers.
Cortana: I have wanted to do that for such a long time..*
Master Chief: Cortana..
His voice trembled, and cracked, revealing how moved he was by this connection.
Cortana: You know what would make this moment perfect?
She raised her free hand up to his visor.
Cortana: To look on you with my own eyes.
Master Chief: You know what I look like.
Cortana: True.. indulge me, let a girl see the man who never quit on her.
Master Chief pulled the seals beneath his Mark VI helm. As he raised it off, scars and glowing silver lines marked his face, his eyes glowing the same and his hair streaked in silver light.
Cortana: You look.. nice.+
She smiled, this had been words she had uttered before orbiting Earth in what seemed a lifetime ago. Cortana placed her glowing hands on his cheeks and raised her lips to his. In that moment she wasn’t a construct, she wasn’t a artificial intelligent clone, she was a woman saying goodbye to her dearest friend. As she removed her lips, she fell and John caught her.
Cortana: Welcome home John*. Protocols always forbade me from saying it.. I love you.
A silver tear descended The Master Chieg’s cheek as Cortana’s toes and feet began to break into pixels, into shards of code that flew into sir like cherry blossoms.
John: Cortana.. I..
Cortana: I know.. John, it was an honor, our Great Journey together.
With those words her body broke apart into shards and her face fell as her hand reached one last time for his chin.
John: Cortana! I love you!
As he said that her lips smiled as they faded away and her eyes fixed on him and her ears heard those words she had waited a long time to hear. Like a pillar of salt the pixes fell in his hand and she was gone.
The Spartan who had been stone cracked as he fell on his knees and scooped the last blue embers of his friend like ashes into his helmet and placed it upon his head, sealing it closed.
She was gone…
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Acknowledgments:
- Description of John/ Master Chief beneath the mask comes from Eric Nylund’s Original Halo: The Fall of Reach
- Some lines are from Halo 4 verbatim, ones that have asterisk * are Halo 4 lines.
- “You look nice,” Halo 2, Bungie
