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The Siege of Zion Base; Part Three: Revelation -Chapter 12
Posted By: Scimitarex<scimitarex@omegacell.net>
Date: 25 March 2004, 8:10 PM
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1705 Hours, December 8, 2552
Sinai Star System, UNSC Test
Facility, code name: Zion,
planet Genesis
"You what?" said Cortana incredulously. She obviously couldn't believe the fact that Arthur McLeod, the Colonel in charge of the planet's defense would have been the one to lead the Covenant here.
McLeod raised his head back up, "I can't give you the answers you want right now, however, I am still in command and I am ordering you to stop searching for source leaks."
"With all due respect, I think that if you did send those signals whatever command authority you had is nullified," said Cortana, her temper flaring. She was normally temperamental, but John had not seen her act this way since their time on Halo. There, once she had found out about 343 Guilty Spark's plans to destroy all life in the galaxy, she had been more than somewhat aggressive in her attitude, just as she was now.
"Look, this goes beyond what you can know. Just drop it. That's an order," said McLeod, asserting his authority.
Cortana's skin flared dark red. "I think you need to explain a bit more before I do anything. Don't forget I am an AI whose main purpose is software and hardware infiltration. I will find out, one way or another."
John just stood there, unsure of what to say so he said nothing. Obviously McLeod had sent the transmission; he had admitted it himself. But why had he done it? And why had he told them he was the one who had sent it? Finally he thought he knew the answer, and it all fit together like a big puzzle.
"He's telling the truth, Cortana," said John in McLeod's defense.
Cortana's mouth almost dropped. "How can you say that? He's admitted he sent it, and now he has the audacity to tell me to keep quiet? I think you took a bigger beating out there than you thought, Chief."
John didn't back down. "Exactly: he told us he sent it. If he really were a spy or traitor, then why would he tell us?" John turned to face Dr. Mathis, "You were in on this too weren't you?"
Mathis looked at her feet. "Yes, for my part."
John looked back to Cortana. "Dr. Mathis called McLeod as soon as you had found something. She had to make sure that word didn't spread of this, and the best way to keep it secret was to convince us that there really is more going on that what you had found, which you couldn't have known. If you had found out about McLeod before he told us, he would have lost all credibility."
Cortana seemed to ponder this. Her skin turned purple again as she calmed down. "Okay, let's say I buy this theory of yours. That still doesn't explain his actions."
McLeod nodded and folded his hands behind his back. He was hesitant to say anything, but as he thought about it, the more he realized that they deserved the truth, or at least a portion of it.
"Very well then," said McLeod finally. "About a week before you arrived here, we discovered a Covenant AI spy in our facility databases. The AI was programmed simply to spy on us and report all activity in the system of potential tactical value. One of our scientists was able to contain the AI in a repeating diagnostic matrix, effectively trapping it, and it was no longer able to send piggybacked transmissions. After a few days of study, the spooks from ONI sent an envoy here to check it out. Less than twelve hours after he had filed his report to HQ, we were told to initiate an operation code named "Burning Bush". This operation required us to reverse-decompile the memory centers of the Covenant AI and access the command codes within it. We extracted the signal transmission codes and used them to feed the Covenant false information on this system in hopes for them to attack it sometime in the future. That way, we could determine the ground of this battle and hopefully deal a big blow to the Covenant. The Covenant never knew we had even caught their spy, let alone replaced it with our own."
McLeod stopped and crossed his arms in front of his chest. Cortana simply took all this information in. "Did Commodore Pierce know about this?" she asked.
"No. We were under orders not to tell anyone any more than we absolutely needed too, to keep the illusion that nothing had changed. She was more astute as discerning the situation than I gave her credit for. I had no idea that you, or anyone, had found out about the transmission until Mathis had called me."
Cortana was still a little confused. Why had McLeod left that tiny bit of telling evidence in the logs? "Why did you that ghost log in the transmission buffer then?" asked Cortana.
"Oh yes, that. That was my tactical AI's handiwork. Gabriel wanted to leave a little telling evidence just in case I was accused of treason. He thought that it would go a long way to help me if someone, like you, found something else that we might have overlooked, that way it would look like we were trying to warn the people here. It was his personal backdoor for me. He only told me about it after Mathis had called me down here. I should have had him reprogrammed, but he was only making sure I didn't get burned," he paused, "not to mention the fact that ONI hasn't been above turning their back on someone or something they didn't want out in the open."
Cortana understood better now. If ONI decided to disavow all knowledge of the operation and put him away, he would be able to go to the UNSC brass and tell them what happened. ONI had its ruthless moments, and a man like McLeod wasn't one to become some spook's fall guy if the OP went south.
John understood as well, and he commended McLeod with his commitment to duty. If the Covenant could be beat here in another decisive victory, it would set their march on Earth back even more. "So, where to we stand?" he asked.
McLeod moved and pointed to a screen on the console on the right wall of the small command room. "The Covenant brought less ships than we anticipated, and still they are beating us. However, we knew that with the forces we had here that they would attack in a smaller number, and we counted on it. Thanks to Cortana, who saved me the time of ordering it myself, Pierce sent the Firebrand-class destroyer Faust out of the system to call in reinforcements. After they arrive, the Covenant will undoubtedly bring in their own, all we have to do is make sure that the Covenant don't catch on that we want their reinforcements to show up." McLeod was pointing at a screen showing the positions of the UNSC and Covenant ships in orbit. The Covenant was falling back to the edge of the system and the UNSC were letting them, trying to regroup.
John saw that the Covenant could send out a transmission or ship for reinforcements at any time they chose from that distance. They might be waiting until they knew how many reinforcements they needed before they sent for it. They were biding their time now, but that didn't stop the larger ships from sending the occasional plasma torpedo toward the planet.
Cortana spoke up, "A good plan, though when can we expect the reinforcements to arrive? And how many ships will we get?"
McLeod pointed to an exit vector in the system. "What the Covenant don't know, is that we have a fleet ready in a adjacent star system that will jump as soon as it gets word from the Faust. They will exit here, in between the planet and the Covenant position at the edge of the system. The fleet contains about a hundred or so ships of various classes. Leading the fleet will be three Dreadnought-class heavy battle cruisers: the Liberty, Freedom, and Justice. Even if the Covenant does bring in reinforcements, they wouldn't have thought that they would need so many to take down this force." McLeod paused for a few seconds then continued, "The fleet will jump a small force into the system, wait for the Covenant reinforcements to show up, then jump the remaining larger force in system to crush them."
It was a sound plan, but John was getting anxious. He was about to ask if he could be allowed to go back to help defend the city, which was still a problem in itself. The Marines had to defend the city so the people had time to evacuate the planet as soon as it was safe in orbit.
"What about he ground forces?" John asked.
McLeod hit a few controls and the image on the screen changed from the space battle to a view of the planet's surface. "The main city population is ready to depart the planet now. I was still deciding whether or not to give the go ahead for evacuation, but with the city still a hot zone, the population has no where to run except to space. The Marines are holding their ground, the rift to the north halted the Covenant's secondary advance all together, but the main force still drives toward the command center and the Zion facility."
John saw the potential danger. If the Covenant did manage to knock out the command center, the city would be lost and the Covenant could enter the underground evacuation hangars and kill the entire civilian population. "The fighting in orbit had dulled, perhaps you should order the evacuation codes and get the civilians out of the system. That way at least they wouldn't be a potential factor in command decisions in the future."
"The skies above the city are still filled with air and space fighters. Could the airfield to the east cover so many ships in orbit?" said Mathis.
McLeod changed the view again to view the airfield. It was a well-oiled machine, fighters being re-armed, and re-fueled, taking off, landing all in a very efficient way. "Quartermaine's lost a lot of fighters, but we might be able to break off some fighters from orbit to escort them. All right, I'll give the order to evacuate the planet's civilians. Once they're out of system they'll be safe and out of harm's way in the event something happens that we haven't foreseen."
McLeod turned and left the room, Dr. Mathis with him. They went to the elevator and ascended to the main floor at ground level. Cortana waited until they left to speak. She had been thinking on something since the beginning of the conversation and she couldn't keep it in any longer. "Something's not right."
John turned around, searching for his helmet, which he had taken off. "What makes you say that?" he said while re-attaching his helmet.
Cortana looked back at the screens of battle. "I don't know, I just feel like there's more danger here than McLeod is letting on. Either that or he doesn't know all the facts. He seemed a little sidetracked, like something was out of place."
Cortana turned around on her holotank and sighed. "Well, whatever it was, it might not be important, or even existent for all I know. Let's get me back in the suit, my work here is done."
John disengaged Cortana's datachip from the holotank and inserted it into his suit's neural lace attachment slot behind his head. He felt the refreshing coolness of Cortana's matrix interacting with the suit.
"Home, sweet home," said Cortana. She had always liked it better in the MJOLNIR suit, than a holotank for some reason. Probably because she felt safer under all the armor.
John hefted his Battle Rifle back up and checked its ammo. "Let's get going, I want to get back to help defend the command center. They'll need ever hand they can get," said John. With that, he walked out of the control room over to the elevator that would lead back up to the surface. He hit the button and waited for the lift to descend. He waited few seconds and the door slid open.
In the elevator was a shimmering blur that bellowed a war cry, and charged.
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