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The Siege of Zion Base; Part Two: Siege - Chapter 9
Posted By: Scimitarex<scimitarex@omegacell.com>
Date: 23 February 2004, 2:40 AM
Read/Post Comments
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1545 Hours, December 8, 2552
Sinai Star System, UNSC Test
Facility, code name: Zion,
planet Genesis
Cortana had been off-line for hours. After she and Dr. Mathis had left the medical wing, they had been walking toward the main complex when the first bombs hit. Dr. Mathis had taken Cortana, in her small, portable holotank off-line when the attack had begun. Cortana had told Mathis that they needed to find some place quiet and out of the way to hide in until it the facility was safe from more bombings.
Mathis had been briefed on a bunker system that was buried beneath the main buildings of the Zion facility that had been built as fallout shelters. The bunkers could hold nearly the entire complement of the base's personnel, which was why most of those people were already in the bunkers. The bunkers were small, and self-contained. Each bunker had their own medical quarters, which could service twenty people in an emergency, sleeping quarters, which consisted of mostly a few rows of bunk beds, and a command room that contained a communication system, computers and hard-lines to the rest of the facility's databases. There were eighteen of these bunkers under the main facility and its various wings, and all of them were interconnected which small hallways. These hallways served as fail-safes so that if one entrance into the bunkers was destroyed or blocked, the occupants could travel to another bunker and still have a way out after the danger had passed.
They had made their way to one such entrance and once they were safe again, Mathis had found someplace in the command room to link Cortana into the main facility's computer to find out what in blazes was going on.
However, it had been nearly three hours before Mathis had been able to get into the bunkers and link her up, so the battle had been raging for quite awhile already. The Covenant had landed and was advancing toward Zion base through the city, using it as cover. Drop ships were deploying troops throughout the city, holding key positions along invasion corridors clear of Marines so that they could advance without any heavy resistance. The humans had stifled the Covenant's secondary invasion group, but the main force was pushing though to the command center in the middle of the city.
However, the city itself, though larger than Zion Base, had it's own network of bunkers that were slightly larger built under it, inside the plateau. The thousands of people who had lived there had started evacuation procedures immediately after the alarms had sounded. The populace had entered "The Catacombs", as they were called, and were waiting for the all-clear signal to depart. The bunkers had one facility that the base bunkers didn't have: a hangar. The hangars exited from the cliff wall in the plateau a few hundred feet below the city's edge, and held escape vehicles that had semi-light drive capabilities. The ships, though numerous, were only for a quick escape in an emergency and nothing more.
"Well, it looks like our boys need some help. Any way to get a call for reinforcements out?" asked Mathis. Her face was blotched with soot and ash, her coat and dress had numerous small rips from debris that had caught her in the explosions. Fortunately most of the damage to her body was only superficial; a few scrapes and bruises, but she had received a rather large piece of shrapnel in her right thigh. She had access to a small medical bay in the bunker they were currently residing in so she had patched herself up already with BioFoam patches for the larger cuts on her thigh, and bandages for the smaller cuts.
It was a good thing they hadn't been in the building when it had been hit. The laboratory they had been working in was nearly leveled to the ground. Luckily they had finished their research and fully implemented the new neural network before the Covenant had arrived, otherwise they would have lost weeks of data.
Cortana, in holographic form from the holotank she was linked with, was linked directly with the Zion main tactical computers. She had access to video and audio feeds, field reports and transmissions. She tried to find a Slipspace frequency that wasn't being severely jammed, but she could find one.
Cortana let out a long sigh. She didn't need to breath, but emulating human responses came natural to her since she was a direct replica of Dr. Catherine Halsey's mind. "No, I'm afraid not. They've jammed everything. Our forces on the ground and in space can communicate with each other, but getting a transmission out of the system is impossible."
She hated to be right, but it was true. Sometimes, but only sometimes, the Covenant overlooked an emergency band or two, but now they were getting much better at effectively jamming all out-system frequencies. Their only hope to was jump a ship out of the system and then signal for backup, but that would take time. Time they didn't have.
The Covenant had only three ships left in orbit, with three more on the surface disgorging troops every second. The UNSC only had six ships, and nine orbital cannons left from the original nineteen ships and twenty-four orbital cannons they had had at the start of the battle. The Covenant had only lost four ships total and the UNSC had taken thirteen losses in ships. The battle was much in the favor of the Covenant. Their only choice was to get word out for backup.
Only a ship with Slipspace capability could get away, and all capital ships were engaged with the Covenant. The escape craft for the civilian population had Slipspace capability, but only for short distances and their COM equipment wasn't as sophisticated as a capital ship's and didn't have the range that was needed. They had to persuade the commander of the fleet that it was worth it to send a ship.
"Open a channel to the fleet commander, will you please, doctor?" asked Cortana, without bothering to explain her actions.
"Channel open," replied a tired Mathis. She was not an AI and was susceptible to fatigue. She was looking very dreary eyed from working on the project for so long and now the battle was taking it's toll.
"Thank you," said Cortana. "Why don't you get some sleep? This bunker can protect us for a long time, and I need no further assistance. Get some rest."
Mathis yawned and blinked her eyes. "Well, I suppose it couldn't hurt. Wake me if you need anything. And thank you." She turned and left the small room in the bunker and headed to the adjacent bunkroom.
Cortana turned back to her work and linked with the channel Mathis had provided. "Commander, this is Cortana, what is your status?"
Commodore Helen Pierce appeared on the screen. Her face was disheveled and looking tired much like Dr. Mathis had looked. She looked around at something that took her attention then back at the transmission. "We can't hold out, they've got more than enough fire power left to finish us off. How goes it ground side?"
"Not well, the Covenant are invading the city to capture the Zion facility."
"It's as I thought," sighed Pierce, "they're after the base to capture all our research. We can't let that happen, but we can't destroy the research either."
Cortana squinted, "Commander, I think you should send a ship out of system to bring reinforcements. There's no other possible way to hold out otherwise."
Pierce nodded with a resolved look on her face. "Very well, I'll send the ship that has the best chance of making it out of the system. But even if they get a signal out, there's no guarantee the UNSC will send enough ships. And what if the Covenant bring in more ships of their own?"
"We have to consider the possibility, but we have to try, too much is at stake here."
Pierce nodded gravely, then inched close to the holoscreen. She whispered, as if so that only Cortana could hear her, "Cortana, there is something I need to talk to you about, but I'm busy at the moment. I'm sending you a document on a special encryption key that you should have no trouble decoding. It regards my suspicions about a possible traitor, or traitors, that might have precipitated this attack."
Cortana frowned. That did explain the suddenness of the attack, and the fact that they had been taken so completely by surprise. She couldn't comprehend the repercussions this could have if it were true.
"Ready to receive file, Commander," Cortana replied.
Pierce signed off to return to the battle after the transfer was finished. Cortana opened the file and it read:
INCOMING TRANSMISSION
Priority:Alpha
Encryption Code: Bravo-Echo-One-Three-Niner
From: Commodore Helen Pierce, Commanding Officer, UNSC
Cruiser Barca
To:Cortana, (Artificial Intelligence Identification Number:
923E1-7G3-AIS5602)
Subject:CLASSIFIED (Wolf in the Fold)
Classification: RESTRICTED
/start file/
Cortana,
I made this file a few hours ago after I had found evidence of possible treasonous activities by UNSC personnel. As fleet operations commander, I knew you were in system, and I think you're the best hope of helping root out any possible information leak due to your previous experiences with infiltration. You were listed as MIA when I tried to send this, so that's why I haven't sent this document until now, I've been waiting for more news on your current status.
I had had a calculation created on the possibility of a traitor or collaborator based on the data of the recent attack. The speed, and precision of this attack, not to mention that fact that the knowledge of this system itself is was previously unknown to the Covenant, could have only been carried out with inside information.
Now, the calculation predicted a 96% probability that a traitor is the most plausible explanation. I have ruled out the possible scenario of a Covenant spy, due to the security of the system and it's location. The only way they could have gotten this information out was if someone high up in the chain of command had let it to get out.
I'm not asking you go snooping around to root the leak out by yourself, but if you find anything, please let me know. This leak needs to be stopped at any cost.
Sincerely,
H. Pierce.
/end file/
Would you like to read attached documents? Y/N?
Cortana activated the attached documents; several were visual recordings of when the Covenant had jumped in-system. The precision was flawless, they had known exactly where each of the UNSC's ships had been. The calculation file was exactly as Pierce had described. All the evidence pointed to a leak, and the only way that leak could have happened in this system was if someone high up in the UNSC command chain had let it through.
She knew she had her work cut out for her. She had to find evidence of a traitor who knew exactly what he was doing. At first thought, she thought of the possibility of a Covenant AI, but when she checked Pierce's files she saw the file of the universal fleet ship scan she had attempted. No foreign AIs were present.
Cortana sighed again. She didn't like this. The leak had to be plugged before something even more disastrous happened. And she had no idea where to even start looking for it.
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