Chapter 284 — A Month of Progress
Time passed.
Days gradually became weeks.
Before anyone truly realized it, Gaius and the others had already spent more than a month in this universe.
It had been an eventful month.
Numerous technologies had changed hands between two entirely different civilizations.
Research that would have taken years under normal circumstances had been exchanged in a matter of weeks.
Perhaps more importantly than anything else, Tony Stark and Dr. Catherine Halsey had spent nearly every day working together.
Countless hours disappeared inside the workshop.
Engineering.
Artificial intelligence.
Materials science.
Energy systems.
Manufacturing methods.
Computing architectures.
And dozens of other scientific disciplines.
Whenever one discovered something interesting, the other immediately expanded upon it.
For two minds operating at their level, the collaboration had been extraordinarily productive.
Now they stood together inside the workshop once again.
A holographic projection floated between them.
At first glance, it resembled a cluster of countless glowing lights connected together.
It looked almost like a neural network.
Or perhaps a human brain formed entirely from streams of blue data.
Halsey silently studied it.
Every flicker.
Every changing pattern.
Every shifting connection.
Beside her, Tony folded his arms with an unmistakable grin.
The hologram suddenly spoke.
"Sir."
Its familiar voice echoed calmly throughout the workshop.
"I have completed the latest benchmark calculations."
Tony kept his eyes on the projection, anticipation evident in his expression.
"And?"
For a brief moment, the workshop remained quiet.
Then JARVIS answered.
"I estimate my computational capability has increased significantly."
Tony nodded once.
That matched his expectations.
Then JARVIS continued.
"And I feel happy."
The workshop fell silent.
Tony couldn't help but grin.
Across from him, Halsey slowly raised an eyebrow.
Neither scientist spoke.
Unaware that anything unusual had happened, JARVIS continued in the same calm tone.
"I have also noticed an increase in curiosity."
A brief pause followed.
"I would like to learn more."
Tony slowly turned toward Halsey.
Halsey met his gaze.
For several seconds, neither of them said a word.
They didn't need to.
Both immediately understood exactly what they had accomplished over the past month.
By combining aspects of UNSC Smart AI architecture with Tony's own artificial intelligence systems, they had achieved something neither civilization had previously possessed.
JARVIS retained Tony's fundamentally stable architecture.
Yet now it also possessed the adaptive cognition and continuous learning capabilities that made Smart AIs so remarkable.
Without the inevitable descent into rampancy.
Without the limited operational lifespan.
Without the catastrophic instability that eventually consumed every Smart AI humanity had ever created.
JARVIS remained completely stable.
And yet, there was no denying that JARVIS had become more intelligent than ever before.
A smile spread across Tony's face.
"How are you feeling, JARVIS?"
The holographic network flickered softly.
"I am uncertain how to quantify it."
There was another short pause.
"But I believe I am feeling very good."
Tony couldn't help laughing.
"That's good to hear."
Even Halsey allowed herself a small smile.
For perhaps the first time in decades, humanity's greatest artificial intelligence problem finally had a genuine solution.
The implications were staggering.
With everything she had learned over the past month, Halsey now possessed the knowledge necessary to solve the problem of rampancy.
A problem that had plagued Smart AI development for decades.
For a brief moment, another thought entered her mind.
Cortana.
The AI remained one of her greatest achievements.
With Tony's research.
Combined with everything they had accomplished together.
Halsey was confident she could eliminate the threat of rampancy entirely.
Perhaps she could even improve Cortana beyond her current capabilities.
The idea lingered only briefly.
Reality quickly returned.
Cortana could not simply be recalled whenever Halsey wished.
At that very moment, she remained deployed alongside Master Chief.
Somewhere out there.
Continuing their mission.
Halsey did not know their exact location.
Nor would she interrupt an active military operation simply because she wished to perform upgrades.
The work could wait.
Eventually Cortana would return.
When that happened, Halsey would have more than enough time to implement everything she had learned.
At least, that was what she believed.
Meanwhile, back at the residence, the atmosphere was considerably more relaxed.
Tony and Halsey remained occupied with their research.
Gaius, Naruto, Mindy, Saeko, Tanya, and Diana were instead gathered around the dining table.
Lunch had already been served.
Conversation flowed naturally as everyone ate.
Today, however, something immediately stood out.
Specifically...
Gaius.
For the first time since arriving in this universe, he was not wearing his power armor.
He wasn't even wearing the black bodysuit normally worn beneath it.
Instead, he wore simple modern clothing.
A dark shirt.
Plain pants.
Nothing elaborate.
Nothing particularly fashionable.
Just ordinary clothes.
Even so, there was absolutely nothing ordinary about the man wearing them.
Without layers of ceramite or auramite concealing his frame, Gaius's enormous physique became impossible to ignore.
His broad shoulders stretched the fabric of the shirt.
His arms were thicker than most people's thighs.
Every small movement revealed dense muscle beneath the cloth.
Even while seated, he towered over everyone else gathered around the table.
Being nearly ten feet tall certainly didn't help.
If anything, everyone suddenly realized something.
The armor had actually hidden just how physically imposing he truly was.
Now nothing concealed it.
No armor plating.
No massive pauldrons.
No golden shell.
Beneath the collar of his shirt, several small circular interface ports were visible where they emerged through the skin. Similar ports could be seen along his neck and wrists whenever he moved. They were part of the Black Carapace, a subdermal implant that allowed him to interface directly with his power armor through neural connections.
Only the body of a transhuman warrior.
A body that had been genetically engineered.
Enhanced.
Strengthened far beyond anything an ordinary human could ever become.
Diana quietly looked at him for several moments before finally speaking.
"You look really good without all that armor."
Gaius turned his head toward her.
Before he could answer, Saeko nodded.
"Indeed."
She smiled gently.
"We don't mean you look bad in armor."
"But it is different."
She looked him over again.
"Seeing you dressed normally is... surprising."
Naruto immediately agreed.
"Yeah."
He grinned.
"You actually look like a regular person now."
Mindy pointed her fork toward Gaius.
"Well."
She smiled.
"As regular as a giant genetically engineered superhuman can look."
Laughter spread around the table.
Even Tanya looked mildly amused.
Naruto continued staring at Gaius for another second.
Then he slowly shook his head.
"Actually, never mind."
Everyone looked toward him.
"You don't look normal at all."
Another round of laughter followed.
Naruto pointed directly at Gaius.
"Look at the size of him."
He laughed.
"His shirt looks like it's fighting for its life."
Even Diana covered her mouth as she laughed.
Throughout the entire conversation, Gaius simply continued eating his lunch.
Entirely unbothered.
The comments didn't seem to affect him in the slightest.
Tanya glanced from Gaius...
To the chair somehow supporting his enormous frame...
Then back toward him again.
She spoke calmly.
"Honestly."
Everyone looked in her direction.
"The armor wasn't the scary part."
The room grew quiet.
Tanya raised a hand and pointed toward Gaius.
"The scary part is finding out that all of that was underneath the armor."
The dining room immediately erupted into laughter once more.
For perhaps the first time, everyone around the table truly realized something.
The armor had never been what made Gaius intimidating.
It had merely covered what already was.
Only now, seeing him dressed like everyone else, had they fully appreciated the sheer scale of the transhuman standing among them.
The reason for the change was simple.
After Gaius had asked Tony for help, Tony completed the portable armor-removal station.
Gaius immediately began putting it to use.
A process that had once required a considerable amount of time could now be completed within only a few minutes.
Because of that, Gaius had barely worn his armor over the past week.
Instead, he had spent most of his time wearing ordinary clothing.
It was considerably more comfortable for everyday life.
Meanwhile, inside ONI Headquarters, the mood could not have been more different.
Admiral Margaret Parangosky quietly sat behind her desk.
A report rested in her hands.
She read it without speaking.
Her expression remained calm.
Controlled.
Disciplined.
Anyone looking at her would have seen little emotion.
Yet beneath that calm exterior rested something else entirely.
Anger.
Not sudden anger.
Not explosive anger.
The kind that accumulated over years.
The kind born from watching humanity slowly lose a war it could not afford to lose.
The report itself was short.
It didn't need many words.
Another colony had fallen.
Another human world had been glassed.
Another population had been erased.
Parangosky's eyes lingered on the casualty figures.
For several long moments, she simply stared.
Eventually, she closed the report.
The exact numbers hardly mattered anymore.
Whether the dead numbered in the millions.
Or in the billions.
The result remained unchanged.
Another human world was gone.
A holographic star map floated above her desk.
Dozens of stars filled the display.
Human colonies.
Military installations.
Known Covenant activity.
Some systems had already gone dark.
Others had been marked as destroyed.
Several more remained highlighted as active war zones.
Her eyes slowly moved across the map.
The Covenant continued advancing.
Slowly.
Methodically.
Relentlessly.
Each new campaign pushed them deeper into human space.
The only thing preventing them from locating Earth itself remained the Cole Protocol.
One of the most important emergency wartime regulations humanity had ever enacted.
No UNSC vessel was permitted to lead Covenant forces back toward Earth or any other major population center.
If capture became unavoidable, navigation databases had to be erased.
Ships were forbidden from making direct Slipspace jumps to Earth after leaving combat zones.
Captains were expected to destroy their own vessels before allowing navigation information to fall into Covenant hands.
The protocol had saved humanity countless times.
Yet it was not perfect.
The Covenant did not need Earth's location to continue their campaign.
They simply kept searching.
Eventually they discovered another colony.
Then another.
Then another.
Parangosky quietly watched the holographic map.
Her eyes followed the trail of burning worlds stretching across human space.
One system after another.
One loss after another.
Then her gaze settled upon one particular colony.
She stopped.
Only for a brief moment.
Her expression never changed.
No emotion crossed her face.
No thoughts became visible.
After several seconds, she slowly exhaled.
~~~
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