Khaela.
The landing on planet Venice was routine. And it confirmed the utter strangeness of what was happening. Minimum destruction, following a landing not by Citadel forces or rebels, but by The Covenant. Under normal conditions, such forces would have slaughtered the entire colony, all eleven million people, Glassing the cities. But about a day had passed since the attack, and The Covenant had only just begun the sweep. They simply hadn't had time. On the other hand, there were no traces of orbital strikes. It's not like The Covenant to be cautious with human cities. But look down at the planet. There isn't a single plasma crater. The Covenant forces, as it quickly turned out, were also absent from the planet. Only rebels.
They were not ready! At all. I didn't even have to send the Avatar into battle. We waited for the soldiers to clear the area, while I spent all that time digging through the planetary network, crushing the local AI with priority access. The conclusions are not the most encouraging. And they confirm earlier findings: the rebels were helping The Covenant. This is a joint operation.
Instead of flying with the others to the ONI building, my escort squad and my Avatar headed to the local Militia precinct. More precisely, an ODST squad took the power station and blacked out the city, then went to occupy administrative buildings.
The Avatar flew to the People's Militia building. The thing is, the ONI building was professionally blacked out at the very beginning of The Covenant attack. Disconnected from the main grid. Backup generators were knocked out, and they knew exactly where to hit. Not enough for you? The Covenant landed exactly on the building in Phantoms and pods, so there are no survivors there. They sent Unggoy to suppress the garrison, but the ONI building was purposefully attacked by Elites with a pair of Mgalekgolo. And they acted carefully!
Collateral casualties among the population were minimal. It's quite obvious what they bought the local rebels with. I don't know who or how persuaded The Covenant to show restraint, but they did it. Although with such an attacking force (Mgalekgolo, Elites, and MANY Unggoy), it's easier than with Kig-Yar or Jiralhanae.
I can almost guarantee that The Covenant and those who arrived with them were looking for something. This is the result of reviewing camera footage and the local network. I want to know exactly who arrived and what exactly they were looking for. That's why we're looking for local cameras; they must have been monitoring the situation from somewhere. That's also why they blacked out the city—it will be harder to just erase the data.
The Militia building met us with silence and armed people peering out of the windows. A monumental structure made of bunker concrete with thick walls. Almost a fort. A voice came over the speakers:
"Go away! The UNSC has no business here!" and when I stepped out, a surprised addition: "A Spartan?"
Yes, I brought the Avatar here specifically for this. To apply moral pressure. So, turn on the external speakers and announce:
"I suggest we do this differently. You don't interfere with our work, and I guarantee that only the guilty will be punished. Out of the way, an Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) operation is underway. You have been warned. Anyone who interferes is considered an enemy. Don't do anything stupid."
"Go f— yourself! Tin can!"
At that moment, ODST forces were already landing on the roof, and squads were moving in from the rear. The building has anti-assault specifics, so we aren't going to play by the rules and rush the front. Fortunately, the UNSC knows not only how to build such buildings but also how to storm them; the plans have been ready for a long time. Shooting began, or rather, the sweep. Rank-and-file members were immediately discarded; investigators would deal with the leadership. Intelligence acts harshly, especially when there is certainty that the enemy collaborated with The Covenant, and thanks to them, many experienced officers and operatives died. The same awaits the scavenger teams and local militia found in the ONI office.
The Avatar, scattering the guards, flew into the office through the main door (blew it out with a Gravity Hammer) and caused a riot there. These are humans, rebels, not The Covenant. Even though many of them have armor with Kinetic Barriers, it won't help them now. According to my projections, if these people had faced infantry a decade ago, the locals would have had a chance to drive casualties high. But new armor, shields, and robots have shifted the situation. As has the presence of personal energy shields among the ODST members.
Enemy officers and privates tried to shoot back; the shield was dropped, and I had to take cover. A shout rang out:
"Hey! Come on out, Spartan! Not so cocky now? Huh?"
Pff, while the Avatar draws attention, a technician connected my communication module to their system, and the ODST is clearing the room from other directions. The assault continues; they just don't realize it. The shields recharged, and I made another dash, generating a couple more corpses. I triggered flashbang grenades. We must act cautiously but as loudly as possible.
The entire sweep took less than five minutes. Finally, the Avatar stopped its dance and went upstairs, where the ODST was quickly gathering the captured officers. They reacted to the Avatar mostly nervously, suspiciously. Only their leader spat openly, trying to hit the armor. I've seen such a maneuver in folklore many times, but I still haven't understood its meaning.
"Government lapdogs," growled the rebel, a tall and massive black man.
The Avatar stopped and looked at him through the helmet visor.
"I have a proposal for you. You won't accept it; you're proud. But I'll voice it anyway. Just so there are no complaints. But I'll be glad when you refuse."
The man snorted.
"Go f— yourself!" and added a profane monologue, which I listened to boredly, letting him speak his fill.
As if that works on me.
"I want to know what your trading partners promised you for blacking out the city and guiding The Covenant to the military and government buildings. And what you know about what was taken off-planet."
The man laughed.
"As if I'd answer you," and added a few more obscenities, "you're just another animal with no will of its own."
The Avatar nodded.
"Just as I thought. I wanted to offer to trade this information for the lives of your subordinates. But no means no. I assume you didn't know anything; you were used blindly. Supplied with weapons, personal shields. Everything you could never even dream of. And promised that only UNSC forces would be slaughtered if you didn't get in the way. You had no idea their goal was the servers. And now, all you have is your pride. And you…"
An emergency message came from the ONI building:
"There's a bomb here!"
"Evacuate!"
And then about half the city drowned in a plasma explosion. Blue flame flooded the streets, turning buildings into liquid, vaporizing organic matter.
***
Having lost the Avatar's signal, I felt some irritation. Bold. And we only managed to extract a small portion of the information. Yes, The Covenant attacked the planet. They attacked purposefully, knowing where to hit. And two things are interesting here.
First: The Covenant did not inflict secondary damage. There were no Banshees racing over the city, strafing everything in sight. With such forces in orbit, they could have staged a real massacre. But they didn't, limiting themselves to surgical strikes. And when we arrived, they detonated a charge. If it even was The Covenant, and there are doubts here.
The second point: Council Races among The Covenant forces. Not for the first time; they've been pestering us since the Halo incident. And it's not always clear who are voluntary joiners and who are intelligence agents brought to visit us. But even so, they provided the defenders with a lot of problems. The Covenant ships greatly increase the enemy's mobility, allowing them to have operational bases that still need to be found. And since both groups act jointly, the command has no clear decision on "whom to bomb." No, there are those who want to level several Citadel colonies, but that decision was killed by cooler heads. Because if these are sectarian radicals, like Cerberus, an additional chaos might not convince them. More evidence and a more precise response are needed.
In essence, Earth, Reach, and the other worlds are saved only by the secret of their location. A secret the Citadel is trying to reach with all its might. And for which the bombing of home worlds will follow. Even if by the forces of the Infinity ships and Boundless Will. But so far, it hasn't come to that. And yes, a warning was sent to them, but they blamed everything on Cerberus. A convenient excuse, whose bases can be smashed without problems. When you find them, of course. Especially since there is one complication.
For some time now, if an Asari is detected in our space, their ship is required to be captured or destroyed. From prisoners, we managed to learn about their interrogation methods, where the victim is pumped with chemicals, and then the Asari connects to your brain, prompting you to think about what they need. The plus here is that the Asari cannot transfer information to a removable medium, only show it to another such Asari. That's why the order is to liquidate if necessary.
Other intelligence services of our neighbors are not lagging behind. The Turians set the Volus on the corporations of some colonies. And they came to an agreement. The Salarians themselves can make deals. If they had access to more than a dozen worlds, there would be problems. As it is, they settled on not particularly large colonies. Hence the command's order: strengthen the contingent on the planets, conduct tests and refine interaction. Develop methods of struggle.
But not destroy. The black market is a problem. But if it is inevitable, the problem should not be destroyed, but led and controlled. Which is, among other things, what my Possessed are doing.
Except that previously, the Citadel forces had not conducted such explosive operations. No, there were nuclear charges at the very beginning, including a neutron one that blew up the spaceport. Here, on Venice. True, the retaliatory strikes and the chaos we caused in the Extranet somewhat reduced the level of arrogance. Well, so what if AIs hacked several Asari corporate networks and posted everything interesting they found there for public access. The Asari immediately became quite polite and found the culprits. Since then, the level of conflict has noticeably decreased and has not increased for more than five years.
And perhaps it's about the Slipspace Torpedo that burned one of their shipyards. To make it clear who and what for. In general, as a result, the conflict was reduced to the level of intelligence skirmishes with battles of local significance. Even Cerberus slowed down. No, they still hate humans, but no longer to the same extent. Again, until this moment, for more than five years. That's why we need to figure out what it was and who the author is.
"Thus," the hologram finished the report to Margaret Parangosky, "this operation falls out of the pattern of behavior for both the Citadel, who know about the retaliatory strike, and The Covenant, who would have simply burned everything from orbit. Most likely—they wanted to get something hidden on our servers. And they got it."
The Admiral nodded; Osman, also known as Serin-019 of Kilo-Five, who was standing right there, remained silent.
"Correct, Khaela, they got it. On those servers were data about the Halo incident. Records of the Prophets, from their capital and ships. Unedited, at least that's how it looks. And some other very important data about The Covenant that we've collected over the years. And which was leaked. Controlled, of course."
I understand. If you possess my records, everything looks as if it was the Prophets who launched the device, and we actively interfered with them. And yes, this information was passed to the Citadel Council as part of cooperation, and they even released a series of broadcasts where they defended our position. Except it didn't convince everyone. And these "not everyone" are actively gathering into movements like Cerberus. In which one Asari occupies a significant place. Otherwise, no one could explain why the name is based on human mythology. Either the SSV Normandy crew or the Asari. The leak is controlled.
So, they were fed "internal data," which, of course, will be more complete. But still protecting the human position.
Immediately, a data packet arrived from Black Cube. And there were, among other things, records from Boundless Will. Not about me, but about The Flood, about the human war with them, with my explanations, considerations, and even records of commanders from the past. Presumably, this is our response to their book "Word of the Ancient." Internal data will only confirm our position. A good plan. But it doesn't answer the question of "who blew up the bomb."
"Orders, Admiral?"
The woman thought and replied:
"Evacuate our forces from Venice. All of them. Kilo-Five, you and Tomoko will go to the mining world Sevastopol. Black Box, transfer the file to Tomoko."
Understood. Agents on Venice will, of course, remain. Command wants to see what that was and what happens next. A bait world, supposedly abandoned after the terrorist attack. And the Possessed will go to catch and register smugglers.
"Information received," reported Tomoko's hologram, "this servant will do everything necessary, Lady Admiral."
And a deep bow. Yes, there are three of me in this room. The Avatar, the hologram of Khaela, and the hologram of Tomoko. Kilo-Five left, and the Admiral clarified with the remaining hologram of me:
"What is the probability that this is more than just covering tracks?"
"Over fifty percent. I would suggest an attempt to frame humans or The Covenant, but that requires too many assumptions. Including awareness of the development level of our energy weapons. Or playing on ignorance. Or something else we simply don't know. Insufficient data."
The Admiral nodded again.
"There is also a task for Boundless Will. Deliver stealth frigates to the system at the specified coordinates. Not from the Mass Relay side, covertly. Take them through Slipspace; you know what to do. Then proceed to the second set of coordinates. We need to ascertain the status of an object that might be a Forerunner complex. Conduct reconnaissance, then report. You need to check Installation 05, Installation 05-1, and Installation 06-1. And do it quickly."
Right, the data. Installations 05 and 06 were duplicated after the pulse. Simply because there was The Flood on the original Halos, returning them to The Ark for repair would be foolishness, so duplicate rings were built. And a signal of an attack came to The Ark from them. But a short-lived one. They were found, fired upon, and left. We need to conduct reconnaissance and find out who is bored there.
"The order is clear, Admiral."
And the hologram went out, appearing on board Boundless Will to set the task for the crew. And I will perform the usual tasks of a ship AI. Plotting the course, monitoring the state of mechanisms. It's ironic that humans essentially only voice already known processes that I perform anyway.
In such moments, I can understand why humans do not give all processes over to AIs. Made with the mind and logic of humans, it's too easy for synthetics to come to the idea that humans are completely unnecessary in management. The Forerunners didn't have such a problem; a developed individual of their species, having gone through a series of mutations, easily replaced a ship's computer. And current humans cannot do that. Not yet, at least.
The first part of the flight went according to plan. Dock the frigates outside—where there was a very significant contingent of Geth—deliver them to the right point in a week and a half, undock, and move on. They have their operation; we have ours. The flight to the Halos also showed nothing interesting. Except for the attackers.
The Ark replaced not only the Halos themselves but also the synthetic AIs. Their copies were restored from backup, adequate, and absolutely rational. And also extremely annoying, as I remember the Forerunner assistants perfectly. But that is my personal problem, irrelevant to the task. Fortunately, seeing the humans, they immediately gave access to information about the intrusion onto the installation. Very interesting information. Which I immediately reported to the Admiral.
"The Halos are fine, no damage. Apparently, the enemy only marked the location of the installations, their operational status, and then left the system."
Parangosky clarified:
"Who was it? The Citadel, Batarians?"
My hologram was replaced by the image of a very characteristic flying shrimp.
"Squid-ships, Admiral. Reapers. The attack scenario is the same in both cases: they exit near the Halo at high speed, provoke the defense system into attacking, and leave. Reconnaissance by fire. The Halo systems did not detect tracking devices or new contacts. There are currently no Reapers in the system or within sensor range, Admiral."
Verified. The Halo sensor systems have no trouble finding a ship moving at faster-than-light speeds using a Mass Effect Core. It's empty around now. Parangosky, making a few notes, ordered:
"Leave probes in case they return. And proceed to the following coordinates."
"Heading to Installation 05-0, Admiral," I confirmed.
The numbering of the Halos was introduced because The Ark did not restore the systems scorched by the pulse (there were samples of The Flood on the rings, returning the installation for repair is simply dangerous), but built a duplicate ring. So the original has the designation zero, the replacement—one. In five years, they managed to restore two rings out of seven.
The ship re-entered Slipspace, and the core continued to track other actions performed by the Avatar (it was replaced) and the Possessed.
Shift of focus.
Parallel to this, Tomoko reached the mission point and began catching smugglers with the help of locals. Unlike Venice, Sevastopol is a two-hundred-million-strong block of worlds, producing and selling a very wide range of goods. Mostly for civilian use, in demand in the colonies. Equipment, tools, machine tools. Gravity panels. Which started evaporating somewhere.
And when an ONI team caught a Volus a month ago, it became clear exactly where. The Volus didn't particularly deny that they were interested in human technologies, executed on a different scientific and technical base. And which are not legally sold to them. Which sincerely upsets them; such is the trading drama.
And the command, after thinking a bit, decided to put this smuggling under control, so that equipment is not sold to rebels, but only to those who are allowed. Essentially, what Lady Osman and Tomoko—that is, my Possessed—are doing. Making deals and slapping the hands of the non-compliant on behalf of the UNSC. If the Citadel forces were able to reach our worlds on captured equipment or with a Salarian version of the Shaw-Fujikawa drive, it's easier to lead than to forbid. They'll keep coming anyway. In parallel, they'll ensure these creative individuals don't learn too much. And they'll work on the image of humans; ONI has a special department for that, after all.
Shift of focus.
Jacob Reyes and Dana are on The Ark, doing materials science. Simply because there is a striking lack of specialists. It has not been possible to completely stabilize the personnel hunger for scientists in a decade. Too much information and too many specialists are needed, and for copying with a beacon, trained templates are required. Which, given the constant updating of databases, is impossible. I help and systematize data as much as possible; as Jacob said:
"AIs could master all this in a year."
I then asked:
"Is that a bad thing?"
The man, without looking up from the calculations, countered:
"For the AIs themselves? No, of course not. It's bad for humans. We've completely stopped developing because of this pile of technologies dumped on us. We don't even need robots for brains to reproduce now. If we dump everything on synthetics, then why the hell do we need you and me?"
I appreciated the ambiguity of the question (Jacob doesn't know about my nature as Dana). But I countered:
"Well, there's always genetics, cybernetics," I replied, "both the Forerunners and humans improved themselves. We'll become better, and then the robots will reproach themselves for being useless."
The man nodded, smirking.
"True, true, Dana. But there will be no point in all this if we end up with the same Spartans. Combat animals, essentially. Not scientists, not super-tacticians, but special forces who are good at slitting throats but useless in everyday life. What's the point if robots can do the same? I'm not a fan of AI restrictions, but we must not forget to grow ourselves."
I agree with the thesis. If humans want to become better—that's good. Unfortunately, for now, the "suggestion" learning system is used only in closed programs or large-scale ones, for example, Pelican pilots, who can be stamped out like in a factory. Including as part of long-term tests and the influence of copying on the nervous system. That's how the crews of the Infinity ships, Boundless Will, and the new series Jupiter-class were trained.
Successfully, a fact. The main problem of the program is ideological. No one wants to give potential rebels a training matrix for working with or creating the latest technology. Therefore, although the "experience recording" system is being introduced in the academies of major worlds, the training of valuable specialists still takes years and years of checks and processing. Well, for now, the command is playing it safe; we have a personnel deficit.
Shift of priority.
After another two weeks, we arrived at Installation 05-0. To the destroyed Installation 05-0. Mangled fragments of the ring, thousands of kilometers long, riddled with traces of beam weapons, cracks, and signs of internal explosions. It was clear that the ring was breaking into pieces while the systems, having lost stability, destroyed it from within. And now, of the magnificent in its colossal monstrosity mechanism, two dozen melted fragments remained. In some places, ongoing reactions are visible; failed power plants continue to pump energy, destroying the mechanism from within, melting it and sending rivers of liquid metal flowing across the surface in cracks and faults.
The bridge fell silent. The Captain, twirling his mustache, whistled.
"This is definitely trouble. Khaela, status to battle-ready."
The hologram nodded:
"Yes, Captain," and then over the PA system, "Attention to the crew. Battle stations. Everyone prepare for contact with the enemy."
I myself am scanning the territory in every possible way. The Captain silently walked to the projector, looking at the new marks appearing on the map.
"Ring debris. And this… traces of a battle?"
In one of the Halo sections, traces of a powerful explosion are visible. And there, not particularly far away, debris.
"Launching a probe, Captain. Everything will be clear soon."
The entire bridge was glued to the dot that separated from the ship's mark on the map and moved into the debris field. During the movement, one could observe through the probe's cameras both the destroyed ring from different angles and other junk. Gradually, as it approached, I noted black dots. Which turned into mangled ship hulls. Three. Five, seven targets.
"Analyzing debris. There are matches, Captain. These are Reaper ships. Class—Destroyers, Escorts. Recording damage… Analysis. Likely destroyed by a massive explosion. Presumably—the explosion of a Halo section."
The man pondered. After all, it was clearly visible on the radar that they were destroyed. The squid bodies were torn, mangled, and showed not the slightest activity. I even flew the probe through one of the "corpses." Torn metal damage. Traces of melting.
"Analysis complete, Captain. Do you wish to review?"
"Yes," he said shortly.
...and both the Captain and the Admiral, sitting elsewhere in her office aboard the UNSC Lusankia, spoke simultaneously.
My hologram nodded to both.
"Presumably, someone used the power plant of Installation 05 to sabotage the equipment. The explosion of one of the Halo's energy sources could not be prevented; the pulse burned out the robots and AIs. The detonation destroyed nearby objects. Both the ring itself and ships in the vicinity. Questions I cannot answer: who used the ring's inactive equipment. And why these ships appeared here at all. Special note: scanning systems detected active forms of The Flood on the ring's debris. Exercise caution."
Margaret Parangosky sighed.
"Conduct a full sweep, burn everything. Do not deploy ground forces. Burn it all from a safe distance."
"Yes, Admiral."
They wouldn't let us land for an investigation anyway. And I certainly don't want to bring that filth onto the Boundless Will. Neither I nor the Admiral said it out loud, though. But the most likely conclusion as to who did this suggests itself. Hence the question: did the parasites manage to escape? Are all the Reaper machines destroyed? I would like the answer to both questions to be positive. But I cannot provide such guarantees.
***
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