Cyberpunk: Spartan Walker

She remembered the strange, staccato speech pattern of the Covenant AI and wondered how many times it had been copied.

As the Covenant's message became clearer, she collected her thoughts. It was as if she suddenly had a new pair of ears to listen to them: the retreat was in progress; a new sub-level was discovered at a depth of six hundred meters; the patrol failed to detect the heresy and returned to base; small artifacts were discovered; excitement!

And there was something missing from her previous analysis of the Covenant communiqués, the second signal on the carrier: they used the exact same symbols she had used when she was looking for the halos -- symbols that the Master Chief had seen in Côte d'Azur. Found on alien artifacts.

She had never seen these simple dots, bars, squares, and triangles before, as Covenant troops usually used these simple symbols to decorate their extremely ornate text.

Cortana uses new subsystems and a new translation dictionary to be able to - as Dr. Halsey puts it - understand bullshit.

The communiqués that followed were all orders. They were sent by the new spacecraft entering the ε galaxy, and were received and confirmed by the spacecraft that were flying out of the galaxy.

They use an automated mail system that carries messages from the center of the Covenant Empire to the outer regions of the galaxy. The Covenant troops were either too arrogant or too ignorant to set appropriate codes for these commands.

However, Cortana realized that the UNSC had not discovered - until just now - how simple the Covenant's communication system was. So who was more ignorant?

Covenant forces were giving orders to deploy hundreds of ships: aircraft carriers, destroyers, frigates—a fleet of ships. They will meet at a designated location, unite, refuel, and then adjust direction to prepare for the next slipspace jump.

Cortana knew how to convert these simple symbols into planetary coordinates.

There, jump to the Lambda Hydra galaxy to collect tritium gas for their reactors; and there - jump to the Hawking galaxy to rendezvous with three dozen aircraft carriers and transfer Seraph fighter jets; and there, Cortana was shocked and stopped. All her programs were focused on testing her translation program, and she tested it a hundred times. That's right.

The final coordinates of the jump are in the solar system where the Covenant forces are about to go to war.

She quickly opened the communication channel with Captain Keyes and told him that the Covenant troops were heading towards Earth.

****

Epsilon Eridanus star system, Reach star, captured Banshee fighter

The human body is an extraordinary machine, but, well, so chaotic and disorganized.

It took Ellie a nanosecond to decide that it was wise to separate critical functions from her priorities. The signals from Tommy's neural network hit her, making her feel so new that she needed time to savor it - it all started after she completed the fusion.

Before that, she had sensed the world by hacking into surrounding cameras and other equipment. After the fusion was completed, everything changed - the moment the chip was successfully linked to Tommy's nervous system, she felt what he was feeling for the first time. Everything you can feel.

His eyes are her eyes; his ears are her ears; his skin is her skin.

This is incredible.

More importantly, there are functional improvements after integration. At this time, her core matrix is ​​in Tommy's mind, and she can separate two subroutines at the same time, controlling the Banshee fighter where he is and the stealth Pelican troop carrier where George and Catherine are.

With a little thought, she could receive another signal from her: the cargo hold of the invisible pelican was crowded with children, and their noise made George unbearable. Catherine, who was sitting in the cockpit, was staring out of the windshield with a serious face. They were only a hundred kilometers away from the destruction force.

Ellie turned her attention back to her current operation: sinking the Covenant cruiser that was exploring the location of the Warhammer base.

Four Banshees flew through burning forests and over snow-covered mountains, masquerading as a patrol fleet and trying to sneak into the cruiser's docking bay.

After flying for a period of time, the cruiser, which had only one point in its field of vision, suddenly became uncomfortable - it began to slow down, full right rudder, and then sailed onto another route.

[The target course has shifted,] Tommy said in his mind. He was controlling the attitude of the fighter through a small purple holographic ball inside the Banshee fighter. [Ellie, report the situation. 】

【Let me see】

She began to receive communications from the Covenant people on the planet, and the information from the distance poured into her logic matrix. She filtered it and got the most critical one: the heretics got the Holy Light, and all ships stopped what they were doing. , come to support immediately!

['Holy Light', Master Chief and the others have obtained the 'Holy Light',] Ellie said, [The Covenant's communication system is now in chaos, and the entire planet's troops are gathering at the castle base. 】

[What is ‘Holy Light’? 】

[I don’t know, but only Forerunner technological artifacts would make them so crazy. 】

Becca. Tommy whispered to himself, and then opened the communication channel, Captain Noble, something happened at the castle base, the plan has changed, we have to create some chaos for them.

As you command, sir, Carter replied.

When Tommy explained the plan to Carter next, the entire planet boiled, and a large number of troop transports and fighter jets rose from the burning ground and flew towards the warships that were rushing to rescue. The atmosphere is densely packed, like locusts passing through.

You don't need to think about it to know that the castle base is now in a dangerous situation, and if you are not careful, the entire army will be wiped out. It was natural for Tommy to worry about his comrades, but Ellie just didn't feel comfortable with it - and she was especially upset about Tommy's concern for Rebecca.

For a moment, she wanted to put a stumbling block for Tommy and the others so that they would be late and the entire operation team at the castle base would be wiped out, so that she could have him all to herself.

Negative emotions surged through her logic matrix, until at a certain moment, she suddenly realized, how could she have such disgusting thoughts?

She ran the self-examination program hundreds of times, and the results showed that her core matrix was still damaged - meaning that the fusion had not fully repaired her damage, and it must have affected her emotionally as a result.

She secretly warned herself not to be affected by damage, let alone indulge in the personal relationship between her children. The most important thing now is to fight for the survival of all mankind.

The Banshee fighter jet began to adjust its attitude under her control, blending silently into the unorganized group of aircraft, while the invisible Pelican flew close to the forest, hanging far behind.

Soon, the huge body of a destroyer blocked Ellie's sight, and artificial gravity pulled the Banshee fighter they were on - they began to rise, and finally entered.