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Memories - Soothsayer

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UNSC ONI PROWLER PEREGRINE - July 20th 2544 - IN ORBIT AROUND MERIDIAN, HYDRA SECUNDI SYSTEM

As he waited for the ONI liaison officer to return to the briefing room onboard the ONI Prowler Peregrine, Tom couldn't help but notice the discrepancy inherent in the name. It wasn't the first Prowler he'd been aboard, and assuming he survived the upcoming operation, it most likely wouldn't be the last. However, Prowlers tended to have cute, innocent, innocuous sounding names. Circumference, Lark, Applebee, these were names for such a ship. Peregrine sounded too fierce to be associated with a class like this. As far as Tom knew, the ONI commander in charge had refused an innocent name, despite the logic behind it. He'd opted for something more 'cool', more dangerous, to show just what this ship was capable of. ONI had fought back, though half-heartedly, knowing that they named their ships like this to avoid attention. Let the rest of the UNSC give harsh names to their vessels, things like Gettysburg, Trafalgar, and Leviathan. They were meant to be noticed. But Prowlers were always designed to stay on the edges of a fight, for recon and stealth, not to get involved in battles.

That being said, Peregrine wasn't a bad name as such. Those in the know would recognise it for what it was, but nothing more. And besides, this ship was special. It had been outfitted for missions like this, black ops style, with experimental engines and power systems that would allow it to travel at speeds faster than many other UNSC craft, not to mention the artificial gravity systems reverse engineered from Covenant wreckages (no more need for rotating segments on this ship, thank you very much). Alterations to the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engines allowed it to make much more accurate Slipspace jumps than the rest of the UNSC fleet, though sadly its capabilities were still far outmatched by the Covenant. And as Tom remembered, the peregrine falcon was one of the fastest species of bird around. The name fitted perfectly, and the ship was perfect for this operation. It had used such a jump to enter the Hydra Secundi system as close as possible to Meridian without raising the attentions of the Covenant fleet in orbit, then placed itself in a geosynchronous orbit directly over the operation's target zone and gone completely dark. The only way the Covenant would find them now would be if they literally bumped into them.

As Tom mulled this over in his mind, the doors to the briefing room hissed opened and a tall, slender man walked through. His name was Captain O'Connell, and he was one of the ONI officers tasked with training SPARTAN-IIIs on Onyx, and since the project was still top secret he had been assigned as a liaison between Tom's Team Foxtrot and the UNSC personnel supporting them during their active service. As far as the ship's commander or any of the crew were concerned, they were simply escorting an ONI black-ops team for a mission deep in Covenant controlled space. Close to the truth, but not quite enough to raise suspicions.

"Officer on deck", called Tom, and he and his team stood firm to attention as Tom gave the captain a quick salute.

"At ease", O'Connell replied, and took his place at the head of the holographic display that dominated the room. Team Foxtrot positioned themselves around the sides of the display, Tom and Lucy on O'Connell's left, Adam and Min to his right.

"Okay," said O'Connell, in a rough Scottish brogue, "I'm going to get right down to business, as we have very little time left to us. This Prowler needs to leave the system within twenty-four hours or we risk getting caught by the Covenant forces in orbit around the planet. The longer we take, the greater that risk, and with the experimental systems in place here we can't take the chance. It was hard enough getting permission to use this ship in the first place, but quite frankly there's no way we'd have made it in-system otherwise."

He made a sweeping gesture over the display and as built-in motion trackers recorded his movement, the display responded by bringing up a virtual copy of Meridian above its centre. Tom could see the geographic layout of the planet, two large continents separated by a large ocean with the easternmost continent ending in a curved hook in the south pointing towards the southern tip of the western landmass. Two massive ice caps marked the poles, while the climate varied between mountains and forests, to steppes, to savannah and expanses of desert near the equator. Meridian was one of a rare number of planets colonised by humans without any need for terraforming - its landscape was entirely natural.

"I'm sure you already know the basic history of Meridian so there's no need to go into the details. Suffice to say that it was attacked several times by the Covenant from 2532, until a final invasion drove the last of its colonists away four years ago. We expected the planet to have been glassed, but three months ago a Slipspace probe sent by ONI found evidence to the contrary, along with signs of Covenant activity in the northern part of the eastern continent. The probe was found and destroyed by an enemy cruiser, but not before sending its data back to ONI, and now we're here to find out what the Covenant are looking for."

Another gesture, and the hologram zoomed in on the continent O'Connell had described, to a valley in the middle of a forest. Tom could see the basic layout, the forest was mostly on flatland save for a steep-sided valley following the course of a river. As the river flowed out of the forest, there was a broad expanse of flood plain, and oddly, what appeared to be ruins, with Covenant troops crawling all over the place.

"This is an image recorded and sent by the probe before its discovery by the cruiser in low orbit. These ruins appear to be Covenant in origin, built by one of the species at least, but we're not entirely sure why they would be interested. Perhaps they want to know their own history. Either way, your task is to infiltrate the ruins and gather data, then bring it back to ONI for analysis."

Tom took the opportunity to ask a question. He had always been taught to have as much information as possible when entering a battle, and he didn't want to be asking questions later when the moment was too late. "Do we have a detailed plan, sir, or will we simply be improvising on the ground?"

O'Connell replied, "The valley is lightly guarded, since the Covenant believe they are impenetrable with a fleet directly over their heads. You'll be taking a Pelican, cloaked and shielded from radar, to the surface. It's small enough to slip past the Covenant defences without being detected. You should try to land it in cover near the top end of the valley and make your way downstream towards the flood plains. From there it will be harder to find cover, so try and commandeer a Covenant vehicle. Reach the ruins, gather as much intel as you can, then get back to the Pelican the way you came in and bug out back to the Prowler. Shouldn't be too difficult for soldiers of your talents."

The captain hesitated. "You won't be going alone on this mission. The data on these ruins is particularly relevant to one of our researchers. You may have heard of her. Her name is Doctor Halsey."

This caused a stir. The team had certainly heard of her, though they had never met her. Was she to be joining them on this operation? She was a civilian, the team knew that much. They couldn't afford to hold anybody's hand, especially not in hostile territory on a stealth op like this. Fortunately, their thoughts were rendered moot when O'Connell started to speak again.

"Doctor Halsey has been researching the Covenant as one of her 'special projects' for ONI, and she received word of the data sent by the ONI probe three months ago. She saw the same image you are seeing now, and wants that data from the ruins. In addition, she has been researching the field of artificial intelligence for the UNSC, and has made some strides in recent years. I'm sure you're all aware of the difference between a dumb AI and a smart AI, though the names are something of a misnomer. Nevertheless, smart AIs have never before been used in combat situations for various reasons, but Doctor Halsey recently developed the first combat-specialised smart AI. It is this AI who will be accompanying you on your mission."

This news was a shock to Team Foxtrot, but they were well trained - they covered it up well. They had worked with AIs in the field before, but never for combat purposes, only ever for logistical reasons or to offer updated intelligence and support. They wondered how an AI would aid them for combat, but as O'Connell explained to them they realised just how useful a combat-ready AI would be. The personality would be able to access the Covenant Battlenet, something no dumb AI had achieved before, and that would make all the difference. They would be able to access Covenant information systems, operate Covenant vehicles and tools, and even communicate directly with the Covenant fleet in orbit, though they saw no reason for that to happen. But the most important part was the increased storage capabilities a smart AI would provide for getting the data back to Halsey herself for analysis. As O'Connell explained this to the team, the hologram of Meridian's surface disappeared and was replaced by the figure of a young woman. She spoke with a soft Irish accent and wore a long white dress, contrasting with her thick tangled black hair. This was obviously the AI who would be accompanying them on their mission.

"Hello. My name is Cassandra, UNSC serial number CNA 0192-3. I assume you have been informed on the mission we will soon be undertaking?"

O'Connell replied in a firm voice, "I was just briefing them now, Cassandra. Team Foxtrot, this is the AI that I was talking about. She will be coming with you, stored in a standard-issue TACPAD so be careful with her. She will be carrying the data you are to obtain, so make sure nothing happens to her. She's also responsible for the name of the operation. A little joke on her part, it seems."

"Operation: SOOTHSAYER", she responded, smiling slightly at the team. Of course - Cassandra of mythology, which was also where Halsey had found inspiration for the AI's name. Though it made sense in a roundabout way. The AI named after an old Earth legend would help uncover more legends now.

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As the team ended their briefing and made their way to their Pelican, Cassandra thought to herself, safe inside the TACPAD being carried by Lucy. She knew the team weren't being told the truth. She knew more than any of them thought, about the Forerunners and the mysterious ruins and artefacts found on other planets. Halsey, Sorvad, Ackerson, and numerous others within ONI had been searching for evidence on the ancient race of aliens for a long time, and Meridian was home to far more than the Covenant. Team Foxtrot would never know the truth behind what they were searching for, but better to let them think they were sneaking around an old Elite city than worry about what other aliens they could have to fight. Whatever they found down there, Cassandra knew that the Spartans would be kept in the dark. She was built for ONI anyway, so she could hardly complain. All that mattered right now was getting her to the ruins. From that point on, she would take things as they came.

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And so, we move on, and we start to see just what Team Foxtrot were doing down on Meridian all that time ago. Coming up, we start to see the action as the team reach the surface and find there's more than just one set of ruins down there, and Cassandra sees just how far the Forerunner's information went, not to mention why the Covenant would glass a planet holding such holy relics...
Part Four of my Halo fanfic, Memories. Based on the Halo Expanded Universe, we follow the characters Tom and Lucy in a story set both after and some time before the conclusion of Ghosts of Onyx. I don't own the main characters, though some characters are my own OCs, any pre-existing ones are the IP of Microsoft Game Studios and 343 Industries...
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