User:SPARTAN Rogue 177/Halo: Noble Causes

''“You shouldn’t hate anyone... Not even the Covenant…” Jorge continued, “Because that hate you think is just for your people will breed and consume you until all you can ever think about is how much you hate them. Its a toxin that will'' make you suffer... and eventually eat you alive”

The room was dark, and Halsey had gone silent after delivering the news of her political defeat. The only sound was coming from the gently hum of the holographic table, and Nova was still left with the puzzle. It was a common practice to the doctor to give her this sort of problem when she was prone to mental distraction, and needless to say the good Doctor wasn't good with having patience with her 'student'. Nova had seen something similar to the device before, but was having a hard time remembering... and she was distracted.

“Doctor, I don't like this, to be honest, the thought kind of scares me.”

“I'm afraid I couldn't override the orders, Nova... however-I did assure that you would be placed with the best of the best.”

Nova looked back at the device on display.

“Now, it will only be for a couple of months, and in that time, you will gain the experience that you lack due to my training you.”

Nova rubbed the back of her neck with her mechanical, left arm, “Doctor, all do respect, should I spend my last day simply trying to figure out how this device operates?”

“Nova, you are a unique spartan, someday-what takes an entire team of ONI scientists weeks... will only take you days. On the field you'll be able to--” Halsey paused, then took in a deep breath, “never mind, yes, I need you to tell me exactly what this device does before you leave, judge it on the previous forerunner technology you've analyzed.”

Nova took in a deep breath, and reached towards a wire on the hologram, and connected it to a port on the top. “Most forerunner technology, almost all of what we've come across is encrypted with a complex base code, which always seems to have the most basic meaning in the end...” Nova looked at the device, “It looks like some sort of power source, similar to a slipspace drive, to be honest.” She leaned in closer, “Similar is the key word, though. Araceli, bring up the schematics for the artifact... P-X9824.”

“Complying, 333.”

Nova brought the hologram closer, and compared the two, “This artifact was a record-of a plague that had struck the forerunners, a plague that lasted about a century.”

“Indeed-an advance form of malaria.”

“So this-,” Nova closed the image, and brought the first hologram closer, “-must be another form of information, but its more advance. If this is anything like the record, then...” Nova connected another wire to the opposite port, then rotated the device to twist the top servo approximately 45ᵒ.

The device retracted, and the simulation shut.

“Very good, Nova.”

“Thank you, ma'am... the device, is it real?” Nova asked.

“Of course not,” Halsey said.

Nova tried not to take offense, someday she'd be allowed to know, but right then, she at least knew that Halsey was lying about the device.

“Now, your armor has been assembled, you need to prepare to disembark.”

“Doctor... you said that I'd be with the best. Are you talking about Blue team?” Nova asked.

“No, I'm afraid not, Nova... but you'll be with the only team that has come as close as they have to besting blue team.”


 * SPARTAN Rogue 177 05:09, December 31, 2010 (UTC)