Prologue

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by StardustSuicide

by StardustSuicide

As Captain Thomas Lasky makes his was to the Infinity's bridge, he can begin to hear multiple overlapping distress calls coming from different UNSC ships. "Captain Lasky." shipboard AI Roland remarks, "Distress calls. All channels."

"It's Cortana?" Lasky replies in question.

"Her and the other AIs are shutting down everything from Earth to the outer colonies." Roland answers.

After a brief pause, the Infinity loses power and immediately switches to backup generators, leaving only high prioritized ship functions running. In the bridge, the only noticeable things were a flashing red light and a few monitors that were still on.

"Roland...?" Lasky asks in hopes to be informed of what happened. Before Roland can answer, the bridge's main hologram projector snaps on with Cortana's avatar.

"Found you. Hide and seek's over, Infinity." Cortana says as her Guardian appears right in front of the bridge's viewport windows.

"Lieutenant Jet! Emergency slipspace! Now!" Lasky commands a crewman. With a matter of tension and great stress, Lieutenant Jet struggles to immediately initiate an emergency slipspace procedure, causing the Infinity to stay in the assumed kill-zone for a close seven seconds. Just as the Infinity completely disappears from the area, Cortana's Guardian blasts a massive electromagnetic pulse across all the ships in the area and planet below.

"The Mantle of Responsibility for the galaxy shelters all. But only the Created are its masters." Cortana says with a smug smile as her avatar remains projected on the bridge's main hologram projector. The far distance traveled with slipspace causes Cortana to disappear from the projection due to a bad signal.

After the ship regains full power, Roland informs Lasky "We're in the clear, Captain."

"Can she track us?" Lasky asks. "No reason to think she can't." Roland quickly replies.

"Continue random jumps. Steer clear of major settlements." Lasky commands the same crewman. "We're just gonna run?" Roland asks Lasky.

"Only until we can find a way to fight." Lasky replies.