Assault (Red vs Blue)

12: A Not-So-Warm Welcome

12: A Not-So-Warm Welcome

Many Years Ago: The Mother of Invention (Primary freelancer facility/aircraft)

York was sitting in the classroom near the training room with the rest of the team when an official-looking man came in and interrupted the Counselor. He couldn't hear what the man was saying from his seat, but the change in the Counselor's expression meant he was there for something serious. York watched as his eyes darted around the room, settling first on North, then on Wash. Whatever was going on couldn't be good. Whenever official-looking people showed up, it was never good.

The Counselor cleared his throat. "Agent North Dakota, please accompany this man to one of the conference rooms. He has some questions he'd like to ask you about your last mission."

North looked confused as he rose from his seat and grabbed his helmet. "Again? Uh, okay. Of course, Counselor."

The purple clad freelancer left his desk and joined the mystery man, then the two of them exited the room. Wash looked back at York with the same confused look North had just had; York could only shrug in response. He did find it odd that North was once again being questioned about a mission that'd happened over two weeks ago. Apparently, there'd been too many anomalies in what had happened and the U.N.S.C. was suspicious. North seemed to be a popular target for all the officials. The other freelancer hadn't said exactly what all the meetings were about — he wasn't allowed to since whatever investigation was going on was still open — but York had a pretty good guess. North had used equipment in the field when he hadn't been authorized to. Considering a lot of the armor enhancements Project Freelancer had were still in the trial phases, the U.N.S.C. probably wasn't too happy that North had used his bubble shield on a whim.

"All right," the Counselor said, trying his best to continue like nothing had happened. "Moving on from what we were just discussing, I'd like to touch on the usage of artificial intelligence in the field." A hand shot up, which made him pause again suddenly. "Yes, Agent South?"

"Shouldn't we wait until my brother gets back to start talking about A.I. usage?" she asked. "I mean, this is something that's pretty important. Don't you think he should be here for the start of this conversation?"

"Your brother will be brought up to speed once he's done with being questioned. I will see to the matter myself. However, the rest of you must begin this lesson sooner rather than later," the Counselor answered. "Now, as I was saying, we are going to begin talking about using artificial intelligence to help in combat situations. As some of you may have heard, the U.N.S.C. has been starting to impliment the use of A.I.s with certain soldiers."

"I thought Master Chief was the only soldier to ever have a personal A.I. in the field, wasn't he?" CT questioned. "And even then, he only had Cortana because she was integrated into his armor just before the fall of Reach."

The Counselor nodded. "It is true that Spartan John-117 — or Master Chief — has been the only active soldier to have a personal A.I. The unit known as Cortana has served with him for many years now. As I'm sure you're all aware, Cortana was made when the brain of Doctor Catherine Halsey was flash copied. Her brain was copied roughly twenty times, but only two of the copies survived. One was Cortana, and the other was known as Kalmiya."

York sat up and rested his arms on his desk. "What does that have to do with using A.I.s in the field?"

"The history helps to explain just how many of the new A.I. units have come into existence. Rather than strictly being made of code with no personality behind them, the A.I.s have been being made with flash copies of select people's brains," the Counselor explained. "In doing such, it creates smarters A.I.s that are able to provide better help to soldiers in the field."