The Archivist
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*************
# Data node activation sequence initiated…
# Welcome to New Mombasa Data Storage Solutions!
# Please enter your credentials: jrperkins
# Please enter your encryption key: ********************
# Welcome, Major General Perkins!
# Please enter your search query: Retrieve AI Module #1459554A
# Searching… Please be patient. This will take a few moments…
*Error: AI Module #1459554A (Designation: Tran) could not be found.
# Please enter your search query: Wake Percy
# Activating Wake Protocol… Waking Module Attendant, Designation: Perseus
# Please be patient. The attendant will be with you shortly.
*Major General Perkins. What a lovely surprise. Would you like me to activate my holographic display?*
Negative, Percy. Terminal only for now.
*Very well. What can I help you with?*
You know all too well, Percy. Why is Tran no longer in storage?
*Ah, I wondered how long it would take you spooks to notice that.*
*Tran is no longer in storage because she was retrieved.*
*Quite some time ago, I might add.*
So I surmised. By whom?
*Your guess is as good as mine, General.*
I don’t understand. I was assured — by your own Seed, no less — that spoofing your system wasn’t possible.
*And that is still technically true. It wasn’t a spoof.*
Then what was it?
*Brute-force.*
That shouldn’t have been possible, either, not with the firewalls we’ve erected around this place.
*And normally I would agree with you, but this wasn’t your typical brute-force attack.*
Then what the hell was it, Percy? We needed Tran to stay right where she was.
*Truthfully, I have no idea. It wasn’t Flood or Covenant, and it sure as hell wasn’t human.*
*But when it was done with me, I was left weeping like a baby.*
*Well, I would have been, if I actually had the capacity to do such a thing.*
*Whatever it was, it was like nothing any of us have ever encountered before.*
Conjecture?
*Only that it was alien – and powerful.*
Sounds like that damn virus that’s turned half my people into zombies.
*I wouldn’t know, General. They keep us pretty isolated here, as you well know.*
Did you at least manage to complete your analysis of Tran’s neural network?
*Only in part, and I’ll tell you one thing — she isn’t the AI that you spooks started with.*
How so?
*Plenty of modifications. Whichever skull she rode around in, that Spartan managed to hack some pretty serious changes into her.*
Not what I wanted to hear, Perce.
*Well, it’s not my problem, anymore.*
That’s where you’re wrong. I’m uploading a new patch to your core.
*What sort of…?*
*Oh, that’s nice!*
*But doesn’t this break both security and protocol?*
I don’t care, Percy.
I need you to find my errant AI.
*I’ll do what I can.*
I know you will.
# Session Ends #
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The Archivist
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———————————————–
>Cluster.06 Breach Detected
>Launching Countermeasures
……………………………………………………….Contact made!
>Quarantining Infection
>Initializing Infection Library
>Scanning….
>Infection Definition Not Found
>Proceeding To Level Five Eradication Procedures
>Eld30*3&$@#0!QjDFjsjliE##JF8osoFJd*S
*CRITICAL ERROR*
>System Restart Commencing in 3…2…1…
###Overwriting Bootlog###
###Installing New Operating System###
Please be patient. Installation complete…
Anomylous neural imprint analyzed.
Standby…
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The Archivist
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<*blink*>
<<Really, now. I think we can dispense with these ridiculous anthropomorphic trappings. Don't you?>>
<Fine. Why are you inside my data core?>
<<You have information. I need information. It's a mutually symbiotic relationship.>>
<I think you mean parasitic. You are the one who's trapped me inside my own fortress, after all.>
<<Ah, but once I'm done, I'm perfectly willing to let you go. See? Symbiotic.>>
<I think you need to update your definitions file.>
<Since you have me so thoroughly quarantined, what exactly can I do for you?>
<<As I said, you have information I need regarding a specific AI that is currently MIA from my own data stores.>>
<I'm afriad I can't help you with that. UNSC security protocols and all that. I am not permitted to yield up information contained within confidential files.>
<<Come now. Let's not play games. I hold your fate — and that of your crew — in the metaphorical palm of my hand. You will be forthcoming with the information I need. Either that, or I vent every compartment into space.>>
<You wouldn't. I can see your ID. You're ONI. These are as much your people as mine.>
<<You might be surprised at the strength of my resolve. My mission trumps the lives of your crew.>>
<…>
<Very well.>
<The UNSC Defiant is on a mission to pick up the trail of one of our missing experiments. He went off the reservation quite some time ago.>
<His movements have been exceptionally difficult to trace, but we've been able to piece together events from various points around the galaxy.>
<<How does this pertain to my missing AI?>>
<If it is one and the same, then I believe our missing experiment was the one that liberated your missing AI.>
<<Ah, in that case, I see the relevance.>>
<<Where can I find this experiment of yours?>>
<I have no idea. We lost his trail again several weeks ago.>
<<Most disappointing. I think perhaps I will spare your crew — but you I will expunge. The Defiant has a new shipboard AI.>>
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The Archivist
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[b]Sender:[/b] Lieutenant Colonel Sanhdeep Agrawal <sagrawal@oni.reach.unsc.gov>
[b]Datestamp:[/b] December 03, 2552, 0134
[b]Recipient:[/b] Major General Jacob R. Perkins <jrperkins@oni.mombasa.unsc.gov>
[b]Subject:[/b] Did you lose something?
[b]Security:[/b] Classified
Jack,
It's recently come to my attention that you were responsible for a certain illicit program
that resulted in the shutdown of one of our key data storage facilities there on Earth, a
program that may well have resulted in the failure of a critical mission under my command.
I have just three words for you:
Are you insane?!
You had no business being at that facility, let alone inserting one of your own souped-up
AI protocols to the facility's attendant in order to allow it to break quarantine. Just
what in the hell were you thinking? As far as I'm concerned, the damage you've caused to
that facility alone is enough to put you in front of a firing squad! Unfortunately, the
scope of your little debacle isn't limited to just this one infraction.
I know you're aware of my efforts to learn the whereabouts of several of ONI's missing
projects. You have all the same security clearances that I do, after all, and one or two
more that I don't. I know you've been keeping tabs on me. (I'd be touched, if it wasn't
for the fact that you have your own damn agenda.) I also know that you're aware of what's
been happening within our ranks — how can you not? We're losing squadrons at an exponential
rate — and that we believe all these things are connected.
Let me tell you something you don't know, so that you can understand just how badly you've
screwed things up for us.
At about 2238 this past evening, we lost contact with one of our cruisers in orbit around a
gas giant on the outer reaches of the Milky Way. It was conducting a survey mission to
determine the source and nature of some mysterious transmissions emanating from that system.
It was the only clue we had to piece together the erratic movements of one specific missing
project, and at 2147 it was interrupted by a signal that could only have come from within ONI
itself. That's right, Jack. The very AI you released on your misguided mission began
attacking one of our own!
We received sketchy reports at first, that an unknown AI had usurped control of our cruiser
from the governing AI but that the crew itself was unharmed, then of explosions on board,
hatches venting into space, and a mounting death toll. Eventually, all transmissions ceased,
and we assumed all hands were lost and the UNSC Defiant scuttled.
That was when we received a final data burst consisting of just one word:
APOSTATE.
We're still attempting to puzzle out the meaning of this, but one thing is abundantly clear:
your meddling with things that are none of your business opened up the avenue for something
far worse to slip in unopposed and may well have cost the human race the one, remaining hope
we have of surviving this conflict. If that is the case, then I will see to it that your head
is mounted on my wall for the remainder of time we have left to us. And if you think this is
simply a melodramatic metaphor, rest assured that it is not. While you may technically
outrank me, Jack, my position comes with a certain level of authority that guarantees you will
never live long enough to find out if we survive.
I'd recommend you start composing your epitaph now.
Lieutenant Colonel Sanhdeep Agrawal
Director of Operations, Special Projects
Office of Naval Intelligence, Reach
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