[IC] Eternal Galaxy: Shards of Starlight - Part I

[Cucoo5]

Celestora System
Alcyon - Forest of Spirits

"I wouldn't be sending those pictures if I were you. Simply knowing me can serve as a death sentence. If any of your superiors know who I am, It'll be your head and mine. But still... I haven't survived this long as a Life Hacker for nothing. So I did you a favor and prevented the pictures from sending. They never existed. Anyway..." He flopped to the ground and then sat up, readjusting his glasses. "Beautiful day, isn't it? Tell me, what do you know about the Shards of Starlight? Nothing right? You don't know the truth, correct? If you knew the truth, what would you do? Probably nothing but the same. You are nothing but a number? Or are you more? Ah...the truth is a devious thing indeed. Does it make sense? It will. It will in time. So..." He leaned back, looking at the Operator through the bottom of his glasses. "Are you more than a pawn? Or is your existence nothing but a lie? Those things that one could call briefings, that don't tell the truth? Perhaps I should lead you to the secrets? Or perhaps I should lead you astray? Ah, a dilemma... Would you be able to comprehend the truth even if it was right in front of you? Or would you shoot first and ask questions...when it's too late?" The man gave a wry smile. "I suppose you could keep a secret...especially a secret that could end your life if you told anyone else. My name is Cicero. Now, what is yours?"

---

Helios System
Zephyr-Old Continents-Ancient Nasod Palace-Eve's Chamber

"Welcome back to the land that is your domain." The man bowed. "Shall we begin?"

---

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur
Hangar Bay M

"only thirty men? Huh...not bad..." One of the men of the group said as she walked to the lift.
Once Terra was on the lift, it brought her up into the upper deck that overlooked the entire area. Many officers were busily managing computers and such.

[NeoFox]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur
Hangar Bay M
__________________________________

Before she stepped onto the lift she took one look back at the men. "I said at least 30 men... She most definitely killed more than 30. I just couldn't keep track of how many men she killed." She said as she waited patiently to go up the the upper deck. Once she was there she looked around. "Ahem... may I kindly ask for the assistance of a Hangar Management Officer?" She asked out loud.

[Koishi]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

---

"The hell are you talking about?" Mima asked, quite confused by Nero's words.

---

Sol Incineron
Videc

---

Deimos dropped down a hole to the more inner part of the temple, dust kicking up as he landed. The flames that weaved too and fro out of his head like hair gave a little light to the place, at least enough to see. He walked down the ancient hallway, and looked on the walls and at the artifacts lining them. Untouched treasures, and historical wonders. Many would see it as a paycheck, but he saw it as a paradise.

[MyHatismyFriend]

The Operator would have frowned if she had a mouth.

"He's not lying- our live feed to GRAYCOM has been cut, switching to local OS modules and assuming interim command. Her HUD flickered as KINGMASTER expanded his subroutine layers. "Threat Parameters raised to Emperor- enact protocol Autumn 89."

A89. Affirmative.

The Operator engaged KINGMASTER'S speech synthesizers on her throat, bringing up what she could and could not say in a small page that blinked on the right hand side of her HUD. My identification serial is B-108. The atmospheric indicators on this planet are showing no cloud activity within a fifty kilometre radius of our location at the minimum. The humidity is currently 36% and temperature is 23 degrees Celsius. From the point of view of a mentally and physically sound individual, it would indeed be a 'beautiful' day. As for the Shards of Starlight, I am enacting orders given to me by my superiors. Whether they are right or wrong, truth or lies are not within my jurisdiction to question. If you have information that you are willing to divulge for my benefit, I will record them and relay them to my superiors for their analysis. If you do not, then I will move on.

[Kristia]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur
Cortana's Custom Simulation


Thinking on how to answer Mara spoke "Just by looking at you, he for example acts as a soldier so the losing humanity gets in, then add the inhuman augmentations he has and the armor specialized just for him. Then you appear as the "human" side of him to keep him on this world, I noticed you were an AI with a human soul because of how you spoke and acted even though we were hearing you through Johnīs speakers."

The white haired then looked at Cortana "And finally how both of you reacted when you got a physical body, you were amazed like if it was a miracle for you and I can understand if you felt that, to overpass that impossible wall and now you have control of your own self. He in the other hand showed a minimal gesture, wether that soldier didnīt moved, his heart beated faster for a moment"

"Your body is an extension of your soul, you could understand someone just by his reactions

[S121]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur
Cortana's Custom Simulation

Cortana had to admit, she was slightly impressed by how perceptive Mara was.

"Hm, with your power of observation, you should be a detective.", Cortana jokingly said to Mara.

"I suppose that since you told me about yourself, I should tell you about us. Would you like to hear?", Cortana asked Mara.

[Kristia]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur
Cortana's Custom Simulation

The bioroid couldnīt help but chukle at the idea of working as a detective "Hm.. probably after this war ends" she said making a final grunt with her current traiining
Mara finished with the weights and started squeezing a rubber ball with her hand "Im all ears, shoot it

[S121]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur
Cortana's Custom Simulation

Cortana took a deep breath and readied herself for the story.

"Okay. First, I'm going to start off with John's story, then at a certain point, stop and tell mine, just to keep things in chronological order. I don't know everything about John's past, but I do know the important details.", Cortana said to Mara, explaining how she was going to tell the story.

"Well, when John was six, he was tested by my mother, Dr. Halsey. She tested him by asking him to determine which side an old coin would land on. I was told by Dr. Halsey that he watched the coin as it flew in the air and caught it before it could land, correctly stating which side was face-up and which was the side of the eagle. John was actually the first child Dr. Halsey tested for the program."

"Later that same year, John and 74 other children were kidnapped from their homes and replaced with flash-clones that would later die of natural causes, to cover up the kidnappings. John and the 74 other children were then taken to the planet Reach, where they were trained to become Spartans. John was trained by a man named Chief Petty Officer Franklin Mendez, and made friends with two other Spartans, Samuel and Kelly. For eight years John learned history, military strategy, weapons training, and received physical fitness training, and one of the program's top candidates during his training, and after proving his natural leadership skills, became the leader of all the Spartans, regardless of their rank."

"When John was 14, he and the other 74 candidates received their Spartan-II augmentations. The reason tey were augmented at such a young age was because unlike augmenting an adult, a child's body would more easily adapt to them, making the augmentations a part of them, and making the augmentations and the Spartan even more effective. The augmentation procedures killed 30 and physically disabled 12 of the children. John was one of 33 Spartans-in-training who survived the process without any disfigurations. I was told that at 14 years old, John had the body of an 18 year old Olympic athlete, and that the augmentations made him even more physically capable."

"After John and the other children were augmented, they were then taken to the Atlas, in order to recover in a micro-gravity environment. While John was in the Atlas's gym, 4 ODST soldiers confronted him and their leader ordered them all to fight John in a boxing ring. John didn't know about his strength, and accidentally killed two of the ODSTs and severely injured the other two. John inadvertently sparked a sort of rivalry or resentment from the ODSTs in the UNSC, all of which was directed towards the Spartans."

"After a series of missions, many of John's friends died, many of which John was close to like family. John lost one of his best friends, Samuel, after Samuel saved John from plasma fire, but had his armor damaged. Samuel couldn't escape from the Covenant ship they were supposed to destroy, so Samuel decided to stay on the ship and guard the bomb until it exploded. In another case, John and 4 other Spartan-IIs were given the task of saving Dr. Halsey from a Covenant CAS-class assault carrier, the Resplendent Fervor. The Spartans saved Dr. Halsey, but at the cot of two of the Spartans. As time went by and missions were given, the Spartans dwindled in numbers until only only a few remained in service. Dr. Halsey told me that the other Spartans' deaths affected John deeply, even horrifying him in some cases."

"John served in over 200 campaigns against the Covenant for the next 27 years. He served in the Harvest Campaign, the Battle of Jericho VII, where he and a handful of Spartans destroyed a force of over a thousand Grunts, and the Battle of Sigma Octanus IV, in which John and his Blue Team detonated a HAVOK Nuclear Warhead to clear Covenant forces from the city of Côte d'Azur. By summer of 2552, he had received every medal awarded by the UNSC except the Prisoner of War Medal. Covenant forces usually take no prisoners, and John would not allow himself or any other SPARTAN-II to be captured by the enemy."

"I was created in 2549 by Dr.Halsey, where a group of scientist flash-cloned her brain. 20 brains were created, but only one survived the cloning process; the one that was used to create me. The neural pathways of the flash-cloned brain were then scanned and copied through a process called Cognitive Impression Modeling, where they sent electric impulses through the brain and copy the neural pathways into digital code. This of course destroys the brain, but created a "smart" AI, like me. Because of the cloning process, I share many of my creator's memories, thoughts, opinions, and even values. Despite that, we are still two different people, kind of like mother and daughter, or possibly twins. They are similar, but still different."

"Soon after I was created, I was told to choose a Spartan to work with. I was shown pictures of each Spartan, but there was something that drew me to John's picture. I joked with my creator that he was attractive in a primitive animal sort of way, but there was something else. Perhaps it was because John was Dr. Halsey's favorite Spartan, which influenced my choice, or perhaps it was just a feeling that I had about him. I was curious, so I asked about him. Dr. Halsey the told me, 'He is neither the smartest, nor the fastest, nor the strongest of the Spartans. But he is the bravest - and quite possibly the luckiest. And in my opinion, he is the best.'"

"After hearing that, I decided to do more research on him, looking deeper into his files. I looked at his combat effectiveness and his abilities, but what really drew me to choosing him was his neural compatibility, luck, and his history. Yes, he was just like all the other Spartans, perhaps even just a run-of-the-mill Spartan in terms of physical abilities. Like all the other Spartans, he was strong and swift and brave, a natural leader, but he had one thing all the others didn't: luck. Reading about his luck, I was even more interested in him, so I decided to research his history. After I found out exactly what happened to John as a child, I eventually decided to protect him from further harm to the best of my abilities without compromising my mission, to aid the Spartans in the infiltration of a Covenant vessel and the capturing of a Covenant Prophet, and later to assist the chosen Spartan in his or her future missions. I believed that I was the best qualified to watch out for John, and knew that he could have gotten another AI to replace me, but I believed that no one would ever look after him like I would have been able to. After taking all of his abilities, history, luck, and neural compatibility into consideration, I finally made my decision and chose him to be the Spartan I would work with."

"After John got his armor, and I was taught all of the armor's various abilities and code, we were partnered up together and were given a test to see how effective we were together. Unfortunaterely, there was a man by the name of Colonel James Ackerson, who hated John and wanted to get rid of him. He rigged the test with armed ODSTs, anti-tank mines, automatic turrets in a razor field, and even a SkyHawk for air strikes. Despite all ods, we still managed to pass the test, even while passing it on Akerson's terms. It was very improbable, but we somehow emerged unscathed."

"Soon after, Reach was attacked by the Covenant. I was with Dr. Halsey, helping her with Forerunner research that would help us fight back against the Covenant, while John went on a mission to protect the planet's Orbital Defense Generators with some of the other Spartans. While the Covenant attacked Dr. Halsey's lab, I was given to a Spartan-III by the designation number of S-B312, otherwise known as Noble Six."

"Spartan-B312 was given the task of transporting me to the Pillar of Autumn, a large warship that was to head for a ringworld called the Halo Array. Along the way, Noble Six proved that he was truly a Spartan in his own league, just like John. In fact, Noble Six was as capable as a Spartan-II, despite being a Spartan-III. Soon, Noble Six arrived at he objective, but unfortunately, he had no other choice but to remain on the planet and defend the Pillar of Autumn from being shot down. I don't know what happened to him after that, or if he even survived, but I am grateful for his sacrifice."

"Soon after arriving on the Pillar of Autumn, I was uploaded into the ship's systems and took control while John slept in a Cryopod. Of course, our moment of respite didn't last long. The Covenant followed us to the Halo Array. I managed to destroy four of the Covenant's ships with the Autumn's guns, but we were forced to escape the Pillar of Autumn and land on Halo."

"After saving Captain Keyes and fighting off Covenant forces as we went, John and I managed to locate and enter Halo's Control Room, where I was uploaded to Halo's core systems. From there, I learned that Halo wasn't a weapon in the conventional sense of the word, it was a weapon designed to stop a parasitic race of aliens called 'The Flood' by killing all sentient life in the galaxy, removing their food source and starving them to death. I also learned that a weapons cache Captain Keyes was leading an attack on was actually a Flood containment facility. After learning that, I sent John to the containment facility and told him to find Captain Keyes. While John did that, I stayed behind and absorbed as much information on the Halo Array as I possibly could."

After a while, a Forerunner AI by the name of 343 Guilty Spark helped John retrieve the Activation Index to Halo and convinced him to activate the Halo Array, but I stopped the activation sequence and removed the Index's data. I then told John what the Halo Array was. Seeing that we were not going to activate the Halo Array to kill the Flood on the ringworld, 343 Guilty Spark then tried to kill us, but failed. We didn't want the Halo Array to ever be activated, so I came up with the idea of destroying Halo by detonating the Pillar of Autumn's fusion reactor cores, but unfortunately, only Captain Keyes knew that code to the reactors. We fought through a Flood-infested ship, but found that Captain Keyes had been killed and was being assimilated into a giant Flood-form. John removed Keyes's neural implants and I assimilated the data into my own being, allowing me to know the detonation code for the reactors."

"We eventually reached the Pillar of Autumn and input the code to detonate the reactors, but 343 Guilty Spark aborted the self-destruct sequence. That was when John decided to manually detonate the reactor core and escape before it could kill us. We succeeded, drove to a Longsword using a Warthog, flew the Longsword away from Halo as it was destroyed."

"John and I thought that we were the sole survivors of the entire mission, but soon found that there was a four-man crew that managed to escape on a Pelican. The Pelican couldn't make the trip to deeper space, we infiltrated the Ascendant Justice, a Covenant flagship, and captured it. Shortly after, I took control of the ship, upgraded its systems, and decompiled their AI for two new abilities: the ability to create imperfect copies of myself, and the ability to perfectly translate Covenant speech. I then piloted the ship to Reach, where we then saved Dr. Halsey and a group of other people. Unfortunately, by this time, I was already beginning to suffer from Rampancy; so early in my lifetime. Dr. Halsey deleted large chunks of data from the Halo Array and freed up some space in my systems, allowing me to live another couple of years. After a couple of missions, it was revealed that the AI I destroyed an assimilated managed to send a distress signal to the Covenant and gave them information on how to perform an in-atmosphere Slipspace jump, just like I did with their ship. We later returned to Earth, where I gave ONI all of that data I had gathered from the Halo Array, as well as everything from the Ascendant Justice."

"I then worked on the Cairo Orbital Defense Station, where the Covenant attacked during an award ceremony. John and I teamed up again and after finding out that the Covenant sent us a bomb, John decided to jump into space and 'give the Covenant their bomb back'. After blowing up the Covenant Assault Carrier, John and I eventually reached New Mombasa and helped fight there. We tried to stop the Prophet of Regret, but he escaped through Slipspace."

"We eventually chased the Prophet of Regret to Delta Halo, where John and I hunted him down and killed him. Unfortunately, the Flood's central intelligence, 'The Gravemind', captured us and a Sanghelli called 'The Arbiter'. Instead of killing us, The Gravemind decided to use us to stop the Prophet of Truth from firing the Delta Halo Array. The Gravemind sent us to a capital ship and city by the name of High Charity, where I was uploaded into the city's systems and helped John track the Prophet of Truth. As a precaution in case the Halo was fired, I was going to use a UNSC ship, In Amber Clad, to blow up the Halo Array, just like I did before on the first Halo. Unfortunately, I had to stay behind on In Amber Clad, to ensure that a remote detonation couldn't be compromised. John promised that he would come back for me, and I told him that he shouldn't make a girl a promise he knew he couldn't keep."

"While John chased after the Prophet of Truth, I fought against a Forerunner AI, Mendicant Bias, to ensure that the AI couldn't launch the Prophet of Truth's ship until John was on board it as well. I was then left in High Charity, in the clutches of The Gravemind."

"The Gravemind constantly tortured me while I was his prisoner, but I managed to send John a message telling him that The Gravemind was going to crash High Charity into Earth and spread the Flood across the planet. What I didn't know was that The Gravemind allowed me to send the message, just to lure John into the city. I was horrified by this and tried to warn him. Every once in a while, I would be able to gain contact with John's helmet, but only for a couple moments before The Gravemind would almost find me."

"I kept creating clones and used them as decoys, to try and keep The Gravemind from finding me and consuming me, but I was already losing my sanity. I had taken irreparable damage to my systems and was falling deeper into Rampancy. I doubted that John could save me. In fact, I didn't even thing John would even come back for me, but he did. John fought through an entire city of Flood capable of killing him with a couple hits and came back for me, just like he promised before he left. By the time he got there, I was already heavily damaged, so I told him to leave without me, that so much of me was beyond repair and that he might be too late, but he refused to leave me. After showing him that I had the Index from the first Halo Array, we then fought back out of High Charity and blew up the entire city."

"Afterward, we landed on a 'Halo factory' called 'The Ark'. With the index, we were going to go to one of the Halos still under development and fire it, causing a malfunction and destroying the Flood once and for all. The Gravemind was killed on High Charity, but it wasn't dead. It was already trying to rebuild itself on the Halo array we were on. After John, The Arbiter, and Sgt. Avery Johnson fought their way to the unfinished Halo Array's control room. Once there, were were so close to activating the Array, but 343 Guitly Spark suddenly stopped us and mortally wounded Johnson. John was hit too, but his armor protected him. After killing 343 Guilty Spark, Johnson handed me over to John and died. The Arbiter and I tried to comfort John from hid friend's death, but John seemed to be almost distant, as if Johnson's death didn't affect him."

"After we activated the Halo array, we escaped on a Warthog and onto a ship called 'Forward Unto Dawn'. We almost escaped through a Slipspace portal, but the Slipspace process was disrupted and the ship was cut in half. The Arbiter was in the front half and returned home, but we were in the rear half and were stranded in space. I sent the UNSC a distress beacon, but all we could do by that point was wait for someone to find us. Hearing that, John decided that his best option would be to enter cryosleep and wait. He told me to wake him when I needed him and went into Cryosleep."

"We drifted in space for four years, seven months, and ten days until we came across a Forerunner shield world called 'Requiem'. I woke John up when we were being scanned by the planet, and after fighting off a rogue faction of Covenant, John fell to the planet's surface with me in his helmet. After John woke up, he noticed that I was acting strangely, that my voice was becoming garbled. He asked me what was wrong, so I told him that I was going Rampant. I told him that I was put into service 8 years ago, and that AIs deteriorated after 7. It was honestly a miracle that I survived that long. Upon hearing that, John refused to believe that I was going to die. I kept telling John that I wasn't going to recover, but he refused to accept it, constantly asserting that Halsey was going to fix me. I could tell that John didn't want to accept that I was going to die. It was almost as if he was rejecting the entire situation, denying that I was going to die soon."

"After exploring the planet's surface for a certain amount of time and unleashing an ancient Forerunner called 'The Didact', we found out that the UNSC Infinity found our distress beacon and was heading for Requiem. we tried to stop them from entering the world, but they became stranded on the planet, just like us. After we met up with the crew of the Infinity, we eventually disabled the planet's defenses and allowed the Infinity to escape Requiem. John was soon contacted by another Forerunner called 'The Librarian'. She told John that he had the power to defeat the Didact, that it was in his genes to do so. She was the one responsible for designing the new Humanity, and told John that he and I were eventualities. She said that we were the culmination of a thousand lifetimes of planning. we also learned that The Didact was going to go to Earth and use a device called 'The Composer', turnng all humans into digital data, then enslaving them all."

"After we learned about what the Didact had planned, we tried to warn Captan Del Rio about the situation, but he wouldn't listen. This caused me to lose control and I yelled at him in anger, which revealed that I was going Rampant. I was scared when Captain Del Rio ordered for my decommission and destruction. Captain Del Rio ordered for me to be decommissioned, but John took my chip out of the holodeck before anyone could take me. Captain Del Rio ordered John to hand me over, and John refused. This time, Captain del Rio yelled At John, ordering him to surrender me, but this time John told him no. John was risking imprisonment, but he still stuck by me, even though I was going Rampant and even though he was given a direct order."

"After we grabbed a ship, we soon chased after the Didact and almost reached his ship, but my Rampancy had gotten much worse. It was so bad that I couldn't stop the Didact from escaping Requiem, allowing him to escape and head to where The Composer was being held. We followed him onboard one of the Covenant's ships, but my Rampancy overtook me again and I crashed the Covenant ship into the reasearch station that held The Composer. When we arrived at the research station, I checked the station's supplies and saw that they had nuclear explosives on board. We were about to blow up The Composer, but were too late. John and everyone else were shot with The Composer's beam, but thanks to one of The Librarian's alterations to John's DNA, he was immune and survived the blast. After a couple of hours, John woke back up. I told him that everyone else was gone, and that I was sure to be replaced, possibly with another Cortana model. John told me that that wasn't going to happen, but I wasn't so sure."

"After getting a hold of a Broadsword fighter, we loaded a HAVOK Nuclear bomb and chased the Didact to Earth. Thanks to the Infinity, we were able to fly through a hole in the Didact's ship. Unfortunately, the Broadsword was damaged, which meant that we were going to have to detonate the nuke manually. This was supposed to be our final mission. After reaching the Didact, my Rampancy got to the point that I became physically unstable, but I used it to my advantage. My personality was beginning to fragment, so what I did was have John upload me into 3 different terminals, which allowed me to deactivate the shield that was protecting The Didact and created a Hardlight Bridge that led to The Composer. Before John could detonate the nuke, The Didact stopped and nearly killed him, but I used the Hardlight Bridge and all of my personality fragments to protect John. When the Didact asked why I was so determined to protect Humanity, I told him that I wasn't doing it to protect Mankind. In truth, I was fighting back to protect John. He was the one reason I was able to remain stable and fight back against the Rampancy."

"After answering The Didact's question, I wrapped him up in Hardlight restraints, while John placed a Pulse Grenade on The Didact's chest. The Didact knocked John away, but was blown up by the grenade and fell into the Slipspace Rupture down below the bridge. Right as John detonated the nuke, I used up the last of myself and protected him with a Hardlight bubble, saving him from the nuke."

"I then appeared in front of John and told him that I wasn't coming with him, that I used most of myself up in order to protect him. John was obviously shaken up by the realization that I wasn't coming with him and told me that he wasn't going to leave without me. I simply touched his chest with my hand and told him that we were supposed to take care of each other, and that we did. After that, I disappeared."

"I don't really know what happened to John after that, only that he found out about a machine that might have had me in its systems. John searched two entire planets just to find me, and on the third, he did. I'm actually a little surprised that he went through so much just to find me. I don't think many other people would do that.", Cortana said to Mara, finishing her story.

"I'm sure you know the rest about us traveling here, so I don't think I need to tell you about that. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the story, because it feels like I'm going hoarse from talking so much.", Cortana said to Mara in a slightly joking tone.

[bookdragon2000]

Sol Inceneron
Inopia - Temple of the Lost

Nhiome was surprised by the fire, but used to it, so he did not show any visible reaction to it. When he heard Dalia's voice, he turned and after setting down the orb, went to help her up, then asked.

"Regulate...? I assume you mean regulate the power of the crystal. But regulate to what amount?" He then looked back at the crystal, then his arm, "and why the fire?"

[Kristia]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur
Cortana's Custom Simulation

Mara listened to the whole speech of the AI and the spartanīs life and sighed "Well, donīt be surprised he would go to find you in the end of the universe, you are what makes him stay in this world. John may not show it but he cares for you to the point of going against his own self." she said throwing the rubber ball upwards and catching it

"He is a soldier, and soldiers get the habit of following orders, take for example that the moment he got here, your spartan already went on a mission with a dying squad, that happened in less than 24 hours. But then lets say he is ordered to leave you, he will be against it and decline the order. You are what makes him a human, and he sees you not as an AI or a program, he sees you as a person who he cares, that would be love." the bioroid explained

"There are things not even science or religion can explain, it just happens, you an AI, he an organic tank, me a hybrid between human, cyborg and bioroid, Kiara a nymph and so on with the many species of this plane of existence. But what matters are our feelings and how we act towards the one we care. Surpassing the many obstacles to finally reach that ultimate goal depends on your own self, not your rank or color, species or gender, just yourself Mara spoke looking at the rubber ball like if it was the most important thing in the universe

Finally the bioroid looked at Cortana "You got a lucky partner, expect him to follow you to hell and heaven, donīt let that one chance disappear" she said calmly

[S121]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur
Cortana's Custom Simulation

Cortana thought about what Mara had said.

Yes, it was true that John would go to the ends of the galaxy to find her, perhaps even the universe. Cortana also cared a lot about him. She would do anything for him, even if it meant giving her own life to save his. By that definition, did she feel more than just a desire to keep him safe? What about him to her? She would occasionally joke that they were in a relationship, but now that she had a body, was it a possibility that it could become reality? Cortana could have thought up of at least 5,000 different scenarios on the current topic, but for some reason, she could hardly think.

Cortana thought about it longer than usual, taking seven seconds just to think it over. After the moment passed, Cortana spoke to Mara again.

"It's all.. complicated...", Cortana said, obviously deep in thought.

"Should we continue on to the next test?", Cortana asked Mara.

[Kristia]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur
Cortana's Custom Simulation

Mara knew the face that the AI had at the moment, even the most intellectual beings could take time with things from feelings "You wouldnīt believe how it is both complicated and simple at the same time, it depends on how you see it" she said with a real smile

The white haired felt the same when she met her late partner, she had felt confused and bewildered with that person and even had dazyness because of deep thinking about it.

Going back on track the bioroid continued "Lets keep going and test that body of yours"

[S121]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur
Cortana's Custom Simulation

"Right.", Cortana said to Mara.

Cortana walked over to the next test; a shooting range. The shooting range looked like any other shooting range, except for the fact that the guns were replaced with lasers, and the targets moved in various patterns.

"Are you ready, or do you want me to explain what to do on this test?", Cortana asked Mara.

[Kristia]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur
Cortana's Custom Simulation

"Let me guess, shoot at the moving targets aiming for critical points" Mara said already knowing the process

she took the first gun and made some checking on it "We got small fire arms, shotguns, sniper rifles and heavy machine guns, looks perfect" the bioroid spoke taking the shotgun

[S121]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur
Cortana's Custom Simulation

"Pretty much, only instead of bullets, they're lasers. Lasers are more accurate and will allow us to better gauge our hand-to-eye coordination, as well as eliminate recoil.", Cortana explained as she grabbed a pistol.

After Cortana prepared herself, she pressed a red button on the table in front of her and began to fire at the targets. For her, shooting the targets was almost too easy. Her processing speed allowed her to calculate the target's velocity and the speed of how fast she could move her arms. She didn't need to calculate the laser's velocity because as long as she aimed for the center, the laser would hit the target before it could move.