Chapter 2: Faith

Chapter 2: Faith is the second chapter of Halo Infinite: Memory Agent.

Transcript
''Note: For the sake of the transcript. "The Lieutenant" is referred to as their actual name "Parisa".''


 * Narrator: "Halo Infinite: Memory Agent, part 2."


 * Shuttle AI: "Emergency alert. Emergency alert."


 * Lieutenant Parisa (Internal monologue): "Why am I not freaking out, right now? You would think someone with no memory would scream like a lunatic when they hear “emergency alert”. But there is a feeling inside of me that knows."


 * Lieutenant Parisa: "Oliver, status update!"


 * Oliver: "The alarm indicates that we are no longer in a networked sector. No UNSC ship will come to our rescue if we are captured. Our mission is…"

Digital click.


 * Oliver: "…off the books."


 * Lieutenant Parisa: "Have we been spotted by any non-UNSC ships?"


 * Oliver: "Affirmative. But most of the vessels who are aware of our presence are farther than our run to the rendezvous point."


 * Lieutenant Parisa: "Most?"


 * Oliver: "I’ve been wrong before."


 * Lieutenant Parisa: "O-hoho, have you been wrong on any of our previous missions?"


 * Oliver: "For your emotional well-being, I’d rather not respond this stage of your consciousness cycle."


 * Lieutenant Parisa (Internal monologue): "It’s weird when you realize an AI knows more about your emotional well-being than you do. Here’s what I know: I know how to act in emergency, I know how to fire a pistol, I know that I’m part of a war effort. Other than that… Nothing."

She takes her breath.


 * Lieutenant Parisa (Internal monologue): "Deep breaths. This is supposed to be my last mission and I better just keep my head down and follow through."


 * Oliver: "Lieutenant? Your biofeedback just registered a slight increase in cortisol before levelling out. Just wanted you to be aware."


 * Lieutenant Parisa: "Thank you for that. Oliver, why did Mateas laugh when I asked about the Master Chief? Is he… well-known?"


 * Oliver: "Affirmative. Spartan 1-1-7’s exploits are well-known among military and civilian populations."


 * Lieutenant Parisa (Internal monologue): "Have I met him before?"


 * Lieutenant Parisa: "Access his personnel file, put it on visual."

Digital click.


 * Lieutenant Parisa: "The only thing it says on here is “Spartan Two”. Is there anything else you can access?"


 * Oliver: "The UNSC Archives contain many first-hand recollections. But Lieutenant, researching the rendezvous target is not critical to this mission."


 * Lieutenant Parisa: "Oliver, if there is a twenty-eight percent chance that I’m going to die, I would at least like to know who it was I died trying to reach."


 * Oliver: "Opening UNSC Archives."

Digital click.


 * Lieutenant Parisa: "Stop. Play that."


 * Oliver: "This is from the UNESCO New Mombasa Heritage Site Reflections Project."


 * Fate Abdi: "My name is Fate Abdi and I worked for Mombasa Water and Power. I am an hydrological scientist by training, basically I oversaw the critical pipelines for the city. I was at work when the ships came. I thought it was a storm at first, but we all looked out the window and… there was a white-hot streak cutting across the sky, then another, and then within seconds, destruction… All around us. People outside running for their lives, screaming and… and dying. It was… unbelievable. My co-workers and I evacuated to the closest port, trying not to look at all the carnage around us. But then, we heard this loud boom, boom, boom, and crawling over the wreckage of buildings was this… giant… robot crab."

Digital click.


 * Oliver: "Lieutenant, the civilian is referring to an enemy vehicle. Covenant heavy assault platform. A Scarab."


 * Fate Abdi: "The way that Scarab stomping over the city I called my home, its history, its beauty… It felt like all of humanity was like… a cigarette butt. We turned a corner only to reach a dead end. And there’s a troop of ugly little bastards pointing their blast guns right at us! I closed my eyes because maybe dying doesn’t hurt as bad with your eyes closed, and then I start hearing shots. Brrt, brrt, brrt! Then… Silence. The shots stopped but I’m still alive! I opened my eyes, and there were all the Grunts dead on front of us, killed by this… giant armored soldier. It was… the Master Chief! The Master Chief saved our lives! The Master Chief nodded at us and took off. It was just a nod to him, but to us! Oh, it felt like he was reminding us that we count too! We may not know how to fight aliens, but all of us, we all have something to offer. We all have to survive. We started hugging and sobbing, but then we all heard an alert on our comms. The sea wall was breached and the reservoirs were at capacity, the entire city was going to be flooded, unless the overloaded pipelines were diverted. My pipelines! I needed to open the water release pathways. I can’t lie, I was scared! But I thought again about the Master Chief nodding. I raced back to the building, and I was standing in the control room, trying to figure out which emergency spillway to open, the one near the canals, or near the train tunnels? I could see what was happening on the monitors. The Master Chief and soldiers were trying to shoot down the Scarab near the canals, and it was clear they were on the loosing end. The canals would be like a lobster trap, easy to find its way into but not so easy to get out of. And then the sluice gates and overpasses would keep it cramped in place. So I opened the spillway which flooded the train tunnels. Whoo, the rest is history! Ha! The UNSC was able to divert the Scarab into the dry canal, jamming it in the locks. And the Master Chief destroyed it, haha! And I’ll tell you what: I looked at the Chief on the monitor and I nodded right at him. Just the way he did to me earlier. Yes, I did. Yes, I did…"

Digital click.


 * Oliver: "Lieutenant, you appear to be holding your breath. I am programmed to lead guided meditations."

She exhales.


 * Lieutenant Parisa: "Uh, no, that would be a negative, Oliver."


 * Lieutenant Parisa (Internal monologue): "That civilian, Fate, risked so much."


 * Lieutenant Parisa: "When was that battle again, Oliver?"


 * Oliver: "2552."


 * Lieutenant Parisa: "And what year is it now?"


 * Oliver: "2559."


 * Lieutenant Parisa (Internal monologue): "Seven years."


 * Lieutenant Parisa: "Oliver, how many more first-person accounts are there on the Master Chief?"


 * Oliver: "6480. Wait… 6481."


 * Lieutenant Parisa: "Huh. Um, Oliver, I know I might have asked this before, but how long have I been-"


 * Oliver: "Lieutenant, you do ask, but not this early. Recommending a hold on your inquiry."


 * Lieutenant Parisa: "Why?"


 * Oliver: "For the success of the mission."


 * Lieutenant Parisa: "Let’s do this a different way: search me in the UNSC Archives."


 * Oliver: "I’m sorry Lieutenant, but I am unable to provide you with any information."


 * Lieutenant Parisa: "Oliver, I am overriding your pathetic program. Look me up in the Archives."


 * Oliver: "I am unable to look you up in the UNSC Archives because… you do not exist in the UNSC Archives."