welcome to omega, round two.

[ceoqueen]

who. everyone!
what. in which the new arrivals join the outsiders.
where. landing pads for new arrivals, who then head through the markets to the residential area.
when. today!
warnings. n/a

This time, when the shuttles arrive, the landing pad isn't so empty. There was no saying these people wouldn't show up again, and though Aria isn't going to be happy that they appear to be coming on a schedule while the rest of the system is grounded, there doesn't appear that there's much to be done about it. A group of her batarian agents are there to escort incomers off the ship; some are taken aside for questioning, but when it's clear they know nothing of their origins, they're let go. Some new arrivals may notice that these shuttles don't simply depart -- a number of them are escorted off by other shuttles, deeper into the station.

After that, though, there's little the batarians can do about them. They're sent towards the residential district by way of the markets and financial sectors. The housing areas they arrive in aren't in the best of shape; while there are other outsiders to this galaxy already at work trying to repair the damage, others aren't bothering with it at all.

This is Omega. If you don't find some way to pull your weight, you'll be dead in no time.

Comments

[thereclaimer]

'Omni-tool'. With a name like that, the Chief couldn't help but muse that it had better be pretty impressive when he did get his hands on one. He glanced down at the man who'd been kind enough to answer his idle though, a thought occurring to him.

"You said I should've arrived with one." Almost absentmindedly, his hand began traveling over his armor. He'd mentally run over his inventory, but he hadn't physically checked his armor to see if anything was different yet. Eventually, his hand stopped when it reached into a compartment on his back - coming out with a device which he quickly slipped over his right hand.

"Cortana. Do you think you can integrate this with my armor?" He asked aloud, apparently as unconcerned with concealing Cortana as she was. The MJLORNIR was nothing if not adaptive and Cortana was already intimately familiar with its firmware, so he expected it to be well within her capabilities. After his request, he turned to North.

"Thanks." He nodded to him. "Does everyone arriving in the shuttles have one of these?"

[noscope]

Cortana's appearance startled him for a moment - and had Theta in a restless North who are they are they anything like us why does he have armor like yours? sort of buzz, but he managed to settle him down long enough to contemplate what she was saying.

They may not be the type to conceal what Cortana was, but North .. is just the slightest bit wary about the way things operate around here, and he wasn't about to trust that someone wouldn't see Theta and automatically want to study him.

So he's protective of the little guy. That was part of the reason he'd been paired with him in the first place.

He nodded to Chief in response, idly waving a dismissive hand. "Hey, no problem .. I haven't exactly been here very long myself, but it's been long enough that I'm picking up on a few things." He paused, tilted his head to the side. "I .. think so? I haven't seen anyone around here without one, so it wouldn't surprise me to find that they did."

Another pause, and if he spoke in something of a hushed tone when he asked his next question, it was clearly a figment of Chief's imagination. "Is she what I think she is?"

[letmepick]

And when were you going to tell her you had one of those on you Chief? Well, she'll give him a break, given the nature of how they got here, missing a new addition like that isn't unfounded.

"Perhaps. It isn't a system I recognize. You'll have to give me a minute to make sure it's even compatible." If not, well she'll just have to make it. She's intimate with the armor's firmware, not the Omni-tool's. It had a holographic interface, but that's where the similarities end. At least there was a firm connection between Covenant and Forerunner technology, gave her a place to work from.

Busy at her work, Cortana was able to put her other research on the backburner. She picked up some excitation before noticing their new friend being all hush hush. "And what do you think she is exactly?" She has the time to be a little playful.

i hope it's okay to go ahead and reply to this. ;;

[noscope]

Maybe Chief hadn't realized that he had it on him; it had taken North a little while to realize it, himself, but once he'd gotten used to it? It felt like just another part of his armor, now, and though it was still taking a bit to figure out how the mechanics of everything worked, he liked to think he was coming along with the technology nicely.

It wasn't all that different from the holographic interfaces he was used to working with back on the Mother of Invention, if he thought about it. That, he could handle. This would just take a bit more to get himself acclimated to.

North made a small noise in the back of his throat that may just have been one of surprise at the realization that Cortana was speaking to him directly, and in the back of his mind, Theta only buzzed more restlessly. "I'm sorry, that .. was a rude thing to ask, wasn't it?" Way to stick your foot in your mouth, North .. you're not usually the type to do that.

"I was just .. wondering if you were an AI. Because -" He looked around him very briefly before continuing. "I have one, too."

[thereclaimer]

That got the Chief's attention in a hurry - his armor shifted as he quickly looked up from the omni-tool and focused directly at North. Briefly, the idea that what he was saying didn't make any sense crossed his mind - as far as he knew, he was the only one who had an AI as a partner. Most if not all other UNSC AI were charged with maintaining ships and defense platforms - whatever function they had, he knew that his and Cortana's partnership was one-of-a-kind, or at least, it should've been.

But, there was no guarantee this guy was even from the same world as the UNSC, as bizarre a thought as that was. Just because he had recognized Cortana as an AI didn't guarantee anything. Still, he found himself on guard.

"She is," he confirmed. "An AI is hard to come by for just one person," he added shortly after. He was nothing if not curious about exactly how North had one, as he claimed.

[noscope]

It wouldn't have surprised him at all to find that this information put Chief immediately on edge. He knew that the topic of artificial intelligence was iffy, at best, and no one outside of the Project, as far as he knew, knew anything about it. Still, he could tell that the other man was instantly wary, even as he answered his question.

And almost as if on cue, Theta appeared at his right shoulder, though he did hang back a little - managed to stay partially obscured by peering around the back of North's neck. "No they aren't!" he chimed in with, and North .. was pretty sure he wasn't going to be able to keep the little guy quiet anymore.

"Several agents have them where we're from! North, tell him about -"

"Shh," he cut in, and the AI immediately fell silent. "This .. is Theta. And he's not a full AI. He's only a fragment."

[letmepick]

North had been an extremely cautious type, and upon hearing the news, Cortana had her confirmation to why that was. Like Chief pointed out, AI weren't given to just anyone, not unless they were high up in military rank or the situation called for immediate transport. Due to the nature of arrivals here, the second seemed more likely.

But, at least that solved the mystery of that chatter she was getting. However, she wasn't expecting the second surprise piping up behind North's neck.

"A fragment huh?" That wasn't completely out there. After all, Cortana picked up the ability herself from the Covenant, and given someone skilled with manipulating AI, you could have a stable enough copy. But at the same time, it severely limited the AI's capabilities. And then Theta brought up more agents. Could they also be using fragmented AI?

"Chief-" Cortana kept this one off the speaker and between them. "you notice what that AI's avatar looks like, right?" How could either of them not notice? More and more Cortana was getting curious. What exactly was the story behind these two?

"So you're the one I was hearing." Cortana addressed Theta this time, almost like she was trying to coax a child out of hiding.

[noscope]

Even given the fact that within the Project, the subject of AI wasn't all that secret, only the top agents received them. York had been the first, with Delta, and though he'd yet to see just how the unit was supposed to help him - given the fact that he had yet to successfully decrypt a holographic lock on the field without Delta having to bypass potential security breaches - he could see why they were useful. Theta had already proven his worth in their first training session together, and to say that he was grateful to have the little guy around would have been putting it mildly.

Even if he ended up pacing the corridors of the Mother of Invention on the nights that he couldn't rest.

As far as being skilled with manipulating AI went, well .. the Director was definitely good at that, even if his particular method of manipulation included torturing a full AI and gaining the assistance of a huragok to fix the fragments obtained in order for them to be used .. well! He didn't know anything about that, of course, so for all he knew? There was some very intricate work behind creating these fragments, and he left it at that.

But then Cortana was addressing Theta, himself, and the AI receded back behind North's neck entirely. The agent huffed a small sigh and shook his head. "You'll have to be patient with him, I'm afraid. He's extremely shy - but he's been working on it. He got along really well with Delta and York before we were dropped off here."

He bit the inside of his lip, wondering how much more would be safe to talk about out in the open. "I take it you're a full AI?"