[Halsey's fingers brush the empty slot where Cortana's chip should be. AIs have short lives and she's worked with and outlived so many, but it never hurts any less. And Cortana...Cortana had been special even among the AIs created from Halsey's own flash-clones.
Every time Halsey starts to think she's inured to loss, another AI erases itself to safeguard the location of Earth, another beloved name turns up in the war obituaries, another SPARTAN's status changes to "MIA."
And now this. Halsey shuts her eyes because she doesn't want John to see the glimmer of tears before she can get herself under control. Her voice is level, steady as ever, but only because she has decades of practice lying. Even so, she can't keep bitterness from eating away at the edges.]
They didn't tell me. They didn't tell me any of it.
no subject
[Halsey's fingers brush the empty slot where Cortana's chip should be. AIs have short lives and she's worked with and outlived so many, but it never hurts any less. And Cortana...Cortana had been special even among the AIs created from Halsey's own flash-clones.
Every time Halsey starts to think she's inured to loss, another AI erases itself to safeguard the location of Earth, another beloved name turns up in the war obituaries, another SPARTAN's status changes to "MIA."
And now this. Halsey shuts her eyes because she doesn't want John to see the glimmer of tears before she can get herself under control. Her voice is level, steady as ever, but only because she has decades of practice lying. Even so, she can't keep bitterness from eating away at the edges.]
They didn't tell me. They didn't tell me any of it.