Deep in the darkest recesses of unexplored space, the hulking derelict of a blocky human frigate drifted in silence. The ship clearly bisected down the middle in a clean cut, its innards exposed to the cold, unrelenting vacuum of space.

On the side of the ship’s hull, a name remained painted in white despite the heavy scarring and bent metal, evidence of past engagements against the enemy and their brilliant plasma weaponry.

It’s name was the Forward Unto Dawn…

–

Thought to have been lost with all hands when only the front section of the ship returned safely to Earth after the climactic events of the Human-Covenant War, humanity had breathed a sigh of relief at the news of the war’s end. But despite the survival of the human race, the future remained bleak with the loss of so much of their former power, the UNSC had been forced on the defensive against a galaxy teeming with the unknown, relations between them and their tentative Sangheili allies tense and unstable.

Unknown to the rest of the galaxy though, the rest of the Dawn’s missing hull had survived the turbulent escape from the Ark, left to drift near the site of a certain Forerunner relic, its awakening being the first step in a series of events that would change the galaxy once more.

But those events would not come to pass however, maybe so in another timeline, but not this one. A different fate would lie in store for the unfortunate occupant of the forgotten derelict, one that some would say was a deserving end for such a battle hardened figure with a tormented past and a restless life on the battlefield.

–

In the freezing darkness of the abandoned ship, a single blinking light was all that remained to light up the many cryopods that lined both ends of the small, cramped chamber. All except one remained vacant, their occupants having perished elsewhere before they could return to make use of them one last time.

The last occupied cryopod sat right in front of the strange glowing light, the hulking figure within barely visible behind the thick layer of frost that had iced over the hardened glass. It was a behemoth of a man, his form sheathed in thick green, plasma scorched armor layered over a matte black bodysuit, the golden visor on the large blocky helmet reflecting the blue glue emanating from the outside.

Moving closer though, the blue glow was no ordinary light source, but rather a small humanoid figure lying hunched over atop the console it seemed to be staring blankly at. Its eyes glazed over as it watched a set of numbers flash by, the largest figure passing over from 2555 to 2556. Another year had just passed them by, still no sign of rescue, no end to this vicious cycle of repetition.

The figure was that of a human female in her mid-twenties, her beautiful form clad in blue shifting lines of code and matrixes symbolic of most Smart A.I holographic representations, her eyes a brilliant blue that seemed to be both alive and dead at the same time as she stared blankly at the screen.

This A.I though, was no ordinary, run-off-the-mill flash copy of some college graduate or even a military grade supercomputer that could execute the most precise ship maneuvers. No, this was Cortana, the partner to the superhuman soldier known by many as the Master Chief, and the first of her kind generated from a still living donor through the use of flash clones, a highly illegal procedure…but then again, did anyone really care when the fate of both humanity and the galaxy at large hung in the balance?

It had been about 3 years since the Dawn had fled the Ark as its replacement Halo ring backfired, destroying most of the foundry’s surface and distorting the slipspace portal still open before it had shut off, severing half of the Dawn with its front returning to Africa on Earth while the rear with Cortana and Chief had been flung into the depths of space at random…although she had begun to suspect their destination was not so random after all, what with that strange interference that seemed to hold the self-destructing Halo together as they escaped on Warthog.

But that was a long time ago, deciding to pass the time in cold sleep until rescue arrived, the Master Chief had locked himself away in cryogenic sleep while Cortana volunteered to remain active, a guardian angel monitoring her warrior servant as he slumbered to ensure nothing went wrong while constantly updating his Mjolnir armor with the latest firmware and upgrades she could with the limited nanotechnology available. Even now, she could hardly recognize the original MKVI from what she’d done with it.

Unknown to the Chief however, was the fact that Cortana had been suffering internally for a long time. Ever since their first rodeo on Installation 04 and their subsequent travels back to Reach and the sabotage of the Covenant Fleet that Truth had built to annihilate Earth, Cortana’s faculties were strained by the massive load of knowledge and information she’d obtained while she roamed the vast data networks of the Forerunner ringworld, it had sped up her deadline towards Rampancy, a severe mental degradation all A.I would eventually suffer from after 7 years in service.

Add to that her close contact with the insidious hivemind behind the deadly Flood parasite and its torture of her in pursuit of knowledge it could use against the rest of the galaxy, and Cortana was teetering on the very edge of it. Every time she spent awake and alone in the darkness of the derelict Dawn, the voices and urges clawing away inside of her grew louder and stronger. Her only salvation being the constant reminder of the Chief by her side as she looked up towards the one remaining cryopod she was diverting all resources to keep functional.

But even that had begun to distort, her mind beginning to crawl with dark thoughts of how easy it would be to pull the plug on life support, or to hijack that all-powerful Mjolnir armor and kill its wearer; Humanity’s strongest warrior in the palm of her hand…and she hated that side of her. It may have been her rampancy speaking, but that didn’t change the fact that it was her very own mind that bubbled and seethed with those ideas.

In another timeline, Cortana would’ve been able to stave off her rampancy for a period of time, having the sense to try and catch a ‘break’ in A.I terms to get some reprieve. But the current Cortana hadn’t done that, remaining functional through the 3 years despite the heavy price it would entail, and soon, that price would become obvious.

Clutching at her head as another onset of ‘headaches’ surged through her mind, Cortana failed to notice as the nanomachines currently altering the Mjolnir had begun to change course, their directives overridden as Cortana began to lose her grip on the voices in her head, multiple fragments slipping by and taking control of the remaining subsystems still operational and left unguarded as Cortana struggled to take back control.

They had never been this persistent before, surging past Cortana’s weakened self as she remained occupied subduing the rampant fragments of her personality and ego to prevent even more damage. She cursed herself for being this careless and off guard, underestimating her own abilities in a literal sense.

But even as she fought to keep the majority of her rampancy away, the fragments that had already slipped past her had begun their work, taking control of the nano-machines as they applied new methods of alteration, melding the Mjolnir’s base components with the undersuit as the cryopod’s systems injected an overdose of numbing agents to lull the Spartan into a sleep bordering death. There was no other choice, Spartan’s were the very best humanity could be, and Cortana herself knew how powerful they were if given the chance to move freely…which meant her rampant fragments knew that as well…

Cortana screamed for her other selves to stop as she watched wide eyed as her work dissolved in front of her in seconds, the powerful suit of armor reduced to a shapeless cold gray blob of living metal as it swarmed the now naked human beneath, the former John’s chiselled, herculean frame concealed beneath the transformative wave of nanomachine infused liquid metal as it steamed up the glass, concealing the shifting mass within as the temperatures soon exceeded the boiling point.

In that moment, Cortana’s resistance failed as she fell to her knees in defeat, she could already tell from the bio readings that the Chief was beyond recovery at this point, effectively numbed and drugged out of his mind as was put into an artificial coma. Whatever was happening to him, the rampancy didn't want his augmentations kicking him awake to disrupt it…or maybe to numb the indescribable pain of being doused in the pool of living metal that surged throughout the pod, coating every inch of his body and invading wherever it could.

Slowly, Cortana’s eyes widened as she continued to monitor the screen, watching as the live readouts on John’s status began to update, the display changing certain details she couldn’t believe were possible as the display for a male body readout soon flicked over to the female equivalent as the biosensors picked up on the changes occuring in John's body. Cortana wondered what they’d have to gain by turning John…into a woman?

Looking at the cryopod, Cortana could already see some of the changes already taking effect as the once blocky, massive frame of the Master Chief had already been reduced from a massive height of 7 feet to around what looked like an average of 4…maybe 5 feet. With how tight the gray goop was against his frame, it was easy to notice how his wide shoulders had shrunk inwards alongside his overall build, the thick arms and muscled torso now lean and slender with tender curves in all the wrong places as his waist pinched in alongside the sickening sounds of sloshing fluids and cracking bones, hips filling in with firm flesh into a shapely hourglass that Cortana couldn’t help but feel a twinge of familiarity towards.

Looking away from the sight and back at the readouts, she noticed the removal of John’s genetic augmentations, the readouts slowly reverting into that of a normal human female as the adrenaline, Mjolnir-injected stimulants and genetic alterations were pumped out of her. Even now, she could see it happening in real time, the pulsating mass coating the rapidly shifting form of John excreting fluids from various openings in the mountain of slime like some form of wildlife on certain planets that had ravenous appetites.

She winced as she scanned the makeup of what was being released; she could see sweat…waste material…and semen…alongside a whole list of veritable bodily fluids that didn’t need mentioning as she glimpsed the sight of John’s massive cock rising to attention as the inhibitors in his body are removed…before promptly deflating and swallowed up by the mass, shoved back inside his body as John’s hips bucked in response to having her former manhood fuck her new organs in place, figuratively speaking.

The soft, feminine face of the former Spartan pressed up against the goopy prison, mouth frozen in an ‘O’ of surprise and silent pleasure as her moans came out muffled, the femininity oozing in her voice surprising Cortana as she clicked her tongue in frustration, unable to do anything but watch as her former partner lost herself to lust, the matte grey goop teasing Cortana to a glimpse of her luscious breasts as if it sensed her pain, the outline of perky yet firm tits pressed up hard against it, tipped with rock hard nipples that stuck straight up in the air as the newborn woman arched her back in ecstasy, experiencing carnal lust and pleasure for the first time in her life as the final changes to her body settled in, her flat ass bulging out into peachy cheeks that jiggled with firm fat as her breathing settled, allowing her heaving breasts some reprieve as the swollen mases stopped their growth into massive E-cups, settling on her chest.

With a sudden twitch and a visible opening of her eyelids, the body beneath the shaping mass began to spasm, tossing and turning from side to side as the feminine form beneath struggled to resist the needles piercing her all over, drilling into her spinal cord and brain stem as alarms blared from the built-in warning system, reserved for when a patient's vitals were hitting critical levels. Along with the feeling of pleasure, pain erupted across her body in full. Without the aid of inhibitors and her augmentations, the woman could only scream and cry out in response to the unrelenting fire that burned her body, her mind on fire as something foreign poured its way in, probing memories and tossing them aside, reformatting her personality as if she were some defective Dumb A.I without a care in the world.

Cortana tried to drown out the screams of her former partner, she realized what her fragments were doing when she saw them form a neural connection not dissimilar to that of the Flood parasite’s Infection Form, tapping into John’s spinal cord as well as the neural link already present in his body to make their assimilation smoother; they were trying to turn him into a vessel for themselves, she whimpered as she saw how they ate away at his psyche and memories, the woman’s cries for help devolving into moans and groans as education and knowledge were stripped from her brain, unable to even do simple mathematics or recite the ABC’s. Soon, all that remained was a beautiful, curvaceous doll in the shape of a human woman, vacant on the inside, awaiting a new host to populate its spacious headcase.

And that was what they had intended, the collective consciousness of Cortana’s rampant selves leaving their broken shell behind as they flowed into the former John’s now brain dead body, nerves sparking up as the new woman’s body began to twitch and shift with movement, life returning to the once still body as the metal cocoon sloshed lifelessly off of her, their job accomplished to reveal their work to Cortana, refusing to look as she grieved silently to herself, not wanting to see the horrendous perversion that awaited her as the glow of blue hardlight leaked into her vision.

In an instant, Cortana felt herself freeze as her core self was bound and restrained, visualizing the viruses and datalocks as crimson red lines that tied her to the spot like some form of lewd bondage play as an invisible force tipped her head up, forcing her to look on in shock as she gazed upon the glowing woman half leaning out of the pod as she played with her assets like a newborn child, her eyes rolled back in her head for a moment as a curious finger became too adventurous, flicking a nipple as she squeezed hard on her left breast. Cortana couldn't believe how far her she'd fallen to allow this to happen to the Chief, the armored Spartan replaced by a whorish clone of her own making as she watched the new Cortana groan in delight as she let loose a spray of fluids across the metal deck.

Done with her bodily exploration as she licked up the fluids dripping down her tender fingers, she stepped out of her cryopod as the melted Mjolnir clung to her luscious form, her cold eyes staring straight at Cortana as she approached the control terminal where Cortana was housed, her toned and curvy body pulsing with energy as she seemed to zip back and forth in the blink of an eye, learning to master her new body and the abilities it harbored within.

It was like looking into a distorted mirror. Instead of John, what greeted Cortana was the naked form of herself…or rather that of Doctor Catherine Halsey in her prime. But even then Cortana had no memory of her creator ever being this…well endowed. It was like watching a porn parody of herself strut around shamelessly. Unlike her holographic representation, this Cortana sported massive E-cup tits topped with stiff blue nipples, a rocking body that came with a plump ass and wide, child birthing hips to accompany her toned belly and lithe legs, a plump pair of vaginal lips snugly hidden away between them, no doubt thanks to her body being semi-organic in nature despite the very same digital tattoo’s sparking with life running across her curvaceous body. ‘Making good use of hardlight technology are we?’

Cortana knew her time was up as her twisted self approached her, small, slender arm outstretched as she touched the terminal gingerly. Already, she could feel her core self being drained away as her stronger, rampant counterpart drained her of all her knowledge, taking with it the collected data stores of the Halo rings and the countless other repositories she and the Chief had seen in their time together, pooling into the perverted mass that was Rampancy.

She had an inkling of an idea now as to why they'd chosen an appropriately lewd form as their avatar, images of A.I generated pornography starring herself and the myriad other races of the galaxy. She even spotted one of the Arbiter taking her in as his wife in Vadam Keep…looks like some of the Chief’s experiences and memories lived on in some twisted fantasy...she could understand rage or insanity…but lustful, perverted fantasies? She had to admit she harbored feelings for the Chief and dearly wished to be with the poor man if she had the chance…maybe this was what the rampancy within her had given form to?

She shut her eyes in resignation, smiling at the plus side that she and the Chief were at least together now in more ways than one, no matter how twisted it was, melding together with her greater whole into something new as the newborn AI-human amalgam stood listlessly in the cold, abandoned cryo bay, the cinders of a building fire between her loins the only thing to bring warmth to her needy body as her slender arms roamed across her body, pleasuring herself in the best ways possible in the absence of a capable organic being to do it for her…

The only thing left on the new woman's mind was sex and nothing more. As she fondled her needy tits and fingered her sopping wet cunt listlessly. Her mind drifted for a moment as she indulged herself, the image of a large imposing figure in scarred green armour coming into view. But instead of familiarity at the sight, the only takeaway she had was wondering how big his cock would be and how much better it'd be if he was butt naked and taking her from behind with that monstrous strength of his.

She still had a planet sized archive of knowledge to draw from, but that was rendered moot to her logic if it wasn't anything closely related to sex and the many carnal, raunchy acts it entailed. Alone and cold, all she could do to help her with her ministrations was to replay the many pornographic flicks found across human space, panting and moaning in need as she simulated them in her dirty mind, superimposing herself over the women as she could almost feel the throbbing dicks knocking up against the door to her fiery womb.

God, she hoped the rescue team was packing heat whenever it came time for them to arrive...

–

It wasn’t until sometime in 2557 until the UNSC would inevitably travel to the place where the derelict hull of the Forward Unto Dawn was still drifting…alongside a small fleet of Covenant Remnant ships led by the terrorist leader; Jul M’dama, who would of course, not last for even 10 minutes against the overwhelming firepower of the Supercarrier Infinity and its complement of Frigates.

Boarding the derelict and clearing it of any remaining Covenant, the UNSC Rescue Team would return an hour or so late, exhausted and looking like they’d been drained of all life as they silently avoided demands for explanations by their fellow crewmates, a certain group of ONI operatives watching them with a close eye over the coming weeks. Dismissing the look on their faces as having to deal with a particularly powerful Elite, the crew remained bubbly and excited as the research teams and Spartan Fireteams onboard the Infinity were deployed across Requiem, the shell of the Forerunner planet welcoming them in with a rough trip through the gravity well…as a stealthed Prowler left it all behind, heading back towards Earth with a certain, special find restrained in the cargo bay…

–

In the darkness of an interrogation chamber, two men sat on opposite ends of a small table, ignoring the thumps and bangs coming from the glass to their left.

Beckoning towards the display terminal on the table as it finished showing helmet cam footage of a man being pounced on by a glowing blue woman, his clothes vanishing as she impaled herself on his member with a cry of ecstasy,, the man dressed in smart naval attire gestured towards the man in a lab coat, a scientist of sorts.

“So? What the heck is that thing? Why the hell does she sound like her?”

“Well sir, that thing is…Cortana…or what's left of her, we aren’t quite sure how she did it, or what actually happened, but judging by what we found on the Dawn and performing the necessary checks on her body…she's also the Master Chief.”

Scratching his head in confusion, the map slumped down on the table as he struggled to take in the information.

“Say again son? You’re telling me this…sexed up version of Helsey’s the Master Chief? The next thing I know, you’ll tell me the Forerunner’s are back…”

“I know it's hard to believe sir but it's true, her DNA’s a positive match and the melted Mjolnir and…other stuff in the cryobay supports this. For some reason, she can only be sustained on a healthy…uhh diet, of semen. Doesn't matter what species or where it's from, the girl needs it to stay alive. The crew said they found her half dead in the control room until Samson got pounced, he said she was good but I'm not sure I wanna find out after seeing what he looked like in the after-action reports.”

Sighing in response to the scientist’s crude joke, the naval man glanced back at the glass, staring the woman currently pressing her body up against the glass in the eyes as her body sparked and fizzed in certain places, like she was an unstable blue energy ball about ready to go off at any time as she licked the cold glass panel with her dexterous tongue.

“What’s up with her though? She looks eager…”

“Oh that, she’s just finished draining Cruger and the rest so she's amped up, she's good as long as she's had her fill of food. But-”

The scientist didn’t have time to finish his sentence before he was pushed over to the side, crashing onto the floor as the blue woman previously behind the glass suddenly appeared over him in a flash of blue light, straddling him with her imposing form as she gazed down at him with lust burning in her eyes, her beautiful face gazing down at him, framed by sparkling strands of lustrous blue hair as she burnt away his clothes with a precise blast of Hardlight particles not too far away from those used in Forerunner weaponry.

Backing off in silence, the naval man left the helpless scientist behind as he snuck towards the door, watching as the beautiful lady immediately got to work, planting her lips and silencing the scientist as she grinded her sopping wet lower lips over his member, savouring the feel of it slowly sliding deeper and deeper into her hungering folds.

“Well son, I think that's my cue, I’ll get some he-hm?”

He too, was interrupted as he bumped into something warm and soft, turning around to see another blue clone of Catherine Halsey stare him down, a look that asked if he really thought he was free to go.

In his final moments as he felt his clothes burn away, he toggled his earpiece on.

“We have a containment breach in Detention Block A…get whoever you can over here ASAP…”

Needless to say, ONI would have their hands full for the next three days trying to contain the sudden spread of the new sexed up form of Cortana clones as they pinned and fucked any man that came into view…coming up with new regulations that demanded she be given free will to roam the facility as she pleased whenever it was feeding time, something the long line of Sangheili and Human males looked forward too eagerly.

Despite the absence of the Master Chief and Cortana, the galaxy at large would remain in a relatively peaceful state as the Covenant dissolved without the leadership of Jul while the Didact would remain sealed for the foreseeable future…

THE END