The deck stood silent, looking on at the massive Commander Prime as the gravity of his words bit into the crew members’ nerves like a fierce arctic wind. The head scientist, Dr. Catherine Halsey, rose and addressed the broad shouldered warrior.
“What do you mean, ‘won’t fight’?” she inquired angrily.
“You know damn well what it means Doctor” he asserted menacingly.
Every crew member on the bridge of the United Nation Space Command (UNSC) starship, Infinity, had turned from their positions and now watched in disbelief. Even Andrew Del Rio, the Infinity’s outspoken Captain, was momentarily speechless. Mankind’s last hope for survival was refusing to fight.
She returned,
“You seemed to have no issue serving back before the fall of Reach, when the battles were easier, why the sudden conscience, Prime?”
“I don’t have a conscience anymore, Halsey” the hero responded.
The Doctor was taken aback by the statement.
“Oh, how s-“
“YOU TOOK IT!” The hero erupted.
His luminous, inferno red armor seemed to pulsate with raw fury. All on the deck were entirely floored by the statement, and dared not interject. Master Chief glanced over at the Arbiter, who returned the look of concern; they both subtly moved back from Prime, who had his visage fixed intently on Doctor Halsey.
He continued,
“You took the entirety of my humanity and obliterated it when you condemned me to life in a mechanical body which is nothing but a means of death and destruction.“
The eyes of all in the room widened, glinting with awe and fear as he spoke. He broke his violent stare and looked towards the Earth, glowing in majesty from the bridge of the orbiting Infinity.
“When he coined the term in ancient times, Cicero defined ‘humanity’ as ‘the qualities that make us human’. But what of these do I possess anymore?”
Without breaking his stare, he gestured towards Chief,
“Once this war is over, what place will its masters have in human society? Do you expect a culture to simply embrace death bringers like us as though the carnage never happened? People have already seen what your soldiers are capable of, and such memories will haunt us the rest of our days. Don’t think that we have never thought about what we will say to our future wives, or our children, when it inevitably comes time for them to know of our past. Did you ever consider how that may change how they look at us, love us? You never considered the scope of your actions Doctor.”
She smirked, and took in the Commander’s words, then,
“If I do recall, Hyperion, you chose to enlist in my Spartan program.”
An unforgiving look on his face, Prime calmly held out his right arm, and angling it to show his forearm, began to undo the configuration.
”Even the Spartans were humans, Halsey. I joined your program because it was my duty to defend my family, my species, my world. Now, my world is corrupt, my family is dead, and I am no longer a part of the human species.”
As the metallic plates shifted and contorted, freeing his arm, he removed it; once he did the luminosity of the armor faded to a dull, ruby sheen. The rest of the desk looked on in horror.
“Now, my previous desire is irrelevant; I am a machine.”
The arm of Commander Prime was contoured, its silver plating reflected light like the chrome smokestacks on an 18 wheeler. It looked exactly like that possessed by a healthy human, except it was not genuine. As the massive soldier moved his arm, one would be hard pressed to spot a deficiency outside of the coloration. Chief noticed many a similarity in its construction to the build of the Promethean Knights.
I wonder if that’s purely a coincidence.
He placed his arm back in the armor, and after the plates shifted to their original places, the piece regained its glow.
“From the neck down, you made my body into a science experiment. I will not serve those who are willing to support such endeavors and moreover, cannot campaign a cause that I can no longer be part of. My decision is final.”
He paused, and surveyed the room. Then turning his back to leave,
“There is nothing anyone can do to change it.”
Captain Del Rio had stood silent long enough, his dry voice boomed, “Is that a threat, soldier!?”
He began to march towards Prime. The response shook the room like a savage earthquake, then brought time itself to an abrupt halt. Commander Prime wheeled around, grabbing the Captain by the throat with his right arm and slammed him into the wall of the exit corridor. Holding him there effortlessly, Prime extended the ominous black blade attached to his armor at the wrist and pressed its hard, merciless surface against the warm skin of the struggling man’s throat. The Captain froze, not daring to move, even to breathe.
Prime leaned in close, and growled,
“Is that a challenge?”
Great stuff. Is this Halo fan fiction? (I noticed the name of Master Chief.)
So, you get at some of the more challenging questions of our cyborg selves. What happens when we ditch the body? Is our mind what makes us human? Our soul? Our bodies? Descartes famously states that “I think therefore I am,” but does that mean if we lose the body but can still think we’re still human? Will there will still be an “I” there to do the thinking? Keeps ya’ up at night, yeah.
It does! And for my Capstone, I wanted to design a game to the furthest extent that I could. As you can see I chose Halo for the foundation and opted to do a sequel (Halo 5). This is going to be one of the premier scenes, and will play a pivotal role in the plot. Those questions actually directly relate to the themes I’m going to explore and emphasize.