freedom is heady

[aseaofquotes]

[liberated-libby-blog]

Steven Hall, “The Raw Shark Texts”

[liberated-libby-blog]

Walking Through the Air

"Peg."

There was no reply from the younger boy, who was trailing behind. As always. Libby could hear him kicking up the snow in white, flurry drifts, the ice crunching beneath his boots as he stomped around.

"Peg," she called again, turning. "We’re going to be late!" 

Their street was brightly lit by the warm light of streetlamps, and the blinking green and red Christmas lights strewn over doorways and rooftops and front gates. There almost a foot of snow that night, piling up on driveways and porches. Libby resumed her slow trudge towards their house, pausing in front of their neighbour’s window to examine her red-cheeked reflection.

She tucked a blond lock of hair behind her ear and turned around again. Peg was chasing after a red squirrel, dark curls flying as he leapt this way and that. 

"Peg, just leave that thing alone, will you?" she sighed, tightening the collar of her coat around her neck. 

"What if it freezes to death?" 

She rolled her eyes, walking a few steps forward. “If it was going to, it would’ve frozen ages ago. Now, come on!” She wouldn’t have rushed him in ordinary circumstances, but Mom had only given them an hour to play in the neighbour’s backyard, and they weren’t supposed to have wandered to the edge of the woods at this hour. Not on their own, anyway. Libby had only been persuaded by Peg’s proposal of building a snowman family. And if they were even five minutes late, Mom would know, and she would blame Libby because she always did.

Mom never let them off, not even the day before Christmas.

"I looooove Christmas," a voice singsonged behind her, and she could hear his skipping step in the snow once more. Libby couldn’t help smiling. She loved Christmas too - snow days and presents and yummy things to eat and warm, fuzzy sweaters and pretty lights. Everything just magically looked better when Christmas came. Everything was excitement and anticipation and happiness. Every day ought to be like that.

"Come on," she repeated, taking Peg’s hand as they reached their porch. "I bet Mom’s made hot chocolate." They pushed the front door open together and stepped into the house.

[liberated-libby-blog]

The Christmas Song Prompt List

Jingle Bells: Your character and mine playing on sleds

O Christmas Tree: Our characters decorating for the holidays

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year: Our characters spending quality time together

White Christmas: Our characters enjoying Christmas morning snowfall

Driving Home for Christmas: One of our characters is off to visit the other as a surprise for the holiday

Baby, It's Cold Outside: One character talking the other into staying over for the night

Twelve Days Christmas: Our characters doing their holiday shopping together

December Song: Our characters spending the time daydreaming about what the New Year will bring.

Let It Snow: One of our characters surprising the other with a snowball fight.

Santa Baby: One of our characters waking to find the other under the Christmas Tree

Blue Christmas: One of our characters missing the other over the holidays

All I Want For Christmas Is You: My character offering themselves to yours for Christmas.

Santa Clause is Coming to Town: Our characters opening gifts Christmas Morning

Walking Through the Air: Our Characters walking through the cold evening, enjoy the lights/carolers/etc

Silent Night: Our characters snuggling together in the dark.

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer: Our characters trying to save Christmas together.

Frosty the Snowman: Our characters get a bit of Christmas Magic

I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause: One of our characters walking in on the other one kissing someone.

The Christmas Song: Our characters doing Christmas Meal-time preparations together

[liberated-libby-blog]

Hello everyone,

I can't access the OOC chat all of a sudden! Am I the only one facing this problem? It keeps telling me 404 Error and I have no idea what to do, gah.

[liberated-libby-blog]

A Minute's Walk | Self/Open

“Please, you go ahead, meet with the others. I’d like to check the storage room for remaining survivors.”

"Pegasus, I'm not sure if that would be advisable -"

Well. A little too late for that, then. She watched her brother hurry in another direction, wondering - very briefly - if she ought to follow him. In the end, she decided it was far more important to exit the Equinox and find out who else had survived.

She already knew Hartford wouldn't be there.

Her visual sensors took a moment to adjust to the sunlight; it was not a piercing sort of light, but it was a great contrast with the darkness of the ventilation shaft. 

Her epidermal sensors also noted another feature of this new planet - it was raining. Perhaps it rained all the time. Perhaps the inhabitants didn't have a word for rain. Libby examined it on her skin and concluded that it was potable water - excellent for the humans.

The planet could be their temporary shelter until the UNSC came for them. Because it would. Libby was certain that they would. 

The half of the Equinox she had just squirmed out of continued to creak ominously. She probably should have compelled Pegasus to leave with her - cut their losses, and so on. The ones who had survived should have left already.

Too late.

Turning, she observed some of the escape pods having landed some distance away from the Equinox. The other survivors had to be gathered close by. Agent Lincoln was also probably somewhere near the ship, having helped create the hole for her and Peggy's - well, just her's now - exit.

She had no idea how time might function on the foreign planet, but she was fairly certain it was growing darker, if the dimming skyline was any indication. 

Her primary scan of the landscape done, Libby decided to find the rest before conducting closer examinations. Her hand, or lack thereof, was still a matter that needed to be addressed somehow. Perhaps she could find some supplies on the ship. 

Then a voice spoke through the implant - Orion, she recognised, and she could see the flare he was speaking of, much closer than she had guessed. In fact, close enough for her to see the clear figures of a few survivors already. 

She didn't bother to reply. Other voices were speaking, other survivors, and one by one she named them and counted them, as she began a brisk walk towards the source of the flare.

[sadalpheretz]

vacancy /// Libby & Pegasus

[sadalpheretz]

So. Bismarck, Concord, Calvin . Nashville, Dover. Libby, Lincoln…himself. A good list — but his emotions were soon shifting hazily from that initial relief, to disappointment, to a quiet yet stubborn optimism. Yeah, so there was no Lyra or Charleston, or Vela or Indus or…well, there weren’t more people, but those were..only people that Lincoln could see! Surely there’d be others. Somewhere. Right?

"Ladies first?"

Pegasus raised an eyebrow. Wondered if he’d done something wrong, then decided it didn’t matter at that moment and stepped behind her. It probably wasn’t going to be incredibly easy to climb up when there was a…certain lack of a right hand, so he positioned himself to uh, well, if she happened to fall? He’d either catch her or make sure she didn’t land too hard. 

But it turned out okay; she seemed to move upward with a relative ease. He looked proudly down at his footholds. Maybe there were good, friendly uses for that needler after all.

Nearly got hit by the grating that came plummeting down. Oh — ookay. He stepped back, just in time, sort of. Got his foot, but that was no worries. He frowned for a moment. If he were human, that probably wouldn’t be very pleasant. (But if he were human, he’d also be dead. He shrugged.)

"Agent Lincoln has decided that he will attempt to assist us in making our escape," he informed her, clasping his hands behind his back and kicking the panel of grating away. Watched as Libby completed her ascent, before climbing after her. Lifted himself through the gap with a mild grunt — We are now -- attempting -- to move into the ceiling-- 

Ah! He nearly fell back through the goddamn hole, jeez, get a grip, Pegasus. Can’t go around getting startled by spy-movie trivia, can we now?

"Thank you Libby," he said huskily, finally heaving himself into a stable position. "Clearly I would not make a great spy," he said, a little chuckle chipping its way into his voice. Oh. Lincoln was a Stealth Agent, wasn’t he? Damn. See, Pegasus was designed for reconnaissance.

He bit his lip, furrowed his eyebrows, pushed his sleeves up a little further as if that’d somehow help. “He is outside the Equinox, I believe,” he said slowly, “so I am not entirely sure how he will go about helping us, but I’m sure we can sort it out.”

"If we continue this way, we will soon be above the hangar. Perhaps there will be another ceiling cave-in further along. We may be able to use one to our advantage and drop down…but the hangar may be a dangerous area at this point, and the needed exit may have been compromised by the explosion. I would be happy to go ahead and take a look," he suggested. 

Pegasus also nearly suggested going back to the storage room and checking for more survivors. (He sat that thought atop his mental to-do list; ignoring all the dusty old goals from weeks ago. Oops…they just kept getting pushed down, you know?)

[liberated-libby-blog]

"Probably not," she remarked wryly, "But I doubt any of us will need skills of stealth from now on." Because there would be no more missions, no more orders from the faceless Director, no more capital-S Secrets that would require them to sneak into spaces. No more of that.

"I see," she nodded uselessly, since Pegasus was right behind her and probably wouldn't have noticed the gesture. Agent Lincoln had to be in relatively good condition, if he was able to provide assistance to the two units. 

She moved forward on her hands and knees in the thankfully wide vent, scanning the area ahead. Her sensors picked up a number of gaps in the metal, but she couldn't know for certain that any of them were safe until she reached them and did further analysis. 

"Has Agent Lincoln given any more instructions?" she asked. Crawling along the tunnel wasn't uncomfortable, but it was growing a little tiresome, and Libby desperately wanted to meet up with the other survivors.

She wasn't sure how she would feel about Hartford's absence just yet. 

"The area ahead of us appears to be stable, and there are a number of holes in the metal that we could investigate - probably from the explosion," she concluded. "But we must be careful, as you said."

Inspecting her maps, Libby blinked and tried to reorient herself - she didn't know exactly where they were, but she was pretty sure it wasn't in the medical bay. 

"I'm afraid I need some time to recalibrate my maps. But judging by our point of entry, I believe we are above the hangar. What would you suggest?" She waited quietly for Pegasus' decision, and realised after a moment that she was much too used to giving Hartford all the options and alternatives he called for, then giving him the time to choose one and carrying it out as requested. Libby was very good at doing her job.

[liberated-libby-blog]

Absence notice!

Read More

[liberated-libby-blog]

And I'm back! Hey everyone. Sorry for the delay in replies, I'll get to them right away.

[liberated-libby-blog]

Absence notice!

Hey everyone,

I'm going to be off for the weekend to visit family. I know I owe a few things, I'm really sorry! I'll get on them on Monday. Pinky promise.

See you all again soon.

- Libbutt

[sadalpheretz]

vacancy /// Libby & Pegasus

[sadalpheretz]

Well. The ship still had a little fight in her.

Unfortunate, he supposed, as old mate gravity urged Pegasus’ steps to stutter forward. Quickly, however, he braced himself and planted his feet hard into the metal below. Ah, yes, the enhanced reflexes. Wrapped his hand around a little jutting pipe-y thing in the wall and tried to regain balance. 

The ship lurched, hunched, yes. But little did he know it was about to throw a fit.

Um. If throwing a fit was, for a ship, an explosion in the hangar.

So, that happened, and Pegasus was bolted away from his dear wall, actually sent tumbling toward another one. So was Libby, apparently. It was quite the surprise, that explosion was. The ship shivered with a kind of grim energy and a buzz of agitation. Ugh. He peeled himself off the ground. Began to nod along with Libby’s question and subsequent observation-slash-recommendation, but then? Ah. 

Guess the Equinox’s tantrum wasn’t quite over, because with another agonised quaking of metal and might, well, there goes a bit of the ceiling.

Right in the fucking doorway!

Screeching, scraping, squeals of steel and — wait a few seconds. Get off the ground slowly. 

Okay, are done here, Equinox?

…Wait. Wait.

Right, okay so either all this gravity and ship-moving, roof-collapsing, hangar-exploding stuff had made him feel funny, or there was a familiar warmth pulsing back into his head.

Lincoln.

Oh, oh God, he’s okay—

And Pegasus’ mind went into overdrive. Okay look here. Lincoln…scanning? Hey, injury. Injury? Injury?! Shit, shit, uh-

AGENT LINCOLN. IT HAS COME TO MY ATTENTION THAT YOU HAVE SUSTAINED MINOR INJURY.

Phew. That’ll do, until he replies. Alright. Now look at your next problem.

There’s a hunk of metal in the worst possible place other than on top of Libby. And there’s concrete. Icing on the goddamn cake.

He frowned. Scrunched up his face. Looked at the other A.I. Looked back at the doorway dilemma. Walked slowly toward it, then watched as his companion gave it a push. Joined her, pressing her shoulder against the thick concrete. No luck — and A.I were, naturally, ridiculously strong. Stepped back. Oh dear…

"Hm, let’s see," he sighed.

Pegasus bit his lip, squinted at the blockage. Cocked his head. Walked that way, looked around, walked this way, had a gander there. Rinse and repeat. Search: inconclusive. Stopped in front of it. Folded his arms. Stood there a second.

Unfolded them, clicked into a machine gun, fired exactly one bullet into the mess. Hardly a dent in the metal — tried again in the concrete. Corroded it a little. Huh, that was disappointing. Consulted his maps once again.

"Not that I am aware of," Pegasus said slowly, sealing the gun away. "But you’re certainly right. I think we do need to move - this area is clearly quite unstable.

…I’ve noticed that my connection with Agent Lincoln has returned. Have you any signal from Hartford? Perhaps they may be able to assist, if they are fit to do so,” Pegasus suggested carefully. Very carefully indeed. And then regretted it. Surely if she had’ve found Hartford in her head, she’d have said so..

"Uh. Sorry, never mind. Here —"

He brought out the needler this time, remembering the ammunition’s uh, explosive properties. God, how he hated that thing. But he shot a few into the concrete, and some nice - uneven, kind of shallow - dents crumbled away. Huh. Moved closer. Brushed the loose bits off. Looked up at the gap in the ceiling. There was a bit of grating, which could be a problem, but hey. Nothing they couldn’t handle…somehow.

Tilted his head pointedly down toward his makeshift footholds. And back, just as pointedly at the ugly hole above. Then at Libby. Raised his eyebrows. Shrugged.

[liberated-libby-blog]

Libby darted away, instincts of self-preservation (if a machine could have those) working efficiently as Pegasus fired a few shots into this new obstacle. Without warning. Really. She was going to have to have a word with her brother.

But that thought was completely forgotten as Pegasus mentioned his agent. The connection was back, the link should be working now, there was no reason for it not to be -

Only there was, and Libby knew why. She had seen Hartford's escape pod, or the one she suspected he had taken, she had seen it leaving the Equinox and she had seen it hurtling off its trajectory towards one of the Covenant ships. The neural link lay dead and cold between them. But she couldn't tell Pegasus that.

"No, I haven't received any signal," she told him instead, carefully devoid of any emotional response.

The other unit seemed to sense her reluctance to say anything further and left the subject almost immediately, using his needler to make a few dents in the thick concrete.

She observed Pegasus' movements and deduced that he was using some kind of sign language to imply something. That implication, too, was deduced with ease.

This seemed to be an appropriate moment to say something witty and human-like, but nothing came to mind.

"Ladies first?" she remarked, feeling vaguely dissatisfied because it had come out sounding like a question. Hartford would have suggested something sarcastic in a wry voice. She hoped she wouldn't have to spend the rest of her activated lifetime wondering what Hartford would say in this-or-that situation.

She placed her right foot in one of the dents, testing it carefully with her weight. Then her left hand in the one right above that, and her left foot next, and so on. Movies usually portrayed human rock-climbers as having two hands and two feet, but Libby managed it easily enough, pulling herself upwards with superhuman strength.

Nearing the ceiling, Libby reached her hand up to cling to the grating that remained around the hole. It protruded enough to prevent their easy movement through it. She glanced downwards at Pegasus for a moment, thinking.

Pressing her body against the wall, she gave the grating a quick, strong tug. It gave way, clattering to the floor loudly. She hoped, belatedly, that it didn't hit Pegasus.

It took a moment for her to adjust her weight and clamber up through the hole, into what seemed to be a vent. She moved forward into the darkness on her hands and knees to leave room for Pegasus to climb in after her.

"The humans do this frequently in spy movies." She felt an odd compulsion to point this out to Pegasus before checking her maps and activating her night vision. "Is Agent Lincoln also on the ship? Should we search for him?"

[sadalpheretz]

vacancy /// Libby & Pegasus

[sadalpheretz]

Calm, down to business.

…It wasn’t something he’d normally call it, but gosh, that was a relief! In times like these, surely what remained of the crew - however large (or small, though he dared not consider such a possibility) the group might turn out to be - did not need another unit who…well. They didn’t need someone else to end up like him: fragile.

But a subtle sign of such fragility lived in the shiver, came in the use of the wall as support. She needed support? Ah. No, he could not quite relax his concerns just yet-

- however, it appeared that Libby was soon regrouping her thoughts, and starting toward the hall. Pegasus frowned a little. Normally this kind of…impassiveness, this kind of cool collection would frustrate him. It still coaxed a sense of uneasiness into him, a mild discomfort — but there was no denying the possibility that Libby was in a state of numb shock. And he knew, from experience, where that led.

She needed to be watched.

So he nodded and followed her to the corridor, thoughts soon vaguely drifting into the task of retrieving the Equinox floor-plans that had been so carefully coded into his brain. He didn’t use them much. That was boring. But enjoyment was not first priority at this point. Huh, let’s see…down to get out, down to get out. Rotate, analyse…zoom? Yes. There we go: if it was accessible, the hangar was the best be—

Her sudden stop caught him by surprise. If it were not for his enhanced reflexes, he might’ve bumped into her. Lucky he didn’t: that would be a little embarrassing. 

But that tingling of relief was melted quickly away by the mention of Lincoln. Pegasus’ face hardened a little. Damn that Agent, making him care about his stupid wellbeing- wow, no, wellbeing was never stupid, he reminded himself.

He looked at the ground, rubbed the back of his neck with his palm. Furrowed his eyebrows — went to check if the link was back. Closed his eyes. Reached out.

Nothing.

He smiled bitterly. He wished that void wasn’t so familiar. 

"At this point, I have no way of knowing. I assume he was able to evacuate, but I have no further knowledge to offer on the subject. Thank you for your concern," he said softly, raising his head and slowly beginning once more down the hallway. The thought crossed his mind to doubt whether or not she was actually concerned, but it was soon fading - no, no, different people have different ways of showing concern. That’s alright.

"According to the ship’s layout and its apparent tilt, I assume that the hangar may be our best option in regard to exiting the ship," he suggested. 

Focusing once again on the maps, Pegasus hesitantly guided himself down the hallways. “If you too are accessing your maps, and you find that I have made a mistake, please feel free to interject and lead me in the right direction,” he said, with a nervous chuckle.

[liberated-libby-blog]

She stepped after him carefully. She hadn't thought of consulting any maps earlier, despite the emergency protocol she was meant to follow. Her dependence on F.I.L.S.S. was stronger than she had realised.

Checking the route Pegasus' was taking against her maps, Libby found no error and told him so. "This seems to be the right direction -"

Suddenly, the entire ship seemed to rock, tilting downwards. Gravity appeared to be taking its course. Libby stumbled, pressing herself against the shaking wall of the hallway. She had not considered the possibility that the ship was as yet unstable.

Then came an explosion, rippling through their half of the Equinox and making it shudder violently. Off-balance and unprepared, Libby was thrown against the opposite wall, landing hard on her side. A series of strange clicks and buzzes followed, as though the ship and its inner mechanisms were settling. Libby got to her feet carefully, glancing at Pegasus. 

"Are you alright?" she asked, moving towards him. "It seems the ship is not yet stable - we should leave as quickly as possible." 

The Equinox, or the half that remained, was not quite done. With a final, mighty tremor, arriving as some kind of aftershock to the explosion, a hefty piece of metal and concrete fell from the ceiling and crashed into the floor at the end of the hallway, blocking their path. It seemed that the same was taking place at various other parts of the Equinox, as Libby could hear the echoing thuds and scrapings of metal against metal.

If they could break the large chunk of metal into smaller pieces, they might be able to move it gradually. But that would take time - possibly more time than she and Pegasus could spare. She could read from her maps that there were no other possible routes, or none that she knew of.

If it was possible for an artificial intelligence to despair, she thought she might be experiencing that.

"I can't think of any way to move this - thing," she said to Pegasus, pushing her small frame against the metal half-heartedly. "Is there another path we can take to the hangar? I fear that we will be in greater danger if we remain here for much longer." 

Or they could give up and deactivate, a function that was also within the emergency protocol - self-destruct while they could, so The Enemy would never get their hands on the A.I. technology. Their chances of ever escaping the death-trap of the Equinox were low, and dying of her own will seemed to Libby a better option than struggling without dignity.

[sadalpheretz]

vacancy /// Libby & Pegasus

[sadalpheretz]

Hartford.

Oh, no…

Pegasus whipped around, turning in time only to see the Unit shrink to the ground. 

It was quite the saddening sight — and it was saddening, because he knew exactly how it felt to be thrust back into reality-no. Fall back into it with the crumbling of a glacier.

He wanted to speak to her, he wanted to move forward and help her up, but his mouth and his throat and his head were tight and strained, feet were heavy and footsteps forbidden by some tenacious mental glue.

He managed exactly one step - one step, and the thick squirming of a hope that his sister’s apparent desperation was not like his had been, and was not destined to be met with the same disappointment.

Because his, well, it had been born of the knowledge that his Agent was gone, and of the ugly rejection of this knowledge - the broken optimism inside that said, no, surely that couldn’t have happened! And laughed. And laughed until he was sure it would’ve cried if it could.

His single step was complemented by Libby’s shaky rise. She looked around, no doubt blinking in these surreal surroundings. And then she spoke.

What happened?

He became the deer in headlights of a simple pair of words.

He opened his mouth to speak. Closed it again when he couldn’t find a response. Pegasus was really quite torn; one one hand he was rather relieved to see a conscious comrade - one the other, there was every chance the Hartford she so weakly sought to find was…gone.

Oh- oh god? His..his own Agent, what if..

No. No, no. Libby is the one in front of you. Her wellbeing is priority now, and it’s rude to ignore direct questions, Pegasus. He looked at the ground.

His fellow unit edged toward him, and he briefly shut his eyes. As if he could somehow conjure the appropriate response behind his eyelids, see the sentences float into the sweet dark. He began eventually, head still tilted down and eyebrows furrowed, “I…I, we died, during the attack. I believe my body was destroyed on impact, I assume yours too, and our consciousnesses were ported into —- these.” He waved half-heartedly around the room.

When he opened his eyes again, she was reaching toward him, finding some — wait, with…nothing? Her-her hand was..her hand was gone, little wires sparking and rigidly saluting the air to which they were newly exposed.

Well. He guessed that’d happened, somehow.

"It appears your new corporeal form is damaged, Libby," he said, taking her arm gently in his hands. Turned it carefully, inspecting the…Oh dear. How had this…? This wasn’t supposed to happen - weren’t these the new bodies, backups, fresh starts devoid of injury?

Ah — who was he kidding. With the Equinox in the state it was surely in, nobody - not a soul - was going to be completely free of injury. Physical or otherwise. That unhappy truth towered before him.

He sighed a little, before frowning weakly and turning his eyes to her face. “Is everything else in working order, Unit? Do you detect any further physical damage?”

At this point, physical damage however, was the last of his concerns.

His facial expression softened - further, if that was possible - and he released Libby’s arm. “…I suggest we attempt to leave this area. The bodies are all rather unnerving, and perhaps we may be able to find Hartford?” His suggestion was quiet, but hopeful. He tried to smile reassuringly. Wasn’t sure how well it was working out for him.

[liberated-libby-blog]

No, still no reply from F.I.L.S.S., as Libby's silent cries were lost to the nothingness of interrupted pathways. Interrupted, Libby thought desperately - not eradicated, not yet. 

Emergency protocol activated. Her autopilot mechanism kicked in, conducting an assessment as efficiently as possible given her current state; it also allowed her to forget about Hartford, as needed.

Her hand must have been lost in the final explosion that had ripped the Equinox in two. Doubtless they would find it with some searching in what little remained of the restoration lab. A large part of the lab was gone, probably in the other half of the Equinox, which could be anywhere. It was fortunate that hers and Pegasus' spare bodies had been stored just inside the first half - in fact, barely along the line that divided the two halves.

Probably not a dream, then.

Died. She hadn't known it was possible for an artificial intelligence to die - not if they had never truly lived. If they could, then they were more human than she originally believed.

"I see," she replied. She paused, turning the external assessment inward for a moment, before speaking again. "Apart from superficial damage, and my hand, I appear to be in normal condition. As do you, Pegasus."

It was just a hand, emergency protocol reminded her. There were other casualties to worry about, and her priority was to limit those as much as possible. 

"I..." she shook her head, and for a second, her concentration slipped. The emptiness returned, impossibly loud, roaring its way down the neural link. She shuddered, leaning against the wall of the restoration lab. "Hartford isn't there."

In a moment she had recovered her composure, moving away from the wall towards the exit of the restoration lab. "You're right, we should go. The floor seems inclined, which means the ship is tilted. We have to go down to get out."

She stopped in the corridor outside the lab, turning to face her brother with a cautious, mild kindness in her gaze. 

"Is Agent Lincoln alright?"

[sadalpheretz]

vacancy /// open [AI Storage]

So, the still being alive thing was kind of cool. He couldn’t really find it in him to be happy, but you know, it wasn’t something he was sad about either. In fact, he was…pleasantly surprised, actually.

And then he remembered what’d just fucking happened and realised that he was no longer between two cryo chambers. He rolled his eyes and heaved himself up.

Whoa. What was this? Where was he? Wait…what.

What!? What, they’d just — he remembered plummeting — oh god, they’d crashed? They’d crashed, hadn’t they!? Ah, oh no, oh god oh no -

Oh, no, oh no, who- Lincoln! Is anyone— Ah! He looked around frantically, eyes wide and cold with panic. And he was pretty right to be panicked because-

What, the fuck?

He stopped. Squinted. Couldn’t really believe what he was seeing so he waited it out; assumed it was his photoreceptors playing up or some shit.

…Okay, no, they weren’t playing up.

He allowed a second to collect himself. Shut his eyes. Opened them again. Took a couple of steps forward, as calmly as he could manage.

Right. Good news, bunch of his brothers and sisters, all around him. That was nice.

Bad news. They all seemed to be…asleep. Well, no. Very cold. Quite dead-looking. Extremely dead-looking. Eyes glassy and vacant, mouths firm, hands heavy and hard. It was all rather unnerving.

Wait, hang on. Wasn’t he dead? Like, two seconds ago? And he’d ended up…here. Oh.

He licked his lips. Jesus fucking christ, this was too much.

Was he first to wake up, or was he the only one alive? He cocked his head. Uh. Sort of started to move toward one of the bodies - No. Uh, shells? No.

A.Is, friends. Moved toward a friend.

Changed his mind; no, screw that. He turned away, pressed his hands over his eyes. So many of them. So many of them and he couldn’t tell which ones held life. His shoulders curled over a little. His voice was small.

"Please wake up," he said. To someone. Anyone really. Anyone who was capable of listening.

[liberated-libby-blog]

"Please wake up," came a voice. 

She hovered on the edge of consciousness, her mind processing even as she drifted through space. Please. The humans used that word frequently - associated with courtesy, etiquette, and sometimes, desperation. 

It was strange that of all things to hear in her mind at that moment, Libby would have heard such a phrase. Because she was fairly certain that she was dead - as dead as an AI unit could be.

It was strange, too, that she could move her limbs. Her fingers could twitch, her arms and legs could shift slightly. It was strange that she was, all of a sudden, lying on something very cold.

Hadn't she been floating through space a moment ago? A leap into the void, so on and so forth? And Hartford, Hartford was -

"Hartford!" Libby sat up, moving off the lab table. She struggled to her feet, only to crumple to the ground again. Her body felt... new, faltering. She pushed herself up, balancing her weight between her arms and her legs with some difficulty.

It wasn't Hartford. Before her stood one of her brothers, looking just as bewildered as she was. 

"Pegasus?" 

And around her were the rest of her brothers and sisters, unmoving. The stars were visible through the window, as was the ground of some unknown terrain.

"What happened?"

Perhaps she had been dreaming. The experience was far more realistic than Libby had ever imagined it to be - vivid, and almost painful. She concentrated on the voice that always came when she was confused, but F.I.L.S.S. gave no reply. 

Shifting slowly towards the other unit, she reached out a hand to touch Pegasus on the shoulder.

Then she realised that there was no hand there. 

Her right hand was completely gone, perhaps torn off in the explosion, and the wiring beneath her skin was exposed. Shreds of epidermis were left, clinging to her severed wrist. Not a dream, unless she had just woken up from one and entered another.

[liberated-libby-blog]

leap of faith || self-para

Hartford, she called across the neural link. His voice returned in an inaudible murmur. She tilted her head upwards, where the beginnings of a crack in the ceiling of the Equinox had begun, and through that gap were - stars. 

Hartford, where are you? This time his reply was louder, something about an escape pod - then he was safe, or at least, safer than she was. Libby moved further down the corridor, holding her machine gun tightly to her chest. Finally she emerged on the observation deck of the Equinox. The thick glass panels that lined the far wall had shattered, leaving shards floating in the zero-gravity. Libby clung to the wall, pushing herself forward, until she was standing on the edge of the platform. On the edge of space. One step further, and she would have leapt into nothingness.

A loud explosion made her turn, glancing towards the main body of the ship. The ground shuddered beneath her feet. 

Turning again to look into the vastness of space once more, Libby felt - finally - as the humans always said they did. Libby felt small. Miniscule, in comparison to the universe. There were stars and stars beyond stars, planets beyond planets, and above all the consuming blackness. 

She yearned.

There was another explosion, smaller, but still strong enough to tilt the Equinox off balance. Following that, there was a loud crunching noise, metal scraping against metal, and Libby saw an escape pod sent flying away from the Equinox in the wrong direction. Towards space, and towards the Covenant ships. They were close enough to the observation deck that she could see the vague outlines of faces, hands pressed against the glass windows. 

Hartford? 

Please, no. Please. She knew her message was being sent across a tenuous, quivering link. She knew.

It was over too quickly - a laser fired from the closest Covenant ship, striking the escape pod at its base. One.

Libby, is that you?

Two. 

Libby?

She watched, her hand clutching the edge of the wall, leaning out as far as she could. 

Three. 

It took nanoseconds (she'd counted) for the laser to blast the escape pod to pieces. At the same time, she had taken a step, an easy, tiny step into the emptiness that was waiting for her. It welcomed her, surrounding her in a comforting, ambiguous cold, and the flare of dead stars in the distance. 

It was a matter of minutes before another laser came, targeting the hangar of the ship, and catching the small, drifting body of an anonymous robot in its beam.