Parm

We all hung around a glow lamp in a clearing in the woods. We had a hell of a day. Dropping in behind enemy lines and surrounding the perimeter takes a hell of a lot out of you. We had to run at least 2 miles! Actually, jokes aside, that was the easy part. The NOT easy part was killing all of them. Was fun though. Supposed to be anyway. Finally the silence was broken.

"So we're really doing this, huh?" Lindsay stood at the edge of the circle formed around the lamp. Her question was logical. We were all scared. Hole answered for the rest of us. "Yes. No turning back now."

He was right of course. All eight of us were still feeling lousy though. I decided to change that. "Woah, guys, we are out in the woods at night by ourselves and we aren't telling ghost stories? What the fuck is wrong with us! Anyone want to start?"

No one met my gaze, or what gaze could be met through a helmet. Finally, Vic spoke up. "Shut up Parm. Ghosts aren't real." He said it with a cocky arrogance that let me know he was taking the bait. "But AI stories. Got me chills just thinking about it." He pulled off his lime green helmet with black stripes to reveal a face that desperately needed a mask. He had brown hair with natural, long, and incurable curls.

Finally, the others came around. Hula was first. "What makes an AI as scary as a ghost?"

Vic smiled his usual infectious smile. "They're basically ghosts anyway."

Jones looked up from his old footage of Grifball playing in his helmet. He was interested now too. "How do you figure?"

Vic was pleased with himself. He got spirits high again. "Well, they are both see through and won't leave you alone

no matter what you do to escape them."

Lan chimed in. "That's borderline racism." Vic looked to her. "They aren't a race. They're programs."

Lan rolled her eyes. "Then it's borderline programism."

Vic looked expectantly past the circle to the edge of the clearing where Tango was, resting his rust-colored armor clad body on a tree stump. I guess you could say he was... RUSTing for tomorrow. It's okay. I have been told I am not funny before. No one ever laughs at my jokes. Anyway. Tango didn't so much as glance in our direction. Vic couldn't get through to him. He knew all too well what we were doing and how it would probably turn out. We all knew. We were just trying to not think about it. But the next day, we were going to try to take over the space pirates' ship.

Hole

I like to say that we were once good people. I really don't know if that is true, but I say it anyway. Even though we are space pirates. The first time you pillage, you get an adrenaline surge, as well as crippling guilt. However, as time goes on, you get used to the guilt and all that remains is adrenaline. We were all space pirates, picked up by a single captain from all around the many worlds for something or another. Me specifically, would prefer not to say. But our conscience caught up to us as the ship stalled at one of the worlds and we were stuck in a village. All eight of us. We saw all the horror we caused, the aftermath we had so blindly ignored. Repulsed, we started to bond with one another, really get to know each of us. We became a team, so we formed a plan as a team. It was incredibly risky, but we were finally going to do it. After months of planning and conspiring in secret, we were going to kill the captain.

Parm

One by one, we pulled off our helmets taken from villages around the Galaxy. Lindsay pulled her dark red EOD helmet off to show off her short hair that she dyed blue. Lan took her yellow Recon helmet off and shook her blond hair to loosen it. Jones decided to watch his Grifball recordings like a douche some other time and removed his black helmet with light blue stripes. He ran a hand through his red spiky hair. Hula took her white armor with green stripes off. Unlike the rest of us, she needed glasses and preferred to keep her helmet on to see better using a program. Now she was squinting at the fire with shoulder length black hair subtly moving in the night air. I had always wanted to ask her out, as you can probably tell, but given the circumstances, it didn't seem possible. I was last, besides Tango who hadn't joined in. I had gray armor with white stripes. It used to be a different color, but it had since faded away. I had blond hair that naturally curved downwards over my face.

Lindsay decided to take the first story. "Vic, even though you're full of shit, I'll tell an AI story." She drew up her knees and thought about a story for a minute before beginning. "When I was in the UNSC, I saw some crazy shit. I had killed loads of troops and had seen a lot of blood." The rest of us felt uncomfortable. We knew her story. Even Tango squirmed. She continued.

"Nothing came close to an assignment I got to search a derelict ship and find out what happened. There where only two of us, but nothing was supposed to happen. It was derelict. We entered separately. I went through an escape pod bay, while he went through one of the engine bays. Walking through, I found a lot of dead soldiers. After many minutes of walking, I had reached the bridge where the main logs were. My partner wasn't there yet, so I grabbed a physical copy of the logs to search later and turned on surveillance cams to check on him. A voice crackled to life on the speakers of my helmet. It was extremely loud and made me hold my head in my hands. It said, in a very deep voice, 'My, my, who is this? More trying to put me down? Put the logs back, or you will die.' I still had my head in my hands, and couldn't reply. 'Don't believe me?' it said. 'Here, let me convince you.' I looked up and saw my partner on the screen as the wall component he was fiddling with exploded with lightning bolts. I watched as he was killed and crumpled in a heap. I dropped the logs, and faintly I could hear, 'Good girl.' Everything went dark. I woke up in the infirmary. Not a UNSC infirmary, but the pirates' infirmary. I still don't know what happened, if it was a ghost or an AI."

Everyone was looking at the glow lamp intently except for Lindsay who was watching her feet in a lazy sort of way. Her story was true, we all knew it. She was the talk of the ship for at least a week. Vic spoke. "This wasn't a good idea. Everyone go to bed, and know that once the captain's dead, we can do what we want."

This raised spirits somewhat, but was still after a brutal blow. We got situated to sleep, but I am sure that nobody could, least of all Lindsay. She was crying subtly in her area, clutching a picture of her fiancé, the partner who died on the ship.