Rain pattered softly down in the gloomy city, that was Accatran. Not a harsh, heavy rain. Just a soft, petering fall, of millions of droplets every hour. It cascaded off the roofs of the hundreds of skyscrapers. It pooled around the blocked drainage intakes, and left its sheen on everything it touched. That included the Titanium and ceramic composite outer armour of the ODST, who was currently laying sleeping in a doorway. All that gave him a hint of life was the slow movement of his breastplate, as he took shallow breaths.

That and the twitching finger, that currently lay all too heavily on the trigger of his M7/s submachine gun. Sleep never came easily to an ODST on combat operations. Even less so when they were alone in a Hostile Held city. But even an ODST's body can only take so much. Eventually he had just found the closest dark doorway, set up a small defence comprised of Mines, and fallen into an exhausted sleep. Hours passed, and still he slept, trusting in his defences, and ingrained tendency to wake at the slightest unfamiliar noise. The rain continued to patter down, the skyscrapers continued their silent vigil over the streets below. No com chatter spouted from his helmet speakers, no new data splashed across his VISR. It was a silent metropolis, and a dark one as well. Baring one thing. A gentle glow pulsed from the neckline of the ODST's helmet, right where the standard neural interface was normally mounted. Except this was anything but the standard interface. Instead of the normal, large, invasive implant, this one was nothing more than a wafer thin gap in the ODST's skull. One that matched the exact dimensions of a Data crystal chip. Besides a line of gently glowing lights on the raised edges of the slot, there was nothing more to the interface. And it was a data chip that currently occupied the interface. A first, and a last of its kind, the installation of this neural interface would never be done again. Primarily because it brought the subject to the point of death and beyond.

All Of this: the city, the rain, the locations of the buildings, the ODST's breathing pattern, brain waves, nerve reflexes, and a thousand more factors besides was processed, catalogued, rechecked, and stored in .25 nanoseconds. And the very next moment, its matrix ticked over,and it began the whole process again. Whatever equivalent of a sigh a computer could make, was made countless times during the hours that the ODST slept. No, a computer was the wrong word. A clone of a human brain fitted the picture better. She didn't know who's brain she had been cloned from, or even if that person was still alive. All she knew, and all she cared about at this moment, was that the ODST she had been assigned to, had been sleeping long enough.

"Corporal, wake up!" Artemis snapped, sure that the tone of her voice would instantly rouse the ODST. Although his eyes remained closed, her readings of his biomonitors showed he had exited REM sleep.

"Status", came his sullen voice.

"No reported contacts on the enemy battlenet, no movement on your perimeter, no change in the weather, as you can see, and no change in your vital signs, although the wound on your lower back requires attention as soon as possible."

"Noted". he muttered, cursing the eggheads who convinced HIGHCOM to saddle him with a dammed AI. Either HIGHCOM, or ONI, he thought, seeing the "Spooks" walking through the Science facility he reported to when he began the Experiment.

With great regret, and to Artemis's relief, he took his finger off the trigger of his M7/S, and stretched, cracking his joints as they protested. "Update on mission parameters. Anything more from Command?"

Artemis once more let out a virtual sigh, making sure to route it through his helmet speakers. "Not since i checked 3 seconds ago. Parameters are still the same. Capture the head of the 113th ODST battalion from their field HQ, move target to recovery zone, hold until evac arrives. Return to base for evaluation, and any final testing they require us to undergo. From the observation surveillance feeds i've accessed, the Battalion seems to be of the opinion that we have no chance of gaining access to their base, let alone achieving our mission objective."

The ODST said nothing, merely standing up, and making movements to clear up his perimeter. "Update command:Mission preceding, next checkin will be the extraction point. Approximately 0200 hours. Message end.". He smirked as the AI paused for a full second.

"Are you sure? That gives you less than 3 hours to transit the remaining distance to the objective. You would have approximately 15 minutes to plan an assault and execute it in order to make it to extraction on time. "

"Who ever said i would assault them? I'm walking in the front gate without them causing any fuss."

All his companion did in response was to highlight a route she had mapped out on his HUD.

~Break. ~

Two and a half hours later the ODST and his Companion found themselves with 40 gun barrels pointed at them, the smouldering tubes of two M41 Rocket launchers, and a battalion commander looking like the most satisfied man on the planet.

"This was your plan?" Murmurd Artemis, observing the view offered to her from the various surveillance feeds secreted around the square.

"Remember my stop at the arms cache?" He replied, without a trace of concern in his voice.

"What of it?"

"Watch, and remember".

At that, he took several brisk steps forwards, skirting the holes blasted by the M41's, and took something from the magnetic plate attached to the back of his waist. It was a cylindrical object, not much smaller than his forearm in length, and twice as thick in width. A small display screen graced one side, with a simple countdown timer on it. and a single sensor, linked to his neural interface. If he willed to happen, the thing he now held, a Fury Tactical Nuke, would begin its countdown, and detonate 10 seconds later, vaporising anything within a 1.3km radius.

"15 seconds for you to be standing cuffed in front of me…...Sir."

Even Artemis was stunned into silence. "Will he really detonate a Nuclear weapon, kill himself and an entire battalion on a training exercise, just to win?" After 5 seconds had passed, she felt the transmission signal transmitted from his neural interface. "Yes, he will"

A shrill beeping filled the air, as the Football sized device armed itself, and began its countdown. Even if it was a futile gesture, technicians inside the base filled the air with interference, trying desperately to stop the Bomb's sequence. And far away, observing safely from a hardened bunker, 5 eyes watched the events unfold. One General, One Fleet Admiral, and Two people who for all intents and purposes, didn't exist. The fifth person was a civilian. Draped in a pure white lab coat, synonymous with a Doctor, she had been brought into the exercise, solely for the purpose of monitoring the ODST's vital signs, searching for any chance that the AI pairing would be rejected.

The General and Admiral both gave shocked gasps at the threat from the ODST, The General reaching for a microphone to command the ODST to stand down. All he reached was empty air. Time seemed to slow for the overwatches, and the Bomb counted down to its deadly endgame.

Suddenly, a figure propelled itself out of the thin cordon of the 113th battalion. A uniformed figure bearing a Colonel's insignia tumbled to the ground in front of him. Glancing up at the time, he halted the detonation with a thought. "You like to play the odds it seems. 2.35 seconds remain on the detonation timer.". Reaching down, he grasped a hold of the Colonel's cuffed wrists, and hauled him to his feet.

"Activate the external speakers Artemis", he muttered.

"Done".

"Alright!, boomed his voice. "Its a simple situation we have here, with two options for you to take.. You stay at your posts, and accept a simple defeat. Or you pursue me, and die. No warnings, no chances. You will die. " Pulling on the cuffed Colonel, he stepped backwards, slowly letting his armour melt into the shadows of the street.

~Break~

He dropped the Colonel, diving away, and rolling into cover, as High-velocity rounds stitched up the street towards him.

"Report!", he barked, drawing his M7/S from its holstered position on his back, and clicking off the safety.

Sending her consciousness darting through the various networks available, Artemis spied their assailants. A trio of ODST sniper teams ringed the area, and were sending a torrent of pinning fire down from their position.

"Six ODST's, from 113th battalion. Sniper Teams, Standard configuration, one spotter, one shooter. Enemy positions range from a distance of 300-450 meters, well outside the effective range of your current weaponry."

His mind churning, the Corporal slowly moved the camera attachment on his helmet to the edge of his cover, and peaked it around. "Illuminate enemy positions on my VISR.", he commanded, only having to wait less than a second before a trio of Nav Markers appeared in his vision.

"I hate it when the machines are right", he thought bitterly. Glancing over to the captured Colonel, he noted that the man was laying unconscious on the ground, a small trickle of blood running from his head. "Status on the objective?"

"Lifescan shows him unconscious, bruises, and minor lacerations. The bleeding from his head was caused by shrapnel fragments from a ricochet. It is not a life threatening injury. "

Glad to hear it!" He shouted, launching himself into a rapid series of zigzag advances up the street, putting down as much suppressive fire power as he could with his limited weaponry. Dropping a magazine, he thanked the eggheads who modified his armour to have stealth properties. Ceasing all movement, he glanced into his HUD again. 100 meters down in his approach. 200 to go. "One small problem with that" he thought. "The last 200 meters i need to cover to the first sniper nest is totally devoid of cover."

"Artemis?"

She decided to project her avatar onto his helmet this time, filling his vision. "Yes Corporal?"

"Send us Dark."

If it was possible for an AI to convey emotions with its eyes, Artemis would have been conveying a look of pure amusement. "My pleasure".

He shuddered. Having a machine display almost human emotions disturbed him to the enth degree.

An ice cold sensation wormed its way across his skin, as the photoreactive circuits in his armor activated. Ever so slowly, the ODST began to fade from unaided sight. All that remained within 30 seconds, was a slight shimmer in the air, and a torrent of rain drops cascading over what appeared to be, an invisible person.

"Eggheads have some uses it seems. Update on the snipers. Any movements on their part?"

"Negative", she replied. "All three teams remain stationary. I am detecting laser sights focused within 45 centimeters of this doorway. Any break in the beam will display on their scopes. I suggest avoiding them at all costs."

"Acknowledged." He replied, tensing up slightly as he prepared to move. "Moving out" he muttered, cautiously stretching a leg out, and over the lines on his hud, that represented the laser sights of the enemy snipers. A sudden jolt of the highest beam halted him suddenly. Slowly, it crept upwards, almost tracing the curvature of his leg armour. "NONONO!", his brain screamed at him. Silently he yelled at the sniper to cease his movement. Just then, as suddenly as it had moved, the beam stopped.

Artemis's voice filled his helmet. "It appears, that you were almost hit, because the sniper in question, needed to scratch".

"Frack, you!", he murmured.

Clearing the beams, he let out a breath he didn't remember taking, and began to slowly move up the street once more.