Chapter 10: Infinite Mischief

CASTLE Base

Lynn watched helplessly as the Brute smashed his weapon down straight on the console, the massive cleaver gouging a huge rent in the machinery. There were a few sparks and small explosions as the screen shattered and the metal casing was split open.

"No…." Lynn felt the fight drain out of her body. The Brute then turned its attention to her and aimed its weapon at her.

However, a high velocity grenade sailed through the air and impacted against its face, blowing the Brute's head and upper torso to pieces. The remaining Brutes met similar fates at the hands of Sanah's M60D.

"I suggest you gather your companions here." Sanah said as she glanced up the newly made tunnel. "It appears that our Covenant friends have provided us an alternate escape route."

Lynn looked at Sanah, and noticed something… different about her. She was the same in the fact that her physical features and body were intact, but there were tiny, minute inconsistencies that anybody who spent enough time with an android, or even people in general, could spot. She noticed the expression on her artificial face were now tighter and more pinched, making her appear significantly older. Her normally bright, vivid eyes were also noticeably darker and unfocused, like from a person who had seen far too much in her life.

"Sanah?"

Sanah's face suddenly brightened to its usual appearance, though the android looked mysteriously distressed about something.

"I'm sorry, Lynn." Sanah said apologetically. "I couldn't think of anything else to do."

"What are yout talking about?" Lynn said curiously.

Suddenly, Sanah's expression changed again and she looked at her right arm and flexed it, gazing on it with the fascination of a scientist. "Amazing. The precision and effort that went into designing these robotic systems must have been tremendous."

Lynn then realized what must have happened and took a step forward. "Dr. Halsey?"

"My, you do catch on fast." Sanah/Dr. Halsey smiled. "I managed to wirelessly transmit myself into your android's backup memory banks. Granted, she did have to delete quite a bit of data in order to accommodate me, but it's actually quite spacious in here."

"Can you please not try to stay active while you're in me?" Sanah lamented. "The extra resources you're drawing are lowering my combat efficiency."

"I'm sorry, I'll stay quiet then." Halsey said.

"Wait!" Lynn's hopes were already starting to rise. "Did you-?"

"No." Halsey shook her head. "I'm afraid that data is no longer in the mainframe. However, I did manage to salvage some information that can help us greatly."

"Get out. Please." Sanah whimpered.

"As you wish." Halsey nodded. Her expression finally reverted back to Sanah's old expression.

"What was… a little weird." Lynn said.

"You cannot even begin to imagine." Sanah sighed. "So I guess we get out of here?"

"No point in staying." Lynn agreed and then made her way to the door. "I'll get the others and-"

Before she even reached the hall, the lighting shut down and red emergency lights illuminated the hall. Klaxons wailed and a scratchy, automated voice croaked a prerecorded message.

"WARNING! SELF DESTRUCT ACTIVATED. ALL REMAINING STAFF PLEASE PROCEED TO YOUR DESIGNATED EVACUATION POSTS. THIS IS NOT A DRILL."

"Oh yes, I forgot to mention, once the mainframe is wiped clean the deletion program automatically forces the reactors to meltdown to make sure the base is thoroughly destroyed." Halsey chimed.

"What is wrong with you people!?" Lynn wailed and bolted down the hall. "Sanah! Watch that tunnel! I'll get the others!"

Meanwhile, at the security door, things were not going so well. The Brutes had finally pushed through the door itself. The ground and walls were peppered with so many spikes from the Brute weapons, that there was literally almost nowhere to safely stand without the danger of getting impaled on one.

John stood up and fired the Red Ring of Death one more time. The shaft of crimson energy speared down the hall and through a couple of ranks of Covenant troops. The weapon then whined and the lights died, signifying that the weapon's charge was depleted. John tossed the weapon aside and grabbed Kyle's rocket launcher.

"Mind if I borrow this?"

"Go for it!" Kyle fired a rail rifle burst. "It's the last mag, so make those shots count!"

John didn't even bother aiming the weapon in the narrow hall. He fired off all six rockets, sending explosions rippling through the hallway, sending pieces of Covenant troops flying in all directions. The blasts were so powerful, that part of the hallway collapsed and caved in, impeding the oncoming Covenant even more.

"How are things going?" Lynn said as she slid next to Kyle and added her rail rifle to the hail of fire.

"Not good! We're running low on ammo and they just won't stop!" Kyle pointed.

"Well, we've got an alternate route out of here!" Lynn yelled. "Get back to the lab and Sanah will show you the way. Go!"

With that, the defenders began peeling off one by one to make sure that at least one person was always putting down fire on the hallway. The tricky part of this would be whether the last person would be able to get away safely or not.

"Melissa!" Kyle yelled. "Put up a wall of fire and keep them back!"

Melissa nodded and sent a stream of flame from her flamethrower and torched the entire doorway. That and a little coaxing from her powers created a wall of flame that proved too hot for even the mighty Brutes to cross.

"Go go go!" Kyle patted Melissa on the back to get her to move. He then took one last look at the door and ran after her. By the time he reached the lab, the only person left was Lynn, who was still standing at the mouth of the tunnel.

"You didn't have to stay, you know." Kyle said as he clambered into the tunnel.

"Then who'd watch your back when you get into trouble?" Lynn smiled.

Pillars of Sanctity

The drilling team really had no idea what was going on when everything around them began to explode and when they began to die. The Jackals and Brute standing guard were instantly torn apart from telekinetically guided grenades. The team of Engineers maintaining the drilling equipment was more concerned with saving the machinery and most were killed attempting to protect or repair it. Even as their fellows lay dead or dying around them, the few surviving Engineers tried to do what they could to save the damaged equipment. They were so engrossed in their task, they completely ignored the small band of humans climbing out of the hole they had made in the ground. They also never gave the sudden appearance of a Pelican dropship a second thought, even as it touched down and then took off with a blast of fire. Nor did they pay much attention when the ground began to shake beneath their feet, and the rocks around them began to crumble. Temperatures began to rise all around, but that only served to make them worry that the extra heat would melt some sensitive components.

Meanwhile, the Brutes inside the base finally managed to break through the wall of fire and stormed the laboratories, trying to find the band of heretics that had cost them so dearly. However, they found nothing except for a strange blinking display. Unfortunately for the Covenant, they were not schooled in English or the Arabic number system. If they did, they would probably be able to see that the display was saying:

TIME UNTIL DETONATION: 00:00:04:01

Roughly four seconds later, the fusion reactors powering CASTLE Base overloaded and melted down. Two seconds after that, the reactors exploded, the shockwave pulverizing whatever wasn't roasted by the nuclear heat and fire. The entire Menachite Mountain Range was raised by several inches before the pressure from the blast subsided. Without anything to hold it up, the entire mountain range collapsed into itself, crushing whatever may have still been alive. Those that could see the spectacle took it as a sign of the apocalypse, while crews in sensor stations from both the ground and in orbit were dumbfounded as to what was interfering with their equipment in that area. The mass confusion and panic was so intense, that even the Republican listening ship on the edge of the system couldn't tell what was happening.

In all the confusion, nobody noticed a single Pelican dropship making a speedy escape from the planet's gravity well before jumping into Slipspace.

Puddlejumper

The interior of the ship was relatively quiet as everybody sat in their seats and waited until their Slipspace hop would take them to the rendezvous point with Nietzsche. None of them were wounded, but many of them had some new nicks and scratches in their armor from stray spiker and plasma rounds that were flying around.

"Well that mission was a total bust." Kay said, finally breaking the silence. "We went through all that trouble for nothing except drop a mountain on top of a bunch of Brutes."

"Not necessarily." Lynn shook her head. "Halsey mentioned that she had something else that could help us. Once we get back to Nietzsche, we can, uh, transfer her to the ship computer core."

"Oh yeah, Hal is just going to love that." Kay snorted.

"As a guy in a similar position, I can sympathize with Hal on this one." Kyle said from the cockpit.

"Shut up." Kay retorted.

"Okay, we're here." Kyle threw a lever and Puddlejumper dropped out of Slipspace just a few kilometers from Nietzsche. "Huh, Hal left the bay doors open for us. That's uncommonly thoughtful of him."

Kyle nursed the Pelican into the landing bay. No sooner had the landing gear touched down on the deck when the bay doors began to close shut.

"Right." Kyle got out of the pilot's seat. "Let's go show Halsey her new home."

Unfortunately, before Lynn and Kyle even stepped foot of the Pelican, they found themselves facing over a dozen rail rifles being held by a squad of very mean looking Marines.

"Drop your weapons!" The lead Marine yelled, rail rifle at the ready.

Lynn and Kyle looked at each other, as if trying to tell each other what to do. Kyle glanced over and saw Lynn shake her head. He sighed and dropped his rail rifle and pistol. Lynn likewise followed suit. The Marine squad leader then nodded and half of his squad shot past Lynn and Kyle and entered the Pelican, yelling similar orders to drop weapons.

"You've been a very bad girl, Miss Wellings." A very familiar voice rang out through the landing bay. Ackerson strode out from behind a wall of cargo containers and stopped in front of Kyle and Lynn. "It looks like you still need a bit of discipline whipped into you."

Lynn didn't react, but it didn't take a psychic to detect the anger seething from her.

"Nuh uh uh." Ackerson wiggled his finger. "I've been given rather clear orders to take you back to the fleet. However, what isn't clear is what I could do in order to… convince you to follow."

Ackerson motioned to the squad of Marines surrounding Puddlejumper. "Now, I know for a fact that you could easily dodge any of the shots me and my men fire at you, but what about your little boyfriend here, or your friends in the ship? Not even you are fast enough to stop multiple rail rifles on full auto, and I doubt you could stop all of the missiles aimed at your little ship."

Lynn growled, but still said nothing.

"Now now, pouting won't get you anywhere." Ackerson sighed. "You can choose to stop your foolish little treasure hunt and come back with us peacefully, sparing your friends in the process. Or, you could say no and then we'd have to get into a nasty firefight that would end up getting everybody killed. It's a rather simple choice, so you'd better be quick about it before I lose my patience."

Valhalla
Currently in Slipspace transit

Keyes sighed as he stared at the communication console, waiting for that one classified frequency to light up and chime. Ackerson had not yet contacted him, and Keyes was starting to become a bit nervous. Keyes immediately ruled out an ambush by Covenant Imperials. Ackerson was too good and smart for that. Keyes couldn't rule out that Lynn was giving the man a hard time. He wouldn't put it past her, since she was a pretty resourceful girl and she had gotten good at eluding Keyes' and Ackerson's attempts to rein her in.

"Sir." Jillian appeared at Keyes' side, holding a datapad. "I need you to review the attack plans. The Somm have looked at, but they won't sign off on it until you give it the go ahead."

Keyes nodded and took the datapad from Jillian. The battle plan had been penned by the Fleet Tactical Division. Though they were good at their jobs, the fleet tacticians often deferred their decisions to Keyes and gave him free rein to alter their plans as much as he liked. He looked it over and saw that the overall strategy was sound.

The target was supposed to be a remote Covenant shipyard and supply station. While he didn't know the name of the station, Keyes knew that it was the staging point for most of the Imperial Covenant forces in this area. From Republican contacts, Keyes and the fleet were aware that the garrison at the station had recently become much more aggressive, sending more ships out on deep space patrols. This was partly the reason why so many Exiles like Somm were being forced to scatter even further into the void. However, the obvious trade off to this more aggressive strategy was that with more ships on patrol, there were less at home to defend. According to intelligence estimates, the garrison at the station was at its lowest levels in years. The plan was to strike the Covenant station and curtail all Imperial Covenant activity in this region, at least for a while. Keyes sighed and reviewed the plans. It would take days to get to the rally point and organize for an audacious attack like this. Keyes wanted to make sure that his fleet was prepared.

"Damnit, Stryker, where the hell are you?"

Nietzsche

They certainly weren't in a good position.

Lynn scanned the hangar carefully, but knew that these were crack Marines who would not hesitate to follow orders. After all, Ackerson had made sure that he would have brought such men along with him. This put her in a rather untenable position. On the one hand, she could cave to Ackerson and follow him back to the fleet, but then this opportunity would be squandered. If she resisted, well, she saw a brief glimpse of what would happen if she did and she didn't like it at all.

"We've got three humans and an android accounted for in the ship." One of the Marines announced as he stepped down the ramp. "It's all secure."

That statement had suddenly caught Lynn's attention. That meant there was one person in their group unaccounted for. She passively scanned the hangar and managed to find a familiar, muddy presence skulking about in the rear of the hanger. She looked at Kyle and saw that he realized what was happening. After all, he helped install the new stealth functions in John's MJOLNIR armor. Lynn's eyes focused and she could see the slight distortion of air shifting about behind the line of Marines.

Sending a rather vague mental note to John not to inflict too much harm on the Marines, Lynn feigned defeat and stepped forward. "Okay, I'll listen."

Rather than smile, Ackerson frowned, slightly confused. "That's odd, you're not normally this submissive-"

"'Cuz I'm not!" Lynn's eyes glinted mischievously as she swung her arm out. Ackerson wheezed as an invisible fist struck him in the chest, sending him flying backwards. The Marines began to react, but it was already too late.

A knot of three Marines were suddenly knocked in all directions. Two of their dropped rail rifles suddenly rose in the air and fired several bursts, incapacitating a half dozen other Marines with expert shots in damaging, but non-lethal areas. Kyle suddenly lunged forward and rammed his body into the nearest Marine, crushing his body against a cargo container. He then pulled the Marine's pistol out of its holster and struck him in the head with the butt of the weapon. Another Marine spontaneously combusted in a burst of flame. The final Marine was still inside the ship and as he ran out to see what was all the commotion, one of Nietzsche's service panels popped open, causing him fall into a small smuggling compartment before the panel shut itself closed again.

"Why thank you, Hal." Kyle said. "What the hell took you so long?"

"They put a little more effort in constructing their firewall than I anticipated." Hal said, rather annoyed at having intruders in his ship. "What shall we do with the intruders? Vent them into space?"

"That's not necessary." Kyle made sure to kick the dropped rail rifles away from the incapacitated Marines. "What do we do with these guys?"

Lynn looked at the carnage that John had wrought. All by himself, the Spartan had taken down nine of the twelve Marines accompanying Ackerson, and these weren't any normal Marines either. These were the crack units that Ackerson had trained to be just as ruthless and efficient as he was. But now, they were all laying the ground, either unconscious or clutching rather painful looking wounds. Meanwhile, Ackerson himself was laying on the ground, dazed.

"We get rid of them the old fashioned way." Lynn said cheerfully and turned to Ackerson. "Sorry about this, Mr. Acky, but I'm on some important business and I can't afford to have people like you messing things up."

By this time, the others had rounded up all of the incapacitated Marines and dragged them to the shuttle they had used to board Nietzsche. With a telekinetic tug, Ackerson soon found himself being dragged to the shuttle as well.

"You might as well just kill me, Miss Wellings." Ackerson said. "Because this won't stop me from coming after you again."

"Oh shush." Lynn waved her hand and Ackeron's jaw clenched shut. "Since when did I ever do things your way?"

"I've accessed their ship systems." Sanah said as she exited the shuttle's cockpit. "I've made it so that all functions except for basic flight were locked out, so they'd have no choice but to return to whatever ship brought them here."

"Good work." Lynn nodded and looked at Ackerson. "I'm sorry, but this is where we part ways."

"For now." Ackerson said grimly before Lynn casually tossed him into the shuttle. With that, the shuttle automatically took off and floated out into the void of space outside.

As the shuttle tumbled helplessly into space, Ackerson managed to drum up the strength to get up and take a look outside the shuttle's viewport. There, he could see the small silhouette of Nietzsche against the stars. The small corvette began to pick up speed and Ackerson knew it was about to make the jump to Slipspace. A few seconds and brief flash later, Nietzsche, and Lynn, were gone.

"Well, this is certainly troublesome." Ackerson grumbled. "She would have made an excellent subordinate."

Nietzsche

"What the hell was that all about?" Melissa said, somewhat confused. "Who were those guys and what did they want?"

"I don't think that's any of your business." Kay replied, leaning back in her seat.

"When I have to make a guy spontaneously combust, it tends to make me curious as to why I'm doing it." Melissa retorted.

"They were here for me." Lynn answered, looking out of the bridge viewport. "This isn't actually a sanctioned operation, and the big boss guys from my fleet aren't too happy about it."

"Harsh." Williams shook his head.

"Is that way you insisted we play nice?" John asked, standing in the back of the bridge like a statue.

"Kind of. I mean, I'd hate to see the look on Keyes' face if he found out I ever killed some of his own men." Lynn detected a hint of surprise from the Spartan when she mentioned Keyes. She herself wasn't surprised, since it was well known that Keyes had descended from a rather well established pedigree of able starship officers. She decided not to mention it, however. "Anyways, that's not our concern." Lynn turned to Kyle and Sanah. Sanah was hooked up to the ship's computer core while Kyle was busy tapping away at a computer console.

"Okay, ready for the transfer." Kyle gave the thumbs up to Sanah.

Sanah nodded in confirmation and closed her eyes. Her body spasmed briefly as she transferred Halsey's consciousness into the ship's more capable computer systems. The lights flickered briefly and when they stabilized, Sanah opened her eyes and said, "Transfer complete."

"What transfer?" Hal said, a bit alarmed and surprise. "I was not told of this!"

"Ah, relax, you big baby." Kay responded.

"I'm detected an anomaly present in the computer systems." Hal said, still alarmed. "Attempting to analyze."

"It would be polite to offer a woman some privacy." Halsey said, her presence not dulled by the data transfer. "How would you like if I started stripping off the outer layers of your programming?"

"What's the meaning of this!" Hal said angrily. Lynn was unsure whether it was directed toward Kyle or Halsey, but Hal was pissed nonetheless.

"Relax, Hal." Kay could hardly contain her laughter at such a priceless situation. "Dr. Halsey's just going to shack in here with you for the time being."

"Unacceptable." Hal snapped. "I demand the anomaly be removed.

"What's unacceptable is the living conditions in here!" Halsey said. "This place is a complete pigsty! I think some spring cleaning is in order!"

Suddenly, for the next few seconds, all of the lights and screens on Nietzsche flickered rapidly.

"No! Stop that!" Hal wailed. "That's not supposed to go there!"

"Oh, quiet, you big crybaby." Halsey responded.

'This is just too funny!" Kay broke out into laughter. "They're like a married couple!"

"A married couple fighting over the ship that's carrying us." Kyle said warily.

"There, all done." Halsey said happily. "Now let's see if I can pull myself together."

With that, the holographic project hummed to life and the hologram of a middle-aged woman in a lab coat materialized in the middle of the room, data streams and machine code running al across her body and the lens of her glasses. Lynn recognized her as the woman she had seen in her vision in CASTLE Base.

"Much better." Halsey smiled, looking at her new "body".

"This construct is a menace!" Hal then appeared, as a wisp-like ball of shimmering light. It was currently crimson red to signify his anger and resentment. "I demand she be removed from the system!"

"You demand?" Halsey stepped toward Hal. "Let me tell you something, Hal. I've spent two hundred years locked up inside a quantum computer that had barely a tenth of the space as this ship's systems. If you think I'm going to give up my claim to freedom so easily, think again."

Hal grumbled something inaudible and disappeared.

"Wow, I've never seen anybody reprimand Hal like that and get away with it." Kay said.

"I'm liking this new arrangement." Kyle smiled. "So I assume you have something to help us?"

"Yes." Halsey nodded. "While I don't have the coordinates to Earth, I do have the coordinates to a place that should."

"Really?" Lynn looked up. "Where?"

"Oh, it's a place that John should be very familiar with." Halsey looked at John, who had not moved during the entire ordeal. "Do you remember your first official field operation, John?"

John straightened up when Halsey mentioned him. He strained his memory to figure out what Halsey was referring to. The memory struck him like a plasma bolt. "Eridanus System. We infiltrated a secret rebel space station in order to capture rebel leader Colonel Robert Watts."

"Correct." Halsey nodded. "As far as I know, the facility is still there, as the UNSC never staged another operation there due to the Covenant threat. Since the station as located in deep space and its location was never made public, there is a high probability that it is still intact."

"Wait, what station?" Kyle asked. "I'm not familmiar with a system called Eridansu. Put it on the map."

"Ah yes, I suspected that names may have been changed during the time discrepancy." Halsey stretched her arms. "I've cross-analyzed the station's last known coordinates with your current charts, and here is the approximate location."

Halsey's hologram then turned into a massive holographic star chart. It highlighted a small system of planets and zoomed in, displaying all available and relevant information.

"Well what do you know." Kyle shook his head. "Who know such a dump could turn out to be so important?"

"What is that place?" Lynn asked curiously.

"The rebel station." John answered.

"Yes, but no exactly." Kyle stood up from his seat. "It's now basically a huge hangout for scavs, smugglers, criminals, spies, all the kinds of nasty types no Exile fleet would want."

"I've heard about that place." Williams commented.

"Yeah, a lot of people do." Kyle nodded. "If you want to find work of the unsavory kind, Jiles Station is the place to go."