Carolina pulled the overshield generator - now drained of power and, thus, usefulness - from the port on her back and dropped it on the ground. "Suit reserve power is 57% and stabilizing," Eta reported.

"Agent Carolina," Iota spoke, "you'll want to find someplace to recharge your suit. The simulation troopers won't be too far behind."

"Gotcha. I'll charge up next time I see a fucking outlet. You honestly think I'm going to have time to charge up with what's going on?"

"…Not anymore," Eta said, his voice low.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Hostile, six-o'-clock!"

As soon as Eta said it, Carolina's feet were kicked out from under her, sending her briefly to the floor. She somersaulted, turning on her shoulder to see what was attacking her: a steel-gray droid with red eye-lenses. Its leg was stretched left, resting after the sweep it had attempted. The android then leapt forward and tried to tackle her. It moved absurdly fast, and Carolina barely had time to react as she vaulted over the offender. Just what is this thing? Carolina thought. Did that green guy bring it with him? She rolled out of the way as it planted on the wall and pushed off with a roundhouse kick.

/-/

Two more soldiers passed before Chief and the others crept out of their opposite doorways. "Next shift in ten minutes," Cortana stated.

"At this rate we'll never get to the Director," Sarge complained. "Honestly, it would be faster to charge through guns ablaze!"

"That's exactly what we're avoiding doing," Church said. "If we alert anyone else to our position, it'll only take longer."

"I don't see anyone else on that train."

Wash sighed. "Look, Sarge, there's no way Texas got too far ahead of us; if we keep this plan up, we can catch up to her without a lot of resistance."

Chief gave a quiet groan. "Cortana, do you have anything that can drown out the others' arguing?" Cortana replied by smiling as she began to play classical music. "…Not exactly what I had in mind."

/-/

"Scan complete," Iota stated. "Adversary is a combat testing android assembled in Freelancer Research & Development. Something or someone seems to be controlling it."

"If I didn't know better," Eta chirped, "I'd say its combat approach mirrors that of Agent Texas; almost as if she were the one pulling this puppet's strings."

"Don't be ridiculous. You just watched Carolina defeat and execute Texas not forty minutes ago. My guess is that it's a simple program designed to match and challenge Texas herself."

"Whatever it is," Carolina growled, rolling over the droid's back and driving it back into the wall, "I'm gonna enjoy taking it apart!"

/-/

Texas slammed against the wall. She wasn't dazed, or winded for that matter. In fact, she'd never felt this good in her old body. If she wanted to, she could probably make this fight last as long as she wanted (which, at this rate, it was going to regardless.)

She curled her fists, looking Carolina in the eye. "You have no idea what kind of trouble you're in," she said, her voice concealed by the droid body's own vocal software. Ever since she swiped Theta from the Chief, the android's voice had been taking precedence. She had, of course, asked the AI why that was, but he'd simply shrugged as if to say he didn't know. So, Texas rolled with it, no longer particularly caring either way; her voice wouldn't be what she'd use to knock Carolina's teeth in, anyway.

/-/

"Agent Carolina," Iota warned, "there are more hostiles coming in at five-o'-clock."

"A little busy, here," Carolina grunted, ducking another roundhouse. "Just tell me what they're doing."

"Drawing firearms," Eta reported instantly. "Two battle rifles, two automatic rifles, a shotgun, and a sword."

"Is it just me, or does it seem like they're fewer than they were before?"

"Maine must have given them quite the thrashing. While we were fleeing, I did happen to confirm that one bio-sign had gone dark in their group."

"At least there's -"

"Would you two - …shut the fuck up?"

"They're aiming at us…"

"Stand down!" the green soldier commanded, "Both of you!"

/-/

As Carolina and Texas continued to fight, completely ignoring Chief's order, Church projected himself, turning to face Cortana on the airwaves. "They're going to rip each other apart before they stop," he said. "Do you have any ideas?"

"Me?" Cortana replied. "Aren't you supposed to be the apex of Freelancer AI? You'd know more about what to do than I."

"I only learned that a few minutes ago, though; I'm still trying to get my shit organized."

"You can't run simultaneous subroutines to do that? I learned how the day after I was programmed."

"It's not like I've had a lot of time to practice. I just learned that everything I know is a big lie I've been telling myself. Plus, I've never been able to multitask."

"But now there are more of you to do it."

"True."

"Guys, I know what you're talking about is incredibly important," Wash said sarcastically, tapping his helmet, "but we kind of need someone to talk sense into these two, and Chief obviously doesn't have enough authority over them."

"That's odd," Cortana said. "Usually the mere sight of him is enough to scare people."

"Yeah, well Maine holds that effect here. Now, about Carolina and Texas?"

"Hm… What if we locked their armor?"

"That's Tex's entire body. We'd have to shut down her access to the robot she's controlling."

"…I can live with that," Church said.

/-/

"Security breach!" Eta reported. "Agent Carolina, we -"

The Fragment was cut short by all of Carolina's suit's hardware locking up. The energized gel under armor tightened at the suit's joints, causing her whole body to go rigid. Her heads-up display lost power, and she fell to the ground as her equally-rigid adversary slammed into her. "Ugh…" she groaned, immobilized. "Eta? Iota? Are you still there?"

"They're there," spoke a female voice. "They can't hear you, and you can't hear them, but they're there."

"Who are you?"

The image of a woman splayed itself on Carolina's visor. She was covered in violet-blue, and moved with almost exactly the same patterns as a real person in her mid-twenties. The image looked at her and introduced itself. "I'm Cortana."

/-/

Texas found herself punching walls of energy within her own mind. Behind her sat Theta, who did no less than panic at the sudden change of environment as the ex-Freelancer attempted to break them out.

"Calm your tits, Tex," spoke a voice that was clearly not Theta, "You'll save more energy that way."

Texas turned around, seeing the familiar cobalt glow of Church's ghost. "What are you doing in my head?" she asked.

"Well, it's nice to see you too," Church said sarcastically. "Look, it's a long story, but the short version is that I'm not a ghost - or dead for that matter. And, if everything I learned to agree with that is true, neither are you."

"Yeah, I'd be inclined to believe you if I didn't feel myself die in Blood Gulch."

"You can hear it from me and accept it now, or I can have Delta give you three hours' worth of logic and explanations for why it's true later; your pick. Either way, that's not what I was sent in for."

"What then?" Theta asked, still quivering in the corner.

"We need you to stop fighting Carolina so you can fight the real enemy."

Tex lowered her voice to little more than a growl. "The Director…"

/-/

"Asymmetric Recoilless Carbine model 962 is complete, Director Church."

"Good. And how is my other order coming along?"

"New assault armor is still in prototype phase. Field tests due to begin in 12 weeks, 4 -"

"Send me the prototype and move field tests to today."

"Understood; I will begin preparations. Will that be all, Mr. Director?"

"That will do, Phyllis."