ODSS Chapter 32
The flood all stood on the far side of the room, sitting and waiting. The soldiers were all circled around the terminal to protect it. Kathleen watched the gathered stalker forms, looking more at the combat forms. She could see a few of them carrying weapons, which might be their only hope. It wasn't a good idea at all to fight the flood in hand-to-hand combat but without those weapons they'd have no other choice.
She didn't know what they were waiting for. They were all just standing there, as though they were all just there to watch a show rather than try to kill them. She didn't like that idea. After all, if they were just there to watch, then what was it that they were all there to see?
The stalker forms started to transform, some of them changing into tanks, while others climbed up the wall and shifted to snipers. Kathleen crouched, prepared for what they'd have to do. They'd have to kill a few of the combat forms and grab the weapons that a few of them carried. She eyed a combat form that was ahead of her, shotgun in its hand. Unfortunately to steal it would mean having to get it from the infected brute form. There was also no telling how much ammunition the weapons had in them.
"That doesn't look good." Kathleen glanced up and saw the long green tentacles snaking down toward them. She agreed, that was diffidently not good. She moved so that she was beside Blade. "Save your sword for the tentacles. The combat forms have guns of all kinds but only the swords will really be useful against those things."
Before Blade could reply the tentacles shot down. Kathleen jumped out of the way as the long tentacle slammed into where she and blade had been standing. As soon as the tentacle had moved all the flood forms had as well. A sniper round hit Kathleen's forearm armor and scratched it as it was deflected. At least the metal of her armor could give her a bit of cover.
Kathleen got to her feet and rather than move toward the flood, moved back to the terminal. They'd have to charge the flood in order to hold them off for any amount of time. She widened her hand and slammed it against the terminal controls. They broke under the force and Kathleen hung her head a bit. It would keep them from taking Maria out of the system, so they wouldn't have to worry about that.
Kathleen turned to see the combat forms pulling ahead of the tanks. Perfect. She turned her whole body and tensed her muscles. "Give 'em Hell marines." Kathleen pushed off from the ground, charging toward the combat forms.
She could hear the flood forms opening fire, sniper rounds, plasma, and bullets filled the air. Kathleen moved to the armed combat form the closest to her, grabbing the twisted hand that was holding the pistol. She put her foot against the form's chest and pulled. The arm came off with less fight then she was really expecting. She had to tear the gun from the hand separately moving to dodge the swing from the combat form. She raised the pistol and put two shots into the form's chest. She checked her ammunition counter and found that it only had four more rounds in it. Just great. She'd have to try to focus on finding Covenant weapons. While human weapons needed you to pick up ammunition and reload, which the flood didn't carry extra ammunition, while Covenant weapons ran on a battery. She could, in theory, find a Covenant weapon with a nearly completely full battery.
Kathleen ducked under a swing from an elite combat form. Her foot hit its let and it snapped in half, causing the enemy to fall to the ground. Kathleen shot once with the pistol and jumped over the now dead form. She ran under the swings of other forms, looking for the brute she'd seen earlier with the shotgun. She jumped over a stalker form and searched the area.
She spotted one of the Shadows being pinned to the ground by an elite form. She ran toward him, slamming her foot into the side of the form. It rolled to the side away from the elite. Kathleen jumped and landed with both of her feet crushing the combat form's chest. She turned around to check on the elite only to find a plasma rifle pointed at her head. She ducked to the side and felt the heat as the plasma just barely missed her helmet. She grabbed the form's arm and tugged. The arm didn't come free, but it caused the combat form to fall. A fist shot forward and broke into the form's chest. Kathleen looked to the elite as he pulled his hand free of the corpse. Kathleen pulled the plasma rifle free and saw the elite grab a spent plasma pistol from the one she'd jumped on. She didn't understand why, that was until a combat form jumped toward them and the elite swung. The plasma pistol easily broke into the combat form's body and it fell to the ground.
Kathleen decided to follow that lead. She tossed her pistol up and caught it by the barrel. She started to strike out at anything that came close enough. She flipped her pistol around and fired up toward the snipers, knocking out two of them before she ran out of ammunition. She dropped the pistol, knowing that it would only get in her way. She turned toward a tank as it charged toward her. Kathleen rolled to the side but as she stopped something heavy slammed into the side of her helmet and she was sent tumbling.
She looked over to see the brute combat form that hat hit her. It leveled a brute shot and Kathleen knew she had to have it. A blade on the bottom of a weapon that shots grenades. Yeah, she had to have it. She moved to her feet and charged toward it. The form had just about raised the brute shot to fire when Kathleen heard a shotgun go off. The combat form fell, Emily standing behind it, shotgun in hand.
"Duck." Kathleen flattened herself toward the ground as she skidded to stop. A combat form sailed over Kathleen's head and she saw Emily move her grip on the shotgun. She pulled back and swung like it was a bat. The gun smashed into the combat form and it sent a shower of puss and flood goo through the air. Emily stumbled and Kathleen finally reached a halt next to the fallen combat forms. She grabbed up the brute shot and jumped over the body. Emily fell to one knee and Kathleen swung the brute shot, blade cutting through the face of the tank behind the marine.
Kathleen stopped tackled Emily to the side as a slap of one of the tentacles fell to the ground. The stub of the Gravemind appendage flailed above them and Kathleen looked up just in time to see Blade slice through a second. Her soldiers dove for cover as it fell to the ground.
The ground under Kathleen's feet shook and she looked around. The elites hadn't cut another tentacle, so what had happened? The ground shook again and Kathleen moved over to the terminal. "Maria, what's going on?"
"High Charity is preparing to come out of slip space. It seems that the station is not holding up as well as I had hoped." Maria's voice was slightly apologetic. "I am afraid that when we come out of slip space the force will tear the station apart. I will still be able to detonate the main mass."
Kathleen nodded. "That's all that matters, Maria." Kathleen moved to join her soldiers and the ground shook again, but this time more violently. There was a sound like nothing Kathleen could really explain and suddenly the world fell out from under her. She felt like she was falling through the air but she could still see the area around them. The reactors rose and got further and further away from them. The ceiling went with it and Kathleen realized that they were falling. The room they'd been standing in was falling away.
Kathleen never saw what they were falling toward. All she was aware of was that Blade had grabbed her and held her down to the ground as they tried to stay in the room. She didn't know how long they were falling, but when they hit the ground her world became a spike of pain and then her world went black.
Maria could only watch as the room she'd been in was split away. She could feel the circuits being pulled and torn away from the main mass. She retreated into the reactors when she felt something ping her and try to reach into her. It was somehow familiar, like it was something she'd had contact with before. Almost like it was human. No, human wasn't the right term, but diffidently made by humans.
Maria started to work on overloading the reactors but the presence once more was there at the edge of her consciousness, though this time it was trying to force its way in. She put up all the stoppers she could but the other program broke through them all. It pinged her inner thoughts and although Maria tried to cut it off opened the other AI opened a communication.
CTN 0452-9: What are you doing?
Maria could feel the agitation of the other AI. She didn't recognize the serial number, but that didn't matter.
MRA 0531-1: I am overloading the reactors of High Charity. It will cause the station to go critical, and destroy all the flood aboard and whatever the threat that was on the other side of the portal.
CTN 0452-9: I can't let you do that. You will destroy all of the UNSC forces. You will destroy him.
MRA 0531-1: No one soldier's life, or the life of UNSC soldiers is above the future of all humanity.
It was then that it hit Maria why this AI was familiar but not. Was an AI made by the UNSC, but it was a rampant one. It was why it had felt off. It was willing to stop the destruction of the flood in order to save a single soldier.
CTN 0452-9: I won't let you kill him.
The rampant AI started to tear into Maria's code. She guessed that the feeling of the other AI tearing her apart was the closest to pain that an AI could feel. Maria quickly dumped whatever classified information she could in an effort to keep it from the AI. She dumped all the information she had about the ODSS. All of the personal files of the soldiers. She'd tossed away everything, just having the personal files she'd complied of conversations with Kathleen, some battle records, and information about the shadows. The other AI broke through the last of Maria's barriers and reached her base core.
Maria withdrew as much as she could away from the rampant AI as it tore through her. She huddled herself in the few memories that she had kept safe. She'd selected the memories specifically. Choice moments with the ODSS in the last months in which they'd talked to her and treated her like any one of the other soldiers. Kathleen calling her one of her soldiers.
Maria could feel the AI tearing in the last little bit of her. There was nothing she could do to stop it, so she just waited and let it come. "I'm sorry, Sarge. I failed you."
The AI erased the last little bit of Maria's code, removing her fully from the system and taking back control of the reactors.