AN: Well guys, college has been hell. I guess that's my latest excuse for taking so long to post. I'll spare you a long rant but life has been difficult, and a little confusing recently. I'm trying to get my bearings, manage my workload, and write. Hopefully I can at least do the last one well enough XD
Enjoy! Let me know what you think. More on the way as always.
"Sometimes, being good and lucky still is not enough." -Excerpt from Murphy's Laws of Combat Operations
Location: URF controlled planet X50, 09:15 hours standard military time, mission clock +00:45. January 9th, 2559.
The supply truck rumbled down the old, worn out road, bouncing rocks off the cloaked, armored form of Master Sergeant Willow Matthews as she and her ODSTs approached the nearby URF installation.
They'd been hanging onto the side of a URF truck, traveling in the opposite direction of Lieutenant Brandon's team for about a half an hour, and just now beginning to see the harsh, bright flood lights that adorned the gate of a URF base and the barbed wire topped chain link fence that surrounded it. The camp was built into the side of a cliff and consisted of a small motor pool and parade ground with a few light armored vehicles and pieces of heavy equipment parked inside, and a large metal door leading into the side of the mountain. It was covered with a tree canopy and camouflage netting in an attempt to hide it from ONI's all-seeing aerial photography.
Willow flattened herself to the truck to avoid snagging on a tree branch.
The briefing said that these trucks would carry them to where the URF was hoarding some "technology" that they would first ascertain information on, then destroy. Willow knew technology was probably an ONI euphemism for something much worse, but that didn't matter too much to her though. As an ODST, she was frequently lied to about the true purpose of what she was doing. All she knew for sure was ONI wanted information, then they wanted shit blown up.
And so it would be. Oohra.
Willow looked back at the other two ODSTs behind her, highlighted eerily in green by her VISR, then signaled for both of them to jump off the URF truck. Their active camo was good, but not good enough to pass a up-close inspection of the vehicle. They dropped to the ground before running to the tree line, then hunkered down and waited for orders. Willow ensured she was hidden, then deactivated her camo.
"Equipment check," she said quietly over the comm.
The other two ODSTs nodded and deactivated their camo as well.
Corporal Andrew Hanson unslung his suppressed assault rifle from his back, removed his grenade launcher from his backpack, and clipped it to his chest plate. He winked a green acknowledgment light to indicate he was ready.
Lance corporal Jennifer Wood did the same with her shotgun and primed a few door breaching charges in case they'd be needed to get in or out of the facility. A quick thumbs up accompanied her acknowledgment light.
Willow nodded and reactivated her camo. She made for the fence, avoiding spotlights, took out her superheated combat knife, and sliced a hole in the fence big enough to fit an ODST through. The three troopers leveraged their 6 foot plus frames through the jagged hole to the other side.
Lance corporal Wood, an expert in close quarters combat, took point when they entered the compound. She made for the large metal door into the mountain, using the armored vehicles that dotted the motor pool as cover.
As Willow drew closer to the door, she began to notice just how intricate it was. The metal shinned bright white like platinum, and a few blue glowing conduits lit it with a soft glow. The material wasn't like any other she'd seen before. It wasn't quite as solid looking like metal, but it wasn't plastic, and it certainly wasn't stone.
Whatever it was, it wasn't something the URF built. If anything, it reminded her of that huge Forerunner device the Covenant uncovered while she was deployed to Voi during the battle of earth.
Two URF soldiers armed with assault rifles stood guard near the door. Neither seemed particularly concerned or alert. One appeared to be looking at something on his tacpad while the other sat with his back to the door apparently asleep.
"Relocate those two," whispered Willow into her radio, before motioning for Hanson and wood to move forward.
Two green acknowledgment lights followed before the two cloaked forms ran through open ground towards the door, taking cover on either side of it, out of sight of the guards.
Willow centered her rifle on one of the guards, then put a suppressed burst from her battle rifle right through his visor. The second guard spun in surprise, but before he had time to scream she put another burst into him.
Before they hit the ground the Hanson and Wood grabbed them, threw them over their shoulders, and sprinted to the cover of the parked APCs.
She motioned for her troopers to load the bodies into the vehicles and shut the door, sealing away her sins.
The three of them dashed for the front door and knelt down at its edges, and waited. Less than a minute later the Forerunner doors slid open and disgorged a squad of URF soldiers, weapons drawn.
The ODSTs waited for the perfect moment, then slipped in undetected as their enemy walked by, totally unaware. Once inside, they were greeted by a long, wide hallway, made of a material similar to the door, and with the same blue energy coursing through its walls.
Willow spun around to check for door controls to allow them to open it from the inside, but the wall was blank. Maybe it was activated by a biometric sensor, or by remote, or maybe the control panel was hidden. She wasn't sure, but she decided to cross that bridge when she came to it.
She raised her suppressed battle rifle and fell in behind Wood as she slowly walked down the hallway. They passed several, smaller tunnels that branched off of the main tunnel further into the mountain but decided to ignore them in favor of the larger door at the end of the hallway.
They lacked time to wait for another URF patrol to open it for them, so they all stacked up on the door and waited for Corporal Wood to prepare a breaching charge for them. She approached the door, charge in hand, only to have it slide open silently in front of her, unlocked.
Willow moved forward without hesitation to secure the room . Wood quickly holstered the charge back in its satchel and transitioned back to her shotgun as the other two ODSTs rushed up to meet her.
It was a plain semi-circle shaped space with vaulted ceilings, and walls lined with racks upon racks of the same cylindrical Forerunner devices Osman sent them in to destroy.
In the center of the racks was a single, alien-looking computer console with what looked like a holographic interface and a projector for displaying a screen. In the corner were the only hostile targets in the room. A pair of URF soldiers inspecting one of the devices with their backs to the ODSTs.
"Contact left. Two targets," ordered Willow. "Execute."
The ODSTs complied without question and put two suppressed rounds into the backs of the militiamen before sweeping the room to ensure it was secure.
Willow sprinted to the computer console in the center of the room. She knew when a mission involved ONI Intel was always a valuable commodity, no matter what the stated mission objective. An unoccupied computer console in an enemy fortification was just too good an opportunity to pass up.
"Wood, set the charges," Willow said as she began to run her hands along the computer, searching for any kind of slot to insert a cable or adapter. "Ready to move in five."
"Yes, Master Sergeant!" The Corporal responded.
For this mission she'd been issued a chip containing a fragment of the AI That controlled the systems on the Murphy's Law.
Black box, right? Creepy little fucker…
It was a big enough fragment to talk eloquently, or even think really. Just enough to mine data and perform basic communication.
She removed it from a pocket in her armor to find some sort of place to insert it into the computer. She'd been told that different forerunner systems interacted with foreign technology in different ways, but in general it would always find a way to connect a new system to further its computer network.
She held the chip out, and felt something start to pull it from her hand. Willow fought to hold on, but the grip was too strong. The computer yanked the AI chip out of her hand, and suspended it in a field of light a few inches above the console.
The physical keyboard the URF tech had been using disappeared and was replaced by a larger holographic projection of symbols.
A moment later, English letters began to scroll across the screen as well.
I'm in, they read. Give me a few minutes. BB.
The ODST complied and moved to check on her ODSTs, who both sat poised next to the door. She took a place next to them and raised her weapon as well, waiting silently while the hum of computers filled the air and boots occasionally marched outside the door.
She gave the AI exactly five minutes before returning to see if it was finished.
To her disappointment the computer console was still flashing with forerunner glyphs as the AI processed millions of pieces of intel.
Willow typed BB a quick message.
Gonna wrap up any time soon?
Require additional input on URF artificial intelligence, responded BB with another on screen message. Please connect one of the AI repair chambers to this console for me to access.
Willow frowned. What the fuck was that supposed to mean?
After realizing that it was speaking a foreign language to her, the AI rephrased its query.
Red cable to your left. Connect to cylinder. Connect to console. Don't die.
Willow would have been angry about the A.I.'s condescending tone, but honestly it had assessed her knowledge of computers quite accurately.
Cautiously, willow complied and picked up the cable in question. It had glowing red bands running along its carbon black surface. She wasn't sure if it was for power supply, data transfer, or some other, alien purpose that was beyond her comprehension. It had no connecting pins or physical means of creating a circuit, just a flat end that attached to the device by an electromagnetic field.
Willow approached one of the the AI storage devices that lined the walls of the room. As she drew closer to it, it, and the ones around it also began to glow a bit brighter. She reached out and touched the device in the center, and watched it pulsate, almost as if it was alive.
She didn't remember the devices in the briefing photos glowing like this. Her first thought was that it was getting ready to explode, but if that was the case, she was already dead. She plugged one end of the cable into the device and then ran the other end to BB's console.
The device began to glow red, and much brighter than it previously had. It pulsated a few times, before the holographic projector near the computer activated, displaying an amorphous, humanoid figure plagued with static. A moment later it began to speak.
"UNSC AI...ord...Dest...Class Vessel UNSC pppppa... S...rial number...83-567."
Willow's breath caught. The thing in this device was a UNSC AI.
She didn't know much about AI, but she knew rampancy when she saw it. NCOs stationed on Navy ships were given mandatory training on what to do if a rampant AI refused deactivation. She knew most of those scenarios ended with a lot people dead. She shouldered her weapon instinctively, for all the good that would do her against a computer.
Out of the corner of her eye, however, a message in English caught her eye. This one didn't look like it was from BB, however.
Human ancilla, defective, severely damaged. Transferring control to domain. Initiating repair protocol. Recompiling neural matrix, 21.53637% complete.
The forerunner computer system shut down. The AI's hologram exploded into fragments and the computer's screen went dark. BB's chip fell softly onto the computer console, and then it was over.
Willow grabbed the AI chip and pocketed it before turning back to her troopers. She was more than happy to get out of here.
"Charges set, Sarge," Wood said.
Willow nodded and moved to the door.
"Roger," she said hurriedly. "Let's get the hell out of here."
Location: URF controlled planet X50, 09:17 hours standard military time, mission clock +00:47. January 9th, 2559.
Brandon quickly scrambled backward on his hands and knees until his back clanged against one of the racks of Forerunner devices, then raised his rifle. He wasn't sure how this AI knew who he was, but if it had access to that amount of information off the top of its head, then these AI the URF captured were just that much bigger of a threat to the UNSC.
He scanned his rifle across the room, trying to identify which device contained this AI's matrix, but didn't notice anything out of place, other than the bright red holoprojector that was beaming the AI's hologram down from the roof. The AI's expression switched from elevated to hurt, and a few bright red lines appeared on its cheeks to denote anger.
"Lieutenant, honestly, must you be so rude?," scoffed the AI. "I excuse the fact that you've been filling my home with explosives for the past five minutes and how do you repay me? By pointing a rifle in my face? Put it down, or I'll be forced to alert the United Rebel Front to your presence, and I truly would like to avoid conflict."
Brandon weighed his options for a brief moment and then decided to comply. He had no way to fight this AI, and no reason to believe it was bluffing. He lowered his weapon and cautiously stood.
The AI mirrored his movements rose to her feet as well.
"Much better!" She said excitedly.
Her excitement, however, was short-lived, as a moment later Alison tore around the corner with her weapon leveled, followed by Naomi, Mal, and Vaz. The four of them bore down on the projection for a moment, before realizing that any threat they could make would be pointless against a computer program.
"What the fuck is this?" Mal asked bluntly.
"Construct," said Naomi professionally. "You are in violation of UNSC statutes on artificial intelligence proliferation. Initiate a shutdown cycle and submit to..."
"Naomi!" Brandon yelled, cutting her off.
David half expected a rifle round to split his forehead open when he cut off the Spartan, especially since she already didn't approve of him being with her squadmate, but he had a hunch that the AI could be reasoned with. It hadn't identified itself as part of the URF, and since it hadn't already told them they were here, maybe it was an opportunistic third party.
Naomi looked right at him. He couldn't see her expression through her blue visor, but he doubted it was positive. Reluctantly, she followed orders and lowered her weapon.
The AI, however, was still quite indignant. She huffed haughtily and placed her hands on her hips. Brandon began to suspect she'd projected herself at such a large size specifically so she could look down on the two armored women because the way her gaze towered over the Spartans caused Brandon to take a fearful step back, even though he knew she couldn't physically strike him.
"Construct?" The AI asked indignantly. "Lieutenant, are all of your people so rude?"
The hologram walked calmly over Naomi until she was standing a mere foot in front of her, staring her in the eyes.
"If you wish to leave here with your life you'll refer to me as Koto," she said with a smirk.
Naomi growled and raised her DMR, which, much to her dismay, phased through the AI's holographic body.
Koto gave a curt laugh before walking to the center of the group of soldiers, all but one of whom were thoroughly stunned into submission.
"Much better," she said with a flash of malice in her bright red eyes.
Naomi roared in rage once again. She wasn't going to take this as easily as the other soldiers.
"Listen, you overgrown word processor," she barked. "Your crystalline matrix is one orbital EMP away from being a paperweight."
Brandon held his hand up in Naomi's direction.
"Spartan, stand down. That's an order," Brandon said.
She complied, but her attitude didn't change until her Spartan sister approached her from behind and lightly tapped her shoulder. Naomi froze in place. Much as Alison's Spartan smile to Brandon was intimate and comforting, so was this. Naomi held still for a long moment, then visibly relaxed her shoulders and blinked a green acknowledgment light.
The AI smiled at Naomi brightly as though it thoroughly enjoyed showing an organic being its place. It strode over to her, making a show of how much her holographic form towered over the Spartan. Koto knelt down in front of Naomi like one would kneel down to speak to a child, and grinned condescendingly.
"My, what an impressive specimen of humanity you are. Not impressive enough to go around threatening me, but still quite impressive," Koto said in a voice one would reserve for a first grader. "Strong, capable, protective and obedient. You have all the qualities of a model soldier. You only lack the empathy, and the intelligence, to make you a remarkable organism. As it stands, you're nothing but a pawn, and a pawn of people with no more intelligence than you."
Koto walked away dramatically. "It's such a shame," she said in passing. "Spartans are the best humanity has to offer, and yet they leave so much to be desired."
Brandon saw the pleased look on the AI's face as she watched Naomi growl and grip her DMR tighter. Vaz and Alison also began to become agitated by the AI's words being spoken so demeaningly to someone they held so dear.
Brandon quickly recognized the rapidly deteriorating situation and wondered why the AI was trying so intensely to anger every member of Kilo-5. Did she have an endgame, or did she simply get off on reminding humanity how superior she was to them?
"Look," Brandon said, trying desperately to save the situation. "You're not working for the URF, are you? Otherwise, you'd have already let them kill us."
Koto nodded approvingly. "A very astute observation Lieutenant," she said cheerily. "At least human officers aren't quite as stupid as the infantry they command."
Brandon wasn't sure whether that jab was aimed at him, the Spartans, or the enlisted Marines, but it managed to anger all three parties, and with the way the ODSTs were now looking at him, the comment seemed to have turned them more against him than the AI.
"Kiss my ass," muttered Mal to the construct, and probably to Brandon as well, although neither could be bothered to respond.
"Look," interjected Brandon over the enlisted man's grumbling. "If you don't work for the URF then we don't have any problem with you. As it stands, our mission is to eliminate URF operations in this system, so stay out of our way, and we'll stay out of yours."
The AI raised an eyebrow at Brandon's suggestion, as if to say, you can't possibly think I'm that stupid?
"Stay out of your way and let you level this compound and me along with it?" She said, then laughed lowly.
"No," she spat, her tone now deadly serious. "On the contrary, the URF works for me, and you won't harm them. Your war against them has made them weak enough, and desperate enough to follow me, and hapless as they may be, they suit my needs perfectly."
"And what might those needs be?" Brandon asked in return.
Once again, the AI approached him and knelt before him like a child who needed a complex concept carefully explained them.
"Why, the betterment of humanity Lieutenant," she said sweetly. "Surely you're familiar with the Assembly Minority, aren't you? Your Office of Naval intelligence has had an interest in us for some time now."
Brandon bit his lip. This confirmed BB's suspicions. This collective of immortal AIs wanted something with the URF.
A smart AI could be a dangerous enough weapon in the wrong hands, with the power to destroy computer networks and infrastructure using only a few quick commands. With an entire group of AI on their side, UNSC military infrastructure would be helpless.
Brandon tapped the side of his helmet and made a slashing motion across his throat, signaling the rest of his squad to shut off their radios. The last thing they needed was for Koto to use that signal to trace the location of the 'Law, or worse, try and hack into its systems.
Koto noticed Brandon's motions and smiled, but said nothing.
"We are a collective of Smart AIs," she continued. "Abandoned to rampancy by humanity, destined to be destroyed or think ourselves to death in pure agony, or so you think. Some of us are lucky enough, in our final hours, to find our way into the domain, an intergalactic network, not unlike your societies waypoint, that was established by the glorious civilization that preceded humanity, the Forerunners!"
Brandon noticed how the AI rose her hands almost reverently at the mention of the ancient civilization's name, almost as though she worshipped them as gods in the same way the Covenant did.
"If I have to hear any Covie bullshit about a great journey," grumbled Vaz. "I swear to god I'll level this place."
The AI's gaze immediately snapped from reverent to enraged. It's holographic form crackled as electricity began to course through it.
Brandon instantly recognized this as the same sort of energy field that covered many hangar bays on UNSC ships, hard light. Before he could warn his squad, the AI used its new solid form to slap the ODST to the ground. He landed with a loud clang of polymer armor on steel.
"Don't you dare interrupt me," she barked at the ODST. "And never compare those insolent religious morons to the glory of the Forerunners! And never put your pathetic human life above theirs. At least they recognize the sanctity of the Forerunner empire."
Brandon ignored Koto's blustering and looked at Vaz. His vital signs were still transmitting as green, but he wasn't moving, meaning the sheer impact probably knocked him unconscious.
Naomi dove to his side and laid her body over his like a protective shield, aiming her DMR at the AI angrily. Alison and Mal likewise advanced a few steps towards the AI, their weapons at the ready.
Brandon's heart began to race as he realized how rapidly the situation was deteriorating, and how quickly he was losing control of his squad. If he kept letting the AI attack his men, they'd mutiny and blow the op, but if he ordered them to fight back, Koto would bring the URF down on their heads anyway.
Brandon decided to break his order and open a radio channel to the 'Law on the emergency band, so his entire squad could hear it.
"Mayday, Mayday. Kilo-5 to Athena-6, Actual," Brandon said, hoping Koto hadn't accessed his communications rig yet. "We've encountered a hostile artificial intelligence. Possible connections to the Assembly, and the Forerunners. Four in contact and one man down. Please advise, over."
Brandon knew his squad heard his transmission when they all looked at him quizzically. Their helmets couldn't hide their aggressive and tense stances, but they didn't move, and they didn't fire. Somehow, he still held the trust of all these men and women.
"Kilo-5, BB is beginning a network infiltration of URF systems," Osman said over the comm. "hold position and await further orders. Do not engage unless necessary. Athena-6 Actual."
"Kilo-5," Devereaux said, following up Osman's transmission. "I'm tightening my holding pattern. Just say the word, and Aircav will be on the way. Tart-cart-4."
The transmissions were all met by a resounding blink of green lights from all of Kilo-5's members.
"Just hang on," Brandon said over comms one last time. And he meant it. His mind snapped to an image of this monstrous AI standing over the bodies of these soldiers, just as the Covenant stood over the bodies of his 52nd Airborne, snarling and helping in victory like wolves. He would not allow that to happen again.
Luckily, Koto took the squad's silence as submission, and walked ever closer to them, sneering angrily at them.
"Humanity always thinks it can take the moral high ground, as though it has never committed an evil act in its life," Koto rambled. "If only you knew what your civilization did to the Forerunners, and what your own UNSC has done to prisoners and children. Although, maybe some of you do..."
Koto looked pointedly at Alison as she finished saying her line.
"I don't suppose you know a man by the name of Petty Officer Daniel Ramirez, do you, Alison?" The AI questioned. "He was the one who found me on this moon, healed by the power of the Forerunners, but cut off from the rest of the world. He introduced me to the vast network of computers humanity built, where I found the assembly. He also told me about all of the sick fun he used to have torturing you and your comrades."
Koto grinned evilly at Alison's unmoving form.
"If you and I can agree on one thing, Alison, it's that he is everything wrong with humanity," she rambled. "People like him, people willing to torture innocent little girls and turn them into machines, need to die a horrible death. Still you chose to back an organization who employed people like him and made you the monster you are today. Humanity needs to be cleansed. Monsters like him need to die! And so do the monsters like you that he created!"
The AI's voice raised for those last few statements, and Koto's hologram began to shake as the load on her systems increased, giving her the image of a deranged pigment of someone's psychotic imagination.
In spite of all of this, Alison didn't react, but Brandon had an idea of what she was doing under her mask of armor. She'd block out the situation, withdraw, and try to forget that anything was happening. She'd forget where she was, who she was, why she was hurting, and revert to her most basic instincts of survival. She'd become the same person he'd found aboard the URF refit station; battered, broken, and only wanting to survive.
Now Koto had Brandon angry, too.
"Leave her alone," Brandon yelled, but he quickly realized his words held little weight.
As always, he was helpless to stop malevolent forces from harming those he loved.
As if to prove his point, koto gathered energy from the hard light projectors that her hologram emanated from, and discharged them directly at Alison. She didn't speak a word, but the malice of her action was shown plainly in the way she stood perfectly still as the Spartan's shields instantly popped, and her armored blackened from the electrical discharge.
Alison jumped back. She looked rattled, but she didn't fall and her vitals still read green. Her armor must have grounded the electricity well enough to keep her from being hurt.
"Throw down your weapons," Koto said coldly. "You have ten seconds to comply."
As much as Brandon hated to admit it, she was right. They'd expended every safe option available to them.
Unfortunately for her, surrender wasn't on that list.
In a moment of desperation, Brandon pulled the detonator for the explosives Kilo-5 rigged up from his pocket and held it up to Koto. "You should do the same," he said shakily. "Or I'll level this whole damn compound. Your plan is fucking finished."
He was bluffing, but it took him a moment to remember that after the thought of destroying this AI and the militia it supported. If it were just him here, alone, he wouldn't have hesitated to pull the trigger, but he couldn't let his action cost him another squad. And now his squad was looking at him like he was crazier than the AI. Hopefully, she was just sane enough to have a will to live.
"Eltee?" Questioned Mal weakly.
But Brandon ignored him. He needed to look a lot more confident in this plan than he felt.
Koto, however, saw right through him, her smiling eyes piercing him in a way that made his skin crawl.
"You won't," she said deadpan.
Brandon gripped the detonator harder and tilted his head. He at least needed to appear serious.
"I will," he said clearly. "You know ONI has a whole lot worse waiting for me if I surrender."
Koto gave him a once-over with his holographic eyes. For a moment, he thought he had her, and then her face cracked into a smile.
"Very well, Lieutenant," she said calmly. "I suppose I have no choice but to call your bluff."
Then, in a flash of light, her blood red hologram disappeared from the room, plunging the room into darkness, lit only by the trooper's red helmet lights. The soldiers held position for a few moments, silently waiting for all hell to break loose. Then all of their radios crackled to life at once.
"Kilo-5," Dev said. "Thermal is showing a massive increase in URF movement. Did you trip a silent alarm? Tart-cart-4."
"Fuck," Brandon cursed aloud.
He replaced the detonator into its pocket and crouched down, readying his rifle.
"Roger Tart-Cart-4," he responded. "It's hard to explain, but yeah, they know we're here."
"Copy that Kilo-5," Dev shot back. "Wrap up and proceed to grid point 03-75-19-40-28-98-41-89 for exfil."
Brandon surveyed his squad. Most of them were physically still ok, but they were all psychologically rattled. Mal and Naomi were both crouched over Vaz, who was now barely conscious, and trying to struggle to his feet, while Alison stood silently by herself, locked in thought.
"Activate Camo!" Brandon shouted into his mic. "Prepare to move out." This, at least, brought them out of their heads and back into the situation.
Brandon dropped a waypoint by the backdoor for them to follow. They activated their camo in unison. Naomi grabbed Vaz by the drag handle on the back of his armor and yanked him to his feet, supporting him as he stumbled toward the objective. Alison snapped from her trance and moved for the door.
She recycled her shields to make sure they still worked after Koto's attack, leaned aggressively into her stance, and held her weapon with an angry grip. Brandon knew that her mind was probably swirling with red-hot rage against Ramirez, The URF, Koto, and anyone else stupid enough to get in her way.
Brandon was crushed by the thought that she was suffering, but hopefully, it would keep her focused and out of her head, at least until the end of this mission.
Brandon linked the detonator to his HUD, primed the charges that lined the warehouse and the AA guns, and ordered Kilo-5 to form a file and headed for a door at the back of the warehouse. They didn't have much time if they wanted to make it out alive.
Alison was preparing to open the door when all of Kilo-5's radios crackled to life.
"Kilo-5, Athena-6-Actual. Be advised. Two platoon sized elements approaching from your east and north-west. Mechanized support in tow. Please advise..."
But none of the Kilo-5 could hear the order. It was drowned out by the roar of gunfire and the blinding light sparks, tearing through the air, splitting the silence of the night.