Chapter 11: Those Funny Feelings

Cairo

Karla gasped as she fell onto the Elite's chest. Thinking quickly, she pulled her pistol from its holster and tried to shoot the Elite at point blank range with it. Unfortunately, the Elite managed to slap the pistol out of her hands. The Elite then rolled over, pinning Karla to the ground with its massive arms. Karla thought for a brief moment that it was all over. However, she flinched as a plasma bolt blinded her and struck the Elite in the face, knocking it down on its back again. Karla could see Paccone cursing and tossing away the overheating plasma cannon. Taking the opportunity, Karla reached out to try and get her pistol, but she couldn't find it anywhere.

Mako growled as he picked himself up from the ground. This human was proving to be extremely agitating, and he had already wasted too much time trying to kill her. It was time to end this once and for all. He clawed for his plasma pistol but was surprised to end up one of the crude human pistols in his hand. There wasn't really much time to complain, so Mako awkwardly worked his hand into the pistol's trigger and was about to aim when his communicator buzzed.

"All units!" The commanding voice of the attack force's commander, Shelamee barked. "All units are to pull back and retreat to the transports!"

Mako could hear the collective surprise and mortification of his fellow Elite on the battle network, but Shelamee didn't waste any time explaining himself.

"These are on the orders to the Prophet! Do not question them!"

The mention of a Prophet immediately shut everybody up. Nobody ever dared have second thoughts about an order a Prophet made. However, Mako was left to wonder whether all of those troops who sold their lives in these accursed halls had really done it for a meaningful purpose. He shook those thoughts out of his head. Such things were heresy, and the Prophets purportedly always knew what was best.

You know that's a lie.

Mako stopped for a heartbeat. For a second, he thought he had heard somebody speaking to him. A passing rifle round snapping him back to attention, and he began to pull the remnants of his unit back to their transport. He completely forgot that the human pistol was still in his hand.

Karla blinked when she realized that the hallway was completely empty. It seemed as if the entire Covenant attack force had suddenly given up and disappeared. She instructed the remaining Marines to secure the area and chase down any stragglers. She then blankly looked around, and suddenly realized that-

"That bastard stole my pistol!" she cried angrily.

"Hey, my new cannon just melted into a pile of slag, so I'm hurting as much as you are here." Paccone said, looking glumly at the remains of the short-lived weapon.

"That was the pistol Major Mackenzie gave me!" Karla slammed her fist into the side of the wall. "I'm going to hunt down and disembowel that fucking bastard!"

"Whoa, I know that pistol was given to you by your favorite old major, but seriously, it's just a pistol. You're lucky that Elite didn't twist your head off."

Karla glared at Paccone. "There are several good reasons why I liked that pistol so much. First, it was given to me by 'my favorite old major'. Second, I've had that pistol for as long as I've been fighting this damn war. And third, that was an M6D pistol, which is infinitely better than those crap M6Es they've been handing out."

"Don't worry, I'm sure I've got a few extra stashed away somewhere." Paccone grinned. "How would you like a pistol given to you by your favorite ol' sergeant?"

"It wouldn't be the same." Karla sighed.

Pelican Bay

"Hi there Tarin!" Sam said happily as she leapt out of the docked Pelican. 'Hi there…." She paused, "You know, I've never found out what your first name was, Sergeant Williams."

"Nobody ever bothers to ask." Williams said glumly.

Before Sam had a chance to ask Williams his first name, the rest of her squad began to exit the Pelican.

"Wow!" Kumi said as she saw the piles of Covenant dead scattered around the bay. "You guys have certainly been busy while we were away."

"Oh yeah, and we got to see the Master Chief!" Leo said proudly.

"Uhhh, so did we." Williams replied.

"Oh…" Leo sighed.

Sam laughed and elbowed Leo playfully. "Don't worry, I'm sure it happens all the time."

"Well, I'm certainly glad everything turned out well." Scohar said. "I wonder, what's the state of the rest of the station?"

"Oh, that's right." Tarin blinked. "Captain Wellings just called in. She said that once you reached the station, we were to prepare for immediate departure."

"What? But we just got here!" Barfbag groaned and slunk back to his cockpit.

Freedom Computer Network

Joshua grimaced as his last firewall began to wear away. This Covenant AI may have lacked any sort of imagination, but with the limited resources at his command, Joshua didn't have a lot to work with. Right now, the AI was trying out its same old tactic. It was using its siege engines to try and break though the firewall port. Joshua checked in on his tracking program, but it was still not showing any success in finding where the attacks were coming from.

He watched on as his defense programs effectively deleted the next wave of siege engines. Tiny digital arrows buzzed about and blew the little constructs apart. Finally, he was pinged by his tracker programs.

"I finally found you, you little piece of garbage."

Joshua was caught off guard by his opponent's sudden and unsophisticated reply.

"Nononononononononoononononononononononono. Youcantseeme. Youcantseeme. Youcantseeme. Youcantseeme. Youcantseemeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee."

The only way an AI would talk like that was if was suffering from severe data corruption. Joshua suddenly realized why the AI was so unsophisticated. The Covenant may have figured out how to make an AI, but they apparently didn't get it right. With trash programming like this running their systems, Joshua wouldn't be surprised if he saw Covenant ships suddenly flying into black holes.

Bridge

"I've tracked the signal, Captain." Joshua announced proudly.

"It's about time." Rogers said happily. "Pinpoint it."

"I would like to point out that even though we know where it is, we have no power left to use any of our MACs or particle cannons." Joshua said matter-of-factly.

Rogers didn't like Joshua's upbeat tone. "Joshua, is this whole situation a game or a battle to you?"

"What's the difference?" he said simply.

Rogers shook his head. Damn AIs.

"However, I do believe we have a way to retaliate." Joshua continued.

"Oh? And how do we do that?"

"We can manually program and launch our remaining missiles. Unlike our primary weapons systems, the Archer missiles have their own independent power sources. The biggest issue is just getting them off the launch racks."

Rogers summoned the Marine he was using as his personal runner. Due to the power shortage, many of the ship's basic systems like the intercoms and even the door servos had to be shut down to conserve energy until the reactor cooled down.

"Run down the missile control deck, and tell the gunners to prep the Archer missiles and target this heading." Rogers hastily scribbled down the coordinates and targeting data on a scrap of paper and shoved it into the Marine's hand. "Go, do it now!"

The Marine gave a quick salute and hastily exited the bridge.

"So how are things going on your end, Joshua?" Roger asked, slumping back into his chair.

"Not very well, I'm afraid. The virus has managed to attach itself to ninety two percent of the network. I estimate that we have roughly seven minutes left."

"Well, it's a good thing that a trained missile crew can perform a successful manual launch in just five minutes then." Rogers checked his watch. "You're sure it'll take that long."

"If the virus keeps performing the same tactic its been doing for the past half hour, yes." Joshua paused for a second. "Would you like to play a game?"

Rogers shook his head and counted the minutes.

Cairo

"You know, I find you a lot hotter when you're wearing the standard Marine green." Paccone smiled. "It makes you look almost… divine."

"If you're trying to seduce me," Karla said coolly as she pulled on her ballistic vest, "try not to remind me of my old drill sergeant in boot. I already have more bad memories than I care to like."

They were both in the Marine locker where all of their combat equipment was stored. Karla grimaced as she realized just how much useful equipment she left lying around in the locker.

"It was worth a try." Paccone shrugged. "Oh yeah, and here's that pistol I promised you."

He tossed a brand new M6D to Karla, who casually caught it and holstered it along with her plasma sword.

"I'd really like to know where you get all these extra weapons." She said.

"If I told you, you would have to do a favor for me, and I know for a fact that you'll probably kill me because of it."

"Probably."

"Yeah, and where exactly are we going? All I heard was the 'Pelican happy fun time' boarding call was issued, and that was about it."

"Well, apparently, we did such a great job defending the station, Hood decided to kick us all off of the Cairo and dump us back into what's left of the Freedom."

"Well, those are the merits of a successful command."

"Oh yeah, and I think he wanted to talk to you about something." Karla grinned diabolically, "Um, I think it had something to do with a certain hole in a wall…"

Paccone got up quickly. "I think we'd better get to the Pelican bay fast."

Freedom

"Missiles are armed and ready, sir." Joshua announced.

"Have they fired yet?"

"Missiles are away and tracking their target."

Joshua reverted back into the computer network and ran a query on the Covenant AI's attack. It was still stalled on his final firewall, and the enemy AI was throwing even more junk data at it. It was probably afraid that now it was found, it would soon be destroyed. For the first time, it was right.

"Iwillwin. Iwillwin. Iwillwin. Iwillwin. Iwillwin. Iwillwin. Iwillwin." It droned on and on.

"Correction." Joshua smiled. "I already won."

The pirate signal suddenly cut out, and the last thing Joshua heard was a warbling shriek as the Covenant AI's data cores were vaporized.

Meanwhile, Rogers watched as what was previously empty space suddenly flash and explode into a cloud of metal debris and fire. The missiles were right on target, and the Covenant prowler ship did not even know what had hit it.

"We got him?"

"We got him." Joshua confirmed.

"The reactor has cooled to manageable levels." One of the bridge crew said, "Power now up to twenty percent of maximum."

The comm units suddenly buzzed to life, and with their full resources online, Joshua was able to receive new data from the battle networks and update his information drives.

"What's the situation?" Rogers asked as he gazed out across the vast battle taking place.

"Hold on." Joshua buzzed for a second as he interpreted the terabytes of data flowing in. "The overall battle has reached a stalemate. Covenant fleet is unable to advance, but the UNSC forces are unable to push them back. A single Covenant cruiser has breached the line and has landed in the city of Mombasa for unknown reasons. In Amber Clad is already en route to land ground forces to repel the invasion."

"That sounds very nasty." Rogers scanned the data readouts. "What are supposed to do?"

"Sensor readouts show a small Covenant task force attempting to follow In Amber Clad. Admiral Hood has ordered us to stay in high orbit, act as a rearguard to In Amber Clad, and repel any Covenant ships attempting to follow it. We are also to commit our troops to support the In Amber Clad's complement of Marines."

"What's the status of our troops?"

"Major Mackenzie has our ground forces prepped and ready. Two divisions of Marines and an armored company are already being loaded onto the dropships. The troops we've garrisoned on the Cairo have just returned as well."

"Alright." Rogers cracked his knuckles. "How much of the ship is repaired?"

"We have one MAC, three particle cannons, and twelve Archer missile batteries still intact. Repairs on commencing on the other weapons but two MACs, one particle cannon, and fourteen missile batteries are complete losses. Shields are only recharging to seventy percent of previous strength. Admiral Hood is aware of our predicament, and is sending the repair platform Trinity to assist in repairs."

"Well, as long as we don't have to go head to head with another Covenant cruiser, we should be fine." Rogers cracked his knuckles. "Engines to full power. Weapons, target the nearest Covenant ship, and make your shots count."

Freedom Loading Bay

"Leo."

"Yeah?"

Sam shivered. "I'm getting that feeling again."

"What, your stomach acting up again? I told you not to trust those cooks…"

"No, it's not that." Sam said irritably. "I've got that feeling that we're about to go into combat again."

"I'm not surprised." Kumi pointed out of the bay doors. "All freaking hell is breaking loose out there. I would be surprised if we didn't get involved in something."

"Where do you think we're going?" Sam asked.

"I don't know… Mombasa?" Scohar guessed.

Kumi laughed. "Mombasa? I don't think even the Covenant would be dumb enough to try and take a dump like that."

"Twenty bucks says they are." Sam replied.

"But you don't have any money." Leo said.

"I don't, but you do." Sam grinned.

Leo shook his head. "Why do I even bother?" He glared at Scohar. "What makes you so sure it's Mombasa?"

"I don't know, but I think it's the same reason she thinks so." Scohar pointed to Sam and shrugged. "It's just a hunch."