Chapter XXXII

Thanks to the timely arrival of Shawn, Red Squad was able to defeat O'Malley's guards at the Relic Fortress while the evil AI convinced Church and Tucker to join him. The next day, the squad prepared to move out . . .

It had been a very eventful morning. The Master Chief awoke to sounds of machinery moving about around the fortress. He exited his tent after putting his armor on and saw that the Red Army had wasted no time in securing the area. There were new AD turrets being placed around the island along with a plethora of other equipment. O'Malley's stash of doomsday weapons had been found and scientists from all fields were busy examining them. There were also over fifty guards stationed across the island. The Chief saw that his squad was already awake, but they seemed to have no idea what was going on. The Chief noticed that Lock-jaw was missing, as was Andy.

He was about to ask where they had gone to when he saw a Pelican-Class transport touch down on an open section of the beach. A woman stepped out of the ship, spotted the Chief and began walking over to him accompanied by half a dozen personal guards. She was wearing a heavy black trench coat, which seemed unusual considering their current location and the temperature. She was carrying a briefcase in one hand while her other hand was waving off soldiers and informants. He long silver hair was occasionally blown about in the ocean breeze, but it did nothing to subtract from her serious demeanor.

"Master Chief Petty Officer, Spartan One Seventeen?" he voice was stern and authoritative.

"Yes?"

"I'm, Amanda Niatrecsa, head of the O'Malley Search and Destroy Unit."

"The what? O'Malley has his own SAD unit? I thought those were reserved for psychopathic serial killers, terrorists and evil madmen."

"O'Malley fits all of those descriptions," the woman said. "This is the first time the Red Army has needed to organize one for a rampant AI. I head the unit because of my experience in these matters."

"So let me guess, you're here to tell my squad to go back to Blood Gulch and your people will take it from here?"

"Although that's what some of the RA brass wanted to do, the majority voted on keeping you in the action, including myself. Your squad has had plenty of past encounters with this O'Malley character and your records indicate that you are an impeccable leader."

"I appreciate it. So, you have a plan?"

"We're working on one. Intel speculated that you would already have a plan in action. Were they right?"

"Yes. I have formulated a plan; 'Operation: Red Rage'. The operation is carried out in phases that are planned out as the operation progresses allowing for new information to be incorporated into it and making it adaptable."

"Impressive," Amanda said. She pulled out a file from her briefcase that was marked '117' on the front in large red type. She opened it, revealing several pages of information on the Chief including several photos. "Not only are you smart and dangerous, but you're not bad looking either," she said while looking at the photos.

Anyone else would have blushed, but the Chief had long ago perfected the art of ignoring and disregarding flattery. It got nobody anywhere.

"Thank you. Its about time someone noticed that I'm more than just an incredible person. A pretty face can get you places, or so I hear."

Amanda smiled. "A sense of humor? Oh my, I think I've hit the jackpot."

Her smile faded and, after skimming through several more pages, she placed the folder back inside the briefcase.

"We have reason to believe that O'Malley has seven space stations scattered across the galaxy. Each one has a super weapon inside of it. We're unsure of its destructive capabilities, but with all of the research we gathered, it can't be good. We found a pattern in how the installations were distributed."

From a deep pocket inside the trench coat, she withdrew a small circular device no larger than an apple. She set it on the table and pressed a button on the side. A miniaturized view of the galaxy appeared inside of a sphere. From top to bottom, it was one and a half meters tall. Seven red dots indicated each installation.

"Each installation is a different size. The smallest is roughly the size of Earth while the largest is as large as Earth's sun. The other five are somewhere in between. The larger ones are spaced out farther apart than other ones while the smaller ones are closer together. The OSADU theorized several ways the super weapon would be fired. We settled with this one."

She pressed another button and a small sphere began to form around the red dots. They expanded quickly at first, but as the spheres got bigger they grew at a slower rate. Finally, they stopped and froze. The spheres that emanated from the super weapons had engulfed the entire galaxy.

"You think he has this kind of power?" the Chief asked.

"Several Red outposts were destroyed not too long ago. Survivors from the attacks all reported the same thing: a man in red armor, a man in white armor and a woman in black armor. They attacked the bases, killed anyone who interfered, stole the flag and left. Intercepted Blue transmissions indicate the same thing happened to those bases as well. We calculated that O'Malley has a total of six pairs of flags, which means that he has six functional super lasers. We believe he is using those lasers as the primary weapon for his installations."

"The laser is a beam laser, though," the Chief said. "The example you showed me indicated that the super weapons engulfed the galaxy with spheres."

"We're not sure how he's going to manage to use the lasers to fire into space. We're not even sure if the death spheres are going to be in play. We do know that he needs them, and we can't let him get the two that you have."

The Chief looked down at his belt. The two flagpoles were attached to clamps on his left and right hip to keep them separated. Thankfully, the flagpoles were retractable and could store the actual flag inside. When retracted, the poles were only six inches long and could be easily carried around.

"Do you need to take them?"

Amanda brought her hand to her chin, deciding on whether or not to secure them.

"No," she decided, "I think I can leave them in your care. O'Malley will have a tough time getting them off of you."

"We can only hope," the Chief said. "Oh, where's Lock-jaw and Andy?"

Amanda looked at the Chief and raised an eyebrow. He couldn't see her eyes behind her sunglasses, but the eyebrows told enough.

"You mean the alien and the talking bomb? They're showing General Radeon around the fortress. They were already awake when the first troops arrived to secure the area and decided to give a tour."

The Chief nodded, relieved that they hadn't been taken away for scientific studies and the like.

"Alright. Now, I assume you received the information about our discoveries regarding the other three fortresses?"

"Yes," Amanda replied. "The Containment Fortress has been secured and the sentinel robots there have been destroyed. The Lockout Fortress was invaded, but everything had been cleared out. They must've left in a hurry because the whole place was a mess. After securing that one, our special forces went to the site of the Colossus Fortress' wreckage and confirmed the kill. Now we've secured this island, so that takes care of the planetary Fortresses."

"Where do we go from here?"

"A ship is prepared to take you to the nearest installation. Its in orbit awaiting your arrival."

"Excellent. I'll assemble the squad. We should be ready to go in five minutes."

"You aren't going there yet," Amanda said. "There's something you need to pick up at the Foundation Robotic Testing Facility first."

"What is it?"

The woman grinned. "Something to help you finish this fight."

"Ryan, can you hear me?" O'Malley was concerned for his test subject. A man of his size would be very hard to come by if this one died.

"Whoa, Bill? Is that you?" Ryan was woozy from the recent test.

Supposedly, the tests that were conducted on him were to test for traces of radiation in his genetic makeup from when the Lekgolo hit him in the chest with his plasma cannon. William had told him that any radiation could damage his rehabilitation progress. Finding and eliminating the radiation was William DeMarco's top priority. What Ryan didn't know was that William DeMarco was actually O'Malley. Ryan also didn't know the real reasons why he was being scanned on multiple levels for radiation.

During the studies conducted at the Containment Fortress, a possible safeguard against infection from the parasite was found in radiation. Even minimal amounts made it impossible for an infection form to take over the neural systems. All of O'Malley's scientists had been exposed to some sort of radiation and most of his soldiers had as well. If Ryan had been exposed to any, it would take a very long time to filter it out of his system, thus prolonging the . . . procedure.

"Yes, it is I, William. You are ok."

O'Malley looked at a computer next to the Rhinoceros which, after taking the DNA sample, would display the amount of radiation inside his body. The AI was taken aback when the readings showed no traces of any sort of radioactivity.

"It appears as though you are free from any radioactive contamination, Ryan, congratulations."

"Good," Ryan said. The effects from the testing were wearing off, but the man still felt weak.

"Yes, very good indeed," O'Malley began to chuckle. Although he was getting better at containing his maniacal laughter, sometimes it just slipped out. Before he knew it, O'Malley was laughing his most evil laugh as loud as possible. Ryan, thinking it was happy laughing, joined in. the two laughed for nearly two minutes before O'Malley realized that he was doing it again and ceased immediately. Ryan, after realizing he was the only one laughing, also abruptly stopped. Awkward silence hung in the air.

"So, now that you are officially free from radiation, you must report to your chambers for rest. The testing has taken a lot of strength from you whether you know it or not and you need sleep."

Ryan nodded and made his way back to his room aboard the super-carrier/war ship. When he entered the room, O'Malley sealed the doors and vented knock-out gas into the enclosure. Ryan didn't even see the black smoke fill the room and thought he was falling asleep faster due to the testing. After he was successfully incapacitated, O'Malley made for the bridge. There was a special guest waiting for him at Installation V; one whose brain would be cloned six times. The cloned brains would then be implanted into specially designed, self repairing Monitor constructs. His willing donor, whose original brain would be used for the procedure, was a spy for O'Malley. Sarge smiled as O'Malley's thoughts filled his head and made his way to the command deck. The spy O'Malley had sent to the Red Temple at Battle Creek was waiting for them.

To Be Continued