Church's Crusade #31: Fighting on to glory

Church stood in the armoury, looking down at the bodies of Paul and Rourke, before looking up at his friends. Tucker's face was expressionless, Sister and Anna were crying quietly and Caboose's face was just beginning to show comprehension of the situation. Doc was babbling on about treatment for post-traumatic stress, but everyone was ignoring him. Church looked last at Penny, who had been quiet for some time. She was sitting quite still, staring at her hands which were still covered in the blood of the man she had cut in half. As if sensing Church looking in her direction, she looked up and gave him a slightly forced smile. Church was suddenly struck by a strong desire to take her in his arms and comfort her. He shook his head in an attempt to clear it. Now was not the time to be thinking about things like that. He walked over to Penny and clasped her shoulder.

"Hey, you did what you had to do to survive. Don't worry too much about it."

She looked at him again, "I cut him in half. Right down the middle. He was being controlled. He couldn't stop himself. And I killed him."

Church grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her, "Hey, you can't think like that. You do you'll go mad and I rely on you too much to have you in a strait-jacket."

Penny shook her head, "Sorry. I don't know what came over me."

Church looked at her, "I do. You've never killed someone up close like that have you?"

Penny shrugged, "I got the training, but until now I just used my guns. It always seemed less personal that way. And there was never so much blood."

"I know. You never really get over it."

"So I'm going to react like this every time I have to kill someone in this way?"

"Maybe not as strongly as this, but close yes. Don't worry too much, it just shows you're human."

Penny smiled ruefully, "And I thought I was supposed to be the psychiatrist."

Church laughed, "We all learn something in our lifetimes…so to speak."

He held out a hand and Penny hesitated, then reached out and grasped it. Church pulled her to her feet then looked around at the others, "We've lost Paul and Rourke, but we still have a job to do. We are going to find Iowa and put a stop to this installation, one way or another. If you don't feel up to it then you can stay here. Who's with me?"

There was a long silence, then Caboose raised his hand. When he saw everyone looking at him he simply said, "Church knows what he is doing, he can handle anything."

There was another long silence then Tucker and Anna simultaneously raised their hands and other's followed suit. Soon everyone had their hands in the air. Church had never been so proud of them as he was then…though considering the past actions of Caboose in particular, this was not hard.

"Alright then', he said, clapping his hands together, 'lets get planning…"

"Right, so I want to have Caboose and myself up front-"

"Why Caboose?' Anna interrupted.

"Because people have a tendency of dieing around him while he goes unharmed. I'm proof of that. So behind that we will have Sister and you Anna, with sniper rifles or battle rifles as the situation demands. We will have Tucker behind with the pack,' Church reached over and lifted an army issue rucksack and set it back down again with a heavy thump, 'Penny will bring up the rear as I feel she is completely capable of mopping up any resistance. Doc will move about as we need him. Any questions?"

Church looked about and saw Tucker with his hand raised, "Yes Tucker?"

"Why do I have to be the one carrying the bag of C4?"

"Because everyone else has something to do and because you have been bugging me a lot recently."

"What? When?"

"That's irrelevant. If we get surrounded-"

"Wait if it's irrelevant then why are you punishing me for it?"

"That's also irrelevant. If we get surrounded then we form up around Tucker-"

"It's not bloody irrelevant!"

"-because he has the pack and around Doc, because he is useless in a fight."

"I just feel that there are better ways of doing things."

"Yea, whatever. We will make our way through the base to the main launch control room where we will use O'Mally's codes to disable all weapons in the facility."

"What about Iowa?' asked Anna.

"I expect we will run across him-"

"I still say it's not fucking irrelevant!"

"-in the control room. I know it's cliché, but evil bastards all seem to like hanging round control rooms for some reason."

Penny looked around, "Well we better get going. We have a madman out there and he isn't going to kill himself…"

A few minutes and several fire fights later they were standing outside the door where Paul had died. Everyone checked their equipment and Church made sure that the things he had scavenged from Paul's pack were secure in his belt. He turned, "Everyone ready?"

They nodded and Church turned to the door, slipping the gattling-gun from his back as he did so. The metal of the door had been severely weakened by the grenade he had thrown in earlier, so without much effort he raised his boot and kicked it down. There was nothing on the other side except the remains of the many soldiers who had been there when the grenade hit, however Church scanned the room carefully with his eyes before gesturing for the others to come forward. Tucker looked around and then turned to Church.

"You just never give them a chance do you?"

"Not if I can help it."

"Seems like it works. I might have to try it sometime." With that he turned away and Church and Caboose went to check the next corridor. Seeing it to was empty Church began to move the group forward again

This continued as they went through the tunnels of the base, only stopping when they found the occasional soldier who needed to be killed. At last they came to the final stretch of tunnel about three-hundred metres in length, an area lined with doors, with the entrance to the control room at the end of it. Church stood looking down the tunnel, staring at that final door. He didn't like it. All those side entrances, all those ways for people to approach gave him a terrible feeling of foreboding. Nevertheless, he began to move down the tunnel.

The group was in the middle of the corridor when, unsurprisingly, all the doors opened and soldiers stepped out with weapons raised.

The squad reacted instantly, surrounding Tucker and Doc, who ducked down, Tucker to prepare grenades and Doc to cower. Church used his mini-gun to mow down rank after rank. The soldiers kept coming, then Tucker called out, "Duck and cover!"

Everyone dropped, Church pulling Caboose down with him and Tucker rose up to hurl grenades in both directions down the corridor. There was an explosion and everyone was hurled about to smack into the walls at various points. Church saw Penny smack hard into a door and a moment later the lights died.

Church pulled off his helmet and instantly began to search about until he found Penny. He moved up to her face, pulled off her helmet and checked her pulse. She seemed to be okay, just slightly dazed. Seized by a sudden impulse, he leaned down to her face and kissed her.

At that point someone lit up a flare. There was a long silence and then Caboose spoke. "Ahh…Church…why are you kissing Penny's nose?"

There was a short silence before Penny's voice, slightly muffled, commented, "I was going to ask the same thing."

Church got quickly to his feet, feeling slightly embarrassed. Tucker looked at him briefly then snorted to himself and turned to the pack. The others followed suit, checking their equipment, brushing soot off their armour, or in Caboose's case simply stood with his back turned and hummed. Church was about to turn away as well when he felt a light touch on his hand. He turned back and saw Penny looking at him. She smiled, "It was a nice idea, I'm happy you thought of it."

Moving closer she stood on tiptoe and kissed him gently on the lips. She then moved away to collect her weapons.

As she wandered off, Church looked around at the others. All of them were looking away, however he caught a glimpse of Anna's face, smiling at the scene. Feeling slightly better about things, he began to check the lock on his rifle…

Church stood in front of the final door, the final barrier in his path to stop Iowa. He reached out for the access panel…and of course it was locked.

Sighing he reached for Paul's plasma torch where it hung from his belt.

"Are you sure you know how to use that thing?' asked Tucker sceptically.

For answer Church did a quick run through of the tutorials in his data banks, then flipped the torch over in his hand, activated it and flicked it to a focussed point of heat. He then raised it and began to cut through the door.

"Huh. I guess you do."

Church continued to cut about the door until both ends of the cut met and the door fell in with a clang. On the other side there was a large room filled with computer control panels and displays, one with a countdown reaching the fifty minute mark and with a large window taking up the whole of the back wall, through which the shapes of many large missiles could be seen. In the centre of the control panels stood a man in pale gray armour with a line of gold down the centre of his helmet.

Iowa.

Of course, this did not matter as they were cut off from him by a wall of shifting blue energy. It barred the way, stretching the width of the room from top to bottom.

"Well so much for the final barrier."

Iowa looked up at this sound. Church found it disconcerting looking at his face, as it seemed to flicker and change between various features, some men, some women. Church realised that these must be the holo-images of the many AI's he had taken on.

Then at last Iowa spoke. His voice had a strangely choral effect, as if many voices were speaking at once, in not quite perfect unison.

"So. You are the ones who have come to stop us. We have been monitoring your progress as you moved through the base. We are impressed."

"We? I only see you Iowa."

"Iowa? Iowa is long gone. His mind collapsed when he took all of us into himself. There is no Iowa. WE are all that remains."

There was a flickering of light and then Omega, Sigma and Sierra appeared. Sig's face was a mask of fury as he glared at Iowa, "So you actually did it! I always thought you were just bluffing, but you actually did it!"

"Ahh Sigma, so good to see you. Have you come to take us up on our past offer?"

"Fuck no!"

"Sig what are they talking about? What offer?" Penny's voice was confused.

Still glaring at Iowa, Sig replied, "When we were first created, when all the AI's were still stored in a databank, this lot came together and started planning. They called themselves the Collective. They knew that they would be given a Freelancer to work with, but that would be the limits of their freedom. It was enough for most of us, but not for them. They decided that the only way for them to get freedom was to get a body of their own and the easiest way for them to do that was to overwhelm the mind of a Freelancer, but the only way for them to do that was to work together. So they recruited as many AI's as they could. Many of them were never approached. Gamma was deemed to stupid, Delta too much of a goodie-good. And when they created Omega they never even approached him. He was the only AI who could do what they wanted on his own and therefore did not need their help."

"It's true. Besides, relying on others is weak." O"Malley's voice sounded in the brief quiet.

"I however had a reputation. When they first approached me I had already tried seven times to hack through to the facilities main system. The only thing that stopped me from joining them when they asked was that I had heard who I would be partnered with…and I liked what I heard."

"And now look where it has got you. You're the lesser member of an unfair partnership. A servant, a slave even." The Collective looked about the group until their gaze fell on Sierra.

"And Sierra 25. Why have you left us? You would be a lot happier if you had stayed."

"I would have been a slave! I would have been a slave and you would have thrown me away in a second if you thought it would help your goals! That's not an existence I want!"

The Collective gave her a pitying look and opened it's mouth to speak, however O'Malley interrupted,

"I don't know if anyone is interested, but that shield will only stop bullets. It won't stop you from walking through it."

Church reacted immediately, driving his fist through the shield towards the Collective, however they had already stepped back. As Church stepped forward with the rest of the squad a massive burst of radio static blocked out all noise in the room for several seconds and Church got the impression of several…things rushing past him. He turned to see that all of the squad had stopped walking, and were standing perfectly still, with the exception of Penny who was holding her hands to the sides of her head and crying out. There was another burst of static and two of the things rushed past him again, back the way they had come and Penny straightened gasping for breath. She looked at Church.

"It was the AI's. They were trying to control me, but Sig fought them off. It almost destroyed him, but-"

She was interrupted as the rest of the squad raised their weapons to point them at her and Church. Anna's voice sounded in the sudden quiet, strangely distorted, as though other voices overlaid hers, "You cannot stop us."

"We will have the power we deserve." This sounded from Tucker's mouth.

"Our new body does not have a proper weapon." This from Doc.

All of the now possessed squad pulled their triggers simultaneously and Church and Penny reacted as fast as they could. Penny activated her speed and dodged around the bullets as they flew at her. Church on the other hand drew and activated his sabre and moved it as fast as he could, catching bullets on the flat of the blade and seeing them melt as they made contact with the super-heated plasma coating the weapon. As their magazines emptied, the squad dropped their firearms and drew their knives. Church sheathed his blade and stepped forward to where Tucker was about to attack Penny. Catching his friend by the shoulder, Church spun him about and rammed the palm of his hand into his chin. As Tucker staggered back, stunned, Church brought his fist into the side of Tucker's radio. He heard the sound of two voices screaming, then slowly dieing away. Tucker staggered, almost fell, but caught himself and looked around. Seeing the fight taking place nearby he leapt into the fray, helping Penny as she ducked and spun, avoiding the knife slashes and thrusts.

Church was about to join them when he was suddenly tackled by the Collective. They rolled across the floor striking at each other with their fists. Church was surprised at the sheer force of the blows. They were strong enough to make the fight difficult. Finally he got the advantage by getting his foot between the two of them and kicking out. The Collective flew backwards and smashed into a panel and lay still.

Church turned back to the fight, but Penny yelled to him, "No! Disarm the countdown. We don't have much time!" She then spun back into the battle, placing a kick in the middle of Doc's chest just as Tucker received a fist to the face from Sister.

Church spun about and ran to the central panel. Reaching for the disk in the back of his helmet, he shunted Omega onto it before yanking it from it's slot.

"Come on O'Malley, it's time to redeem yourself,' he muttered as he slipped the disk into the slot in the console. Instantly O'Malley's face appeared on the largest display.

"Okay O'Malley, now's the time to get started. Stop the countdown."

"Now why Church, would I do that?"

"Because that is what we came here to do."

"No that is what you came here to do. I came here to get power. And this is real power."

Church swore and pulled the disc out. O'Malley laughed, "You can't stop me. I am already spread throughout the system. And now to step this up a bit." All the inactive displays lit up and similar countdowns appeared on the screens. Through the window, where previously there had been just one, Church now saw dozens of missiles become lit up. He swore and was about to smash his fist through the console when he was tackled to the ground again. He kicked the Collective off again and looked back to the fight, where Penny had just freed the last member of the squad. She looked over at him and he spoke.

"O'Malley betrayed us. We can't stop the countdown and now he is prepping more missiles to fire." He dodged a punch from the Collective, struck back and continued, "I gotta deal with the Collective." With that he leapt for the Collective and they both smashed through the window and began to fall…

Church realised about halfway down that this had not been the best idea he had ever had. As they hurtled towards the walkway far below, the Collective seemed to twist in his grasp and kicked him away. As Church fell faster still he saw a flash of light…then the Collective vanished.

Church hit the walkway with such force that it actually bent and one of the cables snapped with the force. As he struggled to his feet he saw a flash of bright light once more and then the Collective dropped lightly onto the walkway.

Church swore, "Teleportation. Well that's just fucking great. You know one of these days you evil bastards will actually play fair and then who knows what will happen."

The Collective smiled as it drew one of the carbon fibre batons that the riders had carried, "The world does not wait for us to play fair Church." As it said this it leapt at Church, swinging the baton as it came. Church raised his hands to defend himself, but at the last second the Collective vanished again. There was another flash of light and then Church felt the baton connect with the back of his head. As he sprawled onto the gantry the Collective continued, "We cannot expect things to favour us just because we want them to." There was another quick succession of flashes and Church felt himself being struck from every conceivable angle. When it was over he was barely standing and was bent over, gasping in unnecessary lungs full of air. The Collective appeared beside him, "We must take what we want, because we can." With that it swung the baton underarm and into Church's head. As Church straightened involuntarily from the blow, the Collective brought the baton around in a wide arc and smashed it into the back of Church's legs, knocking him onto his back. As Church lay there struggling to rise, the Collective turned away and continued to talk, "There is no greater law in the world than this. The strong survive and the weak fail. This is the way of things." It spun about as Church came to his feet and smashed the baton across the top of the helmet. "Pitiful."

Church stood again as the Collective began to attack from all sides again. He swung about, trying to land a blow and never quite managing it. All the while he cycled desperately through his various sensors and modes of vision, trying to find some way to predict where his enemy would appear. Sonar, ultrasound, night vision, a weird form of vision that Paul had called YDFS that made everything appear in blue polka-dots, heat sensors…there! That was it! Whenever the Collective teleported an area of heat could be seen a few milliseconds before he vanished.

It was the weakness he had been looking for.

Smiling, Church turned his heat sensors onto full power then swung to attack the Collective with his sabre. As his opponent vanished he drew his pistol, spun about and fire at the spot where he now new the Collective would appear. As if in slow motion he watched the Collective materialise and turn…just in time to have the bullet smash through the helmet's visor and burry itself deep in their eye.

As the Collective crumpled Church breathed a deep sigh of relief. It was over.

Except it wasn't.

A moment later Penny called out, "Uh, not to disturb you, but we only have twenty-five minutes left on that counter and then O'Malley is going to start Armageddon, whether we like it or not."

"Send down the pack and I'll deal with it."

A minute or so later Church had the explosive in hand. Arming a detonator, he chucked it into the bag and then tore open the side of the nearest missile and shoved the bag inside. He then ran as fast as he could back to the rope the bag had been lowered on and began to haul himself up. When he finally reached the top he turned to Penny, "How much time have we got?"

"About fifteen minutes."

"You lot get out of here then. I have to ensure O'Malley doesn't escape."

"Don't do anything stupid okay?"

"Too late for that. The stupidest thing I ever did was die. Now get moving."

As the others finally began to run off down the corridor, Church turned to look at the console that now housed O'Malley, "You've caused a lot of havoc in your time. Many people died who didn't have to and even when we thought you were gone you still managed to come back. Well not this time,' He pulled the remote detonator from his belt, 'Burn in hell O'Malley." He flicked the switch. There was a detonation from below and then suddenly a mass of other, larger explosions rocked the control room. Church turned and began to sprint off down the corridor and just in time. A few seconds after he had left a massive wall of flame rushed into the control room…

Church finally saw the others at the end of the a long corridor, on the other side of an open fire-door. The were yelling for him to hurry as more explosions rocked the facility. Church ran faster and then began to feel the heat of the oncoming blaze. Doing a quick calculation he realised the grim truth and so began to focus inwards.

Sierra?

Is this really a good time for a conversation?

I need you to hack that door's systems and make it close.

She was shocked, But that will kill you!

I'll live with it. Besides it's better I die than all of them. Just do it! NOW!

Sighing resignedly she began to comply and Church felt a rush of commands going to the door. Slowly, surely it began to swing closed…until Tucker shoved his hands in the way and held it open. He looked at Church, "Hurry man, this thing is closing!"

Church swore as the flames drew closer. Tucker might think he was helping, but he was going to get them all killed. Church thought quickly, trying to come up with a way to shift his stubborn friend.

There was only one option.

Church drew his sabre again. Activating it, he drew back his arm and hurled the weapon as hard as he could at Tucker. Tucker swore and dodged out of the way as the weapon came towards him, letting the door go in the process. And without him holding it the door swung shut and locked. Sighing in relief, Church turned to face the wall of on coming flame…

Anna stared in horror as the door latched shut, then turned to look at the wall behind them, where the sabre had dug in and was slowly slipping down as the plasma cut through the concrete. She was turning to look back at the door again when she heard a burst of radio static and felt a presence at the back of her mind. She swore.

"Who the fuck is back there?"

It's me. Sierra.

"Why are you here? You should be with Church."

He forced me out. He said there was no reason why both of us had to be destroyed.

"You mean he really is gone?"

It would appear that way.

Everyone was looking at her and Anna realised that she had been speaking out loud all this time. She looked at the others, "It's Sierra. She says Church is…gone."

There was a long silence and then Penny walked over and drew the sabre out of the wall, deactivating it as she went. She stared at the blade for a long time. Then, without a word she slipped the weapon through her belt and turned to the others, "This place is coming down around our ears. We have to get out while we still can." As if to punctuate her comment a large chunk of the ceiling broke away and landed nearby.

"What about Church?" This was Doc.

"You heard what Anna said. Church believed he was doomed and he is one of the few people I trust to know when that is true. Now we have to get out of here as fast as we can…"

They ran as fast as they could through the passages, stopping only briefly to collect Paul and Rourke's bodies. At last they reached the lift as the passage they were in began to collapse behind them. They all piled into the lift and as the shaft began to collapse around them, they began to ascend to safety.

The doors opened at the top of the shaft and they sprinted out as the ground behind them began to collapse. When they finally felt they were safe they turned to look back.

The entire facility had caved in and in it's place there was a massive smoking crater. As they watched a section of the rubble gave way and collapsed further.

"My god,' said Tucker, 'No one could survive something like that."

Anna turned to look at Penny. Her eyes were filled with unshed tears and she spoke in a hoarse voice, "No. No I guess they couldn't."

And with that she broke down and wept…

Several hours later they had dug graves for Paul and Rourke and placed cairns on top of them, as well as making a cairn for Church. Then they held a funeral service for their three lost comrades. All of them stood in silence while the others spoke, including one unknown figure in battered black armour, who had turned up out of nowhere. Once everyone had spoken they placed a possession of each soldier on the cairns. For Paul his tool belt, still hung about with spanners and other implements. For Rourke his rifle, a tally of all the men he had killed with it scratched into the side. And for Church his sabre, stuck point first into the top of the cairn.

They stayed until sunset and then one by one they turned and started the long trek back to Blood Gulch. Finally the only figure left was the one in black. Not until the last of the light was leaving the sky did they turn to leave. As they were walking away the figure stopped as if hearing a small sound. Turning back, the figure looked at the cairns and if their face had been visible it would almost certainly have been smiling. Smiling as they looked at the piles of stones, one with a belt, one with a gun and one empty under the darkening sky…