"Reds! Eleven! Get the damn door!"

I jerked awake, and it took a moment for me to realize where I was. I had fallen asleep beside Donut beneath our little tent, and someone was pounding urgently at the Red base's door.

"Dammit, open up already! We need you!"

I left the tent and stood up just in time to see Sarge stumble into view and open the door still bleary-eyed as well.

"What in Sam hill—"

"Sarge!" Church cried. "Come on! We need your asses over at Blue base right now!"

Within minutes, we were changed and armed and followed Church out of the base.

"If this is some low-down, dirty trick to drag us out into the open…" Sarge grumbled suspiciously.

"No, no!" Church said exasperatedly. "There's just been—oh, God. Just hurry up already. We need to get back there before anything else happens!"

Church refused to say another word until we approached Blue base. I saw the scene and gasped, running worriedly ahead of the others.

Sheila was smoking, her entire dashboard covered in black silt. Multiple parts of her looked singed, and none of her lights were on. She looked… dead. The grass around her was burnt as well, and I could smell something that resembled melted rubber.

Caboose sat on the ground not far from Sheila, pleading with her to turn back on. He had his helmet off, and his hair was standing on end, singed at the tips. Tucker sat cross-legged, examining his armor shakily, while Wash was on one knee with this head in his hands.

"Are you all right?" I squeaked, kneeling beside Tucker and Wash.

"We're okay, Ells," replied Tucker faintly. Wash flashed a quick glare at him. "We just… shit. Last night was just bad."

"What the hell happened here?" Sarge asked gruffly, staring at the wreckage. "Your vehicle's completely shot!"

Church looked at Sheila worriedly. "We… we were attacked last night."

"What?" yelped Grif, looking around at the nearby woods anxiously. "What attacked you?"

"The AIs," Church said stonily. I stared.

"That… that's impossible!"

"Is it?" he replied. "Eleven, I think I would know."

"What did they do?"

"Follow me," he said, leading me and the Reds to Sheila. He opened up the door to the driver's seat and told us to peer inside. A rather large dial on her dashboard had exploded, causing the black shit to mould onto the windows.

"That's her AI detector," Church continued, pointing at the exploded dial. "Last night, it started popping and making these loud-ass scraping noises. We all rushed out to see what was going on, but we couldn't do anything! Sheila just kept telling us shit like, 'They're here! They're doing this! They're coming!' It was like a thousand channels of static all at the same time. And it just got louder and louder… until the dash popped, shorting Sheila out completely.

"Then…" Church gulped. "It was our turn. The AIs used what was left of Sheila's energy to electrocute us, sending these nasty beams of voltage to our bodies. Wash, Tucker and Caboose all were knocked unconscious instantly, but of course I can't be. Instead, the electricity just knocked out my ability to move and talk… it lasted the whole night. I literally recovered about ten minutes before I came to get you—I had to wake up the others and make sure they were okay before coming to find you."

"Holy mother of God," Simmons whispered. "How—why?"

Church glanced back over at Sheila. "The AIs are planning something. I don't know what it is right now, but they damn well are doing something. They made her AI detector go haywire to the extent that it shorted out—my guess is that was on purpose. They don't want to be detected."

"But… but why would they electrocute you guys?"

"Well… we're an inconvenience, I guess," Church said.

"You are?" I cried, incredulous. "You're an AI too!"

Church shrugged. "Yeah, and I'm sure they know that. I actually have no idea why they attacked me as well. I'm… I'm like one of them."

"Maybe they're biding their time," Wash said quietly. He had stood up and joined our group, still rubbing his temple furiously. "There's no reason why they wouldn't want to come in contact with you, Church. I'm sure they want to talk to you, but… just not yet. They're planning something else first."

Church nodded as Tucker joined us. Caboose was still trying to console the unresponsive tank.

"So… the AIs don't want to be found or tracked, but they didn't kill you. And they didn't try to control you. I wonder why?" I wondered aloud.

"Well, they couldn't control us," Tucker piped in. He was still shaking slightly. "We turned our radios off right after we realized why Sheila was flipping out. That's why we couldn't call you. We didn't want to risk getting infected."

A million unanswered questions still swam through my mind. We had gained no information at all. We had just been attacked. We were sitting ducks.

"Command has to have more information," I said, trying to convince myself that this was true. "They have to know more by now."

I reached down to grab my radio, but Wash gripped around my wrist tightly. "That can't be a good idea. Not after what just happened."

"Wash, the calls to Command are on a completely different frequency, remember?" I told him irritably. "The AIs don't have access to our channel."

"How can you be sure though?" asked Donut. "They were obviously powerful enough to do shit like this. How do you know that they won't jump through a different frequency too?"

"Would you rather sit here vulnerably while the AIs plan their next attack?" I asked them sharply.

"What if they jump into your head?" voiced Simmons worriedly.

"They can't get through to our frequency, I already told you!" I responded, annoyed. "We need to take the risk. Otherwise, we'll never be able to get any word from Command at all!"

They were silent for a moment, listening to Caboose's devastated moans.

"It's the only option," Church said quietly. "We do need any information or help Command can send us. We need to do this."

"Church, can't you call them?" Grif asked. "You're not human, so they can't possess you, right? You're one of them, like you said."

"Obviously they can, dipshit," Simmons responded. "They did at that UNSC dance, remember?"

"Yeah…" Church said. "I have a physical body and an AI spot, so they can control me too if they want to now. I don't know. They're stronger. And I can't call Command. My radio doesn't have the special channel."

"But mine does."

We stopped and looked at Wash. He still held my wrist tightly and was staring determinedly at my radio. "Eleven, you've only had an AI possess you once, and that wasn't even the full brunt of it. It was only through an earpiece. It's completely different when they take over your entire suit of armor. I'll make the call."

"Wash, you can't afford to have another AI infect your armor!" I responded, utterly bewildered. "You know that! What—what happened last time—"

"Won't happen again," he finished firmly. "Things have changed, Eleven. I already told you this. I've had the most experience with AIs."

"…Which is exactly why you shouldn't make the call," Church said to Wash stridently. Wash looked over at Church, confused.

"What?"

"You heard me. Think about it, Wash. Why did they go for you to get to the UNSC formal? Because they already knew that you'd had a bad experience with AIs. That you were easy to control. If given the choice between having you and Eleven infected, I have to choose Eleven, however heartless it may sound. She'll be much easier to control because they don't know how her mind works as much as they do yours."

"I won't let this happen!" Wash growled, fuming.

I raised an eyebrow, confused at Wash's reaction. Why the hell—

"Sorry, son, but I think we all agree with Church here," Sarge admitted. "Dirty Blue's actually got a point."

The other Reds nodded, as did Tucker.

"I think she should be the one to make the decision, though," Donut added. They all looked at me.

"Um, I was the one who suggested the idea to begin with, Einstein," I smirked as Wash let go of my wrist, completely irritated that he had been beaten. "Then all of you freaked."

"Okay, let's just prepare for this," Church said. He instructed the boys to crowd around me just in case an AI attacked my mind. Tucker held on tightly to my right wrist while Church had my left—he gave me just enough leeway to use my radio. Donut held fast to my right leg while Grif gripped my left ankle. Simmons and Sarge stood beside Caboose (who had wandered over after giving up talking to Sheila) and the two Reds now held stun guns ready to knock me out at a moment's notice.

Wash stood behind me, and I could almost feel his tension. He was nervous about his. He had both hands on either side of my waist… and, maybe I was imagining it, but I could have sworn he tightened his hand slightly on the right side of my ribs.

I was completely stationary. If an AI were to enter my mind, the Reds and Blues would knock me out immediately. Despite all our precautions, I was still uneasy. We didn't know what the AIs were capable of, really.

Church gave me the go-ahead, and, after one large breath, I turned my radio on.