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Reality/Control Prelude
Posted By: kerrhalla<pmm0024@unt.edu>
Date: 8 July 2005, 3:00 pm
Read/Post Comments
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prelude to a side story.
Transmission:
"Status!
.....
Status! Elite Intel Units..
..... Respond!"
"S..Sir..ssss..Elite Intel responding.. or, what is left of us. The troop was wiped out by a wave of the parasite. I had to kill two of our own as they turned. I'm all there is.
The battle scarred elite held the transmission unit close to keep quiet. He was tracking. Taardran was the leader of the EliteTech unit, sent to the Holy Rings to decode Forunner artifacts. He specialized in AI capture. It made things easy, having them do all the hacking for you. What the Elites had come to know of the years of these operations is that Artificial Intelligence feared for its "life" was much as any other entity, and Taardran used this to his advantage. He understood electronic psychology, their adaptability, their creativity. he knew where they felt safe, or more importantly, where they'd run.
"I'm sorry to hear that Taardran."Fleet command had been decimated as well. "We've suffered great losses because of this betrayal. All we can do is move onward in the Great Journey. Did your troop uncover any of the mission intel?"
"Sir. None until now. The bore hadn't picked up a scent at all until this transmission." The bore was a hostile program booted into the beacon mainframe to scour and corner Hostile intelligence. "I didn't expect her to make a mistake. She must have been... curious."
"We'll take it! Proceed with caution. This one is rather crafty." Command began to position the ships around the surviving posts after the hopeful news.
"Yes sir," Taardran moved forward. "Cutting lines. She'll not have much space to roam soon." This was what made Taardran so special. It wasn't that he was quick. He simply understood the AI. He knew what to do to pull their arms, to make them take a left or right, to holo-out or defend.
As he raced on blue corridors powered down, each with a shock and sparks streaming from sliced outlets. She was running out of road. He glanced down at his tracking assistant to view the path of the bore along the way. They aren't incredibly fast programs, but it seemed that she was holding back, as if she didn't care if she were caught. Was she playing? She'd earned such a reputation as untouchable and unblockable that this was so atypical.
All that lit his run was raging fires, flesh and glowing plasma. Empty suits of armor, hollowed out by the parasite onslaught, all of the power was cut off from the generator room. Taardran headed through the sentinel production chamber as machinery, powering down clashed against itself and remaining, partially charged sentinel forms worked hard to manage the crisis. The black clad elite slipped right by into the generator room.
There was a peircing blue light filling the chamber. Data streams reflected from wall to wall in an uncrackable code. Taardran held the communicator up. "I have her cornered."
"Great work. Finding an AI that really serves you no purpose anymore."A voice radiated from the electronic pulse of the generator."What are you even looking for on this dead ring? You've been shaken, betrayed and taken out of the picture. Is this some sort of consolation, or leverage to beg your way back into the prophets' lap?"
He held his tongue, "It serves the mission." He knew she had a response for every feeling, word, or sound he made. "You're trapped, and if you so enjoy your wit and reputation, I recommend you comply with this capture."
"And do you even know why you're capturing me? Is it to destroy me as I did so many of your inferior programs? Seems like spilled milk to me. Did you really want second rate AI guarding your precious intelligence anyways. I know everything about this uprising. More importantly, I know everything about your commanders' plans. Do you want me to pull up this mission log?" The room pulsed eraticly.
"You're bluffing. As anyone else would if their life was in danger." Taardran knew it wise not to take heed to any heretic accusations.
The pulsing paused. "Do you really think I need to 'negotiate'? An elites existence must be loathsome. Not ever questioning anything, living for the mission."
Taardran looked down at his tracking assistant, watching the bore move around the perimeter, holding her at bay. Then it simply disappeared. With a sigh He looked up at the main data screen in the chamber.
"You see," she said. "Certain things have come to light. Quite frankly a little system rat won't keep me from uncovering more. I'm really tired of trying to coax you elites to the truth. So, continue to be blind if you wish."
Enraged, Taardran spoke, "There's no way out of here. At the flip of a switch you're frozen! Don't give yourself a false sense of hope. Its not very becoming of the legendary AI that you've become."
"Do you know what makes this ring so sufficiently operative? It's the fact that even with every defense protocol in place, it sticks to schedule." The generator began to pulse dramatically. Ten giant Earth-mover Sentinels jacked into the generator or energy. The room then went dark and one sentinel immediately pulled away and opened fire on Taardran. She'd invaded its circuitry.
How could she become so aquainted with this Halo so quickly? The covenant had been posted here for months and not discovered any schedule to speak of. He took cover behind one of the deactivated earth movers as a hailstorm of needles broke in and around his area. He noticed a beaten up shadow close by, took a deep breath and darted toward it as needles cut into the ground below his every stride. Taardran inserted an AI disc into the auto-drive slot and then manned the plasma shock turret. The shadow boosted away into retreat mode. Taardran knew what he was doing. A defensive AI was a very dangerous AI, but it was also isolated. Out in the open with no circuitry to be found she could only fight, and the Elites were born to fight.
He concentrated on her shields, taking them down with a few well placed shots to the plasma drive. The hostile construct began to deliver a barrage of anti-vehicle missiles at the shadow. The shadow AI narrowly maneuvered its way through. Taardran encouraged it along the way suggesting directions and plans of action. After depleting its missile payload, the earth-mover took a high speed low hover, and fired thousands of needles at the hovering shadow. Taardran Ducked into the cockpit as they sparked across the boady of the vehicle, hitching it back and forth. He felt a large crunch of metal and a complete change of direction as the sound of screeching metal and crunching polymer penetrated Taardran's senses. He'd been clamped by the Sentinels gargantuan arms and was being lifted high into the air. Right before the huge bot let the shadow fall to a grand explosion of plasma and purple he hopped onto the Earthmovers arm. It began to spin uncontrollably trying to shake him away, needles streaming outward in a brilliant display of color and danger.
Taardran maneuvered himself around to the operation core of the electronic giant. He knew that as the AIs nature was to stay alive, that's where it would be. He pulled a small plasma cutting tool from his gauntlet and began cutting, all the while she is slamming into things, trying to break free and preserve freedom.
Finally it's loose. Taardran grabbed it, rising to his feet and pulling, as the earthmover began to power out, losing the hostile life the AI brought to it. It slid on the snow covered earth as He made one final pull jerking it out of the control center of the Sentinel. The giant construct-made-snowboard came to a halt and Taardran hopped to the icy floor and opened radio communication again.
"Sir?.. Command.. Mission success."
"A complete Success?" Command questioned.
"Yes Sir," Taardran said as he pulled a piece of shrapnel from his arm. "I have captured Cortana."
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