//------------------------------// // Chapter 70 - "Multiple Choice" // Story: My Little Caboose II: Friendship is Fragmented! // by DarkWing //------------------------------// The Reds, Blues and ex-Freelancers made their way back to the Freelancer offsite storage facility with a pair of UNSC ships in tow. As soon as they landed, Grif opened up the back and they all filed outside. Looking at the decrepit ruins, Carolina let out a sigh and looked into the horizon to see the two UNSC ships slowly coming in. "No point in waiting for them," Washington noted. "They're making us go in first." "Where's the entrance?" Church asked, appearing in front of Washington. "It's about a minute's walk from here, inside one of the buildings," Wash replied coolly, turning around. "We didn't have much luck there. We weren't authorized personnel." "And that's how I found the ba—" Donut began to chip in happily. "The back entrance way, yeah, we got it," Wash said hastily. "I don't think that the UNSC will want to crawl in through a crack," Simmons said. "Well, I'm pretty sure none of us are going to be authorized. The only one that we know is authorized is the Director, and—" "And we have a not living slash not breathing copy of him right here," Church coughed. Nodding at Carolina, he scanned the buildings and looked ahead. "There's a pretty good chance I can open the door. And with what we're facing, it would be better to tackle it as a group rather than one-by-one in a tight hole." "Bow-chicka-bow-wow." "I guess that's a good point," Washington murmured, then began walking towards the entrance. The Reds and Blues shared a nod, and they began to follow Washington. Just like he said, it took them a little under a minute to find the building and climb up the makeshift ramp made from the pieces of the dilapidated building. The first thing Church noticed was a computer screen lodged in a nearby tree. Carolina saw this too and walked up to it to investigate. Before she could examine the screen closely, it flickered into life. "Hello, Director," the Director's assistant stuttered. "F.I.L.S.S, can you open the door?" Church asked impatiently, not wanting to waste any time on pleasantries. "I'm afraid I cannot do that," she answered. "What? Why not?" Church asked irately. He thought for sure that this would have worked. "Because you told me that you were not to be allowed entrance without a password. Or unless another authorized personnel were to speak." "Is the password 'password'?" Church asked with a sigh. "No," she replied sweetly. "Is the password 'hello'?" Caboose inquired from behind them. Church turned to tell Caboose to be quiet, but before he could, he saw the entrance slide open effortlessly. "The password was 'hello'?" Church asked dubiously. "What, was One-Two-Three-Four taken?" "Caboose is on the list of authorized personnel." "Aw man, really?" Donut asked, turning to Caboose. "Hey, Caboose, do you think I can be your plus one? I hear this club is really hard to get into!" "Sure thing!" Caboose said merrily. "Thanks, Caboose!" Donut said, and the pair began to run inside. As they both began to enter, Washington grabbed the piece of armor underneath the helmet, stopping them in their tracks. "What did she mean the Director spoke highly of you? I didn't think he even met any of you..." Washington said slowly, growing very curious about his current predicament as he held the pair in place. "He didn't," Church grunted. "And he's waiting for us inside." "The Director? How do you know the Director is waiting for us?" "It's not just the Director, Wash. There's someone much worse in there with him." "The Director is working with somebody? "No, the Director... Let's just say he has another voice in his head..." "An AI?" Wash asked, remembering seeing Delta in the unit, thinking that when he gave the Director the Epsilon unit one of the evil fragments got out and took over, "Kind of, but not any of the ones you're ever seen. This one is far crazier than Sigma, O'Malley and Gary all rolled into one. His name is Discord, and he finds joy in chaos and twisting minds." "Sounds like Omega to me..." Washington said. "A little, but the difference is Omega is predictable. The asshole in there is an riddle wrapped in an enigma dipped in a fucking loony bin." "Why didn't you tell the Chairman?" Washington inquired slowly. "He knows the Director used AIs. He could probably give us some stuff to better handle them, like another EMP." "Emp," Grif added. "Shut up." "Thing is, this isn't a regular AI. He isn't a piece of technology, so stuff made for shutting that kind of stuff down won't work. He's more of a living breathing creature that managed to find its way into his mind. Unless he has a proton pack, I don't think the Chairman has anything to fight what's basically an insane ghost." "So we know for a fact it's a trap, and we know for a fact who we're facing is insane, and we also know for a fact that we can't do anything to defend ourselves from him, right?" "Yeah, that's pretty much the situation we've got going on," Church admitted. Wash let out a sigh and looked at the ground pensively. "Guess I've been against worse odds," Washington grunted thoughtfully, then took his battle rifle off his back and aimed it down the hallway. "I don't suppose that we can shoot this thing since it's a living being." "Not without shooting the Director. As much as we'd all like that, I don't think the Chairman would. Plus, I'm not even sure if that would kill Discord. It might just force him out of the body and piss him off. Besides, we're not supposed to kill Discord." "Great, so we have a man trying to kill us, and an AI like thing trying to kill us, and he's crafty as hell, has copies of Agent Texas to use against us, and we're not allowed to kill either of them. This hole we're in keeps getting deeper, doesn't it?" "You know, I was curious about that..." Simmons murmured. "We haven't really put much thought into questioning why Discord is trying to kill us. He's insane, but he was never really violent." "And why doesn't he just meet us face to face?" Tucker added. "Maybe he just got tired of us being a thorn in his side," Sarge suggested with a small chuckle. "He can't kill us, and we keep coming after him. He's in the same situation we are. He can't get rid of us by beating us up or messing with us, so he's trying to kill us." "Or maybe their minds are conflicting..." Carolina said quietly. "This Discord guy isn't a true AI. He's like a spirit possessing him, and the Director's mind is fighting for control. I can't imagine two kinds of crazy mixing together would be good, so now Discord's getting the Director's trait of doing anything to get the job done, no matter the consequences." "If that's the case, we better go in and try to do this before Discord gets full control," Church said, then floated into the hallway. Carolina nodded at Wash and the others, then began to walk into the hallway after Church. The others followed without hesitation. Soon they were navigating their way through the halls and quickly found their way to the armory. Carolina was the first to enter the room filled with armor, weapons and equipment and began to scour the area, looking for any signs of the Director, Discord, or any traps. Once she was satisfied the room was all clear, she called in the others. "Everyone grab as much ammo as you can carry. If he has any more Tex copies guarding him, we're going to need a lot of firepower," Carolina said clearly and concisely, then lowered her voice and looked towards the way they came in. "And just in case we have any other surprises." The others quietly began to spread out, looking for ammunition. Carolina, during her initial sweep of the area, grabbed a few weapons and laid them out on the ground. "What are you doing?" Church asked curiously, appearing next to her. "Trying to decide what I should go with. I can either keep with the magnum, grab some plasma rifles or use a hammer. Problem is, they're all really... situational," she said, looking at the weapons laying in front of her. There was ammunition for her magnum, but next to it there was two plasma rifles and a gravity hammer. "You guys seem to have all the bases covered in terms of range, but I'm worried about the numbers we might be facing. We don't how many, if any, Tex drones he has left. And they might not be the only people we have to fight..." "Really think the UNSC are going to do anything?" "No, but it doesn't hurt to be safe. And I'm not sure if just a magnum and grappling hook will keep me that way. That's why I'm debating the hammer or the plasma rifles. The pistol can help in more situations, but the other weapons can do more damage..." "If you don't use the hammer, I could probably help you try to use one of the armor abilities in here," Church grunted. "Maybe we can try camo, or that speed thing you have." "Think you can handle me using them?" "I'll try." "Thanks," Carolina said, falling silent as she debated which weapon to take.