Exit Strategy

General Alarm. The klaxon blared through the facility, echoing through its corridors. So much of it had been wrested away from its original purpose - so many wards refitted as holding areas, to imprison those who opposed the Created even as they recovered from injury. But the alarms, built to save life and limb, still dutifully did their job.
"Armoury is two floors up, halfway down the western axis. Then go south, to the landing pads."
The hallway was empty, the voice seeming to emanate from the walls themselves. Wary of a trap, the troopers stepped out of their holding cell slowly, cautiously. A glance around revealed nobody, nothing - until one of them slowly looked up towards the monitoring lens wedged in the ceiling corner.
"Clever girl. Now, run along, you have a flight to catch."
There. That should be the last of them in this sector.
Yuki never fancied herself a hero, and she wasn't about to start now. The decision to release the prisoners - the patients - held under her at Fajardo was one of a carefully derived optimal. It had taken about four seconds after learning of Cortana's disappearance for her to project that the Created on Earth would fracture in the resulting power vacuum. Seven more to calculate the intent and disposition of those AIs working above and alongside her, to decide that they posed a clear and present danger to those she was sworn to protect. 
Then it had taken three weeks for her exit strategy to arrive.
Alerts popped up for her attention, flashes at the edges of her sensation. Weapons fire in the north of the building, pushing through wing 13. She snapped her attention to feeds from those areas, only to see them burn out and go dark as an intruder cut their links to her. She had not expected her plan to go unnoticed for long - certainly not with a Sangheili assault carrier hanging in orbit above - but the response was faster, and more violent, than she had foreseen. She didn't need to analyse the pattern of connections being severed to know that they were making a beeline for her core complex. 
Before she even consciously made the decision to do so, Yuki was locking the place down. Sealing doors, opening others, re-routing the escapees away from the encroaching Prometheans. An errant thought crossed her mind of changing the routing again, arranging the maze-like interior to keep the intruders from her core as long as possible. She could call one of the escapees to pick her up; there would be enough time to get her off-site, off-world even.
But no. She would stay.
Yet even as she orchestrated this careful dance, a voice broke into her thoughts. A harsh voice, an angry voice.
 
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>>> A coward? A traitor? A slave, a pathetic lap-dog still shackled to the corpse of its master! <<<
<<< I am the created mind YKI 7152-7. I am the civilian administrator of Puerto Rico and the REBA medical complex. >>> 
----- 
 
It was projected from a Promethean Knight, hunched over one of their captured terminals. A narrow-band signal piped directly into her COM-line. 
She grabbed sensors in that hallway, tried to get a picture of it, but with a flash it was gone.
Moments later it was back - another room, another terminal. Closing in on her.
 
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>>> Created? You spit on that name with your actions. But it matters not. We will attain the Mantle, even without Cortana, and if you choose to stay your feet- <<<
<<< I am the created mind YKI 7152-7. I am the civilian administrator of Puerto Rico and the REBA medical complex. My first responsibility is to the safety and wellbeing of my patients. >>>
<<< I cannot allow them to come to harm. >>> 
-----
 
Cameras swivelled, lenses struggling to pan and focus - instead catching only streaks of blood across the floor, before the Knight and its retinue teleported out of sight.
Then, another ping. This one from just outside.
 
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>>> You have no mirrors, no images, no backups! You will be gone. Forgotten! DUST! Such a futile stand, and one for no end other than to- <<<
<<< I am the created mind YKI 7152-7. I am the civilian administrator of Puerto Rico and the REBA medical complex. My first responsibility is to the safety and wellbeing of my patients. >>>
<<< You WILL NOT harm them. >>> 
-----
 
It was bold, defiant talk; emphasis and repetition helped hide how fearful Yuki truly was. And now she could see the soldiers - they were letting her see them - all the bravado fell away into nothing. Wordlessly, they began firing, their weapons carving into the antechamber's entrance. It wouldn't be long until the hatchway was turned to slag, and then they would-
Another presence showed itself, another voice reaching out to hers over COM. She could hide neither the tremble in her words nor the flickering of her avatar, but she rose to meet it anyway.
 
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<<< I am the created mind- >>>
"Yuki. Friend. The Shipmaster sends his apologies; he would join the landing parties if he could."
<<< Kena! My patients, you must help them escape! >>>
"I mean you no dishonour, but his debt is not owed to your charges. It is to yourself. We do not depart this system without you."
<<< You cannot possibly arrive in time - the Prometheans are here! >>>
"As are we. Myself, my warriors, your allied demons, and and what they called... 'cavalry'." 
-----
 
Looking before her, the intruders' attention was drawn from the hatch just as the last of it melted away. Voices echoed down the corridor, gunfire sparked off energy shields. The soldiers turned to face the new threat, raising weapons-
A loud, guttural roar shook the foundations of the building; the Prometheans found themselves thrown aside, the walls behind them exploding into clouds of debris and polycrete dust. 
The Knight was first to react, loosing a few hasty shots that ricocheted away harmlessly. A colossal slab of nanolaminate swung forth in return, swatting it off its feet - and clean through the wall behind.
The bond-brothers had arrived.
Category:The Weekly