Among the Freelancers, there was an informal procedure for after a mission. This had been established within the first few weeks, with neither any discussion nor any notable sign of organisation. First you would give the Director a five-second debriefing, then shower, then change into whatever you were most comfortable in (for some Freelancers, this meant straight back into armour, for reasons the others couldn’t fathom) and then write up your report.
She jumped to her feet, instinctively reaching for a rifle that was now in the armoury. CT looked at her bunk (uncomfortable, yes, but it got better with time) and then at her armour, and then sighed. The Director would have to wait for his report, and she’d have to wait for her eight hours.
CT paused before putting her helmet on, remembering Michigan’s face the last time she’d seen him, and thinking about the strong possibility that he was worse off now. It was likely that something about Mich’s condition was behind the alarm.
She tried to repress the thought that tried to get to the front of her mind –that Mich was one of those monsters. In the locker room, she’d overheard Tennessee and Maryland gossiping about Mich and what had happened on the mission. Most of what they said was complete bullshit, warped by a grown-up game of Chinese Whispers. But they had said something about Mich already turning…
It took the AI a full five seconds to respond –too long, going by FILSS’s nature. Whatever the situation on the ship was, it seemed to be taking its toll on FILSS.
“Multiple hostile –” FILSS’s voice cut off abruptly, then restarted, “Multiple infected personnel have es-escaped the biohazard zone. Sector lockdown has been initiated. A-all active units are to–”
“FILSS?” CT asked, fixing her helmet into place. She hated her helmet’s design –something like Carolina’s would’ve been better.
“…prepare themselves for a possible outbreak,” FILSS managed. CT frowned. The AI sounded like a stressed secretary, like she was taking a beating from something. She’d never heard FILSS drop the cheery voice before, let alone stutter and pause. It was an emergency, with the slow and steady siren testifying that to anyone with ears. But even taking that into consideration, FILSS’s behaviour was unusual.
With this in mind, she left her room for the hallway, heading towards the cafeteria. There should be someone who knew somethingthere. And if there wasn’t, there were always the wild but always interesting theories of various Freelancers.
The hallways were empty on her way –very unusual around this time. It became apparent why when CT finally opened the door to the cafeteria.
Almost all of the Freelancers were in the room, as well as many troopers. She looked around, trying to assess who would be able to give her the best information. She settled on York, who was talking to Wash, Alaska and another agent –Louisiana, the guy who specialised in tactics.
She manoeuvred through the room with some difficulty –it was packed pretty tight. She ducked past South, who seemed to be in a slightly one-sided argument with Maine, squeezed between Minnesota and Montana, and outright shoved Vermont out of the way before reaching the other side of the room.
With or without the helmet, it was obvious that Alaska was raising an eyebrow at CT’s unusual entrance. None of the others seemed to really care, either too used to it or too busy talking. Wash had pulled a chair over and sat, flipping his helmet around over and over again. Epsilon, by his shoulder, jolted with each movement.
“Hey, Connie,”he said. CT frowned at that –he knew how much she hated that name –but let it slide. The others mumbled similar greetings.
“There’s been a sector lockdown,” Louisiana told her. And then, after a moment, “Thanks to your Mich.”
“But a while ago these idiots let Utah bust out a bunch of horrible monsters and now everyone’s terrified they’ll break through quarantine and start killing everyone,” Lou drawled, earning him a glare from three Freelancers.
“And the Director doesn’t think it’s possible?” CT guessed. A few long-suffering sighs told her to be quiet.
“What will be a problem is safely transferring the bastards from the Mother to Angel on my Shoulder,” Lou said.“They’ve got a whole sector to move freely –a small one, but a decent area. And we don’t exactly have a low-risk way to restrain them. Plus, Carolina’s down for the count and no one’s seen Texas all day.”
When Epsilon trailed off, a new voice spoke up –Delta. “What Epsilon means is that Eta seems to have been affected either by his host’s death of the disease itself. He is currently trying to get in contact with several AI, and I believe he may cause problems.”
“FILSS has to respond to us –safety protocols,” Epsilon said. “He would’ve had a great chance to plant a virus or something.”
“We can’t,” Delta said. “Safety protocols prohibit us from attacking a friendly AI outside of our own training.”
“Taking Eta’s behaviour up to this point into account, I would say deleted would be more likely,” Delta corrected, “and possibly replaced with skills. Eta never was able to create a virus strong enough to disrupt something like FILSS.”
“I agree with Epsilon’s assessment,” he said. “While unlikely, previous reports on something similar encountered support it.”
“Damn it, Heta. I told you to keep your nose out of anything marked ‘classified’!” Lou growled. His AI didn’t flinch a bit, only shrugged.
“Hey, guys,”Alaska said in the quiet. “I think we’re missing the point. If this thing can screw with FILSS, doesn’t that mean it could open the doors?”
“W-warning, sector lockdown breached, all units –” FILSS’s voice cut off as abruptly as it had started.
Service Performed: Repaired delamination of inside wall which involved replacing inside wall of bedroom and removing and resealing window. Could not match pattern of wallboard of 10 year old rig but I'm happy with what they came up with.
Evaluation of Service Performed: Quality of work appears to be excellent however will have to re-evaluate after some wet weather. Price very reasonable.
Evaluation of Service Performed: Prices are good, had to leave the RV longer than I had expected. I was told the Inverter wasnt working properly because my batteries were shot. Shortly after getting the RV back I replaced the batteries and the inverter still didnt work. Have to rechedule another visit. I wasn't very happy about this.