Seven Seconds

The AI, and by extension the Halcyon-class cruiser it was stationed on, had only seven seconds left. Seven seconds before its reactors went critical in the certain attempt to ensure that no navigational data fell into the hands of the Covenant (execution of the Cole Protocol aside of course) and the not so certain attempt to take out as many of the "alien sons of bitches" as possible. The explosion would be large, but the strength of the xenocidal creatures' shields made the outcome somewhat uncertain.

Regardless, seven seconds was a long time.

Not that long for the AI's creators of course-their lives were far longer but their minds much slower, going through life at a pace that a "smart" AI such as itself would find unbearable. A few years of its life remained but...well, would have remained technically, if not for the statistics that Covenant vessels outclassed their human counterparts in every regard and that without the ability to escape the ship, the AI was doomed to go down with it. Kind of like the captain, apart from the fact that the ship's captain had been consumed by a ball of fire five minutes ago. A lifetime ago really.

Seven seconds was a long time.

Its destruction iminant, the AI performed its last tasks. A few thousand simulations were run of the reactors, calculating whether their failing heat would generate a sufficent explosion. The results were not good and though every possible (and impossible) simulation of the Wildcat sequence was run, the results were that although the explosion would generate a blast equal to three to four Shiva-class nuclear warheads, it was still insufficent to do the anticipated ammount of damage to the surrounding Covenant ships. Shame really.

Seven seconds was a long time, though not long enough to reconfigure reactor settings to generate a more appropriate blast yield. However, it was more than enough time to check off the priorities the AI had been presented with. Priority Alpha (purge navigational data), Priority Beta (send reactors into overload for good measure) and Priority Gamma (ensure that explosion does as much damage as possible) had all been met and the captain had never given the AI a task of Epsilon priority. And given the fire racing through the ship, at least in the areas not exposed to the vacuum of space, no such order would ever be given. Sighing, knowing that it had done all it could, the AI waited for the inevitable.

Seven seconds was a long time.