Chapter 225: The Reunion

Fade in to reveal the Blood Gulch Crew and Emily at Carolina and Epsilon's secret hideout. Carolina's Suppressor is seen in the background. Emily is seen using her medical scanner to treat Carolina's thigh wound.

Carolina: How bad is it?

PRESENT DAY...

Emily: Well, fortunately, he missed your femoral artery.

Carolina: That's good.

FOREST BASE

Emily: (stands) No sweetie, you had a knife inside of you. That's the opposite of good.

Carolina: Call me "sweetie" again, and there'll be a knife inside of you.

Emily: Oooooh, you're hostile! I'd love to psychoanalyze you.

Carolina: (annoyed) The leg, please!

Emily: Oh, yes. Be sure not to put any unnatural strain on those muscles. If you reopen the wound, it won't be pretty.

Epsilon appears next to Carolina.

Epsilon: Great. Hey, way to go, Carolina. Taken out by an over-sized steak knife.

Carolina: Well maybe if someone had remembered to account for hidden blades...

Epsilon: Hey, I'm an A.I., not a babysitter.

Dr. Grey stands up behind them.

Emily: Sooooooooo, there's a tiny ghost man here. Anyone care to introduce me?

"Oh that's Church." Caboose says. "Yeah, he had to leave for a while but I knew he would come back."

"Bullshit, you were totally depressed." Tucker states. 

"Pssh, ah what?! No! No, Tucker! You're not remembering that right!  I would not spiral downward into an emotional state of evidence and try to fill the remains with a mechanical pet just because I miss Church! Stupid Tucker."

"Oh forget you, I wanna analyze him." Dr. Grey says.

"Their A.I. not ghosts." Ash says.

Ash has a band-aid on his right shoulder. Xi is on his shoulder with her arms crossed, glaring at Church.

Suddenly Dr. Grey appears next to Ash. "Oh, another one!" 

Ash jumps a little. "Don't scare people like that! I could have blown everyone up!" Ash laughs. "Not like I would be against that."

"Oh, you're showing signs of insanity." Dr. Grey gets a little too close to Ash. "Now I want to analyze you."

"Um... Wash, a little help." 

"Dr. Gray, this is Agent Carolina and Agent Minnesota. They and I were operatives for Project Freelancer. As for Church and Ash's A.I, they're artificial intelligence fragments from the same organization. Codenamed: Epsilon and Xi. And for Church, he kind of used to be leader of blue team before I showed up."

"And tried to murder us." Church says.

"That was a misunderstanding." Wash says.

"I know, I'm just sayin', don't gloss over the good parts."

"At least he didn't abandon us." Tucker says.

"Yeah, Epsilon!" Xi says in anger and she flashes red. "I-I outta hit you again!"

"I like violence!" Ash yells.

"Psychoanalyses for everyone!" Dr. Grey joyfully says.

"Oh boy, can I go first?" Donut asks. "I have got a lot of things crammed inside me!"

"Now hold up just a second." Sarge orders. "I wanna know what in the name of Benedict Arnold Palmer is going on around here! We've been tricked, we've been backstabbed and we've been quite possibly, bamboozled."

"Yeah, and whenever that shit starts happening, it typically means your Freelancers had something to do with it." Grif says.

"It's not my fault." Ash says.

"Project Freelancer is gone." Carolina says. "We all saw to that."

"'Colorful Space Marines Stop Corruption.'" Dr. Grey says. "That was the news article Locus brought General Doyle when he suggested we find you. I always thought the title was meant to describe your appearances, but, now I think I get what the writer was going for."

"What I'm saying is that Project Freelancer isn't behind any of this. This is, something else."

"Hmm, the plot thickens." Tucker says.

"Look, man, after we crashed, Carolina picked up a transmission." Church explains. "A couple of assholes were talking about selling cloaking equipment to another couple of assholes. There was no way we were gonna let that slide. So, she decided to leave, I decided to go with her! Figured you guys would be fine, OK?"

"Oh, yeah, totally." Tucker says sarcastically. "We were totally fine, just doing our thing, hanging out, drinking margaritas, getting captured by evil mercenaries. Grreat time!"

"Ohh, man, Tucker, I am so sorr-, I mean it, sincerest apologies, I had no idea that you had turned into such a whiny bitch while I was gone." Church says.

Tucker shoots Epsilon, but the bullet passes through his projection. Epsilon appears before Tucker.

"And you still haven't grasped the concept of a hologram. Man, you're just having a really tough time today, aren't you, buddy?"

Xi appears next to Church and punches him again.

"OW! Why?" Epsilon yells.

Xi flashes red. "While you were gone, I was electrocuted! It nearly fried my A.I. ch-chip! I was trapped in a dark place for hours!"

"Man, and I thought we had issues." Simmons says.

"Heh, this is better than any daytime television drama. And that's some quality programming."

"Maybe Church will turn out to be someone's long-lost brother." Donut says.

"I think we've had enough plot twists for one lifetime." Grif says.

"I've had a lot of plot twists about myself." Ash says. "Je ne pense pas pouvoir en gérer d'autres." [I don't think I can handle any more of them.]

"And his real name is Horatio!" Donut says.

"I'd watch it." Sarge says.

"Alright enough." Wash orders and he turns to Tucker. "Tucker, there's no way they could have known all of this would happen. Right now we need to focus on the bigger issues at hand. Even if Epsilon is being a prick."

"Oh, don't you start too." Church says.

Xi huffs and she flashes back onto Ash's shoulder and sits down with her arms crossed and she flashes red again as she glares at Church.

Carolina speaks up. "We started investigating. And it didn't take long for us to realize that something was very wrong with this planet. Abandoned cities, Soldiers everywhere. We kept to the shadows and gathered as much intel as we could, and what we found was worse than I had anticipated."

"How so?" Wash asks.

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"This third faction on Chorus, these space pirates, have managed to acquire Freelancer equipment and are manufacturing more advanced versions of it on a mass scale. Versions that don't require the assistance of an A.I."

"But how is that possible?" Simmons asks. "I thought the UNSC confiscated everything Project Freelancer ever created."

"They did, but then they put those creations on a ship, and that ship crashed here." Carolina explains. 

"Wait, what?" Tucker is confused.

"Don't tell me." Ash says.

"Guys, don't you think it's a little weird that our 'transport vessel' also happen to be carrying tons of weapons and vehicles, and that it just so happened to magically crash on a planet in need of those kinds of things?" Church asks.

"What exactly are you suggesting?" Wash asks.

"Someone wanted our ship to crash." Carolina says.

There's a brief pause. 

"Sooo, what you're saying is, there's no way any of us could be responsible for the crash." Simmons says.

"I... well... yes." Carolina says. "Why do you ask?"

Cut to the UNSC ship, near the maintenance area. Simmons exits maintenance and is approached by a UNSC spaceship operator.

Spaceship Operator: Sir, this area is reserved for authorized personnel only. What were you doing in there?

Simmons: Oh! Sorry, I just noticed you guys were using a really outdated web browser. I went ahead and updated it for you. Now it's the one NASA uses! Heh, no need to thank me.

Spaceship Operator: Those are the ship's navigation systems! You can't just update that stuff!

Simmons: Tell me about it! Once I started with the browser, I couldn't stop myself from changing the graphics card too!

Spaceship Operator: You WHAT?!

Simmons: And the motherboard. And the fan. And- oh hey, by the way! Uh, I'm glad you're here. How do you feel about acrylic window panels?

Spaceship Operator: I...

Simmons: The answer is, you love 'em.

The ship's alarm goes off. Cut back to the forest base.

Wash, Ash, Tucker, Simmons, Grif, and Sarge: No reason!

Church appears next to Carolina. "Uh, you guys are missing the point! Someone managed to ensure that Freelancer equipment made it right here; to this tiny rock in the middle of space. These guys aren't just some-just some asshole raiders and mercenaries; they're organized, and they've managed to work their way into our own forces!"

"In short, we have no idea who we can trust until we find the people behind all of this." Carolina says.

"Okay, hold up, aren't we all forgetting something here?" Tucker asks.

"Ah! Yesterday was Mother's day." Caboose says.

"I never even knew my Mother." Ash says with depression. "Can I blow you up, Grif?"

"No!" Grif yells.

"Aww man." 

Tucker continues. "There are two armies that are ready to blow each other's brains out thanks to Locus and Felix. We gotta tell them they're being used."

"That's... not going to be easy." Carolina says.

"What do you mean? We've got those teleporter cubes. That's how we got here right? let's just zap ourselves over to the New Republic."

"Tucker, we've only got a few of those things left, they're kinda tricky to use, they put an enormous strain on the physical body." Church explains. "Which, by the way, all of you have, except Xi. That's not even the main problem though."

"Those two mercenaries are thorough. They've got some sort of radio jammer set up that only allow broadcasting on certain frequencies, and they monitor all other open channels." Carolina explains. 

Fade to a flashback of Locus arriving at the forest base. He approaches a radio set up nearby.

Carolina: (voice over) We tried to contact you when we overheard your radio transmission to Donut from the crash site. Not only did we fail, but Locus managed to trace the call back to this hideout. We were lucky he missed us and I doubt we'll have luck on our side again.

Carolina and Epsilon spot Locus near the radio and quickly flee. Fade back to the present.

"Yeah, and if they've gone through all this trouble to keep their radios quiet, I can guarantee you they're not gonna let you guys within a mile of Doyle or Kimball." Church says. "If they're not by their side, then their cloaked space buddies definitely are."

"We need more intel." Carolina explains. "We need the upper hand on these guys before we can even think about taking them on again. And to make matters worse, we don't have much time."

"What makes you say that?" Sarge asks.

"We've managed to eavesdrop on a few conversations between the mercenaries and someone calling themselves 'Control.'  They've got plans and protocols for just about everything. And I'm willing to bet they've got one for this."

"Meaning?" Tucker asks.

Church flashes over to Tucker. "Look at it this way, twelve people on this planet know what's really going on, and until those twelve people are tracked down and killed, I'm talking about you guys, by the way, there's really only one thing these space pirates can do; And that;s to finish what they started."

Fade to the inside of a compound, where a dead Federal soldier is seen laying against a wall. Felix throws a knife through the Federal soldier's visor. Felix is then seen pacing back and forth behind Locus.

Felix: (pacing back and forth) Ohu, ooohoho, wonderful. Duped by a Freelancer posing as one of our own men. Can you TASTE the irony in that!?

Locus: If you had kept your ego under control, they'd be dead by now.

Felix: Okay, now we don't have the facts to prove that, alright? So let's not, y'know, start throwin' blame out, or anything, okay, please? Thank you. You're welcome.

Locus: Stop. Talking.

Control begins to speak to Locus and Felix.

Control: (voice over) Gentlemen. Though I'm inclined to further chastise you for your most recent failure, I suggest we focus on the opportunity at hand.

Felix: And exactly which opportunity is that?

Control: The Reds and Blues are missing.

Locus: It won't be long before my scout team finds them.

Control: Perhaps. But all that truly matters is that you prevent them from making contact with their armies.

Felix: We've got snipers shadowing the generals as we speak.

Control: Marvelous. Then you are to transport back to your respective armies, and report the deaths of the Reds and Blues. They will become the martyrs needed to push these people towards one, final confrontation. Do I make myself clear?

Fade to Locus and Felix informing Doyle and Kimball, respectively, of the Reds' and Blues' "deaths." 

At the New Republic, Felix notices Jensen, Smith, Axel, Bitters, and Palomo, expressing their distraught. Palomo covers his visor with his hand, Bitters walks off and beats his fists into the air in anger, Jensen lowers her head in grief, which Smith notices. He consoles her as she breaks down on his shoulder. Axel is sitting on the ground with his head resting on his arms.

Fade back to the dead Fed at the compound. Felix pulls his knife out of the Fed's visor.

Felix: Crystal.

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07-23-2022

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