Chapter 228: Accentuate the Interrogative

Fade in to the forest base. Tucker is seen alone. Wash approaches him.

Wash: Well, Carolina's patched up again. Grey really hounded her on the "no more super speed" thing. You know, I don't think I've ever seen a civilian lecture a Freelancer like that before. It was... pretty entertaining, actually.

Tucker: Hey Wash, uh, you got a sec?

Wash: I swear to god, if you want me to look at another rash, I'm gonna hit you.

Tucker: No, it's just... it feels like every choice I make is the worst.

Wash: Oh holy shit, you're being serious.

Tucker: Back at the canyon, you told me to try to be better, and ever since then, that's all people keep telling me! "Try this," "try that." Well I'm fucking trying, and so far all that happens is that I either get people killed or I ruin the mission! I mean, how are you supposed to know if you're making the right call?

Wash: Well... you don't. There's never really a right or wrong answer. You just have to stick with what you think is best.

Tucker: But what if what I think it's best totally sucks?

Wash: Then you learn from it and you try again.

Tucker: Oh my god. It's like you people are a fucking loop.

Wash: Tucker, I know you're frustrated but you have to realize that making mistakes is just part of the deal. Even with everything you've screwed up, look at how far you made it. You're not the same person you were back at Blood Gulch.

Tucker: ...Is it bad that I kinda wish I was?

Wash: Yes! You were a terrible excuse for a human being.

Tucker: Hey!

Wash: I'm kidding.

Tucker: Fuck you, dude! I'm over here spilling my guts and shit, and you're cracking jokes?! That's messed up!

Wash: Now who's melodramatic?

Tucker: Man, I should've just left your ass with the Feds.

Simmons approaches the two.

Simmons: Hey Wash, can we borrow you for a second?

Wash: Everything okay?

Simmons: Ever since that pirate guy regained consciousness, Carolinas been trying to get info out of him... but so far nothing is working.

Wash: So you need help with the interrogation?

Simmons: Actually... We were hoping you could calm down Carolina.

A gunshot is heard in the background and noise of broken glass.

Carolina: (offscreen screaming) Why won't he talk?!

Simmons: She's a liiittle frustrated...

Cut to Red Team and Caboose standing in a clearing. Epsilon appears a few meters away but gets a crate thrown through him. He reappears next to Sarge who was watching.

"Well, she definitely takes after her mother." Church says.

"Her mother some sort of Silver-Backed Gorilla on steroids?" Sarge asks.

"Yeah, you better be happy her mother's not around here to hear you say that." 

Wash, Ash, Tucker, Grif and Simmons walk next to them

Xi is on Ash's shoulder.

"How's it going?" Wash asks Grif.

Well, y'know.... terrible." Grif answers. 

"You still got the manifest?" Tucker asks Church.

"Yes, actually, no thanks to you!" Church responds. "The Reds did manage to bring back a completely intact drive with the ship's records and manifest."

"Yeah, y'know..." Simmons starts. "Suck it blue!"

"And! Thanks to the Reds, those documents are currently locked."

"That's bad." Ash says. "It wasn't my fault, you know. Just saying."

"What?" Wash questions.

"Yes, apparently they accessed the ship's records the last time they were onboard, but since they didn't have the proper clearance, the files are now in security lockdown." Church explains. 

"Aren't you, like, part of the Matrix, now?" Tucker asks. "Why don't you just hack it?"

"Why don't I just hack it!? Oh! While I'm at it, why don't I just 'download the mainframe'? And 'cross-reference the database', huh!?"

Xi turns to Tucker. "What he's trying to say that it's actually really hard to do this kind of stuff."

"Yeah, and it's making me a little--"

"Frustrated." Donut says.

"I was gonna say 'completely filled with rage', but yeah, frustrated." 

Carolina walks over. "Talking about me?"

"Actually, no." Church says.

"I don't get it! He's not giving up anything!"

Dr. Grey walks over. "Excuse me!" Everyone looks at her. "I've been washing your blood off my armor, so I'm a little late to the conversation. Did you say the prisoner is awake?"

"For now, but I've got five bucks that says Carolina rips his spine out within the hour." Grif says.

"I'll take those odds." Simmons adds.

"I say we make him eat some Mashed C4. Et faites-le exploser!" Ash laughs.

"Oh, insane and speaks french." Dr. Grey says with excitement. "You're becoming more and more interesting. I like that."

Ash becomes flustered. "I-I... uh... um..."

"Dude, are you stuttering?" Grif asks.

"Shut up!" Ash yells.

Dr. Grey turns to Carolina. "If you don't mind, do you think I could have a few minutes alone with him?"

"Heh, you gonna give him a bandaid for every beating he gets?" Sarge asks.

"Well, if you recall, he and his partners turned everyone of my friends at Outpost 37 into piles of ash!" Dr. Grey explains. "Anyone sick enough to do something like that would almost certainly benefit from a, uh... checkup.

Sarge and Carolina look to each other in confusion. 

Pirate: (taunting) Oooh, whats the matter? Did the big bad Freelancer get all tuckered out?

Dr. Grey: Do you know where we are?

Pirate: Huh?

Dr. Grey: This is a remote research facility designed to study the surrounding wildlife. I volunteered at one just like it at grad school. It's got a laboratory, an incinerator and oodles of state of the art surgical equipment. (slowly turns to look at him) Would you like to see them?

Cut to the Reds and Blues standing outside the base whilst listening to the tortured screams of the pirate, various equipment noises and Dr. Grey's cheerfully singing opera.

"Sarge...?" Simmons is nervous and scared. "I'm scared..."

"Simmons. We're all scared." Sarge says. "...I mean, except for me."

"I think I'm in love." Ash says with a happy sigh.

"And Ash, but he's just insane so that rules him out."

Xi peeks her head out from behind Ash's helmet. "She's scarier than Minne was."

The noises stop and Dr. Grey emerges from the base.

"His name's Zachary Miller." Dr. Grey says cheerfully. "He's ex-military, and he was kind enough to hand over the coordinates to a nearby radio jammer!"

"You're kidding." Carolina says.

"No, silly! I'm Dr. Grey! HA Dad joke!"

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"Aaaalright. Think he's in a postion to answer a few more questions?"

"Oh! Absolutely!" Dr. Grey then lowers her voice. "Let me just go put him back together. "

Dr. Grey runs into the base. Over to Caboose and Tucker.

"Caboose..." Tucker says.

"Yes." Caboose answers. 

"Don't ever stick your dick in crazy." 

"I have no idea what that means."

"I know."

Over with Dr. Grey. Carolina, Ash and Wash walk inside the base.

"You'll find his belongings on the create over there, and that his tone is much more positive!" Dr. Grey states.

"Isn't that right, Zachary?" Dr. Grey asks.

Zachary looks to the three Freelancers behind him. "FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!" He yells. "GET THIS PSYCHOPATH AWAY FROM ME!"

Dr. Grey turns around and walks past and out of the base. "He's all yours!"

Epsilon appears in front of Carolina. "Hey, Carolina, I'm gonna go dark for a little bit. Focus on this manifest with Xi. You got this?"

Carolina chuckles. "Oh yeah." Church disappears and Carolina walks over to Zach. "The radio jammer. Talk!"

"I already told your friend about the nearest one, okay!?" Zach says.

"I want to know about all of them!"

"I don't know all of 'em! I swear! Look! If you take out the jammer at the coast you'll at least be able to make contact with the capital! That helps, right? Now will you let me go?"

"There seems to be a misunderstanding." Wash says. "Your options are either A. staying here forever, or B, the incinerator directly behind you."

"I like the incinerator." Ash says.

Zach nervously laughs.  "Good point! Well, what else do you want?"

"The giant tower at Crash Site Alpha." Carolina states. "What is it doing?"

"What, the tractor beams? That's why your ship crashed here in the first place. They're some of the only alien relics we've managed to activate. Ships come by, we pull 'em down, and then kill everyone aboard. After that, the mercs sell the supplies to the armies. Woulda worked on you, too, but something went wrong. It was like the ship tried to jump to slipspace, change course, activate all its weapons and power down all at the same time! It didn't make any sense! Instead of pulling you down, the ship got ripped apart."

Carolina looks at Wash and Ash.

"I'm gonna go ahead and claim partial responsibility for that." Wash says.

"Innocent till proven guilty." Ash says.

Carolina turns back to Zach.

"How many of you are on Chorus?" Carolina asks.

"Heh, enough to get the job done." Zach says.

"Give me numbers, or I give you back to the doctor."

"Woah! Let's not get hasty! Uh, there's a few dozen of us, alright?"

"A few dozen?" Wash asks.

"Quality over quantity." Zach explains. "You Freelancers should know something about that. I worked with the mercs on another job a long time ago. Guess I did good, 'cause they came back. And they had the offer of a lifetime."

"Killing everyone on a planet?" Ash asks.

"You call it genocide, I call it one hell of a paycheck."

"And who exactly is paying for all of this?" Carolina asks.

"Beats me." Zach replies. "The client sends us supplies and scientists to run the weapons manufacturing, but Locus and Felix are the only ones that talk with 'em. We'll get the occasional direct order if things are getting dicey, but other than that we're kept in the dark."

The three Freelancers look at each other.

"I can tell you this, though." Zach says and they look back at him. "Whoever it is, has invested a lot of time and a lot of money into this project. If you think they're just gonna sit back and let you throw it all away, (laughing) then you've got another thing comi-" Zachary is hit by a sniper and incinerates into ash.

"Dammit!" Carolina yells.

Carolina looks over to see a soldier standing on a large boulder behind them. Washington, Ash, and Carolina begin to shoot at the soldier, killing him.

The three Freelancers take cover.

"Again!?" Wash yells.

"Can't they leave us alone for five minutes!" Ash yells.

"Epsilon!" Carolina yells.

Epsilon and Xi appear.

"I'm here!" Church yells.

"We've got two more incoming, and they're heading towards the others." Xi yells.

Washington: (over radio) Tucker, Sarge, more pirates incoming.

Sarge: (over radio) What? Men, battle stations!

Washington: (over radio) Get to the lab as soon as you can! We can hold them off from here!

Tucker: (over radio) Got it!

Epsilon: We've got more hostiles inbound.

Carolina: What?!

The Reds, Blues, and Emily charge into the lab shouting indistinctly.

Tucker: What the hell's going on?!

Epsilon: We're being surrounded!

Carolina: How do they keep finding us?!

Epsilon: I don't know. What is it, is there an informant? A tracking device?

Wash lowers his rifle, and remembers Locus handing him Freckles' storage unit from before. Dissolve to a flashback of Locus handing Washington Freckles' storage unit.

Washington: (flashback) Is this supposed to be some sort of apology?

Locus: (flashback) Is it?

Dissolve back to the present time. Wash turns to Caboose.

Washington: Oh no...

Wash notices Zach's two teleportation grenades behind him.

Epsilon: Everyone get ready!

Sarge cocks his shotgun and runs outside.

Sarge: Today is a good day to-

A teleportation grenade explodes and the group is teleported to the desert refueling station.

Sarge: -sit down for a minute and just have a rest, cause' think I'm gonna throw up.

Simmons: Ugh, we're back at the gas station?

Donut: Good! I think I need a bathroom.

Grif: I would not recommend it.

"I feel tingly." Ash says.

Tucker: (coughing) How did we get here?

Washington: It's Freckles. Freckles is the tracking device.

Camera focuses on Caboose. Cut to black.

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07-25-2022

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