The red soldier walks in the halls of the base while being escorted by soldiers. Whatever attacked them wasn't human at all and its still burnt in his brain, the death, the blood, everything. He thought it would be over when the rescue came but it continued when it killed them all. Finally, it was over when more help arrived but he still couldn't get it out of his head. The base apparently belongs to some project.
He finally stops at the screen to reveal the councilor of project freelancer, Aiden Price.
"Thank you gentleman, would you please excuse us?" Aiden asks. The two soldiers walk away from them thus leaving the red soldier in the room. Nearby is a freelancer.
"You are private Walter Henderson, correct?" The man asks him.
"Yes sir!" Henderson replied to him with stress in his voice as his visage of professionalism is breaking now due to the sheer terror that's still in his brain.
"You can dispense with the formalities, Walter. Please feel comfortable to speak as candidly as you wish. Can you tell us what happened at your outpost, Walter?" Aiden asks.
"Yes Sir-ah, yes. I had been there about six months. Everything was pretty much like normal and one day this...ship...crashed." Walter answered while clearing his voice.
"I see. Is this the ship to which you are referring?" The hologram appears before Walter.
"Yeah. Yeah that's it." Walter answered.
"Please, tell me what was on the ship, Walter."
"I don't know. The blues got there first. They fought us off while they cleared it out. Took the stuff back to base. By the time we got a hold of it just seemed like a regular old transport. Our engineer said some of the wiring had been messed with but he didn't seem, you know, worried about it or nothing like that." Walter explained.
"Please Walter, define thing."
"The infection. The blues stopped fighting us. Some of them set up camp outside their base and trapped the rest of their team inside; blew up their comm tower for some reason. Their own comm tower...then they blew up ours. That's why we couldn't radio for help, we couldn't figure out why they would do that. After that, nothing. No word from them at all. The CO sent a squad over...all the blues were dead. They had killed each other." He continued.
"Why do you think they did that?"
"I don't know. They had torn the radios out of their helmets and dismantled their computers. The CO said they were trying to build something...but I saw all the stuff, no way! They were trying to break it. And there was another body in there too. Not a blue, somebody else. Actually, she looked like her." Walter turns to signal at the soldier.
"Don't worry about her for now, Walter. Please continue."
"We brought all the equipment back to base and brought it online. And that's when the infection started for us."
"The soldiers became...sick?"
"No. They just...they were different. Off. We could catch guys getting into areas they shouldn't get into. But the weird thing was, a guy would go crazy, act up, and then we would throw him in a cell, and he would be fine. One guy went missing and before he went, he called us all cockbites then we never saw him again. Then another guy would go nuts, disobey orders. Like trying to bring the comm tower back online even though we were told to leave it be. Maybe thy knew it was coming." Walter said.
"They knew what was coming?"
"At first we thought it was help. She ransacked blue base, searched all the bodies...then she came after us. Seemed focus on the guys that were infected. Eventually, she started killing everything." He explained.
"She? What does she look like?" She asks.
"She was light-ish blue and wearing a Spartan rogue helmet." Walter replied.
"Please, continue."
"And that was it. She moved fast, when we first saw it, and after blue base she was...she was different."
"In what way different?" She asks him.
"It looked like...it wasn't there. I don't know how to explain it." Walter begins to panic a little.
"That's alright, you've given us enough info for now. We're going to do everything we can to help you." She said while rolling her eyes underneath her helmet before Walter walks away.
"I had him under control."
"No, you kept taking it slow."
"Anyway agent South Dakota, what do you make of all this?" Aiden asks her.
"I think it sounds like exactly what I encountered with North...and him." South replied in a stern voice. She hasn't been the same ever since.
"Mhm."
"Except she's stronger now, and becoming more so all the time." She continued.
"Does that concern you?"
"It slightly pisses me off."
"You've been through a lot with this program, agent South Dakota. The Epsilon A.I. we assigned you-"
"Done with and discussed to death. I'm over it."
"Now your physical problems...because of your last encounter-"
"I'm better now, how about North?" South asks.
"He has a ruptured lung and can no longer walk." He explained to her.
"Well I'm doing slightly better now. Mentally and physically."
"Our profile of you disagrees with your statement."
"Look, the last mission I ran against her, I got shot in the back by my own partner who can't accept that she's dead alongside my twin brother. So lets get to the fucking point." South hurried.
"Agent York. We feel some...responsibility for that." A video shows York injuring South and North in the back.
"Yeah, you should. If York didn't have any good in him and left the healing unit, we'd be dead now. So while this isn't deal and I don't feel like sticking my neck out for you guys, if it puts me on a path that leads to her, you trust me at least that far." South negotiated.
"So you would say that you have overwhelming feelings of anger, and a need for revenge?" Aiden asks.
"More than you know."
"Excellent. Now that our agency is under investigation, the director feels it is important for us to be as open as possible. With each other. If our suspicions are correct, the Meta has made another addition: The Omega A.I." Aiden said.
"It was only Omega cause Tex got away."
"Yes, it was."
"The Meta doesn't leave much behind. It's gonna be hard to track. Especially how York is possibly in love with her. Bad chemistry if you ask me. What happened to Wash and Maine? I'd like to work with some old friends." South asks.
"They are on a mission to guard an alien diplomat and his son in a dig site. We also think the best place for you to start, would be the Omega's last known location. There soldiers there have the most experience with our program." Aiden replied.
"We do not like the term experts."
"Because no one really knows what our program is doing?"
"Lets just say the term expert is a little too...complimentary in this particular case. Do you still have your old suit of armor?" Aiden asks.
"Of course. Wait...why?"
Blood Gulch.
South looks at the base, blue base in particular and sighs.
"Fucking South."