Church stormed furiously around the base, cursing every swear known to man and a few known to monkey, as he kept checking over his scanner. "That damned bastard!" He shouted, Caboose warily walked up to his angry leader. "Calm down Church, he couldn't have gotten far. O'Malley isn't that fast." Church spun on the balls of his heels and glared daggers into the Rookie's eyes. "He is when he's in Tex's body!" Caboose flinched and hurried back to his spot behind Tucker. "Seriously, Church, you need to chill. It's not like we wont find her." Tucker stepped back when the barrel of the sniper rifle Church was carrying was pushed against his nose.

"Guys! Stop it!" A dark green clad Mercenary walked up and pushed the infuriated leader off his team-mate. "I've already contacted command. They should be sending one of their best to come and help us catch this O'Malley figure; so stop threatening to gut each other like fishes!" The Mercenary, known as K, folded her arms and glowered at Church. "Now, I'm heading off to see if Tex has run by the Red Base." K shoved her helmet on her head and headed across Blood Gulch.

She had barley taken one step into the Red Base before she heard Simmons shouting. "Our Leader just ran out on us, saying something about taking over the universe! We need help to find him! No, Vic, not that kind of help…. Damn! Just send the best!" Simmons turned off his comm-link and dashed out of the rec-room and ran right into K. "You too? Fuck…." She pulled her helmet off and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "I seriously hope they send someone who can tolerate you guys…."

"What do you mean 'You too'?" Simmons asked curiously. "The Blues lost one of their members, too. Something about an evil AI." Simmons looked confused and K sighed. "I hope the new recruit gets here soon…." She walked past the Maroon soldier into the rec-room and plopped down onto the couch; and just as she sat down, she noticed Donut in the corner of the room standing on his head counting backwards. "One-thousand-two-hundred-eighty-two, one-thousand-two-hundred-eighty-one, hey K, one-thousand-two-hundred-eighty…" She sighed again. "It's going to be a long week."

The week slowly crept by with a lot of complaining, moaning, head-rushes, and no flag stealing; but, finally, a large Pelican could be heard all across the canyon and both teams rushed to the center of the field. The Red Team lined themselves up to the right of the large aircraft and the Blue's to the left; K and Doc stood in salute in front of the docking pad as a single jade armored soldier stepped off. Once the soldier was off of the craft, it took off leaving it's only passenger in the middle of nowhere.

The jade individual scanned the small crowd that surrounded him then barked, "Name and Rank, soldiers!"

"Private Leonard Church!" Church saluted, Tucker quickly followed in suit. "Private Lavenirus Tucker and Junior!" He shouted, Caboose realized it was his turn after a delayed moment and clumsily saluted. "Uhh….. Oh! Private Michael Caboose!" He almost knocked himself over when he hit his head.

The recruit turned his gaze to the red squadron. "Private First Class Dick Simmons!" Simmons started, Grif sniggered and saluted when the jade soldier looked at him. "Uh, Private Dexter Grif!" Donut jumped a bit when the Unknown Soldier stared at him. "Private Franklin Donut!" Doc quickly stiffened his position and uncharacteristically shouted, "Head Medic for Blood Gulch, Doc, at your service!" K didn't move. "Spartan Mercenary K-108!"

The new soldier looked them up and down one last time. "Master Chief Petty Officer John-117." He placed his battle rifle onto his back before stepping forward. "Your command told me two of your fellow troop members have been possessed by an evil AI, correct?" The small crowd nodded in unison. "We've been able to track them around this Halo and we've found a few hot-spots on where they could be." He took another good look at the group that surrounded him. "Also, I've been informed that you teams are supposed to be fighting, that is changing as of now. What we have to do to find your team-mates is work together."

The last two words that left Chief's mouth lingered in both team's ears. "Blue team, gather all of your necessary belongings and head to Red Base. We leave for our first rendezvous point in three days!" Both teams scrambled to their respected bases, leaving Master Chief with Doc and K. "What about you two?" He asked. "Well, technically, I don't have a team. I'm here for both the Red's and the Blue's." Chief looked at K. "I'm a hired Mercenary. Both teams are paying me." K stretched out her arms and started walking towards Red Base.

"I'm so glad they sent you." Doc nodded in agreement and followed her, Chief quickly caught up. "Why is that?" He asked, falling in step with the two locals. "Because these guys are NUTS! And I don't need to be a certified psychologist to diagnose that." Doc exclaimed, emphasizing each word of his statement with an odd gesture. "All they do is rant about how they are going to beat the other team day in and day out, and when they're not talking about that, they're talking about something extremely ridiculous." K kicked a rock and it shattered against the side of the base. The conversation dragged on even as they got to the rec-room.

"…. And I swear, me, K, Junior, and Sheila have to be the smartest ones here." Doc finished as he fell onto the gritty, old armchair. "Interesting." John said as he watched the two hired soldiers remove their helmets. The purple clad Medic has short, messy, black hair and a nice pink scar on the side of his neck; he seemed to be about 26. While the green freelancer had short brown hair, half of hit falling onto her face, her bright green eyes showed that the chemicals used on her in the past failed; she looked about 22.

"Well, aren't you going to take off yours?" She asked, staring at the jade soldier in the doorway. He shrugged and decided to take it off; besides, it's been a while since he' breathed fresh, non-filtered air. The other two watched as their new leader pulled the helmet off his head. His hair was a bit longer than a normal crew-cut, and was dark brown. His skin was a pasty white and his eyes were an unnatural shade of blue. He inhaled a deep breath as he sat next to the ex-Spartan. The next few days would be hell, as well will be the next few months.

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I am slowly, but surely updating and rewriting this fanfiction. The more popular it get's, the more I want to rewrite. *hinthintwinkwink*