Author's Note.
The Final Book of the WarBound series, wow, I didn't think I'd actual get this far. To tell in truth, I already finished book 5, but I'm going to post it a chapter at a time, to build suspense.
I hopefully expect myself to be especially careful with this book because of its importance to the Conclusion to WarBound. There will be better detail, I hope.
Hopefully, I'll get more reviews on this one's predecessors and itself.
Remember, where we last left off, the ship had just landed on Donut.
Disclaimer
Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo Reach, and Halo Wars are all owned by Bungie and Microsoft. Red vs Blue and related are owned by Rooster Teeth. All original Characters are owned by the author. This is a none profit fan saga.
All Flamers and Such can go Fuck anything that moves.
Chapter 1 – Cherry Down
Dust and dirt surrounded to where the Pelican had landed. Deanis stood the closest, almost having been crushed along with her pink comrade, Donut. Her mind just wasn't processing, Donut can't be gone, just like that. It just can't be.
"Simmons," Sarge coughed, "Status report."
"Um, an enormous thing just fell out of the sky," Simmons reported, "and landed on Donut, Sir."
"Are there any other injuries?" Sarge inquired as the dust finally started to settle, marking everyone's armor with a small coat of it.
"No sir."
"You sure?"
"I think so."
"Are you sure?" Sarge repeated, "No one accidentally got shot in the face when someone else's shotgun just accidentally went off in the incredible distraction of a spaceship crash landing. Purely by coincidence?"
"Uh, I don't-"
"No one orange?" Sarge interrupted.
"I'm fine," Grif sigh irritated. Near him, on the ship, were marks of small blast-holes made from a powerful close range firing weapon.
"Sorry sir," Simmons said.
"Oh dehrh," Sarge cursed, "I really need to adjust the sights on this thing." He checked his weapon, making sure it had no defects.
"Fuck your sights," Deanis said, "What about Donut? Is there any way he could've survived this?" She motioned to the ship.
"I don't think so," Simmons replied, sizing the ship up, "Poor Donut, I'll miss him like a sister."
"I'll miss him like…" Sarge paused, "Well, like someone I know but that I don't really wanna reflect on how deep our relationship with." Something started tapping in the background of Sarge's voice. Like something on metal.
"Wait a second," Simmons said, "do you hear that? It sounds like tapping."
"All I hear is you guys talkin' about your feelings for Donut," Grif said, "And I have to say, I'm not really comfortable with that."
"Listen, there it is again!" the tapping continued. Deanis couldn't put down the uplifting feeling that Donut might be alive against impossible causes. He's survived a grenade to the head, he can survive this.
"You're absolutely right!" Sarge said, "That sounds like Morris Code."
"Um, excuse me Sir," Simmons said, "It's actually not Morris Code. It's Morse Code, Sir."
"Morse, heh," Sarge said, "That sounds like ridiculous. I don't think so."
"Yes," Simmons stated, "Morse is the person who developed an international code for communicating without audio. Morris was a television cat that sold cat food."
"And that cat was one of our finest military minds," Sarge said, ultimately defying everything Simmons just said, "Don't you see? That just means Donut is alive and trying to contact us! Now, get to tappin'."
"How 'bout instead we lift the ship off of him," Deanis suggested.
"Great idea, Deanis!" Sarge said, "I've read reports that people can get enormous strength in stressful situations. There was one woman who lifted a car off her baby."
"You want me to call Donut's mother?" Grif asked.
"Don't make me angry Grif, you wouldn't like me when I'm angry," Sarge warned and then continued, "Now if only there were some way to tap in our inner rage, like that Hulk fella. Dang nabbit! There's never any gamma radiation around when you need it."
"Why don't we break into the ship and lower the landing gear," Deanis suggested, "It'll raise the ship."
"Or, we could build an army of clones that could lift the ship-"Sarge interrupted.
"The jack in the Warthog would lift it," Deanis replied, cutting Sarge off in return.
"We could develop a machine that shrinks the ship, or that makes Donut gigantic! Or both," Sarge continued.
"How 'bout digging? We could dig underneath the ship," Deanis said.
"I've got it! A levitation ray. I think I have a spare in the base! I'll be right back." Sarge turned heel and headed nearby, where the Warthog had been parked when the team had reentered the canyon.
"Sarge!" Deanis almost whined.
"Deanis, this is a crisis situation," Sarge hopped into the 'hog and started up its engine, "I expected crackpot theories from Simmons, but now we've gotta save us all, with Science!" The jeep drove off to red base.
"Thank you sir?" Simmons said awkwardly once Sarge was gone.
"Sarge just drove away with our jack, didn't he," Grif concluded.
"And our shovels," Deanis sighed, "It's amazing we haven't starved to death."
"What the fuck are you guys doing out here, breaking the canyon?" Church came around the Pelican, his fists clenched and his foot falls suggesting that he wasn't in control of anything anymore or that everything had just gotten from bad to worse.
"Fu-uck off, Blue," Grif said,"A ship just crashed on one of our guys."
"What, this ship?" Church thumbed the gray metal.
"No, another ship," Simmons said sarcastically, "Then that ship left, and this ship crashed in the exact same spot."
"Where'd it come from?"
"It's a spaceship, it came from space," Grif pointed out. Another sarcastic remark.
After a pause, Church said: "Dibs."
"What?" Simmons spoke.
"Dibs," Church repeated, "I just called dibs. This is my ship now. Dibs."
"You can't do that," Deanis snapped, "We were here first."
"Yeah but you didn't call dibs," Church said, "I did. Dibs. See?"
"You can't call dibs on a spaceship!" Grif declared, "That's ridiculous."
"Yehehah, yes I can. Dibs- see? I just did it again," Church chuckled and then shooed at Simmons, "Now, get the fuck away from my ship, tomato can."
"Don't call me tomato can," Simmons growled.
"Try and take it then," Grif dared.
"Um... okay," Church shrugged, "Sheila?"
"You bet." The Blue tank came around the ship and aimed its large cannon barrel at what's left of the Red Team. Deanis had forgotten the damned thing when the other large hunk of gray metal landed on Donut.
"Fuck!" Grif cursed, "You forgot about that too, didn't you."
"Yeah, kinda," Simmons said.
"Now step away from the ship, tomato can," Shelia commanded proudly.
"Ha ha, tomato can," Grif jeered.
"You too, lemon head."
"Hey I'm orange, not yellow!"
Deanis knew better than to defy the large tank that could very well blow the entire team away and more. But she didn't start to worry until Shelia started laughing. The laughter seemed… Evil. And as she did the voice became lower, like someone was messing with the audio's tempo. The red soldier stiffened, and then the tapping from the ship came again.
"What the hell is that tapping noise?" Church asked, "Sounds like Morris Code."
"Morse," Simmons corrected irritably.
"Sheila, if he corrects me again, please make him blow up."
"Sounds like fun," the tank's voice had returned to normal, but its tone was malicious and ill-willed.
"Well what does it say?" Church asked the team.
"It says tap tap tap," Grif crossed his arms, "We don't know."
"We were trying to translate it when you showed up an interrupted us," Simmons said.
"No, when I interrupted you, you were standing around doing nothing. Just like the last fifty times I interrupted you guys," Church stated and then held his head to the outer walls of the ship, "Oh wai-wai-wait, listen listen! Listen, it says, 'Red. Sucks. Balls.' hey, look my new ship can talk! And it knows things. That's a good ship." He patted the metal.
"It's still our ship," Deanis said, "We called, and it came."
"I don't know, I don't see any Red Army markings on it," Church looked up and down the ship, and Deanis could feel the smirk under the cobalt helmet.
"It landed on Donut!" Deanis argued.
"That was fantastic," Shelia commented.
"How in the heck would that mean- oh wait, the pink guy?" Church said, "Oh I actually liked him!"
"Seriously," Grif said, "what's with all these feelings for Donut?"
"You can't have it, it's ours," Deanis said.
"I'm not asking for it: it's already mine," Church said lightly, "Right Sheila?"
"Actually, I kind of like it," The tank's barrel looked at the ship, "I think it is mine."
Church looked back at the Blue tank, and he asked in an almost uncomfortably squeaky voice "Hey are you okay?"
"I think there's something wrong with the tank," Simmons said under his breath, though loud enough for the rest of the reds to hear him.
"No shit, really? I didn't notice," Deanis mocked surprise.
"We noticed," Grif said.
"I've got an idea," Simmons said.
"Whoa, okay hold on a second," Grif held his hands out in a stop-and-take-it-easy gesture, "Before you get too deep in to this, let me remind you that we don't exactly have a good track record when it comes to our plans and that tank."
"I'm gonna agree with Grif here," Deanis said, "It's only gonna take a second before we're just black spots in the dirt." Sarge came up, to the team, unnoticed until he said something.
"Bad news, fellas, I couldn't find that levitation ray, but I did find the remote control to-" Sarge spotted Church, "hey, what's goin' on out here? Whaddaya think you're doing you lousy Blue?"
"I'm just trying to figure out what the deal is with this spaceship."
"Dibs!"
"Too late," Simmons, Grif and Deanis said in unison.
"Dang, nabbit! Why do I ever leave you three to guard anything? Everybody knows about the International Dibs Protocol! And the No Takebacks Accord."
"I still call bullshit," Deanis said, she noticed the tank had turned around and started driving off.
"See guys, this is our ship," Church said, leaning on the ship, "And by ours, I mean mine, and my... eighty ton...friend." He noticed that Shelia was no longer at his side.
"Bye everyone," Shelia's voice called.
"Uh…" To take advantage at the opportunity, Sarge aimed his shotgun at Church's head, followed by Simmons and Grif who aimed their rifles at his torso, and finally Deanis, whose pistol was aimed at his crotch.
"I'm gonna be right back," Church said quickly, turned tail, and ran.
"Hey Blue!" Sarge called, "You know that ship you called dibs on? Well I got next! Hah! Now the ship is mine again!"
"Excellent strategy, Sir," Simmons complimented.
"Jesus, remember when we used to solve problems with violence?" Grif said, "Ah, the good ol' days."
"What- the fuck – ever," Deanis sighed, and Donut came to her mind once again.
How's that for a start?
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Chapter 1 - "Cherry Down"