Under the Maroon
Disclaimer: I do not own Red vs Blue.
(**)
It was silent on the compound. The only sounds that could be heard were the sobs and giggles that the twins had playing on a loop with their helmets.
"It's quiet," the Red Demo Man spoke up. "Too quiet."
"Shut up, Roberts! Stop saying that!" The Insurrectionist Leader ordered.
"Fine."
"This better be worth the trouble," the Female Soldier said. "What the hell are we looking for, anyway."
"Some alien artifact. That's all we could get. This UNSC company recently retrieved it from a crashed Covenant cruiser." He then turned to the Sniper, who had climbed onto a near-by roof. "Hey, Foster. You see anything?"
"Nothing, sir. Just a bunch of ruins."
"Alright, let's see." He switched on his radio. "Simmons? Simmons, come in."
"Yes, Boss? What is it?" Simmons answered.
"You see any enemies?"
"Of course, I do. Most of them are gathered around the central building. There are some patrols out."
"Any of those near us?"
"Uh, no."
"So, we're clear."
"Clear as pepsi. Crystal pepsi."
"Ugh, that shit's nasty."
"I'm gonna pretend I didn't hear that."
"Whatever," he said, switching off his radio and turning to his team. "We're clear. Twins, you go in front. Parker," he turned to the Flame Soldier, "you cover our back." Parker nodded and went to the back of the group. "Foster, you stay on the lookout for enemies."
"Understood, sir."
"Alright, let's move."
(**)
"What do you think they're keeping in there?" a soldier asked another, motioning towards the central building.
"The artifact, Johnson."
"I know that. What do you think it is?"
"The fuck do I know?"
"Can't you at least guess?"
"No, I can't. Because I don't care."
Johnson was about to speak up, but was interrupted by the sound of giggling and sobbing. "The fuck is that?"
"I don't know."
The two grabbed their rifles and pointed them in the direction the sounds were coming from. Suddenly, two huge soldiers carrying turrets. They both wore ODST helmets, one with a smiley face painted on it, one with a frowney face.
"What the..." Johnson started before being cut short by the turret bullets tearing through him.
The other soldiers also became aware of the attackers and engaged them. However, their bullets ricocheted off the Twins as their turrets tore through their lines.
A few soldiers tried to take them out with rocket launchers, but were killed by sniper and battle rifle shots.
One sniper was aiming for Smiley's head, but a tomahawk came flying through the air and dug itself in his chest, knocking him from his position.
Some soldiers had gotten into warthogs and used their turrets to fire at the Twins, driving them back. They started driving around to avoid being shot by the sniper.
However, the Sleeveless Soldier jumped onto one of the warthogs, shooting the shotgun driver in the head and turning to the guy on the turret, to be faced with the spinning barrels of the turret. The soldier was about to shoot the Sleeveless Soldier, but got three battle rifle bullets in the back of his head, making him drop from the vehicle. The Sleeveless Soldier looked up to see Simmons standing on a roof and firing into the crowd. He then turned to the driver, shot him in the head and jumped off the crashing jeep. He looked around to see two soldiers getting their throats slit simultaneously by the Female Soldier, another soldier getting his chest blown away by Roberts' shotgun and a group of soldiers being torched by Parker.
Then all the UNSC soldiers were dead. The Leader walked up to the main building. "Locked. Of course." He turned to his men. "Simmons. Can you open this?"
Simmons walked up and checked the door. "Oh please, this isn't even a real lock. They probably just improvised this thing."
"So, you can open it?"
Simmons just looked at the Leader for a moment, then turned back to the lock. "Give me thirty seconds...Done," he said as the door opened.
"Alright, go on in. Snyder, West." He turned towards the Female and the Sleeveless Soldiers. "Cover him." They nodded as they followed him in. "The rest of you stay out here and tell us if something happens." With that, he also went in.
It was pitch-black in the building. Even the flashlights attached to their helmets could barely help. "Well, great. How the hell are we...wait, Simmons?"
"Yes, sir?"
"Your helmet has a special visor, right? With night vision?"
"Oh, right. Uh, hang on a sec. Let's see. Ah there we go," he said as he turned night vision on. "Oh, fuck!"
"What? What is it?" Snyder asked.
"I don't know," Simmons answered. "I-it's pink. I think."
"What?"
That's when they heard a noise. Something they had never heard before. "I...think that's the artifact," Simmons said as an Engineer popped up in front of them.
The four soldiers just stared at the alien floating in between them. "So," the Leader finally spoke up. "It's an alien. A living, breathing alien. That's unexpected."
"What should we do with it?" Snyder asked.
"I suppose we take it with us."
"How?"
"Uh, I think I know how," Simmons spoke up, vanishing into the darkness. He then came back with what seemed to be a sarcophagus. "This thing could easily fit that...that. Plus, it has a very effective lock. Just get it in here and I'll lock it."
"Okay." The three soldiers then cautiously guided the alien into the sarcophagus and Simmons closed the lid.
"You guys can go on outside. It'll take me a while to get this done."
The three nodded as they exited the building. The Leader switched on his radio. "Hello, Staff of Charon. This is Drake. The package is secured. Send in a pelican."
"Roger that, Drake. Pelican is on it's way."
(**)
That was a great victory. The alien had a lot of valuable information. Information that had helped us gain the upper hand against both the UNSC and the Covenant for a short while, until the Freelancers had stolen it. Parker died trying to protect it and Roberts lost an arm. I was on a mission at the time, so I couldn't help them. Then there was the attack on the shipyards. The Freelancers killed Foster and the Twins, and apparently Drake's Freelancer girlfriend as well. Plus, Roberts lost his other arm as well. Instead of staying with them, I was sent to infiltrate the Freelancer program. I was stuck in some backwater canyon. My superior was an idiot, but he seemed to respond well to my fake ass-kissing. Then there was Grif. What a lazy and incompetent ass. And with Lopez, I even saw myself forced to pretend not being able speak Spanish. And Donut. He's...just...Donut.
When I heard that Drake, our Leader, had been killed by an idiotic jerk in the body of a floating ball, a floating ball, I just couldn't believe it. He was a good soldier and a good leader. And he was killed by a...no, I'm not gonna think about that anymore.
The Insurrectionists were my comrades. My friends. Nobody could ever replace them. And these idiots...
"Grif! How many times do I have to tell you that you can't take a nap on the warthog?!"
These idiots...
"Sarge, you can yell at me all you want, I'm still not gonna listen to you."
"Simmons! Get out here, ASAP."
These idiots could never replace them.
Simmons exited the base and walked over to the other Reds. "Simmons, I need to bury Grif!"
"But I'm not dead."
"No, if you were, I would just leave you here to rot! This way, you'll die the way you lived. Laying on your lazy ass!"
But they are as close as anyone could ever get.