Recovered by UNSC Search-and-Rescue division, dispatched 2565 A.D.
Begin Transcription
{My name is Lavernius Tucker.}
{13 Years ago I was in a meaningless war, fighting someone I didn't want to. It made no sense, even back then. We were given orders to kill the Reds, and we failed at it, time and time again. Five years we did that. Just followed each other in stupid bullshit like spanish robots, ghosts, AI, freelancers, aliens, prophecies, and time travel.}
{I'd give anything to go back to that.}
{Now our fight is finally over. We lost Carolina and Wash during the Chorus war. We knew they had died when the Communications temple had relayed a message saying the planet was going to kill all living beings in 3 minutes. We had succeeded in getting the message out, but with the planet about to purge all of us, it didn't matter. We managed to get a pelican in time and escape with a few people. Most of the armies decided to stay behind, and Caboose. He said he wanted to stay and do what he could to help people. If nothing else he always was happy. Kimball just...broke down. She wasn't moving or talking after she heard. It was like her world had just ceased to exist. All that effort, the world she united to fight Locus and Felix, the constant soul searching to confirm to herself that she was making the right decisions, and in one stroke, they had turned her ambitions to ash.}
{Simmons and Grif went down making sure the message got out, and I just took a pelican and ran. Church, I mean Epsilon, came with me, but I don't know how long he can hold out. He's barely conscious right now. His base routines are still active, so I'm having him record this, but he won't realize it's there unless he or someone else goes looking for it. He described the process to me back when we were trying to track down the Director.}
[A long silence, followed by sounds of operating a console]
{But anyway, here we are. all of my friends are gone, and I'm out of fuel in the middle of nowhere. There's a planet close by, according to the scanner. Maybe gravity will pull the ship over, given enough time, but with no fuel, it'll be a hard landing. The life support systems will have shut down by then too. All I can do is wait it out. Someone might see the tiny hole in slipspace I made, maybe hear the distress call I sent out, or just chance past us, but I wouldn't count on it. In any case, The Chairman will be looking for all of that too, so that ruins that plan as well. I wish it could have ended better. I hope it does. But the only way I see this going down is with me dying, and Epsilon needs to conserve the power in my armor to keep himself alive.}
[Various clicking and whirring, assumed removing armor pieces. Continued speech fainter, as more distant from microphone]
{This is it. After this, we might have a chance, and I'll finally get to rest.}
[Pistol chambers a round]
{Epsilon, End Recording.}
End Transcription
Filed under section 3 of "UNSC Investigation into Malcom Hargrove"
Archived in UNSC Military Service Records, under "Pvt. Lavernius Tucker"
Archived in UNSC-ONI Shared Intelligence Records, Keywords: "Freelancer","AI", "Chorus", "Director", "Time Travel" (Redirect: "Red vs. Blue")
FILE UPDATE: Document led to discovery of illegal activity on the part on Malcom Hargrove and the status of the planet Chorus, in conjunction with transmission received on the day before by the fragment-AI, codename "Epsilon" (See also: "Red vs. Blue")