Big: Well, here we are. Our first chapter without June. *looks around empty room* It's pretty lonely in here. I guess I'll just have to bring in a few cameos. First I'll need to figure out who they'll be. Anyway, here's the story.

Important Message: I just watched a buddy playing MW3 have a run in with a corrupt moderator who banned someone who simply asked if he had the ability to ban. Then he went and muted a kid who asked to ask him a question! What the Fuck is this? I'll tell you what. It's enough for me to start up a campaign to figure who this guy was so that we could report him. But first I'll need some info. Anyone with problems like that please PM me so that I can add that statement to my email to Microsoft, asking that this be investigated.

Chapter 2

Agriculture Satellite Plentiful, in orbit around Pluvia Silva Colony

6/8/2570

2000 Hours

"Where the Hell are Caboose and Rachel?" Jenny asked, a bit confused and angry.

"How the Hell should we know?" Lea replied trying to find her helmet which had fallen when the lights had gone off, "Ow, okay, who did that?!"

"What am I touching right now?" Wash asked as he felt around trying to find a light switch.

"That would be my breast plate Wash," Jenny responded, a little pissed but a little flattered at the same time.

"Oh, sorry."

You shouldn't, she thought but didn't say.

"Grab your helmets," Tex spoke out, feeling around in the dark, "They've got heat and ultraviolet vision."

"We're having a little trouble with that," Church yelled, tripping on a piece of unseen furniture.

"We can't grab our helmets if we can't see them, right now the only thing anyone has grabbed was Wash getting a good grip on Jenny," Lea grumbled.

"Bow chicka bow wow."

"Tucker you'd better hope you get your helmet before I do because when I do I'm caving in your skull," Wash replied angrily.

It was at that moment that the group heard a single noise that sent chills down their spine. It was quiet at first, then grew louder and louder. The Blues were completely unaware of what this sound was, it was as if nails or claws were scratching on the metal plating under its feet or paws as it approached. But they had no idea where the sound was coming from, it sounded as if it were in their midst.

"What is that?" Church quietly whispered, continuing to try and feel for his helmet.

"Whatever it is it can't be good, we need our helmets, now!" Tex responded further trying to find her helmet.

They all quickly felt around, and finally found their helmets. They quickly snapped them in place and then began scanning the area with their heat vision turned on. They had no clue if they had the right helmets but by the way the helmets smelled they guessed that they probably weren't theirs. But they made do anyway. Trying to figure out what was moving their way they tried grabbing their weapons until they heard the bone chilling sound of growling coming from an adjacent hallway. They all turned and saw the shadow of something big moving their way.

"We should probably get out of here," Tucker breathed.

"How 'bout…NOW?!" Lea yelled breaking into a full sprint and charging out the adjacent hall as the creature came around the corner with teeth barred.

"Wait for me!" Tucker yelled seeing his girlfriend take off. And ran full tilt to catch up without grabbing his weapon.

"Hey! You cowards!" Jenny said, turning to see the forms of Tucker and Lea round the corner.

"It's just a…" Tex said, turning to yell at her team mates.

But just as she did that whatever it was sprinted directly at her, sensing weakness and catapulted itself right into her. Wash saw the heat form slam into Tex and knock her into the counter where her head connected with a sickening crack. Her whole body went limp in that moment as the animal stood on top of her, growling loudly at the Blues as its glowing red eyes stared at them in a predatory gaze. Church was the first to try and do something seeing as how Tex seemed to be completely out cold and defenseless. The creature turned and charged straight at him, Church could hear it snapping its jaws at him as he backed up to avoid the creature and get to Tex as Wash and Jenny decided to try and make a grab for her. They snatched her up off the ground and yanked her arms over their shoulders and started to try and get her out of harm's way.

"Church come on!"

"Wait up assholes!" Church yelled as they were about to close the door.

"Then hurry up bitch!" Tucker replied, holding his hand over the door control.

Church ducked as the creature jumped right at him mouth open ready to take a piece of his head with it. He rolled to the ground and ran as the creature landed on a sofa, knocking it over and then rolled to its feet barking furiously in the process. Church attempted to run as fast as possible as the creature got its bearings and charged back after him. Church dove as the door started to close on him and the creature sprinted at him at top speed.

"You assholes!" he yelled as the door slammed shut.

"Hey we didn't want to get eaten," Lea replied as Wash helped Church to his feet.

"But at least that…thing is trapped in there," Jenny said relieved leaning against the bulkhead.

Right on cue they all heard another sound, growling, right behind them.

Rachel

Orchards

The dark seemed almost oppressive as the grass crunched beneath Rachel's feet as she desperately searched the orchards of apple, orange, peach, and other assorted fruit trees trying to find the missing Caboose. She'd been out here for at least half an hour and hadn't found anything but what she might be eating for the next few months. Needless to say she wasn't disappointed, there was everything out here. From her favorites, oranges and cashews, to her least favorite foods; habanero peppers and cinnamon this place had it all. She found herself distracted several times trying to see if a certain field of plants was something she liked and she ended up finding herself lost even more than she had before. She'd crossed several bridges that glowed on the edges a faint green to illuminate themselves. Looking down she saw the pristine waters of winding rivers and the shimmering of fish swimming freely in the current. The glow of the gas giants seemed to cast their glorious red and blue light down onto her as she walked and searched for Caboose.

This place is the best base ever! She thought to herself as she stumbled onto a field of carrots and potatoes. She walked amongst it and saw that there was a set of boot prints. Excited to see just a hint that Caboose was nearby she dropped to knee to take a close look at the prints. Shining her helmet lights onto the nearest print she saw that it was deep, meaning that someone big had made it, also there was a paw print, it was very big, and very much the print of a large predator judging by the claws that seemed to protrude from the toes of the thing. She breathed a sigh of relief that it was going the other way and that it was relatively old in comparison to Caboose's foot print. She looked around just to be safe and saw a path leading in the opposite direction through a stand of large bushes that were bare of any fruit but the sign on the path said "Blueberries."

She got up and trudged off, careful not to step on any of the plants. She ducked under the bushes that overhung their branches into the path and moved carefully forward. She knew this would quite a long night if she didn't find Caboose soon. She could just see him now, trying to eat something he might be allergic to or worse, something trying to eat him!

Snap out of it! She slapped herself on the head, ridiculing herself for letting her imagination get the better of herself. Caboose is fine, she told herself, if something tries to eat him it'll break its teeth on his armor then he'll probably try adopting it.

She chuckled to herself at the thought of Caboose holding something like a werewolf in his arms like a puppy, asking Church if he could keep it. She shrugged off the pleasant thought of Church yelling like a little girl at this and continued onwards. She found that it was tough going through the path with it going down at an angle that took her deeper into the jungle of food bearing plants. Leaves crunched under her boots and stuck tight from the moist earth underfoot and continued forward, trying not to slip as she made her way down, hopefully towards Caboose.

Well it could be worse, it could be raining.

Right on cue a sheet of crystal clear water poured down, soaking the area around her in a single second. Rachel looked up at the dome and water pipes on the ceiling and sighed.

Well played God, well played.

She stepped forward a little pissed off and forgot to pay attention. This cost her dearly, her foot caught on a root and her momentum threw her forward down the slope. She gasped in surprise and fell, hard. Mud splattered her visor as she slid down the slick slope, smashing into branches, twigs, and roots all along the way. She had absolutely no control over her fall as she tried to gain control over herself by grabbing for the bushes next to her, snapping quite a few small branches or slipping off of the larger ones. She rotated all the way down, ricocheting off of the bushes and slamming into whatever got in her way. Rachel ended up crashing through a brace of sugarcane and fell down a terrace and farther down the slope until she ended up headed right towards another orchard of large trees. She never saw the tree she was sliding right at until her helmet collided with it.

She hit it extremely hard at eleven miles and hour, hard enough for her helmet's visor to crack badly and her lights to flash repeatedly as they fought to stay on. Her body twisted itself as she landed on her back, helmet facing the sky. She saw the HUD on her visor flicker badly and then die out completely as she tried to lift her head. But stars swarmed into her head and her vision immediately blurred. Water pecked at her visor and armor as she lay there motionless, her head resting in fine green grass, The leaves of the trees seemed to shimmer wonderfully as she looked around for where she was, only to see that she was surrounded by more plant life with a darkness all around her, the flickering of her helmet's lights fighting the dark back as best it could.

Great, this again, she thought disdainfully. Guess I'll just take it easy for a while. Regain my bearings and head out later. Too bad about the helmet though.

She allowed herself to relax as even thinking hurt at this point. She could hear the small pecking of water drops hitting her armor and her helmet as she waited for the pain in her head to die down. It was so peaceful here, so serene, she smiled to herself thinking about how good of a gig they now had. Looking to her side she the long graceful curves of Bermuda grass scattered with fine water droplets which shined from the beautiful night sky above the trees.

Once the pain had gone she tried to roll over on her belly to push herself up off the deck and then, waves of nausea swept over her, this time however, it didn't subside. She stumbled as she attempted to stand up, and when she took her first step her feet just dragged and she fell flat on her face, directly into a puddle of grass and water. Her helmet's visor leaked profusely, cold water kissed at her face as she felt for the release on it to keep herself from being trapped in a leaky helmet as it continued o flicker its lights in a vain attempt at life. But as she tried so desperately to get it off her vision failed, her limbs went numb and weakened. And she finally fell unconscious.

The rain from the pipes in the domed ceiling never stopped as she lay there completely unconscious from such a bad fall. She'd taken worse of course, her armor had protected her from just about everything that could be thrown at her. But she'd had back up then, and she was safe enough to quickly recover, but not here, not in an area that was more dangerous than it let on. She would just have to wait for help from Caboose, or for her team mates to come looking for her and Caboose once they'd been missed.

But it seemed someone, or something else had found her first. It hovered over her, scanning her damaged armor and then flew off into the dark, uninterested in the hulk of armor and the human inside of it. Floating off, it joined a swarm of its identical counterparts and flew into formation around them as they soared overhead.

Red Team

Red Territory

"Alright men and women, we're going out into the dome."

"Really Sarge?" Grif groaned, "We just got here!"

"And so have the Blues! Which means they're completely unprepared!"

"So are we!" Lisa responded.

"Exactly, which means we have the advantage," Carmen replied smugly.

"No, that means we are both at a disadvantage. Which means we are both evenly unprepared!" Simmons replied, pointing out the flaw in their logic.

"You're making fun of me aren't ya?" Carmen hissed angrily.

"Uh no, I mean yes… or no…I," he paused, not very pleased or comfortable to be the center of such attention.

"Just shutup Simmons," Sarge growled.

"Yes sir."

"Now that settles it. We're headed out on a scouting mission into the domed thingy," Sarge said, "We're pairing up, get with your partners and…"

Sarge was not very surprised to see the other Reds to immediately magnetize towards their opposite number. Grif was with Liz sitting side by side at the row of bar stools, Simmons standing next to Lisa by the balcony entrance, Kate hopped into Donut's arms, Hawaii was with Alaska sitting on the couch next to her. He looked to see that Carmen was within a foot of him on his right side.

"What?" she asked as if something was wrong.

"Oh nothing at all."

"Finally I get to be with no one to slow me down. What a fucking miracle," Lopez said in joy, although his tone of Spanish voice didn't hint at it.

"Aww, don't worry Lopez you can go with Monty," Kate said, as if trying to make the robot not feel alone.

"Shit."

"Now, we'll split up to cover more ground, Grif you and Liz are going to check out Blue Base."

"What?!" Liz yelled, "Are you kidding?!"

"Nope," Sarge replied satisfied.

"Simmons you're going along the walls of the dome to find any buildings we can use as outposts. Maybe some can be useful," Sarge ordered.

"What about us Sarge?" Kate piped up.

"I want you two on the high ground to see what you can find with your rifles."

"And the Freelancers and us will go check out the middle of the area, We'll be in the fields while you two are in the orchards. Maintain radio silence, we never know when the Blues might be waiting in ambush," Sarge warned.

"But if you see a Blue," Carmen said, "you know what to do."

The Reds all walked down the stairs off to their right by the entry hall to their living quarters and started going down the steps. The lights above their heads hummed as the clang of boots resounded throughout the hall as they all began moving on towards the exit. The glass doors hissed open and they all emerged into the beautiful night. The air was a pleasant seventy-eight degrees Fahrenheit and the light misty rain that fell from the ceiling out in the distance made them all very much mystified by the plant life surrounding them. Out in the distance small hills rose every so often and rivers flowed from their peaks in smooth contoured lines. The glow of twin gas planets in red and blue seemed to beautifully illuminate the setting they had found themselves in.

"Quit just standin' there starin' we got Blues to kill…I mean scout," Sarge ordered gruffly, the Reds all snapped on their helmets and started to fan out in pairs.

Grif and Liz went off down a well-lit path that glowed green from the ground level lights that shined down onto the dirt road. Sarge and Carmen went into the patch of lemon and lime trees next to the road on the left while Alaska and Hawaii went towards the lowlands to the right where there were numerous rice paddies, shimmering from the light. Simmons and Lisa went off towards the right, circling around the edge of the base along the metaled walls, staying up off the ground on a catwalk that was above the ground for an easier time moving around. That left Donut and Kate, they both went off to the right, where they saw the highest bit of ground where a group terraces were built up at least fifty feet tall capped off by a stand of trees.

As Grif and Liz were walking down the trail at a relaxed walking pace they couldn't help but look around at the bounty around them. There were flowers of all kinds, from the blossoms of small berries to the immense flowers of more exotic tropical fruits, this place had it all. They could see one another in the gloomy but romantic shade of purple and green that shined down and glinted off of their armor. Grif turned his head to look at her and saw she had taken off her helmet and was carrying it by her side, letting herself sniff the sweet aroma of the air they breathed.

"It's paradise isn't it?" she said dreamily.

"Yep, you said it," he said, slyly picking a mango from a tree above him that overhung the road, laden with the sweet fruit, "Pear?"

"Grif, that's a Mango," she replied cheerfully, "but thank you."

She took the ripened fruit and took a bite, the sweet juices flowed from the chunk that she took out and she wiped the juice from her face and smiled as she savored the tropical fruits flavor. Looking back at Grif she smiled happily, her teeth practically gleaming.

"It's delicious."

"I thought so," he said, reaching over and put his hand on the hand that was held over the helmet. He then traced his fingers up her arm and then to her face, gently brushing aside a loose lock of her dark red hair. She placed her helmet on her rifle and reached for his hand and firmly grasped it. They just walked in silence, helmet's off, hand in hand, enjoying the night, the air, and each other's presence.

"Grif?" she purred as they came to a bridge and stopped to look at the shimmering blue waters.

"Yeah?" Grif cooed from beside her.

"What would you think about a baby?" she asked, very cautious about the subject.

"I wouldn't know what to think why do you ask?" Grif said turning to her, his tone full of curiousity.

"I've been thinking about what Lisa said, how babies are a blessing. And I can't help but wonder, would I be a good mother? Could we raise a kid of our own?" she asked herself more than Grif who pondered this.

"Kids are a lot of work you know, and a lot of hours of sleep lost. We'd have to really think about it if we were to even consider having a kid."

"True, but we have our whole lives to think about that. And we're not even married yet. Boy, I don't know what my mother would say to me having a kid out of wedlock!" she joked.

"I can only imagine," Grif chuckled, seeing the humor of it all.

"Come on, we'd better keep moving," she said walking over the blue lit bridge.

"Why don't we just stay here?"

"Because I want to see what else is out here. You wouldn't let a girl walk alone in the woods would you?" she said seductively, looking at him wither best seductive glare.

"Well, once you put it that way, lead the way."

Off in another part of the domed garden were Hawaii and Alaska, the Red Team's Freelancers. These two were doing much the same thing that the others were doing, walking around, helmets off, and just enjoying life. Alaska's long white hair gently waved in the breeze, as the pair walked around taking in the sights of the wealth of life around them. Indeed everything seemed to be just the way fate had promised when they had reunited on in that hurricane pounded city.

"Hey Alaska, how do you think we found each other? I mean after all this time we had been walking two different paths a galaxy apart and yet he we are, together arm in arm," Hawaii asked, looking at his true love.

"I guess our paths aren't as different as we thought," she responded brushing her hands on a row of vines that hung from terraces above them.

"I guess so, perhaps it was fate," Hawaii replied slyly, whipping her around to be against his chest and wrapped his arms around her, "that brought us here together."

"I've always wondered how you did that," she giggled as they embraced in an emotional kiss.

"Like I said baby, being a surfer has its advantages."

The pair embraced in one another's arms as the brush rustled in the wind. But there was also something else watching them. It scanned Alaska from afar before turning around and zipping away to find the rest of its swarm.

"Come on slowpoke!" Kate giggled running up the hill to win the little race they were having.

"Hey no fair, you had a head start," Donut whined as he ran to catch up to his girlfriend. She zigzagged up the hill, ducking behind trees to look to see if Donut was still right behind her. But once she reached the top of the fifty foot hill she looked down but didn't see Donut at all this time. She came out from behind the tree she was behind and looked around, seeing only the wavy leaves and grasses of the garden beyond. All of it shimmering in the purple light cast by the gas giants and she also saw the shimmering green lighted trails and roads that zigzagged their way around the the dome and the faint blue light of the rivers and streams that fed the plants and animals. But she didn't see the pink armor of Donut anywhere.

"Donut?" she called, more curious than worried at this point, "Donut?!" she repeated, now getting worried about if he had slipped and fell.

"Boo!"

Kate instantly let out an ear piercing scream that seemed to shake the trees above them both.

"Kate, it's just me!" Donut whined as he held his hands over his ears, "Boy you really don't like people sneaking up on you do you?"

"Donut! Don't you ever do that again!" she said loudly and started punching at his chest plate, forcing him backwards towards the edge of the hill.

"Kate calm down calm down, what's with the…whoa!" the two Reds immediately stepped off of the edge of the cliff and started sliding down on top of each other and finally slid right down into a small outcropping that had a single cherry blossom tree in full bloom right above them. The two of them looked up to see the beautiful pedals falling gracefully down towards them and then onto the ground and looked back at each other. Donut reached up and brushed Kate's hair aside as it hung down into her face and smiled at her as she did the same to him. Their world was perfect and Donut made sure to mark this day.

"Hey Kate, watch this," Donut said pulling out a knife and walked to the tree.

"What are you doing?" she asked as Donut took the knife and started scraping a heart into the soft bark of the cherry blossom tree.

"Look," he said carving in a 'D' and a 'K' next to one another, "Now we know that this is our spot."

"Wouldn't have it any other way," she replied, picking one of the large flowers from a branch not a few feet from her head.

"Neither would I," Donut replied, placing another flower in her hair above her right ear, the rich pink of the pedals accenting her eyes and her hair beautifully. He leaned down and placed a gentle kiss on her lips that she returned gently, melding into one another's arms.

They sat down side by side and stared out over the land they had now found themselves in and looked over it from their secluded corner of heaven, pink flower pedals cascading around them from the large tree. The glow of the red and blue twin planets seemed to turn this place into one of true beauty, Donut held his hand over hers as she leaned up against him. Their peace completely, perfect.

Off in the distance they could see the other rising hills with all manner of plant life growing on them, from any number of orchards to fields of grain, or stands of vine type plants. But they also saw something else.

"Hey Donut, what're those?" Kate asked, lifting her head up off of Donut's shoulder.

"What?"

"There," she pointed to the small shapes off in the distance, "see 'em?"

"Yeah, I do, what are those things?"

"Whatever they are they're headed back towards the walls. Birds maybe?" she asked, curious.

"Maybe, I've seen bees, it wouldn't surprise me if there were birds."

"I guess you're right."

Simmons and Lisa were still walking on the catwalk on the walls of the Plentiful's main garden. But they soon found out that they weren't alone. Simmons constantly thought that he was seeing things and their progress slowed quite a lot.

"There it was again!" Simmons groaned loudly, hearing a buzzing sound in the distance, looking out over the field of wheat that they were above.

"Simmons you've said that at least three or four times in the last five minutes, give it a rest. I'm not gonna jump into your arms like a little girl at a horror movie."

Simmons rolled his eyes as he followed Lisa who just kept walking as he scanned the land for the source of the noise. But then it was gone again, without so much as seeing it. So he just tried shoving it to the back of mind but his instincts said that there must be something out there. But he continued to catch up to Lisa as they continued their walk on the metal platform that snaked its way across the walls fifteen feet off the ground.

"So Simmons how far are we going to go? This place is huge, there's no way we can make it all the way around the wall," Lisa said, stopping to look around at the sheer size of the dome.

"How 'bout to that waterfall, from there we can take a break and then decide on what we're doing then?" Simmons suggested pointing at a waterfall that was about three hundred yards away from them.

"Sounds like a plan, maybe there's a building over there we can use."

They walked forward again, switching position this time, with Simmons in the lead as the two Reds made their way towards the roaring waterfall gushing from the side of the dome. It was just like the other waterfall by their base, peaceful, serene and bordered by life in the form of vines of strawberries.

The walkway cut right through the roaring current that the two Reds were resting nearby. They sat there talking away with one another about this and that, what all they thought Sarge or Carmen would do once things began to settle down and what their own plans for the future were.

"Simmons, where do we see ourselves, I mean, where is this relationship going?" Lisa asked quietly, almost afraid of the answer she might hear.

Simmons was quiet, his face a mask of thought as he contemplated what she had asked and what he was going to say. He didn't want to upset her by saying what he wanted to say, which was, you're the best thing to ever happen to me and I want to marry and have kids together. But that might make him sound needy and protective, but he was also afraid that she might be thinking the same thing, and wanted to marry him as well.

"I uh was hoping that maybe we'd…get married?" he whimpered, hoping that he wouldn't get a slap on the back of the head for being so up front with her.

She was silent a moment, mostly due to shock from having heard something she never thought a guy would ask her, ever since joining the army all she'd heard was how women had a tough time finding a man that would actually marry a woman soldier. But now that little saying had been blown out of the water, and she started smiling wider and more happily than she had ever before, her stomach seemed to be hosting the gymnastics it was so nervous as she realized the implications of what she wanted and what she now knew Simmons wanted.

"Really?" she asked, "I've been waiting for that for so long that I could just…" she lost her tongue as she trembled with excitement until she simply decided to dive into Simmons.

But Simmons was leaning on the railing overlooking the river, and when the two Reds collided in their embrace they were both sent tumbling over the side. Their armor completely protected them from injury, but their armor wasn't totally sealed, because they had their helmets off, and water poured right onto their heads and hair, leaking under the undersuits. The Red couple was well and truly soaked as they got up out of the shallow water and made it to the rocky shoreline.

Simmons looked at Lisa who had gotten up out of the water and now lay next to him, panting at having fallen from such a height and made it out unscathed.

"Wow, I wonder what your reaction would be if I proposed?"

Out in the middle of the rustling green garden Sarge and Carmen were taking their whole expedition way too seriously. The two Reds ducked from tree to tree and bush to bush in the deepest thickest part of the garden where huge thick bushes of blueberries covered the incoming light from above, leaving only their own lights on their helmets for guidance.

"Hey Sarge," Carmen piped up, "Why are we being so sneaky? I don't think the Blues are even out here."

"Of course they are. This is now a combat zone Corporal," Sarge replied, poking his head around a corner.

"Well I don't think so," Carmen responded, standing straight up and walked out into the open trail.

As Carmen walked towards Sarge the sound of footsteps began to echo Carmen as she walked. She turned around and looked up to see a massive figure. In its hands was an Assault Rifle held harmlessly in both hands with its head cocked to the side.

"Hello Red lady," the childish voice of Caboose was heard.

"Caboose?" Carmen asked, "What are you doing out here?"

"Oh I'm just trying to find Rachel," Caboose responded, "We're playing hide and seek. Wanna play too?"

"Hide and seek eh?" Sarge contemplated.

"Sarge?" Carmen said, a bit curious.

"Follow my lead," he whispered.

"What are we whispering about?"

"Dammit Caboose, how many times have I told ya not to tune into our frequencies?"

"Many times Sergeant, but I have a very bad memory…oh look blueberries!"

"So I see," Sarge agreed angrily.

"Who are you looking for again Caboose, Rachel you said?" Sarge asked.

"That's right, I am looking for my favorite girl Rachel. She's wearing Blue armor like me. And she doesn't have her shotgun so she doesn't hurt me on accident," Caboose said cheerfully, perking up the ears of the two Reds.

"No weapon huh?" Carmen said, "and it's the shotgun wielding Blue too. Oh we can use her. Sarge back at Ridgeline they couldn't survive without her. She was what made their base function."

"Really? We can use that kind of leverage."

"Come on Reds, let's go find Rachel," Sarge and Carmen walked behind Caboose into the brush until they heard the crashing of bushes snapping and Caboose's frightened yells, "Oh no!"

The two Reds ran forward and then fell into the same little slip and slide of a hill that Caboose had just fallen down. Both of the shotgun wielding Reds went tumbling roughly down the slick muddy slope of the main trail and crashed through already broken plant life out of control. They were completely powerless to stop their sliding until they finally hit a brace of sugarcane and cascaded out into an orchard finally stopping in the fresh green wet grass.

"Ow, my head!" Carmen grumbled as she stumbled onto her feet. It wasn't the best landing she'd had, but not the worst either. So when she looked around and tried getting her bearings she wasn't surprised. It wasn't a spot that they had ever been before, as the large trees with no fruit of any kind hanging from their branches said they were not in an active spot for harvesting.

"Rachel we found you!" Caboose was heard yelling as she leaned over to help up Sarge.

"What that fast?" Carmen asked nothing in particular as she saw Caboose lean down next to a figure on her back completely unconscious. It was Rachel alright, the Mk V helmet was a clear giveaway and the dark blue armor was the other clue. But that same armor and helmet had been put through hell. The gold visor was badly cracked with a few pieces flaking off entirely. The armor was dented and scratched from bad physical contact and the amount of mud and grass stuck to her armor was an indication she had been there for a while.

"What happened to her?" Sarge asked, leaning down next to the unconscious Blue.

"I don't know, I've never seen anything but Hawaii do this kind of damage," Carmen said, examining the mangled helmet.

"Oh, maybe they know," Caboose said happily as always.

"Maybe who…oh shit."

"Oh yeah," Sergey said mockingly.

"Oh busted bitch!" Sister squeeled.

"Blarg!"

From three sides came three Blues, Sergey, Sister, and Junior, all with weapons raised to fire. The two Reds groaned in indignation at this change of spots and raised their hands in surrender.

"Alright Reds what did you do to her?" Sergey said, "and don't you think about lying to me!"

"Yeah, he knows when you lie, trust me I've tried."

"Sister!"

"Sorry."

"We didn't do anything you jackass," Carmen responded, "we just fell down that slope and Caboose found her here."

"Did they do it?" Sister asked looking skyward.

"That's what I'm trying to find out Sis…"

"Not the Reds, those guys," she pointed straight up towards at least a dozen hovering machines with arms outstretched with knives and claws attached. On each of them was a single slit of green that scanned the Reds and Blues and just surveyed them as they hovered there motionless. They didn't dare move, lest they provoke the machines into attacking and doing the same thing to them as they did to Rachel.

"Uh guys…I think we need to get out of here," Carmen said, pointing her shotgun up and at the unknowns hovering above them.

"Agreed, let's get out of here!"

The Reds and Blues charged off in all directions, leaving a confused Caboose and unconscious Rachel behind. Several of the machines went zooming off after them, humming a robotic warbling sound that just followed them as they went screaming and firing off their weapons into the dark.

Rachel began to stir and blinked away the haziness in her vision as she sat up to see that she was alone in the clearing with caboose as the sounds of gunfire echoed off into the night.

What's goin' on here?

Big: Boom, and done with this one. That was tough to get done, but it's done at last. Thanks for reading folks. Hope you enjoyed yourselves.

Sarge: Now press that review button on the bottom of the screen dirtbags!

Big: Sarge?! When did you get into the cameo box?

Carmen: You left the door unlocked stupid! We needed a place to hide from those creepy robots you pulled out of your twisted skull.

Sarge: Uh oh, they're comin' see ya later scumbags.

Big: Okay, they're gone. Now I can close this thing out.

Next Chapter Preview: Where are they now? And what the fuck is attacking the Blues?!