Hey guys Price here and welcome to chapter 2 of the California Chronicles! I managed to find a free writing app that has a word count for my iPad so I can now write on this. This means I can now continue my stories without a computer...although I'll be happier when I get Pages, I will take what I can get right now. Anyway, I hope you like it, and I have a special surprise in the end note. Also, I changed this story DRASTICALLY compared to the original draft that I will upload when I get the computer it is on to work. Now. Onto the story!
"My name is Project Freelancer Agent #41, also known as Agent California, but my friends call me Cali. This entry journal series was suggested to me when I first joined Project Freelancer by my brother, James. Also known as Project Freelancer Agent #11, or Agent New York, but he prefers just York. He said it would give him, our family, and any friends I made at Project Freelancer to remember me by if I died in the field. Another reason I agreed is to tell my story to anyone who finds this. It started out as a woman my bro met at some place called Club Ererra. The next day, we were at the gym when the same woman came up and, after a...HEATED argument, she dragged us out the door and asked us if we wanted to join this new super soldier experiment. We accepted, naturally, I mean, who doesn't want to wear Mjonlir...they never told us about the augmentations. They knew we would all leave if they did. Now, onto the REAL thing. This is the story of why I need to kill her.
-Not as huge time gap to be explained in later chapter-
"This is ex-Project Freelancer Agent #41 signing off...forever."
"Hey new girl! Get in here!"
"Yes Sarge!"
-(Beginning of story)-
James and his sis were in a shuttle somewhere in the Eridanus star system, waiting for it to arrive at their destination. The shuttle was a heavily modified D77H-TCI Pelican Dropship, used to move valuable cargo and other assets from one place to another. Instead of the normal red lighting of a military Pelican, the lighting was a white light, like one you would expect to find in a building. While this gave the duo better lighting to see things, it also got annoying when they wanted to sleep. One such instance was when James had fallen asleep with a helmet he'd borrowed from the pilot on his head, the visor polarized to it's highest level. He had, much to his sister's amusement, swatted at something in his dream, and his brain carried the signals to his real arm, and he had knocked the helmet off when he had jumped in surprise when he swatted, like he had tried to hit something, but been startled at the same time. This caused the helmet to fall off, and, as James tended to sometimes sleep with his eyes open, his eyes had been burned for a little while.
"I spy with my little eye, something...brown." James said, having played this game for the past four hours, he was getting bored and running out of things to find.
"A rat." His sister said, playing on his fear of rats and mice due to a...complicated series of events that lead to a dead rat and mouse in practically everything of his, including his favorite snacks, food, cereal, drinks, shoes, and, somehow, in his toothpaste and deodorant tubes.
"A rat? Where?!" He shouted, pulling his feet off the ground and looking around.
"No where, I was just joking." She responded, rolling her eyes and sighing.
"You know I hate rats...and mice. You also know why. So why in God's name would you joke about that?" He asked, standing up and walking over to her.
"I'm sorry, I just said the first thing that came to mind when you said brown." She said, looking away and out the window. "Oh my God." She said, James walking to his seat and sitting down. "James we're there."
"It better not be another stupid joke." He said, obviously used to this.
"I'm serious. It's called the Mother of Invention." She said, James walking over and peering out her window.
"Oh my God your telling the truth." He said, jokingly jabbing at her by reminding her she used to lie...like all the time when she was younger.
"Hm. Don't act so surprised." She said sarcastically, shaking her head. "It's big."
"It's not about how big something is, it's how you use it." James said, making his sister roll his eyes.
"You say that every time someone says something about size." She said, looking at him in partial shame.
"That's not true!" He said, standing in the middle of the ship. "And don't look at me like that."
"Duck." She said, earning a confused glance from James before a rogue box flew out of nowhere and hit him in the head, knocking him out.
"Hey pilot?" She said, walking into the cockpit.
"Yeah?" The pilot asked, looking at her, her visor blocking her face.
"You tied down all cargo right?" She questioned, earning a depolarizing of the pilot's visor.
"Yeah. Why?"
"It's just that a random box came from nowhere and knocked my brother out." She said, the pilot looking at her like she was drunk, high, or some other crazy thing she would never be of her own free will.
"You're joking right?"
"No."
This answer led to an awkward silence between them.
"Well, I guess you'll have to help him. I am busy piloting this thing." The pilot said, looking back out the view screen.
"I don't know anything related to medicinal care at all!" She exclaimed, throwing her arms out wide, hitting her hands on the wall. "Ow. Other than the basic band-aid for small cuts of course."
The pilot just looked at her, clearly not understanding how that was possible.
"What?"
"Nothing, nothing." The pilot answered, turning back and checking her course. "This is going to be fun." The pilot muttered under her breath, rolling her eyes.
Upon arriving at the Mother of Invention with no more interesting events occurring, they were immediately ushered to a large room where there were fourty-eight other men and women who were waiting for their assignments.
James and his sister immediately stood at attention, their arms straight by their sides and their faces steadfast.
"Check out the bots." James' sister heard someone whisper, her peripheral vision already finding him and checking him out for weaknesses she could use.
"Don't do it sis." James said, his mouth barely moving, his voice almost a whisper.
"Too late." She said, stepping backward and disappearing into the people behind her, the man who had spoke moving towards the center of the mass of people, hoping to break her line of sight. No such luck.
She came in from behind, kicking the back of his knee, then kicking him in the back, sending him skidding across the floor.
"Recruits 25 and 31, stand down!" A loud voice spoke, startling everyone, including James' sister. "You will get your chance to fight later! For now, stand at opposite ends of this room, and report to the councillor after this meeting is over!" The man, an either somewhat elderly man, or a very, very stressed man.
"Sir yes sir!" She said, saluting and walking back to her brother, the other recruit walking to the opposite side of the crowd, muttering something about her, her brother, and robots. Most likely calling them robots for how strict and regulated they acted.
"I hate that guy." She said, not even looking at James.
"Agreed."
She sighed, the man on the raised platform finally getting ready.
"Welcome to your new homes for the next few years, or months depending on whether you make it or not." The man said, the crowd murmuring to each other about what he could mean. "My name is Leonard Church, but you will call me the Director. At least the ones who make it will." The man, now identified as the Director, then turned and walked out, the man named Aiden stepping forward.
"Agents 25 and 31, please go to room 203 on B-Deck,and I shall meet you there." He said, reading off his tablet, James' sister and the other man walking away from the main group, James' sister saluting before walking away.
After arriving at the room, Aiden somehow getting there before them, even though she and the other man, named John, had full out sprinted in a little race to see who would get there first, James' sister even jumping off a higher walkway onto John's back, placing her feet to merely knock him down instead of killing or paralyzing him. She even waited for him, feeling bad about knocking him out cold for a few minutes.
Other than that, there was no way he could have gotten ahead of them.
"How did you beat us here exactly?" John asked, confused.
"I took the elevator." Aiden answered, John and James' sister looking at each other, both confused.
"There's an elevator?" John asked, shrugging. "Hm."
"Yes. Now, onto why we're here. Why did she attack you, John?" Aiden asked, John clearing his throat and looking away awkwardly.
"I called her and her brother robots." John said, taking a step away from her in fear of being beat again.
"Well then I'm sure you are unaware of the fact that she served in the UNSC for a few years, and, aside from the fact that she disobeyed orders to kill all contacts that were not UNSC, she had a perfect record. So some ROBOTIC-LIKE actions are to be expected. She later passed her respect for command to her brother James. After her service was over due to a plasma round to the upper torso, she focused on building herself back up to her former physical strength and endurance. Her and James were both surprised that she survived, as it had almost hit her heart, only missing by a few inches." Aiden finished, John looking at the floor, comptemplating what he had been told.
Hey John?" James' sister said, John looking at her, obviously regretting what he had said.
"Yeah?" He asked, still a little shocked that someone who had taken a plasma round so close to their heart was sitting next to him.
"Don't apologize. I've been told 'sorry', and 'this shouldn't have happened' ever since it happened. I'm tired of it. I want people to see me for what I am now, not what happened 3 years ago." She said, John looking at her confused.
"Three years? Jeez you recovered quickly, didn't you." John said, chuckling lightly.
"I'm twenty-two, so yeah, there's that." She said, John obviously surprised that she had almost died at nineteen. "It was my first year on the Outer Colonies. I had graduated from the academy in late 2545, and was on active duty in 2546, on the colony Sargasso, and the city of Belisk. I was in Gamma-Six, an ODST squad." She said, chuckling when John's mouth hung open in shock. "It was during the battle to defend a facility owned by Lethbridge that it happened. I was running low on ammo like the rest of my squad, when I spotted an enemy Carbine. I tried to go for it, and one of those smaller and cowardly guys tagged me. They assumed me dead, and I only escaped by pretending to be dead until a small patrol came around. I took out the smaller guys and took their weapons before taking out the big ones. They almost got word out, but I overcharged the Plasma Pistol and took down their craft, and it crashed into a hill and exploded." She said, John and the Councillor both looking at her in surprise, John from the fact she had survived all that, and the councillor from learning information he could not find in her dossier.
"How did you escape the planet?" John asked, clearly interested.
"I found a radio on a dead squad member and managed to contact the UNSC ship Gamma-Six's new CO and Alpha-Nine extracted to." She answered, John huffing in disbelief.
"Alpha-Nine? Isn't that the squad commanded by Gunnery Sergeant Bu-"
"Yeah. It is." She said, interrupting John, who whistled in awe.
"I believe we are done here, correct?" The Councillor asked, looking up from his datapad.
"Yeah. I think we are." She said, standing up and walking out, followed by John.
"You were joking about all that, right?" John asked when they got into an elevator to go to the Command Room.
She waited for a little while to respond, not speaking until the door was about to open.
"No." She said, walking out of the elevator and standing at attention behind the Director, John joining her "Director." She said, gaining his attention.
"Ah, Recruits 25 and 31, I hope you two have either made up, or at least gotten past your petty argument until the real program begins." He said, putting his hands behind his back.
"Sir I would like to ask where we report to now." She said, John rolling his eyes.
"Report to Medical Lab 4C." He said, James' sister nodding to show she understood.
"Sir yes sir." She said, saluting and turning to walk away when the Director spoke again.
"And try to refrain from speaking and acting like this is the military. It may get on others' nerves, and I don't want you all to start fighting. Yet." He said, whispering the last part under his breath, James' sister barely hearing it.
They made they're way to Medical Lab 4C fairly quickly, and complied with instructions with minimal complaint, save for when they asked John to strip in order to examine his physical appearance. His excuse was that he was excited easily when being looked at naked. They made him strip anyway, and James' sister regretted being in that room and watching them do their check-ups in order to know what to do, and in what order to do so in.
When it was her turn, she asked if John could either step out, or step behind a wall. He was then forced to step out and into the hallway, barely managing to grab a towel and put it on before getting pushed out.
She performed the same tests, and complied with zero complaints, only being still when she heard John tap the door to ask if he could come back in.
After she was done, they were given medical garbs and asked to lay on the beds that were on the opposite side of the door, where they would perform surgery to give them better chances of doing what they would be required to do once the program began.
"We were not informed about these augmentations." James' sister said, already knowing what they meant.
"There was a reason for that." One of the doctors said, James' sister picking up that the Director had known they would refuse if he had told them about the augmentations.
John merely sighed and laid on the bed, beckoning James's sister to do the same, and she complied with a sigh and grumble about how they better not augment anything that they didn't need to.
-SIX MONTHS LATER-
She was finally getting used to her augmentations, whereas the others were mostly used to them enough to train. Two recruits had died during the augmentation process. All 50 recruits had been designated with a state name. The two recruits to die had been designated as Alaska and North Carolina, leaving just South Carolina, but everyone just called her Carolina.
"Hey sis, how're you doing?" James, now designated as New York, but was mostly called York, said, sitting on the edge of her medical bed.
"I hate that you can't come train with us, Carolina recently floored me, Wyoming, and Connie every round. She's just too quick." He said, chuckling.
"I wish I could have too." She said, smiling. "Although I think I'll be able to come join you guys in just a few days." She said, chuckling when he looked excited. "I also received my official Agent designation. It's California." She said, James shaking his head.
"We're brother and sister, and they give us names of states that are on opposite sides of the U.S, weird." He said, looking at her. "Although I think I'll just call you Cali, shorter and easier to say in a tough situation."
"I agree, Cali would be a good nick-name." She said, raising her medical bed up quickly, making her back pop at not moving in two weeks, when John, designated as North Dakota, came in, stopping when he noticed that James was in there. "Hey there North." She said, smiling when he sighed.
"You know I never agreed to that nickname, even if it is good." He said, putting his head in his hand.
"Yeah, but it's fun to tease you." Cali said, chuckling.
"You get your designation yet?" John asked, walking up to her.
"Yeah, California. Just call me Cali though." She said, making John look at her in surprise.
"That is a very good nickname...I'd say I'm jealous but mine is good too." He said, looking at James for permission to sit, James giving it.
The nurse then walked in and immediately ushered the two boys out, much to John's disappointment.
"The doctor has given you the all clear. You have been declared physically fine, as well as mentally." She said, lowering Cali's medical bed to see if she could sit up on her own.
"Thank you. I know I took longer to recover, but I'm thankful SOMEONE was there to help me recover safely." She said, swinging her legs up and over the edge of the bed and standing.
"If you would like to go and view the remaining armor choices, you may. Just don't push yourself until two days from at least today." The nurse said, nodding and moving so Cali could move around and walk out, only stopping to ask where the armory was.
Upon arriving at the armory, she noticed something that caught her eye. It was an armor mix that included a CQB helmet, EVA chest piece, and Hayabusa shoulders. The color details were white for primary, red for secondary, and green for the detail color. She noticed two green combat tomahawks and grabbed them, folding them and putting them on a sliding rail which she connected to the underside of her armor's forearms. She also grabbed a green spray can and, after some mixing with a special paint concoction she had been working on at home, sprayed her visor green, leaving two spots over her eyes unsprayed. She then sprayed a few spots around her armor green, and sprayed an emblem she thought made sense on her left shoulder piece. It was a brown bear paw with a gold background and gold nails, and she thought it made sense when compared to her name.
She put on her nano-suit and packed the armor to the room number the nurse had been told to give her, surprised to find a woman in brown armor sitting on the bed opposite hers, although she was looking at her helmet. The woman's armor was an EOD helmet and chest piece, and scout shoulders.
"So you finally got out. I was curious to see when you would." The woman said, not even looking at her.
"Yeah. The names Cali, by the way. Whats yours?" Cali asked, laying her armor on her bed, then sitting on it.
"Connecticut. But you can either call me Connie or CT." The woman answered, making Cali smile lightly.
"You know, I can't understand why we have state names, although I think it has to do with the number of Agents, minus Alaska and North Carolina of course." Cali said, her face taking an expression of curiosity.
"Probably." Connie said, obviously not used to talking a lot to others, or just preferred not to.
Suddenly, an alarm went out that had something to do with testing of an experimental "Bubble Shield."
"Warning, due to the Bubble Shield experimentation failure last week, all Agents report to the Mess Hall for an updated schedule." The female robotic voice announced, Cali looking to CT for answers.
"F.I.L.S.S. is our A.I unit that helps run this show. Apparently her name stands for Freelancer Integrated Logistics and Security System." Connie said, Cali nodding to show she appreciated the information.
"We should go and report to the Mess Hall." Cali said, earning a look of inspection from CT.
"Hey, aren't you that girl who North called a bot on day one?" She asked, Cali, unconsciously clenching her fists at the memory.
"Yes. I am." She replied, CT noticing her hands and deciding to back off the subject.
"Ah, ok." CT said, standing up and walking towards the door, Cali soon following, following the doctor's advice and leaving her armor on her bed, keeping the nano-suit on.
After reaching the mess hall, she walked around until she found John and James, each in their different armor. James had a sort of goldish-peach color with white trim armor, and John had a dark purple with darkish-green trim armor color code.
"Hey sis." James and John both said, each looking at each other.
"Wait, you have a sister?" James asked, John just shrugging like it was obvious.
"I assume she is behind me since you both looked towards me when you said it." Cali said, turning around to see an agent with light purple armor with a limeish-green trim armor color code.
"Let me guess, Cali right?" Asked the newcomer, a female judging by the voice pitch.
"Yeah. Let me guess, if your John's sister, and he is North Dakota, then I assume your South Dakota." Cali said, the woman nodding in conformation.
"You'd be correct." She said, walking off towards a table with a man in white armor arm wrestling with a man in dark gray and yellow trimmed armor.
"Someones in a good mood today." James remarked, making Cali assume she wasn't normally like this.
"Shut up, dickhead!" South said, flipping off James.
"And there's the sister I know and love." John said, making Cali roll her eyes.
"Hey where's your armor?" James asked, finally noticing she wasn't wearing any armor.
"The nurse told me to take it easy for a day or two, so I decided not to wear it." Cali responded, John looking at her.
"You know the augmentations made it so we can where this with pretty much little to no effort right?" John asked, scrunching his eyes while questioning her.
"I do now." She said, turning to walk away. "Be right back!" She said, jogging to her room and grabbing her armor, putting it on and jogging back, making James start when he saw it for the first time.
"The paint must hinder sight, right?" John asked, Cali smiling under her helmet.
"It's one-way paint. It just covers the outside, but keeps my sight open to look around." Cali said, shrugging like it was no big deal.
"Let me guess, you mixed it with green paint." James said, Cali nodding, making John chuckle.
"Hey York! North and...who are you?" Another Agent asked, his primary and secondary colors the same as Cali's, but his armor the same as practically everyone else's.
"California. But just call me Cali." She answered, the man looking at her armor.
"Interesting choice, I'll give ya that." He said, extending his hand. "Names Arkansas, but everyone else just call me Arky. Much to my chagrin." He said, Cali keeping a straight appearance but laughing hard enough to cry on the inside.
"Good to meet you...Arky!" Cali said, finally breaking and laughing out loud, startling everyone, making the man in gray and yellow armor slam the man in white and brown armor's hand against the table while he was distracted.
"Yes!" The man in gray and yellow yelled, another Agent next to him looking at him.
"Doesn't count Wash." The Agent said, making the man in gray and yellow sag his shoulders and sigh.
"Aw man." Wash said, the man in white and brown cracking his knuckles and neck, making Wash gulp in fear.
"Please don't kill me Maine." He said, his voice high pitched in fear.
"He won't. He'll just hurt you very badly." The Agent next to him said, another Agent in blue armor and an ODST helmet walking up.
"Don't worry Wash. If he hurts you very badly, I can keep you stabilized until a medical team can arrive." The new Agent said, Cali looking to James and John for answers.
"Rhode Island and Florida. Rhodeo is the one that was standing next to Wash before Florida walked up to him." John said, James nodding in confirmation.
"Rhodeo? Seriously, THAT was the best you could come up with?" Cali asked, scoffing in disappointment.
"If it makes you feel any better, John came up with it." James said, making John look at him.
"Hey! You use it too!" John said, James putting his hands up in a defensive posture.
"Only because I can't come up with anything better!" James said, his arms falling flaccid when everyone looked behind him.
"And he's right behind me isn't he?" James asked, a hand on his shoulder confirming his suspicions, at least until he noticed his sister saluting.
"Agent New York, please remain quiet until the end of this announcement." The Director said, James mouthing 'oh', which made Cali roll her eyes. "And Agent California, after this announcement, remove the paint from your visor!"
"Sir, the paint is one way, it allows me to see in the full amount of visual coverage it provides, and tricks my enemies into thinking I can only see in the spots I left over my eyes, where I can catch them off-guard by attacking them if they try to attack from the side, sir!" She said, the Director shifting in interest.
"An excellent strategy. I am interested to learn how you made this one way paint." The Director said, smirking at her ingenuity.
"As am I." The Councilor said, the forty-seven remaining Agents murmuring about Cali's paint.
"Enough! This is an important announcement, and it will be spoken!" The Director shouted, making everyone jump at the sudden outburst. "Now, as you are aware, Agent Arkansas' testing of the Bubble Shield last week ended in disaster, but he has made a full recovery."
"Hey guys!" Arkansas called out, making Cali chuckle.
"We will be continuing testing, but on non-living subjects with some modifications to make it larger. Until we have made it work better, there will be no tests for you to view, and we will update you when we have it available to live testing." The Director concluded, Cali becoming interested as to how Arkansas ran the Bubble Shield without an AI as, in her mind, something like that would need at least a Dumb AI to run it.
"Sir, how did Arkansas run the Bubble Shield without at least a Dumb AI to power it?" She asked, people looking at her when she mentioned 'Dumb AI'.
"How can an AI be dumb?" An Agent asked, confused about how something meant to be smart could be dumb.
"Well, they aren't really dumb by human standards, they just cannot perform as many functions or process as much at a time as a normal, or Smart AI, can. Therefore they are called Dumb AI to symbolize they are not as top notch as a regular AI is." Cali explained, the other Agent scratching the top of his helmet to show he was still confused. "Basically they are AI with toned-down abilities." She said, rolling her eyes.
"Why didn't you just say so." The other Agent said, the Director clearly entertained by the spectacle
"Alright, enough. To answer your question, California, while you were in your coma, we raided a building and retrieved a package we named the Sarcophagus. Inside was a device that allowed us to create fragments from our AI." The Director answered, Cali becoming confused about the 'fragments' part.
"But sir, aren't AI fragments dubbed unstable by the UNSC AND almost all the Colonies?" Cali asked, the other Agents looking at each other, especially the Agents she assumed had AI fragments due to their worried head shakes, surprised when York took off his helmet, followed by the others she had guessed, seemingly correctly, did the same. "James?" She asked, her tone making him think he was in trouble.
"I didn't really have a choice Cali. They have a list of people who will receive AI when they have them." James said, Cali taking off her helmet and narrowing her eyes at him.
"You always have a choice James. I learned that the hard way." She said, shoving her helmet into his arms and walking away, making her way to her room.
-1 MONTH LATER-
It had been about a month since the announcement, and Cali was still pissed about James and his AI, named Delta. She was currently in the Mess Hall yet again, but for different reasons.
She was making her way towards the opposite wall from where she had entered to go to the training room, when John accidentally bumped into her in the hallway entrance.
"Oh, hey there Cali." He said, leaning against the wall with his right arm.
-RANDOM SWITH TO JAMES' POV-
"At what point did we establish that he was going to sleep with my sister?" James asked, clearly confused how the conversation had made it's way there.
"Knock Knock."
"Who's there?" James asked, already getting sick of Wyoming's jokes.
"North."
"North who?"
"North banging your sister. There we established it." Wyoming said, James clenching his fists.
"Oh hey look they're leaving." South said, James turning around to see Cali and North walking out of the room.
"That son of a b-"
"Knock knock."
"No! Enough knock knock jokes Wyoming!"
Hey guys sorry about the random POV switch, but as I said, this is based on another fanfic on ArchiveofOurOwn so the last convo. was necessary to the story. Also, because her armor is not usable in Halo 4, I would like to announce her Halo 4 armor will be Stalker helmet and shoulders, and an EVA chest piece even if it is different from the EVA in Halo 3. If you have any suggestions please let me know and I will change it. Word Count: 5116
