Caboose got out of the transport pod, a little dizzy. He looked around him and found he was at Command. The room was practically empty aside from five suits of armor and a large computer. Washington walked by Caboose and stood beside the suits.
"Ok, so I got command to retrieve your old suits of armor, you may want to put them on now instead of later... Just to be safe." He said adressing the group who came out of the transport pods.
"Wash, how dangerous is this going to be?" Church asked. Even though he was already dead he didn't want to lose the body he just gotten, and he didn't want anyone else to get hurt.
"It's nothing to worry about as long as you watch your back." Washington said, putting on his armor. Church muttered something under his breath before putting his own armor on. When he saw Caboose fumbling with his Church went over to help him, over all the years in Blood Gulch the blonde still hadn't learend how to put his armor on correctly.
"So what did you do over the summer?" Tex asked Tucker after putting on her armor. Tucker thought about what he was going to say for a moment before replying.
"Sister. Bow chicka bow-Ow!" Tex had punched Tucker in the gut before he could finish and then walked away.
"Tucker, I wouldn't be too proud of that, she seemed pretty... easy." Church said to the turqouis spartan.
"At least I got something." Tucker said. Church just walked away following Washington and Tex, deciding not to respond.
"What's wrong with him? He seems less... snappy." The turqouis spartan said to Caboose.
"Well he broke up with Tex... He's being a lot nicer now. I think she was a bad influence on him." Caboose said.
"What? Caboose why didn't you tell me? I would've been nicer to her earlier!" Tucker said angrily.
"Why? Do you still want to sleep with her?" Caboose asked, Tucker nodded in responce. It was a goal of his since Blood Gulch to sleep with Tex.
"What about Sister?" The blue spartan asked.
"There's nothing going on between us, I just slept with her." Tucker said with a shrug, Caboose eyed him suspiciously.
"That doesn't seem right..." But before Caboose could finish and ask why Tucker was so interested with Tex, Church came in.
"Are you guys coming or what? Tex and Washington are getting pissed." He said, Tucker nodded in responce and left the room. Before Caboose could leave Church stopped him at the door.
"You ok? You've been a little quiet lately." Church said trying to hide the worry in his tone.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Are you ok?" Caboose asked in responce.
"What do you mean by that?" The cobalt spartan asked as he started walking with the other.
"You've been acting... different. I wasn't sure if something happened." Caboose told him, refferring to Church being nicer.
"Well, I realized something when I went home, I don't even know, I guess it was better that I did, it's starting to change me." Church said, he didn't want to talk about it, especially not with Caboose, since what he realized was his feelings for the blonde. Luckily Caboose wasn't one to pry for information and didn't ask about it, instead the two walked in silence till they reached the others.
"Are we all set now?" Washington asked sarcastically, not a moment later a beeping started. Washington pulled out a small device. There was a blinking red dot on the screen of the device.
"What is that thing?" Tucker asked, meanwhile Tex looked over Washington's shoulder to see what was happening.
"It's a recovery beacon. It means there's an AI in trouble." The man in gray and yellow armor said.
"So we have to go save it." Tex said starting to walk away with Washington.
"The question is what are we saving it from." Church said to Tucker and Caboose before following the two Freelancers.
Meanwhile
"Delta." A girl with purple and green armor called out. She was under fire and sheilding herself with an energy sheild.
"Yes South?" A small transparent, green AI said.
"On my mark I want you to put the sheild down and transport yourself into the memory unit." She said.
"South I think I would be more useful here, and protocal dictates-" Delta was cut off.
"You're going in the memory unit! There's no way that thing could resist you and the sheild." South snarled.
"You're going to abandon me? Leave me for the Meta?" Delta asked, South ignored the question and started preparing to run. She needed to make sure when the sheild went away she wasn't shot.
"On my mark." The meta, a huge orange and white spartan, started running towards them.
"Get set." South took a deep breath.
"Now!" The sheild dropped and she started to run away not looking behind her.
"Get the Meta! And don't let South get away!" Washington yelled as him and the blues ran up the hill. Tex shot South a couple times causing the spartan to fall to the ground.
"Be careful he takes the armor from other people to use his powers, he may have taken cloaking from Tex when he took Omega." Washington yelled.
"Shit, Wyoming!" Church said, remembering his helmet was on the ship that crashed.
"What, Wyoming?" Wash asked. Church ran over and grabbed a rocket launcher getting to a higher place to shoot the Meta. Meanwhile Tucker, Washington, and Caboose stood behind a boulder, Washington trying to shoot the Meta.
"Caboose grab those spike grenades." Tucker said. The blue spartan took the grenades and threw one, accidently getting it stuck on the boulder in front of them. Both Tucker and Washington looked over at Caboose.
"That was the worst throw ever... Of all time." Washington said flatly.
"Not my fault. Tucker did it." Caboose said.
"Run!" Tucker said, the three jumped over the boulder just as Church shot the rocket launcher and Tex got ahold of the memory unit.
Time slowed down as the grenade blew up and the rocket was just about to hit the Meta, who was the only one who wasn't slowed down. The white and orange spartan looked around and walked over to Washington, he aimed his gun at the freelancer but before putting it down again, realizing he was running out of power. When he ran down the hill time went back to normal speed, everyone confused as to what happened and where the Meta went.
"Dammit, I told you to stop him!" Washington yelled as he walked over to Church.
"It would've been a lot easier if someone helped me out!" The cobalt spartan replied.
"I tried to help you, meanwhile Caboose blew up the boulder, Tex ran off somewher, Tucker just stood there, and you missed the Meta with the rocket launcher!" Washington yelled getting Church pissed.
"That shot was going to hit him. If he didn't use Wyoming's time distortion unit he would be dead right now!" He yelled back, even though he had terrible aim most of the time that shot was right on target.
"How did he get Wyoming's time distortion unit?" Washington asked.
"His helmet was in the ship when it crashed." Tucker said.
"Hey Wash, was that who I thought it was?" Tex asked with the memory unit that held Delta in hand.
"...Yes... It was Maine..." Washington said.
"It's a freelancer?!" Church asked Washington angrily, but he just ignored this. Tex handed him the memory unit.
"We need someone to take the AI." Washinton said, instantly Caboose spoke up.
"I'll do it." He picked up the memory unit and a small green guy appeared next to Caboose.
"Hello, I'm Delta. It's nice to see you again Agent Washington." He said. Before anyone could talk to Delta South spoke up.
"Wash, I'm hurt, I need help." Everyone walked over to where South layed.
"Washington, I think I should tell you, South tried to give me to the Meta, a lot like she did to you before. If we brought her along she would most likely slow us down." Delta said.
"What are you saying?" "Washington asked a little angry.
"I'm saying we should not let her hamper our progress." The AI said.
"Ok." Washington said aiming his gun at South, everyone except Tex were shocked.
"What are you going to do, kill me?" She asked, when there was no responce she aimed her gun towards Washington and fired, Tex quickly shot her back.
"You missed." Washington said, at the last second he moved out of the way.
"I... I didn't miss..." She said with a sly smile under her helmet before she died.
"Fuck..." Church muttered under his breath, when everyone turned to see him there was blood coming out of this armor and he was grasping his stomache.
"Church!" Caboose said running over to Church's side. The cobalt spartan fell to the ground, took his helmet off and started to cough up blood.
"I-I guess I didn't watch my back." Church said before passing out. Caboose looked over to everyone else.
"We need to help him!" He said, worried about Church.
"Tex, Tucker, go check that base over there make sure there's no one in it. Delta, Caboose, I need you to help me with this." Washington said, he had to try to get the bullet, clean the wound, and wrap it up as soon as possible.
"I hope Church is ok..." Caboose muttered under his breath, he really cared about Church, he didn't want to loose him again.
