Chapter 6: The Best of Us
"All Freelancers report to the briefing room immediately." said the Director. York hurriedly got out of his bed and got his armor on. Strapping his helmet into place, he connected with the squad's personal channel. "What are we doing Carolina?" Connie asked. Maine actually spoke up for once, a rare thing for the silent man, "Yes Carolina. What are we doing? We should already be down on the beach like usual. Instead we've been drilling constantly. What for?"
York chuckled as silently as he could. Maine wasn't a talker, but when he did talk one found a blunt and rather intelligent man underneath the stoic silence. Surprisingly Orlando had cracked his shell of silence somehow, but no one else could talk to him. Us and the Rogues are getting along quite well after a couple months of constant missions and training. Boston and me, Orleans and North Dakota, Cruz and Connecticut. Boston had turned into a wise cracking joker on a level with me and North Dakota. Orleans was that lovable gregarious person everyone adored.
Cruz, Cruz is something else. She Never got over Phoenix turning and betraying us. For her it was a personal blow. A sign that somehow she had caused him to go renegade. Her and Carolina both trained obsessively for the moment when they have to face him.
'Can I blame them?' York thought to himself. Not really. Once we do track the bastard down, it will take every ounce of our ability to defeat him. Phoenix was always better, faster, and stronger. Despite his violent temperament, he had been the glue keeping us together. His absence has created a power vacuum that Tex and Carolina have been vying for ever since. Now an insufferable hatred exists between the two. And Texas is simply better. try as she might, Carolina is no match for the other woman. Which has led to a very long list of consequences, but most troubling is the overbearing drive to beat Texas no matter the personal cost.
Breaking out into a light jog, York reached the briefing room in a timely manner. What he found was a 3-dimensional super-skyscraper colored in purple and blue. He saw the rest of the Freelancers heads turn in his direction. Hah, good to be back isn't it. After the grenade stunt that Maine had pulled after a particularly bad training session with Tex, York had ended up losing his left eye. Try as Orleans might, nothing could repair the damage done without injuring him even more thoroughly. "Hey, don't be so quick to give away my job." York said as he entered. Despite being injured, nothing is going to stop a Freelancer from destroying a traitorous teammate. Plus Washington is an absolute wuss when it comes to lock-picking and fighting in general.
Carolina as usual expressed her worry, "I thought you were in the hospital?" York replied casually, "According to their records, I am." "How's your eye?" "It's okay. The docs are letting me out tomorrow." "Tomorrow huh?" Washington muttered. York said, "Look, I couldn't let you guys have all the fun without me. Besides you guys need someone to get you in." Washington moved closer to Carolina. "Look I'm happy to see him to," Washington said, "but this mission, I don't know..." "Carolina replied, "Look, if York says he's good, then he's good." "It's your call boss." Washington said.
Carolina walked up next to him, before saying, "Your good, right?" "Okay look, I said I was okay." York responded, "Good might be overselling it a little." Then the Director as usual broke the chatter. As he ran down the mission details, York couldn't help but wonder, where are the Rogues? Surely two different targets would be easier to take on if they helped us. Right?
As we all hurried to our pelicans, York asked Carolina about it. "Why aren't the Rogues helping us on this mission?" She turned and faced him before saying, "The Director didn't say anything about it, but we've got that former Rogues white team on the loose down there as well. They're taking care of White Team." "Why them and not us?" I ask.
Despite wearing a helmet, Carolina still got off that same look of, "Are you stupid?" "The Director wants to keep it in the house so to speak. He wants the Rogues to kill their own to prove their loyalty." "Wait, but White Team went MIA before the teams even met." "That doesn't mean they didn't know the other team pre-conscription. Everyone but Cruz knows someone on White Team." "Well, shit. What if our Rogues don't have the will to kill them?" "That is what Cruz is for. She has no attachments to White Team and will follow through with the mission." York whistled at the thought of that, before saying, "The Director has this all figured out doesn't he?" "Yes, he does. Now move your ass. We're making planetfall in thirty minutes."
York couldn't help but feel slightly regretful as he stepped into the Pelican. Looking across the hangar, he could just barely make out the shapes of the Rogues. They have no idea what they're in for do they? Shaking his head, York silently strapped into a seat. What if this is all a trap? What if we don't find what we're looking for, but instead find him? Will we be able to kill Phoenix? Can we kill the best of us?
POV: Collin Ingram a.k.a Agent Phoenix
My lord if this city doesn't look like a futuristic Los Angeles. Lovely beaches, occasionally warm water, and a bunch of great restaurants. Of course said restaurants are now fifty stories in the air, but that is besides the point. Checking the tactical display again, I count down the time until atmospheric entry for my friends. Five, four, three, two, one, and right on time two pelicans drop out at the coordinates my little bug had given me. Amazing how much information one can get simply by listening into the flight control center on the Mother of Invention. The third one came in a few seconds after the first two. It headed straight for the ambush sight.
Thanks to Halsey's spy network, catching up with White Team had been surprisingly easy. Then again, what should I have expected out of them? They were actively looking for someone to help them fight the Director. When they found I offered them my help they had initially reacted with caution, which I don't begrudge them for. After all, who expects your enemies top killer to suddenly switch sides? But I did win their trust, or at least cooperation due to one special man. Victor Romero, one of my friends from Earth. A man who I had treated almost like a brother during middle school. He had ended up leading White Team.
White Team actually ended up being full of people I knew. Samantha a person I barely remember from Hamilton who was best buds with Orlando. Boston and I were both friends of Mason, who was another football player. And then there was Alex, the school genius in middle school who had almost dated Orleans in the 8th grade. They had lost one of their members, Caitlyn, my former girlfriend from California during the experimentation time period. Her bones had snapped under the weight of her new muscles and collapsed her entire body into a ball. Such a horrible way for her die.
I told them of my plan to turn Connie to our side when the Freelancers and Rogues stopped her for training and R&R. What I hadn't planned on was the fact that my other operations had worked too well. We had captured the engineer the Director was using to create the AI's out of Alpha. But then the ODST's I have under my command had nowhere else to put it except in the corporate headquarters of a wealthy gun manufacturing company. The CEO of the company is also one of the board members in ONI. He fortunately holds a deep resentment of the Director's broad security clearance and lack of scrutiny.
This headquarters is unfortunately also on the R&R planet as well. It was then that I realized I was watching season nine all over again. Knowing that my actions had caused it. Tracking the second pelican, I saw it take a swerve right towards the convoy a few clicks west of me. In order to do that it has to come beneath where I'm waiting. As it came directly beneath me, I slowed time down. Grinning at how slow the Pelican is going and also how incredibly stupid what I'm about to do is, I jump. Falling twenty feet, I land upright. And then I stumble forwards. Fuck... I instantly hit the ground, uh, top of the pelican and grip onto the metal safety rungs. Knowing I can't keep myself at this pace of movement forever, I grab the assault rifle on my back and open up on the cockpit of the pelican. Then I let time go back to normal.
The pelican hit the ground and instantly blew up. Fortunately I had already jumped when it did. Unfortunately, I hit the ground at plus 60 mph even with that. Checking my bodies status, most of me was in the red. Thank the lord for this suit. It is the only thing keeping me together at this point. Even as I watch, the status for my body starts climbing higher. The suit is healing the injuries faster than any medi-gel could. Heading towards the wreckage of the pelican, I see North Dakota slowly get out. Wyoming must have fallen out of the pelican as it hit the ground, because he is lying about twenty feet from the wreck. And Connecticut is crawling out of the burnt out pelican. Going invisible, I silently watch as North checks on Wyoming and Connecticut slowly surveys the area. Ever so slowly, I move to the edge of the clearing we landed in.
Then I loose a direct comm line to Connie. "I'm over here." I say, masking my voice over in several different voices of various higher and lower pitches at the same time. Her head immediately turns in my direction. "Yes, I'm over here." She slowly paces towards the alley I went into, then she turns as if to contact North. "I wouldn't recommend that. My scope is squarely leveled on North's head right now. You tell him anything and he dies. Understood?" She nods her head and walks over to where I'm at.
Once she is in the alley, standing in front of me now, back turned to the pelican I let my invisibility shimmer down. "Hello Connie." I say in a casual voice, as if we were simply hanging out at the training room, "It has been a while hasn't it?" "Yes, it has been Phoenix." she replies, "What is it that you want? Because you obviously haven't killed us yet." "I just wanted to let you know a little secret. The Director betrayed me, NOT the other way around." She turns to look at me finally, and gasps. "Yeah, I've taken on a new look since turning into a real rogue."
POV Connecticut:
Connecticut's sensors were out, leaving her with only her normal eyesight. She doubted that even with the sensors she would be able to tell if this thing in front of her was human. The form was definitely humanoid, but this couldn't be armor that the thing was wearing. No, it is way too skin tight for that. It might actually be its skin for all she knew. How could this be Phoenix. The thing must have noticed here apparent disgust. "Sorry," it said, before turning into the Phoenix she had known before his betrayal, "is this better?"
Stumbling back, Connecticut almost sent off a burst to North. But she had the sinking feeling that if Phoenix wanted them all dead, they'd be dead by now. "What happened to you?" she asked. He shrugged in return. "The Director happened. I knew he would eventually betray me. I just didn't figure it would happen as fast as it did." "No, you betrayed us!" Connecticut said indignantly. Phoenix chuckled, before bringing out a dataslate. Handing it to her, he said, "Read these then Connie, if that is what you truly believe. Read all of it and then tell me who betrayed whom. At the very end of this is a way to contact me if you finally see the truth." With that, he vanished.
Connecticut looked down at the dataslate, and with a sigh began reading through its contents. Though it would be many months later before the plan came to fruition, Connecticut would look back upon this day as the moment when everything first began. And she would smile at the thought even in her last moments.