Michigan's eyes fluttered open. He felt a needle leaving his skin. Looking around, he saw he was in the medical bay on the Mother of Invention. Wisconsin and Indiana were nowhere to be seen, but Idaho and Nebraska were arguing outside.

'He risked the entire mission just to save another soldier?!' Idaho was yelling.

'With all due respect, commander, Delaware is one of the greatest additions to the team, and you know it! I would have done the same!' Nebraska retorted.

'You know how our squad works! No one does anything against my orders unless I give them the all-clear!'

'So you can do whatever you want, but we have to follow orders?! I've seen you disobey orders before! You're nothing but a control freak!'

Silence. Then Michigan heard boots stomping away. The door opened, and Nebraska walked in, holding his helmet by his waist. He slammed it down on a nearby table, and sank into a chair beside Michigan's bed.

'Hey. How's your shoulder?'

Michigan slowly rose from his bed, and swung his legs down onto the ground.

'It's painful, but mending. Where're Indy and Wisconsin?'

'Indy's getting the Pelican unloaded. Wisconsin seems to be trying to find Delaware. She managed to throw a tracking chip onto the Vulture.

Michigan's eyes widened. He stood, and prepared to walk out. As the door opened, he came face to face with Idaho.

'Where do you think you're going?' Idaho questioned.

'To help Wisconsin find Delaware. We have to help her, and finish what we started down there.'

'Well, the Director's confined you to your quarters. Mainly for insubordination, also for wasting resources, plus failing the mission. Charges will be pressed, and you may even be discharged.'

'What?! I didn't make us fail the mission; you must have gotten the launch codes too late.' Michigan protested.

'So it's my fault, is it? Get to your quarters, and wait for further instructions.' Idaho's voice had a dangerous edge.

'Yes, sir.' Michigan submitted, and trudged off towards his quarters. As he left, he swear he saw Idaho smile. He ignored it, and moved on.


Several hours later, Michigan was miserable. He was stuck in his quarters, and there was nothing he could do about it. But eventually, in the middle of folding an origami swan, his door slid open, and two Marines walked in.

'Agent Michigan? Free and Narvaez of X-ray Squad. The Director wants to see you.' The Marine on the right ordered. Michigan let out a sigh.

'To be honest, I'm not in the mood, guys. You'd best go and tell him that he'll have to wait.'

The one on the left shook his head.

'He won't wait, sir. You're to see him now, or not at all.' The other Marine spoke in a sharp British accent.

Michigan stood from his desk, placed his origami swan down, and was escorted by the Marines towards the bridge. On the way, ODSTs avoided his gaze; Wisconsin had told them about how ruthless he had been towards the ODST Innies. Michigan felt like he was being prepared for an execution.

Eventually, he arrived. The door opened, and Michigan walked in, his head held in shame. The Director didn't turn, barely even looked at him. Instead, he just spoke softly.

'I assume you know why I called you here, Agent Michigan.'

Michigan's throat was dry, he just lowered his head.

'You have spent several hours in your quarters. Why is this?'

'Sir, I was confined to there by my commanding officer Idaho, under orders from you.'

'I gave Idaho no such orders. And even if I did, Idaho has no right to isolate you. Only the Counsellor and I have that clearance.'

Michigan was puzzled at this sentence. Clearly, Idaho had received orders from the Director. But if that wasn't the case, then why did Idaho give him that order?

Michigan was roused from his thoughts by the Director speaking.

'If Idaho gave you these orders under my supposed 'command', then he's either mistaken, or a traitor.'

The Director paused in thought. He then walked over to a computer, brought up a display of Idaho's profile and motioned Michigan over. He complied.

The Counsellor tapped a datapad, and the screen showed a list of outgoing calls.

'We've filtered through Idaho's channel history. Aside from uninteresting calls to members of Freelancer, we have noticed a suspiciously large amount of data in an outgoing call. It's unclear what the data actually was, but we did pick up scraps of files, mostly hidden under the name 'Prometheus'. It's clear these files were being sent to the Insurrection, but we cannot trace anything further than that.' The Counselor explained as he swept through Idaho's profile.

Michigan finally understood: Idaho was a traitor. This was the reason why Idaho was always breaking rules, placing the blame on his squad and limiting their assaults on Insurrectionists.

'You want me to eliminate him, then, sir?'

'If he escapes, he will just cause more problems for us.'

'Very well. I'll do my best, Director.'

'Final note: I'm placing you in command of Trident Squad now. Treat them well…Commander.'

Michigan was stunned. He was in charge of Trident Squad? His lips quivered, then spoke.

'Thank you, sir.'

He just had the fortitude to salute and leave the room.


He grabbed his helmet from his locker, attached the comms unit to his helmet, and tested it. It was working fine.

'Trident Squad. This is Michigan. Idaho has gone rogue. When we have a definite location, we're going there to rescue Delaware, and capture or eliminate Idaho.'

'Why would Idaho go rogue? He always liked being with Freelancer.' Wisconsin questioned.

'Good question, Wisconsin. You see him, ask him yourself.' Michigan answered bluntly.

Michigan took the elevator to the hangar, hoping the Pelican would be waiting for him. When the door opened, Indiana was loading the last of the gear, using a Cyclops to load the last few containers. Michigan approached.

'Indy, how we looking?'

'We've got plenty of ammo and arms. Grenades aplenty, but the pilot's missing. Can't raise him on comms, either.'

Michigan pounded the side of the Pelican in frustration. As he looked up, he noticed something: One of the experimental booster frames was missing. Booster frames were small, swift, and deadly. They contained several canisters of high explosive missiles, two Gatling guns, a hidden turret akin to a Warthog's, and a massive gauss cannon. Perfect for ship infiltrations and disabling. The only weakness was the pilot was exposed to the vacuum of space, and needed a pressurized suit to operate such machinery.

'Idaho must have taken one. But where's Oscar Fi-' He was cut off when he saw blood dripping from the roof. He looked up, and saw Oscar Five Niner hanging from a cable attached to the ceiling. His head was bloodied, almost unrecognizable.

'Damn.'

He looked back at Indiana and waved to get his attention.

'Yeah?'

'You can fly this thing, right?'