Sorry for the long time between posts. You can blame my sister for buying me Skyrim for Christmas. Anyway, here's chapter 9 and I hope you enjoy.
"What do you want to know about Silver?" Rho asks.
"Anything important" Wash answers. "To start, what happened to her. Why does she hate this doctor so much?"
"Dr. Han betrayed her. She nearly got Silver and all the other experiments killed, and she forced them to slaughter innocent people" Compassion-Rho says.
Wash shakes his head. "That doesn't make sense. If Dr. Han tricked them into attacking those people, they should have realized what had happened soon enough to not cause any real damage. You make it sound like they murdered hundreds!"
"Collectively, they killed over a thousand innocent people" Rho says sadly.
Wash sits quietly for a moment, shocked. Even at the height of his blindness while working for the Director, he had never killed that many. He couldn't even picture it in his head. "How?" he finally asks. "How did they not realize what was happening?"
Rho makes a small hologram appear in her hand. "Do you know what this is?"
Wash studies the object for a moment. "It looks like one of the chips the Director used to put AIs in people's heads" he says eventually.
"That's how it started" Rho says, the image in her hand dissolving. "Dr. Han received twelve of these chips. At first, she planned to use them to allow some of her soldiers to interface with me, although they would have had to take turns."
"I take it that's not what happened" Wash guesses.
"No" Rho says sadly. "She ended up using them for a very different purpose."
I stop around the corner and listen to Nick's footsteps as he leaves. Keep it together, I think, taking a deep breath. You don't need a breakdown right now. Once I've gotten control of myself again, I continue searching for the Sim-Troopers. I know most of them went to the labs with Carbon, so I get my bearings and start heading there.
I know I'm getting close when I hear the voices.
"I told you not to pet them" Simmons says, his voice carrying out into the hall.
"That guy who was in here before said not to even open the cage. Why didn't you listen?" Grif asks.
I step through the open door and see Caboose holding his left hand with his right. Three long quills are stuck in his palm. "They look so friendly. I just wanted to hug Mango for a second. I didn't think he'd be mean" Caboose complains.
"You could have at least left your gloves on" Simmons says. "That would have kept them from stabbing you."
"If I had left my gloves on, I wouldn't have been able to feel how soft they are." Caboose says this as though it's obvious.
Grif's voice rises in pitch with exasperation. "They're not soft. That's the whole point!"
"You tried to pet them again" I say matter-of-factly. The three soldiers, noticing me standing there for the first time, turn to face me. "Let me see it" I command, walking toward Caboose and holding out my hand. He places his hand in mine and I begin to examine the wounds. "It's not too bad" I say after a few moments.
I let go of his hand and stick my head out the door, waving down the first person I see. "Rhen, could you please take Carbon to go see Rhodi? He needs his hand patched up." The boy nods and waves for Caboose to follow him.
"I thought Tucker was supposed to be watching him" I say as I watch the pair leave, Rhen trying to stop Caboose from pulling out the quills all the while.
"He was" Grif explains. "But Caboose wouldn't stop pushing him out of the way to reach the cats, and eventually he got frustrated and left."
"Does Tucker normally do that?" I question.
"Do what?" Simmons asks.
"Give up and abandon his team."
"Not really" Simmons says.
"Normally if he gets fed up with something, he just goes out, shoots everyone, and solves the problem" Grif says.
"It's actually kind of badass" Simmons remarks.
"No, it's freaking annoying" Grif returns. "Every time we ever got close to beating those assholes, he always stopped us. I have the bullet wounds to prove it" he finishes, grumbling the last line.
"I had gotten the feeling you guys were tougher than you looked" I whisper to myself.
"Why's that?" Simmons asks, picking up the quiet words with his cybernetic ear.
"According to everything I know about you, everything in your files and mission reports, there's no way you should be alive today" I start to explain. "On paper, none of you have what it takes to survive the things you've gone through. Everything from the reasons you were expelled from the regular army and picked up by project Freelancer to your personality types suggests that you would have died long before the first time you met Agent Texas. And yet, somehow, you're all still here. Why?"
"Hell if I know" Grif says. "I guess we're just lucky."
I laugh slightly at this. "I could use some of that luck on my side" I remark. "Which brings me to why I'm here. I need to talk to you."
"What about?" Simmons asks.
"I went looking for you guys because I need your help. Things got a little hectic, what with the shooting and all, so I never really got your answer" I say, looking at the two soldiers expectantly. "Will you help us, or not?"
I expect their answer to be quick, either a yes or no, with a small explanation if they decline. However, that's not what happens.
There's a long pause, during which Simmons and Grif share a look. "I'm not sure" Simmons says slowly.
"Yeah, that's something we'll have to think about" Grif adds.
"What's the problem?" I ask, trying to hide the weariness from my voice. I had hoped to avoid some sort of debate with them.
"The problem?" Grif asks. "The problem is that we barely made it out alive the last time we did something like this. The problem is that we've been away from home for so long, I'm not even sure where home is anymore. The problem is that it's been more than a year since I've seen my sister, and the last I heard she was dead!" Grif's voice gets louder as he speaks so by the end he's shouting. He looks like he's going to continue, but just shakes his head and looks away.
Simmons picks up where his friend left off. "We've been involved in a lot of fights that weren't even ours in the first place. We've been lied to and manipulated, and even though we've survived, it hasn't been without some loss. I don't think we're ready for something like that again."
Grif seems to have calmed down while Simmons was talking, and he decides to speak up again. "I guess the real question is; what's this have to do with us? What do we get out of it that's better than finally being done fighting?"
I think for a minute, reviewing my options, before answering. "How about a home?" I offer. I walk to one of the computers in the lab and pull up some pictures of a beautiful, grassy canyon with two bases.
Simmons looks over my shoulder and sees the images. "Valhalla?"
I nod. "When project Freelancer shut down, the UNSC seized all of its property and began selling it off. We bought this piece of land hoping it would be a good place to start over, but I'm just as willing to use it as a bargaining chip if I have to." The two soldiers stare at the familiar landscape with a look that I can only assume is homesickness. "The UNSC has been selling property all over the planet, and new settlements are being founded every day. It's turning into a very nice place to start a new life." I stop talking as I realize that neither man is listening to me.
"Can you believe it?" Simmons says quietly, eyes still fixed on the pictures. "We could finally go home."
"Home" Grif says, as though he barely recognizes the word. He turns away from the screen and looks at me, his eyes daring me to tell him it's a lie. I simply smile and nod my head. If they can help me save my family, it's the least I can do to give them back their old home.
"As for your sister" I say, further catching Grif's attention. "We'll help you find her once this is all over."
"Really?" Grif asks.
"Really" I say. "I know what it's like to not know what's happened to your family. If you help me take care of my brothers and sisters, I'll help you find yours."
Simmons and Grif look at each other for a second before turning back to me. "Deal" they say simultaneously
