Red vs. Blue: Dissent

Chapter 10

I just figured out how to put a horizontal line in my writing. I only just realised that now. Unfortunately I only have access to Chapters 8 and 9 so those are the only ones I've changed. I am just amazing with computers… sigh

Texas, Earth

Many Years Ago…

It was raining that night.

A young girl played on the floor of her room with her teddy bear. The teddy bear only had one eye. It was an old bear that had once been played with by the girl's mother in her youth and before that the girl's grandmother. In all fairness the bear has stood the test of time remarkably well and it did its purpose well. It was the girl's friend, her only friend. It was always at the girl's side, it was there during the good times, when they played together in the fields behind the house, and it was there during the bad times, when the girl cried in the night because of loneliness.

The bear was a very good teddy bear and it was loved by the girl as much as a girl could love a teddy bear, but it was only a teddy bear. It could not keep up a very long conversation with the girl. It could not comfort the girl with words of a brighter morning when the girl was sad. It could not replace the mother that the girl truly, desperately wanted. If the bear was alive, I am sure that it would wish that it could help, but when the girl cries it can do nothing but sit there and be there for her.

The girl's mother was often away, lost in faraway lands beyond imagining. The girl's mother loved her daughter as much as any mother but she is gone doing what she believes in and her visits are short and far in between, often for months on end. Often the girl forgets what her mother's voice sounds like, forgets the warmth of her mother's embrace, forgets the love that only a mother could give.

The girl's father was much closer but was also further away as the mother. In the absence of the mother, the father buries himself in his work. The father barely remembers to feed his daughter, let alone raise her like a father should. The girl was never tucked into bed, the girl was never protected from the fears of the cold and the dark of the night. Every night, the girl climbs into bed and valiantly tries to ward off the terrors that keep her up at night.

The teddy bear was the closest person to the girl. It was always there no matter what. It was the girl's anchor to reality; it was the only thing that stopped her from falling into the deepest recesses of her mind. It was her lighthouse in the endless storm, always steering her to safe harbour. It loved her as much as a teddy could, but it could not be mother, father and best friend for the child; that was too much for even the sturdiest of anchors.

It was raining that night.

The young girl was playing in her room when the car pulled up to the house. She heard it drive up over the sound of the rain and saw the headlights shine through the window. She rushed downstairs to find out more, the bear clasped in her hand, following her loyally. She stopped at the bottom of the stairs and watched as her father opened the front door.

A man was standing outside. He was dripping wet but he was holding something gently in his hands. The girl got a look at it and noticed that it was completely dry. She saw the look on her father's face as the situation dawned on him. The man muttered, "I'm sorry," and the girl's father's legs gave out from under him. The man moved to catch him but the girl's father managed to grab a wall to lean on. He was sobbing. The man apologised again and that was when he finally noticed the girl. The look on his face was one of such deep condolences however the girl did not understand.

Suddenly, the girl's father regained his footing and rushed into his study, slamming the door behind him. The man watched the girl's father go then looked at the girl. He stepped into the kitchen and the girl followed. It was a good thing that it was raining and the door to the girl's father's study was closed, otherwise the girl would have heard her father break, and scream out at the unfairness of everything.

It was a good thing because little did the girl know that that night she had lost both her mother and her father.

UNSC Archive File

Location: Oblivion

Phoenix One accessed the communications panel. The face of a dark-haired man appeared on the small screen on the console. When the man spoke he had a thick Southern U.S.A. accent. "Commander Kane bzzz. I am the Director of Project Freelancer."

"Right," Phoenix One replied, "What can I do for you, Director of Project Freelancer?"

"I am here to inform you that you and your second-in-command are being transferred into my organization. You should be honoured."

Phoenix One was not impressed with the Director of Project Freelancer's tone and he didn't try to hide that in his voice, "What gives you the authority to transfer myself and my man?"

The Director smirked, "I have the authority from Admiral O'Flaherty of the UNSC. Don't humiliate yourself in a battle of wits, Commander. I've read your file. You're better than that."

Phoenix One snapped. He had had one hell of a day and he was not going to take any more from some man with fingers in high places. His men died to protect men like this. He wasn't going to let this man walk all over him, "You may have read my file, dear Director, but that doesn't mean that you have any idea what I am above. You may be used to walking over people through intimidation and best pals in high places, but don't think that I am going to encourage that trend. You've picked the wrong day to irritate me, Director. I'm not in the mood to trade banter with some civilian with a fancy degree who thinks that makes him transcendent above us grunts who die for you. Next time you decide to walk on someone's back, choose someone in a better mood!"

Phoenix One hung up in the most disrespecting manner possible for pressing a button. He turned and heard Phoenix Two call from the cockpit, "Snarky, don't scratch me with those claws – What the hell?"

The Pelican stopped in its tracks and Phoenix One was thrown forward. He hit the wall separating the cockpit and the troop bay with a slam. Phoenix One stood and called to Phoenix Two, "What happened?"

Phoenix Two was already jumping out of his seat, "It's some sort of tractor beam. This Pelican ain't moving."

Phoenix One realised why Phoenix Two was getting out of his seat and turned to the seats in the troop bay. He reached under a seat and grabbed a large backpack. The two other soldiers in the Pelican also reached under their chairs and grabbed two similar backpacks. The bay doors opened as Phoenix Two left the cockpit. As he grabbed a backpack, Phoenix One threw on his helmet, slipped on the backpack and jumped out of the Pelican.

The air rushed against his helmet as Phoenix One plummeted downwards. He opened radio communications and instantly got Phoenix Two, the two other soldiers and the co-pilot. "Don't pull your chute until the last moment!" He yelled, louder than necessary but Phoenix One could barely hear himself over the wind rushing past him. "If you pull your chute too early, you'll be sitting ducks for their snipers!"

There were affirmatives from the others. The co-pilot sounded shaky over the radio though.

The ground was slowly growing larger and larger as the ground rushed up to meet them. The rate at which the ground was growing was getting faster and faster and when the co-pilot spoke on the radio, he was panicking. "We're going to die on impact! We've got to pull our chutes!"

Phoenix One yelled quickly, "No! Wait!"

The co-pilot ignored him, "Pulling chute!"

There was silence from the co-pilot as his chute opened and for a moment Phoenix One wondered if he was wrong. Then came the scream. The co-pilot screamed as an enemy sniper took a shot and hit him. That was why they couldn't pull their chutes yet, they would be killed long before they hit the ground.

And so they fell. Several times Phoenix One thought to pull his chute but he kept muttering on the radio, "Wait for it, wait for it."

Finally when he couldn't wait any longer, he yelled, "Now!" He pulled the cords that activated the parachute and suddenly he felt the parachute catch bucket-fulls of air. His legs swung violently as he was thrown about in the air. He heard something flash past close to him. The enemy was shooting at him. A shot passed so close to his leg, he felt the heat on his calf. Moments later another shot came and it hit one of the cords attaching the parachute to the backpack. It also came in on such an angle that it hit part of the second cord as well. Phoenix One fell as the parachute was made useless. Then the second cord snapped and Phoenix One was separated from the parachute.

As the ground rushed up, Phoenix One tried to hit the ground in a roll. He didn't know if it would work but in those moments of adrenaline and fear, he thought of those old Earth movies and he tried. He hit the ground. If the roll worked, Phoenix One didn't know. What he did know was that he hit a slope and he bounced off it. He landed on his right shoulder and he felt it crunch under his weight. Phoenix One rebounded and landed in a river.

Phoenix One went under. He didn't have any problems with air; these suits were built to last at least for a little while in space. What was a problem was the weight of the armour stopped him from being able to resurface. Phoenix One felt his feet touch the riverbed and with as much strength as he could muster, he pushed up and towards the shoreline. His armour threatened to pull him back under but finally he broke the surface of the water. He grabbed hold of the shore and wouldn't let go. He clawed himself free of the water then collapsed.

This was crazy. Minutes before he was yelling at some old man while on a Pelican back to base, now he was neck-deep in danger again.

"Just my luck…" Phoenix One muttered.

Project Freelancer Frigate Wave of Dissent

After scaling the elevator shaft without facing any other Covenant, the path to the bridge was clear. Agent Carolina pushed off against the far wall of the elevator shaft and shot through the straight corridor. She landed on the door to the bridge and called out, "This is Agent Carolina of Project Freelancer, open this door!"

Slowly the door opened and York helped her in. "You sound pissed. What happened to you?"

Carolina wasn't listening. She looked through the large windows of the bridge and saw the giant Covenant fleet. She was snapped out of her shock by York calling her name, "Carolina, Indiana and the others are waiting."

They floated passed people fussing over the bridge trying to get the power back on. Indiana, the other Freelancers and the captain of the ship were grouped together. Carolina and York joined them and Indiana looked up, "About time you got here, fearless leader." Carolina didn't think he meant anything by it. Indiana was using that serious tone of his when he was concentrating.

The captain nodded at her and spoke, "The enemy fleet have made us lose access to all our power using some sort of E.M.P. We have lost access to all of our defences, shielding and communication. As you will have noticed, we have also lost artificial gravity."

"The Covenant attacked almost immediately," Indiana continued. "Boarding parties breached the hull minutes after the ship lost power and security forces have been fighting them off since."

"However, we have no idea how those skirmishes are going without communications and surveillance," the captain said. "We don't know where the Covenant are and we have no way of directing security squadrons."

"That is why we have to act quickly," Indiana announced. The other Freelancers leaned in as the business part of the short briefing began. "I think it is obvious that the Covenant is after the Cypher. It's why they attacked us before and now they're attacking us again. Clearly we cannot allow them to take it. We fought with our lives to defeat the Covenant and I am sure as hell not going to be the one to let those alien bastards get back in the game.

"Unfortunately, the Wave of Dissent is a fish out of water. We can't move and we can't defend ourselves with the ship's weapons. That is why we need to get power back online throughout the ship. The Covenant won't destroy the ship until they have the Cypher out of harm's way. We also need a way through that blockade, which means we need to punch a hole in the line. We also have to deal with the Covenant on the ship before they take out key structure points throughout the ship. And finally, we have to defend the bridge. Lose the bridge and we lose the Wave of Dissent."

"That's a lot of work for the seven of us." Wyoming observed.

"Exactly, that is why we have four teams, one team to punch the hole in the blockade, one team to get the power back on, one team to defend the ship, and one team to defend the bridge. This is what I suggest: York, Colorado and Carolina take jetpacks and sneak onto an enemy ship then cover us. Wash and South deal with the Covenant forces before they take out the engines. Wyoming stay here and stop them invading the bridge and I go to the power generators and get the power back online."

"How exactly are you going to get the power back online?" South Dakota asked.

"The Covenant know that we can restart the power after an E.M.P. using the power generators. That is why that is one of their first targets. They will set charges and blow up the generators before we can get them back online, same with the engines. They'll blow up key points in the ship to snuff out any chance of a fight back from us. Keep in communications guys. I don't know how long they'll last but we have to have that ship to cover us at the same time as we restart the power otherwise this won't work. We've got to hurry guys, sync?"

"Sync," came the reply.

Ah mysteries! Who is the mysterious girl with the teddy bear? How will she affect the storyline? Will her life get better? Is it really that obvious? Bugger…