BIG Z: I'm sorry for taking as long as I have everyone, I've had some problems of a technical sort. My laptop decided to be insubordinate and I've been limited to my iPhone. I just got it back from the Geek Squad. But something else has happened that trumps what happened with me. Which is why I will not really be having a cameo this time.

SHOUTOUT: This one is to the City of Boston, a great tragedy has occurred and the nation is reeling. Yesterday, two bombs were detonated at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing 3 people, and wounding 144. I call on you the readers to keep the victims and the victims' families in your prayers.

Chapter 10

CSV Nebula, Bridge

6/9/2570

1400 Hours

Lieutenant June Athens

"Excuse me Lieutenant?" the old captain of the Nebula politely spoke up as June waited on Vivian to finish up her scan of the ship's log, manifest, and crew/passenger lists.

"Huh? Oh captain, what is it?" June replied absentmindedly.

"Oh how do I say this? Umm…your troops are kinda…misbehaving," he said, trying to lessen the blow.

A part of June shouldn't have been surprised, but still, she instantly became worried. So she asked further, "Misbehaving how?"

"Well, one group got into an argument with one of my stewards for refusing to give up their weapons, they called her a bitch in front of dozens of onlookers who recorded it and posted it to Youtube. Another group had one man put a hole in a bar on the pool deck then, and actually we enjoyed this, he went surfing on our surf machine. Another group chased and held a teen at gunpoint because she ended up running from them as soon as she saw them. A group had to pull one of their own from a bar drunk off her rocker, who was…entertaining some of the passengers."

"What?!"

"I'm afraid that's not the worst of it. Your largest squad on the Kids Deck, went nuts, no children were hurt, their leader had the prudence to lock their weapons in the nearby security post. But as children sometimes do, they messed with them. For some reason they carried flags with them. I guess their unit guide-on? But anyway, the kids stole the flags, and the Red ones chased and fought these kids through our jungle gym for ten minutes before fighting again in the foam pit. Then there were the Blues. They chased some kids to the water park on that deck. Our lifeguards attempted to get them to stop but they ended up getting into quite a scrap. I have seven crew members in the infirmary nursing broken noses, bruises, cuts, and quite a few hurt feelings. Their leader on the other hand was basically attacked by some of the more, rambunctious, of the children. He ended up chasing them through our inflatables, and trampoline courses. So…yeah, this inspection hasn't gone according to plan."

June could only stand there completely speechless, even Vivian was silent, thank God. Vivian was busy trying to gather the security footage and pirate the videos off of Youtube to compile and show to June. She would need to see this herself.

"Captain…you can prepare to cast off again. I'll get my troops off your ship and let you on through. This has been a day of firsts for me and them and it's clear I need to have a long serious talk with 'em."

"Lieutenant, it's fine. I served my time in the Navy during the war. I know the way soldiers act, they work hard, and they play hard…"

"Too bad these fools don't seem to do very much work of any kind," Vivian mocked in June's ear.

June bit her tongue as she yanked out the A.I. chip embedded in the ship's systems and replaced it in her wrist computer. She turned to the cruise ship captain, nodded politely and turned to leave. As she turned the main door guarded by a security man with a Taser on his belt attempted to look as attentive as possible for the UNSC officer.

"Vivian, get everyone off the ship and into the briefing room…now!" she hissed, finally allowing her anger to boil over.

"Okay, message has been sent out and all troops should be on their way out of the vessel and into the satellite. Lieutenant Athens, what, exactly, do you plan to do with them?" Vivian delicately asked.

"Discipline them."

Agriculture Satellite Plentiful

Doc & Doctor Courtney Anderson

The only two people on the entire station with any knowledge of medical matters were actually quite busy, and were in no way qualified to help with the sweep of the cruise liner. So June had ordered them to get all the medical gear separated from the rest of the equipment, weapons, fuel, and ammunition to have it ship shape by the time they had finished their assignment of scanning the large cruise liner. It turned out they had quite a bit of medical equipment now assigned to them, it had taken the medic and surgeon nearly half an hour just to get the crates and boxes separated out to be placed in a nearby warehouse. Over thirty crates of first aid kits, morphine, blood plasma, blood canisters of all blood types, needles, scanners, surgeon's tools, bandages, anesthetic, splints, stretchers, and all manner of other things had to be catalogued, organized and carefully moved to a refrigerated section of the large room if needed, and stacked up using a small crane on the ceiling.

"Man, why would those UNSC people think we needed this much stuff?" Courtney groaned as she sat down on top of a small box she had just set down next to the door, "It doesn't make sense to me."

"For someone who has taken orders from Command for several years let me tell you this, making sense is a convenience to be used in rare circumstances," Doc grumble as he walked the crane forward and brought it down to place another large crate filled with some type of bandage, "but hey, look on the bright side. At least all this exercise is good stress relief."

"Boy have I needed that," Courtney replied, grinning weakly, "what with Carmen being pregnant, a new commander, and those religious nut jobs running around along with a former super soldier turned megalomaniac, I've needed an avenue to channel a little energy."

"That's the spirit," Doc said happily, "and…done! See? That was easy, and we managed some great stress relief at the same time, good team work," Doc smiled widely as he held up his hand for a high five that Courtney just grinned and returned the high five half-heartedly.

As the two of them started walking out of the small warehouse a shadow off to the left of them caught Courtney's attention. It was there for a moment before it disappeared again. But Courtney was a pretty suspicious person, and if she had a question she was going to have it answered one way or another.

"Did you see that?" she asked as she stopped in the hallway and stared down the well-lit corridor.

"See what?" Doc asked, stopping in his tracks to see that Courtney was looking straight down the hall intently.

"I saw a…thing…I'm not exactly sure what it was."

"You two!" came a very angry and very irritated voice belonging to Lieutenant Athens.

Both medics jumped in fright and saw the green armor of their commander stomping right towards them. Her Battle Rifle was slung over shoulder and her hands were balled into fists and every movement was stiff. Her visor was cleared and her angry eyes were very much bloodshot with rage.

"Umm…Lieutenant, are you okay?" Doc asked, being very careful in his speech towards the short fused officer.

"Am I okay? Am I OKAY?!" she yelled, tearing off her helmet allowing her platinum blonde hair to fall out, "In the day I have been assigned here I have been assigned to a floating farm and a group of imbeciles, tied up and gagged, had one of my soldiers get kidnapped by idiots who can't die, been humiliated by all of them, and have become the laughing stock of the UNSC! So NO!"

June stormed off into their living quarters and her voice faded away as the metal dulled out the sounds of her enraged ranting as she finally stomped around in her room and locked the door behind her.

"Oh no…" Doc whined, slumping his shoulders.

"Either she has just had a major melt down or the Reds and Blues have really fucked up."

"Or worse, both."

"Then we're…"

"Grif! What the hell were you thinking?!" the angered voice of Sarge yelled as soon as the Reds were visible streaming out of the docking port.

"Me?! What the Hell did I do?" Grif snapped back.

"You made an idiot out of yourself on Youtube!" Sarge replied.

"And Liz, Lisa, I am ready to kick your dumb asses! I could expect this stupidity from Liz, that's a given, but Lisa? How could you be that stupid?" Carmen yelled at her team.

"They started it by trying to take our weapons!"

"And come on, she was a bitch," Liz grumbled nonchalantly.

"And Hippy what the Hell were you doing?!" Carmen yelled again.

"Just cutting loose babe," Hawaii grinned.

"Which was awesome," Donut spoke up.

"It was wasn't it?" Kate responded.

"So cool."

"You did a flip!" Kate yelled out excitedly.

"Really? In all that armor?" Simmons asked, now curious.

"Shutup!" Carmen growled, "We got pulled out, we fucked up! Again!"

"Why am I not surprised?" a familiar voice called out arrogantly from behind the Reds as Blue Team now made their way into the satellite.

"Well what were you guys doing the entire time?" Liz snapped.

"Not becoming an instant hit on Youtube," Jenny responded smugly.

"See I told you!" Lisa snapped at Liz.

"Well actually, Sister sort of became a hit herself," Simmons replied.

"What?" Grif growled.

"Just look up 'drunk Spartan pole dancing' on Google," Simmons responded.

"Really, I'm famous?" Sister slurred out, wobbling with Sergey supporting her.

"You little slut! What is wrong with you?!" Grif yelled.

"Hey, she's my girlfriend," Sergey snapped back.

"Well she's my sister!"

"Hey easy dudes, too many negative waves floating around," Hawaii coolly tried soothing the angered Reds and Blues.

"ENOUGH!" Washington finally bellowed as loud as he could, using his voice amplifier. Everyone near him cringed as they recoiled from the sudden angered outburst.

"Hey easy on the voice amplifier Wash," Lea growled loudly, barely able to hear herself over the high pitched ringing in her ears.

"What?!" Caboose yelled, unable to discern anything anyone was saying.

"Stop yelling retard," Tucker said.

"Caboose you're hearing is gone," Church groaned.

"I don't wear earrings!"

"Calm down moron," Lea groaned.

"I am putting my palm down, wait, which palm, my right or my left?"

"Let's move on," Tex spoke up, "Okay, the fact of the matter is this: We screwed up and made that new officer look like a complete joke in front of hundreds of people."

"Actually the number is approaching eight million, ah the beauty of the internet," Lisa smiled smugly.

"Well yours has already gotten to eight digits," Lea replied indignantly.

"Really that fast?" Jenny asked, quite curious.

"Shut up," Tex snapped threateningly.

"Lisa, promise to shoot me if I get asked to go on TV," Liz grumbled.

"Save us the trouble and shoot her now," Carmen piped up.

"And Grif too," Sarge added on.

"Is that an order?"

"No save your time for something that matters," Carmen grumbled.

"Back on subject please."

"Guys, I know that fucking things up is normally our whole point in life but right now we've got to try and be half-way competent," Church stated firmly, receiving nods from everyone.

"Well, I guess we'd better go and say something. It's only fair to her," Carmen grumbled to herself.

"Fuck that, I didn't do anything," Tucker snapped.

"Tucker!" Tex growled, threateningly, moving her right hand to rest on her pistol.

"Alright, fine," Tucker consented, seeing what might have been in store for him had he not capitulated.

The Reds and Blues heard the soft thuds of many pairs of boots approaching form behind them and saw the dripping wet, paint stained Zealots, led by Maine. All of them were extremely depressed and just barely able to hold their heads high enough to keep from tripping over one another. Maine just growled something that Wash nodded at and turned to face the others as the Zealots walked off in opposite directions and Maine stood in between and walked towards the others.

"What happened to them?" Lisa asked curiously.

"He said don't ask."

"If it has those guys depressed and the Lieutenant having a bitch fit then I don't wanna know," Jenny huffed.

"Agreed," most of the assembled group said instantly.

"Well, someone ought to go and talk to her," Sergey said uncomfortably.

"Are you volunteering?" Church asked.

"No, I have to get Sister back to base," Sergey desperately responded.

"Don't look at me!" Tucker held up his hands.

"Count me out," Lea added.

"Well it has to be someone who she at least knows she can trust, someone stupid enough to go and risk getting chewed out by her," Tex responded.

"And we have to send someone from both teams, seeing how we both messed up," Lisa thought out loud.

"Although you Reds messed up worse than we did," Lea grumbled.

"Don't start that again Lea," Alaska replied.

"So we need someone from both teams, who can both try and put her in a better mood."

"Yet be kinda dumb…" Grif trailed off, looking over at Donut and Caboose.

"Hey, everyone's looking at me. I love attention, hi!" Caboose piped up.

"What do you mean I'm kinda dumb?" Donut ranted, putting his hands on his hips.

"Donut, you believed us when we said that dirt tasted like chocolate."

"Oh yeah, not my best moment."

"But we do need someone to go along, someone with at least some common sense," Liz said, rubbing her chin, "One two three not it!"

"NOT IT!" everyone immediately yelled. That left one person who didn't or couldn't, say it, Rachel.

"Sorry Rachel," Jenny grinned, as she immediately and angrily started flashing sign language at them.

"What's she saying?" Grif asked as the furious girl huffed and slumped her shoulders in defeat.

"Trust me you don't wanna know Red. This is how we decided how who did things no one else wanted to do back in the day. The only way she was able to keep from being it was if we needed to rescue her from the Reds, or pull the Warthog off of her because she forgot to put the jack in the right spot, or when she got stuck in a tree after chasing a squirrel that took her bag of peanuts," Lea sounded off, counting each of the different scenarios on a finger.

Immediately, Rachel shook her head and pointed at Sergey and Jenny.

"I did not bump the jack when the Warthog fell on you!" Jenny yelled.

"And I didn't ask you to try and steal the flag when the Reds' base locked down and you were trapped inside!" Sergey replied as well.

"Yeah you did," Lea responded.

"Did not," Sergey testily responded.

"Sergey, remember what we did to you when you tried to argue last time?" Lea responded menacingly.

Sergey winced, yeah, being tied upside down over the cliff is not fun.

"Now it's decided, Rachel, Caboose, Donut, and Kate will go talk to her," Washington spoke up, pretty much ending the debate.

"Get a move on you lot," Carmen said, turning and heading towards the Warthogs as the other Reds went the same direction.

"We'll send Monty to pick you up when you're finished," Lisa called over her shoulder.

"Come on, let's go," Kate grumbled and headed towards the door into the living quarters where they knew the medics, the pilots, and now their angry CO were living in.

"You first," Donut said, quite afraid of what awaited them.

The four of them walked up the stairs and onto the raised platform as the door hissed open and allowed them inside. Rachel was the first to brave walking into the metaphorical jaws of death but as soon as she walked inside she and everyone with her jumped in fright when Four-Seven came around the corner and yelled out to them.

"Hey guys."

"AHH!" Kate and Donut squealed, jumping into one another's arms.

"Sheesh, what's got your panties in a wad?" Four-Seven snorted.

"We got told to talk to Lieutenant Athens…" Donut began.

"Oh she took a walk into the garden dudes," Vic was heard yelling from around the corner.

"Okay, which way did she go?"

Red Team

Red Base

The column of Warthogs pulled up and parked lazily by the wall into the base and every Red present dismounted. Every one of them was simply depressed at what they'd done, and were in no mood for arguing with one another. With two of their number still at the hanger area they had hope that things may get smoothed over some before they would need to face Lieutenant Athens again. In the meantime however, they had something else to worry about.

"Hey Sarge," Simmons called as he heard a loud beeping noise coming from a side room that hadn't been opened yet.

"What is it Simmons?"

"Do you hear that?" he responded, making the other Reds listen in as well.

"Hear what? That beeping?" Grif asked too.

"No the other mysterious beeping noise coming from that room over there. Of course that beeping noise!" Lisa snapped.

"Well stop arguing about the stupid thing and do something about it!" Carmen yelled as she opened the glass door to the cafeteria, "God dammit, why did we send Kate?! She and Donut are the only ones who know how to cook!"

"Oh no she isn't Carpy, allow me to show you dudes a real taste of Hawaiian barbecue."

Hawaii cracked his knuckles and went to the kitchen with a great big smile on his face. But Simmons and Lisa, being annoyed by the incessant beeping from behind the sealed door pressed the button that opened it and were pleased to see the door hiss open quickly, showing them a large computer console. A pair of rolling chairs was against the desk that a pair of keyboards was sitting on, glowing blue and ready to be used. Several monitors were displaying information and video of what some security cameras were looking at.

"Hey, look at that," Lisa said walking in first, "A security feed."

"Really? That's badass."

"It shows everything, the gardens, the halls, warehouses, and the hanger," Lisa sounded off, sliding down into the padded chair and placed her helmet on the table.

"Hold on, that isn't the hanger," Simmons pointed at the screen of a large, and empty, hanger bay with its doors closed but a few red lights rotating in their housings.

"It must be another hanger, this is a big satellite after all," Lisa shrugged.

"Sarge! Check this out!" Simmons called over his shoulder.

"What in Sam hill? What did you two nerds find?" Sarge asked as he was startled to see the now very active pair of Reds playing with the computer.

"Sir, I'm a science officer," Simmons groaned.

"Yeah right, that would have to mean you're an officer," Liz chuckled.

"Shut it ya dumb bitch," Carmen growled as she walked in.

"Thank you ma'am," Lisa responded.

"Kiss ass."

"Simmons, what have ya got?" Sarge finally asked, trying to find out why he was looking at a hanger he had not seen before.

"It's another hanger sir," Lisa responded, tapping a few commands into the keyboard.

Immediately a large map lit up on the screen in front of Lisa and a red blinking box immediately caught everyone's attention.

"It looks like this hanger is on the opposite side as ours is," Simmons observed.

"So why's it blinking red? Is it broken?" Liz responded.

"I don't think so, hold on, let me try something," Lisa tapped in another series of commands and immediately the screen flipped to a grid of different camera angles, most were in the main corridors and the garden itself, but some were showing staring out into space, "There!"

She pointed at a single box showing a gray boxlike object of sorts as its primary focus point.

"What is it?" Sarge asked, leaning forward to get a better look.

Simmons tapped the screen with his finger and the box blew up to encompass the entire screen. With this additional resolution they were able to see that they were staring at a ship of some kind. It was no warship, as there was not a single weapon on its smooth outer hull. A few markings were present including a few letters and numbers designating it as some kind of cargo vessel. A single group of small windows at the rear section of the ship was clearly the bridge but the windows were tinted to prevent them from looking in and seeing who or what was piloting the vessel. The ship then seemed to slow down as its bow left the screen and then they felt a slight shudder as the vessel docked, and then a single blinking symbol went off at the top of the Reds' computer screen.

UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY DETECTED.

"Uh oh."

"This isn't good," Lisa gulped as she turned the screen back to the hanger where she saw the doors open and then everyone gasped as they saw dozens of armed soldiers stream into their satellite. They all had on red, brown, and orange camouflage patterned armor that resembled what the UNSC's troops wore. Most were armed with Assault Rifles, but a few held heavier weapons, like Sniper Rifles, Rocket Launchers, SAW's, and Shotguns. They moved rather sloppily by military standards, but it was definitely proficient.

INTRUDER ALERT

"Oh shit," Carmen whispered as vehicles now flooded out into the corridor, at least a dozen Warthogs mounting machine guns sped into the hanger and then fanned out, securing their perimeter.

"We're in deep shit now."

"We need to alert the others," Sarge responded, placing his hand to his ear.

"Hey Reds! We're being invaded! So get the fuck off your asses!" all their radios immediately screamed into their ears.

"Yes we noticed Church, now stop screaming, my ears are still ringing from when Washington yelled at us last time."

"We've already told Meta, he's got the Zealots on their way now, but we can't find Lieutenant Athens, Caboose, Rachel, Donut, and Kate," Washington reported.

"They'll just have to fend for themselves for now, we have to do something quick to slow them down," Carmen rattled off.

"Shut the doors," Alaska quietly and calmly said from behind the Reds, startling them, "funnel them into a place we can concentrate ourselves."

"I think we can do that from here," Simmons responded, and immediately started tapping in commands and several yellow lines flashed up where the enormous bulkheads began shutting themselves tightly and magnetically sealed themselves.

"Okay, we're safe from being attack from behind, but they still have access to the main chamber. I have no control over the entrances to those," Lisa sounded off.

Then the Reds heard Tex come on the radio.

"Okay, Reds, mount up, time to kick ass."

BIG Z: Thank you for reading folks, and please, please keep the victims of the Marathon Bombing in your hearts.

Next Chapter Preview: You've been waiting for a fight and a plot, so here it is.