Strolling down the courtyard, Tucker and Caboose were astonished with the sheer size of the cafeteria. Peering through one of the large windows, both of them saw many things of interest. For Caboose, it was the giant cookies in the food line as for Tucker..
"Aww yeah, I am so scoring some tonight." Tucker said inwardly raising a fist in excitement, throwing the immense door open. With this grand gesture the two blue soldiers walked down the center aisle.
"Tucker..can we go to the line now." Caboose said nudging his comrades shoulder.
"For fucks sake Caboose, go by yourself. I'm going to hit some ladies up. " Tucker retorted leaving Caboose alone in the middle of the cafeteria.
"Ok.." Caboose said softly, turning in circles looking at everyone of the students who had found themselves staring at the tall blue.
"I..I am going to walk away now" Caboose said slowly, inching away from the tables bumping into the buffet. Turning towards the line of foods he grabbed a metal tray and started walking along with the crowd.
"This ..is awesome" He said. Idly not grabbing any of the food as he reached the end, were the desserts were promptly stashed on a platter. Reaching out he grabbed one of the large cookies, then quickly shuffled all of them unto his tray.
Smiling inside his helmet he approached what looked like the lunch lady at the end of the line.
"I am here to buy cookies!" He excitedly shouted out to the lady. The lunch lady herself starred at the blue soldiers then shrugged and walking away from the blue.
"Should I wait here..?" Caboose said silently in his helmet. It wasn't long before Church had found
his way here.
"Caboose what the fuck are you doing!?" Church bellowed half way across the room.
"I am buying cookies!" Caboose yelled back echoing his voice throughout the hall.
"You dumb fuck, it's free!" Church yelled.
"Oh-my-god, thanks church!" Caboose said, walking away with his tray of cookies.
Sighing church was getting very tired with the consistent shit storm he, or more realistically, everyone had been served.
"For Christ's sake..can't leave this idiot alone either.." Church grumbled joining caboose at a table at the end of the cafeteria.
"Church we should be roommates!" Caboose exclaimed facing his team leader.
"Shut..the..fuck..up.." Church spat back.
"Church! You need to meet my friends!" Caboose yelled standing up, nearly knocking over his stack of uneaten cookies.
"What friends? Who the fuck would want to be friends with you!" Church yelled out slamming his fist on the table, unbenounced to him someone was sitting right across the table.
"Uh..sup, name's Ruby!" Ruby said smiling.
"I am not dealing with this. Fine- I'm Church. Bye." Church said standing up abruptly and leaving them alone.
"Church is my best friend! He's just tired right now." Caboose said sliding the tray between them.
"I guess. So how are you guys liking Beacon?" Ruby asked, as she grabbed one of the many cookies.
"Well...I like it! There's food, and people, and no one is fighting!" Caboose exclaimed holding a half eaten cookie up to his helmet.
"Wait..how did you…?" Ruby said looking at him inquisitively
"We can eat through our helmets. It's our talent." Caboose said finishing off the cookie that was in his hand.
"Cool." Ruby said she went to grab another cookie and only one bite into it a scream shot across the room
"What was that?" Caboose said quickly standing up from the table, Ruby followed as well looking across the room as a tall, heavily armored, ginger boy was pulling at a smaller girls bunny ears.
Before they could even step in another blue armored man decided to deal with the bully, Church walked up behind the red head grabbing his shoulder firmly.
"Hey douche bag, let go before I kick your ass!" Church yelled turning the redhead to face him. Cardin's reaction was unexpected, to say the least. Letting out a yelp as he stared into Churches amber visor, he released the small girl's ears and tried backing away, tripping on himself. He landed on the floor with a loud thump, recoiling in fear of Church.
"What the fuck..no way I'm that scary...that's kind of Tex's thing." Church blurted out, with no real idea as to why this kid was so scared of him.
"Church you're like the boogeyman!" Caboose yelled positioning himself next to his blue leader.
"Shut up, let's just get out of here." Church said, walking himself out of the cafeteria.
"Christ. What the fuck was that shit." He said to himself, something had to have been wrong with that boy, or something happened to him. Something that would make him fear someone who resembled him.
Sighing, Church walked off leaving the now silent cafeteria and its last remaining blue soldier.
"Well..this is awkward." Caboose said sitting back at the table with ruby, their large platter of cookies was half empty now.
"Just a little, Cardin was out there when we were in the forest, do you think he ran into one of your friends or that Maine guy?" Ruby said biting into another cookie.
"I don't know. He did seem pretty mean." Caboose said looking to his left watching as his teal-colored partner, Tucker strode up next to them and collapsed onto the table.'
"The women here, are impossible.." He said sighing grabbing a cookie from their tray and plopping down into a seat besides Caboose. As he sat there, Caboose continued to stare at his comrade-in-arms.
"So Tucker, how was your adventure?" Caboose asked, genuinely curious.
"How the fuck do you think it went? It was rejection city." Tucker exclaimed eating half of his cookie, meeting the gaze of both Ruby and Caboose.
"Well, did you think about removing your helmet, so people can actually see you?" Ruby asked.
"You should do what she said." Caboose stated afterwards.
"Fuck no, wait...maybe that's a good idea.." Tucker staggered upon his words. He reached up grasping his helmet, accidentally flipping the internal switch for the radio on, static played as some strange numbers were being broadcast over it by a muffled and quiet voice.
'39.2..633° N…... 76.57..99° W"
"Coordinates? The fuck!" Tucker exclaimed.
"Oh my god, are you using the radio, Tex said not to use it.." Caboose said, he himself flicking the internal switch for the radio on.
"Shut it Caboose, let me get Church." Tucker said hopping into the blues comms. "Church! Get your fucking radio on. Someone is broadcasting coordinates."
"Yeah. Me and Tex noticed, it's a UNSC frequency, so Just keep your radio on just in case something major happens..." Church radioed over.
Tucker returning back to the moment, faced Caboose and Ruby again. "Church knows, but I doubt anything bad will happen."
"How are you so sure?" Ruby said finishing another cookie.
"Because if something bad was to happen, it doesn't even involve us. We are trouble free here." Tucker said nonchalantly.
"Tucker, I have a bad feeling about this." Caboose said quietly
"Caboose shut the -
'Feta recovery beacon activated'
-oh fuck me.." Tucker said dreading what may happen next, at least he would be sure that Church and Tex wouldn't care, after all it was just Jays A.I. As Tucker finished his thought yelling was heard outside the building. Sighing, the trio in unison quickly jogged out, greeting themselves to the sight of the entire red team with one functional warthog.
"Griff get in the Driver seat! Lopez on the turret. I got shotgun! Sarge yelled out commands to his team.
Simmons ran up to the side of the warthog saluting his leader. "Sir! what can I do to help on the mission?"
"Simmons, stay here and guard the damaged warthog, we may need it for spare parts later." Sarge exclaimed
"Yeah , fuckers, let's just get on with this." Griff said to his teammates, Simmons sighed and walked away, as the two blues and Ruby approached the reds.
Tucker walked up to Sarge himself. "Sarge if you heard it, why are you going?"
"Simple..Jay is a red. reds don't leave reds behind" Sarge said almost inspiringly, in this moment he didn't notice the young hunter walk up to the side of the warthog.
"Can I come too?" Ruby asked.
"Sure lil red, Hop in back with Lopez." Sarge said watching on as ruby leaped into the hog.
"All set, let's go." Griff said, pressing his foot on the gas pedal and sent the hog soaring off.
"The plan is simple, regroup with our ally and venture off." Sarge said out loud
"Wait, who's your ally?" Ruby asked
"A not so red sharpshooter.." Sarge grumbled as they drove off, leaving Caboose and Tucker in a small dust cloud.
"So..Caboose. A girl just ditched you. How does it feel." Tucker said egging his fellow comrade
"Well..kinda like when all the girls you hit on decided to gather up behind you" Caboose said looking behind tucker to a very angry crowd of female hunters.
"Caboose...are they-"
"Yes Tucker..you should run." Caboose said watching on.
Turning his head looking at the crowd, Tucker audibly gulped. "So ladies. I see you couldn't get enough of me."
Meanwhile looking on the situation with his sniper rifle, Church and Tex were observing them from far away.
"Wait for it..and now he's getting his ass kicked" Church sighed, watching his blue teammate get pummeled He looked at Tex who seemed to be lost in thought.
"You think Maine got him?" Church asked
"Maybe..but this is sloppy work, the other A.I wouldn't let a recovery beacon go off like this." Tex said still lost in her own thoughts.
"So someone else then..the Spartans?" Church asked.
"No, I overheard from the girl they want him alive, besides he handled them before." Tex said again.
At this point he was getting more than a little frustrated. "Well Tex, then who the fuck did this?!" Church almost yelled out
"I don't fucking know, Wyoming is already off the list and -"
"Tex the reds have a warthog.." Church interrupted her.
"Nice...now they can go to their deaths at high speed" Tex remarked.
"Still..this is kind of scary.." Church said.
"What the reds trying to be useful?" Tex playfully remarked.
"No..I mean, Jay had allies, and whatever this is waited until he was separated from him."
"Then let's just keep our radios on for now.." Tex said looking off
"Why did you want the radio off before anyway?" church asked.
"Containment...but I haven't heard him in a long time.." Tex said softly
"Your A.I?" Church said.
"Yep.." Tex said..
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Meanwhile in the city Wyoming was standing in front of a dust shop with a bag of dust.
"We can conduct experiments soon Gamma, but right now we have more pressing matters." Wyoming said to his glowing A.I that was resting on his shoulder like a parrot.
"Reggie, we may not make it in time on foot." Gamma informed his partner.
"Well..I'm counting on a ride." Wyoming said looking down the street as if he were waiting for something.
"I'm detecting a vehicle approaching." Gamma informed again, as Wyoming took some steps towards the street. In the view a Warthog quickly zoomed down the street drifting to a stop in front of wyoming. Sarge stood up from his seat and gazed at the freelancer.
"Well what are you waiting for snowballs!?" Sarge exclaimed.
Wyoming sighed, and hopped in back next to the Turret, he noticed that the huntress Ruby was here as well.
"Ruby right? How did you get into this?" Wyoming asked.
"I think some field practice before classes won't hurt." Ruby said smiling in her usual cheerful way.
"Right …" Wyoming said under his breath, a kid just got involved, he had no idea how his conscious should react to this, but then again this was a different world with entirely new customs.
"Listen up Reds, we have no idea what engaged Jay, other than that it is highly skilled in stealth, tracking and can handle a Spartan." Wyoming said informing them.
"Fuck me.." Griff remarked.
"Sounds like fun." Sarge exclaimed as Griff drove them down the street and out of the city.
"Yeah, GPS is kind of fucked here, so do we have some location or something." Griff said.
"I have a location, I am updating your GPS now." Gamma said popping up on the Dashboard.
"What the fuck is that!?" Griff yelled swerving the jeep
"Calm down you idiot, it's my A.I!" Wyoming said as Griff took control of the jeep back again.
"Asshole.." Griff said gazing at the A.I..
"I think now would be a good time to mention that Feta was also tracking the unknown entity before I was.." Gamma said.
"Gamma...why didn't you inform me." Wyoming said, leaning over the seat to look gamma in his holographic face.
"I was unsure with the accuracy of her data, but with the entity also tracking us. It seems that it was confirming whether we were with Jay or not…" Gamma said as well, getting many stairs from the reds.
"I mean to say, this also happened to Striker, though he and his A.I may have not noticed.." Gamma said again…
"Wyoming, what's your computer going on about?" Sarge said looking back to the freelancer.
"Its Theory talk, but whatever has been tracking us, like gamma said, confirmed whether or not Jay was alone and then when he was struck, but that leaves Maine out of the equation, he is a brute not a tactician." Wyoming said, the entire vehicle was silent.. But then their young hunter companion sprouted an idea.
"Wait..you guys mentioned a guy named Striker...where is he?" Ruby asked, looking for answers in Wyoming's Amber visor
"It's a long story-
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"What the fuck do you mean we're not going!" Ravager screamed out! The trio of Spartans were in a military structure in Vale, and they were all not having a good day. Ravager was barely patched up, and here he was barking like a dog to go after Jay.
"We are not following that signal, establishing political relations with this planet's government takes priority." The sage armored Cali scolded Ravager. Meanwhile Striker was just sitting on a bench watching it all unfold. In his helmet he was talking with Theta.
"So..we can't do anything to help"
"No..not like this, we can't leave the compound and the leaders here want us for questioning, I hate it as much as you do lil bro." Striker said softly
"You and Jay rescued me from Maine..we have to find a way to help him now." Theta said trying to plead with striker.
" If I could I would..trust me I want to be out there with Wyoming, I want to figure out who was following them." Striker said..he felt the helplessness from Feta, even for a smart A.I he was a kid in nature.
"Striker come on." Cali said snapping striker out of his little conversation.
"Yeah boss" He said standing up.
"We've been called in, some General wants to question us personally so let's give them a good impression." Cali said leading him and Ravager into a large room. They each sat down in three chairs on one side of the table which was in the middle of the room.
After a moment, a man in a white suit came in and sat down across from them.
"Hello..My name is General Ironwood..I have a proposition for you"