Chapter 12: The New Game Plan

Dear Chairman, I too, hold the protocol in the highest regard. The doctrine kept us all safe during the Great War. If you are insinuating Sir, that we violated it in any way or that we were derelict in our duty to the Military, well then I suggest you be direct and tell me exactly how we did so.

XXX

Getting over the shock of seeing the ghostly Church, Washington glared angrily at him. "What is going on?"

"Wash, stay calm," Church said slowly. "We can explain."

"I don't want explanations!" Wash snapped, "I want the truth, now! When were you gonna tell me about this?"

"Okay, maybe I should start at the beginning," Church sighed, "You see, Caboose here killed me by accident once; well actually, more than once."

"Not my fault," Caboose moaned. "Tucker did it..."

"Shut up," Church muttered, kicking his foot through his teammate's side.

"He killed you," Wash repeated, "As in... dead?"

"Then we reached an agreement," Sarge put in, "I built Blue over here a new body-"

"Agreement?" Church scoffed, "More like we kicked your butt and you didn't have much of a choice of what you wanted to do."

"Who kicked what now?" Sarge yelled.

"What are you, an idiot?" Simmons added.

"You wanna take that back," Sarge warned.

"You guys totally gave up!" Church gloated.

"Bullcrap!" Grif snapped.

"That was the time Tex kicked your butts all over-"

"Stop!" Wash yelled, "Focus... How did you build him a body?"

"With a robot kit, of course," Sarge replied, "I'd already used ours to build our helper, Lopez."

"And a mighty fine job you did too, Sir," Simmons added loyally.

"Yeah," Grif muttered sarcastically, "It's always great to have a helper no one can understand."

"Blue Team hadn't used theirs for some reason," Sarge continued, "And they even had an extra. We used that for your buddy uh, whatsername."

"And that didn't strike anyone as odd?" Wash asked, "That you would have a kit to build a robot that looks like a soldier?"

"That's just standard issue equipment, right?" Simmons replied unsurely.

"What? No," Wash cried, "Have you ever run into anyone else who has one?"

"We don't really get out that often," Simmons admitted.

"Okay, smart guy," Sarge scowled, "If they're so rare, then why did Command send us upgraded ones when we were told to ship out to Rat's Nest?"

"You guys went to Rat's Next too?" Church gasped.

"I used some of the spare parts to spruce up Lopez."

"Spare parts?" Simmons cried, "Did you fix his voice thing?"

"You know," Sarge muttered, "I didn't even think of that until just this second, kind of obvious in hindsight. Probably best not to mention it to him if you see him."

"Meh, he wouldn't understand anyway," Simmons shrugged.

"Your team sucks," Church retorted.

"At least our robot isn't the leader of our team, Bluebot!" Sarge countered.

"Hey, that's not very nice!" Caboose yelled, sitting bolt upright, "He means us, right?"

"Yes and shut up!" Church shouted.

"STOP IT!" Wash screamed, "I can't stand this. No more bickering. You have to be the most immature soldiers I've ever met!"

"Your face is immature," Grif retorted.

"Shut up," Wash snapped, "From now on, everyone just keep quiet, and don't talk unless I ask you a question. That's an order. I need to figure this out."

"Hold on," Sarge shouted, "You can't order us around!"

"Yes I can."

"What's your rank?"

"My rank?" Wash spluttered, "You still don't get it, do you? You think you're real soldiers? You're not. You guys are nothing."

"Whatever, your face is... nothing," Grif trailed off.

"Freelancers use your outposts as testing grounds, practice," Rhode sighed, "You never noticed that you never had anything to do unless a Freelancer showed up or you made a call to Command?"

Sarge glared at him, "You're makin' that up."

"Is he?" Wash replied smugly, "Think about it. Name one thing that ever happened to you that wasn't directly preceded by Command calling you or sending someone to your base. One thing..."

Church and Caboose glanced at each other worryingly, Simmons opened his mouth to speak but then shut it again, Grif scratched the top of his helmet in thought and Sarge just grimaced.

"Anything?" Wash prompted, "No? I thought so. You three, go assess the vehicles and see if you can find some trail of the Meta while you're at it."

"Ooh, finally a take-charge leader," Simmons cried, running down the walkway, "I like it!"

"Shut up!" Grif and Sarge yelled as they followed him.

Wash then turned to the Blues and handed Caboose his helmet, "Church, get back in your armor. You're just going to draw attention to yourself like that."

"Fine," Church sighed, "But first-"

"No, no first, get in your armor."

"I really think I should tell you what it is-"

"Shush."

"I have a message from Delta!"

Wash gasped, "Delta? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Oh come on, seriously?" Rhode asked

"How did you get in contact with him?"

"He left a message for me in Caboose's head; actually for me to give to you," Church said, "I guess he figured out I would get in there and find it."

"How would he know that?" Wash pondered aloud, "Did he know what you are?"

"Well I didn't tell him," Church replied as he repossessed his body, "But he seemed pretty smart. Maybe he just put two and two together."

"Four," Caboose piped up.

"That wasn't a test."

"Yes it was I won A-plus."

"What was the message?" Wash asked.

"He said 'Memory is the key'," Church recalled.

"Memory is the key," Wash repeated. "Did he say anything else?"

"Nothing important," Church said.

"Memory is the key?" Rhode asked puzzled, "What does that mean?"

"He said Wash would know."

Wash turned the message over in his mind, "Memory is the key..."

"Yeah, I know," Church replied, "It didn't make any sense to me either. It just sounded like some stupid riddle or something."

Wash suddenly looked up, a very serious look on his face, "Gather your gear. We're leaving... now!"

They watched him run off down the walkway then Caboose put his helmet back on and turned to Church, "I think he's angry because of what you said to him."

"Yeah," Church chuckled as they ran after him, "If I knew it was gonna make him leave, I would've said it sooner."

XXX

They caught up with Wash as he joined the Reds next to the badly damaged Warthog Mk II and ruined jeeps.

"What's the status of the vehicles?" Wash demanded, "Report."

"You could have asked nicely," Grif scowled.

"You're right, I could. Report!"

"They're all busted," Sarge replied, "We could probably fix one by takin' parts from all the others. That's one of my specialties. It's gonna take a while though."

"How long?"

"Couple o' days."

"No time. We need to start moving ASAP. And we need six seats. You're gonna have to get me two jeeps in a few hours."

"No can do. It's not gonna happen."

Wash let out a sigh, "Then we'll have to get them somewhere else. And I know exactly where we can find them."

"Why, where are we going?" Church asked.

"Delta was right. Memory is the key."

"But what does it mean?"

Wash turned to Church, a grim look in his face, "It means that only one thing remembers everything about these AI and where they came from. It will know how to stop them. We need to unlock the Alpha."

"The Alpha?" Rhode gasped.

Wash nodded slowly, "And that means we're going home. We're going to Command."

XXX

Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuuuun! The plot thickens! Till next time guys!