June F: *grabs random bag of chips* Made it into the bunker in time!

Lily: Good, I did not want to explode.

Vivian: Didn't we forget someone June?

June F: Hmmm….

*pounding on door*

All Three: Big…

Big: *faint* Let me in please!

June F: Lockdown protocol is in affect Big, I can't

Big: *faint* I don't want to die out here!

Vivian: I think we should just let the readers read the chapter, shall we? We'll check in on him later

Chapter 14

Pacifica City, Commercial District Downtown Mall

4/25/2570

2510 Hours

Group 5

Rachel sat tied to a chair in the middle of a wrecked store with all the shelves and aisles utterly wrecked and shoved against the wall in piles. The floor was a white and blue tile that weas cracked and shattered from the war going on and the damage of the Misfit's ill-fated crash landing. Lights flickered on and off illuminating the floor in a ghostly blue light between flashes of the florescent bulbs and the lightning strikes. Thunder claps awoke her from her slumber of unconsciousness with a start. She snapped up and was hit by a wave of nausea from being upright and then trying to pull her head up. But she noticed that her helmet was lying in front of her about four feet away. So she tried to reach out for her helmet but immediately she noticed that her arms wouldn't follow her command. She looked down to see that her hands were tied down to the arm rests of the chair by industrial strength zip ties. Her feet were equally restrained to the metal legs of the chair and she looked around and noticed that she was not alone.

"Look who's awake boys," a man in gray and white ODST armor said, walking over to Rachel who had seen him.

Rachel glared at him as he strolled up to the young Blue and placed his hands right on top of Rachel's wrists and studied her through his gold visor. Rachel returned the stare, not moving a bit. But inside her mind was racing with worry for Caboose, Jenny, Lea, Sergey and the others. She felt her heart being broken with the thoughts of her friends being killed and left to rot by the Freelancers, not being able to do anything but sit here, tied to a chair. The man was soon joined by a quartet of other troops who watched from a few feet away as Rachel competed in the stare down with what she guessed was their leader. After a few seconds the man stood straight and crossed his arms across his chest and began questioning her in his deep filtered voice.

"Who are you, and what are you doing here Blue?" he asked.

Rachel couldn't have answered him if she had wanted to but they didn't know that so when Rachel just glared at them in silence the lead trooper clenched his fists and brought them down to his sides and repeated the question.

"I'm warning you girl, you don't want to play this game with me. Now, who are you and the what the fuck are you doing here?" he hissed, coming a step closer.

Rachel was in no mood to be threatened, in an act of defiance, she spat right at the man's feet. The others looked to the spit by the man's feet, then to the furious leader and then to Rachel who was scowling at the Freelancer troopers. In an act of brutality the soldier swung his left fist into Rachel's face and connected right on her jaw. She spun and took the chair to the ground with her. She tasted the coppery bitterness of blood in her mouth and felt the pain of the armored fist's attack on her jaw line but she just gasped and felt the chair being put back up into a position where the man could continue. He bent over, not an inch away, and said to her.

"Alright then, this is how this will work: Every time you refuse to answer I add a punch, if you keep it up we'll move to knives. But if you still refuse, well… let's just say that you won't enjoy it but…we on the other hand…"the man turned back to his squad to make sure his message was clear. But as he turned back to Rachel he unloaded a brutal jab into her gut that she felt through her under layer and she doubled over in pain, gasping for breath, "now answer my question!"

Rachel just stayed bent over and tried to look up at him but as she began looking up the man brought his knee to her face and knocked backwards onto the ground where her head made contact with the pavement and she began seeing stars as the group began to huddle up a bit more as two of them grabbed the chair and brought it back to its place. Rachel could feel the warmth of the blood dribbling down her lip and onto her cheek. Her nose had a trail of blood going down from it as well and the blood just went over her lips and down her chin and dropped from there onto her dark blue suit. Again the man reeled back and smashed her cheek bone with a forceful punch. Her head snapped back with a blow that she could feel broke the skin as she felt the sting of air meeting an open wound. She gasped for air and prayed for the pounding to stop. But she could hardly see as she looked up with blurry eyes and could feel herself start to wobble a bit as the pounding subsided for a moment while the man was handed a large Bowie Knife.

"You asked for it," he flaunted, waving the knife before her face.

But as she tried to focus she didn't notice the man begin to bring the knife to her cheek because the ground was shaking. Apparently she wasn't imagining things because the Freelancer Troopers began to look about in confusion as the rumbling from behind her grew louder and the vibrations became more noticeable. The man took a step back as Rachel gathered herself for whatever it was that was coming from behind her as the noise became more like bangs of a ram hitting a wall and cleaving clean through it.

"What the Hell is that?" one of the men yelled, grabbing his rifle and aiming it at the source of the sound.

"Hold your position!" their leader gruffly ordered them, holding his Assault Rifle ready to fire at the shaking wall.

But as he said that the shaking and pounding stopped, and the only sounds making it to their ears were the roar of the rain and the booms of the thunder accompanied by the howling of gusts of hurricane force wind. The men backed up as the quiet reigned on them and gnawed at their nerves mercilessly. But when just as it seemed quiet, the wall behind the four men in the back of the room practically collapsed as a lone Blue figure smashed into the wall and attacked the unaware Freelancer Troopers. The figure carried a single Assault Rifle and used it with brutal efficiency. The first man to fall was hit in the back of the head by the figure's Assault Rifle and as he fell the rifle was turned and belched a burst of fire right into the man's back, killing him instantly. The rifle was then turned on the men to his left, and the attacker fired another burst into the closest man who took the whole magazine of bullets to his chest and was driven back by the constant wet pounding of the bullets tearing into his body until the magazine clicked to empty and the dead body fell with a wet thud and the blood began pooling rapidly as the slaughter continued. Rachel watched as the other man on the left tried to fire a quick rushed shot at the blue menace but was grabbed roughly and tossed against the other man behind the blue and both hit each other and were sent careening into the wall where the blue man pulled out a Magnum and emptied the clip into the men's bodies and left them to bleed and die in the corner before turning back to the last Freelancer Soldier who was holding his rifle in hand but the only sounds coming out were clicks. The gun was empty, and his fate was sealed. The giant charged him as the soldier pulled out a knife and slashed at the soldier who expertly grabbed the man's wrist and squeezed hard enough for Rachel to hear the man's bones pop and snap. The knife clattered to the ground and the large Blue that was Caboose lifted the man into the air and brought the screaming trooper down on his knee with a sickening crunch and snap as the man's spine was broken like a toothpick. Caboose then turned to Rachel who was still tied to the chair and snapped out of his current state of blood lust.

"Rachel!" He immedially ran to her side, hands already fast at work to pull the ties binding her off. Her head, bloodied and bruised, lent to one side, her eyes closed blind to him and the world as his fingers tried to grip the small zip ties.

"Rachel, can you hear me? It's not the time for a nap!" he yelled at her, gaining only the response of silence, and not a single movement from her. He looked up at her face, observing the multiple cuts and blood streams decorating it. He brushed his fingers across the largest gash on her cheek.

"She's out cold. Sheila?"

"Yes, Private Caboose?" FILSS responded automatically.

"I need your help so I can help Rachel." He grabbed her out of his helmet, and just held it looking for her blue helmet.

"There it is" he whispered as he grabbed the helmet a few feet from him with two fingers, pulling it up to him and inserting FILSS into it.

"Fix Rachel, FILSS" he instructed, putting the helmet back on Rachel. The AI noted his words quickly as his hidden intelligence revealed itself for the sake of this Blue.

"Complying…" She immedially accessed the damage done and took quick action, activating her systems and bio-foam containers.

"Come on Rachel, wake up" he briskly whispered as he popped one wrist tie off, squeezing her hand before moving to her right wrist, his fingers pushing and pressuring the ties to break. The right one seized but refused to break, so he moved to her ankle ties, those snapping off without much pressure. He finally returned to her right hand, shoving both his thumbs against it to make it snap under his hands. It didn't take long for them to completely seize and snap.

Rachel, released of her bonds to the chair, fell forward right into Caboose's arms. He immedially wrapped his arm around her and placed his other hand on the back of her helmet, letting her limp head rest on his shoulder.

"FILSS, did you do it?" he whispered against the helmet. Her voice filtered through her external speakers.

"I've done what I could, Private Caboose." He scooted backward on his knees, turning as they approached the closest unbroken wall and laid Rachel against it, tugging FILSS out of her helmet and back into his. He took her helmet off and laid it next to them, his hand moving to her chin.

"Come on Rachel, come back" No response was heard. He gripped her shoulders instead, shaking her just enough to not injure her more.

"Wake up Rachel!" He pleaded. She still did not respond back. He tugged her helmet off and set it roughly next to hers as he moved up in front of her and lifted her head against his.

"Please Rachel, please come back…" he whispered, hanging on the bitter edge of tears, their cold sting threatening to topple over.

"Please…" he pleaded once more, closing his eyes and letting a single tear falling from his eyes, the silent drop of water sliding down his cheek, and falling down onto her armor, splatting across a dot of blood on it.

A single second of deadly silence fell, but was swept away with the sudden gentle wind around them as her eyes finally fluttered slowly, and opened to meet his staring at her with sadness.

"R-Rachel?" he croaked out, eyes filled with joy, overwhelming joy. She smiled with already built up tears and nodded, and for the first time in years wished she could say something.

"Thank god, you're ok" he whispered in her ear as both of them hugged tightly, her tears overflowing onto his armor. She pulled back just enough to meet his blissfully smiling face and kissed him, overwhelmed to see that it was him that saved her from a horrific fate.

He did not hesitate as she did kiss him, wrapping his arms tighter around her as he kissed her back with every emotion he could feel, just feeling Rachel in his arms and ignoring the devastating destruction and seemingly unending hurricane around them.

And for that single moment, the two felt completely at peace.

Pacifica City, Military Armory

The company of Rebels fought hard but the Freelancers and their troops along with their three Warthogs and a single Scorpion tank that currently assaulted them in the middle of the city near Military Armory Number 12 had them beat and they knew it. They fired their weapons from behind cover, shooting and scooting as they'd been trained to do taking a few Freelancer troops with them but losing a great many of their own in the bloody process. So when the Rebels saw two Scorpions roll up they immediately thought they were saved. But the Scorpions lowered their main 95 mm cannon and let loose a single round that exploded in their midst and sent bodies, shrapnel and flame everywhere that they fired. The Rebels were taken by surprise, they kept fighting but they were slaughtered by the two surprise visitors that arrived from behind the wrecked wall that separated the two combatants in the storm. The two guns cracked loudly, defying even Mother Nature in the amount of destruction being unleashed. The Freelancers stopped to watch the two tanks turn loose on the very unfortunate Rebel defenders who took cover behind barricades of metal, concrete, fallen debris from the Frigate that had crashed and the buildings it had crashed into. The Rebels retreated into the main box-like building as the two tanks rolled up behind the Freelancers and their troops. The Freelancers in charge of this particular unit, Agents Kansas and Nevada, walked to the tanks and got within fifteen yards of them when they saw a pair of markers on the noses of the tanks. Needless to say, the two experienced Agents were not happy when they saw the lightning illuminate the red, white, and black Cobra of Red Army and the blue white and black Phoenix of Blue Army. The tanks guns slewed around to point at the Freelancer Scorpion and the lead tank actually spoke.

"G'day!"

…And fired with enough concussive force to knock the two Freelancers off their feet and daze them enough to force them to take cover as the two tanks began destroying their forces. Their Scorpion was torn apart in the opening salvo. An AP round hit right below the turret cooking off the ammo and launching the turret clean off the hull and making it land on an abandoned Police Cruiser nearby. The other tank fired a HE round into the Rocket Hog and sent the vehicle tumbling and killed the crew of three instantly in a massive fireball that singed ten other troopers very badly. The two tanks rolled forward like rolling death machines firing their coaxial machine guns with brutal efficiency. A dozen soldiers were cut down as they dashed about the street, trying desperately to find suitable cover form the tanks' onslaught. The two Freelancers weren't armed with heavy weapons capable of taking down a tank, everything they had meant for heavy duty vehicles got wiped out in the first volley. They watched helplessly as the last Warthogs were decimated, sending one through the air to land with a sickening crunch on top of a running trooper. They saw his arm poking out from under the wreckage reach out desperately then the arm crumpled to the ground.

Finally the two tanks moved away and out of sight. But what the two Freelancers were waiting for didn't come. The two had been waiting for the Red and Blue infantry to follow up with the tanks but they instead sat there wondering where they were.

"This is weird," Kansas said.

"Agreed, the Reds and Blues never sent out their tanks alone, they always had infantry support, at least at the bases I was assigned to for a while."

"Let's follow them, they'll lead us to their support and their CO's."

The two Freelancers followed the enormous tanks as they trudged along and…talked to each other? The two thought the same thing, Smart Tanks.

"What do you think there Sheila? How many kills would you guess we got now?"

"I have compiled twenty-six infantry and four vehicle kills. What about you Monty?"

"Oh, let's take a look at the record than doll. Here we are, thirty infantry and three vehicles including a Scorpion tank. A shame though, rest in peace mate, you were worthy target practice."

Kansas and Nevada shared an equally confused look that said it all.

"What the fuck is wrong with these people?"

June F: *crying* God, that scene between Rachel and Caboose was so touching…

Vivian: Yes, it was, but my god….What Caboose did…

Lily: HE SNAPPED A SPINE IN TWO! *grabs the popcorn bowl*

June F: *sniffles* It was brutal. But….

Vivian: But….

*All Gasp*

All: BIG!

*they open the bunker door to find mutilation Big on the door*

Vivian: That's disgusting!

Lily: Cool *sick and twisted mother fu-*

June F: *grabs evil keyboard* Great I got to rebuild him, Lily grab him and drag him into the writing room ok?

Lily: *eyes shine* Ok, boss lady~ *chucks what's left of Big onto her shoulders*

Vivian: That's going to take a while….*fades into writing room*

Next Chapter Preview: The Freelancers close in on our coincidental heroes, but Sarge, Carmen, and the Chupathingy 2.0 will have something to say about that.