Chapter 20: New Mission

As Locus' ship exited a warp hole, a red light lit up on a button. Along with the light came an annoying beeping noise that insensately pierced the ears of those around it. An armored soldier reached out to shut the alarm. He looked out the ship's window to see a huge space station in sight and took manual control again. Locus was home.

The onboard radio crackled with static sending unpleasant shivers through Locus. He pressed the receive call to hear one of the dock operators talking. "Identify your ship. You have ten seconds to comply, else turn around. If you don't, we will be forced to open fire."

"Ship identification number is 2996FFGH8. Operator Name, Locus."

"Locus, the mercenary? I see that you are returning from your mission then."

"Correct."

"You will be received at dock 6A," the dock operator ended communication and Locus identified the exact dock on his screens. He steered the ship past the various debris surrounding the space station and over to the dock.

Large doors opened and Locus slowed down his approach until he was motionless. Two large clamps extended from the two walls to the ship's sides and attached safely. Locus shut down the unnecessary functions of the ship and sat back as they were then doused with a sterilizing compound to help clean the ship of any unwanted stowaways on the hull.

Once the procedure was completed, the clamps helped move the ship forward into the parking area. Upon reaching the end of the walls, a piston arm extended from the ceiling and attached to a special lock on top. The clamps disengaged, the ship began moving forward with the help of the piston arm. They were soon set down in a free area.

Outside of the ship was a team ready to pick up their targets as well as clean the ship from the inside. Locus walked towards the safe and retrieved the sword. He looked over at Tucker who was still out cold and tightly gripped the sword. Yes, this is the right thing to do.

The door opened and the teams outside curiously peered inside. Locus walked outside with the sword in his hand. "Objective completed."

He handed the sword to one of the station employees. The employee studied the alien sword, enamored by its beauty in its design. "What about its operator?"

"Inside and restrained to the rear of the ship."

"Fine work Locus," the employee noted safely putting the sword away. He motioned for a couple of other employees with him to retrieve Tucker. "We will bring him to the boss, go on ahead and debrief."

As the employees lifted Tucker's body and placed him into a restraint wheel chair. They locked his feet, thighs, wrists and forearms into place. Tucker started to stir awake, and his vision was blurry. He could still feel some pain accumulating in his nose from Locus' punch before. What's going on? He wondered looking all around him.

Tucker and his escorts entered a small room. The door behind them shut and a cleansing liquid sprayed over them all. Once they were dried off, the group was on their way to the meeting area. The employee in charge swiped a key card, entered in a pass code and scanned their finger print to open the door. Once it was completely open, everyone followed the employee in front.

The room was dark with only a single spot light in the middle of the room. The employees walked into it and Tucker noticed that Locus was standing to the side. "Locus, what's going on?"

The mercenary remained silent as ever. Tucker tried to move in his chair but quickly learned of his situation. The fuck?!

"Locus, what is going on?!"

"There is someone who wants to meet you."

Suddenly a loud static noise echoed through the room. "Ow god, what the hell?"

"My apologies gentlemen, now everyone but Captain Tucker and Locus may leave."

Tucker looked up to notice some light reflecting off of what he could only make out to be a window. The voice that just spoke sounded weary, deep and heavy in tone, low pitch, gritty and very gravelly. What is the deal with this dude? Tucker wondered only to again hear the static in the room.

"Captain Tucker, you may be wondering about your current predicament."

"No shit, it's not like anyone else would be thinking the same."

The man behind the voice was quiet for a few minutes. In the shadows behind the window, the man let a heavy sigh escape him. He tried to normalize his breathing and reached out with a metal hand to the microphone button. "All will become clear soon, let's talk."

Tucker…Tucker, Tucker! TUCKER! Carolina jolted her head upwards to find herself weakly slumped against the safety restraints of her chair. Her abdomen still ached, but less so now thanks to Doc's quick treatment. She looked all around to find the rest of the crew coming to. Inside the turret cockpits, the three operators shook their heads in disbelief, they had survived. Grif let out a painful sigh as every muscle in his body pained him when he tried to move. "Well, at least we all made it back down."

"Not all of us," Caboose replied in a low, but hearable voice. Everyone lowered their heads in defeat. They all undid the safety restraints on their chairs and tried to stand up. Their body was still shaken from the crash as many fell down. Washington looked all around him and cursed in his own head. How could this happen? Everything seemed to be going so well and yet…

Washington saw Carolina stumbling, and did his best to help her balance. He was in no shape to be standing either just like the rest thanks to his injured leg. Simmons, Lopez, Donut and Grif came out to where the others were, equally grateful for their survival, and confused at the next steps to take. "What now?"

"Assuming Locus was telling the truth," Washington started only to be interrupted by Simmons. "Yeah, that's a pretty big assumption to be making Wash."

"We don't have much of a choice. Like I was saying, assuming Locus was telling the truth, then Tucker should be safe for the time being."

"And what if he wasn't telling the truth?" Donut asked hoping to get some solid answers. But he was only met by silence. They all knew that they feared the worst for Tucker in this situation. Carolina smashed her fist into the ship's hull causing a dent in there. The echo of the noise alerted everyone to her. "Whether we trust Locus or not, I'm not leaving Tucker alone like that. I won't let go of him so easily."

They could feel a fire burning brightly in her heart, a fire called determination. They all looked around at one another, without words they could understand and nodded.

"Yeah, it just wouldn't be Blood Gulch without Tucker," Sarge commented as he stood up and walked towards Carolina. Wash smiled beneath his helmet, if there is one thing I know you guys will always do, it's that you will stick together and pull through. "Count me in to."

"Yeah! Let's go get him!" Caboose shouted in encouragement as he ran up to the others. Carolina looked all around as they all nodded towards her.

"Then we know what to do next," she looked up at the sky thinking, wait for us Tucker. We won't abandon you, we are coming for you. We are family after all.

A/N: That is it, it is done! Now I can move on to the next season of this story. Just a FYI this will be a trilogy. Originally I had plans for only two seasons, but after getting a few more ideas I think it can work as a trilogy.

Thank you for sticking to the end with this one. I hope you look forward to the sequel in which more is explained about what happened. Also how dare Locus betray everyone?! More on this in the sequel.

For the person that had left a review stating that they would like to see Sis back into the mix. First, sorry I didn't approve it, mainly because even I couldn't understand what most of it was saying. Second, regarding the Sis request, to that all I can say is please look forward to Season 15.

Thank you all to those that stuck to the very end. I hope you were able to find enjoyment out of this story and look forward to the next entry in this trilogy.