Here you all go! Chapter 25, and the first part of the new year's eve chapter dual upload! Enjoy!
"Tell me again why I'm stuck on this god forsaken glacier of a planet with you for two more days." Tex growled as she stormed into the cave she and Colorado had used to establish as their camp for this recon mission. Colorado was sitting on an empty crate, poking at their fire a few meters from the pelican. His helmet was resting by his feet and an empty plate nearby showed he had just finished eating.
"Because the recon we are supposed to be doing is too important for The Director to send anyone but the number one here. And I'm here because apparently he isn't a dog person."
"What did you expect? You built a robot dog and designed it to piss coolant! The thing doesn't even need coolant! And it did it right on The Director's shoes."
"I was going for realism!"
"Fucking idiot! Your turn to go sit in the snow and watch those cock-biting fucktards." Tex growled. She shoved Colorado off his crate and into the snow, before she sat down in his place. Colorado scowled and tossed a handful of snow at her, before donning his helmet. He opened the black gun case and pulled out the modified sniper rifle, glad to finally be able to use the weapon again. With both North and Wyoming preferring the weapons, he didn't get to use it much anymore. He plodded out into the snow and relaxed over the ridge, looking down at the Insurrectionist facility below. He didn't get why this facility on an otherwise abandoned planet was such a big deal. It wasn't even that well equipped. He was pretty sure the recruits would be able to clean out the base on their own; any of the leaderboard Freelancers would be able to clean the base on their own.
A few hours later Colorado shifted a bit to shake the gathering snow off his back. His watch was almost over and soon Tex would take over and he could get some shut eye.
"Anything interesting?" Colorado almost blinked an amber light at her, but stopped himself at the last second. Those were meaningless to the Freelancers.
"Negative. Unless you count six of them getting on snowmobiles for patrol and still being out. Fifteen minutes later than previous patrols." He stood up and jostled the snow off his armor.
"Movement detected. Three incoming." Scythe reported from his appearance on Colorado's shoulder.
"Something wicked this way comes. Have fun, Tex." Colorado slung his rifle over his back and stepped off the ridge.
"Son of a bitch." Tex muttered as she turned to the three snowmobiles.
"Freeze! Move and we will shoot." One of the men said.
"Put your weapon on the ground, man. We don't want to shoot you." Another said.
"Which is it, put the weapon down or don't move? Assholes can't even give orders right." Tex sneered.
"Um, well, both?" One of the men stuttered, slightly lowering his weapon. Tex caught movement from behind him. An olive green armored arm reached around and slit the man's throat, before quickly moving to the next and snapping his neck. The remaining four turned in time to see a knife making its way up into the thirds jaw. Tex shot the remaining three in the back as they started to raise their guns on Colorado.
"And here I thought you had left me here. How did you-"
"Forced my hands into the ice partway down and climbed up and over to sneak up on them. So, since they're dead and will be missed can we go topple the castle? I'm bored with the snow." Colorado leaned down and cleaned his knife off on the coat of one of the men.
"Might as well." Tex sighed. They walked towards the snowmobiles where Tex stopped. She turned and shot one of the men in the crotch. Colorado winced.
"Why did you do that?"
"He reminded me of my ex."
"Where's he buried?"
"He's not dead. Just thought it'd be fun. It was." She almost giggled. They both got on separate snowmobiles and started down towards the facility.
"So, were you close with him like C.T. and Wyoming?"
"We weren't the cuddle up together type, but we almost got married. But I joined Project Freelancer and we broke up."
"So, how do you know when you like someone?"
"All the shitty songs make sense. Why?"
"I don't know. It just seems lately that I've started feeling a bunch of weird things I can't explain or understand. I'm trying to piece together all the emotions, and it seems attraction is the one that no one is able to explain right."
"I would suggest you go to C.T. for help, but I assume you already went to her, and her answer was to force you into watching a romance movie marathon right?"
"I told you about how painful the Spartan augmentations were right?"
"Yeah and how the only thing worse was what the Covies did to you."
"If given the option of the augmentations again or another marathon, I'd choose the augmentations." Tex laughed.
"I wish Church had had that kind of attitude." After that silence befell them as they approached the facility. They killed the snowmobiles out of hearing distance from the facility, and hoofed it to the wall. Colorado turned his back to the alloy wall and interlaced his fingers. Tex ran at him and when she stepped into his hands he lifted, throwing her gliding over the wall.
"I almost feel bad for these poor bastards." He muttered as he walked away, then sprinted and scaled over the wall easily. Tex was dealing with a dozen men in the courtyard, but she seemed to be doing okay. Colorado grabbed the sniper rifle from his back and scoped in on the sentry towers. They were cloaked in shadows, no lights, just pitch black. His rifle cracked twice per tower, only pausing to reload, and then he jumped down into the courtyard, where Tex was just finishing up the last of her soldiers.
"What the hell were you shooting at, fairies?" She asked.
"They had snipers in the towers."
"How did you see them? That scope you have on that rifle doesn't offer thermal or night vision, and its pitch black up there."
"Built in night vision. Perks of being augmented." Colorado laughed as they opened the door to the facilities main bunker.
"Ho-ly shit. Is that…"
"Covenant corpses on autopsy tables." Scythe answered Tex before she could finish her question. Tex started into the room, and was three tables deep before she turned to see Colorado frozen at the door.
"Colorado, you ok?" She asked.
"I-I can't go in there." He stuttered after he snapped his head in a jerky shiver, before he turned and rushed out of sight of the door. Tex sighed, but followed him. She found him on his knees at the facilities main gate, shaking, with his helmet thrown down in a snow drift and vomit steaming in the snow before him.
"They're just corpses, Colorado. They can't do anything to you. I'll go in and grab the data; you go back to camp and pack up. When you're done just fly the pelican here and we can go. Maybe their warehouse will have something worth commandeering too." Tex said. Colorado nodded, before pulling his helmet back on and leaving to return to their camp.
"She's alright once you get to know her." Scythe remarked.
"Yeah. But still terrifying." Colorado said absently.
"Oh, of course she is."