It was around six hundred in the morning on the next day, with Mac and the Freelancers waiting for the other Blood Gulch members to show up.
The briefing for the other guys hadn't gone without some backtalking, but that was just how they were. In the end, it was accepted by everyone that they would join the mission.
Grif, Wash, and York were set up as drivers.
Simmons was at the machine rifle on the Reds' Warthog, Mac had the Blues' one, and North had the one on York's car so that Carolina could set out the moment danger showed up in and so that she could use her Speed Unit.
Delta had agreed to help Carolina with her enhancements when it came to fighting situations since York didn't need his help urgently.
They had been driving for about three hours when Caboose started complaining that he needed a bathroom break, to which Wash complied. It was always like that: when on travels with Caboose and the others, they regularly needed to take bathroom breaks at least for the childlike member of their group.
Besides that, they had to go around the two plains on their way to the location and not drive smack dab through the middle of them which could possibly put themselves in danger. That lengthened their travel time significantly.
Since neither York nor North reacted overly surprised by the pit stop, Wash suspected that Carolina had already told them about the Blood Gulch Crew's quirks when it came to traveling.
After Caboose and the others were back in the Warthogs, they continued.
North, who was the navigator of the journey, suspected that it wouldn't take them even another two hours to reach their destination, so it would be five hours in total to get there finally. The alien temple was about a six-hour drive away—bathroom breaks included.
When they arrived near the temple, they decided to leave their Warthogs in a safe spot, covering them with nets and other camouflage equipment.
When they were done doing so, Wash made sure that Caboose had eaten and drunk enough, had gone to the toilet again, and was playing the silent game until they were at least inside the temple.
North, close by their proximity, watched that playing out while smiling underneath his helmet. For having been such a carefree and naïve soldier as he had gotten to know Wash as, the other man had become more responsible now and had started to truly care for the makeshift family here that had adopted him.
On top of that, although he felt strange for thinking about it, Wash would probably be a great father whenever he had kids of his own.
Maybe North should say something to him about adopting a child from the orphanage one day. There were so many children waiting for a loving family and so few parents around to take them up since so many had died during the war.
He maybe would have adopted a kid or two too with Ala back then if South hadn't needed his assistance. Or he would have possibly had children of his own.
Breathing in and out deeply, he let the thought go and pushed it to the back of his mind. Theta was acting strangely again, but he gently called out to the Fragment to get him to focus on the task at hand.
Beside him, Mac hopped out of the car, her hands shortly roaming over her body to check if all her weapons were in place.
"You have quite an armory with you." He remarked when he saw her many different weapons. There was something in his own mind that alerted him at the sight: he knew her choice of weapons, but he couldn't say from where exactly.
"I have some specializations. Besides, when you run out of ammo… a sword never hurts." She replied casually and with a shrug before walking up to Wash and exchanging some words with him.
Her voice was also somewhat familiar to him, but, again, he had met so many people throughout his life that he couldn't put a finger on who it possibly could belong to.
Besides that… meeting Ala here was more than just a bit unlikely, so why should he hope that it would be her voice?
Sighing, he shook his head before once and for all forcing himself to focus on the task at hand.
Wash turned around to the crew, all of them having accepted him as leader which made North's chest swell with happiness for his friend.
"Okay, guys. We have to sneak in and check out the situation first, so everyone stay on guard."
Each of the guys gave him a nod to his little speech, readying their weapons and taking off along with Mac.
North observed how she was standing between Caboose and Tucker, obviously a full-fledged member of the group and he felt somewhat happy for her. He didn't know why, but people who were reluctant to open up to others usually came from situations where they had been compromised, left alone, and cheated on more times than a person could count. She must have had a hard past, and so she now having a group who accepted her was something he wished everyone could have.
Beside him, York had taken Carolina's hand and squeezed it quickly before letting go of it. It was a reassuring gesture for the both of them, as well as a promise that both of them would be coming back.
He could see Grif and Simmons bumping their helmets together, Doc pulling Donut into a quick embrace, and both Tucker and Wash settling on exchanging a long glance before they all, on an unspoken command, started to spread out and walk towards the building.
Luckily it was a rather dark day with heavy, dark clouds hanging in the sky which was why they were able to start the assault in the middle of the day.
Tucker sighed under his helmet. He was nervous, worried, and excited.
He would be able to fight again. He would see his son again.
He was worried about what state Junior would be in. He hoped that he was doing fine, otherwise he wouldn't know what he would do if Junior was heavily injured or possibly even dead. He was also nervous as to how Junior would react to his dad showing up in the middle of a fight.
He was aware and was sure that all the others knew too that this could very well be a trap, but they all tagged along despite the danger because they wanted to help his son. That made him feel happy and proud of having found such a great group.
His boyfriend disappeared with Carolina, disabling the guards and other soldiers in their vicinity so that they would be able to approach the temple rather easily.
It was obvious that someone was in there. He suspected them of being pirates since the guards that had been taken out so far looked like a ragtag bunch of soldiers.
Okay, so maybe they didn't look any better themselves… but in the end, they were Reds, Blues, and all colors in-between.
Tucker was just happy that Mac had her Camouflage Unit on, making it more difficult to see them since her white armor wasn't shining so brightly.
Sprinting ahead, he could see that she was leaning against a tree. She was aiming with her sniper rifle at the entrance to keep Wash and Carolina's backs covered, and he couldn't help but feel somewhat jealous for not having one himself.
Maybe he would sign up for her course once the fight was over, just to finally get that fucking sniper rifle.
Anyways, back to the topic at hand… reaching and entering the temple was rather easy. Too easy.
Looking around, he could see from the tense postures of his friends that they thought the same—aside from Caboose and Donut, of course. They always were so unsuspecting. He wished that he could be the same sometimes.
They walked through different hallways, trying to find their way around.
Tucker and Mac helped as best as they could with their knowledge of Sangheili, but it was more of a blind flight until they found what they were looking for.
Tucker had to smile, despite the terse situation.
At first, Mac had absolutely hated Junior and had even almost killed him. Tucker always had to be on guard just to make sure that she wouldn't do it the moment he was looking away.
He really could understand her reasoning, given her experience with the Sangheili on Chare. They had circled her, each of them shooting and stabbing her. It was war, but what they had done then was neither honorable nor human. It was just plain bloodthirst.
She still had lots of scars on her torso. Luckily, the swords and most of the shots had missed important internal organs and arteries. The hot plasma of the swords had even cauterized the wounds right away. Despite having been so badly off, she had been rather lucky all things considered.
In any case, upon ending up in the temple under the sands with Tucker and Junior, it was understandable that she was angry towards the young alien at first as she thought only the worst about the Sangheili.
It had taken Tucker some hours while they had been trapped in there to convince her otherwise. She had known him for quite a while then and, with Junior staying in the background, Tucker had managed to explain to her some of the basic cultural facts of his son's people so that she could understand Junior's race better. It was then when she had slowly started to relax around his kid.
By the end when everything went down, he couldn't say that she was exactly trusting of Junior, but she had grown somewhat… fond of him.
She had even once asked her adopted brother to teach her Sangheili so that she could talk to Junior herself when they met next. Well, it wasn't quite like him who had used Sangheili more than his native language for quite a while and was a fluid speaker of it given that, but she eventually managed to pick up some stuff from what he had taught her and could use it. It was a basic understanding of the language at best, but it was enough for her to speak with a Sangheili and surprise said alien positively—immediately making them feel more at ease. He had also taught her basic greetings of the Sangheili so that she would earn some respect herself for respecting their culture.
There was a greeting you use when meeting Sangheili for the first time. Roughly translated, it meant something along the lines of "I am honored to meet you and greet you with all my respects." It was rather formal, but that was something that was sacred to the Sangheili: honoring their opposites and being honored by them in return.
Looking over to Mac, he could see that she was trying to decipher something. Tucker decided to walk over and have a look himself.
"Something the matter?" He asked over the open channel that everyone had decided to stay on during the mission.
"I'm having trouble with translating. It says something about a laser." She muttered, staring at the symbols as if they would start making sense by doing that.
Tucker looked at it at again.
"It says that this is the Cryo-Inducted Laser Modification Chamber." He read out loud, Mac making an 'Ah' sound beside him now that she understood the meaning of the text she had been struggling with.
"I suspect it's the place where they created the laser to keep the asteroids at bay." He continued and straightened a bit.
He didn't suspect that there was anything to find there, but he would ultimately let Wash and the other Freelancers decide on that.
Just when Wash seemed as though he wanted to say something, Delta reappeared.
Tucker had completely forgotten about North and York having each sent out their respective Fragments to search the place too.
"Agents, a soldier in orange and steel armor is located in the open square in the middle of the building. I propose going there. However, there's no sing of the Sangheili so far, I fear." The Fragment announced, nodding over to Tucker who nodded in appreciation of Delta saying Sangheili instead of alien. He wasn't going to be angry anymore, but it helped calm his nerves down somewhat given the little dispute they had yesterday.
"You have a plan to get there, D?" York asked.
Delta nodded, "Please follow me."
Delta led the way with North and York staying at the back. Wash was at the front together with Tucker, while Carolina and Mac were in the middle of the group with the others, effectively setting up a perimeter so that they could notice attacks the moment they occurred.
This, however, didn't help them any when they walked out and the door behind them slammed shut.
"Fuck!" York cursed loudly, turning around immediately and trying to open the door.
This attempt, however, was cut short when a well-known voice rang out, "I'd be keeping still if I were you. The snipers are aiming at you all."
"Felix." Tucker growled, whereas Mac and North's heads shot up and looked around them.
"Fucking Felix is right," The woman then muttered, "We ran into a trap."
"Well, isn't that a pity? Now you're going to die by my hand. That's what big, mighty Malcolm Hargrove didn't achieve, huh?"
With those words, Felix in his steel and orange armor sauntered out of a hallway.
Tucker could see his cocky grin on his face albeit the Mercenary wearing a helmet.
"Well, well, well… if that isn't a surprise, you even brought your friends with you!" Felix mocked in fake happiness, looking over to the Freelancers named York and North who both visibly tensed.
Luckily, the Fragment had disappeared the moment they had stepped out into the square so it wouldn't attract too much attention too fast that Delta wasn't around.
"How the hell did you survive that? You fell off the fucking ship!" Carolina demanded, being the first to openly speak up.
Felix laughed at that, "Oh come on." He extended his arms, "Hey, Tucker! How about telling them the legend of the sword?"
Everyone's eyes immediately went to the aqua-clad soldier.
"Legend?" Wash asked curiously, followed by, "Why didn't you tell us earlier?"
Tucker balled his fists, "It's a legend, okay, Wash?! I didn't think it was true, that's why I never told you." He snapped.
Wash recoiled a bit and tilted his head in an apologizing manner, listening to Tucker's further explanation.
"It is said that if you have been the wielder of the key long enough, it can revive you. Some kind of last gift to you for the time of your life it stole from you. Because in Sanghelios, you become a priest or something and have to work for the sword, or the key, or whatever they call it. So if you die of an unnatural cause and the damage isn't too bad, it can revive you." He explained, a dark tone entering his voice as he concluded his explanation with, "It looks like that bastard Felix got lucky."
"Yeah, well, what can I say? Faith obviously decided that I have something left to do." Felix stated.
He snorted at Tucker's comment of, "How about dying a second time?"
"In any case, I got the distress signal too and thought this might lure you into a trap of mine." He explained deliberately, "I have your abomination of a kid." Felix told them.
Tucker's posture went rigid, and Mac laid a hand on his shoulders like she had yesterday. She could hear him exhale and his muscles relaxed.
Felix was just trying to make him angry so that Tucker would lose himself and do something stupid that could get him shot.
"So?" Tucker then asked in a weak attempt to play the nonchalant asshole.
"So I have a deal for you. I want revenge and I already know someone who is going to be my guinea pig for my newest tricks with my knife." They all could see the shit-eating grin underneath his helmet, "If any of you interfere, you're all dead and this abomination of nature you call your son is dead. If you win, you might get Junior and your life back."
"Might meaning…?" Wash asked then as Tucker was in too much turmoil to say anything.
Mac knew that Tucker was seething underneath his armor.
"Might meaning that you can get him out if you're fast enough and the snipers don't get you before." Felix explained deliberately.
Luckily, he didn't seem to know that Delta was already searching for the Sangheili and disabling whatever life-threatening machine was pointed at him. Or whatever life-threatening machine was pointed at them.
Theta would stay with them and inform North about Delta's progress.
"Well, anyways. That's how this is going down. Oh, have I mentioned that you're dead the moment you move?" Felix asked conversationally.
"Yeah, you did. Get to the fucking point, asshole." Grif interjected, eye roll clear as day when he spoke.
"Ah… well…" He acted as if he was thinking about something before snapping with his fingers, "Ah, yes, the opponent. When looking through some of the videos that Hargrove's soldiers made during the fight, I saw that someone's a good fighter when it comes to knives." He informed them.
This only left a few options, Tucker contemplated. He didn't know how good North and York's fighting skills with knives were, but that left only four of them: Mac, Wash, Carolina, and himself.
"On top of that," Felix continued, obviously unfazed by the lack of a response, "This person is a rather good fighter with swords. I'd say she has a cutting personality. I definitely could get off by watching her."
The shark-like grin on his face meant nothing good and Tucker knew who he meant by that.
Turning around, he looked to Mac who looked calm, but Tucker could tell she was shocked by this news too.
Nobody said anything, and everyone stayed perfectly still.
"You have the choice. Either you fight or you don't. Either way, you're getting killed." Felix explained casually.
He was right: either they were fighting and had a chance of surviving, or they weren't fighting and all of them would die. One versus fifteen?
The decision was clear to Mac.
She took a step towards Felix.
Tucker went rigid, "You aren't going out there and getting yourself killed!" He stood in her way.
Taking a step towards Tucker, she laid both her hands on his shoulders like she often did when calming or comforting him down, "We might have a slight chance of surviving this if I go through with this. We can't always rely on our bad luck." She told him gently.
"Why not?! It worked so far!" Tucker insisted, but Mac shook her head.
"No, this time it doesn't seem like it. Look," she continued, making Tucker shut up, "I am trying to increase our chances. You know I am capable of fighting and that asshole Felix is going to regret this."
"Yeah, but you could still die." Tucker insisted.
"All of us could possibly die. That's life, Tucker. You know that I had to learn this fact ten years ago in pretty drastic ways." She explained and Tucker fell silent at that.
North perked up behind them at that.
Ten years? That was about the time that he and York had been gone.
Tucker sighed deeply at that, "Just promise me that you come back, okay?"
Mac laughed lowly at that, "Okay, promise." She replied, pulling out her SMGs and her sniper rifles. She gave them to Tucker, "Watch these for me, all right? They would just hinder me out there."
"I'm going to be giving you these back." The dark-skinned man growled out.
Mac laughed at that.
"What a moving speech." the mercenary mocked, standing in the middle of the place that they would use as a fighting ground.
The sun was nowhere to be seen. The square was illuminated, although there weren't any floodlights. Mac guessed that the more advanced technology of the aliens made that possible.
Mac turned around with a dark stare towards Felix at his mockery. Tucker knew that she was pretending to be mad, but that she really wasn't. His adopted sister was way too cool to fall for that.
"Remember that you have to take your weapons back." Tucker reminded her, "Or I am going to be fucking pissed."
"Untwist your panties, Tuck." Mac snorted, "I am going to wipe the floor with that asshole and we'll be back in time for dinner." Mac replied with a laugh, patting his shoulder and walking past him while cracking her knuckles and her neck.
They both knew that it wouldn't be that easy, but they both needed that reassurance from one another that everything would be fine.