Red vs Blue and related characters © Rooster Teeth
story © RenaRoo

Divided
Chapter Twenty-Five: Transmission

Agent Carolina only seemed more upset as she looked seriously at them. Simmons wasn't sure if it was just the cut of her armor or if he should have been genuinely distressed by he glower, but he barely had any time to think about it.

Epsilon ejected a port from the computers Simmons had made just for the AI to destroy, and it just left the maroon soldier with the task of bringing Church over to his own armor and implants.

Joy.

At first, Carolina moved, as if she was going to go for the device first, but she stopped and allowed Simmons to do so.

Whether that was because of Kimball's presence or some need to fulfill whatever it was Church wanted from this exercise, Simmons wasn't sure. Though, he was pretty sure they were getting ready to find out one way or the other.

"Are you sure you've done this before?" Carolina asked darkly.

"Well, I mean, back in Blood Gulch," Simmons responded as he looked over the port. "O'Malley - I mean, Omega - jumped to all of our implants at one time or another. He was in me for a few minutes." The Red frowned. "Can't say it was really fun to experience."

The Freelancer swore and looked to the ground. "This will never work," she muttered even as Simmons began to insert the device to his armor and let Church do his AI thing.

Just tell her to stick to the plan, a voice that wasn't quite Church seemingly whispered in his ears.

"I-I think Church wants us to stick to the plan," Simmons repeated, waiting for the AI to materialize over his shoulder or something.

It didn't happen.

There was an itching, nauseous feeling Simmons felt come over him a bit - like a tickling up his spine and the back of his skull as something else, something different filled the space.

Not the most comfortable thing in the world.

"Captain Simmons?" Kimball asked, voice somewhat sounding concerned.

"Sorry, sorry," Church sounded, voice normal, as he glitchily appeared right by Simmons' shoulder. "I should've walked him through it more. We're good."

Carolina folded her arms and leveled a glare at the AI, but Kimball's attention still seemed focus on Simmons.

He held his hand against his head but straightened up. "Y-yeah, I'm actually good," he spoke up. "Just. Whoo. Wow. Little dizzy."

Kimball looked back and forth between Carolina and Simmons. "When you joined the project and they informed you it was necessary to undergo a procedure that placed implants in your nervous system... you didn't question it at all?"

Bristling, Carolina turned more fully to Kimball. "I knew what they were for. It was the whole basis of the project."

Simmons shrugged. "I figured it was for the armor enhancements and stuff. I mean... in hindsight it seems suspicious. But at the time? Eh. Fuck it."

The general took a steady breath. "Okay, fine. It's not important for now," she decided. "But we do need to begin our attack on this transmission tower. Epsilon, is the path you set up earlier for us still clear?"

"Yup," Church said without hesitation.

"Alright then," Kimball said. "I'll go tell my soldiers what we're doing. You two set up in position to make a run for the tower the second we've cleared the guards."

As the stalwart general took off to do just that, Carolina stepped up in front of them, sill standing fierce.

"Stay close to me," she ordered before giving Simmons a look over and brushing past them.

Finally able to breathe some, Simmons glared at the sprite of Church.

"What?" the AI asked.

"Dude, what the fuck is with you in my head?" Simmons demanded. "It's like... there's echoes of different voices every time you say something out loud. Pretty sure that's not normal."

"Sure it is," Church shrugged. "How would you know if it isn't, anyway? You've only ever had Omega in there, and he does the whole hostile takeover thing. Be glad it's just me."

Simmons somewhat doubted it was just Church in there from the headache he was already getting. "Look, whatever. It just doesn't feel right."

"Simmons, I promise you, it's only going to be a few minutes and then I'm out of your head for good," Church said easily.

"Then why couldn't you risk just letting Carolina finish his?" he asked.

Epsilon's sprite was wearing a helmet, but still... Simmons had he distinct feeling he was frowning. "It's hard to explain," he noted, "but basically it's super hard to hide things between me and C. And I know her too well. She would have a real problem with... letting go. And I've asked her to let go of too many things already. It's only fair I not ask her this time."

Pausing, Simmons looked fully at the Blue. "You... actually think you're not going to make it back. Don't you?"

"Let's just say... I have a feeling."

"This is too heavy," Simmons muttered as he rubbed at his helmet.

"Tell me about it."

The transmission tower wasn't a very large structure, nor did it have many guards, but Kimball had been at war long enough to know better than to accept anything as seeming "easy."

She'd led assaults with the New Republic under much better odds that had quickly gone south, but, then again, other than herself and Bitters these weren't New Republic soldiers.

Nor were they her biggest fans.

She could only hope that this victory, however small, could begin to change that for them all.

In a simple scope from left to right around the perimeter, she received signals from each grouping. They seemed to all be in position.

Kimball dropped back down to their small group taking the frontal assault with the Project Freelancer soldiers. She looked first to the young lieutenant.

"Are we ready for this?" she asked him in earnest.

"I'd say about as good as we'll ever be," he responded in his general even kilter.

"I'll take it," Kimball decided before looking to her left where Carolina and Simmons seemed to be sharing meaningful glances. "And what about on your end? You two going to be able to do all that fancy bullshit we planned for?"

"Yes," Carolina said over Simmons' "Maybe."

Kimball clutched to her weapon tighter, frowned some at the two. "I know this plan isn't favorable to you," she admitted. "And I know that Chorus' survival time and time again seems to just impede on your own group's best interests, but I want you to know... we're grateful. To all of you."

The cobalt flicker of the AI appeared. "Aw, we're touched."

"Good luck," Kimball continued, ignoring the undue sarcasm.

"Same to you," Carolina responded.

Kimball rose, giving both sides he signal to move in. All synced, she gave the order, "Fire!"

There was a whirl of Carolina's speed boost and then bullets began flying.

Back in war, Kimball rose once more to her element.

By her troops' estimates, there were eighteen armed pirates outside of the transmission tower, and while they were not in a defensive rotation, they seemed alert - possibly due to the lack of signal from the party sent after their men at the temple.

Kimball wasn't unfamiliar with guerrilla tactics, but it wasn't a specialty of the Federal Army.

Instead, they would have to go on a full frontal assault, with Kimball and her group taking the brunt of initial force and drawing fire both from the side fractions and from Carolina and Simmons.

If they played it perfectly, they would draw all of the pirates from their positions and toward Kimball and her men before the rest of the attacking party took over. It wouldn't cost them any more lives than they had already spent in the past days.

Of course, things rarely went as expected.

"Draw their fire!" Kimball yelled to her adjacent soldiers. It was working.

Even Bitters was firing - when he took the time to aim Kimball could see what a good shot he was. But he was quick to duck back down, not wait for the follow through.

After the third time of him ducking a moment too early, Kimball grabbed his sniper gun and looked him in the eye.

"Hold your position until you see your shot has marked," she ordered over the blaring of gunfire around them.

Bitters seemed taken aback by the order. "But we're being shot at!"

"And we have cover!" Kimball snapped. "Hold your position, follow your shot through, then duck if you have to. You're wasting my ammunition for every shot you don't make!"

Bitters made a scowl and looked ready to resist her word before turning back and taking aim.

With his aim readied, Bitters shot then waited a full breath before lowering back down. He seemed even more aghast than he did when she ordered him. "I made the shot," he muttered.

"Keep it up," she told him with a pat of his shoulder. She then crawled her way to the next pocket of shooters. More battle hardened, they barely looked up from their work as she approached. "Tell me what you see!"

"They're scattered, half down!" one of the sharpshooters yelled back to her. "Looks like the one in the back with the night vision on is barking orders. We might pick them off sooner if we could take care of him!"

Kimball nodded to the news. "Good. I'll take care of that."

There was a noise of protest between the Fed soldiers around her but Kimball rose over the mound they had situated behind.

The further distance would require a better, higher position, and more out of her cover than Kimball would have liked, but she supposed there was little else with the situation she liked anyway.

Nearly standing up, Kimball took aim through her scope and almost immediately locked sights on the bulking man in question.

For his part, the Charon pirate was already pointing at her position. But Kimball refused to be deterred.

She heard the bullet more than she felt the impact to her shoulder, but Kimball refused to allow it to budge her more than a flinch.

"Oh my god!" one of the Feds yelled out just as Kimball fired.

Without looking away from her scope, Kimball held her ground until she saw the spray of red from the pirate's visor and saw him drop back. Narrowly missing another bullet with her name on it, Kimball dropped back down, examining the shoulder wound for the last time.

"Holy shit," one of the Feds gasped.

"We have seven more to worry about," Kimball stated, dropping her rifle in exchange for a smaller gun to handle with one hand.

She felt a hand on her good shoulder and looked to the Fed next to her.

"We'll handle it, General," he assured her.

Slowly, Kimball nodded and reached up to her radio. "Move in. We're taking this tower. No prisoners."

With Kimball's plan in full action, it was almost distressingly easy to get Simmons and Epsilon past the guard.

It would have been even faster if Epsilon would simply accept a transfer to her implants, but he was being stubborn.

And any similarities that might have drawn between the two of them was not something she felt was worth considering considering the current environment.

Carolina skidded to a halt by the tower, took out the only remaining guard in front of the control room, then waved for Simmons to come along from around the hallway's bend.

Scared as he might have visibly been, Simmons managed to keep in step rather readily to Carolina's sufficient surprise.

He came to a stop by her and looked unsure of whether or not he should enter.

Mostly because it would have required literally walking past her as Carolina had yet to make a move.

"Um. Carolina?" he asked.

She scowled some more before seeing Epsilon flicker to Simmons' shoulder.

"You've gotta let us through, C," he said almost in warning. "You know that."

"I don't have to like it," she stated before stepping to the side.

Once Simmons was past her, Carolina punched the keypad and watched the doors slide shut. "That'll give us some privacy while Kimball finishes up," she vocalized before approaching the system where Simmons was furiously typing away.

"I can do it faster, c'mon!" Epsilon groaned.

"Let him work, Epsilon," Carolina warned as Simmons finally got to a different screen.

The Red tensed a bit more. "Oh geeze," he muttered before looking to Carolina. "Okay, Church is right and this is a hub for communication between these ground troops and Charon's big cruiser running blockade on the planet, but it's looking like a one-way terminal."

"Meaning?" Carolina asked sharply.

"Briefly? All calls in, no calls out," Simmons responded.

"It's okay, I'll just hack it as I start up the jump," Epsilon decided firmly. "Hook me up, Simmons."

Simmons hesitated. "That's... going to be a lot of codes. I could try-"

"You could hack and shit all day, we know it'd be a miracle for you to do it in a tenth of the time it'll take me," Epsilon responded snappishly. "I'm made of numbers. What can't anyone understand about that-"

"Epsilon, that's too much work for you," Carolina said. "Now you're talking about breaking before you even get there!" She stopped, feeling strangely numb at the thoughts. "You really don't plan on making it back here. Do you?"

The cobalt sprite flickered. "I can save Chorus. I can make it and send out a message to the UNSC. I've already got it recorded. I can do this."

"You don't have to prove anything," Carolina said almost weakly. "You don't have to do anything."

"Look," Epsilon sighed. "Remember what we said about trying to make it all the way back to good? That we might never make it?"

Carolina drew a tight line with her mouth, couldn't even begin to form a response.

"I'm okay with that, I mean, at the end of the day who isn't a pretty shitty person when we all get down to it," he almost laughed. "But... I just. I'm ready to make it all the way to Epsilon for once. I'm ready to figure out who he is and what he's capable of doing."

"You don't have to break yourself to prove who that is, Epsilon," Carolina reiterated. "I know who you are."

"Yeah... but it's not about you," Epsilon chuckled. "It's... well. Isn't it always about me?"

Simmons fidgeted, getting Carolina's attention for the first time since they began talking. He rubbed his neck. "I'm not saying Church should do it," he clarified, "but there's some people out there that'll be pretty pissed if we don't do something for Chorus, too."

Epsilon turned to her. "What do you say, C?"

Carolina took a breath, shook her head, and then pointed darkly at the AI. "One thing: you break yourself after I go all out of my way to get out in space to rescue you on that ship, I'm gonna kill you."

"You've got it, C."

The sprite disappeared and Simmons reached for the ejected port. He hesitated again before putting it in the computer.

"You really going to let him do this?" Simmons asked.

"He'd never forgive me if I didn't," Carolina said, feeling a little sick to her stomach all the same. "Put him in."

He hated when Carolina was right.

It was a tough encryption - not the worst he'd ever had the displeasure of decoding, but far from the best. He had to trace deleted signals, reverse them, retrace them, and send out at a frequency that wasn't going to be strong enough to take on an AI of his size.

What're we going to do? the childish worry of Theta begged.

"Good question," Epsilon responded, looking to the simulations around him and ignoring the always looming shadow that was before him. "I'll need to majorly break down in size to get out of here. And I can't delete the evidence and recordings we have on Charon so... I guess the better question here is: what am I going to do."

Delta nodded sagely. Running our simulations is an unnecessary expense on resources at this stage. After all, you say you like your own voice enough to go on without us.

"Yeah, I might say it," Epsilon agreed. "Doesn't mean it's true."

Theta flickered out and then reappeared behind the Twins. He tossed his head to the side. Will you ever rerun us again?

"I don't know," Epsilon sighed. "Maybe? Someday. When I need you again. If I'm still around."

Sigma's eyes were haunting even far in the back. You will always need your brothers, Epsilon. Always.

"Guess I just get to find out if that's true or not," he replied fiercely, watching Sigma burst into a stream of data. "I always hated that prick."

Omega burst, then Gamma. He watched as he deconstructed and partially deleted his brothers one by one - cannibalizing them not too unlike Sigma in the past.

He tried to rationalize that he felt worse than Sigma ever did, but, well... it was only true to Theta and Delta.

Goodbye, Epsilon, Delta said, almost proudly.

Theta cried and hugged his waist - Epsilon wondered when he got so tall.

Then. They were alone.

Alpha stepped away from Epsilon at last, sized him up once they were finally apart and gave that obnoxiously sad smile of his. Epsilon resisted the urge to punch him.

I like your dumb shoes, Alpha said in a laugh, drawing Epsilon's gaze to the converse sneakers.

Untied again. Damn.

Epsilon knelt down to tie them. "Are you going to give me a long goodbye?" Epsilon asked.

Nah, Alpha responded, lifting his chin as Epsilon rose back up. I hate goodbyes.

"You're the one I'm never bringing back," Epsilon said darkly. "If Carolina's telling the truth and she comes back for me, I'm not going to try to be you anymore."

Good, Alpha responded before holding out his hand. You sucked at it anyway.

"Did not," Epsilon responded as he took it.

Did, too.

They walked toward the opened transmission signal.

It's about to get bumpy, Alpha informed him.

And then he was gone.

And Epsilon began to break apart into the datastream, too.