(A/N) Hey guys, time for our slightly delayed chapter, supposedly our Community Day update, but hey, let's pretend it still is, ok? What did you all do to celebrate Roosterteeth's first Community Day? Over here, at The Freelancer Collaboration, we put up the nominations to our first Red vs Blue Fanfiction Awards Ceremony, which can be found on our site –

www dot thefreelancercollaboration dot weebly dot com - (Obviously replace the "dot"s with "."s).

The list of nominations will also be available on our forum shortly, so feel free to bop on over and cast your vote, either through the chat or by PMing me. Also, once more I'd like to remind people that applications for Agent Texas will open this Monday, so keep an eye out for that! Now, without further ado, I'll leave you to Jerem6401 and Pennsylvania!

Enjoy!

Chapter Thirty-Five – The Raid

Pennsylvania

Written by Jerem6401

"Fire is catching! And if we burn, you burn with us!" ― Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay

"We're on approach, men," Ark stated as our dropship started its descent. "This mission is of the upmost importance. A screw-up here means we won't stand a chance against UNSC forces in the near future."

I looked up at my squad, readying themselves for the field. We had thick padding covering our armour, and even thicker lining beneath it to keep us warm in the almost uninhabitable temperatures we were about to plunge into. Vizier didn't deserve to be called a 'planet.' There was nothing here but a desolate wasteland of ice and snow stretching across every inch of its God-forsaken surface. Nothing could survive on that crust for long… and nothing would want to. Which unfortunately, made it the prime location for an undercover UNSC base.

We planned on using the environment to our advantage, as best we could. Our armour had been coated in a white, reflective paint, meaning that we should be all but invisible once we exited the ship.

I let Ark do the talking. It's what he was good at, anyways. He could be the voice of this operation all he wanted… as long as he remembered his place. I had a lot of respect for the man, but not enough to make me trust every bit of him. The way he talked to me, sometimes, made it seem like he envisioned himself as a powerful leader, while I was a mad dog that he could release on his enemies whenever the chance offered itself. While there's no denying that he was a brilliant strategist, I hoped he knew enough to realize this mad dog was strong enough to snap his leash whenever he wanted.

Once our ship hit the ground, this team was under my command. It was the standard crew. Myself, Scope, Inferno, Silhouette, Grendel and four other Insurrectionist soldiers who had been drafted onto this mission. Must have lost a bet or something.

"Activating environmental camouflage," the pilot informed us. We all shook as two massive generators underneath the ship powered on, blasting huge amounts of air downwards. This kicked up the snow on the surface and disguised us as a passing storm, something that happened every few minutes in this hellhole. We touched down and the ship depressurized, allowing the rear door to begin opening.

"Time to deploy, gentlemen," Ark stated. I slowly got my feet and grabbed a large, white rag off the seat next to me. I wrapped it around my armour as the others followed standard procedure by syncing and doing an inventory rundown. I made my way to the back of the ship, passing Ark as I did. "You sure you can handle this one, Penn? We have very little intel on the numbers you'll be faced with in there."

I stopped on the ramp and turned back over my shoulder. "We have one shot at this, Ark," I stated. "If that alarm gets tripped, half of the entire UNSC force will be on our asses in minutes. This place doesn't just house weaponry… it manufactures it. If we can secure that machinery, we can finally give the Crimson Sun some bite."

"Hmph. It's nice to see you're finally starting to appreciate our cause, Penn," Ark remarked wryly.

I turned to face him and took a step closer. "This is your cause," I grunted. "I only have one goal. Scare the UNSC so much that the Freelancers come out of hiding to help them. Once we have what we need to get us on the MoI, we attack. I'd go alone. I don't give a damn. As long as I get to kill every single Freelancer on board. Then I get to snap the Director in two… slowly. Then I blow that ship to the hell it deserves. That's my cause."

I looked at my crew and nodded. "Move out." I jumped off the ramp and into the two foot deep snow. Below that was a good ten feet of solid ice, before it dropped into a seemingly bottomless ocean. The others followed close behind. As soon as Grendel stepped off, the ramp jumped back into place and the ship rose into the air once again. Its generators buried us a snowstorm until the ship was completely out of sight, not to return until the UNSC weaponry was safely in the possession of the Crimson Sun.

As we made our way towards the base, the snow became thicker and wetter, weighing us down with each step. It took several death threats to keep Inferno from lighting up the entire area and setting off our position like a beacon. As the outline of the base broke its way through the mist, we could see several foot soldiers dotting the wasteland on approach. Poor, miserable bastards that had gotten stuck with the worst assignment in the UNSC.

One soldier had broken away from the rest and was patrolling quite close to us. I held up my hand and ordered my crew to drop. We vanished into the snow as the guard continued towards us. I wouldn't have been shocked if he wasn't even carrying a weapon. What would he be expecting to find out here that he hasn't found on his last thousand patrols?

He had no idea what a surprise he was in for.

"Silhouette," I whispered through my helmet's radio. "Drop him." I watched the guard perk up and slowly turn to his side, evidently having heard me. He looked back and forth, examining the wasteland and scanning for signs of life.

"Psst." The guard jumped a little and looked downward. You haven't seen real terror until you see someone turn as pale as he did, as Silhouette stood up in front of him, his camo cloak falling onto the snow, and quickly threw his hand over the guard's mouth. He cocked his head upward, and in a swift, clean motion, ran a blade across the guard's throat.

The snow around the two suddenly stuck out like a sore thumb as it became stained with crimson. We, luckily, didn't have to do much work. Once the body dropped, it was immediately hidden beneath the snow, and all it took was a strong gust of wind to cover up any evidence. The wind, however, also hid a lot of enemies from view… that is, it would have if we had come unprepared.

"Scope," I began, "go thermal. UNSC forces will light up like Christmas trees out here." Scope nodded and raised her sniper rifle to her shoulder, her hand flicking the thermal setting on. She scanned the area, marking targets for us that would then illuminate on our HUDs.

"We have seven troops on patrol around the base," she reported "three snipers on the roof, and it looks like there might be some heavy armour by the front gate."

"Scorpion-class?" I asked.

She nodded and continued searching. "Roger that."

"Grendel." I turned to the giant man kneeling behind me.

"The tank?" he asked, and I nodded in grim confirmation. He stretched out his shoulders and sighed. "Yeah, I can handle that."

"Okay," I started. "Now the plan is to keep quiet as long as we can. We work our way to the base and eliminate all patrols, silently, if at all possible. Once they're down, Scope will move up and hack into the base's wiring from the outside. She should be able to disable its alarms and communications relay, with some luck. Once the soldiers inside are cut off, we take them out as well. Ark will come by afterwards to pick up the cargo."

The soldiers nodded and held their weapons at the ready. "Silhouette, you take point. Take out as many patrols as you can without being detected. Scope, snipers, now." Scope looked back through her rifle and held her breath. There was a click behind us, extremely quiet for the power of the rifle. She fired three times, all within seconds of each other. I looked back towards the base in time to see the third sniper's head erupt off his shoulders, before the first had even hit the ground yet.

"Targets down," she reported, and I had to admit, I was impressed. Sure, Wyoming, Virginia, North and Minnesota would have been able to take those shots in their sleep, but competency outside of Freelancers was something that I still hadn't grown accustomed to.

"Good. Everyone, let's head to the base. Rally around the main entrance. Scope and Silhouette, once you're done killing, make your way to the roof. Silhouette should be able to scale that wall fairly easily. Intel says a few precise cuts can get you access to the mainframe within seconds." The two nodded and then moved away from our group.

I turned to the base myself, and started pushing forward. I watched as soldier after soldier in front of us either take a .50 calibre round to the skull or mysteriously turn around with a newly slit throat as we approached them, dropping silently either way, the snow storm absorbing the noise. If the snipers up top had still been alive, they would now see a snow covered wasteland dotted with blood-covered holes for a second, before the storm hid our progress.

We reached the front of the base and hugged the wall as we approached one of the vehicle bays. The tank stood firmly in the centre, ready to attack at any moment. I poked my head out to better assess the situation, but instead saw a UNSC guard standing only a foot away. He gasped, but before he could scream, I grabbed his chest plate and ripped him towards me, covering his mouth while I did. I dragged him around the corner to our group, before placing my other hand behind his head and snapping his neck, dropping him to the ground next to me when the deed was carried out.

"Scope," I spoke through my headset. "Looks like we have about twenty guards in there. We're going to have to go loud to break our way in. What's the status on the alarm?"

There was a brief moment of silence, before her voice broke through the static. "Shutting down in 3… 2…"

"GO!" I yelled, jumping into the massive room, assault rifle drawn, and started lighting up the soldiers within. Inferno leapt over my shoulder and charged into the centre of the room, spitting flames in all directions from his flamethrower. The other four soldiers with us knelt behind me and laid down covering fire, keeping the brunt of the UNSC forces off myself and Inferno. I could hear the tank near us turning its cannon, trying to take aim at our small group.

"Oh shit!" one of my men screamed, noticing this too. "Tank!"

"On it!" Grendel called out, running forward and reaching out to grab the end of the end of the cannon as it tried to take aim on him. He held it in place for a moment, before buckling slightly as a piercing screech emitted from the tank, and the cannon began to bend, rendering it useless. Grendel leapt off the now useless tank and began to charge his minigun, when I saw someone standing up from the rubble behind him. The solider had a rocket launcher resting on his shoulder.

"Grendel! Your six!" He jumped to his left at the sound of my voice, instinctively trusting my instructions as the soldier fired. The rocket slammed into the earth next to Grendel, burying him in smoke and fire. The other Insurrection soldiers around me gasped at the sight… but I knew better. Before the smoke could clear, a barrage of rounds erupted from within and ripped the UNSC soldier into pieces. The smoke split in all directions, revealing Goliath laying down heavy fire, with only some scratches and charred edges on his armour, having dodged the worst of the explosion. The Crimson Sun's BEHEMOTH armour was truly a triumph of technology.

I ducked behind cover as another hailstorm of bullets came for us. Three of my soldiers joined me, while the fourth took two rounds straight in the visor and collapsed onto the floor.

"Oh God!" another soldier yelled. "He's been shot. We need to get him to the ship! He was…"

"Expendable!" I yelled at my soldier. "Now keep laying down suppressing fire while I work my way towards them. We need to reach the manufacturing plant within the base." The soldier was quiet for a moment, looking back and forth between me and their fallen brother. I grunted and grabbed his throat. "Either you open fire and risk death… or disobey my orders and guarantee it. Your choice."

The soldier quickly nodded and I let him go. After rubbing his neck for a moment he leaned out and opened fire with the other two. I saw the guards across the way ducking and hiding, and saw my moment to move up. I leapt from cover and charged towards the enemy, firing my assault rifle while I did. They kept their heads low… good.

"Oh, shit!" one of them yelled. "Your six! Your six!" I spun around to find myself faced with two soldiers, tackling them both to the ground before seizing them in my hands and pinning them both against a wall. I retracted my arm and then ramming my fist into the first soldier's back. My hand ripped through his spine, erupted from his stomach, and buried itself in the chest of the second soldier. I always wanted to rip someone's heart out of their chest… but now wasn't the time. Too much work to do. I pulled my hand out, letting the two corpses hit the deck.

The battle behind me was winding down as Inferno and Goliath laid waste to the remaining guards. I turned to a metal door on my right. The control pad next to it clearly stated it was secured shut. I sighed and knocked a few times on the door.

"I'd like to come in," I said, politely, smiling beneath my visor.

"Get the fuck away from here!" a voice yelled back. From the sound of it, the speaker was pressed against the door, listening to the mayhem outside.

"Well that wasn't very nice." Suddenly a gunshot rang out inside the room, and a body hit the floor, blood slowly leaking beneath the door. After a moment, the door slid open and Silhouette stood waiting, his arms crossed and head tilted to the side.

"Scope is covering our exit," he reported as I walked through the doorway. "It does not appear that the UNSC are on to our intentions here, or, at least not yet."

"Good," I replied. "What's the status on the manufacturing plant?"

"A few soldiers guarding the machinery, maybe a turret or two. Nothing we can't handle."

"Collect the other three and take them into the plant. Neutralize the threats and prepare the machinery for transport. We'll need the proper program codes from the UNSC to get this stuff to work back at base."

Silhouette nodded and looked at his gauntlet, where a display of the base's layout came into view. "There's a command centre overlooking the plant. I'd suggest stopping by as the codes will be logged into the computers there. Your suit should be able to hardwire into it and download what we need."

I nodded and turned away from him. "Good work. Now finish the job." He saluted, before vanishing into the night. I ran down the hallway, following the signs to the control centre, soon coming across another sealed metal door. I sighed as I kept running, before hiking my boot into the air and slamming it through the metal. The door flew from its place and smashed into the opposing wall.

I stepped into the control room, seeing five men standing around the computers, stunned by my sudden arrival. They reached for their pistols, ready for a fight, but before they had a chance to react I grabbed a small device off my belt and tossed it into the group. It exploded in a blinding flash, causing some of them to fire their guns randomly into the air, while others just dropped them and screamed. I ran forward, dropping fists into their chests and knocking them to the floor, clearing the room in seconds.

"Penn?" Scope called over my headset, interrupting my work.

"What?" I grunted back impatiently, before stamping down onto an unprotected neck, revelling in the crunch beneath my boot.

"UNSC forces have been spotted in the area. They must have been tipped off that we were here."

"What?! How?!"

"I don't know, sir. But my radar says we have several ships on approach."

"ETA?"

"We have about 20 minutes before they touch down."

"We only need 10. Silhouette and Grendel should have the machinery ready to go."

"But sir… the codes. They'll take at least 15 minutes to hack those terminals, assuming the security protecting it is not too advanced… which it will be." She was worried, but doing her best to disguise it.

"I don't need to hack it," I replied, before ending the transmission and looking down at the men around me. "Now…who's going to unlock those codes for me?"

"Never!" one of them yelled. I looked down at him and smirked. I grabbed his throat and lifted him into the air. He croaked a few times in a desperate attempt to breath. "Go ahead!" he grunted. "Kill me. No one here will tell you anything!"

"Really?" I asked. "Your understanding of humans and what they're willing to do is very misguided, my friend. Good thing that my…class in humanity… is now in session. Let's start by teaching you about the human body." I dropped him to his feet, before quickly grabbing his arm. "For example…" I snapped his forearm in two. He screamed in pain and dropped to the floor. "…we are only supposed to have one elbow per arm… but that doesn't mean two is an impossibility."

He rolled around, firmly grabbing his arm and trying to hold it together. I knelt down next to him and patted his head. "You still look confused. Let me show you again." I grabbed his other arm and repeated my actions. The man screamed, tears rolling down his face as he writhed in pain on the floor. There was nothing like a scream of pure agony to really get your blood pumping. He dropped flat on his back, taking deep breaths and trying to compose himself. His two broken arms lay, now horribly deformed, by his sides.

"Please!" he yelled. "PLEASE STOP!"

"Lesson Number Two. The same goes for knees with the right amount of leverage." I grabbed his foot and stepped on his knee. I turned to the others in the room and tilted my head. "Is anyone getting bored of my lecture, yet? Sorry, I tend to ramble like this when I'm not given what I want." They all remained silent. I sighed and ripped the man's foot upwards, snapping his shin in the centre. He screamed again, but it was a muffled, breaking scream. I was sure he was going to pass out any second from the pain. I knelt down again and lightly slapped his cheek a few times. "Ah, ah! No sleeping in class, my friend. The third part of this lesson is that every human has four limbs."

"ENOUGH, YOU PSYCHOTIC BASTARD!" another man yelled at me. He was a shorter fellow, wearing a green uniform. I titled my head and then stood up straight, rising to my full height. He was on his knees, watching the performance all too closely, somewhat green around the gills. I made my way over to him and knelt down in front of him, looking straight into his eyes.

"Is there something wrong?"

"YOU SICK MOTHER FUCKER! HOW CAN YOU DO THIS TO ANOTHER HUMAN BEING?! YOU HAVE NO MORALS! NO HEART! YOU'RE THE FUCKING DEVIL! YOU'RE A DISEASED PIECE OF…" I quickly reached out and grabbed the man's jaw. My fingers were inside of his mouth, while my thumb was pressing up underneath his chin. I leaned in closer and whispered.

"You don't use language like that in my classroom." I put the palm of my other hand on his forehead, and lightly pressed. "That's deserving of some extra special punishment, young man."

"ASSAULT3375!" a third man screamed. He was sitting next to the broken individual on the floor. He was whimpering, but still able to speak. "Assault3375. That will give you access to the programs." He shook his head and looked to his comrades. "I'm sorry. I couldn't take it anymore. I'm sorry!"

I smirked and nodded to him. "You see?" I said, looking back to the man whose jaw I held in my hand. "Was that so hard?" I could see the look of relief come over him, which changed drastically when I tore my hand away from him. The others all screamed in fear as he fell to the floor, grabbing at his face and making gargled screams. I looked at the jaw in my hand and then dropped it next to him. "You might want to hang onto that. Dental records and such." I lifted my hand to my helmet and spoke clearly, unperturbed by the downed soldier's screams. "Grendel, status."

"Machinery is gathered outside, sir. Ark will be landing in a few minutes to pick up the cargo. We should be able to escape clear of the UNSC response."

"Good. I'm grabbing the programs now. Send Inferno and Silhouette to the control room now." Within seconds, the two barged in, ready for a fight, but instead just found the horrible bloody aftermath of my little interrogation. "Tie them up," I ordered. "All of them. Bring them outside."

Silhouette nodded and grabbed two of the men, dragging them out of the room. I looked back down at my gauntlet, seeing the download was coming along nicely thanks to the program Ark had installed into my suit. Had to hand it to him, the guy knew his stuff. "Inferno!" He stopped dragging men out of the room and turned to look at me. "Got an extra fuel canister on you?" He nodded and grabbed a metal container off of his side. "Good. Give it here. Gather the men outside and then rig up this base. I want nothing but a crater left." He threw the canister to me, before continuing on his mission. The download completed and I detached from the computers, grabbing the last man, the one with the broken limbs, and started carrying him out of the room.

"Are… are you taking us prisoner?" he asked, fearfully, spitting out his words between every agonising movement.

"No, no. You're getting off lucky, pal. We don't have any space for prisoners." He sighed in relief as I reached the vehicle bay. I walked my way outside and threw him into a pile with the others, all tied up and helpless. A few minutes later, Ark's ship was landing, and the team started loading the machinery and weaponry on board. Ark stepped off the ship and surveyed the battleground.

"Looks like it got bloody," he stated. I smirked and slammed the drive containing the programs into his chest. He took it, but had to step back from the impact.

"Do I handle things any other way?" I asked. He shrugged, pocketing the drive, and examined the men tied up on the ground.

"Penn, we can't take prisoners," he stated, shaking his head in exasperation. "No room."

"They're not prisoners. I just want the UNSC to see what I did to them."

Ark sighed and nodded, before turning and getting onto the ship. "Just make it fast, yes? No need to draw this out, not with the UNSC on their way."

"Penn!" Scope yelled, running up behind me, her sniper rifle slung across her shoulders. "Casualty report. Two of our soldiers were killed in battle, and the other two haven't been located yet."

I nodded and patter her on the shoulder. "Well, thank you for that. Now get on the ship."

She paused, confusion evident in her features. "But… shouldn't we scout for their bodies? You know… make sure they aren't alive?"

I growled at her insubordination, and shook my head angrily. "I said get on the ship! They were grunts, nobodies. Even if they were captured… they don't know anything. It's not worth our time trying to find them."

Scope nodded slowly and stepped on board. I followed, walking onto the ramp as the engines kicked on. The man sat in a circle in the snow, looking up at us, wondering how long they'd be tied there. It wouldn't be too long until the UNSC landed and found them.

"So, you think a man with broken limbs and another with a missing jaw will be enough to scare the UNSC?" Ark asked, looking down at the men with me. "Bring the Freelancers out for you?"

I laughed slightly, turning to face him. "If it does, the UNSC is weaker than I thought. Either way… I don't want them to just be afraid. Too many people are afraid of what they simply don't understand. Some imaginary creature that could never actually harm them." I pulled an empty fuel canister off of my hip and handed it to Ark. He shook it, listening for anything inside, but nothing came to him. I lifted a small trigger into the air and held it tightly in my hand. "I want them to fear us, not a nameless, senseless fear… but because they understand us."

"I want them to understand exactly who we are."

I triggered the detonator, causing entire sections of the base to erupt into a cascade of fire and smoke clouds. The walls began crumbling until parts of the roof started to collapse in on itself. As the flames leapt from the building, they caught the trail of fuel around the bound men, quickly engulfing them in a wildfire. The sounds of explosions and screaming was the perfect backdrop to the scene before me. The building was still crumbling into nothing but rubble, and the five men were roasting in a perfectly circular ring of fire.

"Burning alive?" Ark asked, cold as ever, but I could detect that he wasn't entirely at ease with my actions. "Quite a way to send a message, Penn. I'm sure that will make them understand."

I chuckled a bit and threw the detonator to him. "If it doesn't… don't worry." I turned away from him, and walked back into the ship. "I made sure to spell it out for them." Too bad Ark was wearing his helmet. I would've loved to see the look on his face when he saw what I was referring to.

As the ship got further from the destruction, it became clear as day. The burning men were squirming across the ground in a perfect circle. A circle that took on the role of the letter 'O' as the flames quickly spread along the fuel I had left. By the time the UNSC arrived, all that remained would be a pile of metal and rock where their base used to stand, almost fifty dead soldiers, five unidentifiable corpses, and a massive inferno in the snow reading…

"CRIMSON SUN".