Earth

Year 2559

Major Washington (first name David, last name Wouldn't You Like to Know), formerly an agent of the military-scientific organization known as "Project Freelancer", liked to think of himself as a pretty open-minded guy. That is, after having seen aliens, sentient computer programs, and beings with godlike power, there weren't many things that he would find hard to believe. So, of course, when an old acquaintance of his contacted him with news that sounded impossible, he knew he couldn't dismiss it out of hand.

The call came in the early hours of the morning, about three months after the incident involving the soldier-turned-terrorist known as "Zero". Washington had been captured by members of Zero's syndicate, only known by the name "Viper", and tortured for information they thought he might possess, pertaining to a series of temples created by a long-extinct race to hold an "Ultimate Power". His friend, Agent Carolina, had rescued him soon after with the help of a team known as "Shatter Squad", and he had been placed on reserve until he was back to fighting shape, but after a week or two, the business with Zero seemed to have come to an end.

When the call came, Wash was still having difficulty mentally waking up, but one look at the caller ID - VANESSA KIMBALL - did the trick. He picked up the comm device and put it to his ear. "President Kimball. I know you have a lot on your plate, so I'm assuming this isn't a social call." His theory was proven correct by what he heard on the other end. It sounded as though she was... relieved to have gotten hold of him. "You thought right; this is important. You need to bring the others to Chorus as soon as possible."

Of course. The Reds and Blues of Blood Gulch, a group of soldiers hand-picked from the lowest scoring recruits, placed inside a canyon in the middle of nowhere and told they were at war. Despite this, they had banded together, and taken on threats not just to themselves, but the entire galaxy. After one of their missions, they had found themselves on Chorus after a ship that was meant to bring them back home to Blood Gulch was forced to crash-land on the planet's surface by space pirates bent on scavenging from the ship and selling whatever they found.

The somewhat-soldiers survived the crash against all odds and, though they were initially separated, eventually reunited to help the inhabitants of Chorus stop the space pirates, who had decided that the only way to avoid the legal consequences of their actions was to destroy the planet and everyone on it, leaving no one alive who knew the truth about the war. But afterwards, they had retired. "Vanessa, that's going to be pretty difficult. After what happened on the Staff, everyone went their separate ways.. I don't even know if I could find them all. Are you sure you can't -"

Kimball broke in. "Wash, you need to listen to what I have to say. A couple months ago, we decided to take a look at some of the temples all around the planet. We'd ignored them beforehand, for obvious reasons. But we found one that was emanating some sort of strange energy reading. We sent a team out to investigate, but a few hours ago, we lost contact. The last thing we heard was that they had entered the temple, and found some sort of… hole."

This made no sense. A hole? What kind of hole? Wash knew that whatever this was, it was important, but he needed more information. "I'd like to help, but first I need you to tell me more. What do you mean by hole?"

"I mean just that. They found what appears to be an actual hole in the universe. Space and time. Dimensions. That sort of thing."

"Okay… so what do you need us for? Contact Earth; the UNSC could probably handle this better than we could.

"Sure, let's do that. And then they'd place the planet under eminent domain, kick everyone out so they can ransack the temples without any complaints." The sarcasm in Kimball's voice was not lost on Wash.

"Fine. But why call us?" The Reds and Blues weren't actually world-class soldiers; they mostly bungled into bad situations, and solved them the same way: by bungling. This didn't usually make them the first choice for people who needed help.

Several moments passed in silence, as if Kimball was having trouble choosing her words. "...When we were putting together the team to investigate the energy signature, it was difficult to get anyone to agree. But there was one person who volunteered instantly. And then, after we lost contact, I led a team to the temple myself to find out what happened. When we got there, everyone was dead, except for the one volunteer. He had just… disappeared."

"So," Wash concluded after several seconds had passed, "You want us to track down the person who volunteered?"

President Kimball seemed to realize what he meant, and apparently it wasn't what she intended. "Sort of. We were able to take the video feed from the helmet of one of the team members; the volunteer isn't responsible for whatever happened, but he is in danger. He fell through the hole, and we don't know where he is now.

"Once again, what reason do you have to call us for this?" Wash wasn't in the mood for a long story, especially not today. "We -"

"Wash, it was Donut. Donut was the person who volunteered."

"... what?"

Iris

The alarm clock started to blare its grating, yet familiar tone. *beep beep* … … *beep beep* … … *beep be(KA-SMASH!)* Kaikaina Grif hated mornings. "Fuck…" She forced herself to get out of bed, groaning all the while. Another day, another hangover.

The planet Iris - a green planet filled with sunny vistas and scenic landscapes, which got boring after a while. Still, it was better than the box canyon she had lived in for the last 5 years. She had been left behind after the other Reds and Blues - including her brother Dexter - were all transferred to other bases, leaving only their tank behind. The next few years passed with almost no news, until one day, a reporter came to Blood Gulch looking for them. Shortly afterwards, she was on Chorus for business when a distress signal came through the planet-wide network, coming from the Blood Gulch crew, and she decided to tag along with the team sent to help. It turned out that her brother and the other soldiers had gotten caught up in several misadventures since she'd last seen them and, after reuniting with them, she had participated in a few.

Eventually, everyone went back to Iris to settle down for good, except for the two ex-freelancers, who'd joined that new defense… whatever group, and Tucker, who'd decided to rejoin the military to train new recruits. Oh, and the Reds (brother included), who had left abruptly, saying only that they had an urgent mission and not explaining any more. Ever since then, she'd been on Iris with only Caboose, who wasn't exactly the most sociable person, for company. Despite that, it wasn't as boring as it sounded. It was worse. Every day went along, just the same as the previous day, except for this one.

She walked into the sunlight and was greeted by the sight of a figure in a dressed top to bottom in high-tech armor, similar to what she and her friends had worn while serving in the military, only the man in front of her wore his in a familiar color combination: steel, with yellow trim. Instantly, she knew who she was looking at; Agent Washington, an old friend. Kaikaina smirked at him, remembering their first meeting. "Long time no see… cop."

Wash got right down to it, filling her in on the Chorus situation, and what had happened to Donut. "The only way to find him is to follow him, so I'm trying to recruit as many of the old gang as I can to help. I decided to start by -"

"- Coming here," Kaikaina finished. "Well, I'm in."

Not what he had expected but, he decided, he would take whatever he could get. "Okay. Next step; where is everyone else?"

"Well, Tucker rejoined the military, he's training new recruits," she began.

"Knew that already. In fact, we crossed paths a few months ago."

"Alright, then. The Reds went off about a week ago on some sort of 'SuperSecret MissionTM', so I don't think we can get them. And that only leaves -"

"Washington! Agent Washington! I knew you hadn't forgotten about us!" The source of the voice, another trooper wearing an older model of armor colored in standard blue, jumped up out of nowhere. Michael J. Caboose, assigned to the Blue Squad of Blood Gulch as a result of his incredibly low IQ, who nonetheless had proven himself a valuable member of the group, coupling a surprising amount of emotional maturity with an abnormal level of physical strength.

"Hey, Caboose," Wash responded. "You know, I'm not actually sure it's possible to forget about you guys."

"So, what brings you here?" Caboose asked. "Oh, is it Movie Night already; or Bowling Night?"

"No, it's not any of those. Actually, I came to ask for your help."

"When do we leave? Wait, is it next Friday? That's Bowling Night; am I gonna have to cancel Bowling Night?."

"Classified Location"

"All right, kids: It's time to listen up!" The owner of the voice, a soldier of average height wearing a set of armor colored in a vaguely bluish-green hue, was addressing a line of new recruits for the UNSC. With few exceptions, the trainees who'd been sent to this base to learn from him had left as better fighters than they'd arrived. After all, he was Lavernius Tucker; he'd helped save an entire planet from a destructive civil war, so how hard could training some new meat actually be? Well, very hard, as it turned out. (At this, Tucker let out a mental "Bow Chicka Bow Wow".)

The recruit standing farthest in front was the first to speak. "Uhh… we're not kids."

"Yeah, we're all in our 20's!" This came from a male trainee standing to the left behind the lead, who slowly turned to look back at him. Despite the fact that everyone standing there wore a helmet, they could all tell that she disapproved of his comment. In a much quieter tone, he said, "...I just proved his point, didn't I?"

Tucker chuckled, almost like he'd been anticipating their comments. "Well, you're not soldiers yet, either; you want to know why? Teamwork." The recruits were silent, as if they had not given much thought to this. "You probably heard about the Master Chief, and thought to yourself: 'I can do that.' Well, he's a genetically altered super-soldier, and you're not. He can do all those things by himself, but you recruits are going to have to learn to work together." The trainees could tell from the tone of his voice; he obviously knew what he was talking about, at least in this instance. "So here's lesson 1: If you have a good team behind you, a team that you really trust, then you can do anything; you can even save time itself. Speaking of which, did you know my friends and I saved time itself once?"

Several of the recruits mentally facepalmed. One of them, standing near the back, tentatively raised his hand. After Tucker invited him to speak, he said: "Excuse me sir, but: didn't you and your teammates break time first?"

If Tucker was taken aback by the comment, he didn't show it. "That's lesson 2: If you make a mistake, always try your best to fix it."

Not to be outdone, the newbie continued, "...but didn't you break time while trying to fix a mistake? So…"

A few moments passed; it seemed the young recruit had finally gotten Tucker to stop talking, but it was only temporary, as he began to speak again. "Well, that's lesson 3: Sometimes -"

"Tucker, sir?" The trainee who knew everything, once again. "I hate to interrupt, but there's some guys coming up behind you."

Tucker gave a huff and turned around to see his Blue teammates coming behind him. This was just too much. "No, no, no, NO! Last time a freelancer came to talk to me, I got stabbed! And I am not getting stabbed again!"

Despite the almost whiny tone, what Tucker said was true. In their adventures, Tucker had found himself linked to an alien energy sword; it would activate only for him. The blade also functioned as a key, allowing its wielder to unlock any of the numerous temples that had been built by the alien race on planets across the galaxy. Because of this, he had been targeted by Viper, who desired control of the key he possessed. Shatter Squad had arrived only seconds before Zero and his subordinates, and were unable to prevent them from obtaining the sword.

In the battle, Tucker had been critically injured; a stab wound from a knife wielded by Phase, a member of Viper and Zero's second in command, caused him to flatline temporarily, severing the sword's connection to him and allowing Phase to steal it from him. Washington had not been there, but having been forced to give up Tucker's location under Zero's torture, he felt a sliver of responsibility. After several moments, he began to respond, his words chosen carefully:

"We need you to come with us. President Kimball called me a few days ago; some problem that they want us to investigate. She also told me that Donut was already there, but that he's in danger."

Several seconds passed, with nothing else said by either, until Tucker responded with just a hint of resignation: "All right."

Not what Wash expected. "What do you mean, all right?"

"Let's go see what's happening on Chorus; you know, help them." The resignation was now gone, replaced with determination.

Washington didn't know how to respond to that, but luckily, he didn't have to; the lead recruit broke in with an irritated tone: "So, you're leaving in the middle of a lesson? Do you expect us to just stand here for another two hours?"

"We've already sorted that out with the other instructors. One of them will be coming by soon." This came from Sister, who was now wearing armor of a yellow color.

The two groups looked at each other for a moment, after which Washington turned back to his three comrades. "Okay then. Let's go." With that, the four set off on their journey, none of them aware of what lay in their future, or the ways in which they would help shape the destiny of an entirely different world.

Of course, their quiet introspectiveness did not last very long before being interrupted by Caboose, asking "Are we there yet?"