Welcome to Chapter Two of this AU! Last chapter covered the Red Team's arrival to Blood Gulch, so I'm going to give Tucker the spotlight for this round. Anyways, like I said last chapter, the canon is altered to hell and back, with only the basic and most important plot points staying, and that includes our gang of idiots. In terms of facial appearances, they will have their appearances from Red vs Blue: Reach. Enjoy the read!
Blue Base
Blood Gulch, Unknown Planet
October 17, 2552
Lavernius Tucker
0850 Hours
Tucker groaned in frustration as Church tried to fix the monitor he broke in anger after Caboose announced the arrival of a Freelancer, which, according to Church, was a gun for hire who fought for whichever army needed them.
However, Tucker knew in his gut that what Church said was bullshit. Not because the latter was lying, but because whoever was pulling the strings made it seem like that was the truth, along with the whole Red vs. Blue war thing. There was absolutely no way that the Human/Covenant War was over and that there was now a Red Army and a Blue Army fighting each other.
Only a victim of the war would know the truth of the matter: the Red vs. Blue war was fake and these Freelancers were a part of it all.
Reaching into the gap between his neck and the edge of his curiass, Tucker pulled a cross from the crevice, looking at it with sad eyes as he remembered who it belonged to: his mother.
A young Tucker stood in his living room, tears filling his eyes as his mother was impaled by a twin-bladed sword that was held by a tall saurian creature. Its ceremonial armor reflected the light coming off of the blade and its four mandibles were in an unmistakeable grin.
Quiet, but hurried footsteps sounded off and a blonde little girl with electric blue eyes froze in her tracks as she watched her mother die.
Looking at the girl, Tucker snapped out of his trance and picked her up, carrying her out of the room and away from the monstrous being that killed their family. There was no way that this was real, right? The siblings would wake up in their bedrooms and their parents would be alive, right?
Wrong.
As soon as they escaped the house, a needle struck Tucker in the arm, making him drop his sister in extreme pain as he pulled the pink crystalline projectile from his limb.
"Ow!" he shouted as he removed the harmful needle and threw it away, watching it explode as it flew through the air. More needles went off, leading Tucker to pick his sister back up and run to the neighboring house to dodge them.
Another mistake, it seemed, as a blue armored creature with the same four jaws as their parents' killer kicked at them, missing the boy's head by an inch and shouting in fury as the two children escaped the house and got to the park, a safer place compared to their house or any of the other ones in their neighborhood.
"Here you go." Tucker set the girl down by a tree, smiling at her to reassure her that he was alive and wouldn't let her get hurt.
"Brother?" the girl addressed him.
"Yeah, what is it?" Tucker looked into his sister's eyes.
"Don't die, please. I don't want to be alone." she sniffled.
"I'm not planning on that."
"They hurt you, though!"
"I'm fine, sis." Tucker set his hand on his sister's head. "Don't worry about me. I'll get us off-planet, I promise."
"Can you really do that?"
"Yeah, don't worry."
Tucker heard alien chatter behind him as a Covenant patrol searched through the park, ready to slaughter anyone they saw. Picking his sister up, the boy held her close as he snuck through the park to avoid the Covenant.
"Don't worry about me. I'll get us off-planet, I promise."
Tucker didn't know how he was keeping that promise, but he didn't care, for the only priority was the little girl he cradled in his arms, and her well-being. He would never let harm come to her as long as he lived...
"Tucker?"
The aqua soldier snapped to attention as Church addressed him.
"What is it, Church?" he asked.
"You were spacing out, dude. Were you thinking about home?"
"I don't want to talk about it right now. When's my next shift?"
"You know what? Take a break. I'll do it for you." Church said.
"Why, though?" Tucker asked, bemused.
"You're clearly having issues, so you're not in a position to patrol Blue Base right now."
Church was right. He wasn't in the right frame of mind to patrol a base, so that duty was left to the cobalt soldier with the Sniper Rifle.
"Alright. I'll find something else." Tucker relented.
"Oh, uh, Caboose needs target practice."
"Ah, damn it."
Tucker stood beside Caboose, watching him shoot the targets that were set up behind Blue Base, judging his aim as he practiced. Unlike Church, who had a fifty-fifty chance to hit a target, Caboose was able to consistently hit his shots, although the cobalt target had the most bullet holes in it.
Why the cobalt one? I'm pretty sure Caboose hates me for some stupid reason, but the cobalt target gets hit the most.
"Hey, Caboose?"
"Yes, Tucker?"
"Why are the cobalt targets the one you hit the most?"
"Um, well, I think my gun has an auto-lock on for anything colored cobalt." Caboose said.
Sure enough, as Church walked up the ramp, Caboose pointed his rifle at him and started shooting.
"Ah, son of a bitch!" Church shouted, running back down the ramp as a bullet hit him in the back. "GODDAMN IT!"
"Tucker did it!"
"CABOOSE, WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Tucker screamed, grabbing Caboose's shoulders and looking him in the eye.
"I don't know, Tucker!"
"YOU JUST SHOT CHURCH, YOU TEAMKILKING FUCKTARD!"
"Ow! You better be glad that this armor's toughest in the back, rookie!" Church yelled, standing up, but staying down the ramp.
"Church?!"
"He didn't kill me, Tucker, he just shot me in the back, that's all." the cobalt soldier said, heading back into the base and muttering "dumbass" under his breath.
"Should I wrap this up?"
"Yeah, you should!"
Dexter Grif
0941 Hours, Moments Earlier
Grif was on the cliffside on Red Base's left, watching Blue Team with the Sniper Rifle, which had a new 5x to 10x scope on it.
"So... what are they doing?" Simmons, the soldier sent to accompany him, asked.
"Training a rookie, it looks like." Grif replied.
"Oh. We should get to training after this, right?"
"You should. I'm already well-trained."
"GODDAMN IT!"
"Whoa! Simmons, the blue one just shot his own teammate! Go tell Sarge!" Grif told Simmons.
[A/N: Tucker yells this while Grif tells Simmons to report to Sarge.]("CABOOSE, WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!")
Simmons left without a word.
"YOU JUST SHOT CHURCH, YOU TEAMKILLING FUCKTARD!"
Looks like they're pissed. Rightfully so.
Grif lowered his rifle and moved out of sight to avoid the Blues' gazes, although with that friendly fire, they were probably preoccupied enough.
Lavernius Tucker
0945 Hours
"I can't fucking believe you, Caboose." Tucker said, facepalming. "You aren't even here for one second, and you decide to go and shoot Church."
"It wasn't my fault!"
"Yeah, it was, dumbass. You had the gun. You pulled the trigger."
"Tucker, let's not dwell on this, alright?" Church asked. His armor was off, replaced with a grey shirt and blue camo'd cargo pants.
"He shot you, though. It's gotta hurt."
"Yeah, it hurts like a motherfucker, but we should spy on the Reds, see what we're dealing with." Church said, picking up an M6C SOCOM handgun. Where they got that, they had no idea. "I'll keep Caboose under control, so you should go see what they've got."
"Won't he shoot you again?" Tucker asked.
"If he does, then I'll string his ass up by his toes."
"That sounds like fun!" Caboose said, causing his teammates to facepalm.
"Oh, my-- just go, Tucker. Sniper Rifle's in the armory by my armor."
Tucker walked off to the armory, his mind on his past as he went to retrieve the rifle he coveted so much. With the traumatic past he suffered from, he wasn't sure if he could keep his memories under wraps, and sure enough, he soon found himself freezing up and facing another flashback.
Tucker sat in the shadow of a destroyed Covenant Wraith, holding his sister to his chest. The balcony of the house in front of them had a high-powered rifle on it, the scope gleaming as it sat there.
The young teen needed to get his hands on that rifle if he and his sister were to survive. However, the Covenant were surrounding the house, seemingly blocking every entrance to the building.
"Okay, sis." Tucker began. "How am I supposed to get up there?"
"Um..." the younger girl looked at the house, thinking of a solution to her brother's predicament. Finding an open window on the upper floor of the house, along with a seemingly perfect arrangement of objects under it.
"There's an open window on the left side of the house and there's no aliens on that side."
"Thanks." Tucker thanked his sister, and he then looked at the window. There weren't any Covenant in the way, but there might have been a sniper in the window his sister had pointed out. "Alright, I've gotta go get it."
"Okay. Be safe."
"I will." Tucker left the cover of the Wraith and headed to the house, checking his surroundings for any Covenant troops. After reaching the underside of the window, the teenager found a handhold and began to climb when a long violet and grey barrel stuck out of the window.
"Crap." Tucker whispered to himself. There was a sniper in the window.
'Okay, change of plans. I have to deal with this sniper to get inside and get that rifle, right? I guess I could make a dis--'
A rock smacked the front of the house, alerting the Covenant to it. Just like the other alien soldiers, the sniper left his post to check it out, giving Tucker the opportunity to slip inside undetected.
The layout of the house was nothing special, and it seemed like the sniper was the only form of interior security. Hiding behind a wall, Tucker allowed the bird-looking creature to check out the sound and return to its post, muttering something along the lines of "stupid Unggoy" as it passed.
'Alright, Sniper Rifle, you're mine, now.'
Reaching the balcony, Tucker gingerly picked up the Sniper Rifle, feeling its weight as he slipped the strap around his back and knelt down to get a few spare mags.
Now that he had the rifle he wanted, all he had to do now was--
"Tucker, what's goin' on?" Church had gone to the armory to find Tucker frozen in place, seemingly unable to move. "You've frozen up twice, now. I'm actually a bit worried, you know?"
"I'm fine, Church." Tucker growled in response to the cobalt soldier. "Don't poke around in my life, damn it."
"Are you sure about that? Because it sounds like you need some fuckin' counseling."
"No! I need a fucking purpose!"
"What purpose? Sleeping with women every day and cracking stupid sex jokes?"
"No! You wanna know what's wrong, I'll tell you what's wrong!" For some reason, Tucker's patience was really null at this point, and he was about one tick-off away from socking his CO.
"Tucker, what crawled up your--?"
"Shut up, Church!" Tucker punched Church in the face without thinking.
"I'm calling Command, because you're going through some shit, and I'm not gonba stand there and do nothing." Church got up to call Command but was grabbed by an aqua armored hand.
"'Command' is one of my problems!" Tucker yelled. "They're the reason I'm stuck here, dealing with a bunch of dumbasses in a fake war instead of fighting the Covenant on the frontlines!"
"What the hell are you talking about?!"
"I'm sorry if I told the truth, because it seems to me that I need to enlighten you!"
"Let me go. Now."
"No, sir."
"Church, what's going on?" Caboose asked from the top of the stairs.
"Caboose, go the fuck away, I'm dealing with Tucker!" Church growled.
"Yeah! Go get yourself killed in a fake war like 'Command' wants us to!" Tucker shouted.
"I thought the Reds were neighbors."
"Oh, my God." Church said in irritation. "You fucking idiot. They're--!"
"--not the enemy, they're just misguided like Church here."
"Misguided?!"
"Does a war between a Red Army and a Blue Army make any logical sense?" Tucker asked.
"Like I said, I though they were neighbors." Caboose told Tucker.
"Well, this is the war I got sent to to fight in." Church answered. "What are you going at?"
"I'm saying that this is some stupid simulation of sorts, because I heard 'Red Command' on our comms."
"Well, maybe they got a tap on their comms."
"It was the same fucking guy!"
Church didn't say anything for a few seconds, and Tucker thought he had finally got through to Church. However...
"Do you really think I'm going to believe that? All you go on about is chicks."
"How else do I keep Command from sending guys to kill me? I'm too dangerous to them."
"What drugs are you on?"
"Fuck you, I'm going to Red Base."
Tucker let go of Church and stormed down to the armory.
"Seriously, what crawled up his ass this morning?" Church asked himself.
"Oh, I know!"
"Shut the fuck up, Caboose."
Dexter Grif
1007 Hours
"Hey."
"Yeah?"
"You ever wonder why we're here?"
Grif and Simmons were standing on top of Red Base, chatting away while they "guarded" the base. During that time, Simmons decided to ask "why are we here," and Grif decided to be philosiphical in his answer.
"It's one of life's great mysteries, isn't it? Why are we here? Are we the product of some cosmic coincidence, or is there really a God, watching everything, you know, with a plan for us and stuff. I don't know, man, but it keeps me up at night."
A momentary pause...
"What?" Simmons asked incredulously. "I mean, why are we here, out in this canyon?"
"Um, you want the short answer, or the long one?" Grif asked.
"Eh, short?"
"I got wrongfully accused of dereliction of duty and I got sent here as a punishment."
"Damn. From one war to the next."
"Um, this is actually a live-fire simulation."
"Wait... I thought this was some kind of initiation!"
"Initiation?"
"Yeah! I thought I was sent here to fight the Blue Army so I could prove that I could fight the aliens!"
"The Covenant." Grif corrected his teammate. "And no, this is actually a simulation for Freelancer agents to train with."
"Damn. Suddenly, I feel like a failure."
"Hey, Reds!" a voice yelled from the ground. The two Reds looked down to see a soldier in aqua Mark V armor standing there.
"What do you want, Blue?!" Simmons asked, his rifle grip tensed.
"I want to talk to your boss!" he yelled.
Great.Eh, sorry that the chapter is a bit bad, but I needed to think of some stuff to do, along with the flashbacks. Yeah, Tucker has a sister in this, but I'm keeping her name a secret until the time comes. Also, I've been reading and stuff, so I've been distracted from the writing stuff *sees a Covenant battle cruiser enter orbit with its glassing beam pointed at me.* Yeah, screw this, I'm outta here.
Mr. Lonely #6306