This chapter will return to Red Team, as Tucker and Tex took the spotlight for the past few chapters. And I had the gall to call this Grif's story?!
Either way, let's go spelunking.
Red Base, Blood Gulch
Nondescript Planet
October 24, 2552
Dexter Grif
1530 Hours
Going underground was not one of Grif's favorite things. Subterranean environments were dark, perpetually musty (if he was in a damper environment,) and they were full of bats, spiders, and so on.
When Simmons opened the trapdoor in the base's cellar, he was reminded of this dislike/fear.
"So, the asshole who shot Donut is an A.I., an ex-Freelancer's gunning for us, and we're going to explore a tunnel network that might lead to Blue Base?" he said.
"Yeah. Hey, look at it like this: if we get this guy, we'll be one step closer to beating the Project and reentering the frontlines." Simmons said, checking his Battle Rifle for damage.
"Right."
Grif grabbed his own rifle and reloaded it, attaching some ammo to his armor's magnetic strips.
"How's Lopez?" he asked.
"I got the speech unit installed, but I think it was in Spanish."
Spanish?! Please don't be right.
"Hola."
Grif turmed to the cellar entrance to see Lopez standing there, holding a rifle.
"Hey, Lopez, how're you doing?"
"[I am doing well, Corporal.]" he replied. In Spanish.
"Goddamn it. Scratch that last bit, Donut's assailant is an A.I., we've got an ex-Freelancer shooting at us, we're going to explore a tunnel network that might lead to the Blues, and we have a robot that's stuck on the Spanish setting."
"Yup. I'd ask who's got it better, but we don't have civilians at our base." Simmons said.
"Right. Lopez, guard the base." he ordered the robot.
"[Yes, sir.]" he replied.
"Here we go, Simmons."
Grif went down the trapdoor, grabbing hold of a ladder and then descending it. Simmons slowly followed suit as Lopez presumably said good luck and shut the door on them. As darkness reigned supreme, their helmet-mounted flashlights activated, illuminating a metallic tunnel going down.
"This isn't too bad, I guess." Simmons said.
"Hey, you just jinxed it!" Grif told the private. "I almost got killed in a tunnel like this!"
"Oh."
The two Reds traversed the tunnel, climbing down into what looked to be an elevator.
Strange.
Dropping into the hatch, Grif landed in said elevator, letting Simmons follow suit before he set it to go downwards (it only had one destination, unlike normal elevators.)
"You know, Donut would probably have some really stupid shit to say about this." Simmons said.
"About us working together?" Grif asked.
"Yeah. He has a weird thing about us being together."
"That'll never happen. I prefer girls, not guys."
"Same here. I just wish I could stop getting so flustered when girl paid attention to me." Simmons admitted.
"You were fine when Tex came to our base." Grif pointed out.
"I thought she might kill me."
"She did have that vibe."
The elevator hit the bottom, and the soldiers were quick to leave the metal death box.
"Well, I didn't expect this." Simmons said, pointing outwards.
"What?" Grif turned to where Simmons was pointing, and his jaw dropped.
I really wasn't expecting this when I went down that hatch.The elevator had led to a vast underground cavern the size of Blood Gulch, maybe even larger. Worn-down and destroyed building littered the floor, as well as what looked like Covenant fortifications to Grif's eyes.
"Shit." he cursed, pulling out his Battle Rifle and using the scope to further observe the ruins.
"What is it? Wyoming?" Simmons asked.
"Worse."
"That's cryptic."
"It's the Covenant." Grif explained. "We had Covvies under our feet the whole time we were here."
"Holy shit. Why would they be here?"
"Who knows? There might be some kind of artifact here." The ex-ODST began to go down into the cavern. "Come on, Simmons."
They entered the ruins, weapons out and eyes sharp as voices Grif hadn't heard since Reach reached his ears.
"Wow, some of these voices are really high pitched." Simmons commented.
"Those are Grunts. Cannon foddee for the Covenant. They're short little guys, but a group of them is a deadly thing to encounter."
"Okay. Good to know."
After entering a building, Grif saw a Jackal armed with a Needle Rifle standing in a window, aiming out of it.
"What's that?" Simmons asked in a hushed voice.
"Dead."
Grif pulled his knife out and rammed it into the Jackal's throat, pulling the avian sniper to the ground as blood spilled from its throat.
"Take that Needle Rifle." he ordered Simmons, who picked it up and placed it on his back. "And to honestly answer your question, that was a Jackal, defensive unit and sniper of the Covenant, along with the killer of Army Sergeant Holly Caboose."
"Ah. Makes sense."
Heading upstairs, the duo found a pair of Grunts sleeping in a corner, muttering things in English.
"...it's weird, but I dream in English..."
"...mmm, food nipple..."
"They're wearing orange." Simmins noted. "We should kill them, right?"
Grif pulled his M6C SOCOM out and shot a Grunt in the head. Thankfully, its companion didn't hear the shot or the thump of lead puncturing flesh.
Simmons pulled his own Automag out and killed the other one.
"I kinda wish my first alien kill was in combat." he muttered.
"Knowing our luck, you'll get your first fight." Grif said, creeping further into the room and silencing a third Grunt with his knife.
"I sure hope the Blues didn't go into the cavern." Simmons said.
Also knowing their luck, that was far too likely to happen.
"Wait, shouldn't we be trying to call the Blues?"
"Nah, that's just asking for trouble. If the Covvies aren't listening in, it could be Wyoming."
Grif stopped at the door leading outside of the house, spotting an Elite Minor and three Grunt Minors walking past, talking in their native tongues.
"Crap."
Simmons didn't ask any questions this time, simply holding onto the stolen Needle Rifle Grif had him take. He ducked behind the wall when he saw the patrol.
"Yeah, out of all of us, I think Sarge has it the easiest." Simmons said out of the blue.
"Sure thing..."
Sarge
Project Freelancer Red Command
1539 Hours
Sarge opened the crate he was given by a pair of soldiers, revealing a full suit of ODST battle armor, complete with a red trim and his modifications.
"Well, hot damn!" he said, and after moving to an empty room, he began to replace the simulation armor with his old armor, feeling a sense of familiarity as he replaced each armor piece.
The gauntlets had bullet loops on them, which he promptly filled with 8 gauge shells, and the thigh and leg armor had improved magnetic strips. His curiass had a knife on the front, while the helmet had a comlink on it.
He put the helmet on, letting the helmet's visor polarize into its normal platinum blue, and for the first time in months, Simulation Trooper Sarge was gone, and Staff Sergeant Sarge of the ODSTs was back.
Returning to the tarmac where the other crates were, he found that their lids were in the colors of the simulation troopers of Blood Gulch, along with a black one.
Opening the orange one, he found Grif's old armor, along with an M7S SMG, and after closing it, he told a pair of soldiers to load it onto a Pelican for delivery before he turned to the aqua one.
Inside was another set of simulation armor, but the components looked to be more durable. A note accompanied it. He pulled it out and read it.
The Mark VI Project Freelancer-issued armor is an upgraded version of the Mark V armor used by Simulation Troopers, being able to withstand as much punishment as the armor worn by Freelancer agents. An upgraded HUD and an equipment slot are also included.
"Well, then. This'll be good for them."
Each crate held the upgraded armor in it, all in cobalt, maroon, blue, brown (he'd fuse that into Lopez's chassis,) yellow, black (the nameplate Agent Texas was on the curiass,) and pink.
Is this Donut's new armor? he wondered as he had the armor placed onto the Pelican.
"Sir, are you going with?" a Marine asked.
"Negative, soldier. I have unfinished business here." he gruffly replied, and the soldier entered the Pelican as the cargo bay door closed.
Sarge headed back inside, ready to see if he could find anything out about the Project. This was one of their facilities, after all.
"I wonder how the Reds are doing over there?"
Dexter Grif
Caverns, Blood Gulch
1543 Hours
Grif snuck past a pair of Elites, making sure Simmons followed suit correctly, as getting spotted in the shitty armor they had was a death sentence to them.
Fortunately, the maroon soldier made it just fine, reaching Grif without much trouble.
However, that luck wasn't going to last forever, a fact that the duo learned when a Jackal Major smelled them and called out to its allies, pointing in their general diretion.
"Shit, they know we're here." Grif told Simmons.
"What?!" he half-whispered.
"Jackals have an enhanced sense of smell, and we smell like whatever we used to clean our armor."
"Aw, hell."
"Humans!" a Grunt shouted, brandishing its Plasma Pistol.
"Nope!" Grif shot the Grunt in the head, but the damage was done. The Covenant knew they were in their territory.
"Find the infidels and cut them down!" an Elite yelled.
Running into a more intact house, they aimed their rifles at a trio of Grunts and fired, raining bullets and needles at the squat aliens and splattering the floor and walls with luminescent blue blood.
Plasma rounds flew past them as a Grunt and a Jackal stood in a flight of stairs, firing at them. A grenade landed at their feet, and its explosion blew them to pieces.
Running out of the house at full speed, the two soldiers headed towards the other side of the cavern, where an elevator to Blue Base sat. However, Elites had now joined the fray, armed with Plasma Rifles, Covenant Carbines, Needle Rifles, and Plasma Repeaters.
"Oh, shit!" Simmons yelled as a radioactive bolt flew past his head.
"Keep your head down, Simmons!" Grif yelled.
"I'm doing that already!"
"Okay, now I want the Blues to come here!"
"Hey, now can we call out?!" Simmons yelled at Grif.
"Cut them off at the pass!"
"Kill the infidels before they escape!"
"Yeah! We can't kill all these Covenant by ourselves!" Grif shouted.
"Do not let them find the artfact!" a high-ranking Elite yelled as his men surrounded the Reds.
"This is Private Richard Simmons to Blue Base, can you read me?!" Simmons shouted into the radio.
"What do you want, Red?" an irritable voice grumbled from the radio.
"We're in some kind of cavern, and it's full of Covenant!" Simmons replied. "They have us pinned down!"
"Wait, Covenant?!" Tucker yelled. "Please confirm!"
Simmons set the radio to speaker mode, letting the alien chatter and gunfire filter in.
"Son of a bitch. We'll be down there as soon as we can." Tucker sighed.
"Make it quick!" Simmons yelled before he cut the line.
Grif threw a Plasma Grenade at an Elite, sticking it to the quad-jawed warrior' face. He roared in fury and attempted to get in range of the Reds when the grenade exploded, sending chunks of Elite flying and causing static to wash over the soldiers' HUDs.
"That was for Reach!" Grif yelled.
"Suck it, Blues!" Simmons yelled as he killed an Elite Minor with a headshot.
"What was that about?!" Grif asked.
"The Elites have blue armor!"
"Oh. Blues, get your asses over here, quickly..." he muttered as he grabbed a Plasma Battery and threw it at a group of Elites and Grunts.
The Reds only had so much time before they were toast. And now, as the Covenant closed in on the pinned down soldiers, all they could do was pray.
Okay, you know that cavern from Season 5, where Grif and Simmons got drugged by Flowers and his Elite buddy? This is that cavern, but I like the idea of it being a bit like RWBY's Mountain Glenn, in the sense of it being an underground city.
Also, let's hope that Rooster Teeth pulls their heads out of their asses and brings the Reds and Blues back in Halo Infinite, because 343 is really trying to make Infinite the best they could (although they're delaying co-op campaign and Forge, hopefully to fully ensure a good, bugless performance.)
Anyways, I'll see you next time.