Many moments have passed before Doc was able to fix the orange soldier's leg. "There. All patched up."

"I can't feel my toes."

"That's normal." Donut said.

"Is it?" Washington quickly cocked his rifle and aimed it at the orange soldier. "Whoa, hang on now."

"You need to start talking."

"Hmm. Aggressive, paranoid, and a little melodramatic. You must be Agent Washington."

"Ha! Melodramatic." Tucker laughed.

"And that means the rest of you are the Reds and the Blues. And as I thought, you're traveling with Jena Isa, one of the last Jedi, and her clone companion, Strike."

"How do you know so much about us?" Strike asked.

"Seriously? Everybody knows about you guys. You're heroes."

"Heroes?" Jena asked.

"You're the team that brought down Project: Freelancer. You're some of the galaxy's greatest soldiers."

The news of that made everyone pause in silence. They expected to hear some things about themselves, but never like that. It was almost unbelievable to hear.

"Well, I can see how you might think that." Simmons said.

"Because it's absolutely true." Sarge said.

"It's partially true." Doc said.

"But mainly false." Grif said.

"Stop giving him information." Washington said. He turned back to the man he was questioning. "What's your name?"

"Felix."

"Okay then, Felix." Jena said. "What's going on?"

"Do you want the long answer or the short one?"

"Do you want another bullet in your leg?" Wash threatened.

"Hey, that bullet's there because of you."

"Us?" Strike asked.

"Well, I did take that bullet for you. The only reason that tool shot me was because I was protecting you. So why don't you cut me some slack?" Washington sighed before lowering his gun.

"So what's happening?" Jena asked. "Who were those guys?"

"And why haven't we been rescued yet?" Simmons asked.

"Wait." Felix said. "Where do you think you are?"

"What do you mean?" Tucker asked.

"I mean, do you understand where you crashed?"

"Well, we've been taking bets." Sarge said. "Highest wager's currently on the Bermuda Triangle. After that, we got Gilligan's Island and Purgatory."

"So stupid." Grif said.

"No, think about it. It makes perfect sense." Donut said.

"The reason no one's come to help you is the same reason no one's come to help them." Felix pointed at the soldiers that Jena slain.

"Them?" Simmons asked.

"The people of this planet."

"What planet?" Strike asked.

"Chorus."

"Never heard of it." Sarge said.

"Neither have I." Jena said. "And I used to volunteer at the Jedi Archives. I've never seen anything on the star maps referencing a planet called Chorus."

"Well, I don't expect you to." Felix said. "It's on the edge of colonized space and after the Clone Wars and the war between Earthlings and the Covenant, it was more-or-less forgotten by Earth, the UNSC, the Empire, and what remains of the old Republic."

"We crashed in the middle of nowhere on a planet in the middle of nowhere." Grif surmised. "Beautiful."

"But how did we end up so far from home?" Simmons asked. "It should've been a short flight."

Sarge suddenly remembered something he did. During the ride back home, Sarge grew impatient with how long he believed the flight was, so he meddled with the engines. That's when the lights flashed red.

Sarge coughed. "One mystery at a time there, Simmons."

Felix continued his story. "Now, being a separate planet far from UNSC and Empire juristictions, the nice little people of Chorus decided to run things on their own. The only problem was, they didn't do a very good job."

"Ugh. History's the worst." Tucker said. "Could you just get to the point?"

"The point is you crash landed in the middle of a civil war. And I'm on the side that's trying to keep you alive."

"And which side is that?" Strike asked.

"The New Republic, which they named after the old Republic. Essentially, some people weren't happy with how things were run on Chorus, so they put together a rebel army in hopes of fighting for their freedom. It's all very patriotic."

"So those guys that attacked us…" Jena started to say.

"Bingo. Those are the government tools that want to control Chorus, the Federal Army."

"This doesn't explain why they were after us." Washington said.

"It's like I said. You're the galaxy's greatest heroes. That makes you a pretty hot commodity. And I'd be lying if I said my shitty attempt at a rescue didn't have a few strings attached."

Jena crossed her arms. "I see. So you want us to help you."

"That's right." Felix said. "The rebels need your help. Once they heard that you guys were on Chorus, they sent me and a small team to pick you up. We're hoping you could be the key to ending the war."

"…No." Grif said.

"No?" Felix asked. Basically, everybody agreed with Grif.

"Look, Felix, I hate to break it to you," Washington said, "But we're in no condition to be fighting a war."

"We've only got a limited amount of food rations and ammunition." Jena said.

"All we want is a ride of this shitty planet." Tucker said. "No offense."

"Meh." Felix said. "It ain't my shitty planet."

"Aren't you one of the rebels?" Doc asked.

"No. I'm a freelancer." Immediately, everyone pointed their weapons at Felix, Jena with her lightsaber and the others with their guns. "No! I mean, I'm a mercenary! You know, a gun-for-hire!"

"Oh, thank God." Grif said lowering his gun.

"So you're like a bounty hunter?" Jena asked.

"Kinda." Felix said. "Not to brag, but I do consider myself among the legendary big shots like Boba Fett or Cad Bane."

"So the rebels paid you to get us." Washington said.

"They pay me to do a lot of stuff. But yeah, picking you up happens to be my next paycheck."

"And you want us to fight in someone else's war just so you can make some extra cash."

"Uh… It's for a good cause?"

"Nice try, buster." Strike said. "If you can, we'll just take a ride out of this system."

"Woo-hoo! Here's to not going that extra mile!" Grif cheered.

"You know, I wasn't alone when I went to get you guys." Felix said. "There were three of us. Just think about that."

Jena lowered her head. "I don't know, guys. Should we really run away?"

"Jena, we're barely surviving as we are." Wash said. "We're being asked to fight an entire army and we're exhausted just by standing around in this canyon. I don't like it either, but right now, we don't have a lot of options."

Felix stood aside to make a call in his helmet radio. "This is Felix. …Yes, I found them. …Well, no. We ran into trouble and need backup. …Look, we need backup now. Locus has our position."

"Locus?" Strike asked.

"That must be the name of that one soldier who can cloak." Jena said.

"Now, what?" Tucker asked.

Once Felix ended his call, he joined back with the group. "Now, we work on making this place the most defendable hole in the ground on the planet. We need all the defenses we can have. I need a detailed list of the supplies you got on hand."

"Whoa, hang on, buddy." Strike said. "We can't move ahead this fast. We're not so sure if we can even trust you."

"Well, trust me on this: backup's on its way, which means the Feds will be trying to stop us from escaping. And unless we get prepared, we're in for the fight of our lives. Let's hope you guys are as good as the story says."

"Prepare to be sorely disappointed." Grif said.

After heading back to the inside of the ship, Red Team emerged with a whole new set of supplies. Sarge, Grif, Simmons, Strike, Donut, Lopez, Dos.0, and Doc gathered around to compare notes.

"Okay, everybody." Strike said. "We've searched the ship for anything we could use to defend our canyon until extraction arrives. Let's go over what we have. Simmons?"

Simmons cleared his throat. "Hello, everyone. Glad to be back."

"Wrap it up!" Grif yelled.

"Good to be back."

"No one cares!"

Simmons sighed. "All right. I managed to recover a set of land mines and planted them around Red Base."

"But you didn't even bury them." Grif said.

"From what I could tell, they're meant to be set above ground."

"With blinking, red warning lights?"

"Yeah, it doesn't make much sense to me either."

"Well, I suppose that's something." Sarge said.

"It'll have to do." Strike said. "Grif, Doc, you learn anything about those teleportation cubes?"

"Well, we learned that the cubes can be set at different frequencies." Doc said. "For example, if I throw a grenade set to frequency A, an object will disappear." He tossed one of the future cubes, which made a crate vanish when it was near. "If I then throw a second cube set to A, that object will reappear." He tossed another cube which made the crate return out of thin air.

"Meanwhile," Grif continued, "If I throw a cube set to frequency B, I can throw it like so." He threw a cube which incidentally landed next to Doc. He disappeared without warning. "And then, throw a second cube set to A without ever messing with the stuff sucked in by B."

"So all they do is teleport things?" Sarge asked.

"Pretty much."

"Well, I suppose could fill a cube with grenades, and then throw the grenade-filled cubes at the enemy."

"What?" Strike asked. "That's basically the same as throwing grenades. It doesn't make any sense and you know it."

"We're not here to make sense, Strike. We're here to win. And finally, we have the Lopezes. Stop standing next to each other, you two! I could never tell you apart!"

Dos.0 looked over to his original model who was only a head. "Seriously?"

"I need you two to get C.C. started up and she could…"

"Hold it right there!" Strike yelled out. "Sarge, we are not rebuilding that mechanical monster! She'll destroy us before she'll destroy the enemy!"

"All I heard was, 'she'll destroy the enemy'." Sarge said. "Glad we agree."

"Sarge, in the name of all things sane," Strike said menacingly, "If you get those Hispanic clankers to reactivate C.C., I will hurt you in ways that'll make Agent Texas seem delicate."

Sarge paused for a moment before answering. "Fine. I won't have Lopez and Dos.0 rebuild C.C."

"Thank you." Strike said. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be at the canyon borders keeping a lookout." He left the campsite.

Once Strike was out of sight, Sarge turned back to the robots. "Okay, change of plans. You two go prep with workstation, and I'll do the repairs myself. Better that way. I can't trust a couple of dumb robots to not screw it up."

"…He's insane." Dos.0 said. "They're all insane."

"Hey, where's Doc?" Lopez asked.

Washington and Jena met up with Felix at a cliff overlooking everything.

"So what are we dealing with, Felix?" Wash asked.

"The man after you is named Locus. He's a merc like me, but you know… terrifying."

"Locus?" Jena asked.

"Yeah. The guy's so far up the deep end, he prefers to go by the name of his armor instead of the name he was born with. Coo-coo."

"That's unsettling." Wash said.

"Oh, are you first name 'Agent', last name 'Washington'?" Felix asked. "That's so weird."

"That's just… old habits."

"Well, we may need you to dig down deep into those old habits if we're going to survive this." Jena said.

"You know, I thought there'd be more of you." Felix said. "Weren't you with another Freelancer and an AI?"

"Carolina and Church?" Jena asked. "Yeah, but we got separated after the crash. There was no clue where they might have gone."

"Well, it makes you feel any better, I haven't heard anything about them on the radio chatter." Felix said. "So… silver lining, right?"

"How was he able to disguise himself?" Washington asked. "Locus, I mean. He disappeared without a trace with some kind of cloaking technology."

"The Feds have been using crazy tech for ages. I got my light shield off a dead soldier."

"It's just that I've never seen technology like that outside of Project: Freelancer."

"Welcome to the future, Wash. Technology's incredible, and everyone uses it to kill each other."

"Does that mean the rebels have technology like that too?" Jena asked.

"I wish. The New Republic's barely scraping by with what they have left. You wouldn't happen to have any high-tech armor aboard that wreck, would you?"

"Plenty of armor," Wash replied, "Just nothing out of the ordinary."

"Well… at least you can accessorize." Felix tried to joke. "Sorry. I thought I would lighten the mood."

"Believe it or not, Felix, we're barely scraping by as well." Jena said.

"Really? But aren't you a Jedi? I thought one of you guys could match a thousand soldiers and that you could even sense evil or something."

"Well, that's not the case. Not on this planet, at least." Jena said. "Ever since we crashed, I've been having a strange feeling that's been bothering me. It's like something's interfering in my connection to the Force. And on top of that, I'm not even a full-fletched Jedi."

"What does that mean?" Felix asked.

Jena sighed before brushing her black hair to the side. She revealed a few strands of it tied into a decorated braid with a blue band. "Do you know what this means?"

"…A cute fashion choice?"

"It means I'm still just a Padawan. It's a rank among the Jedi Order. It basically means that I'm an intermediate student of the Jedi way. I'm technically not a full Jedi unless I get ranked up to Jedi Knight."

"So why don't you?" Felix asked. "I don't see anyone stopping you."

"It's not as simple as that. I can't do it to myself. According to tradition, the only way I can become a Jedi Knight is if another Jedi names me one and removes my braid. And well, I haven't seen another Jedi in about ten years."

"Huh. Noted." Felix said.

"Actually," Wash said, "I think I can divulge in some of those habits we discussed. Be right back."

"Is he always this cryptic?" Felix asked.

"Only when he's sure of himself." Jena replied.

Once everything was set up, everyone gathered at the center of the site.

"Well done, everyone!" Donut cheered. "This just shows with some teamwork and a little elbow grease, we could do wonders!"

"We spent hours building the most fortified place on the planet," Tucker said, "And you made me hate it in two seconds."

"It's what he does." Grif said.

"Donut's got a point though." Washington said as he joined in on the conversation. Everyone saw that he had returned to his classic black armor with yellow marks. "I think we got this." Jena and Felix stood beside him.

"All right! Back in black!" Donut cheered.

"Oh, this brings me back." Caboose said. "Like the first time we met. Then you came back. And you shot Donut."

"Well, I must admit, this place looks well-done." Jena said. "And with Strike keeping a lookout, I think we can handle anything the Feds can throw at us."

BOOM!

"WHAT WAS THAT?" Simmons asked.

"IS THAT THE FEDS?" Tucker asked.

"Impossible!" Jena said. "Strike would have warned us!"

"And this isn't a Locus move either!" Felix added.

"Well, who else at this canyon wants us dead?" Tucker asked.

The firing got closer. Sarge ran out trying to escape the gunfire of the giant robot that was trying to shoot him. Strangely enough, it spoke Spanish.

"Si. Si. Keep dancing, Sarge!"

"Wait a minute!" Grif yelled out. "Is that Dos.0?"

"Dos.0, cease fire!" Sarge yelled. "No mas! No mas!"

"SARGE!" Strike yelled as he ran in on the fight and tackled him out of the way. "DIDN'T I TELL YOU TO LEAVE THAT THING ALONE?"

"Strike, what are you doing here?" Jena asked.

"I heard the gunfire and thought the jerks found a way around!" Strike yelled.

"But if you're here," Felix said, "Then that means…" He quickly turned around to block an upcoming sniper bullet with his shield.

Locus revealed himself changing the magazine on his gun. "Surrender now, and I promise only to kill the mercenary."

"You're not taking us away." Jena said pulling out her lightsaber.

"Yes, I am."

"Oh, yeah?" Simmons asked. "You and what army?"

That's when several other men in white armor appeared next to Locus. They also had blaster guns and even a few vehicles. "The Federal Army of Chorus."

"Well, I guess I walked right into that one." Simmons said.

"What do we do?" Donut asked.

Jena took another look at the situation. In front of them was the mercenary leading a team of government soldiers after them. Behind them, Dos.0 was about to engage in Freckles. Her and her friends, they're just caught in the middle with attacks coming from inside and out. She readied her lightsaber holding it over her head.

"We take our stand."