Author's Note: Sorry guys, it's been a rough couple of months for me, I'll explain more in detail later. Thanks everyone for your reviews, it means alot.
Review Responses: (in order of appearance)
Colonel Vrataski: I actually haven't given it any serious thought to be honest. I suppose maybe if enough people want one I might make one.
HyenaMan: I'm actually in a huge debate right now on what colors. Eventually I said screw it and am going with the Halo 3 armor colors. Reasons being that if I stuck with colors from Halo CE, some of those colors won't transfer over to Halo 2 and I would have to pick new ones. I'll explain it below.
The rest of you I can consolidate into one answer, thank you for your reviews and I appreciate you reading and writing your responses.
For Future Reference:
Rowe-Salmon
Fergo-Violet
Lockett-Lavender
They all have the Mark V armor though, they don't change until Halo 3.
Disclaimer: I don't own Red vs Blue.
And So It Begins
"Sarge," Grif calls out as he comes rushing into the room,"Donut was hit pretty bad, Simmons is calling for a Med-evac."
"Oh look at that, you actually did something useful for once," Sarge jeers, he then hears a soft groan and turns and smirks at Tex. "Well, look who's up. Rise 'n' shine, buttercup," he jeers.
As Tex slowly stands up, sparks fly out from his shoulder and he jerks back violently. Tex tries to speak but the Reds only hear a distorted robotic voice.
Ashe starts to speak again, they hear a distinct female voice which growls out "Oh great... You broke my voice filter. You cock biting fucktards!"
"Ah-ha! I knew it!" Grif exclaims, "Only a chick could give me a headache this big!"
Meanwhile, Sarge and Lopez stared silently with wide eyes at the soldier that managed to infiltrate their base.
"...What's the matter? Have you ever seen a girl before? How long have you guys been out here?" Tex asks, slightly creeped out by the stares.
"No," an annoyed Lockett grumbles.
"What do you mean no?" asks a confused Church.
"She's….Tex is your ex-fiance?" Lockett cries in disbelief.
"Yes," Church answers.
"I should have known," Caboose chides, "She didn't like me, I can always tell when it's a girl that doesn't like me."
"Caboose, what does that even mean?" Fergo incredulously asks.
"A girl not liking you is significantly different than how it feels when a guy doesn't like you," Caboose explains, "She didn't act like any guy."
"I actually agree with him on that one," Tucker nods, "Girls put off a completely different vibe than guys do." He turns to Church and says "You see the way she threw those Reds around? Are you sure she's a chick…." Tucker nervously shifts his weight before he continues "And like not a guy? Or part shark?"
"You picked the wrong animal," Lockett corrects. "Sharks aren't known for their anger or meanness."
"Oh really?" asks a surprised Tucker, "What's an animal known for being mean?"
"Honey Badger," Lockett answers.
Church then cuts in and says "Okay, I'm pretty sure I'd know if Tex was a guy. And I'm definitely sure I would know if she was part Honey Badger."
"Wait," Caboose mumbles, "If she is a girl, why is she named Tex? Like that's not really her name is it?"
"No," Church shook his head, "That's not her real name, that's what they call her because she's from Texas."
"Well that's lazy," snorts Fergo.
Church continues "Trust me, it makes sense. And you can't blame her for being so aggressive. It's not entirely her fault to begin with."
"Right. You should blame God. First he has hangovers, and now, half women, half badgers that won't even sleep with me. Thanks for nothing, God!" Tucker sarcastically remarks while looking up to the sky.
Lockett, Fergo, and Caboose chuckle softly at his comments before Church gets angry again.
"Will you shut up with that?" snaps Church as he glares at the aqua colored soldier. Church then explains "She got recruited into some kind of weird experimental program back during basic where they infused her armor with this really aggressive A.I. I'm not really sure how it all works, but all I know is it made her meaner and tougher than hell."
Lockett raises an eyebrow and asks "That doesn't sound like any A.I. I've ever encountered one before. How does an A.I. alter a person's personality like that? You make it sound like the thing is pumping subliminal messaging into her ears."
Church massages his temple with his hand before he exasterably cries "I don't know, maybe!"
Caboose then raises his hand and asks "What's the "A" stand for?"
"Artificial," answers Church.
Caboose nods and then asks "What's the "I-""
"Intelligence," Church interrupts.
"Oh…." nods Caboose.
Though Caboose nodded, it was clear that everything Church had said was just going in one ear and out the other.
"What was the A again?" Caboose asks.
Rather than answering, Church suggests "Let's move on," and then proceeds to drop the subject.
Fergo then asks "How much did she change? Like was it a 180 degree flip in her personality or was it one of those Captain America things where it put an emphasis on her negative and positive attributes."
"Yeah no," Church laughs, "Tex has no positive attributes, she's always been a rotten bitch." He then frowns and groans "Now she's a rotten bitch with cybernetic enhancements!"
"Okay, so she just got enhanced and now has a shitty attitude and massive superiority complex?" asks Lockett.
"Exactly," nods Church.
"Wow,"Tucker snorts, "Sounds like you really won the lottery with that one. Good catch there, buddy. She's a keeper."
Lockett looks over to Caboose and gently nudges him.
"You following this man?" asks Lockett.
"Church is a gay robot?" asks Caboose.
"I'm a what?!" Church asks in disbelief, he even leans his ear towards Caboose as if not believing what he had just heard.
"No Caboose," Lockett quickly jumps in and gently pulls Caboose aside, "Tex is still a girl."
"Oh," whispers a confused Caboose, he then asks "Is she still a robot?"
Lockett shakes his head "No, she's just mean," he then adds "And she's basically listening to an evil robot that is making her meaner."
"She also was turned from mean to even more mean by an evil company," Fergo adds.
"Like Walmart?" asks Caboose.
"Yeah, actually exactly like Walmart," Lockett answers.
"Oh," Caboose nods as he, he then frowns and asks "If she has always been mean, why do you want to rescue her Church?"
"Huh?"
Church was completely blindsided by that question.
"Actually yeah," Fergo nods in agreement, "You make it sound like you guys are terrible for each other, it even sounds like you guys had a rather nasty break up to go along with it."
"It wasn't that bad," Church tried to protest.
Fergo cuts him off and says "Church, it's not hard to spot a toxic relationship and from the body language you're giving off as well as what you've told us of Tex….." she deadpans and says "You two would be a good textbook example for a psychology class."
"..." Church chokes down a retort and instead asks "Are you going to help me or not?" He turns to Lockett and even asks "Didn't you say no one gets left behind?"
Everyone stops and looks over to Lockett, they all have an expectant look on their faces.
Lockett sighs and mutters to himself "He really pulled that card on me."
After that major reveal, all that followed was an uncomfortable silence which permeated throughout Red Base. Of all the things Grif could try to do, he decides to go with arguably the worst one and tries to make small talk with the captured Freelancer.
"So…." Grif drolls out, "You're a girl, huh? "
Tex shot him a blank stare which basically said 'What do you think?'
"Just ignore him, that's what I do," Simmons tells her apologetically.
"Not so tough now that we unloaded your weapon, are ya?" Grif taunts.
Tex snorts and confidently fires back "Hey, punk, I don't need a weapon to kill you."
"Yeah, right. What're you gonna do? Punch me?" grif taunts back.
Tex cheekily smirks and shrugs before staking one step closer to the orange soldier.
Grif immediately jumps back and whimpers "Ahh! Not in the face!"
"Well don't worry because I have a great plan for how we're gonna rescue Tex," Church reassures.
"Well, doesn't that just inspire confidence in me," Fergo comments sarcastically.
Church massages his temple before saying "Look, I just need you guys to run a distraction, while I spring Tex."
"Distraction?" Caboose nervously stammers, "Heh. That sounds a lot like "decoy.""
Instead of outright shooting it down, like most people would, Lockett decided to at least hear him out.
"What do you have in mind?" he asks.
Apparently everyone else didn't like the idea of being decoys, so they all looked at Lockett with a good amount of shock on their faces.
"The way I see it, the Reds have absolutely no idea how many Freelancers we have out here. So all I need from the two of you is to run around in the middle of the canyon, wearing black armor, while I sneak in the back of the base," Church quickly explains.
"Wait, where are we gonna get the black armor from?" asks Tucker.
Church, instead of replying, just turns and looks at something at the base. Everyone follows his gaze and sees that he was looking at the teleporter.
Tucker's face drops and he silently curses "...Oh fuckberries..."
Lockett raises his hand and says "Just one problem."
"Yeah?" Church responds.
"I only got partially covered when I exited the teleporter, what are you going to have me do, run in and out multiple times until I'm completely covered?" asks Lockett.
"Bow chicka bow wow," murmurs Tucker.
Lockett smiles and nods to him, commenting "Good one."
Church lets out a groan and rolls his eyes.
"It doesn't have to look perfect," Church replies, "It just has to look convincing from a distance."
Lockett looks over to everyone else and he sees no one is objecting, and that was all the confirmation he needed.
He turns to Church and asks "When are we gonna do this?"
Sometime later, the team had gathered outside of the teleporter. Well, all of them except for one. Soon Tucker comes running out of the exit with his armor completely colored black. He looks around and sees that the rest of them were mostly covered in the same black stuff.
"You alright?" asks Church.
"Yeah, I'm fine," he breathes.
Tucker then gets on the radio and says "Alright, Caboose you're turn."
"Does it hurt?" Caboose asks.
"Just come on, you'll be fine," Tucker reassured.
"Okay! Here I come!" Caboose announces, he then runs through the entrance.
"Does it actually hurt?" Church curiously asks.
"Oh yeah," Tucker chuckles while everyone else nods in agreement.
"Owwwchie," Caboose cries as he exits the teleporter with his armor now completely covered in black sut. With a betrayed look, he turns to Tucker and growls "You lied to me."
"Actually he didn't," Fergo tells him, "He just told you to go in. Besides, you'd think Lockett would let us do anything like that if he wasn't positive we would be fine?"
"Oh, alright," Caboose smiles as he perks up from Fergo's comments.
"Hey Sergeant," Church calls out to Lockett, who was perched at the top of the hill surveying Red Base with his binoculars. He then says, louder "Sergeant Lockett!"
Lockett turns back to Church.
"We're up," Church announces.
Lockett turns back and takes quick accountability of everyone there to confirm that they were indeed all there.
He then says "Alright," he turns to Church, "Alright, we're oscar-mike, I'll call you once we reach position."
Everyone starts walking towards the assembly spot for their mission.
"Alright, good luck," Church replies, "And Lockett," Church calls out.
Lockett listens.
"Be careful, I don't know what we're heading into," he replies.
Lockett nods and then follows the group out.
Sarge scowls as he keenly watches the canyon.
"Ah, dammit," Sarge curses, "Lopez, c'mere."
The brown armored soldier came strolling up to him and took the binoculars from him and looked through them.
"Do you see something out there?" asks Sarge.
Lopez lowers the binoculars and nods. Meanwhile, Rowe had eventually met up with Grif and Simmons in the base.
"There's no L in it, it's pronounced "both"," Simmons corrects.
"That's what I'm saying. Bolth," Grif replies.
Growing more annoyed, Simmons snaps "Both."
"You sound like such an ass the way you say it," Grif snaps back.
"Rowe, what do you think?" asks Simmons.
"I think you both sound stupid," Rowe retorts. She pauses then quickly adds "That being said, Simmons is saying it correctly."
"Ha, in your face!" Simmons brags while Grif grumbles to himself.
"Grif! Quit your yammering and get your keister up here. Need some help. Got more of them Special Ops fellas headed toward the base," Sarge barks.
"You better get going," Rowe sighs.
"Wait, shouldn't we all go up top?" he asks.
"Better not, someone still needs to watch the prisoner," Rowe tells him, "Hey, if you do need help though, just give me a call and I'll make my way up."
Grif nods and then runs out of the room.
So there they sat, Blue Team in their freshly colored armor huddled behind some rocks as they awaited word from their ghostly teammate. As they waited, their group engaged in some small talk.
"So, you are a chef?" asks Fergo.
"Yep, I swear, some of the scariest people I have ever seen showed up in that course," he murmurs.
"What do you mean?" asks Tucker.
"During my training," he explains, "We were cooking meat, and they had this huge rack of prime rib. I am talking about some high quality cuts."
"I could go for some prime rib right now," Lockett chuckles dreamily.
"I wish I could, but with our current stuff I think the best I can do is meat loaf," Caboose replies apologetically.
"Ooo, I like meatloaf," Lockett comments cheerfully.
"I'll see what I can do," Caboose smiles, "Anyway, I saw this one guy had this 42 gallon drum full of water, and to my horror, this guy just then proceeded to drop all the prime rib into the drums and began to boil the things until they were brown."
Everyone was deeply upset upon hearing this.
"I've never seen anything so disgusting," Caboose sadly sighs, "They ruined all that good meat."
Lockett sympathetically patts Caboose's shoulder. Suddenly, the radio sparks to life and Church's voice rings out.
"Hey, Lockett!" Church calls out. "Sergeant, can you hear me?"
Lockett grabs his radio and replies "Read you loud and clear Church."
"It's working," Church reports, "The orange one is coming out of the base. I repeat, the orange one is coming out of the base."
"Roger that," Lockett replies. He turns quickly to the others and announces "Guys, we're up/" He then gets back on the radio and says "What do you need us to do?"
"Okay, now just keep moving around outside of the base, and draw their attention," Church replies.
"Alright," Lockett peaks out and sees a rock sees another boulder group, a little under 100 yards from their current spot, he points to it and says "See that rock, we're gonna bound there."
"Okay?" questions a nervous Tucker, "What if they shoot at us?"
"Don't stop, keep running to the rocks, you'll be sitting ducks if you stop," Lockett sternly replies. "When you reach the rocks, then you can shoot back, the rest of us will provide covering fire as you move, everyone got it?"
They all nodded and Lockett asks "Alright, any volunteers for who is going first?"
"I'll go first," Fergo volunteers.
Lockett peaks at the roof where the reds were watching.
"Fergo go!" he barks.
"Bounding!" she screams and then sprints straight for the rock cluster.
"There's one Sarge!" Grif shouts and points at the running soldier.
Sarge steps forward and looks through his binoculars.
"Set!" Fergo cries back.
"Caboose go!"
"Bounding!" he nervously cries and then sprints to Fergo.
Tucker and Lockett stare wide-eyed as Caboose quickly covers the distance.
"Set!" he cries.
"Damn he moves fast," Tucker breathes.
"Ready?" asks Lockett.
Tucker nods.
"Tucker go!" cries Lockett.
"Bounding!"
"Shit, there's another one!" Grif cries in surprise. "Damn, it's an entire team!"
"What else do you see?" asks Sarge.
"Well, there's this one guy," he then dons a puzzled look as the black armored soldier had stopped in front of the rock, he asks "...Why's he just standing there?"
"Caboose, get behind the rock. They can still see you," cries Fergo.
"They can't see me. I can't see them!" Caboose confidently counters.
Tucker by now has just arrived and he says "That's cause you're facing the rock."
Caboose's head snaps to the observing Reds and he cries "Oh. Right!" before running behind cover.
Tucker mutters to himself "Real smooth, dipshit." and shakes his head before turning back to Lockett and screaming "Set!"
"Bounding!" Lockett cries.
Tucker wearily eyes the base as Lockett moves.
When Lockett reaches them, he then smiles and jokes "Daddies here."
Tucker just stares at him deadpanned while Fergo rolls her eyes and Caboose nods enthusiastically.
Lockett radios Church and says "Church, we're up!"
"They're definitely Special Ops," growls Sarge as he lowers his binoculars, he then says "I ain't seen troop movements this coordinated since my days on Sidew-Wa-kika-herger!"
Sarge starts to spaz out a little as Church possesses him.
Grif, filled with concern, asks "Sergeant, are you okay?"
Church/Sarge blinks in confusion, turns to Grif and asks "Uh, who you talking to, Red? Me?"
Grif pauses for a moment before sarcastically firing back "No. I'm talking to Lopez," he turns to the brown soldier and says snidely "Because, you know, that's really rewarding."
Lopez lunges at Grif and takes a swing making Grif jump back.
"Hey, what'd I tell you about that?" Grif cries angrily.
"Oh, uh I-I'm fine, that's..." Church/Sarge stammars, "I'm just so mad about these uh, god damn Blues out here. They got me so god damn mad, I could spit!"
He then proceeds to do just that and hocks up one and spits it onto his visor.
Grif cringe and asks "...Um, sergeant? Did you just spit inside your own helmet?"
Church peers at his visor and says "Uh, yeah. I guess I did."
Grif deadpans and asks "Permission to speak freely, sergeant?"
"Go ahead," grunts Church/Sarge.
"That's really fucking gross," Grif blanches.
"Hey sergeant?" asks Fergo.
"Yes, specialist?" responds Lockett, looking up from his thoughts.
"How long have we been here?" she asks.
"We've been here…." Lockett looks at the clock on his HUD and answers "15 minutes?"
"Did Church by any chance, tell you what we should do after he went in?" she asks.
"No, standby for now," Lockett replies, "There's only two there and they aren't shooting yet."
"Shouldn't we strike while we have the element of surprise?" she asks.
Lockett shakes his head, "No," he says, "Church is still in there, he said he'd give us a signal once he's clear."
"And if he doesn't?" she asks. "I don't want to doubt Church, but do you really think he knows what he's doing?"
Lockett thought long and hard about this before he decided to answer. He opens his mouth, and then pauses to think some more.
"Well, we'll have to deal with it when it comes to that," he replies honestly. "Just be ready to move."
"You know," Caboose comments, "I'm having a really good time….with you guys."
While Tucker grimaces, and Lockett blinks in confusion, Fergo leans over and gives him a comforting pat on the shoulder.
"That's nice Caboose," Fergo tells him, "Just quiet down for now alright?"
Fergo suddenly came running up the steps to Grif.
"Grif!" she cries.
"Good you're here," Grif turns and hands her the binoculars. He points to where the Blues were taking cover and he says "See them?"
Rowe takes the binoculars and scans the area Grif pointed at. Sure enough, she spots a figure in black armor peek out from behind the rock. The head glances around for a second before locking eyes with her. She knew the figure was staring right at her as the figure leaned forward as if to focus in on her. The figure then points at her and two other figures in black armor peak around the rocks. Rowe slowly lowers the binoculars, never taking her eyes off of them.
"I count four of them behind those rocks," Grif tells her.
"What have they done so far?" asks Rowe.
"Nothing yet," replies Grif, "They've just been hiding behind the rocks and peaking at us every now and then."
Rowe frowns and starts growing concerned.
Grif notices this and asks "What's wrong?"
Rowe glances warily over to the cliffs.
"We know where they are," says Grif, "And they aren't moving, that's a good thing right?"
"It's not the ones we can see that I am worried about," Rowe murmurs while still scanning the area. "I'm worried about the ones we can't."
Grif blinks in confusion, he then asks "What do you mean?"
Rowe looks over to him, she then jerks her head towards the rocks and states "They aren't moving." She then explains "We know exactly where they are, and they definitely know that we know."
"So?" asks Grif.
"So," she turns to face Grif, "It's the ones you don't see that you need to worry about."
Grif's head tilts slightly and he says "I'm not following."
"You don't know how many there are right?" asks Rowe. "What makes you think the ones behind the rock are the only ones the Blues have?"
"Are they flanking us?" Grif suddenly asks as he begins to rapidly scan the area.
"Calm down," Rowe waves him back, "They haven't shot at us yet."
"What does that mean?" asks Grif.
"They're probably still trying to get into position," Rowe muses, she then quickly adds "Also I don't think they're special ops."
"Really?" blinks Grif, he then squints at the guys hiding behind the rock.
"They would've started shooting long before we spotted them," Rowe comments.
"So, who are they then?" ask Grif. "Either way, they must be here for the prisoner, what do we do?"
"Well, normally, to counter a flanking maneuver, we would provide covering fire while another group repositions, but we can't exactly leave out base right now," Rowe murmurs, she spots a box sitting not far from them, she turns to Lopez and says "Lopez, give me that box for grenades over there." She turns to Grif and says "Grif, grab your rifle."
"Uh, kay…." he murmurs, "He picks up an MA5B rifle and loads a magazine into it."
Grif watches as Rowe picks up a grenade, pulls the pin and lobs it at the rock where the Blues were hiding.
"You see, they had the element of surprise which they gave away right away," Rowe explains, "My guess is they might be just here to distract us."
She reaches into the crate and pulls out one of the grenades.
"So…." she turns to Lopez and Grif, "Let's flush 'em out."
Author's Note: Hey guys, that is it. Sorry I was out for so long, I got stuck in a hospital for about two weeks, and two weeks before that, I was activated by the army for training. To tell you guys the truth, I'm actually looking into writing an actual novel. I am trying to sign up for a proper class on how to write professionally and the ins and outs of the business. I'm telling you this because that means my updates may be even slower.
Anyway, if anyone thinks Caboose is talking way too intelligently, he kinda is. I always figured he was definitely more knowledgeable in certain areas, he just says a lot of dumb things. I think it is also important to note that He hasn't had brain damage yet from when the Church possesses him.
I hope you guys enjoyed reading this story, if you have any suggestions please let me know by leaving a review. As always, Big Brother is watching.
