10 Months and 3 weeks after the event at Chorus and Caboose's departure to Melromarc
After the war for Chorus, the Reds and Blues of Blood Gulch and their Freelancer friends decided it was time to take a break from their adventures and live their life to the end in peace and silence; however, that wouldn't happen, it is who they are and what they do that disrupts their peaceful lives.
Before they left Chorus, Santa had asked the them for a favor, which they hesitated to ponder before Caboose stood up for the favor. Saying their farewells, they wished for his safety, and returned with nothing but a smile on his face. No goodbye was said for they thought the worst may happen if they did.
After his departure, the remaining members continued to help rebuild Chorus from the ground up before they left the world Iris, to live the rest of their lives in tranquillity. From time to time, they'll receive updates of Caboose from Santa. Their lives were nice at first in their planet of retirement, which was ruined with each stupidity they came across or did in the plant. From having a war between robots and dinosaurs, fighting gravity, building the galaxy's biggest waterpark, and burning their own bases. Life was still the same for them even after the experience in Chorus.
Before long two news reporters, Dylan Andrew and 'Jax (Jack) Jones', came along to bring them the news of the imposters known as the Blues and Reds, which is revealed at a later time, of their attacks on UNSC facilities and bases around the solar system. Moments after the news, they set out as fast as they could on their new journey, meeting a few obstacles along the way. Physically and emotionally.
With a severely injured Washington, they pushed to finish the battle, which they came out victoriously. Having brought down Loco's time machine before it ripped the planet apart; however, electricity shot out, hitting everyone but Dylan and Jax. Though they didn't pay much attention to it since it was a tiny shock what they felt.
Unfortunately, that was just the beginning of what would turn into a fight for their lives one last time. However, who would be victorious? The splitted up family with their new friends, or the one that started this whole ordeal over 2 centuries ago?
Location on Earth, heading towards their destination
At the moment, the remaining Reds and Blues are heading towards a pizza restaurant to end their hunger. All just relieved that they were able to finish the battle in good time before the situation went south. Grif, and Sarge are in the cockpit navigating the ship towards their destination while Tucker, Donut, Sarge, Doc, Lopez, and Sister are in the back conversing amongst themselves.
"Hey Simmons, I got a question for you and only you. How would you feel if the pelican all of a sudden just crash landed?" Grif asked, having formed a plan to avoid other unwanted adventures.
"Why the hell are you asking me that?" Simmons looked towards the partner with a tone of confusion,
"Just saying, you're the expert in whatever happens around us. So I'm just asking how you would feel if the ship all of a sudden just dropped dead, you know… since you have expertise on almost any subject." Grif stated.
"Well, not fucking dating, dumbass. You think being yourself works all the time? Fuck no, that just a way to get beat up in high school, and being outcasted by literally every social group out there." the maroon soldier replied, turning his attention towards the front windshield of the pelican. "To be totally honest, I wouldn't feel bad. We all have gone through some shit already. If it wasn't for you, I could've died a couple of moments ago fighting Gene. So yeah, I wouldn't feel bad at all."
"Oh...good." Grif said before plunging the pelican towards the ground.
Moments after the pelican crashed
The pelican had crashed onto a forest landscape, a long trail was left as the pelican dragged itself along the ground as it made impact. Destroying trees along the way. Fortunately, none of them were injured, but were making fun of Grif about his horrible piloting. Which he didn't bother retaliating back since it was something he planned about.
"Grif from today on out until the day I finally am able to kill you, you'll be known as the 'Ship Destroyer'. You like that?" Sarge said as Grif stayed there standing unphased by the comment.
"Ummm… That sounds much more of a compliment than an insult, Sarge. Thanks. I guess." Grif said, confused by Sarge's choice of words.
"Well...Savor it before I unload a shotgun shell up your ass! Now let's go eat some pizza, I call dibs on pineapple on pizza~." Sarge said before he started towards the direction of what seemed to be a forest.
"Woah there, how about instead of going through there, you can take the flower plane next to us. It may take longer, but it'll be safer." Grif stated, which the others looked towards their left where a plain full of flowers was out in the open.
"Well, I guess a walk wouldn't hurt before we eat, maybe I'll have more space when I get there. Good thinking private." Sarge said before heading the other way.
"I'll take mine with extra sausage! Nice and thick." Sister said before following behind Sarge, which Donut and Doc left as well.
"Next time we get on a ship, Lopez is driving. You cool with that, Lopez?" Tucker asked towards the Spanish speaking robot.
"¿Por qué siempre tengo que pilotar cuando el anaranjado joder?" (Why do I always have to pilot after the orange one fucks up?) Lopez complained, but no one but Grif, who now pretends he doesn't, speaks Spanish. So no one understood him.
"Good to know that you agreed with Lopez. Come on let's go and get something to eat, I'm hungry as hell." Tucker said, patting the brown robot on the shoulder as he went in the direction the others left.
"Uno de estos días, todos van a ver qué pasa cuando enojan a un robot." (One of these days, everyone's going to see what happens when a robot gets mad.) Lopez stated before leaving the last 2 Reds behind with the crashed ship.
"Well that ends all of that, come on let's go and get our faces stuffed. I wonder if I can get 3 whole pizzas for myself?" Grif said before feeling a hand on his shoulder, keeping him in place. "What's up Simmons?"
"What's up?! WHAT'S UP?! Grif, you literally crashed the ship on purpose. WHY THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!" Simmons exclaimed towards the orange soldier.
"Riight. I should have explained it before I crashed the ship." Grif said before turning to Simmons. "Keep this between you and me, I don't want the others to know about this. Promise?"
"If it makes sense I will, if it doesn't. Your ass getting burnt by the others, overall. Hand to god." Simmons said before crossing his arms, waiting for Grif's explanation.
"I came up with a new system and now that it's in effect, we're never gonna have to do anything ever again." the orange soldier explained, which confused Simmons.
"What is this supposed to be, a new form of laziness that you came up with?" he said dumbfounded by what he heard.
"What's new is the how, see, when I was alone on Iris- and definitely not losing my mind out of boredom. I found a book that Jax left behind. It was all about story structure. You know, like for movies, tv, and whatever. You see, it talks about these things at the beginning of stories. They're called incendiary incidents, it's what makes stories happen." Grif continued, confusing Simmons more. "So I thought, shit, if we can avoid these situations in real life then we never have to do anything ever again."
"Wait wait wait. How the hell would that work in the real world that basically was made for fictional stories?" the maroon questioned, not being able to connect the dots.
"Remember when Jensen said that interesting things were happening on Chorus that could mean some crazy shit with temples or some trouble with the UNSC or who knows what. But it is definitely incendiary, so I deftly changed the subject before we could find out more. Which is also why when Locus's encrypted message about something important, I crashed the pelican before anyone noticed." Grif explained.
"Wait, that's why you crashed the pelican?! Because of an encrypted message? Did you even read what he sent?" Simmons asked.
"Nope, didn't even bother." Grif replied, which got a tired sigh from Simmons.
"So your new science is preemptive laziness?" Simmons asked.
"Yup!" the orange soldier exclaimed.
"That is so fucking stupid, Grif." the maroon soldier said before sniffing a bit. "I'm so proud of you."
"So just curious though, in that book you read, what exactly happens after a call for adventure. You know in case it happens." Simmons stated, noticing something wasn't right already.
"Uhhh. I don't know, I stopped reading after the important bit." Grif answered.
"Grif, can't you that there's something wrong here." Simmons said, which Grif immediately looked confused at what his partner said.
"Not that I think off. Why ask?" Grif said, receiving a sigh from Simmons.
"It shouldn't have taken long, but there should have been a search party sent to investigate a crashed ship in the middle of the forest. But there hasn't been any sign that there was a search party dispatched towards our location. Don't you think it is a bit strange?" Simmons said, slight panic in his voice.
"Simmons, if something isn't normal to you, you'll always start to panic. Maybe they have a routine for crash landings. It probably could just be looking through the forest to find any signs of a crashed ship." Grif stated before walking away to follow the others. "Besides I'm hungry and if they find us just to take us somewhere, I'll rather do that on a full stomach than an empty one."
"There literal demolished trees every where and a fucking smoking ship right here?! How would they not find that in an instant?!" Simmons exclaimed, following behind his orange partner.
"Maybe they have anosmia and are blind." the orange soldier replied.
They were able to catch up with the others in a small amount of time because they were standing in the middle of the flower filled plane, admiring the view they were lucky enough to see. Above them, The sky was opened with a vast pitch black only being lighted amongst the stars and the moon. No noise could be heard but the sound of the wind brushing past the flowers and the group talking to each other.
"What a lovely view, this is definitely going into my 24-hour playlist of meditative music. I wonder how much space it'll take to make it my background. Hey Donut, let's take a picture together." Doc said, pulling Donut from the others for the picture.
"Hmmm, never thought looking at a view like this would make me forget about my hunger? Must be from the flowers. Or maybe it's our survival instincts to eat these flowers to survive!" Sarge exclaimed before kneeling down before he proceeded to rip the petals from the flowers, and ate them through his helmet. "Ah yes, I could feel the nutrition!"
"You know if you ignore the old man, this could be the perfect place for a date or a picnic with Junior when he was younger." Tucker stated already imagining him playing catch with Junior if he were a toddler.
"Oh that reminds me how the little guy is doing, it has been ages since I saw him? The last I remember, we were all together was in Blood Gulch before all of you were moved out." Sister asked.
"He's doing great, from being an alien in a basketball team for his 5th grade year, to being an alien ambassador for his race. He's doing great for someone that was born from a human, which I still find weird and ask how I'm still alive to have even bare him. He was big compared to a human baby." Tucker stated, remembering the process that took back in Blood Gulch.
"Wow, must be great to have a successful child that you didn't even think you'll have right?" Sister asked.
"I guess, like I said, it's weird. The whole human and alien relationship thing." the aqua soldier said before hearing the sounds of Grif and Simmons.
"Oh hey, what took you guys?" he asked towards them.
"We were discussing about how we are gonna enjoy our meal when we get to Sammie Raphaello's." Grif replied.
"You could have done that as you walked with us." Tucker said.
"Well yeah but I thought having it between me and Simmons would be a better option than have you guys butt in and ruin the plan." Grif replied, which his maroon partner just shook his head to with a sigh.
"How the hell would someone ruin a plan for pizza?" the aqua soldier questioned.
"Those that like to ruin the fun at a party by calling the cops on them." the orange soldier answered.
"Well that makes sense." Tucker said before turning around. "Well I guess that should be enough sight seeing for now. We should get going and eat. We still gotta meet up with Carolina and bring Washington something to eat. That is of course before we find a ship because SOMEONE, not saying who, crashed the ship."
"Yeah yeah, it's not like I'll be piloting another ship anytime soon, so don't make a big deal out of it. Besides our next pilot is Lopez, isn't that right?" Grif said looking towards Lopez, who was analyzing the flowers knelt down.
The spanish robot immediately looked towards the orange soldier before flipping him off with both hands. Before he got up, Lopez ripped a flower with lightish-red petals from the ground, and stored it inside his right arm for later use, believing he'll meet another life form like him later in the future. What he didn't know was that it'll be happening real soon.
After everyone finished doing their little sightseeing, Sarge having eaten 15 different flowers, they all moved out having conversation between themselves as they continued their walk to their destination. 8-11 minutes passed before they noticed buildings ahead, what caught their attention was that smoke was coming from the town, which Grif played off as a town gathering. Everyone agreed with what Grif stated, but Simmons was the only one that kept on growing nervous as they neared the town, which Lopez was able to pick off. Seeing Simmons heart rate spike up, he had his right hand on the magnum on his right thigh, ready for anything.
Just as Simmon had thought, something was off. No noise came from the town when they were a few miles away from the buildings. Objects could be seen destroyed or out of place, the flowers began to look as if burnt. Nothing but the sound of flames and burning wood. Everyone knew what to do next, upholstering their weapons from their backs or thighs, and slowly went between the space of 2 turned destroyed buildings. There was no sign of life forms as they went through the alley.
A brutal sight awaited them when they exited the alleyway, vehicles were flipped over, busted, in pieces, or in flames. Bodies littered the place burnt, sliced, ripped, or squashed. Lopez being able to identify the age of the bodies, he could tell that no one was spared. Not even the children or elderly. No blood could be seen but huge black scorch marks could be seen littered all over the place.
"What the hell happened here?" Tucker was the first to speak as they were all in shock of what they were all witnessing. "Hello! Is anyone there?!"
'I think I'm gonna be sick?' Simmon mentally thought as he wasn't good with gore or anything that distured him to the core.
"Men spread out and search for any survivors. Don't go alone. Take someone with you. Lopez you're with me." Sarge ordered, which Lopez didn't respond but went with Sarge towards the center of town to look for clues.
"Donut come with me, I'll try to see if I can identify the cause for all of this from the corpses." Doc said before he set his plasma pistol to scanning before he moved towards the nearest body, not knowing it was a female teenager. Donut nodded and followed the medic towards the corpse.
"Simmons take Grif with you and try to find survivors if possible so we could get answers to what happened here. If badly injured, take them to Doc as carefully as you can. Turn your radios on, we don't if we'll be attacked all of a sudden as well." Tucker stated before sister and himself moved towards one of the buildings to the left.
With Sarge and Lopez
When they got to the middle of town, they found a huge crater within what would seem to be a meteorite. The meteorite wasn't too far deep into the crater as the crater wasn't too huge as well. Surrounding the area, everything was burnt, showed signs of melting, or vaporized with the amount of ashes littering the place. Lopez began to walk around the crater, scanning the meteorite. Sarge began to look around their area noticing that something was still off.
'The meteorite may have been the thing that destroyed the buildings and set everything on fire, but that doesn't make up for the corpses that were sliced, ripped apart, and squashed. Yes objects have been sent flying, but most of the objects surrounding the crater seem to have been melted or vaporized.' Sarge pondered trying to make sense of the situation.
That was when Sarge looked towards the meteorite and noticed something off. The object seemed to have a rough surface, but no disturbance could be seen on its surface as if something broke off. Then he noticed what he thought looked like wings. Slowly, he made his way toward the meteorite to get a closer look.
As Sarge got close, Lopez had just finished scanning the meteorite, which came to a surprise to him when the results came in. It wasn't a meteorite, nor was it a rock. It was a living thing. A pulse could be seen on his monitor, showing that the organism was dead asleep, as if it didn't hear Tucker shout towards the town. Then he noticed Sarge was approaching the organism not knowing the truth behind it.
"No! Sargento, no te acerques!" (No! Don't get close Sarge!) Lopez shouted towards his Red leader, but it was too late. Sarge didn't understand spanish.
"What?" the Red leader said before having put his hands on the 'markings'.
Without a passing second, the wings slammed against Sarge, sending him flying, which caught everyone's attention, out of the crater landing on the ground a few meters away from it. Lopez quickly went to Sarge's side and helped him get back up. His shotgun was to his right, quickly reacting and grabbed it off the ground. By the time, he got his shotgun everyone gathered together, taking aim at the organism as it began to grow in height.
The organism was pitch black, only the light was able to reveal red like veins beginning to glow, giving off an orange glow for it. From what looked was its torso, 2 scaled arms with 3 fingers came out revealing the rest of its scaled body. Its arms were thin, but grew in thickness as it reached the fingers. Immediately a sword appeared out of existence from his left hand before it was lit in flames from the handle to the blade. Its length was 3.5 meters, width of the blade 4 feet, its grip was 2.5 feet. The torso wasn't covered in scales, but resembles a lot to that of a human torso. Its legs had what looked like hooves towards the ends. Its wings stretched out, covering both Sarge and Lopez in a shadow. The edge of the wings seem to be in tatter. Towards the top of its wings one claw one each side. Revealing its face, two curved horns meeting between the neck, teeth could be seen even with its mouth closed, and eyes glowing a bright red. The creature stood at a 15 foot height, towering over most buildings left up from the massacre that befell on the town. The monster that they were about to fight was a Balrog.
Looking down towards the simulation troopers, it let out a roar if it were called that. What came out of its mouth resembled what a raging fire that was out of control would sound like, as it's back was engulfed in flames, lighting the area up in light and heat. Everyone shielded themselves from the sudden burst of light the Balrog gave off.
Terror was the only feeling everyone felt as the Balrog towered over everyone, ready to slaughter them all, as it did with the population of the town. Slowly everyone backs away, not taking off their eyes from their sights. The creature stood in place, knowing full well that they wouldn't be able to run away, it was what the humans did but was met with a sword impaling them before getting sliced in half.
"Sarge, what fuck is that?" Tucker asked, full adrenaline beginning to take over.
"I don't know, son. But for sure, if we don't find a way to fight back or escape. There's no telling if we'll even find out." Sarge stated.
"Guys I don't even think our weapons will have much effect on it, its back is literally covered in flames. Yes, there's its torso but would they even go through?" Simmons stated, trying his best not to break into a full panic.
"You're not wrong, but maybe plasma can." Sarge quickly stated before he turned towards Doc.
"I could give it a try." Doc said with slight fear in his tone.
Not waiting for another second to pass, the Balrog roared at them before charging with its blade lifted high toward the sky before sending it down towards the simulation troopers. Immediately, they all dived towards a different direction to avoid hitting someone else. The sword struck the ground mere feet away from Sisters and Simmons feet. What followed next was a fight like no other before. A fight that they wish never had to come.
To be continued
