"Donut, throw a grenade!" Wash ordered the pink soldier. Donut nodded and whipped a plasma grenade over at the combining robotic Freelancers.
The plasma grenade hit against the light shield and slid to the ground. It exploded within seconds, causing the light shield to flicker. The robotic Freelancers sparked and wiggled; being unaffected.
"Shit!" Nevada cursed.
"Men, move back!" Sarge ordered.
"Gladly!" Grif huffed.
Everyone turned and quickly distanced themselves. They ducked behind broken down warthogs and a tank. They reloaded their weapons and watched around the corners as the mesh of robotic parts assembled and grew into one large being.
"This definitely wasn't in Terminator." Grif said.
"An ultimate Freelancer." Michigan gasped, as several floating A.I. images replicating Carolina and Virginia hovered around its head.
"The ultimate fighting machine." Oregon choked.
"We're boned." Tucker said.
"Mecha-Freelancer." Grif gulped.
The Mecha-Freelancer now had several colored plates hanging over a half-robotic face. Long tendrils of coils and wires shot out of its arms, replicating that of octopus arms. The arms flailed in opposite directions and smashed into the pavement, causing the dirt to crack and burst into dust.
The Mecha-Freelancer stepped upward onto two legs that were made of coils and broken metal plates. It loomed upward, almost surpassing the height of the parking garage. Its head twitched and a mouth gaped, causing a series of sparks to rain.
"We need to decorate that thing with bullet holes." Sarge huffed as he stood up.
"Sarge! Bullets aren't going to work!" Wash snapped, grabbing the red soldier by his shoulder and yanking him down behind the warthog.
The Mecha-Freelancer sent out a high pitch frequency, mimicking a terrifying roar that raddled the glass on the buildings. Everyone flinched, hearing a few windows shatter. It suddenly stomped a foot and began to rush at the group.
"¡Correr!/Run!" Lopez screamed and everyone dispersed as the Mecha-Freelancer rushed through the stalled warthogs. The tendrils that replaced its hands dispersed in several directions, attacking the Freelancers.
"No!" Virginia grasped at Nevada's hands as coils wrapped around him. Coils snuck up and wrapped around her waist and neck.
"Fuuuck!" Ten yelled as him and Oregon were wrapped up in the same grouping of coils and lifted up into the air.
Michigan and Wash were dragged by their feet and were forced to be dangled high in the air.
"NO!" Carolina screamed as she saw her colleagues being waved around like dolls. Tucker leaped to his feet and rushed at the legs of the Mecha-Freelancer and swiped.
Lopez, Simmons and O'Malley fired their rocket launchers simultaneously at the back of its legs, watching the metal become brittle and fall forward.
The Mecha-Freelancer let out a hiss, shooting out several sparks as it swung its arms up higher. It suddenly released a current, electrocuting the trapped Freelancers. The Freelancers gritted their teeth in an attempt to refrain from screaming as the current ran through their armor.
They were suddenly released and dropped to the ground.
"No! Wash!" Tucker rushed to the fallen soldier's side.
"Sienna!" Simmons cried out to her, but Grif held him back.
The Mecha-Freelancer ripped out a street light and attached its wires to its own. The wires glowed, showing a frequency running through them.
"What's it doing?" Sarge asked.
"It looks like it's sucking up more power." Simmons explained.
"If it keeps doing that, maybe it will blow up like my blow dryer." Kaikaina stated. Simmons blinked within his helmet and looked over at her.
"Wait, what?"
"Yeah, I plugged in my blow dryer and it fried the circuit. Bro said it was because I left a bunch of other things plugged in, too. My cellphone and personal massager needed to be charged! I didn't know it would do that—," Kai was stopped short when Simmons began to flail.
"Sarge! We could try to overload it!" Simmons explained. Everyone turned to look at the frantic nerd.
"Explain." Carolina asked.
"Placing too much current demand on a circuit will cause it to overload. We may be able to do it to that thing if we give it too much! The more electrical devices plugged into it, the more it will most likely surge!" Simmons explained.
Tucker dragged Wash behind the tank and gave him a shake.
"Uuerrmmm..." Wash moaned as he slowly sat up.
"Take it easy!" Tucker insisted.
"I feel fine." Wash sighed and quickly began to climb to his feet. "We got to get the other Freelancers!" Wash got on the radio.
"Carolina, Tucker and I are going to try and grab the Freelancers. Cover us while we get them back."
"You got it."
Tucker gave a nod and the two rushed out to grab at the fallen soldiers. Ten and Nevada were already climbing to their feet, but Oregon, Michigan and Virginia were not moving.
"Doc, come help!" Wash ordered.
Doc gave a nod and ran over to Virginia, knowing that she'd be the lightest out of all of them. Doc curled his arms underneath Virginia and quickly picked her up.
The Mecha-Freelancer hissed out a series of sparks and dismantled the lamp post and dropped it to the ground. The tendrils began to flail wildly with its new surge of energy and reach towards Doc.
Doc screamed and threw himself down over Virginia, whimpering as he braced for what was going to happen next.
There was an intense clash, and Doc could feel a collection of dirt rain down on him. He opened his eyes and peered up from his visor to see a familiar back standing in front of him.
A series of tendrils had been cut off and collapsed on the ground, lifeless.
"Wha...?" Doc gasped as he lifted Virginia off the ground. "...Locus?"
"Get her out of here?!" Locus barked, causing Doc to flinch. Locus lunged at the Mecha-Freelancer, running and leaping off of a barricade to run his sword into the stomach of the machine.
Doc rushed over to where everybody was hiding. Simmons rushed to his side and slowly removed Virginia from Doc's arms.
"Thank you." Simmons nodded at Doc as he held her close to his chest. Doc gave a nod in return, then turned towards the battle.
"Lopez, let's do this!" Sarge huffed as he looked at his brown comrade. Lopez gave a nod and the both of them snuck up on opposite sites of the Freelancers.
Sarge hooked jumper cables to dangling cables that hung off the body of the Mecha-Freelancer. Lopez connected jumper cables to a piece of dangling metal.
"OKAY, NOW!" Sarge ordered.
The cables ran along the ground to two separate Warthogs; one being occupied by Jensen, and the other being occupied by Grif.
"Roger!" Jensen said and turned on the vehicle. It roared into life.
"Eat a dick!" Grif hollered as he turned the keys and started the Warthog. It roared alongside Jensen's vehicle.
Locus rolled away from the towering Mecha-Freelancer as it began to swing its tendrils wildly. Sparks rained out of its gaping mouth as its head jerked and stuttered.
Smoke slowly rose out of its mouth, empty ports and eyes. Slowly, its body began to collapse to the ground, and with a high pitch screech, it face planted into the cement.
The cement gave way to its face, creating a crater.
Everyone held their breath and waited. After several minutes, the machine never moved. Smoke continued to bellow out of the machine, and then slowly dissipate.
"Suck it, stupid robot!" Simmons shouted out as he rose a middle finger in the air.
The Chorus army erupted into a victorious cheer and fired off a few rounds into the air. Kimball rushed over to the team.
"Good job!" Wash said to Sarge and Lopez.
"It was Simmons' idea." Sarge said as he gave a nod to the maroon soldier.
"Es bueno para algo/He's good for something." Lopez stated.
Doc removed Virginia's helmet and was checking her vitals. Her eyelids slowly fluttered as she regained her consciousness.
Dr. Grey and other medics went to the other Freelancers and helped them to their feet.
"Let's not do that ever again." Ten groaned as he was helped to his feet.
"We're getting too old for this shit." Nevada said as he cracked his back.
"I was not expecting to see you." Wash said as he approached Locus, who was being stared at by Kimball. Locus gave a hesitant nod.
"I heard distress signals... I had to come help."
"You should be in jail!" Kimball hissed as she stepped closer to the towering man. Wash placed a hand on her shoulder. She turned her head to look at Wash, who shook his head at her. "Wash, he—," As she thrusted her finger towards Locus, she suddenly realized that he had vanished. She growled in frustration and rolled her shoulder to push Wash off. She turned to walk back to her celebrating military.
"How do you like me now?" Oregon kicked the lifeless machine.
"Hey, easy killer. It's dead." Ten laughed as he tugged Oregon back.
"It's... over." Michigan sighed with relief.
"No more Project Revive." Virginia said, her arm draped around Simmons neck as he allowed her to use him as a crutch to help walk.
"We're going to have the UNSC help dismantle and destroy this thing." Carolina said as she ripped at the head of the Mecha-Freelancer. "We don't need anymore A.I's or anything crazy happening."
"Especially since we have a wedding to think of!" Donut chirped as he helped Virginia by looping her other arm around his neck.
The UNSC broke down the machine piece by piece and hauled it into a transport. Dr. Raini's body was placed on a stretcher and covered with a white cloth.
"He went crazy." One of the UNSC soldiers said as he shook his head.
"Shame." Another soldier replied.
The Reds, Blues and Freelancers sat nearby, being tended to by the medics and talking with the Lieutenants.
"That was smart thinking." Virginia said as she bumped her shoulder into Simmons. Simmons smiled, blushing.
"Sister gave me the idea." Simmons said as he smiled over at her. Kai flashed a bright smile as she dropped into Tucker's lap.
"It's a shame it was an evil robot. Freckles could use a playmate." Caboose sighed.
"NO!" The group screamed in unison, and then everyone began to laugh nervously.
