Season 12
Rogers was out with Grif, Simmons and Caboose. Grif was on the radio while Simmons tried to unlock the door. Grif was yelling at one of his recruits, Bitters. He hated that he was called gold team. "Grif get over here. Now!" Rogers barked. Grif sighed and came over towards the door.
"I can't believe you're bitching about colors, I mean Rogers doesn't care." Simmons said.
"First, his armor is fire-red, second Fire team is an awesome name." Grif said. Rogers shook his head and ready for when the door open. The first second the door opened Caboose ran in screaming and firing his gun at nothing.
"So I talk on the radio and its jeopardizing the mission, but that happens and everything is fine?" Rogers smirked as he ready for the second door. As it opened he ran through and took cover and radio into his squad.
"Ellis the snipers in position?"
"Roger that captain Rogers I mean-."
"Remember, pick your targets carefully. Aim for people on turrets, soldiers with heavy weapons or drivers. Rogers out." Rogers then followed Grif and Simmons down the hall. As they got closer to the objective Simmons quickly radio in.
"Alright is everyone ready?" He heard everyone place their answers, Simmons got choked up with talking to a squad mate. It was funny, that Kimball would put Simmons in charge of a squad of all girls. He shook it off and got ready as Grif counted down.
"3...2...1...go!" Grif yelled. They came around the corner but it seem the enemy knew they were coming. "Everyman for themselves!" Rogers fired his rifle at a man on the turret. When he got onto the battlefield it was a cluster fuck. Everyone was either running, screaming or on fire. Rogers could see his snipers falling of the ridge. Just as things seemed they couldn't get any worse the siren went off and Kimball came down. Everyone froze, and Rogers held his breath.
"What the hell was that!" she yelled. "What is the point of these training exercises if you people aren't going to work together?!"
"But we did!" Simmons said all offended.
"You had a plan, you were organized but once again you crumbled under the pressure. Lieutenants debrief with your CO. Everyone else roundup training weapons and uniforms." she began to walk away.
"And what are we supposed to say to them, 'hey sorry you still suck'." Grif said.
"Tell them what they need to hear." She walked away. When Rogers turned around they saw each of their lieutenants.
"You wanted see us sirs?" Ellis said.
"Follow me Ellis." When the two were, far enough Rogers gave him hell. "What the hell Ellis. How do you guys even fall of the ridge. I did not even see any of you guys take out a single sim-Fed."
"I'm sorry sir. The turre-"
"Don't sorry sir me. I specially told you to pick your targets and who were on the hit list?"
"Turrets, heavy armor and-"
"Turrets! I said turrets. Dismissed." The young trooper walked away in shame as Rogers went back to the Reds and Blue.
"I think you're a little to hard him." Simmons said.
"This is war Simmons. If we want our friends back, I need to be hard on him, Rogers then walked away past Grif who was telling the story of how they took down the Meta. The recruits were eating out of his hand. This was the usually thing for him, he would tell stories so the troopers would worship him or give him bites of their meals. Once he was finished the troopers were awe struck. It didn't last though, Kimball called them to her office over the P.A. He got and to her office, when he got there he found Tucker. Caboose was excited to see him but Tucker shoved him away.
"So how was the mission?" Rogers asked.
"It fell apart in away. How's patrol?"
"No Feds have stumbled to the mouth of the cave yet. Just cat wasps and what ever animal wants scraps."
"Wait what do you mean it fell 'apart in away'? What happened." Simmons asked.
"Oh I'll tell you what happened." Felix said entering the room. "Captain Tucker here disobeyed orders and took it on himself to recover a hard drive full of Federal Army secrets. Which cost him two of his men." Tucker looked down in shame. "That's a pretty damn trade I say so myself." Tucker seemed surprised at this but it did not daze Rogers. Felix was in it for the money, he'd joined the Fed's if they'd offer a penny more but since Locus was working for them he joined up with the rebels. Kimball came down and began to talk Rogers barely listened but six words picked his ears up.
"I know where your friends are." Rogers began to get excited but quickly calmed down. "From the looks of it they've been moved around a bit."
"Finally we can rescue Sarge!"
"Don't celebrate just yet. As I said they've been moved around fairly regularly and that isn't going to stop. Right now they're held up at a compound just north of in a week they'll be sent to the capital."
"So let's just run and gun." Rogers said.
"The compound she's talking about is twice the size Tucker and I just raided, breaking in is just suicide breaking someone is the equivalent of suicide and dying puppies."
"Always sunshine and puppy dogs with you." Rogers said sarcastically.
"Kimball will you please talk sense into them."
"When I first heard about you five, I envision strong, daring soldiers."
"And?" Rogers said waiting for the punchline.
"And now that I've come to know you I've found that you're something else. It turns out you're a bunch-"
"Cowards?"
"Losers?"
"Jackass?" Rogers added.
"Misfits. You're oddballs and you don't fit in. That's why my men look up to you and why moral is at an all time high." The caused Rogers to feel a bit better. He was the most normal out of the group but in general he was an odd ball too. "We're an army of underdogs and outcast, but right now I cannot authorize a rescue mission on a large scale. Funny enough you're all great fighters when you're together but individually you're not fit enough to lead others but I'm going to give you five days. Five days to assemble a small team with the best of each of your platoons and if you can convince me that you're ready by the end of those five days, then you will have my support."
"Five days!" Tucker said.
"You got to give us at least a week." Rogers said.
"No, you have five days and not an hour more." Rogers nodded and the group left outside.
"Five days, my naps take longer god damnit." Rogers watched Felix approached.
"Take my advice gentlemen. Live to fight another day."
"No. I'm going to help our friends." Rogers said.
"Hey what with the gun?" Tucker asked.
"This is a plasma rifle, it's my cut."
"You get paid in guns?"
"You thinks these guys have any money? They paid me with old alien tech. This is the only reason this shit hole was colonized. It had a bunch of alien ruins. Too bad the UNSC abandoned the place. But hey their loss is my gain."
"Hey why not just use this stuff?" Rogers asked.
"They don't work. But once I get out of here I'm selling this stuff to the highest bidder. Now for business. I can help you for a one time fee. Maybe an alien energy sword?"
"I don't think so." Tucker scoffed. "You could help us for free."
"Yeah. Let me think about that. Yeah no. I want a TV the size of a billboard."
"Come on." Rogers begged. "It's the right thing to do."
"If I remembered correctly none of you wanted a part of this. But now they have your friends. Everyone has their price." Felix left and the group dispersed. Rogers called his squad front and center, after a minute his squad was lined up.
"Alright, I am going on a mission and I will pick the best of my squad to assist me. Now all of you are good soldiers, but I can only bring one of you." Everyone was silent and Rogers went up to Ellis. "You are the best shot so I will allow you to join my task force." Ellis saluted his commanding officer. "Now follow me soilder." The two went towards the podium where everyone else had chosen their companies. Rogers got on top the podium and Simmons began to talk.
"Thank you for joining us here today. Now why don't we just go down the line and introduce ourselves." The first one up was a man from Caboose's team.
"Names Smith and I believe that Caboose is the wisest individuals I've ever met." Rogers looked at him, I guess he hasn't met too many people. That all Rogers could think about.
"Really?" Rogers asked. "Is there another Caboose in your squad?"
"Um no sir."
"Moving on." Tucker said.
"Hello, I'm Katie Jensen." She continued talking until she began to gag. Rogers was ready to go save her but she got back on her feet. "Sorry choked on my own spit."
"Eww!" Everyone said.
"I'm Bitters."
"Private Palomo, slayer of women, woer of evil. Wait I got that-" Ellis cut him off.
"James Ellis. Best damn shot in the army."
"Yay I'd like to see th-" Before Grif could finish Ellis had shot a single sniper round that hit a rock that almost bashed Grif in the head. "
"You guys bring the groupies, I bring the rock star." Simmons didn't even care what Roger said and he went back to talking.
"Alright as you all are aware, we're here for the sole purpose of rescuing the remaining survivors from a UNSC ship wreck. We all know them as Donut, Wash and Sarge." Rogers looked down as he remembered a name that was unfairly taken off the list.
"We got five days to train you guys. So we're starting right now. Any questions?"
"Who is in charge?" Smith asked.
"I am." All of the Reds and Blues said in unison.
"Well I'm obviously the one who should be leading us." Simmons said in a smug tone. "I'm the most logical of the group."
"You can't function if there's a girl around." Rogers said. "I'm the one who should be leading. I'm great under pressure and don't feed on the praise of others."
"Nah, I should be the leader. I love the praise and pampering of others and I don't want to lose it." Grif said.
"I known, raise your hand if you were a leader before joining this army." Caboose said.
"That was a fluke." Simmons said.
"If you want experience, I actually been going on missions."
"Excuse me sirs? We can always vote." The Reds and Blues looked at each other. It wasn't the worst plan they had. Everyone got off the stage except Simmons. Rogers watched closely at what his opponent had to say
"My fellow soldiers if you elect me for leader, you won't just be voting a kind and intelligent leader you'll be voting for victory.I've seen countless battle and skirmishes and concluded where the enemy will step next before he even knew. A vote of Dick Simmons is a vote for America."
"But we're not in America."
"And DnD doesn't count." Rogers yelled.
"Fuck!" Simmons yelled. Rogers went next. He cracked his knuckles and neck before he spoke.
"I have seen real military battles and unlike my friends except Tucker I have been in the field. Thank you."
"You only guard the entrance!" Grif yelled. Rogers sighed as he let Caboose have turn.
"I will put kool-aid in all the water fountains, we won't have to wear uniforms any more and Principal Kimball will allow us double recess."
"Caboose you're not running for class president." Rogers went over to Simmons.
"If this was kindergarten he would have my vote." Rogers mocked.
"No don't you see."
"Oh god this guy again." Grif sighed.
"We won't need uniforms anymore, because the war will be over. Kimball will send us into the world and we'll never need to raise a gun again."
"It sound good when you say it like that." Rogers said.
"What about the kool-aid thing?" Simmons asked.
"Ya that sound awesome." Grif was next, he cleared his throat.
"Dibs!"
"Wait what?" Rogers said.
"I call dibs."
"You can't do that!" exclaimed Tucker.
"You sure?"
"Grif!" the group yelled.
"Alright."
"You're up Tucker. Literally break a leg."
"Thanks." Tucker went to the stage and it fell silent. "Um, hi. Names Tucker. I'm a lover not a fighter and-"
"Please god tell me that you guys haven't been standing around talking all morning." Felix said.
"All right, look. You want the truth? I don't want to be your leader, being the leader sucks it's hard work and you have to put up with people you hate." Everyone turned their eyes to Palomo. "But I want to get my friends back and seeing that's our mission I will deal with whatever bullshit there is to get them if I was holding a mike this is where I'd drop it."
"I vote for Tucker." Jensen said. Rogers nodded at Ellis, and he raised his hand.
"I vote for Tucker." Ellis said.
"Agreed." Bitters said.
"Yeah!" Smith said.
"Me five?"
"Congrats Tucker, I have no doubt that you are the right choice." Rogers said. Tucker was an alright soldier but Rogers was willing to trust him with his life.
"Yeah I got some confetti for you." Felix said in a ultra sarcastic tone. "So training or just dicking around?"
"Alright I got an idea." Tucker said. "Jensen I want you add cameras to our suits."
"Alright!" For the next hour the group had camera attached to each other suits.
"What's the point of this again?" Bitters asked.
"This is going to help you be betters em Simmons." Tucker answer.
"Jensen and I have installed capture software into all of our helmets. Allowing us to transmit what we see on the battlefield to a local server."
"Do they only record on the battlefield or all the time." Palomo asked in a worried tone.
"All the time. Duh!"
"I don't know how I feel about that."
"Just take off your helmet in 'personal time'." Rogers said.
"Not like that. What happens if it catches me doing embarrassing." He actually had faith in this, when Grif,Caboose and Ellis came back he was ready.
"Sir I know we can't use real guns but I am terrible with the prop guns." Ellis whinned.
"Just shut and listen to Tucker." Ellis saluted and fell quiet.
"Okay, so our mission today will be to disarm and apprehend an enemy soldier."
"One guy *Pfft* easy enough."
"Wait for the twist."
"The soldier is Felix." Everyone gasped. "If we can take out the best fighter in the New Republic I'd say we stand a pretty good chance against the Feds." Felix went to talk to Tucker.
"Alright, this isn't going to easy Ellis but I fought the Meta and I say we stand a pretty good chance espacial with a grade A sniper."
Five hours later
Rogers laid bloody and bruised in a room waiting to review the tapes. They began to play on the big Tv. He was fixated on himself and Ellis. It began with the group about to ambush Felix, they arguing about a flash band and freaked out when Smith said that he gave his flash bang to Caboose.
"We'll try this, we'll train so laps now." They began to jog around the base. Caboose was in front with Rogers behind him. After a hour Rogers and Ellis tried the snipers approach. He was on an overlook with Ellis. Ellis aimed careful and fired but Felix activated his light shield and the prop bullet hit Rogers in the face. They tried over and over, failure after failure, day after day. But they kept going try after try not giving up hope. After a few more attempts he found himself watching the footage, Tucker left, Rogers guessed he was going to either take Felix one on one or something else. Rogers was worried about the something else part. But he just went to the mess hall and grabbed some lunch, as much as he wanted to help Tucker he knew he couldn't.
"Hey Simmons."
"Rogers, I saw the sniper thing, it was pretty good id-"
"MEN GET OVER HERE NOW!" Grif yelled.
"Got to go." Simmons said. Rogers finished and went to see what the commotion was about. When he got there, he found Grif crying and Bitters vomiting his guts out.
"Simmons dare I ask."
"Grif is turning into Sarge, Bitters ate a snack cake that was ten years old and that was also Grif's."
"Wait!? Grif has had a food item for ten years and hasn't eaten it!?" This was the most surprising thing to happen to him. Grif kept freaking out and Rogers stayed around the guys to help Grif calm down. After a few minutes Tucker came by.
"Meet me by the bunks?"
"Why?" Simmons asked.
"We're leaving. Now meet me by the bunks." Tucker looked over his shoulder then ran off. The guys looked at each other and then they ran towards the bunks. Even Grif was making some good ground, when they got there Simmons was the first to ask questions.
"What do you mean by 'leaving'."
"We're going to break into that compound and bust out our friends."
"But we still have some time left." Rogers said. "And everyone is improving."
"Don't you get it Rogers the squad is not coming with us."
"Why would we do that?" Grif asked.
"I don't know if you notice but our 'super team' sucks."
"I don't know, everyone is pretty good except Bitters."
"I would argue with you Rogers but you are kind of right."
"look Felix is right, we're just going to get more people killed."
"And just get ourselves killed. That sound nice." Grif said sarcastically.
"We fought like a bajillion robots."
"We had Church."
"What about CT or the Meta?"
"We got lucky."
"Bullshit." Rogers said.
"Look we may not be able to teach people how to fight, but the five of us can totally pull this off. We're not going to get another chance like this, we just got to go in and get everyone back. After that Wash will know what to do." Rogers was sold, Tucker was right about this. The five of them could pull this off if given the chance.
"Even Felix couldn't break into this place?" Rogers didn't care about what Felix can and can't do.
"We're not Felix. He's smart, the Fed's won't expect dumb. We keep trying to strategize and use code names and act like real soldiers but the truth is we're not real soldiers. So I just say we go in and do what we do best!"
"Which is?"
"To fuck shit up." Rogers said loading his SMG.
"That's your plan. We just wing it?" Simmons said an annoyed voice.
"Well let's go." Grif said.
"Really Grif? This is the worse plan we have ever had." Simmons said waving his hands. Rogers didn't care, the best victories he ever had was won by winging it. "So how are we getting there then?"
"Alright! I snuck into Kimball's office and took all over the data I took from the Fed's lab. So now we got a map that will lead us straight to them. All we need is a ride."
"We can borrow a warthog. They got a slightly busted passenger one."
"Nah they got a lot of them." Grif said. "It won't kill em if they're missing two."
"Alright that just leaves the Rebels. I don't think they'd be happy if we just left all the sudden." Tucker was silent for a minute, he looked at the recorder.
"Alright Rogers, Grif. You get the food and warthogs we'll meet up with you." Grif and Rogers packed food and stole two warthog, they waited around the front of the cave, Simmons and Caboose went to Grif's warthog while Tucker got shotgun with him. After ten minutes Rogers hooked his helmet to the stereo and began to play his 'Awesome' playlist of punk rock and western. After awhile the jungle turned to sand and the sand to stone. Rogers looked down at his fuel gauge and found it nearly empty.
"Alright there should be a refuel station in two minutes." After two minutes Tucker was right, they parked the car near the pumps. Rogers found Grif and Simmons playing best worst super power.
"Alright how abo-"
"About a superhero powers is he can vomit on command and it's toxic."
"I think Grif already has that superpower." Simmons laughed. Rogers laughed with him for a sec before he began to walk around, he found nothing that would indicate any recent activity. "The place looks abandoned."
"Whoo let's loot." Rogers shrugged as he joined the looting train.
"Looting, looting!" The two sang in unison.
"Make sure you get me some magazines." Tucker said.
"Me too." Suddenly there was a loud thud.
"What was that?" asked Simmons.
"Maybe it's the owners."
"I was just joking about the looting." Rogers chuckled.
"Hey Caboose tell em they got customers."
"Ok." Caboose said running off. Rogers and Grif went inside, while Simmons began to refuel the car. While inside Rogers got a plastic bag and began to get his groceries. He grabbed water, beef jerky, sodas and candies, which were mostly runts. When he was finished he went to the front and grabbed a couple magazines. He waited for a minutes until Grif ran out.
"We got to go, don't bother paying."
"Why?"
"The owners are dead." Rogers let out a faint gasp before running out and putting the bags in front. He watched Tucker wander off so he, Grif and Simmons followed him quietly. Once they caught up to Caboose, Rogers went over to a crate and watched a group of odd looking soldier, there armor was black as night. He couldn't hear them but one voice stood out, it was locus. The soldiers talked amongst them before walked away without ever known someone was watching from the shadows.
"I can tell you they were Feds." Roger heard Tucker say. "I heard one of them mention Locus."
"They didn't look like the typical soldiers." Rogers pointed out. "They're probably specialists or an assassin squad."
"What ever they were I think we need to get to the base. Now." said Tucker. Rogers went back towards the warthog and left r. "Hey word of advice, your taste of music sucks." said Tucker. Rogers rolled his eyes at Tucker comment.
"So how long till we reach the base?"
"A good five hours. So I'd rest up." Rogers took Tucker advice, It wasn't long till the heat from the sun was replaced by the cold of the wind. This woke Rogers up pretty fast and made him very nervous as he looked and saw the jungle, the desert and even a battle which looked like a hundred miles away. "Don't like heights?"
"Don't like cliffs." Rogers said holding on his seat with dear life, after another half hour the group found a place to park the warthogs. He jumped out and jumped around to warm up. He then went to a small crevice, and squeezed through until they came across a large wall. "So how do we go around it?"
"Not a clue, anyone have any ideas?" Caboose raised his hand but the group ignored him.
"We can try scaling the wall." Simmons suggested.
"Too obvious."
"Alright Caboose." Tucker sighed.
"We melt our way in."
"Holy shit that might work!"
"Really?"
"Ya we'll just go under the wall."
"How?" Grif asked. Tucker pulled out his sword and stabbed it in the ground. The heat from the sword created a hole and the group fell nearly ten feet.
"I think I broke my ass bone." Rogers whinned.
"Hey what was that noise?" A voice said in the distance.
"Crap!"
"Let's just get out of here."
"There could be more guards."
"I got an idea! Just bare with me." Grif said making a snowman around everyone. This is impossible, Rogers thought. No way anyone would buy this.
"Huh just a couple of harmless snowmen. You guys wouldn't know who was making that racket would you?" The Federal soldier asked. Rogers couldn't believe he thought snowmen could talk. "Well time for target practice." *swoosh*. "Why snowman why?" Rogers got out and buried the soldier in snow. He then shook off the remanding snow.
"Alright are intel says that there nothing between this tunnel and the detention facility."
"Awesome." Rogers said.
"No not awesome." Simmons went to the edge of the tunnel and all there was open space."Well be spotted as soon as we leave the tunnel."
"Come on look li-" There suddenly a loud horn came booming around the entire valley and Federal soldiers came out of other buildings. "How are we going to sneak past that?" Rogers asked.
"We're not." Tucker said standing up. Tucker went back to the cave. He stopped and then turned around. "Alright we can't sneak past those guys, so instead we're going to make a lot of noise instead."
"Alright so do we just bang pots and pans or blow something up."
"Nope. We're going to fuck up this pipes." Tucker then slashed the pipe and murky water came gushing out. They rushed to the front of the tunnel and waited.
"Alert catastrophic damage to sewer pipeline in sector three. Warning sewage detected in bartacks." All the soldier began to ran away and the Reds and Blues took their chance. After a minute of running they made it to the detention center doors.
"Open the door Simmons." Rogers said.
"What do you mean?"
"You're the smart one. You're good at hacking."
"No well um. I don't work so well under pressure." Then suddenly without warning opened. Rogers ready his gun, but he saw next he never thought would happen ever again. A icy blue women stood at the ready with her rifle.
"Vulcan?"
"Rogers?" He went up to and grabbed her. He grabbed her and they spun and took off their helmets, they locked lips and kissed passionately for a minute.
"I thought you were dead." he said with tears in his eyes.
"No Locus shot me with some paralytic. I couldn't move but I still could hear."
"So what happened?" Rogers asked.
"I can fill you in on that." Wash said stepping up.
Several weeks earlier
Vulcan laid on the hard ground, she watched as Federal soldier picked her up and dragged her away. She slowly regained the ability to move her arms and legs after a few days. A female doctor took off armor but she grabbed her by the collar. One of the nurse tried to sedate her but it didn't work. They put a straight jacket, she tried to resist but it was futile. "I will kill all of you. You took Rogers away from me. You hear me." After another few days in solitary confinement Vulcan escorts where she met up with Wash and the others.
"Why is she in a straight jacket." Washington asked.
"She attempted to kill, main and even bit off fingers of a nurse."
"It still hurts you bitch." A nurse said. Vulcan growled at the nurse and he backed away.
"Take off the jacket." Wash said. The nurse carefully took off the jacket, and ran away screaming.
"What's happening?" Vulcan asked.
"Well just give me a minute." Wash quickly explained what was going on. Vulcan was still angry, she quickly took back what the Feds stole from her, first was her tomahawk, her gun a the emerald ring.
"This is really messed up." Vulcan said rubbing her shoulder. "Can you take me to see the guys?" Wash nodded. For the next few neeks Vulcan trained trained and kept to the Reds and Blues or what was left of them.
Now
"So that's the story." Wash said. Vulcan quickly fell to her knees.
"Oh god it was horribly. I had to have a court date therapist. I had to talk about my feeling and my parents."she cried.
"So the Feds aren't evil?" Rogers said.
"No just scared."
"Still this isn't adding up. It also seems...familiar."
"Familiar? How so."
"Two armys who think the other one is evil and 'mercenaries' coming to save the day." Rogers shuttered at the thought of another Red vs Blue scenario. "Oh yeah I'm a captain."
"Oh. Wait do you hear that?"
"No why?"
"There were alarms." Simmons said. Rogers listen closely and didn't anything, not even soldiers. The group went outside and found it dead, literally. It seems a battle passed through.
"What-"
"The-"
"Hell?" Rogers looked around and found nothing but ash. He sifted through it and found a wedding ring and hand that was just bone which got him freaked out so much he threw it.
"Did someone napalm the area." said Rogers. Wash went ahead and called out. Rogers got up and followed him. "IS anyone there?" Vulcan heard static, she looked around and saw it was coming from the jeep no more than twenty thirty feet away.
"Enemy contact! Fall back- Ahhh." The radio went silent, Vulcan ready her gun and kept looking. For anything, a shimmer of light or a glare. She went farther up the valley and saw Sarge talking to a soldier, when suddenly he was hit by a flash of light and turned to dust. She stood there with her jaw wide open. There was screaming, horrible screaming of pain, then it stopped. Vulcan slowly regrouped with everyone. As she got closer she saw someone shot a sticky detonator to the jeep.
"Run. Bomb." She yelled. She tackled Sarge out of the way and just in time. The jeep blew up in a fireball.
"Little lady, you just saved my ass and I thank you for it." She helped him up but she saw shimmers of light and then she saw a little red dot on her body.
"Fuck." Just as things couldn't get worse Locus decloaked.
"Like sheep to the pen. Ready for the slaughter." Rage took a hold of Rogers. He aimed his gun for the center of the green X on Locus helmet. "I advise you stand down, child." Locus then showed his cards to the table. The people from the gas station decloaked aiming their guns at his forehead. Vulcan looked and saw there had to been a dozen of these special units, she could take out one or two before she was shot and turned to dust. Rogers lowered his gun.
"Well this it. Didn't think I die by firing squad." Rogers looked down and saw Tucker readying a grenade to throw, Wash noticed so he try to kept Locus busy. But Locus was feed up because he drew his rifle and fired, Felix jumped out of nowhere and activated his light shield.
"Tucker grenade." Tucker quickly threw it to Felix who caught it. When it seemed that Felix would throw it he just began to laugh instead.
"That was close. Nice throw Tucker." laughed Felix. In a single action Rogers realized what was going on. Felix was playing the rebels just as Locus was playing the Feds. They kept each other informed, so they could drag out the conflict. He felt sick to his stomach at what atrocities Felix had committed.
"So this just chess to you huh. I'm guessing Kimball's the king but you're the queen. The one piece that doesn't seem important, but is really the most crucial." Rogers said with anger.
"Ah Rogers you got me. This is a game to me." Felix laughed evilly. "But I'm not the king nor queen and Kimball well, she's more of a pawn if you catch my drift. Some wants this planet and the only problem is the people. If I was in charge of this clusterfuck I'd just nuke it, but our employer has other an entire planet dies over night people ask questions but if you find that the settlers killed each other, it's just tragic."
"You started this war." Tucker yelled.
"No no. These people hated each other already. We just gave the final 'push'." Rogers just couldn't stop thinking how Felix and Locus used these people. Just like Project Freelance did so many years ago,he dislike Felix, but he never thought he was a monster.
"You'll pay for this." yelled Vulcan.
"Oh, I already have." He laughed as he pulled out alien tech. "Tell you this though, you guys helped alot in fueling the fires of war."
"Enough!" Locus yelled. "There will be no rescue for you. All of you will die today with the rest, no one will find your bodies, no one will know the truth and no one is going to stop me from killing all you and everyone on this planet ."
"Alright." A familiar voice said. "That's all I need to hear." the mercenary pulled the pin on a grenade, then dropped it. Rogers and the reds looked at each other and nodded. Rogers fired a couple shots and killed a mecr that was aiming for Carolina. Once she reached the ground her armor turned back to the aqua blue. Suddenly it went to hell, Carolina began to fight with Felix while the Red's and Blue's fought with the mercs. Vulcan cracked her knuckles as she punched Felix who was busy with Carolina. Vulcan took this and puched Felix in the head.
"Bitch." he yelled as he pulled a knife. Vulcan dodged and quickly pulled out her tomahawk. She slashed Felix's hand. "Fuck!" he yelled backing away.
"I got this." Carolina said. Vulcan nodded her head and returned to the Red's and Blue, she looked at Tucker who a merc was about to shoot.
"Duck." she yelled towards Tucker. He did so and she threw her tomahawk hitting the Mercenary in the visser. She kept fighting until Carlina got knocked back, in the confusion she saw Doc Grey cowering. Vulcan grabbed her and went towards the Reds and Blues and next thing she knew Carolina pulled a future cube and in a flash of light Vulcan fell from five feet. She fell and hit the ground, once she got back on her feet she felt sick to her stomach.
"Is everyon-" Vulcan interrupted Wash by taking off her helmet and throwing up all over the ground and on everyone's feet.
"Sorry." Vulcan said in a sickly tone.
"Oh god." Grif said. "I think the future cube loosened up my armor. I can feel it seep in." Vulcan could hear Carolina laughed.
"This in not funny Caroline."
"I never thought I'd be so glad to see you idiots again."
"Miss me assholes?" Church said popping up.
"No." Vulcan smirked as she went back to vomiting. "Oh god I feel like i'm 21 again."
"You guys go I need to take a looked at Vulcan." Grey said. Vulcan then left with .
Meanwhile Rogers was cleaning his armor with the guys. "Dude what's wrong with your gal?" Grif said empting his leg.
"I don't know maybe your stupid cubes made her sick."
"Hey don't bad mouth the cubes."
"He right thought." Grey said. "The stress of the past few weeks have been high and the travel didn't help."
"Grey gave me some meds." She said with an uneasy laugh. "I think I can smell colors, which is cool."
"Now excuse me I got to help your friend with the nasty knife wound." The group followed Grey as she patched up Carolina.
"So if have a sec I want to know what's going on?" Vulcan said to Carolina.
"Ya, we've been tricked, backstabbed and the worst possible thing...Bamboozled!" Sarge said.
"Yeah and when that happens you Freelancer had your hands in the pocket of it." Rogers said.
"Project Freelancer is dead." Carolina said in defense.
"Colorful space Marines stop corruption. That was the news article Locus showed Doyle. I thought the title was meant to describe appearances."
"Yeah Caboose set fire to their offices. Three times." Vulcan said.
"Well I wanted hobo popcorn!" Caboose said crossing his arms.
"Enough!" Everyone fell silent. "Project freelancer isn't behind this. This is someone else."
"Right." Vulcan said rolling her eyes.
"Look after we crashed, Carolina picked up a transmission that a couple of assholes were selling cloaking equipment. We couldn't let that happen so we left."
"And what figured we'd be fine! I had to fight cat wasps just to take a shower for the first week of being there. "
"Cat what." Church said.
"Fugiens mortem. A type of wasp native to Chorus."
"Flying death?" Church sai.
"Yeah early settlers said they strip the flesh off ya but they are near extinct."
"Alright enough. There was no way to know what this would of happened. Right now we need to focus on the bigger issue." Wash said trying to calm everyone down.
"We started investigating and didn't take long to realize that something was wrong with this planet. Abandoned cities, soldiers everywhere. We kept to the shadows and gather as much as we intel we could and what we found was worse than I anticipated."
"How so?" Wash asked.
"These space pirate have managed to acquire Freelancer equipment and manufacturing more and more advanced versions of it."
"How advanced?" Rogers asked raising his hand.
"One's that don't require AI." Uncomfortable ideas raced through Vulcan's mind. A group of genocidal maniacs are wielding tools that made it a bitch to take down the worse freelancer.
"I thought the UNSC confiscated everything." Simmons said.
"Not everything." Rogers said looking out at the jungle. "Somewhere on the god forsaken rock is a ship full of Freelancer tech. Or I guess that there was a ship full of it."
"Gold star to Rogers. Simmons I would've expected more from you." Church said.
"Wait that would me-" Rogers was cut of.
"Someone wanted our ship to crash."
"So that would mean none of us are responsible for our ship crashing."
"Why?"
"NO REASON!" the group said in unison. Church popped up again.
"You guys are missing the point. Someone managed to make sure Freelancer equipment end up here. These guys aren't some asshole mercenaries." Vulcan couldn't help but look at Carolina. "They're organized and they managed to work their way into our own forces."
"So don't trust anyone?" Tucker said.
"Bingo." Church said.
"One more thing, have we forgotten about the two armies ready to blow each other brains out? We got to tell em they're being used!"
"That's not going to be easy." Carolina said uneasy.
"You got those teleporter cubes, let's just zap back to the New Republic and the Federal army."
"We only got a few of those left, they're real tricky to use and put enormous strain on the body. Just look at what happened to Vulcan. She was puking like a girl on prom after the punch bowl got spiked."
"Not to mention these 'pirates' monitor all radio transmissions. We did try to contact you guys but it got jammed."
"Just think what they'll do if you try to run and tell Kimball, they probably at their sides now or even better their cloaked friends.."
"We need more intel, we just need the upper hand before we can even think about taking these guys on, and if my intel is correct we don't have much time."
"What makes you say that?" Sarge asked.
"We've managed to eavesdrop on a few conversations here and they got plans and protocols for just about everything."
"Which means that 13 people know the truth." Church said popping in front of everyone's visser. "Until those 13 people are hunted down, they can only do one thing...finish what they started." Vulcan felt bad at the thought of hundreds of innocent people being kill. "Now you guys get some rest." The group the dispersed, and Vulcan and Rogers met up.
"So Vulcan do you still have your ring?" Vulcan pulled out a ring from her pocket. Rogers was happy. "So do you want to get married now? It's going to be a long time until we can leave." Vulcan nodded.
"Hey Sarge can you come over here?" she yelled.
"So what do you need?"
"This is going to be a little awkward but are you ordain." Rogers asked nervously.
"Sorry, licence expired a few years ago."
"But I'm ordained!" Grey said in her cheery voice. "You'd be surprised on how many people ask me to marry them on their deathbed. It get's real silent on the 'death till we part' bit. I mean it gets real silent, uncomfortable. Any way do you have the vows." The two put on their rings.
"Yes." the two said in unison.
"Emma, most people say it's love at first sight but that wrong. Love is slow. As I got to know you I came to realize I love you."
"Dan, when I kissed you on the beach I was scared. But I don't regret it, I want to spend the rest of my life with you."
"I Pronounced you husband and wife." The two took off their helmets and kissed passionately. "Almost forgot, sorry what's your last name?"
"Rogers."
"You are now Mr & Ms Rogers." Rogers looked over and saw Sarge crying.
"I just love weddings." Sarge sniffed.
"NO!" Grif yelled in the distance. Rogers shook his head as he and his new wife went to see the commotion. When he got there he saw Carolina trying to steal Grif's new gun.
"Come on I just want to look at it." Church said.
"That what the UNSC said about the Grifshot."
"Huh?"
"Oh right, I can't believe you cried when they didn't give it back." said Rogers.
"Hey it had sentimental value." Rogers and Vulcan looked at each other, they began to leave but don't Donut stopped em.
"Hey is that ring." Donut said in a girlish voice.
"Yeah we just got married." Vulcan said.
"Aw, I wanted be the flower girl." Donut said pouting.
"Wait you got married, I guess the ground is going to be shaking now tonight. Bow chica bow bow." Vulcan punched Tucker in the gut, then walked off. They were about to have a few romanic minutes until Grif started to scream again.
"Can't everything stay calm for five minutes." Rogers sighed. He went and saw Grif stole the laser gun back.
"Hey Donut, Donut?"
"Oh now you're talking to me."
"Ok you're pissed that I didn't have you at the wedding which was five minutes ago and technically we eloped."
"Was anyone else there?"
"*sigh* Sarge."
"What, we are no longer friends." Simmons came up and spoke.
"First congrats, second Grif stole back the rifle. He overpow- well overpowered would suggest strength. He sat on her."
"Excuse me, where did you get that gun?" Grey said walking up.
"I got after Carolina dropped it at the snow bank."
"The pirates been manufacturing these along with armor enhancements."
"So you're sure it's man made?" Grey ask walking up to Grif and gentle taking the gun.
"Yeah why?" Church asked.
"It isn't using human technology. It just fired some kind of modified plasma energy."
"It does kind of looks like the reddington two 82 project." Vulcan said.
"Ah, but it was never fully finished, due to the fact no natural resources could handle the amount of energy plasma bolts put out, except-."
"Alien tech."
"Precisely, I've seem this kind of energy at archeological dig sites."
"Wait you're ordained, a surgeon and an archaeologist?" Rogers asked.
"What can I say. A prodige needs a hobby."
"Hey didn't Felix say he was paid in alien tech?"
"He was carrying an old plasma rifle." Simmons said. Rogers did remember Felix talking about how the New Republic paid him in alien tech.
"Locus had a similar argument with the Federal army. They figured that trading useless antics for military experience was a good deal."
"So the Mercs stock up alien tech and hand it over for reverse engineering." Carolina said.
"Giving them a new kind of weapon."
"Do you have anything else like this?" Grey said handing back the rifle to Grif.
"What about the future cubs." Grif said snuggling his gun.
"The teleporter grenades." Rogers said.
"Right, I got a couple of here." Carolina then walked into the base. Everyone followed her, she pulled them out of the drawer and sat them down.
"They kind of look like the laser gun." Grif said holding the laser gun up next to a cube.
"That's your deductive reasoning! They're orange and glowing that doesn't mean they're related."
"There is some resemblance." Grif said all butt hurt.
"Right like the resemblance between me and fire." Rogers said.
"Hey Grif do you ever get your sister confused with mustard, because they're both yellow and cheap." Church said. Rogers began to laugh, but Vulcan hit him in the arm to shut up.
"Hey." Rogers said rubbing his arm.
"Grif is right, they both seem to utilize. Some degree of reverse enginering." Carolina said picking up the cube. "But had did you know what the teleporter cubes would look like?"
"Cause we had them in the canyon."
"You did?"
"We found them in an attempt to destroy the blues."
"Wait what!?" Wash yelled.
"Blues robot! Blues robot is what I meant. Yes."
"So how did you figure out to use them. We could only transport Junk."
"[And Doc.]" Lopez added.
"Crap." Vulcan said. Now she remembered who they forgot.
"[Well Doc kind of counts as junk.]"
"[Touche.]"
"Listen. If the same people making weapons had cargo on our ship, then we might be able to find out who they are." Church said.
"A manifest?"
"You got it Caroline." Rogers said.
"Don't call me that, one person is bad enough."
"A transport ship that size would need to keep track of its cargo."
"So we just need to find the manifest for the teleportation grenades."
"You really think a bunch of bad guys are really going to worry about paperwork?"
"Project Freelancer did." Wash said.
"Besides you got any other ideas?"
"*Sigh* No."
"Alright then, half of us will travel back to the canyon and crash site bravo for the manifest."
"Why the split?" Carolina turned to Simmons.
"Because rest of us need to search the other half of the ship. At crash site alpha." Vulcan sighed at the thought of the teleporter cubes. She got prepped, she sharpened his blade and loaded her battle rifle and grabbed a backpack. Once she was done she went with Blue team while Rogers went to red team. Grey voice her concerns of Carolina and Vulcan traveling via teleportation grenades. With a flash of light Vulcan fell on the ground in a sandy desert, She took off her helmet and vomited, she quickly stopped once Tucker and everyone else found them. She got up and looked at a tower which shot a light into the sky.
Meanwhile Rogers wandered around the old base picking MREs and whatever else looked important. There wasn't much, but Rogers did find a lot his and Vulcan's stuff. He went back into Red base and grabbed a few more things.
Back with the blues. Vulcan finally stopped vomiting and quietly followed the group. Tucker was bitching on and on about the cool gear the pirates didn't let it bother her. They had to face impossible odds, but they managed through. "Over here." Carolina yelled. Vulcan rushed over and found it was a working terminal. The ship gave her the creeps, it kinda reminded her of a horror movie,, soon a chainsaw wielding burned face Irish midget was going to attempted to kill them.
"Crap I got four hostiles that popped up on radar."
"How far?"
"Not very."
"I'll go try to find a choke point." Vulcan then went down the hall and hid behind some cover. She spotted her first enemy and fired away but they kept coming, she rushed back just in time. Tucker had pulled the flash drive and Carolina threw down a teleporter cube. She didn't feel as sick.
"You fucking jackass!" Church yelled.
"Church, he did the right thing. If he had done it a second later we'd all be dead and who could stop a civil war." Vulcan said getting up from the ground
"We almost had it! We only need a few more seconds."
"A few more seconds and Rogers would be a widower." Out of nowhere the Reds came back with Sarge holding a data pad.
"One manifest ready to go." Sarge said.
"At least the Reds managed to bring something back and all we-." Church stopped midsentence and looked towards Caboose. Vulcan saw a shimmer of light and knew that they must of accidently brought back one of the pirates. "Caboose." Church yelled as Caboose was taken at knife point. Carolina acted quickly disarming the mercenary but her injury caused her to fall down and couldn't get up. Grey rushed over and helped her.
"You, Vulcan help her inside I got some fungus stew." Vulcan nodded and carried Carolina inside. "Now I got some words for you. If you don't stop putting stress on your leg you will die from A blood loss or B get shot." Grey kept going on and on, after ten minutes of lettuce and another ten of cleaning the wound Carolina was back on her feet. Vulcan grabbed a bowl of fungus soup and spat it out. "You need to eat it, it will help with your vomiting and other things."
"Wait what is this other thing. Am I, no. Please tell me I'm not pregnant." Vulcan said in a worry tone.
"What no, you have low white blood cells."
Meanwhile Rogers was watching the prisoner, he had just regained conciseness. "Come on, if you let me go. I can make sure you get off this planet alive." The Pirate said.
"Sorry, dude but you tried to kill Caboose." After a couple of minutes Carolina came by.
"Leave." she said with her voice a flame. Rogers rushed out, he could hear her scream and cursing. Not to mention things shattering, at first he thought the guy was talking but when he heard a few words he was at loss of words.
"Why won't he talk!"
"Wait Carolina can't make a guy talk!" Rogers said in shock. He didn't pay much attention to what anyone else was saying. Carolina came back and Rogers stepped back.
"I don't get it he's not giving up!"
"Maybe if he listen to Rogers playlist he'd talk." Tucker said.
"This isn' the time for jokes." Church said.
"I'm not joking his playlist is 's a mix of punk and western."
"Really?" Carolina said.
"It's not that bad." Rogers said in defense
"Wait?" Grey said popping out of nowhere. "Did you say the prisoner is awake?"
"For now. But I got a bet riding on Carolina ripping out his spine in the next hour."
"Twenty bucks says he gets ripped in half. Long way." Rogers said..
"Gross. Deal." Grif said shaking Rogers hand.
"If you don't mind do you think I can have a few minutes alone with him."
"What'cha ya going to do. Give him a band aid."
"Well if you recall he and his partners turn everyone of my friends to dust. Anyone sick enough to do that would ne a 'checkup'."
"It's always the creepy happy ones that are the psychopaths." Rogers whispered to Simmons.
"I doubt- *screaming*." the group went to check it out and found it was coming from the building the pirate was held at. "Sarge I'm scared." Rogers heard Simmons say to Sarge. He even heard Carolina gulp nervously. When Grey came out she was covered in so much blood if it wasn't for the helmet you could have mistaken her for Sarge, she also had a detached arm under her shoulder.
"AH!" everyone said stepping back.
"His name is Zachary Miller, he's ex-military and he was ever so kind enough to hand over coordinates to a nearby radio jammer. Oh almost forgot I need to reattach this." she when back inside and the freelancers followed her.
"Well that was intense." Vulcan said in shock.
"Yeah." Tucker said. "I think I need to go cry." *boom*
"Sniper!" Carolina yelled. Vulcan ran to cover. She lined up a shot and took one of the snipers out.
"V," Tucker yelled. "Get to the lab."
"On it." she yelled back. Vulcan got up from her cover and rushed over towards the labs, she ducked behind cover and was ready to fire her gun but there was a flash of light and they were in a desert. Instead of throwing up Vulcan fainted, Rogers ran over towards her but Grey helped her up. Suddenly everyone was vomiting.
"I told you the the teleporter cubes would put strain on the body." Grey said vomiting. Vulcan began to lay down. She felt light headed, and she couldn't concentrate. Rogers gave her some water and gave her some food. She got up when she heard Tucker complain about Church. She got up and spoke.
"Church has always been an asshole. And to be fair you were a huge asshole to me once. You didn't think I could be a soldier, and it didn't help I was the cook. You used to hit on me all the time."
"Ya but he doesn't even care about us." Tucker said.
"Not fully true. He stopped that mercenary from gutting Caboose." Sarge said.
"Well he abandoned us!" Tucker yelled even louder.
"We did it too." Rogers said.
"Huh?"
"The rebels."
"Ya but-"
"And I do think stopping the sell of illegal military equipment is import." Caboose went over and made a motivational speech, it was short but Tucker got the point. Vulcan was impressed and wanted to see how it would turn out. She followed Tucker and watched as Tucker 'pour' his heart out, well for a girl it wasn't much but a guy it was ten years worth of emotion.
"Seriously? That it?" Carolina said.
"Carolina that was like a lifetime of emotions for these guys." Vulcan said.
"But, that was-."
"Let it go."
"At least tell me this. Are they good."
"Meh," Vulcan shrugged. "Good as in Tucker broke Church's his tail light and replaced it then no, more like he broke his tail light and fixed it with duct tape."
"I guess that's good."
"Yeah." Vulcan watched as they talked but static came over her helmet. "Damn that hurt."
"Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. This is your captain speaking and boy have I got some news for you." Felix said.
"Hey asshole we're not interested in what you're selling." Tucker said.
"PIss off." Vulcan said.
"Oh but this is a one time deal, you've all been upgraded to first class on a one way flight off of Chorus!" Vulcan was tempted by the offer, she just wanted to go home but she wouldn't have a clean conscious if they up and left. Locus came on the air, and the sweetness of the deal became sour.
"It's time you people understood the futility of your situation. We know where you're hiding, we know you are in possession of a single teleportation grenade and we know that you hold the coordinates to a particularly valuable radio is why my partner and I are contacting you from its location." Vulcan couldn't listen to anymore of it, she turned off her radio, and sat and thought about her options. Option A was take the deal and leave thousands to brutally slaughter each other for lies or B save the world and possible die along the rest of her friends. She then heard something in the distance and saw it was a small ship, she knew that they were showing some of their cards but she didn't fully believe.
"What do we do?" Vulcan asked Everyone was silent until Church popped up.
"The way I see it is we got three options. We can jump to a place where we can lay low for a while, then gather enough intel to bring control to justice. I don't need to tell what the obvious con is. Next it if Locus and Felix are telling the truth, we get on the ship then go and never speak about this. And last but not least we teleport to the radio jammer and if we can take out their defenses and shutdown the machine and if we're not too late we can send a message to the capital."
"And that one is the hardest to pull off." Tucker said.
"Right. Carolina leg it still garbage and the fact these guys have Freelancer equipment and advanced weaponry."
"Some of us won't make it back." Carolina sid.
"But we can say everyone at the capital."
"Yeah, if we make it back in time. Then you just need to convince two armies that a bunch of 'dead people' are alive and telling the truth." Wash stepped up.
"There is a fourth option. Carolina and I go on the run with Epsilon and do our best to bring down control, the rest of you can go home."
"That's not a bad idea." Vulcan was still tore. She couldn't just pack up and leave, she'd owed the people of Chorus that much. Tucker was the first one to step up.
"No, we'll stay and help."
"You can count on all of us." Sarge said.
"Hey Caboose can I see your gun and Freckles." Simmons said.
"Ok, just be careful." Simmons then put Freckles chip into Caboose's gun, once he was done Carolina teleported just outside the base. She changed colors and went ahead, Tucker and Caboose placed Caboose's gun in a cave while the rest of them sat and wait. Rogers heard Felix yelling for them to come out but they held their ground. A pirate came by and everyone tackled him.
"Go for the jugular." Grey yelled. Sarge punched the man in the balls. "The jugular." Sarge punched again. "Punch him in the goddamn throat." Grey yelled. Vulcan took her try as she punched the man in the throat.
"Another one down." Vulcan reported over the radio.
"[Got one]." Lopez said.
"Alright that's it. We only have Felix and Locus."
"Hoora!" Sarge yelled. "Let's get position." Everyone met up and took aim at Felix when Tucker was distracting him but he saw through the plow. He fired a detonator and activated it.
"Shit." Rogers said as he was sent flying. He tried to get up but blast landed on his arm. Vulcan tried to help him. "God damn." He said ask Grey popping his arm back.. "You think he bought it."
"Hell ya." Vulcan said throwing him a laser rifle. He got up and regroup.
"Alright boys. Bring it down." Everyone began to fire away and soon the tower over loaded. The speech that Felix had just said was playing over their radio. They won the battle but we just need to win the war. Vulcan looked down at Felix who was holding a pistol to Tucker's head. She aimed her new toy at Felix face.
"Just try me." He pulled his light shield and Locus decloaked.
"Let me assure you all that this is not over." In a flash of light the two mercs were gone. Grey ran down and helped Tucker. Vulcan helped as much as she could and Rogers helped him in the pelican that arrived ten minutes later. They were all then transported back to the New republic's headquarters. Rogers began to show Vulcan around the base, after a while he caught up with Ellis.
"Sir, glad to see that you're alright." Ellis said with a sulite.
"Thanks Ellis."Rogers said with joy. Vulcan knew the battle was over and a war was coming, now with a new army they were ready. When the two got a call from Church telling them to come over they rushed right away.
"So what did you find?" Vulcan asked.
"I found out that Felix employers are Charon Industry." Vulcan blood turned cooled, her father hated Charon. He said that they were evil and did a lot illegal experiments, but she thought he was just paranoid or had a personal grudge. Now she knows he was right. Church just had sent a call to Charon. "Colorful space Marines stop corruption." said Church. "You know I really love the picture they used for that article. But I like the description a lot more" Vulcan looked and saw her she and Rogers were at separated end. Rogers crossed his arms while Vulcan was laughing.
"Not my best picture." she said under her breath.
"We were hoping to read you a letter." Wash asked.
"Take it away Church."
"Dear Chairman, it has come to our attention that you have declared war on the planet Chorus. We regret to inform you that this is a really shitty idea. Not only have you managed to annoy the people you failed to kill time and time again. You also found a way to annoy an entire planet. Now we may not have the best equipment or the best fighters. But as you're aware they've been fighting for a very long time and now that they're not fighting each other they're more than happy to dedicate all of their time to fighting you. So dear Chairman, to you and your idiotic mercenaries we would like to say...Bring it on Motherfuckers. From the Reds and Blues of Project Freelancer." Vulcan and everyone raised their hands and showed their middle fingers