What do you expect, a major change from the last disclaimer? Nooope. Same as last time.
Chapter 3: Where is the Store?
"Simmons, get to my position!" A gruff, Southern-accented voice drifted across the ridge, ushered from a large sandstone rock.
"Yes sir." Crunching footsteps followed this responds, as in the shadows a maroon-armored soldier swept across the plain to the talking rock. Behind the rock crouched a man in scarlet armor. He clutched a shotgun in his hands.
"What do you need, sir?" Simmons said.
"Gimme the sniper rifle, Simmons." The crimson armored soldier said.
"Yes sir." Simmons removed the large gun from his back and handed it to the crimson-armored man. Peeking his head and the gun around the corner, the soldier zoomed the scope in on the base across the small hill at the middle of the box canyon they sat in.
Smoke rose from behind an octagonal three-floored base with blue markings on it. The tailfin of a semi-wrecked Pelican jutted out from behind it.
"What do you see, Sarge?" An orange armored soldier said from somewhere nearby. Slowly, the crimson-armored soldier- Sarge- turned towards the orange armored soldier and put the sniper rifle on his back, then withdrew the shotgun.
"What do I see, private?"
"… That's what I said." Orange said again.
"I see the barrel of my shotgun poking into your visor, that's what I see," Sarge stated. With that, the gun barrel poked into Orange's face.
"Whoa, slow down Sarge!" Orange said. Reluctantly, Sarge lowered the gun barrel- and promptly emptied a shell into Orange's lower leg.
"Ow! Son of a bitch!" Orange yelled.
"Shut up, Grif! You're gonna give away our position!" Simmons yelled.
"Like it wasn't already given away?" Said a voice from behind them. A cobalt-armored soldier holding an MA5B assault rifle had jumped down from the ridge. Behind him was a soldier dressed in dark blue and a soldier dressed in aqua.
"Shit." Grif said bluntly.
"Church, what are you doing?" The blue-armored soldier asked the cobalt one, whose name turned out to be Church.
"What does it look like, Caboose? I found these three spying on OUR Pelican that just crashed behind OUR base."
"YOUR Pelican?" Grif yelled. However, he was quickly cut short when Sarge headbutted him. The shock knocked Grif to the ground.
"Well… Yeah, we called dibs, so it's ours." Church stated bluntly. "And if you choose to think differently, well then…" He turned towards the ridge. "I'll let our 'secret weapon' deal with you."
"Secret weapon? You don't remember, do you?" Simmons stated bluntly.
"Remember what?" The aqua armored soldier said. Church turned towards him and planted a palm to his visor before he could say anything else.
"Shut UP, Tucker." Church said with the barest hint of anger in his voice.
"No, seriously. Remember what?" Caboose said.
"CABOOSE, YOU STUPID COCKBITE!" Church yelled. He put up his sniper rifle. Caboose whimpered.
"Remember that your girlfriend's dea-." Grif was cut off as a sniper's bullet drilled into the ground dangerously close to his foot.
"Jesus!" Grif yelled, jumping back behind the rock he was hiding behind. Somewhere in that position, he bowled over a pink-armored soldier.
"Oh, hi Grif. I see you found my hiding spot." The pink one said, struggling to roll out from under Grif.
"Donut… Why are you back there?" Grif said, pushing off of Donut.
"Well, I saw Tex up on the ridge over there, and she had a sniper rifle pointed at you, so I hid back here…" Even through his visor, Donut could tell Grif was shooting mental daggers from his eyes.
"Why-didn't-you-tell-us?" Grif said, his voice barely restraining all the rage he had built up in the last forty-eight hours.
"I thought it would ruin the surprise." Donut said innocently. Grif responded by drawing the Magnum off his thigh and jumping Donut, ramming the gun barrel into his throat.
"All I need to do is pull this trigger, and all my problems are solved-." Grif was cut off by a sudden, stiff grip on his shoulder.
"Let him go, lemon head." A cool, female voice said behind him.
"Okay, okay!" Grif released his grip on the magnum, which dropped to the ground with a muffled thud. Sure enough, the black-armored soldier released her grip on Grif's neck.
"Jesus, Tex. Can you stop sneaking up on us like that? We're not exactly at war any more, anyways." Grif said to the black-armored soldier, Tex.
"It's in my nature. You can't deny nature." Tex stated bluntly, looking over the rock. The sound of a heated argument could be heard on the other side of the rock.
"Huh… Guess I gotta go break 'em up." Tex said, walking out into the middle of the argument. Within seconds, all was quiet again.
Meanwhile…
Spade climbed out of the back of the crashed Pelican. He was holding a BR55 Battle Rifle and a pair of M7/Caseless Submachine Guns were magnetized and sticking to his thighs. He scoped in on center field of Blood Gulch and watched the argument from a distance when a voice ushered from below.
"Hey! Like, who are you?" A yellow-armored soldier from below called up to Spade's position. Almost instantly, Spade recognized the voice.
"Kaikaina? Kaikaina Grif?" Spade called down from his position.
"Yeah… At least that's what it said on my credit card last year before the bank confiscated it. Bastards. Who are you?" The younger girl called up from the ground.
"Y'mean you don't remember your cousin?"
"I have a cousin?"
"You need to lay off the vodka, coz!" Spade called down from his position on top of the Pelican, at the same time moving towards the edge and preparing to jump down.
"Coz? Only one person calls me Coz, and that's- Oh my God, Al? Is that you?" Sister called from the ground as Spade dropped to her level.
"The one and only." Spade said, placing the BR on his back. Just in time, too, because Sister swept him up in a strong bear hug despite a good 9 inches in height difference. Spade was stunned, but returned the hug in kind. The two parted in their embrace, and both removed their helmets. Spade's black hair and gunmetal eyes perfectly contrasted Sister's blonde ponytail and hazel eyes, but their faces retained the same angular, attractive features in several places, although Sister's face was distinctly more rounded whereas Spade's face was more angular.
"It's good to see you outside of the postcards, Coz." Spade said.
"Yeah, you too." Sister smiled. "You want me to go get Dex?"
"Well, I think they're a bit busy right now. There'll be time for a family reunion later, right now I need you to get in the Pelican and wait."
"There's a pelican? Where? Is it perched on the base somewhere?" Sister looked around.
"The ship. Get in the ship. And wait for me to come back." Spade sighed. Sister nodded vigorously and climbed into the ship.
Spade couldn't help but laugh at the situation as he sprinted away into center field.
Meanwhile…
The argument reached fever pitch just as Spade arrived. Tex had drawn a gun on Grif, who was arguing fiercely with Church, who was arguing with Sarge, who was arguing with Simmons, et cetera, et cetera. Spade slipped in when Tex was about to pull the trigger on Grif. With a deft move from his battle rifle, Tex's pistol went flying across the hill.
"What the hell!?" Tex shouted. Spade put his battle rifle away, crossed his arms. Sarge turned towards the new arrival.
"Alright, reinforcements from Command have arrived! Finally!"
"Sergeant, I'm not reinforcements. I'm Sergeant Major Alvin Spade of the United Nations Space Command's SPARTAN-II program." Spade stated bluntly.
"Then you must be reinforcements for the Blues! Team, attack formation!" It was at this point that Donut shot Grif, who went down screaming.
"Damnit. Look. I'm neither Red, nor Blue. I have no idea what you guys are talking about besides the color of your armor. I'm not reinforcements, I've come to bring you both back to battle the Covenant."
"The Covenant?" Grif said, standing on one leg and waiting for his suit to repair the wound.
"Well it ain't Girl Scouts, Dexter." Spade said sarcastically, still waiting for the others to figure things out.
"Wait, Dexter? How the hell do you know my name?" Grif said obliviously.
"It's your cousin, Dexter." Al said nonchalantly, turning back towards the orange soldier. "Now get up off the ground and head to the Pelican behind the blue place." Within seconds, everyone but Caboose had moved.
"Private… Caboose, why haven't you gone to the Pelican yet?"
"My mommy told me not to talk to strangers." Caboose turned away from Spade. Al sighed.
"Private, you live in a canyon with eight people and a hardwired tank named Sheila. What did you do when you first showed up here?"
"… I don't remember."
Al sighed. Looks like this is going to be harder than I thought it would be…