A.I. LOG – REPORT TWO – MASSACHUSETTS

This is Agent Massachusetts recording Freelancer Report One.

Sigma made me do this. She thinks it's important to keep a record of ourselves for some reason; god knows why. I'm only doing this to shut her up; I'll probably never do it again. This'll be filed alongside her A.I. logs, and it'll be forgotten; but whatever. I need to think of something to say.

Oh, wait, I know. I'll talk about the past; everybody likes past. Erm…

I remember when we first started out in the Spartan training facility. The best were picked out for the Freelancer program after a series of gruelling tests; the rest were sent straight into the Covenant war in hopes that something could be done. The governments of the world reckon the Covenant will find Earth soon. Bullshit, in my opinion; we're too well hidden, and anyway, what's on Earth that the Covenant could possibly want? It's not like we have anything that could be used to complete their 'Holy Journey'. Hah! That's a pile of crap too.

Anyway, once I had been picked for the Freelancer program, because I'm awesome like that, we had a big meeting on 'why we were picked'. Well, it's because we kicked ass, and we all knew it, but Command felt the need to reinstate that in more formal terms. They waffled on for two hours, in which I spent most of it looking at the Chairman's bald head thinking 'God, it's bright'.

Well, it was. Seriously, he must polish and wax it every night before he goes to bed.

But anyway, after that we were sent to our rooms. As new Freelancers, we had to share rooms, and at first I was pissed. We were singlehandedly picked out by the government, yet we had to share? Of course, I'm glad now that they did that, because I met someone who would become my best friend over the years.

I met Agent Texas.

At first we didn't speak. It was like a sort of 'you don't bug me, and I don't rip your face off' relationship with her. She was quiet, and sinister looking and she rarely smiled, except when she inflicted pain. She enjoyed hurting others. It was the cruel side of her that drew me to her and made me admire her. I didn't like it at first, and used to snap at her methods, but soon I noticed it; long before anyone else did. She got results.

And by god, they were spectacular results.

Call me arrogant, but I am a badass; you can't deny it. Tex though… hell, she is hardcore. I am nothing compared to Tex, but I can sure put up a fight. So, when we were stuck in the same room together for years on end, only two things could happen. Either the small space we were confined to would not be able to hold the combined power of our superiority, and all hell would break loose, or we would join forces. The latter occurred, and it was fucking magnificent.

Cue a trip down memory lane. We were in the dining room, in our casual clothes, queuing up for the slop that they call food – what a way to feed the government's best – when a new Freelancer started hitting on Tex. Naturally, she said nothing, but gave him a stare that would cause most people to shit one and run for the hills. Of course, as I said before, he was new, and so knew nothing of Tex's fearsome reputation. He carried on, and so I leant across and told him if he wanted to lose his manhood for good, he was well on his way. Tex told me to 'shut up, I can handle myself'. I responded with an obscene gesture, and…

Well, I won't go into details, but put it this way, the canteen got trashed.

Actually, that's boring; I will go into the details.

Tex picked up her food tray, and smashed it over my head, before slamming across my face, sending me sprawling. New Boy tried to pull the tray away from her, so she hit him with that too. He then retaliated by punching her, and so I turned on him, claiming that 'a guy shouldn't hit a girl'. Others joined in, and a mini riot broke out, which was only stopped when one of the head honchos stormed in and screamed until we all shut up.

I don't like being told to be quiet, so when he turned to leave, I nailed him in the back of the head with an orange.

He didn't appreciate that much, and, because Tex had burst out laughing at my glorious moment of rebellion, we were both forcefully sent to the 'detention' area. When we got there, we were made to clean the entire room, which was filthy, with a rag and several bucket of water.

Several hours later, once we'd finished, we sat back on our sparkling handiwork, and breathed a sigh of relief. I then produced a packed of cigarettes.

"Where did you get those from?" Tex asked me, her eyes widening as I lit one and took a long drag. I shrugged, and told her how I'd smuggled them through customs. Freelancers weren't allowed to smoke, as it was bad for our health. Not that I gave a shit. I wanted to smoke, so I sure as hell would. I told her as much, and she grinned. I stared at her. I'd never seen her smile before, and in my shock, somehow found myself offering her one. Then, right in the middle of our 'smoke-a-fag' party, the guy I'd assaulted with the orange came in to see how we were doing. My smokes were confiscated, and I was given extra duties as punishment.

After that I named my commander 'Dickhead'.

Later that night, when I returned to my room, I found Tex sat on her bed waiting for me.

"Catch," she said, and tossed me my cigs. It turns out New Boy was an expert of hacking and lock picking, and had broke into Dickhead's office and got them back for me. Tex had to...'persuade' him to do so though, but whenever I needed to get something that had been taken from me, I always went to him from that point onwards.

"You made me laugh today," Tex said suddenly. "That's a hard thing to do."

There was a long pause before she spoke again.

"My name's Allison, but you can call me Ali."

At that point we hadn't received our Freelancer Agent names, like Texas or Massachusetts, so I told her my real name. She smiled again, and I smirked.

"Twice in one day? Don't overdo it, Ali."

And that's when our friendship began.

I wasn't so sadistic when I first signed up for the army. I always felt bad about killing, and originally signed up for medical and technician jobs. Even as a Freelancer, I was only going to be advanced technical support. Tex changed all that. She snorted at my career choices, and within days dragged me along to a shooting range. She pressed a gun into my hand, and ordered me to shoot the targets. Now, as a soldier, I already knew how to use a gun, but only basic Spartan training, not the advanced Freelancer variety that Tex was already halfway through learning.

So I had a go, and strangely enough, I found I... enjoyed it. It was so different from the boring Basic I had to endure in the army, and I discovered that I was good at it. So good, that Command came to view me on Tex's say so, and then asked me to reconsider into becoming a pure fighting Freelancer, instead of half technician, half fighter. I agreed, and I've never looked back since.

New Boy helped me out quite a few times as well. He got me cigarettes, alcohol; anything I wanted. Eventually I gave them all up for the sake of my training, but until that point I was dependent on him. He never wanted to be a pure fighting Freelancer though; more of a semi-hacker, semi-fighter. I became friends with him after a while, and eventually even Tex warmed up to him. He was funny, smart, witty, and not bad looking. He-

Sorry. Some things I don't like to remember. New Boy is one of them. I never refer to him as his Agent name any more because...

I think a subject switch is in order.

Once I changed my career prospects, I did a lot more field work. The exercises were more gruelling, and we often went on government missions as training. One sticks in my mind. It's the day I began to become a brutal, vicious bitch. We went to do an international drugs raid, and we took out the dealers no problem. One person got injured, but nothing serious. However, beneath their headquarters was where they kept at least fifty slaves. Tex and I found them while the other Freelancers-to-be were dragging the dealers out by force. She went to inspect one, and then jumped back as he lashed out at her with an old blunt knife. In an instant she opened fire on him, and he screamed in agony as he fell to the floor, writhing.

"What the hell, Ali?" I yelled, and she shrugged.

"He attacked me," she replied simply, and then turned to another slave, who was shaking with fear. "Are you going to attack me too?"

"N-no," the slave girl replied. One of the other slaves took it as a 'distraction', and jumped on me. Within moments all the other slaves had joined in, attacking with whatever they could get their hands on. I think they had been treated so badly by their masters that everyone became an enemy. Tex didn't care. She massacred the lot of them, and I, in a state of panic, joined in. When we had finished our bloodbath, I nearly dropped my gun in shock, and stared at the death I had caused.

"Good job," Tex said to me, before sauntering off back upstairs, leaving me alone in the darkness.

Those actions haunted me for a long time, but after a while, after several missions with Tex, I became accustomed to it. You could even say I became as cold and heartless as her.

Well, not quite.

The way she treated Church, I don't think I could ever do. He loved her, and all she ever did was cheat on him and steal his money. He even joined the army just so he could be with her, but he didn't make the cut for the Freelancer program. He was assigned to Blood Gulch as part of the Sim. program, and died a few years later. I remember when I first started out as a mercenary I had to pass though Blood Gulch to get to another area on the other side where a drugs package was hidden. There was a malfunctioning tank going rampant in the middle of the canyon, and it turned on Church, before firing its main cannon at him. Turns out it was his own team member that killed him. How do I know this? I heard another of his team mates shout:

"You shot Church, you team killing Fucktard!"

Tex might have been a bitch to Church some time, but I know she cared. If and when she finds out...

Well, put it this way, I don't think she'll be happy. But I haven't seen her in some time; Omega could have changed her so much by then that she wouldn't give a damn either way.

I miss the good old days, before the A.I. implantation. If it wasn't for the fact I had Sigma, I'd almost wish neither me nor Tex got the damn A.I.s in the first place. But we did, and Tex was never the same again. She abandoned Church for good; she became reclusive, ignoring me and New Boy. When New Boy and I finally became a couple, after so many years... She stopped talking to us as much. I think she felt excluded, although I'm certain her A.I. twisted the truth; told her that we were her enemy. When I finally got my Agent name and A.I., and I became Massachusetts and Sigma; she laughed and told me I was worthless; that I was nothing compared to her. Maybe I was, but that didn't sway me.

Shortly before Tex and Omega escaped, Tex began to refer to herself as O'Malley; either you called her that, or you didn't speak to her at all. 'O'Malley' challenged New Boy and me, but I refused. I'm not stupid. New Boy on the other hand, is proud. He accepted, despite me telling him not to, and they met up for a 'friendly' duel. It got ugly quickly; O'Malley was competitive and cruel, and New Boy lost the use of one of his eyes. When he ranted to me about it, I tried to defend O'Malley. The next day he requested to be moved from the Freelancer section to another part of the facility, using his eye as an excuse, and it was granted. I never saw him again. I never spoke to 'O'Malley again either, but shunned everyone and stayed by myself. Sigma became my only companion, as has remained so to this very day. I don't need anyone else.

...Who am I kidding? I miss Allison so much. But most of all, I miss New Boy; NB...

Agent York.

A.I. LOG -TERMINATED-