Chapter V

The Master Chief dispatched Tex and left her dead body at the bottom of Blue Base. He then returned to Red Base with Privates Caboose and Donut to continue the mission . . .

Donut drove the warthog into the hangar of the base. Master Chief got off of the gunner position and walked over to Donut.

"I'm going upstairs to debrief the others. You keep Caboose occupied until I say its OK to bring him up, understand?" the Master Chief ordered.

"Debrief? I want to help!" Donut objected.

"I'm just going to tell them what happened, Donut. I appreciate your offer, but I'm perfectly capable of handling it on my own," the Chief said.

"Oh, that kind of debrief. Never mind, I'll stay here."

"Are we going to have a sleep over? I forgot to bring my footsie pajamas!" Caboose exclaimed.

"Even better than a sleep over, you're going to stay with us from now on, Caboose! Uh, I mean, Gamma twelve," Donut exclaimed. "And don't worry, I have an extra pair of pajamas you can use, and I have the exact same Hello Kitty blanket you do!"

". . . This is going to be the best sleep over," Caboose said. "Ever."

"So, you understand? We have to continue to convince him that he is on our team until he actually believes it himself. That means we have to make him feel like he's a member of our squad," the Master Chief explained.

"Does that mean we have to be nice to him?" Grif asked. The idea became less appealing with every passing minute.

"Of course not," the Chief replied. "We want to make him feel at home, so I need you two to act like his previous superior officers. Grif, since you eat a lot of food and are the laziest and most unmotivated, you are going to fill in the role of Private Tucker."

"So wait, I don't have to be nice to him? Sweet! Ok, so how do I act like Private Tucker?" Grif asked.

"Just act like you usually do," the Chief said. "The only difference between you two is that you didn't give birth to an alien baby."

"Whatever. I'm going to watch TV," Grif said. And with that, he left.

"Simmons, you are going to have to take the place of Private Church, since you both seem to have the shortest tempers," the Chief instructed. "And you both do the most yelling of your respective sides."

"You got it, sir. What roles will you and Donut fill?" Simmons asked.

"I know that Tex was just a bounty hunter, but she spent an awful lot of time with the Blue team, even though she wasn't paid for all of her time spent there," the Chief said. "She was, undoubtedly, the best fighter on the Blue team and probably bears more of a likeness to myself, so I will be filling that role."

"And Donut?"

"Donut and Caboose have already met. Donut has no counterpart, so he will be himself. This will work out nicely, because everyone here isn't as inclined to dislike Caboose as the Blues were."

"So, we still call him Caboose, right? We don't have to call him Gamma twelve?"

"No, only I call him that. I'm working out the bugs of my plan, but in the end, I think it will work flawlessly. Now, since Grif is busy being lazy and Donut is playing 'welcoming committee', you and I should prepare for our defenses. The Blues aren't going to be too happy that two of their soldiers are gone. Oh, and Simmons?"

"Yes sir?"

"About that Tex woman; I read an inscription on her combat knife that had a T and a C inside a heart. I guess T would stand for Tex, but what would the C stand for?"

"Tex used to date Private Church, sir. Perhaps the C stood for Church."

"Interesting. Let's go."

Master Chief and Simmons began going over previous defense strategies and plans and went about revising those ones and making new ones. A machine gun turret was placed on top of the base next to the teleporter. During an inspection of the hangar, the floor lifted up revealing a brand new M808B Main Battle Tank hidden beneath. After quickly scavenging Sheila's wreckage and finding her AI core, the tank was ready for action. Simmons had completely erased Sheila's memory so she wouldn't turn on the Reds. Caboose was especially excited by this. After securing more heavy weapons and ammo, Master Chief explained the best possible plan of action in case of an attack to the team. After he was sure that at least Simmons and Donut understood, the Chief dismissed everyone and was then contacted by Vic of Red Command on his radio.

"Hello Master Chief, calling Master Chief, are you there, dude?" Vic asked.

"Roger, Vic. Master Chief here, what do you need?" the Chief replied.

"Well, we got your message about your totally awesome win at the Blue Base, dude. Bravo." Vic said.

"Thank you Vic. We do our best."

"Glad to hear it. Ok, you also requested a new suit of armor with red with blue patches on the arms, head and legs?"

"Affirmative, Vic. Were you able to send it?"

"Oh, it's on its way, dude. I just wanted to tell you, we're trying this new FedEx shipping method. It should come out of your teleporter soon. Just a heads up for the very near future."

"I appreciate it, Vic. Anything else?"

"Oh yeah, according to our intelligence, the Blue guys found the dead chick in their basement this morning. They weren't too happy."

"That's to be expected."

"Well, the one guy was so mad, he hired about, hang on a second . . . uh, let me see here, Blue Base transactions, Blue Base transactions, Blue, oh here it is! Let's see, they hired six bounty hunters to come in and take you guys out. And they're on their way, dude."

"Six? Shouldn't be a problem. We just established a defensive perimeter around the base in the event that they retaliated."

"Oh good, dude! That's great news 'cause they got, let's see, a M808B Main Battle Tank, two warthogs with, oh that's cool, modified rocket launching gunner positions, and one of them is bringing enough rocket launcher supplies to take down a city. But you already got your defenses up, so I'll be seeing you later, dude. Vic out!"

"What? Vic! Wait! . . . Crap." Master Chief turned to the comm. system that ran through the base and pressed the red button. A loud alarm rang through the base and sounds of gear shuffling could be heard in the various rooms. Simmons was the first one to arrive, his armor shining with a fresh gloss. Donut and Caboose arrived second and third respectively and Grif stormed into the room last. He carried his helmet in one hand and a razor in the other. Half of his face was clean-shaven. The other half still sported shaving cream. Grif quickly whipped the rest of the stuff off his face along with the rest of his beard. He then put his helmet back on and looked at the Chief, who hit the red button again, making the alarms shut off.

"The Blues have hired mercenaries to kill us. We must fight back. Grif, Simmons, you two take sniper rifles and pick off any targets you can. Donut, you take the turret and try to hold off any vehicles you can. Caboose, you take Sheila and blow up any mercenaries that get too close to the base. I'll sneak around behind them and try to take them out from behind. Let's move out!"

To Be Continued . . .