Chapter VII
After successfully defeating the small mercenary army sent by the Blues, Master Chief initiated Phase Two of Operation: Red Rage, which ordered all soldiers to rest and recover from Phase One. During a short reconnaissance mission, Donut and Caboose discovered that Church and Tucker left the alien baby, Andy and Doc behind . . .
"Just stay put, Donut. Simmons and I are on our way," the Master Chief ordered.
"Roger that," Donut replied.
Donut turned his attention to the three beings that were left in the base. Medical Officer Dufresne, better known as 'Doc' was the one who greeted them.
"So, they just left you guys behind?" Donut asked.
"Yeah, they left us here all alone in a stinking box canyon in the middle of nowhere while they went off to some super secret base or whatever," fumed Andy.
Andy was a bomb built by Tex. He was supposed to explode and kill O'Malley, but after a few days of side tracking during the quest in which Tex disappeared and CrunchBite was killed, Andy had just given up on accomplishing his primary objective.
"Tucker didn't want to bring his baby with them, so they left me here too so I could take care of him," Doc said. "He's a good baby . . . thing, whatever he is. Andy and I were trying to teach him to not bite people when you guys showed up."
"Ow! Bad Tucker Junior, bad!" Caboose shouted from the next room.
"Yeah, apparently that didn't work so well," Andy said laughing.
"What I don't get is why they left you here, Andy," Donut said. "You would think an explosive device would come in handy while you're hiding in a secret fortress."
"You would think that, wouldn't you? Well, they said I would be more useful here. They figured you guys would show up sooner or later, so they wanted me to explode and kill you." Andy explained.
Donut said nothing.
"Ah, don't worry. Those guys were jerks. I'm not gonna kill you."
"Hey, do you think we could stay at your base for a while?" Doc asked. "This place is nice and all, but I think we'd be better off with you guys."
"Well, I think it's a great idea, but you'd have to talk to the Chief about it." Donut said.
"Talk to the Chief about what?" asked the Master Chief.
"Oh, hey Chief! Listen, the Blue guys left these guys behind, do you think they could stay with us?" Donut asked.
"You aren't official Blue personnel?" the Chief asked Doc.
"I was on loan to both armies before O'Malley took over my body," Doc answered. "So no, I'm not a Blue."
"I was built by that Tex guy. I was with the Blues for a while,but I'm not the biggest fan. I don't think these blue stripes go well with my natural color. I think red would make me look slimmer," Andy said.
"Tex was a woman," the Chief corrected.
"Yeah, whatever you say, pal." Andy said.
"Well, you'll have to go through some tests and interrogations, but I think we can house two more over at our base," the Chief said.
"Wait, Chief, there's one more," Donut said. He turned to the room Caboose was in. "Caboose, come on out here, and bring the baby with you!"
Master Chief faced the door where Caboose was. He thought about what the baby alien would look like. Then he shuddered; whatever it was, one of the Blue soldiers had given birth to it. That made the Chief shudder again. Then, from out of the room came Caboose. Attached to his arm was the mouth of the alien baby. All four mandibles were anxiously nibbling at Caboose's forearm like a giant bone. The rest of the alien followed.
"What the-" memories started flooding the Chief's mind. Visions of combat and large alien warriors similar to the alien before himflashed before his eyes. The Chief's mind over loaded and he fell to the ground, unconscious.
"Master Chief? Can you hear me? Master Chief!"
A purple light appeared in front of his eyes. It swirled around until it formed into a familiar translucent figure.
"Cortana? Is that you?"
The Chief didn't know how he knew the woman's name, but he knew she was important. Or maybe was important.
"Master Chief? Sir, wake up! You've got to wake up!"
Cortana's slender figure dissipated and reassembled into a pink helmet.
"Master Chief! Hey guys, he's waking up!" Donut said happily.
Master Chief opened his eyes and saw Donut looking down at him. He slowly sat up and rubbed his head.
"Where am I?" he asked. He picked up his helmet which was lying on a table next to him and put it on.
"We're at Red Base. You scared us back there, sir," Simmons interjected.
"How long have I been out?" the Chief asked.
"Only a few hours, sir," Simmons replied.
"How are Doc and Andy doing?"
"They're doing fine, sir. Andy is in Grif's room watching TV with him. Caboose and the alien baby are outside with Sheila. Doc, Donut and I were making sure you came to."
"Thank you all."
"Don't mention it, sir." Simmons said.
The Chief got up off the medical table.
"That alien baby brought up some memories . . . I'll be fine. It just surprised me. I didn't expect to see one out here." He said. "Doc, Donut, you're dismissed. Simmons, come with me."
"Yes sir," they replied.
Donut went outside with Caboose, the alien and Sheila. Doc decided to tidy up the base.
"Simmons," the Chief said. "It has come to my attention that our droid, Lopez, is missing his entire body. I have ordered a new one with all of the specifications your Sergeant wanted. It just arrived today, I believe, and I need you to go and prepare it. Lopez is undergoing some final modifications. I will bring his head up shortly."
"Yes sir," Simmons replied.
Simmons made his way to the top of the base and found the box in front of the teleporter. The new FedEx shipping method worked wonderfully. Simmons opened the large box and found that the droid body came in only several parts; the torso, right arm, left arm, right leg and left leg. Simmons began to work on assembling Lopez' new body.
Master Chief entered the hangar of Red Base and walked over to the computer terminal to which Lopez' head was plugged into.
"Lopez," the Chief ordered. "Activate Language Index Override Code."
Mechanical sounds echoed from within Lopez as his newly upgraded speech unit activated. Lopez then spoke out in his usual automated tone.
"Language Index Override Code activated. English language set to default; hello Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan 117. How may I be of assistance?" he said.
"We have a new body ready for you Lopez." The Chief said.
"Really? That is excellent news. I have missed the ability to move so very much," Lopez responded in his monotonous voice.
"Consider it a 'welcome back' present from Red Squad."
"Thank you, sir."
The Chief picked up Lopez' head and made his way to the upper level of the base. When he arrived, he saw that Simmons had finished constructing Lopez' body.
"Wow, Simmons, good work! How'd you do that so quickly?" the Chief asked.
"Well, sir, I'm part machine myself. It's a lot easier to build stuff with all the robotic protocols telling you what goes where." Simmons replied.
"Well, good job. Ok, Lopez, you ready?" the Chief asked.
"Affirmative" Lopez replied.
The Chief stuck Lopez' head on the newly constructed body. It was the same brown color as his previous body, but there were new red stripes on his arms and legs. Donut had painted a red stripe on his head. After a series of clicks and buzzing noises, Lopes snapped a crisp salute.
"Red Army Blood Gulch Outpost Alpha Droid Number Zero, Zero One, reporting for duty," Lopez said.
"Lopez, your first assignment is to disassemble the inactive tank in the hangar. Take whatever parts you can and add them to Sheila. We'll be going away in a few days, and we need her to take care of the base while we're gone," Master Chief explained.
"Roger that, sir," Lopez said. And with that, he was off.
"Sir," Simmons said. "There was also another box from Red Command. It says it's for Caboose. Is that his new red armor?"
"Yes it is. I though it would have arrived by now, but I guess later is better than never," the Chief replied.
The Chief opened a private comm. channel to Caboose.
"Private Caboose, please report to the top of the base immediately. And bring the alien with you," he said.
"Yes sir, Pastor Leaf, sir," Caboose replied.
"It's Master Chief, Caboose, Master Chief."
The Chief opened another channel to Donut.
"Private Donut, I need you to get Andy and Doc up on top of the base. And bring that can of red paint with you," he said
"Okey dokey, sir!" Donut responded.
In a matter of minutes, Andy, Doc, Caboose and the alien had assembled on top of the base. Simmons, Lopez and Donut stood next to the Chief along with Grif, who claimed there was nothing good on TV.
"Since you have all decided to join us, I am hereby making all of youtemporary members of Red Army's Blood Gulch Outpost Alpha." The Chief announced.
He turned to Donut and nodded. Donut walked up to Caboose and pointed behind him here a suit of brand new red armor with blue patches on the arms, legs and head. Caboose cheered happily and ran over to the new armor to change. Donut then moved over to Andy and knelt down. In only seconds, the blue bars that encircled his casing were now red. Donut then moved over to the alien baby and painted red areas on different locations of his teal organic armor. The alien honked with happiness. Donut then moved over to Doc and painted red stripes on his arms, legs and head of his purple armor. The Master Chief walked over to Caboose who had just finished putting his new armor on.
"Michael J. Caboose, you are hereby given the rank of Private of the Red Army." He said. Master Chief saluted Caboose, who returned the gesture.
The Chief moved over to Andy.
"Andy, you are hereby given the designation of Official Assault Bomb of the Red Army." The Master Chief saluted Andy, who was unable to make any sort of motion.
Master Chief moved over to the alien and stopped. The alien had no name, and it looked at him with curiosity. Several ideas popped into the Chief's mind.
"Lock-jaw," the Chief decided. It was better than nothing. "You are hereby given the rank of Official StealthOperative and Alien Ambassador of the Red Army." Lock-jaw honked with admiration as the Chief saluted him.
"Medical Officer Dufresne, you are hereby given the rank of Official Medical Officer of the Red Army." The Master Chief saluted him, and Doc saluted back.
The Chief turned and walked over to the other three red soldiers and nodded. They snapped to attention and saluted the newly ordained Red Army Operatives. The new Red Operatives who could return the salute did. Lock-jaw mimicked the motion. The Master Chief smiled. In one day, their numbers of soldiers had doubled. Their mission would succeed. Master Chief's missions always succeeded.
"Ok everyone, Phase Two of Operation: Red Rage is still active. Let's make the best of it!" he said.
The other nine members of Red Squad cheered and left. Caboose and Lock-jaw went out to play on the rocks. Lopez picked up Andy and they walked over to Sheila to talk about mechanical business. Grif and Simmons went back inside to watch TV. Donut and Doc went into the kitchen to get the celebratory dinner party started. Master Chief looked around. This was going to be a very interesting week.
To Be Continued