Chapter IX

Phase Two of Operation: Red Rage had officially ended and Phase Three was immediatley placed into effect. Master Chief and the other nine members of Red Squad were about to start their trek towards the mysterious place dubbed Battle Creek . . .

Master Chief and Lopez walked into the hangar of Blue Base. Simmons had discovered a somewhat gradual incline behind the Blue Base that would be easiest to scale. It was still ridiculously steep, but it wasn't completely vertical like other parts of the wall. Master Chief had agreed to the plan and the red team had made a short trip overto the Blue Basewith all the gear. While everyone else was preparing for the journey to Battle Creek, Master Chief had decided to activate Sheila so she could begin her patrol of the canyon until they returned. If they returned . . .

The Chief and Lopez approached Sheila's deactivated body.

"Activate," the Chief ordered.

A red light, courtesy of Simmons, blinked on. The turret lifted up from its resting position and assumed the role of the tank's eye. It looked from the Master Chief to Lopez and back to the Chief.

"Thank you for activating the M808C Main Assault Tank," a masculine voice announced from the tank's external speakers. "You may call me Shawn."

"What? Shawn? Why not Sheila? And why is your voice different?"

"In the event of unauthorized upgrades being added to my arsenal, said tank converts gender programming from feminine to masculine."

"Why?" the Chief asked.

"You got me, sir," Shawn replied. "I guess it's for appearance. I mean, I'm not saying one couldn't, but when's the last time you saw a chick decked down with armaments like these?"

"I don't know, Shawn, I've seen ladies with some pretty impressive 'cannons' in my day," the Chief said. "Anyway, I believe you have already downloaded your assignment from the main computer?"

"Yup."

"Good. We need this place secure from any invading Blue forces while we're gone. According to Simmons, Sheila suffered memory damage during the years she was alone here because some of her memory banks failed. You have three sets of back up memory banks, so you should remember us even if we're blasted three thousand years into the future. Anyway, you are free to do whatever you want while we're gone. I already informed Red Command of our mission, but should they send any troops to this location in our absence, you are not permitted to divulge them with any information regarding your actual purpose or us. Are we clear?"

"Yes sir."

"Then good luck Shie- I mean Shawn. We'll come back when this is all sorted out."

"Ha, yeah right. With your luck, I'll end up bailing you out of trouble sooner or later."

"I wouldn't bet your third cannon on it."

Lopez and the Chief saluted Shawn and left the hangar. The two walked over to the starting point of their journey. All of them had their gear safely stowed away on their backs except for Grif, who had stowed his gear inside Lopez. Caboose, as per request, was holding the Blue flag. Master Chief had the Red flag. Lock-jaw was carrying Andy. Everyone was looking at the Chief, waiting for the signal to move out. The Chief moved toward the front of the squad. His squad.

"Alright ladies, gentlemen, aliens and machines, we're heading out. We don't know what's waiting for us on our way to Battle Creek. We do know, however, what's waiting for us when we get there. And that's about forty religious zealots waiting to tear us limb from limb in order to protect their precious flags. When we get there, we will attempt to establish a temporary alliance with the Red forces. If we fail, then we'll burn them and their flags to ashes! Then we'll burn the ashes! Now let's move out!"

The Chief turned and marched up towards the rock wall. He began his precarious climb up the unstable canyon followed by the rest of the squad. Lock-jaw tore past his teammates and ran up the slope not even using his hands. He hopped from one outcropping to the next until he reached the top. Lopez followed in a similar hasty manner. Using his robotic strength, he made his own footholds by punching the rock wall. He reached the top mere seconds after Lock-jaw. They both looked down to watch his friends continue their climb. After half an hour, Master Chief grabbed Caboose's hand and hauled him up over the ledge. All of them had successfully made it. After a short break to let everyone catch their breath, Master Chief began to move out again, Lock-jaw at his side.

The march went on for a week, with the team pitching camp at various places across the planet. There were no encounters with wild beasts or savage natives, so the squad was able to relax and even enjoy the trek.

The squad came to a halt one night and pitched camp, just like they did every night. While everyone was busy setting up camp, Lopez and Lock-jaw were sent on reconnaissance, also following routine. Master Chief had just finished setting up his tent when Lopez came in over the radio.

"Master Chief, Lock-jaw and I have discovered a strange land formation. You may want to come examine it," he said.

"Roger that, Lopez, I'm on my way," the Chief replied. He turned to regard the rest of the squad. "I'm going to check out something Lopez found. I'll be back in a few."

Everyone gave their sign of acknowledgement; a grunt, a wave, a thumbs-up sign or a salute was tossed in the Chief's general direction. He departed from the camp and found Lopez and Lock-jaw fifty meters away. They were looking down into a massive hole in the ground.

"What is it?" the Chief asked.

"It appears to be an unnatural formation," Lopez replied. "My sensors are picking up seismic activity from within the hole."

Lopez' sensors were correct; at a seven second interval a resonating thud would echo through the chasm beneath.

"I wish we had time to check this out," the Chief said. "I'll leave a tracking device here so Red Command can scan it thoroughly and tell us what's down there."

The Chief reached into a pouch on his belt and retrieved a small, triangular device with a red emitter in the center. He set it down next to the hole and waited to make sure it embedded itself into the ground. Satisfied that it wouldn't be shaken loose from the vibrations coming from the crater, the Chief led Lopez and Lock-jaw back to the camp. Master Chief explained what was found to the rest of the squad before they retired to their tents.

The next day, the squad continued their journey towards Battle Creek. Donut would constantly try to get everyone to join in on a game of Eye Spy, but it always died shortly after it was started. Grif was constantly complaining about the intense heat, even though the MJOLNIR armor automatically compensated for any change in temperature. Andy would occasionally tell a knock-knock joke, but everyone had already heard every knock-knock joke there was to tell, so that never caught on. Caboose would, from time to time, ramble on about something he did during his quest with Andy, Tucker and CrunchBite, but would lose focus after about three minutes.

Things went on like this for another week until Lock-jaw suddenly dropped Andy and sprinted past the rest of the squad.

"Hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?" Andy shouted. "Get back here and carry me you moron!"

Lock-jaw answered with a series of honks and blargs.

"What is he saying, Andy?" the Chief asked.

"He keeps yelling 'we're here, we're here', but I don't know what he . . . oh, well now that makes sense."

The Master Chief jogged ahead of the group and caught up with Lock-jaw, who was panting eagerly like a puppy that had just seen a large chew toy. The Chief looked down into the valley below. Sure enough, they had arrived. A Red Fortress sat on one side of the stream and a Blue Fortress sat directly opposite. Both appeared to challenge the other to send troops to try and take its flag.

Lopez walked up to the two carrying Andy. The rest of the Squad followed.

"Here we are, men, Battle Creek. Load your weapons, we're going in."

To be continued