Chapter XII

After the Red Squad defeated the Blues and destroyed their Flag at Battle Creek with the aid of the Red Zealots, Red Squad took a short break to recover from the battle. After a week of socializing and relaxation, the Chief had pieced together the next several Phases of Operation: Red Rage. Everyone was at peace, but evil waited in the shadows ready to strike . . .

"Do you want my honest opinion, sir?" Simmons asked.

"That's the only opinion I ever want, Simmons," replied the Chief.

Simmons sighed and sat up in his chair.

"It's a long shot, sir, a very long shot. I can have Lopez come in here and calculate the odds if you want. I just don't think it is possible."

"So there is no physically possible way that Caboose could eat fifty gallons of chum and mayonnaise without throwing up?"

"I'm afraid not, sir."

"Well, thanks for that. I almost made a bet that would've cost me a pretty penny. And not just any pretty penny, but my pretty penny."

"It is very pretty, sir."

"Thank you, Simmons. I'm going to see how Doc and Lopez are coming along with the analyzing of the pieces of that nano-chip."

"Sir, was that flagpole a half of a super laser?"

"Yes it was. Wherever there is a Red and a Blue flag, there is the possibility of a super laser being formed. We may have stopped O'Malley from getting his filthy paws on that one, but there are more we haven't found yet, and others he may already have. We'll just have to hope that we can stop him when we get to him."

"I see, sir."

Master Chief got up and left the guest chambers. The main level of the Fortress housed the Temple and the Red Flag. There was a stairwell that led down to a lower level that contained a vast number of rooms ranging from soldier's quarters to the dining hall where Red Squad had eaten during their first night at Battle Creek. There was also a laboratory that housed very advanced research equipment. That was where Doc and Lopez were examining the nano-chip. The Chief entered the room and saw that Lopez was performing a scan of a blood sample from the dead Blue Shaman while Doc took notes based on the data that was displayed on a computer screen.

"Hello men. How goes the research?" the Chief asked. Lopez said nothing and continued with the scan. Doc paused the display screen and waved the Chief over.

"It's going quite well, actually," Doc said. "We made a breakthrough with this flag business that you may be interested in."

"I'm listening."

"Well, you were right about the nano-chip being a supercomputer; it has some strange technology that I wasn't able to identify. Anyway, the nano-chip from the Blue Flag seems to contain a transmitter that sends out strange Electro-Magnetic waves. We also found this inside our friend here."

The Doc motioned to a Petri-dish that was sitting on a table. There were blood stains on it, but in the middle sat a small spherical device. It had a glowing blue light that winked on and off at irregular intervals.

"What is it?" the Chief asked.

"It appears to be a receiver. When the nano-chip sends out the EM waves, the receiver starts vibrating erratically. It sends out its own EM waves, but they're even stranger then the nano-chip's waves. Lopez and I tested it on three rats the Reds found. The results were shocking."

"What happened?"

"We implanted the receiver into the first rat. Lopez made a cut along the side of the rat. The receiver sent some sort of signal to the nano-chip, which caused it to send out the EM waves. The receiver started emitting its own EM waves and the wound healed. We put the receiver in the second rat and Lopez broke its arm. The same thing happened again, but this time, the bone moved itself into the proper position before it healed. We put the receiver in the third rat and Lopez crushed its skull. I hated that part. Anyway, same thing happened, but this time, the rat's skull reformed itself. There were parts of the skull that had been knocked too far away to be assimilated into it, so the bone regenerated! The rat got up and waked around as if nothing happened!"

"That is incredible. No wonder they worship the flag as a god."

"It appears that the receiver has a bio-monitor that keeps track of its host's health status. When the host is wounded or killed, the receiver sends a message to the nano-chip. The chip sends a signal back to the receiver telling it to heal the host. It is an incredible piece of technology. There's some bad news, though. I'm pretty sure O'Malley already knows this, and is planning on using it somehow. He wasn't too far along in his new evil plot before he left me, so I'm not sure how far along he's gotten. One thing is for sure; he won't be able to do too much research without Lopez or myself. I'm pretty sure that Sarge guy wasn't much of a scientist."

"Yeah," the Chief said. He chuckled a little. "I guess he would have to steal it from you!"

Both of the men shared a laugh at the joke that wasn't all that funny to begin with until the Fortress-spanning comm. system activated.

"All soldiers report to the Temple immediately. Repeat; all soldiers, report to the temple immediately. Red Squad is welcome as well. That is all."

The Chief looked at Lopez and the Doc, who got up and followed him out of the laboratory. Doc closed the doors and locked them. The three made their way up to the Temple and were joined by the rest of Red Squad along the way. The Chief let the other members of his team pass him and held Lopez back. Once everyone was gone, the Chief turned to Lopez.

"I know we've been here for a week now, but I still don't trust these guys. They may try to sneak a peek at the data you and Doc collected about the Flag. If they find out the truth about their precious flag, things could get ugly. I need you to stay at the doors to the lab. Don't let anyone except Doc or myself in, understand?"

"Affirmative. I do not trust these fruit loops either. If anyone tries to gain access to the laboratory, I will crush their skulls under my boot."

"Glad to hear it." The Chief turned and left for the Temple while Lopez went to guard the lab.

The Chief met up with the others in the Temple where the Prophet was addressing everyone.

". . . the current whereabouts of this intruder are unknown, but we do know that they have defiled this holy place with bloodshed! This can only be the work of the Blue scum!"

The Chief leaned over to Grif.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"This guy's ranting about an intruder that the sensors picked up," Grif replied. "He whacked one of the patrolmen and he's been yelling about it probably for the last five minutes. I don't see what the big deal is; the guy got right back up and told the Prophet dude himself."

"And they don't know where he is?"

"Nah, they lost track of him."

The Chief had the sudden urge to be downstairs guarding the lab with Lopez. If there was an intruder around, they could possibly be after the Red Flag, or even the data that Doc had found. The Master Chief didn't believe in jinxing situations, but he now regretted making that joke with Doc about someone stealing the data.

"Tell everyone to be on their guard, and keep your safeties off."

"Ok Chief."

Master Chief moved away from the group that was huddled around the Prophet. He made his way back to the stairwell, but saw that the door was open.

I thought Lopez closed the door . . . the Chief suddenly had a very bad feeling. Lopez did close the door. The door's handle had been ripped out of the ancient wood panel. The Chief ran into the lower level and activated a Security Breach Containment Override Code the Prophet had showed him. It silently sealed the Master Chief in the chambers with this 'intruder'. He decided to make a thorough scan of every room starting with the laboratory. The Chief walked down the hallway and rounded the corner, only to find that Lopez was on the floor. Oil seeped through a wound in his armor. He wasn't destroyed, just deactivated. The Chief was glad for that. He then noticed that the laboratory door was ajar. He kicked it open all the way revealing a familiar black-clad figure.

"Hey there, big boy. Miss me?" Tex said.

To Be Continued