Chapter XX

After the timely arrival of the Rhinoceros, the Red Team returned to their temporary HQ. The Master Chief, Commander Schreiber and the Rhinoceros were planning their next course of action when Donut revealed to the Chief that Tex, who had been seemingly killed twice, was at their location. . .

The Chief slammed his fist down on the makeshift table leaving a dent in it. He walked over to a corner and stood there for a few seconds.

"You both know who Tex is, correct?"

"That's the country, isn't it?" the Rhinoceros asked. He had received a lot of information over the past few hours and was still trying to get everyone's name right.

"No, Rhinoceros that's Texas and Texas is a state, not a country. Tex is the . . . thing that came back from the dead. Twice, apparently."

"Oh. Hey, I don't mean to distract you from this, but my name's Ryan. You don't have to keep calling me 'Rhinoceros'."

"Noted."

It was evident that the Chief was angry by the tone of his voice. He didn't mean to sound harsh, but he had put Tex down twice. Was he really killing her? Did she really die either time? The Chief knew in his mind the answer was 'yes', but he was now feeling something he had never felt before; inadequacy. He must be doing something wrong if she is able to rise from the dead, but what? Then the Chief realized something. The second time she appeared, she was in the laboratory under the Red Fortress where the data on the Flags' healing properties was kept. What if she got what she came for? What if she was being revived by the flag?

"Ok," the Chief said. His voice was no longer laced with bitterness, but with eagerness . . . and a hint of sadism. "We are going to capture her this time. You two remember what I told you about the Flag data Doc got from Battle Creek, right? Well, what if she has one of those receiver things inside her? She could just heal herself after every battle! If we find it, we can remove it. Tex will no longer be a problem."

"Sounds good to me," Ryan said. "Do I get to blow stuff up?"

"Probably not."

He made a disappointed grunt. "Count me out then."

"However, we will need you later for intimidation."

A grin appeared on Ryan's face. He had taken his helmet off earlier, disproving Caboose's statement that his horns were real and grew from his skull. Before the helmet came off, the Chief had agreed with him. Instead, the horn entered the helmet and created a protective pad around the forehead, reducing the force of cranial impacts greatly. The visor, which was a dark red color, was a new Red technology which allowed Ryan to cycle through regular vision, night vision and thermal vision. It was also equipped with two different levels of zoom, 5x and 20x. The helmet itself was as large as any regular soldier's torso, and the larger horn made it nearly two meters tall. Ryan himself was not naturally as large as he was. His massive size was a result of a super-soldier project where fifteen candidates were chosen to recieve intensive augmentation to their bodies. The procedure bonded an indestructable metal to his bones and modified every other aspect of his being. It was like the Spartan II project with more advanced augmentation procedures. Unlike the Spartan II program, Ryan was the only survivor.

"I'm not much of a goon, if that's what you mean, but scaring people seems to be one of my specialties. Holler when you need me."

Ryan left to go sharpen his horns. Schreiber, who had been sitting and listening to the conversation, stood and walked up to the Chief.

"What do you plan on doing to her?"

"Don't worry. I'm just going to ask a few questions."

"And if you don't get the answers you like?"

"Then we're going to have to get surgical, Commander. This is war, the end justifies the means."

With that, the Chief left the room and went to go intercept Tex. Schreiber was left alone. He thought about the Chief's words. The end justifies the means. The Chief didn't coin the phrase and Schreiber wasn't sure who did, nor did he really care at that point. The Chief was willing to do whatever it took to get the answers he wanted, and as long as the outcome was beneficial to humanity, he would have absolutely no regrets.

The Chief entered the makeshift laboratory and saw Doc working on the broken nano-chip. He was conducting more research on the Electro-Magnetic waves to see if there were any more secrets he had yet to unlock. The Chief was about to say something when he saw a blur. It was nearly invisible, but the light reflected off of it at odd places giving it a humanoid look. It was moving slowly towards Doc. It crept closer to him and looked as though it was about to attack, but the Chief had other ideas. He leapt forward at punched the blur in it's center, causing sparks to shoot out of a panel the Chief had just destroyed. Doc looked up in surprise as Tex materialized in front of the Chief out of thin air.

"We have to stop meting like this," she said.

"Maybe we should just stop meeting at all."

"You want to break up with me? I understand, but . . . I'm hurt."

The Chief rolled his eyes and went to punch her in the back of her head. She dodged the attack, but the Chief wasn't in the mood for fighting. He wanted answers. Tex lunged at him, but the Chief caught her fist in his hand and squeezed. Tex gasped as his grip tightened. Master Chief thought about what to do next when he remembered a movie that Donut had forced him to watch. It was about a British secret agent named 'Powers' who tried to stop the poorly formulated evil plots of 'Dr. Evil', who reminded the Chief of O'Malley. One of Powers' most often used techniques, if the Chief recalled correctly, was called the-

"Judo Chop!" the Chief cried out. He held his hand out with his fingers together and brought it down on Tex's neck. She moaned and fell to the floor unconscious.

"Wow, I can't believe that actually worked," the Chief said in amazement. "Doc, remind me to give Donut a promotion or something. And get me something to tie her up with."

"Here," Doc tossed him some sort of steel cord. It seemed durable enough, so the Chief slung it over his shoulder. Tex was put over his other shoulder and he made his way back to the breifing room. Tex was thrown into a chair. Her arms were tied behind her back and her legs were tied to the chair's legs. Ryan entered the room with his blades shining from a recent scrub. He put his massive helmet on his head and looked at Tex. The Chief removed her helmet and placed it on a table nearby. Slowly, Tex regained her consciousness and looked around the room. Her eyes fell on the Chief and she smiled.

"You got lucky, you bastard."

"That happens a lot."

"So, what is this, Red Army Police Department Headquarters? Am I being questioned?"

"We don't question people in the army. We interrogate them." He motioned to Ryan who stepped out from the shadows. Tex's sly expression quickly changed to one of fear. Her eyes opened even wider when the blades on his forearms extended. "And interrogation usually involves torture of some sort."

Tex looked from the Rhinoceros to the Chief.

"So am I going to die here?"

"Probably not, unless you're allergic to salt."

"What?"

"See, instead of tearing you open, I decided on a much crueler form of torture. My friend here is going to cut you and I'm going to put salt in your wounds every time we get an answer I don't like."

Tex laughed. "Salt? What, are you guys high or something?"

"Not anymore," Ryan mumbled.

"Let's get started. First question; who sent you after us?"

"Nobody sent me after you idiots, I was sent after whatever data you were finding about the flags."

"Who sent you then?"

"O'Malley."

"How did he manage to capture you?"

"I wasn't captured. Tex was captured."

The Chief sighed. He had heard enough riddles, but decided not to argue. Tex was being surprisingly acquiescent thus far, and hurting her could complicate things. The Chief decided to play along.

"Alright, fine. How did O'Malley capture Tex?"

"Tex had just mopped up those idiotic Red and Blue Zealots at that icy place when the alien, CrunchBite, found a ship and started flying around. Tex and the others didn't know why the ship was important, and they never found out because Wyoming blew it up. Tex chased him into the fortress only to get beat down by O'Malley. The next thing Tex knew, her armor was gone and she was floating in some sort of tube with all kinds of wires attached to her body. O'Malley said something about her not having a choice about her service to him and said something about clones, which turned out to be a part of his evil plan; he cloned Tex. The first Tex clone was sent to Blood Gulch to take the Blue and Red Flags, but failed. The second one tried to take the data from the laboratory, but failed and I tried to take it from Doc, but failed. Now, here I am being interrogated by two clueless Reds. Can you let me go?"

"Not yet," the Chief said. "The clone story explains why you keep showing up, but why does O'Malley want the data we're working on?"

"He wants to see how you've come along researching the super laser function in the flag."

O'Malley thinks we're working on the super laser?

"Well, he's not going to find out, now is he?" the Chief decided to play along. No sense in telling a spy that they were working on something entirely different.

"I guess not. Now can you let me go?"

"No. How are you able to remember what the other two Tex clones saw? I can understand having the original Tex's memories, but-"

"The helmets we are given are equipped with cameras that record everything we see. After you defeated the first one, Wyoming was sent to retrieve the mission recording. The video feed shown to our subconscious minds and we see it as a memory. I have no memories from our second encounter because those idiots at Bettle Creek cremated my body and my armor. I was, however, shown a short recording from the security console in the Red Zealots' Fortress. It was only a few minutes long, but I was impressed. Turns out you killed her too. What a surprise."

"Hmm. That makes sense. I guess."

"So, can I go now?"

"Now why would we just let you go in the heart of our base? Aren't you programmed to be loyal to O'Malley?"

"No, and even if I was, he isn't the kind of 'master' one goes running back to."

"And what do I have as proof of this?"

Tex pulled her arms out from behind her back. The whole time, she had been working on freeing her arms and had finally gotten them loose. She took her helmet in her hands, pulled out the mission recording and snapped it between her fingers. She put her helmet on the table again and crossed her arms across her chest.

"Also, O'Malley changed up all of his secret bases and passwords. If you were planning on using Doc to get into his Fortresses, let alone find them, you're outta luck. You need me to get you in there."

"And why do I need you? In case you haven't noticed, my friend here is more than capable of breaking us into O'Malley's lairs."

"Maybe," Tex looked Ryan over. "But are you willing to risk his life attacking places that have undetermined defenses? What if he was killed because somebody didn't have the proper Intel.? And who knows, maybe there's stuff in there that can't just be blown up or torn to peices."

The Chief sighed and shook his head. The guilt trip. Works every stinking time. "Ryan? Untie her legs. I hope I'm not making a mistake."

"Oh don't worry, Master Chief, I'll personally make sure that setting me free will be the best decision you ever made."

Tex got up, put her helmet on and walked away. The Chief sighed and turned on his radio.

"This is the Master Chief to all Red units, be advised; Tex is now to be seen as a friendly. I repeat, Tex is now a friendly, and I don't want to hear anything from any of you, Red Squad."

He turned and left the room. He bumped into Schreiber outside the door.

"So, you didn't have to kill her after all."

"No, I guess not."

"Don't you feel better?"

"I feel better that I didn't have to kill her. I feel bad about letting her stay."

Schreiber smiled and left the Chief alone outside the building. Tex had joined his squad. The rest of Operation: Red Rage was bound to be interesting.

O'Malley emerged from his teleporter. It had taken him from his island fortress to his cold, frozen one embedded atop the highest mountain on the planet. He took several steps forward in his new body and looked at the surrounding area. There was snow as far as the eye could see. Luckily, the research and containment facility he was on had an internal thermal heating unit which kept the entire facility at a comfortable temperature. The snow melted before it even reached the ground. O'Malley's host body made it's own way down to the containment cells to check up on the progress of certain . . . weapons that were being held there. He didn't even have to control his host body, as they had found something that was mutually beneficial to both of them. O'Malley could remember the conversation like it was yesterday . . .

"So you see, I only require your body for a short period of time until my own body is complete!" O'Malley laughed his evil, maniacal laugh.

"What do ya plan to do to me when yer done?" Sarge had asked him.

"Oh, I'll dispose of you, of course, but the quickness of your death depends on your level of cooperation." O'Malley remembered explaining to the Sarge. He was confused, even frightened at first.

"Well, now that we're livin in the same body, how about ya tell me what yer up to? I may be able to help, if the price is right . . ."

"You FOOL! I do not require your assistance! I only require your body so that I may use it to wreak havoc on the universe!"

"Are ya gonna kill people? Are ya gonna laugh with joy as ya see yer enemies eaten alive by horrible genetic experiments gone wrong? Are ya gonna utterly annihilate all of humanity, destroying civilization as we know it?"

"Yes, I plan do do all of those things many times." He laughed evily. "I also plan to use my greatest weapon to wipe all life from existence! It will be marvelous! Oblivion on such a scale that it will be told throughout the ages! Victory will be MINE!" He began laughing maniacally again and carried on for almost a minute when Sarge interrupted.

"Wait just a minute! Destroying all life in the galaxy? That means my men!"

"Yes, they will be the first to go . . ."

". . . including Grif!"

"Well, yes, all life means all life. Unless you're implying that Grif isn't alive."

"No, he's alive, the dirt bag. Well, if yer goal is ta kill Grif, then ya have my support, O'Malley."

O'Malley had considered telling Sarge that Grif would only be one out of trillions of beings across the universe that would die horrible, painful deaths, but decided to go along with his new host. The rewards to having mutual goals with Sarge could prove to be . . . rewarding.

"Yes, Biff is the one that I am after, for he has plagued my existence with . . . plagues and such. Everyone else dying is just an added side benefit."

Sarge sounded like he was crying.

"O'Malley, yer the best parasitic AI a guy could ask fer. Ya hate the dirt bag so much ya can't even say his name right! And ya don't care about innocent lives being completely destroyed in the process! I think we're gonna git along just fine . . ."

To Be Continued