Chapter XXII

Red Squad had been traveling West for several days, examining every burnt down warehouse on their map searching for O'Malley's secret teleporter grid. After coming up empty with every examination, they were starting to doubt that the place existed at all . . .

"Tex, I'm starting to doubt that this place existed at all," said the Master Chief.

He drove the warthog down a dusty trail that led through a burned down attempt at a settlement. Every warehouse they went to previously was also burned down along with the surrounding attempt at a settlement. At first, it was creepy. Now it was getting old. The Chief made a few more turns and passed more old burned buildings and continued down a straight stretch of road. Dark, ominous clouds were forming overhead, and rain began to drizzle from up above, turning the dusty trail into a muddy one. The hog pulled up alongside the final burned down warehouse, followed by the other one. All ten soldiers filed out, grabbing their weapons and making sure they were loaded. Everyone followed the Chief as he walked up to the door slowly. He kicked it down and somersaulted into the room. His maneuver was halted as his foot hit the ground and his other knee steadied himself. Two Sub Machine Guns were pointed forward at . . . nothing.

"Nice one, Chief," Tex said. She and the rest of the squad entered the burnt down facility nonchalantly.

Tex looked around the room. The warehouse was exactly the same to the other ones they had been in; small, dark, charred and empty. Completely empty. The Chief walked over to a wall and began searching for any sign of recent occupation.

"Sir, every single warehouse turned out the same results; absolutely nothing," said Grif. "What makes you think you'll find something here?"

The Chief's hand slid over a bump. It wouldn't have been so profound if the bump wasn't pulsating and glowing. The light was encased inside a black semi-transparent bulb, making the effect of a black light. The bump turned out to be a button. The Chief pressed it and four teleporters activated on the four sides of the room.

"I don't know, Grif. Maybe my years of experience in these sorts of things helped."

"Showoff," Grif muttered.

"Excellent work, Master Chief, I knew you'd find it eventually," piped Simmons.

"You are such a kiss ass."

"Shut up Grif."

"Shut up both of you! We found the teleporters, so let's get moving!"

Everyone moved out to secure the room and protect it from possible intruders. Master Chief walked up to one of the teleporters and saw a sign above it read 'Lockout'. He remembered that Lockout was the name of one of O'Malley's bases. The Chief inspected the other three and found that each one sported a similar identification. O'Malley was either ridiculously shortsighted or unbelievably ingenious. Either way, he had just shown them where his fortresses were. The Chief walked up to a teleporter marked 'Containment'.

"We'll start here," he announced.

Lock-jaw walked up beside him holding Andy.

"So, the Great Freezing Plains it is then," said Andy. "I've been dying to remodel the place ever since we first got there."

"Let's just hope this isn't a trap."

Tex was now standing at his other side.

"O'Malley is either watching your every move as we speak, or is utterly unaware as to our location. Knowing him, it's more likely the second one, and just a heads up about this place; really, really fucking cold."

"Thanks. I'm glad you're here to make everything painfully obvious."

"Don't mention it."

"Alright everyone, listen up," the Chief called to Red Squad. "According to the lady, you're gonna freeze your asses off at this place, so make sure you got what you need to keep warm."

Everyone was ready to go in minutes and the Master Chief took a step through the teleporter. He emerged at the coldest, iciest place he'd ever been to. He knew he wasn't going to like it already. Everyone filed out of the teleporter behind him.

"Son of a bitch, Chief, this place is freezing!" Grif exclaimed.

"That's because it's nighttime, Private. I suggest we move into those caves and pitch camp. It might be a little less cold."

Everyone hastily moved into the tunnel carved out in the rock wall. The Chief zoomed in on the large fortress in front of him. It was strangely familiar, but the Chief couldn't put his finger on exactly how. He shrugged and went to catch up with the rest of his squad. To his surprise, most of them already had their tents set up. Grif, Simmons, Donut, Caboose, Doc, Lock-jaw and Lopez had their tents in a semi-circle facing in towards a fire that Lopez had started up. Tex's tent was a ways off, as she claimed to operate better alone. Andy sat near the fire as everyone gathered their skewers and began to roast an assortment of foods over the open flame. The talking explosive device began to recount the adventures he went on with Caboose, Tucker and CrunchBite, but the Chief was too tired to listen. The long days of driving were taxing, as inaction made him more tired then strenuous workouts or perilous battles. He entered his tent and removed his armor, setting it neatly aside. His tent kept almost all the warmth inside and left the cold outside. It was times like these that the Chief cherished; calm evenings where everyone was enjoying themselves in their own way. The Chief liked to update himself on the most recent Red Army reports and decided to look at those before he went to sleep.

He was reading about the Second Battle for Sidewinder when he heard the zipper to his tent open. He placed the data pad on the floor and waited for the intruder, only to see Tex's unarmored head peek through the open flap. She gave a small smile upon seeing he was alone and scuttled into the tent and the Chief saw she had a sleeping bag pulled up to her neck along with a large blanket. Tex zipped the 'door' behind her.

"I don't believe I gave you permission to enter, Tex."

"I don't believe I asked for permission, sir."

The Chief smiled to himself. Tex was about as respectful as Grif, although she shared none of his laziness. Tex scooted from the spot in the Chief's tent closer to him. Much closer.

"May I ask why you have decided to grace me with this unexpected visit?"

"Your little band of soldiers has been roasting whatever they can find over that stupid fire for over three hours. Almost half of my food is gone because that alien pet of yours keeps turning invisible and stealing it from me."

"And you came over here because you want me to yell at them?"

"No, I came over here because it's really cold. That, and I was getting bored."

"Were you getting bored or lonely?"

"A little of both, I guess."

She moved even closer to the Chief, who suddenly remembered that he only had his blanket around his waist. He was about to say something when Tex wrapped her arms around his neck, bringing her blanket around, covering them both. The Chief could feel Tex's body pressing against his and realized that she only had her blanket as well. The warmth from Tex's body mixed with the Chief's and slowly heated the tent to a nice, toasty temperature. He moved back, resting his head on his pillow. One of his arms held Tex close to him and the other rested on his chest.

"You do realize," the Chief began, ruining the sensual moment, "that this is strictly for survival purposes."

"Chief, we're both naked and we're spending the night in the same tent under the same blanket. You can take your military protocols and shove em, I just want a warm place to sleep." Tex muttered. She rested her hand on top of the Chief's. "And keep your hands above the waist," she added groggily.

Master Chief grinned. He slowly drifted off to sleep.

"Professor Burdick!" the eerie voice said behind him.

The middle aged man turned to see the red-clad warrior standing behind him. A shotgun sat in his hands in a relaxed position, but he knew that, with one piece of bad news, the gun could spell his death.

Professor Justin Burdick of the Red Army Research and Development Corps had been hired by O'Malley to create new weapons to protect his fortresses. His unique and effective Air Defense turret design had landed him the position of Lead Scientist of Doom at O'Malley's weapon development laboratory on Relic. Well, it was partially his AD turret design. The other part was the fact that his predecessor, Professor Jason Jovenall, had failed to produce an adequate design for his super weapon and was fed a blast from the twelve-gauge shotgun. And that gun was uncomfortably close for Burdick's liking. He ran a hand through his jet-black hair, pushing it out of his large, unwieldy glasses.

"Yes O'Malley?"

"I require an update on the super weapon. When will it be operational?"

Burdick didn't have a direct answer. When dealing with experimental weapons, one could never be sure of when they would be operational. Rather than risk his life, he gave his best answer.

"At least a month. Maybe longer."

"A month? A MONTH? Professor, Burdick, we don't have a month. We have weeks; maybe days before those meddling fools from Red Squad discover our location. Even though they will inevitably die, they will give away our position! We can't hold off an entire armada, Professor. Not yet."

"O'Malley, if I might be so bold as to offer a suggestion?"

"Assuming it is one that will interest me, carry on."

"Perhaps we don't need to have the primary super weapon online as soon as possible. From what I understand, these installations you've scattered across the galaxy aren't powerful enough to create the devastation you so desire. Not yet, anyway. Perhaps we can push the primary super weapon back and release the . . . other weapon you created."

"You want me to set them lose?"

"Indeed. If they spread as rapidly as our researchers have estimated, most life in the galaxy will be destroyed by the time we are ready. It would be most interesting to observe their actions in an uncontrolled environment. It would also give us time to strengthen the super weapon. Besides, when the super weapon is fired, they'll die along with everyone else."

"Hmm. Perhaps you have a point. I can arrange for them to be released, but not until I can be assured that the primary weapon will be operational. It would be like letting a flood loose and not having any dams to stop it."

"Of course, sir. If we were able to get our hands on that flag data, the month I mentioned earlier would be reduced to several days."

"Leave that to me."

"With all due respect, you aren't planning on sending out one of those worthless Tex clones, are you?"

"What if I was?"

"I think it is time to try a different approach. The Tex clones have failed you thrice."

"True, true. What did you have in mind?"

Burdick brought up a display screen that showed a live video feed from the Lockout Research facility. In one of the containment cells, a large collection of orange worms were squirming about, hungrily looking for something to devour.

"You want to drown them in pumpkin pie?"

"No, O'Malley, these creatures were just discovered on a planet out in the Tomato System."

"A Red-controlled system, no doubt. Why do those fools insist on naming their controlled systems after objects that are the same color as they are? Anyway, what do these creatures do?"

"They are very primitive worms, but they gather together to form a single collective consciousness. It is incredible. We placed a group inside a standard soldier's armor, and it moved about as though it was a human being!"

"Yes, very impressive. You don't mean to tell me that this is what you hope to hold those fools off with, do you?"

"No, of course not. As you know, we have also been researching new types of armor with mind control devices implanted inside them. One suit design was already tested on a worm colony."

"And? What were the results?"

"The mind control device worked flawlessly, O'Malley. The creature obeyed every command we sent to it. It even went so far as to ignore our commands only to provide a faster and more efficient solution."

"Is it still inside the armor?"

"It cannot be removed."

"Show me where you're keeping it."

Burdick tapped another button and a different screen came up. It showed a large bipedal creature encased in a shiny, blue-grey armor. The top was shaped like a dome with an opening at the top where an exposed section of the worms connected the dome to a smaller blue dome that had two black ovals on either side. The small dome was the head, the orange section was the neck and the large dome was the torso. There were two opening on either side of the torso where supposed arms emerged. The one on the left was encased in a flexible black casing that protected the vulnerable orange flesh beneath. The arm ended with three large claws. The right arm was wrapped similarly, but instead of a hand a strange, plasma-based cannon finished off the appendage. Along the back of the torso, several razor-sharp spines swayed back and forth. There was another section of exposed orange, which was the waist, and a triangular piece of armor connected the small midsection to the lower half of the body. The legs were encased in the same material as the arms, but the shins were plated with the blue-grey armor for added protection. The feet ended in massive boots that were as longer than a soldier's torso. The whole thing stood over eleven feet tall.

"What do you call these creatures, Professor Burdick?"

"Since they were created to find and kill your enemies, we have translated the word hunter into an ancient language. These creatures are called Lekgolo.

To Be Continued