Ch 17
Years Later
Six follows Carolina as they approach a door, hearing voices on the other side. Carolina opens the door and walks forward.
"I've been looking for you for a long time, Alpha. Now that I found you, I'm going to do what I should have done years ago. You're going to help me kill the director." Carolina said, as she faced down two soldiers, one wearing blue armor, and one wearing red armor. And the epsilon unit.
"Carolina? You should be dead. And who's the giant person next to you?" Church asks.
"Noble 6. Who the hell are you two?" Six asks.
"The one in red is Sarge, the leader of red team. The one in blue, is Caboose, the dumbest soldier in blue team." Church said.
"Alright, we have the AI. Lets get out of here." Six curtly said.
"Wait, what's going on?" Church asks.
"We'll explain on the road. Right now, the UNSC is tracking us." Six said, as he headed back the way he came.
"Hey, Wash." Six said, encountering the second Freelancer.
"Hey, Six." Wash said, as he headed to Carolina.
Six headed back to the entrance, where several UNSC soldiers were hosing his position with a minigun. He primed a plasma grenade and tossed it onto the weapon itself. A loud explosion told him the area was clear, and he walked to execute the stragglers. He then heard Spanish music, and looked up.
A warthog drove towards him at high speed, and he rolled out of the way.
"Damn it Griff! You killed them before I could introduce them to my brand of red justice." Sarge said.
"I killed them, not Griff." Six said, watching another warthog came up. This warthog drove at a slower speed, and had classical music playing from it. Inside, was another red soldier driving, and an aqua covered soldier brandishing a covenant plasma sword.
"I'm riding with you, next time. He actually stopped at the train tracks." The green soldier said.
"It's the law." The red soldier said.
"We were being shot at!" the green soldier retorted.
"It's still the law." The red soldier muttered.
"Simmons, only you could manage to make a high speed car chase boring." Sarge said.
"And who's the other two?" Six asked.
"The one with the sword is Tucker, and the orange one is Griff." Wash said.
"I still don't understand why you guys rescued me." Church said.
"Don't blame us. Blame those two." Sarge said.
"Blame her." Six said, hitching his thumb to Carolina said.
"She wanted to get you out of that memory what's it. Something about you being a mental imprint of professor what's his puss." Sarge said.
"Can somebody translate that, I don't speak huckleberry." Church said.
"Yeah. The mean lady wants to find the director and since you have all his memories, you might know where he went." Caboose said.
"Wow. That actually seemed to correct. There must be some part you didn't understand." Church said.
"And when we find him, we're going to throw him a surprise party." Caboose said.
"There it is." Church said.
"Sure, as long as surprise party means shooting him in the face and then walking away in slow motion." Sarge said.
Six looked at the colored soldiers, wondering if they were all nuts. By their mannerisms, they probably were.
"I don't know how much help I'm going to be. I may have the director's memories, but that doesn't mean I remember them." Church said.
"Yeah. I have the same problem. I barely remember any of my own memories." Caboose said.
"Wow, no wonder Church said he was stupid." Six muttered.
"Everyone load up. Nav points are in your huds. Alternate navs uploaded to your secondary objectives. Sync?" Carolina asks.
"Sync." Six said, as he sat in the driver's seat.
"Sync?" Carolina asks when no-one else responded.
"Oh. Everyone, just say sync whenever she says that." Wash said.
"You guys aren't used to getting orders?" Carolina asks.
"We're used to getting them. We just don't do much with them." Griff said.
"We're retreating." Carolina said.
"Now that, I can follow." Griff said.
"That's usually step one in most of our plans. Sync." Simmons said.
"Lets just go." Carolina muttered, obviously frustrated.
As they headed to another facility, Six spoke to Wash.
"Wash, who are these guys?" Six asks.
"Project Freelancer set up training bases and simulation troopers for their freelancers to practice in. These soldiers, were from blood gulch. A box canyon in the middle of nowhere." Wash said.
"Lovely." Six muttered.
The group drove for hours on end, arriving at a windmill power base, when the warthogs stopped.
"Why are we stopping?" Six asks.
"We've been driving for hours." Griff said.
"And we've got a lot more ground to cover. So, lets keep moving." Carolina ordered.
"Listen, lady. I know this is your first road trip with us, but we got a system. And that system includes snack breaks, bathroom breaks, and stopping to take pictures of funny road signs." Griff explained.
"Jesus Christ." Six muttered, as he followed Carolina to the top of the base. He zoomed in on the blue soldiers, and heard them talk about church.
"You didn't delete my 'home movies' folder, did you?" Tucker asks.
"And that leads me to my second point." Church said.
"What a bunch of worthless idiots." Carolina said.
"I know. The one with the sword is blabbering about girls and his porn collection. We're on the run for our lives, and that's on his mind?" Six muttered.
"They're not all that bad. Once you get to know them." Wash said.
"I'll take your word for it. But I can tell they have one thing going for them." Six said.
"What's that?" Carolina asks.
"Comradery. Something the freelancers never had." Six said.
"We almost trapped the Meta last time we were here." Wash said.
"Almost. Which means you didn't. I wouldn't point that out again, Wash." Six said, as he continued to observe and listen to the sim troopers.
"Sarge, how come every time the blue get into something, we get dragged into it?" Griff asks.
"Good point." Six muttered.
"You know what they say. Keep your friends close, and your enemy within range of your primary firing weapon. So you can shoot them!" Sarge said, aiming his shotgun.
"He's off his meds. Probably ran out a long time ago." Six muttered.
"I know we agreed to help Wash, Carolina, and Six. But do you think they'll help us? If we run into trouble, you think they'll stick their neck out for us?" Simmons asks.
"Well, for a backstabbing double crossing no good dirty rotting blue, that Wash fella isn't too bad." Sarge said.
Six chuckled at that response.
"What a ringing endorsement." Griff sarcastically said.
"I'm more worried about Carolina and Six." Simmons said.
Six watched as Simmons went on a mini rant about the two killing the red and blues if they ever completed their mission. Topped off by Sarge saying they'll look weak in front of their enemy, as Caboose nonchalantly looks at them. Sarge and Griff left Simmons for a second, prompting him to say things were better when it was just the red and blues fighting each other, without the freelancers getting involved.