Third Person POV

Blood Gulch

Butch had to admit, he felt bad for the sim troopers. All these innocent people who thought they were fighting for what was right, who thought they were going to have some greater affect on the fate of the galaxy at large, when all they really were in the end was cannon fodder. They were bullet sponges for the freelancers to use for practice, and as a freelancer Captain Flowers felt pretty guilty. After all, these people were wasting years of their lives away from their families just to end up as cannon fodder because they had "low test scores" and didn't do well in basic.

I mean, come on. You don't send someone to die because they aren't ready to become a real soldier, you send them home to their loved ones so they don't end up dead for the purposes of a project. Then again there wasn't much Butch could do anyways but accept it.

Though he did realize that the sim troopers in this canyon were a bit dumber than some of the other sim troopers he has met, not to mention they had a low chance of getting killed due to the fact that the canyon was being used to hide the Alpha A.I, who currently had no idea of his real identity. He just thought he was a blue soldier with shitty aim.

Because the Alpha needed to be hidden however, that ensured that the sim troopers who were assigned to Blood Gulch would more than likely survive. After all, the director would more than likely avoid sending freelancers to the canyon so that he could keep the Alpha safe, meaning no highly trained agents would be around to kill the sim troopers.

Ah, if only these sim troopers knew how lucky they were compared to some of the other targets out there in the galaxy.

Yet there was one thing that concerned the blue freelancer, and that was the fact that something was hunting down freelancers and their A.I. No one was able to get a description on it, only that so far it had killed some of the agents who hadn't been on the leader-board yet had acquired several A.I units such as Zeta and Kappa, though they were admittedly weaker units than the likes of Omega, Sigma, or Omicron.

Still, whatever was killing freelancers could only get stronger and Flowers knew that if it came for Alpha, if it somehow discovered the location of Alpha, he would stand no chance and the sim troopers wouldn't either. Flowers was a skilled freelancer that was for sure, even if he wasn't as acknowledged as some of the others such as Texas or Carolina. But if whatever was killing freelancers already had two A.I, possibly three if it already had one of its own along with the equipment from the freelancers it killed, well Butch wouldn't stand a chance. Especially not if it got more A.I and equipment in the mean-time.

However he didn't know who he could call for help. He could tell the sim troopers the truth about whats going on and get them all on a proper training schedule, however he knew he was likely to face disbelief and resistance from the troopers, especially the red team. The reds would just say he is a "Dirty rotten blue" who was trying to trick them all with his crazy words and schemes.

He also had no way of calling other trustworthy freelancers. His comms didn't have the range that would be needed to contact any other freelancers, and even if his comms did have the needed range he wouldn't be able to just instantly open up a call with his allies. He could eventually get his comms to have the needed range to be able to contact other freelancers, but the only way he would be able to get their attention is if he set a broadcast on all open channels, and that could just as easily attract whatever was hunting freelancers and A.I as well as friendly freelancers.

He really hated the situation he was in, and he was the type to not think negatively.

He then suddenly got an idea.

Aboard the Prowler

Alex/ Noble 6 POV

I flipped my knife in the air idly, keeping an eye on the point of the deadly weapon as I caught it by its blade. For a while we, we being Connie, Jun, Omicron and I, have been waiting for something to happen. We've had nothing to do after we finished off the insurrection for good, though we did think of going to Side Winder to grab our freelancer allies, mainly because Omicron had allowed us to listen in on private transmissions between Project Freelancer and the UNSC, where we discovered some agents had gone rogue and the Mother of Invention had crashed on the ice planet.

However we realized that we couldn't go ahead with this plan for a few reasons, mainly because apparently the command base for the project had crashed a week before the transmission had been sent, meaning that any of their allies that had been on the planet had probably found a way off the planet and were putting distance between themselves and the project they had just defected from.

However Omicron was constantly keeping an eye on all transmissions related to Project Freelancer. If he found anything of interest, he would alert the rest of the crew as to what is going on.

I sighed and put my knife back in the sheath on my shoulder. It was really bugging me that all we could do was wait for something to happen on this ship, and I really didn't like the chances of the UNSC coming across us. While Lord Hood may be on our side, what we were currently up to was off the books and we could easily be labeled as traitors for both defecting from Project Freelancer and, in turn, the UNSC. Not to mention that Lord Hood, while he was still chairmen and had a lot of pull, might soon be replaced by his assistant. If we got into any trouble with the UNSC, Lord Hoods already precarious position from being MIA for so long might just be the last push needed for his assistant to replace him. If he had to reveal himself to stop us from being executed or sent to prison, well that would be the last time he would be able to help us.

No supplies or anything if he gets replaced. The help that we were currently receiving would be cut off, and then if we got found again by the UNSC, being caught doing what we're doing. Well, they would be doomed.

"Everyone I believe I have found something, please gather in the meeting room right away."

line-skip

Once we had all gathered up in the meeting room, Omicrons hologram popped up in front of us, "Good, your all here. We can get right down to business than. Long range scanners have picked up a transmitter on a planet, not far from a planet where Project Freelancer had one of its sim trooper bases set up."

Connie, holding her helmet between her head and her side frowned at the A.I, "Alright, so what? Its not too big of a deal if a transmitter popped up, could just be some sim troopers who need help or something, and we have better things to do."

Omicron shook his head at Connie however, "Actually we currently do not have anything better to do, however that is not the point. The transmitter is from Agent Florida of Project Freelancer."

That got her attention, "Florida? Whats he doing at a sim base? He is one of the veterans of the project, he doesn't really need the training."

"That is why I called you here. Florida could end up being an ally in this whole ordeal, not to mention he wouldn't be out here at a sim trooper outpost if it wasn't important."

I crossed my arms as I looked at Connie, "Sis, is Florida trustworthy? You know him better than I do and I want to hear from you what you think of him before we decide on our next course of action."

She nodded with a confidant air about her however, "Yeah, you can trust him alright. Of all the freelancers in the project, he was the one who cared the least about the rankings and competition, not to mention he was always so nice and optimistic. Not to mention he is all for doing whats right, so I say we go."

"Hold on there C.T," Jun put his hand up as he looked at C.T, "For all you know he could be in on whats been really going on with the project, he could be in the directors inner circle. He might not be the man that you think he is."

Connie turned a glare onto Jun, "You can trust him. I know that much, Florida isn't the type who would lie or break the law like the director, he is trustworthy."

Jun frowned but said nothing more.

I sighed as I ran a hand through my hair, "Alright, alright. Here is our next course of action than, we go to this planet with the transmitter, meet up with Florida and see what he wants. If he is still a good guy and needs our help with something or other, we'll stick with him or he can come with us, but," He looked at both his companions, "Just in case he has changed, I want Jun to be out of sight nearby with a clear shot on Florida. If he isn't a friend anymore, Jun can take him out. Are we good with the plan?"

Connie reluctantly nodded, probably still not thinking that Florida could have changed for the worse or could have been acting like a decent person while Jun had a somewhat satisfied look on his face, probably due to the fact that we were deciding to be cautious in this ordeal.

"By the way Omicron, what sim base are we gonna be heading to?"

"We will be heading to Blood Gulch outpost number one."

Well well well, seems we are finally gonna really get to the reds and blues. I got another question for you guys, do you think the story should follow the blood gulch chronicles or that we should move off from there? The blood gulch chronicles weren't much about plot and were for shits and giggles more or less so I don't really think I'll do it, but I don't know what to do to go off from Blood Gulch. If y'all have got any ideas I'm open to suggestions. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter!