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Location
Unknown
"Utah, grunts; three o'clock" Michigan screamed into his helmet mic, emptying his magazine into the on coming group of jackals.
'Michigan, more jackals
coming from south-west.'
Michigan
spun around and threw a grenade, taking the whole group out.
"Mitch, I'm out! Cover me!" Utah screams as she dives for a near by ammo crate. A grunt takes out two live plasma grenades and charges at Utah, who is too busy with the ammo to notice. Michigan tries to shoot at him, but his gun jams. As a last ditch effort Michigan dives at the grunt, knocking it to the ground. He breaks the grunts neck, but he didn't notice that it already stuck the plasma grenades to his back.
A bright flash of light filled Michigan's vision and the grunts fizzled out. Michigan felt a hand on his back, then a smack to the back of the head.
"You idiot, we were doing so well! You had to be a hero, didn't you?" Utah said picking Michigan up. He took off his helmet and just looked at her.
"It was either you or me. And I didn't what you to be the cause of our failure." He said lowering his voice.
Utah hesitated a few seconds before taking off her helmet. Her cheeks were slightly red. "You can't let personal feelings get in the way here." She said ruffling Michigan's hair. "I'm going to get some breakfast; we can try that simulation again later today." She said walking away, waving.
After Utah is far enough away he activates Xi. "Hey, X? You can tell emotional levels of others, and not just me… right?"
Xi appears on Michigan's shoulder. 'Yes, why do you ask?'
"Well, Utah was smiling and it looked like she was blushing. What was she feeling right then?"
'One moment, please…
She was feeling happiness. Just mere friendliness though.'
Michigan
looked down. "Oh, thanks X." Michigan walked to his room in the
barracks.
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Office
of Dr. Leonard
Church
Leonard sighed as he looked at the piles upon piles of papers he had to go through before the end of the day. The first file was the report of the death of Agent Montana. He was lost as part of an assignment from another department. "If we keep losing freelancers at this rate, we won't have any left." He signed the bottom of the form and placed it to the side. He picked up the next folder on the pile and looked at the top page. "Ahh, agent Michigan, the star of the new recruits." Agent Michigan was the only new recruit that showed any promise. He was recently paired with Agent Utah, who was the best of her recruitment group. Together they made one hell of a team. They were both to be activated to Outpost 143-X, a human base located on a Covenant planet. The original plan was to activate agents Michigan and Utah as recovery agents 10 and 11. But, they hold so much more potential as field agents. He signed both pages several times and got on his phone and called his secretary. "Sorry to bother you, but can you please page agents Michigan and Utah to my office? Thank you." A few seconds, he hears over the P.A. system;
Agents
Utah and Michigan please report to the Director's office at
once.
Agents Utah and Michigan please report to the Director's
office at
once.
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Freelancer
Barracks, Housing unit
#187
Michigan was finally out of his armor when he heard the page to the Director's office. But, what was strange was that agent Utah was paged also, so obviously it was about something important. He strapped on a pair of black dress like shoes and picked up his side arm and set off to the Director's office. "Hey X, what's going on? Do you know?" Xi appeared in Michigan's field of vision.
'I don't Mitch. I would think that it would have to do with today's training.'
"That makes sense. I'm probably going to get some type of punishment for that move I made to protect agent Utah."
'I think that was a very noble thing to do, Mitch.'
"Haha, thanks X. At least I know you'll have my back."
Xi disappears as Michigan knocks on the Director's office door. Agent Michigan hears the same booming, "Enter," that he heard when he first started here. He chuckled as he walked in the room. Utah was already sitting in a chair across from the director. "Hello agent Michigan. Please, take a seat." Michigan looks at Utah, whose orange hair is back in a pony tail. The Director cleared his throat and spoke. "You both are going to be sent to Outpost 143-X, to aid in the take over of the Covenant planet, Varldoaari. The shuttle will leave in a week. You are to continue training as usual, and in one week, you are to report to the shuttle at 0500." Utah looked at Michigan with a look saying, this is going to be awesome. Michigan nodded back. Xi manifested on the desk before the Director along with Nu, Utah's AI. Nu shined a soft pink on the desk, mixing with Xi's golden color.
'Hello Xi and Agent Michigan, I am Nu.'
'And I am Xi.'
The two AI nodded at each other and turned to their respective owners.
'Let's do this.' They said in unison.