Plus One

479er was not going to pick up Wash this time. Because she thought she had been clear about not being a fucking hearse. Either way, she still found herself at Sidewinder, standing in the snow not far from leftovers of the Mother Of Invention that were buried under the snow. To put it nicely, it was a mess.

Glaciers had been broken down, blood was about everywhere along with a destroyed jeep and dead bodies. Down the cliff, some fucking idiot managed to somehow crash land a pelican. As she took a look at that, 479er wasn't sure if she didn't want to know who could be that stupid or if she wanted to ask because she would like to tell the guy something. For all that was holy, not even South would have been that bad in flying a pelican.

There were also a whole lot of UNSC soldiers and these annoying simulation troopers which wouldn't stop bickering. One with yellow accent caught her attention but when she looked closer she saw he was cobalt, not grey.

As if it wasn't bad enough, she actually recognized the teal ones voice since he would often contact command because of the negotiations with the Shangheli (how could she forget his voice after he once tried to convince her to have phone sex with him until she said something about cutting off his balls and cooking them for dinner?)

Luckily she didn't have to deal with them. Her job actually was supposed to be to bring back what was left of Washington and the Meta. Well, as for the later, there was nothing much to bring back besides the helmet and some parts of his armor that a poor soul of the UNSC soldiers had gotten from the bloody mess at the bottom of the cliff. 479er swore she saw the guy being green in the face even behind the visor when he handed her over what he got.

As for Washington, he didn't look that much better, honestly. His maltreated and broken body was lying in dyed red snow. He wasn't the first horrible ravaged dead man she saw. And as tough as she got over the years, 479er found a pang of something like condiment when she saw him like that. Because she knew him from a time where he was such a kind and naïve person.

It hadn't been an easy fight and it hadn't been an easy or quick death. But at least he was death now, she thought. Life seemed to have nothing left for him anyway.

There was another soldier of the UNSC, probably with the order to check on Washington. But as the man was quite obviously dead the soldier was just standing there and pretending to work. What a lazy bugger.

479er stalked over towards him. Even though she didn't know exactly what it was that she had to look for she had the very clear order from her employer to look for something in particular. She knew what it looked like, at least.

She stalked over towards Washs body and the man. He flinched and stood upright when he heard her but once he realized she was just a pilot and not his boss he relaxed again. There was no real reason why she noticed. But as 479er took a closer look at the corpse she saw the sniper rifle in the snow. Not that Washington hadn't been able to use this one accurately. But she was fairly sure that he was unlikely to use it. His iconic weapon was the battle rifle.

There really, really was no reason but she looked back at the simulation troopers. From the look of it they were explaining this whole mess to the UNSC with a lot of waving, gesturing and shouting and insulting. Her gaze stopped at the cobalt one.

Battle rifle. Yellow accents.

"What's the matter, pilot?" the guy next to her asked. She couldn't stop from rolling her eyes. "Did he have anything on him?" she nodded at the grey armor she wasn't so sure anymore if it really was Wash. The guys gaze followed hers but he turned his head back soon. "Uh, you mean something that is still intact?"

"Are you stupid or deaf? What part of something was unclear?"

The guy looked at her startled before he sputtered. "No, he has nothing."

"Good, then go and look around to find something that looks like a storage unit. You know, brown, an arm long with a glowing light and a peaky end."

When the guy just gaped at her 479er made a dismissive movement with her hand. "Didn't I tell you to move it? Go ahead and do something useful." When the idiot finally toddled off, the first thing 479er did was to check if she could get the helmet of the death person off. She didn't. The helmet as well as the whole head were smashed and deformed too much. She frowned. She wanted to break the visor open somehow but then decided against it. What she would find every one else could find.

It had been the right dissection because only moments later the UNSC soldier already returned holding something in his hand. It looked like a peaky, pointy brown tip of something rather big.

"That's what you have been looking for?"

479er gave the object a close look. Yeah, looked pretty much like the unit they showed her. "Well, that's half of it. Hand it over and go look for the other half" she ordered and held out a hand to the guy, waiting. When he didn't move right away the pilot groaned loudly. "What's the matter? Are you always that slow or what? Go find the rest of this thing. What's wrong with you guys? Ain't I clear enough?" she ranted, making the man gape at her once more before he decided it was better to get moving now.

Once he left, the first thing 479er did was to call command herself and request one of her workmates to get her through to Malcom Hograve right away. She had to wait only shortly but she already wondered what he was going to say. From all she knew he was very interested in getting this certain unit back. And to have a discourse with Washington. She smirked at the thought of his face when he would get the news.

She heard a small clicking sound in her helmet and knew she could speak now. "479er reporting in, sir."

"We have you, 479er. You are secure. Go ahead", Hograve said at the other end, voice plain as always. "Can you retreat the object?"

"Negative, sir" she replied almost bored. "I found the object. But it's broken. As in two halfs." There was a long silence at the other end, enough for her to tap her foot at the snow in annoyance. "I see. Then pleas return with Agent Washington and the Meta as soon as possible."

479er rolled her eyes in instead of groaning. Because no matter as much as she wanted to do that, to groan in annoyance when you had your superior on the other end of the radio wasn't the smartest thing to do. So she settled for yelling at other people even if she liked to tell that guy a few things.

"About that, sir" she said, trying to sound not as annoyed as she felt. "I never agreed to be a corpse transport in this. The Meta is only a smear you could maybe scrape off the bottom of this cliff and Washingtons body doesn't look much better. So if you really want this leftovers I suggest you send someone else."

There was again silence from the other side, only disturbed from some rustling noise. She knew he didn't like the way she talked but 479er was very strict about this. The only corpses she tolerated on her ship where the ones that still were alive when they got onboard.

"That is unfortunate", the Chairman said, his voice low and even but somehow it sent a shiver down 479ers back. It wasn't like she didn't knew that this man had just as many shady things going on as the Director. Just a hunch, really. Wash really would be better off dead because she doubted that he would have gotten whatever he had been promised.

"In that case gather the leftover equipment and return back to the headquarters. We will have a conversation about this later. As for now, just return as fast as possible. You must not answer anyones questions."

"Roger that, sir. 479er out."

She shut off the radio and exhaled. Well, great. Sounded like she had to do another boring and long report. Looking around shortly she could see the soldier she sent before to find the rest of the memory unit looking through the snow. "Hey you! Get over here and take care of this body!"

The man stopped in his movement and looked over to her. He didn't react immediately and so 479er already got impatient. "What's wrong? Move it and do your Job!"

"But you told me to collect this unit thing!"

"No, I told you to get the fuck over here and get rid of the corpse! What's so hard to understand about it?"

When the guy finally came back to her he looked down at Washs body and then slowly back up at her. "And what exactly am I supposed to do with him?" he asked her uncertainly.

"Didn't I say? Get rid of it. Over the cliff there with it." She pointed casually behind herself with a thumb and it only caused the man to gape at her through the visor. "Throw him over the cliff?"

"Did I sputter or something?"

"No, no. But-"

"Hey, you wane question the order? No? Good. Because I don't think your boss would be happy to be bothered with nullities like that. So get moving! God why do I have to repeat myself all the time?"

The soldier had been more than hesitant but in the end he dragged the body away and over the cliff while 479er collected what was left for her to take with her. Somewhere on the other side of the snowfield she heard other soldiers yell about losing their job. When she turned she saw the red sim troopers fly off with a hornet in the most horrible manner she'd ever seen in her whole life (and she saw a lot.)

Curiosity stung her again and she let her eyes travel around, looking for the blue soldiers. She caught sight of them up a hill just in time to see how the teal one shoved the cobalt one in what was probably an amicable manner. But it was enough to make the other man sway and he had to make a quick grab for his upper arm to keep him from falling.

For a reason she really couldn't imagine the regular blue one shoved them both with so much force that they almost literally fell down the hill. She titled her head as she heard yelling from over there she couldn't quite make out.

She probably would never knew if the man with the yellow accents really was Wash or if he was the body that now lay with Maine down on the bottom of the cliff. But either way, he probably was finally out of what became his hell on earth.

Good luck either way.