All right here is the next chapter

Staff of Charon Briefing Room

"Now our plan can truly begin. Step One?" Illinois started to his allies.

"Get the keys!" L shouted as on the briefing room screen showed Maine and his armor.

"Step two?" Illinois continued.

"Ascend from darkness!" X shouted as the screen showed the Staff of Charon arriving at Sidewinder

"Step three?" Illinois asked.

"Rain fire." II shouted as the screen showed the Staff of Charon destroying multiple structures in a prison.

"Step four?" Illinois went on.

"Unleash the horde." The Mad King said as the screen showed multiple imprisoned freelancers being picked up in pelicans and flown to the staff of Charon.

"Step five?" Illinois continued.

"Raise the winged beast." Sigma said as the screen showed the Mother of Invention raising itself out of the ice of Sidewinder.

"Step six?" Illinois kept going.

"Wield a fist of iron." Omega said as the screen showed the freelancers as an army fighting the UNSC.

"Step seven?" Illinois went on.

"Raise hell." Gamma said as the screen showed an alien fleet led by V attacking the UNSC.

"And lastly step eight. Domination." Illinois said as the screen showed the galaxy under the rule of the freelancers.

In Blood Gulch

"Alright so the plan is we use Locus's ship. Fly straight into whatever short of thing these ex-freelancers have and just wing it?!" Doc asked a little outraged.

"What you got a better plan. Besides we always wing it and look at what it has gotten us. All of us still alive and kicking ass." Tucker said to try to reassure Doc on the plan.

"Oh no I don't have a better idea. I was just checking to see if that was your whole. And now that I know that it is, I can say without a doubt that we are all going to die." Doc said as he joined the rest of the Reds and Blues in the ship.

"I will say this. No matter how many times we go down. No matter how many times we get pushed to the brink of defeat. No matter how bleak it looks. We will always manage to kick ass time and time again. I mean look at how we started. Couple nobody rejects in the middle of a box canyon doing nothing but talking to each other. Now look at us we are pretty much planet saving badasses. If there is anyone who can stop this Agent Illinois from whatever he plans on doing. It is us." Sarge said giving one of his inspirational speeches.

"Alright enough speeches and moaning everyone let's try to get a move." Carolina said as she began prepping gear and moving it into the pelican.

"And you aren't going to be taking down Illinois without me." Wash said as he walked towards the group.

"Wash. I thought you were still recovering from that stab." Tucker said a little concerned

"If I remember correctly didn't you once get stabbed and were up walking within the hour." Wash said making a comeback.

"Fair point." Tucker said as he too walked into the ship.

In the space above Blood Gulch

"So Wash care to explain how you and that new crazy freelancer know each other." Sarge inquired.

"Ya you seemed to really have it out for him." Simmons commentated.

"Alright but it would be easier if for right now if I just told you how we met." Wash said.

Flashback

Mother of Invention

A group of soldiers go running past Wash and York.

"Hey dude what is going on?" York asked one of the soldiers.

"News agents squaring off against every pilot we have in the simulator. We're going to watch. Hey guys wait up." The soldier said explaining the situation.

"This seems rather familiar." Wash said as he and York ran to also go and watch.

"3, 2, 1. Match begin." Phyliss said as the next simulation round started.

As the round went underway a single fight had already eliminated 20 others.

"Well this is certainly interesting." North said while watching what was going on with the screen.

"So who are these new agents?" Wash asked as he and York entered where the other freelancers were.

"Some new hotshots named Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Indiana." South said as she leaned back against a wall.

"Which one is currently up?" York asked as he leaned over a screen to get a better look.

"Currently its Michigan. Also a rule that Illinois put in place for them, the other pilots can use whatever ship they want but Illinois and his group can only use Pelicans." North explained.

"Wow. That puts them at a big disadvantage." Wash said as he then looked at a screen after looking at it for a few seconds he was dumbfounded.

"So, you take it back about them being at a disadvantage?" South asked as she knew what Washington just saw.

"I cannot believe this. How can you get a Pelican to move like that?" Wash said as he saw one Pelican take out 15 Longswords in 3 seconds

"Round over. The score is Michigan 499 points. 4 7 Niner 1 point." Phyliss said as the round was concluded.

"It's been going like that for the other three as well. All of them were able to take out everyone but 4 7 Niner." North said as he watched Michigan and Illinois swap places.

"Alright looks like this will be over soon." South said as she went to leave.

"You're not gonna stay and watch?" Wash asked.

"Na. Quite obvious it is going to be a repeat." South said as she continued to walk out.

"3, 2, 1. Match begin." Phyliss said as the next simulation round started.

As the round went underway it showed that it was Sabres vs a Pelican. With the Pelican actually managing to take down multiple Sabres.

"Woah. Where did he learn to pilot like that?" York said as he was impressed by Illinois's skills.

"Well looks like it's down to 4 7 Niner and Illinois." North said as he paid even closer attention to the screen.

Unlike the previous times this time the pelican eluded the sabre and was able to take it out.

"Round over. The score is Illinois 500 points. Pilots 0." Phyliss said as the round was concluded.

"Ok I have got to get to know them." Wash said as he started walking down towards the simulation floor.

Simulation floor

"Well that certainly lasted a lot shorter than I would have expected." Michigan said as he started walking out.

"I agree. Most of those pilots weren't even a challenge." Indiana said as she followed Michigan out.

"Well that 4 7 Niner pilot wasn't bad." Ohio said as he and Illinois started walking out as well.

"Hey Illinois what did you think of the pilots?" Michigan asked Illinois who wasn't paying attention and was just staring at the ceiling.

"Hey Illinois." Ohio said as he snapped his fingers in front of Illinois's face.

"Huh what? Sorry. Did I space out again?" Illinois asked as he and the rest continued walking towards the mess hall.

"Illinois did you start thinking about you know what again?" Michigan asked while starting to walk backwards.

"I don't get to what you are referring to." Illinois said trying to avoid the conversation.

"You know. You're little crush on you know who." Ohio said as he motioned his head towards Indiana.

"Look guys I thought we said we would drop this topic." Illinois said while still trying to avoid the conversation.

"Well you keep spacing out which means we have to keep bringing it up." Michigan said as he turned back around.

"Besides the four of us have been best friends since high school. It's not like we can just all of a sudden drop a conversation topic like that." Ohio said as now he turned around and started walking backwards.

"Hey new agents." Wash said as he had gotten ahead of them and now stood between them and the mess hall.

"Hmm. Steel and Yellow armor, outgoing, friendly. You must be Agent Washington." Illinois said as he and the rest of the group had stopped.

"Wow. That took no time at all. I saw some of the rounds against the other pilots. I will say I never knew you could maneuver a pelican like that." Wash said as he started leaning against the door to the mess hall.

"Believe me. We would love to stay and chat but we need to get some things to eat." Michigan said as he and the rest of the group walked past Wash.

"Rather interesting group." Wash said as he started walking away.

Flashback End

"And that was how I met the man who would soon be known as the Terror in the Skies. Anytime air support was needed for an op that squad would be there in no time." Wash said as he finished his explanation.

"For the parts that you weren't there for how did you know what they said?" Grif asked as he had woken up to hear the story.

"Well after I became a recovery agent one of the people I was sent to recover was Ohio. So I got access to every recording of him Project Freelancer had of him. So that is how I know. And for every recovery job for a member of that group I went to the recording in their helmets always showed Illinois with the group that we saw him with today." Wash explained.

"Wow. You really hate this guy." Sarge said as he tried to get himself in a position where he could fall asleep but at a moment's notice grab his shotgun.

"Let's just all get some rest. We're gonna need it if we want to stand a chance against Illinois and his group." Wash said as he got into a comfortable position and fell asleep.

Staff of Charon Armory

"Well good to see with my own eyes that you are back up Maine." Illinois said as he entered the armory to the site of Maine putting on his armor.

"(Grunt)" Maine got out.

"Alright fine you want me to call you Meta that is completely fine with me." Illinois said as he walked out.

Staff of Charon Bridge

"Alright Illinois does not want us to waste any more time so now we move on to Sidewinder." II said as he entered the bridge.

"Yes sir." The helmsman said as he laid in a course for Sidewinder.

Alright. Now I am lowering the number of reviews that have to be related to the poll to one review. As long as I get one review related to the poll per chapter including and after this one I will post the next chapter. So who would you rather see die? Caboose or Washington. The choice is yours.