740m away from Oregon's D96-TCE Albatross

Galerius

Lucan System

1845 Hours

"How are his vitals?" asked Oregon. Ares appeared next to the unconscious Idaho. "Do you have to ask me every ten fucking seconds?" said Ares. "He's fine. Still taking the longest forty winks I've ever recorded though." Oregon sighed in frustration.

Oregon had located Agent Idaho on Galerius two hours later after Idaho's encounter with California in the Forerunner Facility after Idaho had combated Agent California. Oregon had relocated Idaho's body out of the facility and near the site where he had landed his slip-space rigged UNSC Albatross. Oregon had taken his helmet off to clean his air filters while waiting for Idaho to awaken.

"Ok, and for the record, I asked you ten minutes ago asshole." said Oregon. Ares made a 'stop' gesture with his hand and logged off to continue to monitor Idaho's vitals. 'Fuck that asshole.' Oregon thought to himself as he finished cleaning his air filter and began to check his Bolt-Shot's ammunition levels.

Ares' avatar suddenly appeared over Idaho's body once again. "What is it?" asked Oregon putting down his guns. "False alarm, it was just a pulse spike." said Ares. Oregon settled down again and was about to resume checking his weapons when suddenly, "Hey fucktard, I'm getting some shit over here." Oregon got up and rushed to Idaho's side.

"What is it?" asked Oregon. "At first I thought it was just a spike, but now his pulse is speeding up, at a bloody fast rate too." said Ares. Oregon looked down at Idaho's motionless body waiting for something to happen. "He's waking up! He's fucking waking up!" said Ares.

Idaho's eyelids slowly opened and the first thing he saw was the blur of Oregon whom Idaho could not identify. "Take it easy." said Oregon in his American accent. When Idaho's eyes fully opened, he threw a fist into Oregon's face and stood upright.

"What the fuck man?" Oregon said in shock. "Why are you tracking me bitch?" said Idaho angrily. "So you knew." said Oregon, rubbing his face. "I found it while checking my armour for damage after I left the carrier." said Idaho. "Nice job at that. The way I heard, disrupting that fleet put off reinforcements to glass a UNSC colony." "That was just to blow off some steam. Now answer the fucking question! Why are you tracking me?" demanded Idaho. "Look noob, this is the way I see it. We're two AWOL Freelancers who could do better with each other's help." said Oregon standing up to have the same level of eye contact with Idaho. "I don't need your help." said Idaho.

"I'm not the one who nearly died in a Forerunner Facility twice. You could use my expertise in this kinda thing. And I admit, I could use some better companionship." Ares appeared "Hey!" Both of the Freelancers turned to look at Ares. "Fine, assholes." said Ares before logging off. There was a long silence before Oregon spoke. "So what do you say?"

Idaho thought about it for a while 'I could use the extra help. Then again, I'm not too keen on getting double-crossed, again.' Seven seconds passed before Idaho responded. "Fine, I'll see where this goes."

"Good." said Oregon. "Where's my helmet?" Idaho said while looking around Oregon's makeshift shelter. "On the crate over there." Oregon said while pointing to a crate where both of the Strider helmet and the Rogue helmet lay. "I hope you don't mind, I took the liberty to clean your air filters." Idaho turned to look at Oregon. "Thanks. And sorry about your face." Oregon shrugged, "Yeah, what about that, dipshit?" "It's a reflex." Idaho said while holding his helmet in his hands. "So, do you sucker punch your parents every time they wake early?" asked Oregon smugly. "Jesus Christ, your annoying as Washington said you were." Idaho murmured. "Hey, it's my trademark." Oregon said while walking to pick up his own helmet.

"Damn it my neck feels like someone put a fucking incineration grenade on it." Idaho said while rubbing his neck. "Well, that's what I thought happened. I gave you some meds for the burns and you should be ok." said Oregon. "Thanks dude." said Idaho. "Don't wear it out." replied Oregon

Idaho looked around Oregon's shelter. "This is a nice place you've got." Idaho said sarcastically. "Hey, it's the best I could do in twenty minutes." Oregon responded defensively.
"I didn't say it was bad."
"You didn't say it was good either."

"So, what exactly happened to you in that facility? Looks like something punched you across the room." said Oregon. Idaho sighed and observed his helmet. "That's closer to the mark then you might think." he replied. "So, mind telling me what the hell I signed up for?" asked Oregon. "Don't think about bullshitting me either. I have you hooked up to Ares, so he can tell me if you're lying or not." He turned to look at Ares' avatar. "Right?" "Yeah, I could. But what's in it for me?" asked Ares. "I won't throw you into a river." deadpanned Oregon. "Fine" muttered Ares.

Idaho spent four minutes giving Oregon a brief explanation about how he met California, how California promised to help him find Zeta, how he betrayed him, how he and his AI kicked his ass in the facility, but slightly more to Idaho's favour. At the same time, Oregon was passing canisters of food for Idaho.

"Hmm, well the way I heard it, California was supposed to be one of the original five Freelancers, before he went AWOL." said Oregon. "He's supposed to be even better than Tex." That caught Idaho's attention and Idaho turned for a second to look at Oregon.

"So, you up for the challenge?" asked Idaho. Oregon shrugged. "Sure, why not. I was fucking bored anyway." Idaho smiled before slipping on his helmet. "Good." Oregon did the same and did a 'thumbs up' gesture.

"So, what's our next move?" asked Oregon as he started to pick up some of the canisters of food that weren't empty and tossing the empty ones into the small fire that he had made. "I was hoping you knew." Idaho replied while picking up and checking his weapons, then strapping them back to his holsters.

Oregon sighed. "Well, I don't think there'll be room for the both of us and Ares' attitude on my fucking Drop-ship, which means we'll have to steal something a little bigger." "Hey asshole!" protested Ares. Idaho shrugged. "Fine by me, I've been wanting to steal something as much as a Frigate for months now." Idaho turned to face Oregon. "Wait, you have a Drop-ship?" "Yeah, I stole it when no one was looking. I rigged a Slip-space engine to it, and I've been travelling with it for a while." said Oregon proudly. "C'mon, I'll show you it." Oregon said as he picked up the remaining canisters of food and attached them to his Mongoose.

Oregon drove the Mongoose with Idaho hanging on behind it for twelve minutes before coming to a stop near a cave. "It's behind those bushes." said Oregon. "Give me a hand with the leaves." Idaho helped to pull the leaves off of Oregon's ship which became more and more visible as he pulled more leaves off. To anyone at first glance, the ship looked like a structure overgrown with flora, but if they actually looked closely, they would be able to see the ship.

The leaves mostly covered the entrance and the trees hid the rest of the ship. As soon as the two Freelancers were done removing the leaves, Oregon pressed the button to lower the ramp. "Is this what we've been brought down to?" asked Idaho sarcastically. "Picking leaves off of star-ships?" Oregon chuckled. "Try not to have a panic attack when you get inside ok?" "Why would I have a panic attack?"

As Idaho entered the cargo bay of the ship, the lights were off before Oregon inserted Ares into a terminal in the ship. As the lights came on, Idaho realised that the cargo bay was full, but not with supplies like most other charter ships had. Oregon's ship was full of Forerunner artefacts that glowed and hummed in sequence.

Idaho jumped back startled by this. "What the hell man?" Idaho's screamed. "What's with all the Forerunner tech?" "It's, a hobby." Oregon responded. "Oh, so you steal Forerunner relics in your free time?" said Idaho offensively. "Steal is such a strong word. I like to think of it as, salvaging or collecting. And it's not in my free time. I do this every day." said Oregon. Idaho began to calm down. "So, how many of them are there?" Idaho asked out of curiosity. "Thirty-two." Oregon responded. "C'mon, you should probably strap in before we take off." Oregon said as he and Idaho walked to the cockpit. "So, do you have any trouble when piloting this ship?" asked Idaho. "Well, yesterday I almost slip-spaced into a sun. And the day before that the whole ship shutdown." Oregon began to list. Idaho sighed in despair. "Great, I'm gonna fucking die."
"Hey, I'm still here aren't I? And besides that's not even the worst one."
"I don't want to hear it!"

Oregon began to start up the ships engines. "Alright, things look ok. Prepare for take-off." Oregon said as he pressed a few more buttons and grabbed the throttle. But just as they were three feet off the ground, the ship's engines turned off and the ship fell to the ground. "What happened?" Idaho asked. "It must be the Forerunner tech." Oregon responded before getting out of his seat and moving to check the engine room. Idaho sighed and thought to himself. 'This is sooo going to get worse before it gets better.'