(A/N) Hey guys, would like to apologise about this update being a day late. Was really sick last night (totally my own fault, drink is the devil) so this is coming a little later than it was supposed to. Our Saturday update will go up on time as usual, so no worries there.

This chapter has something a little new in it, as the first have has been written by another of our admins, the brilliant LanaLlama, for Four Seven Niner, the snarky and loveable pilot. The second half is another little snippet from the Director's point of view, and we get to see a bit more of the aftermath of the last mission.

Our forum can be found at:

forum/The-Freelancer-Collaboration/125781/

Under RvB forums with the title: The Freelancer Collaboration.

We're taking applications for Wyoming, North, South, Maine and Georgia, so get your asses over there if you want to be a part of this collaboration! We're also taking applications for OC Freelancers, but we will only be accepting applications for a short period of time, as we will be announcing those accepted on Saturday the 30th of March, nine days from now.

Enjoy!


Chapter Sixteen - Front-Row Seats

Pilot Four Seven Niner

Written by LanaLlama


"Flying might not be all plain sailing, but the fun of it is worth the price." – Amelia Earhart


"Aw, come on! How did you beat me!?" A bark of laughter followed this statement as one pilot joined the other.

"I'm just amazing," Niner teased, bearing a smirk. A tray clattered to the table in the empty space opposite her, apple bouncing across the table. Flicking it back over, Niner shook her head and added. "Nah, we had wounded, I needed to get back ASAP," she followed this up with a roll of the eyes.

"Already!?" asked a voice two seats away, disbelief evident, "Aren't these guys supposed to be the best or something?"

The cacophony of voices that took up the mess hall went on, ignoring their conversation in favour of their own, presumably, being more interesting. A lot of it was likely bitching about this or that; the number of hours spent patrolling, the frequency of breaks, whatever it was that had irked many of the Mother of Invention's staff that day.

A scoff from the female pilot was the initial response, "They sure didn't act like it. The morons couldn't even grab a flag from sim troopers."

"How bad was the injury?" 343-R queried, stabbing at his measly meal.

"Eh, few bullets, it didn't seem bad to me." Her eyes snapped into a glare as she looked up and caught other eyes on her own food.

"No way! You snooze you lose." In a rather gloating manner Niner bit into her slice of pizza, stretching the cheese out tantalisingly in front of 343-R. Subconsciously her free hand brought the plate with the other slices closer so that she could protect them. The male pilot attempted something of a pout towards the other.

"There was nothing there but this dumb, lemon chicken though." If he didn't want to hold onto some dignity the guy would have whined over at her.

"Should have been as awesome as me then."

343-R could only roll his eyes in response and moodily stab at his less likable food. Spearing a piece onto his fork he looked up to Niner again and queried "So, which agent was it?"

He tugged the chicken from the fork with his teeth and watched Niner whilst chewing. The male pilot seemed rather interested by the whole situation.

"Uhh," she swallowed her food and glanced up and down the table to note that there were others paying attention to their conversation now. "Pennsylvania, I think."

Her eyes moved upwards as she checked her memory. "Yeah. Pennsylvania."

A man a few seats away from Niner leaned in towards the group and propped his elbows on the table, "If you ask me –"

"Which no one did."

"If you ask me, the whole lot of them are mad, nuts, insane, completely bonkers," the man continued on, completely ignoring the random voice that had interjected. He swept a hand through his lengthy brown hair and positioned himself to be in view of the whole table.

"Give it a rest Kyle," one man groaned, weakly throwing a napkin at the other.

"Seriously, have you heard about what they're going to be doing?" he continued regardless, after pinching the dry paper and pulling a face at it.

343-R laughed, deciding to humour the guy that looked between them all with wide eyes. "What're they going to do?" he asked in a borderline patronising tone.

"Isn't working for this Director guy madness itself?" a blonde female next to the brunette crew member asked, flicking a crumb off of her white lab coat. Niner sent a glance over to her fellow pilot, one asking just what their fellow staff members were taking today.

"Oh great," she muttered under her breath. "Beth thinks we're all mad." 343-R snorted in something of an agreement.

She wasn't interested in any more of this, Niner just wanted to be left in peace with her pizza and get back to her ship; the wonderful, beautiful ship that she got to pilot daily. To her, it looked like 343-R was in the same mind-set and so, begrudgingly, she picked up her final two slices of pizza and snatched at 343-R's wrist when he raised his hand to bid her farewell.

"I think we're done here," she commented, passing one slice to the male pilot as they made a beeline for the exit; after some protesting from 343-R. "Oh come on, there is no way you're going to be able to deal with that." 343-R shook his head and looked up at the slightly taller woman.

"What? We never have any stories to share down in the hangar; I wanted to hear something new for once," he said, in an attempt to defend the researchers that they had sat with moments ago, only to receive something of a glare from Niner.

"You're kidding, right?"

"Uh…" 343-R shrank away slightly, the glare he was receiving was slightly concerning, and all he could do to respond, for a moment, was nibble on the pizza she had handed him.

"We get to see it all. We get all the action without actually being in the action."

"Most of the time."

"Yeah, whatever. Do you realize how many fights we're going to see?"

She seemed rather excited by the whole prospect, and 343-R could only watch as Niner continued to explain why their job was better.

"It scares me to know that this is what excites you." And that was the end of their conversation for a brief moment. The two ended up walking companionably down the last hall, and just as the doors entered their view, Niner glanced towards 343 once more.

"Trust me," She took a bite into her slice, savouring the food's flavour. "Beth and her conspiracy theories are not lunch table conversations that you want to get into. I've had the pleasure of being dragged in before; took me almost an hour to get away."

They had begun to stroll through the quiet halls, footsteps and their echoing voices the only sounds for a moment. The journey back to the hangar was going to be a short one, but that was fine with Niner, she didn't have enough pizza to last a long journey anyway.

"Guess I owe you for saving me then?" 343-R gave her a small nudge, smirking over at his fellow pilot. "And for the pizza," he added as an afterthought; chewing on the crust.

"Damn right you do."


The Director

Written by NicKenny


"Men are like steel. When they lose their temper, they lose their worth." – Chuck Norris


I sat by my next, reviewing videos of the two simulation missions over and over, looking for both moments of ingenuity and of stupidity. On the first mission, I constantly re-watch Virginia taking out Wyoming, Alaska being tackled to the ground by two sim troopers, watch York hold the line with his small army of simulation troopers, holding out against Agents Pennsylvania and Alaska, eventually breaking free from the fire-fight and retrieving the Blue flag. At the same time, I follow Carolina sneaking past York's perimeter, slipping past Massachusetts' guard, eliminating Agent Florida and retrieving the Red flag, beating York and Virginia back to the centre of the battlefield.

And that was the less eventful of the two missions. Their second trip to Valhalla had proved to be far more…troublesome. Pennsylvania had been hit twice by a sniper after intentionally disobeying orders and going for the flag by himself, which had resulted in him being placed at the bottom of the leaderboard, something that he would not appreciate when he finally comes to.

At the moment though he was lucky to be alive. The medics had only managed to stabilise him a few hours ago. One of the bullets had punctured his lung, while another had severed an artery. He would be out of action for a while at least, which frustrated me greatly. No one should have been injured on those missions, and Pennsylvania would have been fine if he had just obeyed orders. Indeed, in giving up his position and brutally attacking the simulation troopers, Penn had given up several precious seconds in which the other team had managed to seize their own flag.

Agent Pennsylvania's inability to obey orders had cost his team the mission.

His decorum on the battlefield was also…concerning. I knew his record when I offered him a place in Project Freelancer, but I had hoped he would be able to keep his anger in check. It appears that my hopes were in vain. While I wasn't particularly concerned about the two dead simulation troopers, or the injuries that the others who had come across his path, his refusal to obey the orders of his team leader was…problematic.

I quickly reviewed my own notes on the other agents' performances. Carolina, as always, performed exceptionally, barring her failure to keep Penn in check. York had surprised me, demonstrating leadership qualities that I had not believed him to have. Massachusetts had performed solidly on both missions, and, other than letting Carolina slip past her to capture the flag, I couldn't find fault in her performance. Virginia had finally showed me something worth noticing, earning her the increase in rank, and I believe my little talk with her had encouraged her to finally start becoming the asset that I know she could be.

Florida had performed well, but was taken out by Carolina on his first mission, so his increase up the leaderboard was less impressive than his teammates'. Wyoming however, had dropped in place, losing a fire-fight to Virginia, then failing to take out the simulation sniper that had injured Pennsylvania. Alaska, too, had dropped, allowing sim troopers to surprise him during the first mission, then being prevented from taking the flag by Pennsylvania during the rematch. I could feel the anger emanating off of him when the rankings had appeared, but wasn't particularly concerned. Whatever Alaska's past history, he was always in control of his emotions, unlike our wounded agent, who let his emotions control his actions.

The doors behind me suddenly burst open, and the Counselor strode in, his face flushed in anger.

"The Counselor wishes to see you, Director." F.I.L.S.S. chimed in, too late.

"I can see that F.I.L.S.S." I replied, my eyes locked on the nearing form of the Counselor, who was waving his data-pad with a look on intent fury.

"Counselor, I was not informed of your arrival," I said, smiling warmly despite the glare that I received, making a mental note to find out exactly why I wasn't informed of his arrival. "I trust your findings on Eris were satisfactory?"

The Counselor waved my question away irritably with a brief hand motion. "My findings on Eris were more than satisfactory, but we both know that that's not what I'm here to discuss."

He was trembling, I noticed with a hint of amusement, barely able to restrain the anger that was no doubt coursing through him. His face, however, remained as impassive as always, and gave no indication as to what thoughts were currently coursing through his head.

"I am referring to Agent Pennsylvania's current condition," he said, his voice wavering slightly before suddenly taking on a harsher tone. "You assured me that nothing would go wrong during this simulation mission. I am worried as to what exactly you consider 'going wrong' Director."

I frowned. "I am afraid that I do not approve of your tone, Counselor. Agent Pennsylvania disobeyed a direct order on the battlefield and, as a result, was punished for his disobedience. Thankfully the medics have stabilised him and are confident that he will make a full recovery."

The Counselor snorted, dismissing my words with a snap of his wrist. "Be that as it may, we're still looking at two dead simulation troopers, and several others with serious injuries. Agent Pennsylvania is simply too uncontrollable, Director. He is a liability to this project, and I must insist on his immediate discharge."

"Agent Pennsylvania has regained consciousness, Director." F.I.L.S.S. murmured, interrupting our argument, stopping us in our tracks.

I glanced at the Counselor, shaking my head wearily. "Counselor, leave Penn to me. If I can't come up with conclusive evidence that he can assimilate into the Project, and continue to serve as a valuable asset, then you can see about discharging him."

He appeared to consider this for a moment, before reluctantly nodding, conceding to my demand. "Very well then, Director. But this evidence will have to be considerably more conclusive than the empty promises that you have made so far."

I stand up and brush past him. "Believe me, Counselor, he will listen to me. For him, being second-best is not an option. He will listen to reason."


Pennsylvania had been propped up on his bed by one of the medics when I walked into the room. He blinked a couple of times, clearly surprised to see me, but said nothing as I ordered the medics out of the room.

I sat on the chair adjacent to his bed and stared at him in silence for a few minutes, sensing his discomfort caused by my presence.

"What ever will we do with you, Agent Pennsylvania?" I murmured, noticing him flinch slightly at the sound of my voice.

"Sir?" he asked, hesitantly, calmly meeting my gaze.

I continue to sit there, just staring at him, carefully picking out my next words. "You need to control your rage, Penn. The way you are now, allowing your emotions to dictate the course of your actions, makes you more of a liability than an asset to Project Freelancer. And you know what happens to liabilities."

Penn's face hardened at this and he glanced up at me, anger in his eyes. "I completed the mission, sir," he spat out, hands clenching into fists.

I nod slowly, not taking my eyes away from his. "That is true, agent. But your actions cost your team precious seconds, in which Agent York seized the flag for his team, earning them the victory. Your actions cost your team the victory, and you're position in this project has suffered as a result."

He tensed, shaking slightly, and inclined his head, glumly accepting the truth to my words. "I understand, sir."

I leant forward and placed a reassuring hand on the wounded agent's shoulder. "A great man once said 'We shall listen, not lecture; learn, not threaten. We will enhance our safety by earning the respect of others and showing respect for them.'"

I paused, allowing my words to sink in. "I brought you into this project, Pennsylvania, because I saw potential in you. I saw the man you could become, if you could learn to control your emotions, rather than letting them control you. You could be a leader, Penn. But first, you need to learn how to obey orders. I need to know I can trust you, Penn."

I stood up slowly and walked to the door, stopping at the threshold and turning back to him. "I believe in you, agent. I'm the first and only person who ever will."

I left him lying there, his eyes wide and troubled, with three final words.

"Make me proud."