Attention viewers, any chapter after this one is brand new!
Where Do We Go From Here?
Location: UNSC All or Nothing Secondary Freelancer Training Halls, Approaching Designated UNSC Orbital Station Beta-4, Sigma Octanus IV
Shipboard Time: 1000 Hours
Date: June 19, 2557
Tucker ducked down in anticipation of the strike. Holding the energy sword hilt in his hand, he lashed out at the hologram. The attack struck the Elite-shaped hologram's 'chest' and the entity fell to the floor, purple blood oozing out, before fizzling away in a flash of blue light. The blood disappeared with it, leaving a smooth, shiny surface in its wake.
"Round complete," announced Sheila over the hall speakers. Tucker slowly lifted himself away from the ground and slowed his breathing down. "Casualty total: five Elite Majors, three Elite Zealots. Time total: one minute and zero point five one seconds."
"Run it again, Sheila," he commanded, flexing his arms back and forth several times.
"Are you sure you want to go again, Private Tucker?" she asked with a hint of concern in her voice. "It has been nearly two hours since you first began."
"I said 'again', Sheila," Tucker snapped.
"Complying. Resetting the floor for Combat Simulation 51. Difficulty setting set to Legendary." The floor in front of him winked with blue light before revealing a formation of fully armored Elites. At the front of the formation, a large, gruesome Zealot stood firm, his energy sword unsheathed, bathing his golden armor in glowing blue-white light. On either side of him, four Majors had positioned themselves in battle-ready formation. Two had their own energy swords out while the remaining pair had armed themselves with plasma rifles, their swords magnetized to their legs. Just behind the lead Sangheili, the fifth Major and other two Zealots were ready to leap forward, their eyes keenly trained on the aqua-colored soldier.
Tucker rotated his head around a few times, once again preparing for the fight. The simulations he and the other Reds and Blues went through yesterday had taken a bit more of a toll on him than he thought. After they had completed the Three Hundred Challenge, they had gone through at least a dozen other tests, some of them cooperative, some of them competitive. They even had a few sparring matches against each, both marksman and hand-to-hand. Church won out pretty decently against most of them in the marksman challenges, only beaten by Tex and sometimes Donut of all people, although he only beat his teammate in the pistol-centric rounds. In the melee department, Tucker and Junior came in third and fifth respectively, with Tex beating them out yet again, and Sarge coming out at a close fourth. Caboose came out in second only on the merit of his obscene strength, with very few people able to get him to topple over, much less yield.
Sheila began the countdown timer. "Round begins in five…" Tucker held his sword loosely in his hand and positioned his legs into sparring formation.
"Four…" The opposing Elites did likewise, spreading their legs evenly and drawing their sword arms off to the side.
"Three…" The plasma-rifle-wielding Majors aimed their weapons out at him, their fingers just barely off the trigger.
"Two…" Tucker gave one last assessment of the enemy formation. Although he had done this numerous times in the last two hours alone, it was always a good idea to check one last time in case there was something he missed. There was always the chance that there was something different with this scenario or that there was something he missed. Once again, however, nothing had changed.
"One…" Both sides tightened their muscles together and prepared to leap forward.
"Round start." Three of the five Majors charged forward, eager to get plunge their blades into the human. Simultaneously, plasma fire flew across the arena. Most of the shots dissipated harmlessly off the floor and back wall and the few that hit were easily blocked by Tucker's sword.
Tucker sidestepped as the first Major came up and sliced at him. Instead of moving to counterattack, he stepped over to the second Elite and swept him off his feet. As he saw his comrade fall, the third Major made an uppercut at the human. Tucker immediately saw it coming and blocked the attack with his own weapon. The Elite growled in anger, but, at the same time, Tucker made his first counterattack and sliced it at the alien's chest. The seven-foot tall creature fell to the floor with a roar of pain before his breathing stopped altogether. Making use of his advantage, Tucker brought his sword low to the ground and slashed the Elite he just tripped.
Turning on his heels, the swordsman raised his energy blade just in time to meet the first Major's own. The blades clashed and a flash of light flared between them. Before the Major had a chance to react, however, Tucker grabbed his chestplate with his other hand and threw the Elite between the two plasma-riflemen and himself. The Major roared in surprise before being shot in the back by his comrades. Using the grappled Elite as a shield, Tucker charged across the hall floor and collided with one of the ranged Covenant. As the aliens landed on the ground, Tucker stabbed his blade down through the chest of one of the Elites on top. The blade went through both bodies and killed them.
Tucker heard footsteps coming from behind him and he rolled out of the way just in time as a Zealot cut downwards. Fortunately, Tucker was able to slide his sword under the officer's guard and he cut a deep gash through the alien's belly. The Elite fell face-first onto his own pile of blood.
Tucker brought his head up and quickly counted his remaining targets. Five down, three to go, he confirmed to himself. The three other Elites roared in unison before continuing their attack.
As the second Zealot got within striking distance, Tucker closed the distance quicker than expected, ducking under his opponent's guard. This resulted in the human being too close for the Sangheili to make an effective melee. The Zealot barked as the Blue pushed the Elite back and jumped onto and over the armored figure. This was then followed up with Tucker coming down onto the last Major and cutting him open from the left shoulder to the top of the right leg. The Major spent the last of his energy grasping his chest before permanently blacking out. Tucker then made a 180 degree turn and stabbed hit sword through the back of the Zealot in which he had just recently jumped over. He pulled his sword out with a firm tug and the alien fell over, two cauterized holes smoking in his chest.
Tucker turned to face the last Elite, who had stood by, waiting to have him all to himself. "You may have defeated my brothers, human, but you will die by my hand before my time comes."
"I really doubt that," the Blue snarked. The Zealot roared in defiance before charging forward, sword ready to strike. Tucker did the same, copying his movements. The two duelists struck at each other, hooking, slicing, and cutting with the same set of moves. All the moves were blocked in unison. Finally, after over a dozen strikes and counterstrikes, the Zealot faltered slightly in his stance and the human saw his opening. In rapid succession, Tucker knocked the Elite's energy sword out of the way, twirling his opponent around. The trooper then jumped on his back and plunged his sword down. The blade made a loud sizzle and the alien gasped one more time before meeting the fate of his brothers.
The Elite fell to the floor with a thud and Tucker stepped off. His sword came out of the body without almost any resistance. He was glad for the ease and weightlessness of the blade. Of all the weapons he had ever used before, energy swords were perhaps the lightest, most portable, and easiest wielding. The energy allowed for easy cutting through just about any material and, because the energy weighed practically nothing, the only gravitational pull the weapon had come from the sword hilt.
As he stepped away from the body, it phased away in an instant. The rest of the bodies did the same and the Blue snorted with content.
"Round complete," Sheila announced yet again. "Casualty total: five Elite Majors and three Elite Zealots. Time total: forty-five point two-one seconds."
"Nice timing," called a voice, "although I have to say that the comment with the Zealot was rather unnecessary." Tucker deactivated his sword, magnetized it to his thigh, and turned to find the source. And, among all other things, the voice came from none other than Agent Carolina, who was leaning against a nearby wall, fully armored except for her helmet which she held against her side.
"Timing," said Tucker. "That's all you have to say about my performance? My timing?"
"No," the Freelancer replied, "but timing is what I believe to be one of the most important requirements for victory. That and efficiency."
Tucker raised an eyebrow. "And how was my efficiency?"
"For the most part, good. Like I said before, the only thing that was rather unnecessary was the talk with the hologram."
Tucker removed his helmet and brushed his hand over his short black hair. He looked at the cyan soldier and blinked in surprise at her facial features. Carolina, strange as she was, bore a strikingly similar appearance to Tex. Besides the ponytail and slightly lighter hair, their faces were almost practically the same, same shape, similar lips, same eyes. There were still some tiny facial differences between the two, a handful of freckles on Tex, a slightly thinner nose on Carolina, and a bit more anger, aggression, and age from Tex, but, if they were put side by side, they could pass themselves off as sisters, possibly even twins. Maybe they were twins. Maybe, he thought, that's why they seemed to have hostilities with each other. Hell, that's what he'd heard happen between North Dakota and South Dakota. Sibling rivalry.
"What's wrong with talking to the hologram?" he asked.
"It's a hologram," she stated bluntly. "It's not an actual alien. Just a hologram."
"So?"
"So, the hologram is programmed to speak those exact words in that exact manner in those exact conditions. It's really a waste of time, trying to communicate with it."
"Well, it helps spice things up, stopping it from turning into one of those mindless, soulless simulations you Freelancers constantly use."
"That's ridiculous."
"Not if you've been where I've been."
Carolina smirked in bemusement. "Where you've been. Buddy, if you've been where I've been, you would've thought twice before saying that to me."
Tucker butted into the statement, a tone of anger slowly creeping into his voice. "Oh really? Well, where have you been all this time, Carolina?"
"Across over two dozen colonies, Inner and Outer, most of them in the last four years alone. And where have you been? Oh, I remember. Stuck on a single rock, alone with nothing but those alien freaks and your own self amusement."
The Blue snapped at the word freaks. "Freaks? Is that what you call them? Girl, you have no idea what the word freaks even means if you think Sangheili are like that."
"Oh, wouldn't I?"
"Yes," he sputtered, very quickly losing his cool, "you wouldn't. You, just like everyone else, don't have an inkling of an idea what they are actually like."
"I know enough about them," she countered, anger and irritation sprouting from her own vocal cords, "to know that they are merciless, heartless, bloodthirsty monsters that deserve nothing less than to be put down like some wild animals! They don't know what it is like to lose such a horrific amount of their own kind like we do! Not only that, but I'd doubt they'd even care if they did."
"Then you don't know half of what the Sangheili are really like. They live a life of self-devotion and perfection in the things that they do and, unlike most people, they have a sense of honor and respect to their comrades."
"I know about this so-called 'honor' the Elites have imposed on themselves. It has led to the death of untold billions of men, women, and children-"
"You shouldn't try to hold anything against them," he interrupted. "They didn't know what they were doing. They were just being led by the Prophets like a bunch of dogs."
"-including both of my parents."
Tucker froze and looked her in the eyes with shock. He had met many people in the waning years of the Human-Covenant who had lost someone they loved, but to lose two people… that was too much for some. Personally, he didn't know or care about anyone else other than the people he was with now. Nobody back home cared about him, nobody bothered to ask, not even to have a small chat. He was not loved, not in any sense of the word. And perhaps he shouldn't be. It wouldn't stop him from being a human being, though, and feel the way that a normal human felt. "I'm sorry," he apologized. "I had no idea."
Carolina returned the look with anger. Although he clearly saw that same attitude openly, he noticed her own hint of sadness just barely visible beneath it. "Well, now you do."
A nearby speaker chimed in and the two of them looked at it. Sheila began speaking through it. "Attention all personnel. We are now stationed at UNSC Orbital Station Beta-4. With permission, you may go on shore leave. Be advised, the UNSC All or Nothing will be leaving the station in approximately two hours."
Carolina looked back to Tucker, who, in turn, did the same. "Looks like that's my call," she said.
"Don't you mean 'our call'?" he rebutted. Normally for him, that would've been a time to pull out one of his infamous bow-chicka-bow-wows, but he felt he'd get his ass handed to him by her so he suppressed the urge. "I'm pretty sure the others will want to know what we're going to do next, too."
"Have it your way. Just try not to get into trouble while we're here."
"Yeah, whatever."
Location: UNSC Orbital Station Beta-4, Sigma Octanus IV
Station Time: 1030 Hours
Date: June 19, 2557
The teams had been assembled in the station's main briefing room, a dimly lit, fairly spaced out, metal box with a cluster of holographic projectors embedded into the floor. Only three of them were active, one for the Chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee, one for the Councilor of Project Freelancer, and one for what could only be guessed as a high commanding UNSC officer, a general maybe.
Tex didn't like those sorts of people, not in the least bit. They always had a knack for getting in the way of doing what she did best: kill things. Whether it was an Insurrectionist or a split-jaw Covenant, all of them had felt her wrath. None stood before her, for she was a force of nature, a piece of clay molded together through training, persistence, and time.
The problem with commanding officers is that they always expected her to do things their way. And usually, as with most of the time, it wasn't the best way for her. There were exceptions, though: the Director, the Chairman, and Church, especially him. Although he didn't call himself one, Church had always been the one to pave the way for the team, to give them direction and guidance. He wasn't necessarily the kindest or most inspiring leader she had ever seen, but he always had a knack for directing people in ways that suited her better than anyone else. He was a hell of a lot better at it than Sarge, that's for sure. Maybe that's why she'd let him stick around her for as long as she did. Or maybe it was something else. Maybe it's because they were both programs based off the same person, or maybe they just really did love each other. Maybe they were just destined to find each other. Tex wasn't so sure. She never had been.
The Freelancer snapped her attention back to projections in front of her, their color-specific graphics playing against her visor.
"As I understand it, Agent," said the General, "you and Agent Texas were under the influence of the Director for some time."
"That is correct, sir," replied Carolina, who was currently positioned at the front of the group. Just like the rest of them, she had her helmet sealed over her head, her own body posed stiffly at attention. Tex wondered if the rest of the group was really as attentive as the she and Carolina were. She doubted it. The black Freelancer had been able to tell what everyone's attitude in the meeting was like based solely on their postures. Carolina, Wash, Sarge, and Church were at attention, solidly focused on the information being received to them. Grif, Simmons, and Donut were making their best efforts to stay focused on the topic at hand, though they got a little distracted every once in a while. Tucker was also slightly uneasy, seeming to be a little on edge, most likely from being so used to the presence of Sangheili instead of humans. And Caboose was most likely not even paying attention, his head swaying in all sorts of directions.
"Indeed." The General crossed his arms over his chest. "I hope your past loyalties do not interfere with the situation at hand, Agents. We didn't come this far just to have misplaced trust now."
"They won't sir," said Tex and Carolina in unison.
"Good." The General looked over at the Counselor and nodded. All three of the holograms diminished in size and made way for massive projected map of all of known space. There were several areas highlighted red, blue, and yellow, each filled with varying amounts of planets, from as large as having multiple star systems to as small as holding a single dwarf planet.
"Now," he continued, "based on recent intelligence reports, we have narrowed the Director's location down to three locations: Vigilance, Praetor, and Zeta-Phi II." Three planets were outlined in bright orange, giving off a distinct glow. "This information was retrieved by some of our top operatives and they have been inside the Insurrectionists' ranks for some time now. Each planet is on the edge of UNSC space. At the current moment, we have a fleet holding position at the edge of the Zeta-Phi system, carefully monitoring for Insurrectionist activity. Your objective is to search each location and bring him back into UNSC custody. If we catch him, we should be able to cut the head off the Insurrection once and for all. Perhaps we can finally have some semblance of peace. Any questions?" There was no reply, which came at a surprise to Tex. Usually someone came up with an incredibly stupid remark or at least a poorly-placed joke. They really had changed. "Well, in that case, since we have no 'official' jurisdiction over you, you may choose where to start looking."
Everyone unanimously replied, "Yes sir," before turning and walking out of the room.
Location: UNSC All or Nothing Command Bridge, Attached to Designated UNSC Orbital Station Beta-4, Sigma Octanus IV
Shipboard Time: 1200 Hours
Date: June 19, 2557
"Where could he be?" Carolina had a contemplative look on her face as she continued to stare at the stellar chart. Around her, there was the occasional bridge crew member passing by, sticking to his or her own duties. She paid no mind to them whatsoever, focusing solely on the map before her.
"Maybe we should start here," recommended Wash, pointing to one of the orange planets, "Zeta-Phi II."
"No," she sighed, "that seems too obvious, even for him. Zeta-Phi is a hotspot of activity as well as a pretty heavy Forerunner weapons cache." The Freelancer circled around the holotable, appearing akin to a scientist trying to figure out an incredibly difficult equation.
"Well then, that only leaves two options: Vigilance and Praetor."
She continued to stare anyway, despite the limited choices.
They stared for several long minutes, neither of them making a comment. That was until Washington had an idea. "Want my advice?" She looked up at him, a blank expression on her face. "Instead of trying to figure this out like a jigsaw puzzle, we could just eliminate the possibilities one at a time…"
"And hope we get lucky with our first choice," she finished. Caroline bobbed her head in affirmation. Clearly she had liked the idea.
Wash nodded. "Exactly."
"Sounds like a plan," she replied, a bemused smirk plastered on her face. She stood upstraight, taking on a more commanding stance.
"Now the only thing left to do is choose where to start," he stated.
"Well, David, I'm leaving that all up to you," she offered, the remark leaving the steel-and-gold Freelancer stunned, "since you were the one to come up with this ingenious plan in the first place."
Washington stared back at her briefly before coming up with a decision. There was no way he was going to get ensnared in thought and doubt just as she had. She had given him an opportunity to make a decision. He would not waste it.
He looked into her eyes with determination. "Set course for the Praetor system."
This might be one of the shortest chapters I've ever written with very little that is actually going on. It's just an interaction between Tucker and Carolina, and a briefing of the first official part of the story. But I do like the interaction between Tucker and Carolina. I have plans for more interactions between them in the future. Honestly, I think just watching Tucker's character development and interaction in the Chorus trilogy made him a much more interesting character overall. I love it.
Anyway, this marks the last re-edited chapter in the story. Any other chapter moving forward is a new one.
