Epilogue: Leonard Church

Dear Chairman, I am disappointed by your decision to press charges, but I am not surprised. My only hope is that the courts will see the matters differently than you have. You see, I never had the chance to serve in battle, nor did fate provide me the opportunity to sacrifice myself for humanity as it did for so many others in the Great War. Someone extremely dear to me was lost very early in my life. My mind has always plagued me with the question: if the choice had been placed in my hands, could I have saved her? The memory of her has haunted me my entire life, and more so in these last few years than I could ever have imagined. But given the events of these past few weeks, I feel confident that had I been given the chance, I would have made those sacrifices myself... had I only the chance.

XXX

Nearly a week had passed since the assault on Command. At the Red Base in Valhalla, Sarge gathered Grif and Simmons outside.

"Men, I just got word from our new Command," he told them, "They said that thanks to our brave efforts in bringing Project Freelancer to justice, we can have full use of these former bases to continue our training exercises, until such time as they need them for more official purposes, whatever the heck that means."

"Wow, that's great news, Sir," Simmons beamed.

Sarge then stepped towards a gleaming Warthog, "We even got a shiny new jeep, courtesy of the UNSC."

"Yeah," Grif said, "But Sarge, what the heck is- uh, shotgun by the way."

"Shotgun!" Simmons yelled, just too late, "Crap!"

"What the heck is the UNSC?" Grif asked.

"Dunno, never heard of it," Sarge replied with a shrug, "It sounds made up.

XXX

I know that you disagreed with my methods, and that others will as well. This is beyond my control. However, I cannot imagine that any court would be able to convict me, no matter how low their opinion of my actions might be. You must understand one basic fact for all this to make sense, my dear Chairman. These AI, they all come from somewhere; they are all based on a person. Our Alpha was no exception. And while the law has many penalties for the atrocities we inflict on others, there are no punishments for the terrors that we inflict on ourselves. So you send your men. They won't find themselves a fight. They'll only find an old man; an old man tired, but satisfied he did his duty; an old man weary from a mind more filled with memory, than it is with hope.

XXX

On the other side of the canyon, a lone Blue soldier was preparing for a great project. Caboose and Rhode, who had managed to survive his plunge into the river, marched through the corridors, the Epsilon unit tucked under Caboose's arm. At last they reached a black-armored body lying on the floor and he placed the unit next to it.

"Okay," Caboose muttered, "Time to see if this works..."

"You have the craziest ideas," Rhode sighed.

XXX

Sincerely yours, the former Director of Project Freelancer, Doctor Leonard Church.

XXX

And that's how you end a season! Now I'm off to work on Jungle Fury: The Orange Ranger! Till next time guys!