Red vs. Blue: The Spartan Rejects

Episode 16: Freelancer power, ACTIVATE!

: 5 MINUTES EARLIER…

"OW! Nnghhh…Aghh…!"

Washington writhed in his virtual simulation pod as electric sparks zapped through his armor, disconnecting him from the training program. He kicked a hole in the pod window, dove out, rolled across the floor, and landed on one knee and palm. His ears deafened by the sound of alarms reverberating everywhere.

"Damn it!" he punched the ground in frustration, "Just when I almost got there!"

"I see I'm not the only one snooping around here," a snide female voice spoke out adjacent from his position.

I know that voice… "C.T.!" Washington exclaimed. He got to his feet, un-holstered his sidearm, and aimed it at the soldier in brown and white trimmed armor, all of which occurred no more than a second.

On the opposing side, the one called "C.T." already had her battle rifle targeting his chest. "I thought I told you never to call me that," she said tersely with a hint of annoyance, "Anyway, I didn't expect to see you here again of all places. Nostalgia getting the better of you, Wash?"

"I could say the same thing, Connecticut," the steel-and-yellow soldier came back as either party began circling the other in a sort of tense dance. "I take it you're here on some kind of mission for your Insurrectionist buddies?"

"You mind your own business, and I'll mind mine's. Just pretend you never saw me and I'll do the same," Connecticut finalized the conversation as she backed out of the room into the hallway, her gun still on him. However, when she entered the hallway, to the left of her stood an awaiting Maine.

"Oh, shi—!" but Connecticut was interrupted when the huge, burly combatant slashed at her with the massive blade on his Brute Shot. Connecticut barely avoided the most lethal part of the attack, only receiving a wide gash on her left arm. "Aghh!" she cried out and staggered away from her assailant by a few sidesteps.

Witnessing the act from within the room, Washington moved forward to intervene, holding out a hand to signal them to halt their actions, "Maine, wait!"

In preventing Maine from attacking again, Connecticut produced a flashbang grenade and hurled it into the floor at Maine's feet. A tremendous bright light and earsplitting concussion blast erupted from it, temporarily disabling Maine and Washington as the wounded Connecticut escapes with her arm cradling the other.

"Ack! Sunuva—!" Washington screened his visor with his arms and shook his head to clear the buzzing sound in his head.

Maine made an irritated growl and, once he had regained his sight and hearing, scanned the area for the runaway and tore down the hall in pursuit.

After clearing his senses, Washington followed along behind Maine while catching someone talking over a COM frequency in the radio built inside his helmet.

"Attention, all personnel. Be on a look out for an intruder in light blue Spartan armor, threat level massive. Use any and all means necessary to kill them. Otherwise, prostrate yourself before the intruder, put your hands behind your head, and announce you're a pussy in a clear loud voice to note your surrender. Thank you."

Before the order was finished, Washington already had a hunch of who the intruder was; and apparently, he was not the only one thinking that either.

"Agents Washington and Maine. Stop what you're doing and report to Observation Deck 17-B immediately,"came the voice of the Director over Washington and Maine's private COMs.

However, Maine appears to be ignoring the command as he persists in hunting down his prey. Washington, though, knows that if he were to do the same, the Director would become suspicious and his mission jeopardized.

Washington communicated to Maine through radio, "Maine, withdraw! We have to go to the Director."

An aversive snarl answered him, followed by silence.

"Maine, if you really want those A.I., you'd better come with me!"

At this, the white and brown trimmed soldier hissed viciously, dug his heels in the ground and did a 180 on the spot. Not expecting him to pull past him so quickly, Washington regained his balance and once again trailed behind Maine, both freelancers heading for the Director's position. As they went, Washington could not help but look back over his shoulder toward C.T.'s departing form.

I guess I'll have to deal with C.T. later…

OOOoooOOOoooOOO

"Agents Washington and Maine… Kill Agent Carolina."

Carolina did not waste any time in taking action. She activates the speed unit in her suit, an armor enhancement designed to allow her move as fast as lightning and dodge every bullet fired on her. Cartwheeling off of the balcony and into the pit below, she lands in a space in the middle of the Reds and Blues.

"Crazy bitch! AHHH!" some of them cry out as they leapt, ducked, and rolled away in separate directions to avoid the gunfire raining down on them.

Chasing her down, Maine launches himself off the platform as well, flies over Carolina and bombards her with several fiery blasts from his Brute Shot. Carolina dashes to the right and runs up along the wall, magnums blazing in retaliation as she went. A few shots ricochet against Maine's shields as he catches hold of a niche in an adjacent bulkhead and trades shots back.

"Director, Counselor, I strongly suggest you get out of here. We'll take care of this!" Washington urges the small handful of white soldiers and the two VIPs to leave.

He then kicks a glowing orange barrel up towards Carolina and fires a couple short bursts from his battle rifle at the barrel just as it nears her, causing it to explode and forcing her to hop on top of one of the pods. Washington follows up his assault by firing more rounds after her as she jumps from pod to pod.

"Uh, Sarge, I don't think we want to get caught in this one," recommends Simmons while still doing his best to cover his nudity, "Advising us to go look for some armor and weapons and a place to hide?"

Sarge surveys the area and sights a locker room beside their virtual sim quarters. He sneaks past the gunfight with the other Reds and Blues tailing along and acquires a M45 tactical shotgun from a rack of weapons. Next to the weapons hung in a row was a bunch of standard-issue camouflaged black and gray ODST battle armor.

"Well, it isn't Spartan armor, but it's better than nothing," Tucker hurriedly suit up and snags one of the energy swords pinned on the wall.

"Men, I want those Reds and Blues in the nearest medical station now!" the Reds and Blues can hear the Director command his white soldiers in the distance, "Don't let them escape!"

Another explosive blast erupted nearby, compelling Sarge to reply to his subordinate's prior request, "Simmons, we're being hunted, and I'll be damned if they take me hiding like a coward!"

Fully dressed and slipping on his helmet, he then pokes his head out of the locker room and hollers up at their captors above, "Hey, Director! If you expect me to come quietly, you can kiss my ass and suck my shotgun!"

Back inside the locker room, Donut complains as he dons the armor, "Yuck! What a drab color! They ought to invest in more fashion styles if they really want to attract more people to join the army."

"Yeah keyword, Donut. Army. This isn't a Miss Universe pageant, y'know," Grif remarks dryly.

Caboose flounders about in his suit as he attempts to fit it over his head, in turn, getting all tied up in the process. "Can—Can someone help me; I can't see," rose a muffled mumble from the headless armor.

Tucker sighs and assists his hapless teammate, "It's times like this I wish Church is around."

Sister then points out, "Hey…where is Church anyway?"

OOOoooOOOoooOOO

Whoa…What the…? Where am I…?

Travelling fast down a long blue lit tunnel, Church could see illuminated lines of numbers and figures streaming alongside him on all sides; up, down, left, right, and at the end, a white warm glow shimmering and spinning slowly like a translucent pool of water you would sometimes see in caverns. Except, the white light was fixed sideways so that Church could see it from the top down.

Great. I must be either dreaming or… my body is trashed and my spirit is moving on to the afterlife. Okayyyyy. Only one way to find out.

He tried to find the switch to turn his robot body online, but found that he had no hands, let alone no body to do such thing.

Well that's it. I'm moving on. Guess the Flood got us good. Just perfect. I'm dead and gone onto—Wait a minute.

He did a double take at the numbers and figures flowing on the tunnel's walls.

Ah, dammit. Math. I am in hell… Either that or Simmons's version of heaven.

Just then, a throng of overlapping voices could be heard reverberating around him like ghostly echoes. They sounded panicked, calm, assertive, commanding, kind, informative, stoic, urgent, angry, insane… They sounded like they were searching for something. Searching for someone. Searching for…

Wh… you… Where… are you? … Al… a… Al… pha… Alllllllphaaaaa… Oh, Alpha, where are you…?

OOOoooOOOoooOOO

: To be continued…