Tucker

Unknown Temple – Present Day

After the raid on Charon's base, an adventure with Caboose and Grey was the last thing Tucker wanted. He had no problems with Sarge since they'd grown closer in the past month; an air of mutual respect formed between them as they led their armies to great things.

However, he couldn't say the same about Caboose and Grey; the obnoxious and eccentric duo would make the trip feel painfully slow. It was times like this when the aqua-clad soldier wished to return to Valhalla. He would rather fight C.T. and his band of aliens and mercenaries than be on this adventure. He was especially worried about being with Caboose, who had a habit of team killing once every journey. He only hoped to make it home in one piece.

Tucker also knew it wasn't fair to only complain about Caboose. While the Blue soldier was annoying, he knew how to follow orders. And, just as Epsilon had mentioned, his unparalleled strength would make him the perfect candidate for carrying Grey's surveying equipment. Had Grif come along instead, he knew the orange-clad individual would complain the entire time and refuse to do anything of value. He might have worsened things with Sarge, knowing he could get under his leader's skin without repercussions.

Before leaving for the adventure, Tucker wished his team had a boat or a pelican. While there was nothing wrong with traveling by warthog or mongoose, a straight line from their starting position meant crossing a large body of water. To travel by land meant hours of traversing gravel and dirt in mountainous terrain, which previously went uncolonized by the aliens.

Tucker stared in awe when they arrived at the monolith of a temple. The intricate energy patterns flowing up its side mesmerized the individual as the faint, pink-and-yellow energies swirled around the temple. He hadn't seen them from the previous base. However, even more impressive was the temple's scale. Though he'd previously been aware of its height, being up close revealed a breathtaking view. Despite being on a ledge far above the sea, clouds still hid the temple's peak far above the group.

Then, Tucker stared at the two buildings below him. The white, octagonal buildings with ramps on opposite ends to the roof reminded him of their bases at Blood Gulch. The entire setting reminded him of their previous home: Two bases on opposite ends of mostly flat land. The only differences were the altitude, the vegetation, and the alien temple connected to the area via a hard-light bridge.

"I'm getting the strangest sense of déjà vu," Tucker explained.

"Déjà what now?" Caboose asked, tilting his head in confusion.

Tucker groaned, already sick of his teammate. "Déjà vu. I feel like I've already seen this."

Caboose looked down at the bases, cheering, "Ah, yeah! It's just like home! There's blue base, red base, and the giant building we took from O'Malley and Lopez's head," Caboose pointed at each landmark as he explained them. Of course, the blue idiot was mixing this place up with the base with the giant, spinning wheel on the beach.

Hey, Doctor Grey. Are bases like that standard in the UNSC?" he asked. Since the UNSC presumably made the bases for Project Freelancer, he believed they might be universally standard bases.

Grey, who had been ogling about the temple, snapped out of her trance and looked down. "I'm not actually sure," she commented. "I spent my years in hospitals and on spaceships. But I'd believe it." She shrugged.

"Wait, Sarge. Weren't you in ODST before Project Freelancer? Would you know?"

"Huh?" Sarge asked, having been silent and mostly tuning out his teammates the entire time. "Oh, the bases? I was on the front lines! No need for bases, just small bunkers and the necessities on ships for us. Heh heh," he laughed.

Tucker, still dissatisfied with the answer, grumbled, "Fine..."

"If you want my tactical advice, though, I'd say this place looks deserted," Sarge continued. Tucker had made the same observation. Remnants of equipment looked scattered across the base, giving him the idea Charon's forces had left in a rush. That, or they didn't care about cleanliness. Knowing what he did, Tucker counted on the latter.

When he saw two mongooses sitting in random parts of the elevated peninsula, the simulation trooper wondered why anyone in a rush would leave the vehicles. He knew traveling by mongoose would be faster than traveling on foot. If they had spares, it would make sense to leave them behind. If Tucker were in charge, he would absolutely give soldiers extras, thinking back to all the shenanigans that created broken technology in his years in the military. Of course, another option was the need to travel across the sea, in which case they might have taken a pelican.

"I've heard that one before," Tucker reasoned, reflecting on the many ambushes he'd walked into. The first idea that came to mind was the Space Pirate assault on Crash Site Alpha, followed by the UNSC's ambush at Valhalla. He prayed nobody was at the current base. If nobody was there, Caboose wouldn't have to fire his gun, and Command wouldn't have another reason to use their so-called "special key bind" for Caboose's team-killing: Control-F-U.

"Oh! Oh! I know how to find out!" Caboose yelled beside the others. He was already too loud for Tucker's liking. He might as well have telegraphed their positions to anyone in the bases. He ran to the ledge's tip and activated his megaphone before anyone could stop him. Caboose screamed at the top of his lungs, "IS ANYONE STILL HERE?" His voice was so powerful that he blew out the speaker; his voice wouldn't travel far. For once, Tucker was thankful for the blue moron's incompetence in selecting armor; a newer model might not have destroyed the speaker.

Once the group shushed their teammate, Doctor Grey stood beside Caboose, looking at Charon's scattered equipment. "It's likely any remaining soldiers retreated after we commandeered their bases. Defeating your enemies is more important in a war than researching alien technology. They'll likely return once they wipe us all out!" she said energetically. "But, just in case: Caboose, can you have Freckles run a thermal scan of the base?"

"Yes!" Caboose cheered, holding his gun close to his body. "Freckles, can you please help me get a... um... thermal sweater for the base?" he asked. Tucker raised an eyebrow, wondering how his teammate survived as long as he did. He figured the mantis's A.I. would be smart enough to understand the request, given it heard the doctor.

"Affirmative," the artificially-intelligent assault rifle replied. Caboose loosened his grip on the gun, allowing it to spin on an axis and scan the bases. After some silence, it reported, "No heat signatures detected."

"Great! Then let's get to carrying!" Grey cheered ecstatically.

Tucker glared at the base, not a fan of the assessment. He was with Carolina and Church several hours ago, where the Epsilon A.I. failed to accurately measure the number of Space Pirates at the former research facility due to interference. "I don't buy it," Tucker mumbled. "Their tech can hide them; we've seen it for ourselves. If Church failed, Freckles can too." He looked at his teammates, who didn't hear him, already heading back to the warthogs.

Partially wanting to avoid carrying anything but more so to ensure the team's safety, Tucker quickly climbed down the ledge on which they stood. Tucker strategized, believing a well-placed grenade could take out any of Charon's men at each base. And if they were empty, he could confirm it for his own satisfaction and get out of doing any heavy lifting. However, he wondered how he would take everyone out if they were split between the bases, as one could alert the other.

Deciding his best bet would be to wing it, Tucker first ran to the base on the left. He waited patiently by the entrance, anticipating someone to be inside. However, a few minutes passed, and the only sound came from a bug buzzing by his helmet. He crept inside, only to notice empty sleeping bags and piles of MREs. For some reason, he expected the researchers to be better fed. Seeing all the gear inside, he believed the other base might not be as empty as he thought.

When he ran to the other base, he applied a similar tactic, waiting outside and listening in for voices. While he couldn't hear any talking, Tucker saw some movements in the base's reflective ground, so shiny he could probably eat off it. The blue soldier hid behind a corner, praying the Space Pirates didn't see him. He slowed his breathing and closed his eyes, knowing he'd have to defeat them before his loud friends arrived. He couldn't risk their lives.

Tucker pulled the pin off a grenade and slowly rolled it into the base, knowing that throwing it would alert their enemies to his presence with the sounds of it bouncing around. He wouldn't throw away his stealth advantage. However, when it bumped into one of the Space Pirates' feet, he thought, Shit.

"What was that?" one asked, presumably about the grenade. His voice was deep but not quite as deep as Locus's. The man turned around and kicked the grenade accidentally, causing it to roll away, barely visible from above. Tucker breathed a sigh of relief when he realized he would be safe.

"What, was it a spider?" another asked, this one more feminine.

The group looked around for the explosive. One noticed it but didn't see the removed pin. "Uh, did either of you drop a grenade?" asked the third, also a male.

The others patted themselves down, claiming they had everything on them. "We're under attack, aren't we? Son of a bi—" As the grenade exploded, the impact launched two of Charon's men into the wall while the third managed to start running barely before. The simulation trooper grabbed his energy sword and jabbed it in her gut when the black-clad soldier came around the corner. The Space Pirate fell to her knees, coughing as she barely let out a "fuck you" at the aqua soldier.

Tucker walked past her and deeper into the base, activating the flashlight on his armor as the grenade's smoke filled the room. He spotted the others disorientedly trying to stand up but failing. Knowing he couldn't let them go, Tucker stabbed them too, admiring the beauty of the fluorescent blue energy sword encased in smoke.

Satisfied he took down Charon's soldiers alone, Tucker began walking out of the facility with a grin. When he heard Caboose dropping some large boxes, he peeked out and noticed the supersoldier running back to the ledge, presumably to carry more equipment. Tucker became thankful he could avoid the extra work. Intent on wasting more time, Tucker stayed back. An old conversation with Carolina clicked in his mind. They're studying the tech to make enhanced versions without the need for an A.I.

Tucker looked at the bodies. Defiling their corpses felt wrong, but Tucker wondered if any had an enhancement he could take. They wouldn't need it, and the enhancement could give him the edge in future conflicts, especially if he could keep it a secret. Tucker walked to the first, not knowing what to look for. While he'd seen some enhancements in the freelancer outpost years ago, there was no guarantee they would look the same. He only hoped to find something out of place.

It wasn't until searching the third soldier that Tucker found something seemingly special. A weird panel sat on the soldier's left arm. "Well, hello there, beautiful. What are you?" he asked. When he tried to pry the object off the armor, he accidentally pushed a button instead, causing a light shield to launch out and push him off. The barrier lasted briefly before turning red and dissolving.

"Let's try that again," he said, reorienting himself in front of the woman. With greater caution, the simulation trooper shuffled the object a few times, hearing a clicking noise, indicating he was on the right track.

A few minutes passed before he finally removed the enhancement from Charon's soldier. "Now to do the reverse, whatever that might be," he said, raising his forearm and trying to snap the object in place. Truthfully, he didn't remember what he had done to remove it, but he had a vague idea. It was more difficult since he couldn't use both hands to apply it.

After messing around a while longer, he finally attached it. He knew it was successful when he saw an indicator light up on his HUD, just above the radar. The icon showed a soldier's arm raised across its chest with the shield to its right. Tucker took note of the pose. While he didn't think it would be important to mimic, he thought it would look cool anyway. Plus, he needed to waste more time while the others carried their equipment.

He pressed the button on the panel, standing in the guarded position. Immediately, a blue, hard-light shield appeared in front of him. A timer on his HUD's indicator began ticking down like a clock, eventually flashing a warning light and becoming red. Once it depleted, the shield disappeared, and the timer counted up. "Huh, it's recharging. Doesn't last too long, but it doesn't seem like it takes long to recharge either. But I still need to waste more time. Let's run a few more experiments."