1558 HOURS, NOVEMBER 9, 2554 (UNSC MILITARY CALENDAR)
HALO INSTALLATION: SIRCA-UKNOWN COORDINATES-FREELANCER L-BASE

During the walk through the vehicle ramp leading into L-Base, Tex had asked more about Humanity and UNSC. Some questions were general, inquiring about the UEG's political structure and their reasons for venturing into the galaxy. Learning a small summary of the Interplanetary Wars, which had first began a few years after they colonized their planet's moon and began expanding in both earnest and curiosity, didn't make Tex happy about how quickly things turned to violence. Not that she had sympathy once he explained the Koslovics and Friedens and their hostile ideologies.

She did once ask who their strongest was.

" The Spartan-IIs. Easily." Tysiac gave a laughing chuckle at Tex when she had asked him. "Their feats are legendary enough that soldiers often struggle just to imagine how strong they are."

The idea of a Spartan-II arriving in Sirca briefly crossed his mind. "In fact... If even one Spartan-II had arrived here instead of me, I wouldn't find it surprising if they took care of Omega and his House within the week. A month at most."

Tex gave him raised eyebrows as she came to a stop. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. One of these guys could do that?" She shook her head as her claws rested on her hips, "Look bud, I get the need to look cool. And I get it, you've impressed me enough with the help with Church's werewolf moment. But stories like that sounds like complete propaganda bullshit, and we've had to deal with the stories and myths about Omega being a god."

The Spartan's grin didn't disappear. Shaking his head in return, he said slyly, "They're not propaganda, Tex. Although I would love to see a fight between a Spartan-II and Omega, I can't justify asking ONI to send one. What I can tell you is that they're not invincible, but they can defy impossible odds, and it's only because of them humanity still exists."

His answers seemed to satisfy Tex, as she continued walking towards the base. Tysiac rounded a bend and spotted remnants of their fight against Church in L-Base's open area. Tex spoke again. "Do... How many colonies do you guys have?"

Tysiac's pace slowed. He frowned as he considered how to best answer that question. "We've... Used to have hundreds of colonies, spanning almost a third of the galaxy... I don't know how many we have left."

Tex nearly came to a stop as she looked at him. "What happened?"

With a deep sigh, Tysiac returned his pace as he explained, "On the year 2525, a cabal of religious aliens named the Covenant encountered one of our colonies called Harvest. They had come looking for artifacts that were built by a far more advanced and ancient species. At first, it was just a minor issue of ships raiding one another, and that was all that we had learned before we lost all contact with Harvest. The UNSC sent a scout to find out why."

Reaching the interior of L-Base, Tex took Tysiac towards the medbay, mentioning she wanted to check on Church. During the walk there, Tysiac continued his summary of the War. "We lost the scout, but it sent a signal warning the UNSC. After sending a battle group, we encountered a Covenant destroyer staying in orbit of what remained of Harvest."

" The colony was gone, and we were lucky there were any evacuated civilians," Tysiac said, pausing in the hallway. "The Covenant glassed the planet, leaving only a small portion habitable. Glassing being plasma bombardment, and it results in melting everything into chemical soup before letting it cool into an obsidian-like slab. There's been times glassing destroyed a planet's atmosphere."

He took a breath, recalling what he had read on the holonet as a child. "The worst part was that, despite being outnumbered, the Covenant had much more advanced technology than us. They nearly destroyed the entire battle group, leaving only a single destroyer to limp back. It took us five years to regain Harvest, whatever was left of it..."

Tysiac stopped just before the turn that led to the medbay as he finished, "They started the war by broadcasting to us: ‘Your destruction is the will of the gods, and we are their instrument.' And with that, we waged a long war for twenty-seven years to determine if Humanity had the right to exist."

Tex came to a stop to stare at Tysiac. From what he could guess, she wasn't a stranger to wars because of Omega and these ‘holy wars' that the Chupadores talked about. But seeing her stare at him with wide eyes and her mouth hanging slightly open, it gave him the thought neither she nor the Chupadores had experienced something on the same level.

He returned her stare. "Hence the secrets and vague answers you've been getting from me, Tex. The Covenant soured whatever hope there was for alien relations, and it's why I'm hoping you Chupas can be friendly."

" What... will you do if we aren't?" Tex asked cautiously.

Tysiac didn't say it. He didn't reply at all as he walked towards the medbay, leaving Tex behind with the wordless answer.

His motion tracker picked her up, following behind him as he turned the corner and heard the familiar voices of Tucker and Church. Tysiac entered through the door as he looked at the now white Chupadore. "Nice to see you awake, Church."

" Wait a minute... You..." Church nearly began to say something before locking eyes with Tex.

She didn't immediately respond as the Chupadore woman began walking closer towards Church. During that, Tucker took some unknown sign with her presence and quickly grabbed Caboose, "Alright, that's our cue to get the fuck out. Com'on, Caboose!"

" Wait! Church!" Caboose complained, "Don't let the bad man take me away! I didn't get to eat your jello yet!"

Tysiac gave an amused snort over their antics as Tucker continued to drag his teammate out. Electing to not "be" there at a private moment between Tex and Church, he turned around and aimed to hang just outside the door. As he faced the doorframe, he slipped another of the small cameras into the doorframe to let him spy on the two.

Just before he physically disappeared around the corner, Tysiac noticed Tex was looking at him with a mix of both worry and gratitude on giving privacy. The latter gave him a small twinge of pain, knowing full well that he wasn't giving any of it.

Leaving the room, Tysiac quickly accessed the camera and picked a spot on the hallway wall to listen and watch through his helmet.

The camera responded instantly as it brought the room into view. As Tex walked past Church, he hesitantly tried to talk to her. After deactivating the heart monitor, Church asked in an almost worried tone, "...Beth?"

Tysiac supposed this should've been expected. After having such apparent differences shown between Allison and her, it shouldn't have surprised him they wouldn't share the same names.

On a distinct note, Tysiac made an objective for himself to acquire a pair of Chupadore bodies for biology and dissection, preferably someone from the House. Seeing the highly pronounced foot and claw pads on Church was an unusual sight to the Spartan. At the very least, secure them, put them in cyro and send them off to ONI. That'd make them quite happy.

Bethany Tex, as Tysiac gave the assumption of what her full name could be, seized the wires attached to the sensors on Church before giving a quick yank, "Leonard."

The male Chupadore quickly recoiled in pain before nearly shouting, "What gives, woman??"

She gave a chuckle at his response before flicking his nose. "It's just you. You look like a completely different person, Church."

"Com'on," he complained, "I'm not that different. Besides, I see you haven't changed a bit."

Tex gave a smirk at Church. "Hey, I'm like a shark. I was made right the first time, so no point in evolving."

" Won't argue with the science."

Tysiac began tuning out the pillow talk between the two, mostly because he saw Tucker sneaking around the corner. The turquoise Chupadore flinched at seeing Tysiac at first before coming to a false assumption that he wasn't paying attention. Tucker then began eavesdropping on both Tex and Church, until Tex made a mention about Church's new look made him look more distinguished.

Cue Tucker quickly peeking in and dropping a fast insult towards Church, "Just a nice way of saying ugly!"

It didn't take long before Church slammed the door on the Chupadore, especially as Tucker began saying that ever present and unamusing catchphrase of his. Tysiac rolled his eyes as the Chupadore fell over after the door had hit his nose.

Ignoring the grumbling, Tysiac's attention went back to the room. Tex was the first to talk. "I guess we've a lot to catch up on."

That statement made Church growl, "Yeah. We kinda do. It's been what, three years? Three years and not a single damn word." He became more animate as he explained, "I didn't know where you went, I didn't know what you were doing!" His claws nearly went up above his head as he exclaimed, "I didn't even know you were alive!"

The tough attitude and exterior of Tex quickly melted as she looked away and muttered sadly, "I know..."

" I couldn't go looking for you because I didn't know where to start." Church continued ranting, "I wasn't even allowed to freakin' ask! I was just stuck in that stupid canyon with no leads and no sign of you at all."

The story certainly checks out. Following the Mother of Intervention crash landing on Sidewinder, they moved what remained of the Alpha AI into the box canyon on a planet Tysiac couldn't remember. The Director intended for the AI to remain there as long as possible.

" So you were out running around with these clowns, for God knows whatever reason all this time, and you couldn't even check in to let me know you were okay?" Church rambled angrily, walking closer towards Bethany as he pointed at her, "I was worried about you, Tex!"

That seemed to snap Bethany out of her reverie as she glanced at him with an unamused expression. "Hey. First of all, I know how to take care of myself. A lot better than you, I'd say. So you didn't have to worry. And secondly, I couldn't look you up."

" What, why?" Church argued, "‘The Movement' wouldn't let you, your Freelancer pimp daddy grounded you to your room and wouldn't let you see me, or what?"

Tysiac was surprised that Bethany hadn't punched Church in the face for that last jab. Allison wouldn't have suffered any of that type of talk, and pretty certain what he could get from Beta-Texas, she would've turned Church into a smear for it.

" No, I mean I couldn't because I had no idea where you were, either," Bethany explained.

Church didn't seem to believe half of it. "Are you kidding me?? I was in the damn Blue Army! It's where I've been the whole time! You seriously couldn't look that up in a database or something!? I thought that was part of your special ops training. You break into military bases all the time! I know it wouldn't have been that hard-"

He turned around in exasperation and threw his claws up, "You know what, never mind. I'm obviously asking too much."

Both Tysiac and Bethany agreed on that point. Given how similarities have been working, even Beta-Texas likely given a hard time just trying to find Alpha for some time. Tex growled at Church, "Yeah, you kind of are. You have no idea what we've been through. A lot's happened and I've had to change."

She snarled as she continued, "But I see you're still the same self-centered pig you always were. And you're wrong. I did go to headquarters to look you up. Wanna know what I found?"

Bethany didn't let Church answer as she jabbed a claw into the Chupadore's chest, "Nothing. You weren't in there. Not in the personnel files, not in the lab roster, not in the payroll, nowhere. I thought I was going crazy, because I even checked the Red Army's profiles. There is no Leonard Church."

Given the similar nature between Alpha-Church and Chupadore-Church, Tysiac wondered what went on at this "Project Werewolf" that made the Director of Sirca's Project Freelancer to delete Leonard's existence. ONI Section Three's Freelancer did this to protect Alpha from both Beta-Texas and the rogue Agent Maine. It resulted in both Agent Florida and Alpha being removed from records.... Curious.

Church's shock was more than obvious. "What?? How is that possible?"

" Why do you think they sent you out to the middle of nowhere, to the farthest outpost from your command or any major city, without any papers or even a dog tag?" Bethany continued to explain, walking towards the door and placing a claw on it.

Tysiac realized that the conversation was ending, but it left plenty for him to mull over. It'd certainly be something to look into when he had more time and started his campaign against Omega.

Church spat, "Goddamnit, Command kept telling me they lost it in the mail! I mean," he waved his arms a little, "I've been in the service for years! I took orders from those bastards! It's not like they didn't know I exist!"

" Except that's exactly what it was," Bethany retorted. "You don't exist to them. You got deleted, Church."

Bethany opened the door and was halfway out the door as Tysiac turned off the camera. He raised his head at Bethany Tex to give her the false idea that he wouldn't know what had occurred. Church called out to her, "But why the fuck would they do that??"

" Think about it." Bethany replied darkly, not looking back towards him, "Maybe it'll come back to you." She looked over towards Tysiac as they heard Church give a loud curse of pain. Her expression had changed and brought the familiar tough front. "Thanks for waiting. Sorry to hear the ex's spat."

Tysiac elected to let her have the comfort of thinking he didn't have a sight behind her emotional masking, "Not a problem. Just something of a reason we tend to not have this kind of thing in the military corps."

She gave a small grunt to him before saying, "Well. In the meantime, we'll sort out a bunk for you."

" As long as I can get a room for more private work, and the bunk is close to the ground." Tysiac replied, "As good of an exercise as it was going down that ramp, I'd rather not do it too often."

Bethany didn't look comfortable at the request, but she relented. "I can open a few rooms for you... Might have to clear them out, since they used to be..." She didn't complete her sentence, though Tysiac could understand not wanting to clean out a dead teammate's office of their belongings. Only thing that worried him was which dead teammate it was.

Red vs Blue © Rooster Teeth. Halo © 343 Industries. Concept by Myshu, assisted by The Department of Chupapology.