1715 HOURS, NOVEMBER 15, 2554 (UNSC MILITARY CALENDAR)
HALO INSTALLATION: SIRCA--QOPPAN HIGHLANDS--Q-BASE

Much of the hour was spent in part of the convoy unloading and letting Nelson and her Chupadores of Q-Base pick through what supplies had been collected from Freelancer Command. Once the paraplegic Chupadore had enough and was satisfied in what she could have, the gathering of Chupas and Spartan took place in the war room, carved and located into the heart of the mines, with illumination given by the glow of mining lamps and the cold, bluish hue of the computer screens.

Tysiac, standing at the head of the table and facing towards the collection of screens, elected to remove his helmet. He gave a small sigh as he brought his hand across his hair while the Chupadores, especially Nelson, were surprised by the sight of his pale, fur-less face.

Nelson's eyes narrowed as she finished locking her wheelchair at the table, her lips curling in distaste, "What fuckin' rock did they dig you out from under?"

The Spartan kept quiet, a cold and pointed look towards Nelson that didn't encourage further comments. And his expression alone was enough to convey how he was in no interest of playing back-and-forth with Nelson's snide remarks. The paraplegic muttered under her breath before Wash began, Trevor handling one laptop that was connected to the screens.

"As... Tysiac, had likely told you earlier." Wash said, giving a slightly pointed look at the unrepentant and stoic Spartan, "We've been gathering intel during our stint at Freelancer HQ. The information--"

Nelson cut him off with a scornful scoff, "Information. Lemmie guess, you got it off your "Director"?"

"From his own office and from his secure logs--" Wash admitted.

Nelson interupted Wash, slamming her fist at the table before growling, "And there you go. God damnit, that man is playing you like a fiddle, again."

"Except the Director's both out of commission and not in Omega's good graces," Tysiac stepped in, "It's our intel to act on now."

"And we've recently finished verifying two key points of the data with our SSF contact." Wash added.

Nelson gave a bitter laugh, "Oh, you mean your ex-Freelancer buddy?"

"Christ, woman." York piped up with exasperation, leaning against his chair, "Didn't you used to be friends with Ashley?"

"I'm calling it like it is." Nelson snapped, "You Freelancer dogs all think alike. It's like you all wear wired goddamn tags and fed table scraps from that fucking madman. You expect me to swallow it?"

Tysiac gave an immediate and warning glare towards Tucker, who had been sitting off to the side alongside his friend, Church. And the Spartan timed it well, as Tucker had started the first syllable of his annoying catchphrase before the glare made the lithe Chupadore's voice fade. Church rolled his eyes but muttered in amusement, "Oh, thank god."

Nelson placed her claws on the armrests of her chair as she glared between Wash and York, "Look, Freelancers. You asked for my time, my base and my patience. So give it to us straight, or we're walking."

York smirked, despite himself, "Figuratively?"

The slap from Constance, added with the glares from Wash and Nelson was immediate. Tysiac himself had to close his eyes and not audibly sigh. Though Bethany, who had been leaning against the wall opposite of Church, had to cover her mouth to stifle a smile and a chuckle.

"York." Tysiac warned, already feeling like he's handling a circus rather than a rebel cell.

The Chupadore put his claws up defensively, "Alright, alright."

With having control over York's antics, Constance leaned fowards and began her piece, "It's no secret to everyone here that the Freelancer Director was running a project that used chemical augmentation and hypnosis to create super-soliders."

'Poorly,' Tysiac mentally edited, but didn't interrupt.

"For the past couple of years, our cell has specialized in hunting and recruiting 'Werewolves' that the project released to Red and Blue armies to fight in the field." Constance finished.

Wash nodded as he took over, "Our last visit to FHQ was going for an antitoxin to cure the Werewolf disease that's killing the project's former test subjects. But instead, we interrupted a HADES raid on the facility. We lost track of the Director after that."

Nelson groused as she leaned back, "Yeah, we heard about your little headquarters getting lit up."

"Then you know FHQ is cleaned out, both by HADES first, and then by us before we blew out the entrance. And the Director abandoned it to the House."

The paraplegic Chupadore's smug expression faltered slightly as she narrowed her eyes, "Abandoned? Why?"

"Because," Wash explained, "Project Werewolf was a front... At least in part."

Constance picked up for Wash, her voice steady but tinged with frustration, "The project wasn't just about creating super-soldiers. Part of it was meant to be a diversion from criminal operations the Director was tasking his Freelancers to perform. I was party to four such operations, where we broke into House storage sites and stole apocrypha from their vaults."

This... Was new... And it was news that Tysiac gritted his teeth quietly and his eyes narrowed. It appears his choice of activities at the base wasn't the wisest move if there were more information he could have gotten. It was already bad enough that former Director Lionel had been creating poorly made super-soldiers, but that it was wasted on purpose for theft?

Constance continued, "In order to stem our suspicions, we were told everything in our briefings from 'property reclaimation from rogue army units' to 'live infiltration exercises'." She gave a bitter laugh, "Hell, we were even told we were stealing back from you people."

"None of us knew what was in those containers." Constance said, her voice firmer as she lost her amusement, "We didn't know what the Director wanted from them, until we finally cracked the files in his office. He's been running experiments with Predicessor AI right under our noses."

Tysiac's stoic demeanor shifted again, his posture stiffening. His mind raced over how this was connecting dots that none of the Chupadores were aware of. The Director's experimentation with AI already was eerily close to the abuses of Section Three's Project Freelancer. The only difference was they had been targeting Charon Industries and that there weren't any hypnotic Super Soldier program.

"You're yanking our chain." Nelson growled.

Wash shook his head, "We're not. And you should already be familiar with this. Some of them were excavated from Sidewinder years back, and the Director's work there was what got him his position at Freelancer." He asked pointedly, "We sent Tex to help you investigate that dig site, didn't we?"

Nelson turned sharply to glare at Bethany, “Oh, right. The bitch who burned out without telling anyone a damn thing.”

Bethany remained silent against the wall, her posture rigid. Her claws clenched into fists, but her expression became unreadable for Tysiac. For a moment, she looked like as if to speak in her defense, but she pressed her lips into a tight line.

Nelson raised an eyebrow as the war room fell into tense silence as she turned her attention from Bethany to Wash and Constance, "So where are these AI now?"

Wash hesitated, and started avoiding Nelson's gaze, "I... can't say..."

"We don't know." Constance interjected, though she couldn't look at Nelson either.

Nelson grumbled, "Fan-fucking-tastic."

"We didn't find anything left behind at FHQ outside of scraps, tightly encrypted data and Tysiac's helmet he kept from the Director." Constance explained, trying to keep calm and ignoring the jab, "It's possible the Director took them with him. Wherever they are, they have intel about Omega that's capable of ending the war for good."

Bethany's demeanor shifted more, and Tysiac could tell why. Tysiac had basically traded custody of Director Lionel Church, the potential intel and AI for her. The Spartan himself wasn't happy with what he had to let go, but he had already come to terms over the trade.

"You think they do." Nelson countered.

"We know. But that's not the real issue." Wash said, making the paraplegic Chupadore turn on him.

"Don't tell me what the issue is! The hell you think we've been fighting for, shits and giggles? Get to the damn point."

Wash sighed, rubbing the back of his neck, then turned to Trevor, “Bring up log 0.825.”

The tech-specialist obeyed and the screens flickered, displaying grainy footage tinted in shades of green. Wash stepped closer, gesturing to the screen as they showed what Tysiac recognized as a Forerunner facility, "The House sent two task forces to this shrine in the Honkal Rimback on these dates."

Tysiac narrowed his eyes as he started a list of questions to pressure Wash after the meeting, however Wash wasn't done, "The second group was smaller..."

The screen showed the second group going to the shrine, entering after a fight against the Chupadores there. And then came out as Wash said, "But you can see them walking out with this object."

Tysiac's eyes widened. He straightened his back as he knew exactly what he was looking at amidst the Chupadores. The hooded individual, shorter than the others, may have been cloaked to disguise what they were, but Tysiac could see the five fingers that were distinctly human-shaped. And they were holding the one object the Spartan did not want to see on this ringworld.

Their hooded individual was a human, flanked by two Chupadores bearing the emblems of Omega. And that human was carrying an Index in his hand. Omega knew about the primary function of Sirca and had just acquired the keys to do what he wished through a puppet.

And this would be the first in the longest time that Tysiac's anger skyrocketed.

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