1350 HOURS, NOVEMBER 9, 2554 (UNSC MILITARY CALENDAR)

HALO INSTALLATION: SIRCA-UKNOWN COORDINATES-PRESUMED FREELANCER BASE

With Tucker leaving in a hurry, the Chupadore woman turned to look at Tysiac. Her pale yellow eyes unnerved Tysiac, and not in the intimidating manner that she would think. Already the face of Allison was slowly replacing the Chupadore's as she asked, "You sure you wanna laugh with me being this close?"

Tysiac forced himself out of locking eyes with her, focusing on the face of the Chupadore woman as he said, "Not the worst situation I've had in cleaning out insurrectionists."

She stared at him with both suspicion and perhaps some disbelief, but the look alone was enough to let Tysiac look at her in the eyes and not find Allison as he pushed past the topic. He listed off on all that he had gotten, "So: You're planning to stop your Director, cure Project Werewolf, then stop the entire system of wars. Wars that your religion is fueling. Which may as well include throwing down an entire religion that your species has been following for?"

"Centuries, or so we've been told," Wash said with a nod.

"Or at least die trying to do all that," York added.

Quite the ambition. However, compared to how Humanity had struggled to fight back extinction against a religious cabal of aliens. Said aliens who had complete blindness in their faith with Forerunner artifacts to the point they willingly would've activated the Halos to "ascend" as gods? Oh, and let's not forget, humanity also had to deal with a parasitic outbreak that nearly consumed one part of Earth's continents. This same parasite had once nearly consumed an entire galaxy, causing the Forerunners to create the Halo Array just to starve it.

With all that's said and done, this was a cakewalk, and it's localized only in a single inhabited structure... Which may as well be a missing Halo that is still equipped with the purpose of destroying all organic life.

Tysiac's helmet hid a small, wry smirk as he crossed his arms, "So. What's our next move, now that Church is here, and he's your Alpha?"

Her eyebrow raised, "Our?"

"Yes. Our." Tysiac said, leaning against the counter near York, "I've my own aims at dear Omega. And given he hadn't sent a welcoming party yet, I'm still off his radar and considered dead. It's plenty of room to start something, so may as well work with you."

The three Freelancers looked at him with a mix of surprise and suspicion. York seemed to have some level of hope, even if he wasn't trying to show it. But both Wash and ... Tex... Seemed to still be wary of Tysiac openly joining in as she answered, "For... Now. Just getting the Reds and Blues up to speed. Then see what we can do with Church..."

Down time, in other words. Tysiac gave a nod as he said, "Then I'll be needing to fetch both my weapons and move most of my equipment to here. It isn't far off and shouldn't take time."

"I'm coming with you," she said, having a claw reach out to grab him. The energy shielding made it slip off, making her stare at the empty space where she had seen it. Wash's eyes were also wide in surprise, as he likely never seen something of the sorts before.

"Told ya he had that, Tex," York commented with a smile.

Tysiac looked back as she somewhat fiddled in trying to grab him, "Good. It'll help find a spot to move everything, and I won't have to risk using comms to try to find you. It's how I nearly crashed here."

Apparently, Tucker hadn't left too quickly. He appeared around the corner of the door and asked, "Oh shit, that reminds me. Didn't you come here with an invisible shi-"

Tysiac's eyes widened, and he lunged at full speed, grabbing the offending idiot by his robes with both hands and slamming him against the door frame. The suddenness of his action startled the Freelancers as Tucker gave a yelp before looking at the reflective faceplate in fear and pain. Tysiac brought him close and said in a low and threatening tone, "That. Private First Class Lavernius Tucker, was not information for you to share. Nor was it something you would've known."

The turquoise Chupadore recoiled from Tysiac's words as he stuttered, "D-y-you never t-told me to not tell people!"

Tysiac hesitated for a brief second, recalling if he ever said anything to Tucker, Kai, Church or Caboose... Apparently, he hadn't. They poked around, Church saw his face, and then they ventured off and got caught by the bat-creatures... "Indeed, I didn't." He said, however the Spartan kept his grip firm as he lightly shook Tucker, making the Chupadore's head knock against the doorframe a little, "Which is why this is the most I'll do to you. But if I were you, I'd be more careful about what secrets you're telling others. Some secrets carry a price you'd rather not pay."

He let go of Tucker, who dashed off in a hurry. Tysiac took the moment to step outside to see the Chupadore run around a corner before looking at his motion tracker. The tracker was quick to report that Tucker was moving away and didn't take a moment to stop until he was barely outside of range.

"So..." her voice asked him, "Since the idiot blabbed, care to share what you got?"

Tysiac turned around to see Wash with wide eyes and in a wary stance and York already on his feet with a more neutral stare. Tex... Was recovering from just how suddenly Tysiac could move and looked at him expectantly, one of her claws resting near one of her two pistols.

With a sigh, and seeing that there wasn't a point because of said idiot, Tysiac turned back to them. He didn't close the door, as there wouldn't be a reason to do so. The ONI Spartan recited, "The UNSC Last Word is a Winter-class prowler, or rather known as a stealth corvette. Its service in the United Nations Space Command Navy is primarily designed for speed, stealth and deep-space recon. Prowlers are ordinarily in use by the Office of Naval Intelligence to monitor both within and without UNSC controlled space."

That brought the Chupadores by surprise. They stared at him with widened eyes as Wash said, "It's space capable?!"

"You have a stealth ship?!" Tex nearly whispered in shock.

"Yes," Tysiac answered, "It is eighty-two point four meters, and has the mass of around nine-hundred metric tons. It can support a crew of up to five at maximum and can be handled by one if needs be. It can carry up twenty passengers. Fit with a Hyperscanner detector, the ability to tap into comm frequencies, active camouflage and a Slipspace drive at the expense of very light weaponry."

A wide-eyed grin spread across York's face as if he had just been given a puppy for Christmas. The wide-eyed grin nearly made him almost like a giddy teddy bear as he exclaimed, "Holy shit, that's awesome! We can go anywhere on Sirca with this!!"

"Wait, wait, wait," Wash complained as he asked, "What about fuel? Sure, that's a lot of help to us, but the amount of resources to keep that thing has to be a problem."

"It's not as big of an issue as you'd imagine," Tysiac said with a shrug, crossing his arms. "The fuel primarily required to keep the engines active is Deuterium. Heavy water."

York looked over to Wash and said, "I think I remember how that stuff's made, Wash. Shouldn't be a problem getting a small tank to make it."

Wash shook his head, not as happy about the answer Tysiac gave, "It's still resources that'll be hard to get at. And pretty sure it'll need a lot more than a small tank can make."

"It also did not come intact." Tysiac added, "The third engine has taken damage after the crash landing. However, it's still capable of breaching the atmosphere. In addition, someone working under this "House" was aware of me. They hacked in through the comms to send the Last Word straight down at Sirca. As of now, they're under the belief that I've crashed and died." He leaned forwards and emphasised, "I would rather keep my ship that way."

York shook his head this time, his grin haven't faded away as he explained away, "That's alright. We can do more with just that! We'd be able to drop right on the House and they'd never realize it!"

She looked down, her eyes briefly looking towards Church as if she expected something to change as she muttered something. Wash couldn't help but give a smile as York continued to talk to him, one claw around his shoulder and nudging him closer.

Finally, the woman looked up and said, "Well, we'll find a way around the fueling issues. But I'd be happy having you help us." She gave a smirk at him as she added, Tex's tail flipping around to her left and giving a small lean on one hip, "Besides, never got picked up by someone with a spaceship before."

Tysiac was more than glad that his face was hidden from sight. If there was one good sign that separated Tex from Allison, that was enough to put the memories to rest. Tex walked out of the room, her tail lightly impacting his leg as she left. The shielding took the blow, but it still made Tysiac stare at Tex, baffled at what was likely a Chupadore's way of flirting with him.

York's voice came up from behind him. One arm wrapped around Tysiac and despite the energy shielding preventing him from getting a full grip over the Spartan, the Chupadore didn't mind as he said, "Well. If Tex's happy enough to do that, pretty sure the rest of the Movement's gonna be happy having you around. I'll get started on finding something to make that water."

With that, the Chupadore left the room with a small wave towards Tysiac as Wash followed him. The Chupadore gave a look back at the human that all but shared that he wasn't as eager as his friends were, but there was some small bit of hope in those eyes.

Left behind with a still sleeping Church, Tysiac gave a sigh and muttered to himself, "The hell kind of twisted luck is this."

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