1400 HOURS, NOVEMBER 9, 2554 (UNSC MILITARY CALENDAR)

HALO INSTALLATION: SIRCA-UKNOWN COORDINATES-TUNNEL BETWEEN JUWO VILLAGE AND FREELANCER BASE

The journey back through the same tunnels towards Juwo's village was a relatively quiet trip. With Tex having flirted with the Spartan, it jarred Tysiac's memories of Allison Church effectively. He could stand to look at the Chupadore woman more often because of how different she was. Though that didn't mean it was comfortable having someone who had the same voice as a dead teammate and act the way Tex did for the past hour.

That said, he had an encounter with Chupadore C.T just before he left the Freelancer Base. Upon locking eyes with the woman, she had marched towards him and demanded how he knew her full name. That same level of anger and suspicion was on her face, just like the time Constance had been angry at Tysiac for his early days of working with ONI.

His best answer that he could give the Chupadore was a short and vague explanation, "Twisted luck. You reminded me of another with that name." It seemed to work, as C.T's expression changed from anger to surprise and curiosity, and was enough to have her back away and let him go.

He couldn't bring himself to tell the alien just how close she resembled Constance. It wasn't merely out of duty, but it was because of Tex's demonstration that she wasn't Allison that made him feel much more reluctant to share about his life out to another alien species.

Tex didn't pry about it during their travel. Either she noticed something about him that made her not ask, or perhaps she didn't want to pry. Regardless, her silence was comforting.

Meeting with the bat-creatures again, they gave a respecting nod towards the two beings and let them pass through to the village. With the Reds and Blues no longer there, the village was much more quiet this time around. While some bats watched Tysiac and Tex curiously, a few of them muttered or asked themselves something as the two continued onwards.

However, there wasn't time for pleasantries. So, with an escort from the guards and Tex leading him to the surface where the lake was, their visit was brief and with few words shared between each other. Tysiac especially kept his words short as he fueled himself to ignore the temptation of brooding and giving hidden glances towards Tex.

Once on the lake shores, Tex moved a little faster before looking around, trying to find his still hidden ship. Having no luck, the Chupadore woman turned to Tysiac, "You said this was where you parked your spaceship?"

" It's where I've hidden it, yes," Tysiac corrected as he moved onwards, "I've kept it on minimum power to keep the cloaking active. During the first few days here, I've constantly expected a welcome party."

Tex followed behind as he came closer. Apparently, the camouflage had been more effective than the wildlife could handle, as he spotted some areas where birds had accidentally collided with the ship, leaving tufts of feathers on the ground. There were also animal tracks in the muddier parts of the lake shore that walked one path, then suddenly stopped before going in a completely opposite direction. Keying a few commands from his helmet, the Last Word's camouflage faded and revealed the prowler to the two beings.

Seeing the prowler come out of cloak, Tex's eyes widened as she slowly followed Tysiac towards the boarding ramp as it opened up to allow the two inside. She gave a low whistle as she watched the Spartan wait for her at the ramp, "That's... Alright, that's pretty impressive. And this is a corvette?"

" Smallest prowler and technically considered a corvette." Tysiac nodded as he walked into the ship, Tex following behind, "Granted, the Winter-class is based on our fighters and its design was intended for atmospheric operations. It looks much sleeker when it's in flight. Those wings," He pointed towards the right side of the Prowler, "are folded to avoid damaging them on landing and make the ship more compact."

"Making me happier the more you're tell me, Tys," Tex said cheerfully as she looked around with a hopeful smile. Tysiac could guess that she was mentally feeling thankful that he was nearly around her height, as he could see other Chupadores such as York feeling cramped trying to find a place to stand. Though, as she followed further into the ship, there were times Tex had to crouch.

Making his way to the cockpit, Tysiac took off his helmet again and placed it nearby. Quickly grabbing the manual cable to upload his helmet's data into the system, he turned his attention to raising the ramp and getting the ship set for takeoff.

"May want to find a seat," he warned Tex as she looked over his shoulder, wanting to see as much as she could.

She gave an annoyed huff at him before taking a better look at him, likely having never seen his face before. It wasn't long until Tex said curiously, "York was right, you really look like an alien version of that turquoise twit."

Tysiac gave her statement a flat look before she chuckled and moved to sit down on the co-pilot seat. As she strapped in, he said, "I'm not teaching you how to fly this."

"What?" Tex asked slyly, "Afraid someone'll jack your ship?"

"Actually, yes," Tysiac answered plainly, "And we at ONI don't enjoy sharing or loaning our things, especially to other alien species."

She stared at him as the Spartan finished up getting the ship started, "That... was supposed to be a joke."

"I know," Tysiac replied darkly, "And none of us wants to hear the punchline."

His answer made Tex look at him with worry before Tysiac began using the Last Word's VTOL procedures to lift it off the ground. The sudden lift made the Chupadore give a small gasp, her claws gripped the armrests at her seat tightly before relaxing. After the viewscreens showed the top of the forest canopy, Tysiac tilted the Last Word up towards the skies of Sirca and turned on the main engines.

With whatever beneficial luck his twisted fortunes had, the damaged third engine seemed to be still complying. In fact, it was still generating thrust, and the systems wasn't notifying him about any severe problems from the engine.

Tysiac gave a glimpse over to Tex, who was staring at the viewscreens with wide eyes as she watched the land on Sirca become smaller and further away. He gave a small smile at her awed expression as he returned to the ship and monitored the systems in case anything happened while they continued to climb. He keyed the ship's cloaking to activate once more, shielding them from the eyes and ears of the House and hopefully maintaining the illusion that he and the Last Word was still 'destroyed'.

The Last Word, almost as seamlessly as the day it left the shipyards, ascended past the atmosphere of Sirca. The viewscreens turned from a colorful blue with green forests at the left into the cold and black night of space, the stars quickly revealing themselves before the both of them.

Tex gave a small jolt before she quickly turned to look at Tysiac, "Wait, what the hell are you doing? Why are we leaving..." She paused as he guessed the realization that she just left Sirca entirely and was now flying through space in an advanced spaceship just hit her.

He answered her, "Need to send a report to ONI. After all, the only message they ever received was me sending an image of Sirca. Having no contact for a few days makes them quickly realize something happened. And I doubt anyone on Sirca will appreciate seeing advanced warships come looking for me and be trigger-happy. So," Tysiac paused as he turned the ship away from Sirca and brought the engines to increase power as the viewscreens showed Sirca growing smaller at a rapid pace, "I need to make distance to make sure whoever detected me the first time doesn't get a second chance."

She looked at him with some unknown expression as the Last Word continued to stalk through space unseen. Tex's smirk soon came back after a few seconds as she commented slyly, "Wow. I get picked up by an alien and I get abducted from my home. You really know your way with ladies, tin can."

Tysiac couldn't help but give an amused snort and roll his eyes. Tex's smirk grew into a victorious grin before she returned her attention to the viewscreen, watching Sirca become smaller and the gas giant now being small enough to fit inside the screen. He noted that her expression had returned to that of awe and wonder.

He couldn't blame her, seeing her own home from the outside. During UNSC's efforts to discover and reclaim all the Forerunner's technological marvels, simply seeing them was always awe-inspiring. From creating inhabitable planets like Onyx, to the discovery of the Forerunners use of hard light technology. And then the Huragoks, which were biomechanical supercomputers capable of repairing just about anything and absorb data into recreating that 'anything' at any time... If you could communicate the command to them.

The travel through the void didn't last long. After five minutes of making as much distance as Tysiac felt safe from the House and Omega, he set the engines to slow the ship down before leaving the seat. He gave a glance at Tex and gave a knowing smile, "Feel like floating for a bit?"

That same smirk returned as she didn't hesitate, prying her buckles off. Though, as she gave a gentle push off of her seat with her hands, Tex began squirming a little. Her unfamiliarity with the lack of gravity was apparent to Tysiac as he expertly maneuvered around to watch her look around.

The fearless confidence Tex had seemed to have left the Chupadore woman. She floated up to the top of the Last Word before having to raise her claws above her head to avoid hitting the ceiling. This resulted in her slightly bouncing off and made her drift further towards the front of the ship. Realizing what was happening, Tex started to squirm and scrabble to stop her without trying to damage the ship or anything important. She had stopped herself by spreading her arms and legs out, leaving her pinned just behind the pilot and co-pilot consoles, but that left her with no room to propel herself out of the corner. Tex's legs were bent and pinning her body to the hull of the ship, and she couldn't move her arms enough to push herself forward. With her tail lashing out, Tex gave a silent glare at the Spartan, giving a clear sign she needed help.

With a small smile and an amused huff, Tysiac gave a gentle push with one leg and twisted around to land his boots on the ceiling. With a metallic clank, his boots magnetized to the Last Word. He knelt down and reached out to grab one of Tex's outstretched claw before slowly pulling her.

Tex gave a thankful look as she began drifting to the back of the cockpit, where there was more room to safely grab onto something. She watched as Tysiac's boots let go of the hull, and with a bit of practiced ease, he twisted around before making his way towards the comms section of the cockpit.

As Tysiac heard her mutter, "Show-off," he brought up the comms screen and quickly pulled the data from his helmet and added it to his report.

Tysiac felt a shift in his chair as Tex hovered nearby, watching with curiosity as he reviewed his work, carefully checking everything twice. The report documented his arrival, adding the audio files of the sounds he heard before being interrupted and landing. It went over his encounter with the Blues and the quick interrogation about what they knew and the name of their species. The discovery of the submerged UNSC ship with some of its name visible, exploring its interior, and the encounter with Juwo and his species. And then, his encounter with the Movement... The report's closing recommendations for ONI were: avoid sending backup due to hostile detection and attacks on comms, investigate the ship he found, and have a SECNET connection prepared for further orders.

With everything ready and double checking that it would be sent to ONI, Tysiac placed one hand over the power switch and turned the comms on.

The SATCOM picked up the distant chatter of Sirca. It wouldn't last for long as Tysiac turned it off alongside other equipment that allowed him to listen in on Sirca's communications. He hoped that by doing so, he was reducing the chances that his presence was going to be noticed and the attacking force that he encountered wouldn't find him again.

Tysiac didn't hesitate in sending the report out to ONI through HIGHCOM. He didn't have to wait long either, as he quickly received confirmation that HIGHCOM had received the report. With that done, he turned off the comms station and maneuvered around to help a reluctant Tex drift back towards the cockpit and into the co-pilot seat.

She settled down, then looked over and complained, "Why don't you have any of those fancy gravity generators that some sci-fi books talk about? Or is that something your species didn't invent yet?"

He gave a grin at her, "We did, but you're in the wrong prowler." He uncoupled the cable from his helmet. "The bigger prowlers have the generators, but the Winter-class doesn't come with one. After all, I was supposed to be on recon and spying on you all."

Her eyes rolled before feeling the Last Word turn around and head back towards Sirca. The trip back was uneventful, though Tysiac kept a careful eye on making sure that whatever hostile AI had attacked him earlier wasn't present.

Curiosity getting the better of her, Tex turned to ask him, "Anything you can tell me about this 'UNSC' and 'ONI' of yours?"

Tysiac hesitated, double-checking the systems to ensure everything was in order. That and he wanted to be careful about what he would say. Confidentiality and protocol demanded that type of silence. Once he finished, he replied, "The UNSC is the military, exploratory and scientific agency of humanity, which is what my species is called. They've acted as the emergency governing body for quite a long time. Though they're recently giving power back over to the UEG, or Unified Earth Government."

Tex gave a nod before she realized something and asked incredulously, "Earth? That's your home's name? Fucking earth?"

" Yes, yes." Tysiac rolled his eyes and gave a nod, seeing Tex's amused look, "The cosmic equivalent of calling a spade a spade. ONI, on the other hand, is the intelligence branch. Ostensibly, we're subordinate to the UNSC. Though in practice, we've cemented ourselves into complete autonomy. We handle the covert-ops, the oversight of intel and the R&D for anything the UNSC needs."

She gave a curious look again as she asked, "Would Project Freelancer have counted as one of yours if we were human?"

Tysiac had to put in effort to not tell her it already was and it used to be before they dismantled it and converted its remnants into the S-VI program. Forcing himself into silence, he was able to reconsider his words. "It would, yes."

Tex's eyes remained on him before turning back to the viewscreens, admiring the view of Sirca from the Last Word's viewscreens in silence.

With the prowler in a controlled descent, Tysiac performed another check of the systems as they entered the ring's atmosphere. Compared to his first landing, this one was much more peaceful and a lot less stressful. Though Tex's claws gripped the armrests as she felt the atmosphere shake the Last Word a little.

The shaking wouldn't last, and soon enough, the ship flew smoothly through the air as Tysiac brought up a holoscreen that gave a complete map of Sirca. "Alright," he said, turning to glance at Tex as the holoscreen displayed both the Last Word's location and the coordinates of their take-off point at the lake. Now, you'll need to point me where the base is and where we're landing. Because despite all this tech, we didn't invent teleportation."

The Chupadore woman gave a small pout towards him before scanning the holoscreen. One claw started to raise before she halted and looked at him, "Care to share what'll happen between Sirca and you humans?"

A very good question, Tysiac mulled. He gave a shrug at her, "Hard to tell, but it's inevitable now that I'm still alive and sent two reports already to tell everyone back home what's been happening here. Omega and that little House of his will certainly be an issue towards us, but considering we're already a space-fairing species with higher advanced tech and he's landlocked on that ring, it'd be damn near impossible to stop us from getting in his way."

That's assuming they can't reach Sirca's Monitor. The Ring was guaranteed to be theirs if he could find and talk to the Monitor, and it's still sane. Based on the logs from 343 Guilty Spark found on what remained of Installation-04, Halo rings could detach and launch sections of themselves into space at high speeds, causing them to break apart. The ring's systems could then generate and rebuild new sections.

The thought of Omega in a panic while whatever throne he was on was being thrown at high velocity into space made Tysiac resist giving a vicious grin as he finished his assumptions to Tex. "But, ignoring Omega and his House... Humanity might be more interested in a peaceful encounter... It's certainly something we need."

Her expression changed to concern and curiosity, "Why?"

Tysiac's brow furrowed as he tried to block out memories of the Human-Covenant War. "Let's just say you're not our first encounter with aliens... But we're hoping you'll be the first peaceful encounter." He gave a small gesture with his shoulder towards the map, "Base, please."

His answer didn't seem to satisfy her question, as Tex stared at him a little longer before returning to the map. She positioned a claw on the map where the lake was, then pulled it slightly further out and showed a specific section. The holoscreen registered her movement and dropped a dot under her claw as Tex said, "L-Base is here. Reason why is because this entire area," she raised another claw to draw out a territory across the surface of the map, "is called 'Lactan'. The entire jungle is its territories and is only occupied by military bases and some scattered tribes of the Sciuridae Chupas."

"Sciuridae?" Tysiac asked with an eyebrow raised.

Tex gave a nod as she explained, "We have a lot of different breeds of Chupadores. Sciuridae are the smallest of Chupas. They're usually ID'd by having bushy tails, buck teeth, sloped brows and their limbs being suited for climbing trees."

" How many are there?"

"Fourteen." Tysiac's eyebrows raised at Tex as she gave a smirk, "Though these days, interbreeding's pretty abundant, so everyone's more integrated. The Sciuridae are the only traditionalist tribes left, and they're not interested in Omega to the point they avoid any attempts the House makes in communicating with them."

Tysiac reached a hand around his helmet and activated the recorder, asking Tex all the while, "Care to explain more about the fourteen Chupadore breeds?"

Tex rolled her eyes at him, "Oh goddamnit, Tys. You're really going to ask me everything about us and record it?"

" Considering this all goes to helping us learn more about your people, yes." Tysiac replied with simplicity, "Also 'Tys'?"

"What?" She shrugged, "Your name's a mouthful."

Tex smirked at his returning eye roll before she began explaining, "Look. If you're wanting a better picture of our population and breeds, you're gonna want to find someone else. But..." She paused for a moment, "I still know the general gist of them. The most common breeds are the Canis and Felis. They make up the fi'la and shi'a bloodlines the most."

Tysiac gave a look over to Tex after adjusting the Prowler's course, "I'll take the guess that they're called those names because they have similar canine and feline traits?"

She gave a nod, "Pretty much. The Canis have the usual canine teeth and thick claws, Felis have a more needle-like teeth and their claws are more hook-like. Those two make most of all our breeds, and they're about split even on which breed belongs to the Canis or Felis. The Canis has the Bison, Cervidae, Equus, Lupus, Ursus, Adustus and Lutris breeds. The Felis has relation to the Leo, Leporidae, Sciuridae, Pardus, Vulpes and Ailurus."

"That's a mouthful of names."

Tex gave a huff, "Tell me about it. Was never a fan of biology unless it involved sex in bed."

That brought Tysiac's full attention as he nearly jolted the Prowler, his head turning to look at Tex with bewilderment. She looked over at him and asked, "What? You humans don't do sex?"

"We... do," Tysiac said hesitantly, "Though it's unusual to talk so openly about sexual activities on duty." He gave a glance before turning his attention back to flying. "Are... All Chupadores this sexually active?"

She didn't have the slightest hesitation. "Yeah, pretty much. I mean, it's just sex. There's not much beyond that, so why be so dramatic about it? We have fun, some of us decide to have kids. Others decide they can't raise them, so they don't have them. I like having fun, and there's nothing to not enjoy about it."

Thus begins the differences in cultures, Tysiac surmised. "We're a bit more reverent on the subject."

Tex gave a drawn-out groan. "Oh, don't tell me. Sex is this big, religious thing. It involves souls, spiritual bonding, a reverence to some god, and some fuckin' duty between a male and female to make as many kids as they can-"

Tysiac couldn't help but give a small chuckle, "Alright, now you're the one being overdramatic. Some of our religions have that sort of thing, however, we're not all as openly eager to talk about it, not unless someone wanted to be seen as a suspected sex offender."

" Y'mean, like what that turquoise idiot is?"

Tysiac didn't need to look to know her expression as he shook his head, "He'd be labeled a pervert. Besides, judging how quickly he left with you threatening him, Vern's just easy to handle."

" Too easy to handle," Tex grumbled as she gazed towards the viewscreens, notably the one that was looking up at the sky, "Religions? As in plural?"

Tysiac gave an idle nod, "We're not as unified in one religion as you Chupadores are. The rule of thumb is that we leave them alone as long as they don't start wars or violence. The rest is just up to the individual."

" Must be nice..." she muttered sourly, her eyes drifting back to the viewscreens, sinking into her seat.

Another glance at the Chupadore woman as the Spartan silently disagreed with her. However, as the Last Word's navigation alerted him, he didn't continue the subject. Tex's attitude also changed as she pointed to one viewscreen, "Base is over there. Should be seeing... Yeah, that.... Oh, right..."

Bringing the Last Word around, Tysiac looked through the viewscreen and saw the problem. Apparently, there was a glass dome that covered the top of L-Base. Though, looking at it closely, "Going to need a bit of measuring," He grunted, grabbing his helmet but not putting it on, "Even if that dome wasn't there, it looks too small for the Last Word to fit."

Thus, instead of lining the Prowler up for a descent, Tysiac had it land nearby and partially under cover by the foliage.

Leaving the pilot seat and leading Tex out of the Prowler, and having to check that she didn't nick any of his weaponry, the two walked over towards the domed ceiling. Already on sight, Tysiac could tell there was an issue with the glass architecture. From where he could see and what the helmet could measure, the entire hole was about two meters smaller than the Last Word, even with the wings folded up in VTOL. Even if the shaft could somehow fit the Prowler, the glass dome was firmly bolted shut, making it impossible to create a hinge. Not that he would've supported making something that someone could infiltrate from the top.

He gave a small scoff. "We'll need another way of harboring the Last Word. This won't work, and trying to build a hangar here isn't worth it." Tysiac scanned around the area and added, "It's too open and satellites will see it."

Tex grimaced as she came to the same conclusion, "Not looking forward to the renovations." She looked over towards the Spartan and asked with a jerk of her head towards the Prowler, "How much gas does that have left?"

" It doesn't take gas," Tysiac retorted. He quickly checked how much fuel they used on their trip to ONI and back, "But the Prowler has enough fuel to last a few weeks, however every day reduces its range." So we can't keep the stealth field up forever."

A groan left her mouth again before she grumbled, "And that's your smallest prowler you could've come in on?"

" Yes. Otherwise, you would see a retrofitted freighter, some measuring seventy-six meters. That's the smallest a Slipspace Drive can sit in."

That didn't improve her attitude, however, he doubted she was this unhappy. She turned towards him and said, "Alright. Plan's gonna be keeping that hidden, we'll build something and haul that in it." She pointed over towards the open plains, "There's a vehicle entrance not far from here. We'll get back to base there."

Before the two began setting off back to L-Base, Tex took a moment to stop and gave a genuine smile towards Tysiac, "Hey. Thanks for the ride and alien abduction. Always wondered what it was like out in space."

Tysiac returned the smile as he began putting the helmet back on, "It's a genuine wonder out there. It's a little war-torn, but still plenty enough to see and do."

Her smile grew, "Careful there, Tys. I might start asking to see you in my quarters."

Tysiac's eye roll went unseen as he said, "You'll have to work harder on the idea. I'm not comfortable on interspecies relationships outside of being friends and allies."

Now she gave a challenging smirk, "I bet I can change that to 'friends with benefits'."

"You can try."

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