Assault (Red vs Blue)

21: Drop Assist

21: Drop Assist

Present Day: En Route to the Temple of the Key (The planet Chorus)

When the Director had pulled the group from the jungle temple, it had come as a complete shock. Church had been under the impression that the leader of Project Freelancer had been taking a fairly hands off approach to everything regarding the situation on Chorus. None of the freelancers ever mentioned any orders coming from the Director for anything. In fact, since they'd been stationed on Chorus, the last — and possibly only — contact any of them had with the Director was the night they'd run into Agent Ireland.

None of the freelancers seemed particularly keen on communicating with their commanding officer. Not that Church could really blame them. After everything the man had done in the past to screw them all over, he didn't exactly want to have any contact with the Director, either.

Once everyone had taken seats and strapped themselves in, Four Seven Niner wasted no time in taking off. The ship had shot skyward rather quickly; so quick that Church heard Tucker mutter something about possibly losing his lunch. He had to admit, the lurching feeling hadn't been great. He'd felt a bit sick as well, but chose to keep his mouth shut about it. Church had just been congratulating himself on not complaining about as many things — particularly when he was around the freelancers — and he wasn't about to mess that up now. Not to mention that if he opened his mouth, Church knew he'd immediately vomit up anything he'd had to eat that day. Having a helmet full of puke wasn't exactly how he wanted to spend the flight.

After they'd been in the air for a few moments, everyone started talking amongst themselves. Carolina and York sat leaning toward each other; at least they leaned as far as their harnesses would left them. Church could hear their voices, but he couldn't tell what they were saying. They were speaking too quietly. Beside them, Dr. Grey was staring intently at the tablet in her hands. She was muttering something to herself, but her vocie was too low for anything to be intelligable. Maine was seated beside her, completely unmoving. Sigma was out, hovering between his host and Dr. Grey. It was almost as if the A.I. was conversing with the doctor since his host couldn't.

Glancing in the other direction, he saw Tucker sitting with his head rested back against the seat, looking as though he was trying really hard to ignore whatever nonsense Caboose was currently babbling about. That one in particular was a comforting sight to see — it meant there was still some degree of normalcy in everything.

"Hey, you all right?" a familiar voice asked, snapping Church from his thoughts. Focusing in on the owner of the voice, he realized it was Tex that was speaking. She was looking at him, and he could almost picture the intense look of curiosity that was no doubt on her face. "I said your name four times and you didn't so much as twitch. Did you not hear me or somethin'?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Sorry about that. Guess I was just kinda lost in my own head," Church told her. "Did you need to talk to me about something?"

"I don't necessarily need to talk to you about anything. Just wanted to fill the silence a bit," the black clad freelancer said.

"Oh, yeah. That's fine." Church fell silent again for a moment, looking once more to the others. After about a full minute, he decided to speak again. "How different do you think things could've been if certain events hadn't happened?"

"I don't think I'm following. If what events hadn't happened? You gotta be a little more specific than that."

"If a lot of things years ago hadn't happened — the break-in, most of you freelancers dying, us leaving Blood Gulch — everything from years past. How different would things be now if none of that had happened?"