Chairman: Dear Director.

Fade in to the inside of a tunnel that leads out to South's corpse

Chairman: Your program was granted the use of a single artificial intelligence unit, for implantation experiments. Yet, the department records clearly show multiple agents in the field with implants, during the same timeframes. Including our Spartan. Surely this must be a logging error, and we anticipate a corrected document soon.

"Okay," Church starts. "I have a great idea, lets all put down our guns, and not shoot anyone else that we're trying to help."

"Relax." Wash tells Church.

"Exactly. Let's all relax..."

"Agent South had already shot me in the back once before, and she tried to give up Delta to the enemy. I wasn't going to wait around to see if she decided to do it again."

"I think she got what she deserved." Ash says.

"Thank you, Minnesota."

"Right, okay - sure!" Church says.

"Stop talking to me like that." Wash orders Church.

"We're not talking to you like anything..."

Caboose backs away. "No one is talking to you like this..."

"You don't need to treat me like that..." Wash says. "I'm not crazy okay? I'm totally, completely sane. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go blow up this dead body."

Wash walks over to South's dead body.

"Oooohhhhh. Let me help." Ash says as he follows him.

Church: Hey, hey uh, uh, green guy.

Caboose: I'm blue.

Church: Delta.

Caboose: Oh, him.

Delta: Hello. How may I be of assistance?

Church: Hey yeah, uh, what's the deal with this guy?

In the background, Wash shoots the body with a battle rifle

Delta: Destruction of unused armor or equipment is standard recovery procedure.

Church: Yeah, no, I mean is he like a whack-job or what?

Ash tosses a couple grenades at the body.

Delta: Are you aware of his experience with Epsilon?

Church: Epsilon, oh, you mean his A.I.?

Wash now has a flamethrower, and South's corpse is completely engulfed in flames. Ash laughs like a mad man.

Delta: Correct. Epsilon was an... unstable intelligence unit that had to be deleted. Its integration with Washington's mind concerned our superiors.

Ash collects a bunch of fusion coils and gas tanks onto the corpse. Ash is giggling like a child. 

Church: What do you think?

Delta: I believe that Agent Washington's sanity is well within acceptable deviations, for now.

Church: Wow, what a ringing endorsement. Also, Was Ash actually a Freelancer?" 

"Yes, Agent Minnesota. Or as his friends called him, Minne, was one of the top Freelancers." Delta informs Church.

"What happened to him? He says he doesn't remember any of this Freelancer stuff." 

"Unknown. On his file his status is deceased. He acts fairly different from the last time I've seen him." Delta informs Church.

"Huh? Did he have an A.I.?" Church asks.

"Yes, Xi. She was not a strong A.I, but she and Minnesota worked very well together and got many accomplishments."

"What happened to her?"

"Unknown, she's been missing for a long time." 

An explosion goes off in the background and Ash laughs.

Wash and Ash walk back over.

"Okay, all done." Wash informs.

"I've never had so much fun blowing someone up before." Ash says.

Wash looks at Delta. "Delta, I called command... They wanted me to pass along condolences at South's passing."

"Thank you, I will be sure to archive that sentiment." Delta says.

"What did you tell them?" Church asks.

"I told them Caboose did it..." Wash informs Church. "..apparently they already have a shortcut on their keyboard for his team kills..."

"...Ctrl + f + u..." Caboose says.

"Command says they have a short cut for the supplies I blow up." Ash says. "Ctrl + alt + delete."

"I would have told them YOU shot her but..." Wash says. "I wanted it to be believable. And did say it was Ash, because they think he would blow us all up trying to kill her."  Wash walks towards the jeeps.

"Hey... my aim is fine..." Church says.

"He's right." Ash says. "I would blow us all up. In a beautiful fiery explosion. "

The group walks towards the jeeps.

"And yet... the Meta managed to dodge your rocket somehow." Wash says to Church.

"No,no..." Church says "not dodge... It was there one second and it was gone the next. That's how I knew it was using Wyoming's power."

"And he was on the ship with Tex?"

"His head was." Caboose says.

"His HEAD?" Wash asks.

"His HELMET." Church corrects. "Not everybody is as twisted as Ash is. Tex... took it for some reason."

"Maybe THAT's why the ship took a year to crash." Caboose suggests.

"So, if the Meta has Wyoming's powers, it's even more powerful than we thought." Wash says.

"And... as scary as someone thought it was to begin with." Caboose says. "Back to square one... Scary square."

"Oh great, looks like it took one of our cycles." Wash says. "So, what do we do?" He looks to Church.

"What, are you asking us?" Church asks. "I thought you were like the big, know-it-all super agent guy?"

"I would go home." Caboose says.

"I would build a MAC cannon." Ash says.

"Yeah dude... retire." Church says to Wash. "You got any savings? Like 401k or something?"

"Delta, can you shed any light on this?" Wash asks.

"Not without further data." Delta informs.

"You know, why does it WANT these A.I. things anyway?" Church asks. "I understand the equipment part, at least that lets you do cool stuff, but these A.I. things are kinda annoying. They're constantly yapping and causing trouble."

"I am going to ignore that." Delta says.

"A.I. help us in battle, depending on their functions." Wash informs Church. "We couldn't run half our equipment without them. And if you get your hands on a smart A.I., you can be damn near unstoppable."

"What, like smart like Delta here?" Church asks.

"Not exactly. He's just the logical one of the family." Wash informs. "Smart means something entirely different for A.I.s than it does for people."

"Now let's not go throwing around words like smart for no reason." Caboose says.

"Wash is correct." Delta says. We are more analogous to what you would call a 'fragment.'"

"A.I's are cool." Ash says.

"Actually, I don't care, so I wouldn't call you guys anything." Church says to Delta.

"And I would never talk about someone's anal gus." Caboose says. "Especially not in public."

"There is one smart A.I. in the Freelancer program." Delta says.

"Delta-" Wash starts.

"The Alpha is a fully formed-"

Ash looks around and shakes his head side to side for a few seconds then he mumbles something. 

"Delta! That's enough."

"What's Alpha?" Church asks Wash.

"The Alpha A.I." Wash says. "It's nothing, it's a myth. A fairy tale."

"It is hardly a myth." Delta says. "Agent Washington, you must have memory of the Alpha-"

"Delta! Command. Offline."

"Complying." Delta says and he shuts down.

"Oh." Church looks at Wash. "Sounds like somebody has a secret."

"I just get tired of hearing these things talk about their Alpha." Wash says. "And you will too. They get obsessed with the idea of it. It seems like it's all they care about sometimes."

"But what is it?" Church asks.

"Yes, if it's something really scary," Caboose starts. "you don't have to tell us."

"The whole purpose of the program was to study soldiers with experimental A.I., but rumor has it, they could only ever get one. So they had to copy it."

"You can't copy an A.I." Ash says.

Wash continues. "The original was Alpha, then Beta, and so on."

"They copied them?" Church asks. "Hyeah, I k- I like that. I guess if one is annoying, then twenty of them are gonna be awesome."

"The copies became obsessed with this idea of the Alpha, the original. In debriefings they would always steer conversations toward the topic of the Alpha. Where it was, if they could see it. Some even took- drastic steps."

"Like, shooting their partner in the head drastic? Or-"

Wash interrupts. "I told you, she shot me in the back first!"

"And we believe you." Caboose says. "Even though we don't think shooting a friend in the back occasionally, is that big of a deal."

Wash continues. "Some Freelancers tried to get to Alpha on their own. They broke into the secret storage facility where it was kept. They almost got to it."

"Really?" Ash asks.

Wash looks to Ash and stares at him for a few seconds. "Yes. After that they shut down the-"

Beacon sounds

Washington: My recovery beacon!

Church: Oh, great! We thought the Meta was hurt, but apparently he's just busy killing more of your buddies.

Washington: Pipe down.

Command: Recovery One, come in, level zero come in.

Washington: Go ahead Command.

Command: Wash, we have a beacon.

Washington: I'm getting it too. Do you have coordinates and an ID?

Command: Are you sure about this, I mean this is how we can be-

Washington: Command, you're breaking up on me, please repeat, how what can be-

Command: Hold on, I'm not talking to you Wash. And, and you're sure. Okay. It's Agent Maine, Wash.

Washington: What?

Command: Please confirm last transmission Agent Washington.

Washington: Maine, how can that be? If-

Command: Please confirm, Recovery One.

Washington: Yeah, it's him. It's the Meta.

Church: What!?

Washington: Command, give me those coordinates now.

Church: The Meta is a Freelancer?

"I would be surprised," Ash starts. "But with what's happened to us, I'm not."

Washington: Command. Command, come in! Delta, what's happening?

Delta: Our transmission is being jammed.

Washington: Tell me you got the coordinates before we lost it.

Church: A freelancer-

Delta: I am sorry, I did not.

Church: You have got to be kidding me.

Delta: I did receive biocom data with the identification though. It appears as though the Meta is experiencing mass power fluctuations.

Washington: Power?

Church: Maybe all that A.I. and equipment can't run on one suit of armor?

Delta: That is an excellent analysis. The Meta is most likely dangerously low on power, and will attempt to augment its energy in some way.

Washington: Then we need to get to it fast. But where?

Caboose, Ash and Church look to each other.

Church: ...

Caboose: ...

Church looks to Wash.

Church: We uh, we might know where it's going.

Ash sighs. "Not there again."

Cut to Zanzibar, where two Red soldiers can be seen walking along the wall structure.

Dellario: I just wanna know why we have wall duty for the third day straight and Tubbs pulls motor pool everytime.

Burke: Not everytime...

Dellario: Everytime! Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, today!

Burke: Today is Wednesday, Dellario.

Dellario: Exactly! And where's Tubbs? Motor pool!

Dellario and Burke watch Tubbs from an opening. Cut to Tubbs from afar, who is seen sitting inside a Warthog. Cut back to Dellario and Burke; the camera slowly zooms in on Dellario as he speaks.

Dellario: Look at him down there. What's he doing? Nothing.

Burke: So what, what're we doing?

Dellario: We're on guard duty.

Burke: He's on guard duty too.

Dellario: Yeah, but he gets to sit still while doing it. We have to walk.

Burke: (scoffs) You complain too much.

Dellario: I don't complain too much, Burke. You don't complain enough. I have to complain more just to keep up the average. You know what I mean?

Burke doesn't respond.

Dellario: Burke? Burke?!

Dellario looks over to his right, where he finds the Meta standing in Burke's spot, colored in red armor.

Dellario: Hey, Burke... where'd you get that helmet?

The Meta quickly kills Dellario. 

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07-07-2022