It took Carolina just a few minutes to find the hangar inside the massive structure. Leading them inside, she saw that there were a few Hornets strewn about, as well as a single, large Pelican. Opting for the more defensive of the bunch, she began to walk towards its open door and glanced inside.
"Any of you know how to fly?" Carolina inquired, glancing behind her at the men behind her.
All the men in the room, bar Donut, looked directly towards Grif in silence. Grif looked to his left , noticing Simmons and Sarge were looking at him. He then looked to his right and saw that Doc, Wash and the other Blues were looking at him. He then let out a very heavy, very annoyed sigh.
"Wash, you're my 'idiot' translator. Does that mean he can fly?" she asked impatiently.
Grif then looked directly to Washington and shook his head.
"Wash?"
"I wouldn't exactly call it flying..." Washington murmured, rubbing the back of his head. "I'm not sure what I'd call it."
"I'm not expecting him or any of these sim troopers to be a Four Seven Niner in disguise. I just need to know if he can get us to Blood Gulch."
"Well, I guess he can get us there, it just depends if you want to arrive in one piece or not," he said with a pause.
"Really? I would have thought with those wings of his back in the unit, he would have been a better pilot."
"Wings?" Washington echoed again, then let out a small, tight laugh. "What, did he own his own ship in the Epsilon unit?"
"Not... exactly," Church muttered. "But there'll be time to explain that later. Right now we need to focus on our little mission here, then we can tell you stuff."
"Fine, fine," Washington sighed, watching as Carolina walked towards a panel near the Pelican.
Pressing one of the buttons, a large hatch began to slowly creak open, showing a cloudy sky up above. She then jumped into the Pelican and quickly went into the cockpit. After a few seconds, the lights on the ship turned on and she emerged out of the small room.
"Looks like it's working alright," Carolina said, walking towards the seats of the Pelican. "Everyone file in. We don't have a moment to lose."
"Right," Simmons said, carrying the armor enhancements with him as they piled inside.
As the Reds and Blues began to take their seats, Grif walked ahead of Carolina and made his way to the front seat. Sitting down, Grif began to look at all the switches and buttons silently.
"You do know how to use this, right?"
Grif reached out to touch a button, paused, then retracted it and put his hands on the wheel.
"Well?"
"Give me a second here. Haven't used my hands in a long time," Grif mumbled.
"Well, you better hurry up, or-"
"Sarge has said and done a lot worse than you ever will, lady," Grif chuckled, flipping a switch that caused the Pelican's thrusters flare, jolting everyone a bit. "I can take it from here, so take a seat. I'll do a lot better without a crazy psycho breathing down my neck."
"What did you just say?" she asked as she took out her pistol and aimed it at his head.
"Right. Like you'll shoot the only guy that knows how to use this thing," Grif snorted.
"You really know how to piss someone off when you want to, don't you?" she muttered, grudgingly putting her weapon away.
"And when I don't want to. It's kind of a talent of mine when it comes to crazy women," he said sarcastically. "Now take a seat."
With a reluctant nod, Carolina walked out of the cockpit and took a seat where she could clearly see Grif, right next to Washington.
"Everyone buckle in," Carolina said as she pulled the metal safety over her chest. "This ride might get a little rough."
"Bow-chicka-bow-wow," Tucker said, and in an instant the ship began to slowly rise off the ground.
"Alright, so, uh, so far so good," Grif said from the front as they exited the hangar bay. "Just something I'd like to point out right now, though."
"What is it?"
"I have no idea where the hell I'm supposed to go."
"I'm on it," Church said, appearing in front of Carolina before she could get angry. Floating over to Grif, Church went into the ship's computers and quickly set the location to Blood Gulch, labeled as 'Blood Gulch Outpost Alpha' on the Positioning System. "Alright, got it."
"Hey, think you'd be able to help me land this thing?" Grif asked as Church reappeared out of the systems.
"I don't know," Church grunted in reply. "I'm not sure if I'd do much better than you..."
"Hey, it might give you a chance to be slightly further from Carolina."
Church looked firmly at Grif for a few seconds, then shifted his gaze onto Carolina. Without more than a few seconds' thought, Church turned around and disappeared into the Pelican again. "Alright, I'm staying. But I can't promise I'm going to be helpful in here."
"Don't worry, I've never made that promise to anyone once in my life," Grif chuckled, then leaned out of his seat and looked at Carolina. "Church is going to be staying up here and help me make sure this thing doesn't crash. Sound good?"
"Fine, but if this ship goes down, you'll both share the blame," Carolina said without hesitation. "Any idea on how long it'll take for us to get there?"
"Looks like it'll be about half of a day," Grif said, looking at the monitors as he began to fly it forward.
"Good. It's a lot closer than I thought it was, then." Carolina said with a sigh. "Let's hope that somebody is there when we get there. And hope that we can catch them by surprise."
"So what are we going to do if we get there and there are dozens of soldiers or Texbots waiting for us?" Sarge asked. "I'm all for one-sided firefights, but only when I'm on the team with the superior numbers."
"Then we'll fight them, then we'll win," she stated simply. "I've come too far to just die before I manage to complete what I've set out to achieve. And we've got two highly trained soldiers, advanced weaponry, armor enhancements, and a ship. I'm sure we've got more than enough time to prepare as best as we can given what we've got."
"Think we have enough time for me to nap?" Grif questioned seriously. "Twelve hours is a long time for me to stay up and stay focused."
"Two minutes is too long for you to stay awake for," Sarge grunted.
"Gues that's a 'no', then," Grif sighed deeply.
"Don't worry, Grif. I'm sure you can flip this thing into autopilot and get a few hours of sleep on our way there," Church suggested.
"There's an autopilot on this thing?" he asked with surprise, looking once more at the buttons to find the key to a possible nap.
Just a quickie chapter to get me back into the swing of things. Stuff will happen next chapter. Possibly romance. Maybe an explosion or two. Who know? I certainly don't.
2977476 how did you like Shiela 2.0 (the Mantis) in the new season?
2977494 Freckles ain't SHIELA. More like her slightly psychotic older brother.
2977476
Boi.
Also, dubs.
2977504>>2977494
image.blingee.com/images19/content/output/000/000/000/7b2/769954470_425947.gif
It's ALIVE!
Damn, just when I thought you had abandoned us.
2977539 where in all of the internet did you find this magnificent work of art.
2977570
Googled "Check 'em pics" and found it in the midst of it all.
2977504 I'm just a little sad that we might not see Freckles in this story.
2977571 you just gotta appreciate how wonderful google is sometimes.
2977581
Indeedily.
Good to see you're back!
If Carolina doesn't kick Grif in the nuts when they reach Blood Gulch for his comments I will be a bit disappointed I'm afraid to say. It would be in character for both of them, after all. Grif's pilot protection only works as long as he's piloting. Or maybe she can get him while he's napping. Autopilot could also been seen to cancel out pilot protection.
As long as I'm commenting... at the end of your last story, I wondered if Church, instead of becoming the Alpha, might believe himself to be the Director... obviously that didn't happen, but given that Church had some of the Director's memories and believed himself to be Leonard Church in Blood Gulch Chronicles (if only via retcon... I doubt Rooster Teeth always planned for Church to be the Alpha back in those days) for a time, it stands to reason Epsilon, being Alpha's memories, mights also have the Director's full memories from before Project Freelancer stored away in his head... I think Wash briefly mentions back when we find out Church is the Alpha that AI can end up with some of the memories of their source.
If those memories are properly activated, and his more recent memories repressed, Church could believe himself the Director. Could make things interesting, But with the real Director involved, probably not suitable for this story arc. I just thought it was an interesting idea you might want to toy with. Honestly I wouldn't be shocked if Rooster Teeth did this to their Church at some point, though they claim that storyline is gone for good. I also want Tex back in RvB. >:(
Another idea...the Director makes an army of Texes in Season 10. Season 10 never happened in your timeline here (well, Carolina found the director anyway, but there's no army of Texes at least) but it's fair to think the Director would still be obsessed with her. Anyways I envisioned Discord/Director leaving behind a room full of pony Texes to cover some escape of his. But you could probably come up with something a bit more original and unique for him to do, I'm sure. I kinda still like that idea though.
Unrelated note with big RvB Season 10 spoiler:
I watched RvB a ton and only figured out on my most recent watch through that Carolina is the Director's and Alison's (the real one, not Tex of course) daughter. Felt dumb for not noticing it sooner, especially with the obvious hints dropped by Carolina in the Season 10 closing scene. Makes everything she did make more sense with the Director as her father. The moment I figured this out? Near the end of Season 10 when we see the Director's eyes for the first time (his face has always been partially obscured and I had never figured out why before then) and they are the same color as Carolina's... an odd green/blue IIRC.. and the way they look at each other. Anyways once I figured it out it was a pretty cool epiphany for me. Also I figured out Tex was originally called Beta before they figured out what she was. If you pay attention during Tex's browsing of CT's files, it pops up. I guess that's the point when Tex figures out what she really is (and what the Director did to Alpha and her) since she goes AWOL shortly thereafter.
2977494
I am happier to see Lopez return, myself. He is one of my favorite characters just due to how hilarious his interactions with everyone are. Making everyone think he's dumb is just going to make things even better I think.
I was expecting that "Hola", but it was still somehow the best thing ever.
Wow. Church isn't just the key to memory, he's apparently the key to Grif getting a nap. Go figure
Glad to see that you're not dead. :) Oh, good chapter, too.
heh, for once, someone isn't scared of Carolina (Tex and Meta don't count)
I like how Grif isnt taking shit from anyone anymore, he's awesome
Now that you bring it up, for some reason I can easily see Grif being Red Team's vehicular specialist. It may involve doing more work, but hey, at least it's not walking.
2978437
I mean, I'm pretty sure he already /is/, though it hasn't been "confirmed" in anyway.
In the Blood Gulch Chronicles, he was generally the one driving the vehicle while Simmons was gunner and Sarge rode shotgun (as seen when taking on the Wyoming clone army).
He was also the one who ran to the Elephant in season 7 to try and escape in "Well Hello" and tried to use it. Granted, it was slow as shit, but it was a vehicle.
He was also the one who "volunteered" to be the Pelican driver in Revelations: "Rally Cap".
And in season 10, he was also one of the pilots for the Hornet in "Reckless."
I think it's safe to say that they meant for him to be a designated driver in the series because of those reasons.
2978618 Well he has to be good for something, right?
2978618 You forgot using the Warthog to run down Wash in 'Revelations'.
I wonder how Wash is going to react to finding out they all turned into colourful ponies in the unit.
2978618 Not to mention that he is so lazy that he might have actually learned this stuff just so that he wouldn't have to walk ever again.
2977587
I want church back honestly, if he somehow comes back I will be so damn happy
2978618 Right, I forgot about all those times, except for the Warthog in Blood Gulch Chronicles, of course.
Makes you wonder what he'd be capable of if he weren't such a lazy ass.
2979496
Carolina and Church are off to kick ass apparently, if you watch season 10's ending. I honestly expected that to be this season's B story. We will definitely see them later I'm sure.
woo! i'm back!!!! after a couple weeks without internet, i can finally start reading on my favorite site again!!!!!!!!!!!!!! also, i forgot how funny this story was. carolina will still die by my hand though.
ITS BAAAAACK!
Yay you're back, but seriously dunno where Grif learned to fly anyways but he seems to be good with it except for landing, but the last Pelican was smoking so I can understand the crash!
2986187 He was a pegasus in the Epsilon Unit.
2986460 I meant before that he has flown an Pelican before!
Magnificent. You truly are possibly one of the best writers in history since you can keep me shaking from excitement after every chapter.
I FUCKING LOVE YOU, GOD DARKWING!!!
2997044
More is the pity that he left the fandom.