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.