Isolated (Red vs Blue)

4: Finding Normal

4: Finding Normal

Present Day: Somewhere on the Edge of Colonized Space

"Journal entry: One-zero-one. It's been quite some time since I've bothered to do one of these, so there's a lot to catch up on. Maybe it's easier to start with what caused all the events leading up to now. It can all be traced back to Project Freelancer — a high profile military organization gone terribly wrong. The men in charge turned out to be corrupt, and the soldiers under their command followed them blindly. And it doesn't take a genius to figure out which side I was on.

"Eventually, it was the Project's own creations that led to its destruction. It was torn to pieces, which I was then sent out to retrieve. I spent my time recovering weapons, armor, A.I. fragments — all in an attempt to keep them from falling into the wrong hands. But as it turned out, I was too slow. Everyone all over the galaxy seemed to be fighting over the remnants of Project Freelancer. It made me think I couldn't believe in anyone anymore. Then I met the Reds and Blues. . . .

"They'd all been used as pawns by the freelancers just like I had. They were nothing more than cannon fodder; set up to fight a conflict with no purpose. But even more importantly — it made them just stupid enough to trust. Together, we were able to put an end to it all. The other freelancers, all the A.I. fragments, even the Director himself — all erased from existence. And as for the rest of us now, we've found ourselves shipwrecked. Our ship crashed during the ride home. And if we don't manage to get rescued soon, I have a bad feeling someone else will find us first. This is Agent Washington, signing —"

All of a sudden, there was an extremely loud bang that echoed from somewhere across the canyon. Wash groaned. "What the hell is going on now?"

Over the last couple weeks, the current situation had seemed to go from bad to worse. It all started when Wash realized Carolina and Epsilon had disappeared. They'd left no goodbye message, no clue as to where they went; the two of them just seemed to have vanished overnight. Without Carolina's help, trying to manage the Reds and Blues had become increasingly difficult — particularly when it came to the Blues. Epsilon's disappearance had really messed with them. Tucker had been even less inclined to listen than normal, and Caboose tended to have a lot of . . . off days. And neither of them seemed to want to talk to the former freelancer about anything.

Shaking his head, Wash tried to clear his thoughts so he could focus on the issue at hand. There was another loud bang, but this time Wash was able to pinpoint where it was coming from. Whatever was happening was taking place over where the Reds were located. Washington left his base and started crossing the canyon with a sigh. Leave it to the Reds to interrupt the rare peace and quiet.

When Washington finally made it to Red Base, he almost couldn't believe what he was seeing. Sarge was in the tank - the tank that had been parked safely at Blue Base just a couple hours earlier — and was firing at the wall of the makeshift building. Simmons was standing beside the tank, trying to give his team leader directions as to where to shoot. Grif was nowhere to be found, though. Was he still inside the base?

Sarge fired again, but this time the shot didn't get anywhere near the wall of the base. Instead, it had sailed ten feet above the roof and struck the canyon wall. Wash watched as the rock splintered and fell where the projectile had hit. He just shook his head. He contemplated interrupting whatever the Reds were doing, but decided against it. They clearly weren't doing any real damage, and he wanted to see if Grif would make an appearance. Though he was still rather confused as to what they were exactly trying to do in the first place.