Isolated (Red vs Blue)

9: Ghosts

9: Ghosts

Present Day: Somewhere on the Edge of Colonized Space

It had been a little over two weeks since Carolina and Epsilon had left the others back at the crash site. Shortly after landing in the canyon, the cyan armored soldier had intercepted a vague radio transmission which stated there was some old freelancer equipment in the hands of some people who weren't meant to have it. The A.I. had agreed to come with her on the grounds they'd be righting some of the wrongs committed by Project Freelancer. It was a noble cause; Carolina just wasn't sure how much progress they'd really made so far. There wasn't a lot of information to run on, and getting into the bases and other various facilities required a lot of stealthy maneuvers. The amount of sneaking she was doing made the former freelancer glad she was essentially alone.

However, Epsilon seemed like he didn't fully share her philosophy. Over the last couple days, the A.I. had been growning increasingly guilt ridden. He talked a lot about the guys back in the canyon — he was constantly wondering how everyone was doing, debating whether or not he should've left some sort of goodbye, worrying about the guys forgetting him or being so pissed they'd never speak to him again. Carolina had never seen an artificial intelligence construct have so many human emotions. Then again, she'd never seen an A.I. go through everything Epsilon had; he'd formed bonds with the Blues — as well as the Reds, to an extent. But his emotions were getting in the way of the tasks at hand.

Currently, Epsilon was sitting idle in the ex-freelancer's storage unit. She could feel a slight buzzing near the base of her skull, letting Carolina know the A.I. wasn't at ease. Now wasn't the time for one of his fits — they were closing in on a base that supposedly had gotten ahold of a speed unit. It was an armor enhancement Carolina was familiar with a desperately needed; Epsilon just needed to be present to help guide her through the facility. Which, at the moment, he didn't seem like he was.

"Epsilon, are you there?" Carolina asked, crouching down behind a large boulder. They were close to the base, and she wasn't about to risk being seen. When the A.I. didn't respond, she tried again. "Church, get out here. I need you."

After a moment, a light blue hologram appeared beside her head. "Huh? You called, C?"

She looked at the A.I. "I had to call for you twice. You've been really distracted over the last couple days. I need you focused, Epsilon. If you're not with it, things could go sideways real quick. No offense, but I'm not exactly looking to end up killed because you were daydreaming."

"Hey, I don't appreciate the attitude. I'm fine. There's nothing for you to get worked up about," the A.I. answered defensively.

"If there was nothing for me to get worked up about, we wouldn't be having this conversation," she countered.

"I'm. Fine. If you're so worried about me being distracted, maybe we should save the rest of this discussion for later so I can focus," Epsilon spat sarcastically.

Carolina rolled her eyes, slightly irritated by the hologram's tone. "We'll finish this later then. Right now, I need to know how to get into that base without being detected."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm on it, just give me a sec." Epsilon disappeared briefly, reappearing a couple seconds later. "Okay, I've got the blueprints. Looks like there's a maintenance hatch in the east wall that leads into the ventilation system. I'll upload it to your H.U.D.; seems like you reach almost any room in the base through the vents."

"What's security looking like?"

"There are soldiers everywhere in the halls, but a lot of the rooms seem clear."