Stained (Red vs Blue)

Taken

Before The Storm

We were walking for what felt like hours before we hit the first crossroads in the cave. The path split into three different directions. "Dammit. I don't like splitting up like this," I said, looking at each of them. "But we have to, well if we want to find our target location, if it's even here," Alaska said.

Iowa and I sighed. "I guess we'll go left. Keep your radios on," Iowa said. The others nodded, and we turned and left the group. "I seriously hope splitting up was a good idea... I don't like it," I said to Iowa as we walked. She nodded, I think. I could barely see her in the darkness of the cave. "I know, Neva. We both hate splitting up, and I have a feeling that we got that from the same place..." Iowa said.

"New Mombasa?" I asked, the memory coming back to me. "Yeah. We lost our whole team there because Command told us to split up so we could cover more ground. This mission is making us split up, and I really don't like it," Iowa said. I nodded. "Hey, do you have a flashlight?" Iowa asked.

I thought for a minute, and was about to say no, when I remembered that my pistol had one. "Yeah. Do you want me to turn it on?" I asked. "Yeah. It's getting hard to see in here," She said. I just nodded, I pressed a small button, and the LED light flickered on. I shined it around the cave.

It was about six feet in width, and about eight feet high, giving us plenty of room to move around. I bet it won't stay this way, though I hope it does. "Come on. We need to keep moving," Iowa said. I nodded, walking beside her.

Eventually, we hit a dead end. "Great. Just our luck, huh?" Iowa asked, looking around at the cave. "Yeah," I just responded. "You contact C-O and Montana, and check on them. I'll do the same with Alaska and Michigan," Iowa said. She walked over to the wall, and leaned against it, putting two fingers to the side of her helmet to communicate through the radio.

I did the same. I tried to contact Montana, and a message came up on my visor, say that the connection could not be established due to: A block in signal, the receiver does not have radio on, and such.

But that shouldn't be right.

The radios were working fine, and we had connection. Now something's wrong. A horrible feeling settled over me. I tried to contact C-O, but it had the same message. I turned toward Iowa. She looked at me. "What's wrong?" She asked.

"I can't get a hold of Montana or C-O. Either they didn't turn their radios on, or something's blocking the connection. Should we check it out?" I asked. Iowa nodded. "Eta, do you read any unknown frequencies?" She asked. The blue A.I. appeared on her shoulder. "I don't read anything, but something is blocking me. Chi, is something doing the same to you?" Eta asked.

Chi came up. "Yes. I also can't even get a signal from Pi or Lambda. Something's wrong. We have never lost connection with our siblings, besides... Zeta... who was forcibly taken...." Chi said, and the realization hit me, and it was clear that Iowa knew it to. "We need to move. Right now. I'm contacting Alaska and Michigan to move to their last position," Iowa said.

We turned and took off down the path. Iowa said a few words to Alaska and Michigan. She nodded at me, signaling that they were on their way. We got to the center a few seconds before Alaska and Michigan. Iowa and I ran down Montana and C-O's path first, and then the other two followed us.

Their last location was an open cliff-like area several meters off the ground, over-looking a massive facility. On the ground in front of us blood was splattered, two distinct small puddles. I turned off the light on my pistol. "We need to find them," We all said. I jumped first, followed by Iowa, Alaska and Michigan.

It felt like there was a ticking noise in my head, signaling that the clock has started, leaving us with limited time to find them. If we don't find them... Well, some people might have a bad day. It was quiet where we were, but I could hear voices and footsteps not to far away. "We can't really help you guys out right now. We can't pick up a signal on Lambda, Pi, Montana or C-O. It's as if... something is blocking us... It's hard to explain," Kappa said.