Voicemail

[goddamngrenades]

You have reached the voice mail system of FOXTROT 12.

When you are finished recording, just hang up or press pound for more options.

To request a locksmith, press one.

To hear these options in Spanish, press dos.

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To send a written confirmation of a verbal command, press four.

For delivery options, press five.

To page this person, press six.

To locate your nearest operator, press seven.

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To repeat this message, press nine.

Press zero for other options.

To mark this message as urgent, press eleven.

Thank you for calling, have a nice day.

BEEP


Comments

text | Day 135 afternoon

[goddamngrenades]

So now we're talking? That's novel.

text | Day 135 afternoon

[ghostthatlingers]

You really want to go there after the bullshit you pulled yesterday?

text | Day 135 afternoon

[goddamngrenades]

I'm sorry I can't hear you over the knife you put in our backs.

text | Day 135 afternoon

[ghostthatlingers]

This all because you found out a couple days later that he was here? If anyone should be pissed, it should be Carolina.

text | Day 135 afternoon

[goddamngrenades]

I'm pissed FOR her, you ass. If anyone had the right to know it's her. Not telling me? Fine. I get it. I had a knee jerk 'shoot the fucker that made everyone KILL EACH OTHER in the face' reaction. That's fine.

Not telling her is cold. I fucking died helping you, Tex. And now I can't trust you.

text | Day 135 afternoon

[ghostthatlingers]

What would telling her have done? He didn't want her know he was here yet, you don't know their relationship.

And I've only known a few days, York. It's not like I've been sitting on this for weeks and weeks. He's only been here a couple days longer than I have.

text | Day 135 afternoon

[goddamngrenades]

He put his daughter in the line of fire regularly. He made a weapon out of her and the rest of us. What the fuck else is there to know?

It would have given her time to process it instead of finding out however the hell it went down when she bumped into him. Given her time to plan how to handle it instead of having it dumped in her lap. He's with BIFRONS, Tex. He's cooperating with them. With a Callsign assigned to AI studies. He's going to do it all the fuck over again. But if you wanna sit back and let him do that? Fine. Don't be pissed when the rest of us have other plans.

[ghostthatlingers]

That was the first I heard he was working with Bifrons. You think I'd let him pull that fucking shit all over again after what he did to Church? Just because I don't want him dead doesn't mean I like any of what he did.

I'm keeping an eye on him.

[goddamngrenades]

Good luck with that.

[ghostthatlingers]

So that's it?

[goddamngrenades]

What, you got more you wanna say?

[ghostthatlingers]

Would it make a difference? Not like you'd be willing to listen or understand.

[goddamngrenades]

Delta has Night terrors. He's got PTSD, he screams himself awake at night sometimes. Theta does too. CHurch doesn't because he can't remember so he's pretty fucking lucky.

I understand that he did that. I understand that for all that what we were supposed to be working for? We didn't do a fucking thing in the long term when it came to actually fighting in the war. Maybe we would have kept on wherever we'd been picked up from and died anyway. Maybe not. But it wouldn't have happened like this. I understand his INTENTIONS and I also understand that intentions are bullshit when you're committing war crimes for a program that didn't. Fucking. WORK.

It failed. Not because of us, but because it was always going to fucking fail. I understand that. I understand that Carolina can't look at her dad half the time because of what he'd done. I understand that the family I chose was gaslit and abused and used as social experiments for shits, giggles, and the flimsiest excuse for science I've ever heard of.

I understand plenty, Beta.

Do you?

[ghostthatlingers]

I've seen all of his files and I know that we were in a war that lasted decades. A lot of people have PTSD, York, and a lot of people have died in it. Allison died fighting that war. She's not the only one that gave what she could to try to stop what the Covenant were doing to our colonies.

I don't like what he did, but I know where he comes from. I remember what he was. I know what was at stake. The war needed to end.

I'm sorry Delta, Theta, and you have suffered for it, but it needed to end. There was no way of knowing the project would fail from the start.

[goddamngrenades]

You think I don't know that? I grew up during the war. I watched my whole fucking squad DIE before I got picked up by the project. I am well acquainted with the losses and minutiae of war. And if anything we'd done made a fucking difference like we thought it would? I wouldn't be so pissed.

That's the thing. If any of it contributed to the war effort? It would have been for something. But it wasn't.

Not a damn thing made it outside the MOI and we never ran ops where we would have done the most good. Not once. Doesn't matter where he came from. Doesn't matter WHY. Doesn't matter how he came to that choice. He chose it. He DID it. And he used us to do it. I'm not putting anyone I care about in a position to let that happen again.

Whether or not you buy his bullshit a second time around is your call. Because that's what it is. Bullshit. Because nothing he ever did or tried to do or even WANTED to do contributed to the war ending.Not a thing. We all die for nothing. And that's not happening here.

[ghostthatlingers]

Then get pissed at the UNSC for letting him do whatever he wanted with an experimental project. He only had as much power as they gave him and he doesn't have that here. I'm not going to let him screw around like he did before, not while Church is here.

I helped take down the Project before and I can do it again. I'm not buying into any 'bullshit.' If you just want to write me off then fine, but I'm not one of his damn pawns.

[goddamngrenades]

Oh for fuck's sake, Tex, the UNSC ordered a supreme fucking pizza and paid for it. What they got was not a supreme pizza. What they got was None pizza left beef. They got a bad joke. What was promised was not what was delivered nor what was in the cards at all, ever.

He's signed on with Bifrons. They know our history. They know what he's done- and they've given him a callsign and a lab to play with. What do you want to bet they're waiting for Project Freelancer Round 2: This time we'll REALLY fuck shit up? He's a liability.

[ghostthatlingers]

If they had cared, they would have looked into it. The Project went on for how long without anyone checking into things? They were desperate, they didn't give a crap what any one of their special projects was doing as long as it had a small chance of ending the war sooner. I don't care what they "ordered," they would have taken anything if it meant winning.

Then that's even more of a reason for me to keep a damn eye on him. You and the others don't need to be involved with him, he's not worth your time.

[goddamngrenades]

Right now Tex? Neither are you. Do what you want.

[ghostthatlingers]

So much for working together, partner.

[goddamngrenades]

You have to trust someone to work with them. I went to bat for you.

[ghostthatlingers]

I'm sorry. If it means anything, I didn't want it to turn out like this.

[goddamngrenades]

Do we ever?

This really wasn't in the program as pitched to me. Fight the war! Save the world! Become part of a fucked up family drama!

Maybe it was in the fine print.

[ghostthatlingers]

Trying be part of the fucked up family drama.

[goddamngrenades]

Clair's family. There's no trying about it for me.

Seriously if you two would just sit down and talk MAYBE shit like this wouldn't happen. That's kind of how this shit works. You talk through your issues.

Preferably where she doesn't have to see you. You. Looking like her mother and all.