"Guys, what are we looking for?" Grif asks. He, Simmons, and Zone were looking through various crates. 

[Power cells, batteries, anything.] Zone clarifies. 

"How is a power cell different from a battery?" 

"Grif, this is not the time!" Simmons sighs frustrated. Suddenly they hear a loud explosion and several gun shots. 

"Hey, did you hear that?" Sarge says running out of the base. 

"Yeah...I did..." Simmons grabs a nearby rocket launcher. "Come on Grif, let's go!" 

"Aren't we supposed to run away from explosions?" Grif groans. The Reds, Zone, Caboose, and Tucker run outside just as an explosion sends Church crashing into the snow in front of them. 

"Ow!" 

[Church, what happened?] 

"The Meta...there..." 

"And I was afraid we wouldn't get to kick a little butt today! Come on, fellas!" Sarge led Zone and his team down the slope. 

"Caboose! Stay with Church!" Tucker says before running after them. 

"Okay." 

"And try not to kill him by accident!" Tucker adds. 

"Okay!" The Meta opens fire and Wash dives aside to avoid the hit. The Meta charges towards him, with the blade of brute shot raised, but Wash whips out his knife and parries the blow. He then slices him in the shoulder but the Meta cloaks himself and ducks aside. Wash stops and glances around the field. He spots the snow being shifted in one side and throws the blade towards the movement. As it hits, the Meta uncloaks with a roar of pain. Wash raises his battle rifle and opens fire, but the Meta shoots a grenade out and sends Wash flying back under the Warthog. 

"Attack!" Sarge shouts. 

"Get him!" Simmons yells. 

[Let's put him in the ground!] Zone bellows. 

"We're gonna freaking die!" Grif cries terrified. As they charge, the Reds, Zone, and Tucker open fire, but the Meta slams his hand into the ground, summoning a domed energy shield around him that blocks the explosions. He then leaps out through an opening at the top and fires at Grif and Tucker who quickly roll out of the way. Simmons then raises his rocket launcher up and fires at the Meta.

"Fire in the hole!" 

The Meta nimbly flips over the rocket and crashes down in front of Simmons, slicing his launcher in half with the brute shot blade. Tucker takes out his sword and swings it at the Meta, but he blocks the blow and knocks him aside. Sarge raises his shotgun and fires, but the Meta blocks that as well. Grif suddenly pounces onto the Meta's back and grabs him by the neck, throwing him off-balance.

"Yah! This guys like a bear!" The Meta grabs Grif and throws him off, but as he falls Grif snatches the brute shot out of his hands. "Yoink!" Zone pulls out his own sword slides underneath the Meta's legs before jumping up and stab him with his sword. The Meta roars in agony before he grabs Zone by his throat and slams him into the ground. Sarge charges forward to tackle him but the Meta punches him to the ground then grabs him by the leg. Sarge fires again but the Meta dodges. He then swings him around twice and flings him into Grif, Zone, and Simmons.

"God dangit!" Sarge yells. 

Suddenly, Tucker comes out and impales the Meta's chest with his own sword.

"Stab!" He shouts in satisfaction. Zone gets up shaking his head and sees Wash laying on the ground clutching his side. 

[Wash come on! Tucker needs help!] 

"I can't...I'm done..." 

"Guys, I can't fight him by myself!" Tucker yells. 

"Here...take this...you know what to do..." Wash hands him an object and Zone nods. Meta punches Tucker twice before he lands on the ground. Both Zone and Tucker's swords deactivate and fall in the snow. Suddenly Meta feels a burst of energy hit his chest and sees Zone with his wrist cannon aimed at him. 

[Leave him alone Meta! This is between you and me! Get over here you mute freak of nature!] The Meta growls before stomping towards him. Zone fires round after round causing the Meta's shield to ripple, while talking. [You killed North, you killed Carolina, you tried to kill me, and now you've killed Tex! Well that ends today! Here and now!] 

"What's he doing?" Grif asks. 

"It looks like he's killing himself." Simmons replies. 

"Oh no!" 

"REX! DON'T DO IT!" Sarge yells. 

Zone fires another round which the Meta ducks under and rips the cannon off Zone's wrist before grabbing him by the throat and holding him up. 

"Hey guys! I need a shotgun! What am I going to do without a shotgun? Shotgun, for the love of god!" 

"Shotgun?" Grif looks down and sees the cable. He looks up in realization. Come on, guys!" He motions for them to help with the Warthog. 

[(Groans) Hey Maine...settle a bet, would you?] Zone connects something to the Meta's chest plate. [Does that look like a cat or a pig to you?] The Meta turns his head and spots Grif, Sarge, and Simmons pushing the wrecked jeep towards the edge of the cliff.

"Come on, push, Grif!" Simmons shouts. 

"I am pushing!" Grif protests. The Meta looks down and sees the tow hook attached to his chest. Zone winks at him as the Reds push the Warthog off the cliff. He pulls the unit off his back before Meta gets yanked and pulled towards the cliff. Before he reaches the edge, he grabs Grif's ankle pulling him with him. 

"Grif!" 

"Simmons! Grab my hand! Help!" Just as they reach the edge, Simmons dives forward and grabs Grif's outstretched hand. The sudden stop causes the Meta to lose his grip and he falls down to his death with a distraught roar into the icy sea below.

"Hold on! Hold on! Don't let go!" Simmons persists. Zone then runs over to help. Grif then lets go, falling off the edge. 

"SIMOOOOOOOOOOONS!" Sarge approaches Simmons at the edge.

"He's...gone..." Simmons says on the verge of tears. 

"Yes. Grif is dead. It's a sad day. But he died as he lived; flat on his belly, trying to get someone to do his work for him. He will be missed, until we get a replacement, and then forgotten immediately." Sarge says ignorantly. 

"I can't believe he's gone..." 

"You know, sometimes, when somebody falls off a cliff in movies, he's actually just over the edge, hanging on a tree branch or something." Tucker says walking up. 

"Nope. He's definitely dead." Sarge insists. 

"Maybe we should look, just in case." Simmons suggests. 

"I think looking would get our hopes up, and Grif wouldn't like that. Grif would want our expectations to be as low as possible. Let's honor him by not looking. And then have a nice lunch. I'm thinking Monte Cristo sandwich!" 

[Are you sure dad? We could just peek right over the edge.] 

"Sounds like a waste of time." 

"Wouldn't even take a second." Simmons adds. 

"Nope." 

"Oh for God's sake, just look over the freaking edge! I can't hold on for much longer!" A voice yells. 

At this, Sarge, Zone, and Simmons run up to the edge and look down to see Grif hanging from the from the Meta's brute shot which he'd stuck into the cliff. 

"Grif!" Simmons shouts. 

"Dangling on the job again, I see! Dagnabit, I hate cliffhangers!" Sarge says annoyed. 

"Oh, just pick me up!" 

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/- 

Doc, Church, and Caboose are standing over the capture unit. 

"Yeah, I don't know, it's in really bad shape, and so are you." Doc says looking at Church. 

"There's not much time. I need you to use it on me." Church tells him. 

"Me? I can't! I'm a medic! I took an oath!" 

"Oh yeah, the first is "do no harm," right?" 

"Well actually now first is "lobby against socialist reform." But second is, yeah, that no harm thing." Doc corrects. 

"Caboose, here. Pick it up." 

"I can't, Church." Caboose says taking a step back. 

"Yes, you can. You do this all the time." 

"Yeah, I don't want to." Caboose shakes his head. 

"Yeah, ok. Ok Caboose, I'm sure I can do it on my own." Church sighs. 

"But what if you don't come out again?" 

"Well, you know what Delta always said, right?" 

"Memory is the key." Caboose repeats. 

"If I don't come back, you're in charge of remembering me, ok? Don't let Tucker help, he'll just screw it up. Bye, buddy." Church smiles before leaving his robot body and enters the failing unit.

"What's going on here?" Sarge says as he, Simmons and Zone run up. 

"Church went in, he's going to find her." Caboose answers. 

"That unit looks bad, let me see what I can do to stabilize it." Simmons kneels down next to it. 

[Doc, go check on Wash, I don't think he's gonna make it.] Zone thumbs at Wash. 

"Oh, no!" Simmons cries. 

"What? What?" Caboose says scared. 

"It's only going to be open for a few more seconds. After that, he'll be trapped!" 

"Come on, Church. You can do it. Can you hear me? You can...run towards my voice!" 

"It's shutting down! I can't stop it!" The capture unit lights then fade out. 

"Church? Are you there?" 

Simmons stands. "Caboose...I'm sorry." He apologizes. 

"...Church?" Caboose falls to his knees and cries. Zone places a hand on his shoulder. Xi appears on Caboose's other shoulder and hugs his neck. 

"Oh Caboose." She says nearly crying herself. 

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-

After a few hours UNSC reinforcements had arrived and were overlooking the damage that was displayed over the glacierized canyon. One soldier was interrogating the Reds and Blues. 

"And where the heck did the Pelican in the water come from?" 

"Hmm...I don't know. I guess the Meta must have hijacked it, and crashed it here. That makes sense, right?" Tucker suggests. 

"Man, the Chairman is going to be mad. The budget only allows for one crashed Pelican per mission! All right, well I guess you guys check out. You can head back to your training bases now."

"We just call them bases." Sarge states. 

"Hmph. I bet." The soldiers says smugly. 

"Hey! We solved your problem. Not bad for "Trainees."" Grif says with his head high. 

"I gotta hand it to you. Killing one of these agents would be tough. But three? And this guy... the Chairman will not be happy he's dead. I think he wanted to debrief him personally. Oh well." 

"Yeah..." Tucker says. 

"Yeah, that's too bad." Caboose adds. 

[Unfortunate that these things tend to happen.] Zone places his hand on the back of his helmet. 

"Well, be sure to let him know we're sorry." Wash says in Church's armor with yellow accents. 

"Whatever. You're free to go. If we need you, we know where to find you." The soldier then walks off. 

"Why are you guys helping me?" Wash asks. 

"You helped us, Wash. It only makes sense." Caboose answers. 

"Yeah, plus we needed to even the teams. And I couldn't put up with Caboose constantly asking "Can we keep him? Can we keep him?"" Tucker adds as he and Caboose leave. 

"For whatever it's worth...thanks." Wash then walks off with them, leaving Zone and the Reds. 

"Well, looks like Blue Team has a new recruit, Sarge." Grif says with crossed arms. 

"Doesn't look so tough to me." Simmons adds. 

[Wash can be dramatic at times, but I wouldn't underestimate him if I were you.] 

"Maybe this one can shoot. Come on, fellas. Let's go home." Sarge grunts. 

"Uh...the jeep's busted, Sarge. Are we walking?" Grief asks. 

"That depends. You fellas gotten over your fear of flying yet?" 

"Yes, sir!" Simmons replies. Sarge and Simmons hop on the passenger sides of a Hornet as Grif hops in the pilot seat. 

"Yoink!" Grif yells. 

"Hey! You can't take that! That...that's UNSC property! Get back here! Hey, come on, I'll lose my job!" A soldier yells running after them. 

"I hope this doesn't go on our permanent record!" Simmons calls out! 

[HAHA! SUCKERS!] Zone laughs flying next to them with his jet boots. 

(AND THAT'S A WRAP FOR RECOLLECTION! GET READY FOR THE REUNION OF ZONE AND CAROLINA IN SEASON 10! HOW IS THIS LOVE TRIANGLE GONNA GO?! HERE'S SEASON 8'S CREDIT SONG!) 

https://youtu.be/J5X0hGtIEp4