The Reds and Blues have Grif cornered as he aims the laser at them that he'd snatched from Carolina back at the Federal Army Base. 

"Grif...we just want to look at it." Carolina says slowly. 

"That's what the UNSC guys said about the "Grif Shot," and I never saw it again!" Grif cried. 

"The what?" 

"Maine's Brute Shot." Zone clarified. "After we took him down at the snow facility, Grif had kept it as a trophy until the UNSC confiscated it." 

"Until then, I thought I was the only one man enough around here to cry, but Grif proved me wrong." Donut adds. 

"Ha!" Tucker laughed. 

"It had sentimental value!" Grif protested. 

"Dang it Grif! Hand over that laser this instant!" Sarge ordered. 

"You can't tell me what to do! I outrank you, again!" 

"What th- bur- Well let's see you outrank the end of my shotgun!" Sarge says pumping his primary weapon. 

"Uh, done." Grif aims the suppressor at Sarge. "Freaking space laser, dude." 

"Yeah, this is taking forever. Zone?" Epsilon asked. Zone then disappears and reappears in front of Grif kicking the weapon into the air. 

"Hey! What-?" Grif says shocked. 

Zone disappears again and reappears back in his original place next to Carolina and Epsilon as the suppressor falls and lands in his hands. 

"Here you are milady." Zone says handing the laser to Carolina. 

"Thanks." Carolina takes the weapon but immediately grimaces. "Ugh, why is this so greasy?" 

"You think that's bad? Just imagine all the times I had to put up with him and his stupid Oreo and honey diet. All the wrappers and honey bottles, my armor still feels sticky from the time I slipped and fell in some honey he spilled." Zone says rubbing his thigh plate. 

"FASCINATING!" Dr. Grey yells wrapping her arms around Zone's neck making him stumble a bit. "The ability to teleport?! What other abilities do you have?" 

"First of all: you're gonna make everyone bleed from the ears with that high-pitched screaming voice of yours. Second of all: hands off because I'm already taken." Zone then pulls Grey off of him. "Third of all: to be honest I really don't know. I've got my hooks, my forearms switch-blades, my wrist cannons, my teleportation, my invisibility..." 

"Geez, you're like a walking arsenal of abilities." Wash states. 

"What can I say, better to be prepared than have nothing to fall back on." Zone shrugs. 

"C'mon, let's dismantle this thing and see what we can learn." Carolina says turning. 

"Hey- look- but-" Grif tries to argue. 

"When we're done, you can have it back in one piece...probably." 

"Ooh! Ooh! You mind If I tag along?" Simmons asks. 

"Yeah! Advanced weaponry is my fifth favorite hobby! Right behind destroying my enemies, but just ahead of karaoke!" Sarge declares. 

"No...thanks, uh...I think Epsilon and I have it handled." Carolina replies quickly. "Why don't you catch up for a while? You've all been through a lot. Zone you coming too?" 

"Be there in a sec. Xi you give them a hand." Xi nods and disappears as Carolina leaves. 

"Yeah, I'd stick around for the reunion but uh...some of you guys still seem pretty mad at me so...I'm just gonna wait for that to settle..." Epsilon then disappears too. 

"Sooo...how have you guys been?" Donut asks. 

"Shut up." Grif snaps. 

"Same old, same old, huh? That's cool." 

"Well...I don't want to intrude on such a sweet moment of reconnection..." Grey says. 

"Fine with me." Wash shrugs. 

"I was being polite, I'm actually far more interested in foreign technology. Bye!" Grey then runs off. 

"Okay bye! She seems nice." Caboose replies. 

"Right?" Donut agrees. 

"I think she has a few screws loose..." Simmons says giving the cuckoo gesture. 

"Oh-ho I could always help her out with that. Bow-chicka-bow-" 

"WAIT!" Caboose says cutting off Tucker. 

"Aw c'mon dude, it's been ages!" Tucker groans. 

"Oh Zone! I-I almost forgot! Uh-uh-uh.." Caboose looks around. "Where's Freckles? Uh, he probably had some screws loose also." 

"Ohhh...y'know what? I think I'm just gonna go take a peek at that laser thing after all. I'm just dying to see it...uh...I mean it's killin' me not to- uh...oh...nope. Got nothin'." Sarge sighs before leaving. 

"Yeeaahh..." Simmons says awkwardly before he, Grif, and Donut leave. 

<Smooth.> Lopez says shaking his head. He then leaves too. Wash and Tucker look at Zone who nods to the side for them to leave. They then leave Caboose and Zone alone. 

"Yeah, this is great. Church is back, you're back, it's like all of us made it back safe and sound in one piece! No problem." Caboose says cheerily. 

"Um, Caboose..." 

"Alive!" 

"Caboose, uh...I'm not really sure how to tell you this... without both confusing you and breaking your disturbingly fragile heart." Zone then rubs the back of his helmet. 

"I AM AN EMOTIONAL TIME BOMB!" Caboose shouts. 

"Geezoloo...Caboose, I'm afraid this...is all that's left of Freckles." Zone then takes out the storage unit. "It's his brain...sort of." 

"Freckles? You're- you're- you're so tiny now!" Caboose grabs Freckles' storage unit out of Zone's hand and holds it in the air.

"Uh, what?" 

"It's so good to see you again! Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy, Freckles?" Caboose rubs the storage unit. 

"So you're...okay then?" 

"Ah, Zone this is great! Now he can fit in my pocket and I don't have to worry about him trying to kill anyone anymore." 

"I guess that is sort of better." Zone agrees chuckling. 

"Thanks for looking out for Freckles, Zone. I know he can be a handful." Caboose says sniffling. 

"Literally, at this point." 

"Alright, let's go for a walk Freckles, 'cause Zone is acting mysterious and scary again." Caboose runs off. "Good to have ya' back, Zone!" 

"Hmm. It's good to be back." 

"Back off lady, or I will put you in the ground!" Grif shouts. 

"(Sigh) And the moment passes." Zone runs up to the group where he sees Grif back in possession of the suppressor aiming it Carolina. 

"You were about to take it apart!" Grif says angrily. 

"What did you think "dismantle" meant?" Carolina asks. 

"How did he manage to get the laser back?" Zone inquires. 

"He's deceptively heavy." Simmons sighs. 

<Well, he already looks fat. So that's saying something.> Lopez adds. Xi appears next to Lopez laughing uncontrollably. 

"It's-It's funny because it's so true." Xi says trying to catch her breath. 

Zone huffs and stands between Grif and Carolina. "Look Grif, this is the last time we're gonna ask; put the laser-" Zone Matrix ducks as Grif fires the suppressor. He stands and looks at the energy bolts that had struck the wall behind him. 

"Uh, okay. Look that was an accident." Grif says nervously. 

"This is the part where rip off your arms and beat you to death with your own fists." Zone says cracking his knuckles. 

"AAHH!" Grif shrieked as he backed away. 

"Excuse me." Grey cut in. "Where did you find that rifle?" 

"Hey, I picked it up after Carolina dropped it at the snow base. Are you even familiar with the "international dibs protocol?" Grif points out. 

"You never even said dibs!" Xi exclaims. 

"The pirates have been manufacturing these along with the armor enhancements. They got facilities scattered around the planet." Carolina explains. 

"So then your sure it's man made." Dr. Grey then approaches Grif. 

"Yeah, I'm positive. Why?" Epsilon asks. 

"Well, for starters, it isn't using human technology. It just fired some kind of modified plasma energy. Very deadly. And pretty!" 

"Plasma?" Sarge questions. 

"Alien energy source. I've seen it countless times in archaeological digs." Grey states. 

"Wait, I thought you were a surgeon?" Simmons says confused. 

"I have an IQ of 240. A prodigy can only cut people open so many times before she needs to find a hobby." 

Xi appears before the doctor. "Sheesh. Couldn't try cross stitching?" 

"I sewed them back up, thank you very much." Grey crosses her arms. 

"Hey, didn't Felix say that he was paid in alien tech?" Tucker asks. 

"I believe he said he was paid in babies." Caboose replies. 

"The heck?" Zone says. 

"Don't ask." Grif murmurs. 

"He was definitely carrying around an old plasma rifle. But I thought he said it was broken." Simmons says thoughtfully. 

"It's likely it was. The Federal Army arranged a similar deal with Locus. They figured trading useless antiques for military assistance was a good deal." Grey shrugs. 

"So the mercs stock up on alien technology and hand it over to the pirates for reverse engineering." Carolina ascertains. 

"Giving them a new kind of weapon. Half human, half alien." Wash adds. 

"And every single one of them pointed at us. Fantastic." Epsilon cries. 

"Do you have anything else like this?" Grey asks. 

"What about the future cubes?" Grif suggests. 

"The what?" Carolina says baffled. 

"Future cubes! The cubes of the future!" Donut states as he and the Reds and Blues are gathered around three of the teleportation grenades on a table. 

"They look kinda like the laser gun, right?" Grif says comparing them. 

"That's your deductive reasoning? They're related because they're both orange and glowy." Simmons says shaking his head. 

"So." 

"So?! If I heated your armor to a thousand degrees, would you think your related too?" 

"Fahrenheit or Celsius?" Donut asks. 

"Oh come on, there's clearly a resemblance!" Grif insists. 

Sarge rolls his eyes. "Oh, of course. Just like the uncanny resemblance between apples and fire trucks, or Caboose and the Pacific Ocean, or Lopez and a dingleberry!" 

"Okay, I get it." Grif sighs. 

"Hey Grif, let me ask you a question, you ever get your sister confused with mustard? You know, since they're both yellow and cheap?" Epsilon says before Grif fires at him, the blasts pass right through his holographic projection.

"Yeah, nice try. Still a hologram by the way." Epsilon smirks. Xi laughs out loud again. 

"Epsilon, he's right." Carolina put in. 

"Yeah, I know, I just wanted in on the action!" Epsilon chuckled. 

"Both types of equipment seem to utilize some form of alien engineering. But...how did you know how the teleporters look like?" 

"'Cause we had them in the canyon, duh." Grif replies. 

"Wait, you did?" Epsilon says stunned. 

"Yeah! They were awesome!" Donut cheered. 

"We found them while we were sneaking aboard the ship one night in an attempt to destroy the Blues." Sarge states. Wash, Tucker, and Caboose turn to Sarge. 

"(Cough) I mean, the Blues' robot. May he rest in peace." 

"(Sigh) What am I gonna do with you dad?" Zone mutters. 

Grif then turns to Carolina Epsilon. "Which reminds me, how did you guys teleport with those things? We could only figure out how to transport random junk." 

<And Doc. You accidentally teleported Doc.> Lopez added. 

"Oh my gosh, that's right! We did use them to defeat Dos.0!" Donut exclaims. 

<Oh, for the love of god...> Lopez visor-palms himself. 

"Okay! Everbody, shut up! Listen, if the same people making weapons on Chorus had cargo on our ship, then we might be able to find out who they are." Epsilon relays. 

"How?" Simmons asks. 

"A manifest?" Zone replies simply. 

"Yep." 

"That's right. A transport ship that size would need to keep track of all its cargo." Wash points out. 

"So if we find the manifest, we find out who supplied the teleportation grenades." Carolina clarifies. 

Tucker crosses his arms. "So you think a bunch of evil bad guys, working outside of the law, are gonna worry about paperwork?" 

"What? You got any better ideas?" Epsilon asked him. 

"(Sigh) No..." 

"Then we have our objective: Half of us will travel back to the canyon and search Crash Site Bravo for the manifest." Carolina explains. 

"Why split up?" Xi asks. 

"Because the rest of us will be searching the other half of the ship...at Crash Site Alpha." Zone replies.