Reconstruction: Chapter 7

Chapter 7 of Red vs. Blue: Reconstruction aired on July 15, 2008 as the 117th episode overall.

Synopsis
At the base, Washington blows up South's body while Church questions Delta about Washington's sanity; Delta tells Church about Epsilon but says Washington is acceptably sane. It is mentioned that Wyoming's helmet was on the crashed ship causing Washington to comment that the Meta is more powerful than previously thought. Church asks why the Meta wants AIs, so Washington reveals that some equipment cannot be run without them and also comments that, the possessor of a "smart AI" can be virtually unstoppable. Delta is described as a fragment and Alpha is revealed to be the only AI given to Project Freelancer, which was then copied to make the rest of the AIs who became obsessed enough with it to break into Alpha's storage facility. Washington receives a recovery beacon from Agent Maine, who is suspected to be the Meta, but the transmission is jammed before they receive coordinates. From the data they do receive it is concluded the Meta is low on power and is trying to find a power source to recharge. The chapter concludes with the Meta arriving at the wind-power facility that the cast of the Blood Gulch Chronicles visited in Seasons 3 and 4.

Transcript
Chairman: Dear Director.

Fade in to the inside of a sewer or something that comes out on to South's potentially rotting corpse

Chairman: Your program was granted the use of a single artificial intelligence unit, for implantation experiments. Yet, the department records clearly show, multiple agents in the field with implants, during the same timeframes. Surely this must be a logging error, and we anticipate a corrected document soon.

Church: Okay. I have a great idea. Let's all put down our guns, and not shoot anyone else that we're trying to help.

Washington: Relax.

Church: Exactly. Let's all relax.

Washington: Agent South had already shot me in the back once before, and she tried to give up Delta to the enemy. I wasn't going to wait around to see if she decided to do it again.

Church: Right, okay sure...

Washington: Stop talking to me like that.

Church: We're not talking to you like anything.

Caboose: No-one is talking to you like this...

Washington: You don't need to treat me like that. I'm not crazy, okay? I'm totally completely sane. Now if you'll excuse me I need to go blow up this dead body.

Church: Hey hey uh, uh, green guy.

Caboose: I'm blue.

Church: Delta.

Caboose: Oh him.

Delta: Hello. How may I be of assistance?

Church: Hey yeah, uh, what's the deal with this guy?

In the background, Wash shoots the body several times with an assault rifle

Delta: Destruction of unused armor or equipment is standard recovery procedure.

Church: Yeah, no, I mean is he like a whack-job or what?

Wash tosses a plasma grenade at the body, and it blows up

Delta: Are you aware of his experience with Epsilon?

Church: Epsilon, oh you mean his A.I.?

South's body is well and fully on fire, completely engulphed in flames

Delta: Correct. Epsilon was an... unstable intelligence unit that had to be deleted. Its integration with Washington's mind concerned our superiors.

Wash tries rolling things on to the corpse

Church: What do you think?

Delta: I believe that Agent Washington's sanity is well within acceptable deviations, for now.

Church: Wow, what a ringing endorsement.

A larger explosion involving several crates, then another

Church: I'm filled with confidence.

Washington: Okay, all done. Delta, I called Command. They wanted me to pass along condolences at South's passing.

Delta: Thank you. I will be sure to archive that sentiment.

Church: What did you tell them?

Washington: I told them Caboose did it. Apparently they already have a shortcut on their keyboard for reporting his team kills.

Caboose: Control F U.

Washington: I would have told them you shot her, but, I wanted it to be believable.

Church: Hey. My aim is fine.

Washington: And yet, the Meta managed to dodge your rocket somehow.

Church: No no, not dodge. It was there one second, and it was gone the next. That's how I knew it was using Wyoming's power.

Washington: And he was on the ship with Tex?

Caboose: His head was.

Washington: His head?

Church: His helmet. Not everybody is as twisted as you are, Wash. Tex, took it for some reason.

Washington: So if the Meta has Wyoming's powers, it's even more powerful than we thought.

Caboose: And as scary as someone thought it was to begin with. Back to square one. Scary square.

Washington: Oh great, looks like it took one of our cycles. So, what do we do?

Church: What're ya, askin' us? I thought you were like the big know-it-all super agent guy?

Caboose: I would go home.

Church: Yeah dude, retire. You got any savings, like a, 401K or something?

Washington: Delta, can you shed any light on this?

Delta: Not without further data.

Church: So why does it want these A.I. things anyway?

Washington: A.I. help us in battle, depending on their functions. We couldn't run half our equipment without them. And if you get your hands on a smart A.I., you can be damn near unstoppable.

Church: What, like smart like Delta here?

Washington: Not exactly. He's just the logical one of the family. Smart means something entirely different for A.I.s than it does for people.

Caboose: Now let's not go throwing around words like smart for no reason.

Delta: Wash is correct. We are more analogous to what you would call a "fragment."

Church: Actually, I don't care, so I wouldn't call you guys anything.

Delta: There is one smart A.I. in the Freelancer program.

Washington: Delta-

Delta: The Alpha is a fully formed-

Washington: Delta! That's enough.

Church: What's Alpha?

Washington: The Alpha A.I. It's nothing, it's a myth. A fairy tale.

Delta: It is hardly a myth. Agent Washington, you must have memory of the Alpha-

Washington: Delta! Command. Offline.

Delta: Complying.

Delta turns off

Church: Oh. Sounds like somebody has a secret.

Washington: I just get tired of hearing these things talk about their Alpha. And you will too. They get obsessed with the idea of it. It seems like it's all they care about sometimes.

Church: But what is it?

Caboose: Yes, if it's something really scary, you don't have to tell us.

Washington: The whole purpose of the program was the study soldiers with experimental A.I., but rumor has it, they could only ever get one. So they had to copy it. The original was Alpha, then Beta, and so on.

Church: They copied them? Hyeah, I k- I like that. I guess if one is annoying, then twenty of them are gonna be awesome.

Washington: The copies became obsessed with this idea of the Alpha, the original. In debriefings they would always steer conversations toward the topic of the Alpha. Where it was, if they could see it. Some even took- drastic steps.

Church: Like, shooting their partner in the head drastic? Or-

Washington: I told you, she shot me in the back first!

Caboose: And we believe you. Even though we don't think shooting a friend in the back occasionally, is that big of a deal.

Washington: Some Freelancers tried to get to Alpha on their own. They broke in to the secret storage facility where it was kept. They almost got to it. After that they shut down the-

Beacon sounds

Washington: My recovery beacon!

Church: Oh, great! We thought the Meta was hurt, but apparently he's just busy killing more of your buddies.

Washington: Pipe down.

Command: Recovery One, come in, level zero come in.

Washington: Go ahead Command.

Command: Wash, we have a beacon.

Washington: I'm getting it too. Do you have coordinates and an ID?

Command: Are you sure about this I mean this is how we can be-

Washington: Command, you're breaking up on me, please repeat, how what can be-

Command: Hold on, I'm not talking to you Wash. And, and you're sure. Okay. It's Agent Maine, Wash.

Washington: What?

Command: Please confirm last transmission Agent Washington.

Washington: Maine, how can that be? If-

Command: Please confirm, Recovery One.

Washington: Yeah, it's him. It's the Meta.

Church: What!?

Washington: Command, give me those coordinates now.

Church: The Meta is a Freelancer?

Washington: Command. Command, come in! Delta, what's happening?

Delta: Our transmission is being jammed.

Washington: Tell me you got the coordinates before we lost it.

Church: A freelancer-

Delta: I am sorry, I did not.

Church: You have got to be kidding me.

Delta: I did receive biocom data with the identification though. It appears as though the Meta is experiencing mass power fluctuations.

Washington: Power?

Church: Maybe all that A.I. and equipment can't run on one suit of armor?

Delta: That is an excellent analysis. The Meta is most likely dangerously low on power, and will attempt to augment its energy in some way.

Washington: Then we need to get to it fast. But where?

Church: ...

Caboose: ...

Church: We uh, we might know where it's going.

Cut to the giant windmill on Sidewinder, and the Meta running across screen cloaked