The planet was hard to see due to the large amounts of asteroids that have enclosed the planet. But if you catch a peak through the the asteroids the planet looks similar to Earth except the water was a dark green color.-

The Albatross came out of slipspace and turned to aim towards the planet. The comm clicked as the pilot began to speak, "We have arrived at our destination, now the tricky part is actually getting through the rock field to drop you off on the planet. So make yourself ready."

"You landing us somewhere or we goin in helljumper style?" Scorch asked him curiously. He had hoped it would be the HEVs, it had been a long time since he had entered an atmosphere in that style. And truth be told, he was itching for it.

"Oh your going to be falling out of this bad boy." The Pilot said as he finally reached the asteroids. The ship was noticeably twisting and and turning, accompanied with several sudden decelerations and accelerations. "Gonna do a quick fly through of the atmosphere to let you drop then I'll be floating around with the asteroids till you call." he continued after the ship noticeably leveled out.

Dropping wasn't on the top of Spook's list, far from it, but she'd done this a hundred times in the past. She secured her gear and chose her pod. "I call this one." She told Scorch after a quick glance over the others.

Scorch walked over to one and gave it a quick once over. "This'll do." He said as he strapped himself in

Once the Spartans were strapped in a signal light lit up in the cockpit and the pilot readied the dropping system. Once the ship broke atmosphere it pulled up to level out a bit more before pulling the drop lever. Suddenly the seats that the Spartan's where strapped into rotated till they were upside down before gravity took over and the pods dropped out, righting the Spartans out and sending them plummeting to the planet.

To take her mind off the fact that she was plummeting towards the planet's surface at several hundred miles an hour Spook whistled to herself.

As they started plummeting toward the planet, Scorch couldn't help but drum his fingers on the 'dashboard' of the HEV. He loved the rush of entering a planet's atmosphere in a drop pod. It was incredible, a simply indescribable feeling.

The pods fell for awhile before there was a noticeable thud as they impacted the ground. The pod doors hissed a second or two before suddenly being blown from their hinges. The world outside looked eerily similar to an Earth forest.

Scorch stepped out of the HEV and stretched his arms. He tilted his head to the right, then left until he heard a significant POP. He looked around for Spook's pod. Generally, HEVs didn't land side by side, he knew that much from experience.

Spook wasted no time in activating her camo and utilizing her visr mode to scan the area for hostiles. Just in case she scaled the nearest tree to check the area out and look for any sign of Scorch's pod.

Spook had no problem spotting Scorch from her vantage point high in the tree. She was also able to plot her route to him.

Spook kept herself hidden as she made her way toward Scorch. When she got closer to his position she opened her comms. "Don't shoot, I'm half a click behind you."

"Ok." Scorch replied, having no even so much as taken his gun out yet. His weapons were still safely in their holsters. It wasn't the smartest thing a soldier could do on an alien planet, but Scorch preferred a challenge; and having his weapons deployed and waiting for something to come up on him just wasn't very sporting.

Spook arrived at Scorch's location and deactivated her camo. "We're about five clicks from their last known location."

"That's not too bad. At least we don't have far to walk." Scorch replied with a shrug, "So why are you skulking around invisible? There's not exactly anything around here."

"That we can see." Spook told him. "Remember, they didn't think anything was around ether and they've not been heard from for days. They had one of us with them and I for one don't wanna meet the creature that can take out a spartan."

"I don't know about that...I think it would be rather entertaining to fight that creature." Scorch replied, there was a rather sinister grin on his face, though she couldn't see it

"Uh huh." Spook said not caring. "We should be on the move our decent could have been tracked by whatever took the team. I've their last coordinates stored in my VISR memory. It's this way."

"Then lead the way." Scorch told her, gesturing her to move forward.

The two Spartans moved through the woods with nothing but the sounds of wildlife around them. Unfortuneatly the sounds were enough to mask any noise quiter then a small fire fight. About three hours of walking through the dense underbrush brought them out of the woods and at the edge of a large basin like valley. From where they were standing they could see the towering monolith that was the Unyielding Valor sticking up from the ground. They trip down was a rocky cliff face that was slanted just enough to make climbing it easier. Further down the rock wall was an outcropping that looked like the camping spot for the team that was missing.

"It looks like we're here." Spook told Scorch. "They were camped down here. I wanna take a look, see if there are any signs of which direction they may have gone." Spook headed in that direction, skidding down the rock incline with practiced skill.

"Oh joy..." Scorch drawled as he followed her down the cliff face. He wasn't nearly as graceful as she was, but then again she was the more practiced of the two with descending from higher ground.

Spook begun searching the area for signs of the team. So far she'd found footprints, one set being much larger than the rest. The spartan. She found remnants of a small camp fire and some scraps of eaten field rations, but so far she'd found nothing indicating what had happened. Still, she kept searching.

Scorch looked around the camp site, wondering what had happened to the soldiers they were searching for. It didn't look to him as if there were any signs of a struggle.

As they searched the camp they noticed a small tracing of blood near two benches. It was covered with little rock debris and dust which made it hard to spot. It didnt look like much and could just be from the injured team member while he was getting fixed up.

"Here." Spook said after turning over a few rocks with the toe of her shoe. She knelt to inspect the blood. "Doesn't look like there's enough to denote weapons fire. Probably just from the one with the broken leg..."

As Spook turned over one of the rocks it continued to roll kicking up dust which revealed more blood that trials off into the basin below. Along with the blood was a few pieces of broken glass.

Scorch spotted the blood trail, "Got some broken glass over here." He said told her as he moved ahead

"Then we have a trail." Spook told him heading forward. "Hang back a bit, since there are no trees I can go without being spotted, if the coast is clear you can come on." She cloaked herself and slipped forward, secretly liking the idea of being in command for once.

Scorch nodded as she vanished. There wasn't a whole lot of cover right here anyway. He looked around a little bit and decided to sit down on one of the benches.

The trail ran down the rock face in a frantic looking pattern as if someone was running, or tumbling, down to the basin floor. Once at the bottom the trail stopped, as the source of the trail had been found. About ten feet into the woods there was the body of an ODST hanging several feet off the ground, ran through the back with a high-tech looking spear. There was a bandage around his leg which pointed him out as the previously wounded Marine.

"Coast is clear but we've got a body." Spook told Scorch over the radio. "Looks like the one who'd broken his leg." While she waited for Scorch to join her she inspected the area. Going as far as to remove the ODST's helmet to close his eyes.

"Dead huh?" Scorch stated as he started after her trail. Figures, he thought, just when I was getting comfortable.

"I doubt he's whistling Dixi." Spook told him. She was still utilizing her camo. She seriously didn't want what or whoever was behind this to sight her. It might put Scorch in a bit more risk, but she was sort of using him as bait any way. If she could stay hidden and his movements flushed out the parties responsible she could always get in position and offer backup.

"Oh that's really funny." Scorch replied as he came upon the body. He let out a low whistled. "That's a pretty fancy spear."

"You ever see anything like it before?" Spook asked. She had a wide vocabulary of weaponry, alien and UNSC, but she was pretty sure she;d never seen anything like that before.

The spear was made of a metal alloy with a greenish sheen to it and several exposed wires running from different points of the staff to other points, though several wires seemed to be connected to the head of the spear. Also the shaft is much thicker as if designed for larger hands. The head however could not be seen as it was still buried in the tree.

"Can't say that I have." Scorch replied as he grabbed a hold of the spear shaft. He gave it a great tug. At the very least, if he managed to pull the spear free, they could place the ODST safely on the ground, rather than leave him hung in the tree

Spook stepped out of the way seeing as he couldn't see her. She didn't want to accidentally get skewer, especially not after she'd just repainted her armor.

It took about two or three tugs before the spear was removed from the tree and the ODST's body fell to the ground. The head of the spear was just as interesting as the shaft as there were several wires that connected to the flat side of the spear head. It also appeared to be to be split in two as if it were two knife blades were put close to each other, but one of the blades was longer then the other. Where the spear head met with the handle there was small gap that looked as if the spear head could be twisted and removed. Along with the small gap was two buttons and a thumb dial.

"Well, this is interesting..." Scorch muttered as he studied the weapon. "I get the feeling the R&D team would love to get their hands on this."

"That's not part of our mission." Spook told him. "But we can complete our objectives and return for it I think we should."

"Pssht. I can bring it now. Who knows, maybe it could prove useful?" Scorch suggested, holstering the spear on his back.

"Fine, but your the one who's gonna stick out like a sore thumb." Spook told him. Not that he didn't stand out already seeming to speak to no one at all. Although the spi armor had it's issues with the cooling unit she wasn;t going to reveal herself out in the open. She'd wait for a thick clump of trees to deactivate it so it could cool down. "Come on, I think I spotted what might be a trail."

"Then lead the way." Scorch told her. With her being in active camo, it wasn't like he could follow her anyway

---

AS Spook moved on she dragged her feet just a bit, letting the small swirls of dust she kicked up to allow Scorch to follow her.

"Cute." Scorch told her as he followed the small swirls of stirred up dust. He really wanted to see what the spear could do, certainly the wires must have served some purpose...but he dare not experiment with it right now when they had no way of getting assistance should something go wrong

The trail was riddle with evidence of conflict and fleeing feet. Several trees had been blown apart by some explosives, possibly grenades, and a few more looked as if they had been cut in half by a high powered laser. There were several discarded clips that were all empty with several spots of blood along with some blood that did not appear to be human.

Now that they were back under the dense cover of the trees Spook only engaged her cammo when the trees were blown apart and left her unshielded. She knelt by the alien blood and became visible. "Do you recognize this color?" She asked Scorch. She had a small slip of what looked looked plastic in her hand and smeared one end of it in the blood before injecting it into a panel on her forearm. "If it's covenant I should have record of it." And she waited for the results to appear on her hud.

The HUD ran its course as it scanned the blood for familiar DNA sequences and different factors to try and identify it. After a few seconds it popped up in big bold letters, DNA TYPE UNKNOWN.

"Well? Any luck?" Scorch asked her, peering over her shoulder. "I don't recognize the color of blood, but hell every member of the Covenant has a different color blood."

"No luck." Spook said standing. If they never crossed paths with the creature she now had a sample for the egg heads to analyze. "We should keep moving." And cloaked herself again before continuing.

"You know, you have a real knack for stating the obvious." Scorch told her as they started moving again. The more he learned about these aliens, the more he wanted to see one. Strange weaponry, undocumented DNA, what a mysterious species

While Scorch was pontificating how interesting it might be to run across one of these things Spook wanted to avoid it at all costs. She knew a bullet to the back of the head could take out almost every covenant species and there were few others she was familiar with. She really didn't want to find out that it took a whole mag to take one of these bitches down. They had to be big considering the size of that thing Scorch was now carrying.

As they traveled down that path they could see a cave in a small rock face ahead of them. It was heavily battle scarred and looked like where the missing team could have taken refuge.

"Heads up." Spook told Scorch, she was still invisible and put her arm out so he could feel where she was. "I think this is the place." When she felt him connect with her arm she pulled him into the brush and down so no one could see him. "I'll check the multiple comm frequencies. If there's anyone alive in there they should respond." And she checked their current channel first, clicking a silent response that a rescue had been dispatched. When she heard no response on their channel, she switched to another and so on.

Scorch nodded and headed into the bushes to gain some cover. If this were the palce, then it was certainly possible that the native creatures dwelt there.

As Spook scanned through the channels she had two things happen. The first was about three channels in, when she set upon that channel it gave out a very high frequency, high pitch squeal. The second was several channels later shortly after her click, she received two back.

"I think I got one..." Spook said "Just two clicks, anyone can click back. I'll try to throw them a curve ball." And she asked who won the last world series.

"Couldnt say, more of a football girl really." The response came back to Spook's question. "Can I ask who you are and what your doing here?"

<"Answer first. Then we can be friendly."> Spook clicked back. <"Who won the super bowl?">

"I was actually hoping you could tell me." The voice said with a sigh, "I was on deep deployment during the last two. Scouting possible Covie activity in the outer colonies." There was a pause. "How about I show myself to ya? Will that make you trust me?"

"No weapons, come out slow." Spook told her. "She's coming out." She told Scorch. "If it's not human, open fire."

After a few seconds an ODST walked out of the mouth of the cave and looked around. "You can see me, but I cant see you."

Scorch stood up from the bush and let loose a burst from his flamethrower. "Kinda the idea, don't you think?"

After the burst of flame vanished, the ODST had a pistol unholstered and aimed right at Scorch's chest. It wasnt till she recognized him as a Spartan that she lowered and holstered the gun. "A simple wave and a, here I am, would have sufficed."

"But not nearly as much fun." Scorch said smiling behind his visor.

"I thought I told you to come unarmed?" Spook said becoming visible behind the ODST.

"Do you think I would be alive today if I did what unidentified voices over the radio told me to do?" she asked as she removed her helmet and cast a glance around the surrounding area.

"Good point." Spook said patting the Odst on the shoulder. Spook was short for a spartan, but she was a few inches taller and wider than this chick. "We found one of your boys up on the slope. Looks like you left in quite a hurry."

"You only found one?" She asked with a worried look on her face. "Yea, we got up and out in a big hurry. Some time in the middle of the night we noticed activity at the top of the cliff face. Before we could investigate we were diving for cover as they opened fire. We had a very heavy disadvantage being in the open, so we fled for the cover of the trees. We had an injured team member with us and as we made the trees he got hit and went down. He told us to keep going and even fired a few shots at us till we left. Unfortuneatly, it seemed like our attackers were waiting for us here too and hit us as soon as we came into the woods where we lost two other members of our team. We took cover here in the cave where our Spartan friend unleashed focus energy hell upon them till they creatures fled."

They could deal with the spartan later, what Spook wanted to know was what these alien things were. "What did they look like?" She asked. "The aliens, are they indigenous? More importantly, bullets work right?"

"We didnt get much of a look at them since it was dark, but occasionally one would be illuminated by their weapon. They looked like they were wearing armor like you guys are. And I cant honestly say that bullets do work because I dont know if we hurt or killed any of them." The ODST explained.

"Looks like those exploding rounds of your's might come in handy after all." Spook told Scorch. She was still fairly confident her long range shots would work. After all, hunters were susceptible to them and they were a real bitch to take down.

"I think I'd rather test out this spear on them." Scorch replied with a shrug. He still wanted to know how the thing worked, but without seeing it in action, he wouldn't be able to.

"Did they have other weapons like this?" Spook asked the ODST. "I wanna know what kind of fire power we're up against."

"I only saw one that had that weapon and he seemed to be the biggest. Other then him they all just had these beam weapons, kinda like a Sentinel Beam from way back." The ODST said. "The Spartan and my other team mate may have seen more if you want to come in and speak to them."

"I see, so this spear is along the lines of the gravity hammers that the Brutes would use. Only the Chieftains of the clan would wield them. Interesting." Scorch muttered, more to himself than to others, though he was speaking outloud.

"Yeah, call them out." Spook told her. "Then we can relocate and get friendly before they track you here like we did."

"It would be much better if we went inside to talk." The ODST said giving the area another sweep of her gaze. "There is a chance they are still out there waiting for us and it is easier to stay alive inside the cave." She finished as she walked into the cave.

"Fine." Spook said, "But we're not staying here. If we could find you they can find you." And she headed into the cave.

The group entered the cave and into the semi-darkness. The ODST that came out to meet them was removing her helmet and sitting down on the ground. On the other side of the cave was another Spartan currently removing a bloody bandage from the second ODST to replace it with a clean dressing.

"Ah. There's our missing Spartan." Scorch said as soon as he saw the man. He wasn't exactly one for pleasantries

"I'm assuming you didn't recover the AI?" Spook not waiting for introductions. She wanted to see that Scorch got these guys to the LZ and go ahead with recovering the AI herself.

"You'd assume correct." The well-built Spartan stood up after finishing the re-bandaging of the ODST. "Alexander Lauren." He extended his hand. "Stitch to these lot." Looking at the other two Spartans, he noticed immediately the differences between the laid-back HAYABUSA wearer, and the much more serious SPI wearer. He saw that the HAYABUSA wearer was carrying the spear, and immediately took interest. "So, did you encounter any of them? Awkward gits...gave these lot a run for their money." Noticing that he himself hiding in a cave didn't give such a good impression, he continued. "And of course, I have to rush and patch them up. Had to keep the buggers out with the ol' Laser, hard for 'em to get close when they all have to funnel in and there's me with my baby!" He pointed to the Spartan Laser attached to his back with pride.

Spook didn't say anything but synapses began firing in her head. He was English, or something like that and he had an accent. Whatever genetic coding that caused women to melt around a man with an accent seemed to be part of Spook's DNA as well. She tried to ignore it, tried very hard to ignore it. After all she had her eyes set on Scorch any way.

"Nice to meet ya, Stitch. The name's Scorch." He said, gesturing with his head toward the flamethrower sticking out over his shoulder. He looked over at Spook and began to wonder if she was going to introduce herself or not.

"Spook." Was all she said and there was no need to indicate why she was called that. She didn't like sitting here like a duck. There was a mission to complete and no matter of English accent was going to make her forget.

Stitch smirked at Scorch's name, he seemed like fun. With Spook's answer however, he simply shook his head."Chatty one, aren't you?" In her defense, there was work to be done. "So, I suppose we'll all be going to retrieve the AI in a big team then?" He stretched out his body, with audible clicks, but not knowing whether it was armor or bone.

"Uh, no." Spook told the new guy. She gestured to the wounded man. "We see how well that turned out last time. I'll go on ahead and Scorch will get you to the extraction point. Once the ODST's are secured you will hand back and provide backup if I need it."

"She's better at that sort of thing." Scorch told Stitch with a shrug, "Me? I'm the flashy guy." He gestured toward the flamethrower again, a weapon that most stayed away from.

Spook flipped on her cloak and demonstrated what type she was. "I guess you could say I'm the strong silent type." So long as there aren't any flood around that is. Sometimes her leg still twinged when the weather was bad.

"Oookaay" Stitch sighed. "But we don't know much about them, if you even think they can see through your camo, or can just hear you, you call." Gesturing to his laser, he continued. "I'd rather be using that, than, well..." He pointed to a medkit. "That."

"We're made to prefer those." Scorch pointed out, "How'd you ever get sucked into the med-life anyway?"

"Obviously." Spook told Stitch before Scorch asked his question. She wasn't so stupid to realize she'd need backup when the time came. But unless these creatures could see on the 450 light spectrum, she'd be fine.

"Well, I still love the laser, my beauty, but, well, they say 'If it's not broken, don't fix it', but I kinda feel the need to fix anything that is broken, if I can." Stitch pointed to a small medical computer set up in the cave, his visor covering a pride grin. "Computers, tech, and, more importantly, people. "Contrary to what some people back home think, it takes more than just one Spartan to do the job, a certain 117 withstanding." He gave a faux-salute. "And if or when anyone goes down, I'll pick 'em up!"

"That's great news." Scorch said with a grin. He sat himself down and pulled the spear off his back. "That means I get to screw around with this thing."

Stitch's eyes focused on the spear. "So, how did you get that thing? Did you actually fight off one of them?" Looking closer, he saw the broken wires. "Did you break it? You naughty lot, give me a look!"

"No I didn't break it. I found it this way." Scorch replied, pulling the spear back towards himself. "Wish I would have had to fight one of them. But no, we found this keeping an ODST stuck to a tree..."

"How about you guys stand around and bullshit the rest of the night?" Spook said interrupting. "I'll just pop off and complete the rest of the mission." And she started off for the Mouth of the cave. She had no idea what she was waiting for any way. She wasn't likely to need them for backup.

As Spook moved towards the mouth of the cave, she noticed a strange thing. It was night already. It seemed that several of the near moon sized asteroids surrounding the planet had moved itself between the planet and the sun causing a night like time for the planet.

That was a happy coincidence. Spook thought as she looked up at the sky. Using her VISR she calculated her estimated window of darkness.

After it had collected enough data it put up an estimated time of 3-4 hours of darkness before the asteroid would be out of the way and the sun's light would shine through again. It was, however, unable to tell her when the next darkness cycle would come.

"Really is a chirpy one, aye, Scorch?" Stitch checked on the injured ODST, and saw the darkness appear from behind him. "Great. It'll be a whole lot harder to see you then Spook, unless they have night-vision. I wish I could help you more with information."

"She has her moments." Scorch told him with a shrug as he looked at the spear. He had no idea how to even activate it, let alone if it even could be activated.

"...I'm sure she does." Stitch sighed. With not a lot else to do, he decided to strike up a conversation. "So, any reason you joined the program?"

"Other than the fame and glory? I don't really think so." Scorch replied with a shrug and chuckle. "So you're a tech guy right? Think you can figure this thing out?"

"Hmm..." Looking at the spear, it all a little alien to Stitch, literally. "If I'm honest, I've no clue if it'll work, but I could just try looking at the wires and playing with dials, to see if that works, you know, make myself look busy." Taking it from him, he saw the wires were connected to the spear's head. "Maybe it's like a giant tazer?" Turning the knob, it seemed likely. "Maybe voltage? I'm not touching any buttons though, just in case. No idea what it does, or how it does it. And as I say, if it works, great, but no promises."

As Stitch turned the dial the head of the staff suddenly burst into this green energy aura-ed blade.

As the green energy was produced from the spear, Stitch flinched. "Well, I believe I've worked out what it does!" Despite his less than stellar ways of testing, he took full credit. "So, turn the dial for green, if there's any more, I'm sure you'll find it out." Turning the dial so that the green aura receded, he handed it back to Scorch. "I'm sure you'll enjoy playing."

"I found one of those aliens Stitch was talking about. I'm reading a massive energy signature. Sending coordinates now." Spook's voice came over the coms. Having no idea that these two were dicking around rather than completing their leg of this mission.

Scorch grabbed the spear and grinned beneath his helmet. "Spook's found some. Let's get these ODSTs to the LZ and then give her the backup she'll need. We can find out how these bastards like a taste of their own medicine."

Grabbing his spartan laser with stoicism, but an internal glee, Stitch stood up perfectly straight. "Agreed. Let's go."

Scorch held up a hand, "She's opened the comms again. Not talking though." That little bit was rather curious. "Are all the ODSTs in good enough shape they can move swiftly? We need to get them to the LZ immediately."

"They should do fine." Stitch pointed at the recently patched up ODST. "This one might have a little limp, but he should be fine to run, isn't that right soldier?" Not waiting for a reply, he began to walk out of the cave. "Come on, she's probably in danger. There's few reasons to open comms and not speak. From experience, none of them are for good news."

The two remaining ODST got up and followed the Spartans out. The injured one was aided by the non-injured one, but the kept their guns at the ready the best they could. "Figures they would come at us in the dark." The injured one said.

"In our darkest hour." Scorch drawled, "If only we had the matrix...."

Spook opened the comms again and told Scorch, "Requesting radio silence," She said, even though there really hadn't been any radio traffic. "They seem to have technology that can pick up radio waves. It looks like they might be heading in your direction, I'd get a move on if you haven't already."

"I warned her not to underestimate them." Stitch kept on moving out. "We don't know what they can do." Not slowing, he turned to Scorch. "How far is it to the LZ?" He worried that even a Spartan like her could have a lot of trouble on her hands with these enemies.

"She's a sniper, worst case scenario, she'll go and hide herself somewhere and wait for back-up." Scorch assured him. He tried to recall the journey to the LZ, it wasn't terribly far. "We should be able to make it there. But she said they're coming this way...that's good news for her, with their attention focused on us, she'll be able to shoot 'em in the back."

"While I'm sooo happy for her, I question the fact that they're coming for us is 'good news'." Stitch laid the sarcasm on thickly, they'd have to keep on their toes if they were to survive, more so in the case of the ODSTs, especially the injured soldier.

"You worry about your patients, let me worry about the aliens." Scorch told him, as if issuing an order. "Close quarters combat specialist, this is what I do."

About that time there was a flash of light from the right, about 100ft or more away. The flash was accompanied by the injured ODST's head vanishing and an unsettling sizzle sound. Before the body had even hit the ground, the tree line was lit up as more shots were fired on the group.

"Shit!" As the soldier fell, Stitch had mixed feelings. A comrade had fallen. A comrade he had just recently helped. But at the same time, if he didn't carry on moving, and forget about them, more could join the dead. He didn't have time to think. He sped up his run, turning around every now and then, to let a charged shot out from the Spartan Laser, judging his aim from the flashes of light, and working out where they came from. "Right, you worry about them, I'll worry about getting this one back!"

Scorch didn't waste any more time in equipping the spear he had confiscated. He spun the dial all the way up and was happy to see the greenish glow around the head. He just hoped that it did more than that. "That's right! We figured out your weapon! Come get some!" He hollered at the creatures whom he still could not see. He hated ambushes, unless he was the one doing them

As Scorch brandished the spear and hollered at the attackers a shot missed him by an inch and cut down a small child thick tree. The attackers seemed to be moving forward slightly as they were becoming visible in the flashes of their weapons.

"Some warriors you are! Shooting from hidden locations! Come out a face me one on one! I know I can take you!" Scorch bellowed, really hoping they understood at least a little bit of the language he spoke

There was one creature that stood out from the others once they drew close enough to be seen. While the others were green this one was a bloodish red and a foot or two taller. He pointed at the greens and flicked his finger towards the fleeing Spartan and ODST, then pointed at his chest and then towards Scorch. The Greens stopped firing and gave chase, while the red moved towards Scorch.

Scorch grinned beneath his helmet. Finally he was going to get a chance for a real fight. "So do you speak at all? Or am I to fight in silence?" He asked him, swinging the spear in his hands. He never really was one for spear fighting, the sword was really his forte, but when exactly was he going to get a better chance to test the weapon?

The creature reached around behind itself and removed what looked like a small, thick baton. It suddenly sprang out from the baton into a spear exactly like the one Scorch had, complete with energy sheathed spear head. As it approached it pointed at Scorch and shouted, "Vasooth rak-marothin tsa barinkto sarath Arektin nareet." It then ran hits thumb across its throat in a very universal and understandable statement. With that, it took off in a charge, ripping through the vegetation towards Scorch.

He brought his spear out in front in a defense stance and waited to see what these guys had to offer. He didn't exactly know what the guy had said, but he had a few guesses. The thumb across the throat sure made sense. It was nice that there were in fact universal sign language, for the most part at least. If these things were honorable warriors, like the Elites were, then he might have just told him his name. "In that case...they call me Scorch."

The Red closed the distance between itself and Scorch in the matter of seconds. It swung its spear around, with a deep growl, and brought it down hard with the intent of cutting Scorch in half from top to bottom.

Scorch swung his spear up in an attempt to strike his foe's blow away, and leave an opening for himself as well. His blood felt like it was on fire! It was such a long time since he had felt so very much alive

The spears connected with a satisfying ring as the Ruby's blow was deflected. It wasn't deterred at all as it quickly followed up with a series of changes, going from attacking with the blade to the butt of the spear and back again. Its movements were fluid and quick, much like it was dancing more then trying to skewer Scorch.

Scorch was having the time of his life fighting with this alien. He didn't care that the creature was clearly better with this weapon than he was. If he had the chance, he'd like to switch to his own weapon, give the alien a real challenge. However, he was enjoying the challenge this fight was already bringing him. He parried the advances made by his opponent, eager to move forward with his own attacks, but finding it much too difficult to do much of anything besides defend at the moment.

The creature didn't seem to be slowing its assault in any way. One point when they locked blades the creature made a noise similar to a laugh before it spoke again, but this time in a horribly accented English. "Pitiful human." With that he pulled back and planted a hard kick on Scorch's chest.

Scorch was propelled backward from the force of the kick. He was grinning beneath his helmet, about to burst with laughter. "So you can speak!" He thumbed the controls on the spear and allowed it to collapse into the smaller size that the alien had shown him moments ago. In one fluid motion, he holstered it and drew his sword. "Now, let's make this a fair fight."

The creature growled at his adversary's laughter. "I not want speak foul language. Must to understand enemy. Our Goddess taught us this." He walked forward, not in a rush to impale his foe. "I kill you, take head to her. Earn much respect."

"You'll find I'm more difficult to kill than the others you've slaughter this day." Scorch told him, striking a heroic pose, his blade out before him. This was truly a magnificent fight and that earned this opponent respect in his book.

The creature let out a battle cry as it charged again, this time he held his spear two handed and pointed straight ahead of him as if he intended to just ram his target. Right before he would hit he tucked and rolled and came up on his knee and thrust forward with the spear.

Scorch dodged quickly, but not having expected the roll by the creature, was struck on the leg with the spear. He hissed as the point gouged through his armor, unbelieving it was capable of such a cut. His armor usually provided advanced shielding from attacks. It was designed that way. The energy glow of the spear must be disrupting his shield, that had to be it. Despite the wound the creature inflicted, Scorch still proceeded with an attack of his own. He slashed through the air with his sword in hopes of returning the favor, aiming however for the enemy's arm, rather than his leg.

The enemy was shocked as the spear did so little damage, he should be missing a leg right now. But he didn't have much time to dwell on it, as Scorch's sword came up. He quickly brought up the spear and blocked the blow and returned the favor with a sharp jab at Scorch's face with the blunt end.

Scorch's head snapped back violently from the blow. He was pissed that the alien had dodged his blade, and even more so at the fact that he had been struck again! His head was growing fuzzy, but he didn't care. He had to win this fight, there was no way he was going to die here. He had too much to prove

The creature decided to take advantage Scorch's current distraction to make a trip attempt. If he could get the human on its back then he could spear it through the chest and be on his way to deal with the others.

Scorch finally seemed to snap out of it. When the creature attempted the trip, he brought his foot down hard on it's leg, aiming to break it.

The creature reacted quick enough to twist its leg to prevent it from breaking. However, the turn put Scorch's foot in the right place to stomp down on the back of its knee. The force spun it around backwards and put the creature down on one knee. It also prevented it from getting back up since he was still standing on it. It began to panic a bit and was swinging its spear around behind it, hoping to catch Scorch with the blade or make him move away so it could get back up.

The desperate attempt to stab him from behind was a very anticipated move to Scorch. Instinctively, he wrapped his arm around the haft of the spear and gave a tight pull, bringing it into his side and holding it firmly. With his other arm he swiftly brought his sword around and pressed it to the alien's throat. "Yield."

The creature continued to struggle even without its weapons, for a few seconds before it came to rest and just sat there. The creature was muttering something quietly. It grabbed the bladed and quickly moved its neck and sliced its head off cleanly. The body continued to hold onto the blade as a strange ooze came out of the neck. It flopped out of the neck hole and hit the ground where it sat for a few seconds before taking off through the underbrush.

Scorch could hardly believe that the creature just forced his blade to behead itself. He stared in disbelief, he had not intended to kill it outright like that. They had had a wonderfully pleasant fight and it had even given him the time to change weapons. Then the ooze came out..."What the hell?"

As the ooze vanished into the underbrush the armor began to relax and let go of the sword. Eventually it fell over on its side.

Scorch looked down at the armor curiously. The thing had cut it's own head off rather than yield. And if that weren't bad enough, some sort of ooze 'ran' away. He couldn't help but wonder what sort of technology it was. He knelt down and started to examine it a little bit

Upon further examination, it turned out that the creature was actually a suit of armor constructed from solid ruby plates and pieces. Inside the ruby pieces there seemed to be thin metal tubes that went throughout the suit and all converged at a single box in the middle.

Scorch didn't have to be a technician to know what that box in the middle was. Clearly it was the control center. Whatever these things were, they operated the suit from that central location. He wasn't the strongest Spartan by far, but he knew he had to take this armor with him. He scooped the head up and held it beneath his arm. He sheathed his sword upon his back and with a sigh, did a little pre-stress stretching. It was solid ruby, there was no doubt in his mind that it was bound to be heavy and the last thing he wanted was to throw out his back when he was all by himself. He knelt and with a heave, pulled the armor over his left shoulder. He chose to drag it along like an injured comrade rather than try to actually lift the thing. Doing so also granted him an easier out should he come across more of the species.

With the creature dead and, its body, now laying over Scorch's shoulder, the area became quiet. This allowed his sensors to pick up the sound of gunfire in the distance.

Scorch sighed, he guessed the others weren't able to hold their own against these things. He huffed and hefted the armor higher and started at a slow run toward the shots

By the time Scorch got near, the gun fire had stopped. But what he saw was two or three of the green aliens climbing up the rock face that him and Spook had come down.

"Shit..." Scorch said quietly as he saw the three greens moving up the rock face. Seeing as how the ruby had ordered them, he could logically figure that the greens were lesser, but did that mean they'd be easier to kill? He had gotten lucky that the thing sliced it's own head off. Would he get lucky again?

One of the Greens stopped its climb and turned around to look behind it. It seemed as if it knew Scorch was there but was unable to see him in the dark.

Scorch opened his comm quickly, he knew they could sense the radio signals, but still, it could at the very least buy the others some more time. "Stitch, how you guys holding up? I'm looking at three ugly as sin greens, who appear to be hot on your trail. Do you require assistance?"

Over comms, Stitch replied. "We should be fine, but you could join us if you're bored."

"Not lookin forward to the climb, but I'll be there shortly." Scorch told him over the comm. He sighed and set the ruby armor down. He unsheathed his flamethrower, the thing had looked right at him, if he had to guess, he had just gotten lucky again. The bloody thing couldn't see him. He smirked, well then, let's change that, he thought. He aimed the flamethrower ahead, knowing full well he wouldn't hit anything with it, and pulled the trigger, lighting up the area around him in an instant.

The Green let out a yell that alerted his comrades to the sudden burst of flame. They immediately doubled their climb speed in a hurried attempt to get up the rock face and away from the flames.

"Heads up! They didn't take my distraction very well." Scorch hollered over the comm. He returned his flamethrower to it's place and hauled ass up the steep slope. He cursed himself for having to bring this ruby armor with him, but he really felt it was going to prove useful, somehow...

Over the comms, Stitch said his reply. "Well then, I suggest you catch up to them, before you miss the fight!" Later, he added "Oh, and I suggest that you duck after the climb, wouldn't want a laser to the face."

The Greens didnt look back and quickly made it over the edge and onto level ground. Scorch would have to hurry and make it up to the top if he wanted to help out.

Soon after, Stitch yelled on comms. "They're here!"

As Scorch neared the top there was a bright red beam over head and two halves of the same alien toppled over the ledge, nearly taking him with it.

---

The Greens had caught back up with Stitch and the remaining ODST. "Damn these bastards are fast." The ODST shouted over the gun fire as she fired blindly into the trees behind her, towards the pursuers.

"Oh bugger." Stitch, seeing the approaching green alien, and remembering what had happened to the injured ODST, it was obvious what needed to be done. "Run like hell." He began running backwards, hoping not to trip over, or run into trees. "I'd suggest you try to stay in front of me, soldier, my armor's probably much stronger than yours, who knows, it might withstand a blast or two." He aimed down the laser towards the trees, and hoped to at least hit a few with the charged shots he was firing, just to see how they liked it.

"One step ahead of ya." The ODST said as she had already put herself a little ahead of Stitch. "They are going to make the climb up nearly impossible."

Stitch had the satisfaction of seeing one of his lasers catch one of the armors in the chest. It convulsed for a second before falling to the ground, along with the one behind it.

"Oh yes!" Stitch smirked as his shot hit the target. "Glad to see my weapon is of use." At the ODST's comment however, the mood turned mildly sour. "Oh...yes." Would they have to kill all the ones following them in order to climb? Surely that would make the evacuation meaningless, but right now, Stitch had no other ideas. Nonetheless, he continued his backward running, keeping a careful eye on the enemies.

The ODST made it to the rock incline and began her attempt at climbing, but a round from one of the armor's weapons struck in front of her and sent a shower of rocks and dirt into the air and knocked her on her back.

Stitch was still running backwards when he saw a shot above his head, followed by rocks tumbling. He turned and saw the ODST tumbling along with them. He ran to catch her, before she was badly hurt.

The ODST landed in his arms with an audible *woof* of air. She looked up at him with a smile. "Always helping the damsel in distress, huh?"

Stitch smirked, "It's what I do." He turned to see the approaching enemies. "So, do we try the climb again, or do we stand and fight?" Stitch wanted the ODST's safety, but it didn't seem like a pleasantry they could have right now.

"Gotta climb. Those weapons will rip apart what little we could find for cover." The ODST said as she got back to her feet and fired a few more shots into the woods, hoping to deter the attackers. "You fire a few shots of that while I move up and then I will try to cover your move once I hit the first flat spot?" She said, throwing the idea out there.

"You have a good point." With that, Stitch crouched down, the laser steadied by his shoulder, and sent out a series of shots, before turning to the ODST. Stitch felt odd, essentially taking the orders of an ODST. No, that was unfair, they weren't orders, merely suggestions. Nevertheless, he felt the need to say his own order. "Go, and good luck, I'll meet you up top."

The laser blasts did a good job of keeping the attackers focused more on keeping out of its way and less on shooting them. One was burnt in half by a laser while another was unlucky enough to get crushed under a toppling tree that was nicked.

The ODST nodded, "Dont be too long now." She said before starting her assent. She climbed quickly up the rocky slope, but being shot at tends to add a bit of urgency to everything you do.

The ODST safely at the top, or as safe as she could be, Stitch began his climb, feeling nervous. He could hardly protect himself, nor could he protect the ODST. "In the case that I fall, run on without me." He shook his head, it sounded like he was going to sacrifice himself. "By which I mean, I'll climb up eventually, I'd just rather you weren't waiting in the firing lines for me."

There was an explosion in the tree lines behind him as a grenade detonated. "Dont worry. We will be making it to the evac together and at the same time." The ODST said as she lobbed another grenade.

"I must say, you're a good throw!" Stitch smirked as he hurried up the cliff face. Approaching the top, he looked up at the ODST. "We've done well. You've done well."

"Covering Spartan's backs is all in a days work." She said as she fired a few rounds into the treeline at random. "I would offer you a hand up but I'm afraid you'd pull me over. DIE MOTHER FUCKER!" the last part was added on as one of the aliens came out from the cover of the treeline and was quickly put down under the ODST's barrage of bullets.

As Stitch reached the top, pulling himself up, he chuckled at the ODST's comment of 'I'm afraid you'd pull me over' "It's fine, I can manage." He didn't spend much time chatting however, before walking on. "So, let's go!"

The ODST nodded her head and turned and began moving at a decent pace. "I think the LZ is on the other side of all these trees."

Scorch's voice came over the comm, "Stitch, how you guys holding up? I'm looking at three ugly as sin greens, who appear to be hot on your trail. Do you require assistance?"

Over comms, Stitch replied. "We should be fine, but you could join us if you're bored." He turned to the ODST, following after her. "We may have company. Three greens." He caught up to her, but still kept her back covered. "But we might get Scorch's help."

"Not lookin forward to the climb, but I'll be there shortly." Scorch assured him over the comm

"The more Spartans the better I say." The ODST said as she glanced behind them to make sure one of the aliens hadnt gotten up the hill already.

"Heads up! They didn't take my distraction very well." Scorch's hollered over the comm.

Over the comms, Stitch said his reply. "Well then, I suggest you catch up to them, before you miss the fight!" Turning to the ODST, he pointed to some trees. "I'd suggest you fire from behind cover for safety, as our friend might take too long to join us." With that, he stopped, turn to face where the aliens would come from, and assumed a crouched firing position, charging and cooling his laser, charging and cooling, ensuring that firing would not take too long, but ensuring he didn't let a shot off too soon. Over comms, he added "Oh, and I suggest that you duck after the climb, wouldn't want a laser to the face."

Shortly after Scorch's warning the aliens popped their heads out as they finished their climb. As they brought themselves onto a level surface they scanned the area for their targets before moving forward in a tactical stance.

Wasting no time, Stitch fired a charged shot from his laser near the centre of the formation, hoping to get as many as he could in one shot, before charging another. "They're here!" he yelled over comms. He waved his left arm forward at the aliens, looking at the ODST "Fire!"

The laser blast caught the one in the middle full in the chest and blew him in half and over the ledge. The other two managed to dive away and immediately took cover and returned fire. The ODST opened fire on them and kept them behind their cover as best she could.

After narrowly avoiding the falling Green, Scorch tossed the Ruby's body to the side and unsheathed his sword. It had worked fairly well against the Ruby and hoped it would prove just as useful against these greens. There were only two left now, so he headed toward the closer one, his appearance hopefully had gone unnoticed by the enemy as hey were being attacked by his comrades.

The Greens were completely preoccupied with the visible threat infront of them and were paying no attention to what was behind them. This would be a very easy kill for Scorch.

Taking the experience of his previous encounter with the Ruby, Scorch stepped up behind the Green and slipped his sword through the creature's neck. He knew it would not kill the actual alien, but it should effectively disable the exosuit the being wore

In Scorch's helmet he could hear Spook's voice. "You guys better be at the LZ, I got the AI and I'm coming in hot."

The creature's head popped off and it began to flail and stumble around, randomly firing shots. It wasnt till its foot caught a root and it toppled that it laid motionless. Thats when the ooze popped out and took off as fast as it could slide. The other armor noticed the sudden freak out of its partner and looked over to see what was wrong. When it spotted Scorch is let out a little surprised noise before leveling its gun at Scorch's chest and firing.

With Scorch's close proximity to the other alien, it would be hazardous for Stitch to fire the spartan laser now. Putting it on his back, he withdrew his Humbler stun device, or 'shock stick' to many. Rushing forward, he swung it wildly at the green firing at Scorch. In between swings, he spoke rushed words. "This. Will. Not. Kill. It. But. Will. Give. You. A. Chance. To. If. This. Stuns. It." The multiple hits were possibly overkill, but Stitch wanted to risk nothing, and seemed to be getting a kick out of it.

The creature was beat around by the stun stick, and with each impact of the stun stick a bit of the armor chipped away. Eventually the creature was no longer able to stand and collapsed to the floor where it jerked and convulsed a bit.

Understanding Stitch's plan was pretty simple, though Scorch didn't understand the why. He stepped up to the convulsing creature, knelt, and slid his sword across the creature's throat.

"That was...attractive..." Stitch chuckled, before continuing the interrupted walk. "So, let's go then." There was no time to chat, at this rate, Spook could return before they did. "Any ideas on Spook's location?" The LZ surely wasn't too far away, so at least their job was almost done.

"She's heading for the LZ and she's comin in hot." Scorch told him, relaying the message Spook had sent him while he was busy with the Greens. He looked over at the Ruby body he had dropped earlier. "Come on, if you take the head, I can handle the body alot easier." He was hoping nobody would mind him keeping the head as a trophy. The tech-heads could have the body to study for all he cared, but the head, that was his.

As they moved away from the body, Scorch noticed that when the ooze came out this time, it didnt flee and just pooled there. The ODST noticed too, "Thats strange blood."

"Fine, I'll carry the head" Stitch picked up the ruby head. "I assume you'll have no problem carrying that anyway" Looking at the ruby's body, Stitch's imagination ran amok. What did they eat? Did they eat? Why the gem armor, or was it armor? "I wonder how these things work..." Hearing the ODST's comment about the green alien's blood, Stitch had to take a look, touching the ooze, and rubbing it between his fingers. "Odd."

With many years of medical training under his belt, Stitch knew right away that this wasn't blood. It was too solid and didn't pool the way blood usually does. Also, it was burnt and singed in places from, presumably from the stun rod's energy.

Scorch looked at the ooze curiously. "It didn't run away like the others." He pointed out quietly. He watched as Stitch probed at it. "Did you kill it with that club of yours?"

"Hmm..." Stitch was curious. What was this odd substance? "I didn't think I could, but look." He pointed at some scorch marks. "I burnt its...blood? No. Not blood, blood may be thicker than water, but no blood is this thick." He'd have to make note of this. Opening a compartment in his arm, he places a small trace of the ooze within, keeping it to examine later. "Now as much as I'd love to take a look, this can wait. As for our lady friend, she didn't strike me as the patient type."

"That's not entirely true, she is a sniper after all. And what are they if not patient?" Scorch pointed out as he hefted the Ruby armor over his shoulder. He grunted with the effort, Stitch was right he could manage, but that didn't mean he'd have to like it.

Scorch and Stitch suddenly heard the noise of something climbing up the rock face they were close to.

"True, but she did seem...would lively be the word? Probably not. Oh well." Stitch shrugged, before hearing climbing. "Do you hear that? Shall we take a peek and pick them off, or continue on to the LZ?"

Scorch thought for a moment, "How about we shoot first and sort it out later?"

A moment later a grenade came over the edge of the cliff and rolled between the two Spartans. It seemed that Spook had the same idea. Shooting first and questioning later.

"If you say so." Stitch pulled out his laser, preparing to fire as soon as anything rose, just like with the green aliens. With the grenade thrown over, he'd have loved to have slapped himself in the face, but there was little time for that. Running forward to pick up the grenade, he threw it far off the cliff, before looking down it. "Welcome back to the party."

The concussion of the blast caused Spook to miss what Stitch said, but he was face to face with Lil' Buddy, her auto-mag. "Oh, it's you." She said holstering her pistol. English accent guy. She snatched up the last couple footholds and finished her assent to the top of the cliff. "I'd hate to ruin your party, but in about two minuets I'm pretty sure we're gonna have aliens on all our asses." Her brow furrowed behind her helmet when she saw what Scorch was carrying... no... forget it, ask later. "Let's get to the LZ." And she wasted little more time in standing around up here.

---

Taking no chances Spook engaged her cloaking before she left the cover of the cave and immediately began heading for the ship. She liked moving in darkness, it was quiet, plenty quiet to hear something sneaking up behind her. And dark enough it would hide what little glimmer was left behind from her movement. When the going became clear and the trees parted she skirted the edge of the clearings, moving slowly enough that not even in the brightest of light someone would notice her movement.

Even with the sun blocked out, the Unyielding Valor was easily visible due to lights peeking through small, window sized holes. It was as she was skirting a small clearing that she saw something strange on the other side.

Spook immediately froze and looked, engaging her VISR mode to better understand the disturbances.

Standing, partially hidden in the treeline was an unknown creature. The VISR mode registered a decent energy source inside the creature and placed it as a mobile body armor similar to that of a Spartan's Mjolnir armor. It also pointed out an odd feature as that the material that the armor's plating was made out of solid emerald. The strangest part of the scan was that the energy source had a larger reading then the life form's signature.

Spook at hardly a whisper opened the coms between she and Scorch and told him, "I found one of those aliens Stitch was talking about. I'm reading a massive energy signature. Sending coordinates now." She relayed the information into Scorch's helmet so when he and Stitch evacuated the surviving ODST's they would be able to skirt the creatures location.

As Spook warned Scorch, her VISR picked up five more signatures appearing scattered about the tree line. A few of them hunkered down low and sprinted across the clearing and stopped on the other side of the clearing.

Uhoh, they'd detected her. Not good. With excruciating patience she began to inch her way backwards. Her radar told her that she was clear from behind and the VISR didn't pick anything up in that direction. She needed to get far enough away to warm Scorch without them detecting her radio signal. This had certainly turned into a real fuckaroo.

The creatures froze when she started to move and looked around. After a few minutes of statuesque motionless, they took off across the clearing and away from Spook's location.

Thank 117. Spook thought rather than 'thank God'. They didn't know where she was, good. She continued inching backward until her VISR told her they were at least three hundred yards away. Keeping a close eye on them she sat up. Her instinct told her to pull out Baby and go to town. She could dispatch all of them with little trouble. Especially since they had no idea where she was. But still... she didn't know if a single sniper round would penetrate their armor and if they had shields like Spartans then she didn't want to ruin her chances of recovering the AI. Feeling that she were at a safe enough distance to contact Scorch she opened her comms. Before saying anything she watched the creatures in the clearing, making sure that did not detect the radio signal.

Seeing that the aliens weren't interested in Spook's location any more she completed her communication to Scorch. "Requesting radio silence," She said, even though there really hadn't been any radio traffic. "They seem to have technology that can pick up radio waves. It looks like they might be heading in your direction, I'd get a move on if you haven't already." and she began moving towards the Unyielding Valor.

Spook's trip was uneventful for pretty much the rest of her journey towards the downed Cruiser till she got about two and a half miles away from it. Her VISR lit up ahead of her with multiple energy and life signals.

Well this is a bit of a problem... Spook thought as she came into view over the Valor. On a ridge above the destruction caused by the ship's landing she estimated that their numbers were somewhere around fifty plus patrols. It was going to take some very skilled sneaking about to get around them unnoticed. She'd gotten caught by the flood and had no intentions of letting it happen again. If she were extremely lucky she might not even have to fire a shot. She found a thicket concealed by thick brush and disengaged her cloaking. She didn't want to be in the middle of alien central when her cloak overheated, if that happened her shields would be less effective. So she sat and waited for her power-cell to cool down. The new one took less time than the old one but she used this time to take stock of her ammunition and grenades. If there were more aliens inside the ship she might have to work on a one shot one kill basis, which wouldn't be too hard considering she usually worked that way any how. When her power cell was sufficiently cool she engaged her cloaking again and moved from the thicket. Circling the Valor she chose an area with the least amount of aliens and began to make her way to the ship. Keeping low, quiet and very still. If they could detect radio waves she hoped they couldn't detect the rest of her. She'd managed to close the two mile gap between her and the Valor without being detected.

The least populated area turned out to be some sort of waste disposal as there were a multitude of filth piles around. On her approach she saw several small four armed creatures, about up to Spooks waist, coming from the ship to the piles and then back again. They gave off the same energy signature as the previous body armors, but the material wasnt as grand as it was only made of Granite. From this basic info it was apparent that they were workers. The passageway they were coming in and out of had two Emerald guards and one guard that was registering as Ruby that was pointing and prodding the workers with a spear that matched the one that Scorch found.

Well, she wasn't going to engage them directly. That would alert the multitude of others around the ship and doing this stealth-fully would go right out the window. She picked up a nice sized rock and lobbed it, aiming for the trees to their left. Since she was a long range combatant she'd gotten pretty good at throwing things at a great distance. Mostly grenades. Several dozen meters east of her location the rock landed with a clatter within the trees. It sounded as if it had bounced off a tree and struck a few limbs as it fell. She hoped that was a sufficient distraction to sneak by.

The rock cause enough of a raucuss to draw the armor's attention. The Ruby lowered its spear in its direction and started slowly walking towards it. The little worker armors suddenly sprouted two foot long blades from the palms of its two lower arms and crowded around the Ruby as it walked. The Emeralds, however, lifted their weapons and scanned the treelines all around the area. One of them stopped and hovered for a few moments on Spook's position before continuing on.

Well... shit... Spook broke from her location and moved forward slowly. She only had two of the big guys to get by now and that raised her chances of success by fifty percent. She was hiding behind one of the rubbish piles when she peeked out to see exactly how far he was away from the entrance.

The two Emeralds were still standing there, about two strides on either side of the door, and still on high alert. Spook was able to hear them chatting with one another, but they werent speaking English so she wasnt able to understand what they were saying.

Spook moved until she was hugging the edge of the Valor, just behind them enough that if she were viable the one on the left would have spotted her out the corner of his eye. She had a little more than two feet to squeeze behind them. Thanks to the sound dampening technology in her suit they couldn't hear her advance and she was being careful not to kick up any dust. She was close enough she could have spit on the left one and hesitated, if one of them stepped back suddenly he'd bump into her and all would be lost.

As Spook stood near the Emerald, it looked over at her and just stared. It then turned to its partner and spoke, "Kamarathan Ick var'ooth an-ti." and gently knocked its fist against its helmet. Being this close Spook as able to notice new things about them, nothing major except that they did not have any kind of visor or viewport on their helmets. About this time the door opened and another little worker walked out carrying a heap of trash.

(can she see they're eyes?)

Spook's heart began thumping a mile a minuet when the alien looked directly at her. It looked like he may think he had an issue with his hardware with the way he thumped his helmet. When the doors slid open and the little one came out she moved quickly. Slipping behind the emerald and through the doors before she lost what little luck she'd had so far. It was a good thing she was Irish.

Once inside the little door, it was obvious that this was the trash disposal unit for this ship and had kept being used this way by the armors. Inside the room were several more little workers scurrying around busily. On the other side of the room was another little door that presumably led to the rest of the ship.

Spook was forced to tow, squeeze and swerve around the little aliens without running into any of them. It took every bit of her dexterity to keep from being noticed. Being as careful as she could she made it to the other door.

Once she reached the door and opened it, she was looking down a maintenance corridor that looked like it went up to an open hallway. It was lined with a strange looking lighting device, that looked like quartz surrounding an electrical light.

Spook moved quickly and quietly down the corridor, keeping her eyes, ears and her hud peeled for any sign that she were not alone.

The trek up the maintenance corridor was easy and involved little need for silence as no one appeared. At the end, where it opened up into a regular hallway, the ships vertical alignment took on a more noticable aspect. The creature living in it have made many alterations and changes to make the alignment work and not be an inconvenience. There was an increase in activity in the hallways.

Spook moved very carefully down the hall. She would pause when the going became impassable and wait for the aliens to part so she could pass. Several times she came within a hare's breath of being bumped into, but it seemed all that stealth training was coming in handy and she was using just about everything she'd ever learned to make it closer to the bridge where she should be able to jack in and obtain the AI.

As Spook moved several armors glanced in her direction as if they thought they had seen something. A few even stopped to look and one went as far as reaching out and testing the area with its hand. As she moved she realized that she wasnt entirely sure where the AI was located and that it may be prudent to seek out an access terminal to pin down its location.

When the one reached out for her Spook planted her feat and eased back, just barely out of reach. She breathed a heavy sigh of relief when he continued on his way. She needed to find an empty hall, somewhere she could jack in without being noticed. The medical lab should be empty (at least she hoped) and considering most of these ships were relatively identical, she wasn't very far away. The first moment she got she shimmied into a lower access panel and began moving through the ventilation system.

Several skin tight vents later, she was peering through a grate into the medical lab. It appeared empty right now, but the lights and systems were all on and running which must mean that it was still in use. There was at least a twenty foot drop from the vent to the floor and there was a medical bed under her.

Spook jumped down from the vent and thanks to her sound dampening technology, the only sound was that of the gurney straining beneath her weight. While in the vents she'd let her power unit cool down. Fully charged now, she was invisible again. She could see the terminal in the far corner and stepped down from the bed. She checked the hall to make sure no one was on there way here.

There were a few workers milling about in the hallway, seemingly repairing some cosmetic damage to the wall panels, but otherwise oblivious to anything else. As Spook approached the terminal, it activated and put itself at the data request screen.

Spook knew very well that these terminals could, on occasion, make noise or ask for voice commands. She chose the setting for the hearing impaired and no volume so any requests would be made in text. She jacked in and immediately began trying to access the ships schematics.

The schematics popped up and ran through the whole ship, showing her where everything was. When asked about the A.I. it went and showed that the A.I. console and been moved and reattached in what used to be the mess hall, after showing this info it quickly asked if she wanted it to upload a waypoint for her to aid in her trek.

Yes please Spook thought and initiated the download. The buffers in her helmet would protect from any unwanted downloads. If these critters had introduced a virus into the system, her helmet should catch it and automatically purge any that may corrupt data.

As the download began and continued the computer began another task. It seemed that some user labeled "Admin" was doing an inquiry on her requests and her location. By the time the download was complete the user had pinned down her location and sent out a message.

(the ai? or baddies?)

Great. Spook hissed inside her head. She tried rerouting her signal by quickly taking her radar jammer and jacking it into the terminal. What had been determined as her signal became a series of multiple signals all over the ship. It wouldn't fool them for long, but hopefully long enough to hide again before anyone came searching for her. She then left, slipping back into the ventilation system and fastened the grate back into place.

As she finished putting the grate into place, two giant creatures lumbered into the room and looked around. One walked up to the terminal and yanked the radar jammer out of the terminal and examined it. It then crushed it and tossed it to the ground before they lumbered out. Spook's VISR mode registered their bodies to be made of Diamonds, also the life sign was much larger in this one then in the others.

When they exited Spook breathed a sigh of relief. At least the jammer had diverted her signal. She'd seen those diamond made suits and realized that no amount of sniper ammo could penetrate it. Probably Scorch and his fancy sword, but not her regular rounds. She'd have to make it to the mess hall and back out again before they detected her. She sure as hell couldn't shoot them. While hidden in the grates she let her power core cool down again and made her way towards the mess.

The ventilation system was a labyrinth of turns, dead ends, and sudden drops and the waypoint was only of a small help since it just gave her the direction of the mess hall and not which way to turn. After several wrong turns and a near plummet, the waypoint indicated that she had arrived in the mess hall.

Spook checked her hud for life-signs and produced a tiny mirror just in case these guys had a way of not showing up on radar. The handy little arm it was attached to let her check the room with her own eyes.

The room had been converted from a mess hall into what looked like some sort of shrine as the tables had been removed and the benches realigned to face a single A.I. terminal set up as an alter. The terminal was in standby mode and cast the room in a faint blue light. Before the terminal was a single armor, kneeing in reverence. His armor was registering as being contructed of Ammolite and his ornately designed helmet was decorated with multiple rare and priceless gems and accented with a gold inlay design.

Well... it didn't look like he was going anywhere at the moment so Spook decided to wait. Careful not to make any noise she slipped the mirror back into her forearm compartment and made herself comfortable.

Her chronometer showed that an hour and a half had passed before the creature stood and left the room. The terminal's light pulsed a few times as the creature left and then went steady.

Spook had nodded off for a bit. Which was training. Over an hour of down time was a good way to recharge the batteries, but at the creature's movement her hud alerted her to that it was time to wake. She waited a few moments before reactivating her camo and slipping from the vent. Again she made no sound as she crept towards the terminal and began to assess what the aliens may have done.

The aliens appeared to have done a very good job at reattaching the terminal and still allowing the A.I. full access to the ship's computer and mainframe. It had also been decorated with varying gems and decorative inlays, much like that one that was on the last armor.

Spook's fingers rattled across the keyboard, she needed to alert the AI of her rescue without jacking in. If they found her at the other terminal they would surely find her here.

"Hello Spartan." Came a female's voice suddenly from the terminal as it lit up and a small figure of a woman in long flowing robes appeared atop the terminal. "May I ask why you are shaking the keypad?"

"Shhhh." Spook hissed, holding her finger up to her helmet. "Text base responses only." She typed her next response into the terminal [I've been ordered to recover you.] She removed a jack from the back of her helmet and held it up for the AI to see, then she plugged it into the terminal. Adding, [Quickly please.]

[Then I am afraid you are going to be unable to fulfill your orders.] The words popped up on the screen, tagged to a username of Admin. They also had a horribly ominous sound to them as the A.I. continued to smile atop the terminal. [I have no intentions of coming with you. I am their Goddess.]

Of course you are. Spook said to herself. Ok... she had to go about this the hard way. She didn't exactly have any experience with this sort of thing, but the good thing about VISR mode allowed her to access and download information from a very wide variety of memory banks. She doubted there was any way she could completely pull the AI from the system without her alerting the aliens, but maybe she could dump the crap and go for the important stuff. Crap being anything that didn't detail human home worlds, military weapons systems, outposts and other ships. [Ok... well you can stay.] Spook lied to the AI. [I don't really need you just some stuff you know. You mind if I tinker about a bit? You can stay and lat these aliens worship you. I could care less.] She had to do this quickly, if the AI discovered what she was doing she'd be screwed. Already inside the AI recovery system she typed in FOOTHOLD and pressed enter. That told the systems that the ship was occupied and overrun, in which case, the AI would be automatically scrubbed from the systems and downloaded into the jack. She also input a local lock down of all entrances on this deck. Designating a biological outbreak that would secure the area should any of those fancy guys come running this way. Going completely undetected had flown right out the window, but she could still escape through the ventilation system. As she input the information she began hearing the loud KATHUD of heavy steel doors locking down the halls, trapping any aliens where they were. The AI wouldn't be able to reverse the lock down unless each hall was individually cleansed of contaminants, but the AI was already being harvested from the systems, so it didn't really matter. That might just give her enough time to recover the AI without being set upon by the aliens. Alright lady, you're coming with me. she thought and began dumping useless harvested information to speed the download.

The A.I.'s form began to waver as she was broken down to be put into the system. A look of the most powerful anger formed on its face. "You dare defy me!? You will never make it out of this place alive!" Several klaxons began sounding through out the ship as it began to rumble, causing bits and pieces to start falling around Spook. "Also, I want you to meet High Priest Vlatro'orx." The Armor that was made of Ammolite stepped into the room. It wasnt till now that Spook was able to get a good look at him to realize that he was going to be a monster of a challenge. He stood at about a foot over Aaron's height and was twice as mean looking. The spear he wielded was just as tall as him and had the addition of wicked looking barbs on the blade. "I will kill human." he said as he began to close in on her.

"Oh shit..." Spook groaned. She didn't let the pleasantries stop there. She pulled Lil Buddy and fired three shots into the alien's helmet. At least while she was dealing with this guy the foothold program would pull the AI from the ship. At least she had something to do in the meantime.\

The alien roared as small bits of its helmet was blown off from the weapon's fire. It charged forward and swung the spear in a wide arch in front of it at waist height.

Spook ducked and rolled out of the way, causing the seating to slide as she evaded. Using her cammo was useless if he could see her so she deactivated it to let the power cell cool for now. She fired three more shots into the back of his helmet, cursing as she did so. With her eyes she tried finding the seals to his armor, looking for weak spots. She had plenty of pistol ammo, but pulled her Kabar too, just incase she got a lucky oppertunity to cut this thing's junk off.

Spook's agility seemed to just piss off the creature more as it finished off it wide arch swing by swinging around and bringing its spear down where Spook was standing, hoping to slice her cleanly in half from top to bottom.

She went between his legs and figuring it was the most vulnerable location for the creature she slipped her blade into the gasket where his inner thigh met with the rest of his... naughty bits. She plunged the blade in deep, twisted, jerked and finished her roll, in front of him again now.

The creature was unstopped by the knife blade cutting into its flex spot. Instead of using his spear it lifted its foot and brought it down hard, hoping to stomp on this annoying creature.

Spook rolled again, but not before taking a plazzy and smacking it on the thing's leg as it came down to squish her. She didn't stop when she rolled behind him, she jumped and dove for the ventilation shaft before the room could take the brunt of the blast. If that didn't work, she didn't know what would. She'd hate to have to use the rest of her grenades on him.

The creature took one step towards the vent where Spook had fled before the grenade went off with a brilliant blue flame. When the debris and dust settled the armor was laying on the floor in several pieces. Some strange ooze slowly slid out of a hole in the torso, it flopped about weakly for a bit before laying motionless and smoking on the floor. The worst part was that the terminal took some of the explosion and was now tilted with small sparks leaping from it occasionally.

Shit... Spook jumped down from the vent and walked forward. The screen read 98% complete... that would have to be enough, there was no way she could get any more of the AI now. She took the jack and inspected it. It looked alright. She just hoped this lady wasn't a bitch. She popped the jack into the back of her helmet and didn't wait for introductions before she ducked back into the vent.

"You have no idea what you have done!" The A.I. yelled in her helmet. "They will come for me and they will kill any that stand in their way. The Covenant will seem like the annoying buzz of a mosquito when compared to the awesome might I have bestowed upon these enlightened creatures."

"Do you have a mute button?" Spook winced. She was crawling hand over hand as fast as she could. She began searching her VISR mode to try and figure out how to shut this bitch off.

"Leave me here and I will make sure that Earth is spared." The A.I. continued, unhindered. "I am their Goddess, you are committing the most heinous and sacrilegious acts possible!"

"Someone downloaded a virus into your program." Spook growled back at her. How did 117 go around with one of these in his helmet? "Go defrag yourself." She only hoped the chip wasn't damaged enough that she could start messing with Spook's shit. She began to password protect her systems before the AI decided to figure out how to get into her wiring. She then commed Scorch and told him. "You guys better be at the LZ, I got the AI and I'm coming in hot." She made her way to one of the mid deck exits without getting spotted and vaulted to the ground. When she hit she started running, invisible hopefully her escape had gone unnoticed.

"The only virus is you!" The A.I. said with seething anger in her voice. "You have taken away their Messiah, I have warned you repeatedly that doing this is a mistake you wont live long enough to regret. Now there is nothing for me to do except sit and wait patiently for my rescue."

"Oh stick a usb in it." Spook told her as she trudged through the underbrush quickly. She wasn't traveling at full speed, she was keeping a restful pace. There was far to travel and short time to do it in. Those aliens would soon figure out how to bypass the bio-hazard lock-down and if the ones who were guarding the ship weren't after her, they soon would be. she was saving her sprint for later, when it would come in more handy.

As Spook left the ship in the distance, the A.I. spoke less and less till she was silent.

Much to Spook's relief, though there was something eerie about the AI's silence. The closer she reached the LZ, the more cautious her running became. She kept an eye on her Hud for those alien energy signatures.

She made the distance in no time at all with no trouble. She eventually reached the cave where they were hiding, but found nothing except some new blast marks and another ODST corpse that was missing its head.

Spook took a moment to catch her breath and let her power cell cool down.she seemed to be doing that a lot today... Maybe she'd not put everything back together right when she was tinkering earlier. Ether way, it didn't take nearly as long as it had in the past. Once she'd caught her breath she left the decapitated ODST where he had fallen and began following the trail of mayhem and destruction in Scorch and Stitch's direction. She'd never noticed it before, but it seemed that everyone on their team had a call sign that began with S... huh... funny... Maybe that's one of the reason Priest had been reassigned?

"<I see my followers brought another of your kind to judgement.>" The A.I. chimed in at the sight of the dead ODST. "<Soon there will be many more like that if you do not return me.>"

"Put a sock in it." Spook told the AI and continued running, eventually she reached the slop they'd slid down under. She could see signs of climbing.

She also saw two of the Emeralds bodies laying on the ground in various forms of disrepair with obvious weapons damage.

Spook started up the slope quickly. Leaping from hold to hold as if she'd been a spider monkey in a former life.

---

"Glad to see you're still alive. Radio silence is a bitch." Scorch told her, a true smile in his voice. "Come on, the LZ isn't much farther."

"Good, cause I need to get this bitch out of my head." Spook told him. "she;s got a major god complex going on."

"So you got the AI? I'm impressed." Stitch almost felt a little sting of jealously escape his lips. He and his ODST team had failed, hiding in caves, whereas this spartan had succeeded alone. He continued his trek with a speedy walk, wanting to get to the LZ, and off of this godforsaken rock. "Did you come across any problems, aside from an odd AI?"

"Oh yes, do tell us of your adventure and then we can share our own, Spook." Scorch told her. He knew she was curious about the armor he was carrying. Though it wasn't exactly the best time to be talking about such things, but there was nothing else to talk about at the moment.

"Oh you know, sneaky sneaky, crawl crawl.... massive explosion." Spook said lazily as they traveled.

'Acting so nonchalant about an explosion, surely showing off' was all that was running through Stitch's mind. "Alright, I'll ask. Explosion?" It would be a good idea to get on her good side, as opposed to the strictness she showed earlier, and what better way than pandering to her attention-craving.

"This big guy covered in ammolite tried to squish me." Spook told him. "So I stuck him, and he exploded." She wasn't trying to make it sound any more fantastic than it was. It was a job, she did it. They all did, she didn't think she was any more special than a closed combat specialist or a glorified seamstress with a medical degree.... even if he did have that fancy accent. Spook was just... Spook. Odd duck in the puddle.

"Ammolite? Really?" Scorch asked her curiously. "This Ruby guy's the biggest we came across. I haven't had a good sword fight since training camp." There was much happiness in his voice as he remembered the good old days.

"Mine looked a bit bigger." Spook said. "But then again, we were in the mess hall and everything looks pretty big to me." She was being modest. That guy could have easily squished her. At only six feet tall she was on the short side for the average female Spartan, but that her saved her life.

"Correction, the Ruby one was the biggest you had to deal with." Stitch shrugged. "All I was given were the green scraps." He gestured around him. Even if they weren't earlier, all that they were now was scraps, that's for sure.

"they're not the best swordsmen, I can tell you that much." Scorch assured the others as if that fact really mattered to everyone. "I bested him, and then he took his own head off."

"Cool." Spook said, using very old slang indeed. "Wasn't there another ODST with you guys? I saw one died back in the cave, but I could have sworn there was a chick."

"Im here." The only remaining ODST said as she stepped out from behind a tree. "I was making sure none of them came from a different direction."

"That would be my lucky charm." Stitch turned to the ODST, a smile behind his helmet. "Now that we may finally be in the clear, I must say, you've done amazing today." He hated to think it, but he didn't have high hopes for anyone's survival after the first had fallen, but she had done admirably, even covering his back on occasion. "I just hope I wasn't too much of a hindrance."

Scorch had to admit he was glad that she had survived as well. It wasn't everyday you met a soldier worth their salt anymore, especially outside of the Spartan program.

"While this is very touching," Spook said speaking up, "We've got a landing zone to get to and I don't wanna run into those freaks when they figure out their grand poo-bah is missing."

The Spartans and the ODST made it to the LZ and sent off the signal to call in the Condor to pick them up. There was an increasingly loud engine sound as the ship swooped in and lowered itself down to pick them up. Its back hatch lowered invitingly. "Welcome back fellow Marines. Hop on board and I'll get us out of here."

"Oh, have I missed these things." Stitch climbed aboard, looking out and giving the planet itself a middle-finger salute. "About bloody time I got off this rock!" He sat down in a seat, completely collapsed, relaxing for the first time in too long for this Spartan.

Scorch climbed in and set the ruby armor down in it's own seat, strapping it in. "Hey Stitch, hand me the head would you?" He asked him, holding out his hand for it.

The ODST climbed up on the Condor before turning around and looking back out from the ship. She looked down at the two dog tags she held in her hand then looked back out at the planet. With a sigh she turned back around and sat down in a vacant seat.

Spook followed, claiming the right of "Ladies first". She took the seat she;d sat in on the ride out and tapped the chip in the back of her helmet. "You still with me crazy lady?"

"[You will call me Goddess, infidel.]" the A.I. said indignantly.

"Oh yes!" Stitch had forgotten about the red head, which was currently perched on his legs as he sat. Instead of passing to Scorch however, he passed it to the remainder of its body, the ruby head now with its body. "I think he'd like it more than you, eh Scorch?"

"He has already left this body. I wouldn't be surprised if I should meet him again though." Scorch told him truthfully as he sat down beside the armor. He had seen the creature slither away after beheading itself. Very disturbing...

"I will call you crazy lady and you will enjoy it." Spook said. From the others perspective it looked like she was speaking to herself.

Scorch glanced over at Spook and tilted his head curiously. "I hope you've got the AI in there, and not that you've finally lost it."

Stitch look puzzled at Scorch. "Slithered? My enemies didn't seem to do that, unless I did not notice." He looked at Spook, wondering if she'd say anything like that, and chuckled to himself as he watched Spook seemingly talk to herself. "I hope that's the AI too, or I will call you crazy lady, and you might not enjoy it."

"She's been corrupted somehow." Spook told them. "Ether she got fucked up when the Valor went down or they brainwashed her into thinking she's a deity. Whatever it is, she's nuttier than a squirrel."

"<It was the Unyielding Valor you retched blasphemer!>" The A.I. yelled as Spook shortened the ships name. "<And I am not corrupted nor brainwashed. I. AM. GOD!>"

As soon as the AI began to speak Spook flipped on her speaker so the others could hear, then she flipped it off again. "See what I mean? She's lost it."

"I've read that most of the older AIs tended to be rather nutty, or at least became rather nutty." Scorch replied after hearing the AI speak. He looked back at Stitch, "Yes slithered. It oozed out of the armor and slithered away, at least slither is the best word I can use to describe it. What came out when you fried that green one, that was the alien...I believe. I'm not a tech-head, I couldn't tell you more than that."

With the passengers on board, the back hatch closed as the ship lifted off the ground and started its trek off planet and through the asteroid enclosure. "Hang on back there, this big one is still in the way and is gonna make things difficult." the pilot called over the comms.

"Ah." With Spook clearing up the mild confusion, Stitch felt slightly more comfortable. "So your target escaped, mine...Well...squish?" With the word squish, he clapped his hands, rubbing them. Hearing the AI, he almost laughed. "A God? Surely a God would not be so easily captured, especially on something so small." He really wasn't one for religion, being a slightly cynical Brit. "Not so omnipotent really, are you?"

The A.I. didnt respond to Stitch's comment as the Condor made it through the last of the asteroids. "Alright ladies and gentlemen. We are clear of the asteroids and ready for... Wait a second...looks like we got two unidentified fighter class ships coming up for us from the surface. Wait, the number just jumped to twenty-five, rising steadily. What the hell did you guys do?" The pilot said as the engines could be heard charging for the jump into slipspace. "Gonna take a few random destination jumps before heading back to Earth." With that the ship blinked out as it jumped into Slip Space.

"Well, I killed a general rank, perhaps. Spook kidnapped their god and killed their Pope." Scorch recounted the events and looked at Stitch, "What about you? Kill any of the important baddies?"