Author's Notes

I do not own Project freelancer, The SCP foundation, or the UNSC. However the Gyphenen are my original species.

Terms I use you may be unfamiliar with

Gyphenen: A Bipedal Lizard race covered in tiny scales invisible to the naked eye and impossibly hard. They have four arms and two legs, each hand has three fingers and a thumb. They are able to become invisible for long periods of time. They are Biologically Sterile and can only be created in a laboratory, this allows their population numbers to stay at tolerable levels.

UNSC: The United Nations Space Command. Main Armed Forces division from Halo.

SCP Foundation: The Secure Contain Protect Foundation, Sort of a Warehouse 13 storage of strange, sometimes deadly, items. The SCP foundation also studies the items in their care.

I wiped a smear of blood from my armor "Hey, I got plasma cells in this box. Bright red col-" Utah started. I glanced through the door way again. just in time to see a bullet rip through Utah's armor at about where his lung was. With a growl of annoyance I re-seal the box making sure that the mercenary was inside, before dropping to one knee and retrieving two small chips from the back of Utah's head. One of my own design and the other was the empty AI unit.

Looking behind me I signaled to the rest of the team. "Indiana, Could you go back to the Mother of Invention and grab Utah? Our mission is less likely to succeed without him." I asked over the radio. He nods and glows green for a moment before imploding into nothing.

"Just another day in the life of a freelancer." Georgia said."Don't you wish you were still back on Page instead of here now?"

"Not an option, if I had stayed then the world I'd created would have been destroyed by human colonists."

My name is Leon M. Eastep, I was a researcher for the SCP foundation until they recently "closed" the facility due to one of the dangerous SCP residents escaping. I was not there when, so I escaped the bomb's radioactive fallout. Things down there aren't all destroyed like their supposed to be, none of the items have been destroyed by the explosion and indeed seem to have absorbed all the radioactivity. On my next visit to the facility I recovered all the items I could within the time I had. These were SCP-624(The "Personal" Music Player), SCP-335(One Hundred and Fifty 3.5" Floppy Disks), SCP-079(Old AI), and SCP-062(The "Quantum" Computer). while inside the ruins of the facility I was attacked by what was originally SCP-212(dubbed The Improver) and was directly fused to a titanium armor and let go. A couple of years later I got a cancerous growth on my throat and was placed into cryostasis for later treatment. About a hundred years later I was unfrozen and treated. After my treatment I was trained by the UNSC to be a marine. Later I was picked up by the Project freelancer and now I live as Agent Missouri.

What is project freelancer you ask? It was a research division of the UNSC allocated to make better equipment for their marines. Namely enhanced strength, agility, and resistance to damage. The Director was a stern man named Leonard. He was the one who assigned us all our missions and equipment, but he almost always kept to himself. Preferring the solitude of his own office to any of the other areas of the ship. I remember the first time we met, I had been on an uninhabited planet I called Page experimenting with nanobots and researching the possibility of digitizing the whole of someone's brain (Memories, persona, etc). It was somewhat lonely there, so I had created a couple of sentient species that could live there. On that particular day one of my gyphenen assistants named Pralk had entered my laboratory out of breath and panting, his forked tongue hanging out.

"Professor Eastep! A ship just landed on the southern continent, it's a small one but it looks human in construction!" He gasped out.

I turned away from the nanobot programming console and frowned, nobody should know I was here but they could just be exploring new worlds that can be colonized or they were here to capture a certain species I had made. Either way, I would have to deal with them. "You rest here, I will gather the rest of the research team and greet our guests." I said in an even voice. Patting him on the back I pressed a button and the com system sprang to life projecting my voice around to the different labs. "Team Meeting in the main lab, We have visitors from space" Five minutes later the rest of the Research team filed into the lab and made a ring around me waiting for me to explain. "Alright team, Pralk has delivered news of a ship arriving. I suspect that it could be a scout ship for colonization or someone here to hunt exotic species not found anywhere else in the galaxy. We will be going to visit them but just to be safe I will need all of you invisible." I told them, gauging their reactions as I spoke. "We move out in five minutes."

There were several questions about what I would be doing once we discovered their intentions and I answered them simply that the ship would be swept for any information or useful gear then salvaged so that the landing party became permanent residents of Page. I then held up a hand to stall any further questions and started walking for the camouflaged door to the compound, the four gyphenen following closely behind, once outside I held out a backpack and asked them to strip down because their lab clothes aren't going to be invisible. They complied and disappeared into the forest around me.

Picking up the bag I set off to the place The ship had landed, not knowing that each step brought me closer to leaving Page.

Four hours later I looked into the clearing and there were four unarmed armor-clad soldiers and one confident looking guy talking to them. Judging by the armor's shape they were UNSC soldiers but not Spartans Sighing I motioned the gyphenen to come close so I could whisper to them four sets of footprints apeered on either side of me and I whispered "Their not poachers or hunters. They're a UNSC division so they cannot be here to colonize .. stay close to the ground if shots are fired and get out of here, I cannot be killed by mere bullets because of this" and I lightly tapped a finger to my forehead causing a sound like rock on rock. I heard the affirmatives and slowly stood up and left the tree covers, instantly the four armored individuals assumed combat poses and stood protectively in front of their boss. Seeing that I was just a human they visibly relaxed.

"STAY WHERE YOU ARE!" One of them shouted. "WE'RE LOOKING FOR PROFESSOR LEON MEPHESTOS EASTEP."

"Who Want's to know?" I yelled back

"I'm Agent Georgia from the UNSC special division designated project freelancer, We need to speak to the Professor Regarding his research into nanobots." He shouted "I'm picking up some more heat signatures than people we can see, are they elites?"

"Nope, There are no SANGHEILI here!" I threw back, using the correct term "But don't worry, as long as you mean no harm to any of the species on Page they will be more than happy to show themselves!"

"We mean no harm." This was the other man without armor "We just came to talk."

"Alright, I shall be back in a few moments. Don't follow us." I said melting back into the forest.

I walked until I could no longer see the clearing then made the motion for my team to show themselves, as they apeared before me I handed them their clothes and told them to start their nametags. Blue lettering appeered on their lab coats. Then I held out something they had not been wearing in the lab, Pants and told them that the visitors were sensitive to proper clothing. Making sure they were all presentable I lead them back to the clearing.

This time we were permitted to approach the visitors.

"I believe introductions are in order, I am Professor Eastep. This is most of my research team. The crimson gyphenen's name is Turorm, the navy gyphenen is Rynus, and the orange twins are Torok and Tasuld." I Announced

"I am Leonard, the director of project freelancer. These four are Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Georgia." says Leonard "We've come to ask you about a certain project of yours, I believe it's called the immortality project."

I stand frozen in shock, there shouldn't have been any way for them to know of that research. I shake my head to clear it "The immortality project was canceled due to lack of funding and I could not research it here due to Page not having the required elements for experimentation." I inform them quietly "It no longer exists and the documents are private..."

"Well that's no good, how about we make you a deal then. We will fund your research if you join project freelancer" The Director offered. I grimace for a moment and I'm about to decline when, with a frown, Leonard motions to his team and retrieves a folder "You didn't honestly think we'd come here unprepared did you? Page is already scheduled for colonization, of course if you do decide to take my offer I can pull some strings and have it marked as uninhabitable."

"I need some time to gather some things, and if I can I would like to bring my research team with me" I growl while I glare at him "You have not left me with a choice really."

Leonard smiled and said "That's fine we have more than enough space aboard The Mother Of Invention, as for not having a choice, you could always refuse."