Halo ODST: Dead Space

by Alpha42

Its been 3 days since contact with the U.S.G. Higurashi was lost, no one knows what happened. An elite squad of ODSTs has been sent to find out what happened, but nothing could prepare them for what they would encounter aboard this ghost ship. input plz

The pod door the to the cryo pod hissed and slowly opened. I sat up and shook my head, coughing while I did. I stepped out onto the cold, metal floor of the cryo room of the U.S.M. Shadow. Josh, Ed, Carmine, Tyler and Sarah all slowly rose from their cryo pods, coughing as well.

"I fucking hate cryo." Ed said with a cough. Ed or Alpha 54 was the heavy weapon unit of Alpha squad. Physically the biggest of Alpha squad, he was a sort of pack mule of heavy gear and weapons.

"Yea, well by the looks of your face, cryo hates you too." Josh said, laughing. Josh Kirkmen or Alpha 15 was the demo expert of Alpha squad. Josh, who liked anything that went boom from age 13, was the most knowledgeable with explosives, however childish he acted.

"Not even 5 minutes awake and you two idiots are already at it." Tyler said, stretching. Tyler Luberg or Alpha 60 is the techy and hacker of Alpha squad. At age 12, Tyler was smart enough to hack a school program blocker just so he could play games.

"I guess it's just their thing or some bullshit like that." Carmine said. Kyle Carmine or Alpha 07 is Alpha squads sniper and stealth expert. Carmine keeps to himself in combat, unlike Ed and Josh who never quit bitching in combat. Carmine is ranked Top Sniper and Best Marksmen in the UNSC, aside from the Chief himself.

"They act like an old married couple." Sarah remarked. Sarah Davidson or Alpha 24 is Alpha squads medic. Since she was raped at age 14, she has always wanted to help people anyway she can. She is the newest member of Alpha squad. She is sometimes called Rookie. Her first real operation and probable last. We never keep Rooks very long.

And last but not least, myself. I am Shaun McCaffrey and I am the leader of Alpha squad. I don't like to brag but my squad is the most decorated ODST squad in the UNSC with most combat drops and missions completed.

At that moment, the ship commander, Commander Prince, walked into the cryo room. Instantly, we all snapped to attention, only able to breath and our hearts can beat.

"At ease, soldiers." Commander Prince said and we all went to the at ease stance. "As you know, we are here to locate and retrieve the U.S.G. Higurashi, a mining ship that sent a distress call 3 days ago, she was orbiting an unknown planet when we received the message, you soldiers are going on board to find out what happened."

Tyler raised his hand and Commander Prince nodded for him to speak. "Have we gotten contact from them, sir?"

"No, Lieutenant, we haven't, nothing but static, now get your gear into the pods, launch in 5 hours." The commander ordered.

The commander left the deck and we all went down the short hall to the armory and out lockers. I took my armor out of my locker and started putting it on.

Sarah came up next to me, holding her armor, sat on the bench and said. "What do you think it is, sir?"

I hooked my boot on tight and said, "Drop the sir shit, private, just call me by name and I have no clue what it is or could be."

She remained quiet as she put her chest plate on and I tightened my gloves, flexing my fingers to see if they fit well. I walked to the weapons lockers and opened them up, saying. "We're gonna be inside a ship, take whatever you think is necessary, bring plenty of mags and Rook, bring med supplies."

Seeing they got the message, I looked through the lockers, taking out a MA5B Assault Rifle. My favorite rifle with fully auto setting and a mag of 32 rounds. I grabbed a M6C/SOCOM pistol, high capacity mag and fucking accurate. I also grabbed the good old M90 Close Assault Weapon System or Shotgun for short. Grabbing 16 extra clips for the MA5B, 10 extra clips for the M6C/SOCOM and 80 shells for the M90, I stowed them away in my pod.

I returned to the armory and watched what the rest of my squad chose for weaponry.

Josh grabbed a BR55 Battle Rifle, which was 3 round burst and a 36 round clip. He chose the M6C/SOCOM pistol, like mine. Being the demo expert he was bound to grab the Spartan Laser. This beast of a weapon fired a high-powered laser that wasted anything it touched. He packet any other kind of explosive into his pack and headed to the pods.

Ed chose the M351 Squad Automatic Weapon, which was fully auto with a bi-pod and a 250 round chain. He took the M6D, which was a bigger pistol of a higher caliber but an 8 round mag. He also grabbed the M7057 Defoliant Projector or better known as the Dragon Flamethrower. He grabbed some more chains for the M351 before heading to the pods.

Tyler took up the BR55 as well, due its 3 round burst. He also took the M6C/SOCOM. Being team techy, he thought it would be smart to bring a Covenant Plasma Pistol, due to EMP. Grabbing extra clips and comm gear he headed to the pods.

Carmine grabbed up his S2AM Sniper rifle, with it long range and 4 round clip. He then grabbed 2 M7 Submachine guns and a M6C/SOCOM. Taking extra clips he headed to the pods.

Finally, Sarah took a M90 shotgun, because medics need to concentrate on helping before killing. She grabbed a M6C/SOCOM and an M7 Submachine gun as well. She loaded her pack with medical supplies and extra shells and clips before heading to the pods, dropping her shotgun on the way out.

I picked up the shotgun, shook my head and said to myself, "Green as grass."

I gave her the shotgun and then said to the squad, "Go get something to eat while we have time, 3 hours until launch!"

3 hours later.

We entered the small pod bay, so small it could only launch two pods at a time. Helmets on and packs on our backs, the Commander walked on deck and we snapped to attention.

"At ease, for today, we are gonna use newly made grind pods, they will cut through the ships hull for you to get in." The commander said.

The grind pod engineer stepped forward and said, "Since we can only launch two at a time and it will take a while to load and prep the next pods, so it may be a while before the whole team is onboard, so set a rally point as soon as the first two are onboard."

"Okay, the Rookie and I will drop first, Tyler and Carmine will go after us and Ed and Josh go last." I said, locking my MA5B and M90 into the weapon compartment in the side of the pod. I put my M6C in its holster and locked myself into the pod.

Sarah locked her weapons into the compartments and put her pistol in its holster. She got into her grind pod and I called her comm. "You ready, Rook?"

"Ready to dive in, feet first." She replied, sounding nervous.

"That's our way, Conrad, drop us in." I ordered.

The grind pods drill started turning and the red-hot drill laser started up. I felt the pod reposition to fire the pod into the ships hull.

Conrad, the ship's engineer and alpha squads mission advisor, tapped a few buttons on the launch control board and the launch switch on the board lit up. He gave the sign to show drop pods ready and the commander nodded. Conrad pulled the lever and the pod launched towards the ships hull.

The pod hit the surface of the ship and I felt the hull bending and shredding as the grinder tore through it. After five seconds the pod ripped through the surface and started to tear through the floor. It went through two more floors before grinding to a stop. The pod doors opened and I stepped out.

"That was one hell of a ride." I said, pulling my MA5B and M90 out of the compartment. I put the M90 on the side of my pack and turned the safety off on the MA5B. To my left, Sarah emerged from her pod.

"Holy shit, I don't want to do that again." She said taking her weapons from the compartment.

"Well, get use to it, we always dive in feet first." I said, looking at her.

"Yea, I know, sir, we aren't Orbital Drop for no reason." She said, putting the M7 on her hip SMG holder.

"Your shotgun will work better with safety off, private." I said, feeling a bit embarrassed that she didn't turn it off as soon as she got out of the pod.

"Oh, yes, sir, sorry sir." She said, scrambling to turn safety off.

"I told you to drop the sir shit, private."

"Sorry, Captain."

"Whatever, lets get busy." The HUD snapped closed over the normal visor.

The room was dark and blood was splattered all over the falls. There was writing on the wall, in blood, of course. It looked as if someone had shot a cow with a rocket launcher in this room; all that was missing were the bodies.

"Holy shit, what happened here?" Sarah asked, looking all around.

"Private, I told you I didn't know when we were on the Shadow, what makes you think I'd know now?" I said, obviously annoyed.

I turned the comm to the Shadow and said, "Commander, we got blood covering the walls of Barracks A1, no bodies in site."

"Understood Captain, check the other areas and try to find out what happened." The Commander replied.

"Sir, what's the ETA on the grind pod landing?"

"Should take about 45 minutes to prep and run a system check."

"Roger that, sir, Forty-two, out." I clicked the comm off and turned to Sarah, who was on one knee, running a quick test on the blood.

She looked at me and said, "I'm seeing traces of dead tissue from human beings and it is still in a liquid form, barely dried."

"Huh, strange, well Rook, we need to sweep the barracks and find out what the fuck happened here." I replied, looking at the blood.

We walked into the main lounge of barracks A. The lights were out and there signs of some kind of fight. Blood stained the floor and large splats on the walls. Chairs and couches were flipped and scattered across the room. Vending machines had been knocked over, causing broken glass around the floor. No bodies anywhere in the room.

"Defiantly signs of some kind of fight, but no bodies." I said, kicking a chair over.

"That's not all, look what I found." Sarah said, holding something.

Walking over, I saw what she held. A human hand that had been cut off at the forearm, the bone visible at the cut. Blood was spattered all over the hand and the cut was cut cleanly.

"Shit." I said, looking at the severed hand.

"I don't think I can run a DNA test here and I'll need Tyler's help, we should head to the Med lab, they got equipment there we can use." Sarah said, putting the hand into special, no contaminant bag and put it in her pack.

"First, we need to get a look around here, then we go to the Med lab, what could you tell from the examination?" I asked.

"It hand been cut by some kind of blade, I don't know whether it was a knife or something but I'm positive he wasn't the only one."

"Okay, so we have possible bladed hostiles." I stated, adding Intel to me HUD.

Sarah and I searched the rest of the room, finding nothing but blood and broken furniture. We then entered a darkened hallway with nothing but dim sidelights to light it up.

"HUD on." I said to Sarah. The HUD lit the hall up enough so we could see but it still was shadowed.

The halls seem haunted, as if the dead still roamed the halls. We heard noises that didn't sound human but we just assumed it was some kind of machine. We entered barracks B, seeing the place was also a wreck. On the far side of the room was a very large hole in the wall. We walked toward the whole when suddenly, all the doors and windows were blocked and all lights shut off but an orange rotating light above worked. A computer voice said. "Unknown anomalies detected, quarantine activated."

"What the fuck is happening?" I said, raising my MA5B, uneasy.

"The ships auto-quarantine tripped, I'll see what we can do from here." Tyler said over the comm.

Even with our HUD on we could only see very little, it almost didn't help at all.

Suddenly, I heard a vent in the room opened. The sound of it hitting the ground was unmistaken able. We weren't alone.

"What was that?" Sarah said, I could tell a bit of fear in her voice.

"Sounds like a vent cover falling to the ground, not sure." I said, trying to sound like I wasn't worried so the Rookie wouldn't panic.

A growling sound entered the dark room, but it wasn't like an animal, more human. We could hear the sounds but the room was to dark to see anything. Sarah and I were on edge. Then the computer said, "Quarantine lifted." The lights all came on and the doors and windows were unblocked.

"Looks like it was just a glitch in the system, we launch in 20 minutes." Tyler said into the comm.

"Understood, thanks Tyler." I replied.

"Thank god it was just a glitch in the system." Sarah said, seeming relieved.

"That was no glitch, something was in there, it must have left." I replied, lowering my MA5B a bit.

"But Tyler said it was just a glitch in the system."

"Listen Rook, Tyler's smart but not always right, something was in there, vents don't just fall off."

"If they aren't properly assembled, they might."

"Then explain the growling, Rook."

Sarah remained silent, knowing that I was right and she was wrong. We walked to the far door and stepped into the hall, which was also pretty dark. Dim sidelights lit the floor up just enough so the floor was visible. At the end of the hall something moved.

"Sir, I really don't want to go down this hall." Sarah said, fear in her voice.

"You're an ODST, and we haven't found anything dangerous here." I replied, somewhat aggravated.

"But something moved down there, in the shadows!"

"Your just seeing things, Rook."

"I swear I saw something!"

"Well, it doesn't matter, we're going down there anyway, not buts."

Slowly, we started to walk down the darkened hallway. I could tell something had Sarah scared, but whatever it was, we hadn't seen it yet. At the end of the hall, the hall forked into a left and right path.

"Looks like we're splitting up, Rook, you take the right, I'll take the left." I ordered.

We split up, me going left, Sarah going right. The hall was lit pretty well on my end, I could see all the way down the hall. I walked through the hall at a normal pace when suddenly, they lights went off. Stopping dead in my path, I listened into the darkness. I heard something moving through the vents above me, growling as it crawled. The sound lingered above me for a second, then the lights came back on. I looked above in the vent and saw nothing. I kept moving down the hall and into the shower room.

"Rook, you still with me?" I said into the comm.

"Yea, I'm still here, sir, there is something else is here with us, I keep hearing sounds and seeing things move." She replied, fear almost filling her voice.

"Don't worry about it, probably your imagination, check in if you find something."

The shower room had water all over the floor, mixed with the blood that we have seen everywhere. Some of the showers were still going and lockers were dented and ripped open. Bloody towels were scattered all around, as well as clothing.

"This takes blood bath to a new level." I said to myself.

I went to one of the showers and turned the water off, didn't want the room to flood. I shut the remaining showers off and noticed the bloody water wasn't draining. I went to the drain on the floor and took the cover off. A strange organic material was clogging the drain. Scraping some up, I examined it closer, but that didn't help me, I still had no clue what it was.

Suddenly, Sarah said into the comm, "Shaun, the room I'm in, it's quarantine tripped, and I'm locked in!" I could tell there was panic in her tone of voice.

"Hold on, I'm on my way!" I yelled into the comm. With Sarah alone, she is a perfect target for whatever slaughter the crew.

I sprinted back the way I came and took the path to the right, heading to where she was. I came up to the room's window and peered in through the bars.

"Rook, I'm just outside the window, I'm gonna try to get in." I said into the comm.

"Okay, sir, please hurry."

I looked around for some kind of override switch the unlock the door, but there were none. Peeking in again, I saw her in the room, perfectly fine… but not alone. Something humanoid was in there with her. What looked to be blades protruding from the palms and arms coming from the stomach? It moved slowly and quietly behind Sarah, blades raised and ready to kill.

"Sarah, on your six!" I yelled.

She turned around just in time to see whatever it was. The creature let out a humanlike scream as it swung its arms. Sarah ducked in time to evade and unloaded a blast from the M90. The beast flew against the wall, in half. A second creature fell from the ceiling, flailing its arms like a crazed psycho. I fired at the glass and dove through, shattering glass and breaking metal. I fired the rest of the clip into the creature. It turned around and charged at me, flailing its arms. I pulled a fresh clip from my belt and slapped it in. The beast was too close so I swung the butt of my rifle as hard as I could. Its head twisted and flew off. The body fell, headless to the ground. I kicked the body with my foot and said, "Your not so tough." The body hopped up and flailed its arms more. I dove to the side to avoid the blades protruding from its palms. At that moment, Sarah fired a shell from the shotgun into its back, knocking its arms off and it fell in half. Then the computer voice said, "Quarantine lifted."

"What the fuck are those things!" Sarah said, her voice shaky.

The one she shot in half started to crawl on its bladed hands towards Sarah.

"Look out!" I yelled as I pushed her out of the way, raised my foot above its head, yelling. "Eat boot!"

I brought my foot down on its head, splattering it like a grape. Blood splattered around the room and the neck spurted blood from the neck. The body fell limp, lifeless.

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit!" Sarah said, freaking out.

"Rook, get a hold of yourself and settle the fuck down, we're still alive and that's what matters, now, Tyler and Carmine will be launching soon, we need to let them know that we have hostiles onboard the ship." I said, loading a fresh clip into the Assault Rifle.

"Yes…. Yes, sir, what's our next objective." She said, voice still shaky.

"Command, this is Captain McCaffrey, we got hostiles on board the ship, please advise Lieutenant Luberg and Corporal Carmine of the hostiles." I said into the comm. The only answer I got was static. "Shit."

"What is it, sir?" Sarah asked, loading 2 more shells into her M90.

"Comms are a mess, I can't get through to command, Tyler and Carmine are going into a shit storm blind."

"Well, do we know where they are gonna land?"

"Can't be sure, they could go off course."

"Is there a way we can repair our comms?"

"No without Tyler, our best bet is to go to the communication area of the ship, which should be above the bridge."

"How will we get there before the land?"

"We won't get there before they land, but we can still possibly alert them before they run into whatever hit us, these ships normally have a ship-wide tram system, we can use that to get to the bridge faster."

"Okay, I hope we get there in time."

We moved together down more darkened halls, hearing whatever attacked us moving through the vents. Although they were moving around us in the vents, they didn't attack us.

Within 15 minutes we found the tram system, surprisingly, the whole thing worked.

"Welcome to the Higurashi Ship-Wide Tram System, please select a destination." Said the computer.

I pressed to button for the bridge and the tram started to move.

"We should be on the bridge in 5 minutes, if nothing happens."

The tram came to a slow stop and we got out onto the platform. There was blood splattered on the walls, which wasn't surprising now. We moved slowly into the hall and down towards the bridge. The bridge was huge and very open. There was only a little bit of blood splattered about.

"Check your corners." I said, being very cautious.

"Roger than." She said, M90 raised and ready to fire.

As we moved forward, one of the creatures came tearing around a wall at full sprint.

"Contact front!"

I opened fire with the MA5B, shooting it in the chest. The beast took all 32 rounds and kept charging. In record time, I slapped a fresh clip in and shot at its legs. The bullets tore through the right leg and the beast fell on its face. I took the chance and ran full speed at the fallen creature. When I was close enough to it, I gave it a powerful kick to the head. It's neck snapped and its head flew off. Looking back at Sarah, she was blasting two of the creature that approached her. She shot the first in the chest and its chest exploded into chunks. The second, she shot in the legs, blowing its lower half off. But that didn't kill the beast, it crawled towards her on its bladed arms. She flipped the shotgun so she held it by its barrel section. When the creature was close enough, she swung the gun like a golf club at its head. The head of the creature shattered, sending skull chucks around the room. I caught a second one approaching me from the side. I swung the butt of my rifle into the beast's chest, knocking it to the ground. I stepped on its bladed arms and started punching the beast in the face. Its head slammed on the ground with each punch. Finally, the beast fell limp.

As I stood up, Sarah said, "Look, grind pods coming in."

Looking up, I saw Tyler and Carmines grind pods heading down towards the hull of the ship.

"Hurry, we have to get to the communications array, move, move, move!"

We ran to the elevator and pressed the button to go to level 3 of the bridge. Once we were on the 3rd floor, we ran to the communication door. Right as we were near it, the auto-quarantine activated.

"No, god damn it, we do not have time for this!" I yelled, slamming my fist on the door.

Another one of the creatures burst from the vent, 5 feet away from me. I pulled the trigger and the gun clicked, I had forgotten to out another clip in. I smashed the butt of my rifle into the side of its head, turning its head backward. I threw my rifle down and tackled it like a football player. I pulled the blades from each palm of the creature. I slammed one of the blades through the beast's chest, splattering blood all over my arm, chest plate and helmet. I took the second blade and stick it into the torn open stomach with hands protruding from it.

With my boot hovering above its head, I said coldly, "Eat shit," I brought my foot down on its head, splattering it. "And die."

I looked over at Sarah, had killed another with her shotgun and was now sitting on one she knocked down, pumling it repeatedly in the face. With each punch, blood flew up and splattered on her visor. I watched in somewhat amazement, I didn't believe she would ever be so savage. Finally, she got off it and kicked it into the corner of the small room. Surprisingly, it attempted to get up, but struggled. Sarah put her right boot on its chest and grabbed its head with both hands.

See pulled on the head, yelling. "Just fucking die already!" With a sicking rip, she ripped the beasts head off. The arteries in the neck sprayed blood all over Sarah. She lifted the head, dropped it and kicked it into a wall, splattering it.

She picked her M90 up off the ground and headed for the comm door, saying. "Let's just get to the fucking comm room."

I grabbed my MA5B, loaded a clip in and followed after her. We went into the next room and it was a rail platform and a long tunnel that I'm guessing led to the comm array.

"This should take us to the comm array." I said, activating it.

"It's the only lead we got, might as well." Sarah replied.

The rail platform took us to where we wanted to go. The comms room was a mess, blood all over the place. I went to the nearest computer and booted it up.

"I have to line the dishes up with the Shadow, it will take a minute or so." I informed Sarah.

I typed in the area where the Shadow hovered, waiting to drop Josh and Ed. I finally locked in on the frequency and said. "Commander, this is Captain McCaffrey."

"Captain, thank god, we thought we lost you."

"Not yet, something is screwing our comms."

"We thought so, Conrad is working on the problem as we speak, so what do you have for me, captain."

"We got some kind of creature on the ship, Sarah and I have ran into quite a few of them, looks like they use to be the crew."

"What do you mean, captain?"

"I think that there is some kind of infection on the ship, its turning the crew into monsters, they have blades coming from their hands and missing bottom jaws, their stomachs are torn open, with hands coming from it. And they are masters of ambush, they could be anywhere."

"Understood, Captain, we'll relay the information to Lieutenant Luberg and Corporal Carmine, Command out."

The comm clicked off and I turned to Sarah and said. "They are gonna let Tyler and Carmine know about the hostiles."

She sat on a chair and said, "Thank god."

"You okay, Rook?" I asked.

"Yea, just a bit on edge, I'll be fine."

"Don't worry, Rook, we'll get to the rest of the squad and finish the mission."

"If Tyler and Carmine can stay alive."

"I'm sure they will, if we have stayed alive, then so will they, now, we need to find them."

"It looked like they landed by the Med bay, if not, in it."

"Well, Rook, lets get moving towards the Med bay, tram can take us there."

She got up and we headed back towards the rail platform and to the bridge. We got off the platform back were they had ambushed us before we got on the platform. The bodies of the creatures were gone. An eerie feeling instantly came over both of us.

"No way in hell are they still alive." Sarah said, fear in her voice.

The blood from the creatures still painted the floor red as well as the wall. Bloody chucks of the head of the one that splatter the wall were still all over.

"It doesn't matter, we have to find Tyler and Carmine, come on, lets go."

Tyler and Carmine

Total Mission Time: 00d 01h 23m

"That was a crazy ride, shit." Tyler said, grabbing his BR55 from the pod.

"Yea, kinda, I've been in worse." Carmine said, taking his S2AM from the pod. He put the sniper on his back and took his 2 M7s from the leg holsters and hooks a clip in each.

"Lieutenant, this is Command, we have new Intel for you and Corporal Carmine."

"Go ahead, sir, we're all ears." Tyler replied.

"Captain McCaffrey and Private Davidson have encountered alien hostiles since they've been on the ship. They said that the hostiles are very prone to ambushes, so look alive, command out."

"Roger that, command." Tyler said, turning the safety off on his BR55.

"Tyler, I can't pick up Shaun on the comm." Carmine said.

"Comms are a mess, we're on our own until we get comms back, lets get a good look around where we are." Tyler said.

Tyler and Carmine walked from the med bay lobby into the hallway. They moved silently down the hall, hoping to not attract attention from whatever hostiles were on board. They entered a room, that was fully lit and there was no blood on the walls or floor.

"This looks like the doctor's offices area, I don't see any patient tables." Carmine stated.

"No, it's the research lab, and if something did go down, I bet we'll find something about it here." Tyler said, contradicting Carmine.

They did a quick sweep of the room and returned to a door that was lock.

"Tyler, can you hack this door." Carmine asked.

"Are you kidding me, this will be easy." He said, slinging his BR55 over his shoulder. He pulled the door control panel cover off to reveal the wires and circuits inside. He pulled a few wires apart and connected them to other places, rearranging the inside. The door opened and Tyler said, "There, easy."

They entered the room and were instantly hit by horror. Bodies with dismember limbs and chewed corpses lay all over the room, the room was painted red with their blood.

"Holy shit…" Carmine said, surprised.

"This is horrible…" Tyler said, moving into the room.

There were about 12 bodies scattered through the entire room, blood everywhere. In the dark, unknown to Tyler and Carmine, something moved through the shadows. It crawled on wall silently, moving ever so closer to Tyler and Carmine. Then, it leapt at Tyler.

"Shit!" Tyler yelled, holding the creature back from his face. Three tentacles rose from its back, sharp needles protruding from the tips. Carmine turned an aimed his SMGs at the creature but it was to close to Tyler's head to fire. The tentacles curved down and dug into Tyler's back. He managed to push it back and threw it away. As soon and it was away, Carmine unleashed a barrage of rounds from his SMG.

"Shit…" Tyler groaned falling to one knee, hand on his back.

"You okay, sir?" Carmine said, supporting Tyler with his own body.

The hobbled outside, into the medical offices area. As they approached the exit door, the automated quarantine tripped on.

"Set me down by that table." Tyler groaned out, his BR55 in arms.

Carmine set him by the table he had pointed at and raised both his M7's ready to fire. Nothing moved in the room, but growing echoed through the room. Sounds of something moving through the vents were also heard. Then something burst from the vent to the left of Carmine. He turned and fired into the creature. It stumbled backwards as the rounds tore through the beast's flesh. Ahead, another beast burst from a vent, flailing its bladed arms. Tyler raised his BR55 and fired into the creature's head. The explosive rounds blew the head off the beast but it moved forward, flailing its arms. Carmine grabbed the beast he face by its bladed arms and threw it across the room and into the other creature. Tyler fired at the two beasts as they got up, but the rounds didn't seem to do anything to them. Carmine holstered his M7s and pulled his 18-inch machete out of its sheath and ran at the beasts. As one approached Tyler, ready to kill him, Carmine slammed into it, driving the blade into the beast's innards, tearing and ripping at its exposed guts. The other tried to get Carmine from behind but Tyler shot its right arm off and it stumbled back. Carmine threw the one he had disemboweled to the ground and curb stomped its head, splattering it.

Carmine turned to face the one behind him and quickly noticed a difference between it and the one he just killed. This one had its arms formed into blades much like the other but the blades came from the palms of the other one. The hands were blades for this one. And this one still looked like it was wearing part of its pants while the other was naked. The other also had some hair, while this one was bald. Carmine quickly figured out that this one was male and the other was female. Thinking quickly, he thought this one, being male, was going to be more aggressive. The beast charged but Carmine was ready. With two uppercuts, he cut both the blade arms off then, he spun so his back was to it and drove the blade of his machete through its chest. He yanked the blade out and the creature fell, dead, backwards to the ground. Carmine helped Tyler up and supported him so he could somewhat walk.

"We need to find Shaun and the Rookie, she can fix your wound." Carmine said, still with his machete in one hand.

"Hopefully"

Sarah and I

Total Mission Time: 00d 01h 56m

The tram grinded to a stop and the side door opened to the platform. Body bags were lying all over and blood was splatter in places on the ground. Some of the body bags were open; the bodies were of course no in them.

"Tyler, Carmine, do you read, this is Shaun, we are on the Med bay tram platform." I said into the short-range comm.

"Shaun, thank god, Tyler is wounded, is the Rook still alive?" Carmine replied.

"Yea, she's alive and well."

"We are going to need her to patch Tyler up, we are moving through the chemistry lab right now."

"Alright, hold tight Carmine, we're on our way."

"No problem, Carmine out."

The comm went silent and I turned to Sarah and said, "Rook, your medical training is gonna be needed when we find Tyler and Carmine."

"Okay, but its just gonna be a field patch job, this isn't a safe place for a full fix up." She replied.

"We'll they are in the Chemistry lab, and we don't know how to get there."

"Only one way to find it, and that's to keep looking."

We walked through the hallway that went from the platform to the Med lab waiting room. There were more body bags in the waiting room; the bodies were of course not in them.

"What the hell are these things doing with the bodies?" Sarah said, kicking a body bag.

"I don't know, maybe they are eating them, or maybe the bodies are the creatures we are killing." I said, looking around the bloody room.

The room was dark and blood painted the floor and walls. Shadows were also all over the room, possibly hiding some of the deadly creatures that were haunting the ship. We walked over to the door that led to intensive treatment, but the door was locked.

"Hold on, I'll try to hack the door controls, keep me covered." I ordered, pulling the door control panel cover off.

"Got it, I got your back." Sarah said, pumping her shotgun as a show of readiness.

I pulled a few wires out and started to connect them to different ports. Although Tyler is the team's hacker, we all have a bit of training in hacking. We also all have some training in Demolitions, Medical, Heavy Weapons, Sniping. Together, we are a force to be reckoned with but alone, we are still a deadly fighting force.

"Okay, bypass complete, door opening." I said, closing the panel up.

We walking into the dimly lit hallway and the door sealed behind us. We walked silently through the hall, hopeing nothing would bother us. I heard something crawling through the vent above us and I threw my fist up, showing the hand sign for her to stop. I looked up at the exposed vent, looking for what was causing the noise. A creature, with a long pointed tail and two arms that it used to crawl was moving along the vent. It clearly saw us and it growled at us before jumping up higher, into the shadowy vents.

"The fuck was that thing?" Sarah asked.

"I don't fucking know, I've never seen these things before." I replied.

We entered a dark room with a single, small light barely giving the room a glow. I could hear something growling at us somewhere in the room.

"Weapons up, we aren't alone in here." I whispered into the comm to Sarah.

I raised my MA5B and she raised her M90, ready to splatter anything on the wall. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something coming around a corner, arms raised and flailing around.

"There's one, kill it!" I yelled, firing at the creature.

Sarah fired the shotgun at the beasts mutilated head and shattered it. It lowered its arms as if to fall, but it started to flail wildly. She dove to the side of the flailing, headless beast and I fired to rest of my clip into its chest. The bullets didn't even cause the monster to stumble. Sarah fired a shotgun blast from the side, sending bloody chunks of the torso against the wall. Unknown to me, one had gotten to close to me from behind. It grabbed on to me with both sets of arms and tried to bite at my neck. I head butted it, causing it to release, then I front kicked it back. I pulled my M6C from its holster and fired at the beast's ugly face. It stumbled back a bit, growling in anger at the rounds hitting its head. I turned to look at Sarah, seeing her dealing with 2 of the terrible creatures at once. I turned my attention back to the one I was dealing with. It growled it's messed up growl and charged at me. I twisted around it as it got close and I cracked it on the back of the head with my M6C. It turned about and swung its bladed arms, aiming for my neck. Ducking, I grabbed the arms protruding from it's stomach. I pulled as hard as I could until finally, I tore them away from the body. Throwing the arms to the sides, I tackled the beast. I slammed its head on the floor hard, attempting to crush it. After the fifth slam I heard the skull crack.

As I slammed its head on the ground, this time splattering it, I yelled, "Die, you son of a bitch!"

I turned back to Sarah, who had killed one and blown the legs of the other. She lifted her foot above its head then brought it down, crushing the head to a bloody pulpy mess.

"Nice one, Rook." I said, to Sarah.

"Thanks, they never taught us to do that against the covenant." She replied.

"I don't think anyone has ever done that to a brute, it's because the situation we are in, we are doing anything we can to survive."

Suddenly, Carmine's voice came over the comm, "Sir, the chem. Lab is to hot, we've had two quarantines, and these things are practically immune to body shots, we have to leave the chem lab."

"Okay, Carmine, get out of there, we'll find a way to get to you." I replied.

"Yes, sir, Carmine out."

"Sarah, the chem lab got to hot, Carmine and Tyler are on the move." I said, loading a new clip into my MA5B.

We through the dark room and were faced with two different paths. One went up to an area above and the other led to an elevator.

Sarah turned to me and said. "We are not splitting up!"

"Relax, I didn't plan on splitting up anyway." I said.

I looked above the doors, looking for a sign to tell what that door led to, but the lighting didn't show. I decided that we would take the elevator down and hope it led to the chem lab. We got in the elevator and it slowly went down.

On the bottom, a lit sign with the words "CHEMISTRY LAB" on it, pointing to a room on the left.

"Carmine, we are by the chem lab now, where are you guys?" I asked into the comm.

"We are by the Zero-G therapy room, follow the right path until you get to where the newborns are, be careful, that place is a nightmare." Carmine replied.

"Understood, we're oscar mike." I said, then turned to Sarah saying. "Let's go, Rook."

We went to the right path and followed it until we came to the newborns. The room had an eerie green glow to it as we entered. There were tanks filled with liquid, with newborns in them, floating.

"Oh my god… all these babies… now without parents…it's horrible…" Sarah said, lowering her shotgun a bit.

"Yea, but I don't think the babies are alive, no one taking care of them." I said, morbidly.

A low groan of a growl echoed through the room, a sense of fear with it.

"That doesn't sound like the ones we faced before, it sounds bigger." Sarah said, horror in her voice.

Another groan echoed through the room, sounding closer.

"Yea… I think your right." I said, raising my MA5B.

A few seconds later, a creature, like the ones we fought and killed before turned the corner. Instead of having arms coming out of its stomach, it's stomach was large and bloated. Its hands had completely formed into large scythes, about 2 and a half feet long. Its bottom jaw was missing, as most of these beast did. The stomach was a yellowish color and looked very inhuman. It moved slower then the others but it was still dangerous.

"Shoot that fucker!" I yelled, firing on the creature.

Sarah fired with the M90, shredding the beast's large stomach. The stomach tore open and another type of this creature came out. It looked as if it was an infant at some point. Three barbed tentacles emerged from its back and it crawled on all fours. It let out a high-pitched hiss and shot the barbs at us from each tentacle.

"Look out!" I yelled, diving to the side to avoid the barbs.

Sarah rolled and quickly got up and fired a shotgun blast at the infant demon. It jumped onto the wall and completely avoided the shot, firing more barbs at us. I rolled to avoid and came up with my M6C in hand, firing rounds at the creatures small head. It lurched backward with each round as it hit its tiny head. I finally heard a loud and sicking crack as the skull shattered. The monster fell off the fall and onto the ground, dead. I got up of my one knee and walked to the tiny body.

Sarah came up beside me and said. "It doesn't even look human anymore."

"Its head is in fragments, of course it doesn't look human." I said, loading a new clip into my M6C.

The bigger creature it came out of was also now just a pile of dead flesh on the floor now.

"So I guess the bigger one was pregnant when it became one of these things." I said, kicking the corpse.

"I guess… what the hell is causing all this?" Sarah said, loading a few fresh shells into her shotgun.

"No idea… but whatever it is, we haven't encountered it yet." I said, locking a fresh clip into my MA5B.

We walked across the room and out the door into the hallway. I clicked the comm on and said, "Carmine, we're out of the newborn room, were are you guys?"

The only thing I got for an answer was static.

"Shit, lost comms with Tyler and Carmine, can you get a hold of them, Rook?" I asked.

"I'll check, Carmine, this is Sarah, are you there… nope, nothing but static." She replied.

"Command, this is Captain McCaffrey, we've lost comms with Tyler and Carmine." I said into the comm.

"Understood, Captain, but we can reach them ether, their vitals are all fine, Tyler appears to be wounded but alive."

"Is there any way we can reestablish comms?"

"We can't see anyway at this point to contact them, we will radio you if we find a way or get a hold of them, command out."

I turned to Sarah and said. "We have no way to get a hold of them, but we aren't stopping, move out, we'll find them."

We went right of the chem lab, going into a dark hallway, dimly lit by sidelights. At the end of a hall, something moved away into a vent.

"Shhhh, it went into the vents, lets try to sneak by." I whispered into the comm.

She nodded and we moved silently down the hall, watching the vents as we went. We got to the end of the hall, were it had entered the vent, and nothing came out. We went left from there when suddenly, with a screech, one of the creatures jumped out of the vent, just three feet in front of me. Startled by the beast, I swung the butt of my MA5B at its head. The neck twisted and flew off, smacking into the wall. The beast stopped, the arteries in its neck sprayed blood all over my torso and visor. To my surprise, the creature straightened up and swung its blades. I ducked and shoved the creature back. I rolled away and came up, reloading my MA5B, and opened fire on the beast. It flailed its arms, missing its head, trying to find and hit me. I kicked its leg hard, snapping the leg bone and causing it to fall. With a powerful kick, I kicked the beast down the hall, then noticed, two more were coming towards me, flailing their arms. I turned and looked a Sarah, who was dealing with 3 of the beasts as well. I fired the remains of my current clip at the crawling beast I had wounded. The rounds managed to cut its right arm of and the beast finally went limp. The two other creatures continued moving towards me, arms flailing menacingly. I took a frag grenade from my belt, pressed the activation button and hurled it at the beasts. The frag went off, blowing the creatures into bloody chucks of flesh. Sarah had only killed one of the three she was fighting so I pulled another frag from my belt, pulled Sarah behind me, activated the frag and hurled it at them. It detonated and shredded the terrible beasts.

"Thanks, Captain." She said, loading a few more shells into her shotgun.

"No problem, let's do a quick ammo check." I said opening my ammo pouch.

I had 8 magiznes left for my MA5B, 8 mags left for my M6C and still 80 shells left for the M90. I had 2 frag grenades left and my combat knife if things came to CQB.

Sarah had 106 shells left for her M90, 12 mags left for her M6C and 10 mags for her M7. Since she was the medic, she didn't carry any type of grenade, only a shitload of medical supplies.

We moved down the hall and into the ER room, I noticed something strange about it. I moved silently into the room when I suddenly heard someone yell. "Star!"

Instantly, I yelled back, "Texas!"

Carmine emerged from behind a table and walked towards me, saying. "Thank god, you found us, we were getting the thought that you two were killed."

"Nah, we are still alive, glad to see you two are as well" I gave him a fist bump, like I do normally and asked, "Where's Tyler?"

"Behind the table, taking cover." He answered.

Sarah went over to Tyler, who was resting against the table and took her pack off, opening it.

"Got to take your helmet off." She said, taking his helmet off.

"Okay, Doc, just patch up the wound so I can join the fight again." He said with a grumble.

He turned around and looked at the wound on his neck. It was a fairly decent wound, three centimeter wide puncture marks were visible. She took a small bottle from a med kit and poured a bit in each wound. Tyler squirmed a bit due the sting of the liquid.

"Stop squirming." Sarah said, putting some clotting powder in the wounds to make the blood clot up. She put a field wrap on the wound and said, "Okay that will work, need any morphine?"

Tyler put his helmet on and said, "No, I'll be fine, if it starts to hurt bad, I'll tell you." He picked his BR55 up off the ground and walked over to Carmine and I.

"Good to see you, Ty." I fist bumped him and said. "Didn't want to lose my second in command."

"Thanks, Shaun, glad to see your alive and well, and the Rook is alive too, didn't expect that." He replied.

"She's done great, better then I thought she would do, she can be brutal to these things." I said, glancing at Sarah.

They looked at Sarah, who was packing some more med supplies into her pack. She looked over at us and then quickly back at her pack. She put it back on her pack and joined us.

"Rook… Sarah, your doing great." I said.

"Thanks Captain." She said, sounding happier.

"Where do we go now?" I asked.

"I think we should head to the bridge, I can bring up schematics from the computers there as well as camera controls, I can get a better look at what we are dealing with." Tyler replied.

"Yea and you can get door controls from there as well." Carmine added.

"Then the bridge it is, let's move out, Alphas."

Josh and Ed, still aboard the U.S.M. Shadow

Total Mission Time: 00d 02h 38m

"Sergeant Nirenberg and Specialist Kirkmen, get your gear and get to the pods, launch it five." Said Conrad into the intercom.

"Fucking finally, about fucking time." Ed said, grabbing his M351 SAW, the M7057 and holstered his M6D.

"Awww, I was having fun beating your ass at this game." Josh said, setting the Dice for Ed's Warhammer 40,000 game and picking up his BR55, his Spartan Laser and holster his M6C.

"Beginniers luck!" Ed yelled back, agrivated at Josh's bragging.

They got the pods and Conrad was at the controls for the pods.

"Load in and prepare to drop." He said, typing on the control board.

Ed got into the pod on the left and Josh got into the pod on the right. The loaded their weapons into the holding compartments and strapped in. Conrad signaled them to ask if they were ready and they both signaled back to drop them in. He pulled the drop lever.

The pods launched toward the ships hull, red hot melting laser heating the hull.

Ed could hear Josh yelling "Weeeeeeeeee!" as the fell toward the hull so he yelled into the comm, "Shut up!"

The pods grinded through the hull and several floors before grinding to a stop. The pod doors opened at they stepped out.

"That was fun!" Josh said, taking his BR55 and Spartan Laser out of the rack. He put the Spartan Laser on his back, although he wanted to use it oh so badly.

"It was enjoyable to say the least." Ed said, pulling his M351 SAW and M7057 off the rack. He put the M7057 on his back and held his SAW at the ready.

"Oh shit!" Josh said all of a sudden.

"What?" Ed said, aiming around the room.

"I forgot to let Scruffy out of cryo!"

"Your fucking me right, your dog, that's what your worried about?"

"Your just mad because you don't get to blow shit up like I can."

"I get to burn things, that's just as good."

"Yea, not really, hey, Conrad, can you let Scruffy out of cryo?"

"Sure" Conrad replied.

"Thanks, see you in a few hours" He clicked the comm off.

"Concentrate on your dog before the mission, that is so not surprising" Ed said, annoyed.

"No, the list goes, Blow shit up, Scruffy, Blow shit up, Blow more shit up, then the mission." Josh corrected.

"Your just an idiot!"

"Hey, carrying all the explosives doesn't make me an idiot, but if you're next to me in a firefight it makes you an idiot."

"Whatever!"

They had landed in the mining deck of the ship, an area with dust and fire everywhere. Their pods had hit where a large chuck of rock was beign held in the ship by gravity tethers. The room was dimly lit, like the rest of the ship, only this was a very big room that was like a hanger but with a giant rock instead of ships. The room had one problem with it though, it had zero gravity.

"Hey, Ed, I'm floating." Josh said, with a laugh.

Ed looks and says, "The gravity of the room is off."

Carefully, the two made their way to the door and entered the hallway. When they entered the hall, gravity came back on. Josh fell to the ground with a thud.

"Okay, I was swimming on air a minute ago." Josh said, getting up.

Ed just shook his head and started to walk down the dimly lit hall. They went slowly down the hall, watching the shadows for any movement. At the end of the hall was an elevator with the words "Mining Enterance". They went up the elevator and proceeded out onto the enterance deck. Blood stained the metal floor and tools lay scattered all over the place. A low groan echoed through the room.

"Hey, Ed, your mother is calling you!" Josh said, sounding like he was serious.

Ed didn't say a word just pointed his M351 SAW in the direction of the noise. A tall and skinny humanoid creature walked through the door. It had the distinct missing jaw but it had no bladed arms but long, thin arms with three four claws on each hand. It looked more like a skeleton than a human, it was extremely thin.

Ed opened fire with the M351 and Josh fired bursts from his BR55. The rounds tore through the strange creature, ripping and tearing flesh open. It stopped in its tracks and look like it was gonna fall. Josh and Ed stopped firing and watched the beast. It fell to the ground and broke into five different pieces. The arms, and legs started to crawl around the room. The head had three tentacles coming from the neck and was moving around the room too.

"What in the fuck are they…" Ed's sentence was interrupted when on of the arms leapt at his face. He grabbed the things wrist and yanked it off his visor. "You think you can grab me, mother fucker, well" He grabbed it with his other hand, M351 slung on his shoulder, and he ripped the hand apart, yelling, "think again!" He hurled the chunks at a wall.

The two feet lunged at Josh, but he was ready. He caught the two, threw them into the air, and shot each of them with a three shot burst from his BR55 before they hit the ground.

The other hand was simply crawling by Ed's foot, so he lifted his leg and slammed his foot on the head. He turned to see the head flying at him. He caught the head with one and squeezed the head until it splattered, then he said. "Oh, I'm sorry, did I give you a headache?"

Josh looked at Ed and said, "That was pretty good."

"Yea, I know, I'm good." Ed answered, sounding a bit cocky.

They fist bumped and continued out of the room and towards the elevator that would lead off the mining deck. The elevator was slow but it got them to the Preperation area safely.

When they got off the elevator, they found the Prep room empty, with the exception of blood and tools. In the room, Josh and Ed heard some kind of thing fall to the floor with a clang. The walked through the room silently and onto the tram platform.

Turning the tram system on, Ed asked, "So the closest to the last location of Shaun this tram will take up is the school area."

"Well, lets go." Josh said, sitting on a chair.

Slowly the tram started to move down the track in the direction of the school area.

Meanwhile…

Total Mission Time: 00d 02h 38m

We entered the bridge in a door breach style, moving in fast. The room was clear, the bodies of the ones Sarah and I had killed before we found Tyler and Carmine. Tyler went to a computer in the front of the room. The huge glass viewport had a view of the unknown planet that the U.S.G. Higurashi was orbiting. Tyler typed fast, getting past any security measures within seconds.

"Okay, all systems online, our comms open to the rest of the ship, security doors are open, and security cameras are now under my control.

"Excellent, that will make communicating way easier."

I said.

"Can we communicate with an survivors using the comms now?" Sarah asked.

"Rook, I don't think there are any survivors, unfortunately." Carmine answered.

"Yea, Carmine's right, I doubt anyone else besides us is alive." I said.

"Hey, guys, I found an audio log of the captain before he was killed." Tyler interrupted.

"Play it." I ordered.

He tapped the controls a few more times and the log began to play.

"The ship seems to be experiencing some form of infestation, I have seen a video of them, the crew members call them 'Necromorphs' which translates 'corpse being' in latin, we have locked down the part of the ship that this began in, but I don't know if it will keep them back, these… necromorphs are smart even if they are dead."

The message stopped and Tyler said, "So I guess the things we run into are known as necromorphs, effective name if I must say."

"Yea, can you pull up the lockdown area?" I asked.

"Yea, the place that this originated was the hanger, my guess a ship got aboard with one of these and that's how it started." Tyler said, typing rapidly.

"Yea, probably, get command, we need to find out if they dropped Ed and Josh yet." I ordered.

Tyler typed a bit and then a voice came over the comm. "Yes, Captain McCaffrey?"

"We have regrouped with Tyler and Carmine, have you launched Josh and Ed yet?" I asked.

"Yes, Captain, we believe they hit at the mining deck, they should be on their way to your location."

"Okay, Captain McCaffrey, out."

The comm shut off and I said to the squad, "Our best chance of finding them would be to just sit back an wait for them to come to us, if we move too much we'll just run into more problems."

"Problem is that we can't just sit here." Tyler said, pulling up more files on the computer.

"Why is that Lieutenant?" I questioned, waiting for an answered.

"Well, the power to the engines is fluxuating, we are slowly going to lose altitude, my guess is we are losing fuel and the auto loading failed."

"Shit, well, can you fix it?"

"I can try…. No, I'll have to go to the engine section and manually restart the process."

"How long would that take?"

"To start the process, only about 5 or 10 minutes, but it may take a while to find the controls, I can upload the ships schematics here, but it will still be difficult to find."

"Well, we don't have much of a choice, download the schematics and lets head to the engine area." I ordered.

He quickly downloaded the ship schematics to our HUDs and we went back to the tram system. I pressed the button to go to the engine and the tram started to move.

Ed and Josh, School area

Total Mission Time: 00d 03h 29m

The tram slowed to a stop and tram door opened to the platform. The platform had what looked to be book bags and data pads laying all over the place. Blood stained everything and the hall was like something seen in a horror film.

"Okay, Tyler just sent the schematics of the ship to our HUDs, it looks like they are going to the engine section but they want us to meet them at the bridge." Ed said, looking at the schematics in his HUD.

"Looks like there is a tram that will take us to the bridge on the other side of the school section." Josh said.

They walked down the hall and into the entery room of the school. More books and datapads littered the floor as well as pencils and pens. They left the entry room and walked down the hall to the enterance of the dorms. Slowly, they opened the door.

"Holy shit…" Josh was speechless at the horror inside.

Blood and lifeless bodies of children from age 5 to age 18 were all over the room. Dismembered heads and limbs were all over the place, the horror expression on the faces before death. Some looked like they had tried to defend themselves but failed. It was the most horrible thing that they had seen.

"Oh my god…" Ed said, also struck by the sight.

"I…I'm not going through there." Josh stated.

"There might be survivors… come on." Ed said, walking slowly into the horror scene.

They walked slowly through the room, still struck by the corpses of the children. Entering the east dorm room they noticed that there were corpses of the creatures that had attacked them. Suddenly two of them jumped up, waving the bladed hands. Josh and Ed instantly opened fire with their weapons. Ed's M351 shredded the one he was firing at but the one Josh was fighting ignored the shots and got too close.

Josh threw his BR55 to the ground and pulled his combat knife from the chest sheath. The beast charged and Josh dodged to the side to avoid. He got up and rushed the necromorph, knife pointed backwards. Grabbing the beast, he stuck the knife into the throat of the monster. He held tight at the beast struggled to get out. Josh sunk the knife deeper into the throat, cutting major arteries. He yanked the knife out and flipped the necromorph around. Quickly, he sliced its throat several times, cutting deep with each slash. With a final slash, he sliced the head clean off. Flipping the knife foreward, he stuck it deep into its stomach. He dragged the knife, cutting through the ribs of the beast. Then, he put his foot to the chest of the beast and kicked it at the wall. The necromorph fell lifeless, chest ripped open, inner organs falling onto the floor.

Josh sheathed his knife and picked his BR55 up off the ground. He noticed the door 7 feet in front of him had someone peeking through.

"Wow, never seen anyone do that to these things, you must both be military personel." Said some guy that walked through the door. He wore engineer armor, minus the helmet, holding some kind of gun in his right hand.

"Yes, sir, Sergeant Nirenberg, Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, we are the recon group." Ed said to the guy.

"Specialist Kirkman, also an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper, demolition expert." Josh said.

"Glad someone got our message, how many of you are there?" He asked.

"Six of us, but we are all scattered around the ship, four members of our team are on their way to start the fueling system." Ed replied.

"Okay, I sent two of my guys to attempt to start it, maybe they will meet up, anyway, come in, before more show up." He said, going through the door.

In the room, it was like a dorm but they had blocked all the vents with whatever they had. He had what looked like two 8 year old boys, one 5 year old girl and 3 teens. They all wore makeshift armor except the 5 year old girl. They had guns that looked more like tools than guns.

"By the way, I'm Rex, those three are Greg, Max, and Jessica, those two are Mark and James, and she is Kaitie." Rex said, pointing to each.

"Do you have weapons?" Ed asked, looking at the kids.

"We have Plasma Cutters, Force Guns, and a few Rippers, but we are running low on ammo." Said Jessica, raising her Plasma Cutter.

"Okay, well, we can get the Shadow to drop some weapon pods." Josh said.

"That would be a security risks, the UNSC never thinks of OUR security." Said Max.

"Hey, they are here to save our asses, so you keep your mouth shut, got that!" Rex snapped at Max.

"Okay, so pack up what ammo and weapons you have and prepare to move, we need to get to the bridge." Ed said.

"Why the bridge, that place was fucked when this started." Greg said, grabbing a Ripper.

"The Captain of our squad order us to head to the bridge, he's gonna fix the fueling system and meet us there." Josh said, loading a fresh clip into his BR55.

"Just don't question these guys, they are ODSTs, Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, they know what they are doing." Rex said.

"Okay, we all ready?" Josh asked.

"Yea, but we need to protect Kaitie, above anything else." Rex said.

The eight of them walked out of the room, moving slowly so the young kids wouldn't get lost or fall behind. If they fell behind it would be definite death. Finally, they got out of the dorm and into the main hall. Unlike when they entered the dorm, now, the main hall lights were out.

Ed tapped his helmet to show Josh to turn his HUD low light mode on. With low light on, it was pretty visible, but there were no signs of any necromorphs.

"Okay, flashlights on, guys." Rex said to his little gang of kids and teens. Rex looked like he was about 18 or 19 years old, so he was their leader.

They moved down the dark hall until they came to a fork in the hall.

"Shit, looks like we'll have to split up, okay, so…" Rex said, conversing with his group.

"We have to go left, it will lead us through the science and math wing, it's the fastest way to the tram." Ed said to Josh.

Josh gave him a thumbs up and they started down the left path.

"Hey, they are going left, lets just follow them." Jessica said.

The group of kids followed Josh and Ed to the math and science wing. They came across something they had not expected, a barracade in the hall.

"That's just great, we were better off back in the dorms!" Yelled Max.

"Josh is a demo expert, so we'll blow through the wall." Ed said.

"Just keep me covered and we'll blow right through." Josh said, taking his pack off and going into the room to the right. The room had about 30 desks in it, most of them were flipped over in some way. Blood was splattered all over the walls and it panted the board. Josh went to the far wall and started to examine it.

Ed came up beside him and asked, "Can you blow it?"

Josh nodded and said, "Yea, but its gonna take a bit for me to rig a charge strong enough that won't blow the room apart."

The kids entered the room and set up a makeshift perimeter of defences, then Ed said, "It's gonna take Josh some time to rig a charge, so make sure this area is safe."

Josh went to a desk and started to work with his explosive gear, seeing what would be good enough to blow the wall. Rex rounded up his team and started to instruct them on what to do. Ed could hear something moving through the walls and the vents above. Not wanting to panic everyone, Ed let the sound go and didn't tell the kids.

Rex told Mark and James to go and watch the halls, so nothing would surprise them. Less than 5 minutes later, a scream echoed into the room. Ed ran out the door and into the dark hall.

An adult necromorph had dug its blades through Mark's chest and was stabbing repeatily through his chest. His blood splattered all over the wall, his screams echo with each stab the beast delievered. Finally it stuck both blades in and ripped the small child in half. Ed fired his M351 at the monster and the beast fell to little meaty chunks. He walked to Marks tiny, mutilated corpse. He sighed and started to walk back to the room. He saw that something was behind him on the motion tracker, but it was marked as an ally. Turning he saw what appeared to be James, but then he saw its head. His head had been removed and a head of the beast Ed and Josh had first fought was in its place. He moved slow and unsteady. Ed slung his M351 and took his M6D from its holster and aimed at the head.

"Rest in Peace." He muttered then pulled the trigger. The head exploded and the body collapsed to the ground, lifeless.

He walked back into the classroom and said, "Mark and James are both dead."

Rex nodded and said. "They are better off than us."

Max stood up and said, "We should just go back to the dorm, we were safe there!"

"We would eventually die back there, at least we have a chance if we go with the ODSTs!" Jessica yelled.

"Both of you, shut up, if we want to stay alive we need to stay calm and in control." Rex said.

"Shhhhh… listen…. They are in the vents" Ed said, hearing the sound again.

Something had heard them and was moving through the vents towards the small group. With the intentions to butcher and maim the group. Suddenly, child-like necromorphs burst from the vents. The had the ripped open stomach but no arms coming from it, and instead of big blades, they had long talons coming from the fingers. The mouth of them was more open than others. One of them lunged at Rex, claws raised, ready to kill. With his Plasma cutter in had, he swung and knocked the beast to the side. Another attempted to sneak behind him but Jessica fired the Plasma Cutter and cut the monster's head off. The lifeless body fell to the ground, blood pooling from its neck. One of the necromorphs leapt at Ed but he just punched the beast's head as it flew by, knocking the head off. Another necromorph managed to jump on to Max and it tore at his neck. The flesh of his neck was torn open and the inner arteries were ripped apart by the sharp talons. The juggler was torn, blood sprayed from it as his body went cold. Rex kicked the necromorph of and stepped on its head. Max's body lay on the ground, dead and lifeless. Jessica, Rex and Ed held the necromorphs back while Josh finished the charge.

"Got it!" Josh yelled.

"Plant the charge, we can't keep them back much longer!" Ed yelled.

Josh planted the charge on the wall, grabbed Kaitie and covered her with his body. He pressed the detonate button. The wall exploded, sending metal shrapnel into the necromorphs that attacked them. Suprisingly, no one was injured in the blast.

"Go, go, go!" Ed yelled, seeing more coming from the vents.

They ran into the next room but couldn't relax. With the necros right on their tail, they had to keep running from the deadly beasts. They sprinted down the hall, Josh carrying the small girl in his arms. Josh was first to make it into the tram car, and Jessica made it in second.

"Start the tram!" Ed yelled into the comm.

Although Ed was still down the hall, Rex in front of him. Rex jumped through the door and hit the wall with a thud. Ed, not far behind him, saw the door starting to close. He slung his M351 on his shoulder and dove threw the small opening, barely making it through the door. The door sealed and the tram started to move.

"Okay, now, to the bridge."

Engine section

Total Mission Time: 00d 04h 31m

The tram door opened and the four of us stepped out on to the platform.

"Alright, if my calculations are correct, it should take less than 30 minutes to find the system and it will take me about 10 minutes to fix it." Tyler said, checking the ship schematics on his HUD.

"Okay, we have no time to waste, with Ed and Josh going to meet us on the bridge, we need to wrap this up and get there, oorah?" I said.

"Oorah!" Yelled the group.

We moved into the control room for all the engine functions and controls. Tools were thrown all around the room and blood was splattered all over, like all the other rooms. There were no bodies in the room that could be seen.

"Tyler, check the computer, Carmine, Sarah, set up a perimeter and make sure we are the only ones in the room." I ordered.

I went with Tyler to the computer and said to him quietly, "What are your thoughts on the situation we are in?"

"I think this is the biggest shit storm we've ever managed to get ourselves into, that's what I think." Tyler said, starting the computer up.

"Do you think we'll survive?" I asked, glancing at Carmine and Sarah.

"To be honest, no, I don't think we will, this is to much for us to handle, in fact, I think we shouldn't be alive right now, but that's just me." He said, I could tell he was serious in his voice.

I nodded and went over to Carmine, who was going through a locker against the wall.

"Tyler doesn't think we'll live, does he?" Carmine said, instantly.

"No, he thinks we will all die, what do you think." I asked.

"The chances are higher that we will die, so you piece it together." He replied.

I nodded and walked over to Sarah, who was going through a emergency supply locker.

"Hey, Rook, do you think we'll survive this?" I asked.

"We've made it this far, I think we will, what will stop us from making it?" She replied, pulling MREs from the emergency supplies.

"Hey, who's hungery?" She said holding them up.

Tyler and Carmine walked over to Sarah, taking their helmets off. They looked hungery, although we were train to ignore hunger, but if given time, eat something.

"We got Alfrado, speggetti, two ramen noodles, and four rice packs." Sarah said, taking one of the ramens for herself.

Tyler took the spegetti and Carmine took the Alfrado and I took the other ramen. I opened it and started to eat, using the little plastic fork. It was probably the best meal I'd had in weeks! MREs were loaded with carbs and fats but tasted so good! Everyone was focused on eating from what I could see, no worries of any kind of ambush that could happen while we ate.

"Save the rice, we'll give those to Ed and Josh." I said, throwing the empty pack to the ground.

Sarah put the four rice MREs into her pack and stood up. She put her helmet back on and took her shotgun off her back, cocking it. Tyler and Carmine also finished theirs and put their helmets back on. I put my helmet back on and picked my MA5B up off the ground.

"Lets find the control port." I said.

We went out the door into the engine section corridors. The halls had absolutely no lights except for a few in the bigger areas. Engineer suits were still in their storage areas and everything looked as if nothing had happened here. I could see further ahead, a room that's light was slowly flickering on and off. We moved slowly towards that room, then when we got there, the door opened. A man was hanging from the ceiling, dead, as if he hung himself.

"Shit…" Carmine said when he saw the sight.

Slowly we moved around the hanging man and out of the room. Up ahead, I saw two figures move across the hall we were going down. We moved quickly down the hall and quietly followed the two figures. Surprisingly, they led us right to the fueling area.

"Hurry, I think I hear more of those things coming." Whispered one of the figures.

"I'm going as fast as I can." Said the other.

"Wait, I hear them coming!" Yelled one of them.

Suddenly, what looked like parasites were crawling all over them. The creatures must have been biting all over them, tearing at their bodies. Then the two figures stop screaming and the bodies fell into pieces. I pressed the activate button on a frag grenade and threw it at the little swarmers. The blast blew the creatures apart in a firery blast.

We moved to were the figures stood and looked at the bodies. They looked like teenagers, each armed with some kind of tool that fired plasma. Now their bodies were in chunks, arms, legs and heads had been chewed off.

"Shit… well, Tyler start fixing the fueling systems." I ordered, kicking the body chunks of the ledge of the walkway.

He started to type on the computer, trying to start the fueling system. After about ten minutes, the ship computer said, "Automated fueling system started, recycling fuel."

The machines in the middle of the room started to move and started to move the large fueling canisters. Tyler pulled out a data pad and tapped his fingers on the screen.

"Good, the fuel levels are going up now." He said, putting the data pad in a pouch on his belt.

"Thank god, now lets get back to the bridge." I said, relieved.

We walked back the way we came until we got back to the main control room. When we were in the main room, we all felt that something wasn't right. The lights were dimmer than before and some of the tools had been moved. With my HUDs low light mod on, I looked around the room. Seeing nothing that looked like a necromorph, I led the group out and onto the tram platform. The tram platform was also darkened as well as inside the tram.

I tapped on the tram screen but nothing happened, so I said. "Shit, looks like the power is out."

"How is that possible, wouldn't that mean that power is out to the whole ship?" Carmine said.

"Maybe something happened to stall power here, could be from the restarting of the fueling system." Tyler said, pulling his data pad out.

After a minute of checking his data pad, Tyler said, "No, just the power here is out, strange, the engines are still functioning."

"Well, can you somehow pull power from a different section and use it to power the tram?" Sarah asked.

"Yea, hold on, I'll have this thing working in no time."

He opened the control panel next to the destination board and hooked his data pad in. He tapped on the screen quickly, then the destination screen lit up. "

"Please select a destination." Said the computer.

I tapped on the bridge and the tram started to move down the track. Tyler unhooked his data pad and put it into his pouch for the data pad.

"Lets hope that Josh and Ed are still alive."

Ed and Josh, U.S.G. Higurashi's bridge

Total Mission Time: 00d 05h 49m

Ed, Josh, Jessica, Rex and Kaitie entered the bridge and were glad that the room was well lit due to the large view port that took up the entire front of the room.

Seeing the blood from the necromorph the rest of the group had killed, Ed said, "I think we can rest easy, the rest of the squad has been here."

Suddenly, the doors all sealed shut and the yellow light kicked on. "Unknown anomally detected, automated quarentine activated."

"You were saying." Said Jessica in a somewhat snoby voice.

They could hear the sound of the necromorphs growling and gurgling sounds. Ed quickly saw one come out from a floor vent, feet first. He raised his M351 SAW and opened fire. The rounds shredded the beast into little bloody chunks. Turning to the right, he shredded three more necromorphs. Suddenly, his M351 clicked. He ran out of ammo on this clip.

"Josh, cover me!" He yelled, then noticing Josh had tackled one of them and was now stabbing at its neck with his combat knife.

Rex raised his Plasma Cutter and fired at a necro's head, cutting it clean off. The beast flailed wildly, attempting to find and kill Rex. He lowered his aim to its legs and fired. The legs were instantly cut off and the monster fell dead and limp. From behind, one of them grabbed his with all its arms and bit at his neck. Ed quickly saw the situation Rex was in, so he threw his M351 to the ground and charged the beast. Grabbing its head, he pulled his combat knife out of its sheath. With a swift movement, he severed the monster's head from its neck. The arteries sprayed blood all over Rex and Ed. The body dropped to the ground limp and dead.

Josh stood up and kicked the lifeless necromorph's dead body across the floor. Another necromorph charged at him from behind, blades ready to kill. When it got close, Josh kicked the beast's knee, braking it badly. He then raised his knife into the air, blade pointed down, he dug the blade into the creatures head. He raised it again and dug it into the monster's spine, severing it. Then, Josh gave it a powerful kick to its open stomach, knocking it onto the ground, dead. A third necro walked towards Josh, flailing its arms like a crazy man. When it was close, he drove his blade up through the beast's head, then gave it a front kick, slicing the head in half. It was still alive which didn't surprise him. He pulled his M6C out of its holster and fired into the monsters head, ending its life.

The group stood victorious over their attackers. The necromorphs had been cut apart and butchered by the group. Rex had been injured by one of them during the fight.

"Shit… that fucker bit my neck." Rex said, holding his wounded neck.

"Well, try to stop the bleeding the group should he here soo-" Ed was cut off by the sound of metal being smashed.

He turned around and saw a large necromorph that looked like it was from an animal of some kind. It roared loudly and charged at Ed.

Diving to the side, Ed yelled, "Josh, hit this fucker with the laser!"

Josh threw his BR55 to the ground and took the Spartan Laser off his back. Looking at the little screen on the side of the Spartan Laser, he targeted the beast. The monster saw Josh and started to charge. The laser quickly began to charge, the little read laser on the monsters head.

The laser was fully charge and Josh yelled, "Adios, mother fucker!" He pulled the firing trigger.

A large red laser beam shot through the air and through the monster's head and body. It left a large hole right through the middle of the beast. The beast was dead.

"Nice shot!" Ed said, fist bumping Josh.

"You know, man!" Josh said back.

"Holy shit, what was that?" Jessica asked, wide eyed.

"The UNSC Spartan Laser, this is a beast of a weapon." Josh explained, proud of his weapon.

"But you aren't Spartans." Rex said.

"No, we are ODSTs, but that doesn't mean we can't use it." Ed said.

"Shit… where is Kaitie?" Said Rex, sounding worried.

Looking around, Josh found what they were looking for, he wished he hadn't. He found Kaitie's bloody body, she had been grabbed by something and it had chewed her legs off.

"Oh…my…god…." Said Rex.

A soft whine came from the little girl. She was somehow still alive but barely conscious. Suddenly, they heard, "Ed, Josh, your still alive as I can see.

Turning around, they saw the rest of us approaching.

I could see the look on the guy and the girl's face, it was a look of horror. Instantly, I ran over to were they were and saw the horror they looked upon. A small girl had her legs chewed off by something.

"Sarah, get over here!" I yelled, a bit disturbed by the sight.

Sarah nodded and ran to my side and was also instantly disturbed by the sight. But she didn't let that stop her.

"Guys, back up, I need some space." She said, taking her pack off.

She quickly started to wrap the bloody stumps in attempt to help the poor girl. I turned away to the rest of the squad, not wanting to watch. After ten minutes, Sarah came to us and said. "She… didn't make it…"

We all felt the same sadness but we had no time to worry about it.

"Alright, alphas, now we need to get to the hanger and get the Shadow to pick us up, and get off this hell hole." I said.

"Now that we are in a group this won't be too hard." Carmine said.

"What about the two survivors?" Tyler asked.

"Rex and Jessica will come with us as well, if they can keep up." I said.

"Rex is injured, on his neck." Ed said, pointing at Rex.

"Sarah, patch him up real quick." I ordered, looking at Sarah.

She nodded and went over to help Rex with his bleeding neck.

"Tyler, get contact with the Shadow." I ordered.

He nodded and started to talk into the comm, "Alpha 60 to U.S.M. Shadow, do you read Shadow?"

"We read you, Alpha 60, what is it?"

"The squad has linked up and we are ready for extraction."

"Extraction, you haven't even completed your mission."

"Sir, we were sent to the ship to find out what has happened, and we have, we'll die if we have to stay on board much longer."

"Okay, Lieutenant, download all the data from the ship and we will pick you up in the hanger."

"Understood, sir, Alpha 60 out."

"What did he say, Ty?" I asked.

"We have to download all the ships data then they will pick us up." He replied, taking his data pad out.

"That is so like HQ, always worried about data, not the soldiers who get it for them." Ed said, sounding pissed off.

"How long will it take?" I asked.

"About ten minutes, minimum." He replied, tapping his data pad.

"Shit, well, get started, I want to get off this hell hole." I said.

Tyler went over to a nearby computer and plugged his data pad in. He tapped on the screen, starting the download. Sarah took the four rice MREs out of her pack and said, "Here we found these, if your hungery."

"Well, at least one thing has gone right." Ed said, taking one of them.

Josh, Jessica and Rex each took one and started to eat them. Sarah had fixed up Rex's neck with some bandages and some powder that causes blood to clot. Everyone was silent once again while the rest of the group ate. I carefully watched the surroundings, not wanting to get attacked again. Tyler remained at the computer, searching through the files.

After about twenty minutes, Tyler unplugged his data pad and walked over to me.

"Okay, everything is downloaded, now let's get off this fucking hell hole." He said, storing it in the pouch.

"Alright, alphas, lets get to the hanger, move!"

Alpha Squad, Hanger area tram platform

Total Mission Time: 00d 06h 50m

The tram door opened with a hiss and wind blowing out of the tram. I instantly knew what was wrong.

"Carmine, stay with Jessica and Rex, the rest of us are going to the hanger, we'll be back with O2 masks." I said.

Sarah, Ed, Tyler, Josh and I stepped out of the tram and onto the platform. With our suits sealed we could only talk through hand signals or comms. The door of the tram closed and hissed inside the tram car.

"Why are we leaving Carmine, sir?" Sarah asked.

"The oxygen in the hanger section has been lost, Jessica and Rex wouldn't be able to breath without a mask or helmet like ours." I said through the comm.

"Oh, but they need Carmine for extra protection." She added.

"Yea, Tyler, get a hold of the Shadow, tell them we have the data."

"This is Lieutenant Luberg to the U.S.M. Shadow."

"This is the Shadow, we read you, do you have the data?"

"Yes, we have the data, requesting pick up in the U.S.G. Higurashi's hanger."

"Request accepted, get to the hanger and once you're there, we will start our landing."

"Roger that, Alpha 60 out."

"What did they say, Ty?" I asked.

"Get to the hanger and once we are there, they will start their landing." Tyler replied.

"First good news I've heard this whole mission!" Josh said.

"Food was my favorite, but that's just me." Ed added.

"Well, lets not waste time, move out." I ordered.

We went through the door and off of the tram platform. Like the tram platform the hanger halls were without oxygen as well. With the oxygen not in the halls, it made it easier to see the shadows because light had no effect, the whole area was lit up. Suddenly, a necromorph dropped out of a vent straight ahead of me! I waved my hand forward to show them that we had a hostile ahead, but they had more coming from behind. I raised my MA5B and opened fire. There was barely any sound from the weapon as the rounds tore through the monster. With no atmosphere in this section of the ship, sound wasn't possible. The rounds of my MA5B managed to cut its legs off. Behind it, there were three more necromorphs. But they were different from any that I had seen. Their right arm was formed into a big orangish-yellow mass. The other arm was equipped with long sharp claws. The head was split in half and the legs were fairly small. They seemed to use the big mass to move around. I pulled my M6C from its holster and fired at the beast. Shooting it in the head didn't seem to work so I took aim at the large mass and fired. The mass exploded, killing the monster and the ones behind it! I looked behind me to the rest of the squad, they were dealing with the same beasts I dealt with.

"Shoot the yellow arm!" I yelled into the comm.

Instantly, they all shot the yellow arm and blew that fucker apart! The hall was empty again, besides us. We moved down the hall, towards the hanger area. We got to the hanger fairly quickly and once we got there, Tyler commed the Shadow.

"U.S.M. Shadow, we are ready for pick up." Tyler said, sounding relieved.

"This is the Shadow, we are on our approach now."

I could see the Shadow coming closer towards the hanger. It looked as if we were gonna get out of here. Suddenly a large chunk of metal struck the engine of the Shadow. Flames erupted from the side of the engine as it came crashing into the hanger.

"This can't be happening…" Tyler said.

"Oh my god, no…." Sarah said.

"Things seem up…" Ed said.

"Then they go down…" Josh said, finishing Ed's thought.

The ship skid to a stop, it was mostly in one piece but wasn't gonna get us off the ship. The side door opened and the ship's engineer, Specialist Matt Conrad and our communication officer, 2nd Lieutenant Carrie Harris, stepped out. Conrad had an engineering RIG on and Harris had an O2 mask on.

I walked over to Matt and he said, "The commander is dead, got his head slammed on the wall of the cockpit."

"Damn, well, I don't think it matters now, we are stuck here for a while, it seems." I said.

"The inside of the ship is still habitable, that will act as the command center for the time being." Stated Carrie.

"Okay, well, Carmine and two survivors are still on the tram due to the hull breach somewhere." I said.

"Okay, well, I'll seal any breaches on the Shadow to make it safe." Matt replied to me.

"Take these O2 masks and bring them back." Carrie said, handing me the two masks.

"Okay, Alphas, stay here with these two, I'll go get Carmine and the other two alone." I said.

"Yes, sir." The team replied, walking into the Shadow.

I walked out of the hanger and into the hallway to go back to the tram station. The halls were still lit up due to the hull breach so I wasn't worried about getting ambushed by anything. It took about ten minutes to get back to the tram. I tapped on the metal door and Carmine tapped back. The door slowly opened to reveal Carmine and the two survivors. I handed them the two O2 masks and they quickly put them on.

"Are we leaving now, sir?" Jessica asked.

"No… the ship crashed… we are using the ship as a shelter for the moment…" I said.

The news didn't help their spirits but they were still going to follow me, hope of escape still in them. Carmine, Jessica, Rex and I made it back to the Shadow with no problems. Matt had patched up any breaches in the Shadow's hull. I knocked on the door and the door opened. Once inside the door, sealed and O2 levels were restored. I took my helped off and joined Josh and Ed at the table. They were playing Warhammer 40k again, like they were before we left. I watched them play, Josh was playing at the Space Marines and Ed was playing as the Eldar. At the moment, Josh had the upper hand and was pushing Ed's army back. Ed really didn't look to happy about it. Jessica and Rex went to on of the chairs around the room, sat down and tried to sleep. Tyler cam into the room, data pad in hand, obviously looking at something important. No body said a word, we all felt the same about our situation. We all had very little hope of survival.

Suddenly, a voice came over the Shadow's comm. "This is the Sangheili Carrier, Shadow Of Intent, to the U.S.G. Higurashi and the U.S.M. Shadow, respond."

I got up and ran to the cockpit, where Carrie was about to respond to the Shadow Of Intent.

"U.S.M. Shadow to the Shadow Of Intent, we have crashed in the U.S.G. Higurashi, we have encounter hostiles on the U.S.G. Higurashi, we need to get off this ship."

"Who are the Sangheili?" Sarah asked.

"Elites, in fact, this is the carrier that the Arbiter commands." I explained.

"U.S.M. Shadow, we will send a phantom to pick you up, it will pick you up in the hanger."

"Understood, we'll hold position." Carrie said.

Suddenly, outside the ship, the ships computer said. "Unknown Anomaly detected, automated quarantine activated."

The hanger doors then sealed up tightly, locking us in and the phantom out.

"U.S.M. Shadow to the Shadow Of Intent, the quarantine is on, and the door is sealed, you need to blast through." Carrie said, seeming paniced.

"Understood, Shadow, we will make our way through."

"We got hostiles, everyone grab a weapon we need to hold them off or kill them all to let the phantom in." I ordered, grabbing my MA5B.

Matt grabbed a M90 from the weapon room and joined the rest of Alpha squad by the door. Jessica, Rex and Carrie all went to the armor room and put on spare ODST armor on. Rex grabbed a MA5B and a MC6/SOCOM, keeping his Plasma Cutter too. Jessica grabbed a M90 shotgun and a M6C/SOCOM, also keeping the Plasma Cutter. Carrie took up a M392 Designated Marksman Rifle and a M6D magnum. She also grabbed M41 Jackhammer Rocket. Once we were all gathered at the door, I opened the door and ran out.

Necromorphs were already around the hanger, now seeing us, started to charge us. I fired my MA5B at the first necromorph, cutting its right arm off with the rounds. I emptied the rounds from that clip into the monster they quickly managed to reload. One of the necros charged wildly at me, but I was ready. When it was close I simply pulled my combat knife out of its sheath and pivoted around the beast, then stuck the knife through the back of its skull.

Sarah quickly killed two necros with the M90, blowing them into little bloody chunks. But one managed to grab her from behind and attempted to bite at her neck. She grabbed the arms and threw the beast over her shoulder, onto the ground. She raised her foot and curbstomped the beast, finishing it. A fourth tried to get her, but she just rammed it away with her shoulder, then blasted it with the shotgun.

Tyler took cover behind a flipped luggage cart and fired at a charging necromorph with his BR55. The first three shots hit one in the head and the explosive rounds splattered its head. One managed to get behind him but he heard it screech. Twisting just in time so the blades missed him by inches. He rifle butted the monster square in the face, snapping its head backwards. With his BR55 in one hand he pulled his combat knife out of the sheath and flipped it so the blade was backward. Tyler then kicked the monster in the stomach making it bend over. Raising the knife high, he brought it down into the monster's spinal cord. The beast instantly went limp and fell to the floor.

Ed was also behind cover, using the M351 SAW as a support weapon, cutting down any unlucky necros that get too close. He had already cut about 4 necromorphs into bloody chunks. From behind, a bladed landed right by him. His first instinct, he grabbed the arm of the necro and snapped it like a twig. Then, Ed pulled his combat knife out and stabbed it all around the body, causing blood to splatter all over his armor. Finally, he shoved it backwards and it collapsed to the floor in a bloodied mess.

Josh was centered in the combat along with me, accurately killing any of the necros that attempted to kill us. He heard a sudden sound of metal shattered and saw another of the big beast like necromorphs. It roared at him, looking like it was only after Josh. He took the Spartan Laser off his back and said, "You want some too, you big dumb lumbering beast."

The beast charged madly at Josh, the intent to kill and maim in whatever mind it had left. Josh aimed the Spartan Laser at its body and started to charged the beam. When the beast got within five feet of Josh, he fired the laser. The red beam shot through the monster's chest, deep frying all of the insides. The beast let out a pained roar and collapsed to the ground.

The group was comsumed in the fighting when suddenly, the hanger quarentine door was blown open. Outside of the hanger, hovering in place, was a Phantom. It flew into the hanger, the lower plasma guns firing on the beasts.

"Fall back, get to the Phantom!" I yelled, running toward the hovering gunship.

Some Elites jumped out of the side of the Phantom, the white hot energy swords in hand. They charged into battle, slicing and dicing any of the necros that challenged them. I waited for everyone to enter the Phantom before I stepped into the beam that took us into the gunship. The Elites also came back and joined us inside the phantom. The gunship backed out of the hanger and turned towards the Shadow Of Intent. I looked out the side view port and saw another Elite carrier above the U.S.G. Higurashi. The glassing laser looked to be charging then, it fired. The beam cut the U.S.G. Higurashi in half! Then the ships plasma cannons on the underside of the ship opened fire on what was left of the planetcracker. I watched the sight until I knew we were in the hanger of the Shadow Of Intent. The side doors opened and everyone inside the phantom, besides the pilot, jumped out onto the floor of the hanger. I took my helmet off and so did everyone else in my squad. I saw Honor Guards lined up then two Elites in the middle at the end of the line. The two Elites that I never thought I would ever see, let alone meet in my entire life. At the end of the line of Honor Guards, I bowed to the Arbiter and Shipmaster, ordering my squad to do so as well.

"Stand, soldiers, we have much to talk about." Stated the honorable Arbiter.

We stood up, my helmet under my arm, I said, "Thanks for picking us up, Arbiter, we would be dead otherwise."

"We have saved you, but your job is not over yet, now I must ask for you and your squads help." Said the Arbiter.

"Our help, sir?" Tyler said, confused.

"Brutes have attacked our homeworld." Said the Shipmaster.

"Come, we will explain as we go to the bridge." Said the Arbiter.

As we started to walk down the halls of the Shadow Of Intent, the Honor Guards followed in two columes behind our squad. I was along side the Arbiter and the Tyler was by the Shipmaster.

"So what's the situation with the brutes, sir?" I asked.

"The brutes, after the fall of the prophets have massed a fleet and are attacking to get revenge on my people because I killed the Prophet of Regret." He replied.

"At this point in time, the brutes have more power than us and are currently winning this war." The Shipmaster added.

"Have you told the UNSC about this attack?" I asked.

"Yes, but they have barely a fleet, they are constructing more ships, then they will assist." The Arbiter asked.

"Well, we will assist you the best we can." I said.

We arrived on the bridge and the area seemed to be in chaos. I could see other ships around the Shadow Of Intent and the two smaller carriers.

"Sir, the Brutes have boarded the ship!" Said one of the Elites.

The Arbiter looked at me and said, "Show us what your squad can do."

I put my helmet on and the HUD snapped closed over the normal visor and I raised my MA5B. The rest of the squad put their helmets on and raised there weapons.

"Okay, Alpha's, lets remind these Brutes how the ODSTs get the job done!"

To be Continued…