Author's Note: Broke the pilot into two parts, so it doesn't come as a shock to me that this finished so quickly. Just had to edit it and respond to the only person who reviewed (For shame, everyone else!). Hmm, gonna have to think of some incentive. I swear, the name Mayborne sounds so familiar! It's ringing bells, but I can't tell from what, so anyone have any ideas what it might be from? Read, Review, and most of all Enjoy! Flames will be used to assist the survivors.

Espera curled her lip in disgust of the Flood parasite that had been allowed into their makeshift sanctuary. She stalked angrily over towards Colonel Mayborne.

"Before you say anything,"Mayborne preempted, "I want you to know that the first sign of violence from that thing, and I will put it down, but until then, my word is final."

She frowned, only slightly put down by his decree. "Look, I just want you to talk to Anna, convince her that that parasite is dangerous, and she should be careful around it. She acts like its a puppy, or something! She won't even listen to me!"

Mayborne considered for a moment, then nodded. "You know it won't do any good, but nonetheless, I'll talk with her." He stood from his seat, and walked to Anna, who was angrily sulking up against a wall. He turned and sat down next to her. From here they had a perfect view of the combat form. "Anna, why do you cause your mother so much stress?"

Grumbling, Anna replied, "Its not my fault, she just doesn't understand."

"Anna, your mother is right, you know it's dangerous. It may seem friendly, maybe even cute, but at the end of the day, its still just a parasite, living in the body of a human."

"I do know he's dangerous, he killed those aliens earlier."

This was new. She didn't mention it before. "It attacked it's own kind?"

She smiled, the first time since her mother had taken her aside. "No, silly! He's not an alien! He's, actually I don't know what he is, but what he killed wasn't like him."

Mayborne pondered this, then pulled several medical documents up on his tablet. "Did they look like any of these?" The photos were of the known Covenant species.

"Uh," Anna paused to think, looking all the orginisms over again, "Hmm, that one, maybe? I didn't see them till after he killed them, so I didn't get a good look. But I could hear them, they sounded like dogs. Really annoying dogs."

That matched the description of Grunts all right. This was only going to serve to complicate getting out of here. While he pondered the current development, he absently asked Anna, "Why do you like that thing so much?" For a moment, he thought she might not respond.

"He saved me. When there was no one else there, and I thought I was going to die, he came for me, and saved me. At first, I thought he was going to kill me, but he told me he wouldn't hurt me, and he followed me all the way here."

"Wait, you said he told you?"

"Well its not like he actually told me, he can't really use his mouth ya know. I just kind of felt that he wouldn't hurt me."

The Colonel nodded in understanding. There's something that she's not telling us. "Of course. I know what you mean."

Mayborne stood to leave, and Anna frantically interjected "Your not gonna go kill him, are you?"

"No, I said that he could stay unless he tried to hurt someone." Anna sighed in relief, and continued with, "Can I go sit with him? He looks really lonely." Mayborne nodded, than continued walking, till he was stopped by Director Espera. "Well? Did you convince her to leave it alone?"

"No, we have a bigger problem right now than a little girl with her pet parasite; The Covenant are on the planet."


Mason woke with a start, a small body slamming into his side. Either a Grunt had tried to tackle him, or Anna had jumped on him. Either way, he wasn't in much danger. Mason twisted, looking at her, and doing so, lightly brushed her face with the feelers protruding from right below where his head would normally be. "Hey! That tickles!" Sitting up, he sat with his back facing the corner, and Anna just to his right. She became very interested in the tips of his feelers, which had soft, red, fur-like tufts sprouting from them. She played with them for a moment, then waved them away.

It seemed that she was taking her first opportunity to fully examine him, as she was now hesitantly poking at some of the boils on his side. He waved her hands away this time, as he wasn't sure if that was safe; he had seen some of the other Flood explode. She complied, and resorted to playing with the tentacle extending from his right arm down past his hand. The tentacle didn't just come out of his arm, in most places it was his arm. It was grafted onto, into, and through his arm, and could only move freely after it emerged from his palm.

She poked and prodded, rubbed and touched, and generally just fulfilled the bounds of her curiosity. She stopped however when she came to the human head that jut backwards, as if someone had shifted it out of the way, and replaced it incorrectly. She whispered fearfully to Mason, "Did you kill a human and take over his body, like mommy said, or did you just used to be human?"

To this, Mason held up two fingers. "You killed two humans!" Anna said aghast. Mason frantically shook his head/torso. "Then what? Oh, answer number two?" Nod. "Oh. You must be very upset about what happened to you. Why did they call you Mason? Did that used to be your name?" Nod. "Okay then. Do you mind if I call you Mason? Kinda suits you if you ask me." He was quite okay with that, so he nodded that it was fine, and she leaned against his side quietly, humming a tune foreign to his memory.

Mason now took his time to completely examine the room in which the surviving humans resided. It wasn't as small as his quarters had been, but it still wasn't all that large. The rooms consisted of a bathroom, master bedroom, closet, and kitchen, with a small desk covered with paperwork. Counting the humans, he noted seven marines, six civilian scientists, the Colonel, Anna's mother, and Anna. Seventeen life forms, counting himself. The majority of the furniture had been pushed to the sides or were being used as barricades.

Most of the civilians were sitting on the floor in the master bedroom, just about as far away from the entrance to the rooms as they could make it. Two marines stood at their posts, keeping vigil, the others recuperating or lounging lazily. Espera and Mayborne stood near the bathroom, debating their next course of actions quite heatedly. Anna and Mason lay in one of the corners in the kitchen, distant enough from the civilians that they wouldn't squirm too much at the thought of a Flood Parasite sharing their sanctuary.

Mayborne left Espera, walking towards the group military personnel. "Listen up soldiers, we can't stay here much longer, as food supplies are low and we need a way to get a distress signal out. Problem is, we can't think of any place that has enough food aside from the mess hall, and thats a death trap, we can't scavenge because of the danger of discovery, and on a side note, none of us soldiers knows how to send a distress signal anyhow. So all were good for right now is following through on whatever Espera comes up with. Unless anyone has any other suggestions?" He waited, but none of the soldiers spoke up. A marine Mason recognized as Jacob spoke up. "What about the docking bay, sir? A supply ship docked right before the outbreak."

Mayborne pondered this, stroking his chin. "That might just work. Good work..." He paused waiting for Jacob to fill in the blanks. "Uh, Private Stanner, sir," Mayborne continued, "Good work Private. I'll discuss the possibility with Espera. Make sure you're all ready to go at a moments notice." The Colonel turned away from the soldiers and briskly walked towards the Master Bedroom, where Espera was telling the scientists much the same thing that Mayborne had told the soldiers.

Mason watched the soldiers resume standing guard, chatting lightly amongst themselves. Jacob and a one other began cleaning their respective weapons, talking amiably.

"Yeah, I got a girl back home, just hoping I can see her again now." Jacob provided sadly.

"You love her?"

Proudly, Jacob looked up from cleaning his weapon, meeting the other's eyes, "I'm gonna marry her. I got a ring picked out an' everything."

"For her sake too, I hope we make it outta this alive."

Slightly put out, Jacob returned to cleaning his weapon, silence filling their conversation. Then the other marine said something that made Mason perk up.

"What're we gonna do with that thing that the Director's daughter brought back?"

Shrugging, Jacob responded noncommittally, "I dunno. You know the Colonel's orders though, we can't kill it unless if it attacks someone."

"Do ya think maybe it could be an asset?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like, if it would help us fight or something like that?"

"Man, that's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. What possible reason would it have to fight its own? The only reason it's not killing us is that girl. I still dunno why though. Maybe it thinks she's a cute pet."

"Maybe, but what if the other ones tried to hurt her? Then what?"

"I guess," Jacob tested carefully," then maybe, maybe, it would fight with us. It might just as easily take her away though."

"Yeah, you might be right about that."

Mason stopped paying attention to the marines as their conversation faded into silence. Would he fight his own? No! Not his own. Whatever he may be physically now, he was not a Flood. He was human. Somehow. When push came to shove, he would stand and fight alongside the humans. You even think of yourself as other then human. You call them humans. So what are you?

Then, Mason felt, something. A presence, akin to when you feel someone watching you, or someone behind you, but more definite. It felt, faint, vague, but determined. It grew stronger, and Mason felt it, whatever it was draw inexorably closer.

"Quiet!" A marine near the door yelled, and silence was immediate. "Listen." "Skitter" Another moment passed. "Thump". A long, eerie, wailing moan penetrated the heavy metal of the door. Anna clutched his side desperately, fearful of what monsters might be outside. The sounds intensified, implying a large host of enemies. "Bang, Bang, Bang" The Flood outside, for it could be no other, began to attempt to break down the door. A woman amongst the civilians began to weep.

"Places." Coldly collected, Colonel Mayborne walked through the group of marines and took up position on the chain-fed machine gun turret. "Yes sir!" The marines scrambled for cover, propping weapons up to fire at the doorway. The feeling of trepidation grew stronger, and Mason began to lose himself in the swarm. A tug at his side, Anna gripping him harder, brought him back to reality however. The door joints began to buckle and crack. The door burst, sending shards of metal spinning across the floor.

Flood combat forms spilled through the entryway, but were met with a punishing hail of bullets. The marines armor piercing rounds made short work of the combat forms, but the seemingly endless tide pushed past their fallen brethren and proceeded forward, like an avalanche, deadly and unstoppable. Two combat forms leaped from the churning mass of forms, each tacking down a marine with their tentacled arms. From there the battle tipped in the favor of the Flood. Out of ammo, the marines were forced to stop firing and reload, or switch to a sidearm. The flow of combat forms had ceased, but only three marines remained standing, Jacob, Mayborne, and one other. Two scientists had armed themselves with pistols and and were attempting to assist the marines, but were unlikely to do any real damage to the Flood with their aim.

The odds ran 7-ish flood combat forms and 8 infection forms, against 3 marines and 2 scientists. Sensing the humans impending defeat, Mason pushed Anna into the bedroom, and threw himself into the fray. Jacob downed three infection forms with his pistol, aiming quickly. Mayborne continued firing his chain-gun, yelling bloody murder, taking down another two combat forms. The third marine lunged at a combat form with his knife, but missed and was quickly butchered. Surprising the Flood forms from their flank, Mason snapped the already fragile spines of two combat forms, killing them, and swatted an infection form. One of the scientists actually managed to hit something, splattering a infection form's body matter along one of the rear walls.

Mayborne sprayed the last of the flood combat forms with the overheating chain-gun while Jacob focused on sniping the last two infection forms with his pistol. the colonel bore the gun down on Mason, but recognized him and let off the triggers, nodding in thanks. "Blam!" One infection form down, the final Flood form scuttled wildly towards Jacob, but he sighted in on it and pulled the trigger.

"Click."

"Crap," was the last thing Jacob had time to mutter before the infection form launched itself into his sternum, bearing him to the ground. Jacob grappled with it, frantically trying to crush or dismember it, but to no avail. "Don't shoot! You'll hit Jacob!" Mayborne yelled. The Flood infection form wriggled out of Jacobs hands and latched into his chest, preparing to burrow through. Instinctively, Mason, pushed, toward the infection form with his mind, and something snapped inside Mason's head.

The infection form froze, and Mason could [feel] it's emotions, it's primitive mind, and found that he could control it. He forced it to release Jacob, and it scuttled over to him, climbing up Mason's shoulder.

"Can you understand me?" Mayborne prompted Mason.

Mason hesitated, then nodded, shocking most of the humans, Mayborne and Anna excluded.

"I thought so. Is that thing still dangerous?" Motioning towards the infection form on Mason's shoulder. Mason hesitated once more, then shook his torso/head. Mayborne took his word for it, and yelled to the remaining scientists, "Grab what you need, or what you can carry. We're leaving." No one questioned him.

End note: I felt like my description of Mason's various mutilations and mutations was a little lacking. What's your opinion?