It was supposed to be a normal day like any other, the Fleet of Profound Solitude had found a small human outpost carved into the side of an asteroid, it was supposed to be a simple search and destroy operation.

If only they knew what they were in for.

As soon as the doors dropped on the Spirit, they were met with a hail of gunfire, killing many before they could even exit the craft.

Skoll, a T'vaoan Commando in the Covenant's Special Warfare Group, was assigned to take a small squad of Unnogy into the lower levels of the facility to recover artifacts and information.

As Skoll took in the facility as he walked the dimly lit corridors, more and more seemed to be off with the place, they had purged multiple humans in burning plasma, they had strange coats and maroon armor with grey under-suits which struck the T'vaoan as a bit odd, most humans it had faced up to this point either wore all grey or some sort of forest green shade, but he was NOT paid to ask questions he was only there for the payment since he had never really bought into the wider religion. He was still very much a pirate at heart, his mind ruled by the allure of shiny things just like his Kig-yar cousins, he kept up a religious front but when push came to shove, he wanted to loot.

Then again, Skoll was not the standard T'vaoan Commando either, his harness long painted over from olive green to a deep black, previously silver accents replaced with purple running lights, and purple optics instead of the normal yellow of which the right was slightly cracked.

These Humans seemed even more radical than usual, reports of suicide charges filled the covenant battle net. It became abundantly clear this was an asset denial operation for the humans now, the humans had accepted they were going to die, the covenant was not keen on taking prisoners and they knew this, they were blowing up walls and themselves with plastic explosives to vent items and personnel from both sides into the cold vacuum of space.

Eventually, they came upon another room, something about it seemed different, the previous rooms had contained nothing but machinery and equipment, however, in this room they could see nothing but an overturned table and a bunch of human papers that littered the floor, the papers covered in strange mathematical symbols, dimly lit by a single damaged overhead lamp.

It was when the last of the Skoll's squad came in that the table burst apart. Multiple squad members went down in the blink of an eye.

Skoll hit the deck, his survival instincts kicking in.

Skoll lay prone on the floor, arms over his head to protect himself from shrapnel, eyes shut-in front of the overturned hardwood table. Eventually, he pried his eyes open to take in the situation, glancing around in fear at the remains of his former squad.

Fight or Flight, Flight seemed the best option, scrambling towards the door on all fours, having lost his weapon in the chaos.

Then a voice cut through the air, making him stop in his tracks mid-way to the door, turning around instantly.

"Seems I go all but one." A Human emerged from behind the desk, draped in a white coat, a maroon turtleneck underneath, its neck covered in a forest green neck sock, on its nose rested a pair of wire-rimmed black glasses, and finally upon its head rested a ushanka in a similar shade of green.

Skoll could barely make out its eyes in the dim light, the left looked a milky grey and the right a blue with flecks of gold.

Skoll began to try and back up away from the human, the human slowly closing the distance with a steady pace now. In the human's hands, he could see a Type twenty-five Spiker its distinctive bayonets covered in the purplish-red blood of a Jiralhanae.

Skoll threw his arms up to shield himself and let out a series of clicks and chirp, trying to communicate with the Human in desperation. "Wait, stop! I don't want to die in this place!"

The Human seemed to pause, cocking its head to the side, then it spoke. "That's a new one, don't most of you want to die for that 'Great Journey' bullshit?"

Skoll was confused, had the human understood him? "Can you understand me!?" said the T'vaoan, its voice loud and shaky, terrified and at the mercy of some random Human.

The human seemed to pause again, its lips pursed under the mask it wore or at least it seemed like they were from the lines that Skoll could see in the mask, then the human spoke again. "Yeah I can understand you, calm down, you are going to give me hearing damage with all the squawking."

Skoll blanched at the reply, a human being able to understand a covenant soldier was terrifying, language barriers and such were a big problem on both sides when dealing with prisoners and being able to extract information hence why both sides rarely did. This human being able to understand him unnerved him to his very core, it was possible that this human would want to question him, take him apart, and then put him back together again over and over ad infinitum now that they could understand each other. His fears amplified when he recognized the coat on the human, a lab coat, something worn by doctors and scientists in human society.

"P-please don't hurt me, I'll do anything." The T'vaoan croaked out, stuttering slightly.

The Human seemed to think for a moment rubbing its chin and tapping its boots on the cold hard floor, then it clasped its hands together making Skoll Jump. "How about we cut a deal then?"

The T'vaoan perked up, now slightly less terrified, the fear being replaced with caution at the thought it could potentially cut a deal and not become a pin cushion. "What sort of deal?"

The human beamed, making Skoll slightly worried again, then the human spoke. "I need a trusty partner to aid me in my endeavors taking place across the stars, I tend to get into a lot of shenanigans that can potentially be hazardous for my health."

The human paused again as if gathering its thoughts before continuing. "As you can see, most of my staff is dead or currently killing themselves so I have some positions open. Also, to sweeten the deal, I'll even provide health benefits and an exponentially increasing salary based on Job performance."

Skoll considered the deal, on one side if he somehow managed to escape the human he would probably be imprisoned for cowardice and maybe even executed for heresy against the prophets considering he was not only captured by an "Inferior" human but also communicating with it, on top of this the fleet master could probably hear this entire conversation over the battle net uplink of the now-dead bodies of various Unnogy around the room. This gave him pause, now that he was looking at the bodies, he felt his blood run cold as ice, he focused on one, taking a closer look, the chest of the corpse was riddled with the still white-hot spikes of the Spiker, various additional chunks of wood shards could also be seen having dug into the chest, throat, and face of the Unnogy.

"I'll take the deal; I don't have much of a choice at the moment." Skoll finally answered, still wary of the human that had him at gunpoint. "How are you even able to understand me anyway? I only understand you since my job is to gather information and collect relics often in human hands."

The human knelt, pulling at his neck scarf and turtleneck revealing what looked like a choker with a small black box around his neck. "I ripped a translator out of an old Sangheili battle harness. I know most covenant officers or at least a good portion of them have learned to understand various human languages, but I also know that a lot of Covenant member species have difficulty being able to speak them. This thing tends to come in handy when I do trade deals with your Kig-yar cousins."

The human stood once more, turning to look at the overturned table, small burnt holes still emitting smoke had riddled the surface. "It's a shame I had to ruin my favorite desk, seems that stolen Spiker was quite effective, not only were the molten bolts effective but the shrapnel from the table caused quite a stir. At least I got a new partner out of this mess." The human paused yet again, leaning back to look up at the flickering overhead lamp. "I'd probably get skewered or crushed if I tried to ask or force a Sangheili or Jiralhanae into a similar deal, seems I got lucky for once."

"What do the other Humans call you?" Skoll asked, finally calming down a bit more, and processing things still.

"Doctor Kosov. You got a name?" Kosov replied instantly, letting the spiker dangle loosely in his grip, having relaxed now that the deal had been agreed to.

The T'vaoan paused, then spoke, "I go by Skoll."

"Welcome aboard, Skoll." Said Dr. Kosov, tuning on his heel and helping the T'vaoan up, much to the creature's chagrin.

"So where are we even going?" Skoll asked, still getting his bearings.

Dr. Kosov replied, quite matter-of-factly "Anywhere but here, I don't exactly have a death wish and I'm sure more death squads are coming, probably best to head to the aft hangar."

Both exited the room shortly thereafter, Kosov taking the lead and Skoll following about a foot behind, still wary of the human for obvious reasons.

Words that people might not know unless you are a lore nerd, not meant as any sort of jab or insult.

T'vaoan - Skirmisher from Halo Reach.

Kig-yar - Jackal.

Sangheili - Elite.

Jiralhanae - Brute.

Unggoy - Grunt

Type 25 Spiker - The Spike weapons Brutes use, the one with the two bayonets and shoots the red-hot looking needles.

(Leave a review, criticism is always nice. I am also open to suggestions on what you want to see from the main characters, things in the story are also probably going to get crazy fast. I have never really seen a story about Halo Insurrectionists and wanted to give it a shot with a Crazy Mad Scientist.)

(Revised this entire chapter, It's probably still far from perfect but I'm semi-proud of it.)