Explorers of the Universe

by Stone-Man85

A band of alien teenagers explore the universe together to stop an ancient force bent on destroying the very thing they created. As well as to find the one thing in the universe more important than ever: A home for them to belong.

16. Night of the Ishimura pt5

Explorers of the Universe

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Chapter 16: Destroy the Monolith and Survive; Night of the Ishimura pt.5

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USG Ishimura

Main Hall to the Bridge

As the group walked, Kori noticed a symbol on one of the armored swordsmen' pauldrons and asked, "Excuse me, but who are these swordsmen who helped us in the previous room of greenery?"

One of the men in identical armor, glanced back and asked, "This your first time meeting a member of the W-Organization, little miss?"

"W-Organization?" Kori asked, blinking confused.

Gwen looked to her Zamaranean friend and said, "They're an elite soldier organization that used to be a part of Wayward Industries until the Colony War were they became an independent organization who would be controlled by a sort of council of the territories of Earth. They a huge boost in popularity and power after the First Warrior part took in the Colony War and helped end the conflict must faster than previously thought of."

Rei took over, "The organization's recruits go through a thorough medical examination and fitness test to ensure they survive the procedure that enables the recruits to enhanced all physical abilities. They then take on a new name as a sign of their evolution to match the new iris coloring of their eyes and they become what two of these men are, Legionary, named after the ancient roman soldiers. After gaining enough experience through missions they go through another procedure to unlock a part of their brain with opens up an ESP ability and are promote to the rank of Celtic. Before they gain more experience and are promoted to the Rank of Spartan, with an already existing Spartan's recommendation, which are known as the best of the organization. The rank that the man with the six foot long sword is."

Kori eyes turned to look at the man with the thicker armor and the six foot sword holstered on the back of his armor. She then noticed a sour expression on Gwen's face and asked, "Friend Gwen? What is the matter?"

"I don't believe that they actually have ESP. It's more likely that they either have a Kinetic Module or something. ESP doesn't exist, it's just propaganda by the group to promote themselves for more funding and recruits." Gwen answered, unknowing bumping into the Spartan known as Angelo who looked back at Gwen, and made sure she didn't fall by catching her and helping her up straight.

After she was able to stand, he asked, "Having a hard time believing that humans can have an extra abilities?"

Gwen wasn't sure how to answer, while people were getting on guard before he moved his hands upwards. At the sight of his hands reaching for his sword Jeff held his rifle while Kori's eyes and fists glowed green. Only his hands reached for his helmet to reveal a face that made Jeff froze in wide eyed belief. Alissa sighed sadly as if this confirmed her suspicions about the armored Spartan. The man had short brown hair and the same fiery-crimson eyes as Genus did before saying with a friendly smile, "I know the feeling, I used to be like you miss. But after seeing the first Warrior do what he did in the Colony Wars I was able to believe. Especially when I joined the Organization and gained my own ability."

DRU then asked, "What is this ability that you gained, Spartan Angelo?"

Angelo would smile a bit before he stopped, his eyes blanked out for a moment, the red irises glowed in a lighter tint before saying, "Hang on a second."

Just then a Xenecromorph head came bursting through, time seemed to have slowed down as the armored Spartan moving to the side as if he had perceived the attack before it happened. Everyone was caught off guard by surprise by this surprise attack, Ben actually yelled in shock at this. He then grabbing the head by its gargantuan long neck with one hand before a holographic reddish/orange dagger appeared over his forearm and he stabbed the monster by the neck and cutting the head from the neck. The Xenecromorph screamed as its head fell to the ground and its dark blood spilled from its body.

Angelo sighs as the holographic Dagger dissipates before sighing, "Another of them… that makes twenty of these Grabbers that tried to attack me after I killed the first one from trying to take someone into the vents."

Isaac stared as the large man took care of it as if it was nothing and asked, "How'd you know it was going to attack?"

"The commander has a special ESP ability that none of us has." The Legionary who picked up Angelo's helmet said handing it back to his superior.

Tucking it under his arm, Angelo said, "I have the ability to see into the future of a conflict that I'm in. The Prof calls it "Combat Precognition"."

Angelo then looked at Ben and asked, "You okay son?"

Ben nodded. Jeff, finally getting confirmation, asked, "Chris? Is that you?"

Angelo looked back at Jeff while majority of the others were surprised at this but Angelo answers it with a, "My name's Angelo now. Comes with these."

He then tapped the side of his head with a finger to bring his eyes to attention. He then smiled and said, "It's good to see you again Jeff."

Jeff explained, "Captain Marek served alongside Vincent and Angelo here before Angelo joned up with the W-Organization." He also smirked, "Angelo's something like a brother to me and an Uncle as well."

Sphere asked, "How could he be an uncle and an older brother?"

Jeff shrugged, "I haven't the slightest idea. But it fit.

Angelo's smile became solemn and said, "I'm guessing since he's not with you that he's…"

"Yeah… Marek died saving us from a Creator." Jeff said sadly, this made the two Legionaries look at each other surprised.

Angelo clenched his fists as he took a deep breath and said, "He always did wanted to go out in a blaze of glory… I was hoping he'd still be around to see your wedding. Or is this not the Gwen Tenald that he messaged me about."

Both Gwen and Jeff were red hearing that before Jeff asked, "Wait… he knew?"

"He wanted to ask some advice about your relationship, but I told him to let you have your privacy until you were ready to tell him." Angelo said before his eyes turned to the side. Misty noticed Alissa did that same, as though the older woman was not trying to look at the armored Warrior.

Angelo then said, "I know for a fact he wouldn't want us to wallow while there are lives on the line. It's fortunate that we were able to meet like this."

"Yeah, I was surprised to see you and the other Big 3 being on the Ishimura instead of where you said were supposed to be." Alissa said, while sharing a glance between herself and Angelo.

Jonie added, "I almost fainted when I saw that Genus was with us. He is so hot with how he finds the time to recite poetry while still a member of the W-Organization."

Ernesto rolled his eyes as his face became sour at the mention of the redheaded Spartan, muttering, "Girlfriend stealer…"

Jonie heard that and whacked him, "Knock it off, you know you could be a little sensitive like Genus can be."

The two were about to get at it when Angelo stopped them "Stop, you two do remember that we're having an invasion to deal with?"

The two look at each other before looking at the taller and older man as they said, "Sorry…"

Angelo then continued, "Anyway, Adam was convinced that someone made us apart of this crew instead of the ship were supposed to be assigned to. He thinks it was Vickers, but Genus believed it to be a Unitologist who was planted on the ship."

"Even though he's a Unitologist himself?" Rameriaz asked suspiciously, remembering the seeing a damaged Unitologist symbol on Genus' left Pauldron.

Angelo looked at Rameriaz and said, "He was a member before he joined, but he doesn't consider himself one after they abandoned him during his time of need."

Isaac felt his throat dry as he asked, "What ship were you three supposed to be a part of?"

Angelo looked at Isaac and said, "The Falcon, to find the Prometheus and Peter Wayward."

Those from the Falcon were shocked to hear that, Gwen even thought, 'There were supposed to be Spartans on our mission? What is going on?'

He looked to the side as if he heard something and said to them, "Excuse me."

"I'm here, what's up?" Angelo asked speaking as though he was talking to someone not there.

Gwen leaned in close to Rei and asked, "What is he doing?"

Rei remained still as she answered, "He's talking to someone on a Warrior private comms channel."

Misty said, "Thought comms have been off line since this entire thing started."

Alissa said, "That's what I thought too before figuring out that the Warriors have something that allows them to communicate with each other like they have private radios on them. Think they called them a PIC?"

"Pic?" Kori asked confused, as was the other teens.

"Wait what?" Angelo asked his voice sounding shocked, a little upset by what he heard. Everyone went silent as they listened to Angelo talking to another Warrior.

"Are you serious?" Angelo asked, his voice closer to wanting an answer.

Soon his eyes widened and asked, "You're certain he's behind the comms situation?"

Getting his answer, Angelo said, "That would make sense… but why?"

"Understood." Angelo said before looking at the group with him, "I'll bring them to the bridge, see you there, Adam."

Angelo's eyes turned to Rei and said, "Yes, she's here too."

He nodded and said to Rei, "He'll be happy to see you again."

Rei gave a smile at that as DRU asked, "Who is this Adam person?"

Rei then answered with a gentle smile, "His name is Adam Wesker, and he is the one to be considered the youngest, and greatest, war hero in the modern age. And First of the Enhanced."

Angelo nodded to confirm what she said was true before putting his helmet back on and continued to lead the group to the bridge.

As they made it to the elevator, Angelo was close to Vincent as he said, low enough for only the two of them and maybe Sphere to hear, "It's… good to see you again despite what's happening…"

Alissa remained silent as they went up, though her face softened a bit. Misty hung back and asked, "So… Was that guy your boyfriend before he joined up?"

"W-What? No…" Alissa denied, surprised that Misty was there as she moved to follow the others. Misty smirked teasingly as she sung loud enough for Alissa to hear, "I can tell your lying~."

Captain Mathias began clenching and unclenching the bar he was holding onto as he looked at the monolith. Soon a man dressed as both a scientist and a doctor came up and whispered, "Captain, we need to call for help. We might not have the forces necessary to protect the ship. Even with the W-Organization members here."

Captain Mathias then said, "I don't need to remind you that this is a restricted system, and we're not supposed to be here."

Dr. Kain whispered, "You don't, but the circumstances have changed."

Captain Mathias defiantly said, "My orders haven't."

"Then at least let's contact the church, they must know about-" He paused after talking, making sure no one was listening.

Captain Mathias turned and asked, "About what?"

Dr. Kain then said, "The effects of the Monolith are like nothing documented in the religious texts, and your crew is being wiped out as we speak. I have a feeling that we at least have something very dangerous down there, and we need guidance."

Captain Mathias then asked looking at the crew with him, "Do you think they know?"

"Who?" Dr. Kain asked looking at the captain confused.

Captain Mathias answered, "The crew."

Dr. Kain then told the captain his theory of it, "Most of the key officers are sympathetic to the church, and maybe a third of the crew are with the church. Unfortunately Adam suspects you of being with the church. Why?"

"We're going to abandon the colony and return the Monolith to Earth. It's the only thing to do. I cannot afford a mutiny on my ship especially lead by that enhanced abomination." Captain Mathias said as he was sweating more.

Dr. Kain was shocked by this, but then commented, "You don't look well."

Captain Mathias turned to Dr. Kain and ordered, "I want you to check on the artifact, again. Make sure it's secure."

Dr. Kain whispered back harshly, "We are in over our heads. You need to contact Earth and find out what our next course of action should be. Especially since the crew is being slaughtered!"

Captain Mathias then said loudly, "I think this is a test of our faith..."

Dr. Kain was appalled by this while noticing members of the crew's bridge officers heard the captain, "What?"

Captain Mathias got his senses and said, "Nothing. Just be quiet doctor."

"Sir, systems are failing all over the ship. Shipboard communication is completely down." The second in command reported, looking to the captain.

"Plot a course for Earth, Mr. Wyatt; we're getting the hell out of here." Mathias ordered, not letting anything get in his way of bringing the monolith back to Earth.

"What?" Campbell said, shocked by this.

Mathias then ordered, "Lock down any sections of the ship affected by this disturbance. I want it contained, do you understand? We have to get the artifact home. That is our only mission now."

Chitt turned and said, "Sir, I'm sorry to say this but we can't leave until we have Adam's say on this as well."

Mathias growled as he shouted, "Well where the hell is he!?"

A young man with platinum blond hair and black outfit, was walking back to the bridge calmly in the darkened corridor while holding something in his hand. He ignored everything around him.

They suddenly heard a loud banging coming from the main elevator. Everyone on the bridge looked and Captain Mathias shouted into the comms, "Adam! If you can hear me, stop whatever it is you are doing and get back here now! Those things are here!"

Lieutenant Chitt looked at Wyatt and Campbell, asking, "Can they get through?"

"Probably." Wyatt said as he and the other armed members of the officers were expecting the creatures got ready to fight.

The doors opened as Alissa and a young man with brown hair was seen, Alissa telling them, "It's okay, it's only us."

"Yeah, just us." The young man said as the two helped the others in their group up into the bridge.

Chitt then said to the security chief, "You're a sight for sore eyes."

Alissa looked at the man and said, "Things must be going to shit for you to say that."

Captain Campbell noticed there were more of them and asked, seeing DRU and Kori, noticing how not human the one with green hair was and how the redhead was floating, "And who are these two?"

"It's okay, they're with us. These are the kids I mentioned on the coms from the Falcon. We ran into a few of the Warriors while joined by Teo Linkin of the third squad and Jonie Ghraham from the fifth. Along with Ernesto Borjeas with Engineering, Samuel Irons of Mechanics, and Kera Tanaka, a medic."

Captain Mathias then asked, pointing at the crew of the Falcon, "Why aren't they in Quarantine as they were ordered?"

Angelo stepped forward and said, "Apologizes captain, but I was order to bring them to the bridge via the coms."

"On whose authority!" Mathias shouted, getting angry.

"Mine." a cool, calm, and professional voice said from the doors.

Everyone turned as a door opened and a young man walked in. He appeared to be about eighteen years old approaching, wearing clothes colored black with a few silver colored pieces of armor on it: The cuffs around his wrists, the edges of his boots over his trousers, his Pauldrons, and his intricate belt buckle that kept his coat close to his SIG under suit covered chest. The rim of his dark sunglasses s his head walked into the light. His platinum blond hair glowing softly as the long locks had been styled behind his ears with a few of the shorter strands to spike out once it touched the back of his head. The edge of his long coattails, that reaches the top of his boots' soles.

Even though his eyes are covered by the black lenses of the sunglasses, the young man's smile was evident as he saw the crew of the Falcon.

Captain Campbell spoke, relieved to see him, "Adam."

This made DRU and Kori look at each other before seeing the young man before them as what the people around them called 'the youngest war hero.'

The young man then said, in a professional but friendly tone, "It's good to see you everyone."

Captain Mathias went and snapped, "Where have you been? And what gave you the right to circumvent my orders."

Adam did not react to the captain's harsh words, especially as he said, in a professional yet calm voice, "All Warriors of the W-Organization are under my command and supervision, especially in a state of attack. Not yours Captain Mathias."

The Captain's face got red before walking, more like stomping, away as Adam looked to the group and smiled, letting them know that they are okay with him around. He then asked, "Where is Genus? I thought I told him to join you and return to the bridge after meeting up with you?"

"About that… We met him in Hydroplonics where we met them and sort of went his own way. He's not looking too good." Angelo answered, even though Adam can tell by the darkened expressions of those from the Falcon and a few of the others. He remained focused.

Adam then nodded, "We can talk about this after we compare notes."

He then looked around and asked, pleasantly, "So… Who wants to share on what's happening to the other first? Anyone? Anyone? How about you Isaac?"

Isaac and Gwen were not understanding how someone one can be so calm during this when Isaac, spoke, "Maybe we can tell you what we went through after someone can tell us what's been happening here?"

Alissa sighs as she began to explain, "It happened as soon as we arrived to Aegis VII, the people on planet found something… something alien."

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-{Flashback start}-

Alissa walked into the main living room of her quarters, wiping her head with a towel. She looked down, picking up a cup of coffee, revealing the photo of a murdered man attached to a homicide report. She then accessed her computer as it began scanning through some of the many suicide and homicide reports for the colony and the few showing up on the ship. Especially of one about a man killing both his wife and infant daughter, claiming that they were monsters before his stowaway son found him and the guards took both the scientist and son away..

"That's odd. What the hell's been going wrong down there?" Alissa wondered out loud, not understanding how all these could happen to people who were reported to be clinically sane before they arrived and brought that monolith that the Unitologists worship and want to see for some religious reason.

A video feed from Chitt opens on Alissa's computer, "Chief Vincent, your wanted on the bridge."

Alissa asked, "What's up?"

"The Captain is ready to see you." Chitt replied.

"On my way." Alissa said before ordering to the computer, "Audio off."

Chitt's feed disappeared as she stood.

"About damn time." Alissa muttered as she got herself suited up in her security gear and load a mag into her pistol. She then proceeds to exit her apartment.

"Lights out." Alissa ordered, and the lights in her quarters went out and her door shut behind her.

She then went to the bridge's elevator.

Meanwhile where the Monolith is in the cargo bay, a group of Unitologist crew members approach the Monolith, intent on seeing it. The security guards posted around the Monolith ready their pistols while the six Celtic rank Warriors drew their swords from their backs, though some didn't want the possibility of a fight to happen.

"Get back to your stations." The Security team's captain warned.

"We have a right to see it!" A male Unitologist shouted.

A female Unitologist cried out, "You can't lock it away, it's a holy relic. We have the right!"

Dr. Kain enters the area, pushing his way through the crowd while Adam levitated himself over the crowd to where his subordinates were. Jonie as a member of the team posted at the Monolith looked deflated that her favorite Warrior isn't the one there while the guard on her left rolled his eyes at this. Dr. Kain addressed the crowd as he pushed his way through, "Clear this area immediately! This is a secure area and Captain Mathias wants the artifact left alone."

"Please listen to the doctor and return to your posts." Adam said trying to implore the people.

A large, older man, with Native American complexion, leaves the group and approaches the security team.

"Excuse me; I'd like to talk to them. I- I think I can help." The large man said, peaking Adam's curiosity.

"Who are you?" Adam asked still curious as this might be the first unitologist he met that actually doesn't seem to have an ulterior motive for wanting to help.

"Samuel Irons, Engineering Specialist." The man introduced himself in a polite manner.

Security Team's captain looked suspicious and asked, rudely, "Are you a rock worshiper, too, Irons?"

Samuel Irons held a pendant that was in the shape of the Monolith and said, "It might be useful having one of their own speaking to them; your presence may be misinterpreted as hostile. Especially with the Warriors here with you, whom they feel that they are agents of unholy allegiance due to the enhancements that they have taken. Despite all they have done for people."

Two of the Celtics looked at each other brows raised under their helmets. Adam's eyes widened in shock behind his sunglasses at this.

"This is me being cordial." The Security team leader said, pointing his pistol directly at Iron's chest, "You want to see hostile?"

Kain looked at Adam for help due to the young man's natural ability to read people better. Adam looked to Dr. Kain and nodded, letting Samuel Irons have the chance to talk to the Unitologists. Taking the young man's council, Dr. Kain approached and said, "Let the man speak with them."

Security Team's captain said to Irons, "All right, play the pied piper and lead the flock out of here before someone gets their nuts stomped on."

"Thank you." Samuel Irons said as he turn and addressed crowd, "Brothers and sisters, there will be plenty of time to observe the holy relic when we return to Earth. The Church first must interpret the markings if we are to be enlightened by their words; interfering with the captain's orders will not help resolve our current crisis nor would it will help if we confront our Warrior protectors due to the fact that they are different from us. Right now we must pray for our fellow pilgrims on the surface of the planet whose lives may be in danger. Set the example that we Unitologists are not hysterical fanatics. We respect the orders of our captain."

The crowd look to one another and nod in agreement before dispersing. The security team and Celtics lowers their weapons.

Adam approached the large man looked up to say, "Thank you."

Samuel Irons nodded before looking to Dr. Kain, "See? They are reasonable people when not confronted with violence and threats of arrest."

"Perhaps in light of my help..." Samuel Irons said, and Adam took on a letdown expression when he saw Irons gesturing towards the Monolith.

Dr. Kain smiled assuring to Irons and told him, "You'll get your chance to see it in due time."

"I understand." Samuel Irons said as he held onto the Unitology pendant, and with a tone of understanding and humility.

Adam looked at the man and said, "You may be right about these people, but Unitology is a chimera from ancient Grecian mythology, may look noble and divine as a lion but you need to be aware of the sinister serpent part of it as well. Believe me, I know since many of the missions I was assigned to involve the dark side of what you believe in. Not everyone is as noble as you or as reasonable as them."

Irons looked at the young man, to the dispersing crowd, then the monolith before stating, "Perhaps… I need to think about this. Thank you for your warning."

Irons walked off, back to work. Adam looked to Kain who nodded before he turns and moves towards the Monolith as he wondered, aloud, "What secrets are you carrying."

"Please be careful, doctor, we don't truly know what this is or who made it. For all we know it could be a trap." Adam warned, Kain looked and knew that the young man was glaring behind his sunglasses at the monolith.

"I understand your mistrust for the church, my boy. However, as a scientist, I must look through everything." Kain told Adam, making the young man take on what Kain knows to be his pouting stand.

Kain smiles a bit before he looked back at the monolith, but stops when he spies something in the vents above him. Looking closer, he recoils in horror when he sees something like black slime moving into the vents, which then immediately darts off into deeper into the vents.

Adam was still glaring at the monolith before he felt a presence. Turning he saw a woman in a sundress and a hat. Her features were fuzzy as she looked at him. Adam remained calm as he cautiously asked, "Doctor."

"Yes my boy?" Kain asked, still horrified by what he saw.

Pointing Adam asked, "Do you see that woman in the sundress?"

Curious, Kain looked and saw no one like that, "No I don't… why?"

The youngest Spartan, remained calm when he heard the doctor's answer. He looked back and saw that it wasn't there before he said, "It's nothing. Must have been a memory."

He then walked to the Celtic squad leaders and spoke to them. Kain sighs as he was worried about that black slime he saw crawling up to the vents while going to wondering where it came from. Only to get the latest results of his examination of the Monolith.

Alissa exited the bridge's elevator and spoke, "Captain."

Captain Mathias kept his back to her, a vid screen of the Monolith in cargo bay was shown next to him while he asked, "You wanted to see me?"

"As chief of security on this ship, I would like to, once again, severely protest bringing the artifact aboard." Alissa said while

Captain Mathias looked tired by this and said, "You have already made your protests heard, and I have already taken them into account, thank you."

"Captain." Alissa began.

Mathias turned to her and interrupted, "You've given me the incident counts for the colony, and I say that this colony has been in operation for two and a half years. That much time in deep space is inherently dangerous, and the people attracted to this line of work are, too."

Alissa wasn't convinced as she said, "You're forgetting one thing, Captain: A spike in serious violent incidents have been reported over the last week. We pulled that thing up a week ago."

Captain Mathias remained stern as he said, "I have my orders and you have yours."

"Just tell me this: Why is this thing so important?" Alissa asked, wondering why he was so adamant in not believing that there is a chance of the Monolith being involved.

Captain Mathias looked over his shoulder at her and said, "Alissa, don't fight me on this. Once Kain has studied the Monolith, you can have your team run a full analysis."

Alissa saluted him with the middle finger, "Yes, sir."

The screen shows the ship engaging its gravity tethers, which beam down and link to the anchors of the rock mass. The screen once again cuts back to the bridge of the Ishimura as the lieutenant in at the chair reported, "Gravity tethers full tension and stable, Captain."

The man in a uniform similar to the captain was the Co-Captain of the ship, Campbell, "Thank you, Mr. Chitt. All systems are go, sir."

"All right, Mr. Campbell. Pop the cork." Captain Mathias ordered as he, Campbell, Chitt, and Vincent monitor the planet crack's progress up to them.

They all watch as their massive ship begins to ascend higher into space, lifting the massive chunk of rock from the planet. As the mass of rock clears the ground, the colony's secondary gravity tethers activate, linking themselves to the rock and holding it steady. The rock begins to rapidly accelerate, massive chunks of it crashing to the ground below, until it has finally reached the Ishimura in orbit around the planet; the planet crack is complete.

"Good work, people. She's coming up nicely." Captain Mathias said, before the bridge suddenly began to shake and the electronics started to flicker on and off before the ship and its electronics become stable once more.

Looking at the progress they were making, Captain Mathias said, "Normal, electromagnetic surges. The magnetic field of the planet is bleeding out."

The bridge begins shaking once more, this time much more violently and for a considerably longer period of time. All of the electronics on the bridge, including the lights, shut down and then, as the shaking stops, start up again.

Captain Mathias then asked, "What's happening?"

"I'm not sure. The entire system is rebooting." Chitt answered as he was looking at the screen.

Alissa looked at Chitt and asked, "Our power cores are shielded?"

"Yes, I know. Another wave of disruption just broke from the surface and smacked into us." Chitt said, annoyed by her attitude, "It's a temporary glitch, not an attack, Alissa. Down, girl."

Alissa hissed, "Asshole."

Co-Captain Campbell got between them, "Break it up, you two."

"Chitt, can you raise the colony?" Captain Mathias asked, looking at the Lieutenant.

Chitt began typing as he spoke, "Well, things are choppy at best; we've lost 40% of the comlink signal."

Captain Mathias, looking back and asked, "Can you isolate the problem?"

"I've never seen interference like this." Chitt told the captain, confusion on his face.

Campbell looked and answered, "I have, when I was a pilot back Earth-side and my radar was being jammed."

Chortling, Chitt looked at his superior and asked, "You think this is intentionally being directed at us?"

"That's a dead planet and we're the only people out here." Alissa pointed out before she asked, "How in the hell is something intentionally jamming us?"

Campbell looked back at the younger woman and said, "I'm just saying what it looks like. It could just be excess magnetic feedback from the planet crack."

Captain Mathias looked at the lieutenant and ordered, "Chitt, get me Foreman Vasquez. I want to know what's happening down there."

In no time Chitt was able to do so as Captain Mathias spoke, "Vasquez, come in. Vasquez! Vasquez, this is the captain. Report in. Vasquez."

The door opened as Adam walked in as he asked, "What seems to be the problem?"

"It's nothing Wesker, just excess magnetic feedback from the planet cracking. No need to start picking fights or whatever it is you brutes do…" Chitt said, showing his suspicions and a little dislike for the young Spartan, and those like him.

"Please, Mr. Chitt, call me Adam." He said smiling warmly, ignoring the evident dislike the man had for enhanced soldiers as him.

He looked at the readings and said, "Please excuse me…"

Chitt was about to protest when Campbell stopped him and said, "You know he can see things that we can't."

"Well obviously." Chitt snorted before seeing the look his superior said, "I mean the enhanced freak is wearing sunglasses, probably to look cool. I doubt he's really that intelligent or powerful like the news of the Wars say he is."

"Jealous?" Alissa quipped, getting back at him for his talking to her like she was an attack dog.

Dr. Kain has just entered and whispered to Captain Mathias, "My last analysis of the Monolith suggests a psychosomatic energy field unlike anything I've ever seen."

Captain Mathias looked at the doctor and said, "This interference in rising from the planet, the Monolith's not the problem here."

"I know, it- It's just..." Kain said, stopping as he remembered what happened in the med bay and the black slime that he saw entering the vent.

"Just what, doctor?" Mathias asked, getting impatient.

Kain answered, "Something's not right."

Unbeknownst to them Adam heard everything with his enhanced hearing and narrowed his eyes behind his sunglasses at the captain's denial of the possibility.

"Communications just came back up; I'm reacquiring the colony's signal." Chitt reported as he typed to regain the colony's signal again.

Campbell looked up and said, "We're pulling scattershot low-res images from the personal cams."

Chitt gasped at the images as they appear on his display. Campbell looked and asked, "What the-"

Getting tired of this, Mathias ordered "Put it on the main monitors."

A series of video feeds appear on the main monitors, each displaying horrific and gruesome scenes. There is a cafeteria which has been torn to pieces and is covered in blood, an elevator stuck in an open/close cycle with its door due to a dismembered leg in the way, a corridor and a control room full of blood, and a hallway littered with blood, bodies, and a sort of techno-organic growth.

Seeing this made Adam look disturbed and thought, 'Not even the Colony War was this gruesome. What could have done this to those people?'

Alissa Vincent, turned to Mathias and exclaimed, "We need to send a security team down there now, captain!"

"And a Warrior team down there too." Adam added, concerned for the lives lost.

A Female Officer stood from her chair and reported, "Captain! I'm getting multiple flat lines across the board!"

"What?" Adam asked as he, Alissa, and Campbell went and saw the people's life signs are indeed flat lining and turning read.

"Good God, they're being slaughtered." Kain stated by how the life signs of the crew were flat lining so quickly.

Captain Mathias looked back at the doctor and asked, "By what?"

"I'm going down there now." Alissa and Adam said at the same time, though surprised the two thought of the same thing.

"Not until I know what the hell is happening. Chitt, get someone on the com; I want a sit-rep ASAP!" Mathias ordered looking at Chitt.

Alissa glared at the captain before feeling a hand on her shoulder and saw Adam there as he said, "We'll save them as soon as get the chance, please be patient until then."

Adam then activated his PIC and spoke, typing on the holographic keyboard over his right arm, "Attention all Warriors, something is happening to our crew, the closest pair to the following coordinates are to investigate and find survivors."

"I-I'm sure there's no need for Warrior involvement other than making sure that everything is safe, Adam." Captain Mathias said, looking over at the eighteen year old.

"With all due respect captain, it's been a part of my job to make sure that it doesn't, but if it does then we're to help anyway possible." Adam said as he spoke to the captain, serious about making sure to save lives and find what is responsible.

"I've raised one of the dig crews." Chitt reported as a comlink opens on the main monitors, displaying a panicked colonist, "Ishimura, can you hear us? Something's down here, killing everyone... My dig crew has changed... I think there's something down- Help us, god damn it!"

Vincent then went and spoke to the panicked colonist, "This is Ishimura we are reading you. Who is killing everyone?"

"Oh my God! Oh my God!" The colonist cried out before something from off camera strikes the colonist with a bladed appendage, completely rending his head. It looked like the appendage was had a metal blade coming out of an organic hand.

"Dig team, come in. This is Ishimura, come in. Over." Vincent spoke, only getting static as a response. She turned to Chitt.

"Start scanning frequencies." Alissa ordered, Chitt eyed Alissa, perturbed by her attempting to command him. Alissa, in turn, responds by grabbing him by his shirt and hoisting him up to her face, "Don't fuck with me right now! Get on the horn and get me the colony!"

Adam heard a ping and answered, walking to a place private from the rest of the officers, "What is it?"

"Adam. I'm in the main storage area, my team and I were responding to a distress call when we were attacked by some sort of creatures, we were able to save some civilians and relocate them to our currently location I'm having all available Warriors look throughout the ship, find more people and bring them to secure locations for their safety while we're being attack by them." Adam heard Angelo say. Adam could hear that Angelo shaken by what he saw.

"Adam, its Genus I was inspecting those strange energy readings I got when the ship brought the monolith aboard. I was almost assaulted by these techno-organic creatures that I believe were members of the crew." Genus reported as Adam heard an inhuman cry while the sounds of Genus' sword cutting through something flesh like. He then heard two gunshots from Genus' end.

Adam was shocked by this ad asked, "Angelo. Are the creatures that are attacking you look like techno-organic mutated members of the crew?"

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Angelo asked, before Adam added Genus to their conversation, as the scarlet clad warrior said, "They apparently can survive bullets to human vital areas, but cannot take bisection as much. I suggest we use our swords to not only save ammunition but also put these grotesque creatures down permanently."

"Good idea Val. Better than wasting ammo on enemies that can shrug them off." Angelo said, saying Genus' real name.

Genus then asked, "What should I do?"

Adam took a moment to think of a strategy, "Angelo keep doing your mission to find surviving crew members and get them to the safe location. Take a pair of Legionaries with you while letting majority of the others keep the survivors safe. They should be able to take care of anything coming their way."

"Understood." Angelo said before going with two legionary Warriors.

The Celtic squad leader said, "We'll defend them with our lives, sir!"

Adam nodded, "Genus, you need to find out what the source of what is turning the crew members into these killing creatures. It must have something to do with the Monolith."

"I'll do that, but it feels more like a viral infection." Genus said, giving his own theory of what it could be causing the crewmates to mutate into the creatures.

Adam then said, "Genus, please be careful you're…"

"I know about my condition, don't worry." Genus said before ending the comms.

Adam then returned to the front of the bridge.

Alissa looked at the Mathias and said, "Sir, I need to take a team down there. At the very least we need to know what we're dealing with."

Captain Mathias however, shot her request down sharply, "Denied. No one is allowed on or off the colony."

"You're condemning innocent people!" Alissa protested angrily.

Captain Mathias, looked and her and asked, sarcastically, "You want me to put the entire ship at risk? Is that your brilliant idea?"

"Captain Mathias, we've got an incoming shuttle! Just picked her up on radar, she's close." Chitt reported, turning to the captain.

Captain Mathias quickly ordered, "Lock the bay doors on every level!"

Alissa protested to this, again, "They're survivors. Maybe they can tell us what's happening down there."

"Do what I say, and do it now." Captain Mathias ordered, close to yelling.

Chitt then reported, "There seems to be another shuttle, claiming to be a part of the USSCS Falcon's crew."

Campbell raised a brow, shocked by this news "What?"

Adam's eyes widened at that, asking, "The Falcon? Then that means Rei and the others are there."

"It doesn't matter! Lock the bay doors now!" Mathias ordered. He looked at the young Spartan and began to feel scared from the face that young man made was obviously a death glare. And since Adam is rarely one to get angry, that is something no one should make him be, especially with the powers he has along with his enhancement. And how the young man used them during the colony war.

Adam then said, coldly, "Let me talk to them and make sure…"

Clearing his throat Mathias said calmly, "I apologize Adam, but we can't take the risk if it isn't really the Falcon or Mr. Wayward's assistant Android."

"Captain, the first shuttle just slipped through Bay 17 before we could secure the doors!" Chitt reported from his chair.

Captain Mathias turned to Alissa and ordered, "Get down there now, arrest everyone on board that shuttle and quarantine them!"

Alissa looked back and asked, with sarcasm, "You sure you don't want me to shoot them first?"

She then went to the elevator, communicating with her team as the door closed. A few minutes later Chitt reported, "Captain, the Bay 17 doors are opening from a manual override, the second shuttle is entering the bay now."

"What!?" Mathias asked, shocked by this.

Adam then turned to leave, "I'm going down there to see them."

Mathias turned and shouted, "No! You're to stay here and protect the bridge."

He then ordered Chitt, "Get Vincent on the line now."

"Yes sir." Chitt said as he did this.

"Vincent." The security chief said though her voice garbled due to interference.

Mathias ordered, "Vincent, the other shuttle has entered the same bay as the first, I want you to find the crew of it and arrest them. Should they resist, shoot them."

Adam can feel the anger burning in him as he took great strength to keep his composure while the captain was willing to shoot people from the Falcon, especially people he knew and care for. Silently walking to a door, Adam activated his PIC and spoke, "Angelo, Genus, Do you read me? I need a favor…"

He needed to investigate for why communication are worse than they should be and he can only trust his best friends in the world for this, "If you find the crew of the Falcon, please keep them safe, especially Isaac Shepard and Rei 8. Please… keep my sister and her friends safe."

---

-{Flashback End}-

Adam looked at the group of teenagers and said, "And that's how things were before you and Chief Vincent met up. Tell us what happened with you all on the planet."

Gwen sighed, "Where to begin."

She explained the whole thing that had happened back on the planet. On how it was actually a mission to locate the Prometheus that had gone missing 2 years ago. Only when they found it, the ship was empty and cold, the crew was missing, and a strange artifact was on board the ship. It was when they went further, they found the horror that awaited the crew of the Prometheus and the aftermath that attacked the Falcon's crew. But it wasn't all that bad, they had found allies in Kori, Sphere, and DRU who apparently was a mutation of the exterminating concoction who valued life. And it was when after a week of repairs, they found the state of the colony on Aegis 7's mining team. Which led them to this new nightmare.

Gwen looked to see how the Warrior took it.

Adam hearing what happened asked, shocked by the news, "Peter did what?"

Unconsciously clenching his fist tightly while it looked his eyes glowed briefly behind his sunglasses. Seeing this Rei looked to Adam concerned. Looking at them he said, "I thank you for telling me about this as well as keeping my sister safe."

Gwen and the others blinked, as Isaac and everyone asked, "Sister?"

"He's not one of Mr. Wayward's creations, if that's what you are thinking," Rei explained to diffuse the confusion among them now.

"Well technically..." Adam began before Angelo nudge him before saying, "but she's correct, I'm not an android nor am I a genetic creation of him."

Isaac looked between them and asked, "Then how..."

"She's my/I'm his surrogate sister." Both Rei and Adam answered at the same time.

Meanwhile, the two groups talked, Dr. Kain went to the captain and spoke in a whisper, "Captain, listen to me. We're not in control anymore. I'm not sure we ever were."

Captain Mathias, turned his eyes to the doctor and asked, "What are you talking about?"

"The artifact, the mission; it's a trap, it has to be, just like Adam said it was. We've brought something aboard that we didn't fully understand, something hostile, and it's trying to kill us. We cannot bring the artifact to Earth." Dr. Kain said, explaining what he had realized while talking to Adam before this happened.

"Have you lost your mind, Doctor? The holy artifact must be delivered to the Church if humanity is to be delivered into the welcome arms of the universal awakening!" Captain Mathias shouted loud enough for everyone to hear him.

Everyone had a look of shock or concern on their faces, as the realization that the captain's psyche was taking a huge toll from the stress of the situation.

Dr. Kain looked concerned, but said, "Keep your voice down."

"Don't tell me what to do, you heretic! I'm the captain! This is my ship!" Captain Mathias shouted. Some of the Legionaries went to investigate but Adam held his arm out to stop them.

Dr. Kain looked and exclaimed, "You are being irrational; people are dying. We are all in danger!"

Captain Mathias then began to shout, louder, "The faithless want to destroy the artifact because they fear it. I won't allow it, Kain, I will not allow it!"

"The Monolith is making us paranoid and delusional; it's the only explanation for the irrational behavior that has been plaguing the colony, the crew, and now the officers. Who knows what else will happen if we allow this to continue." Kain stated, going over everything that he learned and discovered from what's been happening.

Adam spoke, "The doctor is correct Captain. Your zealotry have pointed out allegiance to the Unitology cult over your loyalty to your crew."

When he said the word cult, some of the people close to the young Spartan thought they felt the air get colder.

"This is not irrational, Doctor, this is religious persecution; and I'm not going to allow you or anyone else to destroy the artifact. Campbell, Wyatt, have the Doctor and that child restrained. And prepare an execution of the false heralds of the Creators!"

Jeff, Angelo, Isaac, Gwen, and majority of the group of the Falcon and a few from the Ishimura who met them stood protectively of Kori and DRU.

"Sir, they're right." Campbell said, defying orders.

Captain Mathias shouted, pointing at both Kain and Isaac, "They're speaking heresy! Kain's a spy, planted on my ship to destroy any hope we have of transcending death! And that boy, he's a member of that serpent's demonic legion!" Mathias accused pointing at Adam when he said Serpent, as he shouted, "Hoping to spread lies to destroy our faith with the destruction of our holy relic! A Shepard to our extinction!"

"Ah. Is that why I found this in the Communications Hub?" Adam asked revealing what he was hiding in his hand and it made Mathias pale.

Kori asked, "What is this device?"

"A handy little toy to pick up stuff others don't want made public," Isaac replied.

"This device is a Hack box. allowing anyone who preprogrammed it to act as their programmer wants, especially jettison and make the communications worse than they should with the monolith onboard. And it picks up stuff that others don't want public." Adam explained looking at Mathias, the platinum blond haired Warrior's showed his was glaring.

"I was suspicious when both Doctor Kain and Lieutenant Chitt mentioned that we lost communications entirely, even though that the best that happens with the energy field from the monolith and planetary magnetic energy only makes communications choppy at best. While coordinating the Warriors throughout the ship to keep people safe and to keep these Xenecromorph creatures at bay, I went to the communications hub down the hall to check the camera data, but found nothing. When I opened it up I found this. Since this device is obviously made for sabotage, I had to deduce that they would not have gone down completely unless someone had purposely put this hack box into the communication hub and had the clearance high enough to erase visual evidence of them." Adam deduced, a holographic keypad appeared over his left forearm and began to tap into it.

"However, the culprit had forgotten to wipe the residual finger prints on the device. So I used my PIC to check the finger prints on the device and found a match." Adam said as a holographic screen appeared and it showed the finger prints belonged to Captain Mathias. The officers turned with shocked or horrified expressions as they turned to Captain Mathias.

Everyone stared at this before Mathias shouted, insanely, "THAT'S A LIE!"

Adam was not convinced as he said, showing the mark of Unitology, "Oh? Then why hide the fact that you are a Unitologist and that this device has been reported to being used on ships by Unitologist extremist to get the funding they wanted?"

Captain Mathias' face grew redder as he then looked at the two he felt was responsible for this and shouted, "THIS IS YOUR FAULT! YOU HERETICS ARE WHAT BROUGHT THE DEVIL DOWN ON ME!"

"You're completely insane." Adam said, bluntly to Captain Mathias. Everyone turned, surprised by what Adam said so bluntly.

Mathias turned sharply and snapped, "Don't you dare talk to me like that you godless heathen! You serpent of evil! I WILL HAVE THE HOLY RELIC RETURNED TO THE CHURCH AND NO ONE ONBOARD THIS SHIP WILL STOP ME FROM COMPLETING MY HOLY QUEST! YOU HEAR?! NOBODY!"

He then tried to rush both Kain and Isaac, trying to attack and kill them. Wyatt and Chitt attempt to restrain Mathias, only for Adam to appear out of nowhere in front of them and the captain ran into an energy field around the young Spartan's body pushed the Captain away with the same force he seem to hit the field with into the awaiting arms of Wyatt and Chitt. Adam calmly reminded, "You should have been careful of my Kinetic Barrier, captain. Or you'll get a backlash like that."

"You need to calm down." Campbell said as he held onto the captain.

Mathias struck Campbell across the face and tosses Chitt and Wyatt aside. Mathias then shouted, "I gave you an order, Mr. Campbell!"

"No sir! I won't obey!" Campbell said, standing protectively in front of Isaac to keep him from being attacked again.

"I don't cares if you're a Uni and you did all those things, Cap. We just want to get out of this alive!" the Chitt shouted, scared.

Rei looked to Adam when the Lieutenant said that as she knew that her brother does care.

Captain Mathias looked and asked, "What is that supposed to mean?"

He looked around and realized all eyes are on him, especially after Adam revealed his hand in sabotaging his own ship and risking their lives for a giant piece of rock that is important to him and his cult. Some of them kept their weapons in hand as a few glared at the captain thinking their lives are expendable.

"Captain, please. Let me give you a sedative." Kain said, raised a syringe filled with a sedative.

Captain Mathias' face came to a realization like expression while saying his conclusion, turning to everyone around him through his accusations, "Wait a minute... You- You're all with them. They've poisoned you all to the lies they spew of the holy relic and the sacred Creators, haven't they?!"

Isaac sighed, as he spoke up, "Ah fuck all this. He's lost it. HOLD HIM DOWN!" And rushed over to pin Mathias to the ground, with Misty rushing in to help.

"I'm with you on that, Shepard!" she cried as she grabbed his other arm.

The man, larger and stronger pushed the two away from him as he moved to kill Isaac when Adam, again, appeared out of nowhere with his enhanced speed as he glared at the frozen Mathias.

"Captain Benjamin Mathias, Under Executive order of Earth space-travel protocols, Maritime Article 5469, for intentionally sabotaging vessel under your command and putting personal agenda over success and safety of crew. I declare you unfit for duty of your rank and mentally compromised. You have two choices: submit yourself to the brig until the crisis and mission has been completed or face immediate liquidation by me." Adam spoke as every one of the officers knew that the young man had the power do enact how he saw fit by stating the company protocols that their former boss, Peter Wayward made when going over such things with the government on earth.

Mathias growled before shouting, his insanity becoming more visible, as he became more violent, "Mentally compromised!? Unfit for duty!? I am on a mission of holy importance! WHAT YOU ARE DOING, YOU GENETIC ENHANCED ABOMINATION, IS RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION! I WILL BE REWARDED FOR MY DUTY TO THE GLORY OF THE CHURCH! I WILL BE WELCOMED FOR-"

He didn't get the chance to finish his rant as Adam held out his hand as a pistol appeared in his hand from out of nowhere in a dim flash of light, put his hand around the gun, pulled the trigger, and shot the man in the head. No one moved as Mathias' body went limp before his legs went weak and fell on his knees before falling backwards. Adam expertly rolled his sidearm in his finger before holstering it. Adam then approached Captain Mathias' body before placing elder man's hands on his chest and remained silent for Mathias' soul to be cleansed of the lies and insanity made him while alive by Unitology, in a Christian manner before standing up and spoke to everyone, his voice conveying the sorrow he felt, "I am sorry for what I did in front of you all."

And his face, showed how sorry he was, before he continued. "but I was under obligation to make sure that the mission and all of you are safe during this voyage. I have known Captain Mathias for some years now, since the Colony War, and it pained me greatly for doing that to him, but he was purposely putting lives of the people who trusted him in harm's way for his own self-righteous and zealot belief that he is the only one important enough to survive. I could not let his hubris endanger everyone."

"Think of your loved ones who are waiting for you back on earth or the colonies you come from and ask yourself if they would approve of you sacrificing lives of the people you work with to make yourself get ahead in life." Adam implored the bridge crew to think of what their families would think of them as many would look down, especially those who have children or spouses who loved them and look up to them.

He then stated, "If you feel doubt about my actions I will submit myself to the full extent of the law when we return to Earth. However, for now we must focus on stopping this attack on us while undoing the evident sabotage that Mathias has done to prevent us from reporting something is wrong with the mission."

He then offered his hand up to them and asked, "Will you trust me to help you through this and keep all of you alive until this crisis has ended?"

The Bridge officers looked at each other unsure what to do while it was true that Adam killed their captain, their captain was obviously putting his life above everyone else's to get that giant rock back to Earth with everyone dying.

"We'll worry about the details later. Right now we have a ship to save," Campbell interrupted, putting aside all the confusion. "Wyatt, Chitt. We need to see if there's any of the crew still alive, who's left, and if evacuation is still an option."

Angelo went to tell them where the Warriors have been gathering survivors, in more defendable locations in the ship.

Adam then turned to Kain and state, "Dr. Kain, I am sorry to say this but I must ask you to remain within the captain's office until the current crisis and our mission has been completed."

Dr. Kain begun to sweat as he asked, "For what purpose my boy?"

"On the suspicion of being in league with Mathias, through force on his end, in the sabotage and purposely risking the lives of the crew." Adam answered.

Dr. Kain stared surprised by this statement, but he sighed and said, "I understand, you must do what is right to ensure the survival of everyone here."

He held his hands up, not putting any resistance even as he gave Adam one final warning, "But please, my boy. Please don't bring the Monolith to Earth. You must destroy it."

Adam nodded his head, promising, "Thank you, Doctor. I will do everything in my power to do that."

Looking at the Co-Captain, Adam stated, "Captain Heels."

"My name is Campbell, sir." The man asked, concerned. Isaac turned in surprise by that the co-captain that stopped Captain Mathias from attacking him.

Adam approached and placed his hand on the man's shoulder, "I'm sorry about what you saw but he was a clear threat to ship and crew. For that I am placing you in command of the ship until this vessel returns to earth."

The newly appointed captain nodded accepting his new position as he began to relay orders to try and help.

"I didn't think you would have it in you."

Those closest to the elevator door turned and saw Genus there his arms crossed as it looks like more of his hair has become grey.

Many of the people who saw him in Hydroplonics glared as they saw him.

However, he ignored anything aimed at him by the group that met him recently.

Adam did not need to look as he asked, "Where have you been?"

"Investigating." Genus said walking over with a bag in hand that seemed to be moving.

Adam turned and asked, "And?"

"We were both right, this is a viral infection as I theorized and it did originated from the Monolith as you thought. And here is the proof." Genus said as he tossed the bag before him as the bag kept moving. Before it opened up and revealed a Xenecromorph that resembling either a cybernetic and mutated manta ray or a headless bat in its appearance. It screeched as it extended a proboscis out from the top of its body as it screeched. Before anyone can react, Genus held his hand up using his Telekinesis to hold them in place as the Xenecromorph looked around frantically before it noticed Mathias' body.

Genus calmly moved everyone close to it out of there as it flew over, and used it's proboscis to break into the man's already broke skull as the body began to shake and thrash about wildly. Everyone who was watching the grisly scene as they couldn't move unless they wanted to be next, Genus then moved, running both the Xenecromorphs through before moving in a flurry to mince them into a bloody mess until they were pieces of flesh on the floor, as he recited, "Little Wanderer, hie thee home."

Everyone became freed as Jeff asked, "Dude! What the hell!?"

"Are you insane!?" Gwen asked, shaken by what she saw as well by how Genus would risk everything to show them what happens to the corpses.

Genus would look at them and asked, "Would you have believed me if I only said it? This was the only way I can think of that will make everyone see how this infection is being spread if not by the Monolith. Besides as long as you look dead, they appear to believe you to be dead."

He then said, "Besides, better this than what Marcel was doing."

"Marcel?" Kain asked, shocked to hear that name of a colleague and asked, "What is he doing?"

Genus said in a serious voice, "He was taking crewmember survivors, killing them and turning them into very dangerous, new variants of these Xenecromorphs that the Hypocrite and his friends know of."

That news worried those who heard that but he said, "Do not worry, I was able to kill all of his creations and killed him for his crimes."

He paused for a moment before remarking, "And his zealotry. He has lost his mind to this attack as well."

A holographic keypad appeared over his left sleeve as he said, typing it with his right hand while downloading data, "I copied what data I was able to save for you to research and find a way to stop this infection, maybe even make an anti-viral."

"Genus, you could whip one up with your IQ of 250." Angelo stated, before asking, "Why can't you?"

Before he could answer, Genus began to cough violently, putting a hand to his mouth.

"Valiance!" Angelo cried out, worried, revealing Genus' true name.

Only Genus' eyes hardened and shouted, almost insanely "Don't you dare call me that ever again, Angelo! I'm not going to let the name he gave me be uttered by your lips!"

Adam and Angelo were shocked by this outburst. Jonie would be scared as well, but noticed that blood was on her favorite warrior's glove covered hand. Genus took deep breathes before regaining his composure and said, calmly, "As you just witnessed… I'm not able to do so if we're all going to end this by sending that cursed idol into oblivion where it belongs."

Adam and Angelo looked at each other and nodded as Adam said, "You need to be here and work with everyone to find an Anti-viral."

Genus narrowed but smiled, "As you wish. After all should I discover the anti-viral before you destroy the Monolith. This way I can finally attain my rightful place as humanity's hero."

Before anyone could speak, Adam smiled and said, surprising those around him, "If you are worthy of it, the title is yours. I never cared for such things titles and personal glory."

The smile faltered as Genus narrowed his eyes before working on the terminal necessary to work on a cure, his fingers flying through the keys as he worked. Adam then said, "Nurse Tanaka."

Kera, who was looking blushingly at DRU jumped when her name was called and asked, "Y-yes?"

"Since you are a member of the medical field, why don't you help Genus with his research until I can come up with a strategy with Chief Vince, Isaac Shepard, and Angelo, on how to end this." Adam suggested.

Kera wanted to help but didn't want to be near Genus after what just happened and shook her head and said, "I'd rather help you all instead."

Turning to the two Legionaries, Adam ordered, "Guard the bridge while I am in conference and Watch him."

They put their hands over their hearts and lowered their heads as their salute.

Adam looked at those and said, "Isaac, you, your friends, Chief Vincent, and Angelo, will meet me in the Captain's office to discuss something private while we strategize our means to destroy the Monolith."

He then turned and walked to the doors that led to the former Captain Mathias' office where Dr. Kain joined them.

Adam leads the group into the office as Dr. Kain was there, still shocked by what Genus said about Marcel making new and dangerous variants of the Xenecromorphs.

Adam then went and sat behind the desk and said, "Well... I suppose you have questions about why I and the other members of what the people call "The Big 3" were to join you on the mission after your training for space had been completed. Correct?"
He then said with a friendly smile, "Please understand that I will answer them to the best of my ability and some of them may be educated guesses."

Gwen stepped up as she politely asked, but rather bluntly, "Okay. My question is why Wayward felt the need to bring you three along. No offence."

Adam held his hand up, "It's no problem at all Ms. Tenalds."

He then pulled out a letter and said, "The request to add us three actually came from a board member who was a friend of Mr. Wayward before the company and his joining the cult. With a message that was written said, "Should the Prometheus not return by the scheduled time and you have opened this letter then something has gone wrong and I am in need of aid. Please send someone to find both ship and myself and have them bring Adam, Angelo, and Genus of the W-Organization. For the situation has become that dire for all three to come and I have failed. Peter Wayward.""

He stopped reading the letter and said, "That is why you saw me and a few Warriors there during your training, to make sure that you are ready for anything."

Adam then clenched his fists together and said, his words heavy with remorse, "However, nothing could have prepared any of us for this... An enemy that turns the bodies of our dead into killing machines and chip away at our sanity till we started to betray each other for that thing... Nothing from our training or what happened in the Colony Wars could have prepared anyone for this..."

He hung his head as he muttered, with an uncharacteristic coldness, "I knew those things that those cultists worshiped were evil... but I did not think that they were this evil."

Angelo lowered his head as he clenched his hands from everything that has happened since this entire thing began.

Jeff stepped up as he stated, "We can berate or insult giant pale white cucumber space men later. Right now, we need to come up with a plan before all this hits the fan. On earth."

"I meant the monoliths not a different species. In fact I am not entirely certain that the creators you met were the ones who created them." Adam theorized before he asked, "Any other questions?"

"Do you have a plan," Gwen asked.

Though as they were going over any idea of a plan, Isaac looked at the command deck and at the Monolith picture on the screen. Then he turned to look at DRU who was staring at it intently. Though while Adam was going over ideas, Isaac chose to walk out, but not unnoticed, as Kori noticed him leave.

"Isaac," she asked, and flew after him.

Adam noticed two leaving before nodding, letting them have their moment, and asked, "Angelo, the map?"

Angelo raised his left arm as a holographic keypad appeared over his arm before he typed it in, the held it out as a hologram of the ship appears over the table.

Adam then stood up and pointed out the large or defendable looking locations, "As explained when we told you what happened on our end, Angelo had organized all Warrior units protecting what survivors they could find and brought them to these locations therefore everyone in this room and in the bridge who have not succumbed to the psycho-field that Dr. Kain had detected from the monolith before this entire thing started."

Looking over at the doctor, he asked, "Dr. Kain, can you give the results of your findings to our latest friends to know what you discovered?"

It was no secret that he had said the word 'doctor' when addressing Dr. Kain with a respectful manner like how he did when talking about Wayward.

"Y-yes, yes... Of course." Dr. Kain said coming out of his thoughts as used the captain's terminal to transfer all the files he had of his scans and study of the monolith up for people to look at. The scientist stood up and said, "I apologize for not having much of its molecular structure of the monolith, but I had to ensure that those of the church did not suspect me of tampering with it."

Adam then moved out of the way, "Rei, see what can you make of the data that the doctor gathered from the Monolith."

Rei nodded as she looked at the data on the captain's personal terminal.

---

Kori took notice of Isaac just standing there, looking out to the vastness of space and the surface of Aegis-7 in view. She also remembered what the former captain had said earlier, and wondered if she should try and help him out on this. She walked over and gently placed a hand on his shoulder, though he seemed to turn a bit, as he smiled, "Oh, hey, Kori."

"Yes, hello, Isaac," she sympathetically replied. He then turned his way back to wherever it was he was looking, but Kori implied, "I know you feel that you are the ridden of guilt due to " She looked at his shoulder to where her hand rested, as she defended, "I do not think your family was responsible for this. Neither do I believe Mr. Weyward is responsible. It was no doubt inevitable to happen…."

Isaac blinked, "What? What are you talking about, Kori," Isaac asked, turning to her direction, as he seemed confused.

Kori blinked, as she explained, "I thought you were in the dumps, Isaac. You seemed rather distracted."

Isaac nodded, "yeah, but I was distracted by that," Isaac replied as he pointed to DRU… who seemed fixated on the screen of the Monolith.

Kori blinked, as she also became fixated, but not by the screen, but by DRU, as she asked, "How long as he been looking at this?"

"Since Mathias was killed," Isaac answered.

Both walked over to talk to him, as Isaac started the conversation, "DRU? You okay? You've been starring at that holo-screen for some time."

DRU snapped out of it quickly, and looked at them both in deep concern, "We have to tell the others."

Kori blinked, "Tell them what?"

---

Moments Later

Isaac, Kori, and DRU walked in, as Isaac started, "Before we start anything, DRU has something he needs to tell us."

DRU walked up as he was about to say something, all the while ignoring the nasty look that Genus was giving him for some odd reason. "During this whole time we've been aboard, I've been picking up a high-pitched sound. A squeal of sorts."

Kera blushed, as she admitted, "I got scared most of the time getting here before I met you, DRU, okay?"

DRU blinked, not noticing the girl's embarrassment as a sign directed as affections to him, as he replied, "It didn't come from you, Kera."

Misty blinked, and pointed at Ben, "Was it him? Because he can shriek pretty loudly when freaking out."

Ben blushed, as he shouted, "HEY!"

DRU shook his head, "No, it's not a sound organic beings can hear. It's a carrier wave. A powerful one at that."

"DRU thinks it might be the reason why the comms and electrical signals are getting messed up," Isaac explained.

Adam thought about it before he said, "Genus did state he felt some sort of unknown energy flowing throughout the ship for the past week. I have my speculations as to what it is but... I don't have the necessary proof."

Kera looked and asked, "How is it that he can sense it?"

"The power that was unlocked when Genus joined the W-Organization is what the professor calls Ethereal Energy Manipulation. But due to our scientific society many would discredit it's name."

Looking at DRU, the sunglasses wearing Spartan asked, "Can you identify the source of it or where it is coming originating from?"

DRU held up his left wrist, as a green watch lens formed on it, as he replied, "I did moments ago. It was a bit unclear as it was more advanced than the nano-bots that made up my body could detect. But with time and enhancing it... I discovered the link to the carrier wave."

And then suddenly, a holographic display of the Monolith was shown in place of the ship's hologram provided by the armored Spartan.

Adam clenched his teeth as he hissed, "I knew it..."

"There is also more to this," Kori replied, and looked to DRU, "You should finish, DRU."

DRU nodded, as he explained further, "The carrier wave emanating from the Monolith, is somehow also carrying within it a programmable DNA code that only affects Dead Cells."

"Well, that doesn't explain those things out there," Captain Campbell asked.

DRU then explained, "As I was learning of Earth and all its sciences, I found that even in death, the human body can still remain active. Hair and nails continue to grow, new cells are produced, and the brain still possesses a small electrical charge that would take months to dissipate. The Black Ooze, much like the carrier wave, provide a massive jolt to the cellular growth and these impulses. To put it bluntly, it reanimates the body."

Adam looked at Angelo and Kain gave them an 'I told you so' look before he asks, "But that divides the problem into both the carrier wave and this black ooze. Because I don't recall there being black ooze from before this..."

He stopped and asked, "Doctor... What's the matter..."

Doctor Kain was holding his hand to his mouth as his eyes were shifting scared, "Oh god..."

He looked at them and said, "When Adam and I were last in the cargo hold, before the crew was beginning to be slaughtered I saw a large amount of this black ooze going up the wall from the monolith and into the vents... I thought I was seeing things but if what DRU said is true then... oh God..."

"Doc. Are you saying that the ooze came out of the monolith and infected someone before spreading it to others? How can it be? I thought it was a large rock?" Angelo asked not understanding how it could be since the monolith was the only thing found on the planet.

"At a guess, this Monolith must be a crystalized form of the Black Ooze," DRU replied. "It might be affected from environmental changes if left unchecked."

"Yeah, the egg things back on Aegis 7 in that alien ship were starting to sweat," Jeff replied. "That might have been an effect or something due to us either opening the door or just being there."

Adam heard and asks, "Eggs?"

The youngest war hero's face began to pale as a thought occurred to him, which made him ask, "How many Eggs did you see on that ship?"

"From what I and the others saw, it was close to thousands," Isaac replied, as he looked to Rei, "Rei can defend the claim, she was there with me."

Adam looked at them and said, "I know you both and I believe you but I have a question... did you find the creature that laid those eggs?"

Isaac shook his head, even as Gwen pointed out, "We didn't find anything like that at the ship we were exploring. Everything was all dead."

Angelo noticed something and asked, "Adam I know that look... What is it?"

"This is a theory, but I am thinking that the creators had such a creature and when they had enough of the eggs for their ship as Mr. Carter just said, they killed the progenitor of those eggs to keep them dormant until there was some being in their presence for them infants to come and perhaps form a parasitic relationship with their hosts before mutating them into the Xenecromorphs that you've all been facing..." Adam said before he looked deep in thought and theorized, "However, this is different from that and it could mean there is a progenitor of the eggs somewhere in range for the infants to infect both living and dead like when Genus brought in that infector. And given how the one he brought had a different role then that means it has its own hive like classification within them, probably to lessen the burden of this supposed Queen of the hive. But then all of them are linked by the carrier wave to the monolith..."

He looks to DRU and asks, "Does that theory go along with everything you have learned about the Xenecromorphs and the monolith?"

Everyone in Isaac's crew blinked, /'Wow, he figured that pretty quickly.'

"Seems accurate. But I think the reason for why this thing hasn't shown it yet is because there wasn't a Monolith needed to be guarded." DRU answered.

"Guarded?" everyone asked, excluding Adam as he had thought the same thing.

DRU agreed on that, "The Monolith is basically the source of life for the Xenecromorphs, so it would make sense that they can't risk it getting easily destroyed. So it would stem to reason that this Queen would also act as a guardian. It just hasn't shown itself yet now that there's a Monolith present."

"I would agree with you there. Just like in one of the world's mythologies about a tree and a guardian..." Adam thought, not exactly able to remember which one before he asked, "Have you found a means of damaging or at least destroy it?"

Dr. Kain stepped up as he explained, "There's nothing here that we could use to destroy it. The Monolith's structure is barely even scratched by a geologist laser or a plasma cutter. The only way we could destroy it is crush it with a continent."

"We're not about to drop the payload we have," Campbell replied. "Even if we could, we'd be pulled along with it. We'll all just crash into the planet if the gravity tethers are compromised in any way."

Kain sighed, "Well, then the next best thing we could do is throw it into a sun's heart..."

"Or maybe throw it into a Black Hole," Isaac suddenly thought up. "Or at least an Artificial one."

Everyone looked at him like he had lost his mind or grasping at straws, and then he looked to Rei and DRU as he asked, "You think it's possible?"

Rei nodded, s she let a small smile appear on her face, "Yes. I believe it is so."

DRU figured it out as well, knowing what Isaac had planned, "Well, we were gonna have to get the Falcon patched up anyway."

"What are you going on about," Captain Campbell asked.

The Falcon's crew looked to one another, and all answered together, "The Gravity Drive."

Now it was Adam who seemed confused as he asked, "Gravity what...?"

"It's basically an alien engine that goes around the Law of Relativity," Jeff explained, as he clarified better, "It basically creates artificial black holes that allowed these alien Creator guys to go from one point of the galaxy to another in a snap."

Gwen seemed to pick up on it, as she replied, "I get it. You want to use it to create an artificial black hole that does what a real one would do: suck up the Monolith and crush it with the overwhelming gravity."

Adam nodded, "Fascinating. Yes, that should work..."

He then stood and stated, "We're going to need everyone in on this. That includes the remainder of Chief Vincent's security team with all available personal while the officers barricade the bridge after we leave and head to three key locations to pull this off."

Suddenly, the ship began to start shaking, causing everyone to fall on the floor. The door opened, allowed Isaac to slide out of there, but not before Misty grabbed his hand. He looked up, and despite the past he had with her, a small part of him was happy for this, "Uh... thanks? I guess."

Adam moved and caught his sister while Angelo went to check on Vincent, the armored Spartan asked, "You okay, Alissa?"

"I'm fine Chris…" She said before stopping herself and said, "I mean… Angelo…"

Adam helped straighten his sister up and went over to the bridge, "What's happened?"

Chitt's voice called out, "The Gravity stabilizers are shutting down."

As everyone right themselves, Gwen asked, "What happens when they do?"

"Either the piece of the land we have with us up here will fall to the planet bellow pulling the ship down or the ship will suffer the backlash of it and be torn apart." Adam said with a straight face.

He looks around for anyone missing. Adam then noticed Genus missing and asked the legionaries who were helping the officers up, "Joshua, Noah! Where is Genus!?"

The two Legionaries look at each other as Noah said, "Genus said he went to confer on something for the anti-viral."

"But we found a way to stop all of this. We need all hands on decks." Adam said to them, before typing on his the holo-keypad his PIC made over his arm and stopped as he exclaimed, "it can't be!"

"What? What is it," Jeff asked.

Adam's fist was clenched tightly, something that both Rei and Angelo know to be a bad sign as the Spartan asked, "Adam? What is it?"

"I was using my PIC to looking for Genus' signal and found he used his PIC to hack and sabotage the Gravity Stabilizers..." He said before asking, "What is he thinking?"

Isaac looked to Campbell and Wyatt, and asked, "What happens if the ship's stabilizers all go off?"

"It's just as Adam said when he answered your cousin, we'll be forced to crash into Aegis VII by the weight of the mass of earth under this ship. Almost like a slingshot effect." Campbell answered.

A small pause was heard among them all, as Kori tried to lighten the mood, "Well, it would take out the Xenecromorphs along with us. Despite it would be our demise as well."

Adam gritted his teeth and said, his voice becoming colder, "But the Monolith would survive in the Cargo hold making this a hollow victory... And because Genus had sabotaged this stabilizers it means that he betrayed us."

Angelo shook his head, "No that can't be. He may be eccentric but not that eccentric."

Jonie shook her head, "No... There's no way Genus would do that... Right? There has to be a reason why he'd do this..."

Adam got up and said, "We need to go ahead with our plan then..."

Adam, regaining his composure said, "Those who are able to fight will be split into three teams. Team A will comprise of myself, Security Chief Vincent, Princess Andr'z, Misty Vascuez, and lead by Isaac Shepard to go down and get that death rock out of the ship and into position."

Isaac was surprised by this and asked, "M-Me?"

"Team B will be comprised of the biggest of our numbers comprised of Security officers Linkin, Graham, Shen, Ramirez, Carter, Twenard, Sphere, Legionaries Noah and Spartan Angelo, Nurse Tanaka, and Irons lead by Ms. Tenalds. Should you find someone along the way the person in charge of the rescue effort will be Officer Carter with one legionary in his team." Adam said stating, "The main terminal room in charge of manual override of the ship's gravity stabilizers are larger and therefore needs larger team with more security than Team A & C will."

He then looked at those not called and said, "And the last team will go down and do what needs to be done for the Gravity Drive to be of use to crush that damn rock when it gets into proper location with the black hole. The officers will barricade the bridge and keep working on getting the ship back into safe orbit. We may have to drop the piece of the planet with us back onto Aegis VII."

Looking at them Adam said, "We have limited time and a lot of lives to save. Make sure you are already with as much ammunition and energy to make it count and keep safe all of you. Whether they know it or not, everyone onboard this ship is looking to us to save them and end this living nightmare for everyone."

Looking at Campbell he asked, "I know you are itching to get to help save the ship, which one of the teams you wish to be a part of Captain?"

"I'll go with Shepard's group. They'll need a captain and pilot to fly the Falcon when we get it space worthy," Campbell replied.

"WAT A MINUTE!" Isaac finally shouted, as he huffed and puffed, And calmly replied, "Why am I in charge again?"

Adam would pull Isaac away and said, quietly for Isaac to hear, "It's because the fact that one of my oldest friends have betrayed us has made it impossible for me to keep thinking clearly without going into a blind rage. I know you, you're a good kid who cares about the people around him and will make the right decisions to see that we are able to destroy that damn monolith once and for all. If you need me to advise you on something I'll be there for you during this mission, but I cannot take the lead without giving into revenge. And don't worry about us being out numbered, I'm capable of fighting an army of one thousand and I can take down as many of the Xenecromorphs for the team. And if Genus has betrayed us, then it's my job to stop him before he tries to take everyone else down for you to reach the controls and jettison that thing out for your friends to make the black hole needed to destroy it and kill the Xenecromorphs if and when we be able to kill the queen."

Adam gave Isaac a friendly smile before stating, "You were able to help your friends along this far. You need to have faith in your abilities to show them that you are confident in not only them but our success. Can I count on you to lead me to victory?"

Isaac still frowned, as he replied, "I didn't make the right call about Pinky. I should have knocked her out but instead I went on instinct and shot her."

"I heard about what happen from Angelo in a private chat between PICs. Given the evidence from how far Mathias had been she would have remained insane until her dying breath or you could have died instead of her and she would have kept killing until Angelo or Genus had. I would have done the same thing as you if someone tried to kill either my friends or my sister Rei." Adam said, "I know I am not good at cheering up but think of those who need you in the moment be they family, friends, loved ones, or strangers. They need you to help them survive this horror."

At the word loved one he turned to Kori and said, "She needs you. So does your cousin, Carter, and the friends you made since you set foot on that planet."

Isaac took a deep breath, after letting all that sink in, and slapped his cheeks, as he looked toughened up, "Alright, I'm on it."

"Your parents were right. You do have a inner strength." Adam said before remarking, with a smile "Maybe if we met at a more peaceful time you could have been scouted and joined the W-Organization and became a Spartan in no time."

Adam got up and made sure that his gun was all set. What the enhanced soldier said stunned Isaac.

Rei was looking after Adam before she asked, "Are you all right Isaac?"

Isaac nodded, "Yeah, let's do this and get the Falcon running again. I got a promise to keep."

Rei nodded before she said, "Please look after Adam. I lost my father, but I do not wish to lose my brother, even though we are not actually related..."

Isaac blinked on that, still not getting how "Yeah. We should talk about that later so I know what is going on in your family tree, Rei."

"I will explain as soon as everything is back in order and we are out of immediate danger." Rei said as she got ready for her mission with the team she was assigned to.

The combined team of A and C continued their way as they all kept their eyes opened for any more Xenecromorph attempting to attack them. The security chief was keeping her eyes on Adam, especially after he executed Mathias for the betrayal, almost as readily as Genus did back in Hydroponics with Genji.

Misty was especially untrusting of the Warrior with them, while wondering why the 'youngest war hero' would put someone like Isaac in charge of a team instead of Vincent or herself, even the alien princess...

Adam kept walking before he asked, "Are you curious about my abilities?"

That question caught her off guard as Adam continued, "I suppose since I am with you my allies should know about my sixth sense abilities."

As they went, Adam spoke, "I have the powers of Apportation, Levitation, and Kinetic Barrier."

Isaac heard and asked, "Why do you have three when it's supposed to be one extra ability?"

Adam remained silent before he answered, "There's a reason why I'm known as the "Alpha of the Enhanced". Because I was the first, I went through the entire procedure without going into steps like the others did and I was able to survive."

He placed his hand to his hair and said, "This, along with my eyes are the only physical side effect that I would like to discuss about at the moment."

Isaac, seeing how adamant the Warrior is about leaving it as that, nodded and kept going. Only once they entered a new section Adam stopped them and asked, "Request permission to take point?"

"Why?" Teo asked, suspiciously.

Adam remained silent as Rei said, "As a Spartan rank Warrior, Adam has heightened scenes that others cannot."

"Pretty blue's got a point." Joshua said, looking at Rei. Though Rei was finding that nickname for her rather odd.

Before Adam stated, not turning to face the legionary, "No one can see you winking Joshua…"

"And besides you know it's against regulations to flirt on the job and a risk to your health for trying to pick up my sister." Adam said turning around as Isaac though he saw something glowing in the sunglasses he wore.

Joshua made an audible gulp and said, fearful "Sorry sir…"

Some of the others felt scared about that. Others were baffled by how protective the war hero was about an android like they were siblings. Jonie rolled her eyes, not understanding why someone would care about an android like a person…

Isaac sighed before saying, "Its fine, Adam. Take point if you want."

Adam nodded as he led the way, his platinum blond hair flowing behind him as he walked. Things seem rather quiet while Adam led the way. He then reached a corner and pressed his back to it. Seeing this, the others on their team carefully moved closer until they caught up with Adam and he told them, "We have a problem."

"What is it?" Isaac asked, leaning against the wall as the rest join him.

Adam remained silent as he said, "I hear several creatures ahead, and they appear similar to the visual data that one of the subordinates sent me after the initial attack."

Isaac asked, "How bad is it?"

"Pretty bad," Adam replied. "There's probably a whole pack."

"Slashers and Spitters?" Isaac asked, which caused those who weren't aware of this, "Slashers are pretty much the ones with those sickle arms and faster than they look, while looking like they were men. Spitters have acidic vomit projectile while looking women."

"Yeah, those vendecos are not something you wanna mess with," Misty replied, adding in her experience, "Considering we were both almost in the range of the Splash Zone."

Adam thought for a moment, then smiled and said, calmly, catching everyone's attention, "Allow me to show you all that you can trust me and my abilities by dispatching these creatures from our way."

Before anyone could stop him, the Alpha of the Enhanced then got up and walked over to the pack as he said to them, "Please do not get involved. I'd say that from my time in the Colony War, I am worth an army of humans. And these creatures are no exception to the numbers."

He then walked forward as he drew his gun, aimed quickly and fired with one hand, killing two Slashers who were standing right before each other as the bullet whizzed through and severed their heads from their bodies.

Everyone who didn't know about the combat abilities that Adam has, were all at awe. Including DRU and Kori, who blinked, "X'Hal!"

Adam kept firing which hit their marks by severing more limbs from more Slashers, before he decided to save bullets and rush forward as he used a combination of Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and karate on the Spitters, using his enhanced speed and strength to do considerable damage on them before he moved backwards and waited for their attacks while dodging a surprise attack from a Slasher that he didn't wound, slam it's arm down before moving in a way that allowed him to lower himself and brake the weaponized limb out of its hands as he stood up and used the scythe blade as a weapon to behead the Slasher before throwing it expertly at a Spitter before going forward, able to avoid being attacked and used a well-executed aim kick to make it go through the body of the Spitter and into the leg of the other one as he back flipped out of the way and waited for their move. And it appears he hasn't broken a sweat yet.

Ernesto blinked, after watching this, remarking, "Makes me wonder why any of us are even here."

"I'm wondering that myself just now," Isaac replied. Though initially skeptical of Adam's remarks about his abilities he is now relieved to have this enhanced super soldier with them.

Joshua smirked under his helmet and said "The general certainly lives up to the legends that the War made doesn't he? Especially with the powers he has."

Just as the first Spitter was about to spew its acid at him, in a last ditch effort to kill the enhanced human, Adam remained perfectly still as it shot its acid. Rei appeared to be worried at first. The same energy field that repelled Mathias appeared and stopped some of the acid before sending most of it back at the Xenecromorph that spewed it. As it died, Adam floated into the air some inches from the acid covered floor and asked after landing, "Have I proved myself?"

Before anyone could answer he ducked out of the way, by leaning backwards to a degree though difficult. His pistol appeared in his hand like it did on the bridge, and fired upwards at the Spitter's head. It fell backwards from the force of its head exploding as the Spartan got up and looked over at them as he smiled.

Suddenly, they heard roaring, as they saw Tanks striding towards them like gorillas. Adam turned and walked towards them. Calm and not afraid as he held up one hand and in the same flash of light a sword handle appeared.

Joshua said, getting excited now, "Look at that, he's actually gonna draw his sword."

DRU looked and asked, "I am afraid I don't understand the reason for this emotional response for a weapon."

Joshua looked and said, "Every Warrior in the W-Organization has a sword as their melee weapon. And the general's unique. He actually had that sword with at the start of the colony war years ago when it began."

Adam grabbed the handle and drew his sword as he slashed at the fore legs of the Tanks making them skid to the ground. Adam stood there unharmed as everyone can see Adam's sword was different. It was a five foot long, single edge bladed, sword almost like a Kodachi, but the blade's width was like four to give inches wide and looks like the blade was forged with the guard and handle. The guard had an almost oval shape to it around the hand but had feathery like motif in front of the hand and behind the blade. Adam stood and took a stance similar to the Te Ura Gasumi no kamae from Japan. Only his blade was angled to be protectively placed to shield his vitals in his stance as he waited for the Tanks to attack him again.

However, suddenly, tentacles came shooting out of the ceiling, aiming for the surprised Adam. But suddenly, Plasma shots and silver green energy beams were showering overhead, as they tore through the tentacles. Adam turned to see both DRU and Isaac watching his back, as Isaac shouted, "Misty, Ernesto! Take the front, but make sure the captain gets through. We'll cover the top and rear."

Adam levitated over to them and said, holding long sword in the reverse grip style and said to Isaac, "I appreciate the aid for that one, sir."

Adam then reapportated his sword away to where it was as he then redrew his gun but replaced that clip with another one and said, "Everyone be ready I'm using explosive rounds. Going to see if it will come out as the kraken when we damage its limbs."

And aimed for his target, and fired at the access point of the tentacles. However, one of the Xenecromorphs blinked, as it looked and saw the hatch to a door. It then saw Adam fire one of the explosive rounds at it, and then swatted it at the door. It blew a hole through the hull, causing a vacuum, almost sucking outside, as they all made their way to the door. But as Isaac was pushing it, he noticed on the other side as they got in, "We've got a problem! The switches on this side are damaged. Meaning if the door is gonna close, someone will have to stay out there!"

"Go! I'll handle it," Adam shouted as the Xenecromorphs were clawing their way to them, without getting sucked outside.

Though Campbell stepped forward, "You all go ahead! I'll stay!"

Adam protested, "No. Sir, I...!"

"You may be an elite soldier and war hero, but I am still ranking officer on this ship! So go." He then looked to Isaac as he stated, "Go and send that thing and those beasts back to hell where they belong!" But then calmly and warmly looked at him like a grandfather, as he spoke with regret, "And if you find my grandson, Kenneth... tell him he was right. I should have retired from this mission."

Isaac nodded, "I… understand."

He walked out, and as Adam levitated in... the door shut, with the captain outside... but he failed to notice a strange blob forming below him as he faced all the Xenecromorphs as they rushed at him, he shouted, "Alright you monsters... Come and get it!"

On the Other side, every one heard slashes and shrieks, as they realized the captain was gone... but so was DRU. And as they heard the slashes and roars, Ernesto and Kori looked uncertain, while Misty paled, "What are we gonna do? We don't have a heavy lifter pilot."

Isaac looked at Adam and asked, "Can you fly?"

Adam said, "Each Warrior has been trained either before their joined us or after to pilot or drive any vehicle they can."

Joshua nodded, "That's right and you're looking at one of the best in the whole organization."

Adam then said, fixing his sunglasses, "It is also why I made sure each team had an available Warrior with them in the event they needed to have someone fly or operate something."

Isaac nodded, "Good to know, when we make it to the dock where the ships are one of you can pilot and take the team down to rock and get what needs to get done. We'll keep our way to the Monolith."

The two teams nodded and continued on their way.

The lower hallways aboard the Ishimura, where Team B head to the mainframe to stop to the ship from falling to the planet bellow. In the distance, they hear a creature roaring.

Ramirez stopped and asked, "You hear that?"

"Yeah." Jeff said gritting his teeth before stating, "Okay the majority of you keep going to the computer. Shen, Ramirez, Noah, and Irons come with me, everyone else keep going. We'll meet you at the computer core as soon as we rescue those in trouble.

As they move on, Irons is forced to stop as he suffers from hallucinations, images of the Marker, the Xenecromorphs, and other violent scenes plaguing his mind. Clasping his pendant, he manages to continue onward. Noah watched Irons cautiously, especially how the captain was putting everyone in danger due to him being a Unitologist. Irons may say he's changed, but the young warrior had to keep his eyes on him as ordered by his superior.

---

-{Flashback}-

Just as Noah was looking over everything he saw a shadow standing over him, he looked saw it was his superior, Adam there.

"Adam, sir." Noah said standing up and was about to salute but Adam held up his hand and said, "I just wanted to see how you were doing."

"Should be ready for anything coming our way on mission." Noah reported.

Adam nodded turning his head slightly. Before he said, "I have a special order for you if you while on your team."

Leaning in the Spartan said, "Keep an eye on Samuel Irons… make sure he doesn't do anything or succumbed to the psycho-field that Dr. Kain found."

"But sir, you don't suspect he may become an enemy do you?" Noah asked shocked at this, while making sure to keep his voice quiet.

"Angelo said that Irons plans to return to worshiping the Great Spirit of his people, but he still wears the Unitologist pendant around his neck and therefore must be taken into account as a possible enemy." Adam explained, and Noah felt it did make sense.

Noah looked about before he said, "Sir, if they seem me executing Mr. Irons then they may think I was the one to go insane not him. I'm not exactly a good judge of character."

Adam sighs, "If that happens then tell them I issued the order as a precautious measure, but you do need to keep your eyes on the others in case they succumbed as well."

Noah, saddened by the orders said, "Understood…"

Adam turned to walk away but stopped and said, "Noah. I know you worried about making the wrong decision on these things and you have a kind soul, but I have faith that you can discern the proper course of action if you believe in yourself."

---

-{Flashback end}—

Noah looked conflicted, it was their jobs as Warriors to keep people safe yet if Unitologists are going to be placing themselves over others then they are enemies… but if he does execute as ordered then the others may think he's gone insane as well… For now the Legionary kept an eye on Irons while they continued.

Jeff noticed the elite soldier falling behind and called, "Hey! Noah, you okay?"

Coming out of his thoughts he said, "Yes sir, sorry sir!"

Adam walked with his group before he stopped and remarked, "The headquarters' training room."

"Huh?" Isaac asked confused.

Adam turned to the unenhanced teenager and said, "Forgive me I was merely thinking of when we used to sneak into the training room when the Celtics were out. Genus, Angelo, and I."

Seeing the fondness on Adam's face, Isaac said, "You three must have been close friends. Before all this happened."

"Hmmm… I wonder…" he then explained what happened the last time they were in the training room back on Earth before entering cryo-sleep.

-{Flashback}-

In one of the programmed settings of the Virtual Reality training room, Adam stood at the edge of a decommissioned cannon that was made during the Colony War. His glasses were in his hand with his eyes closed while a voice spoke,

"Infinite in mystery is the gift of the Goddess

We seek it thus, and take to the sky"

Adam replaced his glasses over his eyes as he opened them and smiled, turning to walk towards his two best friends, Angelo was leaning against something his sword on his back while his arms were crossed. Genus was sitting on of the pipes on the top of the cannon as he recited by memory, his hair deep red as his eyes were while showing that this was before his current condition,
"Ripples form on the water's surface

The wandering soul knows no rest."

"HEARTLESS ACT I." Adam said, remembering one of Genus' favorite poem books.

Genus smiled at that as he jumped down and said, fixing his coat, "You remembered."

Adam kept his friendly smile as he said, "How can I not after you beaten it into my head."

He tapped his head to emphasize it before he used his power of apportation to summon his sword at the ready in his left hand.

Angelo placed his helmet over his head and drew a standard W-Organization sword over his usual sword "Honor", remarking to his best friend, "Don't take Adam lightly, Genus. You know how good he is with his sword "Evolution"."

"Got it." Genus answered as he readied his own sword "Legacy" and the two ran at Adam. The youngest Spartan quickly parried both of their attacks while they were working in perfect unison. Adam kept on parrying his friend's attacks while dodging or parrying with ease. He stopped when both were on either side of him.

Genus and Angelo went and struck at the same time. Adam skill fully held his sword up with the blade pointed downwards as his blade crossed that of his friends. They got close for a moment before Adam pushed the other two Spartans away.

They began swinging their swords with it being both Angelo and Genus vs Adam with no clear signs of a winner. Genus and Adam had their swords cross before moving backwards as Angelo then came in with a powerful slash downwards. Adam got out of the way before that happened, Genus then leapt over his oldest friend's back and spun in mid-air gracefully. Adam knocked him backwards where Angelo begun attacking with some strength based attacks, only for Adam to meet his blade with an equal amount of strength.

Adam smiled at the older Spartan and asked, "You think you can do much with this toy sword? And not with "Honor"?"

Angelo's smile disappeared at that challenge of a remark. Adam then took that lack of focus to push Angelo to Genus before swiping it down.

Angelo smirked a bit and recited, "As expected of Adam, huh?"

Genus became serious before holding his left arm out, "Angelo, step back please."

Angelo looked confused by this while hearing his redheaded friend say, "I will face Adam Alone."

"Genus!" Angelo exclaimed, thinking Genus' need to become a hero was getting the better of him again.

Genus then begun to flair with his usual red energy as he ran his hand over his sword's blade as the runes appeared along the face of his blade, and declared, "The human race needs a new hero."

Adam smiled at that and said, "That's fine by me, come and try."

Genus looked at Adam seriously, as he remarked, "That laxness and smugness of yours, how long will you keep up your facade?"

He then charged forward as he swung Legacy at Adam who blocked and swung in a full circle, where Genus ducked and swung in an upwards spiral. Adam moved backwards to avoid being hit as Genus came a downwards slash which Adam blocked with one hand, only for him to be pushed down by the force of the attack, making a deep indent with the cannon's barrel.

Both friendly rivals gave a smirking chuckle, Adam swung his blade, making Genus flip backwards to avoid being hit by Adam's attack before charging in with a flurry of attacks with his sword. Adam blocked with a little more effort than before. Before the two locked blades. Adam's expression became serious before using his Kinetic Barrier to push Genus away.

Genus was able to stop from skidding before Adam came in with a few attacks of his own, before an upwards slash made Genus fly up into the air. Genus held himself up with his Telekinesis when Adam leapt up and the two exchanged slashes with each other and their swords. Adam held himself up with his Levitation as he did this. Genus was able to knock the young hero away higher into the air before using his free hand to send balls of energy at Adam, who swung his blade and made a few disperse. Genus, with a smirk went and clenched his fist. The energy balls began making a wide arc towards the suspended platinum blond. Adam swung Evolution to try and stop it as more came around him encasing him like it was a miniature sun. Adam had an expression of shock at this, thinking Genus is taking their friendly rivalry a bit far this time.

Genus then got ready to end the fight when Angelo, wearing his complete armor grabbed his arm and said, "Stop this! Are you trying to destroy the entire building?"

This made Genus lose his concentration as he began to descend down to the ground with the armored Spartan. Genus pulled his hand away as he grabbed Angelo's helmet face and exclaimed, "That's no way to talk to a hero!"

And a small explosion went off, making Angelo fall to the ground. With his best friend out of the way, Genus looked up about ready to finish the fight, only for Adam to swing so hard and fast he actually cut the air making an energy based slash knocking Genus back, cutting the cannon's barrel completely and getting the young hero out of the trap when he sent two more energy beams at Genus, who dispersed the energy closes to him with a couple swings of his sword.

Genus then landed on the undamaged section of the barrel before moving backwards as another energy slashed cut through the barrel as Adam landed on the falling section.

Once Adam was gone from sight, several energy slashes were seen flying skywards at the same time as Adam had cut with his sword as many times within a second, revealing Adam moving through as he went to step it up a notch as well in their fight. Genus blocked twice then attacked, their blades meeting. Adam's sword cut through the thick alloy that made the cannon's barrel as he attacked upwards, which Genus blocked against, letting it push him back. When he landed he saw Adam coming towards him slashing at the barrel and cutting clean through it as if it was a hot knife through butter.

They then went into the command tower of the cannon as their intense fighting caused it to explode from the intensity of how the two rivals fought. Genus came out of the smoke and fire first as Adam followed behind. The scarlet warrior had bounced off his back and onto his feet to stop himself from going any farther. He looked up seeing the younger Spartan coming at him by means of his Levitation, Evolution was in his right hand now. Genus infused Legacy with more of his energy as the two clashed. The contact of their blades made a shockwave around them as their blades sparked from the intensity of their contact with each other. The two looked at each other before they pushed each other back. Landing a few feet apart from then.

They readied their swords again and were about to do one last attack when…

"ENOUGH!"

Angelo came through as he landed between them, blocking Genus' sword with the W-Organization sword he was using in one hand, while using his other hand to hold the hilt and guard of Honor to stop Adam's blade.

This action and appearance of his other best friend made Adam snap out of the fight and ask, confused, "Angelo?"

Genus gritted his teeth and shouted, "Out of the way!"

His left hand began to have energy in his hand as he was about to attack again. Time seemed to slow down as he was about to attack only for the sword that Angelo was using to block his oldest friend's to snap and the blade, bathed by the energy went and cut Genus on the shoulder. Genus gave a yell of surprise.

"Genus!" Both of the other Spartans exclaimed, worried for their friend.

The holographic simulator shut down as it showed the advance room being severely damaged by what happened.

With blood on his left shoulder, Genus said, "Don't worry, it's just a scratch. I should be fine after it heals."

Picking up his sword, Genus walked past both reciting, "Even if the morrow is barren of promises nothing shall forestall my return."

Both noticed how he was walking as if in a tired dream manner.

---

Back to Present

After Adam told his story, he remained silent. Isaac asked, "So, was everything okay?"

"As far as Genus was concerned, it was." Adam told them, but the smiled, "But as for Angelo…"

Alissa looked back and asked, "What about him?"

"I was on the receiving end of one of his famous lectures afterwards." Adam told them, giving a smile that Alissa recognized. Adam gave a chuckle that the security chief shared.

"Ahh. One of those, huh?" She said, remembering being on the end of that when she and Angelo were in the military at one point. Back when they were part of the same squad.

Kori looked between them and asked, not understanding, "What is this lecture of fame that he spoke of?"

"It's something he always put into the new recruits back on Earth. How a Warrior needs Discipline, Dreams, Honor, and that it was our Duty to be a beacon for people to trust…"

Alissa leaned against the railing as she said, fondly "That does sound like him."

Adam then placed his hand to his face and asked, "What has happened to us?"

A tear fell down from the space in his glasses down to the railing floor.

"So he was like that even before he killed Genji." Misty remarked, remembering her friend being killed in Hydroplonics, "But since he tried to kill you just to be hero, he really is loco..."

Adam looked over and said, "Given when happened before we left it is a little understand able for him to be on edge."

"What do you mean?" Isaac asked.

Adam answered, "The Grey Murder."

"Ahh. I remember reading about that before entering cryo…" Alissa said, grimacing.

The three teenagers blinked confused as Adam explained, "As Angelo might have told you, Genus was once a unitologist. Actually he was born into it after his father married into the Grey Family. One of the oldest aristocrat families that was able to remain strong before the series of events that reshaped the world to how it is now. His full name was once Valliance Genesis Grey. When he was struck by an incurable decease that slowly began to ravage his body. His own father abandoned him to die and focused on his younger brother to be the new heir of the family. His mother did everything she could to save him, putting him in a secret Cryo until a cure could be found. He remained that way until I found his pod undamaged after surveying the damage done to earth during the last leg of the war… I awoke him and offered him a chance to live. He accepted and became one of my best friends and cured of his disease. Before the mission he wanted to talk to his mother again, but was unable to. He returned home after years of being away and found his house being burnt to the ground and several dead bodies."

Adam then remarked, "If he wasn't in cryo when I found him due to his illness, then he'd be physically the same age as Angelo."

Both Misty and Isaac blinked at this info as they kept walking, while the girl shouted, "Say what!?"

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Next Chapter: Destroy the Monolith and Survive; Night of the Ishimura pt.6

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Once again, I thank Twilightnite13 for this help.

And Happy New Year

(hopefully this year is better than the last one. I mean it.)