Jorge picked his way through the mass of bodies in the hangar, HMG in hand. He'd elected to leave DOT in the pelican's computer systems for the moment, which were relatively intact despite the beating that the vessel had received during the final firefight. Not that he'd had a choice in the matter, exactly- AI could only really be transferred from system to system by hardlink, compatible high-bandwidth softlink or crystal chip. Seeing as he had none of these, it was best to leave DOT where she was, though some part of him rankled at the idea of being forced to leave behind a familiar part of home, even if it was just for the few minutes needed to find a data port and a cable of some sort.

He had been searching some of the darker corners of the hangar, picking his way through supplies dumped out of the way in an attempt to locate something useful, when one of the doors into the hangar swept open. The Spartan reacted immediately and silently, drawing slightly further into the shadows, HMG at the ready and pointed towards the origin of the sound. He sat there, near invisible, and waited… there! Movement!

Jorge pointed the barrel of his weapon, lining up the creature in his HUD's reticles and half-pulling the trigger before he realized what it was. Pointed, triangular body, tentacles, the small head with six dark eyes… engineer. Noble had received some amount of briefing on these particular creatures- namely, they'd been told that the things were non-hostile, and that capturing them alive when encountered was extremely desirable, if it was an option. His finger still tensed around the trigger for a moment more before relaxing as logic prevailed. He might not like it, but this corvette was beat up from the fights it had been through, and he didn't exactly have the expertise needed to repair a Covenant vessel. This creature, on the other hand, did very much so.

He stepped out of the shadows, the engineer's head flicking to him immediately, and was surprised by the greeting trill that the creature made. It examined him up and down a moment before approaching, Jorge growing tenser and tenser the closer the thing came, until they were as face to face as they could be, the dark eyes of the alien staring into the polarized helmet visor. After a moment, its gaze dropped to the armour. Specifically, it went to a small hole where a needler round had managed to penetrate the Spartan's shield and damaged the armoured plating that covered the MJOLNIR suit. It made another, softer trill, then reached up a tentacle, Jorge going ridged in his effort not to just shoot the thing. To his surprise, it made no aggressive move, simply did… something to his armour. When he looked down, he realized that the hole was gone, though the material that was there was slightly miscoloured when compared to the surrounding plate. He looked up again, just in time to catch the thing nodding to him before drifting off towards the pelican, whistling and chirping in something that almost resembled a song. Jorge hesitated a moment, then lowered his HMG and followed, holding up a hand.

"Wait."

The engineer paused, looking back at him quizzically, the sounds it made matching its mannerism.

"Do you… Derʹmo, yak ya... um…" he rubbed the back of his helmet, then continued, "I need to hook that ship's-" he pointed to the pelican- "computer systems to that of the Corvette's. Can you, um, do that? Do you understand me?"

Another trill, the engineer seeming to consider for a moment before nodding, the Spartan sighing in relief and stepping back towards the center of the hangar, remaining on guard against further intrusions. The engineer, in the meantime, turned away from both him and the pelican and towards the piles of supplies that Jorge had been previously picking through. It seemed to consider for a moment, then select a few disparate cables and drag them over to a port on the exterior of the craft. Jorge, keeping one eye on the entrances into the hangar, still managed to watch with fascination as the tiny, thread-thin tentacles that came from the main ones moved lightning quick to disassemble the end of the cable, taking fiber optic filaments and matching them to the inputs and outputs of the pelican's plug.

After a few minutes of deliberation, and a long series of faint whistles and chirps, the engineer made what seemed to be a triumphant noise before jacking the last of the cable, a thicker bundle of wires that Jorge vaguely recognized as a power conduit, into the plug. That complete, it made its way to one of the nearby jutting pieces of architecture that decorated the floor of the hanger, behind a couple of human weapons crates that had been dumped there. It pushed aside a battle rifle that had been left leaning there, tapping and opening a nearly undetectable panel in the shining purple material, which swung open to reveal a port that matched the plug at the end of the cable. The engineer inserted the plug, twisted it, and it flashed once before settling into a more gentle blue glow.

"Noble five," DOT's voice now came from the ship's speakers, "transfer of AI into host ship systems complete. Use of command level data conduit appears to have allowed me to circumvent Covenant cyber defenses and gain control of all ship's systems."

Jorge breathed a short sigh of relief, nodding his thanks to the engineer, which chirruped in happiness at simply being useful.

"Enemies?" He asked.

"None, Noble five. Any Covenant forces not evacuated attempted to storm the hangar and disable the slipspace device- there are only three life signs on board."

That gave Jorge pause for a moment. "Three?"

"IFF tags register third life form to be ODST Corporal Ian Arroyo, service tag R-one-five-K."

Jorge nodded. He would have preferred a Spartan, to be honest, but he was glad that there was at least one surviving human on board, whatever they were.

"Condition?"

"Corporal Ian Arroyo appears to have suffered minor to moderate plasma burns in the abdominal area as apparent result of plasma fire. Remote access to suit's systems pending… complete. Injuries are non-life-threatening, provided timely low-grade medical attention. Recovery time pending further examination."

Jorge nodded again, hefting his HMG for a moment, then deciding to- with much hesitation and unwillingness- leave it behind on the pelican, grabbing a med kit as he did. "Show me to him."

One of the doors along the walls of the hangar opened. The engineer didn't even glance up at the noise, appearing to be working on simultaneously splicing the slipspace device in the back of the pelican into the ship's system through the pelican itself and repairing the damaged thrusters on one side. Jorge jogged through the door and into the hallway behind it.

The carnage was lessened here, away from the main battle in the hangar, but there were burns consistent with plasma weaponry, bullet holes and the occasional body, whether human or Covenant. Jorge ignored them all beyond a cursory glance or the occasional swift movement necessary to avoid a body or a piece of wreckage in his way.

"Status report. What condition are we in?"

"Covenant SDV-class heavy corvette Ardent Prayer functioning at near full capacity. Engines optimal, reactor optimal, flight control optimal. Compliment twelve type-twenty-seven EMF, codename Banshee, five type thirty-one XMF, codename Seraph, six type fifty-two TC, codename Phantom. Six YSS-1000 Sabre class fighters, varying degrees of functionality. One D-seven-seven-H TC pelican, minor armour and thruster damage. Jorge zero-five-two, Noble five, green condition. Corporal Ian Arroyo, second company ODST, yellow condition."

Jorge grunted in appreciation. "Thorough."

"I aim to please, Noble five. Left at the next juncture."

A number of directions from DOT, corrected once or twice for a jammed door or a barricaded corridor, led him finally to a final hallway. Human defenders lay across barricades that had protected them, plasma having scorched and melted the things they had used to form it, and even parts of them. It seemed to Jorge at first glance that nothing could have survived this bloodbath, but DOT's assurances and the faint breathing his suit's auditory sensors picked up, not to mention the active IFF tag, led him through the carnage… and right into the sights of a magnum.

The ODST trooper was pointing it at him, having heard the movement, but his hand was shaking and the other was pressed to his gut where he'd been struck by a bolt of plasma. Jorge paused for a moment, holding up his hands.

"Calm down, trooper. Friendlies."

The ODST hesitated, then lowered the weapon and relaxed a little, sighing in relief.

"I'm glad to see you, sir… was worried I was the only one left. Felt the shudder- the device went off, right?" Jorge nodded. "Good… surprised to not be dead, though."

"You and me both. If you will…?" Jorge gestured to the trooper's midsection.

"Ah… 'course. Thanks." He removed the hand, revealing his wound to Jorge, who hissed faintly in sympathy at the sight of it.

The wound was not excessively deep- there was some second degree burning across his abdomen, and it was obvious that it hurt like hell, but the trooper's armour had done its job. While the ablative plating had boiled away, it had taken the majority of the round, killing most of the energy dead before it had reached the human inside the armour. Thus, the man had narrowly avoided being killed, in favor of some wounding that would take perhaps a few weeks to heal. All in all, he'd been lucky- incredibly so, thought Jorge, glancing around with a note of sorrow at the trooper's fellows. Using the extent of what training he had, Jorge began methodically treating the wound- application of bio-foam, an adhesive dressing, then a short shot of painkiller- just enough to stop the pain, and not enough to dull the trooper's mind. Having done as much as he could, Jorge sealed the med kit back up, sticking it onto his lower back and offer his hand to the trooper. The ODST took it, coming unsteadily to his feet, Jorge easily taking his weight.

"Is there an infirmary nearby?"

"Processing." There was a pause, then, "affirmative. Follow the lights, please."

A number of lights began pulsing. Jorge nodded his thanks to the AI, then followed the shimmering lights down another couple corridors.

The infirmary was about what he had expected- not designed necessarily with humans in mind, but some of the basic equipment was similar enough to their human equivalents that Jorge thought it didn't matter too much. He lay the injured trooper on one of the beds, waving away another bout of thanks from him.

"We're pretty much all that's left- the only other things on this ship are DOT and an engineer, neither of which are likely to even attempt to harm us, so you should be fine here. If you need anything, tell DOT, alright?"

The trooper nodded absently, head drooping a bit as the painkiller and exhaustion took effect. Jorge stayed for a few minutes, pawing through the medical equipment there, before leaving and heading back towards the hangar.

"What is our current location?"

"Orbiting unknown planet. No known star chart matches current stellar arrangement, planet does not match any in database. Ship's sensors indicate planet was inhabited by tier four civilization, evidenced by pollutants in atmosphere and satellites in orbit- however, lack of radio communications indicate possible civilization breakdown and potential extinction of species. Recommend scouting planet for usable resources and facilities, as well as supplies. Current medical and food supplies incompatible with human physiology."

Jorge quieted at that. He understood needing supplies, and he had no qualms about looting a dead planet for them, but not knowing where they were… he shook his head. Focus, Jorge. He jogged through the last set of doors and into the hangar, approaching the forcefield and looking down on the planet. A shocking visage of patched land, with huge craters and blackened sections interrupting blocks of green, and a blue sea greeted his vision.

"From records retrieved from remaining operational satellites in orbit, planet is named… Sera."