I know what you're thinking. "Dinojake! What took you so long THIS time?"

Let's just say that you shouldn't sign up for an English Composition course AND a Creative Writing course in the same quarter. Writing class + Writing class = TOO MUCH EFFING HOMEWORK.

Moving on...

...

1649 Hours, March 1st, 2683

Undisclosed Location

Citadel

Widow System, Serpent Nebula

...

The Master Chief had endured explosions, gunfire, and explosive decompressions of various kinds throughout his career. And yet, despite all that, the headache that the spartan woke up with was easily among the worst he ever had.

His vision slowly came into focus. The first thing he noticed was, much to his relief, the room he was in was poorly lit, which meant he didn't need to worry about harsh light making his migraine worst.

The next thing he noticed was that he saw no HUD in front of him. In fact, he wasn't wearing his armor at all. This realization made Chief shoot upright from the cot he was lying on. Adrenaline now flowing through his veins, his vision was fully restored instantly. He now knew that he was in a holding cell; a ten-by-ten room with a cot, a toilet, and a kinetic barrier that glowed a calm blue keeping him in.

On the other side of that barrier stood a Salarian and a Turian guard. The Salarian smiled. "Good to see you're up, Master Chief." he said.

The Salarian wore a white shirt of some kind that reminded Chief of a doctor's white jacket. His skin tone was a deep reddish-brown color. He had a long face with a slight graying to his eyes, as opposed to the usual stark black of most Salarian eyes, making Chief suspect that this was an older Salarian. The Turian was wearing minimal armor and carried an assault rifle. He had six orange stripes on his face that all intersected on his nose, giving his face the look of a sun or star.

"No doubt you're wondering where you are." the Salarian went on.

"I am, yes." the Chief deadpanned.

"My name is Dr. Heart, and you're currently being held in an undisclosed facility. You've been drugged with a very potent tranquilizer. The merc was going to use a normal dosage on you, so I paid her extra to quadruple the dose. I had a hypothesis that no normal toxin could knock you out, and it seemed I was right." he smiled. "Already, you've impressed me. The amount of Nerola Toxin you consumed would've killed most Humans."

The Chief stood up from the cot and walked over to the kinetic barrier. He stood a full head taller than both aliens. He scowled at them. "What do you want?"

"I was hired by a third party to capture you." Heart began.

"Let me guess. Saren Arterius?" Chief asked.

Heart chuckled and smirked. "Perceptive. And correct. It seems he's become...intrigued by your abilities. Easy to understand why."

"I take it you plan on dissecting me?" Chief asked.

Heart sighed longingly. "Unfortunately, no. It seems Saren wants you alive. He wants me to hold you here until some of his mercs arrive to take you." Heart examined the Chief the way a Human would examine a gorilla at the zoo. "Shame. The things I could learn from taking a closer look at you. Here I am, an accomplished biologist, geneticist and surgeon, and what does Saren want from me? To hold you as though I were a common warden. My talents are wasted."

"Where's my armor?" the Chief asked.

"...Do you really think I'm going to answer that?" Heart asked.

"Figured it was worth a try." Chief replied.

"You'll be held here until more of Saren's mercs arrive to pick you up. He wants to speak with you personally. Until then, we're done here." Heart said with a tone of finality. He snapped his fingers as he walked away, prompting his guard to follow him. Chief didn't take his gaze off the Salarian until he turned around the corner and didn't make a move until he could no longer hear the alien's footsteps.

Chief reared a fist back and punched the kinetic barrier as hard as he could. The only rewards he received were throbbing knuckles. The spartan had a feeling it wouldn't work. Heart probably installed the best kinetic barriers money could buy, knowing full well the Chief's strength. Still, it was worth a shot.

He punched each of the three walls in the room, testing for weaknesses. Nothing. The spartan grunted. No weapons, no armor, and caged like an animal. This was definitely not his finest hour. He sat down on the cot and thought, trying to formulate a plan. The only way he could get out was if a guard came to check on him. Perhaps he could pretend to be asleep, thus coercing the guard to turn off the kinetic barrier and enter the room? No, no guard would be foolish enough to wake a sleeping spartan, especially if they've been told of how dangerous he can be. Given the extent of the security of this cell, Chief was guessing that Heart and his men knew full well who they were up against.

It was then that the spartan came up with another idea. It seemed little better than the first, but given the circumstances, he didn't have much choice.

...

Even though Garrus Vakarian was the closest of Chief's squad to the warehouse (at least according to this mysterious Sangheili, whom Garrus STILL didn't trust), it still took them two hours to reach the block by air car. After the air car landed, the robed figure leaped out and led Garrus into an alley.

"We know not the strength of their defenses." the Sangheili said in a low voice. "It would be best to proceed cautiously."

"You still haven't told me who you are. Or why you're dressed like a Diluvian monk." he cracked.

"Let us say that I am a figure of great renown." the elite replied. "As much as I loathe this disguise, it is necessary. If my identity was revealed too soon, word would spread quickly, giving the scum holding the spartan time to take him elsewhere."

Garrus scoffed at that. "Figure of great renown? What are you, some kind of fleetmaster?"

"Not exactly." the elite replied.

The Sangheili suddenly stopped and crouched. Garrus instinctively imitated his movements. They had reached the end of the alleyway, and before them looked to be the back entrance of a truly massive warehouse. Hanging around the back were an assortment of Humans, Turians and Kig-Yar. All armed. Guards, most likely.

"We must proceed with stealth." the Sangheili said as he pulled out his plasma rifle. Garrus nodded as he took out his assault rifle.

"A little late for that, don't you think?"

Garrus and the stranger turned on their heels, Garrus drawing out his pistol and the stranger whipping out his plasma rifle. There stood a Turian, flanked by two Kig-Yar. Unlike the guards, these three looked to be heavily armed. Professional mercenaries, most likely. The Turian in the middle, likely the leader, gave a whistle and the less professional guards at the rear trotted over. The mercs and guards had the two surrounded.

"How did you-"

"Get the jump on you?" the Turian merc finished Garrus's question for him. "Not hard. We've got motion sensors set up within a fifty yard radius. We saw you coming the moment you hopped out of that air car." He took out a pistol and began checking the sights on it. "So, what brings a senior citizen and his volunteer aide to this part of the ward?"

The guards gave a scoffing chuckle in response. By the Spirits, Garrus hated chuckles like that. It was the kind of chuckle that gang members did to satisfy their leader, leading him to suspect that this was a local group of thugs hired by whoever kidnapped the Chief.

As Garrus scowled, the old stranger did something different. A smile. Or at least, the Sangheili equivalent of one. "Senior citizen, am I?" he asked.

"Well, I don't claim to be good at judging the ages of other races." the Turian said. "But you seem like a pretty old Sangheili to me."

"I am old." the stranger admitted. "But that does not make me defenseless." And with a motion of his wrists, he dropped his robe.

Garrus had never seen armor like it before. It was a deep bronze color with various intricate patterns that made it look almost ceremonial. The way it brilliantly reflected even the dimmest light showed that it had been pain-stakingly polished to a shine. The Sangheili put his plasma rifle on one thigh and pulled from the other thigh something else.

Sangheili Energy Swords were rarely seen outside of Sangheili space. The only other time in his entire life Garrus had ever seen one in person was during a visit to a museum on Tayseri Ward, specifically the Human-Covenant War exhibit that had been touring around Citadel Space a few years back. The blade opened up in a circle and ended in two tips that looked sharp enough to skewer a Krogan. Garrus didn't know much about Sangheili culture, but he did know that only the best of warriors wielded blades like that.

Garrus instantly knew who this stranger was.

As did the guards who turned tail and ran for their lives.

"What the?" the Turian yelped. "Where do you think you're going?"

"Far away from here!" yelled one guard.

"Heart ain't payin' us enough to take on the God Damn Arbiter!"

The Turian growled. "Those idiots may be scared by fancy arm-"

The Arbiter moved before the Turian merc could finish his sentence.

The elite rushed up to the Kig-Yar and lobbed his head off with a mighty swing. The Arbiter then whipped out his plasma rifle and struck the Turian across the head with it, knocking him to the ground. He then unloaded the rifle onto the other Kig-Yar, who was powerless against the onslaught. The Turian activated his omni-tool to radio the rest of the security force, to inform them of the intruders. But with another swing of his sword, the Arbiter took the omni-tool off.

Along with most of the Turian's arm.

Before he even had a chance to scream, or to even feel any pain from the loss of his arm, the Arbiter impaled the sword into the Turian's chest cavity. The merc gasped sharply as he felt his heart and lung being impaled, then went limp. The Arbiter withdrew the sword from the chest cavity and turned it off. As he holstered his sword, he turned to Garrus, who looked like he just saw a ghost.

"...Now you know why I had to wear a disguise." Arbiter Thel 'Vadam said. "My armor has a way of alerting others to my presence, which was something I wanted to avoid until we directly engaged the enemy."

...

Akirk Tenin sighed as he walked down the corridor. On any other day, he'd be home by now listening to his favorite musical score by composer Torn Myxix. Unfortunately, due to the fact that Heart was holding a "priority package" for Saren, he had all the guards working over time, both the day guys and the night guys. No one got in or out without Heart's say-so.

Akirk heard that the "priority package" in question was a person, a Human to be specific. Really big Human too from what the other guards have said. Nobody knew who he was exactly, but whoever he was, he was important and valuable enough to make Heart completely paranoid about security.

Akirk grunted. He didn't understand why Heart was so paranoid. Virtually no one knew about this place. What, did Heart think two or three guys were going to break in and start tearing shit up like in the action vids?

The Turian guard continued his way down the corridor. It was time to check on the priority package and, just his luck, it was Akirk's turn to do it now. He stopped in front of the cell and looked in. There was the Human, every bit as big as he had heard.

And he was lying on the floor. Face down. Not moving.

"Uh-oh." Akirk muttered to himself. "Hey! Get up!" he yelled. The Human still didn't move. Didn't look like he was breathing either.

Akirk's first response was to go back and call a doctor or something. Then he remembered who Heart put in charge of the guards that night; Gatatog Skorm. A particularly foul-tempered Krogan mercenary. Rumor was, he had a bad habit of beating the ever-loving crap out of anyone who gave him bad news. Skorm depended on this Human's well-being for his paycheck so he would damn near kill anyone who told him that said Human was dead. Akirk wasn't about to risk a beating like that if he could help it.

The Turian drew out his assault rifle as he punched in a key code to deactivate the barrier. He'd check on the Human himself; make sure he's actually dead. It was risky, but telling Skorm that their ten million-credit hostage might be dead was suicidal. He then walked into the cell, and started poking the Human's body with his toe.

"Come on, get up." he said with his assault rifle pointed at the Human for good measure. "I don't want to have to explai-"

Akirk was interrupted by a hand grabbing his ankle and pulling it. His feet pulled out from under him, the startled Turian fell flat on his back. The last thing he ever saw was a hand covering his face, and the last thing he ever heard was a sickening snap.

...

Playing possum was pretty easy. Just lie face down on the floor and breathe small breaths. For the last hour, Master Chief had put all his focus on his breathing, drawing in long, smooth and silent breaths, the idea being to keep his chest and belly from moving up and down to draw in breath, giving the appearance that he wasn't breathing at all. Breath control was a trick the spartan picked up during his mixed martial arts course, and it always proved to be a valuable skill during more delicate covert operations.

Chief was surprised the guard just took out his rifle, walked into the cell and just started poking him. The best Chief was hoping for was that the guard would go get help first, like a doctor or a few other guards. But no, the guard just opened the gate, giving the spartan the opportunity he wanted even sooner than he had hoped.

Not for the first time in his combat career, John-117 had got lucky.

After snapping the Turian's neck, Chief took his assault rifle and checked the corridor. All clear. It was nice to be holding a weapon again, but what he really needed was his armor. He felt rather naked, wearing nothing but his jumpsuit deep in an unknown facility filled with an unknown number of hostiles.

He went back into the cell and double-checked the guard's corpse for anything useful. He found a datapad on his belt. He took it out and read it.

Akirk,

I heard that when they brought in that Krogan-sized Human, he was wearing some kind of weird armor. I hear they're studying it down in Lab 21. Maybe on break, we could sneak in and try it on?

Corsius

The reply:

Corsius,

You're a moron.

Akirk

Once again, the spartan had got lucky.

Now that he knew where his armor was, he felt a little more confidant about his escape. He'd sneak his way to Lab 21, grab his armor, and then just shoot his way out from there. Simple enough. He checked the corridor. Still all clear. He then quickly made his way to the elevator and pressed a button that took him down to the lab levels.

...

"Who are you?" the Salarian scientist yelped before drawing a pistol from the drawer, his assistant pulling out a pistol of his own. They didn't even get to raise their weapons before each one received a burst of bullets to their heads. Green blood freely leaking from the holes in their skulls, they went limb.

Master Chief stepped into the lab, closing and locking the door behind him. The two Salarians were dissecting the body of some sort of animal when he opened the door. They then presented themselves as threats, and were dispatched as such.

Rifle still in his hands, the Chief briskly walked past rows of operating tables towards the storage lockers at the end of the room. He didn't have an omni-tool so he couldn't manually unlock the lockers via decryption. So he opened them the old fashioned way; shooting the locks and then prying the door open with his bare hands.

He opened the first locker and only found a pistol and shotgun in it. These would be useful later on, but they weren't what he was looking for. He opened the second one which had two grenades. Once again, useful, but not what he was looking for. Eventually, he opened the seventh locker.

Master Chief felt relief wash over him as he found his visor staring back at him. He began to put it on. Putting on all his armor was a lengthy process, which was a source of great anxiety given the current circumstances. The only entrance to the lab was locked, but that didn't mean this room would remain secure for long. Sooner or later, someone was going to notice the dead guard in his cell and start looking for him. Outside the lab door was a long, narrow corridor that could very easily be made into a killing zone. If Heart's goons figured out he was in here, they would be able to trap him very easily. Chief quickened his pace as he put on his armor. He needed to be well on his way out of this facility before that happened.

At long last came the finishing piece to his armor; the helmet. "Cortana, are you alright?" he asked.

Silence.

"Cortana?"

More silence. Master Chief checked the back of his helmet to make sure Cortana's chip was alright. Only to find out it wasn't there.

They had Cortana. This complicated things.

Chief immediately rushed over to a computer and accessed it. While he didn't consider himself much of a techie, he knew how to run a basic search. He searched the most recent logs for any mention of Cortana. He used every search term he could think of. Cortana, AI, Smart AI, CTN 0452 - 9, nothing. There was absolutely no mention of Cortana or any other AI in the research logs. He cleared the search history. He didn't want to leave behind any implications to Cortana's existence if he could help it, not that it made much difference seeing as the bad guys probably know about her now anyway.

Chief paused, trying to think of what to do. It went without saying that he couldn't leave this facility without Cortana, but he had no idea where to even begin to look for her. Not only did Chief not have any idea how big this place was, he also had no idea what kind of enemies were here. This place could be housing an entire army of Geth for all he knew, so aimlessly wandering from room to room looking for the AI could wind up getting him killed.

Master Chief genuinely wished he had his team with him. Fred, Linda, Kelly and Will would all be a big help right now. He wasn't so sure if he could find Cortana on his own. Granted, he had done just that once before inside the Flood-ridden High Charity, but at least then he had some idea of where to go.

It was then that he had heard it. An alarm began to blare over the loudspeakers. Chief was all but convinced that Heart had just found his cell with a dead guard where a live spartan should be and had just sounded the alarm. Finding Cortana would be even harder now that the place was swarming with guards.

"Intruder alert. Intruder alert." the VI calmly announced over the alarms. "Forced entry in the Surface Level Warehouse. All available combat units respond. Intruder alert. Intruder alert." The message then repeated.

Intruders. Master Chief heard no mention of his escape. That meant the guards didn't know that he had escaped his cell, and likely wouldn't find out for a while since they were now too busy dealing with intruders in the facility to notice him. Perhaps finding Cortana on his own wouldn't be so hard after all.

Chief then thought of something. What if he didn't have to find her on his own? What if the intruders were his own team? Kaidan, Ashley, Wrex, Garrus, Tali, Liara and N'tho. They were no blue team, but they would do. Chief shook away the thought. That would be the best-case scenario, something that should never be automatically assumed to be true.

But what if it was true? What if the intruders really were his team? If it was, shouldn't he head up to the warehouse and help them? No doubt that they would be meeting heavy resistance. And they could help him look for Cortana afterwards. He'd be able to split the team up, cover more ground, find the AI faster. He wouldn't actually tell them what they were looking for, of course. He'd have to come up with a cover story. A chip that contained vital documents to tracking Saren's progress? Or maybe a possible map to the conduit? He'll come up with something.

Then again, it might not be his team. It could simply be a rival band of mercenaries here to also claim the Master Chief, or maybe something else entirely. If that was the case, then heading up to the warehouse would be a waste of valuable time. Most of the guards had rushed up to deal with the threat, leaving the rest of the facility unprotected, allowing the spartan to move about it more freely. You don't pass up that kind of opportunity lightly.

It was an agonizing choice. Risk the team? Or risk Cortana? He needed more intel.

He went back to the computer and hacked into the security camera system. He wasn't anywhere near as good with computers as Cortana was, but he was a quick study. He learned some basic hacking techniques from tinkering with his omni-tool during his down-time between missions. It helped kill time.

Eventually, he hacked into the camera network. The spartan looked through the eye of a security camera in the surface warehouse. Much to his surprise, there were only two intruders, and much to his amazement, they were doing a surprisingly good job of holding their own. He zoomed in on what looked like a Turian with a sniper rifle. The single horizontal blue stripe on his face was a dead giveaway; Garrus.

His team HAD come to his rescue. Not the whole team unfortunately, but it was better than nothing.

Chief zoomed out and swiveled the camera toward the other intruder, a Sangheili. He noticed the tell tale silhouette of an elite when the screen first popped up and thought it was N'tho at first glance. But when he zoomed in, he couldn't believe his eyes.

It wasn't N'tho, but apparently, it was still an old friend.

...

The Arbiter roared as he vaulted over a row of crates he'd been hiding behind and charged right into the midst of a couple of Turian guards. Their assault rifles were blazing, but Thel had his overshield active, so the bullets concerned him little.

With one mighty swing of his energy sword, he decapitated one of the guards. As the headless body slumped to the floor, the Arbiter turned to the other guard, who had his assault rifle raised. Suddenly, blue blood burst forth from the side of the other guard's head before he too fell and joined his fellow fallen soldier. Thel smiled. The spartan's Turian companion was indeed a good shot. Easy to see why Chief felt he was good company.

The Arbiter noticed that his shields were getting low, so he decided it wise to take cover against another row of crates. As his shields recharged, he sheathed his sword and took out his type-56 carbine, a weapon that had served him well over the decades. Once his shields were back at full power, the old Sangheili warrior popped out of cover and returned fire. He aimed primarily for his foes' heads, as kinetic barriers are often weakest there. Three more enemies fell before he had to duck back into cover to give his shields a chance to recharge while he waited for his weapon to cool. He was always proficient with a blade, but he was no stranger to long-range combat either.

It was then that, at the back of the room, an elevator door opened.

The Master Chief rushed out of the elevator and into the fray, sprinting towards three thugs who had their backs to the spartan as they fired at the elite and the Turian from their elevated position on a raised platform. Chief hit the one on the right with a rifle butt to the back of the neck. The thug limply fell over the side of the railing. Before the other two thugs could even notice and get some retaliatory fire off, the spartan gunned them down with his assault rifle. He then turned toward the other defending thugs and fired down on them.

The Arbiter checked behind him to find another merc who had tried to sneak up on him. Emphasis on tried. His shields flared and blood began spouting out of his torso before he fell limply to the floor. He knew it didn't come from Garrus. The Turian was using a sniper rifle, not an assault rifle. That, and the bullets seemed to be coming from another direction. Thel craned his neck to the source of the fire; the spartan.

"He needs no rescue. I am not surprised." Thel muttered to himself before opening fire on another pair of hapless mercs. The mercs were caught between a Turian's sniper rifle, a Sangheili's blade, and a SPARTAN-II's assault rifle. They didn't last much longer.

Once he was sure that all hostiles were down and no more were on the way, at least not immediately, Master Chief came out from his cover and walked over to the Arbiter. Garrus trotted over to the two as they met face to face. The Master Chief and the Arbiter stood there for a good ten seconds, sizing each other up.

"So." Master Chief said, breaking the silence. "Are you...my Arbiter? Or you just the latest one to be wearing the costume?"

"I am the same Arbiter that fought alongside you at the Battle of the Ark, spartan." Arbiter replied.

"I take it Sangheili have longer life-spans than Humans?" Master Chief asked.

"Roughly three times as long." Arbiter replied with a nod.

"Wait." Garrus said. "You two...know each other?"

"We go back a ways." Chief replied. "Surprised you were able to find him, Garrus."

"He found me." Garrus corrected as he scratched the side of his forehead.

"I imagine you have many questions for me, spartan." Arbiter said. "But there will be time for that later. For now, I feel it best that we leave this place before more guards show up."

Chief paused. He couldn't leave without Cortana. "We can't leave yet." he said. "We have to head deeper into the facility."

"Head deeper into a base full of trigger-happy mercs." Garrus said. "I take it we have a good reason to do that?"

"The one who captured me is a Salarian named Dr. Heart. He's working for Saren." Master Chief said. "We're in one of Saren's bases. This is a rare opportunity to gather intelligence on our target."

It wasn't a lie. Not technically, anyway. It was possible that they would find an important piece of intelligence while looking for Cortana.

Garrus seemed to tighten his grip on his sniper rifle for some reason. Chief noticed. "I take it this is the same Dr. Heart that got away from you a few years back?" Chief asked.

"Depends. Long-faced? Reddish-brown skin?" Garrus questioned. Chief nodded in reply. "Saleon." Garrus growled. "Yeah, that's him alright. He's done a lot of bad over the years. If he's working for Saren, all the more reason to take him down."

"Are you certain we'll find something of value to you inside this base, spartan?" Thel asked.

"Worth a try." Chief answered.

"Very well then." the old Sangheili said with a nod of ascension. "Since you escaped from your holding place, I presume you're more familiar with the base's layout than we are. Lead on."

...

It was slow work, going from room to room. Looking inside every locker, every crate, every drawer, hoping to find what they were looking for. Scratch that. What the Master Chief was looking for. As far as Garrus and the Arbiter knew, they were looking for intelligence, nothing more. The spartan would rather keep it that way. He respected the two aliens, but not enough to tell them about a dear friend whose very existence could be considered a war crime.

They searched the facility from room to room, floor by floor. Some rooms had guards, others didn't. Some hallways had to be fought through, others didn't. Between a Human super-soldier, a Sangheili holy warrior, and a Turian with particularly good aim, the guards weren't very much trouble. It helped that they were mostly encountered in groups of no more than a dozen at a time. Chief guessed that Heart had divided his army of guards into search parties. He most likely realized that Chief had escaped by now. The spartan had Garrus start every firefight with an overload from his omni-tool, hoping that taking out the radios first would make it more difficult to track their movements.

Chief was admittedly curious about how the Arbiter knew he was in trouble, as well as how he knew where Garrus was. He was also curious about how the Arbiter knew where the spartan was being held. He seemed to know a lot of things. Granted, the Arbiter was a very highly-ranked position within the Sangheili Empire, or at least Chief guessed it was. It made sense that he'd be well-informed. But still, the Arbiter's presence here was a little too convenient.

Chief decided to keep a lid on his curiosity for now. As the Arbiter himself had said, there would be time for questions later.

Eventually, they came to the fourth level of the facility, making the trio wonder just how many levels this place had. It seemed to go on forever. Chief found it hard to believe that this was all on the Citadel, and that C-Sec somehow didn't know about it. They were on the lab levels now, same level where Chief had found his armor. It suddenly made sense that Cortana would be stored somewhere on this floor. She was an AI unlike any other. Of course she was being studied in a lab. Chief kicked himself for not checking here earlier, but then again, he needed to be sure that Cortana wasn't on any of the floors above them. Plus, the three of them eliminated many guards on the way down here, each one having had the potential to hinder the extraction mission later on. So it wasn't a complete waste of time.

They opened a door labeled Lab 49. The three of them made their way in.

It was a long room. Only fifteen feet wide but fifty feet long. Six lab tables crowded their half of the room, with a viewing screen mounted on a wall. On the other side of the lab were what looked like two large metal storage containers. On each side of each container were drawers that pulled out. Garrus went over to look through the drawers as the Master Chief and the Arbiter searched the tables. Garrus pulled on one of the drawers and out came what looked like hunks of ice.

"Iced samples." Garrus noted. "This must be a cold storage room." He placed a hand on one of the hunks. "Not that cold though. I think I can hold one without giving my hands frostbite." With that, he held up one of the hunks of ice and took a look into it. There was a very odd shape in it.

"What is it?" Thel asked, suddenly curious as to what Garrus was investigating.

"Don't know." Garrus answered. "Some kind of...animal I think. Looks insectoid."

Chief was hacking a computer as Thel walk over to Garrus to look at the ice samples. Chief glanced at the two aliens. Even though he was fairly sure the Arbiter's species lacked the capacity to blush or blanche, given their scaly skin, Chief could've sworn that he saw the Sangheili's face lose a lot of color upon seeing what Garrus held. He craned his neck in the spartan's direction.

"Master Chief." he said. "You must see this." his voice had suddenly gone quiet, as if fearful that speaking too loud would make something bad happen. Chief walked over to Garrus and Thel to see what had so disturbed the Arbiter.

Locked in the hunk of ice that Garrus held was a creature. It had a snot-green bulbous upper body that had a cone-like shape to it that drooped in the back, giving it the look of a grotesque balloon that had been partially deflated. The lower body was basically just tentacles. The two longest ones ended in what looked like red feather dusters.

Chief shook his head. Of all the things in the galaxy to run into...

"Chief..." Garrus said. "What is this?"

Chief looked up at the Turian. "It's the Flood."

...

Dun Dun DUUUUUUN!

EDIT: Re-uploaded due to technical difficulties. Sorry for the inconvenience.