"Just relax, Lieutenant" Samuel Baker heard a feminine voice tell him as a cup of water was given to him. "We just want to know what happened down there"

"Uhhh, yes ma'am" he said before taking a sip from the cup, it's contents helped him to calm his mind down a bit.

"Now, tell us what happened, start from the top"

Sam took a big breathe before continuing, "At fifteen hundred hours, me and my team dismounted from the owl as per the plan, before it took off into the sky again"

"So the pilot abandoned you and your team? " the woman asked.

"What? No no no ma'am, it was all according the opplan. The owl would drop us off at the pre-designated landing zone alpha, before taking off again to avoid detection. "

"I see... " the woman responded, clearly satisfied. "Keep going Lieutenant."

Sam just nodded to the figure sitting straight across from him before continuing, "Well, as I said, we disembarked from the owl, then we headed off to the source of the anomaly that Lieutenant Commander Ashton managed to pick up."

"How far was the source away from your team's location? "

"At the time?" he paused, mind deep in thought, "around a mile and a half or so."

"Why didn't the pilot landed you closer to the source? "

"Because he couldn't ma'am" Sam replied, he was slowly getting irritated by the woman's constant pointless questions. "An owl requires a large clearing in order to land safely, much like a Pelican or any other aircraft does. The source's origin offers little of that as it is almost covered completely with natural fauna."

"Please continue Lieutenant"

Sam just nodded into the darkness before continuing. "We then proceeded to our objective, no contact along the way, though, we did have to dive out of the way from what looked like a small rihnoceros running at full speed twords us. Poor thing looked scared to death."

Taking the silence as his cue to continue talking, he obliged. "After that my team continued to our destination, we found what we think was what left of a rural village. Debris and bodies - human bodies - littered the floor. All the while, there seems to be a squad or so of unidentified humanoids patrolling the carnage, my guess is to survey the scene"

"Surveying for what?" the voice interjected again.

"To be frank ma'am, I have no clue. Might be investigating the ruins, might be searching for survivors, I don't know" seeing that the woman didn't reply, he took it as a sign for him to keep talking. "In any case, it didn't matter, as soon as one of my men emerged from the forest to initiate friendly first contact protocols, he was instantly shot"

"At once, we began spraying the area with suppression fire, downing many of the unknown contacts. However, before we could retrieve our man, more of the contacts showed up, forcing us to retreat."

"I have no idea how many we faced, at least an entire platoon, may be even a company, that came after us. We dodged and weaved enemy fire, but there was just too many. Within minutes, I already lost 3 of my men.""

"So you didn't try to retrieve your men?"

Sam shook his head, dread in his face as he looked back after what happened. "No ma'am, there wasn't enough time. It was either stay there and everyone gets slaughtered or we cut our losses and save ourselves and report back to command."

"I see" the woman said before continuing "Thank you for your input Lieutenant Baker. I'll see to it that you're cleared for 4 weeks of shore leave. Dismissed."

Sam just simply stood up and left the room, leaving a young ONI Lieutenant Marissa Collins to her thoughts.

"We need options people" Governor Olken said to the assembly of his most trusted advisors. "This incident marks the most significant discovery this expedition has made so far" he said before pausing to give a dramatic effect, "contact with an advanced society"

"Sir, need I remind you that it was hostile contact?" Mark Sorelson spoke up. Despite being the minister of housing and urban development, he was a former UNSC marine Captain back in the days of the Human-Covenant war where he was assigned with the 120th Marine Expeditionary Unit, as well as currently forming a JROTC division on Nova Status. Thus, the governor trusts him with any military matters. "I would advise extreme caution next time we meet these guys"

"I disagree minister" came the voice of the fairly young minister of foreign affairs, whose department has been rendered completely useless ever since the expedition arrived. "This would be a perfect opportunity to start relations with a different political entity."

"Are you idiotic?" came the voice of the minister of defense, whose service during the Covenant war and the consequent break up of their union was far from minuscule. "Anyone else here thinks that this first contact mirrors of our first contact scenario with the Covenant back in '25?" he asked rhetorically.

Jingles raised his hand in agreement, getting glares of bafflement came from every eye in the room, causing him to slowly pull down his hand and resumed his silent position.

"Anyways..." Olken started, trying to get everyone out of the awkward moment the Admiral caused earlier, "options on dealing with these people?"

"We should re initiate contact with them sir. Its not everyday that we find other extraterrestrial space faring society."

"As stated before governor, we may be dealing with another Harvest here sir" the minister of defense spoke up, before turning his attention to his younger counterpart "Need I remind you want happened after Harvest?"

"I do know well minister" he said, glaring into the eyes of the other "What I'm suggesting is that this encounter may be a cultural misunderstanding."

"Forgive me minister, but how does shoot on sight be considered a cultural misunderstanding? Clearly it was their intent to kill us on the spot."

"You have to remember that we are dealing with an entirely different race here" the young man said calmly, although it is obvious that his face is slowly turning to a shade of bright red, "Our man may have simply unknowingly did something that the aliens found insulting and it may be in their culture to respond with full force." He then turned his attention to the governor, "I strongly recommend that we reevaluate the composition of our off-world teams to include a fully qualified diplomat and negotiator."

Now that raised eyebrows across the room, especially that of the minister of defense "Are you saying that my teams are ill-equipped with handling these situations?"

"As a matter of fact minister, yes I do. In fact, I would like to put forth a motion that all off-world operations be handled by the ministry of foreign affairs instead of the ministry of defense to prevent any future unintentional misunderstandings with the local population here."

"Governor, I strongly advise you to veto the motion" the older minister of defense said "These teams are our first line of defense against hostile forces"

"All the more reason to let the foreign affairs ministry to handle it. After all, a pen is more powerful than a gun"

As this was going on, Jingles had stood up and walked out of the conference room, letting the politicians duke it out to see who has the biggest mouth. It is one of many reasons why Jingles didn't want to hold a government office, way too much politics involved.

"You got tired as well?" a voice suddenly snapped the Rear Admiral from his thoughts. "The constant bickering sometimes gets to me to" the voice finished, a slight chuckle soon followed.

"Minister Sorelson!" Jingles exclaimed as the former marine captain approached him. "I didn't see you come out"

"Oh?" Sorelson replied, sounding surprised. "That is to be expected, I came out the second the two began tearing each other apart" he said, jerking his thumb towards the general direction of the conference room. "And please, call me Mark"

"Uhhh...sure thing Mark" Jingles said somewhat uncomfortably. He isn't used to calling government officials by their first name.

"Mind if I join you Admiral?" Mark asked

"No problem sir" Jingles swiftly replied. "Feel free to do so"

Mark nodded before moving in to stand next to the younger Admiral. "So what do you think about the whole situation Admiral?"

Jingles thought long and hard before answering, "To be completely honest sir, I think its a waste of time" he said with a matter of faculty. "We're sitting here debating on who should be in charge of overall recon operations while in reality we should be debating on defensive measures in case of additional hostilities"

Mark nodded in agreement. "That's politics for you Admiral, idiots bickering around to see who has the largest mouth to gain the most power."

Jingles chuckled at the response. He had to admit that it seems that all of the politicians these days do just that, save for one...

"What made you go into politics minister? I mean Mark"

This time, it was the minister's turn to think hard before making a response. "Probably because of my desire to help others" he said with a sigh. "Back on Earth, after the whole Covenant fiasco thing, I ran a reconstruction effort in my home city of Seattle Washington. During my time there, everything was a mess. No one knew what to do, people were running around like clueless chickens" he paused the story to give himself a little chuckle," Supplies were being messed up as logistics was in shambles."

This piqued the Admiral's curiosity, "How so?"

"Just an example, I once ordered some raw materials to rebuild a cafe down on main street. Nothing special, just some wood and nails and your basic building materials. Now, some idiot probably saw that the order was for a cafe, so instead of the sending me the building materials I requested, they sent me 240 pounds of coffee and some 120 pounds of cake. Not what we needed, but at least we had one of our best coffee breaks"

Jingles mentally facepalmed at that statement. Who the hell was in charge of supply distribution? he thought to himself.

The older minister however, was not yet done with his stories "Two years later, when my organization growed by a few thousand, we decided to work on bigger projects, such as repairing the train station. During the battle for Earth, the station got hit pretty hard by Covenant banshees, rendering it completely useless. I decided to rebuild it to get some more commerce going in the city."

"As you may have guessed, the station was in a complete mess; tracks were blown up, electrical lines were down, the platform had craters all over them, hulks of burnt out locomotives littered the place, and don't even get me started on the structural integrity of the main terminal."

"It was that bad?"

"Pretty much yeah," Mark replied before continuing, "Anyways, we were about done with rewiring the electrical circuits in the main junction control room when we all heard a darter drop ship on approach. At first, I thought it was the first shipment of my request of 5 kilometers worth of railway lines that I made a week prior. Granted, I didn't know if it was enough or not but I made a guess at 5 clicks, I can always order more or send back the surplus later. Then the drop ship landed at the car park and unloaded, and I swear I wasn't hallucinating, hundreds, if not thousand of teddy bears."

Jingles nearly chocked at that "Teddy bears?"

"Yup, apparently, the pilot mistook us for a children orphanage center that had been overwhelmed with orphaned children. We had a heated argument for about 2 hours to finally make him realize that he arrived at the wrong coordinates."

Jingles shook his head in dismay as Mark continued. "The entire system was broken. I had to do something, before I get anything else more weird. And since the local elections were coming up, I decided to put my name down as a candidate for city mayor."

Jingles raised an eyebrow "Did you win?"

"Nope, I lost to a woman who was a lot younger than me, just barely. It was a close race, she only had, I think its 5 points, ahead of me."

"So why didn't you stick around and try for the next election?" Jingles asked.

"Because she was a damn good mayor" Mark replied. "She did everything that I wanted to do, save for increasing my pension" he said with a chuckle. "She completely overhauled the supply distribution system by dissolving the committee at the time and starting anew. THAT, worked like a charm. So I just figured that the city was in good hands."

"So why did you come here?" the admiral asked.

"Because I wanted to continue helping people." he briskly replied. "I already passed my 60th birthday when I decided to join up with the initiative. I figured that the expedition needed someone with a lot of experience like me to help keep things along. Yes, usually they would prefer someone who would be younger, which is why we have a bunch of idiots as cabinet members" he said jerking his thumb towards the conference room, whose sound has been increasing steadily, indicating a very very heated debate. "But they say that my experience, both during the war and my efforts in rebuilding Seattle would be invaluable to the expedition. So I graciously accepted their request to be the minister of Housing and Urban Development."

"What about your family?"

Mark paused for a bit before replying. "That question was almost the one thing that talked me out of joining this initiative. I have 3 kids, all grown up mind you, and one of them even started a family of her own. One of them became an ONI operative, don't ask why. Another became a police officer, while my only daughter became a nurse and she already started a family." Jingles just waited patiently for Mark as he was deep in thought, "I miss them alright, but out here? I can actually do some good with my skills, not just sitting around like an old man waiting for my time to go with my family worrying about me all the time. Although, to be fair, I wouldn't be surprised if one of my kids managed to smuggle aboard just to join me" he finished with a chuckle.

"So how do you cope with all the political shenanigans?"

Mark just waved his hand in dismissal at that. "Usually we cabinet members stay away from each other, at least for me anyways. We hardly come into contact, let alone conflict with each other except for the monthly cabinet meetings. Now those are nightmares."

Jingles can only sympathize with the man. He only wanted to improve the lives of all the members of the Initiative, but he had to go through the entanglement that is the nature of politics. Life is never fair.

Before any of them can continue their chat however, a young man in a naval officer uniform came rushing through to them, panting as he stopped in front of the Admiral.

"One...moment..." he managed to sputter out as spent a few seconds recollecting himself after what had seemed to be a very long run. Obviously he's in a hurry.

"Sirs," the man said, having finally gathered his wits and strength to stand up straight and salute the 2 men. "I have an urgent message to deliver to the council immediately."

"The council is in session Lieutenant" Mark said, and as if to emphasize his point, a loud crashing sound can be heard from the conference room. "...if you want to call it that..."

"Both of us are council members Lieutenant" Jingles said before wincing at the sound of loud shouting and more things crashing. Someone really has to go in there and calm them down. "The information can be shared with us and we will forward it to the rest of the council as appropriate."

The Lieutenant raised an eyebrow, Jingles just assumed it had more to do with whatever's happening in the conference room than their request. "Very well sir, here's the gist of it"

He then produced a tactical pad before continuing, "In there is a full report of our preliminary analysis of the alien weapons that Lieutenant Samuel Baker and his team managed to retrieve during their ill-fated mission."

Jingles was impressed. He didn't expect the scientists that the initiative brought along would be able to crack the alien's weaponry so quickly. "What about them?"

"Sirs, they're non-lethal"

"WHAT?" both Jingles and Mark exclaimed at the same exact time.

"Yes sirs, Doctor Amelia Veronica, our lead scientist if you recall, said that the weapons projectiles emit a small emp burst upon impact. Basically they impede the brain neurons from effectively coordinate the body movement, causing the victims to be paralyzed."

"So are you saying, that the men we lost out there, can be alive right now?" Jingles asked.

"Most likely sir, yes"

"My question is why would anyone want to design a weapon that doesn't kill?" Mark questioned. "It doesn't make any sense."

"Maybe their physiology allows the weapons to be lethal against them" Jingles offered. "They could be like us humans before the invention of the Shaw-Fujikawa drive: fractured and always at each other's throats. They may never encountered a species that has a natural defense against their weapons"

Mark and the Lieutenant nodded their heads in agreement with Jingles' assessment. Jingles then turned his attention to the younger officer. "Thank you Lieutenant, we'll make sure the council gets the info. You're dismissed"

The Lieutenant gave a crisp salute before turning and walk away. As soon as the Lieutenant was out of sight, Jingles reached down to his radio and broadcasted a message on a secure frequency. "Security team to main conference hall ASAP"

"Why do we need security?" Mark asked just before the sound of glass breaking can be heard from the conference room. "Oh... "

"Yeah, I'm not willing to be collateral damage here. Feel free to go in if you want sir, but I'm not"

"Thanks Admiral, but I'll pass"

"Wise choice sir... very wise choice"

Author's Note: DONT KILL ME DONT KILL ME DONT KILL ME PLEASE. Also don't kill me. Real life got in the way but I hope that this longer chapter was worth the wait guys. Thanks for all the support that you guys have given me thus far and I'm hoping that I will receive your continued support until this project is done. Anyways, reviews and constructive criticism is welcome. See ya guys whenever I post another chapter. See y'all then.