Fireteam Cobalt charged outside, catching their enemies by surprise. Troy managed to take out a Brute and two Grunts before their enemies knew what was happening. In the confusion that followed, they were able to completely dispose of the whole scouting party who had been about to enter the structure. Two Wraiths slid into view from around the back of the structure. Flint charged up his Spartan Laser. Troy flung his SMG aside as he ran out of ammo, drawing his SOCOMS in its place. He had to settle for taking out Grunts and Jackals, as the gun was nowhere near powerful enough to take out Brutes. He knew in a few minutes his ammo for that would be gone too. It seemed as though the flood of Covenant was unending as they poured out of their dropships. Troy tossed a grenade to cover himself as he reloaded yet again. His gun clicked empty.

"I'm..." he stopped. "I'll be back!" he rushed back inside the structure.

"Troy, get your ass back here!" Hoi ordered. Calsu shook one of her Plasma Rifles as it overheated, bringing up her other one to fend off the sea of aliens. Eugene seemed to be enjoying the battle too much, stopping to laugh and taunt his enemies.

"Ugh!" Flint's legs were shot out from beneath him. Hoi ducked back inside the doorway they were using as cover and dragged him out of the line of fire. They were about to get overwhelmed. A small orange object flew out from inside the structure and landed amongst the Covenant. The aliens surrounding it were about to move away, before realising it wasn't a grenade. The ones that weren't engaged in the firefight peered at it suspiciously. Apparently, it was a grenade, as it detonated and a large orange bubble burst from it, incinerating any Covenant inside. With a ferocious war cry, Troy charged out, flinging two more of them into the crowd before hefting two Suppressors and launching a barrage of Hardlight bullets into his enemies. He flipped them around, reloaded them, then continued to fire. The Covenant were dropping like flies. He dropped his two spent guns and pulled a Scattershot off his back, punching that into his foes instead. For the few remaining, he pulled out two Bolt Shots and finished them off. Flint slapped his forehead and laughed his head off. "Is he smart, or are the rest of us just dumb?" Hoi laughed light-heartedly, the adrenaline starting to wear off. Finally, the Pelicans arrived and positioned themselves to receive as many weapons as they could.

Two hours later...

Hoi stepped into the waiting Pelican and waited for his team to finish the final load. He couldn't believe they had actually managed to cram every single weapon and ammo crate onto the sixteen Pelicans. Flint was lying on the seat next to him, unable to help because of his injury. Yuri hopped up with to them, Calsu close behind. They and Eugene had done the majority of the work, being the strongest. Eugene sat down as far away from everyone else as he could, silently handing Flint his shotgun back, having claimed a Scattershot for himself. Hoi tapped his fingers boredly as he waited for Troy. The young ODST finally emerged holding a small device in his hands. It had the usual orange glow that suggested it was Forerunner, but its use wasn't obvious. Troy handed it over to Hoi silently and sat down. Hoi fiddled with it for a while on the way back to the UNSC Stand in Solitude, the only ship left in its fleet had got renamed after the fall of its allies. It was on its way back to Earth to get a new fleet, but had been impeded by small jobs and skirmishes such as these. Hoi tossed the device back to Troy.

"I give up. Any idea what it is?" he inquired.

"No," Troy answered honestly. "But we have a lot of them in stock. What interests me though, is that they vary in size and shape." He ran his hands over the thing.

"Come on Troy, the reason you were on this mission was because of your knowledge of Forerunner artefacts!" Flint reminded him. Troy grimaced and poked it experimentally. It looked familiar, he just didn't know why. Then it clocked.

"Eugene," he called. "Come over here for a moment." Eugene grumbled, but got up and stomped over to him. "Turn around," Troy ordered. Eugene complied and Troy clicked the device onto his back, and after a bit of fiddling, connected it up with the suit's power supply. Two tube-like objects popped out the sides of it.

"Is that a..."

"Forerunner jetpack?" Troy suggested. "Yeah. It reminded me of the 'Armour Abilities' the Spartans used back on Reach." Hoi nodded.

"Clever." Troy glanced at the rest of the team shyly. Calsu gave him a supportive grin and Yuri just gave him a 'well done' look. Eugene grunted that he was "keeping it" and moved back to his seat.

"I knew it," Flint chuckled. "ONI doesn't give credit to those who don't deserve it." The Pelican landed. Yuri picked up Flint and made off in the direction of the infirmary, leaving the rest of the team to go their separate ways.

Troy decided to visit the cafeteria. All that fighting and adventuring had made him hungry. He found himself an empty table and sat down with his MRE. He jumped as Calsu sat down across from him, eating a Sangheili meal of her own. Troy awkwardly kept silent and ate his food. Only when he was done did Calsu finally speak.

"Why do you choose to sit alone?" she asked.

"I-I don't have a-anyone to sit with," Troy stammered. He still hadn't got over his fear of the Sangheili. Calsu cocked her head at him. "I tr-try not to get attached to anyone. It m-makes losing people a lot easier."

"Do you not get lonely?"

"I'd rather be lonely than a depressed soldier who's lost everything."

"But what is the point of it? You say you are alone because you do not want to be alone. I do not get it." Troy was starting to get annoyed. She was making him doubt himself. Of course, being Sangheili-a-phobic, he instantly assumed she was doing it on purpose. He stood up from the table.

"Oh, you're not done with me? It's not enough that you had to put me through enough torture to make a grown man cry, you want to mess with my head too? Why don't you fuck off?" He yelled the last part rather loudly, making the room fall silent. Calsu looked confused beyond belief.

"I did not mean anything by it –"

"Why can't you just leave me alone?" Troy fled from the room, leaving Calsu to sit there, wondering what she had done wrong.