the remains of the hospital where extensive, and Lock wanted to explore all of it; or as much as possible. he had set up a map, and sent them all out in twos. this he explained was to make up time, though Able Vanguard was supposed to be his guard. the decrepit old building, was crumbling in places, from the strain of the plasma bombardment.

David and Kieron where covering a wing of the hospital; covering half of several floors. the building was derelict, they had yet to find any usable tech. the floor most likely to yield anything was the basement; which Lock and Sarah-31, where covering. They had been exploring for several hours, systematically searching several floors, and had yet to find much of interest.

David and Kieron entered what might have been an office, a heavy old, mostly rusted filing cabinet rested against the corner of the room. One draw is missing another is open and empty, but the last the one at the bottom is closed and locked. Kieron gave an exaggerated pull on the door,he then after a pause pulls again, wrenching it effortlessly from the cabinet. The draw was empty, or so Kieron thought. "nothing here..." his voice faded. in the very back of the draw a notebook, bound in string rested at the back stuck to the side with something. Kieron reaches into the draw. "Have you found something?" David asks; wondering if; like on several other occasions, Kieron was crying wolf, however after a moment he emerges victoriously raising the journal above his head. David opens the Comm COM to Lock. "we've found a Journal of some description, there isn't a name or title, please advise." after a minute lock responded " return it to the camp and then continue your search" lock closed the COM.


Helen and Damion where covering the lower floors. they're search had been fruitless, the floors had appeared to be scavenged; with some signs of covenant, though none of which where fresh. the usual covenant graffiti was present on most surfaces; all of which being from the time of invasion. there was signs of a fire-fight, plasma burns bullet holes,some bones, most of which had been cleared away by something, most likely the glassing or the planet, or wildlife. Helen had noticed various signs of animals from native Moa to Wolfs introduced by humans, various plants had began to grow in the derelict building, and many of the streets outside had became visibly greening with plant life.

as of yet they had discovered nothing, the lower floors where completely bare, the first three floors had clearly been scavenged, Damion had set up a perimeter around the base of the building, and had set up several non-lethal charges at several entrances. Helen was rummaging through piles of rubble, searching for anything of use, but held little hope.

the news that David and Kieron had found something, had not been especially welcome, Helen did not like being out done, and was starting to feel a little useless. as she watched him work; setting up more counter measures on they're current floor. his raised his head rapidly, "problem?" Helen asked quickly. David tilted his head " not sure, possibly, motion sensors have picked up some movement, it should be in range of my cameras soon," he reached into the hard pouch on his hip and removed a small tablet and began fiddling with it, after a second a 3D holographic representation of the local area, "look here," he point on the screen showing an array of tracker beacons showing the movement. "could be jackals?" Helen said watching the movements, "shouldn't be dangerous if they're not threatened, other ex-covenant species may not be so nice."

after a moment a small image appeared above the map, one of the cameras had picked up the movements. another quickly followed suit. the first screen showed an elite its armor ragged and improvised, it was covered in scarring; probably from the initial reach conflict. along with the elite where several grunts, a handful of agile jackels and a brute. they must have been attracted by the pelicans. from what Helen had heard from the survivors, nearly no covenant forces had been seen since the UNSC's retreat, however they where clearly still here.

"Perimeter is compromised, we have multiple tangos from the north" Helen barked down the open COM. "me and Damion, should be able to handle it". after a moment Jennifer responded "Able 01 and able 03 en route, regardless", being on the closest section of the building, Jennifer and Rex wouldn't take long to reach the enemy either.

a small shudder shook the building. the brute had been stunned by a flash mine. Damion and Helen had reached the ground floor the covenant units where just around the corner from them. "Oscar Mike. engaging in 3 " Helen whispered down the open COM. she was crouched against the wall shotgun in hand. she shifts the transmitters COM "Damion, you take the elite I'll take the brute" she bared down the local COM. she watched her HUD carefully. She gave a silent "forward" signal to Damion. She darted around the corner. the elite shouts something in Sangheili. Helen takes a step cracking a grunts skull using the butt of her shotgun. Damion following her closely his DMR in hand. he fired a round through a Jackal's bird like skull sending a spray of viscous purple blood over the wall. Helen reached the brute; dodging fire from the elite, she jumped firing landing with her feet on the brutes chest knocking it over. she fired twice the recoil wrenching the shotgun upwards into her shoulder. the brute stopped struggling under the Spartans weight. Damion had just reached the Elite, he hit it with his fist, causing it's aged shields to flicker. Damion drew his knife from it holster on his shoulder plate, and bringing it into the elites unguarded neck, purple sprayed across the ground. The remaining grunts ran, just leaving three jackals for the Spartans to deal with. three shots From Damion's DMR, and one from Helen's shotgun finished off the jackals.

Damion was about to chase the retreating grunts, but Helen stopped him and taped the corner of of her visor, indicating he should check his HUD's Radar, two yellow dots where just behind the fleeing grunts red ones. after the first couple had passed the lip of the building Jennifer jumped down behind them blitzing those in front of her with a spray of bullets. "run!" one of the remaining grunts shouts moments before Rex shot him, bursting the helium cell on the grunts back, launching it into the other grunt before it exploded. "I love exploding grunts" Rex shouted down the COM. Rex jumped down to ground level landing next to Jennifer. " enemy eliminated," Jennifer said down the open COM, after a second Lock responded " roger, where they left behind?" helen responded "defiantly they hadn't seen a covy-ship for a while, ragged armor,lots of scarring, Damion will send you the footage." The Spartans carefully examined the bodies, Helen noticed a marking present on all the corpses armor, a Black circle with three arrow s forming a triangle from the center, in the center of the which was a smaller white circle. "Lock we have a symbol on the armor." Helen toke a picture and sent it to lock. "I'm not familiar with it it may be a planet side clan formed after the covenant left them behind, there where similar groups on a few of the other glassed planets. if you see this symbol elsewhere let me know" Lock left the COM channel.


the sun began to elapsed the horizon casting an orange hue across the sky the spartan teams had gathered back on the roof. Lock had not anticipated the search of the building going so quickly; it had been more empty then he had thought and the Spartans where more capable. between himself and the Spartans they had covered all but the top 2 floors on the first day. he watched the Spartans sat around the camp. Sarah had joined them a while back, and seemed to get along with them okay. in a lot of ways the Trojan was very similar to her Spartan cousins, Sarah seemed to connect with them a lot better than he ha d thought she would, though admittedly they where in similar situation.

lock went into his tent, he needed to upload the data they had found. Key flickered into existence in-front of the small holographic projector he had set up. "have you looked at that journal yet?" Key asks lock impatiently. Lock glared at the AI.s but spoke calmly " not yet no, when i do I'll give you anything particularly interesting before returning it to ONI myself. I doubt it'll be of much interest however not from here." Lock was aware however that several doctors here had been called in to deal with the extensive medical operations of the spartan II and III programs and it seemed likely therefore that some of them would have come this hospital being one of the biggest on reach. several of the basement levels where also used for classified projects, however nothing had turned up there the only thing of any use in the entire building was the journal.


okay so that's CH5, uh please review, particularly if I've missed something obvious, or any errors in grammar or spelling etc. uh I might be a little slow to upload the next chapter as I have exams, but I'll still be working on it...

oh also if you have any suggestions in terms of plot feel free to message me or reveiw