I do not own Halo/Alien/Predator

Chapter Four: Derailed?

After touchdown the ODST Black Ops team moved to regroup. The launch system had suffered some sort of malfunction, separating the team from the intended drop point. Benny kicked his pod door free and landed with a soft crunch. The filtered air of his helmet activated and his night vision optics automatically kicked in. All was quiet on the Com. Benny whispered a command through his throat mic but no answer. Remaining calm Benny trudged through the thick foliage with his BR-55 rifle leading the way. It had to be a night op. Benny thought darkly before moving to another tree for cover. After moving several feet he again tried reaching his team. At first no dice but soon enough he heard a familiar crackle of the mic.

"Shuriken reporting in Sarge. Getting a lot static on my end, you?" Benny could barely here Jin through all the white noise. So far, this mission was going downhill fast. Benny acknowledged and paused at a nearby tree. He clicked on his internal binoculars to times 4 zoom. For the briefest second he could have seen movement.

"Made contact with the others?" Benny whispered. Again there was silence and then blackout from the radio signal entirely. Shortly after there was rapid gunfire. Cover blown, this early, it can't be! Benny thought as he broke into a light jog. The gunfire only grew louder, someone or something was closing in on him. Benny stopped at a nearby tree, his mind racing on where to go or what to do. Before he knew it, someone's hand was wrapped around him pulling him close.

" Quiet, Sarge." Jester's voice whispered from behind. Easing his muscles Benny melted back beside Harmon.

"Not even thirty minutes and things are getting interesting, Sarge."

"Sit-rep?" Harmon pulled Benny down low to the ground into a hollowed out tree stump and motioned to the west with his fingers. Benny locked in with his internal HUD. Movement was recorded, with targets locking on. Several men were standing back to back in a clearing and armed to the teeth. Something had them spooked. After a brief pause they again fired around in all directions. Their shots filled with panic, disorderly, yet uniformed. Just from their stance and movement Benny could tell that these men were highly trained.

"Ever since touch down I've been ghosting em. Something's tearing at them, Sarge, I don't like it. These men are professionals but... look."

"Flood?" Benny flatly remarked.

"No, we both know flood infection tactics, infect first ask questions later. Not a single infection form for twenty minutes and they have been draining ammo like it's doomsday." Benny zoomed in with his HUD. These men didn't seem to be military. He ventured to guess they were an outside contractor for the facility.

"Local fauna possibly?" Benny asked, flexing his arm from the sudden stiffness of being compressed in the tiny space. Jester shrugged and leaned backward.

"Likely, but if that's the case why haven't they messed with us?" Harmon remarked. Before Benny could answer the gunfire suddenly ceased. All four men tightened up formation took stock of ammo and started to reload. Then there was a shriek and nothing more.

"Killed it." Harmon pointed out. Benny shook his head lowly

"Then why are they double timing with the ammo?" At this point Harmon dismissed these men and grumbled lowly.

"Something just has them on edge. What now?"

"For now, we need to regroup. Have you heard from Shurkien or Blizzard?" Benny asked before shifting in his spot. Harmon tapped his helmet to signal that his throat mic was out. Then he leaned close to Benny and added.

"Got one transmission from both. They're grouped and are heading toward the first target. Figure if we he haul we can reach em by daybreak. Told em to wait before commencing with the op, don't know if it got through."

"What about Boomer?"

"Dead silent on his end, saw his pod crash it's not too far from here."

"Alright, let's go find Boomer and haul."Benny said while he thought everything over. Mics were out, team was divided, flood outbreak possible and a team of paranoid soldiers. This mission was definitely derailed. He cracked his neck and forced himself up and motioned for Harmon to ready up. If they were going to regroup before first light He and Harmon were going to need to move… fast.

Jin moved swiftly to keep pace with Kendra. They were inside of Compound "A" security was tight but they managed to break in through a hole they found. This place was abandoned, nothing but whispers and ghosts. Right now they were on the second level of the complex. The generator was down and back up systems were the only things running. Intel was right about one thing the built in security was off the charts. Most of the tech here Jin hadn't ever seen before. Forerunner, Covenant and Human integrated weapons... Hallie freaking luiah. If not on assignment Jin would have loved to look over the specs.

"Shuriken, tighten up." Kendra scolded. Jin shook his head and locked his focus back to his weapon's sight. Halfway down the hallway was a door marked CRYO CHAMBER LV4 CLEARANCE. Jin took one look at the lock and unhooked his slicer and went to work. Just as he clicked open the outer cover for the hardware Kendra stopped him.

"You hear that?" There was a clicking noise alright and it was right on top of them. Jin dropped low and spun on one heel so he faced the opposite hallway. Jin's eyes darted from space to space looking for any sign of movement. He tightened the hold of his MA5 and exhaled sharply.

"the pipes." Kendra stated automatically. Jin disagreed, all the ducts, pipes or anything remotely out of sight was the most heavily fortified. No this noise was from within the hallway but there was nothing. Jin gave the hallway one last look over and indicated that he was going to go back to work on the door. Kendra moved over closer to offer more cover while Jin worked. Jin's hands moved like lightening cutting cords, moving circuit boards... it was an art. As he put the finishing touches onto the door, there was an earth shattering shriek.

"Shuriken, were about to get hit, how's that door coming." Kendra growled with her trigger finger placing a lot of pressure down. Jin looked to the console and then to the hallway behind them.

"Door is like a bank vault. We're not getting through, not without fifteen pounds of explosive."

"Don't tell me things I don't want to hear, Shuriken." Jin only chuckled, took point and motioned for Kendra to fall behind him.

"Life is death." Although obscured by her face plate Jin was sure that Kendra was scowling at him.

"I hate it when you say that sort of shit." Kendra spat. Jin smiled but kept his focus forward. He wanted to personally greet whatever was ghosting them. Halfway back down the hallway Jin picked up movement on the HUD.

"Got action on the Ceiling." Jin called out. Kendra stepped forward, her HUD already locked onto what moved and fired a volley upward. Whatever was there was dropped before you could say Sunday.

"Kill confirmed?" Jin called out, backing away as he did so. Kendra took several cautious steps forward, her adrenaline edging her trigger finger to continually pump rounds down this entire hallway. With every step closer to what she killed Kendra's nerves were in overdrive. Stepping over the pile of tiny corpses she got a good long luck at the things.

"It was a bunch of fucking bats!" Kendra awaited a response but there was none. It was all silent in that darkened hallway. Kendra quickly realized she was now alone.