They stood around Doctor Hasley and they were relieved to see that she was not badly wounded. Sam ran up towards them followed by Curtis and Kyle. He knelt next to the Doctor and he gave her a quick examination and he was able to see that she was in no threat of losing her arm since he was their squad medic.

"Doctor you will be all right, the wound is not that deep since the armor was able to slow it down enough so you have no threat of losing the arm" said Sam. He reached into his pack and injected the Doctor with a shot of painkillers to help with the pain that was going to come when they removed the wood from her arm. He pulled out the wood shard and Doctor Hasley grimaced at the pain that was able to get to her even with the shot of painkillers. Sam then pulled out a self-adhesive battle dressing and put it over the wound.

Most of the Heroes were looking at the soldiers as Ironman called shield and informed him that the Hulk had been stopped. Fury told him that he was on his way to make sure the Hulk was secured so he wouldn't be able to damage the city anymore. Tony tried to talk Fury out of taking the Hulk into a holding cell but he wouldn't budge on the matter. Ironman looked over and saw that the Transport/Gunship that had brought the soldiers was landing.

Once he put the battle dressing on Doctor Hasley Sam and the others quickly moved out and cleaned up all evidence of them being there. The picked up Kyle's crushed rifle and all of the shell casings from the bullets that they had all used. As soon as they had cleaned the area Keyes brought the pelican down next to where Doctor Hasley had set up her gear.

"Fred please hand me your combat knifes" Doctor Halsey said after she stood up and walked over to her small computer. Fred was confused as to why but he handed them over two the Doctor they still where slick with the Hulk's green colored blood. She took both of the Knifes and held the both above a small test-tube that the blood dripped into. She then used a swab to clean the rest of the blood off of the blades and then put the swab into a small storage container.

She then put the test tube into a padded container that was designed to keep any samples captured in a test tube safe and secure. Once she secured the case she turned to hand Fred back both of his knifes and then addressed the others.

"Alright pack up we are moving out" with that they grabbed her gear and boarded the Pelican. The rear doors closed once they were all onboard Keyes then accelerated away from the heroes. Once they were out of site she activated the Active Camo and Turned on the autopilot plotting a course for the Forward onto Dawn. She then unbuckled her crash harness and stood up. She then hit the door release. She walked through the open door and went to Doctor Hasley sitting next to her.

"Are you alright" asked Keyes as she had seen her get wounded from her position inside of the pelican.

"Yes I'm fine thank you for your concern" said Doctor Hasley even though she said she was fine Miranda glanced at her Mother's medical information for the tenth time in the last five minutes. She saw that her blood pressure was slightly raised but that didn't worry her. She then decided to sit down next to her mother.

Iron Man watched as once again the mysterious group boarded their transport without a word. He contemplated following them but decided not to as he saw three SHIELD transports landing around the Hulk who was still unconscious. Out of the transports came a number of agents in Hulk-buster gear followed by none other than Nick walked up to the heroes and looked at Iron man as the Hulk-busters moved who now changed back to Bruce Banner.

"Tony what is going on here? Why did the Hulk suddenly go berserk and start to tearapart the city?' asked Fury.

"At the moment we don't know we tried to calm him down but even with the aid of the X-men's telepathy we still couldn't calm him down. I was also able to use the scanners in my armor to get some data on his brain activity" Said Iron Man.

"And what do you see in the scans of the Hulk's brain?"

"Well it was interesting I also did a scan on Hulk when we fought Graviton so using that as a basis to compare the new scan to. It is interesting he was more enraged then he was before and there was also less brain function going into critical thinking. Now this may only have been because he was enraged or it could be the result of something else."

"How can we be sure?"

"You should take a sample of blood from Banner and compare it to the one you got from him when he was in the cube." Said Iron Man as he and the others got ready to return to their respective bases. They said goodbye to the other heroes as they headed back to the mansion. They knew that there would be much to discuss once they got back.

The pelican soon flew into the hanger the Forward Onto Dawn the rear doors opened and they all started to take their gear towards their respective storage areas. But before they left the hanger Core appeared in a flash of yellow light.

"Reclaimer, once we had returned to orbit I began to repair and upgrade the ship we recovered I came upon two interesting developments. First I wished to ask if you could inform me of the name of the ship as I cannot seem to locate it." He said to Kyle as he was the highest ranking officer that was stationed on the Corvette.

"The ship's name is the UNSC Unending Resistance" Kyle said.

"The other problem I have encountered was that once I had restored power to the ship an onboard computer has initiated a lockdown of all systems. I believe that it was a construct that was still on the bridge but was not able to function due to the low amounts of power that was running through the ship's systems."

"Well I didn't think that he made it" said Sam as they both new exactly who or rather what was locking them out of the ship. "The AI was onboard the bridge when it got destroyed and we figured that he had gotten destroyed with the rest of the bridge. Kyle and I will go to the bridge and retrieve him." Kyle looked at Keyes who gave a nod.

"It is your ship after all since you are the last men stationed on the ship" said Keyes. They gave Core a nod and they three of them disappeared in a flash of yellow light.

Kyle and Sam got a sudden wave of disorientation that usually happened when using the Forerunner Teleportation system but it soon passed as they got used to their surroundings. They then started to walk towards the bridge of the ship. The doors that were locked down opened before them once they did a simple retina and fingerprint scan. Once they both scanned their eyes and fingers the security lockdown ended.

They quickly made their way to the bridge choosing to jog towards the bridge they were able to make it to the bridge in a matter of minutes. They made sure their armor was sealed after being told by Core that the bridge was void of any atmosphere. They then entered a small airlock that was connected to the bridge for the exact situation they were in now.

The door behind them closed and then the atmosphere was pumped out the room and into two large tanks that stored the air. Then the door to what was left of the bridge opened and they stepped out of the airlock. The bridge had taken a direct hit and almost the entire bridge was melted away but one of the few untouched terminals on the bridge pulsed a greenish blue color. Kyle walked towards the pulsing terminal and then spoke to it since it had a microphone and a small speaker on it.

"Hey Brandon is that you in there" He asked and for a moment they waited but then they heard a familiar voice.

"Yes it's me I would use my Avatar but the Holoprojector was destroyed along with most of the bridge" said Brandon through the speaker.

"Alright well I'm sure you would like to get out of there and stretch your legs a little" Kyle replied with a hint of humor seeing as he was an AI he had no legs to use but Kyle and the rest of the squad would always send jabs at the AI and he returned them with just as much humor.

"Sure but who is going to carry me out of here, you look like you have gained some weight" Kyle just shook his head at the jab and walked forward pressing a button on the terminal. Moments later a chip appeared from the side of the terminal he picked it up and inserted it to the slot at the back of his helmet. He felt another presence bump against his mine and he knew what the sensation meant.

The new generation of ODST BDU used a neural interface similar to the ones given to Spartans but it was much cheaper to produce then the ones made for the Spartans. The interface was what allowed the armor to boost an ODST's reaction times. But when he inserted Brandon's chip into his helmet it was somewhat similar to how it felt for The Master Chief when Cortana was in his armor.

Kyle then turned towards Core and told him that he could continue with the repairs and modifications. With the problems solved Core gave them a nod and informed them that they could leave the ship through one of the lower hard points used to attach the two ships. But Sam and Kyle had a better and faster way to get back to the Dawn.

Core then teleported to another part of the ship to continue on with his task of rebuilding the ship once he was gone Kyle told Sam his plan. Sam smiled under his helmet and gave a nod of approval. They both kicked off the deck plating and floated towards the part of the bridge where the windows would have been. The caught the edge and looked down to see the Dawn below them.

The both kicked off the ship at the same time they floated towards the Dawn and as they landed on the side of the dawn they activated the magnetic pads on their hands and feet. They then crawled towards the nearby airlock that was only a few feet from where they landed on the hull. As they cycled through the airlock they had grins on their faces as it was quite an adrenaline rush to be in zero gravity and just jump from one ship to the other.

The door opened and they headed towards a computer lab on one of the lower sections. After three minutes of walking they arrived at the lab and Kyle walked in first. He turned and saw Cortana standing there.

"Please insert your AI's chip into the terminal" said Cortana gesturing to the terminal to her left. "It is a standalone terminal with no way out but it will allow me to scan through his core programming and to make sure that he is not rampant." After three minutes of waiting for Cortana to check out the AI she turned around and said. "He is not in any danger of becoming rampant although his time without power has allowed him to stay operational as if he hasn't been running for the time he was without power."

"Alright then so how long until we can move him back to my armor?" asked Kyle.

"In around ten minutes since I am also upgrading his programming as well as giving him the ability to make simple copies of himself."

"Alright then we will wait around here until he is fully upgraded."

"Why do you have such a strong connection with him" Cortana asked since it seemed that the two soldiers didn't want to leave their AI.

"Well before he was an AI he was a member of our squad. When he died then we took his body and his brain was alive enough for us to make him an AI and since then he has functioned as our squad AI."

"How did he die?"

"There was new UNSC colony being invade by Brute loyalists we got sent into the battle area to evacuate civilians and to get them out of the line of fire….."

(Authors Note: hey guys I have decided to write this part in the form of a flashback without having them say it.)

"Alright troopers look alive we have some civilians behind enemy lines. We are going in on a warthog with a trailer that has crash seats to get them out of there." Said Kyle as he briefed them on the upcoming mission his four man team comprised of Private Curtis Dodds who was the newest member of their squad and in the small time he was with them he proved himself as a capable marksman, then there wasLance Corporal Brandon Coulter who loved anything that goes boom fitting since he was the squads demolitions specialist, and them there was Sam Ericson who was the second member of the squad and he was also a Combat medic at first he joined the marines to get his medical degree and then go on and become a doctor but he had too much fun being an ODST trooper so he opted to become a combat medic instead. After filling them in on the details they all headed to the armory.

"What is our contingency plan if sh*t hits the fan" asked Curtis who was currently putting on his armor and loading a SRS99D sniper rifle. He loaded six clips half of them he loaded with the standard rounds and the rest he loaded with specialized rounds designed to penetrate energy shields and armor. He also grabbed a silenced SMG with a few extra clips of ammunition.

"If the mission goes wrong then there will be a pelican in the area that will come pick us up as soon as it has finishedits own mission. And if something goes wrong with that then we will just have to hoof it on foot." Kyle replied as he got his battle rifle and silenced SMG ready and after inspecting both weapons he started to load up a number of clips and put them in the pouches that covered his armor. He also grabbed a can of C-7 foaming explosive attaching it to the side of his rucksack. He then put some fragmentation grenades and medical supplies into his rucksack.

Sam took a battle rifle and a silenced pistol looking both over and then grabbing more medical supplies then the others did. He took a small amount of spare clips only taking two spare clips for each of his weapons.

Brandon took a battle rifle and a rocket launcher that had twoextra rockets mounted on the casing. He grabbed seven spare clips for his battle rifle. He then loaded his rucksack with four cans of C-7 along with a large amount of detonators and timers. He also put a large amount of C-12 into his rucksack he also grabbed twenty of the specialized detonators and triggers he had made that used either a laser beam or a wire to set off the explosives.

Once they all grabbed their gear from the armory they jogged to the hanger bay where they boarded the pelican that took them to the UNSC base on the surface of the planet. Once they arrived at the base they quickly arrived at the motor pool. They all quickly climbed into the warthog Kyle sat in the driver seat starting the engine. Sam jumped on the turret pulling back the slide and taking of the safety. Curtis hopped into the passenger seat and held his sniper rifle setting up the small stand that had magnetic panels on the bottom of each side of the jumped into one of the seats on the trailer he held his battle rifle in his hands and had his rocket launcher in the seat to his left and to his right was his rucksack.

Kyle looked at the map on the dashboard showing where the civilians were supposed to be quickly memorized the fastest path and then he stomped on the accelerator the warthog lurched forward out of the motor pool and it was soon out of the forward command center and on what was left of the main freeway. It moved towards the location and they didn't encounter any resistance for the first ten minutes but it was too good to last.

They rounded a corner and they saw a squad of brutes, grunts, and jackals all of them feasting on five dead civilian's corpses. Sam held his thumbs down on the firing studs and the M41 light machine gun thundered as it sent the 12.7x99mm rounds towards the squad. The rounds easily tore through the aliens' bodies. They continued on down the street they would occasionally run into an enemy squad that Sam would proceed to cut down with the M41.

They closed on the location that the civilians were supposed to be located. But by then they had gotten the full attention of the Covenant in the area. The Covenant where now setting up blockades and ambushes for the ODSTs. Luckily they were either able to avoid them or go through them thanks to Curtis looking down the scope of his sniper and seeing them from a good distance away.

"We are one click out from the civilians we should be able to make it there in a few minutes…."

Just then a Covenant wraith intercepted them. It came out of a side ally and fired on them at point blank the shot hit in front of the warthog. The following shockwave sent the hog cartwheeling through the air. They all fell from their seats and rolled across the ground. Their weapons fell next to them and Brandon picked up his rocket launcher and he set two rockets towards the wraith. They both flew straight and impacted the front of the wraith but not before it got off another shot.

The wraith exploded but they had little time to celebrate since they all leapt to the side to dodge the plasma mortar that was launched at them. Kyle, Sam, and Curtis all leapt out of the way because they were far enough away from the plasma mortar that they were able to get clear easily. Brandon leapt to the side but he didn't get clear in time. The mortar impacted the ground four feet from him.

His shields flashed and then disappeared but they blocked enough of the explosion to send him flying through the air he hit a nearby wall putting a dent in it. He rolled over onto his hands and feet. He pushed himself up onto his feet and for a second he almost collapsed. He stood steady for a minute and then moved to grab his gear that had been spread out by the explosion.

Once he collected his gear he gave Kyle a nod and they set out on foot towards the civilians. It took them ten minutes to reach them since they had to stop every three minutes to fight a covenant patrol. They saw that there were twelve civilians, ten of them were adults and the other two were children. Sam patched up any that had wounds on them. Kyle, Brandon, and Curtis secured and guarded the perimeter.

"Sam are they all patched up" asked Kyle over the COM still looking around the surrounding buildings for anything that could be a threat to his team or the civilians that they came here to rescue.

"Yes sir there was only some minor injuries nothing to serious we will be ready to move when you give word."

"Alright have 5 minutes until the Evac transport is scheduled to arrive" Said Kyle after glancing at his mission clock. "Sam you will guard our route of escape just in case something goes wrong with the evac transport."

"Copy that" with that they stopped using the COMs so that the Covenant forces in the area wouldn't be able to find them from their COM transmissions. Just then Curtis reported that he saw three Brute Choppers approaching their position.

"They seem to be a scouting party; they are riding in a loose formation so that one rocket strike won't take them out. If they get closer I would suggest we should eliminate them we might need the weapons on them if we they attack us with a large force."

"Hold fire" said Kyle as he thought of the pros and cons of attacking the scouting party. If they killed the brutes then they would have some heavier firepower if they were attacked but then again if they didn't kill the brutes fast enough they could report their position to the rest of the Covenant in the area. He decided to wait and see if they got any closer. "Alright continue keeping me updated on their position we will not fire upon them unless we have to."

"Copy that sir" replied Curtis. He continued looking down the scope on his rifle. "They will be able to shoot at us in three minutes we will be able to shoot them in two." The brutes continued towards them. Kyle took out a small box from his pack and placed it on the ground next to them. He pressed a button on the side and a panel slid back revealing a keypad he entered a 4 digit code into it and for a second all of their HUDs got washed with static from the radar jammer.

"Alright we are going to take them down fire as soon as they are in range. Curtis you take the one on the left, Brandon you get the one on the right, and I will get the one in the middle." They waited twenty seconds more and then they all took carful aim at their designated targets. "Fire" there were two three round bursts that where drowned out by the roar of Curtis's rifle.

The brutes had been ordered to search the area for the Heretics that had destroyed one of their tanks. They knew that something was wrong when their COMs had suddenly gotten filled with static and before they could even think of turning on their shields they were soon ripped apart by a hail of bullets. Their bodies falling off of their choppers the choppers continued on for a few seconds before they slammed into the side of a building.

Kyle and Brandon quickly ran down the stairs to the ground floor. They peaked out the windows seeing it was clear they quickly ran towards the choppers. They each hopped on one of them and started them up they started up with no problems. Kyle powered down the one he boarded and then got onto the other one. He hit the activator and instead of starting up like the others it started to whine getting louder and louder. He jumped off of it and leapt behind a nearby dumpster. Brandon gunned the throttle of his chopper and drove around the corner just as the third chopper exploded in a flash of blue.

Brandon drove back around the corner to see Kyle stand up from behind the trashcan that was now slightly blackened and dented from the explosion. Kyle boarded the other chopper that was still undamaged and they both rode them back to the building that the civilians were holed up soon as they reached the front door Sam opened the doors so they could drive the choppers inside the building. Kyle glanced at his mission clock and saw that they had two minutes until the Evac transport came to pick them up. Kyle and Brandon returned to the roof to keep an eye on anything that was going to be a threat to them. They looked around and saw no movement in any direction. At the one minute mark Kyle started to scan the skies for the pelican that was to come and pick them up. He then spotted it approaching from the south.

"Here comes the transport get everyone ready to move out," Said Kyle before switching his COM system so he could talk to the pilot of the pelican. "Echo 621 do you copy, this is Sergeant Major Kyle Gordon."

"I read you loud and clear Sergeant Major we are going to put her down on the south side of the building" Said a female voice over his COM.

"Alright Sam get those civilians to the ground floor be ready to move to the south side of the building that is where the transport is going to land. Brandon get both of those choppers out there we will take them back to base with us. Curtis you stay up here until the pelican lands" said Kyle as he headed towards the stairs to get to the ground level. He opened the door to the first floor and looked around to see the civilians grabbing what little personnel affects they had and getting ready to leave. Sam was helping them gather their belongings and Brandon was just coming back inside to get the second chopper.

Kyle thumbed on the safety for his rifle before placing it on his back. He then walked over to an elderly woman who was having trouble carrying all of her items that she had put into a backpack. He grabbed her backpack and carried it outside just as the pelican got there. He stepped into the back of the pelican and after placing the backpack in one of the cargo racks he opened the door to the cockpit.

"Lieutenant we have twelve civilians that need evac and we have two brute choppers that we were able to commandeer." Kyle said to the woman who was at the controls of the pelican.

"Roger that, once everyone is onboard we will leave." She replied as Kyle nodded and closed the cockpit door. He turned around and saw that half of the civilians had already boarded the pelican and Brandon had already hooked up one of the choppers and was driving the second one towards the pelican now. He looked to the top of the building and saw Curtis's sniper rifle still moving from side to side as he scanned the area.

Brandon hooked the other chopper up as the last of the civilians boarded the pelican. Kyle tapped his COM once to get Curtis's attention once he looked and saw that they were ready to leave. Curtis ran down the stairs and soon came out the door boarding the Pelican. Sam stepped up right behind him and lastly Kyle stepped up. Kyle and Brandon stood at the back of the pelican while Curtis and Sam each took one of the seats.

The pelican flew into the air stating close to the buildings so that it was somewhat hidden from view. But just as they entered the middle of the city a Covenant Anti Air Wraith spotted them and fired a barrage of fuel rods at them. The pelican jerked and bucked as it attempted to dodge the cannon fire. Then two of the rods hit the pelican one on the underside and one near the backdue to the reinforcements that had been made to the pelicans design since the days of the Human-Covenant War the only thing that happened was the pelican shook violently.

Brandon lost his grip on the side of the pelican and fell out of the back. He was able to grab onto one of the Choppers but it fell off of the back of the pelican due to the second fuel rod hitting near the chopper. He stayed as he fell knowing that if he wasn't calm then he would have no chance. Thinking quickly he used the grappling hook on his arm he shot it at the chopper puling himself into the seat as the ground was getting closer at an increasing speed.

He powered up the chopper and then he hit the boost jets. They propelled him forward into a nearby building. He flew through the glass windows of the7 5th floor but he landed hard and was bucked off of the chopper. He landed on the ground and heard a loud crack followed by a sudden wave of pain that hit him like a ton of bricks. He looked to see his leg was at an unnatural angle and he knew it was broken even before his armor told him.

He looked around and saw that the only weapons he had now were his rocket launcher, his rucksack full of explosives, and the spiker he had taken from one of the dead brutes. He crawled towards the window and saw the wraith turn to fire at the pelican that had kept flying. The wraith was directly below him, he quickly grabbed a handful of C-12 plastic explosive that was about 1 kg. He molded it into a ball and put a detonator with a timer into the ball. He looked out the window and his helmet told him it was 12 meters to the ground. Doing some rough calculations he set the timer to 15 seconds and hit the button as he dropped it out the window.

The ball of C-12 fell towards the ground and it landed right on the side of the wraith just a second before it detonated. The explosion was able to destroy the wraith then it was followed by a second explosion as the wraiths reactor detonated. Brandon turned on his COM,

"Kyle anti air wraith has been destroyed. I broke my leg when I landed and I lost my rifle the best I can do is try to hold out here until you guys can come and get me."

"Lieutenant we need to land he is alive but he is in bad shape" Said Kyle to the pilot after he got Brandon's message.

"I'm sorry Sergeant but I have strict orders to get these civilians back to base. And once they were loaded I am to stop for nothing. I'm sorry sir" She replied. Kyle punched the door to the cockpit in anger. He turned back around to see Curtis and Sam putting on falcon decent units. Curtis had his secured first he then handed Kyle one of them.

"Alright Lieutenant if you can't stop can you at least slow down long enough for us to jump?" Kyle said as he put on his falcon decent unit.

"You are crazy to go back into the city the Brutes are all over the city but since I can't stop you from jumping I might be able to slow down so you have a chance to rescue your squad mate. I hope you realize that as soon as you leave this pelican then you are on your own."

"I know what the situation will be when we hit the ground" Said Kyle as he secured his rifle to the Falcon decent unit.

"Good luck sir. Jump in 3….2….1….Mark" She said as she slowed the pelican down for just a fraction of a second. The three of them leapt out of the back of the pelican falling towards the ground as the pelican continued on its current course. They all landed in a group in the middle of an intersection. They discarded their falcon decent units and quickly made their way towards the building that Brandon was stuck in. They moved in the shadows with hast since every minute that went by the close the Brutes got to finding them or Brandon.

Brandon grimaced as he moved down the last of the four flights of stairs that lead up to the fifth floor. He used the last of his C-7 to rig up another booby-trap on the stairwell with a laser triggered detonator. He set them up on all of the stairwells to the fifth floor he had also placed all of his C-12 in the main supports of the fifth floor that helped hold up the 7 other floors of the building.

He knew that if the Covenant found him before his team then he was at least going to take them with him so he set the charges that would level the building to detonate when he sent the detonation signal. He also rigged them to detonate if his armor stopped picking up life signs. He made his way back up to the 5th floor and soon he made it the middle of the floor. The building was an office and Brandon even with his broken leg was able to move a few metal desks in front of the door to a conference room. He hunkered down and did the only thing he could do, wait.

Kyle, Sam, and Curtis were around two blocks from the building Brandon was holed up in. They had stopped moving when a large group of Brutes had passed by near their position. They were now following the brutes and they continued to hope that the brutes would divert from their current path and go away or around Brandon's they continued on right towards Brandon's position.

From what Kyle could see this was a large portion of the Brute forces in the city and it was important to since there was many high ranking Brutes and a Brute Chieftain. Kyle's armor took a picture of the brute and sent it to the UNSC base's Intelligence division. His armor then came back with some interesting information. This brute was the leader of the invasion on the city. By this time the brutes had reached the base of the building that Brandon was hiding inside.

The Brutes entered the building and quickly stormed up through the floors towards the floor that was inhabited by Brandon. The first group of brutes that came up each stairwell triggered the booby traps that Brandon had rigged up. The resulting explosions took a total of 22 brutes and caused three of the four stairwells to be unusable. The remaining brutes all charged up the remaining stairwell but then ten of them were then cut down by Brandon.

Brandon fired his weapons as fast as he could but there were more brutes then he had bullets. Eventually he was out of ammo and he was soon captured by the brutes. The leader of the invasion and the brutes that attacked him grabbed Brandon by his throat and lifted him into the air.

"Tell me where the other humans are hiding" Said the Brute Chieftain holding Brandon dangling out the window.

"How about I tell you in hell" Said Brandon as he grabbed a shard of glass and stabbed the brute in the face. He then mustered all of his strength and kicked the brute in the chest. He was able to escape the brutes grasp as he fell he had a grin on his face he hit the button on the bottom of his gauntlet causing the building to explode in a massive fireball. The resulting shockwave sent Brandon flying into another office building but this time he bounced off and hit the ground with a solid thump.

The building fell down killing all the brutes that had entered it. Kyle cursed as he saw the building explode and then saw Brandon's vitals flat line. They still continued towards his IFF tag to recover his body. They reached him and saw that his armor was covered in burn marks and scratches as well as a number of dents. They then saw a signal that was being broadcasted to all UNSC channels. Kyle tuned in to the signal and what he heard made his heart start to beat faster.

"To all UNSC personnel still in the city there are no more civilians in the city and the boys in orbit are going to bomb the area in 10 minutes. There are three pelicans en route to get anyone left out of the city contact the pilots and give them your position and they will come get you."

Kyle quickly wasted no time and got into contact with the pelican as soon as the message started to loop. "Pelican Echo 876 this is Fire team Phoenix we are in the city near the center and we have a man down."

"Copy that Phoenix we are inbound to your location eta 1 minute keep you transmitter on so we can locate you" Said a female voice over the COM.

"Alright we are leaving; Curtis and Sam grab Brandon the pelican will be here in one minute." Curtis grabbed Brandon's legs and Sam got his arms. They waited in the entrance of a building so that they were hidden from any Covenant that was looking for them. Within a matter of seconds the pelican landed in the plaza next to them. They ran out of the building and soon entered the back of the pelican they each took a crash seat. Kyle strapped Brandon into the seat next to him and then with a solemn look on his face he reached towards Brandon's neck and proceeded to remove his dog tags and then attached them to his own dog tags. The pelican then flew to back to the UNSC Unending Resistance without any problems.

"And then after he died when we got back to the ship we were able to get one of the Doctors to allow us to turn him into an AI because he had no family and he had often said that if he died he would want to become an AI to continue serving the UNSC. So long story short he became our squad's personal AI.

"Alright" said Cortana as they left the room she returned to the tedious process of rebuilding the Unending Resistance as well as having some of the robotic builders sweep what was left of the ship for anything that they could use. As they swept was sweeping the ship one of them entered a room and found a safe this caused it to send a message to Cortana. She then uploaded her full programing into her body and then she set off towards the room at a slow jog. As she approached the room she brought up the persons room and saw the occupant of the room was a Mr. John Smith.

Cortana brought up his record and saw that he was a medical officer she then searched for any discrepancies in his service records. Finding none she searched his medical logs and found that there was something strange every two days that they weren't in combat Kyle was given a full medical checkup. She started to ponder this when she reached Smith's room. She then entered his room and she went to the location of the wall safe.

She then touched her hand to the electronic control panel and bypassed the encryptions so easily that she had to laugh. She opened the safe and inside was a data-pad she picked it up and quickly read through the data inside and what it said was rather interesting. Smith was an Office of Naval Intelligence. The files on the data pad were about an ONI project titled Sharpened Sword.

She then sent a message to the Spartans, Doctor Hasley, and CPO Mendez. They all reported to the conference room that she had sent the message for them to go to. She sat down and started to explain the finding of the safe and the odd occurrence of Kyle's continued visits to the medical officer. The visits didn't make sense to them until Cortana told them about Project Sharpened Sword.

"According to the records I found the project is to test and then give out augmentations to all of the ODSTs in service. Kyle was the first and only test subject that was in the program. They came to him and offered him a chance to join the project when he was critically wounded in battle. He would have most likely have died if they hadn't given him the augmentations. The augmentations have a very quick recovery time afterwards taking only two days to recover from. But after that he was given training in every aspect of the UNSC Military as well as the Navy this was due to his enhanced memory. They give the subject: Higher Stamina/Endurance, Better Long/Short term memory, Enhanced muscle mass (strength), Higher Pain tolerance, Better Eyesight, Enhanced healing (impressive regeneration),Tougher Bones, Slight reaction time boost, Enhanced Hearing, Immune system is enhanced allowing subject to better deal with poisons and sickness also allows subjects to live longer, Aging is slowed allowing subject to love twice as long. The reason for the almost daily medical checkup was to make sure there are no side effects from the augmentations. His performance will either get the project green-lighted or scrapped," after Cortana finished talking they all milled over the information that they had just been told.

"Well that makes some sense he was able to take on the Hulk in close quarters combat and come away unhurt" Said Doctor Hasley. After the meeting they decided they should go back down to the surface of Earth to keep their cover intact. Kyle and Brandon each got new identity's as well as new occupation in the auto shop that everyone else also had a cover at.

The next few weeks were calm as Kyle and Brandon learned how to fix the cars easily enough. And according to Cortana who was monitoring SHIELD's as well as the Avenger's radio frequencies they had not made any headway in finding out who they are or why they appeared to help them fight the Hulk and then leave without a word.

It was another week until anything that was worth them going out in their armor. They had all gotten teleported up to the Forward Onto Dawn and as they were putting on their armor they were getting the briefing from Cortana on what the mission was.

"The situation we are going into is somewhat unknown but I have hacked into Hydra's intelligence network and they seem to have gotten a hold of one of the Avengers. The Avengers despite their best efforts have been unable to locate him but by hacking into Hydra's network I was able to find the exact location that they have him in. And while I was at it I infected their systems with a virus that will erase their computes as well as lock them out of their own network. I left the opening that I used to get in before and when we attack them to rescue the Avenger I will activate the virus to give them something else to worry about and that will make it easier to get in and get out" Said Cortana as she attached the last piece of her armor.

"Alright that sounds like a good plan but which Avenger got captured and how did theyget captured?" Asked Kyle as he put on his left shoulder pad followed by the right.

"Hawkeye was captured when trying to track down the rouge SHIELD agent known as The Black Widow. I believe he allowed himself to be caught since he had Captain America and The Black Panther follow him in one of the twin jets. But they lost his tracker signal shortly thereafter."

"So essentially the plan is to kick down Hydras front door, kick there asses in their own base, and then leave with Hawk eye? Finally we get to have some fun" Said Curtis with enthusiasm and a large grin on his face as he picked up his sniper rifle, examining it to make sure it was still in peak condition satisfied that it was still in peak condition he attached it to his back and then proceeded to grab a silenced sub machine gun.

"Well it's a little more complicated than that but ya for the most part that's the general plan" Said Kyle a slight smile forming on his lips at Curtis's antics. He grabbed a battle rifle and having already checked it over he attached it to his back and reached for a silenced 6C/SOCOM pistol as well as a number of spare clips.

Once they had all been briefed on their upcoming mission they headed towards the hanger to board the pelican they planned to use for this mission. It had photo reflective panels on the side so it could disappear from sight. They soon were entering the Earth's atmosphere the pelican rocked slightly from the friction of reentry. Once they had entered the atmosphere and the pelican cooled down they activated the active camouflage. They soon were hovering above the ocean approximately 100 meters from Hydra Island. The ramp opened and they all jumped into the water. In each of them had a small underwater propulsion unit that could push them at 60 kmph through the water. Each moved towards the waypoint Cortana had marked on their HUDs and as it got closer they spread out to minimize the chances of them being all landed in the groups for the mission that was ahead of them. Curtis and Sam landed near each other. For this mission Brandon was residing inside of Curtis's helmet since their job for the mission ahead was to find a good sniper position and then identify and neutralize the high priority members of Hydra. Sam was to assist and guard Curtis. Kyle landed by himself and quickly moved up to cover before bringing up the schematics of the building up on his HUD. His job was to go and rescue Hawkeye then get him to the evac location.

Kyle quickly analyzed the schematics and then dropped a waypoint on the holding cells. He moved out sticking to the shadows as he moved steadily towards the holding cells avoiding patrols as well as the security measures in place. Further down the shore the Spartans all landed in the same location and quickly formed up and began moving towards the main command area that would be full of troopers and potentially high value targets. They were to cause a distraction with support from Curtis and Sam so that Kyle could get Hawkeye to the extraction point.

They moved in and got onto the top of the large dome that made up a large part of the island. They got on top and they saw Curtis and Sam sitting near one of the main support beams that held up the roof obscuring them from view. They had used a special saw to cut a hole in one of the panes of glass so that they could shoot through to support the Spartans once they started their attack. And now they waited until Kyle got in position.

Once he made it off the beach and into the compound he had quickly evaded the patrols in the hallway by jumping into a small room that looked to be a supply closet. He was about to go back into the hallway when he spotted a nearby grate to the ventilation system. Reaching into a nearby toolbox he removed a screwdriver and carefully removed the four screws that held the grate in place. He decided to hold onto the screwdriver and placed it into one of the pockets on the front of his armor. He then poked a microfiber with a camera on the end under the door and looked both ways and seeing the hallway was clear he grabbed the door handle and then using his augmented strength he was able to bend the doorknob so he no one would be able to enter the room.

He turned around and carefully lifted the grate away from the wall and seeing there was enough room for him to squeeze into the ducts. He had to deactivate his shields so that they wouldn't spark from him brushing up against the walls. He reached back into the room and grabbed the grate placing it back onto its place on the wall and just to be sure he pulled out some wire and a fragmentation grenade rigging up a small trap so that if anyone decided to try and follow him.

Kyle then moved through the ventilation shafts after quickly analyzing the blueprints of the base that Cortana had acquired when she hacked into the Hydra database. He had quickly memorizedthe fastest route to the detention area as well as two alternate routes in case he needed to divert from the fastest route for whatever reason. Curtis radioed in that everyone else was in position and waiting until he was in position. By then he was just nearing the area were Hawkeye was being held. He was above the grate that led to the hallway right outside of the holding cells. He got his pistol in hand and got ready to kick in the grate as soon as the others caused a distraction. He clicked on his COM and spoke to the rest of the team.

"Alright I'm in position as soon as you cause the distraction I will get Hawkeye out of here and to the extraction point."

As soon as they got word from Kyle that he was in position the Spartans quickly backed up before detonating the breaching charge that they had placed one of the window panes that made up the dome. They then leapt through the opening after each of them threw down a rope and started to repel down. They all began firing with deadly accuracy as they descended. John who had his trademark Assault Rifle in hand as he fired three short bursts from his rifle. The first burst caught a Hydra trooper in the center of his chest. The second burst hit another trooper in the arm as he raised his arm to shoot at the Spartans the sudden shot to the arm caused him to pull the trigger on his rifle causing it to fire and hit three other troopers. The third shot hit another in the head.

Linda who had stayed on the roof to add her weapons fire to Curtis's fired four shots in quick succession. All of the shots buried themselves into the heads of four troopers that were holding heavy weapons. She then reloaded and searched through the Hydra troops until she found the ones with larger weapons that could possibly damage the other Spartans' shields.

Fred held a sub machine gun in each hand as he dissented towards the Hydra troopers. He fired a number of quick controlled bursts into the Hydra troopers then once both of the guns ran dry he reached downto pull a fragmentation grenade off of his belt. He then armed the grenade and threw it down towards the ends of their ropes so as to clear the troopers around the area that they would be hitting the ground in.

Kelly held a sub machine gun in her hand and had a shotgun on her back. She fired bursts from her sub machine gun that killed three unlucky troopers before she quickly reloaded and continued firing at the troopers.

Sam and Curtis quickly looked around the room and saw that there were a number of high profile members of Hydra in the room. Barron Strucker was in the room as well as his personnel body guard the Grim Reaper. There was also Madam Viper as well as the Black Widow. Curtis then ejected the magazine containing lethal rounds from his sniper rifle. He took out one of the other magazines loaded with Tactical Training Rounds or TTRs for short. They were made to be used for training UNSCDF members since they could be made to be used in any UNSC issued weapons. The rounds exploded on impact that caused any limbs they hit to be unusable for hours as well as reacting to special micro-fibers in the trainees'fatigues that would cause them to harden.

The reason that Curtis had taken this ammunition with him as well as the lethal rounds was because when a person was hit in the head by TTRs they had a tendency to cause the person to become unconscious for hours as well. Curtis slide the new magazine into his rifle and then pulled back the slide chambering the first round. He saw Madam Viper pick up a rocket launcher and start to turn towards the Spartans with the weapon.

Curtis couldn't get a clear shot at her head because she was looking through a scope to aim the weapon. So instead Curtis moved his aim lower to her leg that she was putting the most weight on. He then calmly pulled the trigger just as she was firing her own weapon. The TTR flew through the air and hit her square in her calve. She was surprised to feel a impact in her leg and then suddenly having her leg give out from beneath her. As she fell she fired her weapon but instead of towards the Spartans it went wide and took out a group of ten Hydra troopers that had just come into the Command center.

Madam Viper had time to look at her leg to see no bullet wound but red paint. Before she could do anything else another shot rang out and this one hit her in the forehead sending her into the realm of unconsciousness.

Curtis and Sam pulled back behind the support beam as a number of Hydra troopers had seen were the shots had come from and they soon decided to lay down some suppressive fire to keep them pinned down. But that plan of action had a very sudden and viscous end as Sam primed a spike grenade. He then dropped the grenade down into the group of troopers. It fell and adhered to one of the troopers near the outside of their box formation. He fell down before standing up and turning to face the rest of his group just as the grenade exploded sending the superheated spikes into his group.

Back near the holding cells Kyle heard the sounds of battle going on a short distance away did have a certain appeal or him to go and fight with the rest of his squad but he knew they had to rescue Hawkeye. He gripped his pistol tighter and then once the only guard remaining on the cell block was under the grate he pulled up his foot and kicked down hard causing the grate to buckle and fall right on the sentries head as he looked up to find the source of the loud thud. Kyle quickly scanned the area and seeing no one he stepped off of the grate. He turned around and placed the muzzle of his gun to the terrorists head before pulling the trigger.

Kyle then stepped towards the closest cell and looked in the window he saw a man in a SHIELD uniform that was torn and the man was covered in burses and cuts as well. Kyle then looked in the other three cells that were in this cell block and saw a total of three men in similar conditions to the first and in the last cell he found Hawkeye who appeared to be unharmed except for a burse on his left temple. Kyle quickly turned on his COM while he continued keeping an eye on the hallway.

"Captain I have located Hawkeye but there is also three captured shield agents what are your orders?" It took a moment for her to reply as she weighed the odds.

"Get them out of there we won't leave them to whatever those terrorist are planning to do to them." Once he heard that Kyle walked back over to the dead guard and searched his person until he found what he was looking for. He shook his head and couldn't help be slightly amused since it seems that Hydra gave even the lowliest guard a key to all of their prison cells. He used the Key to unlock the door to Hawkeye's cell first and quickly entered the cell he saw that Hawkeye was just starting to come to so he quickly moved over to him and pulled out a small injector filled with some wake up stims.

Hawkeye who was slowly regaining his vision after he had been hit in the temple by his guards suddenly felt a slight pain in his left arm and then he felt fully awake. When he opened his eyes he certainly didn't expect to see a man in all black armor standing over him.

"Wait I know you,you and your teammates helped us with that battle against the Hulk. Did the Avengers send you" asked Hawkeye.

"No but I am here to get you out of here and if you are done with your beauty rest then can we please get a move on before we are discovered" Said Kyle as he put his head out of the doorway to check for any approaching sentries. With that Hawkeye got to his feet and gave him a nod. Kyle handed him the key to the rooms and told him to get the other prisoners out of their cells while he guarded the hall.

Once the others were out of their cells Kyle handed them each a weapon that he had gotten from the other guards he had killed in the time it took Hawkeye to get them out of their cells. They quickly set off towards the extraction point with Kyle in the lead and Hawkeye bringing up the rear. They got to a locked door that had a fingerprint scanner next to it.

"Well this is a problem, can we go around" asked Hawkeye.

"No it will take too long we have to get in there to catch my transport" replied Kyle as he moved towards the fingerprint scanner and pulled out a combat knife and pried open the scanner. But as soon as he did the wires inside sparked and burst into flames that quickly burnt themselves out but only after it reduced the scanner to melted plastic. Kyle swore at the fact that the panel was booby trapped to prevent someone from doing anything with the wires inside the panel.

Kyle then took out his second combat knife and wedged it into the crack between the two doors. He was able to pry the door open enough to get both hands in the crack, once he had a hand on each door he pulled the door apart and once he got it open enough for them to squeeze through he let go of the door and then it started to close again. He grabbed it again and held it open.

After the others got through the door Kyle slipped inside andentered the hallwaybeyond. The extraction area was just down the hallway and through a door at the end which lead to one of the landing platforms on the roof of the complex. They quickly advanced towards the door at the end of the hallway. Kyle took pointapproaching the door he pulled out a small breaching charge from his rucksack and placed it on the door.

They all moved behind two large crates before Kyle sent the detonation signal through his helmet. The door was ripped open by the force of the explosion it also killed the four hydra troopers that were guarding the doorway. Kyle sprang from his cover and moved through the smoke filled doorway. He raised his battle rifle, flicking it to semi automatic and fired on the nearest troopers. Three dropped from headshots before they even knew what had hit them and sent the remaining twelve troopers scrambling for cover. Kyle got behind two nearby crates that were relatively intact after the explosion that blew out the doors. He was soon joined by the others who quickly moved through the doorway. Kyle produced a firebomb grenade from his belt and activated the small energy shield that was on his other wrist. He primed the grenade and stood up holding the shield in front of his face before he primed the grenade and threw it with pinpoint accuracy over the boxes that the Hydra troopers were hiding behind.

The troopers saw the grenade but it was too late and it engulfed them in flames killing all of the troopers hiding in cover. Kyle leapt over their cover and quickly vaulted over the cover that was occupied by Hydra moments ago. There were no survivors so Kyle called in the pelican and in a matter of seconds it arrived. Kyle stepped up into the pelican and stood on the ramp that led to the troop bay. He quickly ushered the others inside the pelican they quickly got into the troop bay.

As the pelican lifted off the ground twelve Hydra trooperscame rushing out of a doorway on the other side of the landing pad. Two of them were armed with rocket launchers and they fired shortly afterwards their missiles streaked through the air right towards the bottom of the pelican. One impacted in the center of the armor plating that covered the bottom of the troop bay the other missile hit aft near the ramp to the troop bay.

The pelicans had gotten their armor enhanced with a micro covering of forerunner alloy that was 2 millimeters thickthat made them much more resistant then they had been during the human-covenant war. The first missile impactdidn't damage the armor except for putting a slight one inch hole in the underside of the armor but the second missile impacted the aft section of the pelican's troop bay causing the ramp to suddenly give out.

Kyle who was still standing on the ramp suddenly found himself falling he hit the ground feet first and grunted at the unexpected impact. He rolled to his left to avoid some incoming fire from the Hydra troopers that had started to pour out of the doorway. The troopers had a mix of missile launchers and heavy machineguns that they soon aimed at the pelican. Kyle saw this and popped up from cover, firing at the ones armed with the launchers but they continued to pour out of the doorway.

"Keyes, get out of here the AA fire is going to be too thick in a moment" Kyle barked into the COM as moved back behind cover to reload his weapon.

Miranda looked out from the cockpit and saw the massive amounts of troops charging out of the doorway she knew he was right.

"Copy that, hold on as long as you can we will pick up the others and be back for you" Keyes replied. She then banked the pelican to the right to avoid a volley of missiles. She then gave the pelican full throttle and flew towards the dome to pick up the rest of their team. That's when Hawkeye hit a button on the wall to the cockpit opening the door between the pilots cabin and he troop bay.

"You can leave him behind he saved me and he is a member of your team, how will you be able to live with yourself after leaving him there" Hawkeye blurted out angry at Keyes for leaving his savior even though he didn't even know him. But Keyes was infuriated how Hawkeye was lecturing here like he was her superior.

He pushed him back out of the cockpit and into the troop bay saying, "Don't you dare talk to me like you know what I have and have-not done. I have seen and done far worse things then leave a man behind for the rest of the team to continue on and fight another day." She shut the door and locked it. And for a moment she closed her eyes and she saw her fellow soldiers that she had knowingly sent to their deaths during the war. She banished the thoughts from her mind as she focused on getting the rest of her team back in one piece.

Back on the ground Kyle herd the pelicans engines roar and knew he was on his own. And to his surprise he didn't feel any sense of dread but a cool calm knowing that he didn't cost the rest of his team to be trapped on this island. He pulled his sidearm from his hip and held his battle rifle in one hand and the Magnum in the other. He stood up from behind cover and fired as fast as he could. He dove away from his cover when he saw a trio of grenades fly through the air towards him.

He nearly escaped the blast but he was still knocked back hitting a wall hard headfirstthe sudden impact would have killed him had it not been for the helmet. Kyle saw his vision start to fill with black and knew he was going to black out he was able to raise his magnum and fire three more rounds before he finally blacked out.

The Hydra troopers were quick to run up and grab him binding his hands behind his back and putting shackles on his ankles. They quickly loaded him into a transport before flying him towards their fallback position. The transport activated its cloaking device before departing from the area with Baron Strucker and the Black Widow onboard.

The Spartans were continuing to take out every single trooper in the large domed command room when Keyes arrived. They grabbed the high value targets that Curtis had neutralized. They each held one of them and quickly ascended the ropes they had descended on. Sam dropped a backpack filled with C12 down into the room. The Pelican hovered on the roof and when Sam turned around, boarding the pelican. But instead of being relieved when boarding the drop ship after a mission he noticed something, Kyle wasn't on board the dropship.

"Where is Kyle" Sam asked Keyes over the COM.

"The pelican got hit by some light AA fire and he fell out he told us to leave without him because if we didn't then they would have taken down the pelican, Strap in we are going back to help him." Keyes said turning the pelican back in the direction she came from. They arrived at the landing pad a minute later and it was devoid of life. They didn't see Kyle but they did see around a hundred dead Hydra troopers.

"Cortana is Kyle's armor still transmitting" Keyes asked when she noticed a large crater in the spot she had last seen Kyle.

"Affirmative Commander, It is transmitting that he is alive but unconscious and it is a week signal. The failsafe's on his gear are still active do you want me to activate them?"

"Alright if he is unconscious then he is being taken to their next base for interrogation and for them to research his gear. Arm and activate the failsafe's, as for the fusion reactor activate the safe shutdown for it so it doesn't explode." Cortana gave a nod of her head and a moment later she informed them that it was done.

Authors Notes: Sorry if you guys weren't expecting another cliffhanger but that's just where the chapter went so get over it.