The portal rushed up to meet me, and then we were through, the last thing I noticed was that the portal shut almost instantly behind me, and Stevens didn't make it through.

The Warthog, still tumbling through the air, landed with a heavy thud on the ground, upside down. A small cloud of brown-beige dust flew up in the air from the impact. I crawled out from under the flipped vehicle, and looked around, wondering where I was. It was a large plain, surrounded by mountains. All covered with that same brown-beige dust. I looked up. There was open sky, no ceiling. "We aren't on Requiem anymore."

"That might explain why the atmosphere is a mix of nitrogen and argon."

"Any clue where we are?"

"No. The stars aren't visible, but this doesn't look familiar. We could be on an unexplored world, possibly near or on an ancient Forerunner installation."

That's not good. Stranded somewhere with a limited oxygen supply, with little hope of rescue. This was one of the worst positions I've been in for a long time. With nothing better to do, I flipped the Warthog back onto its wheels, and looked it over. It seemed in good condition, only minor damage. I then checked my stash. Before every mission, I make sure to stock the Warthog with armor abilities, just to be sure that whatever situation comes up in the field, I'll be ready. I pulled out the passenger seat, and checked the compartment under it. It all seemed to be there. Hologram, autosentry, regeneration field, hard-light shield, thruster pack, and even a jetpack. In addition to the active camo on my back, I had everything. Check complete, I put the seat back. Just in time, too.

"Nick, it looks like we have company. Unidentified dropship, coming in."

I looked up and saw it. Whatever it was, it was not human, but it wasn't Covenant either. If anything, it looked almost like an insect. I hopped in the driver's seat, ready to get out of there if the occupants of the dropship proved hostile. "Great. Lets just see what it is that they want. If it goes south, I'll drive us out of here." I looked at the nearby mountains closely, looking for an escape route. I found a cave in one mountain, close to the bottom. That will do. Meanwhile, the dropship got closer.

The dropship started getting a blue glow, and I wasn't taking the chance. I sped away, heading for the cave I saw. An explosion happened somewhere to my left, an I figured it was the dropship's gun. I went faster. I reached the cave, and luckily, there was a bend in the back of the cave, allowing me to pull the Warthog in and protect it from the dropship. I figured that it was only a matter of time before that dropship let off some troops, so I hopped on the back turret. Because of the way I pulled in, the turret was facing the entrance to the cave, at least from around the bend. Sure enough, I heard a loud noise, something of a cross between a roar and a growl. Probably one of the aliens shouting something, but I couldn't understand.

"How are we going to do this? What if they're friendly?"

"I figured I would let them make the first move. If they open fire, I'll do the same. If they don't, I'll just wait."

"Sounds good. Try not to piss them off too much."

I didn't have to wait long. A single-eyed being stepped around the corner, and immediately upon seeing me, opened fire. I did the same. Only difference was that my shields held, while the rounds from the heavy machine gun tore the being to shreds. Oddly, it seemed like it was mechanical. "Saria, any idea what we're looking at here?"

"Looks like a mobile platform for an AI."

"For an AI, these guys aren't so smart."

Just then, more of them turned the corner, one bigger then the others. I immediately let loose on the bigger one, not giving it a chance to fire, and once it was down, I took apart the others. By the time I was on the last one, my shields were down, and their bullets were pinging off my armor. Their guns didn't seem strong enough to be able to pierce the armor plating of the MJOLNIR.

The robotic assault on my position lasted for a couple more minutes, each wave easily put down by the turret. Eventually, however, the director of these AI forces got impatient, and apparently decided to take me on, one on one, if that is what it meant by the loud roar.

Eventually it came around the corner, and I opened fire. It's shields lasted longer that the robots', but not by much. Just enough to allow it to get close enough to tear me out of the turret before I killed it. After I got back to my feet, I took a minute to look at it closely. It looked like a large, humpbacked lizard, and I could tell it was strong, I didn't have to look at its arms to see that. It's eyes just helped to reinforce the lizard image in my head, slitted like a reptile's.

"Can you get anything on this thing?"

"Looks like it has multiple vital organs, maybe a backup system. It's going to be able to take a lot of punishment."

"Great. Just what I need, heavy combat to waste even more air. Lets get this over with."

The conversation was half a second too long. The thing charged me, and managed to tackle me, and tackling about half a ton of Spartan is no easy task. I managed to shove it off of me, and sent it away with a hard kick to the stomach area. That gave me enough time to get up and go on the offensive. I quickly charged back at it, but instead of going for the tackle, I went for an arm grab and spun around to its back, shoving it up against the cave wall. With three hard face smashings against the wall, it fell to the ground, slightly dazed. That gave me enough time to grab the Energy Sword and activate it. I don't like fair brawls.

It stopped for a second, looking at the blade warily. He charged at me again, but I was ready this time. With a deep slash across the thing's chest mixed with a sidestep, the alien crashed to the ground. I stabbed the Energy Sword through the thing's head, just to be sure.

With the death of their leader or commander, not sure which one, the dropship fled the scene. Deciding to try to save oxygen as long as possible, I sat down against a cave wall next to the Warthog, to try to slow both my heart rate and my breathing. It was a little while later until I heard a car or something pull up outside the mouth of the cave. It was a minute later when an alien walked around the bend, looking at all the bodies. The thing was wearing a helmet, but I bet its mouth, or whatever passed for one, was open in shock. It looked around the cave more, before it saw me sitting against a wall. The dark armor I was wearing helped me blend in fairly well. It walked over to me and, probably thinking I was either some kind of robot or a corpse, knelt down in front of me, looking me over. After a minute, it straitened up, and turned around, putting a hand up against its head like it was talking over a headset. I took the opportunity it presented me. I quickly activated my active-camo, and slowly stood back up. It had probably just called in reinforcements or something, and I was not going to take that chance. When it turned back around and didn't see me, it paused, giving me the chance I needed.

It froze for a second, a bad mistake. I killed the active-camo and gave it a quick leg sweep, knocking it to the ground, and planted my boot on its chest. I applied enough pressure to keep it down, but not enough to break it. I slowly pulled out my pistol, and lined up on its head, or at least where I thought the head was. Hard to tell with aliens.

Suddenly, just before I fired, a voice said in English, "Put the gun down! Now!" I immediately realized two things. One, that the voice was a human female, and it was not Saria. Two, that me and the alien were no longer alone in the cave.

I looked up and turned my head towards the entrance, and sure enough, there was a woman standing there, two women in fact. The one on the left wore almost black armor with a red stripe going down her right arm. The one on the left wore armor with a similar design, but with different colors, and lacking a stripe down her arm. Something was strange about the second one though. I looked closer, and sure enough, her skin was blue. Either some strange eye job, or it was another alien. I went with the second option.

"I said, put the gun down!" It was the woman on the left that spoke, the assured human. I turned my body slightly to face her, but kept my foot firmly planted on the alien under me.

"You're human." I just needed to be sure.

The woman seemed startled that I spoke, or maybe that I spoke in English. "Uh, yeah, I am. And who are you?"

I avoided the question. "This yours?" I gestured with my pistol to the alien still under my boot.

"Yeah, he is. Are you alright, Garrus?"

With her confirmation, I took my boot off of the alien's chest and let him stand up. He brushed itself off, and looked at the woman, saying something in his native language.

"Good. I can't help but notice that you still haven't answered my question though." The last part was directed at me.

I looked once more at the three beings in front of me, and connected the dots.

"Since you're human, and this planet doesn't have a breathable atmosphere, I think it's safe to assume that you have something sealed, capable of holding oxygen. We can play 20 questions there, I'm starting to run a little low on oxygen."

"Um, sure, follow me."

"Hold on, I need to get some things."

The conversation finished, I walked over to the Warthog and pulled a rucksack from a storage compartment. I then pulled out the seat and put my starch into the bag. One final check, all the armor abilities were there and fine, I hadn't even fired a shot with my assault rifle, and the pistol was only down one bullet. The Energy Blade was at 90% charge. With everything set, I walked out of the cave and into the sun of the unknown planet.

Well, was longer that i thought it would be. Anyways, next chapter will probably just be a Q&A between Shepard and Thompson. maybe some combat, if not, then definatly the chapter after that. And just if you couldnt tell, the robots were the Geth, the first alien was just some random Krogan, and after that, it was Garrus that Thompson had pinned to the ground while Shepard and Liara watched on.

EDIT: A couple mistakes fixed, some things reworded. Nothing major.