I walked in a more relaxed fashion than normal, not really any reason to be alert. My gun was pointed loosely towards the sand, my feet subconsciously trodding along the path to the researchers' encampment. I listened to the chat in my helmet, listening to the sound of the playful mockery, poking and prodding at one another. I chuckled to myself as they continued this, Sarah chuckling right along with me.

As we broke the crest of the hill which we had trudged up, we could see a small group of tents surrounding a much larger one.

"Got the encampment in sight." I said over comms.

I got all the normal oks, got it, yep, alright, and any other affirmation you could think of, even an about damn time from fireteam Majestic's absolutely flawless leader. I rolled my eyes in my visor to my own thoughts, continuing down the hill and into the small makeshift base. We were greeted by a short, chubby, bald man wearing glasses and a white lab coat, stained with black marks.

"Welcome SPARTANs! Thank you for coming on such short notice." said the man, seemingly excited about something.

"No...Problem." I said, slightly deterred by his flamboyance.

"Wel, come in, come in." he said, shuffling back into the largest tent.

I turned my head to face the team, watching as almost everyone shrugged their shoulders. I sighed and pushed the fabric aside so that I could walk inside. As I cleared the canvas I saw a metal table with a small ovular object lain across it. I looked at the intricate designs, outlined in yellow. They had definitely been right about it being forerunner tech.

"We've been unable to get a response from this artifact, though it is most definitely a capsule of some sort." said another scientist in the tent as the rest of my team pooled in.

"What does this thing have to do with us?" I asked.

"It doesn't have anything to do with you." said one scientist, a rude tone to his voice.

How some people could be so arrogant towards SPARTANs I had no idea, but either way Jasmine wouldn't have it.

"Hey asshole," she said, pushing her way to the front of the group, "watch your mouth." she said.

The larger scientist went red faced and turned away with a look of rage on his face. Another scientist gasped and pointed at the artifact.

'Look!" he exclaimed.

Fallen turned to look along with the rest of us as the capsule began to pulsate yellow light.

"I do believe her proximity activated it." said another scientist, scribbling down notes in his notebook.

"Take another step closer dear." said the scientist who'd originally let us in.

Fallen looked around for a moment, turning to look at me. I gave a curt nod and she took another step forward. The pulsating sped up as she took another step, and another, until the light was constantly bright. Fallen seemed to be unable to stop herself as she reached out a hand to touch the strange capsule. I watched her finger touch the slick metallic surface, then the tent was filled with a brilliant blue light.

I didn't know I'd been thrown back until my back hit sand. I quickly scrambled to my feet and heard the moaning and groaning of scientists getting to their feet, but what I heard over it all was the scream of one girl in particular. Her screams weren't high pitched and fearful, rather raspy and sounded terrible. She sounded as if she was being burned from the inside out. I rushed to her side where Meteor and Athena were already kneeling over her prone form. She wouldn't stop rolling left and right to give us a good look.

"Dragon, Crow, hold her down!" I screamed, trying to give our medic something to work with.

Dragon and Crow were over in seconds, each grabbing onto something with either hand and pinning it to the ground. She still struggled to squirm as they held her, she thrashed her head to and fro wildly.

"I've got her head!" I yelled as the scientists and Majestic gathered about to watch, though none could do anything to help.

I scrambled to her head and pushed down on the visor to pin her head to the ground before Meteor frantically began speaking in what seemed like another language.

I could make out a few words as he jabbered to himself a bunch of medical procedures, a few came across quite clearly though, "Take her helmet off."

I reached around to either side of her neck and pulled on the release catches and tossed her helmet aside. Jasmine had her eyes wide open, still bucking to try and relieve any sort of pain. I looked at where her neck met her chin and stared in shock. The veins in her neck were glowing a bright blue, unlike anything I'd ever seen, they tapered into nonexistence just above her chin but continued downwards who knows how far.

"Get it off! Get it off!" she screamed before her cries became more of a struggled sob as she fought to get away from what had grabbed hold of her.

Her eyes rolled back in her head and she stopped struggling a few moments later, I immediately stuck my fingers to her neck and felt the out of this world rate of her heart pulse up through my hand.

"She passed out." I said, the barren landscape going deathly silent as her screams were cut off.

I sat back on my knees and watched the light slowly drain from her veins. We were all breathing heavily, everyone else standing around like a bunch of idiots. Lilith looked down on her with a hand up to her faceplate. I looked around at all the eggheads that were standing around taking notes. I tried to remain calm as I watched these researchers do exactly what they do, but it made me so angry.

I didn't know how long it was before Fallen came to but it was enough for the eggheads to move her onto the table and scan her. Not even they could figure out what was wrong. When she did come to she woke awoke violently and suddenly, breathing heavily. She acted as if she was still in pain but soon realized she was fine. I had tensed where I stood and almost made a move for her, but relaxed when I saw her sigh a breath of relief.

I waked over to her and handed her the stalker helmet I had stripped from her. She took it with a smile and slid it back onto her head, wincing away from a doctor that made a move to help her up. The doctor backed away defensively as she sat up and stepped down.

"You alright?" I asked as we walked outside.

"Yeah, just feel a bit weird. I'll be fine though." she said with confidence.

Her confidence convinced me and I walked her into the tent where the rest of the team sat. She accepted the hugs with restrained flinches and closed fists, sitting down as if nothing had happened afterwards.

Just like Fallen to be that way, back to the mission I suppose.