Ok all, enjoy


"AAAAHHHHH" the alien screamed in front of him, he didn't know if it was in anger, fear, pain, of course there was a chance that it would be all three but he didn't know for certain. Atlas's fist dug into the large alien's chest and pulled out what he and many other biologists found out was the heart of the alien. The blood poured out of the now gaping hole and he gurgled for another moment. A Jiralhanae, more commonly known to humanity as Brutes to the soldiers and civilians of humanity. The hand Alt wrapped around its neck gave way and it fell back onto the ground dead.

He looked to his other hand, still holding the large heart for a moment longer than he needed to. Crushing it in his hand that was now as fist, he dropped the remanets of flesh to the ground before turning around and moving away.

The planet they were on was small, not in terms of size but in the presence they had on it. It was a newly discovered world and barely had any form of colonization on it. Which is what most likely allowed them to evacuate most of the people quickly, leaving the little infrastructure behind. The small settlement around him was in complete ruin, fires all around him. Small buildings that were torn open from plasma fire and dead bodies littering everything around him.

Both human and alien.

The only life around him at the moment was the Warthog a few meters away that had two ODST's waiting for him. No doubt wondering why he was so brutal with that last alien "What's the word?" he asked the two of them as he approached.

"Ajax is reporting that the shields are down" the left said as he started to make his way around the heavy jeep towards the passenger seat. The one who spoke claimed into the driver's seat while the last climbed up to the heavy turret. Upon hearing the news, Alt turned his head to the side.

The sun was setting, lighting up the sky with an orange hue. The tops of the nearby trees almost glowing as a result, off in the distance was a single lonely mountain that reached very high. Though that wasn't what caught his attention, above the mountain was a Covenant Corvette, from what Alt could see it had multiple hull breaches and three of its back engines were blown open. To be honest he was surprised it was still in the air.

Closer towards them, flying just slightly lower than the clouds was the Ajax. Looking much better than her opponent with only minor damage herself. With a sound that thunder would be envies of, the MAC of the UNSC ship fired and the large slug flew through the air and land a direct hit in the middle of the enemy ship. Alt could see the slug enter the side of the corvette and fly out the other side. He didn't know if it hit the power core or not but he did know that it seemed to cause a chain reaction.

It would have been difficult for a normal person to see but he could make it out clearly enough. All the smaller explosions echoing through the rest of the large ship and it started to lose altitude, doing a nosedive and heading for the mountain. Seeing that they needed to move, Alt jumped up and sat down in the Warthog "Let's go" he said and the ODST next to him nodded at the trio drove off down the dirt and damaged road.

"This is Ajax to all ground teams, enemy ship is down, I repeat enemy ship is down. Commencing phase two now, how copy?" Khanes voice filtered through their com systems.

"Solid copy Ajax, moving into position now" he said pressing a hand up to his ear.

"Ready for drop, standing by for coordinates" Diggs added through his own position with the rest of the ODST's in the Ajax drop pods.

Alt didn't say anything back to that and instead focused on the plan. It was simple enough ONI and UNSC both expressed and interest in getting some prisoners to use for interrogation. It was the only reason they were here and not on one of the many different battle fields that were taking place across their territory. They needed as many as they could get but they knew full well that the Ajax only had the room for so many, which meant that they needed to prioritize those that would be of a higher rank.

They didn't have the best way to find out how they would do that but from what ONI had been able to find out, the best lead they had so far wasn't too dissimilar from their own ways to tell the rank of someone, use what they're wearing. Alt and many others had seen many different types of armour that the aliens wore but he would admit, some did stick out to him more than others and based on what he observed they gave orders before he killed them. He would try and keep his eyes out for them.

The ground rumbled under the wheels of the jeep and he saw that front of the alien ship collided with the mountain and it looked like the G-force of the collision was forcing the corvette to almost bend in on itself, cracking the top of the mountain wide open. That crash was going to kill a lot of the enemy but hopefully enough would be alive to take back with them. Being completely honest, they got lucky that the covenant only sent this one ship to take the small... not even a colony yet. If it was one of the bigger ones, then they would be having more of tough time.

As they all looked, they could see that snow was falling from the top of the mountain and covering whatever roads they were going to follow to get closer. Upon seeing it, the driver stopped the Jeep and waited for the call.

Alt sighed slightly before standing up and landing on the ground with a slight thud. He watched the top of the mountain, the snow on top of it all was starting to bury the smaller ship in white. Putting out the multiple purple fires, they learnt earlier on that when the fire mixes with the plasma fuel source they that the covenant uses, it causes the fire to turn purple. It also grows far stronger than a normal flame would, that type of reaction was an advantage that humanity tries to take advantage of whenever they have a chance.

He waited for a moment for the snow to stop falling, the once picturesque image of the snowy mountain top was now gone, overtaken by the now battlefield view. Most of the snow had fallen, it now covered the purple ship that was now half exposed to everyone, the small from the now put out fires floating into the air. The orange hue of the sun being blackened by the fumes.

The snow stopped and he turned to look at the two in the jeep "call in for evac, I'll continue on foot" he ordered them before turning around and heading towards the base of the mountain.

"Yes sir" he heard both of them say behind him.

As the two drove away and back to the settlement area, Alt stayed in his spot for a moment longer and thought about what the best options going forward would be. A part of him thought that it would be a good idea to try and download some data from the enemy ships but they couldn't, sure they might have some smart people onboard the Ajax but they would need A.I to be able to plug in a start going through the enemy computer code. Not to mention they would need to be quick encase enemy reinforcements arrived and they would need to leave.

Seeing the plan form in his head, Atlas acted.

His powerful legs bent underneath him and he jumped in the air, the ground bending under his power, a blast of wind coming from around him as he moved. With that one monition, he flew miles into the air and further forward. The wind blowing past his face and before he even had a moment to enjoy it, he started to fall to the ground.

Well, not ground.

Bending his knees, ready for the impact. Atlas's feet smashed into the purple surface of the alien ships outer shell and as the metal creaked underneath him, he stood up straight and after a moment he brought his fist back and punched downwards. The metal proving not strong enough to stand against him, his fingers dug around the many different layers of metal and started to step back, pulling the metal with him. Making a hole big enough for others for the others to get in.

"AAAHHH!" he heard a sound that he's used to hearing, looking into the hole. He saw one of the smaller aliens, a Grunt or an Unggoy as was their species name was standing in the hallway that he was trying to open up, littered across the ground where the broken bodies of many different aliens, those who did survive the crash. Upon seeing him it started to scream even more and raised its weapon at him, the smaller handheld ones and the green bolts of plasma fired at him.

He grunted as the hot bolts hit him in the face, after three landed. Alt's right hand clenched and he tore a small shard of metal from the outer shell he was peeling and threw it at the Grunt, with a powerful force, the shard found it's target and the alien was ripped in half. The shard of metal embedding itself in the ground behind it. Once that was done, Alt stood up straight and looked at the hole, it would be big enough.

He stood up straight and started to walk further inwards towards the bulk of the ship's hull. While this Corvette is one of the smaller ships that the UNSC knows about, which is why he it didn't take him long to reach the back of the ship. The Corvette had nosedived into the mountain so the bridge and the front half of the ship was half broken up and buried in snow while the back was sticking out.

Underneath him, he could hear many of the enemy running around, around the dead bodies of the other crew members and gathering weapons, setting up defensive positions and the like. Walking up the admittedly steep hull, he made it to a spot near the back engines and reached up to his ear "This is Atlas, to all ODST's, deploy at my current position. Full burn and closed formation" he ordered them all.

"Copy that Atlas, ODST's dropping now" Diggs voice called from the other side of the radio.

Alt turned and started to move back towards the entrance he made into the ship. Normally this wouldn't be advisable, the ship was anything but stable and a dozen drop pods hitting it from the high in the sky wasn't going to help. Looking up as he walked, he could see that the Ajax that was still nearly at the top of the atmosphere had opened its launch bays and he could see the pods dropping towards him. Or more accurately the spot he was when he called it in.

That was why he told them to do a full burn, basic terms mean they would be slowing down as quickly as possible, meaning their landing wouldn't do too much damage to whatever they landed on and the closed formation would keep them together tightly, it wasn't unheard of for ODST drop pods to spread out upon landing. Which isn't something that they will want as if they land in the snow that has recently fallen from the mountain, meaning it wouldn't be solid at all. They could just end up burying themselves, making them useless for the mission and even endangering it as that would mean they would need to save manpower to rescue them.

The sound of loud rushing wind was heard as he made it to the hole he made, he waited for but a moment longer, as expected, the loud bangs came next along with the thudding vibrations through the metal under his feet. Looking over his shoulder, he saw twelve different UNSC pods imbed themselves into the purple metal hull. With a flash of steam from the front of them, the front metal door of the pods was ejected from them and all the ODST's jumped out with their weapons raised.

As one and without a word they all marched towards them, their weapons ready encase the enemy appeared from any direction. Alt stayed just on the edge of the hole he made for a moment as the others reached him "Ready?" Diggs asked from beside him as all the others stood behind the two.

Alt didn't say anything back, just turned his head to look at the older man and nodded. He stepped forward and fell the short distance to the floor of the hallway. His first thought was that it was dark, it seemed even the backup power that this ship must have had was gone as well. It presented many problems to them, having good lights was important to any fight and that got even more likely when many of the aliens had access to a type of cloaking armour. He would need to keep a closer eye on the enemy to make sure they didn't get the jump on them.

Taking a couple steps forward towards the front of the ship that was now buried. Behind him, all the others jumped down as well, he could hear the hydraulics of their armour soften the fall. While a regular human would be fine dropping from around ten feet or so. These guys where huge on their own and that's not counting the added weight that all their gear would give them, the ODST's where not Spartans. They had nothing that would make their bones stronger than they had any right to be. Meaning even a fall from seven to eight feet would break their ankles, thankfully their armour was ready for that. The hydraulics wouldn't give them super strength or anything of the sort but it would soften the blow at the very least.

Once everyone was in, he looked over his shoulder and he could see that behind their helmets, he could see that they had all turned on their night vision, when he used his eyes in a different way than normal, he could see the lasers aiming from their weapons that would only been seen with inferred. It was silence from this point of, Alt raised his hand and made a gesture with his fingers. As one the group all started to march, their eyes sharp and weapons ready.

The squad moved in silence, down the dark corridors. The only point of difficultly was stepping around the dead on the ground, along with the dangling wires, wrecked wall panels and half open doors that would need to be pried open.

"A'ul Rakoi Laqil Quilllick" a voice said from further ahead of them. At the sound of the voice, they all kept moving. While some of the troops hesitated for a moment, Alt and Diggs didn't stop or hesitate. It seemed to be enough to get the others to not falter for long.

The group reached the end of the corridor they found themselves in and Alt did what he could to find out where the voice was coming from exactly. He found out quickly enough. He brought up his closed fist and raised it behind him, his arm held at a right angle, they all stopped as well. Making a motion with his left hand, they all as one moved to the side of the corridor and pushed themselves up against the wall as tightly as they could. They all waited and as they did so, Alt was right at the end of the wall, just before the corner.

He turned his head and looked at Diggs who behind his helmet looked back, with his head, he nodded towards the large knife. Understanding the message easily enough, Diggs lowered his silenced weapon and pulled his knife out.

Turning back to the corner, Alt waited for the right moment. He could hear the sounds of footsteps approaching them, more than one pair and he could feel the weight of the thuds through the ground, meaning that it was most likely different species coming at them as well.

He waited, for just the right moment. The footsteps got louder and louder, a couple of heart beats behind him quickened but the ODST's held their ground. He just waited.

He saw the flash of white armour from an Elite, then he moved. Shooting out from around the corner, he used his speed to understand the situation best. The Elite was in front of the group, it consisted of two grunts, three Jackles and two of the Brutes. Reaching forward with his hand, he wrapped it around the neck of the Elite and squeezed. The shield that it held didn't last long under the strain but instead of killing it. He threw it behind him, right at Diggs. Understanding why he wanted him to pull the knife out.

Before the Elite could even hit the ground, Diggs was on him. The first point of contact being the knife going right into the alien's neck. Alt didn't stop, he ran past the two Grunts knocking one of them down in the process. He kicked one of the Jackles out of the way and the smaller bird like alien flew into the damaged ceiling. He didn't take even a moment to see how bad the impact would be.

He instead trusted the others to deal with them, he instead focused on the others. The two brutes saw his approach and roared in challenge at him, he didn't know if they knew who and what he was but that didn't matter in the moment, he reached them quickly enough. As he expected, the two larger aliens forgo their weapons and instead dropped them to the ground, meeting him themselves.

It was starting to be a recurring theme for the brutes, over the course of the many different battles that humanity is having. Many of reports state that the Brutes, also known as the Jiralhanae while large were also much more... brutish as the name suggests. They seem to be the most violent of the covenant that they've encountered. Alt wanted to use it.

He ducked under the right swing of the one of the right, made a jab the left's chest and he was knocked back a couple of steps. The right came back to him but he quickly turned to look at the alien as well. The brute brought its closed fist forward but Alt met it with his own, needless to say that his own was the stronger of the two and he could feel the alien bones shatter against his own.

Behind the right brute could see that all the Grunts and Jackles where getting gunned down by the ODST's since Alt went first, the aliens didn't think that there would be others and quickly turned to look at him, firing their weapons and leaving their backs exposed to the rest of the squad. Needless to say they didn't last long.

While right was staggering back clutching his broken hand he roared at Alt in an effort to try and scare him away, it was very ape like. Not that it mattered to him of course, Alt charged at him, this time using the speed he possessed. His hand was wrapped around the larger neck of the brute, he flicked his wrist and snapped it, killing the brute who fell to the ground dead.

As the body his the ground, he turned to see left wave it's arms around and let out a large roar, it then charged at him. This was another characteristic that many reports have spoken about, it's been called berserking and it's lead to a lot of human deaths. But Alt was not human, he met the brute head on and when the two met in the middle, he twisted his body and extended his foot. With an almost round house kick, Alt's foot connected with the alien's head, and it was in-between his armoured foot and the wall. It's brain matter splatting on the wall before slowly dripping down to the ground. He turned around and faced the others who all seemed to be ok "follow me" he ordered them before he marched forward, the others all following.


It took an hour, an hour to clear the rest of the ship and killing everyone who got in their way. So far, they haven't encountered anyone that would be seen as a high rank. At least from the little we know about them and their systems, which has what led them to where they are now, thankfully every one of them was still alive though there were a couple of close calls.

The squad left a trail of dead bodies behind them as they moved systematically, wiping out the crew one section at a time. Some places where better defended then others true enough, however there was one place they didn't reach yet. Which is what led them to where they were now.

Alt stood in front of the heavy door that led to the ships bridge, at least that was what he thought based on the ships shape and making a map in his head of all the places they went once entering the ship. Each of the ODST's were lined up against the walls on either side of him, ready for the breaching action. Alt didn't know how well this was going to go or how many they were going to lose in the process, a breaching action was always risky.

Not to mention he couldn't see through it to find out what the best plan would be. Since every wall in this ship had a small layer of lead within them, he was as blind as all the others were. He looked to the right and saw Diggs in front of the line of troops, he gave Alt a nod.

Taking the ready sign, Alt acted. He took a couple of steps back and the leaped forward, while he couldn't see past the alien metal, it was still just a metal and it meant very little to him. The heavy blast door was bent inwards and a hole was created that was big enough for the other to all run in behind him.

Though they didn't need to.

This place was a graveyard. The number of bodies spread around the room was considerable, the far wall that held a large window was broken and now at least half of the bridge was full of snow that flooded in with the crash "Damit" Alt muttered to himself as he and the others all came in, spreading around the bridge on the left and right as they did so. Making sure that they were alone. Alt walked towards the middle of the room, trying to see if anything could be used.

There was still no power and all the consoles looked dead, along with the dead bodies leaning on them or on the ground next to him. Off to the side, half buried in the snow was one of the Elites, wearing a golden armour with orange highlights, the one they were looking for.

"So, mission was a bust?" Diggs said as he walked up next to him.

"It's looking that way" he admitted as he walked closer to the captain of the ship. The target that they wanted to take in for interrogation. It had a large piece of shrapnel in its chest, going in one way and coming out the other. Kneeling down however when Alt looked at its hand, he could see what looked like a detonator 'what was that for?' he asked himself.

It wasn't even a moment after he asked that, his attention as taking by one of the troopers "CONTACT!" was shouted, time moved slowly for Alt.

He turned and stood up in the direction of where the shout came from, off to the far side of the bridge. He could see one of the lines of ODST's facing the snow with their weapons raised. Alt ran forward towards them, these guys should know by now whatever they found would be wanted alive but he couldn't take that chance.

Within just half a second, Alt was standing in front of the troops. Facing what they were facing. He had to admit, this was a surprise.

This was new.

This thing was picking itself out of the snow in front of them, it might just be the most alien... alien that they've seen so far. It was almost like a jellyfish out of water. The weird thing, at least to him was that this... thing didn't seem bothered by them. It looked like it had blue skin and based on what he could see was six different appendages. There was another larger one that he would say may have held the head but it was difficult to tell due to the black metal that covered most of the body. His first thought was that it was armour but then he stopped when he looked at it closer.

His eyes widened "everyone back up!" he ordered taking a couple of steps back himself, everyone followed his instruction.

"What is it?" Diggs asked as he and the rest of the ODST's made their way over but keeping their distance from whatever this thing was.

"It's got a bomb" he told them as he stopped stepping back while the others continued "no-one goes anywhere near that thing, it could be the prisoner we need" he added, stepping forward towards it. Though still keeping a respectable distance.

When he stopped moving, this alien seemed to bury itself out of the snow and pick itself up. Or lifted itself might be the better way to say it as without the weight of the snow keeping it down, it floated into the air a couple of feet and looked around the bridge. As it did this Alt used its eyes to keep a closer look at it.

The black shell around its bulbous body wasn't armour but a bomb 'a suicide vest?' He asked himself, but his eyebrows rose as he turned back to look at the dead captain with the detonator 'a murder vest' he corrected himself. The implications of his thoughts would be huge, could they be slaves? "mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" was the sound that came from it, it hovered in the air for a moment as two of its front tentacles reached forward for the black metal that covered what he guessed was its head.

To Alt's amazement, the tips of the tentacles which seemed to be the same size as his fist at the end of them opened up. He could see well over a dozen different smaller small, almost hair like strands of flesh. They were smaller tentacles, they reached up and took a hold of the helmet. At the same time Alt could see many different small metal pieces being removed from the side and he could see wires and circuits as well. Then with a speed that he's only seen with his own hands, it put the back together in place.

As soon as it did so, a bright light came from the helmet and it shined right at him "MMMMMMMM!" he... spoke even louder than before and started to back up. Shaking back and forth as it did so, almost like it was scared.

"HEY! NO SUDDEN MOVES!" one of the troopers shouted as he raised his weapon at it. That seemed to have the opposite effect.

"MMMMMM!" it seemed to panic even more when turning to the voice and seeing the line of ODSTs. It turned around, almost trying to find and exit to run to. It went back and forth looking for a way out, in doing so it started to float towards the ceiling.

"Sir! Permission to engage" he heard one of them say.

Alt's eyes widened as he turned and saw the DMR raised at the unknown, there was a burst of wind and Alt was in front of him, grabbing the barrel of the weapon and pointing it to the ground "No! No-one shoot!" he ordered them all as he turned back the still panicking alien, by not it reached the ceiling and was still looking around for a way out.

"What are we dealing with here?" Diggs said as he walked over and stood next to his Alt, he was much more relaxed about the whole situation compared to everyone else who was still on edge.

When he finished speaking, the alien looked at the door they came in from and started to head towards it. Though it wasn't very quick, it was almost comedic as all their heads slowly turned to follow the alien as it started to leave "I don't think that's a crew mate" he said looking at the bomb strapped to its back "I think it's a slave" he announced as he walked over to the downed captain and picked up what looked like a detonator, now know what it might be for "Come on, we have are target" he told them as he started to jog out of the bridge.

Though it didn't take long to catch up to it "hello" Alt said to it, though he wasn't so loud as he didn't want to shock the thing "can you understand us?" he asked it.

He could see the alien's head turn to look at him from over it's... shoulder? No, that wasn't right. Either way, when it saw them chasing it "MMMMMMM!" it whined again and moved further down the corridors a little faster.

Though Alt did notice that this thing didn't show any type of reaction towards the many dead bodies scattered across the ground. When the alien turned the corner and entered the hanger of the ship, it tried to move towards the exit where the ships would leave but much like the bridge, it was covered in snow. As it moved off to the side, Alt followed but he turned to look at the others "block off the exits" he ordered.

Immediately, the others split into two groups and one moved forward to the opposite end and the other went back to the way they used to get in. Alt kept his job up for a couple of meters but when he was close enough, he stopped. The alien started to shuffle back and forth as he tried to find a way through the snow but when it turned around to see Alt a couple of feet away, it didn't try and move away.

Alt knew why of course, he made it a point to show the detonator in his hand. The alien's head was locked onto it and Alt had to make a calculated choice. He offered his hand to the alien and the detonator along with it. It froze upon seeing it but from what Alt could tell, maybe it was calming down slightly.

Alt stood there, frozen as a statue for more than five minutes. The alien slightly going up and down as it hovered in the air for a moment longer. Then, very slowly. It reached out with its tentacle and made a move for the detonator. Alt wasn't worried about the bomb, sure it would suck to lose this thing but from what he could see. The bomb wasn't any bigger than a couple of grenades, it wouldn't do too much damage to him.

The others all watched as the alien's tentacle opened up and many of the smaller appendages grabbed the detonator, it held it for a moment before the device was taken apart one piece at a time and dropped to the ground.

The alien looked at the pieces on the ground for a moment longer before it turned to look at Alt. Then, it slowly started to get closer towards him "mmmmmmmmm" it spoke, he thinks. To Alt the moaning sounds it made almost sounded like some species of whales he's heard. Its head moved up to him, the light shining on him before it moved its neck and present the back of its head to him. Alt could see a metallic looking strap, he could make the guess and say that its helmet was being held in place.

Reached up with his hand, he grabbed the lock in between his fingers and used his strength to crush it. Freeing its head "mmmmmmm" it said as the helmet came loose and with a shake of the head, it fell away.

With a clatter, it fell to the ground and Alt got the first few of its face. The skin around was the same almost glowing blue that the rest of its body had, he could see three eyes on either side of its head, they were black with no colour, and he couldn't see a mouth. The eyes all blinked at him before it spoke again "mmmmmmmmmm" it added looked back at the large bomb strapped to its back.

Seeing it, Alt turned to look at the others "everyone, get back up to the roof. Call in evac and let the Ajax know the mission was a success" he ordered and as one all the ODST's started to leave. Normally he would have gone with them, but he needed them to be out of the way in order to deal with this bomb.

Stepped around the alien so he could get a better look at it and thankfully the alien seemed to understand what was doing and didn't move. Giving him a better look at it, using his eyes. Alt took everything about it in, he could see where the explosives were stored, the wires, the receiver for the detonator, everything. The problem was the only he had to go on was human made bombs, he's had very little experience when it came to alien explosives, the only training he's had with them was the plasma grenades and he only has a few seconds to observe them before they blow up.

He could see it strapped into place with the same metal strap that was around its head but unlike that one, this was full of wires and circuits, no doubt a failsafe to prevent what was planning, this was a very shitty situation. He didn't know what the best course would be, he could try and rush it off as fast as he could, chances where even if it went off, he could get it off and away from the alien before it could be hurt.

Though he wasn't prepared to take that risk, moving in he started to gently try and cut off the failsafe within the bomb so hopefully he could just disarm it and deal with it that way. That would be ideal, but he needed to be ready to move in an instant just in case he failed in that. Reaching forward towards a panel, he pealed it away and started to get to work.


Over the course of the next five minutes, Alt was very careful of what he did his hands to shaking or hesitating. Only taking a couple of seconds every now and again to check on the bomb and plan what was best going forward. The alien stayed their patiently while he worked, Alt's thoughts drifted to it as he worked.

These aliens were definitely the most... alien out of the Covenant so far. As of the moment, Alt had no way of knowing what role they played, at first he thought that they might be a type of animal. Like the old humans strapping bombs to dogs and sending them on their way towards the enemy. Though that was no longer the case, Alt had some evidence to suggest that this being was sapient. It seemed to well behaved, to intelligent for it to be some beast.

Though like with most aliens, one wouldn't be able to rule out the possibility that this was just a really smart animal. There was also the emotions it seemed to display, the fear upon seeing them was clear as was the haste to try and get away from them. When they entered this hanger, he immediately turned to where the exit would have been meaning a good memory. The biggest supporter of them being intelligent was the exchange they had over the bomb, it knew what the detonator was, recognized what he was trying to do and when it was safe from the bomb. Alt proving that he was a friend and now it was trusting him as well.

It was shame that this type of humming/whining/moaning sounds seemed to be it's only form of communication. It would mean any type of translation would be difficult, it could be done, he was sure of that but it would take time.

Removing the final protective panel, he could see three different places in which an explosive was stored. He could see that each one was linked to each other, you move one and the others go off he would need to disarm them all at the same time and he couldn't do that on his own. He was fast but he didn't think that he was faster than electricity. He would be happy to test it but he couldn't do it with this alien's life on the line, he needed it alive.

Raising his hand to his ear, ready to call for bomb trained troops to come down, but it seemed someone beat him to it "Atlas, we need to leave now!" Diggs voice came through "Ajax just sent word, thirty contacts just entered the system and are making their way here. We gotta go. Enemy contact in ten minutes" he told him.

'Shit' he mentally cursed as he looked back to the alien "time on evac?" he asked back quickly.

"Pelican gets here in thirty seconds, we need to leave" everything started to play around him in slow motion.

Any type of bomb squad was a no go, it would take nearly thirty seconds to get back to the top, assuming the speed in which the alien... ran? floated from them was the fastest it could go. The alien looked at him when he stopped working "mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" he hummed at him and he didn't know what it was saying but he doubted it was along the lines of 'it's ok, I know how to get rid of this deadly bomb on my back'

There was only one thing he could do but he didn't really like it all. He had to try and blitz it, while he did just say to himself that this wasn't something he wanted to do. Now he still doesn't know for certain, but he didn't have a choice, they would be overwhelmed if they stayed here. They had to evacuate before it was too late but there was no way in hell he would leave this guy behind.

"Ok, I hope this" he said looking at the alien before he moved. Reaching forward with his right hand, he clasped his fingers around the first bomb. The explosion was quick but he was able to contain it to his hand. The bomb, while deadly it meant very little to others. As quickly as he could, he threw what was left of the blast behind him and reached forward with both hands.

He grabbed the bomb in the middle of the metal plates and much like the first, crushed the bomb as it went off using his own hand to contain the explosion. As he moved to the third and final bomb, his eyes widened as he saw that it was in the process of going off. He didn't have time to think about the best plan to deal with it. Having literal microseconds to think of something, he had nothing so he just winged it. With one hand he grabbed the top of the bomb and ripped it from the armour plates, with the other he wrapped it around the alien's body and pulled it away from the explosion that was threatening to catch up to it.

There was a moment of silence as the smoke from the bombs cleared. Alt stayed in his place with his arm extended, what was left of the final bomb in his closed hand. Seeing a speck of blue in his vision, he looked to the left and saw the aliens head looking at him calmly, his six eyes blinking slowly as its body was nestled underneath his left arm "mmmmmmmmmmmm" he moaned again. Seeing that it was now safe, Alt stepped back and gave it its own space.

Though that only lasted a small moment before he remembered how much of rush they were in "ok, I need you to come with me" Alt said turning his whole body to face the alien "follow me" he said pointing at the alien and then himself. He started to step away, but the alien didn't go with him "come on" he waved at himself.

Thankfully that seemed to work, and the alien followed him. Though it was slower than he would like "Sir, birds here. What's your status over?" Diggs asked him.

"Bomb's disarmed" he told him as he started to walk down the corridors to the same point they entered from, he was thankful that this alien could move at the average jogging speed... for a kid at least. It wasn't walking pace and he could live with that "we're both on our way out, let the Ajax know we need a decontamination unit in the hanger ready upon arrival" he said to them as he looked over his shoulder to see the alien following him closely.

Thankfully it didn't take them much longer to in to get to the hole he made to allow them to get into the ship. Stepping out of the shadow cover the rim of the hole provided, he looked up to see the white clouds looking down at him. Bellow them he could make out the Ajax lowering itself to the ground, thankfully not to close as the engine power would create a strong wind that might knock the downed corvette off whatever balance it had. Though it was a clear sign that Khane wanted them gone quick, so she was making the journey back as short as possible for them. Turning back to the alien who was still following thankfully.

Alt turned back to the hole and preformed a small hop, not jumping as far as he could of course, but it was enough to clear the hole and land back on the ships outer hull. When he landed he quickly saw the Pelican still hovering in the air, not wanting to put its weight onto the ship, for good reason, Alt didn't doubt that even that would be enough for the corvette to start sinking deeper in the snow. Though they weren't up in the thankfully, over a couple of feet off the ground.

He could see the rows of ODST's sitting down on either side of them and Diggs was waiting at the edge of the ramp waiting for them. He gave Alt a raised hand and ushered him forward but Alt didn't follow quickly. Turning back around he looked back down and saw the alien looking up at him "mmmmmmmmmmmmm" it moaned at him, looking up and right at him.

"Come on" he said offering his hand to the alien, he didn't know why. That could mean anything to an alien "we have to go, trust me" he placed a hand back on his chest "friend" he said to the alien.

"mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" the alien said as it started to float into the air and towards him.

Alt let out a sigh as it freed itself from the ship and into the sun light, from their getting it into the ship was easy enough.


Steven's and pretty much everyone on his team made their way to the hanger of the ship, they walked on one side of the corridors while the other was occupied by a group of soldiers, them being used to push the decontamination unit with them. It was a large almost cell like square made of thick glass, it was six feet in diameter and ten feet high. While being completely see through, the base of it was a mobile network of machinery, capable of controlling the air and gases that flow into it, just in case the alien needs a specific type of air in order to breath, of course there was a hundred other things it could control and even more it could monitor.

They would need to make sure that it can't pass on any type of disease that would affect them. From what Sergeant Diggs reported to them, the alien was unlike any they had seen before and Steven's was sure 'floating Jellyfish' might just be an accurate statement. They made it into the hanger just as the Pelican flew in "All hands, prep for evasive manoeuvres" Khane's voice came through the com systems and as one, almost everyone started to move closer to the walls encase they needed to steady themselves on something quickly.

Which is something they should have done for as soon as the voice stopped speaking, the ground beneath them lurched and Steven's found his legs failing to keep him up and he, along with many others fell to the ground.

Thankfully the soldiers pushing the decontamination unit where able to stay up and keep the container secure. Despite the pain on his kneecap from the fall, he picked himself up quickly and kept moving towards the Pelican that was locking itself down to the ground, to prevent it from moving during turbulence. Despite everything that was going on, he didn't doubt they were being chased by the enemy. The ramp of the transport ship lowered, just in time for Steven's and his team to reach them.

"What the hell?" he heard one of the soldiers say as they gripped they reached for their weapons upon seeing the alien. Not that he could blame them for that, this one was unlike any they've seen before. Noticing that Alt was ok and standing next to alien who started to look around, he wanted to say that it seemed nervous, but he couldn't. You could never compare mannerisms that one alien has with another. The ODST's all exited the Pelican in two lines and went either side of him and his team, Alt stayed where he was and kept by the alien's side, maybe to make it feel better.

Looking back over his shoulder he nodded at Kelly, the woman who was playing the role of second for the team, she pressed a few keys on the console and the front glass cover of the decontamination unit opened up and Alt took that as his que. He took a couple of steps towards them and slowly motioned for the alien to follow him. Which it did, though it did so slowly.

When he stopped in front of Steven's, he smiled and gave him a small nod. Turning back to the alien, he made a motion with his arms and tried to get the alien to go inside "mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" that was the first time he heard it... speak, his first thought was whether or not that was an attempt of communication or a simple bodily response. He knew that his team was thinking the same thing.

"It's ok" he heard Alt speak calmly to the alien "you're safe here" he added for good measure. Stevens didn't know if the alien could understand him or not but it seemed to do the trick and the alien slowly started to move inside the glass containment unit. When inside, Steven's pressed a couple of keys on the console and the open slot closed, trapping the alien inside. It placed two of its tentacles on either side of its body and it looked around himself, from what he could see. It wasn't panicking... he thinks.

"Are you alright?" he asked his son as they all started to walk out of the hanger and back into the ship proper, towards the lab which was originally going to use for the interrogation of an enemy combatant but that was not the case anymore.

"I'm ok" he answered as he looked back at the alien, all its eyes focusing on him as they moved "let's find out if we can understand our new friend" he added, the group moving deeper into the bowels of the ship. Not yet know how valuable this new alien was going to be, not just to them but to humanity as a whole.


Ok guys we'll leave it there. Yeah, to those you who don't know, the UNSC getting one of these guys early on is a BIG deal and it would make a big difference. I hope my fellow Halo fans know what the alien is and if not then go play some ODST and you'll get an idea.

Let me know what you all thought with a review and I'll see you in the next chapter.

Let story update: A New Guardian.