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Inside the Pelican Descending Towards the Mining Colony

SPARTAN Alex-069's POV

Doing a final check on his MA2B to make sure it was ready to go, he went through what the plan was after the Pelican touched down and the hatch opened.

On board were Rogue team and one of the ODST squads, with the rest remaining in a Pelican still aboard the Burlington as reinforcements should their presence trigger a hostile response from the unknown alien presence. The plan was for Rogue Team to circle left while the ODST circled right, then meeting up at the elevator that'd take them down to five levels above the one where the incident took place. From there they'd search and clear every level until the one where the miners were killed in order to ensure that there was no chance that the scientists would be killed by a blindside attack. It'd take a while and some of the ODSTs groaned but Captain Hood had agreed that, with the unknown technology, they couldn't afford to take any chances.

"Touching down in T-minus three minutes!" came the call from the pilot of the Pelican.

"Final check, people!" Sergeant Harrelson declared before following his own advice. "The second that hatch opens I want guns bared and eyes sharp! You get me?"

"WE GET YOU SIR!" the ODSTs shouted in response even as they worked to ensure they hadn't forgotten anything with regards to their gear.

He didn't need to say the same thing to his team because all of them already knew what to do. The pre-mission preparation was a vital part of a soldier's activities, according to Chief Mendez, and forgetting even a single step was unforgivable. A single forgotten step could lead to disaster on the battlefield if equipment malfunctioned or a piece was accidentally left behind without the soldier realizing he didn't have it with him. Thus, when the rear hatch of the Pelican opened up, both his team and the ODSTs exited as they had been trained to, with each group taking up a defensive position as they scanned the immediate area for potential threats.

While the skeleton crew that had been left behind in the mining colony hadn't reported anything unusual since the original incident, that didn't mean a whole lot. They were civilians, after all, and trained in skills specifically pertaining to their occupation. Spotting signs of alien tech or tampering were not among those skills. Also, while it was possible that the alien technology only responded due to the use of the S.E.P., it was also possible that it would continue to monitor the territory it inhabited for future threats until the probability of hostile action dropped below a certain point. Until the scientists, his team or the ODSTs managed to determine what the triggers were for aggressive action by the alien technology, it'd be better to assume the worst.

Glancing at Sergeant Harrelson, the man gave the signal that nothing suspicious was spotted in his team's direction and he copied the hand signal, confirming the same was the case for his side of the mining complex.

"Move out!" Harrelson barked before taking the lead and heading for the right side of the facility, with his team taking up a formation that'd facilitate their current objective.

Using a hand signal to tell Daisy and Joy to form up on him, they proceeded to the left side of the mining facility, using both their eyes and the sensors built into their armor to watch for signs of trouble. He knew that Joy had done some research on the trip to the planet dealing with the type of facility they'd be working out of, its composition and any key points that could be strategically important. Daisy, on the other hand, had focused on coming up with equipment loadouts for each of them that'd work best in such an environment, from the patchwork of pipes around them now to the tunnels of the mine underground.

As for him, he focused his efforts on coming up with strategies for countering the alien technology and, if necessary, destroying it should it prove to be a solid threat against more than just the people currently on planet. The downside to this was the fact that he'd only had the video recording to work with and that hadn't told him much about the full extent of what the alien tech could throw at him. He knew that drone technology was in play and that they were armed with energy based weaponry that could punch a hole clear through an unarmored human being. Based on his mental map of where the incident took place and the audio of what'd happened after the one with the camera chose to flee, it didn't look like stone or the metal used to support to the tunnels would be effective cover. While his team's armor was designed to counter Covenant plasma weapons to a degree, the protection wasn't absolute. One or two direct hits by a plasma weapon would compromise the armor and, if he was right, the drone's weapon was a single sustained burst of energy.

Depending on how long that burst lasted, it could very easily burn through the titanium outer shell, the gel and every other layer between the air and SPARTAN flesh.

Naturally, since the Covenant had first declared its intentions, both Chief Mendez and every SPARTAN II team leader had trained those under their command how to deal with them. Standing still and just taking energy fire was not one of the recommended courses of action. However, with both Rogue team and the ODSTs being charged with protecting the scientists, it was possible they would need to act as human shields against lethal weapons fire. Depending on where the hostile action took place, it might be possible to simply pick up the scientist and get them out of the danger zone but he had to acknowledge the opposite being the case as well.

There was also the possibility of the drones being VERY maneuverable and, given their apparent size, getting a bead on them might be challenging. Covenant drones were similar as an airborne threat but, at a third of the size, wouldn't be so easy to shoot down. While some might dismiss UNSC weapons as being capable of damaging the drones, he wasn't so pessimistic. The gun the miner had used was an older model and looked to have been in need of repair. Add to that the fact that it was a civilian model and it didn't pack the same kick as the weapons that'd be brought to bear this time. Even if his MA2B alone couldn't get the job done, that just meant that Rogue team would need concentrate the fire of two or more weapons on a single target to get the job done. If the number of drones proved to be too many for them to be able to destroy before they themselves were killed, he'd strongly urge a retreat to the nearest location of safety.

If no such location existed on the planet, he'd call in for a Pelican to do a swoop and scoop to get as many people off the planet as he could manage.

When the question of something new being brought to the equation came up in his mind, though, he wasn't quite sure what the best course of action would be.

Assuming that the drones were an automated response operating on simplistic programs, it was probable that something more impressive would reveal itself if something more threatening was presented. Whether this would be aliens clad in combat gear or a larger and more heavily armed drone he didn't know. If the response was the former, the scientists might have more success in convincing the aliens of their benign intentions. If the response was the latter then it would likely take all three members of Rogue team and any ODST armed with a heavy weapon just to distract it while the others retreated. He'd left orders with Callista, Naomi and Maria to prepare for the worst, including making sure they had the most powerful weapons on board the Burlington ready for deployment at a moment's notice. When the order came to send down a Pelican to extract the scientists, they'd be on it and, once groundside, they'd move to add their firepower to the fight.

Either this would help them take the deadlier drone down or increase the likelihood of more people making it off of the planet.

THEN there was the possibility he'd really prefer not turn into reality, that the alien tech buried beneath the surface of the planet was actually some sort of spaceship.

With no knowledge of the limitations of the alien tech or what the overall condition of it was, there was no way to ignore the possibility of the ship powering up and taking off. If the weapons on the drones they'd seen could burn through solid rock and the place they came from did turn out to be a ship, then logically it'd have more impressive versions of the energy weapons at the ready. Those would be quite easily capable of cutting it out of the planet and, assuming the engines still worked, the ship would be able to ascend into space as quickly as it wanted.

If that happened, retreat would be the only option Captain Hood and the Burlington would have if they wanted to survive.

No matter who they wound up having to leave behind.

We'll make this work, he thought as he continued to follow Chief Mendez's training. It's what we're meant to do.

The UNSC Burlington

Bridge, Three Hours Later

Captain Terrance Hood's POV

"Sir! Report just coming in from the surface," the communications officer said after turning to face him. "Both Rogue team and Sergeant Harrelson's ODSTs report no sign of alien technology within their respective search areas. Threat level currently nonexistent."

Good.

"Inform Doctor Stillman and the others that they're cleared to go down," he ordered now that the safety of the civilians had been assured to his standards. "However make it clear that they're not to go anywhere without an armed escort and if hostilities start they're to follow Sergeant Harrelson or Rogue One's orders."

"Yes sir," the comms-officer stated before moving to follow his orders.

With that in mind he decided to once more take stock the current situation and what it could mean in the near future.

To say that he'd been surprised to receive this assignment was something of an understatement since he'd been given the impression that his actions at Arcadia had rubbed his superiors the wrong way. Against orders not to engage the Covenant forces in the system, he had ordered the UNSC Roman Blue to attack out of a desire to avenge the lives already lost to religious crusade of the aliens. Due to these reckless actions not only was his original mission, the recovery of the buoy launched by the UNSC Spirit of Fire, a failure, the Roman Blue had also been significantly damaged with little to show for the effort. As a result, after the dressing down he'd received at the disciplinary hearing, he'd been reassigned to the Burlington and given mostly support roles from that day onward.

Given what his actions had cost the Cutter family as well as the others with members serving aboard the Spirit of Fire, he considered it his just punishment.

Since then he'd done his best to do his duties and complete his assignments but never did he hope that one day he'd be let out of the 'dog house' and put back into the thick of combat like before. The brass had long memories when it came to captain's who disregarded orders and made a mess in the process. He put good odds on something serious needing to happen or a serious reduction in the number of people capable of passing him for command assignments before his daily routine changed. It wasn't bad, captaining the Burlington, but he was a soldier and like all soldiers he wanted to be where he could do the most good. A support role could be handled by any one of a number of officers, but with the war against the Covenant the UNSC needed as many battlefield commanders as they could get their hands on.

Still, it wasn't his call to make; all he could do was continue to perform his duties to the best of his abilities while hoping it'd help make a difference.

When the assignment was given he'd put the Burlington on course for the rendezvous point before reviewing the details contained in the file that'd been sent to him. His curiosity had been aroused to learn that alien technology that wasn't Covenant had been discovered on a mining colony but he didn't let it go to his head. Even if he didn't have a PhD of his own, he knew that it was one thing to find advanced alien technology but another entirely to figure out enough about it to put the discovery to practical use. Depending on how different the creators of the technology were from humans, it might take decades to make use of even the smallest piece of machinery.

That wasn't time they had with the Covenant gaining ground with every passing month.

All members of the UNSC of captain rank or above had been told to keep the reality of the war to themselves and continue telling their subordinates that there was still a chance of winning the war. The truth, however, was that it was looking more and more like all that the UNSC were accomplishing was the slowing of their defeat instead of marching towards victory. The source of that suspicion was the fact that, while on the ground they could manage victories both lucky and decisive, the fights in space were a different story. All one had to look at was which side was losing more ships and how many UNSC ships it took to sink a Covenant ship to realize that. Naturally the R&D boys were being worked hard to figure out a way to even the playing field but he hadn't heard of anything promising yet.

That was why ONI and the top brass often poured resources into assignments like this.

This was advanced tech already made and all they needed to do was figure out how it worked as well as if they could make more.

It was a shortcut but a necessary one.

As for the people assigned to the ground, the scientists, while not veterans of their fields, had all the right credentials to be working on an alien technology. On the matter of security the scientists couldn't ask for better: ODSTs and SPARTANs. The former had a long history of being populated by the best of the best and handling missions that the run of the mill soldiers couldn't handle. The latter, while not even fifty years old, had proven themselves to be the sort of soldier the UNSC needed and that the Covenant hated facing on the battlefield. With two full teams of ODSTs and six SPARTANs he felt a lot more confident that the scientists would be safe and could be extracted if necessary with minimal losses.

"Tactical? How's my space looking?" he asked, turning his attention to his part of the assignment.

Keeping an eye out for uninvited guests and if necessary dealing with them.

"Squeaky clean, captain," his tactical officer replied with a confident nod. "No hostile contacts, enemy or otherwise, on the scopes."

"Keep a sharp look out. We're all by ourselves here and we'll need as much advance warning as possible if Covenant or Insurrectionists show up," he ordered even though he had faith that the officer wouldn't slack off in his duties. "Both have a habit of popping up without phoning ahead."

"Aye, aye, sir," the tactical officer replied, his face firming to show that nothing would slip past the sensors on his watch.

After a moment's thought he decided to go one step further.

"Tell Pelican three to prep for launch," he ordered the operations officer. "It just became a patrol ship. Tell'em to stay inside our sensor range but also to stay sharp."

"Aye, aye, sir," Operations said before opening a channel to the hangar to pass along the orders.

There.

Now they'd not only have the Burlington's sensors keeping an eye on things but an armed Pelican that extended the coverage area even more, as well as providing an intercept force to slow any hostiles down. It'd only take Pelicans one and two to carry out an evacuation of the mining colony but that would take time that only Pelican three could provide by slowing down the incoming force. If the intruders turned out to be too superior for the Pelican to even attempt to combat, he'd order it to expend all their explosive firepower before retreating. Hopefully all the Pelicans would be able to dock with the Burlington quickly enough for them to make the jump to slip space in time.

Please let this be the wild card we need, he thought, sending a prayer to any benevolent deities that might be listening.

In the Tunnels of the Mining colony

Six Hours Later

Sergeant Harrelson's POV

"There you go, Doc! All set up and ready to see what makes this thing tick," he said as the last of the science gear. "Fuller! Take Sanchez, Kaye and McCabe. You four get first patrol."

"Why don't we let the SPARTANs take first crack, sir?" Fuller asked, sounding annoyed at the order. "Make a good first impression on whatever it is that killed those miners."

"I'm sorry! Did I give you the impression that this was a democracy?" he asked rhetorically and with some authority. "You have your orders, soldier. MOVE IT!"

With no small amount of discontent Fuller nodded before leaving the room, Sanchez, Kaye and McCabe falling in behind him with a bit more professionalism.

He could tell right away that he was going to have to stay on top of his team for the duration of the mission to keep them from making things any more painful than it was likely going to be. If need be he'd kick Fuller's ass before letting the rest of the team know that they'd get the same if they didn't knock the anti-SPARTAN talk off and act like the ODST should. Still, he'd served with his men for more than five years and he'd gotten to know each of them pretty good. They had their quirks but they were also good soldiers he trusted with his life, so seeing them act like a bunch of shitheads just because they were working with SPARTANs on this assignment rubbed him completely the wrong way.

He might not be ready to sign up and be frankensteined himself into a super soldier, but that didn't mean he didn't see the value of a SPARTAN on the battlefield. They were faster, stronger and could take more hits, making them ideal when it came to cracking a tough target without throwing too many good people into the meat grinder. If ONI had never come up with the idea to make SPARTANs, his heart chilled at how much the KIA list would've been lengthened as a result.

People might like to brag about how great it was to die in battle or how it didn't matter how many died so long as they were victorious in the end, but those people didn't know real war. Didn't know it or didn't know what a soldier's job was really all about. It wasn't about taking lives but rather protecting them. Killing the enemy was just something that was often required in order to protect your own. He was all for solutions that could end a war and the protect the human race at the same time but sometimes the only choice you had was to eliminate your enemy's ability to wage war.

Right now they needed every able bodied soldier capable of firing a gun or tossing a grenade on the battlefield, regardless of what kind of body work they'd had done to themselves.

In his opinion there was no place for infighting and ego in this war.

Not if they were going to win it.

"Is there going to be trouble, Sergeant Harrelson?" SPARTAN-069 asked, stepping up in front of him.

"Nothing I can't handle, SPARTAN," he replied professionally, one soldier to another. "Just some jarheads who don't like being pushed into second place by the new model."

"Perhaps in the interests of mission stability my team should handle patrol duty," SPARTAN-069 offered in an effort to stabilize things. "Let us do the grunt work while your men stick close to the scientists."

He appreciated the gesture but shook his head in the negative just the same.

"I didn't become a soldier, an ODST, because I wanted easy assignments and leisure time, SPARTAN," he said, making his position clear. "I did it because I wanted to protect people no matter what kind of trouble it meant going up against. Fuller and the others are probably the same. With the Covies killing every human they come across, my men need to be the best they can be and that won't happen with easy assignments a civvie could handle. If they can't handle jobs like this without griping then they don't deserve their ODST patches."

"Understood," SPARTAN-069 agreed with a nod.

Mutual respect.

That's what was missing between the SPARTANs and his people.

Scuttlebutt around the water cooler was that the SPARTANs had been kicking ass since that traitor Watts had been brought in but hadn't been mixed in with the rest of the military until recently. They'd been meant to be ghosts, completing their assignments without anyone knowing that they were there, but when the UNSC grasped the size of the threat the Covenant posed that was no longer an option. SPARTANs became the trump card for any situation where failure could not be permitted or the loss of life was expected to be high. They still weren't casually talked about, either on duty or off, and definitely not with civvies present.

Due to the secrecy restrictions, though, only those soldiers who'd seen SPARTANs live and in person knew what they could do so all the rest had to work with was rumors and speculation.

Both had the habit of being exaggerated, the good and the bad, and the latter were the stories that Fuller and the others had probably heard.

Hopefully this mission'll make Fuller and the others less likely to act like assholes when SPARTANs are around, he thought as his eyes caught Stillson getting to work and it made him curious.

"So what's up first on your list of tests, Doc?" he asked, deciding the situation was calm enough to indulge his curiosity a bit.

"Well, since it's been made clear that trying to study the alien directly is hazardous to your health, we'll first try to analyze the ground around it," Doctor Stillson replied even as she typed away on her console. "Look at the smoke instead of being burnt by the fire, so to speak."

Made sense.

He did the same thing whenever getting too close to a Covenant base was too risky. Look at the area around the base and see if you can figure out what you'll be fighting by eyeballing the shrubs and the ground. This long into the war, the more experienced ground pounders could tell the difference between plasma scorching from a grenade and the damage done by one of their tanks. Also, while a lot of the Covvie vehicles might operate on anti-gravity tech, that didn't mean they floated by without a trace. Add to that the fact that there was no mistaking the damage left behind by a Scarab and you could learn a lot by sniffing around the danger zone instead of diving right into it.

"One possibility is that the alien technology has been active since long before the mining colony was founded and the company just didn't have the equipment to pick it up. If so, any energy the technology has given off has probably soaked into the surrounding ground, giving us an abundance of material to work on," Doctor Stillson explained, continuing to work even as she spoke. "Another possibility is that the mining crew's use of the S.E.P. somehow triggered the activation of the technology, with the drones being dispatched to gather data on the source of the 'wake up call'. Given the violent altercation that happened, it's likely that many systems were powered up to counter a potential threat. We can also study the effects the sudden activation of alien tech had on the surrounding rock and ore."

"In other words you're gonna be busy for a while," he said, encouraged by the plan the Doc had in mind.

"Definitely. We may need you or the SPARTANs to go to various parts of the mine to place sensors or retrieve samples," Doctor Stillson said with a nod. "We'll stay here to confirm that the sensors are working and the equipment needed to analyze terrain samples isn't exactly easy to carry around."

"No problem. A stroll every now an' again is good for your health, or so I'm told," he said, not bothered by some simple jobs.

"Examining the surrounding terrain will also give us a rough idea of just how much ground the alien technology occupies," Doctor Stillson said, sounding like this was of particular interest to her. "Is it the same size as the mining facility? The size of the Burlington? Knowing that could give us a clue about its function and capabilities making it safer for us to do our work."

And let us know if this thing's a meat eater or prefers veggies, he thought, thinking about just how well armed and protected the alien tech was.

If the alien territory was military in nature then they could be staring down something with a helluva lot of teeth, some of which could be more than they could handle without calling in UNSC backup. If it was more scientific in nature then it could still be dangerous if it contained materials and substances humanity had never seen before. If it was a civilian oriented location then, while there'd still be some danger, they'd likely only get hurt if someone did something stupid.

He knew EXACTLY who to keep an eye on for moments of stupidity.

Still, there'd been no activity from the alien tech since it killed all those miners, so even if it was a one in a million shot, there was a chance that it was a one trick pony.

Maybe.

Three Kilometers Beneath the Surface

There is no way that this is mere chance, she thought, examining the humans via the passive sensors.

Ever since the humans had come into range of her passive sensors she had been tracking them and examining them in as much detail as she could. One deviation from the humans she'd once known was that some of their bodies possessed less mass and were capable of nowhere near as much strength potential. Still… their surface appearance and basic body structure were a close match to those possessed by the ancient humans, so perhaps they were merely a few steps shy of evolving to their former state. However the variable that had her attention was the armor worn by three members of the group that'd descended from the ship in orbit.

They bore an uncanny resemblance to the battle skins worn by the ancient humans.

More primitive, of course, but given the sheer diversity of evolution, both cultural as well as technological, the odds of these humans designing something so similar were staggering unless there was outside involvement of some sort. She tried to deduce who it could've been but, based on the records of the last time she was awake, the only ones who fit the criteria were the Forerunners. However that didn't make sense given the fact that they considered ancient humans to be an enemy to be brought to heel or exterminated. There were rumors of Forerunners that didn't see humanity as a threat, merely as a misguided and misunderstood race, but those she'd spoken to considered this ridiculous. Those people pointed that, even if it was true, the actions of the Forerunner military made it clear that those 'friendly Forerunners' didn't have the authority to put an end to hostilities.

Still, until she had information that pointed at another possibility, she'd act with Forerunner involvement as the basis for all future decisions.

Unfortunately, due to her desire to keep her existence a secret, her sensor scans couldn't give her more information than that. If she brought the active sensors online, even the primitive technology of the current humans would be able to detect the change. They might even deduce that there was an active intelligence rather than a simple program behind the more intense scans, leading to them altering their plans. This she could not allow. It was a staple of any objective observation to keep those being observed ignorant of your presence in order to not taint the data any more than it inevitably would be. After all, one's own point of view tainted data simply by coming into contact with it. Only once she had finish analyzing this sample of the current humanity would she reveal her presence, ascend into space and announce her intentions.

For the time being she'd wait, watch and learn what she could.

Once she had a proper grasp of each of the humans' personalities and behavioral patterns, she could construct her 'tests' and learn what she wished to learn.

Details were everything after all when doing anything important.

Two Months Later

Joy aka SPARTAN-070's POV

"Alright, people. Moment of truth," Doctor Sullivan said as he worked the console in front of him. "Establishing connections to sensors one through seventy-five… done. Priming emitters one through one hundred… done. Activating mapping program… NOW!"

Looking at the main screen, she had faith that Doctor Sullivan's idea would bear interesting fruit.

For the past month and a half the scientists had been analyzing samples taken from throughout the area, looking for clues about the alien technology. In order to find out more they'd been forced to requisition records about worlds that were as close to the one they were on as possible to act as contrasts. By doing this they'd be able to find out what didn't match the other worlds making it extremely likely to be connected to the alien technology.

And they had.

They found residual energy that was unlike anything produced by humans, discovered in use by the Covenant or detected in the few alien finds the UNSC had come across in the past. Based on what they'd learned, the alien technology must have been active for a long time before the incident with the miners. The level of saturation with the native rock, ore and soil made that unmistakable. The odd thing was that there were no signs that the recent activity had affected the saturation level at all, implying that the event had barely changed anything in terms of alien activity. Up until a week ago the scientists had been working to determine the properties of the energy as best they could.

Then Doctor Sullivan had proposed a bold course of action that the top brass had given their approval.

One of the things that had been learned about the residual energy in the planet was that it reacted significantly with ionic energy. His idea had been to plant ion emitters at key points throughout the area with sensors spread out to the limits of their range to capture as much data as they could, then activate the emitters. The reaction would cascade throughout the area, acting like a massive energy pulse that would flow over, around and, in most cases, through whatever it came into contact with.

Most cases but not all.

It'd been Doctor Sullivan's opinion that the energy reaction would not penetrate the alien technology but rather come to a stop on the walls like the one that the mining crew had uncovered. The sensors would thus be able to gain a much better image of what they were dealing with allowing them to fill in a few more blanks. The 'genius' of the plan, according to Doctor Sullivan, was that, since the energy reaction would not start near the alien tech or be focused on it, there'd be no dispatch of drones or violent retaliation.

Sergeant Harrelson had asked whether the 'reaction' would have any harmful effects on them or their gear but Sullivan had assured them that, aside from some tingling on the skin, they'd be fine.

Her own knowledge of ionic energy and what she'd learned about the alien tech's energy confirmed this and, since the ONI brass had approved the plan, they obviously agreed.

Thus, as she watched the program finish its boot up, she focused on the data they were receiving from the sensors. Like golden drops of rain the emitters fired and the ripples that flowed away from them allowed the sensors to detect and quantify everything. When it reached them Sullivan's assertion was proven mostly correct since, aside from a slight fluctuation in armor systems, nothing worrisome occurred. It was about a minute later when the reaction wave flowed beyond the range of the sensors but by then they had what they were after and it left all but Sergeant Harrelson speechless.

"THAT is a BIG ship," Sergeant Harrelson remarked, sounding quite impressed and a little intimidated by what they were all looking at.

She couldn't find it in herself to disagree.

In order to monitor the entire process from start to finish they'd set the screen to cover as large of an area around ground zero as possible so that they didn't miss anything. As a result they now had a complete image of what the reactive energy could not penetrate and that left them with a golden casing that could not be mistaken as anything other than a ship. She could see propulsion engines to the rear, external hatches, as well as weapon emplacements in the middle, and something she couldn't quite identify near the front.

The one thing that she could quantify was the fact that the ship was very big making her glad that they'd gone to such great lengths to ensure that the sensors covered as much ground as possible.

"How big is it?" Alex asked, not looking away from the screen.

"It looks like it's… this can't be right," Doctor Tillson replied before rejecting her own findings.

"Care to explain why it can't be right, Doc?" Harrelson asked, sounding like he was getting over the shock.

"According to the sensors, this ship is almost a hundred kilometers long!" Tillson replied, working her console to bring visual aid to her answer. "The only reason we got a complete image of it all was because it's planted in the ground more vertically that length than horizontally. If it'd been parallel to the ground, we'd be lucky if the sensors could've picked up a fiftieth of it. Hell, if it'd been any bigger our sensors and clever amplification tricks wouldn't have been enough!"

"Since it's a ship and, given its orientation, I think it's safe to say it probably crashed on the planet a long time ago," Sullivan said even as he worked to sift through the information.

"Confirmed," Doctor Sorvad said, keeping pace with his fellow scientist. "The sizes vary but I'm seeing bits and pieces with the same properties as the hull of the ship itself scattered about the scan area. Nothing too big but enough to imply that the ship suffered serious damage either before impact or because of it."

"Ships don't crash into planets intentionally unless the person at the helm is messed up in the head," Harrelson commented, making it clear that he thought it was a crash landing.

"So it crashed and over the course of millennia galactic dirt and debris as well as planetary shifts buried it," Doctor Hardy said, postulating a possible sequence of events. "It looks like it's pretty much intact, minimal hull damage, but the crash probably knocked its main systems offline until the mining crew triggered something. It'd explain the lack of activity since the incident."

"I'm not so sure about that," Doctor Tillson said, pointing to the debris Sorvad had highlighted using his console. "I'm just eyeballing it but the fragments don't match the holes in the hull."

"She's right," she said, using her photographic memory to take in the shapes of every hull fragment before trying to match them to the holes in the ship's hull. "Out of the ten large fragments the sensors picked up, only the three largest even partially match the holes in the hull. Either the fragments have some attribute that causes them to grow or something has been repairing the damage to the hull."

"We know that it has access to drones," Doctor Hardy said, allowing the line of thought. "Maybe there's some sort of automated repair system that was triggered by the S.E.P. the miners used."

"That would fit with the information we're looking at," Doctor Tillson said, sounding like the gears in her head were humming. "If the repair programs had been running since the ship crashed here it should've been completely repaired by now. However, if the repairs only started after the deaths of the miners, then it'd match what we're looking at."

"How long do you figure until the hull is completely repaired?" Alex asked in a way that told her he had a 'feeling'.

Alex's feelings tended to lead to explosions of one sort or another.

"Assuming that the fragments were the original size of the holes in the hull and taking into account the current sizes of the holes…" she replied, doing some quick math, "…we've got at least eight months before the hull is fully repaired."

"So we've got a minimum of eight months before this thing is space worthy again," Alex declared, showing that he'd been worried about their prize flying off on them.

"I think we've got a bit longer than that, SPARTAN," Doctor Hardy said, sounding amused. "Even if the repair systems repair the hull completely in eight months, who knows what the internal damage is like. More than that whatever crew the ship might've had is long dead and a ship can't fly without one."

"We don't know anything about this ship or who made it," she pointed out, backing Alex up. "It could have another automated system programmed to return the ship to the nearest friendly system or it could even have an alien version of artificial intelligence capable of running the entire ship."

"The SPARTANs are right. This is an alien ship," Doctor Tillson said, siding with Rogue Team. "Trying to apply human thoughts to this ship could lead to serious misassumptions and mistakes."

"Now that we know where the hatches are located, I suggest we attempt to enter the ship through the nearest one," Doctor Sorvad suggested, pointing to a hatch near one of the mining tunnels. "We'll have an easier time learning more about whoever built the ship once we're inside. Writing, images and a closer look at the ship's systems could prove informative."

"And how exactly do you plan on getting us in there? Blow the hatch open?" Doctor Hardy asked, clearly thinking that getting into the ship was a bad idea. "Not exactly something that's going to go over well with whatever ship systems react to the explosion."

True. Without knowledge of the ship's systems or the programs that governed it, they had no guarantees that they'd be able to hack its systems or even if their explosives would scratch the hatch door.

"How about instead we try to get a hold of one of those hull fragments?" she asked, pointing to one of the smaller ones on the screen. "We can use it as a testing bed to see just what can damage it and to what degree. If we can find a way to cut through the hatch quickly enough and quietly enough, we might be able to slip past the ship sensors."

"And what can cut the hull can probably scrap any hostile welcoming committee the ship might send our way if it does spot us cutting through the hatch," Sergeant Harrelson said with a grin that showed he supported the proposal. "I like it."

"Then that's what we'll do," Doctor Tillson said before selectively focusing what the screen showed on the hull fragments with their respective distances. "The easiest one to get to would be this one near tunnel eight six one five six. It's also small enough that we should be able to recover it using the available mining equipment."

They had a plan.

Time to get it done.

Three Weeks Later

The Tunnels Beneath BXR-695

Daisy-023's POV

"Damn," she said as the result of the latest test sunk in.

"Yep," Alex commented, sounding somewhat disconcerted.

The reason for this was that they had just finished with the last of the options they had for cutting through the hatch of the ship and the only ones with any promise were loud, imprecise and were limited in quantity. Basic cutting tools were useless, whether they were military or industrial in nature, with even the strongest barely leaving any mark at all. Chemical compounds like acids or other corrosives might as well have been water for all the good it did at melting a hole in the metal. However when they began to use the more powerful weapons at their disposal, both capable of being carried by a SPARTAN and those that needed to be mounted on a vehicle, they began to make progress until just a few minutes ago when they found the tools they needed to make a quick entry into the ship.

Too bad a M6 Grindell and a Jackhammer rocket launcher could only fire a limited amount of times before they ran out of ammunition and neither of them were very subtle when used.

When added to the fact that they'd almost certainly trigger an armed defensive response from the alien ship's systems and it looked like they'd hit a dead end.

"What if… what if we just try to connect to the ship? Communicate with it somehow?" Doctor Hardy proposed, not quite willing to admit defeat just yet. "Maybe we can convince the ship's systems that we mean no harm."

"There's only one problem with that," Doctor Tillson said, sounding skeptical. "We don't have the first clue as to the ship's language written or spoken. While I suppose we could dust off the old first contact methods for communication, there's no guarantee that that would work. Applying human thinking and reason to an alien ship could prove useless."

"Well, we have to try something before we risk pissing off whatever's running that ship!" Doctor Hardy declared, clearly not wanting to be stonewalled with the find of the century. "ONI and the UNSC are not going to take 'we don't want to piss off the alien ship' as a good enough excuse for stopping or asking for ten more years."

"I know things are bad but it's a timeless fact that science doesn't happen on a schedule," Doctor Tillson said, trying to make her colleague see the reality of things. "It happens in fits and spurts. The same goes for figuring out a gigantic alien ship of unknown origin. All we can do is work our hardest and hope we make a breakthrough or two along the way."

"Yeah, well, I guess that's just about your speed," Doctor Hardy said before aggressively leaving the room likely heading to his temporary quarters.

For a moment it looked like Doctor Sullivan was thinking about following but Doctor Sorvad stopped him.

"Let him go," Doctor Sorvad said with a negative shake of his head. "We're all under a lot of pressure. This is potentially the biggest discovery of our careers and could make a big difference in the war. If we don't get results quickly enough, we could get replaced with others who will and then it'll be the biggest discovery of THEIR career instead of our careers."

Doctor Sullivan acknowledged this with a nod of his head.

"Then let's get to work," Doctor Tillson said before moving over to the communications gear. "I'll contact the Burlington and see if they can get ONI to send us the First Contact package. In the meantime we'll try to come up with some fresh methods of communicating with an alien intelligence."

With decisions made, Doctor's Sorvad, Tillson and Sullivan went to work.

Thinking over the matter herself, she kept most of her attention on being aware of the room, everything in it and everything she could detect happening outside of the room. Sergeant Harrelson was on tunnel patrol with his ODSTs again, leaving her, Daisy and Alex with the duty of protecting the scientists. It'd been pretty quiet since they'd first set foot on the planet with nothing off enough from her point of view. However that didn't mean that she let her attention relax but instead she took it as a chance to memorize what was considered normal so that when a deviation did show up she'd spot it in an instant. With her photographic memory, it didn't take long and the odds of being mistaken were reduced even more.

Xander had taken up a position that was the best for defending the scientists so as to give any hostile no choice but to go through him if they wanted to kill the scientists. Daisy covered the other side of the room, just in case hostiles tried to come at them through the wall opposite the only entrance. Aside from keeping her senses sharp for signs of trouble, it was also her job to provide fire support to either Alex or Daisy, depending on who needed it more at the time. With this configuration they'd stand the best chance of countering any hostile activity and it'd be easy for them to shift to an all-out offensive for the door if the room ceased to be strategically safe.

A stray thought occurred to her as she considered strategic scenarios for the room and the safety of the scientists.

The fact that they had another ODST squad and three more SPARTAN IIs one Pelican drop away and they still hadn't been ordered down to the surface.

It'd been almost three months since they'd first cleared the mining facility and the tunnels for security risks and in that time there hadn't been any sparks of alien hostilities. With nothing to support holding back the rest of their forces to act as reinforcements, it'd make more sense to send the rest down in order to solidify their position and make it more concrete. However, despite these facts, Captain Hood had been given orders to keep their reinforcements on the Burlington until a clear and present threat presented itself. The only problem with that, though, was that even if the other ODST team and the rest of her family on the Burlington stayed in a Pelican every minute of every day, it'd still take time for them to get to the facility and then arrive at their position.

When you were under attack, time was often something you didn't have a lot of especially if you were at any sort of disadvantage.

Alex, though, hadn't let the orders bother him and had just adjusted his strategies to take this parameter into account. That was often his way, though, never wasting energy on what he couldn't change, focusing on what he could do to succeed in spite of the restriction. So far she'd already scouted out three fallback positions with him that they could retreat to if they needed to abandon the improvised lab and had used the supplies they'd brought from the Burlington to set up traps for any hostiles. Some traps were on the ground, others hidden in cracks about waist high and some were rigged to bring down the roof of some tunnels if it became necessary. All of them were tied either to trip wires, motion sensors or could be activated remotely from any of Rogue team's armor. Based on what they'd learned about the metal that the hull of the ship was made out of and the usual difference between a ship's hull and infantry armor, the traps would at least disorient any hostiles that came their way.

Alex had also made sure that the same weapons that they'd used to test the hull metal's attributes had more ammunition than the testing strictly required.

If the situation devolved into a fight they would be as ready as orders allowed them to be.

"This is Fireteam Fox!" Sergeant Harrelson's voice suddenly said through her helmet's internal speakers. "We have contact! I repeat! We have contact with technology not of human origin!"

The sound of gunfire in the background of Harrelson's implied that the contact that'd been made was not a peaceful one but she made a note to inquire about who'd fired the first shot. If the alien technology was the one to shoot first then she felt that that was a strong indicator that the nature of the ship's creators were hostile. If it'd been one of Harrelson's men who shot first, though, she might need to have a talk with Alex later about having Rogue team take over patrol duties from that point onward. She doubted that it'd been Harrelson who'd fired first, the man struck her as a professional soldier, so that could mean it might've been one of the men he'd taken with him. Whatever the case, they could not afford to have people continue to provoke the ship or it may choose to simply enact plans to drive them from the planet altogether. If Fireteam Fox couldn't be trusted to show restraint even with Harrelson in command, then Rogue Team would need to take over any duties that might bring them into contact with the alien technology.

"Clarify. Is it another drone pack?" Alex asked, one hand to the side of his helmet.

"Negative! It's bigger! MUCH bigger and definitely not designed for taking a look see!" Harrelson replied emphatically even as a boom almost drowned out the last half of his sentence.

"Fall back to tunnel junction J-65," Alex ordered even though technically he was of equal rank to Harrelson as far as command decisions were concerned. "I'm sending Sierra Zero Seven Zero there with some heavy ordinance. Hit the deck as soon as you see her."

"Copy that! Fireteam Fox out!" Harrelson said before the comm-connection was cut.

"Take the M6 Grindell plus two additional power cells," Alex ordered her after half turning towards her. "Daisy will remain on standby with the Jackhammer. She'll be able to get to junction J-65 quicker than me. I'll stay behind to protect the science team."

"Understood," she said before going over to where the Grindell rested on a table.

It was time to find out firsthand just how hard it'd be to take down one of the ship's soldiers.

Approaching The Tunnel junction J-65

Sergeant Harrelson's POV

"MOVE IT, MARINES!" he ordered as he laid down some fire with his MA5B, even though he knew it was useless. "I DON'T REMEMBER GIVING YOU PERMISSION TO DIE!"

Brave words.

His own C.O. when he'd joined the ODSTs had used those same words more than once. One of the toughest soldiers he'd ever met but also one that cared for those under her command in a way that made her subordinates want to give their all. Whether it was to prove the woman wrong for calling them losers or because they wanted very much to meet her expectations of them, he, along with all the others, never slacked off. When he'd been called in for evaluation to see if he was fit to lead a team of his own, she'd done her best to make it sound like an act of insanity on the part of the brass. The rest of the team had joined in but he'd figured out that it was just ribbing so he'd gone along with it.

Even got in a few good parting shots on the boss lady.

The evaluation had been tough, tougher than he'd thought it was going to be, but in the end he'd passed with one of the evaluators even tossing a compliment his way before leaving the room. He might've been experienced and worthy of being an ODST but he'd still done a little jig of victory once he was sure there was no one watching. He'd immediately set out for where he knew his unit would be, all ready to give them the good news so they could celebrate properly.

After arriving on the planet, though, the timing sucked worse than usual because, even as he hopped off the Pelican, another one was offloading wounded. He'd asked a nearby flight crew guy what was going on and, while the guy didn't have any details, he was told that a major operation had started a couple of days ago. Tons of boots had been dropped on planets throughout the Eridanus system to fight the URF but it was proving to be more of tough battle than scuttlebutt had led the flight crew to believe. He'd made a comment about being given a hard job right out of evaluation before heading to the local barracks to see what his unit thought of the whole mess. He trusted them to give it to him straight and, if things had gotten as rough as he'd thought, then they'd probably already seen action.

He flinched as he remembered how he'd found out just how right he'd been.

His unit had seen combat and the boss lady had been the first casualty.

A sniper had picked her off just after the unit had hopped out of the transport vehicle that'd taken them to the area where their mission was to take place. The brass and ONI reps were still trying to figure out what'd happened but, as far as his unit was concerned, there was one likely possibility.

One of their own had ratted out his unit to the URF, allowing the Insurrectionists to set up an ambush. They'd probably even been told who to shoot for maximum effect. After all, it was no secret that several members of the UNSC with ties to the Outer Colonies had deserted or even chosen opportune moments to defect, taking some sort of prize along with them. Whether it was intel or weapons or even a ship, the traitors proved that to some the oath every soldier took when they became a UNSC soldier meant nothing. He'd gone to the C.O. in charge of his unit and volunteered to take over for her, seeing as how he'd passed the evaluation to lead an ODST team. The man hadn't seen anything wrong with that once he'd verified that all the necessary credentials were in place but then he'd gone a step further into requesting permission to investigate the possibility of traitors in their midst.

THAT had been when he'd been flat out denied and told that ONI would handle any investigation into the possibility of treason.

A part of him back then had known that he would be denied and could even see the reason behind it. He was a soldier, a fighter, not some slick ONI investigator who could find out the truth without letting anyone know about it. Traitors and potential defectors could be more dangerous to the military than even the most powerful nuke. They did damage but, even if you pruned them out, their poison might remain to infect others and make them do the same thing.

Reluctantly he'd conceded the point and instead had gone on to lead his former unit as best he could to honor the boss lady's memory.

Not all of his old crew were still around and all the ones still breathing had units of their own to lead.

At last count only three of his old buddies were still alive but they kept in touch just the same.

That was why even now he did his best to lead his people not just to victory, but also to survival.

Of course that was a little hard when the thing trying to kill you looked like a cross between an artist's sculpture and an arm's dealer's inventory. Walking on four insect-like legs, the machine coming at them with weapons firing it didn't look like anything he'd seen in his father's old sci-fi movies or even some of the gear R&D had put out only to issue a recall for later on. One thing he could say, though, was that it moved DAMN fast, forcing him and his men to move just as fast, going from cover to cover on their way to junction J-65. They were good enough to pick up most of the robot's tells, indicators of what weapon would be used next, and its method of aiming was rather direct, allowing them to evade so long as they didn't let go of their edge.

The part that was really pissing him off was the fact that, no matter what they threw at the thing, they didn't even scratch the paint job. Bullets or grenades, it didn't make a damn bit of difference. They'd gotten a few bits of good luck, such as the fact that the thing didn't seem to have any special vision options like infrared or night vision. Whether it was with smoke grenades or by puncturing the fire extinguishers they occasionally came across, both served to halt the robot's shooting until it got clear of the obstructive element. At the rate they were going they'd make it to the junction and thus far he hadn't lost any of his people to the walking death machine pursuing them.

He just hoped their luck would hold.

"Get ready!" he yelled as they entered the home stretch. "When I give the word, drop to the ground on the double!"

Focusing ahead he prepared himself for the next part and hoped that the SPARTAN waiting for him was carrying something with a little more stopping power than what his team had with them. As soon as he turned the corner, the rest of his people close behind, he spotted the sharpshooter of Rogue team waiting just as her commander had told him. When he saw what she had resting on her right shoulder, the directions he'd been given before made perfect sense. As soon as he was sure they were far enough along for the plan to work he yelled out the order.

"DROP!"

With that one word he dropped to the ground just like the drill instructor had taught him in boot camp. Seconds later the crimson beam of the M6 Grindall popped into existence overhead, passing by close enough for him to just barely feel it. The mechanical screech he heard told him that the blast had succeeded in hitting the target but, when it didn't stop as quickly as it'd started, he forced himself to roll over onto his back to look back the way he'd come.

He almost wished that he hadn't looked.

While he could see signs of some damage having been done to the robot and the attack had succeeded in halting the death machine's advance, it was definitely still working. Not only that, but the machine had deployed some sort of shields on two of its appendages that was proving to be durable enough to keep the beam from the M6 from hitting its body. Again and again the SPARTAN fired, attempting to get past the shields and scrap the machine, but whoever had designed the clunker had apparently programmed it to cope with tactics like that. With a smoothness he had to admire the markswoman yanked the spent power cell for the weapon and set a new one in place before resuming her assault.

However, since he didn't like the idea of being in the middle of a firefight, it was time to make a move.

"Foxes! Let's get moving!" he yelled as he rolled back onto his stomach. "Elbows and knees until we get to the SPARTAN, then concentrate fire on the shield limbs. Go for the joints!"

Counting on his subordinates to follow his orders he began to crawl forward on the ground just like he'd been trained in boot camp, making for the SPARTAN's position. It wasn't fun since he was racking up the years, even if he didn't openly admit it, but once he was past the sharpshooter he got to his knees, bringing his MA5B up before aiming for the designated targets. Pulling the trigger, his firepower was soon added to by the others, with all of them focusing on one arm rather than dividing their strength between two. While not seeing the satisfying sight of their rounds quickly chipping away at the joint, implying imminent destruction, their shots were succeeding in disrupting the firmness of the machine's defenses.

As a result, when a big enough gap appeared, the SPARTAN didn't miss the chance to fire a shot right down the middle of that gap. Once more the machine shrieked as though in pain before out of nowhere it compacted in on itself, discharging an impressive shockwave that knocked even the SPARTAN on her ass. He fully expected the thing to take advantage of their momentary disorientation to shoot them full of holes or blow them into charred chunks of flesh. So when the thing chose instead to retreat into the tunnels, he didn't know whether to be happy or worried.

"Did… did we just win?" Fuller asked, sounding like he really wanted the answer to be 'yes'.

"Don't kid yourself," he replied, rising to full standing posture. "It had us right where it wanted us and could've fitted all of us for KIA tags. Something told it to pull back."

"Maybe it was programmed to retreat if it got damaged enough?" McCabe proposed without lowering his weapon.

"If you're right then that means we got time but not a lot of it," he said, deciding it was best to pull back to a more defensible position where the rest of the ground forces were. "Fixing a robot's got to be a lot easier than patching holes in a ship's hull. Figure we've got an hour at best before it comes calling again."

"Then let's get back to the science team and the rest of Rogue team," SPARTAN-070 said, popping out a spent power cell from the M6 before sliding in a new one. "This combat drone changes things. It should be enough to convince ONI to send our reinforcements down from the Burlington."

"Best news I've had all day," he said before turning to Fuller and the rest. "You heard the lady, marines! Double time it back to the lab! MOVE!"

With that they all ran for the lab and the rest of their forces but, thanks to the robot, none of them let their guard down. Those that had to popped fresh rounds or a new mag into their weapons because all of them suspected that there might be more than one of those robots out crawling about the mining tunnels. Another possibility was that if the robot that'd just run off had been the only one then the ship had sent it after them specifically, 'cause there was no way their luck was so bad that they'd run into it by accident. There were a shit ton of tunnels underground thanks to the company that'd founded the colony and they were pretty damn long.

If they were being targeted specifically then he'd say that the time for making peace with the thing was over and done with.

You don't send a death machine after people you're still open to talking to all peaceful like after all.

Three Kilometers Beneath the Surface

Impressive.

That was the best word she could use to describe how the test she had set up had gone.

When she had concluded all the observation she required in order to anticipate and, if necessary, manipulate the humans into doing what she needed them to do, she had begun work on the first test. By observing the scientists she'd gained an understanding of where the human race was in terms of the sciences. The test would show her where they were from a military and combat perspective. More than that, it'd been her desire to see just how far above the rank and file these SPARTANs really were. As a result she'd outfitted a tier three combat drone with the most basic of weapons and defenses before waiting for the best moment to use it.

She had been happy that she didn't have to wait too long for it to come.

When she'd seen the entire normal human team go on patrol, she'd chosen then to deploy the drone but only once the patrol team was within a reasonable distance of where the enhanced soldiers were located. When first contact had been made, the conflict proceeded pretty much as she'd anticipated, with the weapons wielded by the normal soldiers doing nothing at all to damage or deter the combat drone. Fortunately for them she'd specifically programmed the drone for near misses only and to do little to hide what weapon it would use next. Obviously she'd wanted to ensure that the humans believed the threat to be real, otherwise she wouldn't see them put forth their best effort to defeat the drone.

She had not been disappointed.

While hardly the most advanced and deadly combat drone at her disposal, it did not change the fact that, had the drone not obeyed her retreat command, the SPARTAN would have defeated it. Given that it was a little over a hundred years ahead of the technology of this UNSC, it spoke volumes concerning the armored female. The gap that the ODSTs had managed to create had not been large, only just large enough for the majority of the energy weapon's blast to get through to the main body. To hit such a small and unstable opening was not something that an ordinary human could hope to do consistently to be considered a viable battle tactic.

And yet the female SPARTAN known by the number zero seven zero had done so.

If all those like her could perform similar feats of excellence then perhaps the day of humans once more rising to dominance was not as far off as she'd originally imagined.

She'd not gotten the chance to do a more detailed scan of the SPARTANs yet but she was in no particular hurry. From all she had observed of the scientists and their protectors, they were not going to leave until they learned everything they could about her ship or their superiors ceased to believe the project worthwhile. So long as she continued to tempt them with the advanced technology contained within the ship and did nothing to scare them off she'd have all the time she required.

She couldn't help but smile at the idea of her studying them even as they tried to discern more about that which was under her control.

What should I do once all my questions have been answered? she thought, pondering the possibility. Compensating them for satisfying my curiosity is the least I can do.

Perhaps she could give them the foundation of Tier Two technology. Nothing readily made, of course, but rather the seeds that, if they studied them long enough, would grant them the bounty that such a technological level could offer them. While what she had learned of the state of the human race troubled her, she could not give into temptation and give them what they needed to repel their enemy. Technology provided without earning it through learning did little to earn the respect of those who chose to use it and could lead to disaster if overconfidence was allowed to blossom.

Besides, according to the latest repair reports, the reconstruction of the ship's hull was proceeding nicely, as were the internal systems. She was still a ways off from being able to break the ship free of the planet and once more soar amongst the stars, but there was no uncertainty in the belief that it would happen. When it did, though, she would vanish from all eyes and only appear to harass the forces seeking to wipe out their race, delaying their advance in order to allow the humans to grow stronger with their newfound knowledge.

If more severe and significant intervention turned out to be required, she would simply act from beyond the sensor range of either enemy or ally.

After all, with the level of technology and power her ship possessed, striking from such a distance would be mere child's play for her.

Now to see what they will do, she thought as she continued to observe the humans. Will they call down their reinforcements from their ship or be confident that they can prevail with what they have already?

Their choice would dictate what sort of test she came up with next.

The UNSC Burlington

On the Captain's Quarters

About an hour later

Captain Hood's POV

"And you say that it took multiple shots from a Grindell to force the machine to retreat?" ONI Agent 'Smith' asked rhetorically from the other side of the com-channel. "Interesting. Those things are usually used to take out armored tanks and the like."

He knew THAT tone.

"Still, the fact that the alloy the shields are made of wasn't used to encase all of its internal workings implies a design flaw or perhaps a limitation," Agent 'Smith' said, scratching his chin in thought.

He knew THAT tone as well.

"Regardless, this development justifies your operation quite nicely," Agent 'Smith' said, apparently shelving his thoughts for later.

"I would've thought finding a giant ship buried nose down did that," he said, thinking that the spaceship was far more interesting than an attack robot.

"That is an interesting find but hardly of any strategic importance," Agent 'Smith' said, sounding like the ship itself was of secondary interest to him. "Even if we dispatched the necessary excavation equipment and crew to you immediately, it'd take over a year to dig it out. Add to that the time it'll take to sort out what's important and what isn't… it's a waste of time."

"Then what do you have in mind?" he asked, a little surprised at the agent's lack of patience.

It was his understanding that ONI spooks were prepared to wait anywhere from weeks to years for their operations to bear fruit. Given the potential payday such an advanced ship promised to give them, he would think that it'd be better not to rush things even with the losses suffered due to the Covenant. If they pushed things too hard, too fast, they risked the entire operation blowing up in their faces or, more specifically, the faces of everyone under his command.

"Seeing as how the ship's systems shot first, I'd say the time for niceties is over with," Agent 'Smith' said with moderate seriousness. "You're to deploy the remaining SPARTANs and ODST to the planet armed to the teeth. Explosives, anti-tank weaponry and all the bubble shield modules you have. Sierras zero seven zero and zero one zero should have with them some of the best system crack gear already with them. Once they're all prepared they're to move on the closest ship hatch and open it up by any means most expedient."

"You're ordering a forced boarding?! After what Sergeant Harrelson's team encountered?!" he exclaimed in almost incredulous shock. "That's like jumping into a lion's den without knowing how many lions are inside!"

"I'll admit that it's dangerous, Captain, but I think you're overestimating just a little," Agent 'Smith' said, looking like he'd been expecting this. "We've been looking over your data and our experts back here believe that all you have to worry about are automated systems and maybe the equivalent of a dumb A.I., but consider that last part a bit of a stretch. Even if the ship was equipped with one, it's been buried on the planet for thousands of years. What're the odds it's anything approaching functional? No, I think that as long as the ODSTs and SPARTANs live up to their reputations, everything'll be fine."

He had to admit that, given how long the ship had been buried, he was amazed that anything was functioning at all. Given the fact that a Smart A.I. made by the UNSC had a stable lifespan of seven years, he didn't think that the ship's artificial intelligence could last as long as it'd been buried and remain coherent. Indeed, with the sheer number of years the A.I. had to have clocked, the odds were high that it'd have thought itself into oblivion by now.

Still…

"We should make seizing the engine room and the ship's weapons top priority," he said, deciding that if this was going to happen it'd be with the safety of those below at the forefront. "Even if the ship's A.I. is offline, the automated programs still operating could activate a self-destruct system once our people make it inside. That means blowing the engine core or detonating whatever explosive ship-to-ship ordinance it might have onboard. If we take those two locations, we can maximize the odds of defusing the self-destruct."

"Agreed. Have the ODSTs and the scientists put on pressurized suits." Agent 'Smith' said as a thought occurred to him. "It's possible the ship might try to neutralize them by venting the breathable atmosphere at the right moment."

Made sense.

"I expect the ODSTs, scientists and SPARTANs to be ready in two hours and in control of the ship in six," Agent 'Smith' said with the typical 'my word is law' tone of voice. "Good luck, Captain Hood. I'll be waiting to hear a favorable after action report."

With that the man's image left to be replaced by the typical ONI emblem.

"Who does that idiot think he's fooling?" he asked rhetorically as he fumed a little bit in his chair.

He didn't know what was going on inside the ONI agent's head but there was no rational way to justify sending people into a ship they had only the loosest understanding of. Language, whether spoken or written, was a closed book where the alien ship was concerned and as far as he was concerned you couldn't do anything if you didn't know the language a system operated under. Yet Agent 'Smith' was expecting them to blast their way onto an alien ship, find their way to two locations without a map and neutralize two important locations with no clue about the language. It was ridiculous! He didn't know anything more about science than any other man who'd passed high school but even he knew that unlocking the secrets of the alien ship needed more time to be done right. Either 'Smith' was banking on this to do something for his career and was therefore rushing it or there was something else going on.

Damned if he knew what, though.

This was a big find with big possibilities for the future of mankind.

The best I can do is try to delay things as much as possible, he thought, already working up excuses to hand Agent 'Smith' that stood a chance of being accepted. Give the team on the ground as much time as I can to prepare so they can maximize the odds in their favor.

It wasn't much but it was the best he could do.

If he tried to push any harder, ONI would just reassign him and put a commanding officer on the project that wouldn't care about the potential for destruction and death. As long as they left him here as the C.O., he could influence things for the better.

Best get to work, he thought before reaching over to his computer to connect to the bridge.

He just hoped that everything he'd heard about SPARTANs was true because they'd need some of that super soldier defying of the odds to make this anything other than one way ticket.