NOTE1: What did you think? I was gone and my two main stories dead? Nope! Just busy with other things. I am back and I will continue The Lost Civilization and The Iron Heart of Man until I say I will no longer update them. So fear not, this is still ongoing and will update this. I am still busy with master's degree and of studies and other important events.

Chapter 8: Keep Your Rifle By Your Side

Unknown planet

December 16th 2552

"Come on, you fuckers…" Ashley muttered to herself as she watched the natives through her binoculars. "Come on… do something stupid… give me a reason to put you down…"

"How's it looking, Ash?" Shepard asked as he climbed up the slope out of the ravine.

"They look like they are up to something." Shepard noticed her tense stance. The rifle was by her side, set up in a non-menacing stance against the rocks. He noticed she had a bullet in the barrel. She was even taking cover behind the rocks as if she was expecting to be shot at any moment now. "Too rigid, always like they are about to jump and do something. But hesitating every time. There are only three of them left."

"Where did the others go?" he asked, looking in the direction where the primitives had been lurking behind foliage.

"I have no idea. Haven't seen them for a while," she replied while checking the surroundings to make sure they weren't flanked and surrounded. "The ones we've seen yesterday are gone. The ladies down there are new faces."

They were cycling their sentinels – if they could be called sentinels. To Shepard, it meant they were more than mere primitives who were just curious. They are well organized. They are also more intelligent than he initially thought. It means they have the capacity to, and are actively, collecting intelligence and reporting back to camp what they were seeing. For what reasons? He could not tell. He hoped it wasn't to stage a raid on the two of them. If it came down to it, it will end in a bloodbath. Shepard also deduced an additional piece of information, one he was certain Ashley did too – their camp, or village, or cave, whatever they live in, is a day's walk away.

"They got extra jumpy after you brought back that… thing," she added, referring to the animal Shepard shot and brought back for the two of them to eat yesterday evening. The animal brought memories of a small deer, resembling more a deer baby.

"Had to hunt something. We're running out of rations. You know that."

"I do."

"What's the ammo situation?" he asked.

Ashley slid down from her overwatch spot and rested her back against the rock. She turned to look at Shepard as she voiced the answer to his inquiry. "We're looking good if we don't have to fight the natives: around 1000 9.5x40mm rounds for the BR55s, 21 rounds for the sniper, and around 150 12.7x40mm cartridges for the M6. Salvaged ammo included."

"That should hold us a while if we use it sparingly," Shepard instructed, Ashley agreeing with him. "We only have a few kilograms of explosives, grenades included…"

"Considering we're the most technologically advanced people on this planet…" Ashley said, "I doubt there's something a 9.5 caliber won't stop."

"Here," he produced a piece of cooked meat and passed it to her, "freshly cooked." She looked at the lump of dark bluish meat Shepard had roasted earlier. Steam was still coming out of it. She grudgingly accepted it, but did not bite from it. "Don't worry," he assured her. "It's at least edible."

Ashley's eyebrow arched upwards. "How do you know it?" she asked.

Shepard stuck his head out and gestured with his head in the direction of the asari. "Saw them carry one of these," he replied while chewing on the meat. "When I first spotted them. I doubt they'd go through all the trouble to throw the food. I bet the other team carried the meat back to their main group."

Ashley looked at the meat that had a blue tint to it. Mustering the courage, she bit from it and chewed on the meat. The taste was weird, alien to her. "Not the best I've tasted..." she muttered.

"If it keeps us from starvation... I am good with it." Shepard ate a good part of his cooked meat. The two of them continued to consume their food in silence. "Not that bad…" he commented at one point.

"What do you think they are like?" she asked when they were through with the food.

Ashley looked at him and then towards the blue humanoids through the binoculars again. She noticed that they noticed that they were also being watched. For some reason, they were growing agitated.

"At least they are not bad on the eyes," Shepard noted, earning in return a weird look from Ashley. "I would choose the worst this lot has to offer over any God forsaken Covenant bastard," he felt the need to add. "Anyway… they are females. At least I've all the clues to reach that conclusion. Where the hell are their men?"

"Matriarchal society maybe?" Ashley guessed.

"Who the hell would send the females out, put them at risk? Look at them! Their only saving grace is their brains and their numbers. Physical build is not… they are not made for hunting. They don't look like they can hold their own against a beast."

"I get what you're trying to say," Ashley noted. "Who knows? Maybe they are used as scouts only? Quick on their feet?"

Shepard shook his head to convene disagreement. "I've seen the previous group hunt. They all seemed females."

It did not make any sense to Shepard what he was seeing. Females were normally cared for and they did not take risks. At least human females. They just needed to stay put, watch for the children and birth them. 80% of the women who've lived in the last few thousand years still have descendants today, while only 40% of the men have continued their lines to contemporary lives. This just shows that a woman has a much easier time to continue their genes than men. It could be argued that the woman only has to wait and a man will approach her. On the other hand, men have to take the risks if they want to have children.

That ages old goal of evolution – have offspring, the ultimate goal of any living being in this galaxy. If you do not have children, then you've failed your evolutionary job. You've failed the most important task in your life. One can argue this point.

Getting back to his original thoughts, Shepard summarized the basics. Females do not have to take risks. They are to be protected and provided for. They cannot carry a baby in one hand and fight off predators with the other. What was he missing?

"Eerie how much they look like us," Ashley broke the silence.

"You think there's something else?" Shepard inquired.

"Well, I've heard some… interesting things about these Forerunners. And I would not be surprised if they had a hand in this whole …thing," she looked for a better word, but fell short of finding it.

"What the-" Shepard was startled when the group of aliens broke into a run out of the foliage, their rudimentary spears tracing circles in the air as they ran. Shepard snatched the binoculars from Ashley and brought them up to his eyes.

"Shit!" Ashley whispered and aimed her BR55 at the running aliens. "If they get within 10 meters I put them down."

"Don't shoot, Ashley! Only if they charge us. They look scared, they are running from something," Shepard noted. He kept searching the tree line. They were running and hid behind a rock outcrop halfway between the tree line and the ravine where Shepard and Ashley made their base. "There's something in the trees they are running from."

Shepard's binoculars fixated on another figure running through the trees. It was another one of the blue aliens. Then, a blue haze flickered behind vegetation. He felt his blood run cold as recognition dawned on him. "Plasma…"

"What?" Ashley looked dumbfounded his way.

"Go get the sniper!" he ordered. Ashley fell back and went down the slope to the Pelican. Shepard brought his own BR55 up and rested it against the rock. His right hand was holding the rifle aimed in the general direction of the perceived threat.

Shepard looked down to see Ashley rush up the slope with the SRS99 sniper rifle, a full clip inserted. He turned his attention at the aliens. He could see they were hiding big time. One was even looking their way. If he didn't know better he would say terror could be read on their face. They must be familiar with whatever was going on. Else they would first investigate.

One of the hiding blue women made a hand gesture to Shepard that could only mean hide. "Ru! Iliis! Hokzii!" she shouted. If only he could understand her…

"What are you hiding from?"

A shriek of what could only be pain escaped the mouth of the lone blue alien. Shepard scanned the area. She went down. And he's seen what took her down.

Ashley reached the top of the slope, the SRS99 sniper sticking its barrel over the rocky outcrop. She put her eye on the scope. With a pull of the bolt a 14.5mm high velocity armor piercing cartridge went into the barrel. "What do we have?" she inquired.

Shepard let the binoculars down and aimed through the scope of his BR55. "Covenant."

NOTE2: I hope you will not be too upset on me. I want to keep the chapters short for this story and advance the plot this way. I think it is the only feasible method to update on a somewhat reasonable basis, given the breaks in my schedule. So, what will happen next? How come there is Covenant on Thessia? How did they get here? What will they do? What will the two helljumpers do? The plot will continue in the upcoming chapter.

A STORY BROUGHT TO YOU BY Apollonir