-Prologue-

This was to be Xal 'Kalek's last job. At 95 years, the former First Blade of the Silent Shadow was slowing down, had been for a while. He should have quit years ago, but fighting was all he knew, he was also exiled from his home for certain actions taken during the Created War, after which he became a mercenary, a very shameful thing for a Sangheili of his position to be. Which brings him to where he is now, in a stolen pelican with a kidnapped Huragok, desperately trying to stay in the air. He had taken all the necessary precautions, he planted explosives on their vehicles, aircraft, and armory, there should have been no way for his escape to have failed, but some jackass was sleeping with a rocket launcher and got a lucky shot on one the pelican's engines.

He'd managed to keep it keep it the air for more than half an hour, pretty impressive considering that it was a brick with wings before it had been hit by a rocket, but what explodes must come down. The damaged engine pod blew up. While the Huragok was panicking at their sudden descent, Xal was keeping himself just on the verge of panicking, working the controls in order to turn a crash landing into a controlled fall. He did well all things considered. The pelican hit the dirt hard before sliding a few meters, the shields on his infiltration harness absorbing the impact. He was out of the pilot's seat the moment the pelican finally slowed to a halt, he grabbed the now disoriented Huragok and ordered it to follow.

Xal ran into on of this regions many conifer forests in a bid to get as far away from the crashed pelican as possible, the captured huragok following closely behind, they had a few hours before this colonies militia could catch up, Xal made sure to make good on that time.

After hours of running relentlessly through the forest, Xal was eventually forced to stop in order to catch his breath. He wouldn't have long before he had to get moving again, he would resurrect and strangle whoever had the bright idea of giving huragok the ability to glow; Xal could hide easily, even without active camouflage, the oncoming dark of night would conceal him, but hiding would not be an option because this tentacled balloon animal had to be bioluminescent! Xal calmed his breathing when he realized his frustration, he needed to focus. "In and out, in and out." Having regained his focus, he turned his senses outward, focusing on the sounds around him... he heard nothing. No engines, no birds, even the insects have gone quiet. Something is very wrong here.

He drew his pistol and began scanning the area, ready to boil his problems away in a flurry of green plasma bolts. As he was scanning he began to feel something, faint at first, but picking up in intensity. It was like a heartbeat, or more specifically, the alternating pattern of a Sangheili heartbeat. He followed the feeling, pistol still raised until he came upon a clearing with a strange building at its center. The building was reminiscent of Forerunner architecture, but very clearly wasn't. Its walls were almost fluid, they shifted and expanded and contracted before his eyes, yet everything about it appeared to be solid. While he was enraptured in his observations, he didn't notice the Huragok he was being paid to retrieve approach, nor did he notice himself getting closer the odd structure.

Xal, in a state of compromised lucidity, reached his hand out and touched the ever changing building, the need to be closer to the heartbeat overwhelming his senses. His mind snapped back to reality when he was met with a sudden change in scenery. He looked about himself, noting how it seemed the huragok had been able to follow him into this far too bright a room. Xal assumed the he was now inside the previously mentioned structure; unlike the outside, however, the inside was completely solid and as unchanging as rock. As Xal's eyes adjusted he noticed he was in a large chamber, the only way to go being a long hallway with a door at the end. Seeing as how it was the only way to go, he began following the hallway, his pistol magnetically holstered at his hip, the Huragok continuing to follow, it looked rather nervous.

As the two were walking down the hall, they noticed that is was lined with additional, smaller doors, or the Huragok noticed, as Xal once again found himself in strange trance, marching mindlessly down the corridor to the large door at the end. He even remained oblivious when the structure they were in began to "glitch". The Huragok noticed and accessed one the side doors to escape the extremely troubling situation, disappearing to points unknown. Xal continued his march to the end, the glitching worsening as time went on, until eventually the corridor began to shake violently and the jostling threw Xal through one the side doors sending the sangheili to a place far colder than the destination intended for him. The structure shattered under the strain of operating soon after.

-Fallen Child of Urs-

The Ouranos Facilty was the most important and well guarded place in all of Solitas, just after Atlas Academy, of course; so the probability of anyone or anything getting inside without raising alarms was quite low, yet one such anomaly was staring Corporal Kim Orchid in the face. "What do you think it is, ma'am?" Asked a Private, who was aiming his rifle at the... thing.

"Hell if I know, Private." Kim said as she began circling the... whatever it was. First, the thing was big, she couldn't tell how big as it was sprawled out on the ground, but was bigger than anyone she'd ever met, which was saying something, some faunus were really tall. Second, it was covered in strange, indigo plating and had a black visor that would probably look really menacing if its owner were standing up. Kim deduced that it was some kind of new robot, it made more sense than anything else, not that that was saying much. "Get a couple of the AKs up here, we need to get this thing to a containment cell."

For many, it could be said that life was good, for Xal, however, things weren't as nice. First off, he felt terrible, he felt like he tried to beat a mgalekgolo in a full body weight lifting competition and forgot to stretch afterwards, he wasn't sure if he won. Second, he was in a cell of some kind, the door appeared to be hard light, and judging by his hud, he was unarmed, but whoever had him detained was dumb enough to leave him in his armor. And third, he had undoubtedly failed his contract to deliver the huragok, which would lead to conversation he'd rather not have, but more than that, he was being observed. Xal lifted himself from the steel floor and approached the young, orange haired girl who stood outside this most recent cage of his. The girl continued to analyze him as he approached, cocking her head to get a better look. "Hello?" Xal said in accented English, cocking his own head, hoping that she spoke the language; most humans he met could.

Suddenly the girl's face broke out into bright beaming smile. "Salutations, my name is Penny!" The girl, now known as Penny, says excitedly as she made a small waving gesture. "You don't sound like a robot." The girl says in astonishment, no longer smiling, but leaning closer to the energy that separated them.

"Robot?" Xal asked, confused, leaning in to hear the short girl better. Sure, she looked young, she probably wasn't born until a few years after The Created War, and few humans had ever seen the Silent Shadow harness and lived to tell about it, but surely they would teach their children of the other species that inhabited the galaxy, especially the sangheili! "Why would I sound like a robot?"

"Well, that's what the soldiers told me you were." Penny said innocently, rocking back and forth on her heals. So the soldiers thought he was a machine? He could forgive the girls ignorance, but the soldiers? Xal just realized that this was a military installation, his appearant mental slowness was further reason to take a nap at the earliest opportunity, but what was this girl doing here~ Xal's thoughts trailed off as he sighted his weapons on a crate behind Penny, it seemed his escape would be easier than he could have ever imagined.

"It doesn't matter what I am." Xal says, leaning back and crossing his arms. "But I would greatly appreciate it if you were to open this cell." Xal punctuates his request with a small wave of his hand, as his arms remained crossed.

Penny's smile faltered once again. "I don't think General Ironwood would be very happy with me if I did that, I'm not even sure if I'm supposed to be talking to you."

A general? Now he was really curious. Xal was about to question Penny on all these new developments interfering with his career, but was interrupted by a stern voice, "Penny!"

The short girl jumped at the sound of her name and saluted. "General Ironwood!" Penny yelped in surprise. Xal followed her gaze and watched as a tall (for a human) man with graying hair walked into his view, he had an air of authority about him and walked with confidence, this was most definitely the General. Accompanying the General was a young woman who had the very same air of confidence; that, and the sword at her hip told Xal that she was important as well.

"At ease, Penny." The General said. He looked as if he were about to say something else, that is until he noticed Xal was conscious and looking between the three individuals. "Penny, I recall your father wanting to speak with you." The General said, clearly lying.

Not that Penny noticed, of course. "Oh ok!" Penny said before turning around and practically skipping away from the cell.

After she was gone, Xal and General Ironwood turned their heads back to face each other. After a moment of silence, Xal spoke. "Release me." He said with all tact of a Jiralhanae during mating season. Xal was never one to waste his own valuable time.

Both the General and his companion stiffened at the sound of voice. "We can't do that, not until we figure out what you are and how you infiltrated this facility." Infiltrate?

Xal shifted his posture to something more dangerous. "What I am?" Xal nearly growled out the question. "You're going to need to be more specific." Xal beat down his annoyance before it could gain strength and become anger, a loss of composure on his part would be a most shameful display for even a disgraced First Blade. "And as for infiltrating this place," Xal chuckled. "Had I been trying to do so, you would never have known I was here."

The General scowled. "What are you and what is your purpose here?" Ironwood questioned again, grinding his teeth.

"There's thatquestion again." Xal was becoming very bored with this conversation very quickly, but he stopped it from showing in his voice and relaxed his posture. Only his words would give away his true feelings. "And as for my purpose, it has nothing to do with one so insignificant as you." The woman's posture tensed at his blatant disregard for her superior, an effect of loyalty most likely, Xal logged that away for a future escape plan should the others fail. "Now release me, I grow bored of this conversation."

"You aren't going anywhere until you cooperate!" Ironwood had kept his composure throughout the conversation, his posture and position never shifted once and there was no sign of nervousness nor fear. Had Xal been more gullible, he may have truly believed that the General didn't recognize his species. "I don't know what you are, but you are in of the most secure areas on the continent. Don't even think of attempting an escape, you won't make it."

That was a challenge if Xal ever heard one. "Then we have nothing more to talk about." Xal said, the General's stupid game was beginning to bore him, he was already activating his active camouflage. "Truly unfortunate." With that, he punched a wall at the point closest to the light-door, his strength more than sufficient to penetrate the steel. He yanked out whatever components he could wrap his hand around, which turned out to be enough to deactivate the hard light barrier.

The woman immediately slashed at his last known position; he was surprised that her sword wasn't just for show, but he was even more surprised that she moved with a speed he would normally only associate with augmented humans, but none of that mattered seeing as how Xal was already moving towards his weapons on the crate. The first thing he did upon reaching the crate was tossing one his four plasma grenades at Ironwood's feet. Both the General and his companion's eyes widened at the high pitched whine the weapon made just before detonating and they quickly put their arms up as if to block the explosion. Xal turned back to his weapons, knowing his work was done as the grenade did what grenades do. He was reaching for his T-50 Delta as the heat from the plasma detonation washed over him, it was close enough to short out his shields.

He turned as he finished securing his weapons to his armor and was quite surprised when an ice spike narrowly missed his head, he was surprised a second time shortly after as bullets began pinging off his armor and alarms started blaring. Luckily, the shields on his harness recharged more quickly than most systems could and he was able to re-engage his camouflage and slip away. He hid himself at the far end of the cell block and evaluated the unlikely situation he found himself in.

His newest adversaries had somehow survived a close proximity plasma grenade detonation, an impossible feat for unshielded, unarmored officers. Though, it seemed that whatever miracle saved them did not protect them from the flash, they were blinking and rubbing away the tears from their eyes. And now there were soldiers in unfamiliar uniforms and weapons pouring into the cell block. Xal noted that their equipment appeared to high quality, not equipment that the various Insurrectionist armies would have access to or even wear, and they were most definitely not UNSC.

To recap: military facility, high ranking officials, hard light technology that humans just did not have, an ice spike, and professional soldiers with fancy equipment. An odd situation indeed. "I've already failed my previous contract and, judging by the locals, I'm not even on the same planet I was before. Perhaps some intelligence gathering would be best at this time." Xal thought. He watched as the humans attempted to find him, they never would, not unless he wanted them to. That time would come soon enough, but for now, stalking the General would be the first phase of this operation.

First chapter of the rewrite here. Even if you're disappointed that I've discontinued the original Remnant Commando, I can tell you right now that I'm super excited about this and you should be too, it's gonna be great.