Major Sylvia Monroe curled up behind a boulder, desperately trying to keep her intestines from falling out the hole in her gut. The Needler spike that imbeded itself in her belly had been painful upon entry, her ballistic armor barely doing anything to stop it, and the ensuing explosion had blown a fist sized hole in her, shredding flesh and organ. Blood flowed freely between her fingers, and she was constantly coughing up the stuff, resulting in spasms of pain. Her helmet had fallen off during one of these spasms, and her shoulder length brown hair, which was longer than regulations permitted, was splayed across her face. Most of her squad was dead, their bodies thrown about on the field, some of them in more than one piece.

She cursed herself again. It had been a combination of cowardice, stupidity, and plain bad luck. She had been tasked with something simple. Since the base was short on Drill Seargents, she had been assigned a group of greenhorns and ordered to take them on patrol, show them how a real marine does it. A bunch of pre-pubescent kids straight out of boot, they couldn't tell one end of the gun from the other. They lollygagged and fucked around, teasing each other and staring at her ass without so much as giving a glance to the surroundings. She had finally snapped and told them all off in what her uncle would call "champion cursing", when the racket attracted the attention of a Covenant recon group. They had strayed too far from the main base, and she had been so engrossed in her rant that she didn't realize that they were in the open. Hell, she hadn't even noticed the plasma bolt until it had glanced off her shoulder and melted the face off one of the rookies. It was instant pandemonium.

They had leapt behind a cluster of rocks and boulders, in hopes that they would shelter the group from the hail of plasma. Her armor was melted to her shoulder, and she was sporting a sprained ankle from a bad landing. The squad tried to reorganize themselves, finally figuring out how to use the assault rifles in their hands, and returned fire. It was scattered, and inconsistent, not hitting a damn thing, but served its purpose in keeping the Covenant force at bay. A plasma grenade had landed several meters from their location. While it would burn a bit, they were nowhere close enough to its kill range, but none of the damn rookies knew that. They flipped out, and made a run for it. Every last one of them jumped from the only cover they had in an attempt to get away from the explosive. A perfect flush. The fleeing marines were gunned down as fast as they could pop up. Despite her ankle and smoldering shoulder, Sylvia had jumped from cover herself to grab hold of two idiots and threw them back behind the rocks. There was a flash and she could hear their cries of pain as the heat from the grenade sent bits of molten rock at them. But they would survive.

She was just about to reach the safety of the boulders when she had felt it. There was a whir as the weapon discharged its load at the rocks, spraying the entire area with pink crystals. She felt one of the spikes fly through her body armor and penetrate her stomach. Her knees nearly gave out, but she had managed to make it back with the assistance of one of the marines. The two of them argued about what to do about the crystal, but a few seconds later, it had detonated. She wasn't even able to distinguish her own voice as she howled in pain. This was too much for the pair of newbies. Staying close to the ground, they slowly slunk off, abandoning her as she slipped into shock.

And so here she was. She didn't know if the two of them had survived, and at this point, she didn't really care. If they survived, and if she survived, she would personally make sure they got court martialled. Sylvia winced as the wound twinged. Her breath was ragged, and the fact that the hole was beginning to hurt less couldn't mean anything good. She began to feel light headed as her vision faded in and out. The air shimmered in front of her and she focused on the pair of Sangheili legs that materialized in front of her. The digitigrade legs were clad in black special forces armor and there was a glow from the energy sword as it activated.

A large hand grabbed her by her head and lifted her into the air. Sylvia felt her neck pop as she stared the Elite in the eyes. She kept her hands stubbornly over her stomach, but she could feel the blood seeping into her clothes. The monster seemed to observe her curiously, looking at her face, then her wound, and finally her eyes. She mustered all the strength she could and glared at her foe. The Elite let out a low chuckle and poised to run her through with the melee weapon. With a surge of adrenaline, she grabbed its arms with both hands and lifted her body. She could feel her insides shifting and something that was probably important seemed to fall out. But there was no other choice at this point of time. She smashed her boot into the alien's face, and it promptly dropped her, more out of suprise than pain. She fell from three feet in the air, and landed on her already damaged shoulder, but even so, Sylvia rolled onto her feet, clamped her hands over what remained of her stomach, and took off sprinting. She got maybe twenty meters away when there was a sharp retort. Her left knee buckled as a slug entered the back of her thigh and exited the front, and she fell on her face. The Elite walked over to her collapsed body, almost passively, gingerly holding her heaviliy modified M6F pistol with mild disgust. It dropped the weapon as it reached the gasping woman, and flipped her over.

"You are rather interesting, human."

........

Vites 'Therammee watched as the small human girl limped away after she kicked him in the face. His shields had absorbed the brunt of the blow, and in fact, were in perfect condition. But the action was suprising. Most humans would cry and beg for their lives, screaming for mercy. Others would accept their fate quietly, closing their eyes in a calm, almost dignified manner. The latter were honored with the blade, being swiftly executed in a manner befitting them. But this one, a female nonetheless, fought back. Despite her fatal wound, she put herself through tremendous pain in order to escape.

Vites smiled to himself. He had always been a collector of sorts. A strange habit among the Sangheili, but not too uncommon. And his immense skills more than made up for his unusual habits. His talents were often sought through the Covenant heirarchy. They would seek him out and offer him the most dangerous and deadly assignments. Which he gladly accepted. He would infiltrate and annihalate human establishments, collecting articles and exotic items as he went. Then he would reap the rewards that came with such honorable missions.

This mission was to be no different. As a personal favor to his friend and brother, he had boarded the Judgement and was dropped off on this desolate rock of a planet. There were multiple human military bases here, and he was to locate their exact locations and any other information that would be useful. Then he would lead the attack on them, wiping another speck of the scourge known as humanity from the universe. He had been on the planet no more than half a cycle when he had stumbled upon the woman screaming at her comrades for incompetance. Standing clear as day in the field, Vites almost considered simply letting them get to a better defended location, just for the challenge. But one of the Unggoy accompanying him, the stupid little worm he is, discharged his weapon at the humans. To his credit, at least the Unggoy managed to kill one of the humans, although it was not the one he was aiming at. If he didn't Vites would have killed him on the spot. The ensuing firefight was easy, and the humans were quickly annihalated, running from their one source of protection and scurrying out into the no man's land.

Vites decided to let the Unggoy and his companions melt the rocks, he would take a simpler route. He had activated his cloaking device and walked around the stones, to find only the human female left, her companions having either fled the scene, or died. He almost pitied the creature as she lay there, whimpering and clutching her abdomen. One glance and he could tell that the wound would be fatal, if it were not treated. But when he had grabbed the woman, she had glared at him with the fury of a thousand suns. She had suprising energy for one so close to death. More than he had thought. She managed to avoid his blade with a twist of her body, and the shock that she would even be able to move made him drop her. The boot slamming against his shield did nothing to help his confusion. By the time he was fully aware of what had happened, the human was already on her feet, running for her life.

A futile effort. Vites raised his plasma rifle, aiming at the small of her back. But he reconsidered. This human was strange, unusual, exotic. And he liked strange things. Something in the ground caught his eye. A human weapon, he realized. The woman, or one of her companions, must have dropped it earlier. It would be more suitable for this situation than his plasma weapon. The gun was uncomfortably small in his hand, and the sights were unusual. But he had fired human weapons before, much to his distaste, and he knew how to operate them. He took aim at one of her legs and fired. The gun kicked back with suprising force, and he watched the girl fall. He leisurely approuched the woman, and dropped the weapon, opting to flip the woman on her back so he could look her in the eye again. She glared at him through hazy eyes, and Vites chuckled to himself. Quite a fine specimen of human ability.

"You are rather interesting, human." he whispered, the language diffucult to pronounce. But she understood him. He watched with satisfaction as her eyes widened and she attempted to spit at him. He signaled one of his squad over, summoning the Unggoy who originally started the firefight. It scampered over and bowed its head repectfully.

"How may I assist you, you're Excellency?" it questioned in its squeaky voice. It seemed to shrink as the Sangheili warrior glared at the back of his lowered skull.

"Tend to her wounds and bring her." Vites stated, turning away. "I will not give her the pleasure of escaping me through death." He walked towards the forest and activated his camoflauge.

"B-but she is human!" the Unggoy quibbled. "She is a human! T-the Shipmaster will surely object!"

"Do as you are told, fool." The air whispered. "Or would you rather face my blade?" The leaves rustled as a wind blew through. "I will deal with the Shipmaster. But if she dies, it will be your head, Grunt." The human derogatory term used on his race made the Unggoy tremble with anger. But he knew full well what would happen should he anger the warrior. He glanced down helplessly at the dying woman's wound and shook his head sadly, motioning some other Unggoy to come assist him. This would be difficult work.