Vindicates Chapter 5

Chapter 5 of Vindicates.

## Story

**Location: Centre of Unknown Facility**
- 2183, Aug 7

When the last doors opened all hell broke lose. The creatures were numerous, and swarmed without prejudice; anyone was an enemy, anything was their prey.

Samus and Rhodey, being the fastest, most agile, and heaviest hitters of the group charged forth. Rhodey leapt into the air with her thrusters, whilst Samus morphed into a ball. This was the first time the Vindicates had seen her do it, and both were insanely fast. Samus had singled out the leader of the Androids, figuring that if she could take her out, the rest would be less coordinated.

Rhodey, however, was absolutely fascinated by the Yautja which had been following them. She knew the creature was stalking them, she had even picked it up on her scanners before it moved out of view. Now it was brandishing a weapon Rhodey had never seen before, and she was familiar with nearly every weapon in the galaxy, her company manufactured a good portion of them. More so, the alien had just displayed an ability which puzzled her, it seemed almost like telekinesis. Such an ability was known to exist in rare occurrences on Earth, but most cases now were in biotics, yet there was no indication of Dark Matter being used by the alien whose species weren't known to utilise it. It could of been technological, because the Yautja are known for impressive feats in that regard, but this was still the first she'd heard of it. And a first for Rhodey is a first for anyone, most of the time.

She closed in on its location, more so to get a better look at its blade than anything; she could care less if it slaughtered these androids or the creatures coming from the tunnels, but it targeted her with its shoulder mounted cannon. She evaded and fired back with her repulsor cannon. The beam was deflected by the sword; "absolutely amazing",  she thought.

The Yautja wields the sword with training and style not recorded by encounters with Yautja. Perhaps he is from an unknown tribe? Suddenly, she felt a grip around her throat, a grip that wasn't there...

On the other side of the battlefield, the UNSC forces took cover as the Androids fired upon them; it was an idiotic and reckless move, Commander Rupert thought. The Xenos were moving in on them and now their forces were split on two fronts, simply an appalling tactical error on their part. The Commander would of gladly put aside his pride to fight the greater threat, but apparently these machines weren't capable of that. He ordered his men to stay down and not to fire directly on the droids if they don't advance on their position, he knew that there were too many Xenos in this facility for them to fight alone, and leaving as many Androids between his men and them would be the best course of action. Whilst his men covered, he put out a call to the Federation troops and the rogues to approach his squad for sanctuary, promising them temporary safety.

**Location: Containment Laboratory of Unknown Facility**
- 2183, Aug 7

Spartan Ben-174, Sam Gideon, and Nomad were running at high speeds through the entrance of the facility, as Cerberus dropships rained down upon them. Shock troops were deployed almost the instant their feet touched the inside of the base. They ran under fire, occasionally firing back upon their enemies but were stopped by the sound of screams and gunfire ahead, and then suddenly they were there; the labs. In far distance of the room below them were the Shepard twins, with an unknown companion.

"Shepards!" shouted Ben, the Spartan sounding eerily stern with his raspy voice. Jane, the biotic and harder fighter of the two and the unknown companion were already looking at there direction as they came into view. The sound of more gunfire divreted their attention from the battle ahead whilst John kept his attention on the battle out there. Jane raised her weapon at them before speaking, as a warning, but before she could get a word out-

"It's Cerberus." stated the Spartan, almost coldly, pure business. Jane nodded, a mutual enemy meant no discussion about loyalty was needed. Ben ushered his squad safely to the Shepards' position as she provided cover fire for them, Cerberus was indeed hot on their tail, the unknown companion provided accurate cover as well utilising an M-3 Predator pistol, since the plasma cutter he wielded was utterly useless in this scenario. He nonetheless handled the pistol as acutely as a special forced operative. Ben and his squad soon found themselves following John Shepard's lead as he relayed orders to move out of the position they were caught being sandwiched in.

**Location: Centre of Unknown Facility**
- 2183, Aug 7

Rhodey was in trouble, suspended no longer by her own suit's propulsion, but some force of unknown measure. She fought hard against it, but was only met by greater pressure, so she struggled the words, "Jarvis, run scans... give me... a solution to this..." the Yautja tilted its head, seemingly fascinated with Rhodey as it held her suspended, and without breaking concentration, managed to turn and decapitate one of the creatures coming up behind it from the doorway.

"I cannot detect any cause for the pressure on your throat and body, but it is not an illusion; you are indeed  being choked to death ma'am." - said Jarvis, matter of factly in his trademark British voice.

"Thnnnnks"  responded Rhodey sarcastically, still struggling to speak.

"But I have alerted your comrades of your condition -"

**Location: Centre of Unknown Facility**
- 2183, Aug 7

Samus had unfolded from her morph ball state to deliver a flying kick to the head Android. She was hunched over the fallen boss who laid at the base of the computer terminal, evading and striking power beams back at the female Android's two guards, when a familiar but surprising voice entered her personal space, the experience was unnerving;

"Sorry to disturb you Miss Aran, but Rhodey is in dire need of assistance"

It was Jarvis, the damn machine was inside her helmet "We're only a minute into the damn battle-" she said as she peeked over to check on her squad-mate, who she knew was more than capable of defending herself, but then she noticed something, the way she was held in the air, there was no propulsion from her suit, and the Predator's hand was raised, like sorcery-

"That may be so ma'am, but the source of her peril is a mystery, be careful." - said Jarvis

Samus scanned the Yautja with her visor and came up with nothing except an unknown energy signature invisible to the naked eye, or any other wavelength on the spectrum. The energy field seemed to be coming from the Yautja, but it also flowed around it, and that energy, whatever it was, was suffocating Rhodey, so Samus took aim with her arm cannon at the Yautja and dispelled death at it. It immediately turned to face the barrage of power beam shots, which were deflected either by the unknown force as the shots mysteriously and erratically changed course, or were deflected by the plasma sword it carried, but the main objective was achieved. Whatever spell it held over Rhodey was broken, as she had fallen from its grip and landed on the floor. She immediately gave the order to her squad for a full retreat, taking Commander Rupert's offer. As she flew away from the Yautja, its attention was caught by the swarm of leathery black serpent-like monsters. She ordered Samus to leave him and focus on them, they were quickly overrunning everything and soon there'd be no Androids or Yautja to fight - at least so she thought.

As her squad and the Federation troopers made their way to the Commander, Rhodey noticed the ONI Infiltration team was with the Shepards, just as John was reporting there presence over the private comms. She welcomed them over the Xenomorphs. As they retreated, they killed anything and everything that threatened them on the way to the Commander's position, and Samus showed off an impressive display of strength as some Xenos closed in on her. She grabbed the tail of one as it tried to stab her, and used its body as a weapon against another one of it's kind, like some kind of, super-smash powered brawler. In the background, Jane Shepard flung Xenomorphs with her biotics to keep them at a distance, relying on her hand held weapons as a secondary. The teams all held out as long as they could at the entry to the east wing of the facility, but the Xenos were swarming out en masse from all kinds of crevices. The Androids started taking aim at all of them but were thinning fast, Cerberus was sticking their guns out at everything, and that Yautja with the weird telekinetic powers were all cause for concern among the less powerful fighters of this fragile alliance.

Commander Rupert began ushering his squad into the corridors behind them, Rhodey and Adam did the same, leaving those same Commanders the last ones to leave the battlefield, covering their allies' retreat.

"We have automated sentry turrets to cover us once we're in the safe zone, the entire area is barricaded off to prevent them from getting in, even the vents are sealed.," Commander Rupert stated, trying to ease his new allies' minds as they ran for their lives down the corridor behind their squads, the turrets were in view.

"Once we're in the clear of danger, we're going to have a very serious talk about this facility, Commander."

"I don't answer to the Galactic Federation. What the hell is a General doing on a field mission anyway? Bloody ridiculous." responded Rupert, his British accent more defined now that he was under less pressure.

Rhodey laughed "What's the UNSC doing working with Weyland? And don't you dare say it's 'classified'."

Rupert paused for a moment before answering "That information is designated as officially secret and accessible only to authorized personnel." the demeanour in his retort was still serious, despite the joke.

"Did you seriously just give me the dictionary definition of classified as an answer?"

"You said not to say it."

"Smartass."

The teams had made it the entry at the far end of the corridor, and as the commanders ran past the two sentry turrets, they opened a barrage of fire on the Xenomorphs chasing them, about two dozen or so, many were still being shot at and thrown around by the Yautja, remaining Androids and the newly arrived Cerberus soldiers.

When the team came through the entry, many were surprised to meet more surviving UNSC personnel and equipment in a decent sized room, almost like a miniature base inside the facility. A few more Marines and Naval Guards were stationed here, supervised by even less N7 operatives and ODSTs, making sure the sentries were loaded with ammunition and ready to place more down if need be. Some were barricaded up in the large vents, seemingly making sure that none of the monsters somehow managed to break through. Commander Rupert explained that explosives had collapsed the vents and that this part of the base was thankfully supported by its own life support unit, but because the creatures still tried to melt their way in through the vents an occasional grenade or ricochet of bullets were needed to dissuade them. The Commander lead them all to an elevator in the middle of the room, which apparently rose up to the command centre. Rhodey noted that Samus hadn't said a word amongst her new company, but she was caught staring at both General Malkovich and the Spartan, both of which stared back, but no words.

**Location: West Wing Control Tower of Unknown Facility**
- 2183, Aug 7

When the team exited the elevator they were greeted by a comforting scene of efficiency and order. Commander Rupert had somehow managed to build and maintain a working operation, or resistance, if you wanted to call it that, under all the stress of the situation. It was a little bit impressive Rhodey thought, and judging by both expressions and body language she assumed that the Spartan and the Federation General were having similar thoughts.

Before them was a working hologram table, crates of medical supplies, food and ammunition, weapon stockpiles, and a nice view of the space around them, it appeared that on the holo-table they also had actual realtime intelligence on the facility with screens showing that there were still some working cameras.

"That explains how Rupert knew when to come out and extract our teams", Rhodey thought.

Rupert spoke first "When my N7 team infiltrated alongside the ODSTs and the Pilots, all that remained of the stations original guards and the Marine Platoon of fifty that was sent in before us were held out here and running out of both men and munitions. There were 8 guards and 12 marines holding down the fort, and I had to take over command from the Warrant Officer Station Guard who was the at the time the highest ranking one left. Our spec ops teams were much smaller in numbers though, standard eight man squads for the N7s and the Helljumpers, the Pilots though were only composed of a squad of four, their enhancements make them expensive and tactically worth fifty men each according to ONI. Spartans are worth a thousand in their eyes apparently," He glanced at the white and blue clad knight "though I've never seen one in battle directly until today. What was your name again?"

"Lieutenant Ben-174, sir"

"Wow, a Spartan with an officer rank, I'm told that's rare. Well, I hope they're right about your lot, though from what I've seen out there in all of that chaos, I'm a little bit convinced already. Either way I'm glad you're here. Along with all of the other enhance-ees. And whatever the Federation did to her." He pointed to Samus "Must of bee-" he was cut off by the General. "Samus was never enhanced by the Federation, per se, she was enhanced by the Chozo."
"Weren't the Chozo the ones who built the Federation? Semantics, whatever it is, I've never seen someone throw an alien, any alien, into another alien before. It was beautiful. And Ben took down over a dozen before we retreated by my count."
"Fifteen." Ben said. "Well it was all damn impressive, I wonder if ONI would ever consider giving me an upgrade. Anyway, there's only two Pilots left, three ODSTs and four N7s, which makes our total numbered strength twenty nine."

Rhodey chimed in, her voice still concealed by a randomizer "For your critism of the Federation deploying a General into battle, what's your reason for leading a single squad? Aren't Commanders above that kind of field work?"

"Well, I was in charge of all the squads, the ODSTs and the Pilots, it was a joint operation, it doesn't happen often, so it was special circumstance putting a Commander in charge of such a small group.  Besides, you could ask them the same question." As he pointed to both Commander Shepards. John retorted "I could stay comfy up in my command centre, coordinating the battle from my lounge chair, but I wouldn't send my men on any mission I wasn't willing to put my own life at risk for."

Jane smiled "That, and it's way more fun to be down there with the common rabble."

Rupert laughed as the teams approached the holo-table "And I have the same reasons; when this situation was escalated to spec ops, ONI assigned me to coordinate it, and I couldn't send my own men in blind without coming in myself, so I did... now we need to plan out what we're going to do next." Rupert looked to his men and said "Dismissed.", but one ODST wasn't ready to leave.

"Lieutenant?" Rupert asked, genuinely puzzled. "As second in Command here, I don't want to miss this briefing." "Fair enough, I figured you'd be due for some sleep, you just came off of watch duty." The Lieutenant sounded almost offended. "Helljumpers don't sleep, sir." Rupert laughed "They do when I order them to, but you 're right, you should be here for this." He turned his attention to the others "All of your men are welcomed to what we have, please see the mess officer for food provisions if you're running low, and help yourself to what weapons and ammunition we've salvaged, if you need it."

General Malkovich dismissed his team but asked his point man to stay with him as well. After he lifted his visor Samus stared intently, the darker skinned man stared back and said "Remember me, princess?" She didn't say a word, just stared with her expression hidden behind her unrevealing visor.

Rhodey turned to her team eager to break the tension "Well... who wants to stay for the briefing?" Jane leaned over to John. "You can have this one, brother, we both know I'm not good with diplomacy." "Everyone knows that, you punched a reporter." Then both of the Commanders spotted something

"Is that... Gianna Parasini?" wondered John out loud. Jane patted him on the shoulder before walking off. "I'm gonna go have a chat with her."

Samus just walked off on her own, without a word to anyone, but Isaac called out to her "Hang on! Wait for me!"

General Malkovich asked as both he and his man positioned themselves around the table. "How did you manage to maintain such an efficient operation under all of this... chaos?"

Rupert sigh "It wasn't easy, place was a bloody mess when I got here... I should let you know I'm not at liberty to discuss what we were doing here with the Federation"

"Escape was not our objective." Said the General, sternly "We came to find out why the UNSC and Weyland-Yutani were working together, what you were working on, and why it involved Metroids."

"Extraction of your team wasn't our objective either," said Ben, his voice still stern but with a hint of uncertainty "We came here for intelligence and demolition, so that no one else could recover what was happening. I'm not saying that I don't intend to help pull your team out, but Command doubted that there'd be survivors and told us that if we found any they were a third priority." "Well that's just lovely." replied Rupert, obviously feeling a bit let down.

The Federation General walked over to the Spartan, sizing him up, Adam was a full foot shorter. "Well, it looks like we might have a problem, it seems our mission parameters are at a conflict with each other."

"I wouldn't stand that close to a Spartan." said Rhodey, concerned, more so for the shaky alliance than the General.

The General turned to her "And what exactly are you here for? Why are you wearing that ancient tech, and who are you?"

"My identity is concealed on purpose, and the suit is quite updated."

Ben chimed in, speaking to Rhodey "Acting independently on high risk missions on government or corporately funded property, and this is both, goes directly against the Super-Human Registration Act. If you don't reveal your identity that'll be another offence against the accords."

"The accords aren't my concern right now, getting out of here is."

Rupert leaned over the table and shook his head "Finally, someone with some sense, but they're not going to cooperate until they get what they want... uhh what should I call you?"

"You can call me the 'Vindicator'."

Rupert chuckled a little "Now I'm running the show for vigilantes as well... the days just keep getting better."

Malkovich raised his voice in a calmly fashion "Can we get back on topic?"

"You're the one who asked who I was, General," Rhodey snickered

"Look, I wasn't a part of what happened here," Rupert continued "I was just sent in to clean it up, and it sounds like Command gave up on us, but honestly, I don't blame them to some extent. There were over four hundred personnel in this facility before the infestation broke out, then fifty Marines were sent in... then us. They tried their best, we tried our best, and we all failed."

"Actually..." Rhodey interrupted, she seemed to pause for a moment, considering what she was about to say, then she sighed.

"None of you are going to like this, but it needs to be said. This whole thing was a trap. A setup. Weyland are developing biological weapons to use against humanity's enemies, the UNSC is testing them on you all. My AI-"

"AI!?" Ben shouted as he pulled his AR on the Vindicator.

When Jane approached Gianna Parasini, she was seemingly attending to the supplies, creating or perhaps checking an inventory of what they had. She put down her list as she saw the Spectre approach "Commander!"
"Miss Parasini... what are you doing here?"

"I'm here working for Weyland, as assistant general manager of the facility... well, senior manager now that he's dead."

"Hmm, 'working for' huh?"

Gianna spoke with a hushed tone "Shh, keep it down, obviously I'm investigating them for... well, dozens of charges actually."

"Not surprising, they're as bad as Exo-Geni."

"Worse, actually, you have no idea."

"I have some of an idea."

"Oh yeah, right... well, don't blow my cover, or I'll probably wind up dead."

Isaac had to jog to catch and keep up with Samus's long strides.
"Where are you going!?"

She didn't answer.

"Hey, c'mon Samus I'm still only human, remember?"

She stopped at the window and turned to him for a moment.

"Why are you following me?"

"I just wanted to talk. those Federation troopers seemed to have bothered you a bit. Don't like the nickname?"

Samus turned back away to the window, hiding her emotions behind her visor and armour "His name is Anthony, I don't mind that he calls me Princess, it's just..."

"Just what?"

Samus sighed "It's been so long since I've seen them, and I don't know who I can trust since the Federation betrayed me."

"Huh, tell me about it. You're not the only one with trust issues, my girlfriend turned out to be... ah actually, I'm not going to talk about that, but I hate the situation we're stuck in here."

"I don't want to talk about anything right now, Isaac."

"That's fine, we can just... enjoy the view then."

"What are you doing with an AI?! Whoever you are, you're crossing so many damn lines!" Rhodey calmly walked over to the Spartan, she knew she had plenty of time before his AR could breach her shields and barriers if he tried to shoot her, so there was no need for concern...yet. "What's this about, Ben?" "Ultron, the Omnic Crisis, Mother Brain, the Geth! AI are dangerous, and are outlawed by practically all regions of space, and you've brought one here aboard this station endangering all of us!" "Oh, but the government can use AIs whenever they please." "There's regulations and protocols in place to stop those from going rogue." "Yeah, well, the AI that was running this facility certainly wasn't doing you any favours."

The rest of the Vindicate team started assembling on the Holo-table with weapons drawn, Ben's team also became hostile, and Rupert's men didn't know who to take aim at, whilst the Federation troopers moved their fingers to the triggers of there rifles, without aiming them at anyone, simply ready for a riot to break out as well.

"My AI is not a threat, I can assure you. He's done more for you than you know." said Rhodey, trying to diffuse the situation. She also knew she couldn't reveal that technically she had a permit for it, as that would indicate she owned a corporation and might give away her identity.

"Explain."

"Can't. Sorry." She knew mentioning the AI was a mistake, but if she could just get out what she wanted to say... "You don't have to trust me or my AI, Ben, but you can trust the data. Team, you should come see this, everyone should: play the tapes we found."

Across the holo-table appeared figures in white labcoats, Weyland-Yutani insignia emblazoned, standing over an Elite, as the hologram materialised the table became crowded. The Elite on the tape was the same one Rhodey had killed earlier strapped to the table. The taller of the two humans began the conversation.

"Gestation should work within the Sangheili specimen much the same as any other, theoretically. There's no reason as to why it shouldn't."

"We have our orders; we need to know for sure that it works, there's no room here for untested theories."

"It's a hypothesis, not a theory, there's nothing significantly different in the Sangheili's biology to the other specimens, they're not special, they'll-"

"ONI doesn't want room for error here, I'll remind you again of who supplied-!"

"I know ONI gave us the specimen, I know what our orders are, I simply don't see the need to butcher a subject without cause-!"

"Without cause!!!? My god man, look around you! What progress have we made with coming up for a solution to this war or the approaching doom!? The Metroids aren't feasible; the Chozo's science is simply way beyond our understanding, like the Protheans or the Forerunners. Reaper Indoctrination shows some results, but we both know Cerberus will have it cracked before we do if it doesn't take control of them first. The Necromorph's can't be animated without the presence of a Marker, and the implications of that are even more dangerous than toying with indoctrination! We've both seen the reports of what happened on the USG Ishimura, live subjects are simply too dangerous to study, but the Xenomorphs... they might not be controllable either, but they can be used, deployed, weaponised... wielded. We've theorised that was their created purpose, by the Engineers, a biological weapon to destroy worlds. ONI wants to use these things as a last resort on the Covenant homeworlds, it's going to be our era's equivalent to the atomic bomb, and just like America did in the second World War, we're going to use it first and win with it. Deploying these eggs on Sanghelios and perhaps a few other colonies will force the Covenant to turn their attention to their own worlds, it'll buy us the time we need to unlock new technology or secure enough allies to help us win this-"

"I know already goddammit, I'm simply saying that the simulations-"

"The simulations can't predict what creature this'll give birth too, field testing the viability isn't the only thing ONI wants out of this facility. I wasn't supposed to tell you, but... they also want to see the results, to test creatures in combat against our own forces. They need data, threat assessments. We can see what the Xenomorphs do to our kind, how they dominate us in every sense in the art of war and death, but can we determine the same for the Sangheili? Will Elite-born Xenos be bigger and stronger than-"

"What!? Is this insanity!? We know that they assimilate the traits of their hosts, a Sangheili Xenomorph would definitely be taller, stronger, more cunning than a human, or a canine Xen-"

"No! We need to know for sure what it'll produce, and how much force it'll take to stop it. We need to test, within a controlled environment what we'll be unleashing upon the universe. Can you answer me this: will a Sangheili bred Xenomorph kill a soldier, or the best of our soldiers? The answer is mostly probably yes, but what about combat androids, or super-soldiers like Pilots or Spartans? And how will our various technologies, our weapons and exo-suits hold up against all the variants of these creatures? Furthermore, we need to test Krogan, Brutes, Yautja if we could ever get a hold of one, and what about Vorcha, Turians, Urtraghan Space Pirates?"

"This is... madness..."

"Don't worry, we'll be gone from this facility before the experiment goes underway. Weyland wouldn't sacrifice us for this data, that's why I'm telling you. He's moved certain personnel to this facility he wants to disappear, like that Internal Affairs investigator from Noveria - but this is what ONI wants, and Mr Weyland is willing to go along with it-"

Rhodey paused the animation and checked everyone's face or body language, they were all as shocked or confused as she'd hoped they be. "I think everyone get's the picture by now, the data my AI pulled from this facility's security channels revealed that this place is being monitored from an outside source, up until five minutes ago everything was transmitting, encrypted and piggy-backing on the distress signal, which was being sent out on purpose, along with false intelligence to lure enemies of the UEGA here. I think ONI is probably trying to assassinate you, General." she indicated towards Malkovich's direction, who had a stone cold stare at the paused animation. "And Cerberus, well, I wasn't convinced that they were totally separated from the government, being an ex-black-ops group, but... maybe I was wrong, or more likely there's some in-fighting going on that I don't know about. Either way this whole thing was one big elaborate scam, and if ONI ever finds out any of us know about it, they'll wetwork you."

"Wetwork?" inquired Isaac.

"Wetworks is what the intelligence community dubs as assassination, the wet means blood."

"Damn spooks..." said the ODST Lieutenant.

"Yeah, damn spooks screwed us all over, so as far as I'm concerned we're all in this together."

She looked at the Spartan, Ben, for a sign of what he was thinking, but he didn't reveal anything through body language or his tone of speech.

"We need a plan of escape, we can sort out this footage-"

He was cut off by Gianna Parasini "Hold it! Excuse me, umm, Vindicator was it?"

"Yeah go with that for now" Rhodey responded, still not too fond of the name, but it represented something for her, at least.

"Can I have a copy of that footage? If I make it out of here alive, it's just what I need."

"If you use it, they'll come after you."

"I can handle Weyland."

"With all due respect, if you could handle Weyland you wouldn't be in this situation. I'll give it to you, but you'll need my help to stay out of their reach when this is done."

Rupert hung his head and slowly shook it "I don't even know how, or what..."

"I'll tell you all exactly what we're going to do," Rhodey was taking control of the situation, she could see that her evidence, though it served it's purpose to rally everyone to same side, came with a cost; morale. She now needed to give them hope.

"We're going to show ONI and Weyland what we're made of by helping Ben and his team complete their mission, because that distress beacon still needs to be shut down to prevent anyone else from finding this place, and if we don't destroy the base when we leave, we risk the infestation getting out. I have no doubt that they intended for everyone here to tear each other apart, there's no way these objectives would have been completed with us all against each other, but working together, we'll have everything we need to-"

The General spoke up "Not everyone, I need that data as well."

Ben, finally showing some emotion, was of concern "That could create a war between the Federation and the UEGA."

"Well it's certainly not going to make tensions any better, and if they did intend to lure me and my team here... yes, it could provoke a response of some kind, not whilst you're fighting the Covenant, but a response would be issued."

"Which only ever escalates things," said Rhodey, leaning harder against the table, staring downwards for a moment before bringing her attention back up "I'm no friend of the UEGA, but I can't condone or contribute to the possibility of further war at these times of instability for humanity, but if you talk with Samus about what the Federation did to her, I'll consider it."

The General sighed in resignation. "Whoever you are, if Samus is working with you, then she must be in good hands. I'll talk with her in private, maybe we can work out a deal that satisfies us both, maybe I'll leave out the assassination scenario?"

"Sort it out with Samus, General. For now we need to get organised. Ben, what was your original plan?"

"I was going to come here on my own, to the east wing for survivors, Sam was going to go to the south wing to turn off the signal, and Nomad was going to go to the West wing to investigate the source of contamination, we had no idea what it was though, still don't."

Rupert chimmed in "That's where there nest is, the west wing... and their Queen."

"Queen?" inquired Ben, obviously curious.

Rupert began accessing an audio file, once he found it he made sure everyone who was new here paid attention to the information about to be played, and stated that it might save their life. It sounded like research notes recorded by one of Weyland's scientists:

"The Xenomorph XX121, better known just as Xenomorph, latin name Internecivus raptus, are an extraterrestrial, endoparasitoid species with multiple life cycles, whose planet of origin is unknown. One of the deadliest of all known non-sapient alien species, these creatures need a host organism in order to reproduce. The appearance of the Xenomorph varies depending on its host. The human phenotype is generally around 7–8 feet, and roughly 136.0 to 181.4 kilograms in weight, with a long, muscular tail and large, curved, oblong head. The Queen of this species is generally twice as large, and possesses superior speed, strength and intelligence. One of the strangest things about the creature is the inner jaw, which is used as a weapon to puncture wounds in its prey. The Xenomorph physical form varies wildly depending on its life stage, hive caste, age, and host, with numerous genetic varieties existing whose origins are completely unknown, as well as varieties which have been genetically engineered by host species or genetically grown. The typical Xenomorph starts life as an egg-like creature which, when detecting the presence of a potential host, opens up to release the second stage: a small quasi-arachnoid life form which launches itself onto the host's face and impregnates it with an endoparasitoid larva, which later consumes the host from within and exits the body as a vaguely worm-like organism, which then grows very quickly, developing into the adult Xenomorph."

Rhodey chimmed in again "It sounds like Nomad would've had the hardest time."

Nomad laughed "I can handle myself, this suit has active camouflage."

"Wouldn't have worked," said Rupert. "The damn things can see through that somehow. They've torn apart several androids and our personnel who wanted to venture out with the equipment."

Rhodey was keen to see this through, no matter how dangerous these things seemed "Where they've made there nest is where the reactor is, they're probably attracted to the heat; we're still going to need to infiltrate the west wing to set the reactor to blow. Ben, if you go with Nomad to the reactor, I'll send my engineer Isaac with you. He's capable of doing the demolition work if you guys escort him there, plus he has experience with this sort of thing."

Isaac laughed "Well, thanks for volunteering me for the most dangerous part of the mission, boss!"

"It'll be easy if you don't wake up the nest. I want to send Samus and myself to the south wing with Sam because the data my AI has compiled suggests that's where the Yautja is hiding. All digital equipment is detecting lots of active camouflage in that area, I want two of the three big guns to be there to take it down if needed."

"Who's the third big gun?" said Isaac.

"The Spartan?" replied Rhodey, confused.

"Oh nothing, was just wondering..."

"What about us?" queried Jane Shepard, the Spectre was itching for some more action.

"I need you two to stay with the survivors, and lead them to us in the middle, near where we held off the Xenos last time, at the entrance to the north wing." Rhodey pointed at the map "When we've completed our objectives we'll rondezvous with all of you here and make our way back where we came for extraction once our objectives are completed."

"One problem." said Rupert "That Cerberus cruiser isn't going to let us just leave."

Malkovich walked over to Rhodey and held out a data disc "I fully expect to be compensated for cooperating on this joint operation, but the data on this disc, if you beam it out before shutting down communications will summon a Federation cruiser to extract me and my team, they'll make short work of Cerberus for you too."

"Thank you, General, and you should definitely speak to Samus about what happened to her back on Earth."

He whispered softly into a private comm channel so no one would hear "I will, Stark. I will."