Quinn struggled to open his eyes. Red lights were flashing everywhere. It took him a moment to remember what had happened and where he was now. The Covenant. Broadside battle.
"Slip Space rupture detected," Siria, the ship's AI announced. A bright flash emitted from somewhere beyond the Covie's ship. A huge, distorted hunk of metal that could barely be recognised as an old Weyland Industries ship hurtled out of the slip space portal and rammed straight through the Covenant Super Carrier. On its way past, it clipped the UNSC ship too. All three damaged vessels were sent crashing down on the nearest planet - an uninhabited world on the edge of the galaxy, far away from any known civilisation.
Hours later, Quinn struggled to open his eyes. His breath was starting to fog up the glass that dominated the front of his cryo-tube. Quinn had been unfrozen at the beginning of the battle, but had been knocked unconscious by a sudden lurch of the ship. Quinn raised his arm and gripped the manual release lever. With a hiss, the locks disengaged and he was free to kick it open. He glanced out the window to see the barren wasteland and huge craters the ships had created upon landing. Quinn headed for the closest armoury. He grabbed the standard marine armour, an Assault Rifle and a SOCOM. He had a katana stashed away in his locker, but he would get that later if he needed it.
Quinn decided he should head for the bridge to search for Captain Yurts, Siria and the command staff. As Quinn progressed deeper into the ship, he noticed many strange things. At one point, he stopped to inspect an odd greenish slime that was clinging to some of the piping. At another, he heard a soft clanging emitting from somewhere along the stretches of maintenance shafts. There were many spots where shots had been fired, made obvious by the bullet holes in the walls, roof and floor. In many of those places he also found weird patches that had been melted away by some force unknown to him. There were many scratch marks too, belonging to neither the humans nor any Covies he knew of. Each discovery greatened the feeling of unease that was forming inside of him. He sighed in relief as he opened the door to the bridge compartment and found himself staring at the backs of the command staff sitting in their seats. They must have been knocked out by the impact too. John realised. He approached the nearest one and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Hey," he said. "Wake up." Quinn frowned. "Hey," he tried again, shaking the girl by the shoulder. Quinn narrowed his eyes and spun the chair around, then forced himself not to throw up. The young pilot had had her chest ripped open in a most brutal way. Blood coated her uniform and, now that Quinn was looking for it, the floor too. Those Covenant Bastards have taken it too far. This is disgusting, even for them. He fumed. He quickly checked the others to find that they had been disposed of in a similar matter. What was interesting, though, was that one of the crew had a look of terror on his face, which was aimed at his chest. He had woken up. He had some kind of murky green transparent crystal that bound both of his hands to the arm rest. Suddenly, a thought struck Quinn. People can't shift their gaze when they're dead. This guy's looking right at his chest wound... he must have looked there before he died so... he was killed from the inside out? No. That didn't make any sense. Nothing short of shoving a grenade down his throat could deal this kind of damage, and if that was so, why were there no severe burn marks or disembowelments? And for that matter, why were there no signs of choking? The only mark on his throat was a small rash that would suggest something had been rubbing his skin there. He was strangled to death the blown up from the inside out? Quinn glanced around hopelessly for more clues. He sighed and came to the conclusion that the only thing to do was find some more UNSC forces to link up with. Safety in numbers and all that. Quinn jumped as he heard a rattling from behind him. He whirled around.
And behold, before him was...
The monster.