"Yeah... Wish, uh..." Logan cleared his throat and swallowed, staring straight up. "Wish she were here... ya know?"

Logan's mind was clearly on their fellow Spartan Krystal again. It happened pretty much every time he wasn't in combat, fighting was the only ting that occupied him enough to keep his mind off his beloved's death. A tear rolled slowly down from both eyes down the sides of his face.

Austin sighed.

"C'mon Logan, she's probably watching you from up there-" He pointed upwards, despite the fact they were in space and gravity was artificial. "-right now, you don't want her to see you cry."

He stared at the wall. Before mumbling a last sentence.

"You'll see her again one day, along with Sam and the others."

Logan looked over at him.

"You know I hate it when you preach at me."

When Austin looked back down at Logan, Logan smiled.

"What about you? I know you miss Kelly."

Jason had followed Austin into Logan's room and waited while Austin and Logan spoke, before speaking himself, "Hello Logan...how have you been?"

Logan looked at him.

"Jason! Hey, h-" He broke off coughing, he had spoken too forcefully. When he calmed down, he tried again. "I, uh, I got hit by a gravity hammer. How bout you?"

"I've been assigned to your squad." Jason told Logan, still holding his helmet under his right arm.
He sat down on a chair next to Logan's bed and chuckled, "So...you not fast enough to dodge a gravity hammer anymore?"

"Well, I, uh... well, you know me, mister big strong tough guy. I mighta, kinda... tried to fight him hand to hand."

"haha... just as i remembered you..."Jason laughed.

"Yeah. I kicked him in the stomach, he hit me in the side with his gravity hammer. You know. That same old story."

Logan was of course joking, but after he said it, he got a perspective for just how ironic it was. Only a precious few cases existed of anything ever surviving a direct bodily hit from one of those things.

"So... you going to be up for the next mission?" Jason asked, still not knowing when the next mission was.

"Don't know. Don't even know what or when it'll be. Lord Hood has us on call, waiting while John destroys the Covenant anti-air. He's gonna launch an assault on Truth's ship."

"Ah... finally a mission... So have you seen John recentley, and been on any interesting missions lately?" Jason asked.

"Well, no. I haven't seen John since Reach. But I did blow up a Covenant shipyard with a nuke. Destroyed over a hundred battleships."

"Hahaha...I'm sorry my friend, but that is just like you, to take on a mission to big for yourself and not getting injured. But taking on a real small operation and getting new organs the next day..." Jason joked.

"heh heh, yeah, guess you're right. I blew a crater the size of Alaska on that planet and didn't get hurt. But defending some pissant politicians? Can't do it without almost dying."

Logara wedged himself through the infirmary door sideways, then walked over to the Spartans. I'll stay out here, Kopaka sent. It was unsettling to see Austin and Jason without helmets, and Logan on the girney. Strange to see them without full armor. They're only large humans without it.

"It seems you've survived, Logan. Does it satisfy you to take more damage in battle than me?"

Jak stood from the table. He had given it some thought and decided against seeing Logan. He didn't like getting attached to his superiors, it would make it all the harder when they actually died. Making his way back to his room he pulled out an old holo-disk. He pressed the button and a hologram of his family popped up. He missed his wife and daughter and thanked whatever holy deity watched over him for keeping him alive.

Logan coughed a bit before responding, a smile on his face.

"Of course."

Logara made a short buzz, which could be interpreted as a scoff. Or chuckle. "It will take more than a chieftain with a hammer to finish you. Whatever is strong enough to kill you will take the rest of us too. We should leave you here."

Doctor Halsey stepped in.

"The lekgolo is right. Logan, you've been talking too much, it's making you cough. You need rest."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." He looked to his visitors in turn, Austin last. "Look, man, thanks for, uh... thanks." Too embarrassed to thank Austin for helping him through his sadness over Krystal, he left it at that, with a meaningful look at his friend. "Nice to see ya again, Jason."

Austin nodded at Logan.

"No problem, just get some rest, alright?"

He smiled, and started to walk out the door.

yusnak walked passed the infirmary, noting the lekgolo outside
"has the demon survived?"

maskerade32:

incidently

Kopaka looked down to Yusnak. "It seems so. He will need more time to recover before he can be of any use."

Austin exited the room, followed by Logara. The lekgolo turned sideways again to get through the door, but still left a blue scrape on either side.

Jeff watched as everyone left the hanger to do their own thing and sighed before leaving himself. "It sure is hard to make friends around here." He chuckled as he muttered to himself.

Not knowing what else to do Jeff decided to go to the ship's gym while he waited for Logan to get better, and for another mission. Physical activity helped distract his mind, and gave him something to do and pass the time. He nodded to some fellow ODSTs and made his way into the changing room.

After about an hour and a half, which consisted of some typical work outs and a nice sparing match with a fellow Helljumper, Jeff decided that it was about time he left. He changed back into his armour, and headed off towards his room. He dropped off his weapons, except his sidearm, and his helmet and then headed off to see if he could find out what was happening with the rest of the team. Maybe he would check up on Logan to see if he had recovered yet. Jeff couldn't couldn't even conceive of what it would feel like to be hit by one of those hammers, he knew he would have been squished like a bug. Those Spartans sure were tough.

A lieutenent in a grey uniform, a pretty young brunette woman whose name tag said "Cindy", approached Austin with a digital pad.

"Message from Lord Hood, Sir."

"Thank you, Lieutenent."

Austin looked down and hit a key on the pad, bringing up the message.

The attack run had no effect. Truth has activated some sort of portal. The Ark wasn't here, this thing leads to it. But now, a derelict Covenant ship infested with Flood has crash landed here. Master Chief is going in to retrieve Cortana; the Elites picked up her signal from the ship. The Elite Fleet Master, Commander Keyes and I are trying to come up with a plan. Your orders are to board a ship and make best speed here. You're going to have to leave Logan behind. Sorry your "leave" has to be so short. - Hood

Austin sighed, and nodded at "Cindy".

"Very well. Dismissed."

He turned to look at the others.

"Alright! Listen up!"

He waited for the talking to die down before continueing.

"As Logan is incapable, I'll be your new commanding officer in the field. As such, I should give you our next assignment. The battle on Earth is going sour. Truth activated a portal to the Ark and a flood infested ship apparently containing the AI Cortana has crash landed. The Master Chief is going in to retrieve Cortana, and her vital Forerunner information, from the ship. Meanwhile, Lord Hood wants us to make our way to him while he discusses a plan with Commander Keyes and a Sangheli Fleet Master."

He stopped, sucking in a breath.

"Alright, any questions?"

"Where is this meeting going to be?" Logara asked. "I understood that this is Lord Hood's station."

"Lord Hood is on a Sangheili ship roughly on the side of Earth opposite this station."

Austin looked around.

"Anymore questions?"

Jak shook his head. "Let's just get on with it." he said aloud _{"The sooner I can get home to my family the better."}

"agreed, lets get going, no reason to stand around" yusnak said before walking to get his gear