[b]DESTINY ASCENDANT
Main Hangar[/b]

Kindal glanced over to the kyrians, his hands still clutched around the his staff. To his surprise Arelya wasn't so quick to jump to conclusions in light of recent events. The kyrians actually spoke of a peaceful resolution despite their naivety. A plan started to form in the Overseer's head as he turned towards Arelya to speak up. "If your intentions are clean, then you shall not feel threatened by our presence." Kindal retracted the staff back into a small metal tube, but his droids kept their aim on the enemy marines. 

"Captain Muriel, I wouldn't waste your primitive weaponary on the surface." Kindal turned away the kyrians and turned to face the captain. "You may not yet understand what lies below the planet's surface, but you will learn of it's implications in due time. The Sanctuary has survived for millions of eons in face of all odds, and it is yet to give away to any form of weaponary that your kind can throw at it." Kindal bowed slightly before turning towards the fleet master. The alien called him a heretic before, a word that Kindal prefers to throw around himself. But the forces of the Covenant were too numerous in orbit to do anything about such insult. Most Gashathi prefer total dominance, but perhaps this time it would be more benefical to make a deal with the enemy.

"Fleet master, I beleive you are yet to explain your reasons for being on Aurora, but my suspicion tells me that you and I are looking for the same thing. If it is truly the Vault's riches you seek to attain, then I am afraid I have bad news for you and your forces. Like I've told the captain before, the Sanctuary yields to no force other than the raw psyche of a Gashathi." Kindal waited for the information to sink into the mind of the xeno. "Your efforts are in vain if you seek to enter such holy ground. Of course, I do not expect you to give up so easely, so I offer a deal in accordance to our mutual interests. I can open the Sanctuary and share our technological heritage with your faction, and I will take my leave with the members of my kind currently in slumber inside the safety of the sacred walls. Of course, if your forces lay as much as finger on my troops then you shall find the Vault remain sealed for eternity. I will have no trouble finding another, but it may take another eon for your race to stumble into another grand oppurtinity." If the Council heard of this, Kindal would be shamed. But they aren't anywhere near to interfere with his master plans, not this time.

[hr]
[b]AURORA
Inside the Vault[/b]

Nyugen watched as the rest of the team descended down the stairway into the vault. After a short roll call, they confirmed that the entire team was down here. A total of 176 Vixar, 12 of them wounded, and Misha clogged up the stairway. Nyugen opened the intercomms and signaled for those nearby to make space. He used his suit to make a holo map of the nearby rooms in the free space. "We know that at least one of the xeno forces entered the Vault. We are postive they are the same group as the one sending the ships, so we need to make sure we are on their good side. That said, we cannot take chances. Bravo squad form on me, we'll be using our suit's shields to push into the next room. Alpha team, stay with Misha and cover the doorway in case anyone hostile tries to get inside. We'll leave the injured with you." The squad leader of Alpha and Bravo both acknowledged the plans and already began to regroup their squads. Nyugen and his team pushed to the front, with the other squad leaders of his team behind him. They walked down the stairway slowly, allowing the squads to neatly form up in several rows behind him. 

The sound of clash could be heard from the room around the corner of the stairway, but it soon faded away with a loud bang. Multiple troops could be heard as they strafed through the room. Nyugen looked back at his team, gesturing with his hand to activate shields. The rows of soldiers crouched down and started to mess with their wrist consoles. One by one, they activated the emitters on their offhand and the bright red oval energy shields started to shine in next to the soldier's hand. When palced in front of them, they were big enough to cover the crouched silhouette of the Vixar. Most of the troopers switched to their bulky sidearms and pointed their barrel out from behind the shield. When the last row finished, the soldiers tapped each other's back to signal that they are ready. When Nyugen recived the signal he gestured silently to advance.

As they turned around the corner, the phalanx of Vixar units were faced with the brutes of the Covenant as they took up defensive formation in whatever little cover they could find in the mostly empty room. Their imposing hammers could deal serious damage to the Vixar, but they wouldn't stand a chance in the long run if a firefight was to escalate any further. However Nyugen didn't want to risk losing any men, so he signalled for the others behind to stop, and sheated his pistol. He raised his empty hand but kept his shield still in front of himself. He hoped to god that the translators aboard the [i]Gem[/i] managed to piece together a usable translation matrix after al this time. "We mean no harm! We are here by the order of Grand Overseer Kindal'Q of the Aldum Ordo to secure the vault." Not entirely sure that the message got through, Nyugen projected a hilo recording of the earlier firefight in front of the Jiralhanae. It showed brutes running into the vault and the Vixar forces marking them as neutrals and ingoring them. "We could've clashed before if we meant harm. Seeing that we seek the same goals, I say we stray from meaningless hostilities. We have wounded we want to take care of, but our medics can take care of your wounded as well." Nyugen glanced over at the two unidentified men laying unconcious near the Jiralhanae. "And those two. Do we have an agreement."