<div align="center">(http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o180/ashia_starstreak/lonehunter-1.jpg) (http://s120.photobucket.com/user/ashia_starstreak/media/lonehunter-1.jpg.html)</div><br/>The short marine removed herself from the computer screen and walked toward the elevator, pausing a moment she turned on her flashlight on her helmet and walked into the shaft. Debris and pieces from the tunnel above laid scattered across the floor. Her green eyes scanned the ceiling. A hole from which the ODST  and O'Brian had come through was blocked by a heavy beam. Clicking her light off, Shana slithered her way out of the elevator once more and looked around the room. "Negative." she reported to Sling.<br/><br/>Surely there was another way out. Humanity couldn't have been so faulty as to make a single entrance. In cases of emergency, an elevator would not do. As suspected the marine found a single door. A metal filing cabinet and random chairs stacked against it to discourage anyone from approaching it. Maneuvering her way closer, Shana took a look at the keypad beside it. The screen shot in, a small electrical charge caused it to smoke and though the buttons were still lit, the keypad did not respond to Shana's attempts to configure a password. With a frown, the marine took off her helmet and looked through the window of the door, shielding her hands on each side of her temples to improve her sight. Nothing but darkness. Shana waited several moments, but still, she could see nothing. Peeling her eyes away from the door, Shana ran a black gloved hand down the crease of the wall and door.<br/><br/>"I need a crowbar..something to open this door." She said, looking around.<br/><br/>Stepping away away from Sling, O'Brian smoothed his jacket and decided to help Shana. At the moment Squish seemed the less crazy. Clearing his throat, the lanky private looked around, when he did not see  what the woman was looking for, he moved for a helping bar from Sling's medical bed. "Sorry, I need this." He said to the ODST nervously before ripping it from it's holding upon the frame. The force of the bar's release pushed O'Brian back a couple feet. Not wishing to stay near Sling long enough to see the man's reaction, the marine hurried to Shana's side.<br/><br/>She held out her hand to retrieve the tool, but O'Brian did not give it to her. Instead he rolled up each of his sleeves and brushed her aside. "Let a real soldier take care of this." He said. The woman raised a brow, but not in the mood for argument, she backed up and glanced back to Sling to check on his well being.<br/><br/>The door groaned, the bar bent. As O'Brian struggled to pry it open, the bed guard snapped in half. A loud snap of the bar and a thud of the marine as he smacked into the door, he held up the bar and discarded it. Though he no longer had a tool, he did manage to open the door a few inches. O'Brian held onto the heavy sliding door and pulled.<br/><br/>Shana looked back to O'Brian and sighed, slightly annoyed. Moving next to the lanky soldier, the woman helped him. The door slowly began to budge more, but something distracted the woman  before the door could be fully open. "Stop stop!" She exclaimed in a whisper smacking O'Brian's hands away from the door. "Shh...I see something.." She said and looked out the door. A small glow reflecting off the wall revealed a hallway. Down the passage the green glow became brighter, bigger as it neared. Before Shana could fully get a good view of what it was, she jumped for the other side of the door bashing a knee against the metal cabinet. Grumbling she rubbed it and brought a finger to her lips, a signal for silence.<br/><br/>*****<br/><br/>Upon instruction, Smith quickly listened to the Spartan and together they shot down the approaching elite. Turning his attention back to the crowd of covenant, he sighed silently as a new wave of enemy made their appearance. Taking out a grenade, Smith stood up and prepared the grenade for a fast ball to the new group. Two elites ducked out of the way, but several grunts and a jackal weren't so lucky and were taken out within the three second time.<br/><br/>Jacobs fired at the covenant but shortly stopped as he realized they were retreating. "Cease firing!" He ordered, holding up a hand. Getting up off a knee he watched the covenant hurry down the street. "They're retreating."<br/><br/>Smith listened to the sergeant, but could not put his rifle down. He was not so sure it was over. His instincts told him to wait, the back of his hairs standing on end. What he saw next made him groan aloud. With heavy steps came a hunter.<br/><br/>Lifting his rifle back into position, Jacobs hurried to the other side of the stairs. As he leaned against the opposite pillar of Smith he waited for the appearance of the other hunter. They always traveled in pairs, but another did not appear. "..just one?" He asked, looking to the spartan and Smith he hollered, "Any have eyes on the second!?"<br/><br/>*****<br/><br/>O'Brian peeped through the window of the door than got out of view. "Holy sheet a hunter! That's a fucking hunter out there!" he mouthed to the small group within the emergency med bay. The soldier looked to Shana and watched as she placed her helmet on just in time to receive an incoming comm from the Spartan upstairs. The noise from her helmet stopped the giant monster in his place. A deep gurgled growl emerged from his ugly face as he charged up his cannon and looked down the hall toward the room they were in.<br/><br/>Seconds felt like minutes, Shana's heart  sunk  in her gut. The alien couldn't fit into this room, but his gun could still do all the damage it needed to get the job done. Pushing onto the link of her comm, the petite marine reported, "This is Echo Private 1068689 Reporting: three survivors, Elevator shaft is barricaded. We have an approaching hunter blocking our only exit. We cannot engage. I repeat we cannot enga-" she was interupted by a heavy plasma blast to the door. The shock knocked Shana a couple feet forward. She fell roughly onto the cold floor. Forgetting the rest of her message, she released the button and moved back to her postion beside the door. She refused to make another noise, hoping the hunter would move on, but O'Brian didn't let that happen. "We can take this right? You killed an elite with a knife.." He looked to Shana, his eyes watery with fear.<br/><br/>When he said 'we', Shana couldn't help but think that meant HER...she sighed and prepared for the next blast that the hunter currently began charging. The woman's eyes locked onto Sling once more before the blast pushed the door off its hinges and forced it into the room. Blast holes smoking, a ring of green plasma sizzled as it began to cool against the metal of the door.<br/>