Unexpected Alliance

by The Doctor Who

Rating: teen
Tags: Crossover, Alternate Universe, Human, Adventure
Length: 4903

Basically anti-cannon, but still very much Halo. Freelancer squad meets ponies after ship is shot.

[size=0.75em](My Own Personal Universe)[/size] Soldiers are killers, there is no question about that. They are killers used in wars to kill other soldiers, like some sort of twisted rabid dog fight. But some soldiers decide when they want to fight, who they want to fight, and even what they want to fight with. The Sangheili have joined forces with the Humans before the Human Covenant war even started, and formed freelancing groups funded by the military, akin to that of mercenaries. But one group has been blasted to oblivion by a ruptured Slip Space Drive, and they find themselves stranded and alone on a planet they know nothing about. Sharo is the leader of this group, a Warrior Elite with an attitude that has him acting more composed than he has business being. Together he and his team of Freelancers must find a way off of the planet in order to survive, or end up being used like the soldiers they once were.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-12-09 06:15:36 UTC

Prologue

PROLOGUE: What if the Sangheili fought off the San Shyuum? What if The San Shyuum went on to form the covenant with every race except the Humans and Sangheili? And finally, what if the Humans and Sangheili formed an alliance? I have envisioned such a world, and I wish to spin a tale of The Alliance and their battle against the Covenant threat, which wished to end all life using The Rings.

Let us begin in 2491 when the Insurrectionists began their more crucial war efforts. The ORION project was initiated and seventy test subject were entered. 69 passed as the 70th had chemical failures and died. The project was rebuilt and the 69 SPARTAN-I's began to protect valuable worlds, moving up against Innie forces. Along the way they spread word that the Insurrectionists wanted nothing but death and disorder in the human race, this triggered a chain effect as the word spread quickly. The now designated SPARTAN-I project had over 300 volunteers ready for training and testing. The Insurrectionist leaders made a retreat towards a fortress world, hoping to shield themselves from the wave of super soldiers. When the UNSC received 294 SPARTAN-I reinforcements, they launched a compressed attack on the world. Their ships made headway for the planet, more focused on defeating the Insurrectionists than their safety. This resulted in the loss of over 700 UNSC soldiers, 70 of which were SPARTAN-I's. The remaining SPARTAN-I's were shot onto the world in drop pods as well as 200 Hell Jumpers. The remaining 293 SPARTAN-I's were decimated to only 67 as the rest died in a nuclear assault. The remaining SPARTANS-I's carried out their mission and killed the Insurrectionist leaders who were all celebrating the defeat of the UNSC's greatest weapons. The battle left only 27 SPARTAN-I's alive and wounded. With their leaders dead, the rebels broke apart in the following years and were easily wiped out by UNSC hunting parties. With no need for any more SPARTANs, the UNSC scrapped the project and left the remaining SPARTAN-I's to serve or retire. They all chose to serve and fabricated the SPARTAN Heavy Assault Squad in 2513. The Sangheili Elite took the place of SPARTAN's and almost acted as a SPARTAN-2 program. Only 19 SPARTAN-I's remain.

The Sangheili San Shyuum war took place in Earth year 2426 and ended in 2427. The Sangheili had a well trained force known as the Elite program. The program was invented in 2389 where a Sangheili family would volunteer a child for the war efforts. It would be trained since childhood and used for every combat situation. During the Stars War as it was dubbed, the San Shyuum were near victory but made a fatal mistake. They forgot to check one of their shuttle battalions, 20 shuttles containg 30 Sangheili each, who were returning to the flagship. Once it arrived, the San Shyuum opened the shuttles only to find them packed with Sangheili. The assault force was lead by an Elite named Oruna 'Xykal. They successfully disabled the flagships com grid and took the ship. Once in their command, they re-enabled the com grid and ordered all other fleet to dis-engage shields in order to gloat pre-emptive victory. They complied, the remaining ten ships disengaging shields. Before they could question why the flagship had not dis-engaged shields, Oruna ordered his team to fire the four massive plasma cannons at the fleet. The initial shots destroyed four ships, said ships Slip-Space cores erupted and destroyed 5 others. The remaining ship was told to run and tell what was left of the San Shyuum to never return. After their victory, the Sangheili celebrated, then argued over which nation would control the ship as Oruna's force had nearly every nation in it. This sparked the Short War, beginning in 2427 and ending in 2427 three months later. Oruna had seen enough, he had assembled a squad of nearly every nation and conquered aliens with it. He fired his cannons from orbit, threatening to burn the world if they did not quit the squabble. He declared his ship it's own nation and won the war with it alone. He later became the first ship master and the Sangheili colonized their first world in 2431, advancing quickly with the ship in their control. The flagship is now a museum relic the resting place for Oruna and all his decedents. I also say 'it' when they give up a child because there are five recorded female Elite among the hundreds who were trained to the present date.

(ஜ۩۞۩ஜ) Rough advancements.

HUMANS: The humans followed the same course, advancing and spreading across the stars to colonize new worlds. Upon meeting the Sangheili, a race of Saurian decent, and who were just spreading out among the stars themselves, they made diplomatic relations. This marked the birth of the Alliance on 2535, a day both races celebrated. After establishing English as the dominant language, a process that took nearly 11 months, the Alliance was set in stone. Recognizing that the Sangheili were more warlike, and had some Forerunner tech on their side, they allowed them to take up more of the Alliance’s military branch. Humans looked more towards the side of technology, using the Sangheili’s knowledge of Forerunner technology; they were able to upgrade their MAC cannons to be much more efficient in combat. This combined with the Sangheili’s space naval skills proved to be ultimate strategy. Though these new FMAC cannons were very expensive, and so only a single space battalion, 5 ships, saw the upgrade. By then, a scouting team of Human explorers had discovered more life, and a humongous Forerunner artifact. The space station was dubbed the name Halo, for they found it was a station of mass destruction and could easily make a lot of people waer the same ornament. This marked the beginning of the Covenant Alliance war in 2540. They announced a credit system as apposed to two separate coinage systems. The Sangheili accepted after a week long debate and it was set to approximately 2.3 times the worth of the US dollar.

SANGHEILI: The Sangheili progressed slowly; they focused more on weaponry technology than space faring. They had many civil wars, only slowing their progress more. They met with the San Shyuum, and with opposing religions, clashed. The Sangheili fought off the San Shyuum with a miracle victory, one of their Elite had made it into a San Shyuum ship, turning it against them. After their interstellar war, they argued over who should keep the ship, once again sparking combat. After a single country had declared global dominance, they finally began progressing more quickly. The Sangheili had just successfully colonized their 10th world 90 Human years later, when they met with a space faring race known as the Humans. Tensions were high because of the Sangheili’s bad history with aliens, but both sides met on peaceful terms. The Humans had not met another race before, so they sought diplomatic relations. After assuring that the Humans didn’t misuse Forerunner tech, the proceeding went along smoothly. The Sangheili had been using Forerunner and San Shyuum tech for 102 Human years, so their view had changed from protecting artifacts to understanding them, and using them properly most of all. Of course, in hind-sight, they saw that their battle with the San Shyuum was foolish, but they still gained an alliance with a more… trustworthy people. Their technology combined, the Sangheili took over a majority of the Alliance’s military power, still a race guided by honor. Upon hearing that the San Shyuum had assimilated other races and were guiding them to their doom, the Sangheili were determined to bring them to honorable justice. This marked the beginning of the Great War.

ALLIANCE TECH: The Alliance grew in military power, but more so in mainstream technology. Human scientists found composites in the Sangheili's primitive Elite shield that could be used to buff their near depleted SPARTAN-I shield capability. They decided since nearly every SPARTAN-I was dead, they needed to install it into a special version of Sangheili formatted version of SPARTAN-I armor. The Elite program was given this new armor hybrid and became a new level of pure destruction. The Elites natural combat capabilities as well the Alliance grade armor made them near indestructible, (MJOLNIR shields are slightly weaker than a HRPSD, but stronger than RPSD) They named the shields a much simpler name, RPSD. The Regenerating Personnel Shield Device was a shielding break-through. Though weaker than a MJOLNIR shield, the RPSD recharged faster and was more compressed than a MJOLNIR unit. A user could equip up to three before they became noticeably heavy.

Next was the FMAC cannon, a Forerunner advanced variant of the MAC cannon. By using Forerunner tech, Human scientists were able to make a very expensive but very powerful cannon. Using what was designated as Forerunner metal as a shell, the FMAC could destroy entire mega cities with its advanced smart Slip-space bomb core. This resulted in over 300,000,000 Credits worth for each shot (300,000,000,000 US Dollars.) The cannon itself was over 980,000,600 Credits! This resulted in a weapon that was very 'over-powered' as well as expensive. Only 5 are in existence today. Next are the FL's. Forerunner Lasers are a powerful reflecting laser, a green laser is shot into a tube-like chamber while building up and raising the temperature. A pilot or weapon's officer then pushes a button or auto aim moves another mirror into place in order to fire the super heated light at an enemy. The lasers are precise and nearly impossible to dodge and can melt nearly any metal. They cost about 793,000 credits to deploy and another 908,700 credits to install the personnel reactor to power them. The lasers have a single disadvantage, if left on idle too long, they would automatically shut off and die in order to cool down or else they risk melting precious metals. Though the laser only requires about 5 seconds to charge, these 5 seconds can mean life or death and over a million credits wasted.

SAN SHYUUM: After they were defeated by a single ship, the San Shyuum fled. Seeing themselves as not worthy of the Great Journey, they stumbled across a race of ape like creatures. They were earlier in development than the Sangheili, and were easy to defeat. That and they simply sent them a threatening message, and then fired a nuclear armament at them. The Jiralhanae bent their knees to the San Shyuum, becoming their warrior elite. After the San Shyuum’s victory, they celebrated their ability to conquer, and had renewed vigor towards the Great Journey. With the Jiralhanae marking the start of the Covenant, the San Shyuum led the Jiralhanae to conquer the: Kig-yar, Unggoy, Mgalekgolo, and Yanme'e. They made themselves the High Prophets, leaders of the Covenant. The Jiralhanae acted as their Royal Guard, the most trusted to defend the High Prophets. They found a massive Forerunner artifact called A Great Ring, and promptly took it in the Covenant's name. They began to try to activate it, only to learn that it required the living DNA of a species known as ‘Humans’. Or so the Oracle had explained to them. But, as fate would have it (Or me I guess), the Humans had merged with the heretical Sangheili. They declared war with them nearly upon contact, only to have the Great Ring’s defenses penetrated by a division of Forerunner advanced ships. The Heretics FMAC cannons penetrated easily through any shields they erected, any armor they produced and no ship was too large to be destroyed. They called upon the full strength of the Covenant to fight the Heretics, though the Jiralhanae would have done so even without orders. This marked the beginning of the Alliance Covenant war, a day to cleanse the galaxy of the Sangheili and their slightly-more-evolved ape friends forever.

Chapter one - Unexpected Alliance

Unsuspected Alliance – Chapter 1

(ஜ۩۞۩ஜ)

Sharo ‘Amas was an Elite Sangheili, a Sangheili warrior trained since childhood to fight. Yes, the humans did question the Sangheili’s tactics to training soldiers, but they hadn’t shot themselves so much that their home world nearly died. He bore UPSC armor, United Planets Space Corps, Elite grade containing a HRPSD, Heavy Regenerating Personal Shielding Device, a shielding unit that the Alliance had developed. The armor was forest green overall, a color that the old human corps had sported for centuries, if not millennia. Sharo had the sudden urge to say that he looks something like a Spartan, specifically Master Chief, only with a Halo:Reach ranger helmet and is Sangheilian. Anyway, Sharo’s squad was being deployed on a scouting mission, a scouting mission of all things! Yes, his team had voted this be their next mission, life of a freelancer, but an Elite’s squad! That was overkill; leave it to a squad of Human Hell jumpers if you asked him. They would be more than well trained enough to defend a scouting ship from invasion. And yet here he sat, in the control room, bored looking at stars and cosmos of an uncharted part of the Milky Way. Nothing out of the ordinary, not a single star out of place or planet cracking. He sighed, everything had been too normal lately. A red light began to flicker to life and a siren filled the room with cries of distress. Sharo was instantly in attention, looking out the view port at the boundless breadth of the universe. Just then a ship came into view, a Covenant Corvette, and here they were, a ship supposed to be the Corvette’s approximate equal. The crew began to scramble, moving for their station, and the Shipmaster shouting orders.

Then he heard the Shipmaster yell his name, “Sharo, gather your squad and get into your Long Sword, we need every able soldier to take that traitorous worm invention."

Sharo hailed a salute, his hand tapped his helmet, opening a comm link with his squad, “Uruo 'Fhahas, Jaqo 'Opran, Jhener 'Vrotal, Bernhard Eberstark, Markus Brown, come with me, we are to take our Long Sword and defeat these Covenant dogs.”

"Got it boss," replied Markus, "We're on our way."

Sharo heard the sound of their cannons firing and the rhythmic sound of their single MAC cannon charging, all but muted through the layers of metal that covered the ship. MAC cannons were a fascinating Human device, huge cannons that literally flung Tungsten Carbide shells at their foe using super charged electric magnets nearly beyond conceivable speeds. It wasn't something he would have recommended, flinging metal didn't sound like a great weapon, but when that metal is hyper dense and moving at speeds pushing the boundaries of sanity, then you had a gun. As he raced down the corridor, Sharo caught glances of the combat through the small view ports, the usually dark void was ignited with plasma fire and gun shots, small explosions already made the ports fill with light. Though the battle was peculiarly soundless, Sharo could still feel the force of the Corvettes cannon fire on the ship.

After a long sprint, Sharo’s fund his squad in front of the hangar doors, promptly pushing a button, Sharo watched the doors slide open to reveal one Long Sword left. A smile spread on his face, the mottled green and grey fighter sat there independent, metal shining like a mirror because they took good care of her, with reason of course. He moved towards it, their Long Sword was the best Long Sword. Or at least that was what he was told; a Human engineer had promised him that it had been installed with the latest FL weapons, shielding, and the fastest engines available. He reached the rear, smirking at the thought of roasting a Kig-yar pilot with their Forerunner Laser. The FL repeaters, or Forerunner Laser, used special Forerunner technology to charge light to such intensity that it could melt Covenant armor plating, making quick work of any fighter that stood in your way. Of course, like all Forerunner based weaponry, it was expensive and rare to see in actual combat.

He opened the rear door, it let off a defiant hiss then slowly fell downward on its pistons. Even before it touched down, Jaqo jumped into the craft, the minor made his way to the starting systems determined to speed up the progress. Sharo sighed; he was such a keener, always looking for a way to rank quickly. Sharo just wished that he realized that swift work was usually ended in careless mistakes. The ramp finally touched down, and the remaining soldiers entered. Marcus closed the door behind them, Jaqo was already activating the engines, Jhener, Uruo and Bernhard sat in the passenger seats and were strapping themselves in.

Sharo looked over the three; Jhener was a Spec Op, equipped with a special cloaking device and an ancient diamond edged sword, not to mention he spent at least 4 hours a day cycle training with that sword. Sharo understood the swords honor filled past, but the days of Sangheili slaughtering one another were over. His armor was made for sneaking, made nearly entirely from Kevlar, with an airproof layer underneath. A sleek, black glass face mask covered his head, about the only thing that wasn’t made from fabric. Yes, the Kevlar was treated to be fireproof and tough, but plasma was very hot, and would melt it if not for the LRPSD he carried.  He was a professional with SMG’s and small firearms, Sharo swore in a past life he was an Assassin.

Bernhard was a medic, just enough combat training to return fire, but enough medical experience to practically bring someone back from the dead with nothing but forceps and a needle. His light armour shone a glistening white, much to Jhener’s chagrin, and a red cross was painted on either shoulder pad. His helmet was simple, a piece of metal strapped to his head, a single lens covering one eye to give him a HUD. His face had a scar over his left eye, giving him a surprisingly brutal appearance, and a devilish smile combined with his German accent completed the whole ‘creepy doctor’ persona. Though Sharo knew of him as a friend and excellent medic, any other newcomer could mistake him for a mad scientist. Then again, Bernhard’s past was shrouded so he very well could have been.

Uruo was ranked a major, his armor a darker red, Uruo’s own personnel color choice and covered nearly every part of his body. His RPSD gave him a protection boost, and Sharo could see a large knife handle, his favorite knife, protruding from his right lower leg sheath. The armor itself was at least an inch thick everywhere, boasting quite a bit of protection. Any place not covered in the human blood red metal was covered by thick treated Kevlar. He too had his suit space proofed, a helmet with an currently un-polarized clear visor allowing access to his old eyes. The major looked up to Sharo and then down the hall, obviously hearing the same thing Sharo was, he didn’t talk much anyway.

Jaqo came running back to the Elite, standing in attention, “Sir, I have prepped the engines, checked the weapons, fuel, supplies and power, we are running at maximum capacity.”

Sharo raised a hand, “And what of our navigations, communications and shields?” Jaqo looked down to the floor, his head showing a face of embarrassment, Sharo sighed. “When will you learn young one that rank comes with time, not quick sloppy work. You will rise minor, but it will take time, now make sure that the items I have listed are operational.”  Jaqo gave a solute, then headed back to check the rest of the systems.

Marcus passed him, “Come on Jaqo, I need some help in the cockpit, you can check everything there.” Jaqo didn’t hesitate, following the human into the piloting area. Sharo shifted in his armor, Marcus may have been a Human sniper, but he just as friendly as any Sangheili was to one another. Sharo heard the engines flare, and so he sat down in the nearest seat, strapping himself in. He felt the ship shudder, elevate, then lurch forward. He turned so he could see how the battle fared through a view port. What caught his eye was the disturbing fact that there was less Alliance ships left than Covenant.

He tapped his helmet, “Come on you, you’ve slept long enough. Wake up Arianna.”

With those words, he heard a yawn then a robotic, but female voice responded, “I’m up, I’m up. Calm down, even A.I. need a little rest.” Her name was Arianna, a Sangheili A.I. Something they developed to help pilot ships.

He smiled, she was always the passive one, no matter how dire the situation she somehow managed to keep her robotic cool, “Arianna, I need to know how many Alliance ships we have left.”

He heard a computing sound as she accessed the records, “Alright, Star-chaser has…”

Sharo felt himself tense, “How many Arianna.”

He heard her gulp, “Star-chaser has 21% and dropping, we are losing ships fast.”

He felt one of his hearts skip a beat, “Only 21%... and dropping, something is not right, we are better trained than this, we should be dominating them. What do they have that we do not?” Sharo got and answer, a round disc like ship flew past them, blasting plasma their direction. He felt the ship lurch as Marcus and Jaqo avoided the blue death, and then he heard their FL turrets returning fire.

“Seraphs.” reported  Arianna.

Sharo tracked its location, “Seraphs?”

“Yes, Seraphs are the covenants interstellar fighters, we encountered them recently and they can do considerably more damage than Banshee’s can.”

Sharo cursed their luck; of course this Corvette would be loaded with them, why not? Another seraph tried to do a strafing run, only to receive extremely heated light for its effort. The FL repeaters cut through it the same as anything, and now they were going to show them whose boss! Sharo’s gut pitched as they pursued another seraph, aligning course before opening fire. The lasers chopped up the rear of the craft, running all the way through to the front and causing it to explode. He heard cheers as Marcus and Jaqo destroyed another Seraph, blue flames engulfing its frame. He wished he could be doing something, anything but simply watch as the other ships were destroyed, but their turrets were automated, main guns were controlled by the co-pilot and the ship itself was controlled by Markus.

They kept up the onslaught until Arianna spoke, sounding very solemn. “Sharo, we have less than 4% of our ships remaining, we can’t win. We should regroup with the Star-chaser and make our escape, or no one will survive.”

Sharo pounded a fist against the seat, “Damn… you’re right, Arianna send a message, tell them to retreat by order of the Elite.”

Just then, the speakers crackled to life, “Mayday, mayday! This is Scout ship Star-Chaser, our vessel is crippled, no engines, no weapons, no shields, we are dead in the water! Request immediate evac, we have 3% of fighters remaining, Covenant forces in Sector F-3-1-4-beta, message will repeat.”

Sharo recognized the shipmasters voice, if he was contemplating retreat, then they were truly doomed. As the message stated, the recording replayed itself over the speakers, being relayed as a distress signal. Sharo looked out the view port, seeing the blasted Corvette charging one of it's cannon. He cursed to himself as he calculated the trajectory of the shot, directly at the Star-chasers slip-space drive.

He put a hand against his helmet, contacting Marcus, “Marcus, get us out of here! If we’re anywhere near the ship when they destroy it, we’ll be flung into outer space, and the Long Sword isn’t designed to handle slip-space speed stress.”

Without even replying, Marcus steered the Long Sword away from the ship. But they were already too late, just then Sharo saw the light stream in from the view port, the signal of the end. The Elite warrior watched as everything seemed to stretch out, the sound of groaning metal and popping rivets filled the air. They were at slip-space speeds! Everything seemed to slow down, and Sharo heard every little groan in the metal and every curse spat by Markcus. He saw his team was doing to same thing, everyone inspecting every inch of the ship critically. Then, exactly when it all seemed hopeless, it stopped. Sharo sighed in relief,  before he heard the proximity alarm go off. Beginning to hate this mission even more than ever, he un-strapped himself not caring about safety regulations and made his way to the cockpit. He needed to make sure that everybody was alright, and he wanted to know what they were approaching first hand.

He opened the piloting door, first of all noticing the large sphere of dark landmass, and it was getting closer, next of all noticing two scrambling forms as they tried to regain control of the ship. Marcus furiously pulled levers and pushed buttons, desperately trying regain control.

"Damn it! Jaqo, try to pull us 35 degrees to the left, Fuck! We just lost another engine."

"Trying Marcus, we only have one good thruster. Wait, incoming debris!"

"Shields down, FL repeaters are gone, we're gonna get slammed!"

"Wait, the debris is staying around us in a circle pattern, we're fine."

"FINE!?! We are rapidly approaching an unknown planet, even if we survive the crash we don't know if the atmosphere is breathable, or even if it has one!"

Then the sirens constant short bleeps extended to a long dangerous whine, marking them beyond the point of return while Sharo watched in horror as the front of the ship seemed to catch aflame. The entire craft shuddered as they entered the unknown planet’s atmosphere; the last thing Sharo noticed was the other space debris they were entering with. As they burned downwards, bits of meteors followed with them, as if they were some center piece in a show. Sharo felt the ship shake, sending him sprawling off his feet. The only thing he remembered was the fact that the meteors were shining different dazzling colors as they burnt, and then black.

(ஜ۩۞۩ஜ)

"Damn it, Sharo is down!" yelled Marcus. Jaqo turned around, Sharo's head was nearly stuck in a wall a large dent where he lay.

"He's fine, let`s focus on landing. Use the flaps to control us!"

"Alright, flaps are sticky but workable. Come on baby, pull up!" cried Marcus in frustration. The ship gave another shudder as it hit a cross breeze, at least it had an atmosphere or else they would be dead in a crater by now. Marcus heard the sound of metal breaking just behind him. He turned around, "Jaqo, your seat is broken!"

The young Sangheili looked down to see that Marcus was correct, his harness had snapped "That isn't very good.

Looking through the roaring flames Marcus spotted what appeared to be a large forest, "I see somplace we may be able to land on, throw the air brakes open all the way!"

"Roger," replied Jaqo as he flipped a switch above his seat, "air brakes coming online!"

As the under trained warrior did so, he felt them lose a lot of speed. As his harness had snapped, he flew from his place and into the thick glass of the cockpit, cracking it along the entire surface. Marcus cursed again as Jaqo now lay unconscious and his left leg was bent in an unnatural position, it actually looked a little human now. The bottom of their ship touched the tree line, and Marcus' seat nearly gave out on him as well. The harness groaned as the seat lurched forward, the ship loosing tremendous amounts of velocity. Soon he watched as they began to sink beneath the trees and cringed every time he heard the sound of a branch scratching the ships paint. Soon they were rammed into the ground and he soon found that they were being dragged by leftover momentum. The Longsword began to shake and rock more violently than ever, earth showered the cracked cockpit and he saw entire trees fall on them. He felt his harness clawing at his chest as if his armor wasn't even there. The ship came to a screeching halt not long after, and Marcus leaned back in his seat, breathing a long contempt sigh. At least he knew the planet had an atmosphere. He looked up from the console, a dark forest stretched in every direction. He lazily undid the harness, he was sore, depressed and a little afraid. He breathed slowly needing every breath, wait, this planet had a breathable atmosphere! His hopes rose a little,if they could breathe then they could survive here and make repairs! Another thought crossed his mind, if this planet had a breathable atmosphere then maybe there was other life here as well. Of course, the first thing that came to Marcus' mind were devilish or ferocious predators tearing apart his friends bodies. He rose from the seat even in his hard breathing, he had friends in need and he was not one to betray friends. First he needed to check on the rest of the crew, then they could discuss their next course of action.