It sounded a little fantastical to him considering such things were just a literary fiction in human history. But then, forty years ago, aliens could be counted the same thing, couldn't it? "We don't have vampires but humanity has been at war with a huge army comprised of various alien races intent on destroying humanity because of some ridiculous religious belief that we're heretics. So I understand having to fight against an enemy that looks down on you as though you were some kind of lower lifeform."

He spoke lightly but there were shadows in the man's eyes that betrayed him. Kurt hated the Covenant for what they'd done and for the untold billions of lives that had been spent in this bloody war that stretched out over two lifetimes now.

"Is that the name of your home planet? I've never heard of it." Of course, he'd never heard of elves or vampires being real either. Something told him she wasn't just from some unknown colony that he'd never heard of. Something told him she was from a world unlike any he'd seen before. Vex's questions were not so easily answered unfortunately because while he doubted she'd ever heard of the Spartan program, even now he was bound by gag orders. So he did his best to answer her in a creatively indirect way instead.

"Yes, I'm human. But I'm something of a specialized soldier."