In the deepest and most dangerous reaches of space, there are mysteries. Some are simple, and some are nearly unsolvable. As Mankind expanded his horizon, war broke out with another species, the Covenant. This alliance of diverse alien races sought out to wipe out humanity, for it was a primitive and weak race. Or so they thought. Humanity fought back with more strength than the covenant had thought possible. The battle took more time and lives than both sides had first anticipated. As the war raged on, so did Humanity's galactic expansion. Mankind reached different planets, and systems in desperation to form new colonies and military bases for more resources for the war.
Eventually, Humanity stumbled upon an artificial ring world known as "Halo." This was where the most blood would be shed in this war. The Covenant had superior firepower and soldiers, making Humanity desperate for a magic bullet to end the war. Fortunately, they had formed the perfect soldiers several years before the war. These soldiers never started war; they perfected it for they were the pinnacle of Human efficiency, the ultimate warriors; Spartans. Two hundred soldiers were trained at the age of six years old, put through vigorous training exorcises, pushing them to their limits and farther.
Once they reached fourteen, they were injected with genetic altering chemicals, that would make them stronger, faster, and in some cases smarter. Twenty five percent of the soldiers were killed from the side effects of the drugs; others were horribly disfigured and deemed unfit for combat. The Spartans who survived the augmentation became better soldiers, capable of bending steel with their bare hands. After being fit with the highly advanced Mark V MJOLNIR armor, which would later be upgraded to mark VI, they were the perfect soldiers. Several years passed as the Spartans fought the Covenant, and the Spartans emerged victorious every time. They had caught the Covenant off guard time and time again with their abnormal strength.
Not only were these Spartans great on the battle field, but they were also perfect tacticians, finding a weak spot in Covenant defense lines and countering their assaults. In an act of desperation, the Covenant assaulted a human colony on the planet REACH, with most of the Spartans on it fighting a losing war. The Covenant decimated the planet, but fortunately, Humanity managed to evacuate most of the Spartans who hadn't been KIA. After the Spartan II population had dropped dramatically, Humanity decided to create a new breed of Spartans. These Spartans would be weaker than the original; younger, and less efficient than the Spartan IIs, but they would be stronger than the average marine, and that was enough for Humanity. As the battle moved to the ring world called Halo, things began to go downhill.
The Covenant began to get wise, and plot their attacks more carefully, and they were more familiar with the battlefields, as they were there first. War after war it was almost always the same, Spartans versus the Covenant, win and loss, win and loss. Eventually, it got to the point where the Covenant managed to drive Humanity off of Halo, and the two had forcefully ended the war, due to the lack of resources. The Covenant wanted to continue the war, to complete their holy quest, but they were forced to cease against their better judgment. During the final battle, the Spartans were retreating into their Pelicans and were being rushed back to the main colonies that needed to either be rebuilt or mopped up of any remaining Covenant forces. The battle that took place on that ring world was the bloodiest battle of all. It was a supposed draw, and Humanity left, leaving the Covenant to complete their holy work, and recovering from the war so that they might attack Humanity again and emerge victorious. They would eventually overpower the Spartans once they returned.
But there were still Spartans on that ring world.
This story is about those four Spartans and their discovery of a threat far greater than the Covenant. The threat came from Halo itself, and its natural inhabitants. The creatures were symbiotic, and needed hosts to preserve themselves. They started out as spores, then insect like creatures. From there, they would find a host, and burrow deep inside its chest, creating a new home, and achieving a body. These creatures would be known as "The Flood."
Two of these creatures had just achieved their "Pure" form, where they no longer needed a host. They've collected enough biomass to sustain themselves. Their intelligence had also increased to a point where they could be considered sentient. They spoke in low, deep raspy voices to each other. They were about ten feet tall, with dark green skin with a hint of tan. They were massive hulking figures with large strong arms, but no hands or fingers. Instead they had large, massive, dull, blade like appendages at the end of each arm. Their "stomachs" were considerably thin compared to the rest of their bodies, and separated into three vertical segments, wit the center segment being the largest. Their legs were wide and strong, with what appeared to be tall, but short, dull and hard toenails at their "Feet". Their heads were long, with no faces; they only had two mandibles on each side of their "mouths." In the center of the mandibles, were what appeared to be dark brown branch like appendages with red bristles at the ends. This was where the infection forms lied. These two figures stood in the center of a large dark cave that was covered in the same dark green material that they had as flesh.
"We will find them eventually. It is inevitable." Said the first one in a low raspy voice. The other looked at the first and replied.
"You speak truly."
As the second one spoke, a sudden disturbance occurred. As if on cue, a sharp, quick projectile zoomed into and through the first flood's "mouth." It stumbled back in surprise, gripping its "mouth" with in agony, unable to howl out in pain. A second projectile soon penetrated its stomach. The flood doubled over in pain, and two more projectiles soared through the top of its head and out of its back, forcing it to collapse and end its existence.
"Target down." Said a green armor clad human soldier in a female, quiet, almost whispering voice.
"I got the second one." Said a second soldier, this one was male and spoke in a more loud, boastful voice.
"Be careful, man, don't play the badass. These things are tough." Said a third, more calm male voice.
"Joseph, you face him head on. Louis, stay at medium range. Vikki and I will give you covering sniper fire." Said a final, raspy and growling male voice.
These soldiers were human, and wore heavy green armor with a thinner, more flexible black under layer in between the joints. They each wore helmets that covered almost all of the head in the same green metallic armor as the rest of the body, but had orange reflective visors that covered their faces, and provided a HUD with a motion tracker, a shield bar, and the vitals of themselves and their teammates. The armor they wore made them look like gladiators, and robots at the same time. Each step they took, and each word they spoke was amazingly, almost inhumanly accurate. They were the pinnacle of war; they were Spartans.
"I hear ya, sir." Joseph said in a cocky tone. He ran full speed at the Flood form, which he had nicknamed "Tanks" due to their immense strength, lack of speed, and ability to take a lot of damage. Once he got in range, he crouched into a defensive position, and grabbed his MA5C assault rifle. The Tank was just about to charge at him when Vikki fired a round into its chest, making it stumble. Joseph saw his chance, and pulled the trigger, letting out a barrage of heated armor piercing rounds into the Tank's "mouth." In retaliation, the Tank covered its mouth with one arm, protecting its weak spot, and charged at Joseph, whacking him with its right. Joseph tried to leap away, but the end of the Tank's dull blade like arm caught him square in the chest and sent him flying across the cave, crashing into the flesh-like wall with a dull thud.
"Joseph!" Louis exclaimed. He looked to see his ally struggling to his feet, and then quickly diverted his attention to the tank. Vikki had depleted her second clip of ammo, and the cover fire ceased.
"Sarge, where's that cover!?" Louis asked through the COM channel as he gave a three-bullet-per trigger assault with his Battle Rifle at the Tank.
"The damn gun's jammed!" Sarge exclaimed as he tried to pull the clip out of the rifle.
"I'm reloading." Vikki stated in a quick, quiet voice. The tank had already set its sights on Louis, and began charging. Louis dove to his right as the Tank attempted a vertical smash attack. He then rolled to his feet, giving three accurate bursts into the back of its head. The Tank turned around in aggravation and backhanded Louis square in his jaw. The Spartan did a single flip backwards and landed square on his stomach; hard. Just as the tank was about to finish him, Vikki gave it several shots in the left shoulder to get his attention.
"Hey, Tank! Over here!" Joseph yelled, having collected himself. The tank turned to him, and began to charge.
"Yeah, that's right! I got somethin' for ya right here!" Joseph exclaimed, with a frag grenade clenched in his right hand. The tank was several feet away from him, and raised its arms, ready to perform a two armed smash. Joseph primed the grenade, dodged the Tank's attack, ran up one of its arms, and lodged the explosive right in the creature's mouth. With one more leap, Joseph made it a safe distance away so that he wouldn't get caught in the explosion. In one final yell of anger, the Tank exploded. Joseph looked back to see the remains of the Flood. Its head, left shoulder, and left arm had completely disintegrated; its blood was everywhere, including on Sarge's armor.
"Nice, looks like I win this one." Joseph said boastfully.
"This isn't a game." Vikki said in a matter-of-fact tone as she helped Louis to his feet.
"You always say that." Joseph shot back. "If we're stuck here, we may as well try to enjoy it."
"Vikki's right, son… this isn't a game." Sarge lectured while rubbing the viscous, green blood off of his armor. Joseph scoffed. "This coming from mister No-Cover, here?" He said, somewhat agitated. Sarge took a step towards the Spartan, sizing him up.
"I told you, it got jammed." He said. Joseph flicked his left hand at Sarge, indicating that he was rolling his eyes.
"Excuses, excuses." He said tiredly.
"Before we decide to kill each other, let's find a way to get out of here first." Louis said calmly, sensing the tension between Sarge and Joseph.
"I agree. We should get back to the safe-house." Vikki said. As the Spartans marched down to the exit of the rather large cave, Louis heard something that convinced him to look behind him. It was a good thing he did, for a large group of deformed, grayish tan elites were sprinting towards them.
"Shit. More flood!" He exclaimed as he turned around and opened fire. These flood forms were weaker than the two pure forms they had just encountered. They were just normal elites that the Flood infection forms, well, infected. They were no more alive than a zombie in Louis's eyes. He looked through his rifle's scope, aiming for the flood's chest; the weak spot. With every accurate voice, a Flood would drop dead, tripping up and stumbling the Flood behind him.
Vikki had her M6D Pistol, firing through the scope as well. Sarge had managed to get his 99c-S2 AM Sniper Rifle working again, and began picking off the hostiles. Louis threw a grenade into the fray, taking out majority of the group; only the Flood with working energy shields survived.
"I got the rest!" Joseph yelled as he changed direction and charged at the six remaining flood with his rifle ready.
"Joseph, get back here!" Sarge yelled.
"It's no use, he won't listen." Vikki said quietly and plainly.
Joseph whacked the first Flood that ran up to him with the butt of his rifle, turning it into a pile of disfigured limbs, and then unloaded half of his clip into the chest of the second. The other two fired at him with plasma rifles in quick and inaccurate bursts. They managed to bring half his shields down, forcing him to take cover behind a large, fleshy stalagmite. Two more flood leaped after him high into the air, whacking Joseph in the head and chest with their long, tentacle like arms. His shields had been completely depleted now, and the high pitched alarm blared into his hears.
"Damn." He mumbled to himself. He backpedaled away, while spraying the remaining half of a clip into the two Flood who had just assaulted him. He brought one down, and weakened the other. The two armed Flood fired their weapons at him once more. One plasma bolt grazed his shoulder, slightly melting the metal plating. Joseph was forced to holster his rifle and draw his sidearm, for he had no time to reload. He planted two accurate rounds into the unarmed Flood still chasing him, but then crashed into the wall; he was at a dead end. The two Flood sprinted towards him, rifles blazing with blue-white hot plasma. A small portion of his shields had returned, and with slightly more confidence, he charged at them. He fired a well placed round into one, but its energy shields deflected the round. He then turned his attention to the second Flood. It attempted to whack him with the butt of its plasma rifle, but he weaved out of the way, trapped its arm, and snapped it in half. Normally, that would leave its arm dangling on the flesh because the bone had been broken, but the flesh was so damaged and brittle that the entire arm snapped off. The Flood pushed Joseph off and attempted to counter wit ha spinning backhand attack with its remaining arm. Joseph ducked and sweep kicked the Flood, knocking it off its feet. He then finished it off with three pistol shots in the chest.
As he turned around to face the final Flood, it acted first. With one whack of its tentacle arm, it sent him stumbling backwards in no time. The flood continued the assault by firing its rifle at him. The plasma orbs melted into his shields, depleting them with every hit. As he continued to stumble, he fell on his back after tripping over a stone. The flood walked up to him with an almost triumphant aura about him. Joseph raised his pistol and fired several shots at the creature, but he only fired one shot. He had emptied his magazine, and unfortunately for him, the Flood's shields were up and deflected the blow. Joseph then raised his pistol, as if he were going to throw it. The Flood straightened its posture at this gesture, as if to say "Do you really think that's going to work?"
"No, I didn't." Joseph said out loud, even though the Flood never really said anything. Just as the Flood was about to deliver the final blow, two sniper bullets penetrated its torso, followed by two more through the knees and chest, killing it almost instantly.
"I don't want to hear another god damn word about me never covering your sorry ass." Crackled Sarge's voice over the COMM channel.
"Nice shot." Vikki said quietly. Sarge nodded in thanks, then looked over to Joseph.
"Come on. Reload and get your ass over here." He said over the COMM channel. Joseph obeyed and formed up with the group.
"What were we looking for, anyway?" Joseph asked casually, as though nothing had happened.
"We were looking for survivors, and apparently there weren't any." Answered Louis. Joseph nodded slowly in understanding.
"So now what, back to the safe house?" He asked.
"That would be the wisest choice of action." Vikki said softly. Louis nodded in agreement. He always had a somewhat hard time understanding Vikki because she talked so quietly. Some think it was a side affect in augmentation, others say it's a result of Pulse Traumatic Stress Disorder, others think it's just the way she is. Louis felt that it was the way she was. Though she seemed silent and isolated from everyone else, she and Louis managed to form a solid friendship. These Spartans were not normally in each other's company. Louis was a part of Green Team, Sarge was the leader of Red Team, Vikki was part of Gold Team, and Joseph was part of Blue team. They were all victims of a freak earthquake during the battle that took place against the Covenant that felt like a lifetime ago. They were presumed KIA, though labeled as MIA to add to the illusion that Spartans never die.
If only that were true, Louis thought. If only it were true...