Halo: The Flood

A/N: Hello, fellow murderers, smugglers, thieves and other scum of the galaxy. I read The Fall Of Reach, and I really liked the book. I was, however, disappointed that Sam died, and even more so when I could find so few stories on this site depicting his survival. so here I will depict his story if he survived to be in Halo: The flood, and I will do my best to depict characters correctly

Note that this is my first story I've written, so any reviews would be welcome. (rather ones that offer actual advice instead of mere one-word reviews, but I won't blame you if you give them anyway)

I don't own anything in these stories beyond OC's

Chapter 1

there was no explanation for what she saw.

She saw a mirror in front of her, showing her as she was when she was 9 years old, when the Covenant invaded her how world. She still looked quite innocent, except maybe for her 2 differently coloured eyes. They used to terrify people, with one eye icy blue, and the other so bright orange most people compared it with fire. But she knew she was by now (Chronologically at least) 26 years old, give or take a few months, and she was so heavily scarred across her face that she doubted she would win any beauty prices with it.

No matter. She was a Spartan, trained by Lieutenant Ambrose, and had taken down dozens of insurrectionist groups on her own. She...

Wait.

Now she knew why she looked like that. It was said that when people were awakened from Cryo-sleep they had a burst of REM sleep, and during that time people could be dreaming. But if she was waking up, then the Autumn must be coming out of Slipspace, and usually when a UNSC ship came out of Slipspace after a battle, there were usually Covenant soldiers waiting at their destination. Great.

She wondered what Jorge would have said at this point, but he was dead. So was the rest of Noble team, for that matter. They had died on reach, either killed because of her failing to do something, because of them sacrificing themselves for her, or in Jun's case being left behind to protect a scientist on Reach. She wished she had taken Emile's knife when she was picked up from the Onager cannon and taken to the Autumn, just as a way to remember the team. He was the only one from who she didn't have a memento to remember him. Jorge gave her his Dog-tags and threw her off the Ardent Prayer, barely a minute before he detonated the Slipspace bomb the 2 of them had smuggled on board the corvette. Jun gave her a few more rounds of ammunition when they were scouting out a Covenant drop zone on Reach. Carter gave her his and Kat's Dog-tags when he ordered her to jump off of the Pelican.

Kat had died barely a day before, and she and Carter were pretty close, so she decided it was a symbol of trust that Carter gave them to her instead of Emile.

Then she heard the lid of her pod hiss, and she focused on what was to come.

The first thing Sam saw when the his pod opened was that there was no army of technicians waiting to help him and his team recover from Cryo-sleep, at least as far as he could see. No medics ready in case he had freezer-burn. Just one technician currently busy helping John, and one on standby in the observation bay above the Cryo-pods. He looked to the other side, and saw that Linda was just awakening, but still had trouble with it. He got out of his own pod to help her.

He could sympathise with her troubles, for she had just recovered from a surgery that saved her life. On Gamma station, where she, John and James were busy deleting NAV-data that was still present, she had been hit by at least 5 overcharged Plasma Pistols. The only thing that had saved her was that the only survivor of Noble-team that came with them was a highly trained combat surgeon, and had operated on Linda for hours after the Autumn had jumped to Slipspace.

Then he arrived at Linda's Cryo-pod, and helped her stand. Inside the pod itself at first, and then helped her out off the Pod.

"I'll make it from here, thank you." Linda said.

"Alright." he responded.

Then over the intercom, a voice said "Bridge to Cryo two, this is Captain Keyes. Send the Spartans to the Bridge immediately."

The technician near John responded "Captain, we haven't even started the optical diagnostics, and I...". the captain interrupted him before he could finish. "on the double, Crewman."

"Aye aye, sir." was the only thing the crewman managed. He turned to the spartans, which Sam noticed were four of them, the Noble survivor now standing with them. "the captain seems jumpy, so we better get going. We'll find you weapons along the way.".

There sounded an explosion above, and Sam saw that the door near the technician had exploded, and that a lot of blood now covered the window where he had stood. "we need to go, or they'll overrun the lower bay as well." the odd spartan said. She started heading for the door, but turned as she noticed the technician wasn't following, but just staring at the window where his colleague had stood.

"Crewman, we could use a guide to the bridge." John said, and held the door open for him. The technician came out of his shock, and started to lead them to a second door further down the hall. Just when the Technician began entering his key-code to unlock it, a wallpanel exploded, and the man was thrown across the hall. Sam then heard laughter coming from behind him. He turned, and saw that the survivor from Noble-team was jumping through a hole between some ducts. "there's a way through here." the spartan said.

"what were you laughing at?" Linda asked.

"that a small explosion managed to throw the man's corpse so far. I have a sick sense of humour like that." the survivor responded.

"What do we even call you? All I know of you is that you were a member of Noble-team, and that you saved my life." Linda asked after a few moments.

The Spartan seemed to ponder that for a few moments, and then said "for now, just Six will do."

"Just Six?"

"It was my callsign in Noble-team. I'll respond to it, and it will do while I come up with something better."

"fair enough."

After a few minutes they ended up in a maintenance corridor, and were about to enter the main corridor leading to the bridge when they were ambushed by 2 elites.

They emerged from the alcoves just before the door, a minor and a major, each armed with 2 plasma rifles, and were ready to fire on the spartans the moment they emerged. John, Sam and Linda started falling back, trying to find some cover, but Six instead sprinted TOWARDS them, grabbing her knife while she did so. She ducked under most of the shots the elites fired, and let her shields handle the rest, though they got dangerously low. When she got close enough, she made a roundhouse kick at the major, knocking his rifles out of his hands. The major activated his energy daggers, but Six jumped at him, knocking him down. Before the major could do anything, she then inserted her knife into his eye, all the way to the hilt, and dragged it across his face until he stopped struggling. Six removed the knife and turned to the minor, who looked stunned by what he just saw happen. He tried to raise his rifles, but then got grabbed from behind by Sam, and he punched the elite multiple times with all of his strength. A punch from the average spartan was enough to kill any human and, if properly placed, most elites. But Sam weighted 155 kilos, and even one punch from him broke any of the elites bones into multiple pieces. But Sam punched the elite on the head five times. The minor didn't stand a chance.

Six nodded in approval. "and I thought I was aggressive." Sam laughed. So she did have a good sense of humor "oh, you are. You merely have a more... straight-forward approach." Six chuckled at that.

John and Linda just looked on at the exchange, then at each other. "are always this... offensive?" Linda asked.

"only when I'm armed with just a knife." she then grabbed one of the dropped rifles, and grabbed the grenades the major carried. "let's grab the rifles and keep moving. The captain won't come to us."

the rest of the journey to the bridge went off without a hitch for the spartans, for they either encountered fellow marines or Covenant locked behind blast doors. They entered the bridge, and found it in what a marine had just described as "controlled chaos". Though there were no people running around without purpose, people still seemed to be in a hurry to get things done. The Captain was in a discussion with an ensign about the large amount of boarders. John addressed the Captain. "Captain Keyes."

The captain turned from his conversation with an ensign, who walked back to his post. "good to see you, Spartans. Unfortunately things aren't going well for us. Cortana gave it her best, but we never really had a chance."

Cortana chose that moment to appear, facing the Captain. "a dozen Covenant superior battleships against a single Halcyon-class cruiser. With those odds I'm content with 3... make that 4 kills." she turned to the Spartans. "sleep well?" John responded "no thanks to your driving, yes." Sam diverted his attention from then on, for he knew Cortana and John were close. John, as team leader for operation: RED FLAG, had been assigned to carry the AI that would help them infiltrate Covenant systems. Cortana had been created for that mission, and John had been on a small obstacle course with her. That is, if being fired on by ODST's, being attacked by an air-strike, and being forced to go through an anti-tank mine field can be called an obstacle course. Sam had witnessed the event, and had started to respect Cortana, and even though he didn't want her in his head himself, he didn't mind her company. He turned his attention to Six, as she called herself. She was looking at what appeared to be the ship's schematics, likely memorising the layout. He didn't know what to think of her at all. On reach during their short walk to the landing pad, she had seemed like a nice person. She had even saved Linda's life without even asking about her injuries, without even a second thought. But he had seen her fight a Field-Marshal in hand-to-hand fighting when she ran out of ammo, and had won while the elite had an Energy-Sword, a fuel rod cannon, and had fought more savagely than he even expected of a brute. She had come out victorious, though she had received a slash across her visor for her fight, and she didn't look inclined to have it replaced. And with her laughing about a crewman's death, he found he couldn't figure out what she really was like as a person.

Then the ship was jolted, and he was snapped out of his thoughts.

"Report!" Keyes said.

"It must have been one of their boarding parties. I'd guess an anti-matter charge." Cortana said.

"Ma'am, fire control for the Main Cannon is offline."

Cortana's face soured. "Captain, the Cannon was my last defensive option."

The captain took on a resigned expression, "alright then. I'm initiating Cole protocol article two. We're abandoning the Autumn." He turned to the AI's avatar. "That means you too, Cortana."

"while you do what, go down with the ship?" Cortana asked with a quizzical look.

"In a matter of speaking." He turned to the odd construct hanging in front of the ship. Sam then first really noticed it. It was simply put a giant metal ring, likely thousands of kilometers in diameter. On the inner surface of the Ring, he noticed a landscape, mostly greens and blues and browns of water, hill-lands, and desert. "the object we've found, I'm gonna try and land the Autumn on it."

Cortana took on a frown. "With all due respect, sir, this war has enough dead heroes".

"I appreciate your concern, Cortana, but it's not up to me." Keyes began. "Protocol is clear. Destruction or capture of a shipboard AI is absolutely unacceptable. That means you're leaving the ship. Lock in a selection of emergency landing zones, upload them to my neural lace, and then sort yourself for a hard transfer." "Aye aye, sir" Cortana said, and her avatar winked from the pedestal.

Keyes then turned back to the Spartans "Which is where you come in, Spartans. Keep Cortana safe from the Covenant. If they Capture her, they'll learn everything. Force-deployments, weapons research..." Keyes paused for a moment. "Earth."

Sam, John and Linda nodded. They all knew the importance of Earth, now that Reach was gone. Reach was their military headquarters, and was on Earth's virtual doorstep. Now that Reach was gone, the only thing protecting Earth was the secrecy of the Cole protocol. "we understand, sir."

Cortana reappeared on the pedestal. "The Autumn will continue evasive maneuvers until you initiate a landing sequence. Not that you'll listen, but I'd suggest letting my subroutines handle the final approach."

Keyes nodded. "excellent work, Cortana. Thank you. Are you ready."

she looked around one last time, like someone looking one last time at her childhood home before it's being demolished. She then said "yank me".

Keyes pulled an AI chip out of the pedestal, and held it out to the Spartans. John took it, and inserted Cortana into his helmet. "Well" Six said as they left the bridge. "let's hope the Covenant haven't wrecked the pods yet."

Fol Katarn'ee entered the bridge of Ascendant Justice, and he was irritated.

He did understand why he was summoned, and he really couldn't blame the Fleetmaster, but it still irritated him. He was a Field-Marshal, he had only lost a fight once in his nearly 30 year campaign in the war, and he was more skilled than most of the Honor Guard of the High Prophets. He had personally killed 5 spartans, hundreds of the Coffin-soldiers called ODST's, thousands of the regular soldiers referred to as marines, and he had successfully completed over a hundred missions against the humans, sabotaging planetary defenses, stealing valuable research for his Clan, and having killed a not insignificant number of high-ranking humans. And his talent was being wasted talking with Fleetmasters.

Still, the Fleetmaster outranked him, and Fol had learned that this particular Fleetmaster was more practically-minded than most elites, who all were committed to this war for (in his mind) dogmatic superstition taught by false prophets.

He addressed the Fleetmaster with his name rather than his title, as he always did to test the Fleetmaster personally. "Thel Vadam'ee. Permission to make this discussion quick, and let me get on to end the humans before they become even more of a threat." There, he had said his intentions, and shown he, as some humans said, wiped his ass with the religious ornamentations the majority of the Covenant was so fond of. Now it was up to the Fleetmaster whether Fol would follow his orders. If the Fleetmaster responded in kind, or ignored his lack of religious reverence to the leader of the Fleet, he would follow the Fleetmaster, but if Thel chose to take offense at that, he would ignore any orders he received, and fight the humans in his own way.

Thel turned towards him, and, to his surprise, actually walked towards Fol instead of staying on the command platform. "Fol Katarn'ee, you realize as much as I do that this matter needs... delicate handling, not just storming into like a wild pack of Jiralhanae. I realize you feel your talents are being wasted, and I sympathise, but I ask that you at least listen to me."

so Thel WAS as sensible as they claimed. He also knew what his troops thought, as he was once a Zealot that was engaged in field operations. Fol could respect that, and knew that Thel would do anything to save as many of his troops as he could. "I'll listen... as long as what you say is sensible."

"I'll be short: the Prophet of Stewardship claims the engagement with the humans is now a religious matter due to the Holy ring, but he will underestimate the humans, and can't properly handle the situation. We've both claimed superior Authority over the other, but High-Charity isn't responding to our Communications." Thel paused. "what the Prophet and I agree on, however, is that the Human ship must be boarded, for it may contain intelligence on the humans. I want your advice on this matter, and to tell me how to exactly to proceed."

Fol was slightly surprised. A Fleetmaster asking a Field-Marshal for advice? It didn't happen often. Then again, Fol had a nearly legendary reputation, and he had a lot of experience in taking a human ship. He even had taken a human Marathon-class heavy cruiser from the humans, and when the Prophets were done with the ship (which his clan members already knew was devoid of useful data) was added to his Clan's growing fleet.

"Has the Prophet already sent troops to board her?" he asked while he mused, knowing he needed to fill the time. "only a few scouting pods, but no full-scale assault yet." Thel responded.

"then deploy our Special Operations divisions. They're highly skilled, experienced, and will get us the ship intact. Focus the assault on 4 points: The engine room, to prevent them from manually destroying the engines and thereby the ship, the hanger bays and Drop-pod launch bays, to at least hurt as many soldiers and damage as much human equipment as possible before it leaves the ship, which is now inevitable anyway, and the bridge, for the human Captain will be there. Have Seraphs patrol near the escape pod launch bays so the pods can be picked off if they do launch." he paused. "have people you trust in charge of the assaults, not the Prophet's people."

Thel started to talk, but Fol cut him off. "as you said, the Prophet's people can't properly handle the situation. It's better if your own in charge." Thel nodded. "I agree. Which is why I want you to be in charge of the party assaulting the Bridge. If you reputation is even half true, you will handle the job extraordinarily well."

Fol nodded, pleased. So he would see some action after all.

"I'll prepare myself for the assault then. I'll have complete control of the ship in an hour." he turned to leave, but Thel called after him. "one more thing, so you have proper intel when you board the ship. We've intercepted multiple communications in the ship indicating 4 Spartans are aboard. ONE of them they recovered from the same Human Mass-driver cannon you were tasked to stop on Reach."

Fol tensed, more aware of the fresh scar across his right eye. The one he got from a Spartan. The reminder of his first ever failure.

"I'll be careful then." he said, and left the Bridge.

There, the first chapter. I'll try to upload as many new chapters as fast as I can, but I still have school, and can't promise anything on a regular basis

With kind regards

Gharst Omenlumin