Chapter 2
The Covenant warriors walked towards the ancient temple. They came to the large doors.
"They're locked," said an Elite named 'Ferdonnewaldae.
'Osoolazumme noticed a holo panel. He scrolled his fingers across the panel. The huge doors opened with a loud creek. They entered the ancient structure.
The walls, floor, and ceiling were just like any other Forerunner architecture. It was a little dark, but light enough to see where you were going.
"What, exactly, is this artifact we're looking for, 'Osoolazumme?" asked 'Ferdonnewaldae.
"I'm not exactly sure," said 'Osoolazumme, "But I think it might be a weapon of some sort,"
They walked down the winding corridors. I was quiet, the place seemed to be uninhabited.
"Hey, look at this!" said 'Elunumanferdae, an Elite who had been 'Osoolazumme's friend a long time. The others rushed over to see what it was.
It was the corpse of some long-dead humanoid creature. The body was almost fossilized. The creature's chest cavity was torn open, almost like something had burst through it. Lying nest to the corpse was the long-dead body of some sort of spider-like creature.
"This body isn't Covenant and it isn't human either," said 'Osoolazumme. He looked at the dead spider-creature. "and I have no idea what that thing is,"
'Ferdonnewaldae looked at the body of the humanoid creature. "Something ripped through this body's ribcage," he said.
"Let's move on," said 'Osoolazumme, "Whatever happened here, it happened a long, long time ago,"
The Covenant warriors moved on. The winding corridors seemed to go on forever.The structure looked even bigger on the inside than it did on the outside. They're were lots of inscriptions and pictures etched onto the walls. They eventually came to a door.
"Is this door locked?" asked 'Ferdonnewaldae.
Before 'Osoolazumme could answer, he smelt something. "I reconize that stench," he said. Suddenly, the door knocked down and dozens of small squid-like creatures burst out.
"The Flood!" yelled 'Osoolazumme. The Covenant warriors fired at the Infection Forms with their plasma guns. The little parasites were quickly taken care of.
"Any casualities?" asked 'Ferdonnewaldae after all the Flood were gone.
"Only one Grunt," said 'Osoolazumme, "and that isn't a big loss," 'Osoolazumme didn't think they would encounter the Flood. But they did.
'Osoolazumme looked around. They had come to some sort of chamber. Two hallways leading from this chamber led into two more chambers. On the wall was an inscription, written four times, each time in a different language. One of the languages he could understand.
"This inscription says that this temple was used to contain and study two different types of parasitic life-forms," said 'Osoolazumme, "and it says that the second parasite is just as deadly as the Flood,"
"Two parasites?" said 'Ferdonnewaldae, "I thought one parasite was bad enough! What's the other parasite?"
"I don't know," said 'Osoolazumme, "But I'm sure we'll find out eventually,"