Jama 'Marumee's comrades poured from the belly of the Phantom troopship, and formed a perimeter around the circle formed by the Phantom's grav lift.
An overzealous Sangheili began to roar, "Kill the human bastards! Kill them all!" 'Marumee began to worry about the trooper's sanity, until the unnamed commando received a trio of bullets through his neck for his trouble.
"Watch those humans carefully. If they flank us, we'll be torn apart," 'Marumee shouted, and ducked behind a rock to avoid a burst of bullets. Grimly, 'Marumee smiled. He did not smile because he had a funny thought, or because he had gotten a kill, but because he had felt like it. Because he could, he supposed.
Sergeant Benson fired at the Elite in the shiny white armor. It ducked behind a rock, and Benson snarled, "Fucker!" He sat down, leaning against a tree, and reloaded. To follow up, he pulled the pin on a grenade, and lobbed it behind him. The following screams, accompanying the loud BANG was more than satisfying enough for missing the Elite. He laughed, and then leaned out from cover, blasting a Grunt in the head.
Suddenly, his radio crackled. "Hey Sergeant Benson! Save some of the party favors for us, eh?" Lieutenant Jamison hollered. The second Pelican swooped over the canyon-like space that Benson and his men were fighting in.
"Hold that thought, Benson." Jamison said, pausing for a moment. Benson heard another explosion, and then the battered hulk of one of the Phantoms came crashing down onto the Covenant forces that Benson and company was fighting. The Pelican followed, instead making a perfect landing to start discharging its' troop and equipment payload. Benson snapped to salute, and immediately went to help the El-tee with a mounted turret, one of those big guns with so much ammo, it was like it never ran out.
"I think your little present got rid of most of the Covenant, Lieutenant." Benson said with a grin. Jamison tapped his faceplate, and pointed.
A red-armored Elite was trying to limp away. Benson pointed his rifle and let it cough once. The bullets hit their mark, and the Elite stumbled to the ground.
"That better be all of them," Growled one of the Marines, "I don't want to be putting those fuckheads down all day!"
'Marumee awoke to the sound of flames crackling, and a pounding headache. "What in the name of the Prophets?" He moaned, rubbing his aching cranium. A quick survey told the Elite all he needed to know. He was one lucky son of a bitch. The Phantom had crushed the most of where the Covenant had been taking cover, and the rock 'Marumee had been taking cover behind had been large enough to prop the Phantom up, and keep him from being squashed like a Kig-Yar in the path of a Lekgolo.
'Marumee was extremely careful as he crawled from the wreck. The humans were obviously fortifying their perimeter by now, and could have picked through the wreckage already. To be honest, 'Marumee didn't know how long he had been out, and he wasn't going to be killed by carelessness.
The Sangheili dashed for a large structure that jutted from the wall, and was surrounded by boulders. Quietly, he peeked between the rocks, to check and see if anyone had spotted him. Nobody had.
'Marumee sighed, and whispered, "Fuck. How am I going to escape this?" In his thinking, the alien began to tap his foot. When he heard a faint clank, he looked down. Staring back was metal portal, which slid open as 'Marumee neared it.
"How did I miss that?" 'Marumee muttered, striding in. He carried his plasma rifle, with an almost-full charge. Hooking it onto his belt, the Elite wandered into the tunnel, and began to walk.
It didn't take long for 'Marumee to learn that the tunnel was not going to end soon. It emptied into an L-shaped balcony, which seemed to be some sort of observation deck. The windows weren't sturdy enough to withstand a beating from the Sangheili plasma rifle, and they caved right in, allowing the alien to hop down into the lower level.
The room had two rectangles in the middle, which seemed to be a kind of display case, or a containment module. A grouping of solid-hologram consoles glowed cool colors. Bizarre runes spiraled outwards from the center of on screen, and various readouts blinked, spun, and otherwise drew attention to themselves.
With slight hesitation, 'Marumee tapped a button. A hissing sounded, and the raised deck under the Sangheili's feet became transparent. A hiss echoed, and a plate inside the containment chamber elevated several centimeters up, and separated, revealing a black hole in the floor.
When nothing happened for several minutes, 'Marumee stomped on the clear metal panel he was standing on. For a moment, 'Marumee thought he heard a faint slithery sound coming from the chamber.
In his curiosity, the alien pressed his muzzle against the glass, and peered down into the dark square beneath him, trying to see something. Suddenly a bulbous, squid-like creature shot out of the dark and right at 'Marumee's face.
'Marumee threw himself backward, forgetting that there was a glass panel between him and the Flood infection form. In his haste to escape, the Sanheili's hop sent him crashing off of the top of the containment chamber, and onto his back. His shield crackled at the force of the impact onto the floor, and the infection form skittered back and forth against the permanently clear side of the containment chamber.
"Son of a BITCH!" 'Marumee shouted at the tiny infection form, which did not show any less eagerness to attack. Then, all of a sudden, the parasite stopped, and rested by the hole from whence it had come, twitching its' tiny tentacles and penetrators, and doing some sort of dance.
Very quickly, more of the tiny aliens appeared out of the hole, and began to follow suit. Soon, the entire containment chamber was filled with dozens of the infection forms.
'Marumee wasn't very sure what the little tentacled aliens were, but he found himself somewhat disturbed by them. The bizarre creatures seemed to radiate a malicious aura, and 'Marumee decided he would rather not hang around them any more than necessary.
With this in mind, the Sangheili strode over to the door at the end of the room, and as he neared, it immediately hissed open to reveal a small room, with an elevator in it.
The elevator didn't appear to go up, as was evident by the low ceiling. However, the ceiling was high enough so that 'Marumee could stand comfortably on the platform as he hesitantly pressed a button on the rectangular holopanel facing the rear of the elevator.
The platform shot downward, and red bands on the walls of the shaft whizzed past 'Marumee's eyes, and increased in speed until they were almost completely blurred together.
And then the elevator stopped as fast as it had begun. 'Marumee stared at a space identical to the one he had just left. A small, oddly shaped room with one door. The main, and only difference was that the door was square, considerably larger, and split into four sections as 'Marumee wandered through it.
'Marumee found himself in a fairly large, square room with another door at the other end. With surprising speed, the entry hatch slammed shut, and 'Marumee could only whirl around as it sealed shut, and began to glow red.
In unison, a voice began to speak an alien language. 'Marumee couldn't understand most of it, but he recognized a few words. One was the word 'warning', and a word that sounded similar to the Sangheili term for 'contaminants'. The alien soldier didn't like the possibilities that gave him, and reached for the energy sword at his belt.
With a flick of the wrist, the blade snapped to life, and the second door opened. There was a rush of air, and a foul smell wafted into 'Marumee's nostrils. With a grimace, the alien warrior stepped into a large room, about half as big as a launch bay for a cargo shuttle, with several columns providing support for a clear observation deck.
The air in the chamber was so thick with some sort of fog that 'Marumee could hardly breathe. The miasma was chokingly heavy, and it beat the Sangheili's visibility to death with a stick, but it didn't seem to be poisonous as it was. It had a greenish tinge, and 'Marumee suspected it came from the large protuberances growing on the walls.
Upon further inspection, 'Marumee found that there were no doors in this chamber. It was, in essence, a gigantic maze, in which the only exit was the portal used to enter, and that didn't open from the inside. If something lurked in this labyrinth, 'Marumee would have to deal with it.
The entire area was eerily silent, and 'Marumee tried to keep as quiet as possible. It seemed wrong, somehow, to defile the sanctity of this place by breaking the oppressive silence. Besides, there could be something waiting around the next corner that might like nothing more than to beat the Sangheili into a bloody pulp, and suck his remains up through a tube.
'Marumee wandered through the murky maze until he found that he had been discovered by a mob of infection forms. The parasites leaped for his face, and with a slap from the flat of the energy blade, they exploded into a green mist.
A few minutes later, a veritable carpet of the creatures skittered towards him. Angrily, the Sangheili kicked, smacked and vaporized the tiny threats; roaring at them as he was forced backwards through the corridors, back towards the door that was locked from the inside.
The miniscule threat that 'Marumee faced seemed to grow even bigger as he neared the portal to safety, as if the malicious little creatures knew the door was locked, and enjoyed that fact. But these tiny creatures couldn't possibly be so complex. They would have to have some sort of higher intelligence controlling them.
The thought almost made 'Marumee laugh. Such single-minded little tyrants couldn't possibly be under the control of some higher intelligence. The entire room was crowded with flood infection forms, and 'Marumee was growing tired.
As 'Marumee was concentrating on the Flood around his feet, he looked up to the clear ceiling, several meters above, and found an infection form leaping at his face. Without a thought, the Sangheili batted it away by jerking his head. It happened to distract him from the horde long enough for him to be buried in flood.
The Sangheili was filled with hundreds of razor-sharp penetrators, and he sank to his knees. The warrior could tolerate a large amount of pain, but this almost crossed the limit. He gave a strangled cry, and he was almost consumed by the Flood until a stream of blue heat blasted across the Flood on 'Marumee's body. The aliens were packed so thick that the Sentinel Beam didn't register until the infectious little aliens were burnt away, and when the beam crackled across 'Marumee's armor, he shook himself like a wet dog, and sent the remaining infection forms flying.
Limping over to the incline that lined each of the chambers, 'Marumee gasped from exertion, and the shiny gold Sentinels that had defended him set up a perimeter, burning squid-like aliens whenever they were detected.
As the Sangheili regained his composure, he was greeted by a strange floating contraption. He was frozen in awe as the entity began to speak.
"Hello. I am Twenty-four-oh-one Penitent Tangent, Monitor of Installation Zero-Five. You have breached the Flood holding chambers, destroyed a large number of the specimens, and endangered your life and many others. What poor judgment." The Oracle floated towards the locked door. 'Marumee followed, and the door hissed open as the Oracle neared.
"As you can see, Installation Zero-Five has been kept in good order. I have noted that there have not been many status reports from Installation Zero-Four for some time now. Do you know what might've caused this?"
The Oracle did not allow 'Marumee to speak. He immediately began to speak again, and continued to do so for quite a while. 'Marumee began to tune the somewhat annoying, yet unbelievably holy icon, and examine his surroundings.
The Oracle eventually lead 'Marumee back to the doorway he had
The Oracle proceeded to lead 'Marumee through a series of labs and chambers obviously intended to be used to study something, apparently the Flood. All the while, the Oracle babbled on about the supposed outbreak of flood on Installation Zero-Four and how 343 Guilty Spark supposedly reported the appearance of the Reclaimer. He also expressed a dire disbelief in these things, and ignored them, since he himself preferred to concentrate on more pressing matters, such as the small outbreaks of Flood that Installation Zero-Five had been experiencing in the past few decades, which had happened many and close between, far too close to be any random outbreaks so it had to be some outside control from the primary controller, who was being held in Major Containment Zone 857.
At this, 'Marumee snorted. He had been wrong about the infection forms' lack of a higher intelligence. As he contemplated this thought, he didn't realize that he was at the door he had used to enter.
When he did, he looked at the Oracle, and said, "Why have we come here?" Tangent tilted himself curiously.
"Why, to find more information about Installation Zero-Four, of course. It is vital that I find out what happened, so that the information can be distributed to the other installations and catalogued properly."
'Marumee gaped as Tangent drifted between the doors, and headed for the human encampment. For a moment, he stopped to wonder the wisdom of following the Oracle into the human encampment. With slight reassurance, 'Marumee decided that if he were to die, he would take some of the humans with him. That said, he marched to his impending doom.