Ch. 3 - Rampancy
The Elites led by the Arbiter traveled through the narrow hallway. The walls were scorched with plasma & beam burns, & the floor was covered with Sentinel & Constructor parts, & some grenade stains. The distant roars & screeches of some unknown Parasite form echoed throughout the hallway, making the Elites' blood run cold & their journey a stress filled one.
"How much longer does this corridor last?" griped a Spec Op. "It seems that we've been traveling for hours."
"It ends up ahead." replied the Arbiter pointing & becoming annoyed by his fellow Elites' whining.
Finally, the hallway ended, opening into a large room with many stasis cells. Then, a horrific sound occurred. The Elites looked off to the right of the room. 1 of the stasis cell's glass observation wall had a crack appear in the center of it. Then another sound, & another, the sounds came from every cell in the room.
"Defensive positions!" ordered Siya. The Elite squad gathered into a large circle with Avo & the Arbiter in the center. Avo aimed his Fuel Rod Cannon at the original cell, whose cracks had grown, almost the entire glass wall was covered. Then, all of the stasis cells broke open, Infection forms poured out of the cells.
"Open fire!" The Arbiter ordered, "Avo, switch to your Plasma Rifle, save the cannon."
"Burn, Parasite!" yelled Vse as he threw a Plasma Grenade. A few of the others followed suit. Soon, there were many grenade explosions. Some of the blasts were rather close & a few Elites' shields were drained.
"Cover me!" pleaded 1 as he waited for his shield to recharge, but it was too late. An Infection form soon embedded itself into his chest. His cries of horror & pain grew into a screech, then a roar as he became 1 of the Parasite's dreaded combat forms. This happened to a few of the others, but they were burned by the stolen Sentinel Beams & cut down by Energy Swords. After the onslaught the surviving Elites salvaged any ammo & continued on their search for the Shipmaster.
They soon found their way into a Terminal Mainframe room. Avo & Vse quickly accessed the Security Terminal, while Siya, a Major, & a Spec Op covered the door.
"I've shut down the locks on most of the doors in the southeast sector, & closed off most of the Sentinel Launchers." Vse told the Arbiter.
"Good," replied the Arbiter, "Avo, have you found anything?"
"Yes, it definitely appears that the Sentinels are working with the Parasite." he said, pointing to a monitor screen.
"It seems that we'll never find the Shipmaster at this rate." sighed a Minor.
"Fantastic!" exclaimed Avo, "Arbiter, I've found Crae! He's locked himself in a room with Relos, Saros, & Tsu!"
"Thank the Gods, my brother is still alive!" Vse said happily, almost crying.
"We must save them," the Arbiter declared, then looking at Siya & the 2 Elites guarding the door with him, "You 3, guard this room, make sure that only other Elites enter." he said as he, Vse, Avo, & 4 others left to go help the hiding Elites.
Soon the rescue party came across a locked door, but Avo & Vse quickly unlocked it.
"Greetings again, bipeds." said a familiar, mechanical voice. The Elites saw that the voice belonged Adjutant Instinct, its grey "eye" now glowing red, showing that it had indeed become rampant. "I don't know how you managed to escape being assimilated into the Flood, but your luck has just ran out. Sentinels, take care of our guests." Several Sentinels came out & began to attack the group. A Major quickly jumped behind a column, finding a spare Plasma Rifle. Now with dual rifles, he covered the Arbiter as he took cover with Avo. Vse downed a Sentinel with a lucky Carbine shot, then dove onto the wreckage, grabbing the Sentinel's beam & taking cover with the Major. A Minor's shield was taken down & his left arm severely burned, rendering it useless, but found cover. 1 Spec Op was, however, less fortunate. His shield was taken out by a Sentinel exploding as it hit the ground behind him just as he was aiming his Beam Rifle at Instinct. The explosion caused him to miss, & his shot bounced off a wall & came back, hitting him right in the chest as he stood up. The other Spec Op had activated his Active Camo, with this upper hand, he snuck behind a Sentinel. He jumped on top of it, causing it to miss fire & deshielded the Monitor. With its shield down it quickly fled. The now visible Spec Op was fighting to stay on the Sentinel. Another Sentinel fired at him, but he saw this & jumped off, causing the boarded Sentinel to be destroyed, while the Sentinel that just fired was ironically burned by Vse's commandeered beam. With the skirmish over, the Elites prayed for their fallen comrade. The surviving Spec Op grabbed his brother-in-arms' Beam Rifle, & they headed off to help their allies.
After a few more battles with Sentinels & Flood the Elites finally found the locked room the survivors were concealed in.
"Tsu, it's me Vse," said the Elite as he knocked on the door. A couple of seconds later Saros opened the door & summoned them in. Vse & Tsu were so happy to see each other that they hugged. However, this joyous occasion was cut short, by the screech of a combat form then a loud thud on the door.
"They've found us, everyone, defensive positions!" ordered the Arbiter. After several minutes of the same screeches & banging, there was silence. "Avo, check to see if it's safe." said the Arbiter. Avo doing as he was told opened the door just enough to look out.
"The Parasite is nowhere to be seen." said Avo as he closed the door once again.
"Good, then we need to head back to the Terminal Mainframe, Crae, how are we on ammo?" asked the Arbiter turning to Crae.
"As long as we don't have to fight a lot, we are fine." answered the Spec Op.
"Then let us go." the Arbiter announced. The Elites gathered all the ammo that they could carry & headed back out the door & back to the Terminal Mainframe.
As the Elites walked down the now dark hallway with the occasional room they heard the Research Facility creak & groan as if the Parasite being released was hurting the very structure.
"We need to quicken our pace." Arbiter said. The Elites agreed & they all began to walk much quicker, almost in a run. They soon passed through the room were they fought the betraying Monitor & his Sentinels. Vse noticed that the dead Spec Ops' body was gone & instantly knew that the corpse was infected. In the far side of the room there was a roar, & the very Spec Op that had died was now charging at them in the form of a combat body. The Major with the dual Plasma Rifles had disarmed its tentacle arm as it screeched in pain. The Minor that had the burned arm had fired a few shots on its other arm at the shoulder making it useless & Avo, using his cannon, pinned the form to the floor. As he struggled with the creature, the Arbiter, grabbing his sword slew the beast.
"We must continue." he said as he deactivated his sword.
They soon returned to the mainframe. The Major that stayed in the room let them in when they knocked.
"Arbiter," Siya said as he noticed the group, "I have great news. We've found the Shipmaster!"
"That is great," the Arbiter sighed, relieved, "where is he?"
"He & a few others have locked themselves in what appears to be a hanger." Siya replied.
"That must be where the Enforcers came from." said Avo, talking about the earlier battle with the monstrous mechanisms.
"We have gathered as much information from this Terminal Mainframe as we can." said the Spec Op that had stayed to guard the room with Siya & the Major.
"It would be better if we all went so after we find the Shipmaster we can formulate some plan." Arbiter explained, & once again, the Elites left the room to search for their lost Shipmaster.
The Elites eventually came to a fork in the long hallway.
"Siya, which direction do we take?" asked the Arbiter looking down each hallway that had formed because of the fork. Down the left, there appeared to be numerous rooms to each side of the hall. While the right looked like the same as the previous hallways; long & dark.
"Both lead to the hanger," replied Siya, "the left seems shorter, but the treacherous Oracle has probably set a trap down that one, so, I say to the right." Sure enough, as he said that, many of the doors, if not all, began to be smashed from the inside, & the group heard many screeches & roars.
"To the right it is," the Arbiter said as they ran down the long, dark hallway that looked so much like other traveled many times before, "Vse, Tsu, cover our 6," using a phrase he learned from the Humans. The brothers let the other Elites pass & ran behind the rushing crowd of the Arbiter, Spec Ops, Minors, & Majors as the nightmarish noises became more & more distant.
After running for about half an hour the group came across a room with a few Flood bodies & parts of dismantled Sentinels. The room branched out into 3 different halls.
"Siya, which direction?" asked the Arbiter, hearing the all too familiar screeches.
"Down the middle." he answered & the squad continued onward. "There's the door to the hanger!" he said after running for a while & pointing to a large door. Several Elites banged on the door.
"Shipmaster," yelled Ralos, " we're here to rescue you! Let us in!"
"The door is jammed, give us time." answered the Rtas from the other side. Just then, Vse & Tsu ran up to the main group from their sentry positions.
"The Parasite is headed this way!" said Tsu in between pants. The others looked at the path that they just came from, they could hear the terrible roars coming closer. Then came a banging, only this was different, not only did it come from the walls, but from the cieling as well!
"Defensive positions," ordered the Arbiter, "don't let them get to the door!" The Elites looked around, waiting for the Flood to come at them from any & every direction. The combat forms flooded the hallway, racing towards the Elites. "Hold your fire until you can get a good shot." the Arbiter shouted over the screeches & roars. The monstrosaties came within about 20 feet of the group as they fired upon the Flood ranks. The occassional Carrier would explode, causing combat bodies flying, but releasing the Infection forms transported inside. The Flood banging on the walls finally broke in, causing even more havoc & chaos.
The hanger door opened enough for 1 Elite to get through at a time, but it was getting wider. Soon the door was so ajar that 4 Elites could make it inside. By this time most of the Flood had been either killed or unarmed, literally.
"Everyone, go through, Vse, Tsu," called the Arbiter, "help me cover the others."
"For you, this was made!" cried Tsu as he lobbed a Plasma Grenade at a Carrier.
"Vse, Tsu, get in the hanger!" yelled the Arbiter.
"What about-"
"Now!" ordered the Arbiter, cutting off Vse. They followed his orders. The door began to close. The Arbiter lit 2 grenades. 'Your task as the Arbiter is perilous, suicidal.' the Arbiter was remembering the late Prophet of Mercy's words before he was dubbed the Arbiter. With the grenades in hand, he lobbed them both at the approaching creatures. The last thing he saw was the blue, glowing light from the explosions.