Lieutenant Commander Joseph Marden, ONI Prowler Midnight, in orbit of gas giant Substance
"Keep us 3000 kilometres distant, I'm taking no chances." He warned. Lieutenant Domokos made the necessary adjustments, eliciting a low purring noise from the engines which broke the deathly silence which consumed them.
"Holding 3000 kilometres, aye sir." The Astrogation Officer confirmed.
"That's one hell of a view." Ferenczy whispered from her console. "Even if we were allowed to talk about this, no-one back home would believe it."
"You've got that right." Lieutenant Hamm said "The image series we're taking for Section One are incredible. The inner surface of the ring has a varied and diverse topography, mountain regions, jungle climates, vast savannahs. This place is amazing. The Forerunners, or whoever the hell built this thing, they were so far beyond us, we must have been like ants, and yet they just up and disappeared."
Marden nodded in agreement "The bigger they are, the harder they fall. Now can we focus on those atmospheric scans, I want a full spectroscopic analysis before we-"
"Sir! Sangheili Fleet breaking ranks and moving on our position!" Domokos blurted out.
"He's right sir, a large proportion of the fleet are moving on us, count 70 ships, 1 CSO-class Supercarrier, 6 CAS-class Assault Carriers, 10 CCS-class Battlecruisers, and the rest is destroyers, frigates and corvettes. Orders sir?" Hamm asked, looking terrified.
He gulped. If this fleet detected them, well, Prowlers weren't even supposed to take on single-seat fighter craft, let alone the kind of power these ships packed. His only option was stealth. "Nothing, cut all power to the engines, maximise Baffler input, check and re-check our active camouflage. Turn off all power systems except from core ops and life support." He looked around at his bridge crew, who were all too pre-occupied with staring at either the Halo or the approaching fleet. "That means now people!"
They sprang into life, and the lights on the bridge dimmed, and many of the secondary computer stations on the bridge flickered off. They were now running dark, and aside from one of the Covenant ships bumping into the cloaked and baffled Midnight, there was no chance that any of the dozens of superior vessels could detect them.
There they waited in the darkness for the next 30 minutes while the covenant ships stalked closer in the blackness, looking like a group of sharks closing in on an injured seal. The tension was palpable, and he had to really focus on his breathing to keep it steady. He breathed a shuddering sigh of relief when the congregation of sleek vessels moved past them. Instead the ships moved over to the Halo and adopted a rather odd pattern; each ship, no matter how big or small, took up a position within the ring, staying about a thousand kilometres above a certain sector of the inner surface of the Halo.
"What are they doing?" Ferenczy wondered aloud
"I'm not sure" Marden muttered "Hamm, bring up a full EM spectroscopic analysis of the fleet, passive scanners only."
"Aye sir." A grid of varying colours overlaid itself on the main view screen, and he commanded the system to zoom in on the nearest CAS-class Assault Carrier. The selected craft, magnified on the view screen, looked just as deadly this far away as it did when burning the surfaces of worlds. As the ship's passive scanners observed the ship, pinpricks of bright yellow light were placed over the lower hull, one at the prow and one aft, as well as dozens of tiny points along the side of the craft.
He pounded his fist into the arm of his chair, swearing loudly. "They're arming weapons."
"Shouldn't we evade?" Domokos asked wide-eyed.
He shook his head "This doesn't make sense, we're running dark, no way could they detect us…" Marden re-checked all the Baffler inputs, and confirmed that no radio transmissions had left the ship in the last hour. He trusted his bridge crew, but there was a story circulating around the Prowler Corps of an experimental stealth frigate, which was disabled by Insurrectionist fire after one of its crew betrayed them by transmitting a laser pulse to the rebel positions. "Start a detailed scan of the Assault Carrier, focus on the gamma region of the spectrum."
Before the Lieutenant could respond, the space around the carrier rippled and flared bright white. Two brilliant white lances of pure energy leapt towards the surface of the Halo, the tall mountains casting long stark shadows along the ring's surface as the target area burned. Following the devastating blast of the two energy projectors, a hail of blazing blue plasma torpedoes rained down on the ring, lighting the atmosphere and scorching the ground.
"Good God." Hamm whispered, horrified. "They're destroying the entire inner ring."
Marden panned out from the carrier to observe the whole situation; Hamm was right, every capital ship was doing the same thing, blasting the surface beneath them with their advanced weaponry, leaving blackened trails in their wake as they moved around in a strangely hypnotic pattern, each ship weaving backwards and forwards, pouring white hot death onto the Halo.
Not many people alive had witnessed a glassing. Generally when the covenant set about obliterating a human world, they did just that. Vaporising oceans, melting continents, setting the very atmosphere alight. It was a truly awesome sight, both magnificent and at the same time utterly horrifying.
"Why?" Ferenczy whispered.
"Ultimate Quarantine. The Flood is on that Ring. They're cauterising the infection." Marden spat, rubbing his forehead. He'd read the after-action reports, the gruesome power of the virile infection could not be allowed to leave the ring or High Charity. Knowing this, part of him was relieved that the Elites had made the decision that would have taken the UNSC months of committees and red tape to make. However, part of his mission was now being slowly vaporised by genocidal aliens, so his relief was matched equally by disappointment. "Keep recording as much as we can, I want all of this captured on tape, Section One will have a field day."
"Yeah, or a Wake." Domokos muttered
He grunted agreement before turning his attention to the readouts on his screen; at this rate, the computer estimated that the entire ring's inner surface would be destroyed within 30 hours.
"Bleed some power into the engines, give us 10% and get us to a better observational position." He ordered bitterly. "If these hinge-heads are going to destroy one of the most important scientific finds in human history, but we're going to get some real pretty pictures of them doing so."
Once they had reached their position, he ordered full black out, keeping only minimal systems online. "Kick your feet up and relax people, looks like the Sangheili are too busy to notice us. Keep an eye on them, and listen out for our Spartan friend. Seeing as the other half of our mission is currently going up in smoke, I'd like it if this one didn't."
CPO Jacob-209, 15th November 2552, Holy City of High Charity
"That door isn't going to hold out forever." Hera reminded him for the third time in as little minutes.
"I'm fully aware of that thank you" The AI's nervousness was not helpful at this particular juncture, with his arms buried deep within the exposed wires and pipes of the Pelican's busted engine. In one hand he clutched the plasma welder and his other hand was scrabbling inside the maze of tubes connected to the thruster housing, searching for the damaged coolant pipe that had caused their crash.
The reason for the rush was a crowd of Flood, a dozen Combat Forms and a pair of the hulking Juggernaut variants were all bashing their way through the security doors to the hangar. According to the security camera footage, more were on the way from the canteen, which had now become a Flood Nest. Jacob could hear their screams and roars through the triple-thickness Titanium metal, and it certainly added a note of urgency to his actions.
"Gotcha" He muttered under his breath as he felt an irregular connection and forced a hole in the wire mesh, revealing the broken pipe, and the pool of blue dried coolant surrounding it. He quickly welded the damaged part back together, his visor automatically polarising in response to the intense light.
"Coolant flow is restored, flight capabilities restored, she'll hold for now." She confirmed, and he hurried about the task of reattaching the engine's cover plate before pulling himself inside the side door of the Pelican, tossing the welder into the crew bay and moving quickly towards the cockpit
After satisfying himself that his two patients were strapped in and stable, he took off his helmet and scratched at his itchy scalp; no matter how much money they poured into the MJOLNIR system, the basic problems of encasing a human head in a sealed helmet remained.
He rested his lid on the console as he entered the cockpit, grabbing the yoke and pulling backwards, glad that Hera had had the foresight to start the engines as he got into the ship. The readouts on the console before him read amber. Good enough. The Pelican lurched backwards towards the awaiting hangar exit, wobbling slightly as the on-board systems compensated for the slightly below optimum thrust being produced by the repaired engine.
As the proximity alarm blared in his ears the hallway door directly in front of them burst open, one half of the triple-reinforced metal glancing off of the Pelican's nose and crumpling the metal, momentarily tipping the craft forward before the thrusters automatically compensated. He swore and activated the chain gun, selecting the targets ahead of him for the 70mm auto canon to dispatch. The pack of Flood tore into the hangar, flailing limbs and screaming, one of them even clutched an Assault Rifle in one disfigured hand, loosing bursts of fire at him.
The steady pounding of the chin gun started up, and depleted uranium slugs tore the leading Juggernaut Form to ribbons before moving on to the next one. However, the ruthless efficiency of the chain gun couldn't quite stop a Combat form from leaping an incredibly long distance to land on the cockpit's viewscreen and begin pounding with its disfigured limbs against the plexiglass. The clear screen moaned and creaked under the abuse, and he knew that if the screen so much as got a crack, flood spores could enter the cabin and potentially infect his comrades.
Determined to prevent this, he jerked the yoke back hard as the rear of the dropship approached the open hangar bay door. The Pelican began a steep backwards dive, and the extra pulse of thrust to the fore engines he ordered with a flick of his thumb tipped the nose backwards, and the lip of the hangar bay entrance scraped along the dorsal surfaces of the ship, tearing the combat form from the cockpit glass.
He grinned slightly as the combat form shrieked and the Pelican continued its dive nose-first and enjoyed the feeling of freefall, slightly disappointed when he eventually pulled the pelican out of its dive and levelled out, engaging autopilot and setting the destination as the High Council Chambers before leaning back and exhaling heavily, adrenaline wearing off slowly.
"You'll be happy to know that your little stunt has not compromised the hull integrity, although you did scratch the paint a fair bit." Hera said, and he snorted.
"Noted." He said, rubbing his eyes and moaning slightly.
"Something I can help with?" Hera intoned in his mind, and he shook his head slowly in response.
"No, thank you. I'm just trying to figure out how the hell I'm supposed to drag these two out of here alive." He tapped his fingers rhythmically against the thigh of his armour, deep in thought.
"Well, if it's any help, you're in pretty good shape to keep them alive so far, they've both got vacuum-proof suits and neither of them are infected yet." She soothed "And you've established contact with Cortana, although I'm still not sure what to make of the situation myself."
He grunted "Don't humour me, if you 4th Gen AI are half as smart as the last gen, you'll have thought of every single possible course of action, its corresponding consequences, and then run each one through a dozen morality and ethics subroutines and algorithms, as well as cross-checking them with the mission parameters, worked out how long each option would take and their survivability indexes." He looked up at the diminutive holographic figure, never more aware that in reality the essence of what the AI was was spread around him in the systems of the dropship.
"You really do know something about us then." She whispered, her eyes wide and a note of respect creeping into her tone "If you want me to be straight with you, none of our 17 options is particularly appetising, the path most in line with our mission parameters is to simply overload the reactor of this station and destroy Cortana, the flood, Delta Halo and the majority of the Sangheili fleet in one fell swoop." She shook her head slightly, throwing up diagrams and schematics onto the view screen which he didn't pay much attention to.
"Well that's not going to happen, our mission has changed." He said "You and I both know that."
"Agreed, this 'message' must at least be investigated further, although I shudder to think what awful creatures have developed at the heart of the flood infestation" She continued.
"I guess we'll find out." He relented, standing up, jamming his helmet back down over his ears and moving through to the crew bay. "I'm going to need an extra gun though"
He grabbed the medical kit from its mounting as he walked over to Turney's unconscious form, removing the sedative-reversal StimPatch from the box and slapping it onto her neck. He turned away and checked that the Pilot's vitals were stable, and furrowed his brow at her slightly elevated body temperature. Her core temperature was climbing far too rapidly, especially seeing as she had not 30 minutes earlier been in cryo stasis. He made sure she was strapped in securely and returned to the Marine's side as she started coming round, groggily shaking her head and moaning.
"Where am I?" She asked, her voice croaky and hoarse.
"You're on board the Pelican, how are you feeling?" Hera said, her avatar shimmering into life behind him, he busied himself releasing her from the webbing and dragging over the set of ODST armour from its resting place.
"Jesus" She squeaked, jumping slightly at the AI's appearance. "Who the hell are you?"
"I am Hera, I'm attached to Spartan-209 for the duration of this assignment." She replied coolly, bowing slightly.
"Great, I get two machines looking after me" Turney said, sitting up and stretching, wincing. She looked up at Jacob, and the instant of awe on her face was quickly replaced by a forced indifference that the Spartan had seen on many Marine, Army and Navy faces before. "So, what's the plan?"
He coughed, clearing his throat. "There's no way around it, we have to get into the High Council chambers, at the heart of the Flood infection."
Her face paled for a moment, and she breathed deeply, eyes slightly de-focused "Okay, I'd like to think that there was another option, but there really isn't, is there?"
"Not really, no." Hera chimed in "We've taken the liberty of acquiring some better armour for you, one with good enough filters to prevent Flood Spores from entering your lungs."
"You're not selling me on this" Turney said, holding up the chest piece of the ODST suit "It's like a skin-tight coffin." She looked up at the Spartan, gulping. "Besides, if a Spartan needs my help, I know that whatever we're going to be facing is a hell of a lot scarier than you're letting on."
He grunted noncommittally. "I could probably do it solo, but I'd appreciate your eyes, ears and bullets. You know way more about the Flood than I do, how they move, how they attack." He hoped that the subtle flattery would appeal to the Marine's ego, and sure enough her eyes started sparkling a little, her frown creeping into a muted smile.
"Well, when you put it that way." She shook her head disbelievingly. "I can't believe I'm doing this, but okay, let me suit up, let it never be said that a Marine ever ran from a fight."
He nodded, and Hera's form glimmered with motes of light. "Good" She said, vanishing from view, but keeping her voice 'in' the crew bay. "I'll start a reconnaissance pattern as soon as we reach the chambers, hopefully we can get an idea of what's in there."
"Thank you Hera." He said. "Corporal, can you keep an eye on her while you're suiting up? We pulled her out of one of the In Amber Clad's cryo pods, and she's spiking a fever."
"Yes sir" she responded, slipping back into relatively formal military procedure. With these specialist ops, there was never really a chain of command to follow, and a lot of the decisions pertinent to the mission had to be made on the fly. Turney had done what he had hoped she would, returned to being the Marine she was, following his orders like they were her own CO's. It would not only help expedite the mission, but also stave off any PTSD symptoms for the time being.
He walked back into the cockpit, the flight HUD for the Pelican automatically layering itself onto his visor as he entered. He sat down and waited for Hera to appear; he'd felt her urge to talk with him in his own head, a feeling he could never quite get used to. She did just that, hands clasped behind her in a rather formal manner.
"What's up?" He asked
"The Corporal" She said hesitantly "Do you really think she is capable of keeping herself together? You've already had to sedate her once, and taking her into a potential kill zone filled with the very things which could induce more problems? Have you ever heard of playing with fire, Spartan?"
"You're right." He admitted, causing a stunned look of shock to flash across her simulated features. "On paper this is a very bad idea, but my human intuition tells me she's good. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't believe in her."
A few moments of silence passed between them, and Jacob felt the tense knot of worry in her mind ease itself in the back of his own head, being replaced by a cool sense of calm and certainty. It was nice to feel the AI's confidence in him, more reassuring than a thousand people saying the same. In a way, he had a better relationship with the Artificial Intelligence than with most others.
"I trust your judgement" Hera said matter-of-factly, and the dropship tilted slightly as it entered its holding pattern "Beginning scans, you might want to get the cache of weapons that you requisitioned from the frigate, initial survey already indicates a concentrated Flood presence."
"Thank you Hera" He acknowledged, getting up and walking back into the crew bay, smirking inside his helmet at Turney's comic efforts to squeeze into the unfamiliar ODST armour and striding over to the pile of weapons and ammunition, quickly tallying the haul. It amounted to one M41 Rocket launcher with two rockets in the tubes and two spare, a thousand rounds of Assault rifle ammunition, and half a dozen M9 frag grenades. Hardly the tools needed to storm a heavily defended Flood Hive. Had he found a Scorpion MBT lying around the In Amber Clad's hangar bay, their odds might be near certain, but that was not the case, and even his optimistic mind set couldn't give them a chance of success above 30%.
Nevertheless, he had a job to do, so he cracked his neck, calmed himself and began stowing as much ammo possible in his armour's compartments and attachment points. He picked up the crate of magazines and hauled it over to Turney, who was struggling with the last piece of the armour, the helmet. Unlike Marine BDU helmets, ODST variants were fully encompassing, incorporating a full-face visor and vacuum sealed neck.
"Hold still" He said, and she did so, allowing him to fasten the seal around the neck with a hissing noise. At the same time, an icon popped up on his HUD, showing the Battle Armour's diagnostics, health monitors and vacuum rating. Hera automatically connected, changing the bright green icon a warm orange and activating the helmet's filters, protecting the Corporal from Flood Spores, which were likely to be at their highest concentration in the High Council Chambers.
"You ready?" He asked the Marine, and her visor depolarised to reveal a stoic look of defiance etched across her pretty features.
"Ready as I'll ever be." She said, picking up her MA5 and slapping a fresh magazine into the stock, clipping multiple more to the ODST armour's hard points.
"Good, stick with me, keep your eyes and ears open, call out your targets and keep low." He instructed, turning and attaching the M41 to his back, stowing the two spare rounds in the ODST armour's backpack.
"Got it, let's get this over with." She muttered, priming her weapon.
"Hera, take us down to the nearest safe LZ, we'll high-tail it to the High Council while you finish the more detailed scans" He said, facing the rear ramp of the dropship, grabbing one of the support rails as the craft went into a steep dive.
"Nearest I can get you is about a kilometre away, there's no space big enough any closer that isn't covered in Flood, and this one's showing some abnormal spectroscopic events anyway, be cautious." Her voice came through his helmet speakers, and he saw Turney jump slightly at the disembodied voice speaking directly into their ears.
He didn't respond, focussing on the change in pitch, yaw and roll of the floor beneath his feet, feeling the dropship level out and bleed speed, pulling up slightly to slow down and then quickly drop to the Landing Zone beneath them. The ramp whirred into life, revealing an empty landing pad surrounded by low structures.
The pad itself was raised above the floor by about 4 metres, and the stairway down was directly ahead of them, every surface was alien, purple and blue coloured alloys dominated both the design of the landing pad itself and those of the buildings around, every tower or structure looked curved, organic, and insect-like to a certain degree. There was faint light projected by the artificial star at High Charity's peak, and the bluey-silver glow glimmered glossily off of every surface, making the surrounding seem even more alien.
As soon as the ramp touched down, he jumped out of the Pelican, rifle raised, scanning for threats. The Corporal followed suit, and when they both found no obvious hostiles, they threw up a green status icon on their individual HUDs. Hera acknowledged the icon with one of her own, then maxed out the thrusters of the dropship, sending it shooting directly upwards out of view like a bat out of hell.
"Comm check" He said, sweeping his gaze across the area.
"Check" Turney said, and he led her across the landing platform the hair on the back of his neck standing on end in conjunction with the uneasy dread in the pit of his stomach. Something wasn't right, but he couldn't figure out exactly what it was.
It was only halfway down the short flight of stairs that he realised; during normal operations, each building in High Charity had an exhaust port on the roof from the building's power transformers. This was to help distribute the massive power capabilities of the Forerunner Dreadnought ship powering the city. He'd seen the shimmering on rooftops and assumed that they were due to the transformers, but it was the massive Dreadnought-sized gap in the city's skyline which had made the penny drop; there was only emergency power, which should mean that there was no power grid, no transformers working and therefore no shimmer.
"Corporal, keep walking with me, but get ready for a fight." He said calmly, turning the safety of his weapon off and beginning to walk across the courtyard below the LZ. He spotted a half dozen shimmering silhouettes shadowing them, three of them on nearby rooftops, two behind them on the ground and one to their left. The tell-tale rippling of the air, coupled with an above-background energy signature, told him that they were being followed by a group of Elites, or at least forces loyal to the Swords of Sangheilios. Brutes had never been fond of camouflage, and when they did use it, they almost always deployed radar jammers to compensate for their inferior cloaking units.
"Shit. I see them." She swore. "Why the hell aren't they attacking?"
"Technically we have a truce with the elites, we're not to fire on them unless they fire first."
"Holy crap, you could've told me." She muttered "Never thought I'd see the day when the fighting would stop."
"Just keep walking, if they get too close, I'll deploy flashbangs and cover you, you dive into the nearest cover and put them down, copy?"
"Copy." She said, sounding equal parts terrified and determined.
And so they marched onwards, tailed by invisible aliens, through the dark, deserted streets. He noted the similarities with human urban architecture, the sidewalks and stores, juxtaposed by the altogether foreign shapes of the many vehicles littered along roadways, all abandoned by their owners. Most of them had open canopies, and again he could draw comparisons with the size and use of human vehicles, smaller vehicles could easily be the equivalent of hatchbacks, larger, longer transport vessels analogous of trucks. He even spotted a few military variants, a couple of Ghosts, a deserted Spectre, all long since run out of fuel.
They rounded a corner heading towards their objective, and he immediately stopped, swearing; about 20 metres away a wall of Flood Forms waited for them, Combat forms, bloated bodies of Carriers, and even a Juggernaut form at the back. Interspersed between them was a carpet of the small turnip-like Infection forms, hundreds of them.
The pack of Flood spotted them, and a cacophony of screams ripped through the still air. He quickly pulled the pin on a grenade and tossed it toward the group, following up with a barrage of rifle fire. Turney was slower to respond, and her actions seemed sluggish to him as she raised her own rifle and targeted the leading Combat form, ripping it to shreds.
They both backed away from the enemies quickly, firing as they went, and he dragged her behind the corner of the building as the frag grenade detonated, decimating their numbers and spreading chunks of flesh and a mist of bodily fluids over the area.
"Run!" He yelled, and they sprinted away from their pursuers, back down the street they'd come down. He had to force himself to slow down to stick with the Marine, who was no slow coach, but was nowhere near as quick as the augmented Spartan. He turned his head and his heart sank; anther 20 or so Flood had joined in the chase, bellowing tortured screams at them as they ran.
"Keep going" He instructed her as he swung around, crouched and emptied his magazine into the mass of disfigured bodies, dropping a few, but not nearly enough. As they closed in on him, he took off at his top speed, easily catching up with the Corporal within 15 seconds.
The wave behind them now numbered in the hundreds; more and more of the creatures appeared from side-streets, buildings and alleys. Jacob as now convinced that the Flood worked on a Hive-mind basis, all the Flood in the area had reacted to their presence too quickly for there not to be some common intelligence.
"There's… Too… Many.. Of… Them" Turney gasped, looking around at the plethora of parasitic life-forms. "You can outrun them, leave me to keep them busy."
"Not happening." He stated, tossing another frag grenade behind them as they turned a corner onto a side street flanked by low residential buildings. He hailed the dropship "Hera, we need CAS now, get over here!"
He got back nothing but static interrupted by a series of rhythmic pulses of slightly lower white noise. They were being jammed. He swore, throwing yet another grenade towards the corner around which in a few seconds an army of Flood would surge, unstopping, unrelenting, unfeeling.
"You've got to leave me, give me the M41, I can hold them off for a couple of minutes!" Turney shouted, panting.
"I'm not leaving you." He growled, frustrated. He looked around for something he could use, and spotted the low silhouette of a Wraith tank further down the road. "There!"
They sprinted over to the vehicle, still and powerless. He climbed onto the front, forcing the driver's hatch open. "Get in."
"There's no power" Turney said, head cocked to one side.
"Just get in." He ordered, and she climbed up the side of the tank and slid inside. "Wait, you're not-"
He cut her off by ripping off her backpack and ramming the hatch closed again, bending the lip of the hatch along with the metal of the cover itself to prevent it from being opened. He cut off her Comms channel from his helmet and ignored the frantic beating on the portal and jumped off the Wraith to face the horde. If nothing else, he could at least lead the Flood away, which itself would be easier without the Corporal, and then circle back to get her once he'd lost them.
That plan went very well until the Flood circled around behind him. He'd drastically underestimated their intelligence and tactics, and it was with dread and anger that he saw the second wall of enemies round the corner behind him. He steeled himself for death, adopted a stable firing position, readied the M41 Rocket launcher and fired.
The 140mm HEAT rocket flew towards the enemy, striking a leading combat form and detonating, vaporising all Flood forms within a 4 metre radius, and dismembering many of those outside that radius. Before he had a chance to fully inspect the damage, he span on the spot to fire the second rocket at the opposite army, having a similar effect on their numbers.
He never finished reloading the launcher. As he slammed the fresh rockets into place, a wave of heat blew past him a millisecond before a shockwave almost blew him off his feet from behind; a column of blue-tinged smoke rose from a smoking crater in the road surface 150 metres away, and a blue fireball rolled across the advancing Flood, turning them to ash. Through the heat haze and billowing smoke, Jake could just about distinguish the hull of another Wraith tank, this one fully functional and armed, demonstrated when it let loose another devastating plasma mortar, this one targeting the other crowd of Flood.
But no matter how effective the tank could be, there were still too many Flood closing in on him, too close to him to risk a mortar round, unless these Covenant were not allied with the Swords, in which case what he thought of it didn't really matter, as he was likely to be vaporised shortly anyway.
He dropped the rocket launcher and picked up his MA5, firing into the approaching group of about 15 Combat Forms, dropping a couple quickly before the bolt clacked as the magazine ran dry. He again used his rifle as a club to knock down the leading Combat form before stamping once on its chest with a heavy bot, killing it instantly as the Infection form within was crushed.
He turned to face the next approaching enemy, whipping out his combat knife to find that it had been bisected down the middle by the searing glow of an Energy Sword wielded by the largest Elite he had ever seen. They locked eyes for a second, then each engaged the nearest Flood, the Elite swinging his Sword around in swift strikes, often cutting his foes clean in half, while he took on a more subtle approach, preferring to use the Flood's own momentum against them, then plunging the combat knife into their chests when they were down or off balance.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw more Elites de-cloak and join in the fray, firing bolts of superheated plasma into the centre of mass of the various Flood. He could tell by their sharpshooter aim that these were not standard military units, that and their distinctive full-body armour suits.
Under such combined fire, the Flood stood no chance. Those that were not obliterated by the sheer firepower of the Wraith were downed by pinpoint accurate plasma fire or detonated in a purple haze as the super-combined needle rifle rounds activated, ripping their bodies to ribbons. Jacob put the final Combat form down with a jackhammer punch, then stood to face the leader of the Elites, covered in putrid flesh and fluids.
"Come with me Demon, we have much to discuss, and even more to accomplish together." The leader growled in heavily muffled English, his twin Energy Swords' blades vanishing.
"Lead the way" Jake said cautiously, pointing back at the Wraith that the Corporal was stuck inside. "You got a key for one of these things?"