Ok, I know I said I'd work on my other story, but I was on a roll with this and finished it yesterday.
At any rate, here's chapter 4.
*Authors Note - I do not own any of the How to Train Your Dragon characters or the Halo series. Shadow Squadron was created by me.
Also - 'This is Thinking' - "This is Talking"
Chapter 4 - New Allies...
Back on Berk
Stoick the Vast was at the Great Hall, wondering where the teens were. "It shouldn't take them this long to do a patrol Gobber," he said.
"Aye, it doesn't bode well, does it Stoick?" Gobber replied. The chief of Berk kept pacing around the Great Hall when all of a sudden he heard a crash outside.
"Ah, the Twins must be back and have already broken something." Gobber chucked at his own joke, but quickly retracted his laugh when both him and Stoick saw Stormfly bring in Toothless on her back, with Hiccup and Astrid right behind them. The other dragon riders weren't far behind them.
"What happened?" Stoick asked.
"Toothless is hurt, he needs help," Hiccup replied.
"I'll have a look, bring him here," Gobber said. Astrid motioned to Stormfly to put Toothless down on the table, which her dragon complied.
"Odin's beard! What on Berk could have caused this much damage to his leg?" Stoick asked.
"It was some kind of crossbow, though a lot smaller and noisier than ours," Fishlegs replied.
"It went in there quite deep," Gobber said, "Almost...and...got it." and with that he pulled out a small hunk of metal.
"That little thing did that much damage?" Tuffnut asked.
"Incredible," said Stoick.
Then Astrid glared at Snotlout and the Twins and said, "We wouldn't have to take that thing out of Toothless if you three idiots hadn't attacked them".
"We thought you were in trouble so we helped you," Snotlout said.
"Yeah, if anything you should be thanking us," Tuffnut added.
Astrid was about to slap the three of them upside their heads when all of a sudden the ground shook violently. "Everyone ok?" Stoick asked.
"Ugh, let me get back to you on that chief," Fishlegs replied holding his stomach.
"Thor almighty, what was that?" Gobber asked.
"I don't know, but I bet it has something to do with our new friends," Stoick replied, "Get the catapults ready!"
"Dad, they told us that they don't attack anyone unless they are attacked." Hiccup said.
"I'm sorry son, but I have to protect the village first," Stoick replied.
About 30 minutes later, a single object could be seen on the horizon getting closer to Berk. "Chief, something's incoming."
"Ready the Catapults!" Stoick bellowed out.
Meanwhile aboard the UNSC Flagstaff's hanger
"Shadow Squad, mount up," Ghost barked to his team, "This is an SnD mission. The Flood have crashed a Covenant ship on a nearby island inhabited by a local population of humans. We can't allow The Flood to survive so we must destroy it."
"Sir, what about the inhabitants?" Jinx asked.
"That's why the blast radius will only be a mile, that way the islands population doesn't get caught in the blast and the island will remain structurally sound."
"Indeed it will Commander," Axel said, "By my calculations about 83% of the Island will be untouched by the blast, and nothing major will be lost."
"Good," Ghost said and turned his attention to the Pelicans driver, "Hocus! Are we ready to head out?"
"Yes sir Spartan. This bird has enough fuel in her to get there and back no problem."
"Perfect, Shadow Squad you know the rules of engagement for The Flood correct?"
"Yes sir, keep them at a distance and aim for their chest." the other Spartans replied.
"Then lets head out." Ghost said getting into the Pelicans troop area. The other Spartans followed suit.
A few moments later, they were in the air and heading towards the crashed Covenant vessel. "5 mikes out," Hocus said.
"You heard Hocus Spartans, get ready to lock and load."
"We got incoming projectiles!" Hocus shouted out.
"Evasive maneuvers Hocus," Ghost replied. Through some impressive aerial maneuvers by Hocus the Pelican managed to get out of there unscaved.
"What the hell was that?" Fives asked.
"The village's inhabitants must have a thing about us," Hocus said.
"Should we go down there and teach them a lesson sir?"
"Negative Fives, for now The Flood is our top priority." The Pelican then continued towards The Inquisitors crash site.
"Why aren't they stopping?" Stoick asked.
"Whatever they're after, it isn't us," Gobber replied.
"What could be over that ridge that's so important?"
"Maybe, it's another vessel like theirs," Hiccup said.
"What are you talking about son?"
"Their vessel was massive, and completely made of metal."
"It was what? And at what point were you going to tell me that?" Gobber asked.
"Moving on, they said that they had to make repairs to it so it could fly," Hiccup continued.
"Flying metal? Now I know you're making that up." Gobber said.
"Then what do you call what flew over Berk just now?" Astrid chimed in.
"Again, moving on, I think that whatever made the ground shake was another one of them."
"If that means what I think it does, that could be trouble," Stoick said.
"We could go check it out dad," Hiccup said.
"Toothless is still injured son," Stoick replied.
Toothless heard his name and leapt over to Hiccup almost instinctively.
"Well he can fly alright, but the landings won't be as pretty," Gobber said.
"Fine, you and Astrid can go. Fishlegs, Snotlout, and the Twins will stay here to help defend Berk if anything goes wrong."
"Thank you Dad."
"Alright Shadow Squad, keep it quiet. We don't know if any Flood or Covenant are still aboard."
"Yes sir," the rest of Shadow Squad said. Shadow Squadron entered the vessel via the vehicle deployment area on the top of the ship.
"Hocus land a ways away. We don't want to give The Flood a chance to escape."
"Aye-aye sir." Shadow Squad searched the entire ship looking for signs of the Flood, but there was none.
"This is weird, why aren't we seeing any bodies, Covenant or Flood," Sandman said.
"Something's not right Commander," Igor said.
"Agreed, Echo?"
"On it sir," Echo replied as she activated her Promethean Vision.
"Wait, I hear gunfire." Fives said.
It was faint, but Ghost quickly silenced the rest of Shadow Squad and said, "Listen".
A little ways to their right they could hear the sounds of a UNSC Battle Rifle. "That's not good," Jinx said.
"Commander, I got multiple pings on the Ladar, two Elites and one Grunt, as well as about a dozen or so Combat Forms and a single Tank Form."
"Ok Shadow Squad, move out."
The entire Squad ran towards the sounds of gunfire and sure enough a small team of Covenant was engaged in battle with The Flood. An Elite Field Marshal had just fallen to The Flood, leaving a single Elite Minor and a single Grunt Minor.
Ruta 'Rolamme and Yayap had just watched the last of their allies fall to the Parasite.
They knew that they were next and that nothing they did could stop them...until, "Igor with me, Shadow cover us!" a voice yelled out.
'Rolamme looked to the right and saw a two demons running towards them and The Flood. One demon picked up an Energy Sword from a fallen comrade and the other demon picked up a fallen Jiralhanaes Gravity Hammer. They started to kill the Parasites left and right, while 4 other demons fired their weapons from afar. They fired their weapons until all The Flood forms had fallen.
'Rolamme was astonished at this. 6 demons had just saved him and Yayap from the Parasite. Why?
What appeared to be the leader of them said, "Are you two alright?" Yayap nodded and the demon continued, "We need to stop The Flood, and the two of you are going to help us," just then the sounds of a Parasite Combat Form could be heard behind 'Rolamme and Yayap, "Or do you want to take your chances with them?" he continued gesturing to the direction the noise came from.
'Rolamme and Yayap had no choice, they had to follow the demons or succumb to the Parasite since their weapons were dead.
Ghost picked up a nearby Brute Shot, Carbine, and two Plasma Rifles and handed them to the Elite. Then he picked up two Maulers, two Needlers, and a Fuel Rod Gun and Handed them to the Grunt.
"You follow us, and do as I say. Otherwise the chances of you succumbing to The Flood go up drastically. Understood?" Both of them nodded in understanding. "Then lets move out." The now larger group headed towards the power control, fighting all The Flood that tried to stop them.
They reached the power system and Ghost said, "Axel, prepare to destroy this ship, and give us ample time to flee this time. I'd rather not get out of this by the skin of my teeth like last time."
"If you say so Commander," the A.I. replied, "There, 25 minutes should give us ample time to..." a Flood Combat Form screeching cut the A.I. off, followed by an explosion.
"Commander, isn't that..." Jinx started to say.
"It is, and we have to help them. Axel, start the countdown. Shadow Squad, and Covenant, we have to help them."
Hiccup and Astrid arrived at the downed vessel 10 minutes after the metal men did. They couldn't believe what they saw. The vessel was made of metal like the other one, but the shape of it was different and it was partly covered in some organic material.
"What is this?" Astrid asked Hiccup when she stepped in something organic.
"I...I have no idea," Hiccup said. The teens then jumped down the hole at the top of the ship followed quickly by their dragons.
They followed a path down the ship until they saw someone. They called out to the person but when he turned around they saw something that they couldn't fully comprehend. The person was mangled to the point where it didn't look human anymore. Tentacles had sprouted out of it's right arm and had a weapon like the metal men had. Then they realized that there was more than one, and one of them let out a blood-curdling screech and they charged at the teens.
"Toothless plasma blast," Hiccup said and his dragon did so. But after the plasma blast had knocked over the unknown creatures, the resulting light from it showed that there was a lot more than they could fight.
"Ok, we need to go," Hiccup said. But as he said that the entrance they came in from had been covered up by some unknown mass.
All seemed lost until they heard a familiar voice, "Shadow Squad, suppressing fire!"
The creatures began to fall one by one until none remained. "What in the sweet name of ONI are you two doing here?" Ghost said to them. The teens were still in shock so he continued anyway, "This ship is going to be destroyed in 20 minutes, we need to get you out of here now."
The teens followed the Spartan team all the way to the exit, with 5 minutes to go on the detonation. Just as they were about to leave they heard an all too familiar screech behind them.
"You kids leave, we'll handle them." They were all too happy to comply, and they left. The Elite and the members of Shadow Squad boarded Hocus' Pelican while Ghost provided suppressing fire to cover them. When everyone had boarded the Pelican, Ghost hopped on and just as Hocus took off he said, "Wait, where's the Grunt?" He looked back on the ground and saw him running from some infection forms.
"Echo, Igor, grab my legs," Ghost said while he hung over the edge of the Pelican and extended his arms down, grabbed the Grunt and pulled him into the Ship. "Get us out of here Hocus!"
"Roger that sir, and may I ask why there's Covenant on board?"
"Ask me if we live through this," and with that Hocus punched it and the Pelican sped away. They barely got to a safe distance when The Inquisitor blew up.
Just then the Elite grabbed Ghost, pinned him to the wall of the Pelican, took out the Energy Sword Ghost picked up, and held it up to his throat. Shadow Squad raised their weapons to attack the Elite, but Ghost waved them down.
The Elite then spoke to him, "Why did you save us?"
"We humans have an old saying, 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend'. We have a common enemy between us with The Flood."
The Elite mulled this over, then set him down. "Very well."
"Since I've saved your ass, mind telling us who you are?"
"I am Ruta 'Rolamme, and this," he said gesturing to the Grunt, "is Yayap."
Ghost then motioned towards himself then the rest of Shadow Squad, "The name's Ghost, that's Jinx, Echo, Igor, Fives and Sandman. We make up a team known as Shadow Squadron."
'Rolamme gave a huff and moved towards the cockpit while Ghost moved towards the rear of the ship. Just then the Pelican rocked back and forth, causing Ghost to fall out.
"Something just hit us," Hocus said.
"Hocus we lost Ghost, we have to go back for him," Jinx said.
"Negative ma'am, our engine's beat up badly. We have to go back to the Flagstaff for repairs."
Ghost had landed hard on the ground, fortunately his DMR, Assault Rifle, Magnum and Energy Sword were still with him. But as several large figures approached him, his world went black.
And I leave it on a cliffhanger...again. Sorry about that, but I have to keep interest in my story. Even if nobody comments (hint, hint).
Now I'll start to work on my Teen Titans story (really this time).