Chapter 6: The Nightmare Hole

We sat in the Pelican, helmets off and chewing on MRE's, as it headed towards the supposed weapons cache where Keyes was last seen. The hatch was open as we saw the landscape below us. Among snow, sand, and swamp, there were giant structures, which echoed construction similar to the previous ones we fought in. This place held many secrets. We were sitting next to each other, and we sat in silence.

Out of the blue, Chief asked me, "What happened to you?"

"How could you tell?"

"There's something in your eyes."

"Only Spartans can see other Spartans emotions. Yeah, there is something going on in my mind. It's never left. "

"What was it?"

"My family."

XXxXxXxXxX

I lived on the world of New Istanbul, the son of bankers. Leaning within the border of the outer and inner colonies, it carried all the safety of the inner colonies, with the peaceful, non-intrusion of the outer colonies. The country I lived in was constantly snowing, coating all in the vicinity with a beautiful white mist. It was a peaceful life, as far as I remembered, until they came.

I was six years old when they came. Coming home from school, it seemed a fine day. With a goodbye to friends, I took the short walk home. I remembered watching the sky slowly gray, and thought "hmm, must be raining soon." I began to hurry as I saw the white picket fence, and the calming cream-colored shine of my childhood home. I knew something was wrong when I saw my mother crying.

"Mommy, what's wrong?"

"Honey, I need you to go inside, and wait for daddy to come home. Can you do that for me sweetheart?"

"Okay."

I believe I was rather bright as a child, but I didn't want to impose on my mothers' apparent distress, so I obeyed. After several minutes, my father came home, his face set like stone. Ushering me out of the living room, and upstairs to our bedroom, I stood on the staircase, silently watching as my mother hugged my father, tears streaming down her face. He returned the hug, and then looked at her, his eyes steely.

"Jill (my mother's first name), they're here. We need to get to the evacuation points now."

"Why now? Why here Chandler (Dad's name)?"

"We knew this was going to happen. It was inevitable."

Oddly enough, I'd never heard of the Covenant back then. It was whispered by the adults may have been coming, but they didn't want the kids to be scared, so they obviously didn't tell us. To us children, an alien was only to be seen in movies, or sci-fi video games to be played, laughed at and then forgotten. Not anymore.

After packing the bare essentials like clothes, and food, I was pulled by my crying mother from the steps of our beautiful home, and out onto the street. Our father led the way, and we ran as we did so. The town we lived in was small, but close, as the entire town seemed to have begun the evacuation at the same time. I saw people I knew only in passing when my mother would take me out. People like the local pastor, my fathers' colleagues, and the odd school friend, as most lived in the city. I don't remember their names. What I remember was the crowd stopping. I pushed and slid my way to the front, and saw the sight.

It was the first Covenant warship I'd ever seen. The giant purple warship glassed the city of Regalia, and its beams turned everything into ash. Fire and brimstone raged about the city, as it looked like a monument to hell itself. The heat emanated from the city, and I could almost feel it. People beside and behind me had looks of sheer horror on their faces as they watched what had once been a proud home be destroyed. I saw pelican's attempt to escape, fire on their tails as they tried a futile attempt to leave the hell that surrounded them. None made it as bolts from phantoms slammed into them, driving them into the ground, and causing giant explosions. The superheated plasma charred the hulls of the pelicans all the way to their skeletal underbodies, and several got so close that I could hear the screams of the pilot, as they burnt to a crisp, unable to avoid their impending deaths. It was all so shocking to a young child, who'd never seen violence of this scale till now. I couldn't speak, much less cry as I stood there and watched the destruction.

A phantom must have spotted the crowd, as I remembered the eerie hum of the phantom as it came towards us. Then there was an explosion, and I woke up in complete carnage. My father carried me in his arms, and my mother was next to us we ran. Blood streaked across my face, and I saw my father had a hole in his shoulder, while my mother looked shaken, and her clothes tattered, but otherwise fine. I heard the screams of people, and strange guttural noises as I was carried through the madness. I looked to my left, and saw bodies lying on the floor, with holes in their heads and chest. I looked to my right, and saw scorched homes, and burnt out carcasses of cars, and what looked like people still in them. I looked up to see a blood-red night sky. I looked to my dad, and asked him," Will we be okay?"

"We'll always be okay son." He replied, but his eyes betrayed him. He was terrified. I said nothing, instead opting to lean into my father for comfort. Suddenly, I saw olive drab uniform come into my vision. We'd arrived at the evac point. Marines hefting assault rifles stood guard as people flooded into the Pelicans. There was one left. People began pushing and shoving, as my father held me above the crowd, and moved everyone in his way, out of the way. When we got in front of the Pelican, a marine stopped us.

"We've got no more room! You're going to have to wait for the next one!"

"Bullshit! There is no next one, let us on this Pelican!"

"Listen, I want to let you in, but if you get in there, this Pelican isn't going to take off!"

"You're kidding? You're going to let us all die here!"

"Buddy, You're not the only one being left behind, what about me and my buddies? It's a suicide mission! We just need to wait and hope they'll come back for us!"

"At least take my son! That's all that matters!"

"Goddamnit…Fine, take him on!"

My father put me down from his arms, and kissed me on my forehead.

"Son, know that me and your mother will always love you." I began to cry, as I knew that my parents weren't going to follow me. "Don't cry son. Be brave for me, be brave for me and your mother." Explosions and bolts got closer and closer towards us as the Covenant advanced. My father put me on the pelican, and waved, this time with a small tear in his eye. My mother was uncontrollably crying, and I gained a huge feeling of helplessness, knowing I could never help her. That was all I got to see in detail as the Pelican lifted off. I looked who sat next to me, then realized almost all were children. Looking out again, I could pick out the small shapes of my father and mother standing at the front of the line. I began to shake uncontrollably, and the last thing I heard before I fainted was my fathers' voice. "Be brave son, be brave for me."

XXxXxXxXxX

"I never knew what happened to them. From the information I'd gathered, I was one of the last transports to escape New Istanbul. After spending several days in a UNSC ship, I was asked by a man if I wanted to take revenge on the people who'd destroyed my home. I signed up immediately."

Chief was quiet throughout my entire retelling of the story. And after I finished, he looked at me, and quietly nodded. He put a hand on my shoulder, and said nothing.

"It was a long time ago. It's still a scar, and it always will be. The other S-III's all have the same ghosts." I softly said.

Chief spoke this time, speaking quietly." I'm sorry Will. Thank you for telling me."

I nodded, letting the memories slowly wash away again.

Foehammer came over the speakers in the cargo hold of the Pelican. "Chief, Six, We're getting close to Keyes last location. Might wanna prep."

I popped my helmet on, as Chief did the same.

It was time to get off, as I grabbed an Assault Rifle from the top. Chief grabbed an Assault Rifle, and we both stocked up on grenades. The low hum of the Pelicans engines hovered over the swamp, and we jumped off, with a large squelch. The muddy water pooled over my boots, as we walked forward.

Foehammer called us, "Call me when you've found the Captain, I'll head back to Alpha base for now."

I replied," Thanks, we'll do that."

"Good luck out there, Foehammer out."

The last friendly force in the area left us, leaving just chief, and I. Time for a walk in the park. The air seemed seven-eighths' water, and the smell of it didn't help. Annoying drones filled the air, probably from the wildlife around, but for now the motion-sensors were clear. Lieutenant Ambrose and Mendez constantly drilled into our mindsets to 'make friends with your environment'. The slight rise uphill from our landing fit into the bill completely. I'd always wondered what it would be like to serve with a Spartan-II like the Lieutenant, and now I got my chance. With a bird eye view of the area, we could see past the foliage and muck of the jungle and see where the Captain and his men had gone.

A downed Pelican lay no farther than sixty meters from our position, and Foehammer must have not seen the wreckage due to the dense foliage.

"Six, let's get a little closer." Chief commanded.

"Pelican dropped them off right? So what are these guys doing here?"

"Advance team? Second team? Wait; didn't foehammer say something about a second squad that vanished?" Chief replied.

"Damn. Guess this was what happened to em." I replied.

A sense of foreboding coming, I hoped that the Captain wasn't among the marine corpses near and around the crash site. Coming down the hill, and inspecting the wreckage, it seemed like the Pelican had crashed on takeoff. All the dead wore a naval insignia, thus they couldn't have been Marines. Be it mechanical failure, or enemy fire, they were taken down. Grabbing their dog tags, we were about to leave when I saw the inside of the Pelican had a weapons crate inside.

"Chief, weapons." I spoke, as I waved him over. Two M90 Shotguns neatly stacked in them, and we grabbed a healthy amount of ammo, and the two shotguns. Made sense having the extra firepower. Cocking it, I strapped them both behind my back. The appearance of 2 weapons on a Spartan must have been intimidating. Moving on, we noticed a couple of Covenant-style work lights. Following them, we came across a second wreck, this time of Covenant origin. Grunts, Jackals, and finally several Spec-Ops Elites lay around the area, dead.

"Check the bodies, we might find out if Keyes had passed here." I suggested to Chief.

Checking the bullet marks, we both realized that they'd been killed not by UNSC weapons, but Plasma fire.

"Chief, any clue on why they seem to be killed with their own tech?" I quipped.

"Defectors? Humans carrying plasma weapons, no explanation really fits does it?" He replied.

"No, no it doesn't. Let's keep following the boot trail. Maybe we'll pick up his signal."

Dropping the dead Elite back on the ground, we continued moving. We came across a lone Jackal, seemingly uninterested watching the path in front of us, his back turned. Chief looked and me, and cocked his head towards the reptile. I strode over, and slit its throat. The bird gurgled, scrabbled at its neck for a second, before it slunk to the forest floor. Wiping off my knife, we continued moving.

Rain started falling, causing the swamp water level to slowly rise, sloshing against our boots. Following the trail of boot prints, we came across a circle of cargo containers. Were the Covenant transporting things, and if so, what? Also, given the amount of work-lights, the crashed phantom, and now the cargo containers, we expected more than a lone Jackal.

This question was answered quickly, as we came across a Jackal patrol. Hefting their energy shields, they walked cautiously and carefully.

"Chief, flank them." I whispered.

Nodding, he climbed over several rocks, and out of sight. When he was in position, he winked a green light to me. I jumped out of cover, opening fire with my Assault rifle. The bullets pinged off its shields causing them to fall back, right into the Chief's hands. 2 bursts from his rifle put them down, and we continued onwards. We hoped the rain would mask our gunfire, but it was too loud, as our motion sensors recorded more enemies coming our way. I swapped to my shotgun, and pumped it.

Five shotgun shells, and one MA5 clip later, the Covenant lay on the ground, bodies smoking. The boot prints went into the forest, and as we walked, the broad big leaves brushed our shoulders, and had I not been wearing armor, I would have shivered from the cold touch. They weren't in the forest long, as it broke off into the entrance of a large complex.

"This place looks like the Cartographer doesn't it? Look over there!" I studied, and then noticed something. Several shotgun shells, a chocolate bar wrapper, and a sweet-William cigar lay on the ground. An UNSC-grade code-breaker was plastered at the entrance. We had to be getting close. As we entered the complex, the door shut with a mechanical hiss, and locked. Chief looked at me, and joked for the first time I'd seen.

"Well, I guess there's no way to go but forward."

"Ha-Ha." I deadpanned

With a method of construction not unlike the hallways we'd previously traversed through, this place was indeed of more Forerunner construction. It was getting to be obvious, as nearly everything on the ring had been from their doing. We walked through several more doors twisting left and right, until he hit a lift. I hit the button, and the lift whirred upwards. Instantly, my motion sensor registered a blip of about 5 hostiles. They must have been coming up. Chief and I took up flanking positions on both sides of the lift.

"Throw it in 3…2…1…now." I spoke to myself.

Pulling the pin, I rolled it into the lift. 3 seconds later, a boom sounded, and we turned around from our cover. 3 mangled jackals and 2 grunts lay on the floor, clearly dead. We walked in, and hit the lift to go down.

"What do you think we'll find down there?" I asked Chief.

"I don't know. There's a reason they have the Covenant guarding this place though. "He curtly replied.

"Probably guarding the Captain." I said.

"That is true, but look at what was in the Truth and Reconciliation. They'd have much more people guarding it. " Chief asked.

"Well, I believe that Captain Keyes is down here, deep enough that his transponder won't work though. I think he just took an alternate path from us, considering the locked doors, and the unaware aliens." I then quipped.

Chief whistled, as this seemed to be the most logical answer.

The lift doors hissed open, as we found ourselves within a narrow, and rather short hallway. This one led to a locked door, with another code-breaker slapped onto it like gum. The hallways had paths to other places, but since this one had the code-breaker, we both figured that this had to be it. As I went to work on the code-breaker, a chilling noise was heard behind me. Chief and I drew our weapons, as we looked for any sign of trouble. A dull droning was heard, but other than that nothing was out of the ordinary. The sound made my hairs stand on end, and it was very uneasy. Going pack to work on the door I opened it…

Facing an M6 pistol barrel, directed straight towards my helmet. Chief strode through the door; weapon raised, and then slung it. It was a Marine, but he was ashen-faced, and crying. He was on his knees like he was praying, and he was muttering random incoherent gibberish I couldn't understand. Chief walked over to him, and suddenly he looked up, and started yelling.

"Are you? Are you one of them? Come to get me at last? You monsters, you goddamned monsters, you don't…I don't… stay away from me! You can't take me! Oh god… oh god… please…please…doesn't hurt me."

Chief calmly grabbed the Marine by his shoulders, and reassured him," Relax, you're with friends now. What happened?"

"No no no I can't trust you! I can't trust anybody, they…they'll turn all of us into them!" The crazed marine shook himself from the chief's grasp, and shot a bullet, which pinged off the Chief's shields.

Chief shook back, and advanced towards the Marine, grabbing his pistol, and strapping it onto his belt, as well as grabbing the Marine, forcing him onto his feet. The hapless man shook, and started rambling incoherent things about death, and 'them'. It was clear he wasn't going to move, so we decided we were going to come back for him. In the clearing between the doors, I turned to look at the man, still shaking and white-faced. As the door closed shut, I heard him scream, a blood-curdling one, as he yelled loudly. The weird buzzing occurred again, as well as an odd sloshing noise. The chilling sound returned en masse this time, almost like an undead orchestra had come from behind the door. Our motion sensors went ballistic, with contacts appearing from everywhere. Chief and I tried to force our way through, but to no avail. The Marines screams suddenly cut out, and the droning stopped. The door hissed open, and he was gone, with a large bloodstain where he used to be.

"Chief, what the hell just happened?" I asked.

" I don't know." Chief, after a second of hesitation, replied.

When the supercomputer had no idea what happened, that's not a good sign. We continued pressing on regardless, and finally met a door, with another code-breaker. Tapping a few commands on it, the door hissed open…

And a mangled marine corpse landed on me. Catching it, I slowly lowered him to the ground, as Chief strode through the door. I grabbed his helmet, and his dog tags. A private Jenkins as it was, and his helmet was recording, maybe we could solve the mystery of what'd happened here.

"Chief, come take a look at this! I got a video recording!" I called him.

"Come take a look at this first." Was the answer I got? What could have been more important than a video recording?

I got my answer. Shell casings, strewn all over the floor like a weird carpet. There wasn't a single inch of the floor not covered in the bullets, and yet not a single drop of blood, just an odd brown liquid muck. It was yet another thing to add to the growing mystery, as I passed the helmet over to Chief, and he took out the recording. Playing it over both our HUD's, we could finally see what happened.

It carried all the characteristics of a Marine's helmet cam. It was standard definition, shaking camera, and the all important time stamp, which was dated at an hour before our coming across him. A platoon of Marines, including the Captain, and the black Sergeant who we'd come across in our landing arrived, and they pushed into the structure, seeing the Phantom that Chief and I came across around an hour earlier. Downwards, they took a different path, but ended up in the same room we were in now. The weird sloshing sound returning, a Marine complained of a bad feeling, before disgusting, fearful monsters came out of places unknown, and swarmed them. A tiny pod hopped onto the camera, and there was no more.

We both finished the recording, and looked at each other. We were clearly thinking the same things. Where were the monsters now? A blood-curdling scream, as hundreds of pods jumped from the overhanging pipes, and the battle began.

Opening up with my Assault Rifle, I could take out the small pods with a single bullet, but there was just so many of them. A larger form walked, or crawled towards me, a grotesque creature. But when it got closer, I finally realized what it was, amidst the battle.

A human, twisted to a hideous form, looking nothing like an actual person. The only tell were the dog tags hanging from his torso. I wasted no chances, butting it in the head with my Assault Rifle, and putting a burst into it. A small pod hopped into it, and it got back up again. My feeling of panic intensifying, I swapped to my shotgun, instead blowing the creature apart.

"Chief, we have to move!" I yelled, stomping a couple of the pods as I slowly pressed back, firing my shotgun as I did so.

"Not a bad idea, try and find an open door!" He wasn't having much fun either, as he also resorted to using a shotgun, blowing large numbers of the pods up. A human form jumped down, and slammed into Chief, pinning him to the floor. It raised its 'hand', getting ready to pummel him, before I knocked him off, and stomped on him. The weight of my MJOLNIR crushed its chest, and I fired a shotgun round, just to be sure. Pulling out my Assault rifle in one hand, and sheathing my shotgun, I pulled Chief up as I continued firing, not letting up on the tiny pods trying to overwhelm us.

"Over there! I found one open!" Chief yelled over the gunfire, and deathly noises coming from the things that were chasing us. We charged through it, and the door shut. My heart beat like a drum, and I took a second to regain my normal breathing. In all my training as a Spartan, I'd never faced something like that before.

"You…that…what…was that?" I spoke in between breaths.

"I…don't know. This place has too many surprises." Chief replied, his voice carrying a small tone of worry.

"We now know what became of the Captain though. We need to get to Silva, tell him about what happened." I told Chief, who nodded.

"Now, how do we get out of here?" I asked myself. Like clockwork, a door hissed open, leading to a hallway filled with the infected forms, which came stampeding in. I emptied a shotgun round into one infected marine, which practically blew up from the impact, spraying bits of matter and broken bone everywhere. Turning to the right, I killed three more with my Shotgun before reloading. Chief had killed his share as well, and we were clear for the time being.

Looking at the inside of one of the bodies, I saw a tiny infection form hop out, then burst, courtesy of Chief's MA5.

"They must reanimate the dead, that's how they have all these damn bodies, they take our dead, and turn them into those…things!" I finally understood.

Chief looked at the bodies, then said," We'd better destroy them, make sure those…pods cant reanimate the dead."

I agreed, and we stepped on the bodies, breaking them apart. Hopefully that would work I thought, as we continued onwards.

"You know how to get out of here?" Chief turned to me, asking.

"No, damn where is Cortana when you need her?" I replied, nervously. We continued forwards, hoping where we were going was a path towards escaping. Taking several steps forward, I was about to take a step forward when my motion sensor went mad- hostile central right in front of me. Chief grabbed my, and pulled me back.

An infection form ambled by, completely unaware of us, and I recognized the long angular face of an Elite. The reason we didn't open fire, was in pure shock of seeing what happened to it. Its skull was pivoted at a sickening angle, like the bones of its neck were melted, or broken and rearranged by someone with an incomplete knowledge of the human body. Its head lay behind its back, limply, almost not attached. It looked like a limb that needed amputation.

It looked like something had gone into the Elite, and completely rearranged it. a trill of fear hit me, something I wasn't accustomed to. I tried to resist the urge to vomit, as it slowly walked past us.

"Chief, if I ever show a hint of becoming like that, shoot me in the head."

"Same for me Will. Christ, you think they're all over this ring?"

"I don't know, but I don't want to find out."

Once it was out of sight, Chief raised his hand, counting from 3. When he put down his third finger, we both burst from our position, crushing a handful of the spherical creatures. Our shotguns rang in harmony, spattering the walls and the floor with blood and bone matter. One jumped and landed next to Chief. He kneed it in the supposed chest, slamming it upwards, and onto the floor. I killed it. While it was clear for a second, I noticed an elevator.

"Chief, elevator, lets go!" I yelled amidst the fire and explosions.

He rushed into it, and I followed. I left a small present for them, leaving a grenade primed on the ground. A boom, and the lift whooshed upwards, so hard that my ears popped.

The next room, hopefully the way upwards, carried all the charm of a crypt. A narrow hallway with a corner was in front of us. We walked there, and came across something I'd never want to see again.

It was a human private, whom Chief clearly recognized, and I realized he was the Marine Sergeant Johnson yelled at on our arrival to the ring world, Mendoza. His body was ravaged, but his face, his face was still carrying a semblance of humanity, which led the both of us to put our finger away from the trigger, trying to make contact.

"Mendoza, we need to get you to the medics, they can get you back to what you used to be, just come with us. I know they did something to you but, you need to come with us."

We were answered by an otherworldly cry, as what remained of Mendoza charged at us, waving his tentacle like a whip, pushing my to the side, and draining a quarter of my shields. Chief pumped a round into it, and the remnants of Mendoza exploded, leaving nothing but a small pod, which after one shotgun round from me served to destroy that as well. Feeding shells into our Shotguns, and checking ammo for our Assault Rifles, we moved as fast as we could upwards.

We were clear for the next room and hallway leading upwards, and out of the hellhole, but not for the room after the hallway. Opening it, a bunch of infection forms turned around, and charged at me. I dropped a grenade, and dove back into the hallway, waiting for the resounding boom. It came, and I went back through the door, only to find more coming. I swapped to my Assault rifle, spraying the lot of them, and putting down some, while Chief waited with his shotgun, killing any which came too close. One came through, wielding an UNSC M9 SMG. It opened fire, and the small bullets pinged off my shields, draining them to half and forcing me back. Bastards had weapons, but now was the first time I'd seen them use them effectively. Chief silenced it with a bullet to the face. Zombies were scary enough, but with guns? Much, much worse. I clipped the SMG to my belt, made no sense to leave it there, and continued onwards. It might to well when they started rushing, and my Shotgun was out of ammo. We reloaded all our weapons, and continued on.

The next hallway brought more bedlam, with a hell of a lot of pods, and several Elite-forms. However, they were already fighting. A platoon of the Covenant, two Elites and jackals were skirmishing with them. we hung back, and let them try and finish each other off. It didn't work, as one of the Elites, a crimson armored one noticed us. we hopped into the fray. I took the Covenant, Chief took the uglies. I threw a plasma grenade immediately, latching it onto an Elite. He warbled in surprise, then vanished in an explosive puff. Spinning to my right, I caught the jackal overcharging a pistol shot. Absorbing one bolt from his friend, which drained my shields a quarter, I grabbed the Jackal by the throat, and threw him towards the parasites. Chief, saw the Jackal coming and stepped aside. I pivoted backwards, and pulled out my combat knife, slashing and trying to find an opening in the Jackal's shields. It moved back quickly, garbling in a reptilian tongue, and continued this way until I simply pulled up my SMG and killed him with a quick burst. Turning to look at Chief, he was simply polishing up.

One level up, we met the same trouble, only this time there was one new form. A large, bulbous thing, it waddled towards us. I fired a burst into it, and it toppled. Didn't seem too dangerous, until its corpse exploded, throwing dozens of the small pods at us. I began stomping at the little buggers, watching them pop. Had it not been for our MJOLNIR, we would have been toast. The pods would pop against us, draining our shields, but anything was better than ending up like one of them. Several more came, flanked by an elite infection form, which had energy shields. I threw a grenade over to their location, which blew the carrier-thing apart, and dissipated the shields of the elite-form. I then vaulted over to its location, shooting other pods with my Assault Rifle until its clip ran out, then swapped to my SMG. I slammed it into its 'gut' and carried it upwards, emptying all my rounds as I did so. The force of around 60 bullets ramming into a body made the elite-form simply breakdown, and crumple like wet tissue. Chief shot down one, and then looked at me. He simply said," Flashy." I did the Spartan signal for a smile, and waited for him to come to my position. We stopped, grabbed dog-tags from the human combat forms, and moved on.

"We're getting close to an exit, I can hear the faint sounds of the swamp." Chief said as he walked over.

"Right, that's good, can't wait till we-Look out!" I pushed Chief out of the way, as a plasma grenade came sailing from the place we came. The grenade zoomed between both of us, detonating harmlessly against a wall. The infection forms numbering in the dozens were charging at us, opening fire at us as they did so. I pulled a plasma grenade from my belt, and threw it. My aim true, I fused it to a carrier, which blew up, taking several along with it. There were much more however, and they just kept coming. With no choice, we decided to run at full sprint.

Ten minutes of running later, we reached the top. We could hear the moans and groans of them as they worked their way up.

"We can't let them get out of this structure. We stop them here," Chief solemnly said to me. It seemed impossible, with just two people. "How many clips you got? I got 5 for the Assault rifle, and around 30 rounds for the shotgun. 4 grenades each."

"180 bullets for the SMG, same for the rest." I replied, as I got ready for the impending battle.

As we waited, we heard the moans, groans, and gunfire? All of a sudden, yelling, and the sounds of Marines were heard, as we saw a squad of five marines run up to the top with us. I looked at them, and they looked at me. Without a word, they turned, and got ready to fight. Some things just don't need words to be spoken. They knew their duty.

With two Spartans, it would be near impossible, but two Spartans and an extra 5 people, it was much easier to handle around the 50 forms that came charging up to the exit. There were 2 marines who hefted SAW's. Grenades, rifles, and shotguns were used all together as we formed a makeshift wall. 2 at the back, spraying with their SAWs, Chief and I up front, using our shotguns to great effect, and the final three forming a circle, using both battle rifles and shotguns to repel the escapees.

Several humans charged up at us, and we both emptied a round into them, sending them tumbling back down the slope leading to the exit. They began to get up, but were sent back down by nice headshots from the Marines. It went mostly like this, rinsing and repeating. They would charge up, and be pushed back down, either dead or close to it, and be finished off by the BR's. the 3 round burst proved well for the parasites, as they provided an effective 1, 2, 3 punch which to the head served to pop the infection form within the body. The 2 behind at the back would assist in suppressing fire, showing the infection that there was a reason the squad automatic weapon was called a SAW.

I ran out of ammo for my shotgun, and a Marine pulled out his ammo belt, handing it to me. I nodded, and began reloading. The parasites continued pushing, trying to kill us badly. A Marine used his SAW to good effect, killing most of the combat forms, and pushing some of them back. One got a bit too close for comfort, before it was blown apart by Chief's shotgun. I finished reloading, and with a powerful 'chuck', I got ready to fight. One, two, three, four, we fell into a rhythm, systematically killing them all. When things got too hot, we would stand back, dropping a grenade to kill most of the runners, before moving back in to finish off the rest.

With a grenade exploding and killing the last infection form, it brought the frantic firefight to an end.

I turned to the Marines, starting to ask how they'd escaped, but they seemed to read my mind." We were part of the scout team, Pelican shot down when we were taking off. It was the Covenant. They killed some of our men, but we forced them into the structure. We went in, and got lost. Then we saw those things… lost more men, but we managed to hold out." A PFC named Ian Shaw told us.

"How many did you start with?" I asked, scared to know the answer.

"We started with 20. And sirs? I suggest we get out of here. " Shaw replied, his voice laced with concern.

Chief took the reins and replied, " That's command thinking."

It felt very, very good to get out of the swamp, very good indeed.

(A/N: if you read mass effect 3's masses to masses, you'll see the reference I put in. Anyways tell me if you like the history of Six, and his origin. If you like it I will elaborate about how he trained and more!

Unedited, my beta isn't responding to me, so I apologize for any mistakes. Also if you offer your services they would be dearly appreciated.)