Chapter 10
The pelican touched down and the Master Chief led the way off, looking about to make sure the area was clear of immediate threat. Kelly followed next, then Mark, Tif, with Gabriel bringing up the rear. The foliage was dense, rainforest like; with little light able to trickle in. Tif started to sweat the moment they stepped out of the pelican, the air hot and thick with humidity.
As they moved out the Master Chief slowed, bringing them closer together, quickly clearing every direction.
"You okay?" Kelly asked through their internal speakers, keeping the conversation between them. John looked about a few times, "last time I was in a forest-swamp like this; there were sounds of odd croaking, moans and screams. Not long after I was surrounded by the Flood."
Kel felt a shiver run down her spine, there wasn't much that could be thrown at a Spartan that would knock them off kilter, but the Flood was an exception. "It just sounds like a forest."
The Master Chief glanced at his long-time friend slightly behind him to his right, "I know."
They trekked for nearly an hour through the underbrush when small green dots appeared on their radars. From their position, Tif guessed it was Fire Team Bravo. When they broke out of the dense foliage they came upon a small silver building with an "A" shaped entrance, Bravo came out from the East. With a few hand signals between team leaders, the teams circled the building and came upon Zulu, who was behind clearing the area. Deeming it safe, the three squads came to the front of the building. John, Fred and Kurt spoke quickly.
"We'll guard the entrance," Fred said, knowing his team had the heavier fire power.
The Master Chief shook his head, "No if this place is anything like the last ring, we stick together from here on out."
"What happened at the last ring? Where does this lead?" DeMarco asked.
"To a Flood containment facility below ground. The Covenant mistakenly released it. The whole squad that had been up here was killed the only survivor was Sergeant Major Johnson. Captain Key's squad was captured by the Covenant but even he was felled by the flood. We stick together, if there are any mishaps we can take it together. We will be more powerful that way."
"So that's why we're here," piped in Gabriel, "Flood control."
"One of a few reasons; if this facility is anything like the last we need to contain it and obliterate before anything can happen like the previous time."
"Why weren't we told this before we left? Why so secret?" Gabriel demanded.
The Master Chief glared at the young Spartan and was quiet for a long time. Tif raised her eyebrows; she knew Gabriel was the Team Leader of Fire Team Majestic. But she wondered how the two leaders could compare. Kelly had mentioned since the very beginning John had been their de facto leader; he was battle hardened and was at the frontlines since the very start of the war. Gabriel was barely older than her and she doubted he had seen all the horrors the Master Chief had.
"ONI can't be trusted." He finally said. The Spartan fours stilled. ONI created them, they worked for them. The other Spartans didn't seem surprised by the news, as if they were already aware of this fact.
"How can you just stop working for ONI? We belong to them." Hoya snapped.
Tif stepped in front of the Spartan fours and snarled, "You are forgetting your place Spartan. The Master Chief has been fighting this war since before you were born and let's not forget he's the one that finished the fight. Respect is in order. The loyalty of the older Spartans lies with each other and humanity and her best interests, not with ONI and their deceptive ways, now enough of your insubordination, and do as you're told." She was significantly smaller than they but they stepped back in surprise at the sudden hostility, "This. Isn't a pissing contest."
The Spartan fours stood down uncomfortably, and looked to the Chief for the next instruction. Tif was glad for the full face visor, she wasn't usually one to blurt out harshly like that and she could feel herself turn red when she realized that everyone's attention was on her. She stepped back into her place behind Kelly and the Master Chief, hoping he would just get back to business. Kelly looked down at her and placed two fingers in front of her face in a Spartan smile. She shook her head and looked to the dirt and listened to John give out orders, wishing she could turn into a puddle.
The teams moved out, down the ramp and into the main room, which they found was the only room. Two tall hollowed out pillars stood at either end of the large, glass, and open grav lift. Zulu guarded the perimeter as Bravo went down the elevator first. Alpha stood at ease inside, waiting for the elevator and the all clear from Bravo. Tif was admiring the odd intricate work of the room when she got a bump on her shoulder.
She turned her attention to the Master Chief and looked up at his gold visor. The gold dimmed enough to where she could see his eyes, and she followed his example, dimming the silver of hers, his voice crackled over a private COM link, "Thank you."
Tif shrugged and nodded once, and smiled tightly. His eyes crinkled slightly from his own smile.
"Don't do it again."
Tif let out a breathy laugh, "No promises, Sir."
"Is that insubordination, I hear?" he teased.
"Far from it. My loyalty is to you, even if it ends up working against you." Tif paused, "Did that makes sense?"
"No, but I know what you mean."
John smiled again and she smiled back, and turned to admire the room again, John leaving to roam around the elevator, a few minutes had passed until the All Clear came from Bravo.
John boarded the awaiting elevator, the rest of Alpha following. They positioned themselves around him at the ready for a fight. Tif positioned herself in kneeling position, back to the Master Chief, Gabriel kneeling beside her.
"Tif, we'll be in close quarters," the Master Chief warned as the grav lift dropped. She switched her sniper rifle to her back and pulled out her pistol and sat at the ready. She noticed Gabriel looked in her direction and glanced at him. He held out a hand and she took it quickly. She felt herself smile as she shifted back into position, he had her back.
The grav lift was open and they could watch their descent the rest of the way. Two of Bravo could be seen around the room. Once the lift stopped, John radioed Zulu and Alpha slipped off the elevator doing their own check of the room. Kurt was messing with a control panel on one of the pillars. The lift zipped up and Alpha moved forward around the wall towards the door. The last two of Bravo were inside the door, standing guard, peeking around the wall.
The Master Chief took point and circled around the second wall into a large dimly lit room. As they entered in further the lights flickered on to reveal a large room with them on a second level balcony. Below a large divide split the floor in half. On the opposite side was a continuation of the level. The Master Chief walked forward towards the ledge and stepped up to the forerunner control panel. Tif stepped up beside him.
"Do you know how to work it?" she asked.
He slid a blue key down and an audible hum filled the room. A blue light bridge formed in front of them.
"Everything in this building appears to be functioning correctly; I need a moment to set the map up straight in my head." He walked away from the panel, turning off the bridge, and squatted at the edge, rifle propped up against his shoulder and thought. Tif eyed him worriedly. He seemed off. She turned and looked at the panel. She had no idea what the odd icons meant, with a look around the room to see if anyone was looking, she pressed a random green icon and the room lit up.
Tif jumped and looked around, startled that it actually did something.
"Nice, Tif, how'd you know it would do that?" Kelly asked.
"I didn't?" she said slowly, "lucky guess though, huh? I wonder what this button does," she said turning back around, to press a gold glyph.
"Wait-" Kelly said trying to stop her, but a hiss could be heard in different places around the room. Everyone stilled, waiting for something to happen.
John turned on his toes to look at her, "Would you stop pressing junk?"
Tif put both hands on her pistol and nodded. He turned back around and she walked over towards him. She put her pistol in its holster and dropped to her belly and looked over the edge underneath.
"What are you doing?" The Master Chief asked, sounding a little exasperated.
"The door is unlocked." She said, popping her head up to look at him.
"You probably disabled the security."
"Cool!" she said with a grin, "Know where we're headed yet?"
"Down," he replied, standing as Zulu entered the room, and dropped down to the floor beneath. Tif looked back over the edge, that was a bit of a drop for her, maybe not him, but he and the rest of the team weren't normal. He looked up at her, "Need a hand down?" Well, she wasn't exactly normal either.
She grasped the edge tight and slid head first off, body following till her feet were towards the floor. Her body swung a couple times until she stilled. She released her backwards grip of the ledge and dropped the remaining few feet and landed and shoulder rolled to absorb the shock and popped up to her feet in front of her Team Leader. He shook his head and brought his rifle down from his shoulder into his other awaiting hand.
"Bravo, set up here. Keep your eyes and ears open." Kurt nodded and motioned for his team to spread out, "Linda, see if you can get into the system. Zulu, you're with me."
The rest of Alpha and Zulu dropped to the floor with surprisingly quiet thuds and followed the Master Chief out of room through a door on the right. The door led to a small hallway that squared around to another door that led into a square room. Support beams were in the corners and an odd instrument sat in a square in the center of the room. The Master Chief went straight to the left wall and headed out to another square hallway which brought them to a large open room like the one they had left Bravo. Above was another two balconies that could be connected by a light bridge.
"Zulu, set up here." The Master Chief ordered as they piled in.
"Aye, Sir." Fred replied, the team dispersed to check all the corners and The Master Chief led Alpha to the right at the end of the hall. A small platform stood a few feet off the ground from the middle crease beneath it but stood level with them. John took a large step onto it and disappeared beyond the door. When he came out of the square hallway, he glared at the wall before maneuvering around it.
""Sarge? Mendoza? Bisenti? Oh, God... the things took them, oh God, I can still hear them... They're gone! Get it? GONE!"
Tif sighed, so many doors, and everything was so quiet. Gabriel motioned for her to go first and she, unlike the Spartans had to jump and followed through the door into yet again another square hallway.
When she came out of the hall into the next room she stopped and stood staring at the glass box that stood in the center reaching from floor to ceiling. Inside glowed a green mist, suspended in the center. Above was a glass walkway that pronged out to all four ways, reflected the incandescent light.
"This is-" Tif started slowly.
"Creepy." Gabriel stated firmly.
"That's for sure." Mark said, looking the glass box over too relaxed.
"Let's continue." The Master Chief ordered, walking away from the center. They followed up a ramp to the level above and headed out the door.
Zulu swiveled in their direction, weapons raised, from the story below. John ignored them and activated the bridge and made his way across. It didn't take the team long to stand down and assume their positions. This place was so hard to keep track of direction. It wasn't a wonder why the Chief needed a moment to collect his thoughts. The team split in two as they entered the door to either side of the wall beyond and descended down the ramps on both sides to the lower level.
They came to a single locked door and the Master Chief stopped weapon raised, ready on "kill". He looked left then right.
"-which is weird, right? …I mean look at it. Something…scrambled the insides." Private Kappus said.
"Mark, open the door."
"I have a bad feeling about this." Mendoza warned.
"Aye, sir."
"We've got contacts... lots of them…" screeched Corporal Lovik, "but they're not covenant…they're just tearing through us…what the?! ...oh…NOO!"
Tif patted her belt down as she watched the Master Chief do it moments before, looking at his vitals on her HUD, she could his stress level kept spiking and she wasn't sure as to why and it was making her nervous. She swallowed and held her pistol at the ready and waited for Mark to finish his deal with the spoofer.
This was how it all started, John thought, it won't happen again.
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Dun dun DUUUUUUN!
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