Chapter 10
Planet Spark
713 and Harpie rushed to the command bridge, putting their helmets on the way. They entered the bridge to find the whole team there.
713 spoke first, "whats going on Backlash?"
Backlash stared out the window at a slip space hole and seeing a covenant ship shooting into it.
Backlash turned to them and said, "were going for a ride, buckle your seat belt."
Then they shot into the slip space and appear on the other side to find what looks like a huge planet, but it was made out of a gray silvery metal, forerunner metal.
Backlash turned to the captain and said, "where the hell are we?"
The captain looked at the senors around him and said, "I don't know for sure, but somewhere near the galactic center, maybe." The then on the metal planet an iris like portal slowly opened and the covenant ship flew on into the opening.
Backlash then yelled, "follow them in!" then they followed quickly in, before the iris closed. They then looked forward to see a world inside a metal shell, that they just went through. This planet was green with life, or at least half was. The other half looked rotted with death and time. 713 took a step back, he knew that decay, the flood. How could they rot half a planet to death. 713 looked at everyone.
Backlash looked at 713 and said, "We are not setting foot on that planet."
713 thought of something 'its a wildlife park, and they have the flood in it!'. They watched the covenant ship go into orbit of the small planet.
713 turned to Backlash and said, "send me down, sir."
Backlash looked at him weird and said, "But you'll be massacred, and an infected spartan 4 is the last thing we need."
"Sorry sir, but this suit is flood proof and I'm the most experienced with them."
"713 no, sorry but were a team and work as one. No lone wolf stuff flies here here."
713 felt some joy inside that now he was part of the team. They looked out to the planet, thinking about what they were going to do.
Then Backlash spoke out, "We could drop onto the clean half of the planet, cause something is stopping the flood's advance, so we should be safe. But the covenant will be over there too. I want a 3 and 4 person teams, Shyde, Skullcrusher, Regen, and 713 and me, Harpie, and Enigma. My team will be the scouts and your team will be dropped after us. We will find why the covenant are here and why they are being so neutral toward us." Backlash, Harpie, and Enigma all walked out. Harpie looked back at 713. He didn't want her to leave.
He sighed and looked back at his team and said, "Alright lets get ready. We want heavy or close combat weapons for the flood and aim for the bulge with antennas." They walked out of the bridge with 713 in the rear. They were heading for the armory, and 713 knew what weapons he wanted. As soon as they got to the nearest armory he headed for the shotguns grabbed one, and loaded it.
713 turned to Shyde and asked, "Do you have any covenant weapons?"
Shyde looked at him weird and said, "Well yeah, but they won't do crap against the flood" Shyde then lead him down to the end where there were tables full of covenant weapons. 713 looked around found what he wanted. He picked up to brute maulers, both with full ammo, but 713 grabbed extra from other ones just in case.
713 turned to Shyde with one more question, "Shyde since were more of a team, I was wondering how you got your name or how you got here?"
Shyde sighed and then spoke softly, but got louder as he spoke, "I was from a team of ODST, I soon became one of the best ones out there. They asked if I wanted to become a Spartan. At first I said no, but soon I realized that I could become much more then a great soldier on the battle field. I could become hope for those who believed in it. My first mission as a Spartan I was sent to investigate a covenant base that seemed to just shut down. That is when I met the flood who had hid on a covenant drop ship. I barely made it back to the UNSC ship I came on. I'm called shayde for what I've become, a shadow of what I was, I saw things no man should see." 713 realize that him a Shyde weren't so different, but that would only make them work more as a team. As they waited for the call from Backlash to go planet-side. 713 told Shyde about his training and his inaction with the flood.
Shyde shook his head as to agree with him and said, "Well that makes one more spartan on this team that has fought the flood."
713 looked at him kinda surprised and confused, then said, "You mean everyone has encountered the flood before they became a part of the team?"
"Yeah everyone, expect Backlash, Skullcrusher fought them while on a headhunter mission with Regen. Enigma met them while doing some scouting on what the UNSC thought was a 'covenant' homeworld. We all met it in some way. Most never meet them a second time, most don't even leave alive. But we did, and you even got a the only thing that can kill them."
713 stood up to say, "So now we get some revenge on the flood for those they have killed and taken from us. We are the Sons of Plunder and we will show them that they are not the thing to fear in this Galaxy, but we are."
Then over the radio 713 and everyone heard Backlash, "Spartan drop on our location you need to see this." 713, Shyde, Regen, and Skullcrusher, all with their favorite weapons got into their drop pods, with 713's words still in their heads. It was time for revenge on the flood.