Chapter 9: "Oh, shit!"
"Chief!" Samus cried as a mutated pirate lunged for John. John ducked, the clumsy mutation flew over him. John grabbed its leg and swung it. The beast hit the wall and exploded. John stood and leveled the assault rifle.
He turned to Samus, "You said you were here before, get us out." Samus nodded and with a last look led the way. They headed up a flight of stairs into the iron walkways above. As they raced up the stairs, something started falling from the ceiling above. It wasn't until the things started to come back up did they realize it was more Flood/metroids.
John shot them as they came up from below. Samus moved near the edge of the catwalk to get a look at where the creatures were coming from.
"Damn, there's hundred of them!" she shouted. She charged a blast and fired straight up, disintegrating hundreds of the monsters. John heard something on the catwalks below.
Flood combat forms in pirate bodies were running clumsily up the stairs towards them. John pulled the pin from a frag-grenade and dropped it into a swarm of the combat forms. With a thud more than twenty had become nothing more than wet confetti John nodded and turned back to Samus who was still firing upwards.
"Now." he said. Samus paused for a moment, confused, then she nodded and started up again. After a minute or so more of the infected metroids began to surround them.
John used the assault rifle as a blunt weapon, crushing any who came close enough. One ran into his shields, somehow escaping his line of view. It popped, but John's shields still flickered.
"This is getting very irritating." he muttered as he swung the gun again, slicing the disgusting parasites and their hosts.
"Got that right." Samus said. "At least we're getting exercise."
"Shut up." John muttered. Samus cleared the path with another blast. The hot energy melted a portion of the metal stairway, but they paid no heed. The only thing they cared about was getting out of there alive. The flood were, needless to say, merciless.
They were compelled by the Gravemind, which John had hoped was dead. Unfortunately it wasn't. His worse fears had been realized.
The cloud of infecting creatures had taken over every pirate in the installation. A small army had gathered beneath them, running up the stairs after them. John intended to cut them off. He put two frag-grenades down once they had reached yet another platform. He set them down on the edge of the top step. He pulled out two plasma grenades and activated them.
He dropped the glowing orbs onto the stair by the two human grenades and then backed away. The two plasma grenades exploded, their blue cloud of fire ignited the two UNSC grenades. The mixed fireworks ate through the metal catwalk, obliterating a good portion of the staircase. For good measure, Samus unleashed a charged blast of energy, melting away a few more feet of iron. The Flood had been cut off.
From below.
John turned around to see around five pirates descending from above, some climbing the catwalks to reach the two humans. John unleashed a barrage of hot iron into the infected aliens, killing the five on the staircase.
Samus killed three of the climbing Flood. As they raced up, desperate to reach the next level of the catwalk, a hoard of Flood/metroids burst out from a door. They started swarming the two humans. Trying to find a weakness in their armor, running both their shields down. John crushed many of them with his fists. He fired blindly in to the swarm, cutting the parasites to pieces.
The bloated swarm was soon shredded, John's shields sputtered back to life, their reassuring golden glow as they powered back up made John feel a little safer. Samus was kneeling on the staircase.
"M . . my shields . . . I need power for them to recharge." she said, her voice barely above a whisper.
"Can you walk?" Samus nodded and stood. "Get behind me, just guide me, I'll protect you until we're out of this hell." Samus nodded and directed him.
Swarms of the beasts would encroach upon them, but the Chief would cut them down before they neared them. He fought harder than he realized he'd ever fought before, for this one person. He found it strange.
John reached a section where much of the machines had been destroyed by the battle between the Flood and the space pirates. A hopeless battle. Unless you had fought them before, you were sure to die. It was easy to underestimate the Flood. A mistake that John had long ago learned to overcome.
Untouched bodies littered the floor before them. John and Samus moved forward briskly, knowing that if any Flood found this somehow untouched trove of life, they would be quickly overwhelmed.
Samus told John that they were near the exit and that meant they were close to her ship. A ship? The thought made John feel better, knowing that at least now they had a way of getting of the forsaken world they were now trapped in.
They navigated the last of the subterranean nightmare and stepped out onto a metal landing platform. The Flood were fighting hard not to let these two sources of nourishment get away. They poured endlessly out of the exit to the underground complex.
John and Samus poured all they had into the sea of death that struggled to overcome them and devour them. John would never become a part of the Gravemind's horrific unity. He wasn't about to let Samus fall victim to that fate either.
"Get to your ship!" he yelled, smashing a combat form to the ground, grinding his foot over the decaying body. Samus turned to him, ready to protest. "Now, just get it ready to leave, I'll get on board once you're ready."
Samus nodded and raced towards her ship. John then forgot everything except the will to survive. He focused only on the destruction of the horror before him.
The Flood were a real-life horror movie. They were relentless, frightening, and they spread just as fast as any disease. The first time John had seen them in combat forms . . he remembered the desecrated remains of ODSTs ripped apart and trying to kill him. It was something that would haunt him until the day he breathed his last.
"Where the hell is she?" John muttered under his breath.
"Detecting power signature, Chief. I think she's almost there." a blast of laser fire rushed past him, ripping the exit to pieces. John stopped and turned around. Her orange and red ship was hovering nearby. John spared not time in boarding.
The ship sealed shut. John looked around and saw Samus sitting at a console. The green light from the computer danced across her face, obscuring it with shadows. She still had her power suit on, but her helmet was gone. John never thought she'd be blonde.
"Ten seconds to atmo', lady." a male voice said.
"Who . ."
"My AI, Adam." Samus said. "Adam, this is the Master Chief." the AI acknowledged John and then was silent. John reached up and gripped his helmet. With a hiss it was off. He set it down on a darkened console. He didn't enjoy being in his armor all the time, it was just that he felt too exposed without it.
Samus looked around when she heard the helmet hiss. She raised an eyebrow.
"What?" John asked.
"Nothing, you just don't look exactly like I expected." she replied before returning her attention to the console. She studied the computer for a matter of minutes, occasionally consulting Adam. John sighed and merely stood, thankful for the silence that he knew, with utmost certainty, would be incredibly short-lived.
As they flew a series of strange readings appeared on the ship's radars and other sensory machines. John closed his eyes and waited, feeling the invisible hand that was about to pluck them out of this world. It was like a heavy weight, an impending shove that would force them to move to a new location.
Samus looked back at him, nervous, and was confused by how calm he looked. "There are a number of strange energy readings." she said after returning to the computers. "Strange radiation detected."
"Brace yourself." John said. The ship shook, once, then twice. John opened his eyes and saw the void outside the ship. Samus gaped in awe at the inter-dimensional highway. As second wave engulfed them. They were dragged down, down until the view was blackened save for the twinkling of distant stars.
"We're back . ." an immense explosion filled their viewport. The ship rolled violently, moving away from the fiery cataclysm. John stepped closer to the window, steadying himself against the constant shaking of the ship.
There was a war raging outside.
The Covenant were at it against the Elites and the UNSC. The Elites and humans appeared to have the upper hand, but that hadn't stopped the Covenant from glassing a small portion of the planet below. Three blackened spots still glowed from the impact of the planet-killing weaponry. John grimaced, his hands tightened into fists.
"Bastards." he breathed, his voice overcome with anger. Samus maneuvered the ship as far as possible from the battle. John picked his helmet up from where it had fallen and put it back on. The HUD lit up and Cortana immediately spoke.
"The Dawn is here. So is Miranda and Johnson. I've already contacted them, we're being patched through to Johnson's team now. He's on the ground." a moment later the comm came to life.
"Hey Chief, we missed ya'." Johnson laughed.
"Where are we?" Chief asked.
"Good old, Spira." Johnson said sarcastically.
"Send us a signal, we'll meet you."
"Signal sent, we're on a place called the Mi'ihen Highroad. During the middle of something called "Operation Mi'ihen"."
"What's their goal?" John asked.
"To get rid of some big, bad beasty the locals call Sin. Apparently it's a reoccurring pain in the neck for Spira. Every time they kill it, it comes back in two years. This operation is going to use technology, which is forbidden here, to destroy Sin."
"We've got the signal, Chief, we're going down." Samus said.
"We're heading down, Sergeant-Major." John said.
"Johnson out." the comm clicked off. John looked out the viewport. The Highroad was desolate and rocky. A large basin had been carved into the rock long ago by the water. An army of soldiers had gathered on the beach at the water's edge, ready to charge an unsuspecting foe.
John noticed a large cage on the cliff, where a number of Hornets and a Pelican were hovering. A small crowd, supposedly Johnson's party, was near it. The cage door blew off, and a huge monster landed precariously close to the crowd. The people fled as it advanced. The Hornets rose up and pulverized it with missiles and their Gatling guns. Chief nodded in approval.
A huge shadow was moving through the water towards the basin. John and Samus both gaped at the size. It stopped and then rose up, out of the water. He and Samus were nearing the cliff, the crowd was parting to let them land.
Once Samus had her helmet on, she and John rushed to the group nearest the cliff's edge. Johnson barely acknowledged the Chief. Yuna was staring in horror at the monster below.
"That . . t . . that's not Sin . . . . ." she stuttered.
"Not anymore." John's voice jolted the summoner. The skin of the beast was swollen and covered in bulbous ridges and swelling sores. A mass of rotten and rotting flesh. A beam of energy shot out of a tower at the monster.
It hit the air in front of the thing, bending it. John realized in shock that the Sin monster had a natural force field. It bent, and then exploded. A swarm of tiny creatures flew through and over the water onto the beach, catching many of the soldiers below off guard.
John felt sick, not because of what was happening to the people, but because of the sound the monster made. A deep, unearthly chuckle emanated from Sin. Of course, it was no longer Sin. A marine, Horowitz whom Johnson considered his right-hand man, stepped up beside Johnson. He was an ODST, so a helmet covered his face. He shook his head as he watched the carnage below.
"Oh, shit!" Horowitz muttered under his breath. Silently, John concurred. This was about to get a whole lot worse.
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They are, more useful than I figured.
Very, my Lord.
Thirteen, I am quite busy now. I would like you to observe what is transpiring for me, but make no move against the Spartan or any others.
Absolutely, my Lord.
He has become a testament.
No, my Lord, a monument. He is a monument.
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Author's Notes: First off, for any of you who still read this, my pen-name has been changed to finem facere mundo. Which is basically Latin for my old name. It is also my motto, it reads: To Make an End to the World. Fancy, huh? Be on the lookout for Chapter 10: Monument.
End of Chapter 9 -