0855 Hours, December 20, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Installation 00, "The Ark"

Facility containing Forerunner A.I. "Mendicant Bias"

ODST Spec. Ops, Phillip Aitken

Paradigm led us through the complex as quickly as it could, but I could tell it was just as lost as we were down here, even if it had maps and plans. We had no idea what would be waiting for us at its heart. I felt for the charm Tori made for me. We'd just lost Sarge, Miller, and Jacobs. Any one of us could be next.

Why the hell did we come down here anyway? Because Paradigm said we should. It said we had to meet "Mendicant Bias," the psychotic Forerunner A.I. who killed its masters. Why did Bias want us? We'd find out eventually.

"Just a little further," announced Paradigm. I tensed.

"Light Bulb," Captain Shepard said. "Are you sure we can trust Mendicant Bias?"

Paradigm was silent for a time. "No," it finally said.

"Terrific," grumbled Behm.

We came to a large door that had the triangular shape the Forerunners were so fond of. "Go through here. Quickly." Paradigm shot a green laser at the door, and it opened for us, albeit slowly. Beyond it was an enormous room colored a deep blue by the light on the far wall. I realized that the source was an indentation containing a Monitor "eye" like Paradigm's. It seemed to gaze at us intently.

"WELCOME." A deep voice, obviously synthetic, filled the chamber. The door closed when we had all passed through, much more quickly than it had opened. "I AM MENDICANT BIAS."

Captain Shepard depolarized his visor. "Yeah? Great. Captain Michael Shepard, ODST Spec. Ops. What the hell do you want? There's a war going on, you know."

"I AM WELL AWARE OF THE SITUATION, RECLAIMER. I HAVE CALLED YOU ALL HERE TO DISCUSS A MATTER OF GREAT IMPORTANCE."

"And that would be?"

"THE FLOOD IS HERE."

"Jesus Christ!" yelled Diamond. "Are you freaking kidding me?! We don't need this shit right now!"

"Hold your tongue, human," advised Darhom. "The intelligence may have control of an army of Sentinels."

"VERY OBSERVANT. FOR AN ALIEN."

Darhom clicked his mandibles and growled. "I will ignore that statement."

"I HAVE A DUTY TO PROTECT THE RECLAIMERS HERE. AND YOU WILL BE MY PENANCE TO MY CREATORS. YOU WILL BE MY EXAMPLE."

"Be your… wait. You're keeping us here, aren't you?! On the Ark!" I was furious. I wasn't going to sit in here while the Flood had their way with our comrades, not when we could go topside and help fight, and get extraction back to Earth. "No dice!"

"YOU HAVE NO CHOICE."

"To hell I don't!"

Cap reached out for me. "Aitken…"

"No, Cap! Dammit, I'm not going to rot in deep space when I have a wife to go home to!"

"THE FLOOD HAVE ARRIVED, AND YOUR 'SPARTAN-117' HAS BEGUN HIS JOURNEY TO LIGHT THE NEW RING. THE BEST COURSE OF ACTION IS TO KEEP YOU ALL HERE."

"Paradigm!" I turned to my pet intelligence in desperation. "Isn't there something you can do?"

"I… I cannot…"

"Paradigm. Please." What was going through its artificial brain right now? Was it feeling conflicted between duty and… friendship? Did I really see an A.I. as my friend?

"NO, INQUISITIVE PARADIGM. THIS IS THE WILL OF OUR CREATORS. WILL YOU BETRAY THEM AS I DID?"

"The teleportation grid," Paradigm said quietly. "The teleportation grid, of course!" The Monitor floated almost menacingly to Bias' eye. "I must sacrifice myself, but I can return them to the surface!"

"Sacrifice?" No, I wouldn't let someone else sacrifice themselves for me. Never again. Not since my original squad. Captain Parkes and Sergeant Bennett had bought time for the rest of us to escape to the Pelican. Me. Carnage. Kachigan. Demorest. Thurman. Walker. I wasn't going to let it happen again. Not even if it was a construct. "Paradigm!"

"I must do this, Phil." The light from Paradigm's eye intensified, and it shook with effort. "I must protect the Reclaimers! I cannot by keeping you here!"

"INQUISITIVE PARADIGM, STOP! YOU CANNOT HOPE TO WREST CONTROL OF THE ARK FROM ME!"

"Good-bye, Phil." Paradigm released the beam it was charging. The light was blinding.

Suddenly, we were outside the facility, somewhere else on the Ark. One moment we were standing in Mendicant Bias' chamber, the next, we were in an expanse of desert. I felt like I was going to throw up. But since I hadn't eaten anything in a while, I didn't. Paradigm somehow got us out by temporarily gaining control of the Ark. It overpowered Mendicant Bias, if only briefly. I knelt on the sand and lowered my head, still loosely holding on to my M90. How many more would we lose? I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up. It was Captain Shepard.

"Come on, Aitken. We need to go."

I stood up. We'd lost Sarge. Then we lost Miller and Jacobs. Now Paradigm? Who was next? Diamond? Captain Shepard? Pillsbury? Behm?

Me? It didn't matter. All I knew was we needed to get the hell off the Ark before anything else happened.

"Hey… what's that…?" Behm was looking up in the sky, toward the center of the Ark as far as I could tell.

I looked. "That… that is another Halo… must be to replace the one that the Master Chief destroyed."

"Is that what Bias meant by the new ring?" Pillsbury sounded a bit like the scared rookie he used to be. Well, I couldn't blame him. "Um… wait… didn't Mendicant Bias say the Chief was firing that thing?"

It lit up like a Christmas tree. Parts of the incomplete construct began flaking away while blue light gathered in the center. Chief had begun the firing sequence. Great.

"Well, fuck," said Diamond with little emotion.

Darhom looked in a vague direction. "We may be able to hail another ship before the Parasite –"

He had to say it, didn't he?

0906 Hours, December 20, 2552 (Military Calendar)

SLIPSPACE, EN ROUTE TO "THE ARK"

UNSC LADY FORTUNE (Bridge)

UNSC Navy, Tori Fero

"We're coming in on the Ark, ma'am! But it's not going to be smooth!"

Why Commander Brown had left control of the bridge to me was anyone's guess. I was a communications officer, not a leader. He was still recovering from his heart attack. I guess he chose me because I was close, and he trusted me. "Good. Uh… keep going. We need to get through. Everyone brace yourselves, and… uh…"

"Brace yourselves" wasn't a good enough warning. We were all still thrown toward the bow of the Lady Fortune. The giant octopus-like structure loomed in the viewport. I didn't believe my eyes when I saw the center. The bridge was filled with shouts of "It's another Halo!" "It's charging!" "We're going to die!"

"Pipe down! All of you!" Commander Brown walked onto the bridge almost uncertainly. He was a bit paler than he was before his brush with death. "Tori. Get on the comm and contact Jacobs. We're pulling your husband out." He sat down in his command chair while I rushed to my post. "Tyche! Full speed ahead! Get a Pelican ready! As soon as Tori finds the squad, trace its position!"

I typed in the sequence for Jacobs' comm equipment. The ship found it after a few seconds. I talked into the microphone. "Jacobs? Jacobs, it's Tori! Are you all still alive?"

"Jacobs is a bit busy right now, being dead and all," Behm grumbled. "But I'm here. Then again, I'm pretty busy, too. You know, alien parasite, death on all sides, same old, same old. Any chance of you guys sending help?" I smiled despite myself.

Tyche said, "Commander, I have their position!"

"Then get a Pelican down there and extract them!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Behm, try to stay where you are, alright? We're coming." I took a deep breath and nervously pushed back my hair.

"No problem, seeing as how we've got nothing but Flood as far as the eye can – JESUS CHRIST! They have Cap! THEY HAVE CAP!"

No!

0910 Hours, December 20, 2552 (Military Calendar)

Installation 00, "The Ark"

Desert on the surface of the Ark

ODST Spec. Ops, Louis Diamond

We all kept our helmets on; we wouldn't let the Flood take us. My finger never left the trigger of my Assault Rifle, spraying the disgusting hordes with bullets. MY BR was spent. Everyone else was probably running low on ammo, too. We formed a close group in the middle, keeping the Flood at bay, but they just kept coming. We could still make it, though. The Lady was in-system, and Commander Brown would get us out. Then we would go home. Not that I had any reason to go back to Earth. There was nothing for me there. My family severed all ties with me when I got put in jail for holding up a liquor store. When I got out, I didn't have many options besides the UNSC. And now I'm here.

Moral of the story? Don't try to rob a liquor store.

One of the fleshy bastards we thought we'd killed grabbed onto Captain Shepard's leg. He swore and kicked at it, but he fell over, towards the rest of the Flood. One of them raked its claws across his back, shearing right through the armor. Dammit! Pillsbury shot the offender a few times with his Magnums, but then the unthinkable happened: a Flood Infection Form dug into his wound.

"GAAAAHHHH!" Cap tried to get up, but then he keeled over and started convulsing. The Infection Form flattened and the disgusting color of the Flood began to spread over Cap's armor. In some places the plates were straining.

"JESUS CHRST!" yelled Behm. "They have Cap! THEY HAVE CAP!"

Darhom rolled in the sand to Captain Shepard's body. It had grown those scary-looking claws that most Combat Forms had, the exact same kind that made him this way. I couldn't think. Flood-Cap impaled Darhom's stomach with its claws. The Sangheili was still fighting, though. I saw Darhom place his unignited Energy Sword beneath Cap's chin and heard him say, "This is not the end I would have had for you, Shepard," before the blade crackled to life and killed the parasite controlling our captain's body. Both fell to the ground, limp and lifeless.

I wasn't sure what everyone else was thinking. But for me, there would be time to mourn them later. It seemed it was that way for everyone else, too.

I heard the engines of a Pelican. Thank God. We were saved! "This is Eros four-two, are you guys ready to head home?" The pilot's voice was met with an enthusiastic "OOH-RAH" from the five of us. "Lemme clear a path! Keep your heads down!"

We went prone, not daring to dive. We still had to shoot. The Pelican swung around to reveal a Marine on a LAAG. He fired, ripping the Flood apart. No matter how disgusting it was, we were alive. We were going to make it. We stood up and raced for the dropship. The Marine helped Pillsbury up first, followed by Behm and Hoffman. Aitken and I were depolarized. We made brief eye contact. We'd made it. "Come on," said the Marine. "We don't have all – Holy shit! Behind you!"

Ah, Christ. A Flood Tank Form. We didn't need this. The pilot pulled up, panicked. The Marine fell out of the Pelican, as did the LAAG, right on top of him. The poor soldier was skewered on the barrel. Aitken ran over to it, trying to get it loose from the sand. It didn't budge. The Tank was getting closer with every second. Eighty feet. Seventy. I fired my Assault Rifle. Five bullets burst out of the gun before I heard a disappointed click. I looked at Aitken again. "I'm spent."

"Same here. But I think I have an idea. Do you have any incendiaries? Maybe a plasma grenade?"

I saw where he was going with this. A plasma grenade would just turn the Tank into a charging bomb, but we didn't have time to deliberate. I lobbed one I'd picked up on September Beach, figuring it would come in handy. It stuck onto the Tank and detonated after a few seconds. It clearly felt pain, but it showed no signs of stopping. If anything, it was even more pissed off. The Pelican had moved and dropped some altitude. We booked it with the Tank in pursuit. We closed the distance between us and sweet freedom. Unfortunately, our new friend was closing distance as well. We were only a few yards from the Pelican, but we weren't going to make it.

Unless…

"Don't hate me for this, Aitken." Before he could say anything, I got behind him and shoved him the rest of the way. He hit the loading ramp but recovered quickly and scrambled up with everyone else's help. The pilot clearly hesitated about leaving me behind. The Tank raised its arms above its head when it was in front of me and swatted me like a fly. My tunnel vision was blurred and I had a splitting headache. I could hardly breathe. My body hurt all over. I was going to die. But that didn't bother me. My squad got out. My brothers were going home.

Suddenly, I felt a strong gust of wind sweep over me. The Tank made an almost surprised sound when the Pelican plowed into it and turned it into gibbets. Aitken hopped out of the back and kneeled over me. "You crazy bastard," he said, slightly mocking but also concerned. "Come on. We're getting the hell out of here."

I brought myself to say it. "No." Talking hurt.

"What? Diamond, I'm carrying you onto the Pelican. Hoffman will patch you up until we get to the Lady."

"I'm a goner, Aitken. My luck is spent. The dead man's hand wasn't coincidence, Aitken. It was an omen. Leave. And hurry, before another Tank comes."

"Bullshit! We're getting you off!" He picked me up as smoothly as he could manage, but that only made me hurt worse. I groaned. "It's gonna be alright, man. It's gonna be alright."

He placed me on the floor of the Pelican and took my helmet off. The door closed and we lifted into the sky. Everyone crowded around me. I couldn't see their faces. They were only blurred shapes. "We did it, didn't we," I managed. "We won." One of the shapes nodded. Aitken, by the sound of his voice, but all I could make out was "yes." My hearing was going. Most of my sight was consumed by darkness.

With my last breath, I sighed, "Hot damn."