Ch. 25: Welcome to the Fight Alone
1200 September 29, 2554 (Coalition Military Calendar) / Command Post Alpha, Echo Halo, Linksis Dawn System
X
"Starfox?"
"Don't move!" Fox was nervous. He pressed the barrel of the BR55 into the neck of the wolverine that he had found in the Warthog LRV, "What's your name?"
The wolverine's eyes slid shut and he turned his head, "Private First Class Mick Connors. Fire Team Alpha, Corneria."
Fox lowered the barrel of the gun, "What happened? Where is everyone?"
The wolverine had gone limp, "I don't know. Lieutenant Trace and his team went in a few days back. We haven't heard anything from them since. I've been trying to contact Home Base but, the radios don't work for sht."
Fox bit his lip. The Fire Team didn't know about the UNSC yet, and they didn't know that Home Base had been moved. The wolverine had been cutoff from the rest of the troops on Halo from days. He had no idea what was going on. Fox's eyes widened. The Fire Team didn't know about the Flood.
"I thought it was all hopeless," the wolverine said weakly. He turned his head toward the vulpine, "Until you showed up. We're on the last of our rations. There are more wounded just inside that entrance. It might be all we have left."
Fox looked to where the wolverine was gesturing. Just a little farther into the trees was grey building that was embedded into a hillside. He saw the Spartan heading toward the building, and he ran to catch up, "Wait! Wait a second!"
The warrior spun around and looked at the vulpine.
Fox caught up, "This is a team that's been cutoff from the rest of Halo for days. They don't know about you and they don't know about the UNSC. If they see you, they'll open up. Let me go in first."
The Spartan nodded. He watched the wolf and the fox stroll past him.
Fox carried the Battle Rifle by the pistol grip and down by his side. He stepped closer to the building. On either side of the hill two machineguns turned toward him others loaded their weapons and pointed them down range, toward Fox and toward Kaplan.
"Hold your fire! Friendly! Friendly!" Kaplan shouted.
The weapons and barrels slowly went down. Rucksacks and extra weapons lined the inside of the grey building. A cat came and approached them. He saluted, "Sir, Sergeant Hagar. Alpha Fire Team. Thank god you're here."
"What's you're sit-rep?" asked the fox.
"Not good Sir. We hit heavy Covenant defenses coming in. Most are wounded and more yet are dead. Low on ammo and rations. The last functional soldiers I have are these ten. The casualties are inside."
The wolf stepped inside. The building was build deep into the hill. Beams held up the ceiling as the narrow hall sloped down into a larger room. A huge platform was placed in the center. In front of the platform were all the casualties; the wounded, the dead, and the few medics. Whatever they had left was also there. That included a few Covenant weapons and what they had left for ammo.
Kaplan spun around and walked back up the sloped hallway, "This accounts for less then half of Alpha."
The cat nodded, "The rest are MIA. Trace brought them down two or three days ago. Haven't heard from any of them since. And I'm not going to risk the lives of the rest of these men to try to find them. No weapons cache is worth that."
Fox wasn't going to take the time to tell them that what they were sitting on top of wasn't a weapons cache. He just changed the subject. She shook his head off the thought of the Flood, "Have you're men hold their fire."
The orange cat nodded, "Sure but… why?"
"You'll see in a second. Hey Chief! You're good!"
From within the dark forest the titan emerged. Everyone from Alpha looked at him in awe. The Spartan stepped into the structure.
Hagar took a step back, "What-What is it?"
The Spartan looked down at him, "I am Spartan 117."
Cortana monitored the structure, "Hmm, it looks identical to the structure on the first Halo."
The orange feline whispered to the fox, "What's going on here!?!"
"A lot has happened while you were here. We've joined forces with a new race. They call themselves Human, or the UNSC."
Cortana assessed the situation, "Sergeant Hagar. Tell you're men to gather their weapons. If you can make it to the base of the swamp, there will be a Pelican waiting there to extract you and the rest of your troops. Chief, I used the armor to amplify the signal from your communications systems to the Control Room. It's still sketchy, but I can talk to them."
"What's a Pelican?" the orange furred cat raised one eyebrow.
"Sergeant Kaplan," Fox addressed the wolf.
"Yes Sir Captain?"
"Can you take care of the rest of the team from here? They don't know anything about the UNSC or the control room."
"Yeah, you bet. What about you?"
"The Chief and I are going after the rest of Alpha. Don't worry. We'll call for extraction when we need. Just do me a favor and leave us a Warthog. Incase we need it. Don't wait up for us.
"Yes Sir," the wolf nodded, "Alight listen up Alpha! Take everything you've got, extra ammo, medical gear and all of the casualties. We're heading out. Hagar get the…" the wolf went off and into his business.
The fox looked up at the Spartan, "Cortana, how long for evac?"
"Dieppe four-nineteen will be at the LZ at 1300 hours. That should give the team a long enough time to get there without too much incident."
"Thanks Cortana."
"You're welcome Skipper."
"Chief, ready when you are," Fox put the Battle Rifle around his shoulder and pulled out Krystal's shotgun.
The Spartan nodded and started heading toward the elevator. Fox guessed that he would know where to go. He had overheard Cortana talk about how this place was similar to another Halo.
The soldiers of Fire Team Alpha looked at the armored man in awe. The pair stepped onto the oversized elevator. Fox went to the controls. There was on a hollow panel of some sort. With his right paw he rest the shotgun on his shoulder. With his other paw he scanned over it, looking for a button that would activate the platform. In another moment he pressed down on a light.
He unlocked his knees as the elevator jumped up. Then it started to slide down.
"Good luck Spartan," Fox looked up and saw the wolf. The Sergeant then looked at him, "Good luck Fox McCloud."
Fox smiled and shot a sloppy salute at the wolf. Then he let the shotgun fall back into his left paw as Kaplan and the rest of the men and women disappeared. He pulled back the pump of the 8guage, made sure that the breach was clear of any obstructions and loaded more rounds into the weapon until it wouldn't hold anymore. He closed the action, and then slid it back and forward quickly once more to load one of the shells into the chamber.
The walls started to tower above the two. The elevator descended into the depths of the ring. And after a few more seconds it came to a halt.
Fox raised the shotgun and was ready for the worst. And it was the worst. It was the worst because it was completely silent. Not a sound was made. Not a body was seen and it looked like no one had been down there for hundreds of years.
Fox's heart was clam but he could tell that it was starting to pick up the pace and beat faster. He kept Krystal's weapon close to his chest and slowly stepped off the elevator.
The Spartan II came up beside him with an MA5C, "I'll take point. You cover our backside."
"Ok Chief."
The Spartan walked ahead of the fox. The inside of the whole building was grey-ish blue with the blue plasma lights that illuminated the underground fortress. The Spartan walked toward a door. Green lights lined the entrance and with his rifle bared he walked through. On the other side was a room with four doors on the bottom and four on the top.
The fox fallowed the Spartan. The man jumped from a box and onto the top. Fox watched in awe as the man leaped so high. Fox knew that he weighed a lot, but even with all that weight, he still landed without making a sound. Fox did the same thing. He ran toward the box and through the shotgun out in front of him. His stomach hit and he pulled himself up. He did the same to the next floor.
The Spartan II grabbed his paw and pulled him up. They stepped over the glass floor and made their way to another corridor. The worst part of all was still that it was completely silent. They both crept along into the next room. Now, they were high above the bottom floor. On the other side of the room was an identical balcony to the one that they were now standing on.
Below on the bottom floor, Fox could spot out empty shell casings and the dead bodies of Grunts, Jackals and a few Elites.
"Well," Fox looked back up to the balcony on the other side of the room, "There's some trace of Alpha. How do we get across?"
"Like this," the Spartan hit a switch on the panel.
A strange buzzing sound came from below the fox's feet. He looked as a bridge of blue plasma began to form to join the two balconies. Fox was the first to step on the luminous bridge. He had no problem doing it since he had done it before when he was on Sauria, so long ago.
The Spartan fallowed. Fox went through the door first. He was now in a very small hallway. Every once and a while it had smaller halls that detached from it going left and right. But they were all dead ends after about six or seven meters. Fox stepped forward more. He proceeded to walk down the long hall, when the next thing heard was a mechanical "Shuk-Shuk."
He immediately lunged forward. As he did, the wall beside him chipped and splintered with one big and loud bang. The Fox slid on the floor and came to stop on his stomach. He stood up as fast as he could and pointed his weapon up. He quickly brought it back down as he realized he was pointing it at the Spartan who was hugging the wall. What ever was shooting at them was cornering its self in one of the small halls that branched out.
Fox came to the other side of the entryway. He slowly peaked around the corner. Then it happened again. He quickly spun around as a spray of lead pounded into the corner he was taking cover on. It took off a chunk of the corner and sent the fragments flying. Fox listened as the loading sound repeated and a shell hit the floor.
The Spartan and the Fox let the atmosphere silence. And, that's when Fox could hear a voice.
"Oh God! Oh God! They're coming to get me. I-I told them to run! I told them that we couldn't do it," the person fired again. The sound echoed through the halls again as the round slammed into the wall, "Get away from me you monsters!"
Fox squinted and bared his teeth as fragments from the wall chipped at his hide, "This is Fox McCloud of Team Starfox! Who's there?"
"Yeah right! Like Starfox is here! Go away!"
Fox closed his eyes and thought of a solution. He started to speak calmly, "It's alright. It's all ok now. Nothing is wrong," Fox could hear the person's breathing start to slow, "What's your name?"
"Private," he swallowed hard, "Private Howard… Alpha Fire Team. Who-Who is this?"
Fox did the best he could to reason and speak calmly, "This is Fox McCloud of team Starfox. I want you to put your weapon down Howard. Can you do that for me?" Fox didn't get an answer, "Howard, I'm here to help you and get you out of this. Where is the rest of your team?"
"My team? My team?!? Haha! They're all dead! All of 'em man! I told them…"
"Ok, let's not get too exited. I'm gonna come out now ok?"
"You do whatever you want to man!"
Fox set the shotgun and the BR55 that was slung over his shoulder up against the wall. He put his paws up beside him to show he was now no threat.
Cortana was watching him through the Spartan's armor, "Skipper, are you sure about this? I'm detecting…"
"Relax Cortana just give me a second. I have to get him out of here. And we have to find the key," Fox slowly made his way around the corner with both paws up. What he saw was another fox with mangy red fur. He was huddled up at the end of the branch with his gun pointed at the vulpine's head.
The stricken vulpine was vibrating and every time Fox took another step forward, he would adjust his aim to the center on the vulpine's head.
Fox still held up his paws, "Put the gun down," the vulpine with the M90 shotgun began to lower it. And fox sighed it relief. The man was beginning to calm. Or, so he thought. The hair on the back off Fox's neck stood on end as a gurgling and scarping sound came from all around him.
"Oh fck no! They're here again!"
"Relax, what's here? Who's here?"
"Them! You know!?! Them?!? Oh fck! I'm screwed!" the hysterical fox raised the weapon once again. He drew back the action, and then slid it forward. Fox's heart raced. He had no where to go. He had no where to run to. He was going to die.
The insane vulpine laughed out loud and pulled the trigger. Fox had an idea, the one that would save his life. He brought down both arms and reached his left paw over to his right wrist and held it out in front of him. A green wall of plasma appeared in front of him. The spray from the shotgun was absorbed into the Jackal's shield that the Spartan had given to him.
Fox could feel the object on his wrist start to warm. The insane vulpine sent another round into the shield. It once again deflected it.
"Haha! You're one of them! You're one of them! I'd sooner die then become one of you! You killed them all!"
Fox looked through the now red in color plasma shield. He watched in horror as the fox put down the shotgun, and pulled out his M6D. He placed the silver pistol on the side of his head and without even a moment of hesitation, pulled the trigger.
"No!" Fox shouted. There was nothing he could have done about it. He turned a blind eye as the flash erupted and the fox was dead.
Fox hid behind his shield a moment longer and kept his eyes closed, until it was once again completely silent. He deactivated the shield, walked toward the fox, snatched the tags, and walked away.
The Spartan shook his head, "There's nothing you could have done."
Fox sighed "I know that!" he paused and calmed, "I know. Let's keep moving Spartan."
"Skipper?"
"What is it Spartan?" Fox said drearily.
"I'm sorry."
"It's fine. Come on. Let's do what we need to do," Fox put the Battle Rifle back over his shoulder and cradled Krystal's shotgun.
"It's not much farther now," said Cortana, "If the anatomy of this Halo is similar to the first one, then we should find the Index soon. The next room will be a very large and wide hall. It shouldn't be far from there."
Fox and the armored man continued forward. The vulpine couldn't help but feel disappointed in himself. But now he carefully checked every single one of the branching off short hallways, "Cortana?"
"Yes Captain?"
"What was that sound that I heard?"
The artificial intelligence remained silent for a moment, "That… was the Flood. Have your weapons ready at this next corridor."
When they finally came to the end of the hall the Spartan cut in front of his vulpine comrade. Then door opened. The Spartan raised his weapon. It was a long hall filled with twists and corners. But once again, there was nothing to shoot at. But there was something else.
When Fox stepped into the larger hall, he almost threw up. The floor and all around was littered all around were bodies, and blood. The stench was over powering. He could see drag marks and weapons that lie within arms reach of their bodies.
Fox looked around in disgust and fear. He pulled the weapon yet closer, placed his finger on the trigger, and approached one of the bodies. It was a young raccoon. He was lying face down. The vulpine tapped his back with the muzzle of his weapon. The soldier didn't move.
Fox set the M90 down beside him and rolled the body over. He jumped back in disgust. Half of the face was torn off. The front of the uniform was dampened with sticky, red blood and the man's left arm was ripped off. The last thing he saw was a fabric tag on the front of the uniform reading "Trace M."
Fox stumbled back, gagged, and landed on his tail, "It's them," he swallowed hard, "This is Alpha."
The Spartan noticed something carefully attached to the dead Lieutenants belt. He walked past the choking vulpine. He put his glove out and grabbed the item. It was a luminous key.
He tore it off the belt and held it in his hand, "This is it."
The Spartan's hand was jerked vigorously as the key was taken out of his hand. A green colored beam took it through the air and into a floating silver orb, with a green light in the center of it.
Fox immediately reacted. He turned to the floating ball and fired. The M90 bucked him and sprayed the target. But only sparks emerged as the target jostled in the air, and didn't go down. He bared his fangs and fired again.
"Please! Save your ammunition!" said the ball turning to him.
Fox looked at the Spartan II with wide eyes, "Chief?!?"
"Greetings! I am 16807 Apologetic Helix. I am the monitor of Installation zero-six. One of the other species on this installment has released the Flood. We have to act quickly if we are to control this outbreak!"
The Spartan put out his hand, "Give it back."
"Nonsense Reclaimer! You are a cellular, organic being, which makes you vulnerable to the infection. We have to get out of here, and then we can activate the ring!"
"Hold on a second…"
"Oh! And what is this?" the orb whirled in the air for a moment then circled the fox.
"He's a friend."
"This organism is very unique! It stands as if a Reclaimer, but possesses qualities of the animal kingdom. Hmm… I wonder it what place in between it fits? It is possible that it could be of the Forerunner entity, but it is impossible to tell right now."
Fox tracked the floating green eyed orb with both eyes. He pulled the pump of the weapon back and forward, "Don't mess with me."
"Of course not! I wouldn't dream of it! I would love to learn more about this breed, but there is just so little time. Perhaps later, we can…"
"Enough!" said the warrior, "Transport us to the Control Room."
"Hmm… I suppose we could, but there is one thing that you should know about the Control Room on this particular In..."
"What is that?" asked the Spartan.
"When this Installation zero-six was created, it had one major unanticipated design flaw. The Control Room has no protection from the Flood below."
Fox paused for a moment, "What do you mean?"
Helix whirled around the room and then flew right up to the fox's muzzle, "This means that the Flood do not have to breach the doors of the Control Room to enter it. They can simply come from underneath. The Forerunners architecture…"
John could feel the hairs on the back of his neck rise. He and Fox both knew how many troops were stationed there. And if they had no protection from the Flood, then they would all become the zombies that were the warriors of the Gravemind.
"Chief," Cortana came in, "I'm picking up movement on the motion sensors. We have to get back to the Control Room now, and move everyone!"
Fox made sure that his weapon was full of rounds. He knew what was coming for him. And he knew that it would be one hell of a fight. From the end of the hall he could see a wave of something racing toward them. His heart went ecstatic.
There were so many of them, little green, spider-like balloon creatures racing toward him. He knew then, that he was now fighting the Flood. The Chief said that when he saw them, he would know. And now? Fox knew.
He waited until they were closer, then he fired. Killing one made a chain reaction occur. Many more popped like balloons. The stench they emitted was so powerful. It smelt like rotting flesh. He wouldn't dare let one get close to him, let alone touch him.
More raced toward him in a great wave. Fox armed a Fire Bomb Grenade and tossed it into the middle of the creatures. It exploded in a beautiful ball of yellow flame. The small beings burned and popped.
That took care of the little one's but now there was larger one coming at him. The Spartan used his MA5C to gun down the farther ones. But as they came closer, it was up to Fox and the M90. He waited until one was virtually touching the barrel of the gun. Then he fired.
The zombie had grossly mutated limbs. Mangy patches of grey fur were still visible. The creature's neck was slung back at a grotesque angle. The spray of lead dropped it to the floor.
Fox knew that it was time to start falling back. He and the Spartan were being overrun, "Chief! We gotta get out of here!" his heart was racing in fear. He looked down the hall again. One of them jumped toward him. It flew much farther then the Spartan did, easily. But as it came down, it was spilt it half by a single powerful spray of lead pellets.
"Hurry up Helix!"
"Please be patient. This takes time," said the floating orb. Fox looked over and saw the Spartan and the Monitor start to glow. But there was one problem, he wasn't. The Spartan and orb then disappeared, leaving Fox alone.
"Great!" Fox bit down on his lip. Another creature lunged at him from his left. He shot, and the monster went down. He brought the weapon up to his chest, pumped it, and brought it back up. He fired to his right. Yet another creature emitted a blood curdling scream and fell to the floor.
Fox pumped the action again. But instead of the satisfying shock, was a horrifying, "Click." One of the zombies jumped at landed in front of him. Fox spun the weapon around and slammed the butt of it into the stomach area of the thing that was once a hound Lylatian.
Fox could feel the weapon sink into its stomach, but if was completely ineffective. He jumped and rolled backward as the Flood warrior swung at him. By the time he came to his feet, he had his Battle Rifle out. He flicked the safety off, and pointed the weapon toward the creature's slung back head. He fired once, and expected the three round burst of 9.5mm rounds to knock it down. But it failed. The shells ripped through the patches of fur and green skin, and clean through the other side. He pulled the trigger four more times before the creature fell to its knees.
He turned his aim to acquire another target. He set the ridicule of the 55 to the center of the torso. He fired once at the new target before the first creature, he thought he had killed, leaped to its feet, to come back for more.
Fox was being pushed back. The red vulpine fired once more at the creature that got back up. Then the situation had gone FUBAR.
"Yeah! Screw this!" Fox threw the rifle at the zombie. In his right paw he armed the M6D and in the left he took the pin out of a Fragmentary Grenade. He rolled the grenade into the mass of the Flood, while shooting with his right. When holding the 12.7mm with one hand, it made the muzzle jump viscously. He shot uncontrollably at one target to the next. He didn't bother trying to kill any of them. He let the pistol drift from target to target as the slugs pounded into their marks, making little to no affect.
The pistol kicked his paw and the receiver opened as the empty magazine fell out. He quickly slammed a new mag into the pistol, backed into the door and let it slide shut. The Frag went off on the other end of the door. And Fox ran as if his life depended on it. Because it did.