Chapter 29

Unearthed Horrors

Author's Note: Just so you know, Dr. Anthony won the contest. His answer wasn't 100% on the button and missed some of the inner motivation, but I decided that it was close enough. I answered his question, but to keep the mass spoilers to a minimum, I'm keeping it private knowledge. All right, let's get this show on the road.

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"What exactly made that noise?" Jacob whispered as he stared into the depths of the tunnel, looking rather uneasy.

"I have an idea," Jane said grimly as she raised her rifle. "Pray to God that I'm wrong though."

"Rebecca?" Liara said, slowly approaching the ODST. Rebecca looked like she had seen a ghost; she was visibly trembling as she knelt down to pick up her shotgun.

"Yeah," she muttered her voice shaky as she got to her feet. "Just claustrophobic, that's all."

"You seemed fine until we heard that noise," Liara pointed out, "Do you know what made it?"

"We need to keep moving," Jane said, glancing at Rebecca. "If you don't think that you can handle this than-"

"I'm fine," Rebecca said her face hardening. "I'm not going to let a noise slow me down." Jane nodded as the six of them continued downward.

"Shepard," Garrus whispered so that only she could hear him. "After your kind made contact with the Council, they start issuing Spectres…interesting information. Is this what I think it is?"

"I think it might be Garrus," Jane replied, "but we need to know for sure. If it is, we'll have to take drastic measures.

"I think we're coming up on something!" Falys called from the front. Sure enough the ground was beginning to level out underneath their feet as they walked. "Can anyone else hear that?" she asked. In the distance, shouting could be faintly heard, accompanied by inhumane roars and explosions.

"Move it!" Jane shouted as she and the others sprinted forward, weapons in hand.

"It's not them," Rebecca muttered under her breath. "It's not them, it's not them, It's not them, It's not them, It's not them." Liara looked at Rebecca with concern. From what she had heard about ODSTs, they were supposed to be hardened soldiers, yet Rebecca looked like she was on the verge of a mental breakdown.

Liara gulped silently as she looked in front of her again. "What could possibly do that to a person?"

An explosion lit the area in front of them and a mangled corpse flew from the ball of fire landing in front of him. The group slowly approached the corpse, examining it. It looked like a Jiralhanae, except that a massive yellow growth coupled with small red tentacles had sprouted out of it's neck, covering most of it's upper torso, tentacles dangling from the side as a makeshift arm. Rebecca's face turned pure white as a feeling of terror crept over her.

"Son of a bitch," Jane whispered in a barley audible voice. "I was afraid of this."

"What the Hell is that thing?" Jacob asked, gawking at the massive amount of yellow flesh that was attached to the Jiralhanae.

"Later!" Jane said quickly, "everyone fall back now, we need to get out of here!" After a few seconds of confusion, Jane began to run for the entrance, the others behind her as her hand snapped to her COM unit. "Major Williams, we have a situation down here, initiate Hood Protocol."

"WHAT?" Ashley roared. "The Flood is on Feros? How did-never mind, Captain we don't have the manpower necessary in order to properly exterminate them."

"Then abandon the colony."

Ashley was silent as Jane's words reverberated in her ears. "Yes," she said softly, I suppose there is no other way. Civilian evacuation was completed the second the AA was taken out, but I'll need half an hour to get all of my men on the ships that we do have. But Jane didn't you say that several members of your crew were taken prisoner?"

Jane resisted the urge to bite her lip as she spoke. "As much as I want to, there's no way that we can possibly get them out without risking the Flood spreading. Just...just do me a favor and don't tell Sarah, I should be the one to tell her that her brother isn't coming back."

"I understand," Ashley said sympathetically. "I've got a read on your position, there's a Pelican en route. I'll relay the order to retreat to the Normandy."

"Thank you," Jane whispered as she and the others cleared the bunker and found themselves outside again.

"Captain, what exactly did we encounter?" Falys asked.

"All I have time to explain is that the greatest threat that we have ever encountered is down there, we need to either destroy it or contain it at all cost." Falys, Liara and Jacob all looked at Jane with shock and dread.

Before anyone could say anything, there was a scream of terror from the entrance to the bunker, followed swiftly by a brutally slashing noise. A body of a Jiralhanae flew out of the bunker, landing firmly in front of them. The corpse had nearly been torn in half by a single stroke, it was still in one piece by a mere thread. There was a shallowly rasping noise as a figure stepped out of the bunker.

It was a relatively small Flood, no larger than a Human, but it was a pure form, not a combat form. It's hands were little more than blades, blades that were coated with Jiralhanae blood. Two large bundles of flesh were tucked neatly together on the Flood's back, a rather bulbous sack in between the two. It had two feet, both of which were clawed, much like an eagles, with the exception of looking much stronger, strong enough to rip steel like it was tinfoil. Apart from that the Flood had no disguising features, with the exception of a handful of red tentacles where a Human would have a face.

"SHOOT IT!" Jane roared as six guns were pointed at the Flood, all of them bursting to life. The two bundles on the Flood's back unfolded and revealed themselves to be wings, wings that were as big as the rest of the Flood. Both wings curled around the Flood, bullets bouncing off of them, leaving the Flood completely unharmed.

Everybody continued to fire the weapons, not ceasing until their guns overheated, forcing them to stop. "Do you believe me to be a lowly pure form?" an unworldly and powerful voice asked, not originating from anywhere but the minds of the people that heard it. "I am far more than a pawn to be used and sacrificed when my usefulness has ended."

"What the fuck are you?" Rebecca whispered. "Not even a tank form could survive that."

"I see that you are familiar with the specific castes of my kind. Yes, it is true that the pure form you call tank would have succumbed to blood loss had one been in my place. As you have probably guessed, my hide is many times thicker than any other Flood, my entire body cannot be harmed by anything, save the most powerful of attacks. As for what I am, I have no name, save for the meaningless titles you lesser beings give me. However, if I was to describe myself, the word in your kind that would best serve that purpose is...Acolyte. Yes, that name suits me rather well. My role among my kind is second only to the Gravemind, and I am but a humble servant to the leader of all Flood."

"I do believe that there has been enough talk." As the Acolyte spoke, he unfurled his wings and began to flap them rising off of the ground. "I care not what your purpose is here, like the ones that came before you you are a threat to my kind's survival, no doubt you will try to kill those who dwell bellow. This I cannot allow." The Acolyte let out a high pitched shriek that deafened all who heard it as he dove at his foes, his blades bared.

XXXXX

"Heads up," Taylor whispered as he and Tali raised their weapons and opened fire. An idle guard who was standing in front of a door was dead before he even knew what had hit him. "This should be it." he muttered as they crept over the corpse, the door opening for them.

They stepped through and found themselves standing on a catwalk that was looking over a massive, mostly empty storage area with wide open doors on the far side. "Looks like most of the vehicles aren't here, they must have already been deployed," Tali whispered as they descended from the catwalk to ground level. "Shame, I hoped that there would be a Scarab here."

"I like the way that you think," Taylor said as they reached ground level, "but I think that something with speed is what we need. Like this," he said as he approached a Reverent, climbing into the driver's seat and Tali the passenger's. "Hope I can remember the simulations on this thing," he said as he began to press a series of buttons on the Reverent, causing it to come to life and float a few inches off of the ground.

As it did, a loud voice roared over the intercom. "ALL FORCES, THERE HAS BEEN A PRISONER ESCAPE! HUNT DOWN AND KILL THEM BEFORE THEY ESCAPE THIS BASE, UNTIL THEN WE ARE UNDER LOCKDOWN!"

"Fuck," Taylor swore as he gripped the Reverent's controls. "Hold on tight!" Taylor slammed the acceleration and the Reverent sped forward, out of the base.

"Where are you even going?" Tali shouted as the Reverent sped forward.

"Right now? Back to the skyscrapers. Sukron tore my COM unit out so there's no way for me to contact-" Taylor was cut off as a massive green ball of plasma flew over the Reverent, barley missing it as it hit the ground and exploded. Craning their necks, Taylor and Tali saw a Chopper was directly behind them, and apparently the 35mm cannons had been replaced with fuel rods.

"I'll give this back," Tali quickly said as she grabbed Taylor's DMR off of his back. Aiming the rifle over the rear of the Reverent, Tali began to take shots at the Chopper, the bullets hitting the front of it. "Damn it, I can't get a clear shot at the driver," Tali swore as both of the Chopper's cannons fired, forcing Taylor to swerve the Reverent to avoid them.

"If you can't get a shot, let's see if I can," Taylor said as he spun the Reverent around to face the Chopper. The Reverent's cannon fired a ball of pink plasma that arced at hit the Chopper head on, sending it flying through the air, the driver falling from the seat as it hit the seat. Accelerating, Taylor fired the cannon again, the Jiralhanae dove out of the way as the ball hit his Chopper sending it up in flames.

Looking at the burning husk of his vehicle in shock, the Jiralhanae turned and ran for his life, heading for the base. "No you don't," Tali said as she raised the DMR and took aim for several seconds before pulling the trigger. In the distance, the Jiralhanae collapse, a bullet hole in his spine.

"Nice shot," Taylor complimented as he spun the Reverent, continuing to head for the skyscrapers.

"Thank you," Tali said as she placed the DMR on the ground in between them. "How are your biotics?"

"They haven't come back yet, Sukron said that the drug wouldn't be flushed out of my system for a whole day."

"You know he could have just been messing with your head, making you think that your biotics couldn't work for 24 hours as a form of physiological torture."

"Fair point, still I doubt that I'll be using my Biotics and time so-PHANTOM!" Tali's head snapped in the direction that Taylor was facing and saw that an Empire dropship was heading right towards them. "There's no way the Reverent's cannon can take that thing down," Taylor muttered as the Phantom bore down on them, "HOLD ON!" he shouted as he slammed on the acceleration, the Phantom turning to pursue them.

The gunship's main cannon fired at the fleeing Reverent, Taylor wildly swerving from side to side in a desperate attempt to avoid the blasts. The gun carriage bucked wildly from the shockwaves of the explosions, barely staying upright. "Got any ideas?" Taylor hissed as the Reverent narrowly avoided another blast.

"What do you want me to do? Hack it?" Tali said dryly as she hung on for dear life. "Even if you could stay still enough for me to properly use my omni-tool, it would take me hours to get through it's firewalls."

"Then what the Hell are we supposed to do? Just-oh fuck, JUMP!" The Phantom had fired another shot, this one was head on. Both Tali and Taylor jumped from the Reverent as the blast hit it, causing it to explode violently. Tali hit the ground with a painful groan as she saw the Phantom closing in out of the corner of her eye.

As she got to her feet, she heard a cry of agony from the direction of the Reverent. Her heart sank as she saw that the wreckage had landed directly on Taylor's right arm, completely crushing it and pinning him to the ground. "Oh Keelah," she swore as she reached the Reverent in the blink of an eye.

"Son of a bitch," Taylor swore as he tried to pull his arm out with no success.

"Hold on," Tali said as she unholstered her shotgun and fired it three times , hoping that the force would push the remains of the Reverent off of Taylor. To her great disappointment however, it barely bugged. "Damn it!" she shouted, kicked the Reverent in frustration.

"Don't bother, this thing weights a ton and a half," Taylor hissed in pain, a jagged piece of metal was buried in his arm underneath the mass of metal.

"What am I supposed to do then just leave you here?" Tali snapped. "I don't know if you noticed but we're in the middle of a field around ten miles from the nearest friendly with a hostile gunship floating over our heads. If we're going to even think about surviving, I need to get you loose so that there's two of us instead of one."

"How very touching." Tali froze, she knew that voice, she knew it all too well. Turning very slowly, she saw Sukron standing fifty feet away from her, having jumped out of the Phantom. "I was supposed to support the team at the bunker," he said as he loaded a belt of ammo into the grenade launcher in his hands. "But I suppose that I can spare some time to take care of you two. Hold your fire," he said.

On board the Phantom, a Jiralhanae that was lining up a shot with a turret paused. "But Commander, I have a clear shot, it will only take seconds for me to kill them."

"I SAID HOLD YOUR FIRE!" Sukron bellowed, his normally cool voice sounding rather animal like. The Jiralhanae operating the turret seemed to shrink under Sukron's words as he lowered the turret. "No one has ever escaped from my clutches before," Sukron said, mostly to himself, "this is unacceptable, I will kill the two of you myself. Oh, but how should I do it? Blow you to pieces? Set you on fire? Disembowelment? So...many choices."

Tali was deeply disturbed at how Sukron's voice had changed from uncontrollable rage to such a deadpan tone. He seemed to be mentally unhinged the way that he was insulted by their escape and was compelled to hunt them down. Even more disturbing was the way that he talked about it, as if it was an idle pastime.

"Now then," Sukron said as he raised his grenade launcher. "I have given you more life than you deserved, it is time for me to take it back."

Tali drew her pistol and squeezed off four shots, all of them hitting Sukron on the chest, causing his shields to falter. Snarling, Sukron fired all six shots of his grenade launcher's belt, Tail diving out of the way to avoid them. Tali fired three more shots from her pistol and a blast from her shotgun, causing Sukron's shields to flicker weakly.

Loosing all patience and abandoning all reason, Sukron let out a roar as he charged forward, hitting Tali head on, throwing her flat on her back, her guns flying out of her hands. Scrambling to her feet, Tali jumped back as Sukron swung the blade of his grenade launcher, which was buried in the ground where she had been a second ago.

Taylor grimaced in frustration as he watched, angry that he was unable to do anything. His DMR had fallen out of reverent and was not that far away, but with his arm trapped it was firmly out of reach, leaving him with only his knife as a weapon. Taylor snarled, unless he gained unrealistic knife throwing powers within the next thirty seconds the blade would be completely useless. Glancing back at Sukron, Taylor's eyes widened in horror as he flipped a switch on his Scorcher, causing the igniter to burst to life.

Author's Note: Sorry about the long wait, I just haven't been able to get around to writing that much, once again this chapter is mainly just building stuff up, which lead to some things that you might praise me for, and things that will make you want to rip my balls off.

By the way I want to get this out of the way, yes I know that it's unrealistic for people to talk this much during the middle of a battle, but people, I need to do stuff like that in order to build the plot, add character development and add a bit of life to what is otherwise pointless violence. To be fair, only one or two people have complained about this, also I would like to point out that EVERYONE DOES THIS! I can literally think of dozens of examples in a climax where there is a good chunk of dialogue. Is it unrealistic? Yes. Does it distract from the story? Not really. Well I hope that it doesn't bother you, and I'm sorry for ending on a cliffhanger again.

P.S. I'm really not.

P.S.S. I opened a new character poll on my profile, please check it out and cast your vote.