343 Guilty Spark

Ruby sat across from the Spartan as they were flying towards the last known location that captain Keys was recorded. Ruby felt the atmosphere was a little tense after they left Cortona back at the control room. The teenage Huntress tried humming one of the songs from her favorites list she has on her scroll and was tempted to break it out to start listening to it even. But figure that this was a dangerous mission, she decided against it for now. While the Chief sat in his seat looking over his assault rifle for the twentieth time. Unknown to Ruby, he was thinking of what Cortana said and how panicked she sounded. That made him wondered just what got her so worried like that? Was what she saw from the info that bad? If so, what is worse then the Covenant to make her freak out like that.

"Hey, Chief."

He was snapped out of his train of thought and look's at the red Huntress.

"What is it, Ruby?" Chief said as Ruby now got his attention.

"Just wondering, do you like cookies?" Ruby asked.

If one were to look through the Chief's visor, they would see his eyebrows raised in surprise at Ruby's question. "What?"

Ruby just smiled innocently. "Sorry, I just wanted to start some small talk. It gets really boring on these long flights, and we've been flying for a while, and I'm starting to get bored." Ruby said while unwraps her third protein bar, she's starting to like them despite them being a bland chocolate flavor.

"In war, there is always a waiting period before the next fight. This is supplement with time a soldier needs to prepare for any upcoming missions," Chief informs the teen.

Ruby just sighs then and rests her head on her hands. "Come on, a talk it's not so bad, like asking what you do for a hobby?"

"What I do for a hobby is to follow orders. Along with killing Covenant followed by resting and preparing for the next battle when I get the time," Chief said in an emotionless tone to the young Ruby who just puffs her cheeks out.

"Your boring...but also cool as well," Ruby said, smiling again.

"...Thanks?" The Spartan replied, unsurely of the brief conversation. Since meeting the teen, her attitude towards him was always in a kind, childlike, friendly manner. For years only his fellow Spartans, Chief Mendez, and Doctor Halsey would speak to him as an equal. Few outside the Spartan program talked to them on a personal level like Ruby has been doing.

Soon the Pelican arrived at the swamp then...unknown to them at the time. A nearby lab in the swamp had many Covenant troops fleeing for their lives. Jackals and Grunts were running in apparent panic from the nightmare that has been unleashed there.

"MONSTERS! MONSTERS! RUN! RUN AWAY!" One Grunt screamed in a panic before a shadow descended above, ending his life.

Back with the Pelican, it starts to descend to the mucky ground. As the hatch opened, 419 then began to speak to her two passengers. "The last transmission from the Captain's dropship was from this area. That was over twelve hours ago. When you locate Captain Keyes, radio in, and I'll come pick you both up."

"Be sure to bring us some towels," the Chief said to Foehammer as he looked down and saw that the muck reached up to his calves. Looking over at his companion, he saw that it was nearly up to her knees. "And some new pants and shoes for Privet Rose."

Ruby started to feel both annoyed and embarrassed at the Chief's joke when she heard the pilot laugh over the comm.

"See ya later, Echo 419," Ruby said as she waves the pilot bye with a smile.

The two of them watched as the Pelican lifted even further from the ground and swooped off into the foggy air, avoiding the dense treetops.

Chief swept the area with his Assault rifle to find no hostiles in the area. Ruby did the same with her Sniper. Seeing no enemies, Chief took point with Ruby following close behind.

The sight at the top of the rise was disconcerting; a wrecked Pelican lay only a few dozen meters from where Foehammer had dropped them off. The fog and the surrounded foliage were so thick that getting real close to the crash site was the only way that someone could see it. Add in the sight of supplies and weapons scattered around gave it an ominous setting.

The two entered the troop bay and heard the ship's recorder going off.

"Dropship Victor 933 "static" Pillar of Autumn. 'static.' -need assistance. We are under att-'static' attack by some new kind of hostile-static-isn't Covenant. 'Static' Captain Keyes has been captured by hostiles. 'static' -dug in at a large structure in a swamp 'static' We need to pull out. Please-'static'-I will set this message to repeat at-'static'-regular intervals. Dropship Victor 933, clear." A call from a distressed pilot said.

"That's not good," Ruby pointed out.

"No, it's not," The Spartan agreed. "Search for supplies and anything of use," he ordered before going over to the ship's weapons rack.

Ruby went and inspected the weapons that were on the ground. "Empty. Empty. Ten rounds. Empty." Ruby listed as she went from Assult rifle to rifle. The ammunition counters on them helped counted what they held. Ruby felt worried as she saw the ground was littered with spent shell casings.

Looking over the weapons rack, the Chief found a single shotgun resting within along with a case of 8-gage shotgun shells. With the environment they are it, he placed it on his back and pocketed the shells.

"Found anything?" Chief asked Ruby as he stepped out the troop bay hatch.

"Nothing," she replied, "There are no bodies and all the weapons that I could find are spent. It's like they fired off everything they hand before dropping them and disappeared into thin air."

"The weapon stock was also mainly empty, except for this shotgun," he gripped the pump of the shotgun.

"Where did they go?"

"I don't know. Let's move out and find that structure the pilot mentioned." Chief said as he walks along with Ruby. The two move away from the down Pelican.

"What do you think happened to the ship?" Ruby asked.

"Most likely the Pelican crashed after deploying its passengers," the Chief deduced, looking around as they walked.

As they walked, Ruby wondered about the message, she heard it say they were a threat other than the Covenant, Thinking about it, she decided to ask the Chief. "So Chief, we heard it in the message that the threats were not Covenant what you think that it is? And is there other enemies to the UNSC then the Covenant?" Ruby asked.

Ruby figured Chief might know since he has been in the war much longer then she has bine around in the Human-Covenant war, so he might have answers in this.

Chief knew of a few enemies to the UNSC, one of them being the Insurrectionists, but they could not be here, so what could it be? "I do not, Ruby." An explosion sounded off in the distance. Following that, the two could hear the voices of Grunts and Jackals approaching quickly. "But we're about to find out," the Chief stated, raising his Assault Rifle.

The Covenant finally came into view, though it was only a small group: a half-dozen Grunts and Jackals. The weirdest thing was that they looked like they were fleeing from something behind them. However, as soon as they spotted the humans, they raised their weapons and opened fire.

Ruby and Chief fired back. The deadly accuracy of the Huntress/Sparten pair proved to be too effective against the Covenant, as they were killed with ease by the two. The two decided to follow the path where the Covenant had come from. Passing by the fresh corpses, they didn't notice the shadow coming out of the water after they had left and taken off with one of the recently dead bodies.

The Spartan took a moment and bent a knee to the ground. It was there he spotted footprints belonging to Covanet troops but also the familiar bootprints of Marines. Meaning they were on the right trail.

Ruby and Chief soon stumbled upon a crashed Covenant Spirit with its cargo spilled along the grown and its bay doors appearing ripped open by the crash. Mysteriously, no bodies were lying around. The two didn't say anything about what brought it down and focused more on the mission. They soon found a small group of Grunts and Jackels that were quickly dealt with and crosses a log bridge. The duo moves across the bridge, he sees several shadowy figures running around on the top of the cliff to the right.

"What the?" Ruby said ad she rechecks the motion tracker as she continued with Chief to head to the lab. What was going on was strange.

"Damn," the Chief said as they stopped in front of it, "I had friendly tags for a brief second on the motion sensor."

Ruby saw a blur in her peripheral vision, turned around, and saw something move past the end of the trunk. It was sized like a human or an Elite, she couldn't tell which though from the split second she saw it. From the way the Chief raised his rifle instinctively, he saw something too.

"Did you see what that was?" he asked, but Ruby shook her head.

"I saw something, but it was too quick for me to make out what it was."

Their conversation was interrupted by the sounds of multiple Assault rifles firing in the distance. They rushed forward just in time to witness an explosion at the entrance to a large installation, investigate, and found a mob of Grunts and Jackels fleeing from an A-shaped structure of the lab.

"Marines! Come on, Chief, we got to help them!" Ruby said as she starts to shoot the Covenant forces that were coming out of the lab. Chief looks for a moment, something was not right as he began to shoot then as well at the fleeing aliens coming out of the lab.

Then a frag grenade explosion that was thrown from the lab sends a Shade turret flying making it hit and crush a Grunt to death. Soon all the remaining Covenant forces that were there were gunned down. When the last one fell, Ruby began walking towards the entrance.

"Alright, now that's done, let's go meet up with the Marines!" Ruby said as she began to ran to the entrance Chief following closely behind. Ruby eventually made it to the entrance then and yelled. "Hello! Marines?! We're here to save you!"

But when she got there and yelled that...they were no marines much to the young huntress confusion. Just spent shell casing that littered the floor.

"Huh? But there was gunfire? Where are they?" Ruby said, looking around if the Marines were hiding.

Chief soon arrived behind her, checking his motion tracker shows nothing other than himself and Ruby. "No one's here."

Ruby looked at Chief with surprise. "What? But we saw gunfire? How could they be nothing!?"

Chief didn't have an answer to that as they push farther into the structure. The Installation was an entirely different and separate world from the swamps outside, the only deviation being the Covenant crates at the edge of the room. The big octagonal hole in the middle of the room had a huge pillar at each corner. As the two approached the hole, they were surprised to see a ramp rise up from the pit and stop at the tip, like it was waiting for them to come.

The two humans could only stare at the sudden elevator. "That was spooky," said the redhead with the Chief becoming more uneasy as the mission went on.

They stepped onto the lift, eyes looking side to side for any sign of a trap or the Captain. The Chief pressed his hand against the holographic console near one of the pillars that they had just noticed. The lift began to descend at a reasonable speed, going further down into the Installation.

They reached a lower level, where a small group of Grunts and Jackals were standing in front of a hatch. Their guns point at it with their backs towards the lift. As a reward for their stupidity, the Chief threw a grenade at their feet and watched them all get blown up.

"Well, that was quick," Ruby remarked as she stepped off the lift.

"Too quick," the Chief commented in a low voice. Something is wrong here. The Covenant never retreat no matter what odds were against them. Nor are they ever this careless. Then there is the fact that we have not found any Elites.

Walking towards the hatch, the hatch automatically opened when he was in front of it, revealing a surprised Jackal. The Chief grabbed it and broke its neck, before dragging it back to the lift room without a sound.

With their presence still a secret to the Covenant, the two moved through the hatch. They found themselves in a large, spacious room, with them being on a platform, with the floor below having a group of Covenant Grunts standing around almost aimlessly.

Pulling out a grenade from her pouch, Ruby primed and tossed it in the center of the group. The group perished when the grenade went off. The pair waited a moment, but no enemy reinforcements came through any of the hatches spread around the room. That didn't sit well with them.

The Chief walked up to the edge of the platform, where a console stood. Activating it, a transparent, blue thin light bridge flickered on, connected the platform to another platform on the other side of the room. It was similar to the bridge that Chief used to reach the area where he first met Ruby and was recovering the Autumn's lifeboats.

Before either of them could cross over, one of the hatches on the floor level opened up, and a Grunt came running out, screaming.

It was not a scream of anger, or vengeance like Ruby would have expected but one of terror and horror. The Grunt was terrified of something as apparent by it turning around and facing the now closed hatch with its plasma pistol pointed out in a trembling grip. After waiting a moment, the Grunt finally looked around the room, until it saw the remains of the group Ruby had killed just before.
Twilight and the Chief pulled out their rifles, waiting for the Grunt to spot them and attack, but it never did. Instead, it shrieked in horror, pointed its own pistol to its head, and fired.

Ruby's jaw dropped in horror as the Grunt's dead body fell to the floor, while the Chief lowered his rifle slowly as if in shock.

Neither of them spoke for a good minute. It was ultimately Ruby that broke first. "Chief, do they normally do that?" The Chief could barely hear her voice. He shook his head.

"Not like that," he answered truthfully. "Usually, they come running at their enemies, holding grenades in their hands, trying to blow others up, along with themselves. Even then, that is because they're fanatical, the most zealous of the bunch, and wish to be sent on their 'great journey' as soon as they could. But this...this was something else. Something terrorized this Grunt so much that he killed himself." He looked over at the body with a critical eye.

He then turned to Ruby. "This means we need to find the Captain and exfill out of here, ASAP."

He saw her nod, before continuing on to the hatch. Thankfully, it had green lights on it, which meant that it was unlocked. It opened up, revealing an empty corridor that went around a square area, with locked doors on the sides, until they reached the end of the corridor, where an open hatch awaited them.

Past it, was a large, open room, with a large, glass container in the middle, which was shattered on one side. There was a platform walkway above the two as Ruby and Chief entered. In the distance, standing in front of another hatch were three Jackals, unaware of the new occupants of the room.

The Chief was about to approach them when he heard something drip onto his armor. He looked at his shoulder and found a green-yellow, slimy fluid start to slide down to the ground from his shoulder plate. Another drop splashed onto him, causing the Chief to take a step to the left to avoid getting dripped on again. Now usually, he wouldn't mind it, but he didn't know what the substance was, and his gut told him that it was not something to ignore. He also noticed that the substance seemed to be dripping from the ceiling and the broken glass, which had a slight green tinge to it.

Deciding to shove his growing sense of unease to the side, he threw a grenade at the Jackals' feet and watched them get blown into chunks of meat. Another door opened to the other end of the room, and a few more Jackals ran into the room. The Chief pulled out his pistol and fired to shots, each impacting the Jackals in the head.

"Nice shooting, Chief!" Ruby cheered before their attention was brought back to the yellow-green liquid coming from the ceiling.

"Ewwwww!" Ruby said disgustedly. "What is that stuff? It smells horrible." Ruby said as she covers her nose with her sleeve.

Chief looks at the stuff he once again did not know what this stuff was. From the moment they landed, his gut was telling him that this mission was not right. He remembered his fellow Spartan, Kurt 051, getting these gut tingling senses. They were often proven right as it prevented him and their fellow Spartans' from getting killed in ambushes. He wishes he was still alive, and here now, he could really use those gut instincts.

The Chief was about to comment about it, when something in the very distance moved, only seen by his peripheral vision. He spun around, shotgun drawn and raised, but saw nothing there.

"Chief, did you see the wall move too?" Ruby asked in a shuddered tone. 'She must have seen something too,' he realized, 'which means that whatever that was, it's real.'

He lowered the shotgun slightly but in a way that he could raise it in a split second. "I think we should move," he said to her. Though he wasn't even facing her, he could tell that she nodded and walked over to him, her own rifle held in her firm grip.

As the two humans moved away from the center from the room. A single shadow slowly rose from its spot on the platform above. A few moments later, several smaller forms rose by it. They watch the tow walk away and exit the room before crouching back down to the shadows.

Waiting for their moment to feed.

Together, the Chief and Ruby went through the door that the Jackals were guarding before they were killed and found another two-way corridor, this time one of the doors on the side was open. Or more adequately, wrenched open, to be exact, revealing a small room with a light in the middle.

The Chief took a look at the hatch but couldn't go into the small room due to the broken hatch and thus ignored the room. Though his unease from before had spiked a bit and was growing with each passing second. As he passed a corner, he saw that the wall had been stained—no, painted—with Covenant blood. The Chief felt his face begin to pale even more than usual. He looked at Ruby, who was turning as green as his armor at the sight.

They entered another large room, though this time, there were no live enemies anywhere to be seen. There were plenty of bodies, however, to say the least. Chief ignored Ruby's gagging at the stench of burnt flesh in the air.

The corpses of Grunts and Jackals seemed to litter the floor. From a distance, the Chief could tell that some of them had been killed by Plasma fire, while others had been killed by bullets, which the Chief couldn't help but take a small bit of comfort from that fact. Off to the side was the body of an Elite minor, the first one they've seen on this mission. A sizable chunk of its chest gone, revealing the organs and guts inside.

Far more horrifying for the Chief were the two Marines in the corner, their bodies burnt from Plasma. He walked up to them and noticed that their dog tags had been taken, which meant that they had died fighting the Covenant. That there were potentially more marines still out there, including Captain Keyes.

He turned around, knowing that Ruby would still be struggling to breathe and was rewarded with the sight of her puking in the corner that had no corpses. Honestly, he couldn't blame her. Even now, the stench from the bodies was coming through his helmet filters, still powerful enough to cause him to gag occasionally. Ruby was taking the full brunt of it.

He was about to walk up to her when he noticed something different on the Elite's body. He knelt before it, ignoring the sense of disgust and spotted a familiar fluid dripping from its armor. The Chief's eyes widened slightly at this and took a step back. He looked around at all the bodies, finding that a few had some of the fluid on them.

Now, he knew that something was very, very wrong about this whole place.

"Ruby. We're moving, now!" he called her over, motioning for them to move to the next hatch.

Ruby didn't complain as she pulled her canteen out to rid the taste of vomit out of her mouth.

Traversing through the Installation, passing more rooms, with some of them having corpses in them. That is until they came across another large room, where the Chief heard a magnum discharge, and a bullet hit his shield.

He swung his weapon around but stopped when he saw a Marine sitting with his back to a series of Covenant Containers. He held a pistol up in a trembling hand, his face twisted in fear. He fired another shot at the Chief.

"Stay back!" the Marine shouted, "Stay Back! You aren't turning me into one of those things!"

As Ruby ducked behind cover, the Chief lowered his weapon and raised a hand, palm outwards as a sign of peace. "Put the weapon down, Marine," he said calmly, "we're on the same side."

Unfortunately, the Marine appeared too crazed to listen, and he pressed his back further into the container. "Get away from me! Don't touch me, you freak! I'll die first!" The Marine yelled, it's like he went crazy as he still shot at the two, he yelled a lot of crazy things, he clearly has lost his mind from what happened.

Once again, the Marine fired another shot, and the Chief felt the 12.7mm round impact on his shields. But Chief quickly disarming him, and he grabbed the Marine by the collar, lifting him in the air with one arm and pinning him against the wall face level with the Spartan. "We don't shoot our own Marine," Chief said before letting him go.

With the Marine now harmless to him, the Chief asked softly. "Now, where are Captain Keyes and the rest of your unit?"

The Marine sated for a while...but soon goes on his knees then and spoke then. "Th-they're gone. All of them, they killed them all, they killed them all." The scared Marine said as it looks like he was about to cry.

Ruby and Chief looked at each other, and then back at the Marine, Chief spoke then. "Who killed them? Covenant?"

The Marine looked up at Chief. "NO, NOT COVENANT! monsters, monsters they tore then up from the inside out, made them monsters!" The crying Marine said.

Chief and Ruby did not know what he means by that, but Chief talked again. "I suggest that you reload this weapon, quit wasting ammo, and head topside." he offered the pistol to the Marine, who looked at it with trepidation. "Once you get there, hunker down and wait for help. There'll be a dust off later."

Ruby looked at the Marine, with pitty, whatever scared him must have done a good job to break him she could not just leave him here, Ruby turns to Chief then. "Chief, is it alright if I take this Marine Topside? We both know he won't make it out on his own."

Chief knew Ruby was right. Leaving the Marine alone wasn't a good idea, and whatever is done here would kill him. Then again, their party shouldn't split up. His gut was going against it, but as far as he'd known Ruby, she wasn't going to budge on the matter. "Very well, take him back to the elevator we came down with Ruby, I'll stay and continue looking for what happened to Keye's, and I'll meet you there. Keep in constant radio contact," Chief said, giving Ruby his permission.

Ruby smiled. "Thanks, Chief, I will." She then goes to the Marine and offers him a hand...which he shakingly accepts, and pulls him to his feet.

"Keep close to me, and I'll get you out of here," Ruby ordered the Marine, turning on her Team Leader mode as her sister once teased her about, before turning back to the Spartan. "Let me know when you find them."

With that, Ruby started to head back where the lift is, and Chief went to find what happened to Keyes.

The Master Chief moved on over to the next few rooms finding more dead Covanet until he arrived at the top of a ramp, where a dead Marine lay in a pool of blood. Now his instincts were screaming out to him that something was wrong, urging him to run away. He shoved them out of the way, sensing the eyrie silence in the air. He was close to something that his gut was telling him of danger, but he didn't know what.

Descending down the ramp, where there was a single hatch with a UNSC Spoofer on the side. The Chief's hand hovering over the Spoofer's button.

He then spun back around with his rifle raised when he heard a sickly sound originated from behind. As quickly as it came, the noise was gone with no trace of what may have caused it. After a few moments of tense silence, he was silently regretting not having Ruby with him.

With nothing appearing, he turned back to the hatch and pressed down on the Spoofer's control pad. No sooner after he had pressed the button that he felt his pulse quicken after the body of a Marine fell right towards him when the hatch opened. Catching the body before it impacted the ground. He raised his MA5B with his right hand as he covered the room beyond as best he could. Seeing that it looked empty, he spun on his heel, watching for anything that may be behind him. Seeing nothing, he backed away from the ramp and watched the hatch close.

The Chief finally lowered the body onto the ground, recognizing the face as one of the Marines in Johnson's squad. He remembered last seeing him when he was rescuing survivors and had first met Ruby. As he knelt to do this, his boot hit some empty bullet shell casings. As his hands left the Marine's body, he looked down to examine the shells, only to notice that the entire floor was nearly carpeted by thousands of shell casings. Even worse, human blood seemed to paint the floor in individual sections where disregarded rifles laid in. In the middle of it all was a single, Marine helmet.

Staying low, he crouched walked over to the helmet. Picking it up. He looked at the back of it and saw the word 'Jenkins' stenciled across the side. He shook his head in resignation. Jenkins was most likely dead now, though from what was still to be determined. He noticed that the Vid cam was still attached to the other side and the memory chip along with it.

A typical UNSC helmet camera was an old school tech idea. Thought it was still used today as it helped provides many things like intel for ONI, help with briefings, or in this situation cause of death.

He inserted the chip in and started to watch the footage.

With Ruby, as she went back the way she came with the shaking Marine with her, he kept muttering stuff like it's over, they're all going to die by monsters. Ruby was doing her best to comfort his nerves as well as her own.

"Hey, don't worry, we will get out of here," Ruby said with a kind smile.

But that smile didn't last as the silence of the room was broken when a short laugh echoed the room they were in. Turning sharping, the two humans pointed their guns and saw an elite leaning in the wall. By its armor configuration, it was an Ultra, it was in bad shape.

Ruby saw its armor was dented like it was beaten by an Ursa. Its wounds showed its purple blood, by the amount the Huntress saw, he didn't have much time.

"You really think that, child?" The Ultra said as he coughs up purple blood. "And what's about to happen I would not wish even on your race." The Ultra said in the human language.

Ruby glared, but to her surprise, she also heard some...pity? In the Ultra's voice, when he said all that? No, its got to be a trick!

"What have you Covenant done!? What did you guys do to Captain Keys!?" Ruby demanded answers of the Ultra. It was now that saw the markings on said Ultra. They were the same ones as the Zealot that gave her a scars ultra. "Did you and your master that gave me this scar kill him!?" Ruby said, pointing to the scar on her face.

The Ultra looked at her closely, and his eyes recognized the cloak wearing human. "No, we were not the once that ended your leader. We're unsure what happened to him when he released the parasite after our leader sealed them away after they almost broke out the first time."

He locked eyes with Ruby, "your leader has doomed us all to the parasite. Food for the Flood."

For a reason unknown to her, Ruby felt a cold chill fall unto her, like cold water had poured onto her. "Parasite, Flood?" Ruby said, somewhat confused and concerned by the word. Glancing at the Marine beside her. Seeing him shake at the mention of the word, he knew what the Ultra was talking about. "What's th-"
The sound of a roar was heard, it did not belong to any covenant she heard...and she swore the Marine looked like he was going to pee himself. Then Ruby's radio crackled to life with the sound of automatic gunfire.

"Ruby! If you're not already at the exit, then double-time it!"
The Master Chief ordered her over the sound of gunfire and horrible screeching. "We need to get out of here, now!"

"Chief, what's going on? Who are you fighting?" Ruby sounded off.

"You won't...get out of here alive." The Elite said before activating an energy dagger and ending his own life with himself, thrusting it into his heart.

Ruby back stepped in shook at what her alien did...but she heard banging on a door...and she aimed her weapon at it, the Marine did so too, a bit with his arms shaking. Ruby reached up and touched her mike.

"Chief, what are we facing?" Ruby tried to steady her voice.

"Unknown hostiles," the Chief replied over the sound of gunfire. "Get to the exit. I'm backtracking to you now."

5h ago"Understood Chief," Ruby said as she watched the hatch take a beating. "OK, Marine, calm down, we'll make it out of this. Just stay close to me," Ruby said to the still shaking Marine as they walked over to the hatch Ruby and Chief entered earlier.

Before they could reach it, the banging hatch had burst open, reveal a creature responsible.

"What the?" Ruby said in shook.

The shaking Marine had wide eyes then. "Mo-Monster..."

Ruby couldn't agree more but had no time to even look at them before one of them leaped right at her, a roar emitting from it. With that, it rushed both Ruby and the Marine. Ruby opened fired her assault rifle and sprayed the creature with bullets. As it ran at them, time seemed to slow down for the redhead as she got a better look at it, and gasped in horror as she recognized the mutated form of what was once a Covenant Elite. The skin of the Elite looked deformed and decayed. The bones and left arm of the Elite appeared to have been forcibly lengthened and transformed into a tentacle-like appendage, with the remnants of what the "arm" was still visible in certain parts. The chest seemed to have been taken over by a big gray tumor. Tentacles were also growing out of said tumor of the huge mass in the middle. What was perhaps the most terrifying detail was that the head appeared to have been pushed out of its usual spot and hung limply like a broken, unneeded limb from the side.

It also could handle a lot of gunfire.

It lungs at them and tried to wipe Ruby with its tentacle arm. Ruby ducks to avoids it and hits it with the but of her rifle. The plow stagers it of a sec before going back to gearing up for another attack. That was when the Marine appeared next to Ruby shoots it twice in the chest where the gray blob is, poping it like a balloon. Then like a puppet without its strings attached, it fell to the floor, killing it.

"Wow...nice shooting," Ruby praised the Marine, who looks slightly better now. "Well now that that's over let-." Her voice was cut off when the sounds of squishy footsteps coming from beyond the door the zombie Elite came from. Feeling fear of more undead aliens coming their way did not sit tight with either of them.

"W-We should run," the Marine stated in fear-ridden voice.

"Agreed," Ruby said, nodding with the scared Marine. She grabbed the Marine and used her aura and semblance to turn both of them into a cloud of red and gray rose petals, taking them up to the platform above them. Releasing her semblance, the Marine stumbled in surprise as Ruby looked back and saw more of those freakish alien zombies. Usually, she would go and fight monsters like she did the Grimm, but she needed to get the Marine out of here. Couldn't risk him getting killed from a needless fight against these Flood.

Flood, Ruby thought. That was the word the Elite said.

As Ruby left with the Marine through the hatch, the Flood watched her leave. Some jumped up and gave chase to their food while one flood infection form went to a dead Ultra, turning him into another puppet soldier. Through the memories of the Elite, they learned more about their food. Through the information the Ultra possessed, a new target arose for the Flood. A new place set the growing proto-grave mind to set upon and passage off the ring.

Back with Ruby and the Marine, the two humans continued their journey to escape this vile place. They soon stumbled upon a firefight between infected Flood Elites, along with smaller creatures that looked like the tumors on their chest, against a squad of Covenant, making a desperate last stand. Looking across the room, Ruby spotted the hatch that led to the elevator they came down in. But it was on the other side of the room, and the light bridge controls were broken.

Ruby bit back a curse of their luck, she could quickly get across without the once that were fighting noticing but not with the scared Marine with her.

"Why are we standing here for?!" The Marine whispered, sounding like he was bearly holding it together. Ruby pointed at the hatch on the other side of the room.

"The elevators right through there. But the light bridge thing is out and theirs too many of them for us to handle alone," Ruby explained. "Plus, we're waiting for Chief to arrive, were are not leaving him here," Ruby said, reloading her assault rifle.

The Marine looks at her with wide eyes. "He's got to be dead we need to go now before they notice us-" the Marine's words were cut off when the sound of a frag grenade went off. The two looked back at the ground floor and saw the lone Spartan putting shell after shotgun shell into the Flood masses.

"Chief!" Ruby shouted out in relief and ran to the platform's edge and fired short bursts into the Flood crowd. Together with the scared Marine joining at the end, finish off the remaining enemies in the room in the room.

"Chief! I'm glad you're alright." Chief looked up and nodded.

"Good to see you well, Ruby. Status update?"

"No injuries with us, but I'm going to need a lot of cookies after today," Ruby replied. Chief merely rolled his eyes behind his visor before serving the room then back at the two above him.

"That bridge is out, but those crates over there can bring us back up to the platform. Jump down and will clime out of here," Chief ordered. Ruby nodded and did just that without any problem. The scared Marnie hesitated up on the platform.

That was when Chief's motion tracker beeped. "Behind you!" Chief shouted but was to late.

The Marnie didn't even have a chance to turn around before another Mutated Elite dropped from the ceiling, and raped its tentacle arm around him. Ruby screamed in dismay while Chief bite back a curse as he didn't have a clean shot. The Flood Elite then up and hauled the soldier into one of the vents, screaming all the way.

Ruby dropped to her knees as she could only stare frightfully into the vent the monster disappeared to. Chief looked over and saw the girls state, not wanting to lose another comrade. He was on Ruby's side in a moment. "Ruby, we need to leave now!"

His word looked like they did the trick as she was broken out of her trance and nodded wordlessly. They climbed the crates and went through the hatch where the elevator was.

The two quickly reached the controls to the elevator, with Chief hitting panel. A moment later, a few explosions were heard above them that made them look up the shaft. They could only watch as the elevator descended pass them in flames. The two stared down into the abyss. Ruby than just summed up their situation in just three simple words.

"...for fuck's sake."

Note: Here's the new chapter, and now the Horror really going to start for Ruby...Will she survive the flood or become one of them and become one of the most dangerous infacted?

Also I like to thank Helljumper206 for helping me edit.