CHAPTER 26
Inside Jason, the Flood infection form turned his incredible anger into extreme rage. His arms literally trembled as he faced the Flood before him. In the garbled speech, they spoke to him, voicing their opinions and telling Jason their fears, their concerns, and their goals. With a wave of his arm, Jason silenced them all. The time had come for the Spartans and the Covenant to fall, and for the Flood to be victorious!
"We will crush their resistance!" Jason howled aloud in the rumbling Flood speech. "We will tear down their ships and destroy everything they have worked so hard to create to destroy us. The time had come for the Flood to rise and destroy all that is against us, and all that oppose us!"
Cheers, in the form of growls, followed, and the Flood moved toward the Pillar of Winter. Their time had come.
1545 Hours, August 15, 2553 (Military Calendar)/ Bridge of the UNSC battle cruiser Pillar of Winter
Zazag, Yoyor and Jajar (who had hidden out amongst the trees during the battle) had gotten into the Pillar of Winter as it settled back onto the ground. Moving with glee, followed by their team of Grunts, they jumped into the shattered cockpit, and landed on the deckplates. Looking around, it didn't take Zazag long to spot Zaran propped up against the wall, nearly dead.
"Excellency! We cannot tell you how glad we are to find you alive!" he screeched, moving forward.
"Fools! It's a trap!" Zaran growled, moaning through the pain.
Then, a towering, nearly seven-foot-tall warrior clad in a green suit jumped from behind a table to the left and fired an M6D pistol. Two Grunts behind Zazag collapsed, dead. Zazag jumped to the left and yelled. "Fire!"
Nine Grunts, part of a team that had hidden out while the battle was taking place, jumped out and opened fire as James landed. He watched as bullets pinged from his flaring shields, and fired five more shots. Four Grunts fell. James reloaded and fired three more times, watched as three Grunts fell, their methane bubbling onto their chests, and then the pistol cracked twice more, and the final two Grunts, Yoyor and Jajar, collapsed, dead almost instantly.
James swooped in and grabbed Zazag by his helmet and shook him violently. "Where is the Covenant outpost?" he growled, still shaking the screaming Grunt. "Tell me or you die!"
"He will kill you anyway," Zaran mumbled.
The pistol cracked once more and Zaran fell silent, the bullet lodged just above his left leg wound. "Yes, cyborg, how do I know you will not kill me even after I tell you what you want to know?" he spat, growling low after he was finished.
"I will kill you either way, Covenant filth!" James returned coldly. "But I will make it slow and painful if you don't tell me!" he roared. Zazag reached up and pointed to the flickering map screen.
"Several miles to the west, you'll find our last outpost," he mumbled and James raised his pistol, aiming the muzzle at Zazag's head.
"You've been most helpful." As he squeezed the trigger, Zaran kicked James in the shin. Although it didn't hurt, the blow took him by surprise, and he dropped the Grunt, who screamed and hurried under his legs. James spun around and Zazag jumped up and punched him hard in the face. The Spartan's head snapped back and he stumbled. Then, Zazag scurried across the floor and leaped out the cracked window as James grabbed his gun and fired. The 12.7mm semi-armor-piercing bullets pinged off metal as Zazag escaped.
Zazag landed painfully on his visor, hitting the dusty grass face-first with a loud thud and letting out a tiny "Oof!" as he hit. The little Grunt flopped onto his rear, sitting with his legs spread and his arms in his lap. As he hung his head and sat there, trying to recover from the fall, he heard a noise and his head snapped up. A Flood infection form leaped at him, and Zazag screamed. He jumped up and scrambled out of the way in time to watch the infection form sail past him and pop on a rock. He scurried up onto the hull, but two more infection forms leaped onto his back and weighed him to the ground. He opened his eyes after falling again only to stare into the blank, white eyes of a combat form. It was Jason towering over him.
"Infect him!" Jason commanded. Screams and wails followed, then, Zazag was silent. He had become one of the Flood.
Inside the ship, James crossed the room and slapped Zaran hard over the head. "At least I've still got you. I think it's time I lift this thing back up and go—"
Just then, the crack in the bridge leading to the outside spread open further, and infection forms came flooding in. They were flanked by Jason, who was growling and waving his tentacles around madly. "Get him!" Jason looked around the bridge, realizing that the Commander had gone. "Where is he?" Jason thundered.
Zaran reached up and pointed his claw down the hall. "That way," he mumbled and slipped back into unconsciousness.
Jason thundered across the bridge and through the doorway. At the same time, James scrambled down the large hall where he had fought the Spec Ops Elites, snatched one of the Active Camouflage (AC) belt and slapped it onto his waist. With a quick flick of his wrist, James spun the dial and faded from view. Slowing his breathing, the Commander pressed himself against the right bulkhead as Jason and the other Flood came into view at the end of the room.
"I sense him somewhere in this room!" Jason roared, sniffing. How that monstrosity could still smell was beyond James, but he held his breath and waited. Jason drew nearer to him and looked straight at him. His vision was obviously impaired from being a Flood as he didn't notice the air shimmering the way it did on that area of the bulkhead. He turned to face the other direction and James reached above him.
"What are you doing?" Darkel hissed. The Commander couldn't respond without attracting attention. He had taken the AI before he left the bridge and inserted him into the slot on the back of his helmet.
Noiselessly, the Commander pulled himself up onto a girder and drew his assault rifle, silently clicking a new clip into place. Then, he easily took aim at Jason and clicked off the safety.
Mistake. Jason heard the noise and spun around. He wrapped a tentacle around a girder and shot into the air, landing on one of the crossbeams as the rifle went off. Bullets missed him by inches, pinging off the metal deckplates. "I have him!" he roared. One of his tentacles shot forward and smashed into James's emerald chest, causing his camo to fail and making him topple from his perch. The MA5B went skittering across the floor and the Flood leaped at him, their tentacles snapping.
James punched one and caused it to explode, and then several others went with it. Using one hand, James pushed himself across the slick floor and came to rest beside his assault rifle. Picking it up, he leaped to his feet and pressed down on the trigger. His ammo counter quickly went down. In no time, he was out. He pulled the clip out and slammed a fresh one into the slot. Then, he started backing towards a tunnel labeled, 'Engine Core.'
Jason saw the movement and leaped from his perch, heading back towards the bridge. "Combat forms, take him!" he growled. Then, when he reached the bridge, he threw himself up into the vents, closing off his path behind him. In his mind, he knew what James was going to do, and he didn't want to be in the middle of it.
Sprinting as fast as he could go, James moved through the door, fired several shots behind him, loosed a frag grenade and hurled it, then moved down two flights of stairs. He hurried past several doors, down one more flight of stairs, and then finally arrived in the room he was looking for. In the middle of the room glowed a light red beam, which was shot from floor to ceiling, or perhaps vice versa. This type of engine was being tested in the Winter, but it was highly reactive. However, it did provide fuel much more effectively than anything nuclear. If anything got in the beam, the force would rocket the beam outwards, and the energy bounced off metal, but didn't go through it, however.
James's shields were fully powered, but his health was barely high enough for this sort of work. He pulled a medkit from his belt and popped off a piece of his armor. He patched up a mark in his skin where the Flood had bitten him, bandaged it up, and then replaced the shoulder pad. He discarded the empty medkit and then sucked in a deep breath. He knew what he had to do.
Mustering up his courage, James vaulted over the rim and landed in the slightly pinkish beam.
Farr 'Tenglannee, Alex Daufel and Bryce McClain moved swiftly through the tangle of trees on their hoversleds known to humans as Ghosts. On the way, they voiced their plan aloud. "We'll come at the outpost from the front," Farr said loudly over the roar of the Banshees' engines. "The outpost isn't very large. Only a docking bay for vehicles on the bottom and then a weapons room in the middle, and finally the control room on the very top floor. The top floor is where we need to be."
"So we'll have to battle our way through, am I right?" Alex asked, gripping the controls and trying to accelerate faster. "From bottom to top?"
"Correct," Farr said, nodding.
"Typical," Bryce sighed. "Especially because we're running low on ammo."
"Once we get to the second floor, ammo won't be a problem," Farr pointed out. "Besides, defenses in the docking bay and ammo rooms are bound to be very limited. However, we will have to get inside the compound first."
"Will that be hard?" Alex asked.
Farr only had time to smile before a column of dirt erupted beside Alex's Ghost. He swerved away as Farr screamed out, "Sniper Elites!" The Spartans looked on and realized that he was correct. A line of green Elites was standing on top of the control room of the outpost (which was tiny compared to Fortress Orean) and aiming plasma-fueled sniper's rifles at them, each one firing every few seconds, taking it in turns to fire a constant stream at the approaching Ghosts.
The team of Spartans and the rebel swerved as they broke through the line of trees and came into another sandy field. Seven Shades, lined on a ledge just below the Sniper Elites, each holding a Grunt gunner, swiveled and opened fire. Dust, dirt and grass alike exploded into the air around the fast-moving Ghosts as they advanced towards the outpost.
Purplish-blue plasma fired from the Ghost and ripped into the implanted Shades. Within seconds of firing, two Shades had melted away. With more firing, two Sniper Elites were reduced to burning stumps. That left five Shades and six Sniper Elites left, and each one of them still fired relentlessly upon the three Ghosts.
Two plasma bullets whizzed mercilessly past Alex's head, and he squeezed the trigger on the Ghost's controls. Bolts of plasma shot from the main turrets, aimed upward, and burned away two more Sniper Elites on the spot.
"Charge for the doors!" Farr cried. On the bottom of the outpost were two large docking bay doors. The Grunts and Jackals were working furiously to get the slow-moving doors to snap shut, and the Ghosts were approaching fast.
"Hurry it up!"
Within almost seconds, the three Ghosts shot past the Snipers and zoomed through the doors. Farr went through first, with plenty of space, Alex second, with just enough space. As Bryce approached, he realized he would not have enough room, so he slowly stood up on his vehicle and leaped through the doors just as they snapped shut. His Ghost exploded upon impact with the door after it had closed.
The interior of the docking bay was not as large as the Spartans and Farr had expected. The ceiling only rose up to twenty feet, and was barely high enough to house a Wraith tank, of which there were none. All along the left wall were countless rows of Ghosts, lined up and ready for combat, glowing purple in the dim light. Lined up along the right wall were, again, rows upon rows of Shadow carriers. Designed to look much like a Warthog, the Shadows were a Covenant version of the LRVs. Finally, lined along the ceiling were rows of Banshees, easily accessible by pressing a button located on the side wall that operated the cranes holding the flying one- man vehicles in place.
All along the walls were glowing purple symbols, and the same was true with the floor and ceiling. Each one covered with strange purple markings that glowed an eerie purplish-whitish-blue hue. Not only were there vehicles and markings, but several rows of Grunts stood between them and the lift on the far wall leading up to the next level.
Farr jumped sideways off his Ghost, and the abandoned vehicle's momentum kept it going. It careened into some unwary Grunts, who were mushed almost instantly. Nearly half their forces were already depleted. Alex hopped backwards, allowing his Ghost to continue uninterrupted. Unfortunately, the Grunts and Jackals had become more cautious and all of them leaped out of the way (save for an unlucky Jackal that got caught up in the rush from the Ghost's path and splattered against the walls and floor with no help at all from his instantly-shattered plasma shield).
As Bryce landed, he rolled across the floor and snapped upright, kneeling down and drawing his MA5B assault rifle into position. With the single clip found in the Warthog's storage already in it, Bryce placed his finger on the trigger and squeezed. A hail of 7.62mm armor piercing bullets flew faster than the blink of an eye and cut into the Grunt masses. Several of the vaguely simianlike aliens screamed aloud and collapsed, hit in the chest. Others, when struck in the faceplate, suffocated as methane bubbled onto their suits, methane used to simulate their own frozen homeplanet.
However, masses of Grunts poured from the lift, and started to advance towards Bryce as he switched to the shotgun and continued firing. Farr was working on something over on a computer console—who knew what?—and Alex was nowhere to be seen.
"Little help here!" Bryce called, starting to get worried He had only three shots before he would have to reload.
Just then, Bryce heard a tinking sound. The rest of the Grunts heard it, too, because they froze and then scattered. A fragmentation grenade went off with a loud wumpf! and tossed the carcasses of dead Grunts high into the air. Those luckier were further away, and their reward was to be impaled by shrapnel. Two more tinks occurred on the outskirts of the group, and the Grunts surged towards the center. Another to explosion followed, and then a third that was an obvious ambush, finishing off the rest of the Grunts.
General Alex Daufel dropped from a grated catwalk above and smiled under his helmet. "Good work, soldier," he commented to Bryce as the two of them joined Farr at the console. "What are you trying to do, rebel?" Alex muttered under his breath, his weapon trained on the lift that was sitting motionless.
"I think it would be benificial to take a more direct route upstairs than the lift. There's bound to be Jackals and Elites guarding upstairs waiting in ambush. In the ammo area, they don't mess around, and I doubt Grunts are even allowed into the control room itself, let alone appreciated in the ammo level. I say we head through, once again, the vent system and make our way up from there. According to this map," he said, pointing with a clawed hand to the screen, "it will take us to the left wall of the room, where we can ambush the stronger enemies, stock up, and head to the small control room."
"And once that's done," Bryce finished, "we can pick up our Commander and get off this rock."
Farr and Alex both smiled. However, before they knew what had happened, two gun muzzles were digging into each of their heads, and a gruff voice sounded. Farr happened to glance upwards, and saw a flash of mutated flesh in the vents. "Don't say a word," the voice said and brought him back to reality, "drop your guns and back away from the console."
Busted.
Inside Jason, the Flood infection form turned his incredible anger into extreme rage. His arms literally trembled as he faced the Flood before him. In the garbled speech, they spoke to him, voicing their opinions and telling Jason their fears, their concerns, and their goals. With a wave of his arm, Jason silenced them all. The time had come for the Spartans and the Covenant to fall, and for the Flood to be victorious!
"We will crush their resistance!" Jason howled aloud in the rumbling Flood speech. "We will tear down their ships and destroy everything they have worked so hard to create to destroy us. The time had come for the Flood to rise and destroy all that is against us, and all that oppose us!"
Cheers, in the form of growls, followed, and the Flood moved toward the Pillar of Winter. Their time had come.
1545 Hours, August 15, 2553 (Military Calendar)/ Bridge of the UNSC battle cruiser Pillar of Winter
Zazag, Yoyor and Jajar (who had hidden out amongst the trees during the battle) had gotten into the Pillar of Winter as it settled back onto the ground. Moving with glee, followed by their team of Grunts, they jumped into the shattered cockpit, and landed on the deckplates. Looking around, it didn't take Zazag long to spot Zaran propped up against the wall, nearly dead.
"Excellency! We cannot tell you how glad we are to find you alive!" he screeched, moving forward.
"Fools! It's a trap!" Zaran growled, moaning through the pain.
Then, a towering, nearly seven-foot-tall warrior clad in a green suit jumped from behind a table to the left and fired an M6D pistol. Two Grunts behind Zazag collapsed, dead. Zazag jumped to the left and yelled. "Fire!"
Nine Grunts, part of a team that had hidden out while the battle was taking place, jumped out and opened fire as James landed. He watched as bullets pinged from his flaring shields, and fired five more shots. Four Grunts fell. James reloaded and fired three more times, watched as three Grunts fell, their methane bubbling onto their chests, and then the pistol cracked twice more, and the final two Grunts, Yoyor and Jajar, collapsed, dead almost instantly.
James swooped in and grabbed Zazag by his helmet and shook him violently. "Where is the Covenant outpost?" he growled, still shaking the screaming Grunt. "Tell me or you die!"
"He will kill you anyway," Zaran mumbled.
The pistol cracked once more and Zaran fell silent, the bullet lodged just above his left leg wound. "Yes, cyborg, how do I know you will not kill me even after I tell you what you want to know?" he spat, growling low after he was finished.
"I will kill you either way, Covenant filth!" James returned coldly. "But I will make it slow and painful if you don't tell me!" he roared. Zazag reached up and pointed to the flickering map screen.
"Several miles to the west, you'll find our last outpost," he mumbled and James raised his pistol, aiming the muzzle at Zazag's head.
"You've been most helpful." As he squeezed the trigger, Zaran kicked James in the shin. Although it didn't hurt, the blow took him by surprise, and he dropped the Grunt, who screamed and hurried under his legs. James spun around and Zazag jumped up and punched him hard in the face. The Spartan's head snapped back and he stumbled. Then, Zazag scurried across the floor and leaped out the cracked window as James grabbed his gun and fired. The 12.7mm semi-armor-piercing bullets pinged off metal as Zazag escaped.
Zazag landed painfully on his visor, hitting the dusty grass face-first with a loud thud and letting out a tiny "Oof!" as he hit. The little Grunt flopped onto his rear, sitting with his legs spread and his arms in his lap. As he hung his head and sat there, trying to recover from the fall, he heard a noise and his head snapped up. A Flood infection form leaped at him, and Zazag screamed. He jumped up and scrambled out of the way in time to watch the infection form sail past him and pop on a rock. He scurried up onto the hull, but two more infection forms leaped onto his back and weighed him to the ground. He opened his eyes after falling again only to stare into the blank, white eyes of a combat form. It was Jason towering over him.
"Infect him!" Jason commanded. Screams and wails followed, then, Zazag was silent. He had become one of the Flood.
Inside the ship, James crossed the room and slapped Zaran hard over the head. "At least I've still got you. I think it's time I lift this thing back up and go—"
Just then, the crack in the bridge leading to the outside spread open further, and infection forms came flooding in. They were flanked by Jason, who was growling and waving his tentacles around madly. "Get him!" Jason looked around the bridge, realizing that the Commander had gone. "Where is he?" Jason thundered.
Zaran reached up and pointed his claw down the hall. "That way," he mumbled and slipped back into unconsciousness.
Jason thundered across the bridge and through the doorway. At the same time, James scrambled down the large hall where he had fought the Spec Ops Elites, snatched one of the Active Camouflage (AC) belt and slapped it onto his waist. With a quick flick of his wrist, James spun the dial and faded from view. Slowing his breathing, the Commander pressed himself against the right bulkhead as Jason and the other Flood came into view at the end of the room.
"I sense him somewhere in this room!" Jason roared, sniffing. How that monstrosity could still smell was beyond James, but he held his breath and waited. Jason drew nearer to him and looked straight at him. His vision was obviously impaired from being a Flood as he didn't notice the air shimmering the way it did on that area of the bulkhead. He turned to face the other direction and James reached above him.
"What are you doing?" Darkel hissed. The Commander couldn't respond without attracting attention. He had taken the AI before he left the bridge and inserted him into the slot on the back of his helmet.
Noiselessly, the Commander pulled himself up onto a girder and drew his assault rifle, silently clicking a new clip into place. Then, he easily took aim at Jason and clicked off the safety.
Mistake. Jason heard the noise and spun around. He wrapped a tentacle around a girder and shot into the air, landing on one of the crossbeams as the rifle went off. Bullets missed him by inches, pinging off the metal deckplates. "I have him!" he roared. One of his tentacles shot forward and smashed into James's emerald chest, causing his camo to fail and making him topple from his perch. The MA5B went skittering across the floor and the Flood leaped at him, their tentacles snapping.
James punched one and caused it to explode, and then several others went with it. Using one hand, James pushed himself across the slick floor and came to rest beside his assault rifle. Picking it up, he leaped to his feet and pressed down on the trigger. His ammo counter quickly went down. In no time, he was out. He pulled the clip out and slammed a fresh one into the slot. Then, he started backing towards a tunnel labeled, 'Engine Core.'
Jason saw the movement and leaped from his perch, heading back towards the bridge. "Combat forms, take him!" he growled. Then, when he reached the bridge, he threw himself up into the vents, closing off his path behind him. In his mind, he knew what James was going to do, and he didn't want to be in the middle of it.
Sprinting as fast as he could go, James moved through the door, fired several shots behind him, loosed a frag grenade and hurled it, then moved down two flights of stairs. He hurried past several doors, down one more flight of stairs, and then finally arrived in the room he was looking for. In the middle of the room glowed a light red beam, which was shot from floor to ceiling, or perhaps vice versa. This type of engine was being tested in the Winter, but it was highly reactive. However, it did provide fuel much more effectively than anything nuclear. If anything got in the beam, the force would rocket the beam outwards, and the energy bounced off metal, but didn't go through it, however.
James's shields were fully powered, but his health was barely high enough for this sort of work. He pulled a medkit from his belt and popped off a piece of his armor. He patched up a mark in his skin where the Flood had bitten him, bandaged it up, and then replaced the shoulder pad. He discarded the empty medkit and then sucked in a deep breath. He knew what he had to do.
Mustering up his courage, James vaulted over the rim and landed in the slightly pinkish beam.
Farr 'Tenglannee, Alex Daufel and Bryce McClain moved swiftly through the tangle of trees on their hoversleds known to humans as Ghosts. On the way, they voiced their plan aloud. "We'll come at the outpost from the front," Farr said loudly over the roar of the Banshees' engines. "The outpost isn't very large. Only a docking bay for vehicles on the bottom and then a weapons room in the middle, and finally the control room on the very top floor. The top floor is where we need to be."
"So we'll have to battle our way through, am I right?" Alex asked, gripping the controls and trying to accelerate faster. "From bottom to top?"
"Correct," Farr said, nodding.
"Typical," Bryce sighed. "Especially because we're running low on ammo."
"Once we get to the second floor, ammo won't be a problem," Farr pointed out. "Besides, defenses in the docking bay and ammo rooms are bound to be very limited. However, we will have to get inside the compound first."
"Will that be hard?" Alex asked.
Farr only had time to smile before a column of dirt erupted beside Alex's Ghost. He swerved away as Farr screamed out, "Sniper Elites!" The Spartans looked on and realized that he was correct. A line of green Elites was standing on top of the control room of the outpost (which was tiny compared to Fortress Orean) and aiming plasma-fueled sniper's rifles at them, each one firing every few seconds, taking it in turns to fire a constant stream at the approaching Ghosts.
The team of Spartans and the rebel swerved as they broke through the line of trees and came into another sandy field. Seven Shades, lined on a ledge just below the Sniper Elites, each holding a Grunt gunner, swiveled and opened fire. Dust, dirt and grass alike exploded into the air around the fast-moving Ghosts as they advanced towards the outpost.
Purplish-blue plasma fired from the Ghost and ripped into the implanted Shades. Within seconds of firing, two Shades had melted away. With more firing, two Sniper Elites were reduced to burning stumps. That left five Shades and six Sniper Elites left, and each one of them still fired relentlessly upon the three Ghosts.
Two plasma bullets whizzed mercilessly past Alex's head, and he squeezed the trigger on the Ghost's controls. Bolts of plasma shot from the main turrets, aimed upward, and burned away two more Sniper Elites on the spot.
"Charge for the doors!" Farr cried. On the bottom of the outpost were two large docking bay doors. The Grunts and Jackals were working furiously to get the slow-moving doors to snap shut, and the Ghosts were approaching fast.
"Hurry it up!"
Within almost seconds, the three Ghosts shot past the Snipers and zoomed through the doors. Farr went through first, with plenty of space, Alex second, with just enough space. As Bryce approached, he realized he would not have enough room, so he slowly stood up on his vehicle and leaped through the doors just as they snapped shut. His Ghost exploded upon impact with the door after it had closed.
The interior of the docking bay was not as large as the Spartans and Farr had expected. The ceiling only rose up to twenty feet, and was barely high enough to house a Wraith tank, of which there were none. All along the left wall were countless rows of Ghosts, lined up and ready for combat, glowing purple in the dim light. Lined up along the right wall were, again, rows upon rows of Shadow carriers. Designed to look much like a Warthog, the Shadows were a Covenant version of the LRVs. Finally, lined along the ceiling were rows of Banshees, easily accessible by pressing a button located on the side wall that operated the cranes holding the flying one- man vehicles in place.
All along the walls were glowing purple symbols, and the same was true with the floor and ceiling. Each one covered with strange purple markings that glowed an eerie purplish-whitish-blue hue. Not only were there vehicles and markings, but several rows of Grunts stood between them and the lift on the far wall leading up to the next level.
Farr jumped sideways off his Ghost, and the abandoned vehicle's momentum kept it going. It careened into some unwary Grunts, who were mushed almost instantly. Nearly half their forces were already depleted. Alex hopped backwards, allowing his Ghost to continue uninterrupted. Unfortunately, the Grunts and Jackals had become more cautious and all of them leaped out of the way (save for an unlucky Jackal that got caught up in the rush from the Ghost's path and splattered against the walls and floor with no help at all from his instantly-shattered plasma shield).
As Bryce landed, he rolled across the floor and snapped upright, kneeling down and drawing his MA5B assault rifle into position. With the single clip found in the Warthog's storage already in it, Bryce placed his finger on the trigger and squeezed. A hail of 7.62mm armor piercing bullets flew faster than the blink of an eye and cut into the Grunt masses. Several of the vaguely simianlike aliens screamed aloud and collapsed, hit in the chest. Others, when struck in the faceplate, suffocated as methane bubbled onto their suits, methane used to simulate their own frozen homeplanet.
However, masses of Grunts poured from the lift, and started to advance towards Bryce as he switched to the shotgun and continued firing. Farr was working on something over on a computer console—who knew what?—and Alex was nowhere to be seen.
"Little help here!" Bryce called, starting to get worried He had only three shots before he would have to reload.
Just then, Bryce heard a tinking sound. The rest of the Grunts heard it, too, because they froze and then scattered. A fragmentation grenade went off with a loud wumpf! and tossed the carcasses of dead Grunts high into the air. Those luckier were further away, and their reward was to be impaled by shrapnel. Two more tinks occurred on the outskirts of the group, and the Grunts surged towards the center. Another to explosion followed, and then a third that was an obvious ambush, finishing off the rest of the Grunts.
General Alex Daufel dropped from a grated catwalk above and smiled under his helmet. "Good work, soldier," he commented to Bryce as the two of them joined Farr at the console. "What are you trying to do, rebel?" Alex muttered under his breath, his weapon trained on the lift that was sitting motionless.
"I think it would be benificial to take a more direct route upstairs than the lift. There's bound to be Jackals and Elites guarding upstairs waiting in ambush. In the ammo area, they don't mess around, and I doubt Grunts are even allowed into the control room itself, let alone appreciated in the ammo level. I say we head through, once again, the vent system and make our way up from there. According to this map," he said, pointing with a clawed hand to the screen, "it will take us to the left wall of the room, where we can ambush the stronger enemies, stock up, and head to the small control room."
"And once that's done," Bryce finished, "we can pick up our Commander and get off this rock."
Farr and Alex both smiled. However, before they knew what had happened, two gun muzzles were digging into each of their heads, and a gruff voice sounded. Farr happened to glance upwards, and saw a flash of mutated flesh in the vents. "Don't say a word," the voice said and brought him back to reality, "drop your guns and back away from the console."
Busted.