Footsteps pounded down the endless corridors, as the Chief lead the Flood on a long chase. One by one, his enemy was falling, forgotten in the Floods desire for this new host. The purple walls absorbed the superheated plasma, before providing another corridor to run down; left, right, left, left; the run seemed to span for miles.

"Oh, no." The Chief muttered to himself, as three walls formed in front of him. It was a dead-end, and the Flood knew it. They slowed down, sensing that their quarry was cornered.

"The Floods parasitic nature belies their intelligence." A familiar voice rang through the Master Chiefs head, but he couldn't place it. Abruptly, it occurred to the Chief just how unorthodox it was for the Covenant to have useless objects, let alone an entire dead end. It was probably a trap, and even though this Spartan was the most renowned of them all, he didn't want to bet his chances.

"Cortana, I need a way out of here, right now." The construct didn't reply. "Cortana?"

All of a sudden, the entire corridor was engulfed in a purple light, and everything stopped. The Chief could see what was happening, but could not move any of his limbs, which concerned him.

"That one, there." He heard an Elite say. His 'upgrade' from a Spartan II to a Spartan III included his learning the entire Covenant language for each species. Two gold Elites moved from a higher-ranking platinum one, and proceeded to fix an electronic circuit onto the Chiefs chest plate, before dragging him from the purple light.

Once out of the light, the Spartan realised that he could once again move his body, but the electronic circuit was preventing is suit from making it an easy task. The fact that these were gold Elites meant that what he did do didn't count too much towards any escape plans.

************

"Can you hear me, Sir? Cortana, I thought you said his vitals were stabilising"

"They are. Just give me a second, there's only so much I can do to help. Wait, he's coming around. Chief? Chief? Can you head me? At last."

As soon as the Spartan had fully opened his eyes, he was back onto his feet, and looking for his battle rifle. It was the Sergeant who brought his current situation into perspective.

"...So, as you can see, we're all that remain" The Sergeant finished.

"Right, " the Chief replied, "Cortana, see if you can locate my future self. Sarge and I are going to go find this reactor."

"I'm right on it."

The two remaining humans ran off down the corridor, and it didn't take Cortana five minutes to have located the other Spartan.

"Bingo, there he is," She stated matter-of-factly, while bringing up a schematic onto the Chiefs HUD, "The map shows him to be right down this corridor, a couple hundred yards from our current location."

"Finally, some good news." The Sergeant commented with new enthusiasm. "Lets get going."

The future Spartan already knew they were on their way, and wasted no time ensuring that their path was clear via his headset.

"Come on, there's no time to waste." He turned and sprinted off, leaving the original Chief to use the ships schematics to follow him.

Cortana began to get suspicious in her own virtual way; something was wrong with the way the new Chief was acting, although she couldn't quite put her 'finger' on it...

None of them could hear the future Chief speak in Covenant tongue over the radio.

****************

In the engine room, the group of veteran Elites, both Platinum and Gold were both waiting. The room was full of pipes and boxes, with few lights. There were ample shadows to conceal them. All they had to do was wait.

The black-ops Elites would be busy keeping the Flood from the corridors that the Spartan and his human friend would be using. The orders had explicitly stated that it was imperative that the Spartan be attacked only by those lesser Elites who felt brave enough, until he got to the engine room. Of course, none of the lesser Elites felt brave enough: This was the Spartan who had single-handedly wiped out an entire armada. They felt it Best to let the others feel brave, so that they would live to see another day.

With the many corridors the Spartan had to pass, it would be hard to prevent him from retreating. Once he got here, though, the exit would be locked, and there would be no way to go. It would be then that the ambush take place. Everything would go to plan. The prophets themselves had agreed that it was foolproof. In the words of a blue Elite, not even a grunt could mess such plans up. The famous Spartan subsequently put him to rest completely invalidating the plan.

Nonetheless, this plan would go ahead. There was no way the green one would be able to escape this trap. Not even his virtual friend could help him.

**********************

ARMOURY was stencilled on the silver door, in Covenant symbols. The language didn't matter much. He knew what was in the room. A brief search and he found what he wanted: an electronic lock, coated in the same alloy Hunters use as shields.

He didn't enter a password. Instead, he just ripped the casing off, pulled out a dark purple wire, and entered the now open room.

It was dark in the room, but he had no problem locating the weaponry he wanted. Two small silver rods, a pack of blue orbs, two plasma rifles, and a few energy cells for the rifles. Nothing would stop him.

Ever since he had seen this future Spartan, he had known that he would die at the hands of the Covenant. Now he knew why he was wrong, what he had to do. He raced down the corridor to the engine room, attempting to intercept the others.

Hopefully, he wouldn't be too late. But then, he had lost hope a long time ago.

Well, finally, here you go. It took long enough to figure out how to get to where I wanted, and exams and coursework didn't help a bit. Thanks to those four who did actually review my work. Hopefully, I should have chapter 8 up soon (yeah, right :P). As usual, I shall post my requests for reviews, and leave it at that. See you next time (well, I won't actually 'see' you, but you get the idea). Now, Sheila will love me for who I am, not just my good looks. But for those, too. – You know where it's from. And if you don't, you disgust me:P