Halo: The Reclaimer, Chapter 3
Xzaalbarth coughed as he climbed out of the blackened wreckage of the Forerunner Banshee. He coughed again, and examined the wreck.
"Hmmm...must have been a Fuel Rod blast. Just fucking great..."
"Language, Reclaimer," said Guilty Spark 343. "Now that I have thought about it, I know a few ways to assist you."
"How?" asked Xzaalbarth, annoyed.
"Like this," and with that, a dozen Forerunner Sentinels flew over to Xzaalbarth. Two of them had a Ghost connected to them, which they deposited next to Xzaalbarth.
"That's handy, which way do we go now?" asked Xzaalbarth, as he climbed into the Ghost and powered it up.
"Twenty-nine degrees south, by south-west," said Guilty Spark 343.
With that, the Reclaimer sped off, towards the direction of a large mountain. Twenty minutes later, they arrived at the entrance of a large, Forerunner installation. They met no Flood resistance, yet.
"Keep your eyes open," said Xzaalbarth to the Sentinels, as he readied his Plasma Rifle and Energy Sword. Just as he said that, a group of Flood Infection forms crawled out, and jumped around, and jumped up to the Sentinels. They fired their powerful beams and destroyed the Infection forms easily. Next, two Combat Forms leapt up from the shadows, and attacked Xzaalbarth. He fired his Plasma Rifle at one, while activating his Energy Sword with his right hand, and split the other Combat form in half, horizontally. Both flew back, and gooey, green blood covered Xzaalbarth.
The Monitor chuckled. "Hehehe. Ready to move on yet, Reclaimer?"
Xzaalbarth was tempted to shoot the damn thing with his Rifle, but he resisted the urge. He simply nodded. The dozen Sentinels, the Monitor, and the Reclaimer all entered the complex. The Sentinels floated around, their weapons aimed in all directions, forming a circle, with the Monitor and the Reclaimer in the middle.
"We have now arrived at the Library," said the Monitor. "Please, wait here while I go and disengage the first level of security." And with that the Monitor sped away. Immediately, dozens of Infection Forms, Combat Forms, and Carrier Forms appeared. The Sentinels started blasting away with their lasers, dispatching unlucky Infection Forms and Combat forms that they hit.
Xzaalbarth threw a plasma grenade, and it stick onto the face of a Combat Form. He simply kept on running, firing his Plasma Rifle at Xzaalbarth. A few seconds later, the Combat Form exploded, destroying a few Infection Forms that were around it, and setting off a Carrier Form, which set off a large chain reaction. Over half the attacking Flood force was killed.
Xzaalbarth activated his Energy Sword, and shouted something in Forerunner, and charged straight at a group of Infection Forms. He sliced them up, with a touch of his sword, and the exploded. A Combat Form leapt high into the air, and just as it was about to land on Xzaalbarth, Xzaalbarth executed a spin, and jumped upward wit h his sword.
The mighty Energy Sword cut straight through the Combat Form, and his corpse landed on the ground in many pieces. Xzaalbarth wiped off some of the gore from his face. The battle was over. The Forerunner party lost only one Sentinel. Xzaalbarth checked his Plasma Rifle. Its charge was at around 10. He swapped it for a fresh Plasma Rifle from the Flood remains and waited for the Monitor to return.
Humming, a happy Monitor arrived, and the mighty security barrier opened.
"Quickly, Reclaimer, there are still 12 more of these to go." Xzaalbarth groaned. He knew this was going to be a long day.
End of Chapter 3.