Author's Note: This story contains spoilers!
Reviews: Need more feedback! Some criticism here and there (i.e. aznricechink) really helps…
Hehe alacrity… snickers (inside joke)
2103 hours, March 29, 2553 (UNSC Military Calendar) • Forerunner vessel, high-orbit, Earth.
Spartan-117 eyed the weaponry he had managed to salvage from his last battle with the Flood. A couple grenades, a half-loaded shotgun, and a crimson plasma rifle, the signature armament of the Brutes. It would have to suffice for the moment. Above him, a light winked on, and a chrome door began to hiss open. John rolled to his feet, shotgun in hand.
An Engineer emerged slowly from the passage, its six eyes peering through the darkness. John knew the Savants were no real threats but he kept his weapon raised, his eyes following the creature's every move. A scaled tentacle reached out for his shotgun. The Spartan wasn't about to let the Covenant get their hands on Human technology, and unloaded a round into the creature's skull. It dropped dead, its color quickly draining from its body. John stepped over the lifeless carcass and continued on his way.
Voices reverberated throughout the next hallway. The volume of the high-pitched cackles steadily built until John's enhanced hearing could pick out two faint heartbeats. The chrome door hissed open yet again, and two bird-like creatures loped through the entrance. Both Jackals stopped suddenly as they witnessed the carcass of the Engineer and began to sniff the air, searching for traces of an intruder. Both creatures stopped abruptly, raising their shields in the direction of the Chief. The Jackals' silver plasma pistols began emanating an intense light.
John leveled his plasma rifle and opened fire, spewing plasma into the air. The shields of both Jackals flickered scarlet under the sustained fire, dispersing the intense heat. A wave of plasma scattered across one Jackal's shield, overloading the alien device, which flared and disbanded into the air. The alien uttered one last cry and fell dead. Gruesome burns were scattered across its body. John felt a scorching sledgehammer collide with his side, a plasma pistol on overcharge. The Spartan turned to face the threat, his armor's shield alarm blaring inside his helmet. The Chief's shields were down, and one additional hit of that caliber could kill him.
Instead of taking cover, John charged toward the Jackal, knowing the creatures were physically frail. He used his plasma rifle as a cudgel, bearing down all of his augmented strength down on the creature's skull. The Jackal slumped against the wall, its skull crushed from the force of the blow. The Master Chief paused for a moment, hoping his actions had not attracted any unwanted attention. Allowing his shields to recharge, John continued on his way, more cautiously this time.
John journeyed through the next passageway of the Forerunner ship, his mind focused on stopping the Covenant Prophet Truth and the rest of the Covenant armada from invading the Earth. As the Master Chief made his way to the end of the hall, he encountered an elevator. He instinctively touched one of the intricate symbols on the elevator's control panel, and checked both his weapons as the lift traveled upward. John felt a lurch in his stomach as the elevator came to a stop, and leveled his shotgun. The design of this portion of the ship was peculiar, sections of glass walls venting gas into upper levels of the ship.
The Master Chief observed a solitary Brute Captain as he turned the corner, its hands clutching the hilt of a Brute Shot. The Brute turned towards the direction of the Chief, its weapon raised. John dove behind some of the bizarre Covenant Architecture. He had faced Brutes before and knew they were dangerously adept in combat, whether at a distance or hand-to-hand. The Chief primed a plasma grenade and spun from his cover, prepared to through the grenade at the Brute from a distance.
John gasped in surprise as he found the Brute was within a meter of him, and about to bear down the blade of the Brute Shot upon his skull. John dropped his grenade and rapidly rolled to his side, the razor edge of the Brute's weapon missing him by mere inches. The grenade detonated at the Brute's feet, scorching the surrounding architecture. However, the Brute stood resolute, its fur seared a sickly black. It dropped its weapon and bounded toward the Chief with surprising quickness. John hoisted his shotgun and fired repeatedly while backing away. The armor piercing rounds aggravated the Brute more than harming it. John found himself backed up to one of the glass walls of the Forerunner room. He exasperatingly used the last rounds of his shotgun. Before he could reach for his second weapon, the Brute was upon him. Its full force crashed into John, draining his shields completely.
The Chief was pinned up onto the partially fractured glass. The Brute's hands were around his throat, its steel grip remaining tight even as the Chiefs enhanced strength pried at its hands. Blackness began to encompass his vision. He grabbed madly for the plasma rifle in his girdle. Realizing it wasn't there, he frantically considered all options of escape from the Brute's iron grip. John sputtered as he realized an idea. He made a fist and pounded furiously onto the glass behind him, shattering the already damaged Forerunner material. The Brute, caught off balance, released John, who almost tumbled into the vent of gas. John dove for his Brute plasma rifle, which had fallen when the Brute impacted with him. The creature reared and dashed toward the Chief. Its eyes were ablaze with anger.
John opened fire, impacting the Brute with several discharges of plasma, scorching its already burned body. The Brute finally howled a death cry and toppled to the ground. Its eyes weres till blood red and froth was still rising from its mouth. John coughed and tasted copper and blood in his mouth. He turned the pain aside. He had a mission to complete, and he would do everything in his power to stop Truth from reaching Earth.
Soon after the Master Chief regained his composure, he witnessed a shaft of light rocket past his head, not two inches from where he was standing. John quickly dashed for cover, diving behind a container that held Covenant armament. As he dove for cover, he felt an intense pain burn on the side of his neck, singing through the plating on his neck. The sniper had missed his mark narrowly twice. If the second blast from the Covenant beam rifle had been half an inch to the right, John might have become just another military casualty. Now he realized why Cortana had stopped calculating his odds of survival long ago.
John's makeshift cover rumbled as the Jackal sniper repeatedly fired suppression rounds into the side of the box John was crouching against. For the second time that minute, John found himself faced with death and few options. Out of the corner of his eye he witnessed a piece of broken Forerunner glass, two feet from where he was pinned down. His mind started to formulate an idea. John witnessed the bird-like outline of the sniper through the reflection in the glass, and wondered if the Jackal's reflexes were fast enough to fire at his arm if he made a grab for the Forerunner material. He hesitated, speculating if there were other methods of survival he could use, but it was decided; he would make his plan work.
The Chief made a lightning quick grab at the glass, his amplified speed and reflexes enhanced tenfold by his concentration in this life or death matter. The Jackal fired a shot as the Master Chief grasped the piece of glass, missing the Chief's hand by no more than a few inches. Clenching the glass in his hand, he raised it above the weapons container, hoping the reflection of the Forerunner light would blind the Jackal. His plan was successful, as the creature stood stunned by the intense light.
At that split-second John spun from his cover and streaked plasma into the air. The Jackal screamed in anguish as several bands of plasma crashed into its skin. The creature collapsed lifelessly onto the ground, its body still radiating lines of heat. John stepped over the Jackal's body and grasped its beam rifle, hoping it would come in handy.
The Chief made his way through the passage, coming upon only Engineers as further opposition. The next door was password protected. It seemed to be made of an unknown material, impervious to any weapon John had on hand. He tried a variety of random guesses before giving up and choosing to follow a different path. Before he could do that, the gateway hissed open, releasing six Brutes and two Jackals. John, not favoring his odds in a head-to-head confrontation, choose to hide behind a container of plasma grenades located in the corner of the room. He held his breath once again, and made sure he was as motionless as possible. As the enemies past, a Jackal stopped to sniff the air. It uttered a phrase in its bird-like language and the six Brutes started to investigate the surrounding area. The blast door slowly began to seal once again. It was now or never.
John made a mad dash to the next room, nearly brushing against the fur of two Brutes. The Brutes turned and opened fire, filling the air with bright streaks of plasma. The Chief's shields were drained almost instantly. A Brute and a Jackal followed him through the blast door, leaving the rest of the aliens behind. The Chief turned and aimed a blow at the Jackal's chest. The Jackal doubled over as its ribs cracked, producing a sickening sound.
As the Brute opened fire with its plasma rifle, the Chief used the broken body of the Jackal as a makeshift shield. The grisly stench of burnt skin filled the air as plasma impacted with the Jackal's corpse. The Brute's weapon began to blaze bright red as it overheated, dumping its plasma overcharge. The Master Chief took advantage of the momentary lapse in fire and tossed the Jackal's carcass aside. He leveled his beam rifle, aiming for the Brute's head. The first shot impacted the Brute's head plate, knocking it to the ground. The second tore through the Brute's skull. Blood surged from the wounds in the front and back of the Brute's head, staining the surrounding area with the Brute's blood. The Chief took a moment to check both of his weapons and continued on his way.
An alarm began to blare through the ancient ship, signaling the Chiefs presence. The Covenant knew he was there. John heard a hiss as some of the surrounding doors locked. The Covenant had heightened their level of security. They weren't going to make it easy for John to succeed in his goal. The Master Chief surveyed the room he was in. There were two doors, both of which were locked. He noticed a vent in the side of the room, probably a maintenance or electrical duct. John stooped down to observe if he could fit into the minuscule shaft. It would be a tight fit, but it would work.
John made his way through the bowels of the Forerunner ship pausing periodically to activate his flashlight. After traveling for a few minutes, John came to the end of the shaft. He flickered on his flashlight, and the end of the path he upon a strange infestation growing on the sides of the subsystem. The infestation seemed organic, but it was growing out of the sides of the ship. He had seen this before. He had seen it on High Charity. The Flood...