Chapter 2
The squad quickly snapped into action; Bryan downed his ration bar and stuffed his helmet back on and sealed it, Katie, who was busy taking her submachine gun apart, put it back together in seconds and Justin, who was listening to heavy metal music he downloaded into his helmet against regulations, turned his tunes off and hefted his heavy rocket launcher with little effort, thanks to his Spartan III strength. "Charlie, how many hostiles do you see?" Bryan asked over the Spartan's private COM. "20-30 Grunts, 12 Elites of various colors, 2 Wraith tanks and Jackals guarding the flanks and rear." Charlie stated as he looked at the phalanx of Covenant troops through his sniper rifle. "Do not, I repeat, do not engage the enemy before I give the signal." Bryan ordered unnecessarily. All the Spartans remembered the plan; Bryan was just making sure their boredom didn't make them forget. "Spartans, do not allow yourselves to be seen until we've sprung the trap, over." Everyone's acknowledgment light flashed. Bryan sunk lower into his hiding spot.
Justin kept his head down, but allowed his head to rise just enough so he could see through the little slot in his barricade. He could hear the hum of the Wraiths' gravity boosters that let it float two feet above the ground. The dark purple tanks were sloped forward at a downward angle, with the plasma launcher on the top of the slope. They could launch a blue ball of plasma the size of a small car, and obliterate anything in the blast radius. Justin tightened his grip on the launcher and set his sight to the corner where the first tank would be passing any minute.
'Detonator, Check. SMG magazine, Check. Grenades, check.' Katie carefully checked her arsenal again for the third time. This had to be perfect. She pulled an optic wire out of her pouch and eased it around the corner, linked the wire's transmission to her HUD, and waited. She now had a full view of the main road where the Covenant advance would be coming down. She saw the Wraiths ease, with casual slowness, around the corner and start towards the UNSC building five miles down this road. Katie carefully thumbed open the detonator.
Bryan was very surprised; he had expected a much larger Covenant force. He had been told to prepare for at least five tanks when there were only two. 'Oh well, looks like that's a couple of saved rockets' Bryan thought as he pulled out his launcher and took aim at the first tank. He waited 1.3 minutes for the first tank to get into position, and then gave the order. "Mines go."
Katie pressed the detonator.
The Lotus Anti-Tank mines under the first tank exploded. The shrapnel alone tore the under belly to pieces, causing the plasma power generator to explode. It then, unceremonious, crashed into the pavement, blocking the second tanks advance. "Rockets go." Bryan and Justin fired their rocket launchers at the same time, sandwiching the second mortar tank between two fiery blasts. Bryan and Justin then fired their remaining rocket into the throng of Grunts, causing several to fly through the air, their blue blood smearing the walls of the surrounding buildings. "All Spartans fire at will!" Bryan yelled into his helmet COM as he tossed the rocket launcher grabbed his shotgun and jumped down from his second story perch, his heel slamming into the back of a confused Elite's neck, killing him instantly. Justin also discarded his empty launcher, leaped over his barricade and opened up with his Battle Rifle. Katie abandoned her cover and charged at the Covenant, firing her SMG. The Grunts, utterly confused and frightened, ran in random directions. But the Elites, too proud to run away, held their ground and fired back with their plasma rifles, carbines and plasma grenades.
"HU-RAH!" Justin yelled as a three round burst from his Battle rifle hit an Elite in the head after Bryan took down the alien's personal shield with a shotgun at point blank range. Suddenly Justin's shield flared as five nearby Grunts and two Jackals regained their wits and fired with their plasma pistols and needlers, forcing Justin to duck behind a wrecked car while his shields recharged. "I need help over here! They've got me pinned!" Justin yelled into his COM, when suddenly the aliens stopped firing. Justin poked his head out and found his antagonists were all dead, with holes in their heads.
Charlie smiled, a rare thing indeed. Charlie went back to work picking off the last of the fleeing Grunts.
Bryan felt a bead of sweat go down his forehead as he struggled to keep the Elite from killing him. He had been tackled by an Elite, a black Spec-ops one no less, and was lying on his back while being strangled by this black enemy kept him pinned to the ground. His breath was getting shorter and blackness was clouding his vision, but Bryan ignored it and focused on throwing his attacker off him. The Special Ops Elite laughed, sensing Bryan's weakening. Suddenly several bullets connect with the Elites side and the force of them threw him off. Bryan rolled out of the way and pulled his M6C Magnum sidearm from his holster, all in one smooth motion. He found himself standing next to Katie, who had her SMG aimed at the Elite's chest. They exchanged looks and opened fire at the same time, Bryan with his Magnum and Katie with her SMG. The stubborn Elite fell before the barrage of bullets and died, emitting a long, echoing scream before he transcended to the great beyond.
After a through search of the area, where there were several small skirmishes, the Spartan III's grabbed their gear and headed back to base, where their presence was requested immediately. The ride out was better then the ride in because UNSC forces had arrived and destroyed the 2 Covenant Cruisers who had attacked the planet. Once on New Reach, the colony built over the ruins of the UNSC planet Reach, the Spartans were immediately whisked away to a deep underground meeting room. The room was circular, with a stage and holo-projector to show holograms of maps and objects. The four Spartans were seated in front of the stage; where none other then Senior Chief Petty Officer Spartan-104, also known by the first Spartans as Fred, was standing. "Greetings Spartans 295(Bryan), 274(Justin), 197(Katie) and 237(Charlie). You are here because you are some of the best we have." The SCPO said in a low voice. "What you are about to hear is top secret, it will never leave this room until you get to your objective. Understand?" Bryan's Spartans nodded "Good. Some time ago another team of Spartans raided a Covenant held Forerunner structure; they succeeded and found a great amount of data. But this," A hologram of a sun with a long ribbon going around it appeared "is the single most defining piece of data they found. Yes?" Katie had raised her hand. "Sir, what is that?" "The most destructive weapon in this universe." Several eyebrows rose at this. "It is another Halo. A bigger Halo. Much, much bigger." All the Spartan's, especially Fred's, spine tingled. The Halo's were gigantic rings that were in orbit above other planets or gas giants in the case of the first Halo. They had water, oxygen, plants and lots and lot of space; they were each ten thousand kilometers in diameter and 22.3 kilometers thick. However they had all been destroyed, either by the Covenant or Humans, because of what lived on Halo. What lived on all the Halos was the Flood.
The Flood is parasitic life form that comes in three forms: the Infection forms are basketball sized gas balloons with short tentacles, proboscis for stabbing into your neck and advantage in numbers. The Combat forms, which is what you become when the Infection forms infect you, are crazed, mutant, zombie freaks with amazing speed, a powerful melee attack, incredible resilience and almost no brain power. And the Carrier form, which is what the Combat forms turn into when they are destroyed, are slow moving, potato-shaped mobile incubators for more Infection forms. Every Spartan knows about the Flood, they were taught to all Spartans ever since the first Halo/Flood incident, in which Master Chief had had first-hand experience fighting the Flood. But the Fore Runners, the ones who built the Halos and took care of the Flood because their 'survival as a species depended on it', weren't stupid. They knew the Flood was dangerous, so they built a fail-safe; a pulse beam built into all the Halos that could destroy all sentient life with in 25,000 light-years of the ring. Also if one was triggered, all were triggered, destroying all life in the galaxy. With no sentient life to infect, the Flood would starve out.
After a few moments of silence the Spartans got back to business. "This Halo is several hundred times larger then the other Halos. It circles this sun, named Sylvan, in the Zypher region of the galaxy. Fortunately, the Covenant hasn't found it yet. But that doesn't mean they won't. You need to get there first and destroy it before the Covenant arrives. Is that clear?" Bryan raised his hand. "Sir, how do we take that thing out? We won't have another Pillar of Autumn to blow up." "No, you won't so you'll improvise. Once there you'll need to find a way to blow up this Super Halo and get off. We can only provide one ship, some ODST and one AI." 'Hmmm, I've never worked with an AI before. Could be interesting.' Bryan thought as he rose. "Sir, as squad leader, I'll volunteer to take the AI to the surface. I don't think anyone else here wants something like an AI put in the back of their skull." Actually, none of the Spartans would have minded it if it helped them finish their mission. "What's so wrong with AIs?" A voice over the speakers asked, automatically every Spartan except Fred reached for their side arm that wasn't there; they then scanned the room and, finding no one else there, turned to SCPO Frederic. "Aida! Come out." Fred shouted, seemingly to no one, when suddenly a slender female AI with long hair down to her shoulders appeared on the holoprojector. "Hi!" She said to the Spartans, who nodded back. Fred stepped over next to Aida. "This is Aida, and she's a copy of the old AI, Cortana. Aida's a valuable asset if used right. Treat her with respect." He turned to Aida. "Are you ready Aida?" "Sure. Let's go." Aida said, just a little sadly. Fred pushed a few buttons and pulled the chip with Aida in it out of the holoprojector and handed it to Bryan, who gulped and inserted it into the slot in the back of his helmet. There was a slight sting and then the feeling that he wasn't alone in his helmet. "You ok?" A voice in his head, Aida, asked. Bryan nodded, in time he would get used to feeling her presence. Bryan turned back to the SCPO, who had one more thing to say. "Your team name will be Alpha squad, and you will be rendezvousing with the team of Spartans who found the Forerunner info, designated Beta squad, at the Super Halo. When you meet them the code phrase you ask is 'Do butterflies fly in the desert?' The answer will be: 'Only cactus quills fly in the desert.' Dismissed."