Deep in the heart of a dark tower in the Flood-infested Covenant worldship, something went "Aargh."
I opened my eyes to darkness. The last of the lighting had failed; luckily, the Covenant life-support systems were still running, since I could still breath. With effort and a lot of agony, I pulled myself to my feet.
My fatigues were red with blood, which explained why I was feeling so faint. Trying to remember where I was and what had happened, I stumbled through a door and saw the body of a dead Grunt. A sudden spark of inspiration led me to an idea – I shakily approached the corpse and removed the methane breathing system. Pulling a knob on one end of the methane tank, I released the gasses into the air.
Walking away, I looked around for some kind of vent. There: A small portal, where the spores in the air were being disturbed. I stumbled to it and pushed the tank's opening into the portal and waited a few minutes. Once I believed it was finished, I closed the tank again and locked it onto my armor. With a feeling of mild disgust, I fixed the mouthpiece on. I hoped there weren't any diseases I could catch from a Grunt.
At least, now, the spores wouldn't kill me. Sortan would probably be fine, but Alicia was in danger. I could hardly see three meters ahead of him due to the spores.
That finished, I kneeled down. After a moment of thought, I fell face-flat onto the cool Covenant floors, and began to assess my situation. Alicia was looking for Sortan, but had apparently found the controls to the grav lift. My best options were: run, and probably die, or find Alicia, and probably die.
I settled on finding Alicia, so I could die with a fellow human. Feeling incredibly depressed, I tried the comm. Again, no answer; I hopped through the sliding doorway that I found the dead Grunt in. Passing it, I headed in the vague direction I had last seen the ensign go in.
As I moved on, the pain in my wound increased. I felt it lightly with my gloved fingers; the slash from the Combat Form's tentacles had ripped through armor and fatigues. Good thing the disinfectant had worked, or I might be dead, or worse, by know.
After ten minutes of uninterrupted stumbling, I heard a female cry of pain. Mixed feelings immediately boiled up, such as: 'Yes!', 'THANK YOU GOD!', and, 'ah CRAP!'
I hopped toward the sound at top speed, until I came into a small chamber with one level and a console in the center. Hovering over the console was a flickering image of the tower, and I could see the highlighted, glowing shaft of the grav lift in the middle of the image.
I mentally cheered again as I caught sight of Alicia, sitting with her back against the wall. She was cradling her arm. I stepped toward her, and for once she didn't glare at me or insult me. Kneeling beside the ensign, I inspected the arm: her forearm was clearly broken. I winced in sympathy.
"Nathan," she whispered; I had to strain to hear, "Sortan is just outside. He's hurt, too, but there shouldn't be any Flood nearby." I noticed her eyeing my oxygen tank.
I told her I'd be back and I stepped outside. Three dead Combat Forms surrounded the prone form of Sortan. He was unconscious, and I ignored him for the time being, instead grabbing a sniper rifle from one of the corpses. Quickly, I broke off the barrel and snapped it in two. Afterwards, I searched the dead Flood for magazines, and found six for different weapons. I returned to Alicia, mentally praising my owningeniousness.
Kneeling next to her, I ripped off the sleeve of my fatigues. I set the two halves of the sniper rifle barrel on either side of her broken arm; then, I placed two magazines one each side to connect them. Finally, I wrapped my fatigues around it to finish the splint.
Finished, I admired my handiwork. "Thanks, Nathan," Alicia whispered, eyes closed. I appreciated the gratitude in her voice; maybe she was finally accepting me.
I returned outside and kneeled beside Sortan. He had taken two 12.7MM bullets justbelow the chest plate. Glad the Elite was unconscious, I dug out the bullets with a combat knife I found on one of the former-Marine Combat Forms. Hoping nothing vital was damaged, I disinfected the wound and wrapped the leg of one of the Combat Form's fatigues around his midsection.
Aware that I couldn't lift him and wouldn't dare drag him, I left him outside and returned to Alicia. She was now sleeping. I sat down next to the nearly dead Covenant door, and rested my head against the curved wall.
As I sat, I tried to recall the last time I had gotten a true wink of sleep. Sometime before Cairo Station came under attack, I remembered. Closing my eyes, I let myself doze off . . .
I awoke not an hour later. Sortan was awake now, sitting next to Alicia. He, too, noticed my oxygen system and blinked at it. After inquiring about it, I described how I had done it and took note of the vent in the chamber.
Telling Sortan to watch over Alicia, I trotted outside to the Combat Form bodies. The path they were laying on arced around the tower and eventually ended up at either the energy bridge or the connection to the Mausoleum.
I ran down the pathway until I came across a former battleground; obviously, it had been large-scale for such a small space. Three-dozen Grunts were dead; the Elites had already been dragged away by the Flood; around twenty Jackals were scattered around; seven Brutes lay among the hill of corpses. The blood loss was massive; I felt my day-old lunch well up in my stomach. Ignoring the stench, I separated a Grunt from its methane tank and disinfected the mouthpiece. As I ran back to the others, I emptied the tank of methane.
When I arrived, I immediately used the vent to fill the tank full of oxygen. Alicia was awake now, too. I explained the device to her and helped the ensign affix it to her unisex bridge crew uniform (with the use of the Combat Forms' fatigues).
Finally, the three of us sat down, together again. "The grav lift is working now," I began.
"Good," Alicia said, "We can now head back down into the lower districts and move on to the next tower."
Sortan, still pained by his wound, muttered, "The Flood will be all over the lower districts. We'll have to move carefully."
I noticed something. "What happened to your Energy Sword?"
He eyed me. "Five Combat Forms came at me. The Energy Sword's power was low, but I managed to kill two of them before it disappeared. My shields were depleted, and one of the parasite managed to shoot me . . ."
"And then I came in," Alicia added. "What happened to you?" She asked, suddenly noticing my wound. I smiled at the worried tone.
"Ah, nothing," I grinned. "Just one of the Combat Form's tentacles. A few came up the lift."
"Does that mean there will be more in the tower?" Alicia inquired.
Sortan replied, "We will take the grav lift straight to the bottom."
"Good," I whispered, looking vaguely at the wall. Time to start out next cheerful adventure. Even better, I was now the only one not badly wounded.
And the spores were increasing. The Flood was altering the atmosphere . . .