Resident Halo

Chapter One

Date unknown and location unknown.
United Nations Space Command Classified Record (TOP SECRET CLEAREANCE REQUIRED)

Accessing classified holo-tape. Produced by ODST Charles "Neo" O'Neil. Classified by UNSC HighCom at request of Umbrella Corporation. Standby…

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"My name is Neo. I was the head of security at a secret, underground research facility for an organization called Umbrella. The Umbrella Corporation was the largest commercial entity in the world, and in the UNSC. Umbrella was rivaled only by the UNSC in size and sheer manpower.

The Umbrella Corporation supplied the citizens of the UNSC with many products, most of them were civilian, items such as food, water, and many pleasure conveniences. But unknown to even Umbrella's employees, this was not their major source of income. Umbrella secretly supplied the UNSC with bio-weapons, secret shield technology, prototype plasma weapons, and even manufactured the MJOLNIR Armor for the Spartan Project; which was used heavily during the Covenant War.

We were on the brink of losing, until the Reclaimer ­Xzaalbarth- came, and with the Spartans, beats back the Covenant. The Halo data, brought back by Spartan-117, and some dead Flood samples were given to Umbrella Corporation for processing, and research, in order to develop new technologies to give us the upper hand in the war.

The special weapons on the Iroquois, the energy shields, the refined plasma turrets, the Nova bombs, all of them were Umbrella products. The UNSC owed everything to Umbrella, almost, if not more than the Spartans.

When John-117 returned back at Earth with the Halo data, Umbrella immediately started looking it over. The technological advances they made saved Earth from total annihilation. But that wasn't the only thing. Private Abu-Hama Rasheed had arrived with the Master Chief, hiding in seclusion. He was once human, now he was Flood.

Rasheed had helped command the fleet, and despite the resentment of his fellow officers, and distrust, he served the UNSC faithfully, and loyally. Unfortunately, in the final moments of the last Battle of Earth, he died. No one knows how, or why, but he died, nonetheless. Some speculate it was heart failure. Others think a UNSC Marine went crazy and killed him. Most think it was suicide.

However he died didn't matter for Umbrella, for the first time, they had a Flood specimen, an intact one. Rasheed was dissected and analyzed, and the research they obtained from Rasheed's corpse was very valuable. The fruits of their research that day, and from the Halo data all cumulated into one product: the T-Virus.

The T-Virus can regenerate, or reanimate, dead or living cells. Much like how Sergeant Johnson possessed regenerative abilities with dead Flood cells. Well, the T-Virus does this, but on a larger scale. The T-Virus can reanimate even the dead, and is highly contagious. If airborne, it immediately infects all who are dead, and they become zombies.

One scratch, one bite from these zombies is enough to transfer the virus. The T-Virus had enormous commercial potential, but it also could be used as a bio-weapon for the UNSC. Aware of the consequences of such power, Umbrella kept the T-Virus locked away, hidden in the three secret research facilities: the Hives. A Hive was located in Tokyo, New Mombassa, and Raccoon City.

But there was…an incident. And the T-Virus was released, one after another at each of the Hives. The A.I.s at each Hive took measures to keep the virus in check, and everyone who worked at the Hives died. My team was sent in to the New Mombassa Hive, to deal with the A.I. and find out what had happened to make them become homicidal.

This is my story.

-

Earth Calendar January 23, 2553.
New Mombassa, Earth.
Umbrella Corporation Secret Underground Research Facility "The Hive".

It was another bright day at the Hive. Well, you could say a "bright one". Since the Hive was underground, the windows, which were in place at the Hive, had holographic projectors, which were made to seem like the world outside, and right now, it was sunny at New Mombassa, and thus sunny at the Hive.

Carl Shagan was walking along, minding his own business, with coffee and newspaper at hand, and waited for the elevator to arrive. Someone bumped into him, and his precious coffee was splattered all over his shirt.

"Thank you," Carl said, sarcastically; as a young man walked past him, hefting a brief case. One of the nearby workers looked at the young man, and at Carl, and offered him a towel, which he accepted. He wiped himself off, just in time for the elevator to arrive. The workers walked inside the elevator, and the doors shut, as the elevator proceeded to descend.

Several levels below, in the Viral Research Room, dozens of dogs were kept for research. The dogs were sleeping happily, until one of them smelled…well he smelled something airborne, and it bothered him. He got up on all fours, and started barking, in an attempt to warn their masters, and his fellow dogs. The others smelled it to, and they started barking.

A pair of humans in white lab coats walked through the door in a separate chamber -on the same level as the Viral Research Room - a male and a female. The two talked among themselves, unaware of the danger that literally filled the air. An alarm sounded, and the humans in the chamber looked around.

"What's that?" asked one.

"Nothing," responded another. "Just a routine fire drill."

As the dozens of lab-workers calmly filed out of the room, the main doors hissed shut, and the access panel flashed red. The fire alarm continued to blare, and Carl, still in the elevator looked up from the files he was reading, and turned to the worker who had given him a towel. "What's that?" he asked.

"Fire drill," she replied.

In the Viral and Research room, the main doors were still locked, and the sprinkler system activated.

"Shit!" yelled a female worker.

"What the hell" asked a male worker.

"Hurry! The computer's covered!" screamed the female worker. "Move it! Hurry! Or the experiments will be ruined!" The dogs continued to bark, and did so more vigorously than before, aware of the danger. A nearby security guard tried to calm the dogs down.

Carl, anxiously, pushed aside a few nearby workers, and moved to the control panel of the elevator. "Shouldn't the doors open, or something?" he asked, trying to contain his fear.

"It's supposed to take us to the nearest floor," said one of the workers. The lights in the elevator flashed off, and blue emergency lights hissed on. The power drained from the elevator, and in the rest of the Hive. The workers were much more worried now. This wasn't a routine fire drill. The female worker that gave Carl the towel earlier picked up the emergency phone, which would have power regardless of the elevator.

"Hello?" she asked. No response. "Hello?" she asked again. She pressed some buttons on the panel, and received no response.

"What's happening?" asked Carl.

"Line's dead," responded the worker.

Two levels below, the workers were realizing the gravity of the situation. An attractive blonde female got up from her desk, and casually walked over to the crowd of anxious workers.

"What's the problem?" shed asked.

"The doors won't open!" responded a worker.

"What about the one's in the back?" asked the blonde.

"Locked as well," someone replied.

In the Viral Research Room, a female worker was starting to lose it; she waved her hands and screamed at a security camera, which was controlled by the Hive's Artificial Intelligence, which in turn, controlled all functions at the Hive.

"There's no fire in here! No fire!" yelled the woman. The sprinklers continued, as the AI ignored the woman's screams. A man was trying to push open the doors.

"The code doesn't work! The doors won't open!" he yelled. "This water isn't going anywhere."

"What?" screamed the woman.

"It's a sealed room," responded the man.

"Help me with the doors," the woman said.

"Oh fuck the doors!" shouted another man. He pulled out an ax from the wall, and ran screaming at the glass windows. He struck, and a chunk of glass was taken out, but the window itself was intact. He struck over, and over again, but the window wouldn't break.

On the elevator above, the workers had lost it. They started slamming on the doors, and screaming for help.

"We have to get out of here!" said one.

"What's going on?" asked Carl, as he hit the emergency alarm. "Has this happened before? WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE! We have to get out of here!"

"Take it easy," said a black man.
"No! You take it easy!" shouted Carl.

"QUIET!" yelled the female worker. "Do you hear that?"

"What?" asked Carl.

Seconds later, a delayed scream raced past the elevator, and plummeted downward, and faded, faded, until it stopped. A crash reverberated through the elevator Carl was in.

"Oh my God," said the female. And shortly after she said that, the elevator that they were in dropped down, as the brakes were released. Everyone inside screamed. On the panel nearby, the levels raced by. Fifteen, fourteen, thirteen… At the third floor, the elevator stopped.

Meanwhile, the attractive blonde, and all the other workers continued pounding on the doors, hoping for someone to hear them. The biohazard alarm sounded, a gas was released from the vents, and workers left and right dropped to the floor, coughing.

"Stop it! Stop!" shouted the blonde, in vain at the security camera. As the room filled with the white, deadly gas, the blonde slowly felt the life drain out of her, and then…

Thud. Everyone in the room was dead. On the same floor, the elevator doors budged open slightly, and Carl and the others looked outside the door, and saw…everyone was dead. Carl, who was sweating, couldn't take it anymore.

"We have to get out of here! We need to call for help!"

"Here! Give me a hand," shouted a male, who was still working on the doors. "This is as far as they'll go. They're caught on something.

"That's wide enough," said the female. "I can squeeze through. I'll get help." She managed to squeeze her head and arm through the door. "It's stuck! You're gonna have to push." A security camera flashed to life nearby, and accessed the female's vital statistics, and recorded data. "That's it! A bit more!" she shouted.

Something hissed. "What's that?" asked Carl.

"Fuck!" shouted a male. "It's the brakes! Get her out of there!"

"I can't move!"

"We have to get out of here!" The brakes released, and the females head rapidly descended from the top of the doors, to the bottom, and then…. stopped. The female was breathing rapidly, and shivered in fear.

"Pull me back inside!" she managed to shout. The elevator ascended, as they tried to free her, and CRACK! Her head thudded to the third floor, and her body to the floor of the elevator.

"I think I'm going to be sick," said Carl, averting his gaze. The brakes hissed again. "Oh. Shit." And the elevator plummeted down.

-

Meanwhile, above ground in New Mombassa, inside a massive white mansion, Security Chief Chuck "Neo" O'Neil kicked back, and lit up a cigarette.

"I love my job," Neo said. It was just another easy day on the job for Neo, who guarded the entrance to the Hive at the Keyes Mansion, which was the only way in and out of the Hive, and was safely hundreds miles above ground from the Hive. An alarm sounded, and Neo quickly dropped his cigarette.

"What the hell?" The alarm continued, and the display in front of him flashed: Intruder alert. Before Neo could draw his sidearm, and investigate the cause of the alarm, the glass windows a few meters away from him were shattered, and a dozen armed men and women in standard ODST armor jumped through, Battle Rifles, Magnums, and SMGs drawn. His partner, Niles "Reaver" Roberto drew his M6D, and pointed it at the ODSTs.

"What the hell are you doing? You have no right to be here!" An ODST turned to him, and primed a flash grenade and tossed it at Reaver and Neo. The ODST quickly cuffed Reaver, and punched the weapon out of his hand. Another ODST walked over to the main entrance that Neo guarded, and tapped into the security system, and opened up a handheld computer, and rapidly typed in commands into it. The other ODSTs pointed their weapons at the corridors, and Neo.

Neo dropped his weapon, and held his hands up. "What's your business here?" He asked. The ODST leader walked over to Neo, and in his HUD, his name, rank, and decorations flashed. Neo was able to read it. Captain Samuel Duran; UNSC Special Forces, New Mombassa Garrison.

"That's of none of your concern," replied Duran.

"I'm the Head of Security of this facility," said Neo. "If there is a problem, it's plenty of my business." Duran said nothing, but the man with the handheld computer typed away some keys, nodded, and Duran spoke.

"I won't discuss it here, we might be watched."

"By who?" asked Neo.

"I'm not liable to discuss it right now," responded Duran. "Come with us, if you want to know."

"Where are you going?"

"We're going to the Hive." And with that, the doors hissed open, and half of the ODSTs stormed in, flashlights, and weapons active.

"What about him?" asked the ODST who had cuffed Reaver. "Shall I secure him here?"

Duran took his helmet off. He was a dark man, with black eyes. He was bald, and was wearing a green beret. A headset with a microphone was on his right ear. "No. We take him with us."

"You can't do this!" shouted Reaver, as the ODST holstered her pistol. She took her helmet off, and black hair, which was tied in a ponytail dropped down her shoulder.

"Blow me." And she grabbed an irritated Reaver by the arms, and forced him up, and pushed him along.

"Prep for entry to the Hive," Duran said. And the dozen ODSTs, with Neo and an angry Reaver in tow, passed through the two-meter thick, Titanium-A doors. After all of them had entered, the doors hissed shut behind them. Half the ODSTs rushed on ahead, weapons pointing ahead, as they ran down a massive staircase. The other half brought up the rear, with Neo, Reaver, Duran, and the female ODST in the middle.

Thousands of boxes and trucks littered the room that they had entered, all with the Umbrella Corporation logo emblazed on them. The ODSTs cautiously inspected the equipment, and hefted some of the equipment on to a nearby, electric train. Another placed a timer on a wall near the doorway to the Hive storage room, and numbers appeared: 48:00:00, and counted down, 47:59:59, 47:59:58

The ODSTs boarded the electric train, and dropped the box of equipment. One of the ODSTs, the one with the handheld computer installed in his suit tried to activate the train. "Power's down," he said, taking his helmet off, and placing it on a nearby crate, his black eyes were cool as he spoke.

"So fix it," Duran said.

The ODST with the ponytail responded. "I'm on it," and she activated her suit's flashlight, and jumped through the massive hole in the middle of the train compartment that lead to the power. She connected the massive power cylinders together, but as she was doing this, she thought she heard movement. She drew her pistol, and crouched down, aiming at the source of the sound.

Nothing. The only thing she saw was a circular hole in the metal wire plate that separated this compartment and the next one's air vents. The sound continued, but it simply sounded like water dropping. She holstered her pistol, and resumed connecting the power cylinders.

Suddenly, an ODST stuck his head through the hole above the ponytail ODST, as she was about to connect the other power cylinders. She jumped in surprise. "Jumpy," he said, and laughed. She restored power, and he pulled his head out of the hole, in surprise. The ponytail ODST grinned, and jumped out of the hole. The lights flickered on inside the train, and the last ODSTs climbed aboard.

"Stand clear," said an ODST, and the massive doors, which lead to the power hole closed. An ODST punched in some numbers, and train sputtered to life, and began to accelerate. The ponytail ODST tried to open a locked door, and turned to Reaver and Neo, who were sitting and staring at the ODST.

"You got a problem?" she asked.

"How's that door?" asked Duran.

"It's sealed shut."

The ODST who stuck his head down, and surprised the ponytail ODST walked over to the door. "Let me," he said, and he shoved the door open. A man, with a backpack on, and who was unconscious fell into the ODST's arms. Duran pointed his Battle Rifle squarely at the man.

"Jumpy?" asked the ponytail ODST to the other. He glared at her. The man awoke, and another ODST, with her helmet off, pulled out a small flashlight.

"Lie still!" she demanded. "Watch this light. Follow it." The man complied. "Now how many fingers am I holding up?"

"Three," responded the man.

"Good. Now tell me your name."

"I…I don't know," he responded.

"He's fine. Memory loss, that's all."

The train skidded to a halt a few moments later, and the man, Neo, Reaver, and the ODSTs exited the train, and into another storage room. The ODSTs drew their weapons, and kept watch for anything, other than them, that moved. The ponytail ODST ran up ahead, and after verifying that the area was clear, nodded to Duran.

"Let's open that door," he said. And the humans ran to the main Hive entrance.

Neo had had enough, and he walked up to Duran. "Listen to me," he said. "Look at me! I want to know who you are, and what the fuck is going on here!"

Duran looked at Neo, and spoke. "While I maybe UNSC special forces, I am actually in the employ of the Umbrella Corporation, just like you. The mansion above us, as you know, is the emergency entrance to the Hive, and usually the most used entrance. The Hive, which you also know, is a secret research facility, and houses 500 technicians and scientists, and its purpose is naturally, is classified. I'm sure you have never actually been inside the Hive."

Neo nodded his head negatively.

"I thought so." A pair of ODSTs was attempting to open the door with a laser wielder as Duran was talking.

"What about your mission? Why are you here? You must have been on your way to the mansion, and for some time in the air before the intruder alarm sounded. Why didn't it sound earlier?" asked Neo.

"Sir! We've breached the Hive," said an ODST.

Duran looked at the ODST, and then at Neo. "I guess you'll have to wait for the answer to that question." Neo fumed, but Duran didn't seem to notice. The ODSTs scrambled around the main entrance, and one ODST, with his infrared settings activated entered the Hive. The ODST crept in slowly, as he was engulfed by darkness. He heard something move, and spun in the direction of the sound, but just like the ponytail girl…heard nothing more.

"Got it!" the ODST said, and the emergency lights activated.

"Gas content has dissipated, it's safe to explore. And the ODSTs did just that. The ODSTs tried to open the elevator doors, and had succeeded. Duran looked down, and dropped a flare. It touched the bottom after a several second drop, and hit the remains of the destroyed elevator. "Looks like we're taking the stars."

And the ODSTs ran to the staircase, kicked open the door, and raced down the stairs.

"Status?"

"Shadow has locked onto us. He knows we're hear."

"Shadow?" asked Neo. "Who is Shadow?"

"The defenses of the Hive are all controlled by the AI. We were sent here by Umbrella to inspect a…disturbance. Five hours ago, Shadow, who is the AI that controls the Hive, went homicidal. Our job is to find out why, shut down Shadow, and to extradite any survivors."

The ODSTs reached the ground floor of the Hive, even though ground floor wasn't exactly an appropriate name, considering that the Hive's top floor was still very, very much below the ground. They ran past the room that was once the Viral Research Room, and holes were poked in the glass. Water was slowly leaking out of the room, but it wasn't fast, as the water was still near the top of the room. Papers floated around in the brown water.

The ponytail ODST, who Neo had finally had a chance to read her nametag, Sparks, looked around the corridors to make sure they were clear. They were. The ODST with the computer, approached the glass, and said: "This, is going to slow us down considerably." He glanced at his computer. "Our original route to Shadow takes us straight through these labs."

Duran nodded. "Sparks, J.B., see how bad it is in there." He marched past the two ODSTs. "Lockley, find us an alternate route." The computer ODST nodded, who Neo inferred was Lockley, and he typed away rapidly on his computer. As Duran and the other ODSTs waited for Lockley to find a route, a body drifted towards the glass, and Reaver jumped away from the glass.

"Jesus!" He shouted. The other ODSTs whipped their guns up to the body. Reaver backed away from the glass some more. Neo turned to Reaver. "Hey? You ok?" Reaver nodded.

"Sir, I've found a route! But it's going to take us some extra time. We need to double back to the dining hall, the auxiliary one, then we'll be at where we need to be!" Shouted Lockley. Duran grinned. Reaver looked up at an air vent that was above him, and thought he heard…a moan. Sparks and J.B. had returned.

"Sir? It's not good, this whole sector has been flooded."

"All right then, let's move out to the auxiliary dining hall, we're getting behind schedule," said Duran. As they walked away, Sparks and J.B. stopped to look at the body that had drifted towards the glass.

"Poor bastards," commented Sparks, and she walked away with the rest of the group.

The body continued drifting as the ODSTs had disappeared, but suddenly, the body's arm jolted up onto the glass, and its eyes darted open. It was time to feed.