Disclaimer: next instalment of Dawn of the Flood.
The Control Tower
The 30 forty odd surviving Covenant, which consisted of 17 Grunts, 8 Jackals and 5 Elites, walked nervously through the valley that led the Control Tower. Jilamanel was at the front of the group, ready to run for his life if the Flood attacked the slow moving convoy. Jilamanel felt relieved to be in the presence of the Grunts and Jackals. He knew that if the Flood attacked, the Grunts and Jackals would distract the Flood long enough for him and the Elites to escape. Jilamanel heard repeated muttering behind him and turned to see whom it was coming from. Jilamanee was the source.
"Happy place, happy lace, think happy place" muttered jilamanee. Before Jilamanel could embarrass the shit out of his superior, the convoy of Covenant Troops turned a corner and saw the Control Tower. It was an awesome spectacle to behold. Jilamanel could not find the right words to describe what he was seeing, but a Grunt found them instead.
"Oooh, PRETTTY" said the Grunt. Jilamanel totally agreed with him. The Covenant Force graciously moved towards the Control Tower. But, like all things in life, the Flood thought that it would be a nice day to have a picnic.
The Flood surged out of a nearby café, and thundered towards the Covenant. The Covenant, naturally, kept order.
"RUN FOR YOUR FUCKING LIVES COS' THE FLOOD ARE…ERK!" explained one Grunt, before he was mowed down by the Flood mob. The survivors ran for the Control Towers entrance. A Grunt fell, a thousand Infection Forms clinging on to it. another Grunt was crushed by a leaping Combat Form, organs and other gore spewing out of the Grunts various orifices. A Jackal had its head whipped off by a Combat Forms tentacled arm. Jilamanel reached the gentle slope that was the Control Towers staircase.
A Jackal that was lagging behind tripped over a tiny pebble. A Combat Form grabbed the Jackals legs and pulled the unfortunate Jackal into the mob, where he was swamped and ripped apart in a gruesome fray. Organs and limbs flew amongst the Flood mob as the victims were eaten. Jilamanel ran through a gap in a barricade that the surviving Covenant had erected. As the gap was plugged, Jilamanel and the others ran all the way to the top of the Control Tower. The group literately peeked over the top of the tower at the Flood bellow. There were now hundreds of Combat Forms wailing, hundreds of waddling Carrier Forms and tens of thousands of skittering Infection forms all baying for the Covenants blood.
"Why do you think their here?" asked a Red Elite.
"Maybe their here for us" said Jilamanee, dramatically. Dramatic music played.
"I'M GONNA SHOOT SOMETHING IF THAT MUSIC PLAYS AGAIN!" yelled the Red Elite that hates the music. Jilamanee turned to the Covenant that surrounded him.
"My Brothers…" he began.
"I'm a…" started the female Grunt, but Jilamanee picked her up and threw her at the Flood below. Organs and gore flew up to the survivors, only to fall back down agian. The agonising squeals could be heard for a full five minutes.
Five minutes later…
"My Brothers, we must fortify our position and barricade the entrance so that the Flood cannot get in" explained Jilamanee, pointing out the TOTALLY OBVIOUS FOR THE NTH TIME.
So, the Elites moved the big purple crates to cover the entrance and the Grunts were on weapons detail. There were Covenant and Flood bodies all over Control Tower. The Elites threw the bodies at the Flood, and it is pointless to explain what happened after that. Eventually, the Covenant huddled into a circle around all the weapons that they had recovered.
"Is this it?" asked Jilamanel, looking at the bagpipes.
"Yep" said Random Grunt (you have to read Halo 3: Separate Events to know who Random Grunt is)
"How can bagpipes be used as a weapon?" asked Jilamanel.
"Like this" replied Random Grunt taking the bagpipes and walking over to the edge of the Control Tower. Random Grunt then started to play the bagpipes. The awful noise immediately popped thousands of Infection forms, made hundreds of Carrier forms explode and made hundreds of Combat forms fall apart.
"SEE?" yelled Random Grunt over the din.
"Yes, I see, and for the love of God, STOP PLAYING!" Jilamanel yelled. Random Grunt did as he was requested. Then Jilamanee came over.
"Random Grunt, what of the Shade?" he asked.
"Well Excellency, we cannot use the Shade due to the fact that the architecture of the Control Tower inhibits the weapons main gun rotation matrix and so we cannot achieve the correct angle for the Shade to fire on the Flood below" explained Random Grunt.
Jilamanee looked at Jilamanel.
"Translation?" he asked. Jilamanel looked at Jilamanee.
"We can't fire the Shade at the Flood" explained Jilamanel, simply.
"Dammit!" complained Jilamanee.
"There is a way in which we can place the Shade in a position where it can fire at the Flood from this height" said Random Grunt.
"Do tell"
"Well Excellency, we can use some of the debris from the Forerunner structure to set the Shade at an angle, approximately 45 degrees, we therefore allow the Shade to fire on the Flood at the proper angular projection even at this elevation" explained Random Grunt. Jilamanee looked at Jilamanel expectantly.
"If we put some stones under the back leg of the Shade, we can fire at the Flood" he explained, simply.
"Alright! Lets do it!" Jilamanee triumphantly yelled. A few hours later, the Shade was able to fire at the Flood below.
"Who shall use it first?" asked Jilamanel.
"I WILL! COS' I'M A GOOD ELITE!" yelled Jilamanee, jumping on the Shade.
"FLOOD BARBEQUE!" yelled Jilamanee, pressing the fire button.
Disclaimer: well, that was cool. I managed to write a second chapter for my new story already! I'm chuffed!