hmmm… no reviews for the last two chapters.
yet.
I suppose it's my own fault for not updating in so long…that's all going to be fixed soon, don't worry. :)
Gina pulled the screaming Banshee around for another pass, fuel rod cannons charging. The other Banshee fired its secondary weapons at her and the marine had to pull the Banshee into a back flip to avoid most of the fire. The cannon was fully charged at that point and Gina wasted no time firing. The other Banshee crashed onto the surface of Halo.
It took only a second for the marine to reorient herself with her direction and pulled the Banshee around, the arrow in her eyepiece steadily growing larger. After an hour of flying, the small cockpit was becoming cramped and the light was quickly fading. Canyons and gullies dotted the landscape the small craft flew over and in the distance, she could see the Covenant cruiser she was headed for. She checked the meters until arrival on her eyepiece. She figured only a half-hour and she'd be there.
"Good." Cortana's voice was calm and controlled. "Only one more pule generator left. It's in the adjacent canyon."
"Easy enough." the Master Chief replied, feeding ammo into the shotgun he carried.
"You'll have to go through that tunnel to get there." the AI told him as he stepped outside. "You'll have to find another Banshee in the other canyon to get to the pulse generator." The Spartan put the Banshee into a steep dive and entered the tunnel, trying to fly low. A rocket shot off, missing him by a meter and the Chief quickly bailed. He might not be so lucky the next time. His armor took the crunch of the slight fall and he rushed forward, blasted the Flood forms that tried to rush him. The form that had been carrying the rocket launcher wasn't hard to find. It was shooting off wild shots, missing him horribly. A good shell to the chest was enough to pop the infection form on the inside of the mutilated body and the warrior fell. Chief checked the ammo on the rocket launcher. It still had a good three rockets in it, much more effective than his nearly spent assault riffle. He exchanged the weapons and continued on.
It didn't take long for the Chief to get out and find a Banshee. Commandeering it had been a challenge, but the Chief had gotten it in the end, and that was all that mattered to him.
"Sentinels." Cortana informed him calmly. The Spartan could tell that she was getting anxious to find the Captain. The Banshee was able to take out most of them, and the Chief mopped up the rest with his shotgun.
"How's Gina's progress?" he inquired, slipping into the hallway. Satisfied that no one was in the next chamber, he walked in. The pulse generator glowed from around the corner.
"She's been out of my sensors for a while. But the Covenant Battle Net, despite its complete disarray, has mentioned an unidentified Banshee heading for their downed cruiser." the AI replied. The Spartan stood before the bluish-white light of the generator.
"Do you still have a lock on the Captain's signal?" he inquired. It took a moment before the AI replied.
"Yes and no. I've got a lock on his general location, but there's interference; like there's another human Neural Transponder in his area. I believe the Flood might be the cause of the interference." The soldier took note of this and stepped into the beam. His shields flared and there was a good explosion. He quickly pulled himself out of the beam and his shields slowly recharged.
"Now lets go get Keyes." MC said. "Give me a NAV point."
"No, that'll take too long." Cortana said. "We need to get there now, if we want the codes to destroy the Autumn. I'll draw power to make the jump to the cruiser from your suit without damaging it. Hold on." The soldier didn't have a chance to reply before the feeling of nausea returned and the bands of yellow light took him away.
Landing in the hangar bay was anything but a walk in the park. Gina wrestled with the controls and tried to bring the craft down easy. The Flood in the hanger, however, seemed determined to stop that from happening. She unceremoniously crashed into the deck and quickly jumped out of the wreckage. She quickly grabbed her shotgun from the cockpit and opened fire on the Flood who used to be an Elite. The monstrosity collapsed, only to be stepped over by more of its kind. Keeping her back against a wall, the marine held her own until the hangar was finally silent. She keyed the COM.
"This is Private Gina. Any UNSC personnel, respond." she said. There was a crackle of static.
"Get… get out." Someone's voice replied slowly. The connection was filled with static. "You shouldn't be here, Private." Gina realized that it was Captain Keyes.
"Captain, sir! Where are you? The Chief will be here soon." she said. There was more static.
"Leave… me. Get… out." The connection blurred static and then was cut.
"Captain!" Gina tried to re-contact him, but all she got was static. Cursing, she reloaded her weapon and glanced around the hangar. Most of the doors were either locked or not operational, and the only one on Gina's level led to the bridge. Not having anywhere else to go until the Chief and Cortana arrived, Gina proceeded to the bridge or brig- which ever she got to first.
Not but ten minutes later, MC reappeared in the covenant cruiser. At first, he thought something was horribly wrong, until gravity took hold and he flipped end over end onto the deck.
"Oh, I see." Cortana murmured. "The-" The Spartan hit his helmet meaningfully and the AI stopped. "Right. Sorry."
"Where are we?" MC inquired, heading down the purple corridor.
"This is a covenant cruiser,"
"Obviously." Cortana ignored the interruption.
"Which couldn't take off due to engine troubles. After the Flood was released, the Covenant tried to repair it so the Flood wouldn't escape the ring." MC peeked around the corner and saw a group of spores. A short blast from the assault riffle took care of them. Assured the hall was cleared, for the moment, he continued on. "But the Flood got here," Cortana continued. "And the Covenant are in a frenzy to purge the ship of the Flood and get it away from Halo."
"Interesting." the Chief replied, filing the info away. His main concern was getting the Captain out of there, not the Covenant's problems. "Can you find the Captain? And is Gina here yet?"
"I'm still getting interference about the Captain's NIT, but we can try the COM to contact Gina." Cortana replied. Flood began to pour out of the corridor ahead of them.
"You do that then. I'm a little busy." MC told her, taking out the scurrying spores with his assault riffle. He tossed a frag grenade into the group and took out the survivors with a sustained blast from his assault riffle. He was done by the time Cortana had keyed the COM.
"This is Cortana calling Gina, come in." There was a short burst of static.
"I was wondering when you would get here." a familiar voice replied. "I've run into a lot of Flood. I think I'm surrounded."
"I've traced your location." Cortana replied. "Hold tight, we're on our way."
"Good deal." There was a burst of automatic weapons fire before the connection was cut.
"She's near to the brig. I'll direct you through to the quickest way to her." the AI told the Spartan, who was continuing on down the corridor.
After falling through a hold in the ship, the Chief had to make his way along the ground to the grav lift. They were contacted by Gina a few times, who promptly updated them on her situation.
"I'm near the grav room now if you want me to wait for you. The Flood seem to have slowed down in this area." she was telling them. MC was busy and let Cortana do the talking.
"Go ahead and hold position. We're near the gravity lift now. You're no longer surrounded?"
"Nope." the marine replied. "I took care of them; although, they keep popping up. A little help would be greatly appreciated."
"Same here." the Chief replied before Cortana could. "Chief out."
"Gina out. Meet you up top." Guns blazing, the Spartan made his way up a ridge. He had never seen the Covenant fight so hard. He almost regretted shooting them down after they had killed most of the Flood. Almost.
Gina had her shotgun raised and was scanning the room when the Master Chief appeared. She saluted smartly.
"Glad to see you, Chief." she told him. "I think I know where the Captain is."
"Where? Cortana's having trouble pinning his location down." the Chief told her. Gina seemed surprised at that statement.
"Really now? Any ways, I've already been to the brig. I think he's in or near the bridge." MC nodded and loaded his weapon.
"What's your status?"
"Minor elbow injury, half loaded shot gun, and my pistol's about spent too. I have no more grenades." MC glanced at her left elbow and saw the armor plating torn away. The rest of the marine armor was scored with plasma and dented in a few places.
"Sounds like you've been in a heck of a fight." Cortana announced over the Chief's external speakers. Gina grinned and nodded.
"Took care of them as best I know how."
"I suggest we move on." the Spartan said just as the clacking of spores stared again. "Gina, you take point. I got our rear."
"Yes sir." she replied. The two worked their way through the twisted ship. A couple of times, Cortana tried to direct them down one corridor but discovered that Gina's directions were both faster and less Flood filled.
"I bet you hate being wrong." the Chief quietly told Cortana. The AI made the equivalent of a sigh.
"I've got to hand it to her, she knows her stuff." The AI then added, "But she was trained by them you know."
"That just means she's got a better handle on the terrain. She's still on our side." MC replied hotly. Gina, unaware of their conversation opened the next door.
"I didn't say I doubted her."
"Yeah, but you were thinking it."
"More like processing the odds of her being a spy."
"I'd rather you stuck to the mission at hand." the Chief snapped. Cortana sensed his anger and then replied over the external speakers,
"The Captain's signal is strong. He must be nearby." A group of Flood warriors lunged at them from around the corner. Gina backed up and shot. MC threw a grenade into the pack, yelling, "Fire in the hole!" After being responded by a successful bang, there were no more enemy targets. The three continued on in silence. Gina leaned against a wall and started punching codes into the door panel. The door hummed, but didn't open. Gina kicked the wall and began punching more characters in. The doors slid apart.
The bridge was creepishly silent compared to the other parts of the Flood infested ship. It was, if possible, even darker too. The two soldiers kept their weapons raised and proceeded inside. Gina crouched and inched forward slowly.
"There's something on the command platform." she hissed urgently. The Master Chief crept forward, Gina covering his six, although she kept glancing at the thing they were headed towards.
"The Captain's life readings just flat-lined." Cortana announced as they came to stand before the Flood form. It didn't move. It didn't even look like it was alive. But the face of Captain Jacob Keyes was in it and Gina felt like puking.
"What did they do to him?" the Chief asked.
"I… I don't know." Cortana replied soberly. "The Flood must have… tried to use him for information. But he resisted." Gina swallowed the rock in her throat and turned to the Chief.
"I'm… ready to finish this when you are, sir." she said, her voice calm. Even in the dim, the Chief could see her pale face. The Spartan turned to the thing that used to be his Captain and plunged his hand into it. Gina turned away, pretending to keep watch while she was really resisting the urge to spill what little rations she had eaten in the past hours.
"I have the codes." Cortana announced. "We should leave."
"I thought you'd never ask." Gina murmured. The two quickly made their way back to the hangar bay.
and thus ends another chapter. I don't have school tomorrow, so I might begin the next chapter, where they finally get off halo and I can begin the more original stuff… I probably won't finish it tomorrow though, so you can expect it next week or the week after. :) hey, at least it's not five or six months after. Xx