The End
The Master Chief turned his head at the sound of groaning. The marine had woken. Finally. He walked over to where the groan came from and asked in complete darkness,
"Are you alright?"
The marine groaned again. The Master Chief froze.
Was that really a groan? Sounded more like a moan… His suspicions were confirmed he hear a dull thump. He switched on his night vision and quickly jumped back.
"Holy shit!"
The flood combat forms were busy gathering bodies, when one snapped its head up. The others raised theirs too. They had just sensed a disturbance in the sound waves. Someone had just shouted. Also, one of the very recently formed improved combat forms was calling for help. They all started running in the direction of the call. It was in danger, and they were very hungry.
McCabe paced angrily around the tent, and then turned to the new CO. "Why'd I have to kill him?"
The CO, whose name was Sergent Brian Daniels, turned to face McCabe and said to him,
"Judging by what we know about these flood things, I'd say that we'd all be dead if we let Hawkins live. Besides, he was a screw up. That's what you always say. A fucking screw up."
"Well I don't say it now." McCabe retorted.
"You always say that if someone drags down the team, shoot them-"
"No…I…Don't."
Daniels grinned.
"As I was saying: shoot them; right in the head."
That did it.
McCabe balled up his fist as his CO laughed and laughed at the 'joke' that he made. McCabe couldn't contain it any longer. "Laugh at this you traitorous son of a bitch!"
McCabe's fist swung fast, striking Daniels in the nose, breaking it instantly. Blood welled out of the wound. Daniels staggered back and tripped over the chair that was behind him. "Arrrhhgggg!" McCabe ran around the desk fast, spotting Daniels' name tag that was pinned to his shirt as he went: Sergent Daniels. ICG. McCabe grabbed Daniel's pistol, ran back round and aimed the gun at Daniels head. "I could kill you right now you bastard, but I'll spare you, long enough to tell me who the ICG is." Daniels lashed out with his foot, but rage had given McCabe newfound strength. He jumped out of the way and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
The bullet, being off mark, travelled through Daniels leg, cutting his Achillis tendon. Daniels screamed in pain as his tendon fell down through his leg and hit the bottom. He also screamed, in fright and pain, as the desk that McCabe pushed over, landed on his leg. "What is it!" McCabe screamed at him, the gun once again aimed at Daniels head. Daniel bared his bloody teeth at McCabe, and spat blood at his feet. "I won't tell you." McCabe loaded the gun. "But I'll only tell you this: We're gonna kill you, and everyone that steps inside this hellhole." He laughed the most evil laugh that McCabe had ever heard, and that was saying something, seeing as he had lived with his brother most of his life. He was about to walk out and chuck away the pistol, when he heard Daniels say the last sentence that would ever come from his mouth. "We planted men in all of your units. And we're the ones that separated Hawkins, telling him to run down that hall." He laughed again, so much so, that he didn't notice McCabe stop, turn around, and raise the pistol. This time, Daniels would die.
This time, he wouldn't miss.
The Master Chief shot at the former marine with his newly acquired Assault rifle. The new form of flood was exactly the same as every other combat form, except for a few things.
One: These ones were faster.
Two: These ones were stronger.
And three: They were tough.
The Chief had reloaded two times, and the thing wasn't going down. He shot it in the head, once again with a five round burst, and a long stream of yellow liquid spurted out. It fell to the floor, the yellow stuff still dripping, and the Master Chief shot at it until he had to reload again. With the black and white images of his night-vision, he ran through the hall, not wanting to stay there. He ran and ran until he found a control room. Fortunately, there was a control panel for the door, and he shut the door, just as he heard a wham! emit from the other side. The room was circular, about ten metres in diameter, it had a hole in the roof at the centre, which he thought led to the apex of the entire complex. He walked to the middle, seeing a control board. He looked at it, confused, but then immediately started tapping buttons. He had seen something like this somewhere before, a long time ago. A hologram appeared in front of him. It showed all seven of the Halo's. Then it showed Earth, in the centre of them all. He hit a button called "commands" and hit it. A number of options appeared in front of him. He looked at the board, which was in forerunner language, and hit the "select," button. The one that he selected was labelled Self Destruct. He hit a button on the board which he identified as "explain." A number of sentences came up. But one caught his eye. He hit the button to go into it, and froze. It wasn't the bashing at the door that made him uncomfortable, it was the sentences written in the Forerunner language:
"When one activates the Halo's, one might think that one is safe inside the Holy Ark, but one is not. This is a trick that my brothers designed. We put the filth in this holy and sacred place; to make sure that the one that activates or destroys the Halo's is pure and strong. We chose this planet because of its alignment with the holy rings. Another twist that my brothers and I created was to make sure that nothing survived. We made sure that when the Halo's were destroyed, the planet that the sacred Ark is on will eliminate all life. It will create an explosion with such force, that no power within the universe can contain it. The explosions will eliminate all life, spreading out to make sure that the entire galaxy will be forced to die, to make sure that the filth will not live. It has happened once before. On this planet. Creatures ruled the planet. So did the flood. The creatures all died out in one literally super-nova explosion. That was the Ark. We have also made sure that no one can escape; the rings will also create the same high-powered explosion.
This is the end of my report."
The Chief stood there, taking it all in. Then he said one, simple, but well used word:
"Shit."
General Mark Lousivere walked inside the giant complex. "Any casualties?" he asked the man beside him in a French accent.
"7, sir."
Lousivere nodded and was relieved for the shade that the strange building offered.
"Why is it so dark in here?"
He pulled out his personal flashlight, walked deeper into the complex, and turned it on. So did the rest of the people that he was with. None of them were armed, and none of them expected what they saw. Well, none of them really saw it anyway. Three combat forms jumped at them. Within seconds, the screaming stopped, and blood welled around the corner and out into the daylight.
"What the hell?" a marine walked up to the door. There was blood leaking out. He turned around, and his neck was immediately broken by the sheer force of the tentacle that hit him. His lifeless body dropped to the ground, and the 3 combat forms piled out of the entrance, followed by more and more. They were all thrilled at being in daylight again. They were hungry, and when they were hungry, they ate. They ran off into the ICG camp, followed by countless screams as countless ICG members fell to their hunger. The flood forms were thrilled; thrilled at the fact that they were able to 'see' again.
The Master Chief looked at the console. He saw something flashing red. He also noticed some beeping sounds emitting from the console. He stared at the words and noticed that they said something like: "SELF DESTRUCT MECHANISM ACTIVATED."
Something beeped again. He stared at the other flashing words. Or, as he found out then, numbers. He stared at them, but couldn't figure out what it was, as the numbers were changing every second. Every second… Then he realised. Someone had been in here before him. Someone had made the biggest mistake in history. He ran out of the room after his brain had processed the information, shooting at anything that got in his way, desperate to get out.
The numbers read:
5:00.
Or in English; 5:00.
The countdown had reached boiling point, as had the fight that would decide the fate of mankind.
McCabe entered the main tent of the ICG tent.
"My god."
There was blood everywhere; up the walls, all over the tables chairs computers, and even the roof. There wasn't an inch of space that wasn't covered in blood from those bastards that worked for the ICG. He walked out and pulled out his radio.
"Sergent Johnson, this is Sergent McCabe. We need immediate evac now. I don't care if you've got problems with the covenant, get me, and my men out of here."
Johnson spoke into the radio of the Pelican. "Roger that, McCabe. What is your position, over?"
The radio crackled back. Johnson nodded. "Alright, we can manage that. Johnson, out."
He switched frequencies and spoke.
"Chief, this is Sergent Johnson; we're getting you out of there."
The Master Chief ran, firing left and right, the images of the flood, on his night vision, falling all around him. He ran around a corner, and skidded to a halt. He was in some type of grand cavern. And there were lots of white shapes. He didn't stoop to find out what they were; he raised his Assault Rifle, aware of the fact that they didn't know that he was there. Maybe he could surprise them and take out a few extra. He was about to pull the trigger, when one to his left, one that he didn't see, whipped him with a long tentacle. The Chief grunted as he went flying across the huge room. He thudded into the wall, creating a series of cracks. He fell to the floor, his shield alarm blaring. He stood up, all of the flood forms coming toward him at a snail's pace. He decided to save his ammo. He ran, pulling out two plasma grenades as he went. The Master Chief knew that they were attracted to sound and light; he also knew that his feet were clanging against the metal. He jumped up and activated his feet's jet packs by kicking his feet together. The soundless jets on the bottom of his feet coming to life, bringing him up above the heads of the flood. He activated the two plasma grenades, and chucked them to the floor.
The flood form at the front of the pack moved slowly toward the area where the sound was coming from. Then suddenly, the sound stopped. The flood form stood still, waiting for it to return. Then, light. It ran toward the source of the two blue lights. It was right on top of them. It was about to start knowing and bashing one of them, when they exploded.
The Chief heard the roars of the flood from behind the wall as the plasma grenades exploded. Then the remaining fragmentation grenade that the Chief dropped in there blew up, sending fragments of metal flying in all different directions, cutting all of them to shreds. He stood up again, and ran out of the hallway that he was in, and burst out into the daylight, to quickly roll back in, the sand and dirt around him being kicked up by various different plasma rifles.
McCabe stared at the incoming Pelican with joy. It roared over the gap and touched down about 50 metres away.
0: 39
0:39 seconds left.
The Master Chief had caught a glimpse of the tank that had been parked about 30 metres from the doorway. He loaded the marine's shotgun; it had Hawkins written on it, and ran out into the open, gun blazing. Immediately the ground started to melt beneath his feet as plasma scorched the area around him. One Elite fell to a spray of the shotgun in a shower of purple blood. He turned to a close up Elite, while still running to the tank, and fired again. The Elites' head exploded, purple and blue blood spraying everywhere.
"Get this baby into the air!" Johnson yelled over the roar of the engine. The pilot nodded and quickly pushed all of the throttles forward, sending the Pelican up, and across to the other side of the cliff, to the side of freedom.
0:21
0:21 seconds left.
The Master Chief pumped his shotgun and jumped on top of the tank. With a few moments to spare, he put a plasma grenade behind the turret of the tank, and primed it. He stepped back, jumped up, and kicked his feet together. The jetpacks propelled him into the air, just as the grenade exploded. The tank turret flung off in a 90 degree vertical spin, and the back of the turret hit the Chief, sending him flying over the gap. He hit the other side and rolled, grunting and shouting in pain as his vitals displayed red. He stood up and saw that he was about 50 metres away from the gap. He ran; as fast as he could, which was very fast. But it was no use.
0:02
0:02
0:01
0:01
Detonation
Detonation.
Johnson stared back out of the cargo hold as the flash of white light filled the sky. "Christ," he whispered.
"He did it."
All around the galaxy, the Halo's exploded, one-by-one. One Halo that was situated near the icy Grunt home world exploded, completely obliterating the planet.
The Master Chief opened his eyes. He was in the Pelican Charlie 46 again. "Oh no." He braced himself for the explosion, but nothing came. He looked outside. Everything was normal. There were normal people driving around in cars, no covenant turret emplacements, no carnage, no screaming. Everything was normal. The Master Chief finally got it. He had travelled into the future, and changed it. He leaned back and relaxed;
At last, there was no more fighting.
At last, his purpose had been fulfilled.
At last, the war was over.
