Some things never change.
Despite practically living on the Shadow of Intent for the past five days, Ludo still hated being airborne. His distaste was especially multiplied by the death trap he was currently confined in, but he just shook the thought away with an actual shake of his head and distracted himself by peering out the acrylic glass window down at the approaching mayhem below.
The Flood were taking over. The city was literally crawling with various forms climbing up buildings, over cars, in the trees and on traffic light posts. Ludo saw four muzzle flashes in the thick of it all. One brighter than the rest. A closer inspection revealed three Human Marines holding out behind a Warthog clearly damaged beyond repair while a fourth manned the turret.
Even before he landed he saw four become three. He had to get over to them before it was too late.
The drop pod's anti-gravity thrusters kicked on and slowed his descent just enough. Of this he was grateful, able to walk out of the pod in his natural eight foot, four inch frame rather than in the form of a smashed pizza.
A collective groan rippled through the crowd at the scent and appearance of fresh food.
"Hmm, mmm. You shouldn't have come here Plague," he heard the Gravemind taunt him. "Now you will be consumed and controlled as my primary revenant against all those you've sworn to protect."
Not if I can help it, Ludo thought in the voice of a green armored ally he once fought alongside.
A Brute combat form with no visible weapon lumbered towards him, followed by a hungry mob of fellow parasites. Ludo reached back and pulled the Fist of Rukt free from his magnetic back holster and twirled it a few times, gaining momentum as he walked forward.
He brought the ancient gravity hammer down just as the undead Brute lunged at him. A higher pitched groan of agony erupted amongst the crowd, and he relished the sound.
Music to my ears.
Two human combat forms rushed in together, one high, one low. Ludo ducked under the one in the air and jabbed the other one back with the handle of his hammer. The airborne one sprayed pointless bullets into his dense forcefield with a submachine gun until it landed behind him, where it started fumbling stupidly with the gun that was once second nature to the host.
Seeing this, Ludo kicked the combat form in front of him back into the incoming crowd and wheeled around. The Fist of Rukt caught the leaper square in the chest and smashed its entire torso to bits. He turned back around. From further ahead, he could only make out two muzzle flashes.
I have no time for this!
He charged straight into the crowd whilst hacking back and forth like an explorer with a machete. Left, right, smash! Left, right... He felt something crawling on his neck. On his legs too. As he moved further and further into the sea of Flood, he was unwittingly crunching over multitudes of live infection forms. Ludo swatted at himself to knock them off, but kept running, kept trudging forward.
By the time Ludo got to the Warthog in the street there was only one Marine left, and she was fighting for her life. She wrestled with an infection form that was trying to burrow its way into her chest. Its tendrils were reaching for her like sickly vines. Unbeknownst to her, a tank form was coming up behind her with both appendages raised.
"Move, human!" the Plague yelled as leapt over the hood of the damaged Warthog.
The Marine asked no questions and simply dropped to the floor, smashing her pest of an opponent against the asphalt. It was perfectly timed. Ludo came in milliseconds later with a vicious power swing that sliced through the air where she had been standing and cracked into the sentient mass that was attempting to catch her off guard. The impact rocked the tank form clean off the ground and into a nearby civilian's parked car.
Ludo had no time for discussion. He scooped the Marine up under one arm and took off running. He didn't even know where to. Just away from that immediate crowd. After a couple of blocks they were clear of any Flood and she insisted that she could walk on her own, so he set her down. They had reached some sort of military warehouse.
He looked at the human. A small specimen sure, yet anything but frail and helpless. Far from it. Years of experience opposing her kind had taught him that. The question here was whether to find somewhere she could barricade herself until she could be rescued.
Right, he thought with forehead-slapping clarity. I am the rescue. She'll be safer with me.
He spied a weapon rack on the outside of a UNSC ammunition crate and walked over to it, then pulled a shotgun off, turned, and handed it to the Marine. She accepted it in a noticeable state of bewilderment. He assumed she was still processing what had just happened, trying to get over the horror of seeing her teammates get brutally murdered and body morph into grotesque freaks right before her eyes.
"Stay behind me," the Plague told her in warbled english.
She seemed to understand, so he directed his attention to the gunfire echoing from the warehouse and moved in. He approached a side door, knowing better than to use the main entrance, and it automatically slid open at his presence. It revealed...
An office. Nothing about it came off as sinister as far as he could tell. Although, the sounds coming from the other side of the automatic door at the opposite end of the office caused him a bit of a worry. He strode toward this other door regardless, for the sake of everyone on the planet.