Disclaimer: None of the characters from Halo, Halo 2, or the Halo books are mine.
A/N: This is the rewrite version of Chapter 6: Gravemind.
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Halo 3: The Fall of the Covenant
Chapter 6
Gravemind
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The Gravemind waited in the control room of the giant Forerunner vessel patiently for the Spartan and his allies to arrive and sure enough, they arrived at the control room. The huge Flood creature towered over the three warriors as it sent tentacles rushing towards the three allies. The SpecOps leader and the Spartan jumped aside and the tentacles missed them by inches. However, the wounded SpecOps Elite, Gemenee, wasn't so lucky. The tentacle overloaded his shields on impact and slammed him into a wall. Then the tentacle held him in place while another rushed at him at lightning speed. The blow pierced right through the unfortunate Sangheili warrior as purple blood sprayed out of his chest. He screamed in agony but his screamed were cut short as another smaller tentacle rushed at him, hit him in the eye, and pierced his brain. The Gravemind then let go of the Elite and let the body drop to the ground.
"Attack my minions, infest these two creatures so that we have two more warriors to join our ranks," rumbled the Gravemind while simultaneously broadcasting its thoughts to the Flood who couldn't hear him. Hundreds of infection forms rushed towards the two warriors just as numerous combat forms leapt off walls and ceilings to confront them.
"Damn! There are too many of these guys around. We have to get out of here! Now!" cried John in alarm as he backpedaled while shooting the Flood with his shotgun.
"Don't be a coward! We can take them!" said Lemanee confidently as he disabled four combat forms with four shots of his carbine. However, infection forms close to the fallen combat forms revived them and in less than three seconds, they were up and fighting again.
"This is no time for heroics! There are too many and who knows what kind of powers the Gravemind has," replied John.
"No, those parasites are no problem for us," cried Lemanee as he discarded his carbine and drew both of his plasma swords.
"All right, but I'm going to run and get off of this ship if it looks hopeless. It will have to be destroyed or else both the humans and the Elites will be in danger," said the Spartan. Then he thought. "I'm brave. Not reckless. I recognize a hopeless situation when I see one."
"Alright," replied Lemanee as he cut apart three combat forms that jumped at him with a single swipe of his mighty blade. Fourteen combat forms leapt past Lemanee and headed straight for the Master Chief. He dropped his shotgun and drew his SMG and plasma rifle. He fired at the combat forms and dropped five with automatic fire. John kept firing his plasma rifle and SMG until the SMG clicked, signifying that there was no ammunition left in the magazine. A second later, the plasma rifle's emergency heat vents opened up as the plasma weapon ceased firing while it dumped waste heat. Six Flood warriors were cut down by this massive barrage of lead and plasma.
The three combat forms that survived the deluge of automatic fire landed and struck the Master Chief simultaneously, knocking the plasma rifle out of the Master Chief's hands and draining his shields by half. With the SMG out of ammo, the Master Chief couldn't do anything but to jam it into the infection form inside one of the combat form's chest, squishing the infection form within and neutralized it.
The Chief quickly dived for his M90 Shotgun. He grabbed it, rolled, and was back on his feet in an instant, with the shotgun in hand.
He took aim and pulled the trigger, not that he needed to aim to hit something at point blank range with a shotgun. The Flood warrior that received the blast was blown apart as the shotgun shot impacted on its body. This didn't stop the last one's relentless attack however. It just kept attacking and draining the Spartan's shield little by little. The Master Chief brought his shotgun around with one hand and pulled the trigger, the Flood fighter was blown apart but the recoil also cracked John's right arm.
"Damn!" cried John gritted his teeth in pain. Another combat form came out of nowhere and smashed into the Master Chief's shield, draining it completely. It swung again wit the other arm but the Master Chief ducked and escaped the blow by a hair. Ignoring the pain, he took up his shotgun again and pulled the trigger once more. If it weren't for the MJOLNIR armour holding this arm in place, John's arm would've shattered, even with his augmentations. John turned around to see Lemanee keeping five Flood warriors at bay with his twin Energy Swords. Lemanee swung his arm in an arc and cut apart two Flood warriors. However, the sword that he slashed with ran out of energy as the blade shimmered and died. The remaining combat forms, sensing the Elite's weakness, attacked at the same time. The impact made Lemanee drop his other sword and made his smash against a wall, his shields completely drained. John, seeing that his ally was in danger picked up his fallen plasma rifle and felled the three Flood soldiers by wildly spraying plasma in their direction.
"You may have won the battle, but you will lose the war," said Gravemind as his tentacles rushed towards Lemanee. Lemanee's shields just started to recharge so it didn't have the full protection of a fully charged energy shield. The Gravemind's first shot drained the Sangheili warrior's shields and dented his chest armour. The Spartan kept shooting the Gravemind and his tentacles but the plasma didn't seem to have any effect on the giant parasite overlord. His shots did make the Gravemind take notice of him because about ten Brute combat forms emerged from behind the Gravemind and charged at him.
"Oh shit," muttered John as he turned around and ran, knowing that he couldn't face them with an injured arm. The Gravemind finally got tired of toying with the Sangheili SpecOps commander and raised a huge tentacle and brought it down on the Elite's head. Upon impact, the Elite's spine snapped and he died instantly.
"Oh shit, I've got to get out of here and have Lord Hood destroy this ship!" muttered John as he ran, the Brute combat forms close on his heels. He contacted Hood using the COM system in his MJOLNIR armour and was communicating with Hood on the run.
"Admiral, I'm requesting immediate extraction. As soon as I'm off this ship, I need you to destroy it, no matter what the cost! Blow a hole in it with a MAC gun, nuke it, I don't care! As long as it's destroyed!" said John urgently as he turned a corner.
"Why destroy it? Hold on Chief, I think I need an explanation," said a confused Admiral.
"The Flood are on this ship! If they land on Earth, everyone will be in grave danger! Destroy it! For humanity's sake! I just found an escape pod. I'll be exiting the Forerunner ship in approximately thirty seconds! Destroy the Forerunner ship as soon as I'm off! Over!" cried Chief as he entered the foreign escape pod and sealed the doors. He heard the Brute combat forms outside trying to beat the doors in.
"Alright, we'll try to pick you up ASAP or you can try to land on Earth. Good luck, Master Chief. Hood out," said Hood.
"Okay then…how do you work this thing?" muttered John under his breath, wishing that Cortana was with him. She'd know what to do.
"There's no time to think about her now, I have to get out of here," thought John. He then found a large red button on the ship.
"I think this is it. I'll try it. I have nothing to lose," thought John as he hit the button. A holo-panel appeared on the dashboard of the small craft, full of alien symbols.
"Aw man, this sucks," thought John as he pressed some random buttons hoping that one was them was the launch button. Apparently one of the buttons he pressed was the launch button because just then, the small craft lurched as it detached from the large Forerunner vessel and headed towards Earth.
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The Gravemind was not content. Despite his best efforts, the MJOLNIR clad human still escaped.
"How did this happen? I'm supposed to be all powerful. The humans will undoubtedly destroy this ship to prevent me and my minions from landing on their home planet. Good thing this craft has a teleportation grid installed into it. Good thing that the grid is connected to four out of the seven Halos," thought the Gravemind in chagrin. "Damn those creatures. No matter, I've waited 100,000 years…a few more won't matter."
The Gravemind felt a shudder in the ship, no doubt the humans launching an attack. The Gravemind then tapped into the teleportation grid that was built into the ship and the Halos. He chose to land on Installation 07, Beta Halo, the second most powerful Halo installation in the galaxy. Its blast radius was twenty-four thousand light years. The Gravemind felt another shudder in the ship and decided that this was the time to leave.
"I'll be back, foolish creatures. And next time, you'll become mine," thought the Gravemind as he teleported himself.
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"Wow, these Forerunners had very advanced technology" thought the Master Chief as the Forerunner craft entered Earth's atmosphere. Above him, Lord Hood ordered the Cairo and three nearby MAC stations to fire upon the Forerunner ship. Apparently the vessel was made up of a very dense material because it took nine MAC round to demolish the vessel. The pieces of the Forerunner ship streaked into Earth's atmosphere and landed in various areas; the material was too dense to be all burnt up. On many of the pieces of the destroyed ship, Flood infection forms hid in relative safety as the remains of the Forerunner vessel landed on Earth. The Master Chief barely felt it when his escape pod landed and only knew that it landed because the hatch automatically opened.
"Oh my god..." muttered John under his breath as he lifted his head to see what was in front of him. The destruction was horrible. Apparently the Brutes landed and slaughtered everyone they could get their hands on. Thousands of bodies, human and Brute, lay dead on the ground. Some of them had their heads torn off while others looked like they've had pieces bitten off of them, as if the Brutes tried to eat the dead corpses after they killed them. The buildings that stood in the city wasn't in much better shape. The once proud skyscrapers lay in ruins and charred stumps of metal. Cars big and small lay in flames, some overturned and others just plain blown up. He surveyed the scene for a while longer and then decided that nothing can be done here and it'd be better if he found some other humans, and maybe get his arm checked out. He then heard the faint but unmistakeable sound of a Warthog coming from behind him. He turned around and waited for the Warthog to approach him.
"Sir! Admiral Hood ordered me to bring you to the Pelican he arranged for you and then escort you to him," said the marine in the Warthog.
"Alright, let's go," said John as the marine drove him towards his ride to Cairo Station.
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A/N: Another chapter complete! If you find any mistakes please tell me in your review or email me! R&R please! Thanks!