Unbreakable
Disclaimer: I do not in any way shape or form own Halo. It belongs to Bungie, 343, and Microsoft. Nor any I associated with them in any way. This is a non-profit fan work written solely for the purpose of entertainment.
Chapter 7
Master Chief and the remaining Spartans of Noble team sat inside of the Pelican with their helmets off as they finished eating their MRE's as they headed to the location where Noble six was last seen. The hatch was open where they could see the swamp landscape down below. In the fog, they could make out structures hidden in it which were similar to the ones that they just fought in. Silhouettes could be faintly seen in the mist as well as flashes of plasma fire.
They checked over their gear once more before they heard Foehammer speak up again. "About five more mikes until we make it to the drop zone." Foehammer announced over the intercom.
"Copy that." Carter replied to her before turning his gaze over to Noble two. "Kat, can you pick up Six's IFF tag?"
"Searching..."Kat said as she looked over her data pad." Negative, I can't find his transponder. I also can't raise him on the radio either."
"Keep trying." Was all Carter said before he looked back at Emile, who was scanning the fog down below.
"Four, you reading anything?"
"Picking up a few signatures on the thermal and FLIR, sir. Looks like Charlie is still down there." Emile reported.
After about five more minutes later, they have arrived at the landing zone and the Pelican began to descend. "The last clear transmission the Captain received from the Lieutenant came from around this area. That was over two hours ago, haven't heard from him since. Radio in once you find him and I'll pick you up. Good luck out there, Echo four-nineteen out." Foehammer said over the intercom.
"The signal from his transmission is about thirty-five meters north-east of here. At my 11 o'clock." Noble two said as she pointed her arm towards the direction in question as soon as they all jumped out into a pond and the Pelican took off.
"Let's get moving," Chief said as they started to walk through the water that reached up to their knees. Activating the VISR function in their helmets to help them see through the thick fog, which helped immensely as without it they would hardly be able anything, even with their augmented and enhanced vision.
"Noble Six, this is Noble One, do you read me? Report your position, over." Carter said through his helmet radio, receiving only static as he attempted to get in touch with his missing team member. Only to receive no response after each attempt.
As they continued moving forward, the team heard the sounds of Covenant weapons fire in the far distance as well as Covenant screaming and chatter. After a few minutes of walking, they came across a downed Covenant Spirit about twenty meters from their position. Having not seen it earlier due to the thick fog obscuring their vision.
Kat and Carter continued to watch their surroundings while Chief and Emile investigated the crash. After sweeping through it, they found no sign of any Covenant bodies, not even the pilots were there.
"Wreck is completely empty." Emile said to the others as he came out. " Not even the pilot's bodies are left."
"They may have been infected by the Flood. Like what Six said in his transmission." Kat deduced.
"Regardless, we need to keep moving. Lets find Six and get out of here before any of the Flood show up." Carter instructed as he motioned with his hand for everyone to keep moving forward. Climbing up on solid ground as the water path had now ended.
They continued moving through the swamp, they found another downed Covenant Spirit and a bunch Jackals and Grunts all terrified out of their minds. Strangely, there were no signs of any Elites, dead or alive. If what Six said in his transmission was true, than it was a possibility they could be infected. Soon they spotted a few groups of Jackals and Grunts as they ran away from something.
They appeared to be very disorganized and extremely scared as some just completely ignored the group of Spartans as they continued running past them. Not even firing a single shot at the super-soldiers as they bolted in the other direction.
"Six wasn't kidding when he said that Charlie was terrified of the Flood. They're more scared of them than they are of us. Almost makes me feel jealous." Emile said to the others as they moved on.
After about a minute later, they stumbled upon a bunch of dead corpses of both Jackals and Grunts. As Emile examined the corpses, he saw that they were not killed by UNSC weaponry, but rather their own weapons as they saw that the wounds were cauterized. Most likely due to shots from a plasma rifle or pistol.
"This must be the work of the Flood. Six mentioned in his transmission that those infected by it can still use firearms and tactics. These must have been killed by those that have turned." The Master Chief deduced.
"And it looks like Six passed through here too. " Carter said to the others as he picked up a few casings of spent 7.62 ammo and showed it to them. " Let's keep moving."
As they continued walking, the group of Spartans came across across what could only be described as a graveyard. Corpses of what looked to be heavily mutated Elites were littered all around them. They had massive claws and some kind of sticky, green material was spread all across their armor and covered most of their bodies. Around them were dozens of some kind of small pod that had odd, squid-like, tentacles that looked to be similar to the mutated Elites.
"Is this the Flood? " Carter stated as he knelt down to inspect the bodies of the infected Elites and infection forms.
"Wow...never thought I would see split-lips get even uglier than they already were." Emile commented as he gave one of the infected Elites a slight nudge with his armored foot, keeping his weapon trained on it just in case if it wasn't dead. After a few more taps, he felt confident enough that it was dead and remained on guard as everyone else investigated what had happened.
"These pods must be the small ones that Casper mentioned. The ones that can infect you. " Kat mentioned as he took a closer look at the smaller ones. " The Elites here must have been infected by the pods here. Still, was Casper the one that took them out or was it Charlie?"
"I'm gonna go with Six on this one." Chief said as he picked up an empty shell of what looked to be buckshot. A more thorough examination at the corpses showed that they were all killed with either 7.62 ammo or by buckshot rounds. More shotgun shells and spent ammo casings were found which only served to reinforce the theory that the Lieutenant was the one that did this.
"Then he must have went through here as well. Let's find him and get out of here before more of these things show up." Carter ordered as everybody resumed walking. Keeping their weapons ready for engage whatever came their way.
Soon, they came across what looked to be an entry to an underground Forerunner structure. Or at least what was left of it. Debris and rubble completely covered the opening. A few bodies of Jackals and Grunts laid just outside of the entrance as well as a few destroyed shade turrets that still had smoke coming out of it.
"I'm picking up explosive residue. Most likely from a couple of C-12 charges, this must have been the entrance that Six talked about." Kat said as she scanned the rubble with her datapad.
"Looks like Six managed to seal them in. Or at the very least slow them down." Noble four said as he continued to remain on high alert for any hostiles.
"If that's the case, then why didn't he radio in for evac? Foehammer said they received no word from him ever since his last transmission." John questioned.
Before anyone could say anything else, Foehammer's voice came through on their radios.
"/ Chief! Noble team! Do you read me? Over. /"
Carter was the first one to respond. "/ Echo four-nineteen, this is Noble one, send your traffic. Over. / "
" / Be advised. It looks like you guys can stop with the search and rescue. The Lieutenant and Cortana have arrived back at base. /"
There was a brief moment of silence before Chief replied. " / Say again? How'd they get back? / " John asked in surprise.
" / Wasn't given the full story. The two of them are giving the Captain a debrief right now. There's a large tower about one-hundred meters due north of your current location. Find your way through the fog and the foliage canopy, and I can move in and pick you up."
Once the Flood had been uncovered, all Covenant ships were ordered to evacuate Halo, but before the 'Truth and reconciliation' could, the remaining human forces stranded on Halo had managed to hijack it while Wellsley managed to send a false signal which told the rest of the Covenant fleet that they needed more time to repair the ship and that they would regroup with the rest of the fleet soon.
As soon as Echo-four-nineteen had landed, the remaining Spartans got off made their way towards the bridge, where they saw Six and Cortana giving a debrief to Captain Keyes. As soon as Keyes had noticed their arrival, he gestured them over and instructed the Lieutenant and Cortana to catch them up to speed.
After Six had managed to seal off the entrance and slow down the Flood's progress in the swamp, he met with what was apparently the monitor of this installation, 343 Guilty Spark. He had recruited Six's to acquire some kind of index which would activate Halo's defense. According to him, it was their only chance to prevent the Flood from leaving the ring.
He had teleported them to what was called the 'library' where the Lieutenant had to fight off waves of Flood as he made his way towards the key. During this time, Six had the feeling that the Monitor was keeping something from him but didn't confronted him on it yet as he was fighting for his life every second he was in there. Eventually they made their way to the room that it was held in and Six was able to grab it without two much difficulty. Before he could do anything with it though, Guilty Spark had snatched it from out of his hand, claiming that it was the best course of action until they could get the ring to fire.
As the key was now in their possession, Guilty Spark teleported them to Halo's control room, where he gave the index back to the Lieutenant due to the fact that only he could activate the ring. However, before the Lieutenant inserted it into the console, he confronted Spark on his suspicions. Spark tried to convince him that this was all going according to protocol, but Casper wasn't buying it. Soon, Cortana popped out of the main console and revealed everything. That Halo was designed to wipe out the Flood's food which included humans. Before Spark could get the index back, Cortana absorbed it into her being. Seeing as how they now refused to cooperate and that they wouldn't give over the key, Spark attempted to take it by force and dispatched Halo's defense to retrieve it.
During their escape, they had came across three phase-pulse generators which helped to amplify Halo's signal and allow it to fire into deep space. They were important components to the activation of the ring and without them it would much more difficult to set it off.
Naturally, they did the logical thing and caused as much damage as they could to each of them. If the Monitor and his Sentinels managed to find a way to fire Halo without the index, this would buy them some time as he would have to repair them before the ring can be activated. Soon, Cortana used a teleportation network she had uncovered while she was in the control room to send them both back to the 'Truth and Reconciliation' and rendezvous with friendly forces.
As soon as everyone finished processing all of this, First Lieutenant McKay and Major Silvia walked in to give an update to the Captain about the ship's repairs and current status. The Spartans were currently dismissed and exited the bridge, Casper handing Cortana's data chip back to John as they walked out.
Carter went to help out in maintaining security for the vessel and Casper headed down to the motor pool to look over their remaining vehicles and perform maintenance. John and Emile helped to stack a few crates that were too heavy for normal humans to lift while Kat assisted with the ship's repairs, While it was difficult considering that she didn't have that much experience with Covenant tech, she nevertheless tried her best.
As Chief helped to stack a few crates of weapons as Emile took inventory of their remaining weapons while Kat worked on a nearby panel, Cortana took the moment to ask them a question. "Hey Chief, Noble four, Lieutenant-Commander?"
"What's up?" Emile replied as he finished jotting down how many crates of frag grenades they had left and Kat closed the panel she was working on.
"Is there something about the Lieutenant that just seems...strange to you?"
Fortunately, they had just finished their work as all three of them paused, as Emile and Kat turned their attention to Chief, due to the fact that Cortana was in his head.
"What do you mean?" Chief questioned.
"I mean, I can't figure out what it is but do you just have the feeling that something about the Lieutenant is just strange to you?" Cortana explained.
"Not really. He doesn't really like talking to people unless he has to but that isn't really strange if you ask me." Emile replied.
" I knew him back when we were in training together. He seemed to be much more faster in learning and training than everyone else was. When we needed it, he helped tutor us on various subjects but other than that he just kept to himself. None of us decided to push it even if we didn't understand it." Kat answered.
Before they could talk more on the subject, Carter's voice came through via their helmet radios. "/ All Spartans, regroup at the bridge. The Captain wants to discuss about our next course of action and how to prevent Halo from falling into enemy hands. / "
Dropping the conversation, the Spartans grabbed their weapons and made their way to the bridge. As soon as they arrived, they saw Captain Keyes discussing something with Carter and Casper. Soon as they made his way over to him, he began addressing the group of assembled Spartans.
"Alright Spartans, we don't have much time so lets do this quickly. Thanks to Noble Six the Floods spread around this Ring has slowed down, buying us time to repair this ship. According to First Lieutenant McKay and Major Silva, the ship should be operational soon, allowing us to leave before the Flood makes it here. However, we still need to find a way to destroy Halo to prevent it from being fired. We cannot risk its activation by the Monitor or leave the possibility that the Flood find a way off this ring up to chance."
Suddenly, Cortana chimed in. "Sir, If I may. " All eyes turned to her where she displayed her form on a pedestal. " The Pillar of Autumns fusion reactors should be able to destabilize the Ring and cause a chain reaction. While it may be a bit...risky, it would cut through a number of primary systems and would be enough to destroy Halo."
Keyes thought on her suggestion for a moment before replying. "That could potentially work. Do we have any remaining transports to get you there?"
"There are still a few remaining Phantoms in the hanger bay. I ran a few simulations in the past and I flew a couple of them before on previous operations. This way we wouldn't have to risk the few Pelicans we have left sir." Six said.
After a few moments of silence, Keyes made his decision. "Alright, I'm approving the mission. Cortana I'm transferring you codes from my neural implant that would allow you to access the fusion cores and set them to blow. Once you set off the meltdown, rendezvous with us at this coordinates." He said as he transferred the coordinates and codes over to Cortana.
"I don't need to tell you want is at stake here Spartans." Keyes continued. "Are you sure you can handle it?"
"Don worry sir. We'll get it done." Carter assured him.
Keyes gave them all a nod. "May God be with you. Dismissed."
The group of super-soldiers left the bridge and may their way down to the hanger bay to commandeered a Phantom. Casper was the first one to enter it as he sat in the pilot's chair, powering it up so that it would fly without issue.
"You really flew one of these things before?" Emile asked.
"Twice actually. It ain't all that different from a Pelican, believe it or not." Replied Six as he pressed a few buttons on the main console.
Soon enough, the engines of the Covenant dropship activated as the Lieutenant took them out of the hanger and towards the crash site of the Pillar of Autumn. All of the occupants inside ready to get off this ring and blow it to dust.
Authors note: So yeah, hope you enjoyed this chapter. Also, just to let you know I will be giving Noble team Mark VI armor after combat evolved.
Terms:
-Alpha Bravo: Alpha Base.
-FLIR: Forward looking infrared
Remember... Stay frosty gents.
