Talon Research Lab Deep Underneath Mongolia
Following their first encounter with the abomination, Adrian had immediately radioed back to Pak to alert all Overwatch to the highest quarantine protocols, furthermore asking that any troops leave the immediate area. This lab could go up in a ball of flame along with any poor son of a bitch in the area, and if that came to pass he'd die with a clearer conscious knowing he'd put out a warning. Hackett and Guin in tow, they'd slowly begun making their way towards the containment branch with every creak sending their nerves on overload. The groaning wail of the parasites could be heard growing louder with every step, Adrian wasn't sure how smart these fucking walking abortions were, but gunfire would alert even the dumbest creature to their position.
Walking through another winding corridor smattered with blood and ooze, they encountered more of the walking horrors shambling aimlessly in the tight corridors. Halting those behind him, he pulled a grenade from his belt and tossed it forward towards the grouped-up monstrosities. When the smoked cleared it seemed to be slightly more effective than their bullets as it seemed to have completely sheared the legs of the beasts from their bodies. Leaving them to crawl towards them with only their arms, though if anything it just served to make them even more terrifying. Opening fire on the crippled monsters it felt like an entirety until they died, typical bullets seemed to be worthless on creatures that didn't have any organs, more like it just passed through them like paper.
"Jesus we'll run out of ammo just trying to stay alive." Guin remarked.
Adrian was about to respond before a blip on his radar caught his attention, it was coming from the dead corpses but well last he checked coming back from the other side was still an impossibility. As if to spite his words, a small, puffball like creature crawled on top of one of the corpses, its red tentacles roaming over the corpse before it burrowed into the chest cavity. After a split second of silence, the corpse started to spasm, it's arms flailing wildly.
"What in the absolute fuck." Hackett murmured to himself as he fired into the spasming corpse until it broke apart like dry plaster. "So we got fucking parasitic zombies that can come back at any time, well if this ain't absolutely fan-fucking-tastic."
Despite voicing what Adrian was feeling, he tried to keep his voice composed, "The sooner we get that ID card the sooner we're out of here. Let's keep our mind focused on the missions."
As they walked pasted the bodies, they all popped a burst into each corpse they passed for good measure, though they were unsure if that'd actually do anything. The hallway split into three directions ahead of them, each corresponding to one of the divisions. Turning to follow the corridor into containment Adrian noticed that the pings on his radar grew rapidly with each step, yet…he didn't hear any growth in the eerie wailing that permeated the rest of the base. Turning a corner stopped in his tracks as his boots stepped into a thick squishing floor, ahead of him the entire corridor didn't even look recognizable as a lab. A brown, undulating membrane covered every possible surface, but what's more there seemed to be pulsating sacs of flesh growing from the membrane itself. Making their way with cautious steps though the nauseating hallway, Adrian passed a glance at the sacs as his radar lit up with unknowns when it all came together.
"These sacs…are…they're nests. Filled to the brim with something, probably those scuttling spider fucks, my radar is blowing up with tags." Glancing back to the other two, he didn't see any reaction to the news but empathized, it's hard to fully take stock of the situation when it feels you've already hit rock bottom. Without any further discussion, Adrian stood back up continuing to lead the trio and trek through the squelching membrane. At the end of a hallway was an entrance held forced open by the brownish tissue, like it forced it's way out from the containment room. Inching closer to their goal, they noticed that the lights inside the room were off leaving the area ahead of them in near-total darkness. Switching on their lights, the room became illuminated with their faint rays revealing a grotesque interior unlike anything anyone had ever seen. It seemed almost alive, as if the room was covered in a pulsating flesh that rippled with every step they took, vomit colored strands like a spiders web grew covering the room like a haunted mosaic. In terms of their target however, he – or rather it – was nowhere to be seen, yet a quick check with Pak confirmed that the security chief was still in there. Stepping into the room, the door immediately shut behind them with a groan as if it was forced shut. The hauntingly familiar wail echoed throughout the room, piercing their eardrums as they frantically searched the room for any sign of the creature. Keeping his breathing even, a glob of the green puss landed on his forearms armor planting. With a careful gesture he nodded to the others as he faced upwards, to find the man they were looking for…or what was left of him. It was like a bastardized spider from a psychos imagination, the vague resemblance of a human body faced them with a series of uneven legs erupting from the corpses back and two long spindly arms stretched out in front of it.
Before they had time to fire, it swung down and landed a heavy blow on Guin sending him flying across the room before turning towards Hackett and spearing the man through his shoulder, lifting him off the ground like a doll. Adrian pulled down the trigger of his assault rifle unleashing a torrent of bullets into the spider freak, it let out an unreal screech before dropping Hackett and scuttling across the ceiling and into the darkness of the room. Guin rushed over, helping to pick up Hackett and set him against the sealed door. The man pushed them off, as he settled against the metal frame pulling out his pistol with his free hand.
"The more you worry about me the longer we're stuck down here, get us out of here and we can patch me up." He growled with a tone that left no room for argument. Adrian hesitantly nodded, there was a lot they didn't know about these creatures and leaving one of his squad…but there wasn't much else they could do. Patting Hackett on the shoulder, he set off with Guin into the darkness of the room. Massive glass containers lined the wall mostly empty but occasionally filled with junk and organic material that Adrian couldn't make out. Further down the isle of containers, the sound of several legs tapping against metal echoed.
As their lights hit the back wall, the revolting sight of the living abomination came into view, except now a pistol dangled from one of it's thin, gangly arms. Upon seeing the duo walk into view it opened fire blindly most of the shots going wide but a few ricocheting off Adrian armor. The combined fire of Guin and Adrian made short work of the creature despite it feeble attempts at arming itself, though the more they encountered these monsters the more he regretted not bringing his plasma weapons. Conventional weapons seemed mostly ineffective, just passing through these creatures with little damage, but plasma…well he'd found nothing that resisted plasma.
With Guin standing watch, Arian walked over to the bullet-ridden corpse, the horrified gaze of the human face staring back up him. Kneeling down he held down the feeling of bile as his gloved hands roamed the distorted body for any sign of a security key. Eventually the tip of his finger bumped against a hard-plastic edge, trying to yank it away he found it oddly resistant to be taken. Taking a closer look, he found that the ghastly flesh had grown over most of the card like a tumor, with one final tug he pulled the card free as well as bringing a shower of guts and ooze with it. Flicking the remnants of gore from the card, he stuck in one of his suit's pockets before turning to Guin and nodding. When they reached the entrance to the room, they found Hackett looking far worse then when they left him, his skin a pale gray with deep bags under his bloodshot eyes.
"Christ he wasn't losing near enough blood to feel any serious effects this fast." Guin commented as he took a knee next to Hackett.
Hackett coughed, flecks of blood landing on the mans chest, "I…it feels like there's something in me, wanting to get out. I want to vomit but I can't, every second seems to drag on for an eternity."
Adrian had never seen anything like this, they'd need a proper doctor to diagnose this. His basic medical training never extended to something like this. Kneeling down on the other side of, Adrian hooked his arms under Hackett and started to lift him in time with Guin but had to stop when Hackett started screaming in pure agony.
"AHH JESUS MY CHEST WANTS TO BURST! I CAN FEEL IT – CRAWLING OUT!" Hackett screamed as a swelling growth appeared at the base of his throat. Blood began to pour out of the man's mouth like a fountain as the growth slowly made it's way up his neck until leathery tentacles started to claw their way out of his mouth. Hackett's eyes went wide as he saw the limbs began to spout from his maw, it'd be the last thing the man saw before the top of his head cracked backwards as the familiar tumorlike growth that affected all the abominations grew out of the man's throat.
Adrian stepped back in horror, even with the Covenant's brutality, he'd never seen anything like this in his life. He thought these things couldn't get any worse, but the transformation was…it was the first time he'd felt sick to his stomach in a long time. He didn't have time to put the poor bastard down before Guin did it for him, a series of quick bursts to the tumor stopped Hackett's body from fully becoming twisted and grotesque. The two stood in silence, staring at the corpse of their comrade with Adrian unsure of how to console his squadmate. He was an outsider in this group, he doubted his words could have any significant affect on the man other than seeming like shallow platitudes. Wordlessly Adrian worked on unsealing the door, leaving Guin to his emotions – whatever they may be.
Pressing the final button on his TACPAD, mechanisms within the door began to hiss as they unlocked. Guin took point, standing in front of Adrian as the door began to slowly grind open, this unknown membrane having seemingly spread into the inner workings of the lab. They didn't even get a step forward before Adrian's visor became splattered with blood, quickly wiping it off he saw Guin's body falling down to the ground as trio of lightly armed abominations opened fire at the end of the hall. Ducking to the side, he took one glance at Guin's body to see it riddled with holes and a gaping wound where his face would've been. Swearing to himself he peaked from his cover to pepper the creatures down the end of the hall while trying to figure a way out of this mess.
"Pak, it's Kasporov, I'm in some deep shit here. Any help you can give?"
Silence responded
"Pak?"
Nothing.
"God fucking dammit, didn't imagine I'd die in a place like this. Guess life just loves to deal out shitty hand after shitty hand." It didn't take a genius to figure out what the likely outcome was, he was only one man and if the rest of the squad didn't make it, he didn't seem much hope unless some god given miracle appeared.
Peering out he opened fired once more, the creatures growing closer with every one of their shambling steps. The inhuman corpse fired in retaliation sending Adrian back behind the wall. He had grenades but using those would definitely cause those hell sacs to burst opening unleashing god knows what into the tight corridor. Prepared to pop-out once more, he stopped as he heard a familiar sound, a sound that shouldn't be here.
Plasma fire.
Followed by blood-boiling inhuman speech, a warbling growl that meant a damn elite was here. Numerous possibilities ran through his mind, the Covenant had shown up while he was down here, forcing their way into this quarantined zone for God knows why. Talon had acquired the help of some stranded Covenant forces; it was a possibility that for every encounter him and Overwatch had with the Covenant there were more slipspace ruptures happening unbeknownst to them. Or there was some other reason, but the coincidence that an elite and this parasite were in the same lab…it filled Adrian's gut with fear. Either something was being worked on here for the Elites to use on humans, or…or it existed back home…and had come through a slipspace rupture with the elite. If this spreading parasite could make it onto the surface, if it WAS on the surface in his Earth…then the repercussions could be… he needed to get back now more than ever.
But first things first, he needed to survive, he needed to escape, and most importantly, he needed answers. Though usually a dead split-jaw was just as good in his book, the situation was desperate and if he could get answers, well… all the better. Aiming from behind the wall, he saw only one shambling abomination left, with precise shots he blew off the legs of the creature leaving it horrendously crippled. Before stepping out from his cover, he kneeled down beside Hackett and Guin removing their dog tags and searching for any personal effects that loved ones might want. The only thing he found was a picture of Hackett held deep in the embrace of what Adrian presumed was his loved one, tucking the picture away he'd give it to Vickers for delivery. Standing back up he began walking through the hallway covered in the pulsating membrane, until he reached the pathetic abomination at which point he gave it a brutal stomp. It's body breaking underneath his heel like rotten cardboard, its chest cavity caving as rotten guts and blood splattered his gear. He kept up his guard waiting for the elite to make its appearance but it never did; perhaps it wasn't expecting survivors and wanted to get the jump on him.
"I know you're there split lip. I'd recognize those fucking ear grating war cries of yours anywhere. We got our issues but down here we've got our own war going on, if either of us want to escape to kill another day, we're going to have to pucker up." Adrian called out, swapping a fresh mag into his assault rifle as he inched down the corridor, boots squelching in the oozing tissue.
At first he thought it wouldn't show itself, that it'd move back into obscurity waiting to backstab him as he passed. To his mild surprise it did show itself, geared in a slick purplish-black armor with no skin showing except it's rugged leather hands, it was Special Operations.
Though to his genuine surprise it spoke, with a clarity he wasn't used to though he supposed he was more of a shoot on sight type guy.
"Hmm…interesting. I was not expecting to find an imp here in this den of humans, they did not seem to be a part of your UNSC."
"Tsch - you got that right, but enough talk. What the fucks going on? Based on your lack of surprise I assume you know."
"Your foolish kind, USNC or not, has meddled with affairs beyond your comprehension. You brought the parasite to your world, a land ripe for it to grow. The Flood will stop at nothing to consume all sentient life upon this planet, to expand its knowledge to new heights."
"The flood, that's what these fucking abominations are? How do we stop it? I was thinking of cutting the air flow, the vents don't lead to the surface so without any recyclers working they'd suffocate."
It let out what Adrian could only assume was a dark chuckle, "Oh how foolish you are, a single flood spore could eradicate a species. They have not lived for an untold millennium on pure luck, they adapt faster then either of us could understand. Though there is a way I can halt the flood."
"Alright…so what is it?" Adrian eyed the alien cautiously. Just the sight of the freak was setting his blood ablaze, but he was angry…not stupid. He knew there was only one way of even the slightest chance of getting out of here, especially if this hinge jaw was telling the truth. Not that he really doubted the claims to annihilate this flood, humanity was losing for a reason and it wasn't for a lack of trying.
"Why should I share my survival with you human? I plan to eradicate these pests not for you, but for the survival of my people. You humans brought these creatures back from the brink of extinction, why should the folly of your kin ensure your survival."
"Because I've got the only way out of here," He patted his pocket where the keycard was, "not to mention outside of this lab is a whole army waiting on my return. You leave without me…and you're not going to make it far before you get a slow, undignified death at the hands of ONI." He lied, not that the split jaw would know it. Besides if it knew it wasn't on his Earth or where the Covenant existed, it's willingness to help would be unlikely.
They stood in terse silence before the alien spoke, "For the prudent survival of us both, it seems we'll have to work together. The Flood are versatile, resistant beasts, there isn't much one can do for assured destruction, but the Gods are own our side, for the humans here have brought with them the necessary tool for there destruction. A Borer slipspace drive from my crashed ship resides here, by sabotaging its purpose the result will not be the creation of a slipspace gate but rather the total and utter annihilation of everything within its blast radius."
"Christ…we did something like that above Reach to take care of a supercarrier but to use it on ground? The destruction will be unheard of here."
"If only that were so, the size of the slipspace gate depends on the drive, sadly my ship was only a scouting vessel meaning that while the destruction of this facility and the area beyond is assured, any damage equivalent that of Reach is not possible. Enough talk, the stench of the parasite grows near."
Adrian had no qualms with that, "Alright, they'll likely be storing your drive in 'Restricted Storage' which ain't far from here. We set the drive to blow, head to security and unlock the main exit, then get the hell out of here."
Adrian and his new companion traveled through the abandoned lab in relative silence, the sound of the elite's footsteps clanging throughout hallways drowning out any other sound save for the distant screams of the flood. When they came across a lone flood, the elite's plasma repeater cut it down before Adrian could even get any shots on target. Thinking back to his earlier thoughts on the matter it seemed he was right, conventional weapons were to be frank, shit against the flood. The Covenant though with their weaponized war crimes could cut through the flood with ease, once more he cursed not bringing any of the covvie arsenal with him.
Right before the entrance to 'Restricted Storage' aimlessly wandered a group of flood, without any of sacs nearby Adrian pulled one of the plasma grenades he had and tossed it forward. It stuck to the flood nearest them and screeched an unholy shriek before the grenade exploded in a molten miasma of blue plasma. It completely eradicated the flood it was glued too as well as most other flood around it, only two were left but were quickly put down by Adrian and the elite.
When they entered into the storage room, it was packed to the brim with a myriad of junk and equipment though considering this was supposed to be restricted he imagined that at least some of it had to hold some hidden value. Ignoring those thoughts he turned back to the goal at hand, which in reality wasn't hard to find. Laying deadest in the center of the room was a large, round cylinder, easily identifiable as covvie tech.
As the elite neared the slipspace drive, more cries of incoming flood echoed through the open door, it turned to Adrian, "Hold them off, I will need time to prep the drive." With hose said it turned back to the drive, kneeling on one knee before yanking a panel off the Borer drive, leaving Adrian to try and prepare a quick makeshift defense. Quickly scanning the piles of junk, he found what appeared to be prototype mines. Grabbing a handful, he dashed to the open door and tossed them out into the hallways, pressing the activation buttons in the center of each on. Taking a knee behind the edge of the door, he raised his assault rifle and waited from the first of their forms to come into view.
When the unnatural brownish skin came into his sights, he opened fired from behind his angled cover. It took an entire clip before the thing went down in a mess of tangled limbs, though it was far from over as at least half a dozen more walked into the hallway, a few running at breakneck speed. Slamming the door controls with his fist, the door closed tight as the corridor rumbled with the sound of exploding mines. Another round of explosions as the flood hit the final set of mines, he opened up the door with one hand while aiming his assault rifle with the other. As soon as the door cracked opened and smoke began to poor into the room, he blindly fired into thick fumes, laying down a heavy barrage of weapons fire. He didn't let up until his magazine was empty, at which point he ducked behind cover and reloaded. Peering through the thinning smoke, he spied two flood forms still standing and both armed with assault rifles. They opened fire on him with unnatural reflexes, he tried to duck back behind the wall but a burst of fire clipped the side of his helmet sending him sprawling onto his back. When the bullets hit he could hear his visor cracking and feel the shards exploded inside his helmet like razors cutting across the side of his face. He growled, his visor was still intact though he'd lost some H.U.D functionality, more of an inconvenience than anything else but the pain was vicious. As he pushed himself up he unloaded into the last two flood, his accuracy failing as blood washed over his eye. He tried to blink it out but kept the offensive up, only stopping to switch to his side arm and finish the last of the flood forms.
When they crumpled like sacks of cement, he let out a sigh of relief as his hand brushed over part of his fractured visor. It'd take more than just a couple bullets to do any real damage to ODST armor, though it didn't mean it was invincible by any stretch. He had to stifle the urge to wipe away the blood, taking off your helmet in a combat zone was dumb enough but when these infectious fucks were spread throughout the lab? No chance.
"You almost done over there hinge-head? Don't know how much longer I can keep these things off our ass." Adrian called back, keeping his eyes peeled for any more flood.
"Yes. I'm just about finished." It replied as it stood up, meeting Adrian at the door. "Where to now?"
"Security, from there we can override the locks on the exit and make our way out of here." He said as he scanned the hallway before leading the way towards the room his squadmates had previously occupied. "So how exactly are we detonating this? Timed fuse or some sort of remote detonation?"
"Remotely, I'll set it off when I feel we're an adequate distance away." It said coolly as they passed the main entrance where Adrian had first encountered the flood. In the hallway of blood were a handful of meandering flood that were caught unaware and promptly dealt with before the duo moved onto the security room. Upon entering the room, he was unsurprised to see blood smearing the floors of the room, though it didn't stop a pained grimace from forming. Realizing that the bodies wouldn't just disappear he thought back to the flood in the hallway they'd just cut through. Shaking his head at the absolute turn to insanity this mission had taken, he moved up towards the console.
Swiping his hand across the console, he pressed a number of keys before inserting the security chiefs ID into the console. A large flashing warning appeared on the screen, "ARE YOU SURE YOU WISH TO UNLOCK ENTRANCE SEALS DURING LOCKDOWN?" Affirming his choice, he took the key back from the console.
Turning to face his hated companion he half expected to be forced into a final confrontation with it now that his half was done, "Alright, now we just gotta get the hell out of here." Instead it simply nodded and made its way to the exit.
Walking beside the elite, he stopped by each of the bodies they'd killed on the way in and yanked the dog tags from the overgrown flesh of the flood. Turning the corner right in front of them something new greeted them, a massive, bloated flood that wabbled on two stubby legs that didn't seem to bend right. At the sight of them it stopped and burst like an overfilled balloon letting a dozen of the flood spores into the world and blasting Adrian with a thick coating of it's gore. Adrian and the elite opened fired on the scrabbling parasites, managing to pop any that got to close. A couple dashed under their legs and into the corpses of Adrian's former squadmates, sending the dead flood into spasming seizures before they begun to abruptly rise, though they didn't get far before the elite put them down with a few blasts from its repeater.
They jogged until they were in the entrance corridor, the door still closed but now able to be opened with a simple touch of a button. They raced towards the door, Adrian slamming the button as the air-tight seals undid their emergency actions. As the doors unsealed with the pace of a handicapped seal, a noise upon them brought their weapons to bear on the ceiling only to be met with nothing. The noise continued and Adrian noticed the vent in the ceiling too little too late. It burst open with an explosive crash, stunning the elite and breaking its shields before two long arms reached out from the ruptured vent and swung against them. Adrian managed to roll out of the way, but the elite still stunned was struck with a fierce blow. Despite the initial bombastic entrance of the flood, it frankly went down like a little bitch, all bark and no bite Adrian joked to himself. Trotting over to the elite, it pushed itself up while shaking it's head, that's when Adrian noticed the tiniest splotch of dark violet blood on the tile floor. The elite put a taloned hand to it's neck before pulling it away to see what they both expected, dark blood.
He'd seen what had happened to Hackett, he could put two and two together, sure those small shits were the main carriers but like the elite had said…the flood are adaptive…resilient. He took two steps back and brought his rifle to his shoulder.
"I had hoped I would seen my kin once more, but such is not the fate the Gods have fit to see me with." The elite spoke as he turned up towards the ceiling, looking to where the sky would be could they see it before it turned to stare directly at Adrian, eyes burrowing into his. "You'll have your window imp, I am a Sangheili of my word. On the blood of my forefathers, I'll fight these flood parasites until the end, when I feel on the verge of losing myself…I'll detonate the bomb. All I ask is for one request."
At first Adrian almost scoffed, laughed in its face at it's ludicrous request and tell it to shove it's request where the sun don't shine, but he didn't. Deep down he felt compelled to listen and take its request; though later he would justify it as simply being practical to ensure his survival so the elite wouldn't kill them both right then and there…deep down there was something more compelling him. He nodded silently.
"Don't let my name fade into the abyss, the greatest shame that become a Sangheili in death is to be forgotten. Whether it's feared among enemies or honored among kin…I don't want to be forgotten to time."
They stood in silence for a second before the reoccurring shriek of the flood broke their stare down, Adrian briefly looked to the end of the hallway where the flood would no doubt begin to swarm from before turning back towards the elite.
"My name Vras' Vandeltheam…remember me." It spoke before it pulled an energy sword from its waist and bring forth a burst of crackling plasma with a flick of it's wrist. Adrian stared before running towards the elevator, he practically stumbled into it and slammed the button pointing up. Before the doors fully closed he spied Vras tearing into a dozen flood with the elegance one would expect of a master swordsman. As the doors closed, he could feel the welcoming rumble of the elevator as it made it's way up to the surface. Maybe it was just the relief of putting the worst behind him, or maybe there was some voodoo magic, but the trip felt significantly shorter on the way up then it did going down. Soon the crackling of his comms filled his ears, an unimaginably welcomed sound compared to the dreadful cries that seemed to be the only noise in the labs.
"Trying again, this is Private First-Class O'Connell with Overwatch. If there is anyone still alive, please respond. Over."
Holding down his overwhelming relief, he spoke as calmy as he could, "This is Kasporov, I'm coming up from the labs requesting immediate evac. I don't have much time before this place is going up in one big fucking bang. Over."
"Roger that, glad to have you back Kasporov."
At those final words that he'd make it out of here, he let out a guttural yell of relief, screaming at the top of his lungs and banging the metal confines of the elevator in sheer primal joy. When the elevator finally came to a stop and opened to reveal the setting sun drowning the Mongolian landscape in a cool dusk, he ran out of it like a bat out of hell. His legs pounding with each step, his breath ragged and body sore, out in the plains ahead of him an Orca landed with its back hatch open. A heavily armed squad in military hazmat suits waved him on, urging him with yells of support as he ran across the open land. When he reached the Orca they helped pull him in as it began to take off, he wasn't even given a breather before a heavy pressured blast of chemical water was showered over him washing what felt like gallons of blood, grime, and indescribable ooze off of him. Taking a seat on the edge of the Orca that gave him a majestic view of the Mongolian steppe, he finally took off his helmet drinking in the fresh air with massive gulps, savoring the crisp cool air. Though he grimaced in pain as the razor-like cuts from his shattered visor flared as his adrenaline died down. Wiping away the blood from his face, his eyes widened in surprise as a faint rumbling could be seen on the ground below before in a split-second a massive area was encircled in the familiar spherical tear of a slipspace rupture. Though true to Vras' words, there was something off about it, the typical steady deep purple was instead a hectic, jittering blue that seemed one breath away from complete instability.
It was there and gone faster than a flash, but in it's wake was simply…nothing. A massive hole in the ground where the lab existed just now ceased to exist. Having spent a fair amount of time in the lab, Adrian felt he had gained a decent understanding of its size and the new hole was several times larger than the entirety of the facility. Though having experienced the living hell that was the flood, he felt that was getting off easy in comparison to the damage that might've existed had they escaped.
Mutterings of disbelief and awe sounded from behind him with someone speaking up, "What the hell was that? What happened down there sir?"
"Pray to whatever God you believe in that you never have to know."