Chapter 22: Flood Watch

AN's I know the last chapter went kind of out of order, but I'm going to focus this chapter around the level Floodgate and just before The Ark. I may include another chapter formatted like 21. I just found that style of writing interesting and wanted to see if it was well-liked.

On the bridge of the Shadow of Intent, the Master Chief, along with the rest of the surviving Spartans and the Arbiter, Lord Hood, Shipmaster R'tas Vadum, and Sergeants Johnson and Forge, stood in earnest as an old enemy of the Chief's, 343 Guilty Spark, the Monitor of Installation 04, where the Chief had gone just after the Fall of Reach, tried to repair a message from Cortana that the Chief had found on a Flood-infested ship that crashed near New Mombasa. The Chief lapsed into a flashback to the events.

The AA gun's underbelly opened, revealing the central power core. He threw a plasma grenade into the exposed core and ran, narrowly avoiding the collapsing debris. He picked himself up and put his MA5C Assault Rifle on his back, an then turned to the Forerunner ship that he had come back to Earth on after leaving High Charity. An energy surge opened a portal above the ship which sucked the Covenant ships into its gaping hole, then stabilized and fell silent. He turned at what sounded like a ship exiting Slipspace and saw a Covenant ship with a familiar green aura about it fly overhead and crash nearby. His companion, The Arbiter, turned to him, confused. "What is it? More Brutes?" "Worse." The Flood had found Earth and were beginning their infection of the planet here in East Africa.

"The Flood. We can't let them spread any further. Chief, find that ship, destroy it." "Yes, ma'am." He and the Arbiter hurried to the ship, passing through a marine barracks that had been entirely infected, and a warehouse filled with new forms of Flood, most likely Brutes from the ship.

They were almost to the ship. Just a few hundred more meters. A drop pod crashed down in front of them "This is the carrier Shadow of Intent. Clear this area. We will handle the Flood." More drop pods, containing more Elites, crashed down and began to engage the Flood. He ran ahead, leaving the Arbiter and the Elites to fight the Flood.

The inside of the ship was infested. There were massive Flood growths all over the inner hull, and all manner of Flood forms that all sought his spinal cord. (For those of you who don't know, the Flood infects its victims by tapping their spinal cord, causing a rapid alteration of the victim's DNA. The process is obviously imperfect, as the alterations take more time than any sane person (or alien) wants to give them. [For a more complete explanation, refer to Halo Nation or the Halo novel, The Flood.]) He found a small room with what looked like a holo tank; similar to the one's used to house AI's on ships. As he approached, Cortana's avatar appeared on the pedestal. "Chief!" "Cortana!" "The Gravemind. He's inside my systems. He knows everything. But he doesn't know about the portal! What's on the other side!" The image faded for a moment before reappearing and repeating itself. He reached down and pulled out the data chip inside, then left… and ran straight into 343 Guilty Spark. "Reclaimer!" He instinctively pulled his MA5C off of his back and aimed it at Spark. "Why do you show such hostility, Reclaimer?" "On Halo, you tried to kill Cortana, you tried to kill me." "Yes, I was only following protocol. But now that the Installation is destroyed, my only task is to help you, Reclaimer." "Spartan, we must leave, now."

"What we did was justified." "How do you justify glassing half a continent?" "The Flood." "We could have handled it differently. I'm starting to wonder just how much help your kind will be." "A single Flood spore can destroy a species." "So can a beam of charged plasma." The Chief snapped out of his flashback and refocused, catching the tail end of the conversation. James was staring at him. "You okay, John? You've been looking at that same spot for the last 10 minutes." "I'm fine." The two Sergeants were conversing on their own. "I don't see why they don't just nuke it." "I don't know about you, but I've seen them come back basically from the dead just now." "What?" "The reason Spirit of Fire took so long getting back to UNSC space is because we detonated our FTL drive to destroy a Forerunner world that was filled with these bastards." The rest were focused on the heated debate between Lord Hood and R'tas Vadum.

343 jumped back as he finished repairing the message. "Reclaimer, your construct is heavily damaged. I have done as much as I can, but it is irreversibly damaged." The recording started. "Chief! The Gravemind, he's in my systems. He knows everything. But he doesn't know about the portal! What's on the other side! It can wipe out the Flood once and for all!" The recording faded and didn't reappear. "So what do we do now?" "Now we go stop Truth." "What about the Flood?" "Right now, that Prophet is a bigger threat than anything. And besides, did you see Cortana's condition? She could be rampant, leading us into a trap set by the Gravemind." "With respect, Admiral, they are both equally present threats." "I understand that, but the Covenant are closer to their goals then the Flood."

Carter walked back in after delivering a report of NOBLE's assault on Voi. "What's going on?" "We're planning our assault on the Ark." "We'll need to find a Cartographer so that we can find the control room. And Truth." "I'll split my team into two squads. Kat, Jun: we're NOBLE Recon. Emile, Jorge, Six, you're with the Master Chief as NOBLE Strike." "Sounds like a plan, Commander. Now we just need a place to deploy more concentrated ground forces. NOBLE Recon will find an LZ, and then NOBLE Strike can clear it out. The Forward Unto Dawn can then deploy more forces and we'll assault through to the Cartographer." Let's get ready, NOBLE."

The Spartans, minus Red Team, who had been deployed to act as a second recon team, left for the hangar bay. They flew over to the Dawn, where they resupplied and rearmed, then loaded into two Pelicans and departed for the surface of the Ark.