Chapter 28: The Flood
AN's: Wassup?! So, I have to apologize in advance for what I am about to do, but just read this for now, and the note at the end of the chapter will explain why. This chapter will cover Cortana and the first part of Halo, since the former is extremely short, albeit tedious. Update: My writing style may change after this chapter, mainly due to my reading a lot of Fanfictions, namely DemonFireX's Crysis Effect and SpartaLazor's Three are Better than One and A Cord of Three. (All are very good. If you haven't already, check them out. My personal recommendations.)
The Chief piloted his Banshee with ease, flying towards the torn and burning outer hull of High Charity. He landed just inside and ejected from the Banshee. He realized that this was the first time in a while that he was truly on his own in a mission, since not even Cortana was there to help him. The last time was on Installation 04, when he had first fought the Flood, and that had been almost 7 months ago.
The Chief practically raced through the ship, desperate to find Cortana before the Gravemind realized he was here. "Child of my enemy, why have you come?" Too late. The Chief raced on, constantly impeded by the Flood. He entered a small room with an AI pedestal covered in an energy shield. He ran over and smashed his fist into the shield, breaking it, and freeing the AI inside.
"You found me."
John knelt down beside Cortana's pedestal. "But so much of me is corrupted, broken. You may have come too late." "You know me: When I make a promise…" "You keep it." She suddenly sat up. "I do know how to pick 'em." "Do you still have it?" "The Activation Index from the first Halo?" She extended her hand and the Index appeared. "Thought I'd keep it, as a souvenir. How do you plan to get out?" "Thought I'd try shooting my way out. Mix things up a little." The Chief stood up and took Cortana's vacant data chip out of his helmet. Cortana put her hand on it and entered the chip, which John put back in his armor.
"Chief, we can't let the Flood spread any further; we have to destroy High Charity." John left the room. "Now, at last, I see! Her secret is revealed!" John entered the reactor room. "Here, we can destroy these three reactor pylons. That will cause an overload, destroying High Charity and the Flood at the same time." The Chief threw a plasma grenade at the nearest reactor pylon, which landed on a ledge surrounding it and detonated, destroying the pylon. "One down, Chief! Two to go."
Twenty seconds later, the last one blew up. "Nice job, Chief. Let's get out of here." The Chief ran through the nearest open door, only to find it a dead end. "Damn. Cortana?" "I've found another, marking it now." A familiar blue diamond appeared on John's HUD, marking another door across the room. John sprinted to it, pumping a Sangheili Combat Form full of lead from his MA5C Assault Rifle. He reloaded on the run, slamming the 32 round clip home with the efficiency that only decades of military experience gave someone.
The door opened and ten Infection Forms poured out of the opening. John leapt back a foot and dumped his entire clip into them, remembering the last time an Infection Form had surprised him like that. "Chief, you okay? Your heart rate just went through the roof." "Fine. Just a bad memory." "The Autumn's engineering bay, right?" "Yeah." "You know I'll do everything I can to make sure that doesn't happen, right?" "I know." (I'll explain this later on, after the destruction of the new Halo.)
The Chief wound his way back the way he came, although he needed to detour quite a few times due to collapsed tunnels and Flood biomass blockages. As he neared the area he had come in through, a pair of blue diamonds appeared on his HUD. "Cortana?" "I've picked up two friendlies. Who would be crazy enough to come here?"
The two turned out to be Carter and The Arbiter. "Chief!" "Spartan!" "Wait… you two made nice? What else have you done in my absence?" "Chief, come on! We found a Pelican over here!" The three climbed into the crashed dropship and John inserted Cortana into the mainframe. The Pelican took off, but a tentacle wrapped around it, only to retreat under the searing heat of the engines.
"Sergeant Johnson, come in." "I'm here, Chief. Did you find Cortana?" "I'm fine, Sergeant." "Nice work, Chief. I'll bring the Dawn as close as I can to the Control room." "Safe is better than close, Sergeant-Major." "Will do. And ma'am? It's good to have you back." "Good to be back, Sergeant." The link was severed as the Pelican flew at full burn towards the ring. Cortana brought the dropship in just a hair too fast, and ended up crashing it into a snow embankment. "Next time, I'm flying." "Not with your track record with Pelicans, you're not." "One time. One. Damn. Time." "And we will never let you forget."
The Chief grabbed Cortana's data chip and placed it in his helmet before leaving the dropship. Carter followed him, and the Arbiter brought up the rear. The sound of engines overhead told them that the Dawn had arrived as well. "Chief, the Dawn is here. I've got the rest of your unit with me, and we're headed to the Control Room." "Got it, Sergeant. Stay safe." "Will do, Chief." The Chief grabbed an assault rifle and a pair of SMG's that were lying on the ground, and Carter emerged with a DMR cradled in his hands. The Arbiter had a Covenant Carbine and his Sword on his hip. "Let's go." The trio set off towards the Control Room. "This place… it's so elegant in its unfinished state." "Too bad it's going to be blown to smithereens soon."
As they entered the valley containing the Control Room, multiple 'meteorites' crashed down around them. "FOOLS! You thought me gone! I shall rebuild! Starting with your corpses!" "Damnit! Really thought we had killed this asshole already." "Quit bitching, start shooting." Multitudes of Flood Forms charged at the trio, and were cut down by precision fire from Carter and The Arbiter, and withering fire from the Chief's SMG's. "Come on!" The three pushed through steadily, two steps forward, one step back, figuratively. They reached the entrance to the control room, with support fire from Sgt. Johnson and his Spartan Laser. "I got your backs, boys. Get in there and light this bitch." "Will do. Good luck out here." "
On a side note: I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, need your input on a matter that is very pressing to me right now: I have started a few chapters for a new story, and I need to know if you people will actually read it, or make me take it down after three chapters like the last one. I'm thinking of starting a Halo-Mass Effect Cross. Since I can't get input from you willingly, I have made the decision to stall production of this until I get some opinions on this. Sorry, but it's the only way I can think of to get you to talk to me. That, and I'm getting bored writing Spartans all the time; I need another story to write. I'm thinking of crossing NOBLE Six into the ME Timeline beginning with ME2. So tell me what you think.
URDNOT WREX! (The single most badass soldier EVER!)
