I do not own Halo, Mass Effect, Dead Space, blah blah blah, do you even read these anymore?
Episode 9
Mtan sprinted out of the city hall at his top speed, with Philips lagging considerably behind. Both of their legs ached from the exertion, but the ODST and Spec Ops Elite kept running anyway. Every now and then, Mtan would pause for a second, and fire a burst from his plasma rifle at the horde of monsters pursuing them.
'Which is more damaging to these things than my weapon is.' Philips grimly thought. After encountering these creatures, the two of them had held their ground for a moment in that observation room, but quickly found that their weapon fire wasn't really slowing them. They had retreated into the elevator, but by the time they returned to the surface, the monstrosities had managed to follow.
The two allies ran around a corner, then Mtan grabbed Philips and reactivated his cloaking device. Pressing themselves against a wall, they waited for the creatures following them to show up, allowing the ODST and the Elite to get a good look at what they were up against:
They had flickering traces of darkness coming off them, similarily to the shadow creatures they had encountered earlier, but these could be visualized much more clearly. Some of them looked like that blue cyborg Philips had seen earlier, while the others were like nothing either had seen before.
Twisted and sickly humanoid creatures shambled past, all in various forms of mutation. Some had their arms replaced with blades made of bone, while others had their legs replaced with a sharp tail and were crawling along their hands. Philips and Mtan lost track of just how many types there were, but they were all obviously dangerous.
All of these creatures had clearly been human at some point, but they were all corrupted beyond individual recognition. Having lost track of their prey, the horde dispersed throughout the city, as growling roars echoed through the streets.
Mtan and Philips rematerialized and looked around. Relieved to find that none of those things had noticed them, the ODST let out a sigh of relief, while Mtan peered around the corner and spotted their Warthog in the courtyard.
Which was crawling with those monstrosities.
"It appears driving away is no longer an option." The Elite muttered.
"So, we're going on foot, against those things." Philips said in exasperation, "Lovely."
Screeching interrupted their conversation, causing the two soldiers to look towards the source of the noise.
"Oh, shit." was all that Philips could say.
Several dragon-like creatures were flying through the air, with the same skin tone of those creatures who had just passed by and several of whom were currently clinging to the sides of these dragons. They were currently hovering over the city, seemingly searching for any signs of life to attack.
Just as one of the creatures took notice of the potential prey lurking underneath it, an energy bolt lanced through the sky and impacted the dragon, gutting it and burning several creatures clinging to the side. Those humanoids that survived fell to the ground, the force of the impact shattering them.
"What the hell was that?" Mtan asked.
"What the hell was that?" Dread yelled, watching as one of their aerial oppenents swooped towards them.
"Incoming contacts!" The pilot shouted as the ship swerved to avoid the barrage of mass accelerator rounds. An energy bolt pierced a massive hole through the dragon, causing the creature to fall from the sky.
"Scans show that these things appear to be a cross between Reaper Harvesters and Necromorph flyers." The copilot reported, sending a barrage of missiles into the mass of enemy fliers.
"Drop us off on those buildings." Shade ordered, pointing to a cluster of skyscrapers, "Then try to draw those things away." Nodding, the pilots used the dropship's weapons to punch a hole through the mass of Harvesters, before moving to hover over the drop point.
Shadow Team leapt from the sides of the bay, cloaking devices activating as each member landed on a different building. As soon as the team was clear, the dropship sent a barrage of blue energy bolts towards the aerial combatants.
Considerably angry, the surviving Harvesters followed the ship as it fled towards the open sky. Shade watched, unconcerned. As soon as the Harvesters were at a decent distance, the dropship would activate its cloaking device and leave the Necromorphs behind.
Hopefully, the Eye of Intent would be on station within the day, since the Marker's electromagnetic energy, combined with the interference from the atmosphere, meant that communications with the Eye had been sporadic at best. They had managed to contact the captain and inform him on what had happened but only time would tell when reinforcements would show up.
Snarling roars drew the team's attention to the streets, where creatures resembling Necromorphs and Husks were milling around. Dread took overwatch on the skyscrapers, unleashing plasma bolts into the swarm whenever they were needed, occasionally pausing to fight off any abomination that found him.
The rest of the team split up to do what they did best: Nye helped clear the streets using his grenade and rocket launchers, Shade's energy shotgun made short work of monsters inside the buildings, Fade unleashed her biotics on any Necromorph husk she encountered, causing explosions of dark energy rippled through the horde, and finally, Thul activated his dual energy swords and charged their enemies at close range.
As the team slaughtered their way through the advancing abominations, a few oddities became noticable; For starters, the rare time any semblance of speech came through what remained of their mouths, it was in a female voice, not the rasping, baritone inflections of the Gravemind.
Secondly, despite looking like Necromorphs and husks at first glance, the team could make out subtle differences that separated them, not to mention that they were physically weaker than their more common brethren. And finally, all of them seemed to be in a state of dimensional flux, if the shadowy outlines were any indication.
"You shouldn't be here." A female voice emerged from one of the creatures, just before Dread cut it in half with his wrist blades. Spinning around, the Predator hurled a smart-disc had a group of Necromorphs that had just crawled up to his perch, slicing them apart.
Finishing up with the remains, a loud noise attracted the Predator's attention. Looking over the side of the building, Dread spotted a Warthog driving away as fast as possible.
"Shadow Team, I've got eyes on a Warthog moving through the streets." Dread reported.
"Copy that. Shadow 2 on intercept."
Regardless of what had destroyed that dragon-like creature, the explosion was enough to draw the the rest of the abominations away, allowing Philips and Mtan a clear path to their Warthog.
As the two soldiers entered their vehicle, they registered the faint sound of weapon fire echoing off the streets. That must be why these monsters had left, to find other prey. Tires screeching, the Warthog took off at breakneck speed. Midway through one of the streets, a violet blur landed right in the path of the speeding Hog.
As the impact settled, Philips got a good look at the being in front of him; it was the same blue female he had encountered in an earlier flash. That triggered his fight or flight instinct, considering that everything he had seen in those flashes had been trying to kill him.
All of this ran through his mind in the span of a few seconds. Philips drove the Warthog directly towards the blue female, who looked surprised at this action. Turning violet once again, the woman disappeared in a blur and reappeared on the hood of the Warthog.
"Shoot it!" Philips shouted at Mtan, who immediately pumped LAAG rounds into the warrior. A purple barrier blocked most of the shots, but the kinetic strain sent her tumbling off of the hood. The Warthog left her coughing in the dust.
"What was that?" Mtan asked, alarmed at what had just happened.
"I don't know," Philips said, "but I saw her in one of my visions."
Mtan didn't reply, as he was too busy mulling through his own thoughts. The ODST's instinct was likely the correct one, all things considered. If Philips had indeed seen her in a flash before, then there was no telling what she would have done to them.
The Warthog took off through the empty streets, soon reaching a highway out into the wilderness. The two allies drove off into the wild, heading for parts unknown.
"Damn it!" Fade muttered, as she pushed herself up off the ground.
She had found the ODST they had been searching for (who had apparently allied himself with a Spec Ops Elite), and the soldier's first instinct was to try and kill her. In retrospect, that was an understandable reaction with everything going on, but the two of them were still a little too trigger happy.
"Shadow 2, sitrep!" Shade called through the comm.
"I'm fine, Shade." She replied, dusting herself off, "I found our ODST in the Warthog, with a Covenant Elite, and they just tried to kill me."
"An Elite..." Thul's voice drifted through the link, as a group of Necromorphs rounded a corner and charged Fade's position. "So, they're allies?"
"I would assume so," Fade responded as she hurled a missile of dark energy at the cluster of creatures in front of her, "And I think they might've been in the thrall of Marker dementia or Reaper Indoctrination."
"That could explain why they thought you were hostile," Dread growled as he tore a husk apart, "We need to find the source of this."
"Shadow Team, I believe we can help you with that." Their pilot interrupted, "We tracked the source to a building in the city center. It appears to be a town hall."
"Then that's where were going," Shade said, "Shadow Team, converge on that building now."
It took them a while, but after fighting and sneaking their way through the buildings, the team arrived in the city hall. Covering fire from their dropship kept the creatures off their backs while the team searched for whatever had created the signal. It was Shade who found an elevator that led to a secret section in the building. Breaking through the biometric scanner with ease, Shade and Nye took the lift down, while the rest of Shadow Team stayed above ground to cover them.
"You still have those antimatter charges?"
"As always." Nye replied, eager to blow something up. Shade just chuckled.
Reaching an observation booth, Shadow Lead and 3 got a good look at the artifacts that were laying in the middle of the room. Several Reaper artifacts of varying size were scattered across the floor, but the one that drew their gaze was the Marker.
Or rather, the cheap imitation of one. Though the device could be mistaken for a Marker at first glance, Shade and Nye were able to spot the subtle differences between this device and an actual Red Marker. The subtle blue light glowing under the surface of the artifact was a dead giveaway that something was off.
Putting the curiousity out of his head, Shade fired a blast into the window, shattering it. The two of them leapt through the opening and onto the ground floor.
"Set the charges." Shade ordered.
Nye got to work, planting an antimatter charge on each Reaper artifact and several on the Marker knock-off. During this time, Shade kept watch with his shotgun, waiting for Nye's confirmation. He kept glancing at the Marker copy, and noticed what appeared to be some sort of supernatural aura emerging from the artifact.
"Charges are set." Nye's voice interrupted his musing. Shade nodded.
"Let's get the hell out of here."
As the two of them reached the elevator, they were ambushed by a lone slasher look-alike, who charged past Shade and latched itself onto Nye, it's talons trying to pierce his suit. The armor and shielding held, and Nye struggled to push the creature off of him, when it spoke.
"Stop this now!" The creature screeched in a female voice, just before an energy blast from Shade's shotgun blew it to pieces.
Gathering Nye up, they returned to the surface and reunited with the rest of Shadow Team. The squad retreated to a safe distance before Nye triggered the charges, causing the city hall to collapse in on itself. At the same time, every one of the creatures dissolved and disappeared into nothing.
"What do we do now?" Dread asked.
"We'll keep following the Warthog, and hopefully, we'll be able to break the influence on both of them." Shade said.
"So you think they're indoctrinated?" Thul asked.
"I'm not sure." Shade admitted, "But I think there's something more happening on this planet."
"Considering that this world appears to be an Ancient stronghold, it seems likely that we're missing a few pieces of the puzzle." Fade responded.
"When the Eye returns, we'll hopefully get some help solving that mystery." Nye said as the dropship landed beside them.
Shadow Team boarded their dropship, which took off as soon they were all aboard. Shade stood at the precipice of the troop bay, staring at the remains of the city hall as the ship slowly flew away. His mind was overworked as he tried to process all the information he had on hand.
Forerunner ruins and Leviathan artifacts indicated that this world belonged to the Ancients, but the design of this city indicated that humans used to live here. Combine that with Reaper devices, a knock-off Marker, and the fact that the world seemed to be in a state of dimensional and temporal flux, and Shade could only wonder what was happening here.
The dropship took off through the now clear sky, leaving the city behind.
As the vessel streaked past several skyscrapers, a female figure appeared on a rooftop, watching Shadow Team's departure.
She was fuming at the squad, for they had cost her millennia of planning. Worse still, they were apparently immune to Marker or Reaper based influence. Fortunately, this world still held more artifacts that the Ancients had left here, and Philips and Mtan were not immune to her control, so the plan had not been thwarted yet.
Nevertheless, Shadow Team could not be allowed to interfere any further. She became aware of the figure in green armor who had materialized behind her.
"Keep them away from the complex." She said to him, impatience creeping into her voice, "When the time comes, they must not be allowed to intervene."
"As you wish." The demonic voice replied.
The green armored soldier vanished. She disappeared shortly after.
If you want to understand some of the things that involve Shadow Team (such as who the Ancients are), read my story "Codex of the Multiverse."