Chapter 5: The Flood Rising
Aboard the UNSC Black Prince
Kelly, Linda, Fred and Maria were trying on the MJOLNIR Mark VI armor for the first time.
"Wow. This is so much better than the old one," Kelly noted, as she fired a burst of MA5C assault rifle bullets at a target. The bull's eye of the target was obliterated.
"Yeah," Fred agreed. The Master Chief gave what appeared to be the faintest ghost of a smirk.
"It's about time you got one of these. They beat the crap out of my old one." The Master Chief gave one of his rare offhand remarks. Linda smiled. That was certainly a moment to preserve.
"Let's go! The Orbital Drop Shock Troopers are waiting for us at the airlocks!" Cortana urged from within the Master Chief's armor.
The Spartans moved to the airlocks of the Black Prince. Beside them, the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, or ODSTs for short, lined up in two rows beside the airlocks, the drop pods docked and ready to launch. They were nicknamed "Helljumpers". Their motto was "Feet First Into Hell". Major Antonio de Silva was there to meet them.
"Now as you may have noticed, we have some visitors with us," the major blatantly remarked. He certainly did not like the Spartans. The ODSTs nervously laughed, remembering the time when the Master Chief had killed three of their own in combat in a boxing ring.
It had been an accident. At the time.
The Spartans did not respond to this openly, but Fred tightened his grip on his MA5C assault rifle and Linda narrowed her eyes.
"Okay. I admit it. I'm not a big fan of the SPARTAN program, but I do know this. How are we going in, Helljumpers?" Major de Silva shouted.
"WE GO FEET FIRST, SIR!" came the reply.
"Just checking," the major said. "Okay, get the hell in there and do your mommies and me proud!"
The Helljumpers and Spartans moved into the pods. "Don't wet your pants," the major called after them as a mocking afterthought.
The engines on the pods fired up and the pods blasted away, one after the other, streaking towards the installation.
"Heads up," Fred muttered to the other Spartans in the pod with him. "It's gonna get real toasty in here…"
The pods reached the installation's atmosphere and started to glow red-hot. As the pods plunged into the atmosphere, the temperature built up to incredibly high levels. Coupled with the pressure-cooker environment in the pods, it explained why ODSTs were nicknamed Helljumpers.
No wonder it took a certain sense of insanity to join.
Installation 07The Lost Platoon returned to the Avenger of Truth as night fell. They had commandeered the vehicles from the depot and captured the facility Scott and Tanya had found.
As they neared the ship, they noticed a small pile of Brute, Jackal and Grunt corpses. Zorro' Zamamee was standing near the pile. Blood stained the ground and dismembered limbs and heads lay scattered around the pile.
"Seems like you guys had your share of fighting as well," Ricoh noted.
The Zealot nodded. "Some Brutes thought they could take us on. They expected us to be weak. So they attacked. And they bled."
They moved into the Avenger of Truth. As they headed into the main engineering facility of the ship, Juliet whistled a tune. A Huragok (Covenant Engineer) floated into the facility, chirping happily. He drifted towards the team, hovering around Juliet.
Juliet laughed. "Yes, I know, it's been quite long, but not that long. Why don't you help me over here?"
The Covenant Engineer, Just Right, was Juliet's pet and assistant. As like all Covenant Engineers, he had been named after the arrangement of gas sacs in his body, which allowed him to float. The Lost Platoon had found him aboard an abandoned Covenant ship and Juliet had taken him in as one of them.
Just Right hovered over a computer terminal, tapping with his purple tentacles. Covenant glyphs scrolled across the screen, intelligence they had downloaded from the Covenant facility. Zorro' Zamamee studied the text closely. Eventually he looked up at the rest of the Lost Platoon.
"The Library of this installation is located on the other side of this ring, amongst the northeastern sector of the mountain ranges. It appears the Covenant are also after the Index. We must beat them to it."
"The mountain ranges? That's not too far from the facility we came to…" Tanya observed.
"Ok, that's it," Ricoh concluded. "Zor, move the ship to where you think the Library is. You and your forces guard the ship. We will call you."
The Zealot did not usually take commands from others as he was usually the commander. But he made an exception for Ricoh. He nodded. "That will do, Ricoh."
Ricoh nodded to the other Spartans of the Lost Platoon. They set to work, recharging their plasma weapons, replenishing their ammunition, repairing their armor. Just Right hovered around the facility, making repairs with blinding speed. Leo and Alexandra ran diagnostics, ensuring their Overshields and Active Camouflages were in working order. Tanya knelt down and pulled a large Covenant crate from below a terminal. She smiled as she saw what it contained. Her favourite toys.
But meanwhile, the Flood was surging through the installation. Commandeering Covenant ships, smashing facilities to rubble, killing everyone on sight. They had become a massed army, seemingly stretching on forever. They had reached an advanced stage, with numerous Tank, Ranged and Stalker Forms, hundreds of Combat Forms, almost uncountable Infection Forms.
The Index must be destroyed! Gravemind rumbled. We must get to it! I call upon the Flood of the galaxy! Our time is at hand!
Indeed, the Flood was breaking out everywhere, on all Halos across the galaxy. As Gravemind called out to them, so they responded, leaving the Halos, colonizing the planets closest to them, retaking the galaxy that had once been theirs. They were seemingly unstoppable.
Just like a flood.
"Imperial Admiral. You must take a look at this," Ship Master Rtas' Vadum said. Imperial Admiral Xytan Jar Wattinree came over. He read the display on the terminal, shaking his head.
"What is it?" Admiral Kluge asked.
"The Flood. They have overrun all the planets closest to them. They have also spread to more distant planets. This does not look good. Now we are fighting a two-front battle."
"Impossible!" Colonel James Ackerson declared. "The Flood could never be like this!"
"But that is not the worst part, Colonel," Rtas' Vadum added. "I have received an analysis of Installation 07 before and after the Flood broke out. I am now displaying the analysis on your terminal."
Before, the installation had been green and blue. Admiral Kluge was reminded of Earth. But after the Flood had broken out, the installation had changed drastically. The whole installation was brown.
Brown with Flood.
"Oh my…" Colonel Ackerson started.
"That is not all, Admiral. There is still a part of the installation which is not colonized with Flood. " Rtas' Vadum rotated the image. There was still a wide patch of green on the installation. The Flood were on both sides of the last remaining patch.
"We are viewing the installation from space right now." The Ship Master zoomed in on the image. Admiral Kluge rubbed his eyes. Could he be dreaming? He was not, he decided. The huge masses of Flood were converging on the last patch of land which had not been colonized by them.
The jaws of the Flood were closing.
"And that," concluded the Ship Master, "is where the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers and the Demons have landed."
"Oh dear…" Admiral Kluge shook his head.