Chapter 15
0700 hours, January 24, 2552 (Military Calendar)
High Charity/ Inside In Amber Clad/ Looking for survivors
"Okay…" Andrew started. "Kyle, Monica, Cameron, Philip… you guys are with me! Everyone else, defend this hangar! The ships in it may be the only way we can get off. Okay, move out!" The spartans saluted and went off to set up their defenses.
Andrew walked over to Smith and whispered, "Keep an eye on Evan; he seems to be getting drunker by the second." Smith nodded and walked over to the alcoholic spartan.
The marines that were rescued from the Fabled Prophecy had already unloaded all the makeshift barriers, turrets, and weapons from the Covenant Phantom. Andrew picked up a shotgun and a battle rifle from a nearby weapons table and led the others to the entrance to the hangar where five of the ten plasma turrets had been set up.
"Aim those turrets at the door, Flood might come pouring in." Andrew ordered. Philip unlocked the door and the marines manning the plasma turrets poured boiling blue plasma through the door… but there were no Flood.
"Strange… okay, let's go!" The five spartans stepped through the entrance and the doors slid shut behind them. It was eerily quiet in the corridor as the spartans ran through. There wasn't even the stray infection form expected to pop out randomly whenever there was a Flood encounter. But there were dead bodies. Dead marines stared up at the spartans with lifeless eyes; their mouths wide open as though screaming in terror.
In the next room, a cafeteria, there were more dead bodies. The floor was riddled with bullet casings.
"I got a bad feeling about this place…" Philip muttered. Suddenly the dead marines slowly got up and started to walk very slowly towards the spartans. But these marines weren't normal UNSC soldiers. Their heads and arms were hanging lopsidedly around their bodies. One marine had no head at all….
"What the hell are you waiting for? OPEN FIRE!" Andrew roared. Monica and Andrew fired their battle rifles simultaneously at the forms mowing one row down after the other while Kyle fired his shotgun at the monstrosities. Cameron took out his brute shot and started to blast the hell out of the dead bodies as Philip lashed out his energy sword and started to cut off the Flood combat forms limbs. But they kept on coming, soon the spartans were surrounded.
Monica backed up next to Andrew and yelled, "We need to fall back or we'll get over-…" a dead marine's arm slammed against her helmet and she flew backwards into a wall.
"Monica! You bast…" Andrew cried out as he unslung his shotgun and shot head off the Flood that had attacked Monica.
"Monica! Are you okay?" Andrew yelled. Monica slowly stood up and nodded. "Make a break for it at the opposite door!" The five spartans sprinted over the bloodstained tiles and ran through the opposite door where they met a new monstrosity. Many pieces of armor were missing from the two infected hunters guarding a huge hole in the wall. One had a long tentacle replacing its powerful shield; the other had a series of morphed battle armor. Normally hunters were easy to take down with a sniper rifle, but Flood forms were immune to sniper rifles; the bullets just passed right through them. One of the hunters made an unearthly roar and started to charge forward.
"Grenades! On my mark… MARK!" Andrew yelled. Together, the five spartans threw an assortment of plasma and fragmentation grenades at the Flood infected hunter and a huge explosion filled the corridor.
"Hold your fire!" Andrew commanded. "Wait for i- Argh!" Suddenly, the infected hunter's tentacle- like arm lashed out and wrapped around Andrew's helmet. It then lifted the spartan and slammed him against the wall. Seeing that the spartan was out of the fight, the hunter turned around and quickly lashed out its tentacle at Monica. The spartan leapt aside; dodging the Flood's tentacle, and Kyle ran in.
BAM! "Go…" BAM! "To…" BAM! "HELL!" Kyle yelled as he pulled the trigger of his shotgun. The tentacle fell limply at the Flood's side. The Flood infected hunter roared angrily and it whip lashed out its second tentacle at Cameron. Cameron cursed as his shields failed and his armor's insistent warning system sounded. Philip rammed into Cameron and threw themselves sideways as the hunter attacked again.
Seeing that the only enemy left standing, it lashed out its tentacle, yet again, and wrapped it around Monica's helmet.
She started to scream when the grip slackened and the bloated form of the hunter fell sideways. Andrew stood behind the dead, Flood infected, hunter's body clutching his side. His armored gauntlet was covered with slime as he had reached in the hunter's body and crushed the infection form within.
"Phew, now we need to take out the other infected hunter." Andrew said.
Monica walked over to Andrew and slipped her hand into his. "Thanks Andrew, I owe you one."
As Andrew stammered his response, Kyle, Philip, and Cameron were cooking up a new plan to demolish the second hunter.
"Leave it to me guys." Philip said.
"Are you sure?" Kyle asked, frowning.
Philip picked up his energy sword and nodded. "All I need is a distraction."
Andrew, Monica, Cameron, and Kyle cautiously walked towards the second Flood infected hunter. Its head leaned forward; patiently waiting for it's pray to draw near…
"Screw this, O.K. spartans! Open fire!" Andrew ordered. The four spartans started to spray lead at the abomination as a green glow started to be seen under the Flood infected hunter's shield.
"Scatter! It's using its fuel rod gun!" Cameron yelled.
"No! Philip told us to hold our positions! Activate your overshields!" Andrew replied. The four spartans energy shields started to turn a pearly sheen as the infected hunter's fuel rod gun discharged. The narrow beam of emerald green energy went forward and headed straight towards Monica. She ducked as the plasma went straight over her head.
"Fuck this you…" She grunted as she primed a frag. The grenade flew straight behind the hunter, rebounded off the wall and landed behind the monstrosity. WHAM! The grenade exploded sending shrapnel flying into the air. In the smoke caused by the grenade, a low moan was heard, then Philip walked out brandishing an energy sword. He had cut the infected hunter in half.
"Nice one!" Andrew grinned.
"Hey guys! What the hell is this?" Kyle yelled outside the large hole the infected hunters had been guarding. Just outside the hole beyond the mangled corpses of two regular hunters, was a large chasm. Connected to it was a large energy beam under a handful of balconies. On the side the spartans where on, there was a large object that was bowl shaped, it could've easily fit about 30 spartans on it.
"Seems like a transport shuttle." Cameron observed.
"Seems like a way out if things get really nasty. Okay, if we can't get back to the hangar, we'll have to go back on this thing." Andrew said.
"There's a phantom on the other platform, which would really help us out." Bastila said.
"Great, it's settled now."
The five spartans walked back inside In Amber Clad and continued on in search for survivors…