-1Nowhere. The shot had come from nowhere. The Marines swore, and began spraying lead in random directions. The Chief however, knew exactly what was happening. He saw the familiar and still terrifying sheen of active camouflage. He merely pointed his weapon, and fired. The shot bounced off the elite's shields. Its armor was black, meaning it was a special operations elite rather than a stealth elite, which would have had a whitish, silvery armor. The Chief fired his rifle again and side stepped rapidly, as the marines picked up the trail of his bullets, and began to aim for the elite, who, realizing he was about to have over a hundred holes blown through his face, decided to move back into cover. The blip on his motion detector revealed that the elite was in rapid retreat. "Covenant. What the fuck are the covenant doing here?" a marine asked. The Chief shrugged. "It doesn't matter for the moment. We'll get the AI, and then Lightscream will pulverize them from orbit." he said simply. A few marines snorted in amusement, reveling in the confidence that their commander had.
The Marines and the Chief continued their movement, down through various levels, where the carnage grew eerily less and less. Finally, they reached a bottom level where there was supposed to be a door at an end of a long hallway that would take them to central processing where Streak would be waiting for them. As soon as the Chief entered the hallway, he knew trouble was nearby, because the hallway was no longer a hallway, it was a cave of…wrongness. The temperature had shot up several degrees, humidity had risen, and some kind of sticky growth was covering the walls. "What in the hell is this!?" one of the marines whispered to no one in particular. "Analysis complete. Its organic, like some sort of secretive resin." Cortana reported. One of the Marines swore quietly. "Yeah, but what the hell secreted it?" he asked. That brought several low whispers. The Chief shouldered his battle rifle, and stalked forward. "On me. One click down this corridor." he said, stalking forward silently. As they continued, the hallway became even more disfigured with alien biomass. It was everywhere. And soon they began to encounter some kind of white pod like things, burst open into four sections, as if something inside them had burst out, like it was an egg.
The movement continued until they were two hundred meters from the door. "Objective in visual range." Cortana stated. The Chief halted, and signaled quietly with his hand. He felt a definite wrongness, like something terrible had happened here, beyond the obvious infestation of those black alien creatures. The two marines he signaled approached the door, and one covered the other as they began to attempt to access its security lock. That was when things began to fall apart. A tiny red dot appeared on his motion tracker. "Movement." he reported, indicating the direction with his arm. The Marines instantly rearranged themselves to cover that direction. "Its coming straight at us…" Cortana reported, as additional contacts began to appear. Finally, a total of seven appeared, the exact same number as the Chief's party, marines included. The tension built quickly as the ten contacts advanced straight at them, until, eerily, the markers were labeled at zero meters. The Chief instantly recognized vertical mapping, and made signals to watch the roof and floor. But it was far too late; just as the marines began to shift their aim, some kind of creatures attacked. They were white, and seemed like a combination of a spider and a crawling hand. They had long tails, and leapt with impossible power for their size. The Chief knew danger when he saw it, and shouted the warning. "Marines, retreat!" he ordered. Before they could take aim though, the fight was over. Six marines emitted muffled screams of agony as the creatures assaulted their faces. One attempted to attack the Chief but repeatedly bounced off the Chief's shields. The second time it leapt, the Chief caught it with a backhand smash that splattered the creature.
Too his horror, it only worsened the situation. The blood of the alien splattered onto a nearby wall, which began to burn. Even the being's blood was a weapon! The Chief turned to see the marines still struggling with the aliens attached to their faces, their shouts of resistance heavily faded. He didn't even hesitate, and opened fire. His battle rifle spit a burst of hot lead into a soldier's throat. The creature instantly screeched, and detached itself, and leapt at the Chief, who trap-shot it in mid-leap. The reaction cost him dearly. The bullets ripped into the creature and blew it apart, spraying its blood every which way possible. That included the blood landing onto the marines. The Chief watched in horror as the acid consumed them, stood their helpless as his fellow soldiers were consumed utterly, and for all his training, power, and intelligence, he could do nothing to save them. So the Master Chief did the only thing he could think of. He charged. His armor pounded against battered, melting deck plating as he shoulder tackled the door into the room where Streak would be. The heavy tackle sent the massive door toppling inwards. The room was only small, surprisingly, with a single console that was some kind of control device. The Chief wasted no time in unlinking Cortana to the console. "Download in progress." she said. The Chief assumed that the download would be rapid, but in all actuality, it took hours. Many hours. He lost track almost completely of the time, until suddenly, he heard groans. He rushed into the corridor to see the white face hugging aliens dead, on the floor, and marines groaning as they got up in pain. "Cortana…" he asked. "Scanning, standby…Chief. Something isn't right. I can't really tell what it is, but its just…wrong." she said. The Chief muttered slightly, but moved to assist marines.
"Download complete." Cortana announced. "Man, Chief, what the hell happened to us?" one of the marines asked as he stretched. "Right now that's not important. We need to get this AI out of this area and back to Lightscream. Once onboard the doctors will give you all treatment if you require it along with some R and R." he said bluntly. The marines seemed satisfied, so they moved out. It only took minutes for the carnage to resume again. One marine paused, and put a hand to his chest as if in pain. Then another one…and another…and the next thing the Chief knew, all the marines were in convulsions, screaming in agony. The Chief was frozen, unsure of what to do. Combat training told him he should assist in any way he could, but how? Whatever those things were, they had poisoned his marines, and that poison was probably killing them. He held onto that thought until he heard the bones beginning to snap. The Chief dove forward and ripped off the armor plate of the nearest marine, and was instantly splattered with blood. He stumbled backwards out of instinct, and for the first time ever, terror began to grip the chief's bones as the marine twitched and yelled in agony. Slowly, the spray of broken bone fragments slowed, until something emerged from the marine's body. The Chief, on his backside, quickly leapt up as the creature darted away into a tiny vent. The Chief swore. Things just got complicated.
The watcher had witnessed the prey's prowess and agility. It was perhaps even worthy enough to do battle with one such as him! He had observed how he moved, how he dealt with things, how strong he was and how fast he was. For a human, he was incredible, though the watcher thought it might have something to do with the suit of armor he wore. Regardless, he was worthy, and if the watcher didn't complete his mission, he would be finished anyway. Silently, he dropped from the ceiling, and began to follow the man in the green armor.