Author's Note: Sorry about the long updating time. I was up in Meaford for a month for training. Anywho, finally got Chapter 10 up, hope you all enjoy.
Chapter 10: The Cruiser
Guilty Spark stopped and turned to the three soldiers following it.
"The Flood are assaulting the covenant forces before they can board their ship," the construct informed the trio.
"Good, let them tear each other apart," Nathan spat.
"Wait. If the brutes are trying to board a ship to leave… if the parasite manages to board that ship in their stead they will have free reign across the galaxy," Jimaelhae pointed out.
"Oh fuck," Nathan said as realization dawned.
"So, shall we go help the bastards?" Fenris asked, cracking her knuckles in anticipation. Jimaelhae glanced at her before looking back up at Guilty Spark.
"Would you be able to teleport us to the site of the cruiser, as you have teleported us here," Jimaelhae asked. Guilty Spark hovered in place for a moment, computing information.
"Affirmative, however if we take precious time to stall the Flood from reaching the cruiser than the Ark may be reached by the covenant," Guilty Spark informed them.
Fenris looked at the other two in turn, then took a stop forward and looked directly into the blue light that almost seemed to serve as Guilty Spark's eye.
"If we don't stop the flood here it won't matter who reaches the Ark, cause the flood could very well already be there. Take us to the Flood now," Fenris demanded, crossing her arms over her chest.
Guilty Spark again hovered in place, his light blinked a few times.
"Very well," he finally agreed, and Fenris smiled.
Cerberus let out a roar as he threw one of the flood warriors above his head. The beam from a beam rifle ripped through it, and killed it. He was on the edge of the covenant soldiers, fighting the flood head on. There were hordes of the parasite though. He didn't even know that there had been this many humans and covenant on the ring.
The creature that had once been Miranda Keyes was standing just at the edge of the jungle. Tentacles had erupted from her back and shoulders, her torso and legs had thickened, and her arms now ended in claws. Her head was mostly unchanged, except for the fact that her once well groomed hair was now messy and greasy, her eyes were gummed shut, and her nose had shrunken into her skull.
Another warrior came at him, Cerberus pounded in its chest with his fists, letting out a roar of anger. His meaty paws smashed through the flood that came after him. That was, until there was an immense pain in his side. One of the ex-marines had fired a shotgun into his side, exposing his intestines.
Cerberus went to smash the parasite ridden creature when battle rifle rounds peppered his back. Cerberus stumbled, then picked up the shotgun flood and threw him into the crowd of flood warriors.
Breathing heavily the brute turned to face the oncoming horde. He knew his death was coming, so he charged them. From another part of the battlefield Barkarus watched his best soldier charge headfirst into the Flood horde. Bodies went flying from him as he drove into the crowd like a train, but his momentum was quickly stalled. The Flood surged upon Cerberus, tearing him apart limb by limb. Intestines flew above the heads of the brutal Flood warriors, followed by an arm, and Cerberus's head.
Barkarus roared, and smashed a few flood away with his hammer. He wasn't sure how to use the force field that the hammer generated, but his skill with the weapon ensured him that it didn't matter. He batted away each of the Flood warriors that came after him, crushing their bodies with each blow.
The chieftain brought his hammer back to strike at another flood warrior. He lined up the swing and started to bring it forward, when it suddenly lost all momentum. He looked back only to see tentacles wrapped around the shaft of the hammer. Barkarus followed the tentacles back to the infested Miranda Keyes, her eyeless face seeming to stare directly at him.
"The fall of the covenant is nigh," she said, voice low, gravely.
The tentacles pulled back, yanking the hammer from the brute's grasp. Barkarus stumbled slightly, and that was enough to let a flood warrior to jump on his back. The creature had once been an elite, but now that tit had been assimilated by the parasite, the alien warrior was barely recognizable. It drove a tentacle through Barkarus's shoulder, severing tendons and dislocating the joint.
Another warrior stabbed Barkarus through the knee, bringing him to the ground. He let out a growl of fury, and used his good hand the swipe the first flood warrior off his back before it could strike again. He was about the hit the second one when Keyes grabbed his arm with her tentacles.
Barkarus struggled to free himself, but Keyes was too strong. The tentacles began to squeeze, and the brute chieftain couldn't help but let out a roar of pain as the bones in his forearm were slowly crushed.
Then he noticed the controller form of the parasite scuttling down Keyes's tentacle. His eyes went wide with something Barkarus had never felt before; fear. He wouldn't be able to fight the small creature off, and it would consume his soul.
He pulled on his arm, fear and determination lending him strength. All he succeeded in doing was dislocating his one good shoulder. On his knees, one useless arm hanging at his side, the other being held above him, and his head hung low, Barkarus knew this was his end. It wasn't the death he had imagined.
He felt tiny legs crawling across the fur on his chest; pulling on it as it scrabbled to the centre of his torso. Once it had found a comfortable position it started to burrow into his flesh, somehow squeezing between his ribs. Barkarus felt something growing inside him, felt his body begin to go numb as something grew along his spinal column.
The last thing he did consciously was look up at Keyes, and spit at her.
As soon as the white light had faded Fenris was at a run towards the sounds of battle, with Jimaelhae close behind her.
"Fuck," Nathan muttered under his breath, he knew they were going to charge head on without overlooking the battle field.
He struggled to keep up with them much less catch up, but still he tried, pushing himself to his limits, almost to the point where he couldn't breathe. He was already tired from all the time he had spent on this damn ring, fighting, running, but rarely resting. His body ached, and half the time his eyelids were feeling heavy. He was running on adrenaline and nothing more, but now he could feel it catching up to him. He was only human after all.
"Slow the fuck down," he wheezed, and falling to his knees. Jimaelhae stopped first, then Fenris a split second afterwards. They walked over to Nathan who almost felt as if he wanted to throw up, but he hadn't eaten anything since landing on this ring… he wasn't even sure how long it had been. Too long was all he could think.
"Come on we have to hurry," Fenris said, edging towards where she knew the battle was taking place.
"We can't just charge in, getting ourselves killed won't accomplish anything except helping the flood," Nathan said, looking up at his two companions.
"He is correct," Jimaelhae said looking over at Fenris, who nodded in reluctant acceptance.
Nathan got to his feet and brought his breathing back under control. When he was ready he cracked his knuckles.
"All right, now let's go and kick some ass," the sergeant said. Fenris couldn't help but let a small smile cross her face at those words. The three started off at a slower jog.
After a few minutes they came to a knoll overlooking the battlefield between the flood and covenant forces. There was blood everywhere, and the covenant numbers were dwindling fast. The survivors were scattered, fighting in small pockets of unorganized resistance. Flood warriors had slaughtered the jackals sniping from the gravity platform and had begun to stream up into the ship. One particular creature caught Nathan's eye.
"No, it can't be," he muttered.
"Officer status isn't going to make her immune to the flood," Fenris whispered back, following Nathan's gaze.
"No… she's become exactly like another creature I killed earlier. It's different from the rest," Nathan said.
Nathan stood up, panting, covered in yellowish blood, and saw a beast with six tentacles coming from its back. It just emerged from the forest, walking with an eerie calmness that a human would posses. Amy had just reloaded her shotgun, and she looked up.
"What the fuck is that?" she demanded of anyone who could provide her with an answer. When none came she brought the butt of the shotgun to her shoulder, aiming at the things chest.
Until it's tentacles snapped forward, and easily tore Amy apart, like she was a doll. Nathan stared in horror. What the hell was he going to do now.
"You cannot stand before us reclaimer," it said in a low gravely voice, shocking Nathan. It stepped forward. Nathan threw his gun at it, but a tentacle hit the gun, breaking it in half. The tentacles wrapped around Nathan, lifted him into the air, and threw him into a puddle.
Nathan lifted his face from the muddy water, spitting some out. He could hear it behind him. He spun onto his back, and jumped to his feet. He charged the creature, though he didn't really intend to do anything by it. The creature simply swatted him aside.
"You are the reclaimers that we have feared. You are weak," it said.
Nathan spit blood from his mouth, and looked up at the thing approaching him. It's tentacles snapped forward and enrobed him. The creature lifted Nathan a few feet above the ground. Nathan looked down at it, and what disturbed him most was that the thing seemed not to have any eyes.
"What are you?" he asked.
"I am the avatar, we are the Flood," it said, almost like it had practiced this before. It's tentacles began to constrict, taking the air out of Nathan's lungs. He couldn't breathe, blackness was creeping in around the edges of his vision. He was going to die here, he had failed.
"You are weak, you can't hold anything" the creature said, and Nathan screamed.
"It still dies like other ones then," Fenris said, and Nathan nodded in grim determination.
The Miranda creature was flung up through the purple beam connecting the ground with the covenant cruiser floating in the sky. Nathan's eyes followed her, while Fenris and Jimaelhae looked over the small pockets of battles. The pockets were growing smaller in both size and number. The strongest group was a few wounded brutes lashing out at the oncoming flood warriors with theirs fists.
That was until a carrier form wandered amongst them. One brute in a rage struck out against it. The others looked on in horror as the creature exploded. The force of the explosion threw their bodies away and the gasses held inside melted their flesh. Only one of the alien warriors was still alive. A piece of its skull was gleamed white beneath the flow of crimson blood. Its hand, nearly burnt away, reached out as if for help. A infested marine jumped on the brute's back and drove a clawed hand through its head, splattering brains across the ground.
"So are we going down there?" Nathan asked as he diverted his attention back to the ground.
"I do not see a chieftain," Jimaelhae noted.
"Dead, infested, or fighting on the cruiser. Whichever it is it's not good. I think we're too late," Fenris muttered angrily.
With each second more and more flood piled onto the gravity lift and were lifted into the ship. The covenant were nearly wiped out. Suddenly the gravity beam shut off, and the cruiser came to life. It slowly started to lift even higher into the sky.
"Shit… we better see if we can get back because I think the flood are headed off to the Ark," Nathan said.
Fenris nodded, and Guilty Spark was suddenly behind the three soldiers.
"I told you, now you must hurry, the escape pod is waiting," Guilty Spark said. The flood heard Guilty Spark's loud voice and began to run up the hill. Fenris raised her rifle and started to fire off shots.
"Hurry and get that fucking teleportation shit going," Nathan yelled at the construct.
Within a few seconds bright yellow rings surrounded the three and their vision began to fade to white.
"I am beginning to dislike this," Jimaelhae grumbled. The last thing Fenris saw before everything faded to white was a flood warrior's claw slashing at her face.