Author's Note: Sorry about the long time updating, writer's block hit me like a train. This is the final chapter of this particular part of the trilogy, I will hopefully begin word on part 3 soon enough. I hope you've enjoyed, or at least been entertained by this story, and I'll try to do better with part 3.
Chapter 11: Escape
The white light faded and the arm of the flood warrior fell to cold metallic floor of the ancient forerunner structure. Fenris looked down at the severed limb on the floor, as her two comrades looked around their new location.
"Back in the library," Nathan muttered, checking over his rifle, quickly growing bored of the bland and sterile environment.
The growls of flood emanated from down the corridor. Jimaelhae lifted his carbine with one hand, head glaring down the so far empty corridor.
"Ever notice that even though each teleportation only takes a few seconds, it feels like its been months," Nathan said.
Fenris and Jimaelhae looked at him, Fenris's eyebrow slightly raised. Nathan merely shrugged.
"Just an observation," he muttered.
A blue light appeared as Guilty Spark floated down from the ceiling. The three warriors looked up apprehensively at the small hovering metal orb.
"We must hurry, there is no time to waist, we must reach the arc," the AI construct said, the blue light flickering as it 'spoke'.
"Well lead on, we have no idea how to get through this place," Fenris said with a low growl, and Nathan let out a low chuckle. Jimaelhae crossed his arms over his chest and stared up at Guilty Spark.
"Yes of course," the construct said, and began moving down the hall, away from the growls of the flood the trio noted with approval. As the small robotic construct began moving, his glow lit the bland walls with a easy blue light that was somehow calming.
Guilty Spark passed by a vent, which Nathan and Jimaelhae ignored, but Fenris put her full attention on. There was something within the darkness of the vent, she could smell it.
A flood warrior burst from the shadows with a guttural snarl. It soared through the air with outstretched claws, intending to tear into Nathan's chest. Fenris pushed the marine sergeant out of the way and swung one of her blades in an arc before her, severing the creature's arm and head. The flood warrior collapsed on the floor, and used its single remaining arm to push itself to its feet. Fenris threw her sword, impaling the monstrosity through the chest, finally killing it.
"Holy shit," Nathan yelled out as Fenris planted a foot on the creature's chest and pulled her blade free. With her free hand she wiped the dark yellow blood from her face.
"We have to hurry," Jimaelhae said as his own ears picked up the sounds of advancing Flood. He looked behind them and was soon able to make out grotesque silhouettes of the Flood advancing upon them, their growls reaching a crescendo.
Nathan and Fenris both raised their battle rifles and looked through the sights.
"Fuck… lets move," Nathan said, and the three took off down the hallway, the sounds of their boots striking the floor being drowned out by the growing sound of the Flood's growling.
The trio passed by another vent, and another Flood warrior leapt from the darkness of the opening. Fenris dropped to a knee and raised her shotgun, firing a single blast into the creature's chest. The creature's momentum through the air was halted completely, and it collapsed lifeless to the ground.
Nathan looked over his shoulder in time to see the Flood nearly upon them. He raised his rifle and fired three quick bursts into their ranks, but only saw a few of the creatures fall.
"Must… go…. Faster!" Nathan yelled out loudly in the voice he had developed as a sergeant in the UNSC marine corps.
Fenris and Jimaelhae had no problem listening to him and they took off as fast as they could down the hall, slowly only for Nathan's sake. To allow him to catch up they would stop and fire bursts of fire into the oncoming Flood.
Above them, Guilty Spark suddenly turned towards what looked like a huge set of doors.
"Give me a moment, the doors will be open momentarily," the construct said.
"Fucking hurry!" Fenris yelled, standing in front of the door and shouldering her shotgun. The other two took up firing positions on either side of her, and they began firing into the oncoming horde while Guilty Spark brought up a holographic console and started going through the processes to open the giant steel doors.
The flood were getting closer, Nathan bit his lower lip as he fired burst after burst into the creatures. Yellow blood sprayed from the exit wounds as bullets tore through their bodies. Whenever a round punched through the chest the creature would be instantly killed. But there were so many.
Fenris let out a snarl as her shotgun clicked empty. She reached for more shells, and discovered that she was out. She flipped the shotgun through the air so she gripped it by the barrel, and braced herself for the coming melee.
Nathan's rifle ran dry. He automatically ejected the magazine, and slammed in a fresh one. He hit the bolt catch, sending another round into the chamber, and started his barrage of bullets into the grotesque horde fast approaching.
Jimaelhae's carbine spat out green bolts of death, scorching through the mottled flesh of the warriors fast approaching. The energy pod within the weapon depleted, and the Sangheilli warrior could no longer fire his weapon. He knew he no spare pods, and so threw the useless Covenant weapon to the side, and pulled out his knife, and dropped into the same fighting stance he had used when fighting Vartainee on top of the ruins.
"Hurry up you damn robot, I don't want this to be our last stand!" Nathan yelled out, as he fired another burst.
Just as he spoke the door began to crawl open. All three hurried through the small opening as it continued to grind into the metal walls to its sides.
"Close it!" Fenris yelled, turning around, and smashing a once human marine across the face with her shotgun, sending the creature sprawling backwards into the others close behind.
"I cannot merely close the doors until they have been opened all the way. To do otherwise would damage the system," the construct informed her.
"Fuck the system! We'll die if those doors aren't closed," Nathan screamed out, as he fired a burst into the widening gap in the middle of the doors.
Guilty Spark took a few moments to register what it had been told, then proceeded to open a separate holographic console on the other side of the door, closing the old one. The construct began to work through the system to close the heavy doors, while the three warriors fought viciously to keep the flood at bay.
Nathan could feel sweat gathering on his brow under his helmet, before it rolled down his face. He could feel warmth from under his skin in his hands and armpits. He was scared, he didn't know if he would make it through this time. After all he had been through he could very well die because a fucking door wouldn't close.
After what seemed like an eternity the two large slabs of forerunner metal stopped opening, and began to move closer together. A surge of adrenaline burst through Nathan's veins. He let our a loud laugh, firing a burst clean into a warrior's chest.
Jimaelhae danced amongst the flood, his knife slashing in wide arcs, severing limbs and cutting through the chest and infectious controller that attached itself to the spine of entities to bring them into the flood. Fenris was in a rage, the butt of her shotgun smashing violently into her enemies, crushing their chest cavities. Corpses piled around the two soldiers as they fought on, while Nathan covered them from further away, though his own ammunition was quickly dwindling.
He didn't know what he would do if such happened. Yes he had killed an avatar, yes he had survived the darkness of the jungle. But he would not be able to fight them without a gun, he just wasn't strong enough.
There was a loud thump as the doors closed, and blood spurted from between the metal doors as one of the flood was crushed. All three soldiers panted, but quickly collected themselves and turned to Guilty Spark.
"Are you ready to proceed? The escape pod is down this tunnel. Your pilot is awaiting your arrival," Guilty Spark informed them.
"Our pilot?" Jimaelhae asked in confusion. Fenris merely shrugged and followed the glowing A.I. construct. The other two sighed and followed her.
They walked for what seemed like hours, though in truth it was probably only a few minutes. Finally they reached a much smaller door. As Guilty Spark approached the door hissed open, revealing a pitch black room, and a single glowing red light closer to the door.
"Well Tinkerbelle, welcome back… and you've brought guests," a familiar voice said. Nathan couldn't help but smile as Sgt. Avery Johnson stepped out of the room, combat cap snug on his head, and cigar smoking in his mouth.
The creature that was once Captain Miranda Keyes of the UNSC navy, stood on the bridge of the captured Covenant cruiser. The newly infested brutes and jackals manned the piloting stations of the cruiser. Even though Miranda had never known how to use the ship, the Covenant had, all she had to do was order them.
Upon her command, the gravity lift was removed, and the ship started to ascend into orbit. Their destination was Earth, Miranda had known where that was, and so passed the information on to be entered into the navigational systems. Once there, they would find the ark, and the entire universe would belong to the flood.
"Good to see you still kicking Avery," Nathan said to his old friend.
"Nice to see your ugly ass to, now lets get moving, we have a boat to catch and a world to save," the brash sergeant said, turning on his heel and walking into the darkness of the room.
Guilty Spark pulsated once and lights snapped on all across the room. The room wasn't very wide, but it was tall, with a set of doors similar to that Fenris, Nathan and Jimaelhae had seen earlier. The room was a launching bay, and in the centre was a cone shaped space craft, it's bulk filled most of the room, and its height reached eight metres tall.
"This is the escape pod. Quickly now, time is of the utmost importance," Guilty Spark commanded.
The four soldiers looked at the hovering construct, before turning to face the escape pod. As they looked on at the silvery craft, a ramp slowly opened directly in front of the quartet.
"Quickly," Guilty Spark urged as he accessed another console to open the doors above.
Nathan looked up out of instinct, and saw a rocket, smoke trailing behind it, heading directly towards the floor where they stood.
"Fuck get on," the marine sergeant commanded.
The other three looked up as Nathan bolted for the escape pod. Luckily rockets were slow moving, so the three had time to react, jumping onboard. Guilty Spark flew in just behind them, and the ramp closed. The interior was lit only by the construct's pulsating light.
The inside had five seats, four in a neat square formation, with a fifth directly in the centre. What appeared to be controls were situated directly in front of the fifth seat.
As the explosion of the rocket striking outside sounded through the ancient craft, Sgt. Johnson strapped himself into the pilot seat, while the other three chose three random seats for themselves, securing themselves in place.
A screen flickered to life on the control panels sitting in front of the Sgt, who let a smile cross his face.
"I can see them, they can't see me. HA!" Sgt. Johnson said with a barking laugh at the end, cigar still secure in his mouth. His hands seemed to know exactly where to go on the controls to work the craft.
A rumbling sounded through the craft as the small engines warmed themselves up. Nathan looked around the surroundings, as bleak as the library itself was, the only thing that wasn't a bland metallic surface was the control panel that Johnson was using, and the hard seats the other three had seated themselves on.
"Alright, hold on to your asses, we're going for a ride," the sergeant said, as the craft began to lift off. Johnson saw the flood warriors leaping at the craft and breaking their bodies upon the impact, and he smiled with satisfaction.
Jimaelhae sat in his seat, he knew the craft was headed for Earth, he knew he would be fighting there, but for whom? Was the covenant split there as well, or were the elites and humans still fighting? The sangheilli warrior looked at those that had become his comrades, the test of loyalty for him was approaching.
Fenris tilted her head back and closed her eyes. Her destiny was unfolding, an ancient duty given to her millennia before she had even been born. Yet she was the only one of her kind left. Would she be able to fight the coming battle alone, when it was meant to be fought by thousands like her? She let out a deep breath, the coming trials would mean not only life or death for her, but for the entire galaxy. If the humans didn't win, everything would die.
Nathan looked down at his hands, his gloves were still stained with blood. Sara's blood, Mike's blood. Since he had escaped the jungle, he wondered why he had been allowed to live, when they had been sentenced for death. He had nothing left, they had had everything back at home. He knew the answer now, he was their avenging angel, he would ensure they had not died in vain. He was returning to Earth, the seed of humanity, and he would fulfill his duty, he would avenge his fallen comrades.
It was payback time.
The gravemind's essence searched through the empty halls of high charity, it could sense the presence of the human A.I.
"I have questions, and you will answer," it grumbled.
"Shoot," Cortanna answered simply.
The gravemind responded with a deep laugh. The A.I. simply didn't understand. This was the endgame, she was naught but a pawn. The universe would belong to the flood, and the A.I. would help them, even as the corrupting essence of the gravemind leaked into the circuitry of the Covenant systems.