A/N: After another bout of writer's block, I am back! Whoo! Reviews, you say? But of course!

Aphotica: What?

WilltheWatcher: I am now, thanks.

The Marines of Charlie Company

Book II

Aftermath

Chapter 9

To the Rescue…and Bad News.

Recommended Song: Requiem for a Dream LotR: Two Towers Soundtrack

September 14, 2552: 2200 Hours, local time

David grimaced and grunted as his feet hit the ground a little more sharply than he had predicted, even with the shields absorbing most of the blow. His Phantom had just reached the LZ and he jumped without the aid of the gravity lift to ease his fall; the bright purple glow would have definitely drawn a little more attention than he and 'Muscatel felt like dealing with at the time being. Though glad to have somewhat solid ground beneath his feet again, David pushed forward with barely a second thought; he had a mission to deal with. Thankfully, the grass in the field surrounding the Flood-infested complex was tall and thick; he barely needed to crouch to be fully concealed, but could still stand up and see over it if need be. The Halo must've rotated to the planet's dark side because the 'sky' had become pitch dark His gut instincts were screaming 'Trap! Trap! Turn around and go back!', but his heart and mind were set on the task at hand; whether or not Cassandra was inside, some of his troops were and, as their leader, he had a responsibility to them. No man, woman, Elite or Grunt would be left behind as long as David was in charge.

Hardly a sound could be heard as he sprinted in a low crouch through the thick grass toward the towering structure the Flood had holed up in. David knew the structure was large from the bird's-eye views, but this was ridiculous; the large spire that stretched up from the base to the sky had to have been at least two hundred feet up and fifty feet around. The marine was impressed to say the least and repressed the urge to whistle in awe of the sight, mainly to avoid detection. Red blips appeared on David's radar and he froze; they were no more than ten meters away. Though tempted just to strike the creatures down, he waited the five antagonizing minutes for them to go their separate ways and darted up the ramp inside the structure and the darkness within. David activated the built-in night vision, which basically painted the surrounding environment with infrared beams and green light. That made it easier for the human eye to pick out human shapes in the darkness at a distance and tables or other obstacles at shorter distances; it was a blessing for night time or dark operations. David silently thanked whoever invented it.

The task that lay before David was daunting; for all he knew, the structure he was attacking by himself could stretch on for miles underground and, worse yet, be filled to the brim with Flood or Covenant or Flood and Covenant OR worse. Who knew? David crept along at a slow pace for the first moments of his incursion, then picked up the pace significantly; time was most definitely not on his side, and neither were the odds. Twenty feet or so past the entry was a three-pronged fork in the path. He paused only for a brief second before breaking to the right; his instincts had never failed him before and he doubted they would now. Much to his surprise, the right path was a dead-end with no secret panels, no hidden objects, no nothing. The left corridor proved the same, as did the center. David cursed loudly when realization struck; there were no prisoners here. The Flood had moved them a long time ago and he'd walked right into their trap. There was no way for him to escape and the walls were far too thick for him to cut through, so David sat cross-legged in the middle of the four-way intersection, closed his eyes and resigned himself to wait for the inevitable onslaught. He knew he wouldn't have to wait long and almost anticipated the fight; the Flood had murdered and twisted his fellow Marines before, and now they had the gall to attack his crew? Such actions would not be tolerated, not in the least bit. The time had come. They were here.

The walls seemed to all but fall away and revealed the somewhat nasty secret within. A snarling, writhing, flowing green mass of twisted forms and crimes against nature. At first, they seemed surprised…almost shocked that only one had come, but that quickly passed and the first of the flood came screaming the horrible, high pitched wail as it attacked. In a flash, the marine was on his feet and striking back. Not with a sword or a rifle or a handgun, but with his fists. He snatched the combat form out of the air by the ankle (he was sure it must have been an Elite), pivoted on his heel and hurtled the creature using its own momentum into the sea of Flood on the other side. Bodies met at somewhat high speed and with great force and many tumbled to the ground, crushed by their brother's weight. Another cry shattered the night's peace from behind David, who simply stepped aside as the attacking Flood slammed to the ground. This one had a distinctly human shape, but that did not deter David who slammed his fist as hard as he could into the chest cavity, gripped the sternum and planted his back foot, pivoted and slung the combat form as hard as he could into its brothers. Gooey innards clung to his gauntlets and forearm guards, dripping thickly to the floor. He tested the viscous green substance by rubbing the tips of his index finger and thumb together before trying to clean his glove off with several sharp snaps of his arm. The stuff was incredibly sticky and just wouldn't come off, no matter how hard he shook his arm.

Suddenly, all of the flood froze in their places and David froze too; he could hear some sort of rumble up above him and the realization that he'd completely forgotten about the orders he'd given only a short while before. Now, the memory had returned to him as the Ancient Fury hovered above, its guns humming and glowing an angry red as they prepared to fire. There was only one thing David could think to say.

"Shit."

He knew he had to run, knew he had to get away, but also knew that escaping that much firepower on foot was damn near impossible. He would try, though; surrender was not a word in David's vocabulary. He started to run, right foot first, but then noticed something odd as he pushed downward to propel himself forward; there was no floor. Surprised, David looked down to see that a small section of the floor, barely big enough for a man to fall through had slid away and he had stepped right into it. Perfect. He had only enough time to utter a brief cry before falling into the black depth of the hole and tumbling down what he could only assume was a shaft. David's first indication that it was indeed such a thing was his head slamming into one of the shaft's sides, turning him so that his legs were going first. For what seemed like forever, David felt like an old twentieth century cartoon banging down the shaft, being bounced around like a pinball. Suddenly, there was nothing; no walls, no shaft, no sides…nothing. David almost breathed a sigh of relief, but fate seemed to have a cruel since of humor. Just as he exhaled, he felt a searing pain in his back as the ground hit him with bone-shattering speed.

For a little while, David just lay on his back like a turtle and groaned as the bolts of pain that electrified his body slowly subsided and he was able to move into a sitting position and try to figure out where exactly he was. He could hear the dull 'thump thump thump' of the Fury's weapons above him and tried to activate the suit's built in night vision, but nothing happened. It must have been damaged in the fall, he thought, and then tried the torchlight. Thankfully, that worked and a small, cone-shaped beam of light streamed from his helmet. The view before him made him whistle.

He was in what looked like an underground cave at first, but upon further inspection, he found it was more like a bunker. The walls were far too reinforced and far too smooth to be a natural formation, but were not made of the same turquoise material that other structures on the ring were made of. Instead, this bunker seemed to have been dug straight out of the earth and reinforced with roots and vines somehow. In the center of the enormous bunker was a large ring, ten or fifteen feet in diameter, with a pedestal resting at its exact center, standing three or four feet high. His curiosity peaked; David slowly approached the ring and stepped into it, wary of any forms of traps or other such devices, and slowly crept forward toward the pedestal. A pale blue light pulsated at the top and a holographic panel at the middle of its base, projecting a small sphere of the exact same color outward. It seemed to call to David, who knelt down and touched the hologram that shied away from his fingers. The sphere danced for a moment and hovered in front of a key on the panel; he tapped it and the sphere moved to another. He tapped that one, too. Again, it moved. Another tap, another move. Again, he tapped the holographic key and for a fourth time, the sphere moved. When David tapped the fifth key, the sphere lazily wandered to the top of the pedestal and came to rest atop its sister light, which slowly rose from its resting place like a switch.

Curiosity burned at David's heart and mind as he stood, glancing about for anything that looked like a booby trap yet again, and inhaled a breath. Satisfied that there were no traps for the moment, he reached out with his right hand and pushed downward on the switched that had so recently emerged and the entire room came to life. Systems that had to be millennia old suddenly sparked to life as a dizzying array of panels, switches, lights and other miscellaneous things burst outward. He immediately dropped to a kneeling position and glanced around, then back up to the pedestal; there before him were three forerunners. The same three that he had encountered in his dreams what seemed like a dozen times before.

"Welcome, Reclaimer, to the last bastion of the Forerunner." Spoke all three at the same time, gesturing to the bunker with their robed arms.

"You're constructs?" David asked, more than a little confused. "How have you spoken with me?"

The Forerunner laughed as Manaan answered.

"We are not constructs as you are used to, Reclaimer. Before we activated the Halos, three Guardians were chosen for each one and our spirits were then fused with the systems of Halo. Some became monitors; others the systems of Halo themselves."

"We have reached out to you, David Carson," said Tier'Thal, "using our spirit energy. It is a laborious activity, hence why our contact with you is so terribly short. Even though you are here now, time is short; the Flood are mobilizing. Their General is awoken."

General? The Flood had a General? He supposed it was possible that there was some sort of higher-intelligence that controlled the Flood like a hive of bees or colony of ants, but to actually have a General commanding them…well, he just never thought that could have happened. For the most part, the Flood seemed to lack any tact or tactical intelligence at all, but they had launched several successful attacks against the Covenant and UNSC, so that probably wasn't as far-fetched as it seemed at first glance.

"What are they planning?" he asked.

"We do not know exactly," Manaan began, "but we can only assume that it has something to do with the Ark."

"Ark?"

"It has the power to unleash the full fury of the Halos upon the galaxy should they be placed in stasis."

"Where is the Ark?"

"Your homeworld."