Chapter 4: Spirit of Fire
A/N: Ok, this chapter may be longer or shorter. You'll just have to see as you go. No skipping ahead to find out please. But anyway, in this chapter, the Chief and his fire team will be investigating the ship they think to be the UNSC Spirit of Fire. And they'll run into something very, very familiar, well, familiar to the Chief. No hints. Sorry, not my style. On with the chapter!
The Master Chief climbed over the edge of the cliff that dropped into Blood Gulch. He turned around and waited for his fire team. "Move it, maggots!" he shouted. "We don't have all day!" Washington was the first to get up the rise. "Good job, Washington." he said. "What?" Washington asked the Chief. "Do I get a medal?" He shook his head. "I'm afraid not, soldier." he said, putting his hands on his hips. "Hurry up!" he shouted. He saw a shotgun fly over the rise and Sarge came up next. "Chief," Sarge started. "What do you expect to encounter on this vessel?"
"I have no idea." he said. "But that's why I told you to bring guns and ammo." Church climbed up and rolled over onto his back. "You didn't tell us to bring ammo!" he yelled. "We just assumed so!" Grif came up next. "Never assume Church," Grif said. "It'll make an ass out of you and me!" Church grunted. "Shut. Up. Grif." he groaned. "You maggots have to work out more." the Chief said. "Washington, I give you an A+ for effort." The Spartan and his team took a few minutes to rest. After a few minutes, he got up. "Ok ladies," he said, turning towards the Spirit of Fire. "What are you waiting for? Chinese New Year? To the ship and on the double!"
"Yes sir!" One of the Spartans groaned. He walked towards the Spirit of Fire and looked for a way in. "This doesn't seem right." the Master Chief said. "What do you mean?" Sarge asked. "If there are survivors," he said, turning around to face his squad. "they might have signaled by now. I don't like it." He turned back around, and spotted a hole in the bridge's window. "Team," he said, pointing. "That's our way in. Let's go!" Thank God the ship is upright, he thought. They found the lowest entry point, which was parts of the front hull smashed inward from the impact, which made make-shift steps and climbed in. "Do you think the impact made a hole in the glass?" Grif asked. "I think so." he said. "It's the only logical explanation."
They walked around the bridge, looking around. "What are you looking for?" Sarge asked. "Nothing in particular." he lied, turning around. "Just looking around." In reality, he was looking for a data console, where AIs would be placed into. Maybe, just maybe, if he could locate one, he could find out what happened to this doomed ship. He looked around the bridge and finally stopped. "It must have been destroyed." he said. "What must have been destroyed?" Washington asked. "The data console," he answered. "I thought if I could find one, I could find out what happened here." He walked over to one of the terminals and saw that it was flashing green. He frowned and tapped a few buttons on it.
Nothing happened, but the console set on fire. "Well, that didn't go as planned." Sarge said. "There's nothing here, lets move on." the Chief said. He walked over towards the back of the bridge, his crew right behind him. He came to a door, that was jammed shut. The Chief took out his Assault Rifle and opened the door with the butt of his weapon. "Just like old times." he whispered, thinking about the action on the Pillar of Autumn. He walked outside the bridge and checked both ends of the hallway. "Nothing!" the Chief said. "Not even a sign of a struggle!" He walked around, looking for something. Anything. "Listen up," the Chief said. "Our first task is to find the cryo-bay. If there are any survivors whatsoever, they might be locked up in the pods."
"Got it." Washington answered. The Chief walked down the hall, looking for signs that would lead around the ship. He walked to the left end of the hall and started to hear voices. They didn't sound human. "Everyone, hide!" he hissed. They didn't question him, just did as they were told. A few seconds passed and he saw a group of Brutes walking down the opposite end of the hallway. "Brutes?" he whispered. "Why would Covenant Brutes be on a UNSC cruiser?" He waited for them to pass and got back into the hall. "Who were those guys?" Washington asked. "Not guys," he said. "Covenant Brutes. I fought them in the Human-Covenant War." Sarge grunted. "But isn't the war over?" he asked. "I thought it was." he said. "Until a couple days ago, before I landed here."
"What should we do?" Church whispered. "We don't do a damn thing." Chief said. "I let them pass. They might not be friendly, but I'm not taking any chances." He walked towards the way they came, signaling his troops to follow. "Something isn't right here," he whispered. "They weren't holding plasma weapons, they were holding a mix of Covenant and UNSC weapons." Maybe they were part of a space salvage group, like Cortana and I encountered on the Forward Unto Dawn, he thought. He shuddered when he thought of Cortana's name. The Chief saw a sign on the wall, which pointed to an armory. "Men," he said, turning to his troops. "There's an armory nearby. We get there, restock on ammo or get additional firepower and then explore further." The four other Spartans nodded. He ran down the corridor, with his troops right behind him.
He saw a pair of sleeping Grunts. "Men, see the midget-like aliens?" he asked. "Yes sir." they whispered. "Take them out," he whispered back. "Quietly." He saw Grif and Church sneak over to the sleeping Grunts. He heard a crack of their skulls and they were sleeping. Forever. "Nighty Night." he whispered. "Sarge," he whispered, turning his head. "Take point by the door. You too, Wash." He heard them acknowledge and they walked towards the armory door. He followed, them and got in front of the door. "Church, Grif!" he whispered. "Behind me, now!" The pair got behind him and he nodded to Sarge and Washington. "On three," he whispered. "One, T-" Grif interrupted him "Wait, wait, wait," he whispered. "On three and then go? Or on three?" The Master Chief shook his head. "On three, you numbnuts." he hissed. "It's always faster to go on three."
"Ok," he whispered. "One, Two and go!" He kicked open the door and looked for hostiles. He saw three Elites, standing with their backs to them, as they made grunting sounds. "It's ok," he said, raising his hand. "They're friendlies." He only thought they were friendlies because of his alliance with the Arbiter. He walked towards the Elites. "Hey, are you guys with the Arbiter?" He asked the Elites. One of the Elites, with crimson armor, jumped up, turned around and tried to hit the Chief with his Battle Rifle."What the fuck?!" he nearly shouted. "What's going on? I'm on your side! Arbiter! Arbiter!" The Elites ignored the mention of the Arbiter and preceeded to attack. "Fuck it," the Chief said, leveling his Rifle. "Open fire!" He opened fire on the Elite's face and it fell down. He snapped to another Elite, rolling to the right at the same time and fired. The Elite in the middle that he had just shot, twitched twice and got back up. "What the hell?!" Church shouted. "What is going on?!" The Chief thought he knew, but he didn't want to accept it. He saw the green tint and algae-like body structure, but he didn't want to accept what he thought was going on.
He kept firing at the Elites, as one of them charged Washington. "Washington! Watch your six!" he screamed. The door opened and three or four Brutes joined the party. "Fuck!" Grif said, firing at the newcomers. "They sent backup!" Suddenly, the Chief had an idea. "Everyone, out of the room!" he yelled, as he primed a grenade. He threw it at the wall next to the door and it bounced back. His Spartans piled out of the room, and he flipped out behind them. Only half a second later, the grenade went off and he heard sounds of dying Brutes and Elites. "Holy shit," Grif said, after catching his breath. "What the hell was that?" The Master Chief took a short breath and responded. "I have no idea," he said, reloading his Assault Rifle. Just then, an Elite walked out of the room. "How?!" Washington screamed. Sarge sprayed a few shotgun shells into the Elite and it fell down. Sarge walked over and fired shells into his head. Once he ran out of shells, he started to bash the Elite's skull in with the butt of the Shotgun.
He walked over to Sarge and grabbed his shoulder. "Easy Sarge," he said. "I think you got it. Calm down!" Sarge threw his hand off his shoulder. "Don't tell me to calm down!" he screamed. "I am calm! Just freaked out! I didn't sign up for this!" The Chief let out a small laugh. "You didn't sign up," he said. "You volunteered." The sergeant grunted and reloaded. "Ok," he said, walking into the armory. "Let's pick up some new weaponry." His team piled into the room and scored around for weapons. "Hey, Sniper Rifle!" he heard Grif say. Church ran up and grabbed the Rifle. "Oh, what the fuck?!" Grif said. "Why do you even want the Sniper Rifle? You can't shoot shit anyway!" Church just grunted and shrugged. The Chief took a Rocket Launcher for himself and kept the Battle Rifle. All of a sudden, the Chief heard the humming of a Warthog's engine. "Get down!" he yelled, just as a Warthog drove past the door, spraying bullets inside. "Hey, Warthog!" Church said. "Hey, Grif!" Grif looked at the cobalt Spartan. "What?" he asked. "Shotgun." Church said. "Shotgun! Fuck!" Grif yelled. "Quiet down, you two!" the Chief said. "They might be back!"
The Chief ran out of the room, spotted the Warthog and fired a rocket as it came back down. The rocket collided with the Warthog. The Warthog rolled upwards and fell over, destroyed. The Chief placed the Launcher on his back and drew his Rifle, expecting survivors. "These troops are really tough." he grunted, still denying his theory. He turned around to walk back to the armory. "Ok ladies," he said. "Let's move out." The Spartans got up and walked out of the room. "The cryo-bay is down at the other end of the hallway," he said. "Let's go." He walked down the hall and stopped, seeing Hunters at the other end of the hall. "Fuck!" he hissed, flipping back to cover. "Luckly, they didn't see me." he grunted. "The Hunters are like the tanks of the Covenant army. They don't go down easy. When their brother in arms is killed, the other goes crazy. Cover me."
The Chief dived from cover, rolled and faced the Hunters. He fired a rocket in between the abominations, wounding one, but killing the other. "Fuck..." the Chief grunted, realizing his mistake. But something was wrong with this Hunter. He didn't go berserk. The Hunter looked down the corridor, in the Chiefs direction. The Chief knew he had fucked up and he'd be dead in a matter of seconds. But all the Hunter did was fire his Fuel Rod Cannon down the corridor. The Chief rolled out of the way and fired a trio of shredder rounds at the Hunter. The Hunter moved out of the way, leaving the Chief surprised. "Washington!" he called. "How about some help?!" Washington jumped from his cover and threw a Fragmentation Grenade.
The Hunter rolled out of the way, once again. "That thing's putting up a hell of a fight!" Grif yelled. "You're not kidding!" Church said. The Chief fired several more rounds at the massive beast. "Go to hell!" Sarge shouted, emerging from cover. All five Spartans were in the fight now and there was no way in hell they were backing down. "Distract that thing!" the Chief said. His team only nodded and kept firing at the Hunter. The Hunter started to pay attention to them, instead of the Chief. The Master Chief snuck behind the beast, as it charged his team. The Chief snuck up on it and jumped on it's back. The Hunter roared, trying to shake him off. He primed a Plasma Grenade, the only Covenant piece of hardware he'd found so far. He stuck it in the folds of the beast's armor. "Say hi to the Prophets for me!" he said, kicking off the Hunter and taking cover.
A few seconds later, he heard the grenade go off and he heard half a ton of Hunter come crashing to the deck. He emerged from his cover and saw that the Hunter was most likely dead. He walked over to the corpse and kicked it. The corpse twitched, but didn't get back up. "What's going on here?" he asked himself. "Come on," he said. "We're almost to the cryo-bay." His crew nodded and they followed him towards the end of the corridor. They finally reached the door that led into the bay and he took cover by the door. He reloaded his weapon, just in case. He bashed the door open and was welcomed by a familiar sight. Chief Petty Officer Mendez. "CPO Mendez!" he said. The war torn soldier looked up. "Who are you, Spartan?" he asked, frowning. "Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan John-117." The CPO nodded. His other Spartans came in and some muttered, "His name is John?" Grif spoke first. "Of course it is, dumbass." Grif said. The Chief sighed. "Ok men," he said, turning back to his men. "Our new objective is-" he was staring to say something, but that was when he saw something that horrified him. The Chief was about to relive hundreds of nightmares. The door to the cryo-bay opened and the Chief saw the first of many Infection Forms flood into the room.
A/N: Mwah ha ha ha. That's right, the Flood is on the ship. That's why the Elites, Brutes, and the Hunters were so hard to kill. So, in the next chapter, the Chief, Church, Grif, Sarge, Washington, and CPO Mendez will face countless Flood forms. Stay tuned! Also, please note that this takes place AFTER Halo 4.
