Chapter 2- Arkansas.
The pelican door slowly opens, everyone waits patiently. Chief warns the recruits:
-The Covenant is not an easy enemy, we will run through a battle field. I'll do my best, but I can't guarantee everyone's safety. Good luck.
Chief is the first one to step out of the pelican. There are Marines and Covenant fighting against each other. Cortana start talking:
-Well, this place remember me the African plains… Let's focus on the objective, there is a UNSC Communication Post some minutes from here. After this situation is finished, you can leave me at the Communication Post, I'll be safe there.
Master Chief looks to the damaged Covenant cruiser, in his left. The cruiser is huge, that explains the huge amount of enemies. He starts running and shooting every single Covenant in front of him. He runs to an abandoned Wraith and hides behind it. Chief can't see the recruits anymore. Cortana send a message to the Communication Post:
-This is Cortana to Arkansas Communication Post, do you copy?
-Cortana, this is Arkansas Communication Post, we can hear you. What's your position, over?
-I'm sending my coordinates to you, I have Master Chief with me. I repeat, I have Master Chief with me.
-You're not far away, we can't send air support. Come to the post and we can figure a way out of here, the situation is almost controlled, there is nothing to worry about.
Chief stand up and start walking and shooting. He and the rest of the Marines kill what's left of those Covenant troops and follow up to the Communication post. This Communication post looks like any other UNSC Communication post. This one is a little bit bigger than the usual ones. Because of the victory, there is a celebration going on. When Chief comes through the main entrance, everyone stops celebrating and look at him, everyone surprised and thinking to themselves "It is one of the survivors from Reach!"
-Master Chief! - Chief looks to the bald guy with a white uniform- Please, come to the reunion room, we have things to discuss.
Chief follows this bald guy to the reunion room. In this room, he also meets two other people:
-Please, Chief let me introduce myself. My name is Captain Lasky, I'm the Captain of the famous Arkansas cruiser: Infinity; This woman in my right is Diana Lovegood, she is the head behind this Communication post, and that man in my left is-
-Sergeant Avery Johnson, nice to meet ya, Master Chief.
Captain Lasky take a deep breath and start talking:
-Chief, there are some things you should know. First of all, you're not the last Spartan alive. Let me introduce you Ender- a Spartan comes through the door, his helmet remember an ODST helmet- he used to be the last Spartan alive. Now we have you. There is more, unfortunately, Group C from Reach survived, but they changed sides.
Both Cortana and Chief are surprised, Cortana asks:
- What do you mean by, changed sides?
Diana answers for Lasky:
- We don't know what really happened. They are looking for cruisers on Earth. They have unidentified weapons, their guns are not Covenant or Human. Group C is seeking something they call Halo. We must take you to Earth and try to stop them from finding a way to this… Halo.
Lasky hold Diana's hand and start talking:
-Chief and Cortana, both of you know that we had a big loss today. Captain Keyes and the Pillar of autumn. Keyes sacrificed himself because he wanted to terminate something that was inside that ship, a parasite, something horri-
They hear a loud scream coming from outside:
-HELP ME! SOMEBODY HELP! PLEASE!
Everyone stands up and pull their guns out. Chief and Ender go first. They open the door and the atmosphere is different outside. The atmosphere is equal to the atmosphere of a place where a volcano exploded. Ashes of fire and a dark atmosphere. Some lights can be seen, but not clearly.
-Everyone, stay close. - says Ender
They made a circle, everyone is looking somewhere. They start walking through a closed bridge with a lot of windows, but they can't see a lot of what is outside. Suddenly, something hits Diana's face, a little monster. Before anyone can shoot, this monster enters inside her mouth. She starts turning into something. Yellow bubbles and yellow fungus starts appearing on her face and on her body. She becomes a human-sized monster. Both Chief and Ender start shooting it, but it doesn't die. Lasky shoots in her head, finally killing it. In the end of this bridge, a lot of this little-sized monsters appears. Johnson shouts:
-For Christ's sake! There is a lot of them
-It's a Flood. – says Ender.
- Flood. That's a pretty name for a pretty monster. – says Johnson.
Ender, Chief, Lasky and Johnson start shooting this little monsters. After all of them are dead, they get out of this bridge and stealthily go to the Pelican Hangar. In the Hangar, there are hundreds of little-sized Flood and there is a lot of human-sized Flood. Something surprises them all, there are infected Covenant as well. No one tried to escape, probably because no one survived to this parasite. Cortana says something she thinks that is important:
-Keyes… he died trying to stop this. The Covenant and human fighting side by side, they were fighting this! There is nothing about this parasite on the UNSC data, not even in the classified data. Keyes saw everything this thing was doing to the other Marines and to the Covenant, and he tried to destroy it. I'm sure this Flood came from the damaged Covenant cruiser. There is a lot of Pelicans in this Hangar.
-The Pelican is not the problem, Cortana. There is no way, if we want to get in, we need to kill all of them. – says Lasky.
-We don't have enough ammo- says Chief.
- Well, we can't hug those monsters and ask nicely to them if they can please let us go without trying to kill us, so what's the plan? – asks Johnson.
- That's the problem. – says Lasky.
Suddenly, they hear the sound of grenades blowing up and guns being shot. All the Flood follow this sound. Now the hangar is clear of Flood:
-Go. Go. Go. – says Ender.
All of them get aboard the first Pelican they see. When the Pelican start running, the engine makes a big explosion noise, and it stops working:
-Oh no. Hell no. I need cover to fix this engine. – says Johnson
-I'll give you cover. – says Chief
They get out of the Pelican and see lots of little-sized Flood and Infected Flood. Johnson starts fixing the engine and Chief starts shooting everything. An Infected Elite knocks Chief to the ground. All the other infected ones jump on Chief and start beating him up to death. One of the infected pulls Johnson to this circle of death. But, for their luck, a bunch of Marines show up and starts shooting them. Chief is able to get up and keep killing the Flood. Johnson says:
-Ok, Fixed it. Let's get the hell out of here.
Everyone gets in the Pelican and before any Flood could get in, they close the Pelican's door. Chief realizes that those Marines were the same recruits that Chief escorted to Arkansas, he says:
-Thank you, Marines.
-This was our retribution for taking us out of the Pillar of Autumn.
-Where's the rest?
-They didn't make it, Sir.
The Pelican starts working and they all get out of the Communication Post. Chief asks:
-There is no planet close from here, we would need a cruiser to go to Earth. So where are we going?
-We are going to the UNSC Arkansas Military Capital: Levely. There, we can find a cruiser to take us to Earth and to stop Group C. – answers Lasky.
Chief realizes that something is worrying Cortana, he asks her:
-What is concerning you?
- The Flood… obviously it is not a Covenant creation, otherwise it would only attack humans. Where did they come from? How they got inside that Covenant cruiser. The Covenant found something. Something horrible. Something…destructive.