Chapter 5- 343 Guilty Spark
-DIANA! You stupid fool. You gave Chief the wrong coordinates. Now we will need to find him! – says Sam
-Sorry, Sir. But I'm sure that I inserted the correct coordinates, something is wrong or I made a mistake.
-Be sorry won't make Chief find us. Locki and Damian, find Master Chief and bring him to me.
-Sir, yes Sir!
Elsewhere, Chief is driving the hornet through a snow storm, he can barely see. He hears an alarm sound and he discovers that his fuel is empty:
-Cortana, I'll need to stop here.
-Chief, aren't you listening to it?
-To what?
-Listen.
Chief can hear the sound of Banshees and the sound of guns. He runs straight forward and he sees a damaged pelican on the ground and some Marines trying to survive next to it. Chief comes closer to them and see a Banshee and Covenant troops on the other side, shooting the Marines. He says:
-Marines! Are you alright?
-Sir, thank god you're here! These Covenant troops are attacking us, he don't have enough ammo to kill them all.
-But I do.
Chief throws 2 grenades on the Covenant troops, killing almost all of them, less a bunch of Grunts, that immediately run away screaming. Chief grabs a plasma grenade and throws at the Banshee. A Marine impressed say, while the Banshee blows up behind him:
-Sir, thank you Sir. If wasn't for you, we would be dead by now. We're going to call for help. Do you want something?
- Do you have a Warthog?
-No, Sir. But we have a mongoose.
-Damn…Ok, I'll use it.
Chief sits on the mongoose driver's seat and get out of there. The snowstorm gets weaker and now is better to see. He drives some miles and Cortana says:
-Chief, you're just some miles from the coordinates localization. Oh no! Wraiths up ahead.
In a big snow plain, there are several Wraiths waiting. Chief sees a dead human body with a rocket launcher next to it. He go as fast as he can with the mongoose, but one of the Wraiths shoot on Chief's mongoose. Chief is a little dizzy, the mongoose is destroyed and he runs to the rocket launcher. Suddenly, in front of the dead body, a Wraith show up. Chief start cooking a plasma grenade and Cortana say:
-Chief, this is your last grenade. Make it count.
Chief throws the grenade on the Wraith and quickly grab the rocket launcher. There is 4 Wraiths left. Chief shoot the one that is closest to him. When Chief is going to shoot the next one, he realizes that there was only one rocket on the rocket launcher. Chief sees a rocket behind him, he grabs it and reload the rocket launcher. Suddenly, the 3 last Wraiths just blow up. Chief is surprised with this, he sees a strange figure behind the destroyed Wraiths:
-Master Chief! Finally found you! The boss want you alive, but I can tell him that the Flood killed you.
Chief sees that it is Damian, one of the Group C's Spartan. He accidentally shoots Damian with the rocket launcher. Damian blows up and Cortana says:
-Chief! Why did you that!
-Butterfingers.
Chief leaves the empty rocket launcher in the ground and walks through the snow. Something surprises both Chief and Cortana, they see infected Covenant flood, but is far away. Cortana says:
-The Flood! What is it doing here?
-I don't know, but I know that they are going to make things worse for us.
Chiefs walks a little bit and he sees and Elite in the ground being attacked by little-sized Flood, the Elite shouts to Chief:
-DEMON! HELP ME! PLEASE!
Chief thinks a little bit and shoot the little-sized Flood. He sees an abandoned Ghost and enters in it. The Elite surprised ask:
-Why did you saved me, Demon? We are enemies, why would you do that?
-Because no one deserves dying that way…and by the way, my name is John, not Demon.
-And my name is Thel 'Vadam.
Chief starts running the Ghost and get out of there. The Elite looks to Chief from far away and say to himself:
-I owe you.
Chief finds a giant and weird structure, there is a big fight between Covenant and Flood over there. Cortana says:
-It's a Forerunner structure! What is a Forerunner structure doing in here? Wait a minute…this is it! This is where the coordinates lead to.
Chief shoots the infected Flood with the Ghost, helping the Covenant to kill them all. He quickly gets in this structure and he is in a giant hall, with a wide door in the ending of this hall. He start going through this hall with the Ghost when he hears a sound in the back. It is Locki. He shouts:
-You bastard! You killed Damian, now I'll kill you!
-How do you know that?
-Our helmets have video recorders, we record everything through the helmets.
Chief turns his Ghost and shoot Locki's leg, he immediately fall in the ground. He screams in pain. Suddenly, little-sized Flood starts coming through the hall entrance. Locki isn't fast enough to get up and is eaten alive by the Flood, while he screams in extreme pain. Chief goes to the ending of this hall as quick as he can. He finds a panel activate it and the door opens. The door is wide, but the Ghost can't pass through it, for some reason. Chief enter inside this door and see a large room, with a holographic ball in the middle. They see a panel and Cortana says:
-Chief, insert me on this panel, I may be able to understand this place.
Chief connects Cortana to the panel and wait her to respond. While she does not respond, Chief hears a sound on the other side of the room. He goes check it and find a door leading to an exit, where he sees a strange flying robot making a singing noise. This flying robot turns around and says to Chief:
-A Reclaimer! At last! We have much to do. Come with me.
This robot gets closer to Chief and start teleporting him somewhere. He teleport Chief to a strange swamp, Chief points his assault rifle to this robot and ask:
-Where am I?
-At the Library.
-Who are you?
-I'm 343 Guilty Spark. I'm the Monitor of Installation 04.
-What are we doing here?
-Retrieving the Index to activate the Halo.
-Activate the Halo?
-Yes, we must activate this Halo to stop the infection of this parasite.
-Wait, so you're saying that this ring will kill the Flood?
-Flood? Is this how you call the parasite? If this is the way you call him, then yes, this ring will kill the Flood.
-So Group C wasn't wrong after all, this will bring salvation.
-Let's go, Reclaimer! Soon, the Flood will control the Library, we must stop them!
-Let's find this Index and terminate this parasite.