A/N: If you think that Brady couldn't be Flooded because she has had augmentations like Johnson, well, don't forget that the SPARTAN-IV augmentations were specifically designed to be as noninvasive as possible, hence the absurdly high augmentation success rate. Therefore, the Flood still recognise them as consumable targets.

Same with the genetic modification of the Storm Covenant (scaly Grunts and Elites). Anyway, enjoy.

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Microsoft, Bungie, or 343 Industries. This is for my enjoyment and, hopefully, the enjoyment of others. I do not receive a profit.

Nebula and the Flood

Reynolds was worried. According to the clock on his HUD, it had been two minutes and thirty-seven seconds. He had only run a few missions with her, but Reynolds trusted Brady with his life.

On the War Games deck, he had never really gotten into the stuff Kahn enjoyed like Binary Slayer, and Pearlman and Quin generally teamed up for Team Snipers - Reynolds had never been good at hitting things from long ranges. That left Brady, since Niven was a veteran, almost ready to lead a fireteam and certainly capable enough to go on more missions the Nebula could. Reynolds supposed that he could work with Opalescent, and he did, excepting Whitshire, on occasion, but there was something more familiar about working with Brady. Plus, she liked the same games he did - Team Slayer, Dominion, and Flood. He would play other games, sure, but those were his favourites.

So Reynolds was understandably worried about Brady. For an infiltration operation, he couldn't imagine her getting caught, and she wouldn't have lost track of time. Her HUD had a clock, too.

As soon as the third minute was up, Kahn rushed toward the door shouting, "Charge!" Reynolds didn't have to tell Quin anything; his HUD had a timer, and he wasn't stupid. Quin followed close behind Kahn and Pearlman. Reynolds loped close behind, shotgun at the ready. Really, it had seemed like a good idea that the only one without a gun had gone on a scouting expedition in unknown territory; accidental firings would be impossible and detection unlikely, especially considering her invisibility. Now, three short minutes later, it seemed like the worst decision that could have been made.

The door slid open at their approach. Once Reynolds entered, it closed again. Nothing greeted the four SPARTANs. No dead bodies, no bullet casings, no scorch marks, no blood puddles. There was a quiet squelch, like a gel-filled bag being crushed, but nothing else.

Quin shifted nervously and transferred his sniper rifle into his other hand before lowering it from the upright position that they had all adopted when they charged. Kahn moved up toward the centre of the room and pointed his battle rifle. The room was still empty, but the motion tracker flared again as Kahn moved. Reynolds glanced around uncertainly, looking for an alternate exit that Brady might have taken. Pearlman began to back cautiously toward the door.

It didn't open. Pearlman glanced at the door and said, "Shit." Reynolds and Kahn whipped around. The door was locked, the access panel shining red.

Kahn groaned and shouldered his battle rifle. "I'll just have to spoof it again, because the lift in the middle hasn't been used, and I can't quite figure out how to activate it, summon it from the depths of this place. I have no clue where Brady could have gone." He walked over to the door.

A loud crack caused all three to spin around. Even though Quin hadn't known that the door was locked again, his sniper rifle was pointed toward the door. /Some . . . thing dropped from the ceiling and came crawling toward your back. It wasn't anything I've ever seen.\

Reynolds bent down and examined the floor for a moment. This time, Reynolds said, "Shit." He continued his explanation both verbally and visually. "Quin says he saw something drop from the ceiling. I took a look at the remains of what he shot. Those aren't something you forget. I'm guessing that you, Kahn were in the army for a short time before becoming a SPARTAN, right?"

Kahn nodded. "Home Guard since 2552, once the bastards discovered Earth."

Reynolds continued. "Then I'm sure you remember the Flood. Pearlman, you ever fought them outside the War Games?"

Pearlman shook her head. "No, but I've heard about them."

"A few tips. Shoot the infection pod buried in the chest. Do not engage in close quarters combat with them. The Flood are exponentially stronger than a SPARTAN, and their liquid insides make punches and high velocity bullets ineffective. Quin, that means the sniper rifle won't be effective against combat forms. Take this."

With practiced fluidity, Reynolds stopped signing and snapped the pistol off of his magnetic hip holster before tossing it to Quin, who deftly caught it and signed, /Thank you.\

Reynolds finished his description. "Last, but not least, pray. Pray to whatever gods you believe in that there isn't a Gravemind. I must admit, though, that that would explain the presence of so many Knights, since this asteroid appears to be a Flood containment facility." At those words, the Flood went crazy.

The motion trackers became useless, showing nothing but a wall of red. Reynolds hefted his shotgun and waited. He didn't have to wait very long, though. Infection pods started dropping like rain. They started slowly but quickly built into a torrential downpour of death. Reynolds watched as Kahn and Pearlman opened fire, popping the pods until nothing but green goop was left. Reynolds didn't shoot because he wanted to save his shotgun for combat forms. Experience had taught him that infection forms tended to lead, soften up the enemy so that combat forms could wipe out stragglers. More infection pods would follow, taking the dead bodies for their own.

Sure enough, the rain dried up, and Reynolds heard Pearlman sigh with relief. "It's not done yet," he cautioned. The room grew quiet, but only for a moment. Then the lift in the centre of the room ascended from the bowels of the facility, combat forms huddled onto it.

As soon as the lift clicked into the floor, combat forms started jumping off. They took mighty leaps, but not all made it to the small group of SPARTANs. Some fell short and proceeded to shuffle over to the SPARTANs, and Reynolds even saw one's chest burst as Quin drilled a bullet into the beast. Another was blown out of the air by his own shotgun blast moments before it would have been within striking distance.

Once the inital charge had been beat back, Reynolds led the counterattack, jumping over Kahn and firing his shotgun into another combat form. Out of the corner of his eye, Reynolds saw Kahn roll left, coming up next to Pearlman. The pair fired their battle rifles in sync, one after the other as they advanced behind Quin, who was in the middle due to his inability to hear. After all, the Flood tended to come up from behind.

This time, though, Reynolds's fears proved groundless. The four SPARTANs made great time as they advanced toward the lift. Kahn and Pearlman picked off foes with a practiced ease while Reynolds thoroughly thrashed any Flood that tried direct confrontation. The four waded through the Flood step by step, never pausing in their attempt to get to the lift.

Reynolds put a shell solidly into the last combat form, and Nebula ran the last few metres toward the lift as a single unit. As soon as Kahn, who had taken up the rear, stepped onto the platform, it began to descend, seemingly of its own accord. But when a carrier form fell down the shaft, it became clear that what was controlling the lifts was malevolent.

Reynolds, the resident Flood expert, had only enough time to shout, "Scatter!" and try to dive away before the thing detonated. Reynolds's shields were half down and he suspected that Quin and Pearlman, who had been closest, had no shielding, which would only make them prime targets for the dozen or so infection forms that had spilled out.

Kahn, at least, had fought the Flood before. He too had jumped, and Reynolds watched as his battle rifle shot seven three-round bursts right into the infection forms, protecting Quin and Pearlman from the creatures.

Reynolds signed Quin an explanation. /Carrier forms explode when you shoot them or get too close. Then infection pods spill out to attack the weakened opponents.\ Reynolds heard Kahn explain the same to Pearlman.

When the lift slowed, the attack resumed. Infection forms came crawling down the shaft while combat forms simply jumped. Reynolds began to let go of the control he normally held. He was jumping, dodging, and rolling, all while blowing ragged holes in the combat forms and stomping on any infection pods that he could. He felt hot irons across his back and turned, firing blindly at the combat form before it could hit him again. Unfortunately, there were a lot of combat forms. They came in waves, bigger and bigger as they attempted to sweep the four SPARTANs away. Another combat form struck him, and he went sailing into a wall. He heard a sickeningcrunch and felt the sting of biofoam as it was injected into his right leg.

The only good thing was that he was now out of the action for a minute. Reynolds took the opportunity to finger a fragmentation grenade. He pulled the pin and shouted, "Grenade out!" before chucking it into the mass of enemies. Reynolds saw three figures covered in green goop dive out of the way before the pain in his leg filled his vision with red, despite his superhuman attempts to avoid passing out.

Reynolds blinked. At first, he was confused as to why the three green Flood forms weren't attacking him. Then he blinked again and made out the patches of bright red, ice blue, and deep purple, as well as the shape of the helmets and visors.

Kahn's voice came out of the one to Reynolds's left. "That was quite the injury. I tried to set the break through your armour and then injected some more biofoam, but after hitting the wall like that, well, just be glad that you're a SPARTAN.

"Oh, and thanks for warning us before flushing put those Flood with a grenade. I do believe that the lift is about to get to the middle of the facility."

True to his guess, the lift walls opened up, revealing an empty room made of Forerunner metal. The lift ground to a halt once it reached the floor, and the SPARTANs stepped off, Reynolds wincing as the extra biofoam set. As the group approached the only door, Pearlman asked, "Do you think that Brady is down here somewhere?"

Reynolds glanced at Kahn. Both gave a quiet nod and then Reynolds said, "It doesn't matter. We have to blow the facility."

"What? Why? Brady could still be here."

This time, Kahn replied. "Then God help her. A single infected ship crashed at Voi, and they glassed half a continent to contain the infection. A single Flood spore is more virulent than all human diseases put together. The entirety of the human race depends upon this one action.

"The one thing I don't understand is why the Flood escaped."

As the door slid open to admit the four, Reynolds replied to Kahn's query. "When I was just a lowly ODST who respected SPARTANs, I did a hard drop onto Gamma Halo. I met the Forerunner A.I. Abject Testament there. He was a bit off his rocker, and didn't have Flood containment completely under control.

"There was no Storm Covenant activity over there, but the Flood that had been put into stasis for study had escaped anyway. My guess is that when the Storm captured Fractured Dream, he was unable to keep this area on true lockdown and some Flood escaped from the study chambers."

Reynolds's suggestion was given support when the short hallway the SPARTANs had been walking through came to an end. The door slid open to reveal a two-storeyed room with a broken chamber in the middle. Green gasses effused from the broken glass and small objects lay strewn about. Although the room was quiet, no one relaxed.

It was with tense muscles that the SPARTANs walked around the ground floor, looking for a way out. The other three doors were locked, but Quin pointed out a shadowy stairwell in one corner. Kahn led the way, sweeping his battle rifle around the corner. Nothing.

But although nothing lurked in the shadows of that hidden stairwell, Kahn was still cautious, because the entire room felt of danger. There was just something about the green gasses and the dark lighting. Reynolds walked next to Quin and Pearlman backed up the staircase, rifle ready in case of ambush.

Personally, Reynolds was unconcerned because the Flood had yet to show any form of sentience; they hadn't even begun wielding guns, so a Proto-Gravemind was still out of the question. And they could definitely find guns, because Reynolds had recognised the corpses as reanimated members of the Storm Covenant. They had probably been an inital strike team that had failed. The Prometheans were trying to finish the fight, but Reynolds knew that to be impossible without destroying the whole asteroid.

At the moment, though, Reynolds wondered why the Flood wasn't attacking. The most exciting thing was the fact that one of the doors on the second floor was broken. That would be their method forward, since back was not an option. The door in question tried to shut as the SPARTANs got near, but it just . . . couldn't. Sparks flew as it bashed itself against some invisible door jamb over and over again. This time, Reynolds brought his shotgun to the front and shimmied through the half-open door.

As soon as he had made his way through, a combat form dropped from the ceiling to greet him. Reynolds let his shotgun say hello. Kahn pushed through next and shot somewhere over Reynolds's shoulder. Reynolds heard a small pop before Kahn moved out of the way to admit Quin. Pearlman brought up the rear. As soon as she was through, Reynolds turned, because the Flood clearly had a presence in the room.

The Flood occupation turned out to be a fairly small compliment. It took one well-placed grenade and a few three round bursts to eliminate the Flood who had been waiting for the SPARTANs. It helped that only the first combat form and a few infection pods had decided to break ranks.

Once the room was clear save a few stray bullet casings, green Flood remains, and of course, four SPARTANs, there was a collective gasp. The walls of the room were filled with floating glyphs made out of pulsing hard light. A central pedestal seemed to be the origin of the light. Kahn jumped as though zapped before saying, "I know what to do."

"About the Flood infested asteroid?"

"Yes. We need to destroy it, right?"

Two nods. Quin merely waited for the conversation to be over so that Reynolds could explain.

"Well, this room is almost certainly a control centre of sorts, so an explosion of acceptable magnitude should do the trick. And, by my calculations, the conversion of a MJOLNIR fusion reactor into a thermonuclear warhead should do the trick."

Pearlman gasped. "But, whose reactor to use?"

Kahn nodded conversationally. "I'll use my suit. I'll need to lower my shields a bit and be wary of using secondary features, but I guess an half-an-hour safety window before my suit starts to shut down due to lack of power. We will just need to get out of here quickly, but I bet I can pull up a map of the place at this pedestal. Let me check." With that, Kahn walked over to the monolith and laid his hands upon it, ignoring the lack of buttons. His hands began to move wildly over it in patterns that escaped Reynolds's understanding.

A moment later, Kahn stepped back and pointed. "Take this door, fight your way through the hallway, turn left, activate the hard light bridge. There is a slipspace teleportation pad across it reminiscent of the ones on Trevelyen. I think I can get that to work, get us to the surface. Now quiet. I need silence to make a bomb."

Reynolds nodded and explained the plan to Quin. /Kahn will make us a bomb to blow the facility. Then we run though that door,\ Here Reynolds stopped to identify the door before continuing. /though the hallway, and then turn left, activate the bridge and get to the teleportation grid. Kahn will be using his suit's fusion reactor for the bomb, so we need to guard him with the utmost care.\ Quin nodded once before turning to face one of the closed doors. Reynolds guarded the broken door, but in the two minutes it took Kahn to build a bomb, nothing happened.

Once Kahn announced, "Finished," Reynolds tapped Quin on the shoulder and the pair followed Kahn and Pearlman out the door that Pearlman had been guarding.

The vaulted arcade was dimly lit and had a smell of abject terror, even through Reynolds's Gungnir helmet. As the group rushed through the empty hall, Kahn shouted, "I did a localised unlock and general lock, so unless the Flood knows how to hack Forerunner door systems, they will be trapped and our path will be open. The only problem is that the Flood in our area can't leave, so we'll have to kill them.

"Oh, and Reynolds, I keyed the bomb to your suit's comm frequency because you are probably the only one who will activate the detonation frequency without fail if you start to die, and a timer was far too risky. Just shoot three bursts of white noise and the asteroid will blow.

"I predict a two to three megaton blast from that tiny piece of equipment. For reference, the first atomic bomb had about a fifteen kiloton blast, so use discretion before you blow the asteroid. Make sure we are well away. Please."

As soon as his warning was finished, the remaining Flood in the room descended upon the SPARTANs. Apparently, they didn't like the idea of their asteroid being blown up. A group of carrier forms led the way. Five or six of the things waddled on stubby legs from the end of the hall. Quin aimed his new magnum and fired once, twice, thrice. The lead forms fell and detonated, causing the ones behind them to blow as well. The resulting mass of infection pods was like shooting fish in a barrel. Pearlman and Kahn didn't even aim. They just let lead fly. Six bullets later, and the resultant bursting of the pods had caused the entire swarm to be reduced to nothingness.

Then the combat forms attacked. They leapt from the shadows and ran along the hall. Reynolds motioned Kahn and his weaker shields to stay behind him and pumped his shotgun. He leveled the gun, aimed, tracked the closest one, waited for it to approach, fired. A ragged hole in the creature's chest caused it to fall. Reynolds twisted, shot the next one out of the air. He chucked a grenade, then another. Body parts flew. This time, Reynolds attacked. He ran forward, pumping the shotgun, pulling the trigger. Buckshot flew into the face of another Flood form and Reynolds suppressed the depressing thought, 'That could be me.'

By the time Reynolds paused to load more rounds into the shotgun, most of the enemy had been cleared. Unfortunately, the smell of death still made him slightly sick.

Before the smell could overwhelm him, Reynolds slammed the last shot home and ran toward the end of the hall. He felt bullets whiz over his shoulder as he threw his weight onto his right shoulder and rolled down the hall. Reynolds came up kneeling, shotgun pointed at a fearless combat form. He said, "Tell the devil I say hello," and pulled the trigger. Reynolds stood up and took a step. "Buzzards gotta eat too." Bang. Step. "This here has been a licenced zombie killing tool since the 1900s." Bang. Step. "I never said I was awesome, I just said I had a gun." Bang.

Reynolds stepped over the last combat form as it crumpled to the ground. He headed to the door, which opened without issue, the other three SPARTANs trailing behind him. Reynolds found himself atop a platform extending over a room crawling with Flood. Well aware of their jumping prowess, he whispered, "Be quiet. Very quiet," to the others and signed it to Quin, just in case.

As the others nodded, Reynolds pivoted left and pushed the hard light panel on the side of the upper catwalk. A hard light bridge issued from the far side of the chasm and approached the platform the SPARTANs stood on. Once it reached, the SPARTANs crept across it and huddled on the slipspace teleportation pad. Kahn keyed some buttons and Reynolds felt nausea for a brief moment.

When his vision cleared, Reynolds saw stars. Not dizzy stars. Space stars. He felt only a moment of relief before Roland's voice filled his helmet. "Hey, Captain!"

A groan. "What, Roland? This better not be another claim that you are still trying to get a lock on Nebula. They disappeared nearly half-an-hour ago. Pretty soon we'll have to mark them MIA, assumed KIA."

"Actually, sir, I found them. They just emerged from a micro slipspace rupture similar to the transport nodes Crimson found. The one thing, I am only reading four IFF tags. Could something have happened?"

Here Reynolds felt the need to interrupt. He keyed the "talk" button and said, "Sir. We were inside the asteroid. The problem is the Flood. Almost worse, SPARTAN Brady is now MIA, presumed KIA, although I suppose she could get to a transport pad and survive, same as we did."

Lasky's voice. "Presumed KIA? But the asteroid is still there. Just get to the Pelican. IFF transponder signals show that you are within the perimeter Opalescent set up to guard the Pelican.

"This is a general order to all Fireteams on the asteroid. Converge on the Pelican. We'll sort this out later."

Pearlman spoke up. "Actually sir, we set a bomb in the facility. We will remotely detonate it, kill the Flood before the infection can spread. Unfortunately, SPARTAN Kahn used his own fusion pack to fuel the bomb. I'm not sure he will be able to run all the way to the Pelican."

Reynolds could almost imagine Lasky nodding before he said, "Fine. Get to the ship, get to a safe distance, and then blow the asteroid. You're right. The Flood is incredibly dangerous. I will mark Juliette-1094 as MIA."

Reynolds signed, /We are getting back to the Pelican ASAP,\ before helping Pearlman drag a mostly unresponsive Kahn toward the bird. Reynolds could only guess why the suit gave out right after teleportation.

Reynolds was glad that Opalescent had set up their perimeter. It made getting to the Pelican with a comatose Kahn much easier, although the slow pace he set allowed Opalescent to catch up to Nebula. Once at the Pelican, Reynolds unceremoniously dumped Kahn into a seat and sat next to him. As soon as everyone but McCormac was on board, Pearlman punched the engines.

After several minutes of quiet flying with Logan visible only as a yellow dot on his motion tracker, Marcus opened a white noise channel once, twice, three times. An explosion vaporised several asteroids, but the vacuüm of space and the Pelican's titanium hull kept Marcus or any of the others, excepting Arianna and Logan, from knowing that the Flood threat was ended.

A/N: I think Reynolds would join the ODSTs to escape his past and try to quell his insecurities with pure badass. It didn't work (it never works), but that is why he was an ODST who looked up to SPARTANs. And how is his litany of one-liners?

I think my nuclear blast calculations are both possible and accurate, but please check me on that as well as any grammatical or other factual mistakes. Thank you.