Section IV: Unexpected Guests
1110 hours January 31, 2552 (Military Calendar)/ Procyon System, Interior of Unknown Forunner Planet
As he placed his hand on the same button the elite had, the console turned green. The railing behind it split apart as a circular lift rose from the floor below and stopped in front of John.
Just as John was about to step on the platform he heard Amy tell two of her Spartans to grab Wright's body and head back to base. He then heard Saline over his com systems. "Captain, Spartan and marine teams have engaged covenant forces all around the city. Commander Wells is bringing me to you now sir."
John responded quickly "roger that Saline, I think I'm close to wrapping things up down here." He turned to Amy "set two on guard at the door and the rest to hold position" he said.
"Sir" Amy replied with a knod. She then turned to her Spartans and the ODSTs "you heard the captain, Ackerman, Harling; you're standing watch. The rest of you form up on me, move it!" The Spartans and ODSTs moved quickly as they got into position. Ten minutes later Alice accompanied by the rest of Saber team arrived at the chamber. She approached John and handed him a small rectangular chip that had a glowing electric blue circle in the center of it.
"Here she is," she said. John examined the chip for a moment before inserting it into the equal sized slot in the back of his helmet. He heard a click as the chip slid in and then felt a cool essence wash over his mind. John then heard Saline's voice "well it's been awhile since I've been in here. Looks like you've gotten a few upgrades to your neural implants since last I visited," she said.
John smirked "just wanted you to feel more at home."
Alice then spoke up "so what'd you find?"
John turned to her "don't know, some kind of elevator. I'm thinking it probably leads to a control room."
Alice strode past him towards the platform that waited by the control panel "then what are we waiting for?"
John quickly grabbed her and pulled her back just before she could step foot on the platform "hey! Wait a sec; we don't know how stable that platform is. I'm going first. Besides knowing you, you won't stay put when you get down there and will want to explore."
Alice nodded disappointedly "only a little but if you insist then go ahead."
She stepped aside as John walked forward to the platform. John was right, as soon as he was on the platform he felt a jerk and it began to descend quickly. "John!" Alice yelled as she tried to grab him but fell short. The platform sunk below the chamber and continued its descent until it reached a box like chamber that was a third of the size of the previous one.
As the platform came to a halt John examined the chamber. It was dimly lit and noticed an overhang of several rail less walkways above him. It looked as if there were doors above on the walkways as well. The overhang itself surrounded a large rectangular glass chamber that glowed green. John noticed green spores floating around inside the glass. "A containment cell?" John thought. He stepped off the platform and as soon as he did the platform rose through the floor again.
When he turned back to the glass containment cell Alice's voice broke over the com systems "John?! Are you alright? Can you hear me?"
John replied "I'm fine Alice, simmer down. I found some kind of containment cell down here with some sort of spore in it. The lift went back up though so I'll wait for you to get down here."
A moment passed "all right I see the lift; we're on our way down now."
John continued to examine the tank "hey Saline what's in this thing?"
Saline spoke up "I was wondering when you were going to ask. I was beginning to wonder if you forgot about me. To answer your question however, unknown. I've been scanning since you first saw it. It's unlike anything I've ever heard of. There's no entry for it in my databases. My scans indicate that it is some type of super cell. Highly infectious so keep your helmet on."
As soon as Saline stopped talking the lift entered the room once more with Alice, Amy and the rest of their team. "What do we have?"
Alice asked. John turned to look at her "Saline said it's some kind of super cell, highly infectious so keep your helmet on."
Alice began to look at chamber "shame, and here I was thinking of getting some fresh air." John began to walk towards one of the doors in the chamber before turning around and noticing that Sergeant Taylor had his helmet off and was poking at it.
"Sergeant, get your helmet on now!" He barked.
Taylor turned to John with a worried look on his face "sir the breathers on my helmet stopped working, I think that plasma grenade did some damage to some of my helmets systems. It's totally fried."
John looked back at the chamber "Saline is he contaminated?"
Saline quickly replied "no he isn't, as long as those containers are intact and not breached then we should be fine. I don't' know how the contamination will actually spread though, so we might not even be affected by it if we breathe it in. Just don't get trigger happy."
The captain tilted his head slightly, "right but I thought you said it was highly infectious?"
Saline quickly answered, "I also mentioned that it's not recorded in any database so even if it's an air based spore we don't know how it would affect us if we breathe it in."
John turned back to the door "then let's get the hell out of here."
Without warning static filled John's helmet followed by a female voice "…captain, Hawkins here. We shot some phantoms down that were heading for us. One of them is spiraling towards the lower levels of the facility. Look out for it."
John replied as soon as she was done talking "I will, thanks for the heads up now pull all of our forces back to the conviction, there's a highly infectious bacteria down here I don't know how many more chambers are on the city."
Hawkins began speaking once more "sir multiple teams have found containment units like the one you just mentioned. An ODST team lead by gunnery sergeant Hamilton disappeared after discovering a breached container."
John was worried now "shit! Get everyone back to the ship immediately and into-" John was cut off by an explosion, the phantom that was hurdling towards the city suddenly crashed through the wall. The explosion sent John and his team flying backwards into a wall. John was dizzy, his head was throbbing and everything was blurry as he tried to stand. He then noticed that the container was breached. "Everyone move! Get out of here!" he yelled. As Taylor tried to move he breathed in some of the spores. The man began screaming in pain. John looked over and noticed Taylor's skin was turning a greenish brown and his body was beginning to morph into something sickening. Brown mounds of skin erupted from his body along with red antenna like appendages that sprouted from his mouth. Soon the greenish brown skin enveloped his body save the antenna that was now sprouting from a small red hole. The sergeant's left arm had mutated into some grotesque multi tentacled appendage. "Taylor?" John said quietly as he looked at the creature. Without warning the creature lunged at John but was met with John's fist to the core are of the creature. The creature was sent flying back into a wall with enough force to kill a human.
John looked down to notice his had was covered in some kind of thick green liquid "what the hell?" He muttered to himself.
"John, it's not dead!" Alice yelled. John looked up to see the former sergeant standing up once more. He heard a yell and saw Amy charging the creature with the shotgun she had on her back moments before. The creature made a splotching sound as it ran toward her. Amy threw her armored boot straight forward and sent the creature to the ground with a loud thud. She pinned the creature with her foot and shot it point blank with her shotgun. It was still moving. She shot it three more times before the creature finally stop moving.
She then turned to John "what the hell was that captain?!"
John continued to stare at the creature "I don't know but we need to get out of here now!" he grabbed his rifle and ran through one of several doors followed by the rest of his team as Alice picked the last ODST up and carried him so he wouldn't get left behind.
"Up you go" she said. John and his team had made it to another elevator when the ground started shaking.
"Captain, the covenant are pulling their forces back and shooting at the city!" Hawkins said over the com channel.
"Let's move people!" John said. When the elevator stopped there was a door directly in front of it. John and his team ran through it in a hurry to find themselves directly outside of their initial base with everyone evacuating.
"Captain" Saline said "I've intercepted multiple transmissions throughout the city; it seems that the infection we encountered earlier is known as the flood. Wait….captain the covenant is planning to destroy the city we need to leave, now!" John nodded as he continued running to an empty pelican.
"For once I agree with the covenant, let's blow this place to hell. Hawkins tell miles to prep the Mass Driver and tell all ground forces to not let any sign of infection on aboard the ship at all costs."
A moment passed before John got a reply, "aye sir. Telling them now."
John was ten feet from the pelican before three large blue fire balls of plasma struck its side. The pelican erupted into a ball of fire as it exploded. The explosion sent John flying back into Amy. Both John and Amy struggled to stand up from the impact. As soon as John righted himself he helped Amy to her feet "you alright?" he asked.
"I'm fine," she said.
John clicked a button on his helmet "Hawkins, pelican's fragged. We need an evac ASAP."
A moment passed before he got a reply "captain, the covenant has an anti-air battery up. We can't send you a bird until it's down."
John looked down for a moment, thinking. "Right, leave that battery to me."
Johns words were not missed by anyone but Alice was the first to speak "you mean us right?" she asked with worry evident in her voice.
John turned to her "not this time Alice I'm going solo, take the rest of our team and help the base fend off the assault until I get that battery down, a bird will pick you up."
Now she was really worried "wait, how are you going to get back to the ship then?" John pulled the chip containing Saline out of his helmet and handed it to Alice.
"I'll improvise, don't worry but here, I need you to take Saline and get her back to the ship as soon as you can. We can't afford to lose her and since you're going to be back before me I'm leaving her to you."
Alice stepped toward him and spoke in an irritated tone "I'm not leaving you down here John." John was inspecting his equipment but looked back up at her with his visor polarized so she couldn't see his face.
"There's no room for arguments here commander. Our troops need you, now go…that's an order," he said with authority clear in his voice.
Alice trembled for a moment before looking back at him and spoke in a half angry and half sad quiet tone "yes sir…." She turned away from him and began to walk back to their forward base with the rest of their team.
"Sorry," John said quietly as he rechecked his gear. Three magazines for his assault rifle, five for his battle rifle and one fragmentation grenade. 'Hope this will be enough,' he thought. The captain began running along the pathways between the forunner structures that had bodies of Spartans, marines, ODSTs and just as many covenant corpses everywhere. John grimaced upon the sight, he never like it when people died under his command especially when he had thousands of lives depending on him.
John had been running for eight minutes before stumbling upon the cannon. It was a multi-plat formed circular structure with two floors and it was rather large. The first floor had three entrances to its interior. Inside was the shielded core that if destroyed would cause the cannon to explode a few moments after. The second floor was connected to the first by two circular 'ramps' and was without walls or cover save the support platform just above it that held the gun. The cannon itself was sleek and heavy in design with two pincer like coils extending from its large base. Plasma was charged from the core and sent in between the coils in the form of projectiles.
"There it is," John said as he examined the forces surrounding the cannon. Eight grunts, three elites and four jackals by John's count. 'Easy enough,' he thought. He lined up his battle rifle after kneeling next to a wall. His sights were focused on a jackal's head. He squeezed the trigger and the jackal dropped to the ground dead soon after. He moved on to the next jackal as soon as the previous one began falling. The air was filled with the thundering rhythm of his battle rifle's burst firing as he dropped three of the four jackals. The fourth jackal was barely able to raise its shield in time as John was beginning to line his sights on the creature. Normally John would prioritize elites but since he was alone he figured the jackals would be the most problematic. The reason being they could close in on his position more safely than the grunts or elites while being behind their shields.
The jackal returned fire causing John to dive to his right, behind a small six foot pillar sticking out of the ground. He looked down at the ammo counter on his battle rifle that is located just below the handle rail where the scope is attached. The counter showed that he had twenty-four rounds left in the magazine. He turned around the left side of the pillar and spotted an elite that was approaching his position in the open with its plasma rifle drawn. John opened fire; four of his shots had diminished the creature's energy shields while the fifth managed to catch it in the head just before it could reach cover. The elite merely fell to the ground and stopped moving.
The jackal along with a second elite opened fired as John's attention was focused on the charging elite. Just before John could pull back around the pillar two bolts of plasma had hit his shoulder and drained his shields by two-fifths.
Just as he was about to turn around to unleash the remainder of bullets his clip held he heard heavy footsteps close by. He turned to his right to see light bending only three feet from him. "Shit!" he yelled as he ducked barely dodging a plasma sword that would have decapitated him. The blade made of plasma was two half ovals that were mere inches apart and elongated as well as thin at one end. The blade of energy stuck into the pillar as it hissed and let off white wisps from its glowing form. The elite who wielded the blade deactivated its cloaking and suddenly became visible to John as it growled. John stared up at the large black armored alien before pushing his entire weight into the creature as he rammed it with his shoulder. The elite let go of the metallic hilt of its sword as it fell backwards with a loud thud. John was within three feet of the elite as he brought down the butt of his battle rifle into the side of its head, breaking two of its mandibles. The alien let loose a loud and feral growl as it grabbed the barrel of John's battle rifle when he had aimed it at the elite. It yanked the rifle free of John's grasp and threw it over its head far away from John. The elite lifted its leg up and kicked John away from it with its large two-toed, armored, scaly foot.
John flew back six feet and landed on his back with a loud grunt. He and the elite got to their feet at the same time. The elite's comrades did not open fire for fear of hitting their commanding officer. There both of them stood, staring each other down with no weapon in hand. John then remembered his grenade he had in his pouch. As he reached for it however the elite began its charge towards him. The creature's armored, reverse jointed legs made loud thumping noises as John armed his grenade. When the elite swung its arm in a mighty swing John ducked beneath it. As the elite tried to recover its stance John threw his hand upward with the grenade while priming it and lodged it in between the elite's mandibles.
As the creature began gagging and trying to pull the grenade free John pulled his fist back preparing to hit the elite. "Eat this," he said quietly as he threw his fist forward with all his strength. His fist made contact with the primed grenade as he lodged the grenade farther down the elite's throat. John then threw his leg forward and kicked the elite away just before he jumped in the opposite direction. Almost immediately after he did this the grenade went off in a loud explosion. Thick purple blood was splattered everywhere when grenade detonated. The blood covered the upper part of John's back and the lower part of his legs as the elite was blown to pieces. John's shields had dropped to a sliver from the explosion. He reached up and grabbed his blood covered assault rifle as he quickly got to his feet. He turned and opened fire on the last jackal. Half of his bullets bounced off the jackal's shield until one caught the jackal in its exposed arm causing it to raise its shield as its arm was thrown back. The rest of John's bullets struck the jackal's thin torso and peppered it until it hit the ground in a pool of its own blood.
John got back behind the pillar as he reloaded his assault rifle. 'Two mags left, better make em' count,' he thought. He turned the pillar and in a matter of seconds he gunned down three of the grunts. He then noticed the last elite grabbing a small blue sphere from its side. The alien pressed one of its scaly four fingers on a red spot on the blue metallic object. The sphere lit up in a ghastly electric blue as the elite threw it towards John. John ran forward and dove behind a low wall twenty feet from the pillar he was just at. As John landed the plasma grenade glowed brighter and with a low wine it detonated in a large blue blaze which melted the pillar. John rose up fast and unloaded the remainder of his thirty-two bullet magazine into two more grunts. They dropped with low cries as their light blue blood covered the ground at their feet.
John took cover dodging a wave of plasma bolts and reloaded once more 'last mag,' he thought.He leveled his rifle onto one grunt and squeezed the trigger briefly with the flurry of bullets pelting the small alien.
Everything was in slow motion to John at this point as his adrenaline was pumping as fast as possible. Even the last few grunts and the elite were too slow. He quickly dropped the last two grunts and leapt from cover as he unloaded at the elite. The bullets hit the elite's shields as they flickered to life. John's assault rifle fell short however as the last bullet left the chamber with a clack and the elite's shields were still shimmering. John threw his weapon at the elite who caught it with its free hand. The captain then took this opportunity to charge at the large alien and tackled it into the wall of the structure. John pulled his fist back and hit the elite with three hammering blows causing the creature to drop both its weapon and his. The elite pulled itself together and cupped its hands together above John's head. It brought its arms down on John just as the Spartan was preparing to strike again. The blow sent John's head downward as the elite pulled its knee up and struck the front of John's helmet, cracking his golden visor. The hit sent John backward. As the Captain staggered back he realized his shields were depleted from the hits he had sustained.
Just as he turned to face the elite the creature raised its plasma pistol that was previously attached to its right thigh. The elite squeezed the firing mechanism and the pistol let loose a bolt of green plasma that struck the left side of John's helmet. John's head jolted back as he quickly pulled off his helmet before the plasma could melt through his helmet and to his head. John had a large trickle of blood flowing from his left temple above his left eye that was blackened and with his eye struggling to stay open. John began running towards the elite as he unsheathed his knife. The elite fired three more bolts all of which struck John. One bolt had struck John's left shoulder melting most of the armor on it; the second bolt had struck John directly in the center of his chest and melted through straight to his body suit. The third bolt hit John in his lower left abdomen and melted through to his body suit as well. The plasma sizzled against his armor and John gritted his teeth tightly as he felt the burns settling on his skin. He ignored the pain and did not slow down as he rammed the seven inch steel blade into the surprised elite's chest. John pulled his knife upward and carved a large diagonal gash in the alien. He wrenched his knife free of the creature as it stumbled backward and fell to the ground unmoving. He then sheathed his knife as the elite's dark purple blood spread in a pool around it. John policed its remaining two plasma grenades from its waist.
The wounded Spartan grabbed his helmet which had cooled off completely and slipped it back on his head. The helmet had a large melted hole in the upper left part of it where half of its visor had been melted. John couldn't even bring his HUD up anymore. He then walked into the round structure of the anti-air cannon and saw the shielded core at the center. The core was a bright white ball of energy with a blue haze around it. John ran up and punched the shield with all his strength causing it to give way and disappear with a high pitched fading pop. He then primed one of the plasma grenades and tossed it at the core. John began running out of the structure when the grenade vanished into the light and detonated, destroying the core. With the core destroyed the structure's lights glowed red before several blue flaming explosions began erupting along its walls. The explosions continued along the cannon before the entire emplacement went up in a giant blue ball of fire.
The explosion sent John flying end over end before he hit a wall and slid to the ground. With a tired groan he began to stand. John pressed a button on his helmet praying that it still worked. "Hawkins, AA's down, send the birds and evac our forces now!" he called into his helmet.
A moment passed "aye captain. Confirming the anti-air cannon's destruction and deploying drop ships." John sighed with relief as he sat against the wall to catch his breath for a moment. The blissful moment of piece was cut short as John heard the sound of something hitting metal. He turned his head to his left to notice a door being broken open by three flood infected humans with a loud crash. They turned their bulbous bodies towards John. "Aw…fuck," John whispered to himself. He quickly scrambled to his feet and pulled out his knife. He got into a combat stance, preparing for the creature's attacks but noticed that they were holding assault rifles in their single normal hands and were aimed at John. "Whoa!" John yelled as he dove to his right behind a low wall barely dodging the storm of bullets. The assault rifles continued their thundering assault before clacking, something John didn't miss. As he heard footsteps and the flood forms drop their rifles he looked over the cover to find much to his horror that the creatures had disappeared.
Just as he left the cover of the low wall he looked up to spot one of the flood on top of the structure the anti-air cannon was a part of. The infected human jumped off of the structure and tackled John to the ground. The two began sliding across the ground with the sound of metal scraping against metal ringing through the streets. John used his momentum to his advantage as he positioned his legs between himself and the creature. He pushed them upward sending the flood form over him as it impacted a wall with incredible force. The brownish green creature fell to the ground and didn't move as one of its arms was broken off and sickish green liquid flowed from the corpse.
John then heard the stomping and gurgling noises of another one and turned to see one of the remaining charging him. He quickly readied his knife and began running towards the infected human. He put all his strength into his legs as he jumped and flipped over the combat form and landed on his feet behind it. He turned around and kicked the creature in the back sending it flying into another wall. John didn't let up his assault as he ran up and stabbed the bulbous mutated human brutally with his knife multiple times. After it ceased to move John pulled his blade free of its corpse.
He heard a screech and turned to see his last opponent of the group running for him. The creature was three feet away from John when it was met with a hailstorm of bullets. As the flood form was torn to shreds by the gunfire John turned his head to the right to see Alice, Amy and the rest of his team in the back of a pelican. "Miss us?!" she yelled out over the sound of the pelican's engines.
John ran towards the pelican as fast as he could "a little!" he said.
John examined his knife just before he got to the drop ship. The knife was covered in green fluid from the flood form's body. He decided to keep a tight grip on it rather than throw it away. 'Maybe the scientists can examine this,' he thought. John strapped in a seat with Alice sitting down next to him.
She saw his wounds and spoke "what happened to you?"
He turned to face Alice "well I-" he was suddenly cut off by Amy.
"Captain" Amy said with worry in her voice "there's more of those things' heading for us." John and Alice turned their heads to the opened hatch as the ship began rising. Dozens of flood forms were pouring out of the doorway the previous three came out of and were heading for the pelican. Just as the pelican began to take off one of the flood forms had jumped and made it aboard the craft. It looked like an infected elite. The creature was strong as it had charged and pinned Amy to the wall of the pelican. Amy retaliated and caught the creature in a strong grip to prevent it from moving is it tried to pull its 'arms' free of her grasp. Another Spartan Isaac Parker ran towards the flood and with one mighty kick sent the creature flying out the back of the pelican.
"Thanks Parker, I owe you one," Amy said as she strapped into her harness along with Parker and the rest of their team. The drop ship's hatch closed as it flew past phantoms and covenant fighters. It landed in a hanger on the Conviction and skidded to a stop as more came in behind it.
John stepped out and pressed a button on his helmet "Hawkins, have all surface squads quarantined and scanned for the infection. Let me know when everyone's made it back."
Hawkins spoke up with a neutral tone "sir we've lost a third of our ground forces to the infection and the covenant. All of our remaining forces are back aboard the ship with no signs of infection. We had to leave a lot of people down there captain."
John looked down "then let's not make their sacrifice be in vein. Miles blow that station to hell."
Miles soon replied almost immediately "aye aye sir, activating the Mass Driver now." The ship shook as the Mass Driver rose from the top of the ship. It was a massive cannon with coils lining the elongated barrel. Within moments it turned and faced the city.
"Captain if that city is destroyed then this planet is going to collapse in on its core. The city is what keeps this planet's gravity well stabilized," Saline told John.
He turned to a nearby terminal that Alice had plugged Saline's chip into and spoke, "plot a course back out the way we came and get us out of here as soon as that city blows."
Saline's holographic image appeared "aye sir." The ship shook as it turned back towards the tunnel it entered from. The cannon on top of the ship lit up an electric blue as it built up its charge. As it fired it shook the ship violently. John had to brace himself on a support beam to keep from falling over. The round that the Mass Driver fired was a super-heated ftungsten slug and was propelled by five linear arranged magnetic coils in a straight beam. As the blazing white hot slug soared towards the city the Conviction's engines roared to life as it flew towards the tunnel at top speed. When the slug impacted the city it ripped through it like it was paper and hit the core. The city began to stretch and was being slowly pulled into the core. It began melting as it was absorbed. The core then shrunk in size and began expanding rapidly.
John turned to Saline "plot a slip space course and get us out of here now!"
Saline looked worried "but captain we haven't even cleared the planet."
John held tighter to pillar "we won't be able to clear it, now make the jump. We have a straight shot through this tunnel!"
Saline looked as if she was thinking "aye sir, course plotted. Spinning up FTL drive." The ship began shaking once more as a slip space portal appeared before it. When the ship entered the portal and the portal closed it caused a massive gravity explosion inside the tunnel that ripped it to pieces. The ship had barely cleared the planet that had gone super nova and was in slip space. John sat down by the terminal to finally catch his breath.
"Finally a break," he said to himself. Alice soon walked over to John and sat down next to him.
"Well at least that's over, we should get your wounds looked at," she said.
John took his helmet off and looked back at her "I'll get them looked at in a few but it's a shame we didn't find out what the covenant was after down there."
As If on cue Saline began to speak "actually captain i intercepted and decrypted some rather interesting communications from the covenant's battle net. Head to the ops room when you're ready to be briefed."
John leaned his head back "all right but keep alert, some of the covenant's forces must have made it away as well."
Alice took her helmet off and smiled "Wouldn't want them sneaking up on us right John?"
The captain chuckled lightly "as if I would let them.
Alice then turned to face John "now about those drinks..."