Okay so this was supposed to be up about two days ago...and it wasn't. I'm so so so sorry to those who have been expecting an update! I'm trying to work on this along with a few finals projects for school so bare with me please. Leave your reviews! I do not own anything Halo.
If I had too choose any word to describe the flood, it would have to be grotesque. Literally. These parasitic type organisms infected their host with spores and then transformed them into something that you would only hope to see in a horror film. Flesh turned a sickly green color with all types of brown, feelers sprouted from several areas, a sickening looking ooze wept from their pores and their steps squished in a very distasteful moist way. The worst part though was realizing that they still bore the heads and faces of whomever they had taken over; they made you look at past allies, or enemies, as you killed them. The flood truly was a force of evil spawn from the depths of hell. And now, as I make my way to generator after generator with the Master Chief I couldn't help but be thankful that he always took the lead. Usually I wouldn't mind taking an enemy head on, but with the flood I was hesitant to get close. Hopefully my comrade couldn't sense my fear towards them.
"Dusk."
"Yes?" I reloaded my rifle and looked towards the man whom would save the remaining marines on this damned ring from destruction, noting how he hadn't turned away from our latest victory. According to what Cortana said we only had two more generators to go; bad news was there was a large amount of resistance in our way. Guess the easy way was never an option here.
"We have no room to back down, you understand this correct." He said this as a statement more so than a question so I tried to answer accordingly.
"Yes sir...what made you bring that up?"
"I know you're afraid of them." Shit. Apparently I hadn't been as stealthy as I had first thought with the way I avoided seeing them as much as possible. Maybe I still had a chance to play this cool. My chest puffed up a bit and I straightened my back while replying, trying to convey bravery and confidence.
"No I just, I'm not used to seeing them. It's not fear merely skepticism...sir." For some reason I still didn't think that he believed me even after continuing to walk. The one thing about the him was that his hunch was never wrong, and this circumstance was no exception.
Now feeling obligated to put forth everything I had and then some I stepped quietly and quickly along the same path as the man in front of me, being careful not to take a wrong step. When we reached the door to the outside we both hesitated momentarily, waiting for them to open, before stepping back outside into the snowy tundra. I felt the powdery substance crunch under my boots as we cautiously inspected the area around us; noting how black particles of soot and snow mixed together fell with the normal variety. It was a clear sign of hostile activity and a lot of firepower. After a few moments of scanning the area I spotted two abandoned ghosts just a few yards over. Both seemed in working condition and bore only minor cosmetic problems such as scratches and a few dents. Shouldering my weapon and getting the attention of the spartan beside me I started to walk over towards the vehicles.
"We can use these to cover more ground. Hopefully they'll hold out until-Fuck!"
The violent curse was spat from my mouth as a banshee flew in to view and quickly swooped down towards us with the obvious intention of making us smears on the ground. Luckily for me there was a large pine near me and I rolled towards it enough to stave off the troublesome enemy whilst my companion jumped into one of the turrets right next to him. Purple flashes of plasma lit up the sky as he tried to wear down the flying deathtrap and the enemy inside; unfortunately though it seemed to be a season flier piloting the machine so shooting it down didn't come as easily as he first thought. Round after round I unloaded beside him as we tried to take down the persistent annoyance, but no more than five minutes after engaging the banshee I felt something hit against my armors shields. Turning to the side and letting John handle the banshee I saw an enemy ghost heading in our direction, blue plasma bolts flying over my head and hitting the snow; stirring up mounds of the cool substance.
"Enemy ghost. I'll handle that it you have the banshee?"
"Go." That was all I needed. Already devising a plan inside of my head I took off in a sprint towards the empty ghosts I had spotted earlier, planning on commandeering one of those to use. I pushed my legs to move faster, trying to beat the enemy to my goal, but it seemed as if that wasn't going to happen. I could do a lot of things but outrunning an alien vehicle was not one of them. Skidding to a stop after seeing the elite, it was close enough to distinguish at that point, I narrowed my eyes and made a split second decision. It was now or never if I was going to do this. Shouldering my rifle I started running again, knowing that there would only be a few seconds of an opportunity if this was going to happen, and steeled my legs to get ready to jump. My helmets visor honed in on the oncoming vehicle and Cortana chimed in, knowing what I was getting ready to do.
"20 feet...15...10...8...5..." Not that I didn't appreciate her help but the counting wasn't really helping. None the less the time was now. My body tensed up like a loaded spring, pushed down and then let go. I jumped up into the air and then pushed down against gravity to fall quickly on to my target; the ghost and its occupant.
"Raaaagh! Mrok no hier!" The elite panicked when it realized that I had successfully boarded his ghost and tried to shake me off to no avail. Sorry pal, not today. With a shout of victory I clenched up my armored hand and relentlessly punched the alien before me several times in the jaw, not waiting for him to even recover, before grabbing a hold of the dashboard and swinging my legs around. My boot made contact with what I could only assume was his rib cage and I sent him flying off onto the snowy ground; his blue-purple blood staining it a dark color. "Ha! How'd you like that you covenant bastard!" I let my foot press down on the accelerator and I pulled the ghost in to a hard turn just as I heard and saw the banshee explode and fall towards the ground, crashing right next to the body of the elite I had just fell. I looked to where the Master Chief was now, his green armor showing signs of minor plasma blasts, but looking no worse for wear.
"You two make a fairly formidable team."
"Yeah well, he did most of the work. I just jumped a guy on a ghost." I knew that Cortana was trying to help and I appreciated it, but I doubt that he was going to be very receptive in the middle of a mission to stop an enemy that was a threat to the entire galaxy. Just my opinion though. Without waiting for the man in question to get into a ghost of his own I decided to check the area where the enemy ghost had come from. There probably wasn't anything of use but there wasn't any harm in making sure.
As the vehicle quietly made its way down the slope and under the massive metal arches of what appeared to be a type of storing area, seeing as it only had two doors, and slowed down as I approached one. I hopped out of the ghost and pulled out a pistol just in case, making sure it was loaded, and pressed the panel to open the two large panels on the door. Not expecting much I was immensely surprised as a rocket almost immediately came hurtling towards my face upon the doors opening. My instincts kicked in and right before the projectile could catch the side of my helmet I rolled to the side, feeling the heat and air whoosh by me as the missile missed its intended target. "Shit." I clenched my teeth and didn't hesitate to point my weapon and fire off round after round in to what I could now identify as a flood soldier. The body and head were fairly small so I assumed it to be one of our marines turned.
I could feel my golden eyes narrow and hone in as bullet after bullet pierced through the creatures soft green flesh, a squishing noise being the end result of each impact. The first few pushed it back and caused it to drop the rocket launcher so I moved in closer, letting the next rounds hit a bulls-eye on its head and end its life after three more shots. The mutated body crumpled to the ground ungracefully in a heap of limbs and feeler, a few of them twitching still as I approached it slowly. Ugh. Still couldn't stand the sight of them. The soldiers heads were always posed in a silent scream of pain and desperation for anyone to help them, this one was no different. My heart thumped in my chest as a slight panic set in; what if something happened to the Captain, or Johnson, or me? What if I was turned in to one of these...things! The last waking moments of my life filled with pain and suffering knowing what I would turn into and what I would try to do to others. The thought caused my stomach to churn uncomfortably and I nearly retched.
"You need to be careful."
"What?" I turned my torso partway around along with my head to look at the legendary spartan that I was currently following. His stature seeming much more intimidating in this moment now as he stood no more than three feet away; how had I not heard him walk up behind me? His deep and resonating voice struck my core as he spoke to me, obviously seeing that I had difficulty facing the marines in this way. "I understand why you hesitate, but they are not us. When it comes down to survival go with your instinct."
"But what if my instinct is wrong."
"It won't be." He sounded so sure yet so neutral on the whole matter. He always did. And he wasn't wrong about any of it, I knew that. So maybe it was time I started acting more like a spartan and less like a soldier fresh out of boot camp. Failure was not an option. With my new found confidence securing all of my doubt I nodded to the spartan and followed him out of the dead end room, not bothering to send even one glance back at what lay on the floor. May they find peace in the afterlife.
My boots crunched in the snow as we were outside once more. I couldn't help but look up at the still falling mixture of soot and snow, letting a few flakes fall on to my open hand and melt instantly. Almost like the circle of life. We come in to this world and fall, slowly, until finally melting out of existence at the end. Time eventually wiping us from the world and from the minds of all who had remembered. After another moment of silence The Master Chief went to his ghost and I to my own, both of us taking off quickly to make up for lost time.
"Please tell me the generator is on the ground." I nearly whined out the response before remembering whom I was around and decided to just clamp down on my tongue before letting it slip. Now really wasn't an appropriate time to act like a child.
"Afraid not. You both need to take one of those extra banshees and fly up to the nav point that I've marked on your suits transponders, but be careful. I'm reading a large group of covenant waiting for you at the top." Of course. No more than a week after having a near death experience in one of those death traps and now I had to get back in one. Whatever, had to shake it off. This was for the mission and spartans did not complain about their duty, no matter what it was. "Okay Cortana, thanks for the heads up. Let's go."
Without waiting for a response I turned to look at the awaiting banshees a bit warily before striding over to one and powering it up, not hesitating to then hop inside and take off in to the air. The feeling was a bit unnerving at first and my breathing hitched momentarily, but withing a few seconds I calmed down and adjusted to the altitude while waiting for the Master Chief to catch up. Once he was hovering beside me he began to formulate a plan. "There are two platforms, one to the left and one to the right. The platform on the left is the one that leads to the generator, but we'll need to take out the covenant on the right as well to avoid having out vehicles blown to bits."
"So we should split up?"
"That's the plan." Guess he really did like working alone. I sighed and turned towards the right platform to prepare myself, had to work with what I was given I suppose. "Ready. Let's do it." As I hit the accelerator my banshee jumped forwards towards the platform and I switched the gun to a plasma canon instead of the regular bolts. If I could take most of them out in a few hits it would save on time and maneuvering. I angled my vehicle up to gain altitude, feeling my body shift only slightly with the angle change before pointing the nose back down and locking in on the multiple enemy signatures as soon as they came in to view. "Gotcha..." Clicking down on the firing controls I let loose two plasma missiles, making sure to go for the middle of the crowd, and swung the banshee off to the side before they could hit me.
I looked down at my radar to see a few of the multiple red dots disappear, but not enough. I swung the banshee back around for another hit and geared up to fire off another missile and dip out of their sight, quick and effective. What I hadn't expected though was to see one of the little orange assholes point a fuel rod canon my way and fire off three big ass plasma bolts. "Agh!" I yelled out and pulled a hard right in the banshee, making the vehicle do a flip, as I tried to steer away from the impending doom. Two of the projectiles flew past me and smashed in to the little island in between the two platforms. The third however followed the path I had taken and was right on my tail. "Shit shit shit shit shit." I bit my lip and pulled another sharp turn, too sharp perhaps, and ended up skating along the rocky wall. A deafening screech sounded out as the wings of my banshee scraped the rock and created sparks flying every which way. Rocks pelted the top of the vehicle as the fuel rod missile struck the wall where I had just been and broke a chunk off, causing it to plummet to the ground.
"Agent Dusk are you okay?" Cortana's voice distracted me for a moment as I headed back to finish off the remaining aliens and I had to swerve again to avoid gunfire. A growl was easily detectable in my voice as I responded, though I tried not to sound too irritable. "Everything's fine, just a little enemy fire. I'll be done in a second." The last words were forced as I fired another canon bolt and hit everything except the remaining elite whom, in retaliation, hit me with a few shots from his plasma rifle. The sensors of the banshee blipped at me to warn me that the vehicle was in yellow condition; nothing critical, but it wasn't in the best of shape. I needed to finish this off quickly before he could get anymore hits in and damage this thing further.
Steeling myself and switching the gun back to the rapid fire bolts I rose in altitude once more to get a slight advantage and swiveled around to face the elite, narrowing my eyes at him. Even though he couldn't see me I liked to imagine that my fierce look set him on fire from the inside. With mercy completely absent from my mind I let loose a non-stop barrage of plasma and silently reveled in the way it pelted the elites body, taking down his shields and then killing him quickly after. Purple blood stained the metal of the platform and dripped off of the edge I noticed as I flew by and turned to head towards where the Master Chief now awaited me. Why couldn't killing the flood be as easy as that? Letting the question linger in my mind I parked the banshee and exited it quickly, following the green spartan ahead of me and pulling out my rifle. We would more than likely be going up against something in the generator room, probably sentinels and flood; where one was the other usually followed.
The quiet thrum of the generator could be heard down the hall and it created a quiet pulsing that traveled through my suit. It was an odd feeling, but could be described as pleasant. My trained eyes scanned every wall and every strut as we continued towards the main room, not wanting to let anything get the slip on either of us; though I doubt the Master Chief would let that happen. The man had amazing senses. 'Last turn'. That thought had me only slightly anxious as I imagined what awaited us on the other side of the door. Flood, covenant, sentinels...all three of those things possibly. But just as I went to walk through an arm shot out in front of my path and stopped me where I stood. "Wait." It was amazing how a single word from a certain person could put me on high alert, but I knew that when he said to stop it was best to listen.
Shouldering my gun I took half a step back and waited, listening for anything that might give away the reason for stopping. That was when I heard the sounds of battle. What sounded like sentinels buzzing around was accompanied by the gurgling noises of the flood and was also mixed with multiple types of weapon fire. Better they take themselves out then us having to fight them I suppose. Figuring it was going to take a minute for the fighting to stop and die down I moved back a few more steps until the door was barely in view, that way if it was accidentally opened we wouldn't be seen and could keep the element of surprise. The Chief followed my lead, for once, and leaned against the wall beside me, helmet turned towards the door as he kept watch. Not being able to help myself I looked at him from the corner of my eye since he couldn't see through my visor.
I had always wondered what lay beneath that green suit. No one had ever seen Sierra 117 without his helmet besides Dr. Halsey and a few other of the doctors, maybe Johnson. His entire life was overshadowed by the fact that he was a spartan and nobody even really understood that aspect either; the man was a mystery. But then he did something different, more out of character than I had seen...he protected me. Now this wasn't me trying to say the man was a cold and calculative machine, though he acted the part at times, no, but he I had never witnessed nor heard of him making actual physical contact with anyone like that. His arms had pulled me securely against his chest and I swore that I could practically have heard his heartbeat. Then again...maybe I was just over thinking the whole situation. I had been in danger and he reacted naturally as a protector. That's it.
"Ugh..." A silent sigh escaped from my mouth, my body not being able to hold it in from the slight emotional turmoil it was currently sitting in. I would stay strong though, I would be like a spartan and show him that I was just like them. If only to prove that I was worthy.
"Sounds like the worst is over, let's go."
"Huh? Oh, right. Yeah." Real smooth Dusk. I mentally slapped myself for the very distracted and stupid response that I had given before readying my weapon and falling in line behind the spartan. Slowly, very slowly we entered the generator room, trying to be careful not to step on the scattered bodies and pieces of both fallen flood and destroyed sentinels. Seemed as if both parties suffered heavy casualties. "Hey, maybe they're all-" My comment was cut short as flood soldiers suddenly rounded the corner of the center room, their arms flailing wildly to try and catch us off guard. Immediately both John and I raised our weapons and began firing an endless spray of bullets at the approaching danger. Unfortunately the problem with the flood was when you killed one, there were at least two more to replace it. The more we killed the more there were.
"Fall back and take cover!" As he said this the Master Chief tossed a frag grenade right in the thick of the flood so I had no choice but to turn and dive behind one of the small outcroppings of wall, ducking my head as the grenade went off and sent pieces of the enemy flying every which way. "So disgusting." I lightly kicked a dismembered arm away from my leg before turning back towards the fight. Luckily the grenade had greatly diminished their numbers enough for us to pick them off quickly, but what we hadn't anticipated were the smaller infected forms rushing at us in a wave. While the Chief focused on the last few soldiers I tried to pick off the small ones before they reanimated some of the few corpses the remained strewn about. With my attention focused solely on what was before me I had no idea that one of the mutated marines had been making its way towards me, jumping on to my back and tackling me as I shot the last infected squid. I grunted in surprise and rolled us until we hit the wall.
"Get off me!"
*Screeeeeeerrrghghgghhh*
It made some disgusting gurgling screech back at me in retaliation and I punched it to try and get it away from my face, but all of a sudden its feelers shot out and wrapped around my helmet. At first I hadn't taken that past of the flood as much of a threat, thinking that they used them to sense their surroundings; that perception of them changed immediately as I felt pressure being applied to my helmet. The visor cracked as I struggled to get the parasite off of me in an almost panicked manner, mostly because I didn't wish for my skull to be crushed, but them I remembered my knife. If I could just reach it...there! I felt determination surge through my body as I gripped the handle and pulled it free from its holster, reveling in the feel of the weight in my hand before plunging it in to the back of the mutated marines head. Or what used to be its head. As I dug in the knife I felt its grip on me slacken but not let go completely. Again then.
I ripped the knife from its body and plunged it down again, then again, and again. Repeating the action over and over until finally it let go and lay limp atop me; its 'blood' seeping on to my armor and staining it a sickly yellowish-green color. "Sick.." I shoved the lifeless form off of me and took a minute to catch my breath before grasping the hand held out before me, letting the Chief hoist me up the rest of the way. We nodded to one another as he handed me my gun that had been dropped in the scuffle before turning and making his way to the generator, me following closely behind.
"Syncing your suits shields just to make sure...okay." If there was one word to describe Cortana it would be thorough. The AI was as sharp as they came, well, I guess that was part of being an AI; but she always had a back-up plan. And a back-up fir that back-up and so on and so forth. She couldn't have been paired up with a better spartan. Actually, now that I thought about it they were both fairly similar.
"Are you ready?"
"Hm? Oh yes. Ready sir." There I went again flying off in to dreamland when there was a task of the utmost importance at hand. Never mind that now. Stay focused, that was all I needed to do. We would finish off this one then the last generator and be on the home stretch of stopping this mess hopefully. Stepping forwards with the Master Chief we both neared the generator and let our shields take care of the rest, neither of us visibly flinching even as the room around us shook and our suit flashed at us; indicating that our shields were incredibly low. It wasn't so bad the third time around.
"Alright that just leaves one last pulse generator. The two of you should-damn. Incoming hostiles, be ready."
There were just no breaks with these things were there? I reloaded my rifle and took cover behind the door frame that face the hall we had just come from, readying myself for the oncoming shit storm that was about to burst through that door.
"Alright you bastards. Whose ready for round 2?"