The squads waded through the deep snow in search for their quarry. Rippling whirlwinds and the screaming wind kept verbal communication to a minimum, with the group increadingly relying on hand signals to both keep close together and to keep moving in the same direction. Snow White, the lead of the pack, hefted her heavy gear through the layers of her namesake, pushing through with little regard. She wore the hood of her poncho over her head and her strange extending mask over her face to protect from the wind.
The others had had to don balaclavas and cover their faces with scarves and goggles in order to advance through the hellish conditions. Rapi murmured to herself, "This is bad..." before radioing, "Snow White! We should find a shelter!" though she could hear the reverb of her communication and a small feedback loop that screeched in her ear. Snow White, however, seemed to have heard it. She raised her left hand and gave Rapi a thumbs up, then opened that same hand and chopped left twice.
The squads, forming a column as a platoon, advanced further on foot, toward another of the nearby shelters. These shelters, however, were a compound made up of a series of abandoned buildings. Snow gave an all-clear signal to ensure that the Spartans and the others knew she'd gone in beforehand. Entering the cabins made of concrete and wood, the group found a surprisingly warm, insulated area to rest in. Admittedly, it was all a bit dusty, but at least it proved to be shelter from the storm.
Anis breathed a sigh as she pulled her balaclava and goggles off her face, then murmured, "This is, what, the third time we've gone in to hide from a blizzard? How the heck's the weather out here this bad?" while not taking into consideration the facts that they were up North and that the area was actually pretty mild in comparison to how the northernmost outposts of humanity felt in times like this.
Something that Ludmilla reminded her about by stating, "There's much worse weather out there than a mild snowstorm," as she sat herself down with Alice. She pulled out a tracker system and saw slight interference, but noted another friendly contact approaching. She said, "We might be joined by Neve soon. Beware, she's cuddly," with a smirk. She set the device down and watched as Snow White undid the straps on her gear and set it aside, immediately going on to perform maintenance again.
"The White Knight seems wary," Alice said, "Are you okay?"
Snow looked at her as the mask retracted, her eyes glowing auburn. She nodded, "I'm fine. Just making sure my weapons are at 100% for the upcoming battle..." then pulled an old, rusty-looking wrench out of a tool kit she had on her and started undoing one of the plates on the missile launcher system she had attached to her weapons. The Seven Dwarves were a really impressive weapon system.
"Oh, okay," Smiled the girl. She remained sat beside Ludmilla, while Luda herself watched the Chief and his Spartans talk a plan out with the Commander. Seemed almost like they were all offering up to fight Chatterbox. Snow White noticed this, too, and had the same thought as Ludmilla. If there was anyone that could probably take on Chatterbox, it was probably the four Spartans present in the room and her.
After ensuring that the launcher would function and that the rest of her weapons were in top shape, Snow whistled toward the Commander and the Spartans. She waved them over and said, "I want to talk to the Master Chief and Commander in private for a little, Linda. Do you mind?" to which the Sniper shook her head. She took Will and Sam to the back of the room where they could exchange small-talk, with the redhead sniper showing the first kind of emotion she'd shown since Snow knew her. Joy.
Snow led the Spartan and Commander to an area out of earshot of everyone else and crossed her arms, then said, "Chatterbox is here for a reason. There's a technology of some kind nearby that neither he, nor his masters could figure out. I think it's one of the things your friends at that Research Base were checking before Land Eater came in to try and kill them."
"What kind of tech?" The Commander inquired, while Chief crossed his arms.
The woman pulled out her tablet and tapped the screen a few times, then turned the cracked screen toward them. Both paused, but unlike the Chief, Alyosha didn't recognize what it was. Chief, though, said, "That's... A Forerunner station," as he noted the silver alloys, the sharp angles and the other tells of it being from their precursor species. He told both of them, "I'd feel better if the Raptures didn't get a hold of it."
"That important, huh...?" Snow murmured, then stowed the tablet, "I tried accessing it myself. Nearly got fried by its defensive systems."
"What're we looking at in terms of defenses. Floating drones?" Chief inquired. The Nikke seemed to pause, then nodded. Floating Sentinel drones with their own particle beams. Must've been one hell of a surprise for the enemy, Chief thought as the Commander stared on, a bit surprised. He then told them, "Whatever the station is, if it's got Sentinels protecting it, it must be somewhat important."
"See, I figured the same thing," Snow quipped, staring at the Chief, "It's why I want to use it as bait for Chatterbox."
"Let me guess," Alyosha started, "You want us to take out the Sentinels, whatever they are. Bait Chatterbox with the area being clear when he comes in and then take it out," and he got a nod from Snow. Decently good plan. Alyosha, however, commented, "We'll need to move fast... Chief, do these installations usually have an ability to... Wait a minute, what the hell's an alien installation you know doing here?"
Chief paused for a moment to think, while Cortana stated, "Might be the thing that brought us here, but he has a point..." with the Chief simply giving a short, quick shrug.
Snow sighed, "Regardless of its presence, it's good for us. We have two platoons worth of Nikkes with us, plus you and your Spartans, Chief. Linda has vouched for you being a good soldier and a great fighter. And I do trust Linda after we've worked together for two months. I'd suggest not fistfighting the death machine this time, though..." and Alyosha let out a short laugh.
"Yeah, that was pretty nuts," The Commander quipped, smiling, "Chief's just built like that, though..."
"I suppose," Snow shrugged, "Just try to use your guns next time... You'll have me covering and we have that flying Nikke of yours, so I suppose it's fine, considering we have Air Cover, but we really need to be careful..." only to note that Rusty was sat alone, feeling her head. Snow White furrowed her brows at that, then sighed and walked off back to her gear, sitting down beside it.
Chief and the Commander exchanged a quick look, then Alyosha gave a simple nod to the Chief. The Spartan gave a quick salute to the man, then went to rejoin his teammates, both Nikke and Spartan. The young man, meanwhile, walked up to Rapi, watching as she peered through the boarded-up windows at the storm outside. She said to him, "The weather really is unpredictable up here."
"Yeah," He replied, leaning against the wall, arms crossed. He tilted his head toward Rusty as Anis and Neon were checking on her, then said, "You think she's okay?"
"She has been acting rather strange, but she says it's a mild headache. Some new Code apparently got into her system, but it supposedly won't affect her performance," The Nikke replied. She took her wooly hat off, then sighed and ran a hand through her own hair, while Alyosha simply stared at those glimmering bright red eyes and at that faded, almsot ginger hair. She spoke softly, "I wonder... Commander, do you believe we have a chance to capture Chatterbox?"
"With you all around us, I have no doubts," He replied reassuringly, "Then we'll go home, shove it in Syuen's face, too..."
Rapi chuckled at that, then pushed a strand of hair out of her eyes. She told him, "It would certainly be a new bit of catharsis for us, considering we can't do the same trick as we did before... Damn shame, really."
"Maybe we should get Anis a faux-mind wipe thanks to Cortana," He smirked.
Anis barked, "I heard that!" but it was tinged with laughter, while Neon herself seemed content to now bother Snow White in terms of her weaponry. Firepower and whatnot. Anis added quickly, "I might be willing to do it! Heck of a memory, kicking Syuen in the chest! Hehehe!" and that got a few laughs out of the Lucky Strikes, all of whom had set up around a heating lamp brought over by Ludmilla and Alice.
"I'd suggest not. Having to even pretend to lose your memory's scary, Anis!" Rapi shot back, to which Anis gave a thumbs up, probably well aware of the implication sof losing one's memory like that. Something she didn't really wanna test right now, Rapi hoped. The young woman then sighed and looked at Alyosha again and continued, "I have a bad feeling about Syuen. More-so than usual. Something feels wrong."
Alyosha raised a brow, then asked, "Go ahead," only to see hesitation. He smiled and put a gentle hand on her shoulder, squeezing it to reassure her as he spoke, "You're my executive officer, Rapi. I listen to everyone else's concerns. I should listen to yours as well. Hell, I should probably listen to you most of all, considering everything..." before he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck.
The girl nodded, then began to explain, "Something just feels wrong, Commander. I don't have any concrete evidence, but it feels like something big was recently set in motion back on the Ark. Something caused by the arrivals of our newfound allies..." then she turned toward the Spartans, all of whom were now engaged in small-talk with the girls of LUCKY STRIKE.
"We'll probably see when we get back home. Com with Shifty is shabby as is right now, both due to distance and the Alva Particle concentration, not to mention Weather," He said, then scratched his chin, "We should probably start coming up with a plan to take down Chatterbox, honestly. Might be best for all of us to have at least the groundwork laid out before we head out to fight."
"I hope I'm wrong, honestly," Rapi sighed, "But something just doesn't feel right..."
Cortana could almost note the spikes in Rapi's neural activity. She tried more sneakily accessing her data, but found herself blocked by what seemed to be a firewall of some kind. She didn't know what it was, but she figured all Nikkes must've had it, so she decided to start testing that hypothesis as best and as stealthily as she could, because the NIMPH was... Odd.
Still, she hoped she'd at least be able to figure out a way to help them. She also quickly checked on Rusty, but found nothing really out of the ordinary. She kept a subroutine looking while she went about her business, figuring out the Nikkes' inner workings like she honestly should have done much earlier on. Still, though, nothing of interest cropped up in any of them.
Well, save for Snow White scaring the life out of her by telling Chief, "Maybe tell your AI friend not to poke where she doesn't belong..." in a calm tone.
Oh, joy. She was smart.
Flood Containment Area
Former Missilis HQ
Kelly lifted the grating that connected the building's bathroom drains to the sewer. A thick fog covered the inside and no lights worked, so she activated her VISR system and triple-checked suit seals to ensure she wouldn't wade out deep enough to be infected without some comfort blanket protection. Climbing to the top, she shifted her aim around, keeping the flashlight on her gun off.
She felt her boots get slippery as she started stepping on the Biomass emitting the thick, green fog. She kept tabs on her Motion Tracker and found no movement just yet, outside the patrolling Spartan and two more mobile contacts. She pushed through the broken door of the place and out into the overrun corridors, scanning the place as she made sure she had enough buckshot. This was gonna be one hell of an op...
Pushing through, the girl sought out a computer of some kind, all while keeping tabs on the targets around her. The corridors were normally narrow. Now, the Flood biomass growing around made them even worse, to the point of claustrophobia, each bulbous protrusion making it that much harder to navigate. What seemed to be appendages pocked out of the walls, Flood tentacles.
She stepped through a 'door', an opening iris of Flood biomass, then scanned the cross-intersection ahead with her gun, ensuring that anything moving was still in her MT's range. Her boots crunched audibly as she walked over bulbous protrusions and what sounded like bone, until she realized it was basically bone. Looking down at her feet, the young woman saw dozens...
Dozens of corpses embedded within the walls, like some sick body horror show. Only bone and ribcages poked through the thin veneer of translucent Flood biomass, but just enough for Kelly to feel herself stepping over what was left of their skeletons. She sighed and suppressed her gag reflex as she continued down the corridors, looking for something that could tell her where to find the detonator for the neutron bomb.
The unsettling ambiance of the place grew more audible the further Kelly walked in. From what sounded like the muffled screams of the damned, to communications ghosts that echoed the cries of Nikkes converted to soldiers for the Flood, muffled and slowed to inhuman, loud screams that had become unintelligible to anyone who wasn't part of the Hive Mind.
Kelly didn't plan on becoming part of it just to hear the damned scream in her ears. Pushing forward, ever careful and pieing every corner to ensure she wasn't going to get jumped, the girl only found similar sights as prior. Nikkes embedded into walls, the synthetic skin slowly being peeled away from their flesh to reveal endoskeletons that were also being eaten through by the Flood. A Nikke's torso hanged from the ceiling, upside down, with no arms.
Just a skeletal face, staring at Kelly with empty eye sockets. She understood why John had grown to fear the Flood from reports. Seeing it first-hand was making her reconsider just how much a report could actually say about these types of things. She paused, however, when she saw that the Nikke's chest compressed and expanded rhythmically.
She was still breathing?
No. Kelly saw it now. Clouds of green poured out of what was once her mouth and nose. She was one of the ones responsible for the Fog. What was left of her, anyway, remade to emit the Flood Spores that probably helped build the Biomass here. She pushed past it. If she got stuck too long in one place, she could be found and overwhelmed.
Stopping at another intersection, she crouched as the tunnels became even more narrow, gently crawling her way through the muck and thinking about how much of the armor she was gonna have to wash out when she managed to exit this place. She was trying to keep her mind off of the horrors around her, but at least she was managing to. She crawled further, exiting out into a wider Flood antechamber next to some stairs.
There, she saw a computer that was still active, almost completely enveloped by the Biomass. Making sure no hostiles would be there to welcome her, or, better yet, making sure she wouldn't wake up any 'sleeping' Nikke Combat Form or Spartan, she stepped through. Slinging her shotgun onto her back, she started tapping away at the keyboard, which was thankfully untouched as of yet.
There was still some power running through the place, rather obviously, but the fact that one computer out of so many was still on was odd. Continuing her search, the girl kept eye and ear peeled for movement or changes around her. She pulled various files up, including building schematics. Seemed like an Administrator had logged into the computer before the crap had inevitably hit the fan, though.
There was another underground section nearby that led to the building's generators and the neutron bomb. She made a note of that, looked back at the stairwell, which also went down, then nodded approvingly. Saving that information in her mind, the Spartan drew her shotgun. One footstep, however, forced her to turn around and aim her weapon, revealing the transformed frame of a second Spartan, twitching, one of his or her arms broken by the claw protruding out from within the armor.
The visor glared at Kelly, whose heart suddenly dropped to her stomach as she stared at it. It stumbled forward, croaks modified by the suit's transmitter filling the room... Then it craned its head back, arms splaying open. Kelly gasped, aimed, but was one second too late. A scream that made the skin on her body crawl like nothing else filled the place. Kelly stood to her feet and pumped four shotgun shells into the Spartan, causing the corpse to fall over. She pushed forward, put the barrel of her gun to where she saw the Infection form's tentacles poked out from and squeezed off the rest of her magazine, turning the corpse into a pulp.
Too little, too late, though. As she reloaded her shotgun, her heart stopped. A thousand screams echoed in reply to their dead brother's warning. A window broke in front of Kelly, the skittering of a dozen forms audible. She swiveled about, looking deeper into the overrun office area to see silhouettes in the darkness. Corrupted Nikkes scurried forward, twitching like demons.
Through the hole she'd crawled, more appeared. Twisted appendages and arms, the faces of the screaming monsters that once were what she would have called newfound comrades. Even the face of a Product 23 stared at her, one eye covered by biomass while the other glowed a burning scarlet. Their distorted screams filled the room as they clawed to get at her.
She opened fire with her shotgun, thinning the horde a little as she moved backward, toward the stairwell. She didn't have the ammo to deal with this and her heart suddenly welled with fear as she saw them all crawling over each-other like a tidal wave of corpses. They were itching to get her. Several managed to tumble forward and stand up, then charge Kelly.
She put shot and shell into them as they approached, then scoffed. She really didn't have the ammo. Turning about and slinging her shotgun onto her back, she scrambled down the stairwell, jumping over railings, moving past Flood forms hidden in the darkness, then scrambled forward, deeper into the underground as the corpses behind her filled the concrete hallway.
She slammed into a door to open it, ran past several more forms, one of which managed to claw at her armor and slow her momentum before she put a pistol round into it, then pushed into what seemed to be a vault. Running into it, Kelly caught the door with her hands and pulled it closed via her momentum. Two of the Nikkes caught up with her, more malformed ones that looked like carriers.
One of them got caught on the door and was squeezed until she burst by the mechanical locks kicking in, spraying the room with pus and the remains of Nikke coolant blood. The other, Kelly pinned to the floor and gunned down with the full magazine from her pistol. Heaving, the Spartan sighed deeply and said, "I swear, I'm gonna go to Church if I survive this..." before turning around.
She paused, eyes shooting wide open as she saw the gruesome sight on the wall. A collage of corpses, both Nikke and Human, put together into what seemed to be a Proto-Gravemind. The corpses still whined, vocal chords and vocalizer systems distorted. Some of the Nikkes seemed to still be opposing the transformation. One of them, a Product 08, noticed Kelly. Her mouth had been covered by Biomass, but her arm, still clad in its blue armor, pointed at the floor.
A grate... And a central computer.
The whirr of Generators and the scarlet emergency lights told her she was where she needed to be. The banging on the door alerted her to the fact the Flood were trying to breach in. And, going by the fact the door was already cracking open, they were succeeding. Her Motion Tracker was pretty much of zero use right now, reading thousands of movements all at once from thousands of Forms.
She breathed a sigh, turned back toward the Proto-Gravemind and saw the 08 pointing at another. A dead human in a stained suit. Kelly offered her a nod, stepping forward and grabbing what seemed to be a card that was hanging off of the corpse and looking at it. A high-level access card, rather obviously. Probably needed to detonate the charge. The Spartan looked up at the Nikke again...
The girl had extended her hand toward Kelly. Tears welled in the corners of her eyes as the Spartan approached. She wanted someone to take her hand, one last small comfort before she went. Kelly nodded and gently took the girl's hand into her own. The girl closed her eyes and nodded... An unspoken 'thank you'. She squeezed Kelly's hand, then finally let go.
Kelly sighed deeply. She wasn't gonna let that poor thing suffer any more than she needed to. Sliding toward the command console, the girl started tapping in orders for the device. When a scarlet warning screen blared, requesting the ID, she slid the card into a slot and continued. The banging on the door grew louder, the cracks widening. When she looked back, she could make out two more Spartans, the man's teammates, slamming themselves against the cracking door.
She gave the command and warnings began to scream across the entire Containment Zone. Kelly slid her way down into the grate just as the door burst and the Flood started chasing after her. The next five minutes of the seven minute countdown she'd set were a blur. She was running her fastest. If her suit was to be believed, she'd broken even through her old 62mph record. 64mph. Not a big change, but it might just get her out of here, god bless Adrenaline.
She scrambled up a ladder as the wave of corpses caught up to her. They, or the Proto-Gravemind, chanted in unison, "WE WILL NOT PERISH ALONE IN THIS GRAVE!" almost spitefully. She felt one of the Spartans latch onto her leg, kicked it down hard enough to crack his visor and see what was left of the human being that she'd once called a comrade, then she jumped up the ladder and into the street. Her suit displayed the countdown...
At thirty seconds left... She ran fast.
At fifteen seconds... She ran faster.
She could see the edge of the CZ and the Raptures burning away refuse with their flamethrowers by the time of the ten second mark. At five, she was nearly at the wall where puppet Nikkes and Combat Raptures waited for her alongside the marines. At four, she felt the weight of several hundred kilograms pounce on her and was flipped onto her back by the same Spartan Flood she'd cracked the visor of. It roared at her, "IF YOU WILL NOT JOIN US IN LIFE, YOU WILL BURN WITH US IN DEATH!"
A shotgun racked and a shell thundered. The Spartan's head and the infection form exploded in a shower of gore. Johnson quipped, "Like Hell, she will! Kelly, move your ass!" as he helped the Spartan up. She scrambled to her feet, grabbed the Sergeant and rushed forward just as the ripple of the neutron explosion filled the area. The shield surrounding the containment zone closed and a reverberating detonation shook the very foundation of the Ark.
A white flashing light rolled through the sector, stopped only by the shield as the agitated particles boiled away the nervous systems of the Flood, alongside the sinew and everything else of the creatures they'd infected in the CZ. Four more seconds of rumbling passed, then, all was silence. Kelly panted, feeling her legs burning for the first time in many years. Her lungs also hurt. She took her helmet off and breathed out a sigh of relief.
Johnson breathed, then patted her on the shoulder with a grin as the Marines around them cheered. He told her, "Fine work, Petty Officer..." then sighed deeply. He almost drew his gun when he saw Cinder approaching them, but didn't. Risking a firefight after the Flood was killed was probably not that good of an idea for either side. Plus, she'd just lost some of her own units to the Neutron bomb.
She spoke, "Not bad, for Tourists..." crossing her arms to her chest, "I guess that solves that issue. I can finally move on with my life."
Kelly coughed, then sighed and straightened up, "Does this mean we're shooting each-other now?" which caused the Marines to tense. Several surviving Puppet-Nikkes readied their weapons as Cinder expected the first shot to come from them. Seeing that nobody was firing yet, though, the Heretic shook her head, her guards lowering their weapons. Kelly showed everyone to settle down.
"We'll get plenty of time for that later," Cinder smirked. She and her units moved to leave the place, with her sending one last quick communique to Kelly, "See you later, Tourists!" and giving a wave of the hand. Before long, what as left of Cinder's garrison had disappeared. Kelly heaved, hunched over, then shook her head. If it hadn't been for that Product-08 pointing things out...
"What now...?" Jenkins asked, seemingly more at ease now that the Flood was dealt with.
"Now...?" Kelly blinked, "I don't think it's a good idea to go back to the Ark just yet... I want us to find the second signal, just in case it's also Flood," She then turned to face them. Looking at herself, she saw she was slightly dirty, but not more than after the usual combat deployment. She continued, "If it isn't, we'll be retrieving more reinforcements... And when we get back to the Ark," Her voice grew low, angry, "I'm gonnae let that diminutive bitch have it..."
The Marines and Johnson grinned, "Hoorah!"