Chapter 7: The Great Flood

Date: September 20th, 17:47

Kat had been helping set up a base of operations for the remaining Unsc forces stuck on the ring, things were going well...
The base held 9 Pelicans, 17 Scorpion tanks, 54 Warthogs, and 2 Longswords. The Autumn had crashed at least 20 miles away from their crash sites, not every Vehicle had made it off, and their supplies were dwindling every small operation they sent Marines on, so they brought what they could here.
A couple of ODST's were instructed to prepare some Pelicans for takeoff. They were an interesting site to look at. The base was extremely busy while they were just fidgeting with stuff under panels, and clearing a pathway for them to fly off

Kat had stayed up all "Night" long, even when there wasn't much to do, she refused to go to sleep, she could be needed at any moment.
Although the Nights on this ring worked far differently than on Earth, Reach, or other colony Planets.
The opposite side of the Ring would cover the nearest Star's light, the Nights were short, or very long, considering which way the Ring had been moving.
With the base nearly operational, Kat didn't have much to do.
Apparently, with their supplies going down the drain by the day, she would be sent on a mission to infiltrate a Forerunner weapon stash, located 8 miles from here.

Although Keyes would be leading the operation, and his Bail out of a Covenant Corvette hadn't gotten finished Yet, Chief and Six led it, accompanied by whatever Soldiers could come along.
Not having anything else to do, she went to the area she had been selected to.
Since she was a Spartan, she didn't have as much as a Marine would, one could sleep in their armor at virtually any angle they wanted.
Rocks could be seen as a pillow for them, most only ever took armor off if it was a requirement. She had sat her Sidearm Magnum down and fell asleep...

Date: September 12th, 2552, 16:04. Location: Planet Reach, Castle base.

Emile had gotten his Mjolnir armor back on. After several days of strategizing an escape plan, he did it.
Unfortunately, he could only go up the elevator shaft, there was no other exit, and the Elevator itself was completely dysfunctional at this point. Even more so, his exit would be in plain sight, everyone would have a chance to lay their eyes on him and try to stop him.
There was, however, an armory full of weapons and supplies like Grenades and tactical gear for him to stock up on, so he went there first.

He got there and took several minutes to gather Grenades, a shotgun, a DMR, and a Grenade launcher.
After that, he went out and started his climb up...

He had been spotted, and an Oni Scientist had seen him in his armor passing by before he had a chance to hide, his cover was completely blown, and had to run.
Around hallways, through labs, dead center through the mess hall, and mining outpost, he had made his way to the entrance where he started his climb.
But the entire facility had been alerted, they could use their Emp equipment to disable his armor entirely. Luckily, he had gotten through the ceiling of the Elevator and started climbing.
He held onto pipes, Metal beams, and such, and threw himself up as far as he could each time.

Halsey and a group of random people were at the bottom, looking up through the hole he had gone through.
They had an Emp tazer of sorts and fired at him...
It had missed him by several feet, he was up a ways, there wasn't a way to tell how far up he was, but he was up there high enough.
Again, and again, they had fired.

This time, it had almost touched his Right leg, temporarily disabling it, before he could climb again. "Noble 4, Stop, or we will fire on you." Catherine Halsey stated, threateningly.
Emile looked back at her for a moment.
"I'd rather die fighting up there than be a pussy in here like you."
She wasn't shocked, he had said things like this before to her on rare occasions, and he had a deep irritation with her presence. She was known for caring more for the II's, III's weren't her work anyway.
Halsey drifted off for a second in her thoughts, then came back to the present moment.
"Let him go..."

...

Date: September 20th, 13:04. Location: Unsc Base of operations, Ringworld Installation 04.

Kat had been instructed to go with Keyes and his personally picked group of Marines to deliver a huge proportion of Forerunner weapons back, and since He hadn't arrived yet, she had time to get everything she needed for the operation.
This time there was no M6G Mangum sidearm, but rather an M6D, a powerful, Dmr-like Sidearm that was far more effective than her weapon of choice.
Along with that, the Active Camo equipment she had picked up, her tactical hard case, as well as 2 SMGs, she also had a sack of Ammunition on her back that was filled to the brim with enough ammo to refill every weapon multiple times. If anything were to go wrong, she could escape and supply others with her own.
The reason she had been chosen for this operation, was because of her Intelligence, she could make a plan if she knew what was going on, far faster than any other induvidual could, plus, a Spartan was a fierce warrior no matter the person.

Keyes's rescue had been successfully pulled off, he was arriving sooner or later, and when he did, they would get going the moment he did.
In the hours she had been stationing Vehicles, instructing ODST's and Marines orders, and helping set up mobile Buildings, this was a breath of fresh air, it was a hot minute before she had been sent out on a mission.
Just then, Two Pelicans had flown over the nearby hills a couple of miles away. It was around a minute, or so before both of them had arrived.
Kat watched them get ever closer, a smooth path was being operated by the Pilots, Pelicans took better Pilots to fly, but the way the ship was designed with its engines, its back door, and its overall body shape made it difficult to manage, better pilots were selected to fly them. Similarly, Six had excelled in Sabre training, Pelicans and Sabre had some things in common: Unique exterior design, which made them difficult to fly.
Holland was to have him assigned to Noble if he wasn't a Sabre fighter pilot, oddly enough.
Kat had secretly read most of Six's file, whatever she could get the Oni censors to show her, she saw, and she saw a lot.
Most of it was Six's decision he had wanted this, and most of his file was covered up to due privacy reasons. Both that and the fact that he was a Headhunter working for Oni, taking down wanted targets, destroying objectives, and helping take down impossible amounts of enemies, the job he used to have was a task hard for even several S-IIs.

Captain Keyes had landed to pick up his picks for this mission, Kat, Sgt Johnson, Pvt. Jenkins, and a few other Elite of the Elite ODST's and Marines.
"Good to see you, Catherine. Are my men ready?" Keyes asked, not wanting to wait any longer.
Kat was about to say yes, but Sgt Johnson had chimed in.
"If they weren't they'd have to pray to their Gods above I don't give 'Em another lecture!"
The men had all run to their respective Pelicans seconds after hearing Johnson say that, about 15 or so of them had gotten their things and rushed to get on.
Kat had also gotten on one.

Keyes signaled to the Pilots to get going.
The faster they got their mission done with, the faster they could bring the weapons back and start managing a plan.
Time was of the essence, men were dropping like flies, and it hadn't even been a day since they had crashed, every hour they weren't advancing onto some position the more Marines had been killed without purpose.
One thing was for sure, they wouldn't be on this hellish Ringworld for even another week...

...

Date: September 12th, 2552, 21:06. Location: 13 miles out of Castle base.

Emile had been walking for what had seemed like days, in reality, 10 or so hours. He could barely see a thing, it was incredibly dark out, his flashlight attachment he had picked up was shining brightly, although it did next to nothing for him, sandstorms had made his vision go down faster than a roller-coaster. The reddish sand had screwed his vision up so badly, he could barely see even 15 feet ahead of him.
The mix of the dark of night and the sandstorms, as well as lightning striking miles away, had made it very nauseous to walk.
He kept walking, almost no goal in mind, maybe get a Warthog. Drive to a base and make another plan.
Doing a last stand would do nothing for him, no one was around to know that he would take down thousands of enemies, not only that, it would also most likely blow the Castle base's cover, letting it get raided.
There were still working Sabre sights, although he was no Pilot. Another option was to climb off of Reach via the Space elevators that lead to pods, in a last-ditch effort scenario they could put a human in Cryo and autopilot to the nearest functional Unsc-occupied planet. The pod would cloak itself into the space around it and travel at a speed just barely fast enough to get it back home.
Although that would be stretching possibilities to the maximum.
As he had been continuously walking for what seemed like forever, he had, at last, found a functional Warthog.
He had noticed it didn't even have a turret on the back, he was looking for where it had gone but it seemed to have just disappeared.
He threw his bag of weapons in the back and started driving.
Half a tank of fuel in the engine, this amount might take him as far as the shipbreaking yard back in Aszod.

...

Several hours later...

He had been driving even further than walking at this point, not even knowing what direction he was headed.
Suddenly a piece of metal had flown right into the windshield and had made glass from it fly all over him and out the back of the Warthog.
This had obstructed his vision.
He immediately slammed on the brakes and stopped. He had hopped out and ripped it out, and got back in. He had almost started driving again but, he had seen a huge Covenant ship several hundred feet above the surface.
He saw his chance to get off Reach...

...

Date: September 20th, 2552, 20:48. Location: Forerunner "Weapons stash".

Walking, they had been walking for quite a while, exploring the Jungle that had covered the ancient buildings in vines and natural surroundings. The Marines were silently complaining to each other about how their gear had gotten wet, as well as their clothing. Johnson just looked back at them to shut up and stop.
It was quite dark out, Bugs that had resembled Fireflies had gotten out by this time, they looked like little sparks of fire in the air all around them.
"Watch out for Covenant patrols, they're guarding this with their lives."
"Will do," Jenkins replied. Covenant forces also wanted the weapons.
"Never thought Covies would Need weapons." Johnson pointed out,

"They don't. They're keeping it from us, at least I think." Keyes had responded. Even though they needed to stay aware, Covenant forces were nowhere to be found.
Perhaps they were inside? Or hadn't gotten there yet? Something was off.
Keyes and some of his men stayed behind, waiting for Johnson's approval to move in. Since Keyes was the captain, he would have to be kept safe. The rest of them went ahead.

They had finally reached the entrance.
It was blatantly obvious as to where it was, even with the forest blending itself with it.
"Stay close Jenkins!" Johnson had yelled out. Here they were, at the very front of the doorway, checking their surroundings to make sure it was safe to move in.
Sure enough, it was. "Mendoza, move it up! He had yelled to one of his men.
Mendoza had crouched his way down the stairway, moving in to check if any enemies were inside.
"Wait here for the captain and his squad, then get your ass inside." Johnson had ordered one of his men. "Sir!" he had yelled back.
"Ok let's move!" Kat, Jenkins, Mendoza, and several others ran in...

Upon entering, they had stopped for several seconds, once again checking the area, they had no idea where the Covenant patrols were, and as a result, they'd have to check every corner.
"Kat, is it?" Kat looked over at Johnson.
"That would be me." The Sgt nodded. "You take Mendoza and and some other men, clear out any enemies you see, something's not right."
Kat gave a slight nod and signaled for them to follow.
Johnson and his men continued to their destination, the stash, it was buried under several layers of floors. It was down deep, and they were going to dig it up...

...

It had been a hot minute since they had left to find enemies, nothing to report yet.
"If the movies wanted us dead, wouldn't they have already done it?" Mendoza questioned. "There is an absence of them, wouldn't they be protecting the stash if they didn't want us to get the weapons?"
"Would you two shut up already?" Kat snarked back.
They looked at each other with rolled eyes.
"Will do, sir- I mean Ma'am." Kat was too distracted; she had seen something move. "Shut it, Something's in here with us." They had walked around a corner to see a fleeing Grunt.
There were some after all. BAM! With one shot of a DMR, the Grunt had fallen to the floor, dead.
Mendoza had shot it. Bang! Bang! Bang! Noises from above them a few floors had randomly happened, it sounded as if something was being slammed against a wall. "Mendoza go check what that was, then get back here."
"What do ya think just happened?" "No clue. One thing's for sure, that Grunt was not running from us."

Mendoza had got back. "What happened up there?" Kat asked. "The squad of Covies fled, and they didn't notice me..."
The unnamed Marine gave a face of confusion.
"What would they had run from?" "Don't ask me! I didn't see a thing."
"We need to get back to Johnson," Kat stated, not wanting to wait around for it to show up. "Whatever it is, it'll scare us too."
They ran back to Johnson and his men as fast as they could.

...

"Alright, tell Keyes to get down here quick, it's clear." Johnson had yelled to the Marine through his walkie-talkie. [Over radio] "Yes sir, Sgt!"
Just then Kat, Mendoza, and the other Marine had made it back. Out of breath, it took Mendoza several seconds to catch it and give Johnson a report. "What was so important that you had to come back here so quickly?"
"We're fine, and alone, for the time being, something spooked 'em off."
"All of "em?" Mendoza shook his head. "Damn, well I figure we don't have long."
"We can't stay here, we still got ways before we reach the room full of them oh-so-glorified weapons you Marines have been talking about."
"Let's get moving," Kat responded.
They didn't wait any longer, whatever it was that had spooked the Covie's must be able to give our heroes a good one too. The Marines, anxious, stayed close to Kat and Johnson, feeling very nervous about whatever had just happened.

Suddenly they came into a room with a huge tank in the center, with a dead Elite waiting at the front of it. "What the bloody hell..." Johnson muttered under his breath.
The Elite wasn't just dead, it's guts were torn from the inside out as if something had torn it apart.
"What happened here? Did someone have too much seafood? Nah, never mind, he's a squid himself, I doubt he could get too much, Ha." Mendoza laughed at his own joke.
"Which is weird, right? It's guts are all scrambled from the insides. Maybe an accident happened?"
"Who knows..." Jenkins replied. "Maybe friendly fire? Hell, I 'Dunno." Mendoza replied.

"Friend of yours?" Keyes stumbled into the room, startling everyone. Except, of course, Johnson, he knew where he was a mile away. "Nah, we just met,"
"Badass Elite units, all KIA." Kat was calm and collected, looking around for clues. "Strange," Kat started on. "There's something in it's stomach, looks like some form of parasite."
"Heh, maybe something, some sort of something, got out of that glass cage of sorts?"
"Don't doubt it, keep a lookout."
"You Marines look tired..." Keyes acknowledged. "Yeah, we still got a way to go down, sir."
"What're you talking about? The door's a couple dozen yards away!" It was a lot closer than they had originally thought.
Of course, they were all very much relieved, they would be exhausted anyway, carrying crates for weapons, and walking up and down for hours, it was a lot. "Oh thank heavens for you boys, it's your lucky day! Now get moving!" Johnson harped.
Not long after that, they had arrived at the Cashe's door. "Right, now let's get this door open," Keyes ordered. Kat came in with her device and gently pushed aside the Marines in her way.
She bent down, put it on the door, and started fidgeting with buttons until the door came open.
They were in, at long last.

The Marines moved in and confirmed for Keyes that the room was safe, it was. There was nothing.
Absolutely nothing in the room, at least not anymore. "The hell?" Kat said aloud to herself. "This is where the room was, right?" "Damn certain." He replied with confidence.
"I've got a bad feeling about this..." Jenkins said."
"Boy, you always got a bad feeling 'bout somethin-" Just then, over comms, a voice could be heard...
[Over comms] "-Captain? Sarge? Anyone, can you hear me?" Keyes replied to the frightened trooper. "What's going on soldier?"
"We got contacts! Lot's of 'em, b-but they're not Covenant! They're just tearing through us! Augh no n-" It faded to white noise right as he had been cut off.
Kat came to her senses, whatever it was, it was from the glass cage, and it was a lethal threat, that was for sure.
"Corporal! Do you copy, over?" Johnson hadn't an idea of what was going on...
"Mendoza get your ass up to second squad's position and find out what the hell is going on!" Mendoza cut him off, "Bu-" and Johnson back at him. "No time for your lip soldier! I gave you an order!"
"B-but sarge! Listen!" He yelled back.
Whatever it was earlier was here with them now, and they were about to find out exactly what it was...

Hello! Took me a while I know, don't really have an excuse. Going forward Six will save Kat, as well as reveal his true name, as I want their little relationship to turn into a friendship, a deep one at that. And from there, you know.
Emile will board the Covenant ship and be headed into enemy territory, and fight from there to get to a Human occupied world.
After that, chapters will skip a couple years into the Banished segment, Six and Kat will be taking down highly valued Banished leaders.
Stay tuned!