A/N: The Shadow is based on a cut Halo 3 enemy called the Stealth pure form.
Phase 10: Hidden Terrors PT 2
Alisa is wandering through the lonely hallways of the Xion to hold onto the Brute Needler to see the red crystals look dim in the darkness of the ship's interior. "Very interesting design. The Brutes in the Banished are getting very creative with their weapons. The Brute Needler aka the Shredder doesn't super combine but each crystal fires mini-crystal blasts with each hit. Tearing through shields and armor," Sage said.
"Indeed, they are becoming more dangerous by the day. This galaxy is becoming more chaotic with so many foes. Storm, Banished, United Rebel Front, and the Didact's Forces. Even then the Didact is the bigger threat and yet we are dicking around with the Flood here," Alisa said.
"To be honest, ONI Section 3 has been dealing with the Flood since we found Alpha Halo after the Fall of Reach," Sage said.
"Of course. The Mona Lisa right?" Alisa asked.
"Yes, how did you know?" Sage asked.
"A little crazed birdie told me about it. That is why I am here to find the truth about this and expose it," Alisa said.
"I see, so ONI doesn't know about you being here. Interesting," Sage said.
"Going to rat me out?" she asked as Sage shook her head.
"I can't. All comms be blocked from the ship. So the Flood can't use the distress signal to draw in ships to steal and spread to other planets. Besides, I think ONI went too far with this project. There is nothing wrong with studying them and learning how they work. These are not simple creatures, they are mysterious beings and should never be played with them. I will help you gain as much knowledge as possible," Sage said.
"Thank you, Sage," Alisa said.
"No problem. The main director of the project here is codenamed Jane Doe," Sage said
"Very basic, so ONI to do that," Alisa said.
"Yes, she was the protégé of John Smith who was originally part of the Mona Lisa and he was the project lead," Sage said.
"Interesting. Is she still here?" she asked.
"Yes, but she was killed in her panic room by the Flood. They broke through and tore her apart. Very ghastly," Sage said feeling ill just thinking about it.
"Well, we will get to the bridge. Grab the rest of the data and destroy this accursed place," she said as she saw a Carrier Form falling from the ceiling. "Crap," she fires a single crystal to burst on impact to trigger the Carrier to explode unleashing a small group of Infector pods running towards her.
She fires her red needles to blast apart the incoming Pod Infectors. She turns on her Active Camo to melt into the shadows to fit her original role as an ONI assassin. She sees several Elite Combat Forms holding various weapons with her getting behind them to shoot rapid-fire shots to blow their rotting bodies apart.
She goes to the pile of weapons to see if she can find anything useful. "Oh a Focus Rifle, this will be handy," she said to slip her Shredder on her thigh armor's magnets to use the Focus Rifle. More Combat forms appear with her firing quick bursts of beam strikes to burn through their bodies.
"How are feeling with me within your head?" Sage asked with her Spartan Neural Interface letting Sage be within her suit and mind at the same time.
"Feels funny but good. I feel smoother and sharper with my aiming and strikes," she said.
"The AI like me is capable of significantly improving the data transfer rate between the motor cortex of the Spartan and the MJOLNIR's processing unit, further improving the Spartan's already lightning-quick reaction speed," Sage said as Alisa does feel her movements feel crisper and smoother with Sage making everything easier on her suit and body.
"Thanks for the pick me up," she said holding onto her Focus Rifle to blast a hole in a nearby Combat Form to drop it onto the floor.
"No problem. More Flood units inbound," Sage said as Stalkers and Elite Combat Forms came in trying to take her out. Blue plasma bolts hit her shields to see it hold off with using her Focus Rifle to burn their bodies.
Alisa tosses a Frag Grenade to blow away several enemies to clear them out. She uses her energy dagger to slice and crave through several incoming Combat Forms. Broken limbs and body parts falling onto the floor.
"Interesting, this suit is very remarkable. MJONIR armor is made by the Swords of Sanghelios. The shield strength is equal to an Elite Ultra and the Overshield triples that strength," Sage said going through this custom suit's systems combining human and alien designs in a perfect mix.
Alisa uses her Grapple Shot to latch onto a Stalker to pull it towards her and use her Energy Dagger to slice the monster in half. She pulls out her Shredder to blast another Stalker into a gory mess. She grabs a Brute Plasma Rifle aka Blood Hand to unleash volleys of red plasma to burn through the remaining enemies.
"A third weapon is nice," she said to place it on her other thigh armor to hold it in place.
She grabs her Focus Rifle to keep going to be within a huge area where there are several Rangers on the ceiling and walls while Tanks and Carrier Jackals moving on the floor. "What are those?" Alisa asked.
"Alisa, that is a Carrier Jackal. Carriers have two more versions. Carrier Grunts carry more pods while Carrier Jackals carry about 5 pods but they are more agile and nimble. They leap at their enemies with vicious intent while hiding in the shadows to pounce on their next target," Sage said.
"They explode too?" she asked.
"Yes they do when they take too much damage," she said.
"That's just great," Alisa said dryly to see two Carrier Jackals who looked badly mutated by the Flood while they crawled on all fours. The two Carrier Jackals leap towards Alisa to kick one and use her energy dagger to slice the second one. Both explode to release their pods trying to jump on her but her shields vaporize them on contact to see her shields were weakened but quickly recharge up to full.
A Banger shows up to hit her shields with the energy blast knocking her into a wall to see if her shields are gone. "This thing again," she said.
"Bangers, they are bigger pods but they pack a bigger punch when they land on their target. Having the force of a grenade to damage groups of enemies or light vehicles," Sage said.
"The Flood is getting smarter since last time," Alisa said as she pulled out her Focus Rifle to take out the Ranger forms on the walls and ceiling to knock them out burning them to a crisp.
"Oh, you fought them before. One of ONI's top missions within Africa when the Flood touched down on Earth during the last moments of the war," Sage said looking over her files to see if she has an impressive record throughout the Human-Covenant War and the post-war period.
"I will tell you that story when we get the chance," she said to tosses a Plasma Grenade to take out a Tank while switching to her Blood Hand to let out volleys of red plasma to burn through the bodies of Carrier Jackals and Tanks causing the Carrier forms to explode knocking away the Tanks.
A Shadow appears on top of a platform to hold a Beam Rifle to score a headshot to drain off her shield. "Shit," she said to rush away but gets hit again to see she is at half-strength.
"Get to cover," Sage said sounding worried.
"I know," she said to get clipped in the arm with her shield strength at only 50 percent. She gets into cover to see her shields get back to 400 percent strength. "This Ultra Overshield comes in handy," she said feeling much safer to roll out to use her Focus Rifle to put a constant beam onto the Shadow to burn into its skin.
The Shadow cloaks to get into a better position with Tanks trying to smash her to bits. She evades their swings by using her Shredder to unleash explosive crystals to see the Tanks get blown to rotten pieces scattered onto the floor. One of the Tanks goes on all fours to rush at Alisa to tackle her to send her flying.
She notices the Shadow is wielding the Beam Rifle as she regains her balance to use her Grapple Shot to latch onto the ledge of the platform where the Shadow is hiding to pull herself there. She leaps up and kicks the Shadow into a wall to then drive her Energy Dagger into its body to split it in half.
"Flood hate heat. Energy weapons work best against them," Sage said.
"Thanks for the heads up," Alisa said dryly to see the Focus Rifle had only 50 percent energy left in its generator. "Crap," she said as she fires beams of energy to slice up Flood units to get to the door. Sage seals the door to see a bunch of Tanks smashing into it.
"It's not going to hold," Sage said as Alisa grabbed a bunch of Brute Firebombs to toss it at the door. The entrance burst open but the intense heat burns through the Tanks to swiftly kill them off. The corpses were set in flames which is warding the enemies off from coming through.
"That takes care of that," Alisa said to keep going to hear gunfire near her position.
"There is very little security left on the ship," Sage said as they detected several targets with one being friendly. She sprints forward trying to save the guard to see a soldier firing his weapon at the pods. The pod leaps onto the soldier to latch onto her body to rapidly mutant her body into a Combat Form.
"Too late," she aims her Brute Plasma Rifle to let the red plasma bolts burn through the fresh walking corpse to blast apart its body until it is nothing but a pile of smoking meat. "Good thing I have a helmet," she said.
"They will soon spread spores and turn anyone without proper protection into Flood," Sage said.
"Lucky us," Alisa said dryly to keep going.
Elsewhere Vale is using her Plasma Rifle to burn through hordes of Pod Infectors. A Tank came in and hit her on the back to knock her into a wall. Her Battle Rifle broke on impact as she fired her volley of blue plasma bolts to kill off the Tank.
"Great," Vale said as she kept going towards the bridge of the Xion for more Carrier Jackels jumping at her. She kicks all three back with her Plasma Rifle blasting them into burning heaps of dead flesh. "Hey Alisa, how is your status?" she asked as she grabbed a fallen Flamethrower to begin to see a pile of Flood biomass on the floor and walls.
"We are getting back up. The lower levels are very bad. Flood everywhere down here. The suit is very helpful to deal with this," Alisa said.
"Good, Sangheili craftsmanship is no joke," she spews jets of flames to burn away the biomass. She sees a door covered with Flood biomass to burn it away to clear it up to open the door. "Biomass is covering up doors, walls, and ceiling. How many prisoners were here?" Vale wondered.
"About 100,000 prisoners were sent here over 5 years to be used in experiments," Sage said.
"Goodness, ONI has gone mad with this one," Vale said to see more Pods coming at her to use her Flamethrower to burn all the little buggers to make them disappear.
"Lord Hood needs to know this. Maintaining the partnership between the USNC and the Elites must be our top goal. There are too many threats for us to fight alone," Alisa said.
"Agreed," Vale said as a Ranger was on the ceiling to strike the Flamethrower to destroy it. Several Combat Forms appear along with a Tank to back them up.
She blasts apart a few Combat Forms to grab a dropped Mosa Carbine. She fires the radioactive rounds to tear into the Ranger to see it fall and crash onto the floor.
She slides onto the floor to grab another Plasma Rifle to dual-wield them to unleash a barrage of blue bolts of plasma burning holes into the incoming Combat Forms. She runs towards the Tank with her two Plasma Rifles in hand. The Tank swings at her but she easily dodges the strike to unload the bolts into its body to slide between its legs. She tosses a Plasma Grenade to latch onto its body with the grenade explodes with enough force to blow off its left arm.
The Tank transforms into a Stalker to get away but Vale manages to nail it while it's crawling up the walls.
Vex along with his commandos are in intense combat with Vala and Sela helping as well to get to the engine room to destroy the Proto Gravemind. "The AI has posted a waypoint to the location of the Proto Gravemind," Vex said as he used his Concussive Rifle to blow apart groups of enemies while Vala uses her Needle Rifle to trigger super combines on Tanks and Combat Forms to wipe them out with deadly precision.
Sela is using her Storm Rifle to let out a rapid barrage of blue bolts to mow down Pods, Combat Forms, and Carrier Jackals. She tosses a Needle Grenade to see a lot of crystals scatter and trigger super combines on nearby Flood units.
They hear a howling sound to see a huge beast a Flood Juggernaut smashes through a heavy metal door to use its limbs to impale Elites to smash them into messes of purple gore.
"By the heavens, this thing is here," a commando said as Vex knows this thing which the Arbiter fought on Delta Halo.
"Don't hesitate, kill it," Vex ordered as he fired his explosive bolts with the Juggernaut.
"Must be protecting the Proto Gravemind," Sela said using her Fuel Rod Gun to blast its tough hide. The Juggernaut uses its long powerful limbs to slice commandos in half and smash their bodies into purple messes on the walls.
The huge Flood unit spins its limbs around with Vex, Sela, and Vala along with some Commandos rolling out of the way. The other commandoes get smashed into bloody pieces on the floor.
They focus their fire onto the big Flood to blast apart its body with Sela firing several fuel rod shots to destroy the Juggernaut to lifelessly flop onto the floor.
"That was troublesome. We need to keep moving," Vex said as they go deeper into the hive of the Flood to get close to the Proto Gravemind.
Alisa is walking through the ruined hallway to get word about the others killing a Juggernaut. "Gee, how many are there within the ship?" she asked.
"There are three Juggernauts within the ship. A Keymind Helping coordinate the Flood units along with the Proto Gravemind," Sage said as
"Things get worse," Alisa said as her motion sensor detected something nearby. "Any more surprises?" she asked.
"Gaunt is here. Another Pure Form like the Shadow," Sage said.
"Oh boy," she said going into a wide space with a bunch of shipping crates to see a Gaunt moving through the shadows.
"They are quite slippery. Be careful," Sage said.
"I got this," Alisa said as she held her Focus Rifle to see the Gaunt leaping around the area. She is firing beams of energy with the monster weaving her shots. It grabs a crate and throws it at Alisa to dodge the toss.
She aims at her gun but the Gaunt uses its long tentacles to pull the weapon out of her hands to break it against the floor. "Great," she said to pull out her Shredder to try to hit the swift monster. The Gaunt slides under a small crate to lift it and toss it at the Spartan.
"Crazy bastard," she said using the VISR in her helmet to highlight the Gaunt within the darkness. She waits for the right moment to see the Gaunt leap at her.
She uses her Grapple Shot to latch onto the Flood Pure Form to pull herself and dig her energy dagger into its head ripping it open. She shoves a Frag grenade inside the monster to roll away. The Flood unit violently blows apart to clear up the room.
"Good work dealing with that thing," Sage said as Alisa went through the crates to find a new weapon which was an MLRS-1 Hydra Launcher.
"This will come in handy," she said while grabbing some ammo for it. She grabs a bunch of Cyro Grenades. "Oh interesting," Alisa said.
"Cyro Grenade, liquid nitrogen will be useful to slow down the Flood," Sage said.
"Turn them into popsicles and blast them to icy pieces," Six said as they went into a server room which had a terminal she could access.
"There will be files we pull from here. Let me inside," Sage said as he inserted the data chip into the terminal to draw out data about ONI's experiments and data files. Sage displays it on the screen with Alisa being terrorized by this.
"My goodness, what a nightmare," Alisa said to see what ONI's plans were for the Flood. "They are going to use it against Sanghelios to wipe them out," she said feeling sickened by this.
"I know ONI is trying to get rid of the Elites but genocide is a bit much. The war is over, no need for it," Sage said not agreeing with this.
"ONI don't care about that. They care about being on top of things. Their screw-up made the Sangheili fight among each other and made the Storm. They are the root of the problems of our current status in the galaxy," Alisa said as Sage gathered all the data into herself.
"Pull me out," Sage gets put back into the neutral link.
"Sela, I got some bad news," Alisa said as she shared the data she found on the terminal.
"By the heavens, this is madness. ONI wants to wipe us out. Arbiter had his suspicions but now. They are going to use the Flood against us. Unbelievable," Sela sounded deeply upset.
"I am sorry Sela," Alisa sounding concerned with all this.
"I am not blaming you. Like our kind, some people cling to the past. The Storm and ONI are made for each other," Sela said.
"I need to keep moving, I am getting close to the bridge," Alisa said to see if there is an elevator nearby.
"Okay, stay safe," Sela said.
"You can take the lift nearby which will get us to the bridge," Sage said as they went into a lift to head back above with the mission getting close to finished.