Phase 9: Hidden Terrors Pt 1
Alisa is within the hanger of the Swords' Stealth Corvette to see a bunch of Elites ready for battle to see Vale sitting on the crate waiting for the battle. "Oh Vale, what are you doing here?" Alisa asked.
"The team asked me to come. Besides, I don't believe the Master Chief would just go rogue like that. Also, ONI playing with the Flood is beyond crazy. An extra Spartan never hurts," Vale pats her on the shoulder.
"Good to have you here," Alisa said.
"Thanks, by the way. Your suit looks so cool," Vale said as her Helioskrill armor was blue and white.
"Thanks. Sela hooked me up with this. This is the next-gen Nanolaminate alloy for better heat resistant and bulletproof," Alisa said.
"We both got suits based on the Elites. Pretty neat," Vale said having a Battle Rifle and a Plasma Rifle on her thigh. "Well it's going to take a while but we will get to the Xion in a few hours," she said.
"Know anything about it?" Alisa asked.
"Not really, it was an old colony ship used by Oni for research purposes since the end of the war. Very shady stuff," she said.
"Well better get prepared for anything there," Alisa said to check the ammo counter on her assault carbine with all 54 rounds in the magazine.
"Well said Supergirl," Vale said as within the hour they managed to reach the lonely ship of Xion within an asteroid field around a gas giant.
"We got the human ship in position. Checking comm, dead silent," the field commander said as they could still hear the distress signal but no response. "Good to have you both here,"
"This is Vex, he will be the one who will lead the operations on the field," Vala said.
"Good to be here sir, point where I need to go and I will shoot," Alisa said giving Vex a handshake.
"Good to have someone of your reputation here. We will need all the help we can get on this one," Vex said in a purple commando combat harness wielding a Concussive Rifle and a Needler.
"No one is answering. We need to board and check what is going on inside," Sela said as she was wielding a Storm Rifle and Fuel Rod Gun along with her trusty energy sword at her side.
"Prepare all strike teams in Phantoms. Boarding on all sides on the ship," Vex said as Vex, Sela, Vala, Alisa, and Olympia got into a phantom dropship to begin going into space to approach the dead ship showing no signs of activity.
"Odd, keep your toes in place, everyone," Vala said to hold onto her Needle Rifle and Plasma Rifle on her thigh. All the Sangheili are wielding enclosed helmets with their combat gear.
"Docking inside the hangers," 6 Phantoms enter into different entrance points to go inside to see the hanger is a complete mess and broken Pelicans on the floor.
All the Elite Commandos wielding Plasma Repeaters, Plasma Rifles, Storm Rifles, and Pulse Carbines. "I don't like this," an Elite Commando said.
"It's dead quiet," Vex said as they heard echoes of gunfire with their weapons raised at the door.
"Monsters, monsters!" a soldier screamed to pound against the sealed door. Suddenly the door busts open to reveal a Combat Form to use its tentacle arm to tear the soldier in half. Blood and guts scattered onto the floor.
"The Parasite," the Commando opens fire with his Storm Rifle with the plasma bolts burning into its rotten flesh to put it down.
"Yep, Flood is here. Fuck me," Olympia said to walk up to the corpse of the soldier to check his suit for anything useful. "Data chip, we can check his helmet camera to see what is happening," she said to put into the back of her helmet to play through the video.
The soldier was part of the guard unit that was protecting the ONI black site until mistakes were made and the Flood breach containment infected the entire ship's crew and prisoners.
"Gees, a total mess. Another fuck up but of the galactic kind," Vale said.
"You humans have a habit of touching things you are not supposed to," Vala said.
"Oops," Olympia said lightly.
"Well, we need to gain data on this ship to prove the Flood is here. We need to head for the bridge, take the ship's data, and get out of here," Vex said wielding his Concussion Rifle to go forward with all of his commando units heading for the bridge of the Xion.
The two Spartan women activate their helmet's lights to cut into the dark alleyways. "Man, the generators must be on life support," she said as her perfect vision allowed her to see in the darkness.
"Sir, we are encountering Combat Forms. Human, Elite, and Brutes variants," a commando said on the radio hearing plasma shots in the background with haunting sounds to cut off the line.
"ONI must be busy with their experiments here," Vex is not pleased his kind are being used as test subjects for the parasite.
The five along with the commandos go inside to see a large warehouse area that has a lot of containers and storage units that used to hold Flood subjects.
"Goodness, they got Pure Forms too," Alisa said as she held onto her shotgun to see a Tank form rushing towards them.
"Oh shit," Vale said as they dodge the rush but a few Commandos get slammed into bloody pieces by the huge Tank. They open fire on the Tank to swing its big arms to send out crates across the room. Alisa uses her wrist-mounted energy dagger to slice the large box in half to rush towards the Tank.
The Tank spits Pod Infector as she uses her gun to blast them apart while some of them slam into her powerful shields to see these nasty little things burst apart on impact. She fires a few shells to blow off the biomass in the Tank.
The Tank swings its arm with her using her energy dagger to slice it in half as she fires her shotgun at the back of the beast to drop it onto the floor. "Finally, we need to get moving," Alisa said.
"We will split into teams to cover more ground. Head for the bridge," Vex said as he led his team of commandos leaving Alisa, Vale, Vala, And Sela along with the rest of the Commandos to keep going.
"This is getting worse by the minute," Vela said as they saw a wave of infector forms flowing like water across the hallway. "Shoot them now," she said as bullets and plasma bolts skirted across the floor.
Vale tosses a Frag grenade to blast apart the horde of Pod Infectors. One Pod Infector leaps at Alisa to use her energy dagger to slice it in half to destroy it.
"Stay away," they heard someone running away from something. A Marine is trying to run from a Stalker to pounces on him to tear off his head from his neck.
"These creepy things," they fire their weapons with the beast leaping off the walls to avoid getting shot by the weapon's fire. Another Stalker leaps onto the ceiling to morph into a Ranger to fire rapid barrages of bones to tear into their shields.
The Stalker grabs a Commando to slam him into a wall with enough force to break his neck killing him instantly.
"Great," Sela aims her Storm Rifle to take out the Ranger with Vale kicking the Stalker about to pounce on her to send it into a wall. Vala and Alisa put rounds into it to kill it off.
"What a bother," Vale said as they heard a horde of Flood units coming their way with Combat Forms like Humans, Elites, and Brutes coming in with weapons drawn to unload tons of ammo onto them.
"Evade," Sela said as she pulled out her Fuel Rod Gun to lob green shells to blow apart groups of enemies. A Human Combat Form fires a rocket to slam into three Commandos to rip through their shields and turn them into a purple mist.
"Spread out," Alisa said as she and Vale went into another room to see a bunch of combat form-wielding shotguns shooting their shields. They turn around to unload rounds into them while Vale is using her Battle Rifle to blow off their limbs to drop them onto the floor.
A Human Combat Form fires a rocket to send them flying with a close-range blast to scatter them both across the room. A Tank appears to knock away crates to spit out Banger forms which are bigger Pod Infectors who act like suicide bombers.
"They are everywhere, what the hell were they doing in here," a commando said on the battle net within Alisa's helmet. She pulls out her MA5K to unleash a barrage of bursts to rip and tear into the Tank to toss a Plasma grenade to stick onto its torso. The plasma explosion burns the monster into pieces. She fires several bursts to blow off the legs of Combat Forms. Vale use her Plasma Rifle to burn through rotting corpses to flop onto the floor to clear out the room.
"What a mess," Vale said as the two Elites were fighting two Tanks eating their shots from their weapons.
"Alisa. Keep going, we will link up later," Sela said on the radio as she used her Fuel Rod Gun to blast apart one of the Tanks.
"Okay, stay safe," Alisa said as Vala used her Needle Rifle to land several super combines to kill the last Tank in their way.
"You two, good hunting," Sela said as she knocked away a Pod Infector with her fist to use her Storm Rifle to burn through the remaining pods.
"Time to keep going to the bridge," Vala said as the two went forward.
Back with Vale and Alisa hold onto their weapons to hear distant fighting echoing through the dead hallways and shadowy paths. "You regret being an ONI operative?" she asked.
"Sometimes, I just wanted to know alien languages and cultures. Here I am, trying to unfuck one of ONI's projects," Vale said.
"You realized, ONI needs to be held accountable for this," Alisa said.
"Doubtful, ONI finds a way to weasel their way out of situations," Olympia said.
"That is why we need to gather as much intel as possible. So ONI will be trapped in their madness," Alisa said as she could see targets on her motion tracker within her HUD.
"Hello, any humans left?" a cute female voice asked within their comms in their helmet.
"Yes, we are. We were sent via your distress beacon," Alisa said as an image of a ghostly young girl in a long white and blue cloak appeared in their HUD.
"Who are you?" Vale asked.
"I am Sage, I am Xion's AI in control of the ship. Thank goodness you are here. Those must be Sword of Sanghelios with you?" she asked.
"Yes, they are here to aid in stopping the Flood and getting the data," Alisa said.
"If you want to go to the bridge. I have sealed it, so the Flood doesn't get access to the controls and escape from the system. They are building a Proto Gravemind within the engine room," Sage said.
"Shit, already," Vale said as they see more targets are coming their way.
"If you want to go through the ship. You need to find my data chip. I limited my access to the ship systems to prevent the Flood from trying to find me," Sage said.
"Where are you, we will come and pick you up," Alisa said.
"Oh, I am in the engineering room. One of the ODSTs transfers me into this area for my protection. I will send you a waypoint on your HUD. Be careful," Sage said.
"Don't worry, we will save you," Alisa said as the young female-looking AI showed a bright smile.
"Okay, be careful. Tell the Swords that they need to target the Proto Grave mind to slow down the spread of the flood," Sage said being adorable to cut off the line.
"Cute kid," Alisa said can't stop a smile under her helmet.
"Remember it's an AI that looks like that," Vale said.
"Of course, I know that, she is still cute though," Alisa said as she held her shotgun to rack the gun to put 8-gauge shells into the tube magazine holding 6 in total.
"I ditto that," Vale said as the two women kept going to follow the waypoint.
Elsewhere Sela and Vala are going through to see commandos fighting Flood forms. "Hello, Sela. I contacted the ship AI. We are going to grab her data chip while she wants you all to destroy the Proto Grave mind," Alisa said.
"That is a tall order but we will do what we must. Commander Vex, the Spartans need us to get to the Proto Grave Mind and destroy it," Sela said on the comm link.
"Of course, always something. Fine, we will reroute to the engine room and wipe out this eyesore," Vex said as they went down the staircase to see a bunch of Combat Forms coming at them with Plasma Rifles and Rocket Launchers.
"Oh great," Sela pulls out her Energy Blade to begin chopping them up into pieces. Vala uses her Needle Rifle to trigger super combines to blast apart their rotting bodies onto the floor.
"What a mess. They are everywhere," Vala said as Vex used his Needler to blast apart incoming Flood units like the Combat Forms and Carrier Forms.
He has seen a few commandos fall to the hordes of Flood coming down on them. A Commando uses his Fuel Rod Gun to blast apart groups of enemies clearing the way.
A Brute fires a Skewer for the big spike pierces the shields and chest of the Commando killing him instantly. Vex fires his Concussive Rifle to fire explosive bolts to break the rotting corpse apart. "Great," he said as they pushed for the engine room.
Teams of Commandos go in to tear through hordes of Flood while facing deep resistance. Alisa and Vale keep going to get close to Sage's location to detect something on their motion sensors but it disappears.
A Combat Form mans a turret to open fire on the two female Spartans. They get hit with their shields flaring up to take cover. Vale tosses a Plasma Grenade to latch onto the Combat Form to blow it to bits.
"Hey did you notice something coming in and out on the motion sensor?" Alisa asked.
"Yeah, I do, it's weird. Must be a cloaked enemy, better keep watch," Vale said holding onto her Plasma Rifle to get to the door to get into the engineering room.
"Oh, you're here. Thank goodness, are you okay?' Sage asked as she appeared on a terminal as a hologram looking cute in her robes.
"Yep, we are here to get you out of here. The Flood can't get a Ship AI," she said to go up to the terminal to grab her data chip to slip it into the back of her helmet to feel her swimming into her suit and nerve link. "Feels funny," Alisa said.
"It does and I can see what you see now," Sage said as she began to put a marker towards the bridge. "You are going to need me to shut down the defenses around the bridge," Sage said as they detected something again to be behind them.
"Oh shit," Vale said as the mysterious being uses its tentacles to swing at her and send her flying into a wall knocking out her shields.
"Oh no Shadow, Flood Pure Form," Sage said as this weird Flood which has four tentacles acts like limbs and has two hands holding twin Plasma Rifles. It spewing tons of plasma bolts with Six's shields were being eaten up.
"Shadow what?" she wondered as the Shadow disappeared into the shadows to melt into it with her Motion Tracker unable to sense it. "It disappeared into nothing," she said as she fired plasma bolts from the darkness.
She fires her shotgun in the direction of the bolts to hit the monster. Shadow comes in to bash its rifles into her body to send her flying with the Shadow grabbing Alisa with its tentacles to toss her into a vent.
"Alisa," Vale said in worry to have Alisa go deeper within the Xion to pop out the vent to be within another room.
"Oh that smarts," she said.
"Are you okay?" Sage asked.
"Yes I am fine but my weapons are not fine," she said to see her Shotgun and Assault Carbine broken from the deep fall.
"Look out," Sage said as Alisa pulled out her wrist-mounted energy dagger to see the Shadow flow out of the vent to begin firing its double Plasma Rifles rapidly at Alisa. Her very powerful Overshield can hold up with her closing the gap to use her energy dagger to slice into its arms to drop its Plasma Rifles.
She grabs the two Plasma Rifles to unload the blue bolts to burn into the Shadow to finally put it down. She sees the two rifles are running low on energy in their batteries. "Not good," she said tossing them to the side.
"Hey Alisa, are you okay?" Vale asked.
"I am, I am deeper in the depths of Xion. We will meet up at the bridge keep following the marker," Alisa said.
"Alright, good luck. Keep Sage safe," Vale said to cut off the link.
"We are on our own," Six said.
"You got me to have your back," Sage's bright youthful voice gives her a sign of comfort.
"Having a cute AI like you will come in handy," Alisa said as the AI glowed in the face.
"Oh stop it, I will make sure to keep us both safe," Sage said as her face was in Alisa's HUD. "Be careful, there are worse things than the Shadows here on this ship," she said.
"Great, we will cross that bridge when we get there," Alisa said to find a Banished Shredder along with some ammo for it. "This Brute Needler will do for now," she said to go into the darkness of the broken ship seeking out the bridge.