A Dark Calling by Mizbehavin
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A Dark Calling - Prologue: Juggernaut
Date: 11 July 2006, 11:24 pm
DAY 6
GAMMA SQUAD
LOCATION: HIGH CHARITY
STATUS: OPERATIONAL
The air was warm and thick, as if in a rain forest. Only problem was that the ODST weren't in a rain forest, they were on High Charity."Flood heading this way, look alive!" yelled Sgt.Mueller. The squad picked the Flood off with their shotguns and battle rifles."Sarge" whispered Pvt.Mitchell. "We're almost out of ammo." "Well if your out of ammo look around there's bound to be a weapon somewhere. Hudson, front and center." "Yea Sarge."replied Hudson. "Take Morris and Harrison and look for a armory or weapons cache." "Okay Sarge. Harrison, Morris come with me." Sarge took a minute to breathe before issuing more orders.
"Mitchell, Anderson come with me." ordered Sgt.Mueller "Fisher, you and Baker hold this position until either mine or Hudson's squad gets back." "Yes, sir" "Alright you know your objective's, but remember if you find a hangar with a ship that looks like it could house a slipspace drive use the COM to reach me. Good luck men." said Sarge as they split up.
"Hey Hudson" said Morris turning on his flashlight to see. "What is it?" "You think we'll run into any Flood at the hangar." "Hell I hope not, those things look like your mom Morris." interrupted Harrison. "Very funny, how about you tell that to the next one you see. He'll think it's hilarious." joked Morris." "Morris how do you even know if we'll find a hangar with a ship, and Harrison you look real close next time you see one of Satan's spawn and you might see someone you knew from training or maybe even Earth." The group grew quiet as they entered another set of empty barracks with the horrible odor of rotting flesh.
"Lock and load, there's Flood nearby." whispered Hudson as a Flood combat form burst out of the darkness with a energy sword. "Open Fire!" yelled Hudson. The ODST's opened fire as Harrison got stabbed with the burning energy sword.
"Ahhhh! The damn thing stabbed me!" screamed Harrison in pain. "Morris." The COM was silent."Damnit Morris respond!" "What is it Hudson?" "Get Harrison back to Fisher and Baker." "Alright." "I'll be right behind you." yelled Hudson over the roar from his battle rifle as Morris dragged Harrison out of the barracks. As soon as the door shut behind him Hudson threw a frag grenade towards the onslaught of Flood heading his way and turned to fall back to the door Morris went through, but as soon as the door opened he saw Morris's head fall from his shoulders onto the corpse of Pvt.Harrison. Hudson could think of only one word to describe the situation he was in, "screwed."
"Sarge, you might want to see this." Sgt. Mueller walked over to where Pvt.Mitchell was trying to patch up Anderson from a recent battle with Flood combat forms.
"What is it Mitchell?" "Look, the little Flood thing has crawled inside of Anderson." Sgt.Mueller looked at Andersen's chest and saw a glowing green light squirming around and then stop.
"Mitchell, tell Fisher and Baker to abandon their post and come help me." "Yes, sir." said Mitchell as he ran to go get Fisher and Baker." "S..Sarge are you go..ing to fix me." whimpered Anderson. "Don't worry son helps on it's way. Just close you eyes and rest." whispered Sarge. Mueller made sure he heard the Flood catch up to Mitchell before he walked over to Anderson and softly said once more,
"Just close your eyes and rest" before he pulled the trigger on his magnum ending Corporal Ryan Andersen's life.
Hudson stood not moving, waiting for his flesh to be seared by the energy sword that killed the rest of his men. "Come on, kill me!" he screamed to the Flood sitting still around him. He heard a sizzle and pop behind him."What the..." Hudson turned around to see the A.I. Cortana from In Amber Clad, the ship that was now pouring out Flood. "Cortana what are you doing here I thought that yo..." "Silence human." said Cortana in a distorted voice. Hudson could tell something was wrong, but he couldn't tell what.
"Cortana you look like you've been..." But before he could finish something wrapped around his leg and began to drag him through the hordes of Flood.
"Damn, those Flood they were supposed to kill Mitchell then go and kill Fisher and Baker. Instead they kill all of them and then come after me. Just a few more feet and I'll be able leave this hellhole onboard a seraph fighter." thought Mueller out loud. A Flood carrier form crept up beside Mueller as he was thinking to himself and fell down to blow Mueller away. Mueller saw the Flood fall and dove inside the hangar as the door shut behind him with a whoosh.
"That Flood must've destroyed the controls to the door, lucky me." said Mueller out loud. He looked around the hangar to see if there were any Flood inside, but oddly enough the hangar was empty with the only exception being a lone seraph fighter in the middle of the hangar. Mueller hopped inside the seraph to only find out someone had ripped out the engine to power the ship. Mueller exited the seraph and walked to the door on the other side of the hangar to try to find another means of escaping, but stopped when he found out this door's controls were destroyed as well.
"What the hell am I going to do now, fly through the roof ?" yelled Mueller as he looked up just in time to see a giant tentacle grab him and take him up through the roof.
"Awaken human." boomed out a deep voice that echoed of the walls of the room that Hudson was in. Hudson noticed that he wasn't on the ground anymore, but he could still feel the tug of the tentacle around him. Except this time the tentacle was wrapped around his waist instead of his ankle. Hudson looked up to see a giant Venus flytrap thing looking back at him. Hudson was about to ask the thing what the hell it was, but somebody else said it for him. Hudson looked to his left and saw Sgt.Mueller hanging the beside him.
"I.. I am the Gravemind, a monument to all your sins. Now, silence and listen." Neither Sgt.Mueller nor Hudson spoke in fear of angering the Gravemind. The silence in the room was soon filled with voices screaming in agonizing pain.
"The voices you hear are your brethren, screaming for mercy from my disciples." "Who are your disciples" asked Sgt.Mueller "My creators called them the Flood, my disciples, and I am their Rabbi." bellowed out the Gravemind. Without knowing he said it, Hudson asked the creature, "Who are your creators." "Not are, who were my creators you mean." riddled the Gravemind "You killed them all didn't you." stated Sgt.Mueller "Most of them died during The War for Control, and more died when they activated this ring." "What does this ring do?" asked Hudson "This ring cleanses the whole galaxy of life. Except my disciples and myself." "Shit. Hudson do you think the Covenant know what this ring does." "The species you speak of does not know what this ring does, except..." "Except what damnit!" demanded Mueller. "I grow weary of answering your questions. I can't let you live, for you might stop what I have set in motion." Hudson was about to cut off the tentacle that the Gravemind was holding him by with his combat knife that he had been reaching for, until he heard the Gravemind bellow out a growl. As soon as the echo of the Gravemind's growl had stopped, the tentacles that were suspending both Hudson and Sgt.Mueller lowered them to the ground and released them.
"I thought you were going to kill you us." yelled Sgt.Mueller to the Gravemind. "Me, I do not kill I convert, but my disciples are very good at killing." Hudson looked up to see two gigantic Flood that he hadn't seen before. These Flood had tentacles with pinchers or claws on the end of them. Also the two beasts legs and arms looked as if they were ripping apart. "Sarge, look up." "What are those ugly motherf.." But before Sgt.Mueller could finish his sentence the two Flood jumped off their perch straight towards him and Hudson. Both Hudson and Mueller ran through the door beside them and destroyed the controls once they had both gotten through.
"Sarge we bett..." Hudson turned around to see Mueller pointing a plasma rifle to his head.
"Surprised Hudson, I bet you are. None if this would be happening right now if you had just died along with the rest of your squad." "Sarge just put the gun down." "No! Don't you act like you have some rule over me I already get it from Commander Keyes and Sgt.Johnson so I don't need from you. The only reason I volunteered our squad for this mission was so I could get away from those two pricks." Hudson stayed silent staring at Mueller with hate. "The only way I could get away without letting either the Commander or Avery knowing was to make them think my squad and I were dead." "So you knew my squad would run into Flood on our path." "Knew, ha ha ha ha ha, Hudson I planed it all."I heard the Flood down the hallway you took your squad down when we first entered the barracks. It all has been going well with three exceptions, your alive, something I'm about to fix, my escape ship is destroyed, and I had to shoot Anderson." The room stayed silent with the exception of the Flood Juggernauts.
"So Hudson tell me have you ever smelt a human smoldering from plasma fire, because your about to find out." But before Mueller could fire, the Flood Juggernaut burst open the door shocking Mueller just long enough to let Hudson plunge his combat knife into Mueller's heart. "Your wrong Mueller I do have control over you." whispered Hudson to Mueller as Mueller fell down to the ground lifeless. Hudson pulled his knife out of Mueller's chest and grabbed the plasma rifle next to his corpse and ran to the next door, but a Juggernaut blocked his way. So he quickly spun around on his heels only to find another Flood blocking his way. "So human you can kill, now lets see if you can obey" spoke the Gravemind peering into the hallway. "Take this machine to someone named Master Chief
Chapter 1: Battle Plans
Date: 20 April 2007, 6:13 am
DAY 7
SGT. AVERY JOHNSON
LOCATION: OUTSIDE CONTROL ROOM
"For a world that spawned the Devil's legion it can be beautiful." thought Sgt. Johnson as he looked out upon the world from his perch outside the control room. "Late, again" said Johnson while he scanned the horizon for the Phantom that was supposed to come and pick him up for his meeting with Commander Keyes. He still didn't know what the Commander wanted to meet about since they just meet two days ago for a meeting about boarding the Covenant Ship hovering over the ocean by the control room. "At last." He said as he saw the Phantom round the corner of the canyon in the distance. In a few seconds the Phantom was activating its gravity lift so Sarge could board it and so passengers could exit. The ship's passengers ranged from Marines to Hunters, Johnson could tell by the expressions of relief on the marines faces that they still hadn't gotten used to traveling with their former enemies. "They better get used to it if they want to get off this ring alive." Sarge thought to himself. After everyone had disembarked the ship Johnson boarded following Keyes instructions to the letter, he was not to sit in the cockpit but near the grav lift in case there was some emergency. He looked towards the cockpit and saw that there was an elite and a marine in it instead of two elites. "Looks like the Commander is getting the elites to teach us how to fly these hunks of metal. Lucky them." he commented under his breath.
The ride up to the Epicenter was smooth due to the fact that the elite was piloting and not the marine. "Please disembark using the grav lift and please don't fall on your ass on the way out." said the marine as Sarge got ready to leave. Sarge chuckled at this not because it was funny but because the elite was not amused by the marine's witty banter. As he descended he was shocked to see that the exterior of the Epicenter was empty. He proceeded to enter further into the complex to see the same as he did outside, no one. He entered the hallway where the Commander's Office had been set up and finally saw to marines standing outside of her door guarding it. They recognized him on the spot at stepped aside so he could enter Keyes office. The doors separated and he entered to find the Commander sitting at her makeshift desk with Spec Ops Commander Rtas 'Vadumee or Half-Jaw for short, due to his missing mandibles after his first encounter with the Flood. Keyes motioned him to have a seat. He walked over to the table and sat on the stone bench beside Half-Jaw. "So why have we gathered here?"asked Half-Jaw. "Please wait all of your questions will be answered when the rest of us arrive." "Rest of us?" As Johnson said this the door opened yet again this time giving passage to Corporal Cross and The Arbiter. Cpl.Cross was a giant of a man towering a foot over Johnson with a nice scar across the side of his cheek from a light brush with a energy sword wielding elite from back when the Elites were enemies. The Arbiter was one of the only reasons that they were all still alive, he had killed the Brute Chieftain that had activated Halo and helped Keyes retrieve the Index before Halo could fire.
When they were all seated the Commander stood and began to speak,"I'm glad that you were all able to make it, now let's get down to business. First off as you all now know we are going to board the Covenant Vessel to get out of here now we need to decide who is going to lead the soldiers on the vessel." "I will lead us to victory."said Lock-Jaw "Count me in" said Sgt. Johnson as well. "Good, now we have another problem. We sent Sgt.Mueller's squad up to High Charity yesterday to try and find a ship that would be able to infiltrate the Covenant vessel we assumed that they were unsuccessful. That is until we received a camera feed from Corporal Ryan Anderson showing Sgt.Mueller shooting him in the chest multiple times. Then 3 hours later Cpl.Anderson stands up." "Do you think he was wearing a bulletproof vest?"asked Cpl.Cross "No, I believe that he was infected by the Flood which let him survive the bullets. The feed then takes us through High Charity and finally into this large tower here." "That is the Chamber of the Hierarch's." stated The Arbiter. "It is where I stood my trial." "Then you know the area well?" asked Miranda "Yes, I do." "Then you and Cpl.Cross here will lead your squad to this area and destroy this creature show here." Everyone was amazed except the Arbiter remembering his first encounter with the Gravemind and what it could do. "Commander we will not be able to destroy this creature here with simple weapons we must use something much larger." "Like a fuel rod cannon or rocket launcher?" "No, like a bomb. The weapons hangar on the Covenant vessel is full of them, we will have to capture the vessel before we can go destroy the Gravemind." "Okay then we'll keep it the same but Arbiter you, Cpl.Cross, and your squad will provide artillery support for them, understood." The group let out a chorus of yes ma'ams and stood up to leave. "Johnson you stay I need to speak to you."
"Yes ma'am." Johnson said after the others had left "Look at this for me." she told him as she started the feed again. "Look here." she paused the video "Now look you see that black shape the Flood is talking to?" "Barely." "Well if I turn the feed to thermal it shows that this figure is living and is not infected." "My god it's one of the soldiers we sent up, why isn't he dead?" "I don't know, but watch the rest. Did you see what it did to him?" "I think it teleported him somewhere ma'am" "What about what he gave our man?" "I did see that." "Then you know what he gave him?" "Not what ma'am but who." "You mean..." "Yes he gave him Cortana."
Pvt. Bill Hudson was laying face down in a pile of sand when he awoke. "I've got to find the Commander and Sarge." said Pvt.Hudson as he hopped up and hitched a ride going to the Epicenter. He reached into his survival pack to see if the construct was still there and was relived when he felt the cold steel against his bare hand. He asked the driver of the warthog once more that he was going to the Epicenter before lying back and falling asleep. He awoke up on a cold examination table stark naked meaning one thing, he didn't have the A.I. anymore."Oh god, where is it? If I don't find it then he'll kill everyone." Hudson looked around for some protection if "he" came right now or if the person who had the A.I. came in again. After finding a saw and getting some scalpels he positioned himself on top of some cabinets ready to pounce on the next thing to enter the room. Human or Flood.
"So Doc does he check out?" asked Commander Keyes. "Yes, but we found this in his survival pack." The doctor held up a A.I. disc which of course both Johnson and Keyes knew was Cortana. "I was going to send it to the engineers but i wanted to run it by you first and see if that's what you wanted me to do." "You know what I'm gonna take this and examine it before I send down to the tech guys. Just to see what's on it." "Anyway the pa..." The table where Pvt.Hudson was lay empty and the room was missing surgical equipment such as scalpels and a saw. Suddenly Hudson jumped down from on top of some cabinets and grabbed the doctor, and had the saw against her throat when he saw Commander Keyes and more importantly what she was holding. He dropped the saw and looked to the Commander and lunged for the A.I. when Sgt.Johnson tackled him to the ground."Sarge."said Commander Keyes "Yes ma'am." "Tie his hands then lead him to my office." "Yes ma'am." grunted Sarge as Keyes left the room.
The door opened and Sarge and Pvt.Hudson stepped in. "Please, have seat." Keyes gestured as they both sat down. "Now I'm going to be straight with you, we need to know what this Gravemind said to you. "He said that I must deliver the A.I. to the Master Chief or we will all die." "I haven't heard from the Chief in a few days now so he could be dead for all we kno..." "No he said he was at the Epicenter, this is the Epicenter still right?" "Yes but the Chief isn't here. Lets see if Cortana knows where he is." The Commander inserted Cortana's A.I. disc in to a pedestal that they took from High Charity. The pedestal flickered to life and Cortana's image appeared on it. "Commander?" Cortana sounded surprised by the sound of her voice, but with her you could never tell. "Commander how did I get away from the Gravemind last thing I remember is answering some simple questions and then coming back online here."
"I don't know, we were hoping you had some answers." "Not one. Do you at least know why the Gravemind let me go." "Yes, he wants Pvt.Hudson here to take you to the Chief." "Do you know where the chief is?" asked Pvt.Hudson franticly as he jumped out of his seat. "Yes I do, the Chief is going to Earth with the Prophet of Truth."
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