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Metrilo Chapter 4: Unexpected Developments
Posted By: Ryan Lee<warrior387@gmail.com>
Date: 25 August 2007, 3:38 am
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The expedition force continued toward the Control Room. The mood was darker now. With the only apparent method of transportation off the ring gone, it was not looking good for the humans. The only people not affected by this were the three Spartans, since they were always a hairsbreadth from death anyway.
After a while, Cortana spoke up. "We're almost there. Expect some resistance."
The Control Room finally came into view. It was surrounded by Flood. Evidently the Gravemind was prepared for their foray into the Control room, and had compensated for it. Thus began the assault.
Warthogs spun and wheeled around, crushing Flood and gunning them down with fire from their LAAGs. Scorpions blasted and crushed concentrations of Flood and picked off stragglers with their machine guns. The Chief backed up to give the gunner a clear shot, spun the wheel to avoid a carrier form, and accelerated forward, crushing several infection forms under the wheels. A pair of combat forms charged the 'Hog and received a few hundred rounds of armor-piercing ammunition for their trouble.
The humans killed what seemed to be a numberless amount of Flood, but more kept on coming until finally, the tide of obscene warriors began to slow, and then stop.
Master Chief climbed out of the LRV and surveyed his surroundings. The green grass of the plains was covered by bodies and gore and the gigantic black pyramid-shaped structure of the Control Room stood out among the plains like a massive, dark sentinel keeping watch over all.
Cora said, "That's the Control Room. Let's get inside so I can give you your objectives."
The Marines parked their vehicles and followed the Chief inside. As the door closed behind them, the Chief hunted around for the control console, and then having found it, removed Cortana from his helmet and slotted it in to a data port.
Cortana's image appeared on the pedestal. "Ah, same as always. Give me a minute. Accessing network….identifying and marking structural weaknesses…accessing teleportation grid..…Damn, one of the main power generators is malfunctioning. You'll have to take me to fix it before I can teleport you to the ring's structural weak points. This complicates things a little, since the Forerunner systems are incredibly sophisticated. I'll have to make a copy of myself to provide Intel and open doors. Stand by."
There was a few minutes pause as the Marines and Spartans waited.
"Done. Chief, yank me."
The Chief removed the data chip and slotted it back into his armor. Once again, the familiar mercury presence returned to his mind.
An image of Cortana appeared on the data pedestal.
"I will provide intel and supply you with access from here."
"Understood." the Chief replied.
"Alright people, listen up! One of the generators is damaged so; SPARTANS-117, -077, and -060 will be going over there so I can manually fix it. The rest of you should stay here and guard the Control Room; it's indispensable to our mission."
The Marines saluted and began taking up positions within and outside the room. Cortana said, "I'll put a NAV point on your HUD. It'll point you to the generator. When we get there, upload me and I'll fix it.
"Understood." the Chief replied. He made a fist with his left hand, and the other two Spartans formed up on him. They walked out of the Control Room.
"Wait," Cortana spoke up. "We should take one of the Warthogs; it'll make the trip faster."
The Chief chose a standard LRV with a turret-mounted LAAG anti-aircraft machine gun. He jumped into the driver's seat. SPARTAN-060 hopped into the passenger seat and reloaded his assault rifle. SPARTAN-077 climbed up onto the turret. He pulled back the lever, loading a round into one of the three barrels.
Cortana placed a NAV point on the three Spartans' HUD. The Chief stepped on the gas, and the Warthog shot off.
* * * * *
They had been driving for about three hours. The Chief turned through a canyon and drove for two minutes until he encountered a large silver building.
Cortana said, "Stop. This is the place. The generator is here, in an underground complex underneath this structure."
The Chief braked, and hopped out; the two Spartans jumped out as well. They approached the building. It had no door, just an opening wide enough to accommodate an average-sized Spartan. The Chief and SPARTAN-060 passed under it easily, but SPARTAN-077 had to duck his head. He straightened, muttering something about small people. The Chief ignored this and checked his weapons. The Spartans took the hint and checked their own weapons too. The Chief stepped forward, and noticed a keypad on the wall facing him.
"Cortana, what's this?"
She was silent for a moment, and then said, "There's a code we need to enter in order to gain access to the rest of the biulding. Give me a minute to interface with the system."
The three Spartans waited. "Damn, this thing is complicated…Alright Chief, I've got it. I can't guarantee it'll work though. That system was a bit tough to crack…"
"Why, Cortana," the Chief said with amusement in his voice. "Are you admitting that you're not perfect?"
"I'm not going to dignify that comment with a response." the AI said primly.
"Just give me the code so we can input it and get the hell out of here." the Chief snapped.
"Alright, keep your helmet on. It's 33226849."
The Chief entered the code into the keypad. There was a pause, then the room started to shake.
"What's going on, Cortana?' the Chief demanded.
"I must have given you an incorrect code! The security system is taking effect!"
The Chief saw the wall shift and land in front of his companions. He had a brief glimpse of the two Spartans before the wall cut them off.
He fired a burst of bullets into the wall, already knowing it was useless. He reloaded and addressed Cortana.
"What the hell happened?"
"I told you that the Forerunner security system would be active. Apparently, the building has shifted around. The other two Spartans are located somewhere in the newly reconfigured building. I'll try to comm them."
"This is Cortana to SPARTANS-060 and 0-77, do you read me? Repeat, this is Cortana to any Spartans receiving this signal."
"This is SPARTAN-060 acknowledging."
"Confirm your position."
"I'm marking it on your HUD. We appear to be in some sort of strange corridor. It looks just like a hallway from the Libraries on the other Halos."
"Acknowledged. Accessing the Forerunner network… There's some sort of vent system that will allow you to reach the generator. However, there's also a laser defense system that creates laser walls every few feet. I advised you to crawl through each wall, and then stop to allow your shields to recharge. Follow the NAV point, it'll lead you to the generator."
There was a pause, then SPARTAN-060's voice came back over the comm.
"Acknowledged."
Cortana cut the channel and addressed the Chief. "We should get moving, there's a vent on your right, crawl in and get moving, We won't be able to do anything until the generator is fixed."
The Chief jumped into the vent, saw a NAV point appear on his visor and started walking in the direction it indicated.
* * * * *
The Chief walked on, his boots ringing against the metal of the floor. The NAV point showed he was coming up on the generator. His comm system registered a new message from SPARTAN-060.
"Master Chief, this is SPARTAN-060. We're almost to the generator. What is your approximate position, sir?"
The Master Chief responded. "We're about three hundred meters away from the generator. Once you get there, hold position until Cortana and I arrive."
"Roger that, sir. SPARTAN-060 out."
The Chief resigned himself to about another half hour of trekking.
* * * * *
The Chief came up onto the corridor that Cortana assured him would take him directly to the generator.
His HUD showed blips representing SPARTAN-060 and SPARTAN-077 up ahead, stationary. The Chief briefly wondered why, then had his question answered as dozens Red blips began to appear all around the two yellow blips representing his fellow Spartans.
The Chief began to sprint toward the position of his allies. After what seemed like hours, he managed to arrive just in time to see their deaths.
It didn't seem too bad at first. The Flood surrounded the two Spartans, but well-placed bullets drove them back.
Then, something happened. The masses of Flood forms parted to admit a new type of combat form that the Chief had never seen before.
It resembled a raptor from the days of prehistoric Earth. Its coloring might have once been orange and turquoise, but now its natural color was marred by the sickly white and necrotic green that characterized the victims of the Flood. Unlike the legions of Flood forms surrounding it, it seemed undamaged.
The strange beast lumbered forward and charged the two Spartans. SPARTAN-060 raised his shotgun and fired several rounds into the thing at point blank range.
It didn't even slow by the heavy rounds but continued charging them, lashing its tail.
To give the new Spartans credit, they met the beast's charge head on; pumping rounds and leads into its hide.
The beast lashed out with its tail and connected with SPARTAN-077, sending him careening into the wall. He crashed into the wall, causing a huge dent, and slumped. His bio-signs flatlined.
SPARTAN-060 threw two frag grenades and rolled aside. The grenades detonated on the beasts hide and threw smoke and shrapnel everywhere. The monster blew aside the smoke with its tail and lunged with its mouth, catching the Spartan around the helmet. There was an audible crunch. When the beast released its grip on the helmet, it was dented around the middle, with its visor cracked in a spider web pattern and four large holes in the middle.
The monster turned and caught sight of the Master Chief. It roared and charged him. As it bounded toward him, the MJOLNIR-armored warrior noticed several more beasts like the attacking monster standing among the swarm of Flood. The tides of obscene organisms moved suddenly, all heading toward the Chief.
The noncom rolled to his right and hurled two frag grenades into the tides of regular Flood, blowing apart numerous forms, but still they came.
Backing up, the Chief made a dash past the Flood. His objective was to fix the generator, not engage the Flood, even though he wanted to pay them back for killing two of his Spartans. Two of his family. It didn't matter if he hadn't known them that well. They were Spartans. Part of him.
He slid to a stop and saw the generator. He felt a sense of relief, and then was smashed forward.
Blinking away the black in his vision, he rolled over and saw the same type of beast that had killed his teammates. It roared. He sprayed it with gunfire, knowing it was a futile gesture, but unwilling to go down quietly.
The monster lowered its mouth and prepared to take a bite of MJOLNIR and Spartan. Suddenly, a bright blue beam of light streaked past the Chief and struck the beast in the head. Ice began coursing over its body, covering it entirely. Then a pair of missiles struck the ice-coated monster and blew it apart.
The Chief looked behind him and saw an orange and red armored form fall down to the ground. It had a red helmet with a green slit across the middle. Its right arm ended at the elbow. The rest was composed of a lethal-looking cannon.
The figure raised its arm cannon and fired several of the blue ice beams. They struck the remaining monsters and froze them all. It finished them off with missiles. With the seemingly invulnerable creatures killed, the armored figure routed the rest of the Flood with orange energy beams, similar in appearance to Covenant plasma bolts.
Master Chief pushed himself off the floor and leveled his assault rifle at the new arrival. It turned and pointed its cannon at his chest. They stood like that for a while, weapons leveled at each other. It took minutes until the Chief realized that if the figure had not attacked him now, it probably wouldn't unless he provoked it. He slowly lowered the rifle, and as he did so, the arm cannon lowered as well until it was pointing at the ground.
Now that they weren't pointing guns at each other, what should he do now? He had little experience dealing with aliens. The only species he had met were the Covenant and the Flood, and the only thing to do was kill them.
Fortunately, it seemed like the figure was about to save him the trouble of initiating first contact. Words blared from inside his helmet.
"Greetings, Master Chief."
The Chief tensed. How did this thing know his rank?
As if reading his mind the figure spoke.
"I recorded your broadcasts. Strange. They registered as on a secure channel, but my suit's equipment was easily able to crack it."
The Chief did not speak. Cortana said, "It's right. The channels you opened up to the other Spartans were secure, but it cracked it. Admirable."
The figure seemed to sigh. "You're obviously not too talkative. I guess I should start the introductions. I am a bounty hunter who usually takes contracts from the Galactic Federation, though right now I'm unemployed. My name is Samus Aran."
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