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The Covenant Dropship came in with the whine produced by the fusion-reactant engines. On the bottom, the plasma cannon searched for a target, be it flood, human, or both. "Everything's okay," said the Master Chief. "Stay low, soldier." Wallace was on the other side of the bay, hidden behind a strange Covenant crate. The Covenant troops were deployed, and he heard Dersoa filling them in on their mission. However, he was speaking in Covenant, so he could just hope that he was telling them that the humans were good. After about five minutes, Wallace heard a rustling noise, and the sound of plasma pistols being bled. "All, right, humans it's okay to come out now. My brothers understand." But apparently the humans did not, or at least did not care about what the Master Chief told him. "Yahhhhh! Die you Covenant pile of trash!" Wildly swinging his MA5B, Private Richard Smith broke rank and charged the Covenant. "Stop, human!" Said Dersoa. The Master Chief pulled something that looked like a taser from his MJOLNIR armor and pointed it at Smith. The rebel immediately fell. "Some artifact found on Halo. Must be a forerunner device for subduing flood. I guess it works on humans, too." Wallace immediately went to work handing out orders. "All, right, pick up Private Smith's body and put it into the corner. You two guard him," he said, pointing to two soldiers. "Restrain him however possible. If you see any flood infection forms, kill them right away. They are going to go for Smith right away, because he appears to be dead. Don't let them get you, either. This loading bay is our base camp. Our group will head to the bridge of this ship. As soon as we get there, we will take it over and make that our new camp. Two of us will guard the old camps, and if there is any suspicious activity, call for support. I would rather have a false alarm once than having two more combat forms to deal with. Does everybody understand?" Sir yes sir! Said the marines in unison. Even the Master Chief thought that was a pretty good plan. "All right, let's move out. If there is a chance that there is Covenant here, Dersoa and his crew will move in and inform them of what is happening. All, right, any questions?" "No, sir!" The crew was split into pairs. The Chief got paired with a commander elite with a plasma sword. He could see that the elite had been in many battles from the many scars on his face. The rest of his body wasn't without scars, either. "Don't try anything foolish, human," said the commander scornfully. "The same goes to you." Said the chief. He saw that Wallace had been paired with Dersoa, and there were many Covenant-human pairs. However, there were three times as many Covenant as there were humans, so there were mostly Covenant to Covenant pairs. The Chief saw many marines paired with jackals. Good, he thought, that will provide them both with cover. The strange pairs moved through the second room of the loading bay and through the sliding doors. Strange, I remember killing two hunters that came out of there just a few days ago. "Okay," said Wallace, "keep your eyes out for flood! If you see any, do not be afraid to fire at will. We all know how dangerous these things are, and hesitation will get us nowhere." A low guttural sound echoed around the bulkhead and through the halls. There seemed to be more holes a than there were the last time they had been on the ship, probably made from the fighting between the Covenant and the flood. They all knew that flood liked to hide in the holes in the ceiling and they covered the area until all the others had made it. For the first time, Cortana spoke up. "If you can load me into one of the consoles on the corner of the hallways, chief, I can find the schematics to the bridge, and possibly a the Covenant armory. This Dersoa also seems to be a regular part of the complement on this ship, so he should be some help." The group had come to the control pad at the corner of the hallway, and they still had not found any flood. This was strange, given their nature and their name. "Okay, load me up," said Cortana. "There we go. When I can get back into your helmet, I will give you a navpoint that points to the bridge, and a second one that is possibly an armory." The Chief plugged Cortana back into his helmet and was immediately rewarded with two red arrows, one of which was larger. "The larger one is the bridge. We seem to be only about 100 meters away from it. This is very strange that there have been no fl---" But then, bursting from the hallways came many infection forms, bent on destruction. The crew turned around and immediately opened fire. Since the gunshots needed were loud, it attracted the combat forms, and the carrier forms. "Okay, group 1, take the left side, group 2 take the right!" It wasn't even known who gave that order, but everybody seemed to follow it. Even the jackals who didn't understand English seemed to get the point. The air was filled with searing plasma and nearly molten lead. With the help of the Chief and many of the »lites, none of the flood reached the unshielded marines and grunts. Not that it mattered much, but it helped anyway. "Come with me," said the Chief, and they started to make their long fight toward the bridge. They no longer had the element of surprise, and now they were just staying alive on their skill and luck. "Fifty meters more." An explosion rocked the ship, and another wave of flood poured in. "Same plan!" The unmistakable staccato of flood with assault rifles echoed throughout the halls. "They have guns! Take 'em fast!" The flood were soon taken out, but not without some casualties. "We have wounded here! They can probably make it, but if they take any more shots, I don't know what we can do about it." "Here's the bridge," said the Chief after they had gotten there. "The door seems to be locked. Take care of it, Carlson." The corporal pulled out a hacking device, much like the one that had released the flood, and attached it to the door. The opening code was punched in, and the doors turned to a white tint and opened, revealing the gaping bridge room, the same place where Captain Keyes was found. The bridge was awash in flood mutants, and they all seemed to turn and start running at the same time. One flood got shot, and fell down, missing the top of his torso, and his ribcage showing. "Seems like they're unarmed. Let's mop up the rest of them!" The air filled with plasma and lead again, and the flood were all on the ground. One marine went over to what seemed like a human flood. "Get up so I can kill you again!" The flood got back up and swiped at the marine, drawing blood across his chest "aaaaaaaaaaahhh! I'm never saying that again, at least not to a flood!" The chatter of his MA5B made the mutant fall down again. Wallace was the next one to speak. "Good job marines and Covenant! We are at our objective point! Group number one will stay here and guard the bridge panel. Group two will raid the armory and find as much weaponry we can get to combat the flood with. When group two finds the armory and the weapons, it will probably be highly populated with flood. Group two has one of the harder missions. It's tough, but it's possible. Okay, let's go!" Wallace and an equal number of Covenant were in group one, the group assigned to protect the bridge. The Chief, the golden elite, and a bunch of marines and lesser Covenant were group number two. "Maybe we should get to know each other better," said the elite. "My name is Jersatil, and this scar across my face was given by you. But that is in the past, and I will not have to kill you over it. Not at least until this stupid truce is over with." The Chief cradled his M90, just in case things should heat up. "We are about 200 meters away from the Covenant armory," Cortana was heard through the Chief's helmet. "in there should be what we need for a heavy assault against the flood. They seem to have the usual plasma weapons, such as the pistol and rifle, but they also have the fuel rod cannon, both in the Specops grunt variety, and the hunter variety. Remember that we are not only stocking ourselves, but group one also, take what you can carry. Half of this group will carry supplies, and the other half will clear a path back to the bridge. Okay, here's the armory right here." Cortana seemed to send out some kind of electromagnetic beam, and the wall of the hallway seemed to open out of nowhere. The sound of rushing air was heard. "All right, boys, here you go. Tons of Covenant weaponry, untouched by human hands. No offense to all you Covenant." TO BE CONTINUED |
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