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Army of One part 3: Surviving Hell
Posted By: Jeff May<original_jsmay@yahoo.com>
Date: 9 March 2005, 11:02 PM


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An Army of One
Part 3: Surviving Hell

0127 Hours, September 25th, 2552
Forerunner Installation 05, Outskirts of Quarantine Zone 15


Hayes had been driving for hours, and he was beginning to fall asleep. He had passed the hilly region he had seen hours before, discovering many bodies of Covenant and the beast's called the Flood. He had heard rumors at the camp of these beasts, but blew them off as some kind of fairly tale or ghost story.
As he began to pass some ruins, his ghost began making a strange sound, and he lost control. He jumped off, and the ghost continued to drive crazily another 50 feet, when it exploded into a shower of sparks and plasma. He looked around him, and realized how dark it was. As he felt sleep set in, he walked into some of the ruins and laid down behind a large stone.
A few hours had passed since he had fallen asleep, and he was awoken by the sound of plasma and machine gun fire. He stood up, slung his shotgun over his back, and proceeded to peek out the door of the ruin, sniper rifle in hand. What he saw almost made him fall over. There were around 5 dozen Covenant fighting against what appeared to be hundreds of Flood. He saw elites brandishing energy swords, wielding dual plasma rifles, and driving ghosts. In the distance he even saw a Wraith tank firing plasma mortars into the waves of oncoming Flood. There were also many grunts, who all seemed to be cowering in fear of the enemy and running away. The proud elite warriors did their best to end the assault, but they were easily outnumber 16 to 1.
He looked amazingly at the vast number of Flood, from small popcorn shaped pods, to large balloon-like monsters that exploded near their prey, and finally the main combat forms that were infected elites. He was also disgusted to see combat forms that appeared to be former humans, men who he might have once called friends.
As he was gazing upon the Flood, he heard the sound of squealing grunts nearby. He looked to his left and saw the grunts who were retreating from the fight were apparently going to try and hide in his ruin. He propped his sniper rifle on the doorway and peered through the scope. He aimed in on the lead grunt, pulled the trigger, and saw the grunt fall to the ground, minus half his face. The grunts looked at him amazed, and were probably wondering were this human came from, and where he learned to shoot. He didn't give them much time to think though, as he began to open fire. He caught the next three in the chest, and was then forced to reload. The grunts apparently seized this opportunity, and began to open fire as he was removing his clip. Even though their shots were horrible, Hayes wasn't about to get shot. He tossed the empty clip and rifle on the ground, and ripped a grenade of his chest strap. He pulled out the pin, and threw it toward the grunts. It exploded almost perfectly in the center of the group, and bodies and pieces of grunts blew through the air and fell upon the ground. "Well, I guess I ended this party." Hayes said dryly, as he began to reload his sniper rifle.
He barely had time to put the clip back in and pull his shotgun closer before another enemy neared his position. This time however, it was not grunts. It was about 3 dozen of those small popcorn shaped flood, who were apparently the most numerous form of the monsters. They hopped and squirmed toward his position, and he fired his shotgun into the mass. This shredded many of them, but there were still to many left to feel safe. He pulled another grenade from his chest, and rolled it toward the enemies. The resulting explosion killed almost all the remaining enemies, but 2 still remained. He pulled out his shotgun and fired at the one on the left of the other. It ripped it apart, and then he aimed toward the second. Hayes pulled the trigger, and was horrified to find the gun had jammed. He dropped the gun, and when the Flood was 3 feet away it leaped into the air toward Hayes. It landed on his shoulder and began trying to chew through his armor to his neck. He reached to his leg and pulled out his combat knife, which he used to stab his attacker. It took multiple stabs to kill the beast, and when it finally fell, it had already managed to puncture his skin, but not his throat. He reached up and felt his neck. There was a small amount of blood flowing from the wound, but what concerned him most was how fast it was swelling. Within a few seconds he could feel a pretty good sized bump on his neck.
No time to worry about that he thought, because he had to fix his gun. He reached down and picked up the shotgun, removing the barrel to see the problem better. He found what he was looking for, a large rock jammed behind the shell. It must have fallen in when he pulled it towards him. Apparently though, it must have not be in a position to clog the first or second shot, but afterwards moved in more, preventing a third. He removed the rock and put the barrel back on. He cocked the gun, waiting for the next attack.
He didn't have to wait long. Waves of Flood attacked him for the next hour, some groups small, others large. When it was finally over, he had 3 grenades left and was completely out of sniper ammo. He left his ruin to search for more ammo outside. He found another 13 shells for his shotgun, and grabbed some plasma grenades to replace the ones he had expended. He also picked up a plasma rifle to make up for his loss of the sniper rifle.
As he walked across the battlefield, he came across and dead gold elite clutching what appeared to be some kind of data pad.





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