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Halo Installation 01 by FOrunnER
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Halo Installation 01
Date: 17 January 2004, 2:56 AM
Halo Installation 01
start file/
Hey guys. Sorry for my lack of writing in the past....long time. I'm sorry to say that neither of my former series the Second War or Spartan III's will be continuing. I've just lost my drive to finish those. I hope you guys enjoy this one though.
Peace Out
-FOrunnER
/end file
The Ninth Era, 500 Units, Unknown System en route to Gas Giant, Aboard Covenant Flagship Reclaimer
Narbo Nabamee, a gold clad elite, stared out of the view screen. His ship, the Reclaimer, had just jumped in system only two units (minutes) ago, stars winkled in the inky blackness, and a large orange gas giant blocked half the view screen. Dozens of moons slowly circled around it, creamy white ones with frozen oceans, blood red ones with lava pools on the surface, blue ones with nitrogen rich atmospheres. It gave the illusion of jewels orbiting a giant golden globe. Both awe inspiring and beautiful. It had the ability to captivate you, make you realize that there were so many wonders out there that you couldn't hope to explore them all in two life times. And to think that only one race had given birth to it all, and subsequently had the power to end it just as fast. Adrenaline flooded Nabamee's brain. Such power at the tips of your fingers was unimaginable...unthinkable...overwhelming. If they could harness the power of the gifts the Forerunner had left them, it would mark the dawn of a new era for the Covenant species. They could wipe this universe clean, and rebuild it to there will, creating a haven where the Great Ones spirits could rest in piece.
Immediately he regained control of himself and straightened his posture. He was letting his mind wander to far. For them to be able to have the pleasure of making such a Universe they would first have to find and gain control of all the Halos, a feat that alone could take thousands of years. Then they would have to find the Great Temple, another feat that could take thousands of years. There Engineers estimated that the Covenant Empire, which had been around for roughly three-thousand years, had only explored 20% of the Galaxy. From what the prophets said, this galaxy was only one of trillions in the ever-looping Universe, the Halo(s) and the Great Temple could be anywhere in the vast expanse. He would not live to see this great haven that the Prophets had foretold of, but he would make sure that future generations of Covenant would.
He looked down from his command platform at a red clad Elite seated at the navigation console, "You, move us at mark 5088x0401 alongside the planet, then launch the exploration team".
The red elite nodded and punched a series of buttons on his console, the engines rumbled as he feed power to them. Nabamee turned to the other gold clad Elite standing beside him, his second in-command and personal consultant, "Orsolee, you will be in charge of the ship while I am gone".
Orsolee looked at him, "Gone?"
"I will be accompanying the exploration team. I want to lay eyes on The Key myself, make sure my personal drop ship is prepared and ready to fly", he explained.
"Excellency, it is not wise that you go. I am sure that the Prophets would highly disagree with an officer of your caliber to risk yourself in a possibly dangerous.....", Nabamee shot him a look that could stop plasma in its tracks
"I have full authorization from the Council themselves to do whatever is necessary to make sure that The Key is found. The chances of success will be greatly increased if I go along, given my previous ground-combat experience", he faced the Elite so that both 8' foot tall warriors could look each other eye to eye, "If you ever question my orders again, no matter how loyal you have been the previous years, you will be executed. Slowly. Painfully. Do you understand?"
Orsolee returned his stare, he didn't buckle, however he was not defiant either. Either one of those would have him killed. If he buckled it would be a sign of weakness, weak warriors were no warriors, and quickly disposed of. Defiance would show that he was not capable of following orders, therefore also of no use. Master of his emotions, his reply was neutral, "I understand Excellency, I will see to it that your ship is prepared to fly". He bowed then exited the bridge.
Nabamee grinned. Orsolee was smart and honorable, which was why off duty they were close friends. However that didn't mean he wouldn't have executed him, they both knew that. They had an obligation to the Covenant empire to root out any wildcards or weak links, anything else was dishonorable. He looked back at the view screen and at the gas giant that was steadily getting closer.......
Same time, Unknown System, near Halo Installation 01
At the same half-way across the Galaxy, a basketball sized hole appeared in space. The Slipspace hole expanded and stretched, motes of green light bathing the surrounding space. A metallic gray construct shot out from the hole at blinding speed just before the hole closed. It continued on its course for nearly seventy minutes before it finally slowed. The metallic glob slowly powered up, the central 'eye' glowing a faint blue-white. Diagnostics scrolled down the AI's view screen.
[DIAGNOSTICS: POWER CELL INTACT
PRIMARY SLIPSPACE DRIVE INTACT
INTELLICANE CODE RETRIEVED: sec. protocol activated as per directive X11A-Source Coding. Retrieving memory banks......
WARNING: Flood escape probability at 99.99999%. Raising Power and Awareness levels to MAXIMUM drive. Secondary Protocol override. New Primary Protocol: Warn Halo Installation 01 Monitor of Crisis. Proceed by following Flood Outbreak Control Procedure B IMMEDIANTLY!!]
At that moment the human equivalent of a jolt 'woke' the AI known as 343 Guilty Spark. It took him a moment for his memory banks to upload, then he remembered. "Oh dear..."
The AI turned around and flew towards a large terrestrial planet, covered in a thick sulpher-oxide atmosphere that covered it in a hazy brown fog, three pasty white moons directing the tides of the liquid hydrogen oceans below the fog. In any normal situation he would have liked to tour the Forerunner stations there, for he had not explored any of Halo 01's substations in a millennia, but his primary protocol forced him in a tight orbit to come around on the dark side of the planet....and there it was. The HQ installation of all Forerunner installations in the Universe, next to the Great Temple. Because Halo 01 was positioned on the dark side of the planet, the Halo was in a state of permanent night.
Once he was within three hundred meters of the rings artificial gravity well, his systems came into contact with the outer teleportation grid. The same type of emergency grid he had used to escape Installation 04's demise. Channeling the kinetic teleportation waves, he found a path through the outer grid and into the inner grid, then towards his destination. Once he plotted his course, he disappeared in a flash of amber light. He reappeared on a sandy beach bordering one of the Installations oceans. Directly in front of him was a large gray structure built into a cliff face. A platform jutted out nearly fifty feet from the cliffs face, gradually sloping down to create a ramp, pillars supporting it. Angular spires graced upwards from the structures front, reaching towards the night sky. Instead of using the main entrance, which was quite large (big enough to fit five Scorpions side-by-side) he moved to a vent jutting out of the face a few meters from it, designed specifically for units of his classification to travel though.
After floating through the constricting vent passageway's he dropped out into a large cavernous room. Actually, large was an understatement. MASSIVE would be more accurate, the dome shaped roof was hundreds of kilometers above Spark's 'head', the bottom being another hundred kilometers below him. Slightly lumpy objects lined the walls of the room, held in place by service clamps. Unafraid of heights, Spark hovered over to one of the clamps near the front of the room, instead of holding one of the lumpy objects, this one held another globe-shaped figure. A spark of energy shot out from 343 and hit the other AI's surface, and soon enough the AI woke with a jolt. Without a word spoken, 343 turned around and exposed his 'backside', and a data port. The other AI inserted a connecting cable, and uploaded 343's memory banks.
"Oh dear", it murmured. A few seconds later, every lumpy object in the room opened up to reveal an army of Sentinels......
P.S. Yes, I do actually intend to finish this series.
Halo Installation 01, Chapter 1
Date: 1 February 2004, 5:47 PM
Halo Installation 01, Chapter 1
The Ninth Era, 525 Units, Unknown System en route to Gas Giant, Aboard Covenant Flagship Reclaimer
The Reclaimer pulled in alongside the gas giant, putting just enough distance so they wouldn't be sucked into the giants atmosphere. Nora Nabamee walked down the halls of his ship, his Brute bodyguards ahead and behind him. Every Covenant soldier he passed bowed deeply, his decorated career demanded at the very least that much. He had fought in over 20 campaigns against the human scum, including the very first battle at 'Harvest' where his Destroyer had taken on three human ships.
As he approached the launch bay, a voice sounded over his comms, "Orbit is stabilized Excellency, drop-ships will launch at your command", said Orsolee.
He nodded, "Good", and continued on. One of the hexagonal doors opened and revealed the main launch bay. It was much larger than the Truth and Reconciliation's, large enough to support 30 Phantom drop-ships and Seraph fighters. His Brute guards escorted him to one of the ships docked on the third level, his personnel transport. It basically looked like an oversized Phantom, the interior troop compartment was modified to be larger and more comfortable than the standard Phantoms, it was also supporting three Shade turrets instead of the regular one, and the only drop-ship in the Covenant empire with a shield system. It was generally considered pointless to waste valuable shield tech on single ships.
The back hatch extended down and revealed two rows of ten gel-padded seats. He sat in the nearest one to the cockpit, his Brute bodyguards following him along with seven Elite honor-gods, purple-black SpecOps types. No doubt 'Orsolee had sent them down for extra security, even though four Brutes was enough to level a platoon of humans....or Flood. However 'Orsolee's paranoia about his safety was to be expected. If he died, the Prophet council would most likely blame 'Orsolee for not trying harder to make his commander stay. The back hatch closed and sealed them in, and 'Nabamee tapped the side of his helmet, activating his COM, "Authorize all ships to proceed".
A moment of pause, then, "Yes Excellency, right away"
The Phantom rumbled then lurched out of the rushing bay, at there current speed any normal Phantom would have there troops kneeling over, giving away the contents of there last meal, however since the Phantom was built for pleasure as well as power, the troop compartment was padded with shock absorbing layers, resulting in the illusion they weren't moving at all. However 'Nabamee knew better, a screen placed near the front of the compartment showed feed from the Phantoms nose camera. They were rocketing towards the gas giant, and with a flutter of gravity, shot strait into the thick soupy clouds. The facility would not be far under, so there was no worry that they need travel to far and get crushed by the gradually increased pressure. After a few minutes of scanning through the uppermost layer of clods, a blue beacon was sighted through the fog.
Immediately the thirty Phantoms that had been spread out searching the clouds converged and moved to the blue beacon. As they moved forward, 'Nabamee could make out a gray outline that slowly got sharper and sharper as they got closer. Finally 'Nabamee could see it as clear as day, unlike most Forerunner facilities which were made out of a reflective chrome-like metal, this structure was dull gray and decisively less elegant than most of the Ancients treasures. The base was simply floating amongst the clouds, creating a strong enough anti-gravity field so it didn't get dragged towards the crushing depths of the clouds. It was rectangular in shape with three larger 'blocky' structures sticking out the top, markings engraved the outer surface, graceful swoops and angular curves, a large cobalt-blue Forerunner symbol was engraved on the centermost tower, a circle with a dot in the middle and two diagonal crosses through the center. The pulsing blue beacon was located at the base of the third tower, just above a slight depression in the metal, which occurred to 'Nabamee was probably a closed doorway. That made him wonder....
He opened a private com, " Pilot, what is our method of entry?"
"Excellency, we have developed a new computer system based on what little Forerunner software we've been able to acquire over the years. It will attempt to infiltrate the Forerunner system and unlock the door....", he paused, "If that does not work we are under orders to blow them"
"UNACCEPTABLE!! I am hereby overriding those orders. What officer gave you such blasphemous commands?", roared Nabamee, loud enough to make his honor guards jump, which wasn't and easy thing to do.
"Our orders come directly from the Council, Excellency. I am sorry, but in this matter there rule overrides yours", the pilot replied. Nabamee stuttered and fumed. How could the council even think about damaging a holy structure? It was unthinkable! But then again, he thought, now cooling down a bit, the need to find The Key is extremely significant. Important enough to overrule the preservation of the Forerunners treasures? It was not for him to decide, but he slowly formed the conclusion in his head, as the Council no doubt had, that the answer was yes. "Very well", he muttered, and turned his attention to the screen.
Through an encrypted channel a Covenant intrusion code was sent into the Forerunner systems. It was brittle, merely fragments of random Forerunner code pasted together with Covenant infiltration software. The fragile computer formula managed to make its way into the Forerunner system, but was immediately blindsided by a Forerunner 'watchdog', or anti-virus subroutine. A second try was attempted, the same computer formula guided by a Covenant AI. This time it managed to dodge the subroutines and hit the first firewall, which it immediately dissipated against.
After reading the results of the cyberspace battle on his computer screen, the pilot snapped on his ship to ship com, "All ships open fire on the doorway". Immediately hundreds of purple-white plasma bolts lashed out at the doorway, hitting it from all angles multiple times. After every gun had overheated and forced to cool, the door remained intact. Not even a single burn mark.
'How is that possible?', Nabamee thought. No metal, Forerunner or otherwise, could stand up to that amount of plasma without even a single mark. At least not without a shield system protecting it, but there had been no visible effect to indicate the usage of one. So the question remained, 'How is that possible?'
The Pilot snapped on a com, "Excellency.....awaiting orders". For the first time, he did not know what to do. A problem like this had never presented itself to him, ever. Give him any bad combat situation and he would be able to solve it, turning the tables for himself. However, his mental prowess had been stopped by a door. A big door.
"Excellency, one of our Engineers has made a suggestion", said another voice over the so called 'secure' com channel. It occurred to him that 'Orsolee would of course be monitoring his progress, even if it meant prying into secure com channels. It was his job to know everything and anything that could present a possible threat to his well-being.
Interest overrode anger, "Yes, what is it?"
"Using the new fast-clone AI technology, we could override the Forerunner systems with billions of copies of the Reclaimer's AI system. The copies would be to fragmented to do any serious infiltrating, however they would cause enough chaos for our code to slip in and take over", he said.
Not being experienced in the field of computer systems, Nabamee didn't understand the full extent of what 'Orsolee was proposing, but it sounded good. "Do it".
A moment later, the flood gates of AI were opened and engulfed the Forerunner computer system. Subroutines and firewalls took them down by the hundreds, but thousands more took there place. Each one less coherent then the first, until they were just a randomly assimilated piece of code dead in cyberspace. However the confusion of it all was enough for the real intrusion code to slip in and infiltrate the main computer. In response, the depression in the seemingly unbreakable metal groaned and opened. It looked to Nabamee like a black hole.
To the pilot, he said "Proceed".....
Halo Installation 01, Chapter 2
Date: 10 February 2004, 3:30 AM
Halo Installation 01, Chapter 2
/start file/
I'mmmm baaaaacccckkkk!!!!!
Peace Out
-FOrunnER
/end file/
Unknown System, on Halo Installation 01
The two Halo Monitors, 343 Guilty Spark and 707 Righteous Guardian, were hovering around the massive cavernous room, used mainly for Sentinel storage. After 101,514 local Threshold years, about 1.2 million human years, of dormancy, the place was a hub of activity. Sentinel fighters and spider-like repair drones floated in in and out of rooms massive doorways by the hundreds. The hum of machinery filled the air.
707 Righteous Guardian addressed 343 Guilty Spark, "How could you let the Flood escape, and worse yet you let Installation 04 blow up, you incompetent fool. You do realize that the disabling of Installation 04 will prevent the rest of Halo's from firing, rendering this Galaxy completely vulnerable to infection!!!"
343 Guilty Spark felt the equivalent of a humans blood boiling. His personality sub-processors came complete with an ego. He resisted the urge to lash out at Righteous Guardian, he was a higher-ranking program. "Should we abandon this galaxy, fire the Halo systems around this one and limit flood exposure?"
"Of course not!! Have you lost your mind? Key installations are located in this Galaxy, the Great Temple included. Not to mention the Flood will come looking for the anti-Flood, and if the anti-Flood is released, things will escalate chaotically. Its all you fault, you should have been more prepared!! Honestly...", exploded Guardian.
Spark contained his rage, " The fault was not entirely mine. A rouge Reclaimer was certainly not expected. I predict a 99.998889% chance that not even you could have prepared for that".
"Ah yes, the rouge Reclaimer.....", Guardian started to drift off, " You say the Reclaimer donned a Class 2 armor suiting despite containment protocols and brought projectile weapons?"
"Yes. It was quite curious, however I believe I have a theory", replied Spark.
"Go on"
"Well the alien AI that the Reclaimer brought with him could quite possible have caused him to go rampant, rebelling against the Forerunners. The projectile weapons were also carried by the AI's home species, 'Humans', as evidence to support my theory", replied the AI, happy that he had though of something Righteous Guardian had not, "I have detailed files on there human history, shall you wish to view it".
Guardian replied, "Perhaps later. Your theory on the rouge Reclaimer is interesting to say the least, however I doubt an AI of such primitive race could hack into a biological organism. But I will file it as a possibility. In the meantime it does not change out current situation", he paused for a millisecond as he calculated the available options, "Our only practical option is to release our Sentinel armies and try to keep the infection at bay manually until we can find a way to make the anti-Flood less harmful"
He turned to Spark, " Go reset the Sentinel drone systems 1A through 100Z and begin resetting the other Installations Sentinel Systems by remote".
This was when 343 Guilty Spark nearly lost it. He was a highly sophisticated and highly competent Artificial Intelligence unit, not an errand runner!! That kind of work was what drones were for. He was in the process of seizing control of a nearby Sentinel and have him shoot the bastard, but he checked the motion. Not yet.
"Of course", he turned and sped of through one of the many maintenance tunnels. Inside he fumed, but he reassured himself that he would not be taking orders from 707 Righteous Guardian for long........
The Ninth Era, 540 units, Unknown System, Inside Gas Giant, Forerunner facility #7777777G
The inside of the structure looked just as gloomy as it did from the outside. This area had obviously been made as a ship bay. There were floors to the room, about four-dozen black circles were carved in each floor, green anti-gravity fields eminating from there centers. Hundreds of rooms like these had been found during the years of the Covenant investigating Forerunner ruins. The anti-gravity fields were low enough so that you ship would float far down enough so that you would be able to get back out. Every time a ship bay like this had been found the black circles, or the 'docking fields' were on. However not one Forerunner ship was every recovered from these areas. If fact a Forerunner ship had never been encountered at all. Not in the 3,000 year reign of the Covenant empire.
The doors instantly closed as soon as all the Phantoms had passed through and a hissing sound was heard, as the un-breathable hydrogen atmosphere was recycled with oxygen. The Phantoms bore down on the glowing green energy field and positioned themselves as close as possible to the exit-ways. They knew that The Key would not be found here. Nabamee's Phantom dropped its back hatch and immediately seven Elite honor guards and four Brutes jumped out, making a perimeter for there commander to step into. Nabamee looked around the massive room, the roof extended kilometers above his head, making him feel small and insignificant, as it should be.
Once all the Phantoms had unloaded there troops, a task force total of nearly 600 (20 troops for each of the 30 Phantoms), were about. " Unit's A & B will stay here and guard the docking bay. Units C & D will split into sub-groups and explore grids 1 by 100, the lower decks. Units E & F will split into sub groups explore grids 101 by 300, the upper decks", after the Units had been divided into the appropriate number of sub-groups they set off. 'Nabamee's personal sub-groups split off with F unit at junction #100.BA. His group consisted of himself, his 7 honor guard Elites, 4 Brute body guards, 8 SpecOps Jackals and 2 SpecOps Hunters. The corridors of the ship were huge, easily several meters wide and several tall, however there great numbers still restricted there mobility. The searched through the ship, going blind. They had encountered no enemy resistance.
Finally there progress was blocked by a large door, a holographic symbol was floating in front of it. At the side there was a data panel. With hand signals, he motioned one of the lesser Jackals to crack it. The Jackal knelt beside the panel and pulled out a blue, lumpy object, he pulled a cord from the side of it and attached it to the control panel. After a few minutes, the massive doors slowly groaned open....and immediately a dozen white-hot lasers shot out at the Covenant group. The Jackal by the door was first to go, he didn't even have his shield up. Two laser hit his chest and burned away at his heart, then made opposite horizontal slashes, separating the upper chest from the rest of the body.
The rest of the Jackals brought up there shields in time but it didn't make any difference, they didn't even get a shot off before there shields overloaded and lasers punctured there bodies. They returned fire, the honor guard Elite plasma rifles dissipated against the hovering robots shields. The Brutes opened up fire with there weapons and turned six of the machines into flaming hulks and damaged two others, however return laser fire cut two down before the other two could find cover. The honor guards were fairing well, they gracefully dodged laser shots and chipped away at there shields, and finally damaged one enough so that it retreated to the back of the pack. However two of there numbers were cut down, one caught a shot to the head which instantly fried his brains, the second one took a hit to the pelvis, a follow up shot to the neck finished him off. The only ones who were really safe from the blood bath were the Hunters, there shields were held up in front of them protecting there entire bodies. However it was only a temporary defense, the metal was glowing red hot and parts of it were dripping onto the floor. One raised his gun ever so slightly above his shield and fired. The fizzling green bolt slammed into the nearest Sentinel, completely vaporizing it and the splash damage engulfing three more. The second one followed suit and took down four, wounding a fourth, however at that point his shield gave way and a laser punctured him in the gut. An honor guard threw a grenade which clung to one of the machines and the Brutes jumped out of cover to open fire, one being wounded in the process, taking down more of the robotic creatures. This left 6.
Meanwhile, Nabamee had been shoved behind the safety of the Hunters by his honor guards as soon as the fighting had started. Now seeing his chance, he sprang into action, overcharged Plasma Pistol in one hand and Sword in the other. Using his double-jointed knee strength, he jumped strait onto the startled Hunters back, then eight meters into the air on top of a nearby Sentinel. Before it could even react, he had already fired his overcharged bolt at one of the wounded Sentinels nearby. The super-charged plasma burned through its layers of hardened circuitry and into its drive core, making it detonate in a ball of flame, the flaming husk crashed onto another below it, taking them both down.
By this point, the Sentinel was in a full-blown frenzy to get him off, it was shaking madly. Its friends tried to assist, however its constant motion didn't allow them a clear shot, and finally a laser sliced right through it. Nabamee jumped backwards off the now dead Sentinel and threw his sword at the Sentinel that bested its friend. The sword got lodged into the uppermost layers of its metallic skin. It was still operational, however not capable of more than sparking and spinning. Two left. Both Sentinels turned towards Nabamee and presented its backside to the rest of the force. Bad mistake, as immediately a Hunter salvo, Brute grenade blasts, and full auto spray from the honor Elites ripped them apart into so many droplets of molten metal.
Smiling at the carnage he had caused and the awed look of his surviving squad members, he turned to survey the area ahead of him...only to find his field encompassed by the view of a Sentinels optical-laser.
Halo Installation 01, Chapter 3
Date: 16 June 2004, 2:32 AM
Halo Installation 01, Chapter 3
Authors Note: Guess who's back, back again. FOrunnER's back, tell a friend, du nuh nuh...Sorry about the long wait, I had a massive case of writers block, during which I poured some of my ideas into a small series, Unstable Territory, which I never finished. However since I promised I'd finish this one, here it is.
The Ninth Era, 540 units, Unknown System, Inside Gas Giant, Forerunner facility #7777777G
For what seemed like eternity to Nabamee, nobody moved. The honor guards, the Brutes, and the Hunter all had there weapons aimed at the Sentinel, but knew they could not fire for fear of obliterating there master.
For his part, Nabamee did not cringe. He would either die, or not. This was the moment of judgment by The Gods, whether his spirit was holy enough to be welcomed to paradise, or sent to eternal damnation. He accepted he was going to die and greeted it, he closed his eyes and waited for the Sentinel to fire. What happened next was so unexpected that Nabamee almost fell over with shock.
"Ship Master, do you copy?" said the Sentinel. Never before had a Sentinel ever spoken, it wasn't even thought they were capable of speaking. Over his career nothing had ever really shocked him into complete silence, until now.
"Ship Master, our AI has taken control of the Sentinel drone systems for this station. Right now the Reclaimer is receiving video and audio feed from the Installations 200 Sentinels. They have the equivalent of a voice-manual override, allowing us to talk through them. Do you copy?"
Nabamee, now recognizing the sound of Orsolee's voice, slowly regained his composure. His facial features resolved from there shocked expression to Nabamee's customary menacing snarl. "Yes 'Orsolee, I copy you. You say our AI now has control over the Sentinel that is standing before me?"
"Yes"
"And over the rest of them?"
"Yes Excellency"
"Yes Excellency", said Orsolee. He paused, then added, "In fact we now know the way to The Key itself. I am uploading the coordinates to your data pad"
Nabamee withdrew the small object from his belt and watched as lines of Covenant computer code ran across the screen, which was hen replaced with an image. A red line traced from there current position to there objective. "Good work 'Orsolee, have the AI calculate the correct path to this room from all our other teams position so that we can rendezvous there"
"Yes Excellency", said Orsolee, then the Sentinel was silent. The hovering machine seemed to shake itself, as if from out of a trance, then slowly moved away from him and hovered towards the ceiling. The moment it moved away from, his surviving forces opened fire on it, it was outlined in a haze of plasma fire for a split second before every last trace of it was vaporized.
Nabamee snarled and yelled menacingly, "T'holr*, don't waste the plasma. You are to regard all Sentinels you see from now on as friendlies, do you understand?"
His force seemed shocked and confused at his order, but with grim faces they slowly nodded. He outlined what he had heard to them then turned back to the corridor He unclipped an extra plasma sword at his hip and activated it, the triangle of superheated gas cast eerie shadows along the wall. Orsolee said the rest of the way was secure, however one could never be to prepared. The corridors gradually became wider and wider the closer they got to The Key. Along the way Nabamee also noticed more and more Forerunner symbols along the walls, glowing triangles, squares, dots, and circles that changed colors naturally but turned sickly green whenever the light from his plasma sword touched them.
Nabamee came to a large blast door, it was at least 20 meters tall and 30 wide. It was unlocked and opened when Nabamee's force approached. They stepped into an extremely large room, in the center was a deep hole in which over the top stood a giant representation of the galaxy, slowly rotating around its giant yellow center. It was beautiful . Most of the Covenant forces were already there, staring in awe at the giant representation of the galaxy. Nabamee strode forward, and immediately all heads turned, and the remaining forces bowed. Nabamee noticed that several of the soldiers were wounded and a good third of the troops were missing, an obvious sign that they had run into some Sentinel action as well. Those pesky machines had bothered the Covenant for centuries as the Covenant tried to regain the Forerunners wisdom, like a dragon viciously guarding a stolen horde. The all-knowing Prophets refused to comment on what exactly the Sentinels were, only that they were 'unholy' and needed to be 'cleansed'.
Nabamee could see a small control panel at the base of the hologram, no doubt the way to accessing The Key. As he approached, the hologram spun faster and faster. The Covenant started to notice this and most had begun to have fearing looks on there faces, but Nabamee continued on, unafraid. The hologram now looked like a bizarre black fan, and he could actually feel the wind try to push him back, then it disappeared. A hushed silence fell over the room and Nabamee stopped at the control panel. Then from the pit below, another hologram slowly rose out like a star rising out of a nebula. He could see that the golden orb was a direct representation of the planet they were on/in, orbited by a dozen different colored moons he had noticed outside. Despite his better instinct he was compelled to touch the farthest flung moon in the representation, which was just within his grasp. He expected his hand to pass right through it like most holograms, however on the contrary, it was very solid. And freezing cold.
He managed to pull his hand away, but it was hard, like dragging your hand out of sinkhole. Like it had its own gravity field. Nabamee stood and looked at his hand like it had suddenly turned into some bizarre mutation. Without even thinking, he turned his hand over and pressed down on a small turquoise holographic plate on the holopanel, like the holographic moon it was unyielding as rock. A fizzling crackle could be heard and blue lightning surged through his and spread through his whole body like a wildfire, like being electrocuted. But it did not hurt, it actually felt like a pleasant warmth had spread across him, and he felt as if he was falling through a haze. Nabamee started to glow bright blue, much to the fear of the underlings behind him, and was actually floating a few feet off the ground. At that moment, he felt all knowing, all seeing, as if he were a god himself. The feeling was marvelous and infinite. Then it stopped, the glow faded, the hologram disappeared, and Nabamee dropped to the ground in a crumbled heap......
Faye System, Aboard Covenant Cruiser Holy Redemption , orbiting Covenant world Faye III
Ship Master Garamee stood on the bridge while he watched the door being slowly bashed open by the Flood on the other side. The rest of his bridge crew, consisting of a pair of red Elites, Grunts, a dozen Engineers, and several Jackals stood with weapons pointed at the door (except the engineers, who were oblivious to there peril). They quavered, but not one of them broke. Even the Grunts seemed to have accepted the fact that they would die and were willing to go down fighting.
With a final blow the doors knocked apart and a flurry of plasma beams converged on the entrance. The front Flood forms that had been battering against the door instantly fell with a dozen plasma bolts burning through them. The combat forms made a shield for the carriers to waddle up into the bridge, they were hit, but exploded inside the bridge and spewed spores everywhere.
One of the spores latched right onto a Grunts face and stabbed him in the throat with a tentacle, another Grunt fell when two Spores lashed on to him, and another Grunt was torn in half by a rampaging combat form. Fire started to slacken on the doorway as the Covenant had to worry about the spores now skittering across the room, which allowed more combat forms to enter. Garamee watched as one of his Elites threw a grenade at a rushing ex-Elite, which ran right to him and exploded in his face, killing them both. The other Elites shields were taken down by an exploding Carrier form, and finished of with the resulting spores. At the death of the two Elites, the Grunts and Jackals started panicking, most either latched onto by spores or stuck in the back by Combat Forms.
Which left Garamee alone in the room with the Flood. He waited for the mutations to rush him, then pulled out a Plasma Rifle and fired at them. Combat Forms fell back into the mass of Flood, slowing them down, Carriers exploded and killed those all around them, and Spores popped on his shields. Foregoing the walkway, several Combat Forms circled the platform and simply jumped to the top, right behind Nabamee. With his rifle overheated and Combat forms at close range, he dropped the gun and pulled out the sword. He killed a dozen of the things, green and black blood splashing against his shields, until it was knocked out of his hand. He helplessly watched at the sword flew to the other end of the room. With combat forms crowding all around him, he pulled out a plasma grenade with the intention of sticking it to himself.
The lead form reacted with surprising speed and quickness to seeing the fizzing blue orb. With its razor sharp tentacles it sliced the arm holding the plasma grenade off in one clean cut, then kicked the arm off the command platform with the grenade still in the hand. It exploded in mid-air. Garamee stumbled back, clutching his bloodied stump of an arm and letting out a roar of pain. The Combat form knocked him over with another swipe, he attempted to roll back up, but the Flood form put its foot on his chest firmly and kept him to the ground. The Flood surrounded the beaten commander, but made no move to kill him.
Garamee was light-headed from the loss of blood, but he knew he was not hallucinating, and he knew the Flood didn't take prisoners. So what the hell was going on? Then he saw what. A monstrous from entered the bridge, easily twice as tall as himself, it looked like an overgrown carrier form but larger and more sickening. Its s limy body pulsed green and it dragged spines along the floor, trailing Flood blood. It moved on thick, root-like legs.
Then he saw the faces. There were at least a half dozen of them, Elite faces, outlined in the skin. Some of them he recognized as his highest ranked officers, others he did not, but that might have been because most of them were very deformed. This was what was left of his best officers, sentenced to a fate worse than death. Sentenced to infection. He know knew why the Flood had been so intent on taking him prisoner, he would become one of these things many hosts. His honor forgotten, Nabamee let out an ear-splitting scream....
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