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Siege of Evil by Vengeance
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Siege of Evil: Part 1-Rumbles of Discord
Date: 9 May 2004, 4:05 AM
The lone monstrous 9-foot tall elite staked out of the chamber of the prophets. His eyes held a reserved brooding anger inside, but this seasoned warrior knew better then to express his anger openly against the prophets, few who publicly disagreed with them lived for long.
As Agra Elisee crossed out of the walled compound and into the street, all the other covenant in the street took care to try to get out the way of the black armored menace, for many of the regular covenant citizens recognized the famed vicious leader of the Spec Ops group the "Hellbenders" and apparently knew about his famed short tempers.
After ten minutes of walking though the streets of the Covenant Capital, Agra reached his small frigate, the "Secret Justice". Even on his own ship, the entire crew of two hundred elites, sixty grunts, and the dozen hunters took care to avoid their commander; no one wanted to be the victim of the Captain's fury. When Agra finally reached his quarters he stood still in the middle of his small quarters taking several deep breaths.
"Damn it!!" he finally screamed, out letting his rage out. In a swoop of fury he savagely shoved everything that was on his desk onto the ground. His next assault was targeted on his small floating desk chair. He picked up the tiny object and hurled it with all his strength across the room. Just as his chair was bouncing off the wall, Agra's door slide open and another black clad elite took a single step into the room, but then stopped as he witnessed the devastation across the room.
"Bad time?" the newcomer asked questionably, an expression of perfect innocence on his face. Agra looked Jalkal Vendree's smiling mandibles and simply shook his head and said, "Just sit down and I'll tell you what happened."
Jalkal glanced at the single now not floating chair lying on the floor in the room's far corner. "Where?" he replied. Not really caring for his second's flippant remarks, Agra started to tell Jalkal what the Companies new mission was.
"Those hairy religious bastards are sending us in pursuit of the survivors of a down single Human ship! And not only that, but there's already an entire Covenant armada above the ship's location."
"So... why are they sending us sir?"
"The Humans went down on one of the two ancient ring worlds that the army found, and apparently it's up to us to stop the humans from "pillaging" the place."
Jalkal shook his head in disbelief and asked hopefully," Are they sure they don't want us looking for old forerunner artifacts, or putting down one jackal rebellion or another on some god forsaken planet?"
Agra was shaking his head even before his second finished his idea, "I proposed that vary same idea." Agra said," and do you know what the damn prophets told me?"
"Yes?" Jalkal replied hopefully.
"No, and they also told me that if I continued my insubordination they would execute me and put a damn Brute in command instead."
Jalkal and Agra both wore sour expressions at that thought; Elites and Brutes were practically mortal enemies. Only necessity and the prophet's will held the two races from going at each other's throats. "So, what are we going to do?" Jalkal asked, fully knowing the answer already. "What can we do? To go against the will of the prophets means death to all our families and us. I don't like killing humans for some damn prophet's ambitions any more than you do, but there's nothing that we can do."
"I suppose your right Sir. Should I set the course?"
Agra nodded his head, and then pulled out a small metal ball and tossed it to his second.
"The coordinates are written on this my friend."
Jalkal caught the small ball and then turned around and left. Agra let out a long sigh and laid down on his bed and tried to drift off to sleep, but after only a minute of peace his door slid open again, bring yet another of his crew into his room. Not even opening his eyes Agra simply growled, "What now?"
"Sorry sir, but chief Engineer I'lluth has something he wants to show you."
"Tell him I'll be there in a few minutes."
"Yes, Sir."
Agra heard the elite warrior turn around and walk out the door. Muttering to himself something about locking his door more often Agra slowly got up and walked out of his room to go to I'lluth's headquarters.
* * * * *
"No stop! Hold the shield like this! Make sure it protects the entire chest and leg area, the face and weapon arm need to be exposed." I'lluth Uldar screamed at the unfortunate soldier who was trying out the chief engineers new toy. Just at that moment Agra walked into the room to see a fairly odd sight. One of the black armored troopers of the Hellbenders was holding a standard plasma rifle in one hand, but in the other hand he held a plasma shield much like the damned Jackals used. The main difference between the Elites shield and the Jackal's standard shield was that the one the Elite was holding was larger and more oval in shape; the shield's color was also different. Rather then having a typical yellow or dark blue shield, the Hellbender's shield was a very light translucent blue.
"Good to see you Sir!" I'lluth said as he came up to the captain and saluted. "Whadya think of my new toy?" Agra simply gave his chief engineer a hard look. "I think you should ask the Prophets about this. You know that trying to improve on forerunner technology is punishable by death." I'lluth nodded his head, but still kept his smile. "Don't worry about that sir. I cleared this little experiment with the High Prophet of Truth a long time ago. He actually liked this idea!" This took Agra aback; Prophets were usually tough critics and rarely liked anything.
"So, what is this thing?"
"Well Sir, this "thing" is going to save dozens of our men's lives. This new shield that I've created is more durable then a standard Jackal's shield. My new toy also recharges twice as fast as a Jackal's shield."
"How many of these life saves do you have at the moment?"
" Right now I have eighty shields. Enough to equip all of First or Second squadron."
Agra nodded his head appreciating the admirable work his chief engineer had done. Agra was also sure that he would probably give all of the shields to First squad. Agra's Company was divided into five squadrons. First and Second Squad were the main fighting squads, both of the squads contained eighty soldiers, all of them Elites. Support Squad contained a score of Elites, twenty Grunts, and a dozen Hunters. The Engineering squad was made up of ten Elites and twenty Grunts and they were in charge of repairing all the broken equipment of the company, as well as making all of I'lluth's toys. The last squad was the Home squad. This squad was made of ten Elites and a score of Grunts. Home Squad was in charge of ship security.
"Ok, I'lluth. Equip all of First squadron with your new shields." Agra glanced over at the Elite in training who was clumsily holding the shield. "And make sure you drill them on how to use it." I'lluth make a quick reply of "Yes Sir." And then with that Agra turned around and walked out of Engineering to go to the bridge. Agra knew that the "Secret Justice" would probably be approaching instillation Zero-Four in a few minutes, and then the mission would begin.
Siege of Evil: Part 2- As the Gates of Hell Open
Date: 16 May 2004, 6:29 PM
Five Covenant dropships and five Banshees flew in the murky sky above a dark forbidding swamp on Halo. On one of the dropships Agra Elisee reflected on the last dozen or so hours that had been so incredibly chaotic. Agra remembered that soon after the "Secret Justice" entered area near instillation Zero-Four it had received a transmission for the " Truth and Banishment". The transmission had given the Hellbenders instructed them to a simple mission, an extremely simple mission.
Two squads of Covenant Grunts and Jackals that were guarding a weapons cache in some swamp on instillation Zero-Four had come under attack by something. The message had not been very clear because the transmission had been covered with static, and because the Grunt that was delivering the message had been shot at point blank range ten seconds into the transmission by what sounded to be a M90 shotgun.
In response the Covenant fleet sent nearly fifty low ranking blue armored Elites to investigate. The new group had found a crashed Human dropship, and then continued through the swamp and into the tunnels of the weapons cache to find and eliminate the enemy. But as soon as the Elites had gone two feet into the structure, the Covenant High Navel Command had lost contact with the group. After four hours of silence from the Elites and the original Covenant guard the High Command decided to send the Hellbenders. "It figures," Agra thought to himself irritably, "The moment that anything goes remotely wrong the High Command decides to send the Spec Ops team in."
So now Agra was heading to some God forsaken swamp on a fool's errand with his own personal guard and all of Support Squadron. "Well, not all of Support squad" Agra mentally corrected himself. Moments before leaving on the dropships, Agra's Chief Engineer I'lluth Uldar had asked if he could keep the Hunters from Support Squad for a "little experiment" of his. Agra gave his Chief Engineer permission to take the Hunters, and also the permission to piss off. Agra really didn't care if he had the Hunters with him or not. He was bringing over twenty black-armored commando Elites and a score of Grunts with him. Not to mention the five Banshees that would stay on station with the dropships patrolling above the swamp. And if all of this wasn't enough, Agra's second in command Jalkal (who didn't come for the mission) had ordered the dropships to load up with one Shade Turret each, as well as crates filled to the brim with enough Needlers and enough Plasma weapons to supply an Army for a lifetime.
Personally, Agra thought that the Humans that slaughtered his kinsman had already fled from the area. Or if not that, then maybe the blue armored Elites that had been sent before hand had already killed all the Humans, and were just lost in the tunnels beneath the weapons cache. Agra doubted that the Hellbenders would even see any action any time soon, or even any combat on Halo it's self.
A cry of "Sir!" by the dropship pilot interrupted Agra's daydreaming. "We're descending to the LZ now Sir, might want to wake up." Shaking the sleepiness out of his head, Agra let his stern bad-ass commander ego take over as he leap out of the dropship and onto a small eight hundred meter long plateau in the middle of cold desolate swamp.
"Get the Shade guns in position at each corner of the plateau!" Agra roared at his scrabbling troops, "and put the last turret in the center of the base camp to provide support fire!" Chaos ensured, but it was orderly chaos. Elites were moving around posting the defensive guns at the appropriate positions, Grunts were emptying some boxes of their contents and loading up with Fuel rod guns, Needlers, and Plasma Grenades. A dozen heavily armed Elites jogged into the swamp to do some light reconnaissance and information gathering, and all the while the Banshees patrolled the sky, keeping an alert watch for any incoming foes. The Hellbenders were the best of the best, everyone in the company knew their duty, and performed it to perfection.
"Anything?" Agra asked through his headset after the base camp got organized. The twelve scouting Elites all reported the same message, "All clear." Not surprised in the least bit Agra, called the recon troops back. Agra turned to the rest of his of his men and barked out quick orders. "Half the Elites here are gonna move out with me to the weapons cache. The rest of you better keep on setting up the base camp defenses. And when the damn recon troops come back, tell them that they have a ten minute rest then they better get their asses over to weapons cache too!"
The reaction was instant. Four Elites ran outside the base perimeter, ready to follow their commander into the unknown. The rest of the Elites gave quick orders to the Grunts and had everyone doing something. A few Grunts were chattering on the transmitters, some Grunts were manning the turrets, and the remaining Elites patrolled the perimeter, keeping a watchful eye out for any enemies. Agra looked at his four man escort, and spoke two words that sent the entire five man team into a dead sprint for the weapons cache, "Move out."
* * * * *
"I don't get it, Sir!" One of the black armored Elites exclaimed to Agra inside the room with the main lift down to the weapons cache. "There's plenty of Human, Elite, and Grunt blood scattered about the room, but where are the bodies?" Agra glanced around the room, just as puzzled as his soldier was. One of the other troopers crouched down and felt some of the spilt Human blood. "Sir!" the solider quickly exclaimed, "You might want to look at this." Agra walked over and crouched next to the soldier that had called him.
"See this blood Sir, well it's fresh, it's still wet. Less then an hour old I would say. But look at the Grunt and Elite blood... it's dry. It's probably been laying out here for two or three hours."
Agra's eyes widened at this prospect. "So that means the Humans died here a short while ago, while the Covenant died here a long time ago. But that still doesn't explain where the fuck the bodies are." Agra muttered to himself. "Agra, I think I know what happened to the bodies." A third Elite across the room was speaking this time.
Agra got up and walked over to see what his soldier was pointing at. Blood marks were scattered around the lift, but the way the blood was laying in long streaks suggested that bodies of the dead and dying had been forcefully dragged over to the lift, to go down into the abyss. Even at one part of the lift, Agra could see deep gouges in the glass, probably made by a desperate dying Elite digging his claws into the glass as he was being dragged to the lift. "Dear God..." Agra muttered to himself. He glanced over at the panel that would take the lift down to the deepest depths of Halo and took a deep breath. "Ok men, I need one of you to stay here and report what we know to the reinforcements. The rest of us are going to go down to find out what the hell happened here." One of the Hellbender Elites walked away and stood near to the entrance to the swamp, the other three Elites leveled their plasma rifles at the ready and walked over to the lift with Agra. The commander of the Hellbenders touched a single button on the panel, sending the lift down into the unknown.
* * * * *
The four-man team moved on a plasma bridge through the upper levels of the weapons cache, weapons drawn and ready for any thing. "Where the hell are the bodies?" One of the frustrated Elites asked to himself as the Hellbenders continued through the compound for nearly ten minutes with out the trace of any enemies or corpses. "Shut up soldier!" Agra snapped at the Elite who was muttering to himself. "We need silence, whatever killed the Humans and our kin is probably still around here somewhere, and we have to find it."
Agra turned around then and focused himself back onto the task at hand. Then they heard it, a low slithering sound, as if something was moving on the walls. Agra hefted his plasma sword up and signaled his men to be ready for anything. "Where's it coming from?" One of the panicking Elites cried out. "Shut up!" Agra yelled at his nervous soldier, "Keep calm... and shoot anything that moves!" The four warriors started to move as one towards the other end of the room, the way back to the lift, all of them on edge, looking for the unknown foe. As the four Elites finally reached the last platform on the other end of the plasma bridge, they found out what killed the Humans and the other Covenant.
With the horrid smell of rotting fleash, the door on the other side of the plasma bridge burst open, reviling the horror. Nearly a dozen huge hulking mutated Elites entered the opposing platform. Their skin had a dark yellow hue, and their skin was coming off in flaks, and every one of the monsters was either holding a plasma rifle or an assault rifle. "May the Gods protect us all..." Agra muttered in shock to himself, "It's the Flood..." At that moment the Flood seemed to have spotted the still living Elites, and the monsters opened fire on Hellbenders.
All three of Agra's men dropped down to one knee and launched a barge of fire into the Floods ranks. One of the MA5B assaults rifle carrying Flood took several critical plasma hits to the face, burning a hole in the neck and taking the head off, but the monster fought on. Agra hit the switch to deactivate the plasma bridge as four of the abominations were sprinting across it. The bridge dematerialized right under their feet, heavily dropping the four to the ground below. As the monsters below reeled from the shock, Agra tossed a plasma grenade down to their feet, teaching the monsters how to fly.
All three of Agra's men took their commanders cue, the Hellbenders pulled out plasma grenades and hurled their grenades at the monsters. But before the Hellbenders could view the damage they had done, the door right next to them opened up, bringing six Flood infected Human forms into the fight.
Using his plasma sword Agra thrust his weapon into the first monster in lines chest, then he pulled his weapon up, leaving a deep gouge that guaranteed to keep the monster down. The next Flood in line didn't even get a chance to react; Agra simply cut the monster in half horizontally, leaving the things entrails to spill on the floor. But the rest of the Hellbenders didn't fair as well as Agra in the close quarters clash.
As one of the Spec Ops Elites turned to meet this new threat, he caught a shotgun blast to the face. The only thing that saved the soldier was his shields. As the damaged Elite backpedaled for cover, he took a second shotgun blast to his leg. The Elite went down with a pain-riddled scream.
The other two Elites combined fire quickly took down three more of the approaching Flood. As the shotgun-touting Flood moved to finish off the badly hurt soldier, Agra's plasma sword took the things hand off. With a second well-placed swing, the Flood was in two different pieces.
Agra dropped to one knee next to the screaming wounded soldier and surveyed the damage. Purple blood was flowing out of the badly mangled leg in streams; Agra could also clearly see that the blast had shattered the leg bone to the point that his soldier would probably ever have a chance to fight again.
"Do you want to get out of this hellhole alive?" Agra asked the badly wounded soldier. The hurt Elite nodded his head. "Hold him down." Agra ordered of one of his two remaining soldiers. The soldier held the wounded Elite down by the shoulders as Agra activated his plasma sword, and then swung the sword down right above where the soldiers shattered bone was. The wounded Elites screams of pain filled the air.
Working quickly, Agra held his plasma weapon on the place where he amputated the leg, the shear heat of the blade stopped the bleeding and sealed the wound. Then Agra quickly tore off what remained of a Flood infected Human's shirt, and used it to tie up the wound.
The Elite that had been holding down the screaming wounded soldier quickly picked his comrade up and hefted him up over his shoulders. Agra also got up and looked at both his men that were still in fighting condition and said, "Now let's get out of this Hellhole."
Siege of Evil: Part 3- The Spreading Darkness
Date: 15 July 2004, 10:16 PM
"Can you reach them?" Arga quietly asked of one of his men.
"Sorry Sir... the COM channels are still blocked."
"Damn it!"
"Should I try again Sir?"
""No, it's fine... just get ready to move out, we're not just going sit here and wait for the Flood to find us." Agra gave the soldier working on the communication pod a reassuring pat on the back, then the Commander turned around to see how the rest of the squad was doing, all the while reflecting on how everything had gone to Hell so quickly.
Just a short few minutes ago Agra and a few of the Hellbenders had been searching for a missing squadron of Elite foot soldiers, but instead the Spec Ops warriors had found the Flood. A shiver ran through Arga's spine just at the mere thought of the terrible Flood. The great destroyers, the things that had almost destroyed the entire universe tens of thousands of years ago, the monsters that had nearly murdered the gods themselves, were now back... with the desire to kill everything in the universe again.
Agra remembered the horror that had slipped over his body when he first found the god-spawn. The hopelessness that had filled his body when he first laid eyes on the monsters...Agra knew that he had to warn the Covenant High Command before the Flood spread. He knew that the Hellbenders could not die, the very fate of the Covenant may well depend on that single factor.
After the first skirmish with the Flood on the Plasma Bridge, Agra and his men blindly retreated through the passages of the weapons cache. After sprinting for nearly four minutes straight, the Hellbenders came into a small abandoned Covenant outpost. The room was covered in Grunt blood and green Flood gore, but no sign of any Flood. The area also had a few cargo containers and, most importantly, a communication pod. So the Hellbenders set up a quick camp to rest and treat their wounded man.
Thinking about the poor soldier that had taken two shotgun blasts in the previous fight, Agra walked over and knelt down next to his legless soldier.
"How you doing?" Agra quietly asked of the hurt soldier. The wounded Hellbender let out a small quiet groan of pain but didn't respond. Agra grimly nodded to himself, at least his man would should it out of this Hellhole alive. Agra glanced over at the Hellbender that was deactivating the communication pod, "Finish that up quickly," Agra instructed of the soldier," then pick up your wounded comrade. Then we'll move out. I'll take point, and Grashee will cover the rear." The two other Hellbenders that were still combat ready both nodded their heads; everyone was ready to escape from Hell.
* * * * *
Eight infected Human and Elite Flood forms mindlessly paced in a small tight passage that lead to the elevator out of the weapons cache. With a loud hissing sound the door on the opposite end of the passage opened up. Three of the monsters turned around to investigate, but they never got close.
A barrage of plasma struck the infected Flood forms like a bolt thrown from heaven. Four of the monsters went down without having a chance to react. One incredibly large Elite abominations took nearly a dozen hits to the abdomen, but it never even seemed to flinch, it just opened fire on the open door with it's shotgun. But the monster only got two shots off before a small blue ball landed on its head. The tentacles that were coming out of the Elite's neck looked up for a moment as if trying to register what was happening, but it was to late. The ensuring explosion ripped the huge mutated Elite and one of its comrades to pieces.
The remaining two Flood forms charged the door, only to be meet by a black armored Elite and his plasma sword. The first charging Flood form was cut in half vertically, from head to groin. In one lighting fast move, Agra reversed the swing of the sword and buried it deep into the other mutated Elite's thorax, dropping the monster to the ground. With a wave of his hand, Agra motioned for his comrades to follow him. At the opposite end of the passage the door leading to the elevator opened, and reveled a disturbing site.
"Shit..." Agra muttered to himself. Inside of the room more then a score of mutated Flood forms were pacing around the elevator, and most of the monster were armed to the teeth with shotguns, assault rifles, and plasma weaponry.
"Anything?" Jalkal Vendree asked of one of the Elites working on the "Secret Justice's" communication system.
"No Sir. Everything's quite down there.'
"Any word from the Commander?"
"No Sir. It's completely quite, there's been no communication whatsoever coming from the weapons cache."
"Ok, just keep me updated on any development."
"Yes Sir."
Jalkal walked back up to the main platform on the bridge and sighed, it and been nearly three hours since Support squad had landed on Halo, and their was still no word, nothing at all that hinted on what was happening on Halo.
"Sir! You might want to see this." This call came from another Elite on the other side of the Bridge.
"What is it?"
"Sir, Covenant forces all over the ring are reporting that they're under attack."
"From what?" Jalkal asked, "Are the Humans launching a counter offensive, or are the Covenant fighting each other again?"
"Neither Sir, there's something else, we're not sure what it is, but it's wiping out the Covenant's entire ground force."
Jalkal's eyes widened at this disturbing revelation. Without any hesitation the second in command of the Hellbenders turned around and began to issue a quick stream of orders.
"Hassun, get Second squad combat ready. Ishu, continue monitoring the swamp that support squad and the Commander landed in, and as soon as you can reach them, tell them to get the fuck out of their." Jalkal sighed to himself again, "This is one fine Hell of a mess we landed are self in."
* * * * *
Agra leapt into the throng of Flood with his plasma sword at the ready. The first four of Agra's victims never even had a chance to move, the plasma sword simply tore through all of them like a knife through butter, leaving eight different Flood body parts laying on the ground. Not slowing in the least bit, the leader of the Hellbenders kept on moving to his next target.
The Flood in front of Agra raised a shotgun to take the Elite down, but the Commander was ready. Agra leapt forward, Plasma blade leading. The plasma sword went right through the barrel of the shotgun, and even continued on to take off the monsters arm. Continuing the swing of the plasma blade, Agra turned the blade to the side and took the abominations head off. At this point of time, the rest of the squad entered the fight.
Plasma bolts flew out of the hallway and slammed into the Flood. Only three of the monsters went down in the initial barrage, but a dozen other turned around and unleashed hell into the small hallway. A plasma grenade flew out from out of the hallway, and into the middle of a group of four Flood combat forms, a second later four Flood forms were disintegrated. As more fire began to slam into the Hellbenders in the hallway, screams riddled with pain came from one Agra's men. The screams only fueled Agra's desire to kill all the Flood he could find.
Ignoring the splashes of plasma that continually slammed into him, Agra charged right for a group of half a dozen Flood. Right when Agra was within three feet of the Flood, he leapt into the air, and landed right on top of one of the monster's shoulder blades. His hoofed foot slammed into the monster's neck cracking the bone, as the Flood temporarily dropped to the ground, Agra made a quick sweeping motion with his sword, tearing apart two other of the near by infidels. As the monster hit the ground, Agra dropped into a roll, and came up right next to three other Flood. A second later, the Agra's plasma blade feasted on Flood fleash.
Sensing that the Flood that he had knocked out and risen again, Agra spun around, but it was too late. The abominations tentacle hand slammed into Agra. The leader of the Hellbenders felt his shields die out, but that didn't matter, the monster in front of him was already dead. A final swing of the plasma sword put the monster down for good. Suddenly, Agra felt intense burning pain in his back, and saw his own blood splatter out in front of him. Agra spun around and dropped to the floor, falling hard on his back.
Agra glanced up to see an assault rifle bearing Flood combat form charging straight for him, but there was something odd about that Flood form, it was glowing blue. Agra understood a moment later though, when the monster disappeared into an explosion of blue Plasma.
"You Ok Sir?" the question came from the other side of the room.
"Yeah, I just took a few rounds, how's everyone else?"
"Not so good. I'm fine and our legless comrades still alive, but Grashee's just about dead."
Agra pulled himself back up to his feet and walked over to the hallway. The sight was grisly. Plasma rounds had ravaged Grashee to the point that what remained of him was hardly recognizable. The fleash had been seared from his body. The white of bone was clearly visible where the skin and muscle had melted off his body. The warrior's ribcage also lay exposed, with hunks of fleash and burned armor still clinging to the bone. But, most horribly, Grashee was still alive. The Elite's hand spasmodically opened and closed, and spasms of pain continually seared through the warrior's body.
Bile filled the Hellbenders throat at the thought of had to be done next, but he knew that it was necessary. Agra mercifully ended his warrior's life quickly with one quick painless stroke of the plasma blade. Agra turned to his other remaining combat ready warrior, "Pick up our legless comrade, we'll reach the surface soon."
Siege of Evil: Part 4- Out of the Darkness, and Into the Shadow
Date: 6 September 2004, 3:04 PM
Agra glanced over at his two remaining men, one of who was incapacitated, and the other of with was wounded. Agra himself had taken a least half a dozen seven-sixty-two rounds to the back, but the commander of the Hellbenders was not overly concerned, they were almost out of the weapons cache, less then half a minute from now the lift would reach the surface, and they would all be homeward bound.
As the lift came nearer to the surface, Agra heard voices, Elite voices. Two seconds later Agra witnessed a refreshing sight, thirteen Black Armored Spec Ops Elites facing him, even if they were all leveling Plasma Rifles at him, it was still a welcome sight for Agra's weary eyes. As if on cue one of the Warriors gave out the cry "It's the Commander!"
Two of the fresh Elites sprinted over and led the two Hellbenders that came up with Agra off to the side for medial attention, while the apparently elected leader of the Elites that were holding the lift beckoned Agra over to him, so he could discover what the Hell was going on.
"What the Hell is going on Sir, we heard gunshots and screams, did you find the Humans?" The Elite soldier asked of Agra. The leader of the Hellbenders shook his head and the black armored warrior standing adjacent from him and sighed, then in a low mutter he whispered, "The Flood are here, right below our feet."
Shock filled the other Elite's face, "The Flood..." he muttered to himself, "But I thought that they were just a myth, a legend."
"The Flood are quite real soldier, and they have only one purpose in life... to kill every last living sentient thing in the universe."
The battle hardened Elite standing next to Agra shivered at the very thought. "So what do we do Sir?" He of asked of Agra.
"We head back to the base camp, then we head back to the "Secret Justice" and tell the High Command about what's going on."
"Ye-" The Elite next to Agra disappeared into a pillar of fire, Agra was luckier; he was just thrown back a few feet by the explosion. As the Commander of the Hellbenders hit the ground he saw what killed his comrade, ten or so Flood infected warriors that were coming into the room from the swamp outside.
Agra jumped to his feet as a second Rocket was speeding towards him. Not missing a beat, he leapt up as high as he could, his legs trailing behind him. The high explosive projectile flew right under Agra, missing him by mere centimeters. The Rocket exploded a two feet behind the commander of the Hellbenders, launching him forward, into the waiting tentacled arms of an infected Elite.
* * * * *
Umela Krashee glanced at his twin brother, who was taking cover behind a flipped shade just a few feet to Umelas' right hand side. One of the twelve remaining Grunts behind him whimpered in fear, Umela just threw him a glance that explained everything perfectly, shut up or die.
The Elite wondered to himself what the Hell had gone so wrong. Just a little over two hours ago he and three others Elites were patrolling the base camp for the Hellbenders in the middle of some god forsaken swamp on Halo, now he was crouching behind a supply crate, just waiting to be assaulted by the masses of parasitic alien things again. The monsters had already shot down at least two Banshees, killed eight Grunts, and killed two other Elites. The creatures had assaulted the defenders for almost two hours straight, with only small pause in between each wave.
Right now there was a lull in the fighting, but Umela knew that the monsters were still out there... He could hear them. He could hear their footsteps, the splashes of water, and the snap of dead wood as they stepped on fallen branches... they were out there.
"What are they waiting for?" he quietly asked his twin brother, Uanee Krashee. His twin brother didn't respond he just continually glared into the swamp, just waiting to fire upon one of the infernal monsters that were out there. Umela took only some small comfort at the sound of three Banshee's circling above. The Flood had more then enough firepower to knock out a dozen Banshees. Suddenly nearly eight Flood combat forms charged out of the swamp and into the barricade of Hellbenders. "So it begins again..." Umela muttered to himself.
* * * * *
Agra grabbed both of the infected Elites arms, pining it to the ground. The monster thrashed its legs and tried to get free, but Agra held it down. The commanders watched as the other nine Flood were quickly cut down by the combined plasma rounds of the other thirteen Hellbenders. One other Elite walked over to the infected Flood combat form that Agra was holding down, his plasma rifle flashed briefly, and the monster ceased moving.
"Thanks" Agra muttered to the Elite that killed the monster that Agra was holding down. The other Elite nodded his head.
A different Elite walked over to Agra, "One casualty, Sir. And no one else was even wounded."
"Good.'
"Sir?" The Elite asked of Agra as he turned around to leave.
"Yes Soldier?"
"With all due Honor Sir, what the Hell is going on? What were those things?"
By now the rest of the Hellbenders were gathered around Agra. The commander of the Hellbenders sighed, and simply told them two words, "The Flood"
All the Elites in the room reeled from the shook of that declaration, "I'll explain later," Agra told his men, "For now lets just concentrate on getting out of this shit hole."
* * * * *
Umela vented his plasma rifle at point blank range into the abdomen of a charging Flood infection form. The bolts of plasma melted the creature's chest, burning back the rotten skin and exposing its black burned ribs. As the monster drew even closer, Agra swung his plasma rifle in an arc, bringing it down onto the infected humans head with a sickening crunch. The rifle crushed the skull and splattered pink brain matter onto the surrounding area.
A rocket launcher-wielding Flood charged Umela's twin brother, Uanee. Uanee grabbed the monsters weapon and forced it up, so it could only fire into the sky. With his free hand Uanee attached a plasma grenade onto the monster. The Elite held the monster for only three seconds, and then he shoved the monster backward. Before the Flood could lower it's weapon and fire, the grenade detonated, leaving only a scorch mark in the ground where the Flood had stood only seconds ago.
Over his COM Umela heard something that lifted his heart, "Hold tight base camp, the rest of Support Squads arriving, we should be there in a few minutes." Umela knew that the remaining warriors in base camp also got the message, as did the dropships. All five of the Covenant Dropships came out from the dark misty fog from above.
The leading one never made it. At least six rockets slammed into it, as well as hundreds of plasma and seven-sixty-two rounds. The ship exploded into a fireball of death. The other four hovered a few feet above the ground, holding their positions and opening up on the Flood with their shade cannons.
On the other edge of the clearing fourteen black armored Elites sprinted for the dropships, one of the leading Elites carried a legless Elite over one shoulder, and a plasma sword in his hand.
Agra sprinted at full speed to the dropships, "Everybody, get the FUCKING HELL INTO THE DROPSHIP!!!!" he bellowed to all the Hellbenders nearby. The three remaining Banshees began to give the Flood in the area massive amounts of fire, so the troops could escape to the dropships safely. The first three dropships collected most of the men, and took off with only minor damage.
Agra dropped his wounded comrade into the last dropship, and then leapt into it himself, right next to two twin Elites. "Get us out of here!" Agra barked at the ship pilot. An infected Flood form jumped into the compartment of the dropship, but Agra tore it into two pieces with his plasma sword before it could do any damage. As the ship began to raise itself into the air, Agra felt the ship shake as three rockets knocked into its underside. The ship sped off speedily after that, but it had taken to much damage, it was slowly beginning to lose altitude.
"Can we make it back to the "Secret Justice ?" The Elite next to Agra asked of the pilot. The pilot laughed at this statement and replied, "We'll be lucky to make it ten miles soldier."
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