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Metrilo: Part 2
Posted By: Ryan Lee<warrior387@gmail.com>
Date: 15 August 2007, 1:22 am
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Chapter 2: Feet First
The Master Chief ran down the corridor to the Okinawa's pod launching tubes. As he reached the room he turned right and jumped into the pod with his number 117 marked on it. He strapped himself into the harness and checked that his weapons were stowed. He then opened a comm channel and said, "SPARTAN-117, ready to launch."
His announcement was echoed by several hundred ODSTs. The number 0:05 appeared on the corner of hs his visor. It began counting down. When it reached 0, the pod shuddered.
Though there were no viewports in the pod, the Chief had experienced enough drops to know that it had just been propelled out of the Okinawa's launching pod. As the pod continued its journey down, it decelerated, then started to shake violently.
Inside the Chief's armored helmet, Cortana chose this moment to quip, "Mind the bump,"
After several long minutes, there was a thump that rattled the pod, and the Chief kicked the door open, sprang out of the pod and drew both SMGs. Ahead of him, combat forms and infection forms turned. He cut them down with automatic fire as they spun to deal with these new threats. More pods thudded into the grass. Helljumpers sprang out and charged the Flood. The Chief saw SPARTAN-060 smash two combat forms together, then draw his assault rifle and hose another combat form with bullets. SPARTAN-077 picked up a combat form, ignoring its struggles, and hurled it at a carrier form two meters away.
The Chief glanced around and saw two carrier forms waddling toward him. He opened fire before their exploding bodies could hurt him. Infection forms charged him and he cut them down with slugs.
Despite the sudden assault, there were more Flood than the other installation landing sites and they seemed to have been waiting for them, as if they knew that they would land in the closest visible landing zone to 07's control room, but as more and more flood poured in to the LZ he was forced to stuff his thoughts into the back of his mind and dedicate this full attention to the task at hand. After nearly two hours, Master Chief wiped blood off his shotgun and watched as Pelicans and Albatrosses set down, dropping off Scorpion MBTs and Warthog LRVs. The Chief ran over to a Warthog and jumped into the driver's seat. He saw SPARTAN-060 jump onto a nearby Warthog's turret, he gave him a thumbs up, and the chief responded with a nod
"Alright, boys, its time to do what we came here to do," Cortana announced over the Chief's comms system. "Squads Delta through Tango, go to the site I've marked on your HUDs and secure it. We'll use that one as the new LZ, this one is too far. Everyone else form up on the Chief, we're going after the Control Room!"
Two seconds later, the Chief saw an orange arrow appear on his HUD. He stamped on the Warthog and sped away. Behind him, the small fleet of vehicles turned to follow.
* * * * *
Two kilometers away from the LZ in a large underground chamber rested the final Gravemind. Around him crowded vast numbers of Flood, more than had ever been seen before. Then, golden rings surrounded the Flood, and they disappeared.
* * * * *
On the Okinawa, Crewman Sam Walker whistled as he went over the displays to check that the engines were working at optimal efficiency. Then, as he turned, he saw huge groups of reanimated corpses appear in the deck. His fellow coworkers were quickly beaten down by the monsters, but he managed to hit the panic button and scream, "Flood!!" before an infection shoved it's penetrater into his spinal cord and the world when dark.
On the bridge, Captain Actuan received the message. He turned to his crew and voiced the one word that summarized all their thoughts into one simple expletive,
"Shit."
Chapter 3: "We're in deep shit now"
"Shit," Captain Actuan swore. The invasion force of Flood had teleported aboard the Okinawa, a larger force than anyone had seen before. The remaining five hundred ODSTs fought valiantly against the corpses, but there were too many, even for the elite branch of the Marine Corps to handle.
He switched to a camera in section Three to observe a battle between a squad of Helljumpers and a group of Flood. Though the Marines killed form after form, the numberless waves of obscene zombies kept coming. Eventually, the last Marine was struck down by a combat form and assimilated.
On the bridge, Lieutenant Chen began the grim work of depressurizing Flood-infested compartments. Though extremely resilient, the Flood needed air to keep their bodies working, and the depressurized compartments forced the alien shock troops to find ways around each compartment. However, infection forms could fit into vents and access hatchways, popping out behind Marine squads to ambush them.
The captain grimaced. The Flood had taken over the engines and were heading for the bridge. Marine fire teams resisted the invaders ferociously, but all were beaten or gunned down and assimilated.
Actuan cursed. He had to do what he hoped he'd never have to do.
"Lieutenant Chen, activate self-destruct sequence: five seconds."
"wait, sir. Wait, I'm detecting a malfunction. I need a minute to reboot the system."
"We don't have a minute, damnit! Get cracking!"
"Yessir!"
He then activated the ship's comm system and announced "All personal head for the Blackcats, we're abandoning the ship"
The captain turned to his bridge crew. "We need to buy the lieutenant time to reboot the system and detonate the fusion cores. Lieutenant Dutton, take the guards and the other bridge crew and engage the Flood at the nearest juncture."
The lieutenant saluted and strode to the wall. With a press of a button, the wall folded outward. Nestled safely inside were three small stacks of weapons and ammunition. The lieutenant removed a pair of SMGs from the racks and took five clips of ammunition for each. A battle rifle came next and he rounded off with four frag grenades. The rest of the crew members took battle rifles and grenades as well.
The six Marines checked their own weapons and then followed the lieutenant out the bridge door. It hissed shut as the last man walked out.
Captain Actuan turned to the main screen as the Flood continued its inexorable advance, and sighed.
* * * * *
Lieutenant Michael Dutton stood in the corridor leading to the bridge. His Marines were concealed in alcoves along the sides of the corridor, and the bridge crew members were stationed behind him. As it was a good twenty meters from the corridor to the bridge door, the Flood would take heavy casualties in attempting to storm it. Unfortunately, the Flood seemed to be numberless, and eventually they would overwhelm the lieutenant and his men and storm the bridge.
Michael's ears picked up the telltale liquid hissing noise that signaled the Flood's arrival. He readied his SMGs. Behind him, the Marines aimed their own battle rifles at the junction.
Sure enough, several pod-like infection forms bounced out of the corridor. They stood there, waiting and looking.
Michael emptied his SMGs into the infection forms, popping them and sending green gore all over the deck.then, Combat forms arrived and charged the defenders.
The Marines opened fire, three-round bursts knocking over the corpses. In a matter of minutes, the deck was strewn with corpses. The Marines remained in their alcoves, firing bullets and chucking grenades at the parasitic monsters. However, more and more flooded out through the corridor. Infection forms bounced forward and popped, strewing the deck with bits of green and yellow flesh, combat forms charged mindlessly and became bloody hashes, and carrier forms waddled up and came apart like wet cardboard.
Michael ducked a swing from a combat form and emptied his last SMG clip into the corpse, letting his weapons fall away. He drew his battle rifle and thumbed off the safety. Flood fell, yet the obscene tide of zombies never stopped.
One Marine fired a burst and then dropped his clip to reload. A combat form jumped him and snapped his neck with a powerful blow from a tentacle. As the dead Marine slumped to the floor, an infection form bounced up and punched its penetrator into his neck. Lieutenant Hall saw this and blew the body apart with a well-aimed spray of bullets. Two other Marines were swarmed by masses of Flood infection forms and assimilated. Frag grenades blew them all to hell.
Michael slapped another clip into his rifle and yelled, "Retreat!!"
The six remaining humans retreated down the hall, continuing to fire into the wave of flood, until their backs collided with the bridge door. Infection forms and combat forms followed. One combat form had taken a battle rifle from a dead Marine and opened fire. One of the Marines dropped, his head gone. Sustained battle rifle shots annihilated the killer, but the defenders were running out of ammo, and the Flood were as numerous as ever.
One combat form jumped through the hail of bullets and stunned the lieutenant with a powerful blow from its foot. He fell backward, his chest on fire. As he slumped on the door, an infection form bounced toward him. The sight gave him new focus. I will not turn into one of those filthy bastards!! I will not!
He reached onto his belt with numb fingers and unhooked a frag grenade. As the infection form latched onto him and shoved its filthy tentacled down toward his spine, he triggered the grenade, blowing everyone near the door to hell.
* * * * *
Captain Actuan heard a muffled thump from the direction of the door. "Lieutenant Chen, almost done?" His tone belied the fear swimming inside his stomach.
"Yes, sir! Initiating countdown! About four seconds to detonation!"
There was a bang, and the bridge door flew open. Hordes of gibbering combat forms and infection forms swarmed into the bridge.
"Damnit!" Actuan cursed. Drawing his pistol, he fired indiscriminately into the horde of zombies. Infection forms exploded and combat forms slumped, but there were always two more to replace every vanquished one.
"Almost done, sir! Four, three, two, on-AAGGH!!!"
The lieutenant shrieked as an infection form landed on the back of her neck. She fell, twisting and trying to shake off the pod.
Actuan emptied his clip and dove for the console. The infection form had infested Chen and was trying to stop the countdown. He knocked it aside with his pistol and yelled something incoherent.
Then everything erupted in white.
* * * * *
The Gravemind of Installation 07 had realized that the bridge crew would activate the Okinawa's self-destruct sequence. It had pushed most of the Flood toward the bridge to stop them.
Now, with the countdown almost finished, it issued an order to the Flood stationed at the fusion reactors. They managed to reactivate the blast shields on two of the three reactors and smother the last one with their bodies. The result of this desperate tactic? The ship broke in two.
The front half of the ship fell toward the inner section of the ring, the hull burning up as it entered the atmosphere.
The rear half plummeted toward the outer section. As it connected with the ring, the weakened superstructure of the ship gave out and it tore apart, metal flying in all directions. The wreckage crashed onto the ring and exploded.
* * * * *
The Chief drove the Warthog across the plains, with the main expeditionary force behind him. So far, they had encountered only a few Flood, and they were easily dealt with. Comm chatter indicated that the splinter force had secured their new LZ site. With the Control Room not too far ahead, things were looking pretty good, and the Chief allowed himself the luxury of relaxing.
Cortana spoke up in his helmet. "I'm transmitting our status to the Okinawa. Wait, something's wrong. They're not responding. I'm going to scan the atmosphere."
"You won't have to." SPARTAN-060 spoke up. He pointed with a gloved hand toward the sky.
The Chief saw a piece of wreckage tumble through the atmosphere. He watched it until it fell out of sight.
"What was that?"
Cortana answered, "There was only one ship in orbit, Chief. Therefore, logic leads us to conclude that the Okinawa has been destroyed and we're going to have to find another way off this ring" she continued "after I'm in the control room, I'll see if anything with a Slipspace drive managed to land on the ring, if there is something we'll use it to escape after we set the bombs, if not….." her voice trailed off
The Chief answered "A man once said to me 'It is acceptable to spend lives, if necessary, but it is not acceptable, however to waste those lives'. It won't get any more necessary then this; we will do our duty to mankind, no matter the cost"
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