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Attack on Sol (Part 19)
Posted By: Slit Throat<halo_boy16@yahoo.com>
Date: 12 September 2004, 6:30 PM
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The elevator door opened and the Master Chief stepped into the Hercules' massive armory. The room was a square twenty meters, but with very little open space. There was a long weapons rack down the center with scores of shotguns, Battle Rifles, and assault rifles stacked down its length. There were lockers on one side of the room that held the smaller arms and large cabinets on the other that held the heavy weapons.
The Spartans were clustered at the far end of the room around a table stacked with munitions. They glanced up as the Chief began to walk towards them.
"Anything new?" asked Fred when the Chief arrived.
"Ackerson is going to accompany us," he replied. He then proceeded to tell his squad what the Colonel had proposed.
"I don't like this," mused Linda. "Admiral Hood knows what Ackerson has done to try and undercut the SPARTAN program. Why does he trust him?"
"It doesn't matter," said the Chief. "What does matter is whether we trust him. Under the circumstances, I don't think we should." The others nodded. "Right. As for equipment, we go in heavy. We won't be able to restock."
He grabbed a Battle Rifle and two SMG's off the table along with a dozen clips for each weapon. The Chief also picked up a case of fragmentation and plasma grenades. Fred took similar equipment, while Linda selected an S2 AM sniper rifle with a modified Oracle scope and a standard issue pistol. Will chose a Jackhammer launcher along with his Battle Rifle.
The Chief also picked up a duffel bag and set it on the table. Inside it he placed two Lotus antitank mines, extra communications gear, and two smoke grenades to signal for pickup.
He walked over to a small view screen mounted on the wall.
"Cortana," the Chief said into his helmet mike, "display an image of the target area." Almost immediately a picture appeared on the screen. It appeared to be of a deep valley with a mountain at one end and steep cliffs along the sides. Cortana's voice accompanied the photo.
"This appears to be a Covenant mining camp. The mountain is an dormant volcano that supplies them with an unknown resource. The shaft is very deep and wide enough for a flight of Pelicans to enter side by side."
There was a short pause. "The entire valley is very heavily guarded. Apparently whatever the Covenant is getting from the volcano is extremely valuable. You will have to disable the AA weapons in order for the air support to move in with the NOVA. Once you and your team are groundside I will be able to locate the control center for you to neutralize."
"Is there anything else we should worry about?" asked the Chief.
"Other than the air being highly toxic... no."
"Toxic?" he asked.
"There is a high concentration of carbon monoxide, mercury and sulfur in the atmosphere around that location. There are also traces of the unknown element and heavy radiation. A few seconds of exposure would be lethal to any unprotected individual. You and the other Spartans shouldn't have much trouble but the Marines..." she trailed off.
"So we'll be going in alone," finished the Chief.
"Unless they've got some special equipment on this ship that isn't in the inventory, yes."
"I see." The Chief had been in similar spots before, heading into enemy territory under hostile conditions, but this was, for lack of a better word, very bad.
Nevertheless, he and the Spartans would be going in whatever the conditions. The fate of the human race rested on their shoulders.
A half-hour later, the Chief and his squad were in a Cormorant heading down toward Sanctum. The unknown enemy had bought enough time for the human fleet to get close and launch the attack force.
As Cortana had said, there were no Marines accompanying the Spartans. The soldiers were in other transports heading to different locations on the planet to distract the Covenant. They were all volunteers, knowing full well what the likely outcome of this mission would be and what the potential reward would be if they succeeded.
The Spartan's ship rumbled and bounced as it passed through the planet's thick atmosphere. The Chief had to admit, having Colonel Ackerson in the co-pilot seat was not a very reassuring fact, but he paid little heed to it. If they did not complete this mission, it wouldn't matter who trusted who.
On the main view screen, the Chief could see the other transports peeling away to either side as they headed for their own LZs. Then, the view of the sky was replaced by a picture of the volcano that was their objective. The ground for kilometers around was a mottled black and brown, nothing that indicated anything alive.
The pilot set the Cormorant down just inside the ring of death. The black paint of the ship blended in well with the ground and made it difficult to see. The hatch popped open and the Spartans piled out. They arranged themselves in a vanguard formation with Fred on point and Linda drifting a few meters to the right side.
As the Cormorant lifted off behind them to set down in a more secure location, the Spartans began their trek. It was a long ways to the volcano and even though they moved fast, it still took a good thirty minutes before they reached the most outside mine. It was abandoned and looked as though it had been that way for some time, but the Chief was cautious just the same. They entered and went a few dozen meters into each tunnel before moving on.
The Spartans were only a kilometer from the base of the volcano when the Chief heard a faint roar, like that of an escape pod, coming from the sky behind him. He spun around and immediately spotted the source of the noise. A small ship was closing extremely quickly and looked to be headed right at them!
"Incoming," the Master Chief yelled and dove to his left. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the others do the same. The ship crashed to the ground a scant hundred meters from their position. The over wash and shock wave from the impact dropped his shields to a sliver and lifted the Chief a few centimeters off the ground.
When the shudders from the crash had stopped, the Chief slowly stood, turned, and after a short delay, raised his Battle Rifle. The ship had not been sheared in half as he would have expected, but instead stood, intact, a short distance away. The only evidence that the ship had ever hit anything was a large dent in the port section. It was as if the ship had absorbed the force of the impact!
The Chief quickly checked his squad's bio-signs and verified they were alive and conscious. As soon as their heads cleared, they too rose and moved quickly to his position.
The Master Chief motioned for them to spread around the craft, which they started to do, but before they took more than two steps, a door opened in the side of the ship.
From the depths of the craft stepped a figure the Chief knew only too well. He had hoped they were all destroyed, but in vain. He felt himself unconsciously lock up, hands tightening on the Battle Rifle, teeth grinding. A chill swept through his body. His neck began to throb, an echo of a now healed wound. The other Spartans glanced at him, waiting for orders. The creature didn't look friendly, but appearances could be deceiving.
The Chief wanted to tell them to kill it and now, but he could not make himself form the words. It was all he could do to raise his rifle and send a bullet through the mutated head of this spawn of nightmares.
But even as the first went down, a horde emerged from the craft. Gurgling, they charged at the Spartans who fell back slowly under the onslaught. It seemed impossible that such a small craft could hold so many. Just when it seemed they would be overwhelmed, like shutting off a faucet, the attack stopped.
Never letting down their guard, the Spartans reloaded and moved in unison toward the small ship. After verifying that the craft, which appeared to be an escape pod of sorts, was empty, Linda turned to the Chief.
"What was that?" she whispered.
"That," the Master Chief answered, "was the Flood."
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