BOOK 1 CHAPTER 20 - KEYES
Halo Installation 04
Covenant Sanghelios-class Battlecruiser Truth & Reconciliation (Flood-controlled)
September 21st 2552
0530 hours
Under New Management
“The Covenant network is in absolute chaos. From what I’ve been able to piece together, their leadership ordered all ships to abandon Halo when they found the Flood, but they were too late. The Flood overwhelmed the Truth & Reconciliation and disabled it. The Covenant are terrified that the Flood will repair the ship and use it to escape from Halo. They’ve sent in a Special-Ops strike team to repair the ship for immediate departure. …I’ve got a good lock on Captain Keyes’ CNI transponder signal. He’s alive, and the implants are intact! There’s some interference from the battlecruiser’s damaged reactor. I’ll bring us in as close as I can.”
Cross Mirage detected and corrected the error in Cortana’s teleportation coordinates, and thus the two Spartans rematerialized right-side-up instead of with their feet planted on the ceiling. They looked around, spotting loose panels, sparking wires, smoldering flames, and splotches of blood of every color. The TACMAP that Mirage’s scan had provided during their previous raid on the ship revealed that they were currently very near the ship’s bridge, and the transponder signal showed that the Captain was at the bridge. Unfortunately, all nearby doors were locked, and they would have to take the long way around. Suddenly, a voice came over the radio, low and in pain.
“Chief… don’t be a fool. …Leave me…”
“Captain? Captain?!” Silence greeted Cortana’s call. “I’ve lost him.”
They passed through a door ahead, spotting a Grunt being chased by an armless Flood Combat Form. They went left and scavenged some plasma grenades from a dead Elite, and then turned around to follow the chase. They found a trio of Grunts trying to fend off two Combat Forms. One Grunt fell to a CF’s shotgun, and the Chief threw a frag grenade that killed the four remaining. A Carrier Form rounded the corner, and came apart under a hail of gunfire, its Infection Forms dying quickly as well. The duo followed the hallway until they reached a doorway to the hangar. Unfortunately, a massive hole blocked their entrance; whatever caused it had blasted through the entirety of the ship’s hull, and pools of green coolant could be seen far below outside.
As they turned to find another way, several Flood dropped through a hole in the ceiling ahead, while several more came around the corner. The Spartans opened fire, blasting anything that got close with their shotguns, but the Flood seemed to be endless.
“Master,” Cross Mirage said, “I suggest taking the plunge through the hole into the coolant below, and reentering the ship through its gravity lift. Scans show that our current location has no available access to the bridge, but there is a path – complicated though it may be – currently open from the gravity-lift hangar to the bridge.”
“Agreed” Cortana said, “and these waves of Flood don’t look like they’re gonna stop any time soon.”
The Spartan pair ran to the edge, crossed their fingers, and jumped. A few seconds later, they fell into a pool of coolant, the properties of the coolant and their energy shields protecting them from harm. They waded their way up and out, their VISRs giving them a clear image of the situation. Nearby, Combat Forms and Elites traded fire. As soon as the CFs went in close, John & Teana both tossed a frag grenade; the twin explosions ripped through the two factions of enemies, leaving only a single wounded Elite alive, and he was killed quickly by four assault rifle shots. They passed through a narrow canyon pass, and came across another larger area, lit by the highly reflective (or perhaps luminescent) large pool of coolant nearby. On the left, two Elites and two Grunts on the ground traded fire with a trio of Combat Forms perched on a narrow ledge to the right. A plasma grenade from the Chief dealt with the Combat Forms, and they then engaged the Covenant, the Chief using his assault rifle to take down the Grunts and an Elite, while Teana blew the other Elite’s head off with Mirage Shotgun. Three more Combat Forms charged in from the passage up ahead, and were laid low by the Spartans, who then continued through the passage.
As they were moving through, a Carrier Form dropped down in front of them from above, detonating on impact. The blast wave drained their shields by about one-fourth, and assault rifle fire from the Chief dealt with the Infection Forms. Three Carrier Forms and two Combat Forms later, they reached a small ledge overlooking another battle. Below and ahead, three red-armored Elites and two Hunters traded fire with a small horde of Combat Forms. Teana grabbed an SRS99C rifle that was lying nearby, and used it to kill the Hunters before she discarded it. The Flood continued to press forward toward the Elites, several of them crawling out of the small lake of coolant.
“The ship has sustained more damage than I expected” Cortana said. “Analyzing… Coolant leakage rate is significant; the ship’s reactor should have already had a meltdown by now. Perhaps the Covenant’s reactor technology has more efficient coolant systems than ours, or maybe their reactors are simply capable of taking more heat build-up for longer than UNSC reactors.”
After a few minutes, the battle died down, the last Elite falling, while only four Combat Forms remained. They hopped down and waded to dry land, killing the wounded Combat Forms and continuing through another rock passage. In the next area, an old-model Shade manned by a Grunt, along with two other Grunts and a blue-armored Elite, opened fire on a pack of Combat Forms coming around the corner ahead. The Flood were cut down by the combined plasma fire, and just as the Covenant relaxed a frag grenade from the Chief blew them all to hell. The Spartans moved on, rounding the corner and working through another group of Combat Forms supported by Infection Forms, dropping down the ledge when they were through. They moved through and encounter yet another Elite-led group of Grunts confronting a pack of Combat and Carrier Forms, but this time the Flood won. A plasma grenade picked up from off the ground cleared out most of them, and shots from Mirage Rifle dealt with the Combat Forms perched on the ledges above. Teana then grabbed a needler from the dead Grunt, along with several ammo crystals for it, clipping it to her hip.
They passed through another canyon passage, killing another pack of Infection Forms, and finally they reached the gravity lift. Atop a rock plateau, at the lift’s base, a force of Covenant Special-Ops made a desperate defense against multiple waves of Flood forms. The Spartans fought their way up, and when they reached the top they did something unexpected: they opened fire on the Flood while leaving the Elites alone, even moving to fill in a hole in the Spec-Ops soldiers’ defense. Over the next few minutes, the impromptu alliance fended off the waves of Flood, until finally the gravity lift hoisted them all up into the ship.
Upstairs, Downstairs
“We should be able to get to the ship’s control room from here” Cortana said. John and the Elite leader simply shared a silent look, and the Elites then went off on their own, heading toward engineering, while the Spartans turned and started toward the bridge. They moved through a few hallways, soon reaching coming out on the top level of a two-level storage room.
“Look, in the corners” Cortana said. “The Flood are gathering bodies.”
They tossed a few grenades to clear out the Flood below, and then leapt down, their shields absorbing the landing. They entered another hallway and followed it, reaching a hole that had been built into the floor, and from which the next level down could be seen. John dropped a plasma grenade to kill the three Carrier Forms below, and then a frag grenade to kill the Infection Forms. They dropped down, turning right a little ways ahead to find another Flood vs. Covenant fight. The two Spartans had popped up behind the Flood, and a few 40mm grenades from Mirage Rifle thinned them out, with some rifle fire taking care of the rest. They moved on and encounter two Elites – one Minor and one Major – and three Grunts – all Major. They were clustered together, so Teana hefted the rocket launcher she still carried and fired a rocket, blowing them all to hell. They moved on, and soon reached a hangar.
“We should be able to reach the control room from the third floor” Cortana said.
“I… gave you an order, soldier” Keyes’ voice came over the comm., slurred and strained. “Now pull out!”
“He’s delirious!” Cortana shouted. “In pain! We have to help him!”
They hurried along the second floor, reaching an outcropping holding an old-model Shade manned by an Elite. They rushed past, avoiding an unnecessary skirmish, and entered the next hallway. They found a quartet of Grunts running toward them, running away from a group of Combat and Carrier Forms. Teana fired a rifle grenade over the Grunts’ heads, hitting the Flood and triggering the Carriers’ detonations, which killed the Combat Forms. Full-auto fire popped the Infection Forms. The Chief gestured toward the exit, and the Grunts wisely passed them and headed into the hangar. The Spartans moved on, going up a level and using a pair of plasma grenades to take out another group of Combat and Infection Forms. They came out at the third level of the hangar, just as a Phantom flew in and dropped off a team of Special-Ops Covenant troopers. They turned right, following a NAV point, throwing a few plasma grenades to kill the Combat Forms waiting up ahead. They entered this next hallway, making a few more turns and reaching a hallway bordering the control room.
The Captain
An agonized groan came over the radio, horrible, barely human.
“The Captain! His vitals are fading! Please, we have to hurry!”
Ahead, a team of Covenant was overrun by a large force of Combat Forms. The two Spartans waded in, shotguns blazing, and carved a path to the control room, leaving a trail of spent shotgun shell casings behind them. Finally, they entered the control room.
“The Captain’s vitals…” Cortana muttered in shock. “They’ve just stopped. He… he just died… seven seconds ago…”
Damn it.
At the central podium, a massive, bloated Flood form ‘stood’, apparently looking at the control panels. Tendrils anchored it to the walls and ceiling. Six tendrils stretched to the floor. Only, on closer inspection, the floor tendrils were legs. Four were Elite legs, and… Teana looked at the creature, noticing a shape in the side… and then recoiled in absolute horror. John followed her eyes… and suddenly felt a mixture of horror and nausea as he recognized the shape of Captain Jacob Keyes’ face, embedded in the side of the creature and frozen in an expression of agony. He had been completely absorbed by the Flood Brain Form.
“We…” Cortana struggled out, still in shock. “We can’t let the Flood get off this ring. You know what he’d expect… what he’d want us to do.”
John nodded, and drew his hand back. Teana turned her head away, flinching at the horrible, sickening crunch as John punched his way into the Captain’s skull, reaching through a half-dissolved/eaten brain and grabbing hold of the neural implant. He yanked it out, shaking the gore off of it, and slotted it into his helmet.
“It’s done” Cortana said lowly and solemnly. “I have the code. …We should go.”
Teana took out a trio of plasma grenades, carefully wedged them into the disgusting creature’s body, and set them to remote detonation. She saw something by her foot, bent down, and picked up the Captain’s old-style pipe. She placed it in subspace storage, along with the box containing Noble Team’s dog-tags. She and the Chief looked at each other, and then he put his hand on her shoulder.
“We need to get back to the Pillar of Autumn” Cortana said. “Let’s go back to the hangar and find a ride.”
Suddenly, as if summoned by the hideous creature, Flood Combat Forms began to pour into the room. The Spartans took advantage of the fact that they were on a raised platform with only a single, narrow way onto it, and that the Flood had to funnel their way toward them. But soon enough, the presence of Combat Forms wielding weapons forced them to drop off the back of the platform, which turned out to be good since the bottom floor had so much more room to maneuver in. Further good fortune came as a door on the left opened, and from it came a team of Covenant Special-Ops, who did not see the Spartans and who the Flood turned to focus on. Two Grunts opened fire with their fuel rod guns, blasting several Combat Forms into pieces, as the Elites charged forward with plasma swords and cut several more down. The black-armored team quickly managed to wipe out the Flood without losses, and as they crossed the room the two Spartans took their chance, running past them and out the door, hearing a surprised shout as an Elite spotted them, but chose not to give chase.
They quickly reached the hangar, and two Banshees flew in and settled on the first floor. They looked at each other, nodded, and sprinted out, blitzing past another Spec-Ops team and avoiding a few shots sent their way. They ran through a door to a hallway that led down to the bottom floor. Halfway down, they encountered three Grunts and a Hunter pair doing battle with some Flood. They continued past, avoiding detection. They fought their way down through a few Combat Forms and Elites, and soon reached the first floor. After a few seconds, they sprinted for the Banshees. Plasma bolts whizzed by them, a few impacting their shields, but they reached the two aircraft and climbed aboard, immediately boosting out and flying off into the night.