From orbit the planet Mindowa looks like an emerald in space. On the surface it is a planet-wide jungle with lush foliage and lots of local wildlife. Amidst the local plant life lies a research facility dedicated to the creation of new and useful technology for both civilian and military use. The base is decent sized with a sub-level but only stands one story tall with an access ladder to the roof. The jungle starts about 50 yards from the compound's walls.

The Stratavarius appeared out of slipspace and moved into orbit above the planet. Shortly after a Pelican exited the frigate's hangar and made a direct shot for the compound. It made it to the landing pad without a problem and made a gentle landing. The door opened and Aaron hopped out with his BG-M out and ready. A few seconds of nothing before he signaled the others. "Alright guys and gals, lets get this place cleared, uploaded, and blown up."

"Hoorah!" Spook declared and proceeded to lock, load and get slightly twitchy with excitement.

Scorch grinned beneath his helmet as he disembarked from the Pelican. "Showtime," was all he said as he loaded his flamethrower and readied himself for anything.

Derek Stepped off the ramp, loading his shot gun."Lets get this show on the road.."He said turning his head to side, producing a loud popping noise.

"Alright, we need a quick sweep of compound. Check for survivors and any evidence of what happened." Aaron began issuing orders so they could get this mission done. "Once we get the place cleared we get our jobs done. Spook, find a way to get up top and keep a watch out. Priest, once we clear the compound you make for the mainframe and get the info. Scorch and Shaft will keep a watch on ground level while I set the charges. Do we understand?"

Scorch nodded, looking over at Shaft, eager to get out and investigate. He usually wasn't much for working on teams, he had a bit of a lone wolf kind of style, but it was much easier to get noticed when you weren't alone

Spook gave Aaron a little salute and triggering her camo-panels made her way to check out the access to the roof. The only distinction that she was anywhere where the small tufts of dust her feet stirred as she ran. There was no external ladder or stairs but an inoperable man-cannon allowed momentary propulsion after she kicked it a few times. On top the roof she secured the area and used the communication tower to set up shop.

Shaft nodded reassuringly at Scorch, they could take care of the ground level. He just hoped the guy didn't set fire to him, he knew some guys liked the flamethrower TOO much. He moved out first, slipping two pistols into his hands, best for long range use.

With Scorch and Shaft at his back Aaron moved into the building. He had his gun set on single barrel mode but had his finger hovering over the button for all barrel mode. As they moved the pelican lifed off to wait for the ok to return with the explosives.

With the pelican gone silence absorbed the Spartans. Not a bird cawing or an animal crying to be heard. The wind blew slightly rustleing the vegitation but that was it. As the Spartans moved into the building their eyes fell upon a very strange sight as they walked in. Mixed amoung the sterile looking tools and equipment was blood. Not just red blood, but orange blood, and blue blood, and green blood. It was almost a rainbow of blood all over the buildings inside. On the floor, the ceilings, the walls, the computers. What made it more troubling was the lack of bodies as there were none to be found as they sweeped the compound. And with the alien sun setting it cast an eerie illumination upon the rooms.

On top the comms tower Spook looked out at the land scape. Some of these alien planets where beautiful with their myriad assortments of vegetation and animals. As she looked threw the trees and the surrounding valley she noticed something odd and decided to tell the others "Hey guys... I don't wana spook you or anything but... I don't see any animals any where. No indeginious wild life of any kind. Does that strike any of you as odd?" Having not gone inside the compound she had no idea of the blood bath they where witness too.

"Not as odd as the paint job inside the compound." Aaron replied through the comms as he moved through the rooms trying to avoid stepping in the puddles of blood. "Keep you eyes open incase the cause of all this returns. Everyone else, lets find this mainframe."

"Looks like a rainbow threw up in here" Tavish said into his radio, looking around the place. He was told to keep guard at ground level, but that didn't mean he couldn't snoop around. "But she has a point, if everything here was dead and taken away, wouldn't SOMETHING want to move in? I mean, birds, frogs, whatever this planet has. Outside is a jungle and in here it's sterile."

Derek Inhaled sharply, and something clicked in his mind. This was a situation That didn't need him. He exhaled slowly, and looked up at the walls. The myriad of colors was baffling. "What do you think happened sir?" Priest asked, stepping over a puddle of orange blood.

"I have no idea." Aaron replied. "I would like to say that rogue Covenant came in here, killed everyone and then left. Soon after, some wildlife came in here and made off with the bodies and the reason they aren't making noise is because their mommas told them not to speak with their mouths full. But I have a feeling that's not the case." he added as he cleared another room. This one looked like a bunk room for the personnel, it too was coated in blood. "Whatever happened I think its safe to say there are no survivors."

Scorch could barely contain himself as he got a look around at the oddly quiet surroundings. "It's too quiet man. I just KNOW something is gonna happen." He held up a hand quickly, "Quick question, serious though, which one of us is the funny one? Everybody knows the funny one dies first."

"Well then...I will send a message when the Pelican comes back to get your coffin ready, Scorch." Aaron said with mock seriousness. He stepped over some downed equipment and walked into a room that had a noticable red glow coming from the walls. Upon further investigation he discovered that the whole room was the mainframe. "Priest, I found the mainframe so I need you in here to locate the hook up and start downloading the contents."


Priest walked into the room, and glanced around. "This should be fun..anything in particular you want me to find? other than what we're after of course...i might be able to get security feeds." He said pulling out a Data pad, and trying to find a port to download from.

"Aye cap'n." Spook told Aaron and settled down on the tower. There was just enough room for her to lay down on her belly and be able to swivel 380 degrees.

"Get everything out of it." Aaron said, "Orders where to download the whole thing so clean it out." Walking out of the mainframe room he resumed looking around. "Scorch, Shaft, you found anything?"

Priest nodded, and began to slice his way through the mainframe.He averted his eyes from the data scrolling his screen.He set the pad down, and pulled out another one, and plugged it into another port, and began a search specifically for the security footage. after a few moments he heard a beep."Boss..you wanna come see the footage?"he asked, resting his shotgun on his shoulder. This place was Uncomfortable. it gave off an uneasy feeling..like being watched through the cross hairs of a sniper rifle..and knowing it was there.

"Nooo thank you. As interesting as it may be I don't make a habit of disobeying orders." Aaron said with a chuckle. "We will take it to the Admiralty and they can decide whether we are allowed to see it or not."


Priest nodded, even though Aaron couldn't see him."Yes sir." After a few moments The main frame was on the data pad."Download complete sir, next step?"

"Huh...that was fast." Aaron thought to himself. "Secure it on yourself and then join Scorch and Shaft in finishing clearing the compound. I'm gonna go comm the Pelican for my bombs." He made his way back out of the compound and commed for the Pelican to return with the explosives.

"Don't tell me that kinda thing boss. I'm liable to take you all with me if that's the case." Scorch told him with a stiff voice. He meant it, even if it was just a joke. He double checked the ammo in his weapons as they moved. "I'm really not liking this, Shaft. It's way too quiet."

"look, we're not three feet deep in guts and blood yet" Tavish said plainly, tapping his gun barrel against his thigh as he listened to Scorch. "Right now I'd not panic. The moment we are, then I'll start saying we're all gonna die."

The Pelican returned and dropped off Aaron's explosives on a hoversled. He pushed then into the building and picked up the first one to set. "Alright, im setting the explosives now so becareful where your walking. You accidentally bump one of these things and you could vaporize us all."

Aaron set to work planting the explosives in the silence of the compound. Nothing spectaculer happened for several minutes. Then in a room near Scorch and Shaft there was a noise and a small blip of motion appeared on their radars for a fraction of a second.

Spook watched as the pelican took off smoothly and left the area. Her survey of the surrounding trees and land scape still fruited no signs of wildlife. It was unsettling to say the least so she switched to her VISR mode for a moment, but even the infrared setting couldn't detect any signs of life. Their was a faint blip on her radar which prompted her to open her comms "Chief, I detected slight movement below my location, you guys ok?"

Priest slid the pad into one of his belt pouches, and headed down the hallway, coming up behind scorch and shaft.He paused before speaking, his radar showed something in the room next to them, and he was sure he could hear something for a moment. "Boss..we got some movement."He said into his comm.

Tavish reached in and looped his fingers around the trigger of his threshers, he was getting nervous now. "Hurry the hell up" he said simply, not needing to relay AGAIN that there had been movement. He gently prodded Scorch with an elbow "Maybe we should start heading off towards the exit yeah? I mean Priest's got the stuff, Spook's outside and Boss is leveling the building."

"Hate to ruin your day there Shaft but im gonna need you guys to check it out." Aaron said as he finished setting his ninth charge. "Cant have something defusing these things before I set them off. Or jumping us when we aren't looking."

"Right... so one of us has to check out that noise and weird radar signal... while the other watches his back" Tavish said slowly, his hands gripping tighter on both his pistols. He glanced at Scorch as if asking who'd be the first one to admit cowardice and say "not it". "Maybe it's an ODST, I mean we haven't found any bodies and they aren't taken down easily."

"Maybe, but if it were an ODST, they wouldn't be hiding. They're on the same frequency as us, so they'd hear us and know we're here. So why hide?" Scorch said as he cracked his neck. He took a breath, "Alright. I'll check it out, since you're gripping those so tight, you look like you're gonna snap 'em. What do you think I should open with though?" He paused before stating the choices, "Torch or Shell?" Indicating his flamethrower or his shotgun

"Use the flame thrower, just keep it under control" Tavish nodded at him "Don't want anything disturbing the bombs now do we?" His eyes rolled slightly in their sockets, searching for anything that made that noise, or even another blip on the radar.

"My thoughts exactly." Scorch told him with a nod as he hefted the flamethrower up into targeting position. He accessed the door controls and opened it, sending a small burst of flame into the room to offer both as light and as a startling mechanism.

As they entered the room there was a slight bang and the radar showed motion again ahead of them. There was a small row of lockers mounted to the wall to hold certain tools.

"Where the hell are they??" Scorch asked Shaft. The bang spooked him only a little bit, his shield could handle just about any stray bullet, as long as it was just one. What freaked him out was the total absence of bodies.

Priest stepped towards the door, bringing his shot gun up. Normally it wouldnt matter at this range, but thankfully for Scorch he was a micro surgeon with this weapon. He didnt even blink at the next noise, sweeping the shot gun around the room."See anything?"

Tavish slowly approached into the room, biting his lip for a moment before saying "Movement up ahead. We should go check it out." He cast a sideways glance at the other two from behind his helmet as he edged further out.

"Alright. There's no other exit from this room." Scorch explained. He looked to each of the others then directed his head towards the row of lockers. "Everyone take a locker. Whatever is in here, has got to be in one of 'em."


Priest nodded and stepped into the room, reaching forward slowly and opening a locker.. his heart thudded in his chest, as the door swung open he tightened his grip on the shot gun, and took aim at...at coat."Empty"He said to the others.

Highly doubting that this was the smartest idea ever, Tavish gripped a locker handle almost tight enough to bend the metal. Gritting his teeth he wrenched it open, pulling the door from the locker as he aimed the thresher at the emptiness inside. Nothing...

Spook continued to monitor the surrounding area. "It's quiet... too quiet." She told herself.

Scorch holstered his flamethrower, there wasn't much point in having it out and try to open the locker at the same time. He took a breath and placed his hand on his katana, then took a hold of the locker's handle. He was confident that he could draw his katana if anything jumped out at him. Slowly, he opened the locker

"DIE YOU ALIEN BASTARD!" the scientist screamed as he burst forth from the locker. He tried to stab Scorch downward into his chest with what looked like a scalpel. The scalpel hit Scorch's shield and bounced off, clanking to the floor. The man follows suit, falling to the floor and curling into a fetal position while crying and muttering "Please dont kill me, please dont kill me. I hate humans I swear."

"Found... it" Tavish said into his mic, raising an eyebrow at the complete break down this guy was going through. He moved over to Scorch and the scientist, leant down and flung the scalpel into a wall the other side of the room, just in case he tried to do any harm to himself or others with it. "One of the scientists, looks half insane... and the other half's crazy. Still talking though."

Scorch looked down at the pitiful excuse of a man at his feet. "Well, if you hate us so much, I guess we'll just leave you here." He told him as he crossed his arms. If there was one thing in the world he couldn't stomach, it was a coward.

"Well see if you can get some info outta him." Aaron said as he moved to another spot to plant a bomb. "Even if he isnt all there anymore."

The scientist stopped whimpering and crying when he heard the Spartans speak. When he looked up and saw a Spartan he almost burst into tears of joy as he lept up and hugged Scorch. "Oh my god Im saved! You have no idea what it was like in that locker. But that doesnt matter cause you guys are here and im still alive! We must leave, lets get to the Pelican and get the hell out of here." He started pulling on Scorch's arm, like a child, in the direction of the landing pad. "Come on...lets go!"

Tavish sighed and grabbed hold of the Scientists coat, lifting him up with ease and slinging him over his armoured shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "Now, I'll carry this guy because I can still wield a weapon with one hand" he said plainly "Are we ready to head out?"

"He looked to me like he could walk just fine." Scorch pointed out to Tavish's strange need to carry the man. He shrugged and pulled his flamethrower from his back. "Why were you hiding in the locker?"

"Im no soldier! If I hadnt hid in that locker then I would be dead with the rest of them." the scientist explained. "We were attacked by what I believe to be Covenant forces cause I heard a Phantom outside. When the guns started going off I ran in here and hid in that locker." He paused for a few seconds before asking. "Why are you carrying me?"

"Where're the bodies?" Scorch asked him plainly. This guy had to know more than he was letting on. Hell, he was probably the only person left alive on this rock!

"If he can walk, he can run, I don't want to take any chances that he'll worm out of this place the first chance he can" Tavish said, hitching him up a little more "Also makes a nice shield for when the bomb goes off."

"Bomb!!" The scientist yelled. "You cant set off a bomb! You'll destroy all our progress, all our years of hard work and research. And I dont know where all the bodies are at, during the fighting the contamination alarms went off but the shooting continued. After several minutes the fighting stopped. I dont know how long I was in there before I heard movement outside again...then more shooting then silence again..." the scientist became silent and calm, "So much silence for so long, what seemed like years." Then suddenly he returned to his excited state, "But you guys are here now!"

"The more shooting was probably ODST's... which is strange because we haven't found them either." Tavish mumbled to himself before jogging the scientist up "And not 'a' bomb, MANY bombs, completely destroy this place. And we've got all your data backed up."

"We have our orders, and so did you." Scorch told the scientist. "We're not to leave anything behind. If it were up to me, the entire place would get torched from orbit, but nooooooooo we were sent down here to see just what you guys effed up."

"Oh, well as long as the data is safe we can create another." the scientist said relieved before suddenly realizing what he said. "An...other COMPOUND that is."

"we don't care, and we'll be shot if you tell us" Tavish said, jogging the scientist again suddenly "Keep your mouth shut until we leave alright?"

The scientist did as he was told and shut up. He looked around at all the damage and blood and then at Tavish. "Can you put me down now?"

As Aaron made his way around the base he noticed a door that was sealed shut and had a keycoded lock. "Hey Shaft, ask the guy you found if there is a basement in this compound."

"No" Tavish said plainly to the scientist "and the boss wants to know if this place has a basement. Which it probably does. All creepy places have basements which are darker and creepier."

"Yes there is a basement, thats where the core of our research and experiments take place." The scientist said in response. "He must have found the door, is it still locked?"

"Creepy basement is positive boss, is it still locked? Please keep it that way if it is" Tavish said into his mike "I don't want whatever these guys cooked up sucking my face off."

Spook was getting the sinking suspicion that something was seriously going on around here. She wanted them to ask the guy weather or not the "covert experiments" resulted in the loss of all the indeginious life.

Aaron heaved a heavy sigh as the scientist confirmed his fear. He commed the Commander on the Stratavarius, "Sir, this is Spartan-283 and I am reporting a conflict of orders. In order to fully clear the base and check for survivors I must enter a basement level that may contain top-secret research we were ordered not to see. Please advise."

After a minute or two the comms crackled and the Commander responded. "Command has cleared you to enter the basement level to check for survivors. Command out."

"Roger Command. Spartan out." Aaron switched back to the local channel to address his fellow Spartans. "Ok, we are cleared to go into the basement to check for any survivors. Shaft, you bring the scientist and Priest and meet me here. Scorch, you stay up here and keep watch. How's things looking up top Spook?"

"Right as rain chief." Spook said "But I think whatever secret stuff these guys where working on killed all the wild life. It's not natural for it to be this dead out here. I'd advise maybe switch to our c0-2 tanks or something?"

"I don't like this" Tavish sung to himself in a worried voice, even as he turned and started to work his way towards Aaron, waving at Priest to follow "I don't like this at all..."

"No bodies...no wildlife...scared to shit scientist locked in a locker...I'm tellin you man, something's up." Scorch told Shaft as he moved to a better location to keep watch. "I mean, I don't want to jinx us or anything, but seriously." He double checked the ammo cartridge on his flamethrower. The last thing he wanted was for it to run out when the shit went down. And he had a nasty feeling it was about to hit the fan any second now. He usually wasn't wrong when it came to this sort of thing, it was almost like he had a sixth sense about it. Anytime he acted on it previously though, nothing tended to happen and he was beginning to think maybe he was just paranoid. But he always felt it was better to be on guard, then sleeping when the reaper comes.

Aaron waited for Tavish and Priest to arrise with the scientist. "Alright science guy, pop the hatch here and lets see if any of your co-workers made it."

"I dont know if I should." the scientist said quickly. "I dont want to get in trouble with my superiors." he began rapidly taping his fingers together, nervously.

"Hmm...thats true." Aaron said taping his finger against his helmet. "But if you dont cooperate I could just tell Command that we found no survivors and just leave you here with the bombs."

The scientist had a look on his face that seemed to be a mix of anger and sheer terror. "Fine, I will unlock it as soon as your fellow soldier puts me down."

Spook often talked to herself when out on snipe like this. "Probably some biological seeping into our suits and liquefying our lungs or something... Our brains are getting turned into sustenance gruel and we're too dumb to notice."

Scorch raised Spook on the comms. "So you go for the being left alone bit? Even in a creepy-ass situation like this?" He was pacing back and forth in front of the stairwell that the others traversed.

Tavish sighed and put him down on his feet, rolling his eyes at the man and Spook "If we were all slowly dying then the scientist would be dead long before us."

The scientist walked up and pressed a series of buttons, before a green light popped up on the keypad and the the hissed slowly open.

"Well...here goes nothing." Aaron said as he walked down into the basement. "Grab the scientist Shaft." he yelled up before vanishing into the room below.

The basement level had sustained less damage in the attack then the rest of the compound. There was still blood splotches everywhere so the Covenant did manage to get down here somehow. There are also several shattered and partially melted containment boxes laying around with the words WARNING: HIGHLY DANGEROUS CONTENTS!!! written in bright red.

With a slight "hup!" the Scientist found himself back on Tavish's shoulder, a wide grin behind the shiny helmet. "You got any security down there we should know about? Turrets? Lazers? Dogs?"

"No, nothing but decon equipment really." The scientist explained, "We didnt expect anything coming here so we had minimal security detail. Now that I think about it we did have some turrets on top of the building. I didnt hear them go off so thet might still be hidden and active."

Spook decided answered Scorches question instead of field Tavish's remark. "It's a lot more tolerable when there's birds and shit, an Ecosystem, some sign of sustainable life. Though there's no chance we're gonna get 'snuck up on out here, you boys are dealing with the creepy end. "

"Hey Spook, can you look around up there for any sign of automated defenses?" Aaron said as he continued to look around. He picked up a few pieces of shattered equipment to inspect them before dropping them to the ground. "Anything interesting Shaft?"

"Yeah, I see un... two 50. cal turrets, a few busted man cannons, oh... there seems to be a few Amory boxes in the central defense level." Spook told Aaron "It all looks operational to me."

"You see any kind of control box up there or anything like it?" Aaron asked figuring if they get them back online it might put some of their worries at ease.

"Uh..." Spook searched threw the scope on her rifle "Yeah, you want me muscle us up some fire power?"

"If you can it would be helpful." Aaron said, trying to hide the relief in his voice.

"You got it boss." Spook said and began removing herself from her current location. With the sound dampeners on her armor she was leaf on the wind as she jumped two stories down to the deck with the console. When kicking it didn't work she popped open one of the side panels and stuck her head in to have a look around. Their was juice but something wasn't firing, after a few moments she realized gunfire disconnected a few components and it took no time to rewire the console. Outside the man cannons sputtered a few times before firing and that meant everything else was up too. "We got juice sir." She told Aaron over the coms.

"Great. Keep up the good wooooo...." Aaron trailed off as he walked past a door that had slid open allowing him to see within. In the middle of the large room was a tank of some liquid, inside the liquid was some mass of organism and machine. As he walked towards it, it seemed to realize his presence and "face" him. "What in the hell are you?"

"Hey! Leave that alone!" the scientist yelled from Tavish's shoulder. "That is a very important and fragile experiment."

Scorch's voice came over the comm system, "Boss, you guys find anything yet? Cuz I've got a real bad feeling and it is WAY too quiet up here man. I mean it, seriously. Bad juju man, bad juju."

"Yea. I think this qualifies as a something." Aaron sais as he placed his hand on the thing's tube. It visibly recoiled from his touching the tube and a series of bubbles emitted from the thing. "What is this something that I am looking at anyways?"

"You are looking at the first step in using the plague as a weapon." The scientist said indignantly "That is a man made Gravemind that we were using to control Flood spores to do simple tasks."

Scorch nearly dropped his flamethrower when he overheard that. "Did he just say Flood???"

"He just said Flood." Aaron said, shocked. "You just said Flood." he repeated, pointing at the scientist. "You were experimenting with FLOOD!?" He lost his temper and slammed his fist against the Gravemind's tube causing it to move away quickly. Out in the jungle, what seemed like a good distance away, a noise could be heard like a predator's roar before a feast. "Did I just hear something? Spook?"

Spook was repositioning herself at her former position when she heard the forest rise up with a feral scream "I heard it," she told Aaron, looking through the scope she couldn't detect anything just yet "I don't have a visual, repeat, no visual."

Tavish was staring at the being inside the tube, frowning slightly at it "Hey boss, don't scare it" he said, moving towards it slowly. Still with the scientist over one shoulder, he raised his other arm and waved slowly at the creature "It's still in the tube, it's flinching when you look at it. It did not do this..."

"Ah, screw this floating nasty. In a few minutes there wont be anything left of it anyways." Aaron said glaring at the Gravemind. He was more pissed off then he was acting, he couldn't believe the audacity of these scientists to do something so foolish.

"Still no visual." Spook told Aaron as she diligently searched the surrounding area. She was glad he'd suggested fixing the other armaments.

"Can we just blow this place and get the hell out before shit starts showing up?? Spook's not gonna be much good, standard sniper rounds had a tendency to just slice clean through infected forms without causing any damage. Personally, I haven't taken any threshers out against them either. But from where I'm standing, I'm the only one really fully equipped to handle a Flood outbreak and to tell you the truth, I ain't got enough ammo for this." Scorch told Aaron quickly as he swept his flamethrower from side to side as fast as he could, looking into each shadow as if he were already beginning to see things.

"Oh, believe me we are definatly blowing this place sky high." Aaron said as he quickly made his way upstairs. He grabbed the last charge from the hoversled and then went back downstairs. He took the charge and placed it right on the tank and started entering the activation code. "I've seen a few sniper shots take out flood forms before, if they an hit some sort of sweet spot where the spore form is showing. Pure forms however are another thing entirely." Not too long after he stopped talking he had finished setting the charge and it beeped to life.

There was a sound like a wind or a breeze had picked up. Leaves and branches swayed as the wind rushed through them.

"Hey guy" Tavish said, jogging the scientist slightly as he still stared at the creature in the tank past the bomb placed on it "Why... did you make a new one? Why's it so frightened?" He knew he couldn't free it, that would be stupid and possibly suicidal, and the building could come down any moment. He just moved off then, heading out after Aaron.

"We built it because we knew that if we controlled one that we could use the Flood as a weapon." The scientist explained as he was bounced up and down. "Every test we ran was a huge success. We were able to control spore forms to only infect nonhumans, they were even able to sniff one out amoungst a crowd of humans. As for it being afraid, it is defenseless inside its little tube and it does have a sense of self-preservation."

"For your information Scorch, I classified a level five on all mid to long range flood simulations, nothing whithstands the new amunition." Spook told scorch, taking obvious offence, "So fuck you."

As the wind blew closer one of the turrets facing the jungle suddenly spun up and shot off a few rounds into the trees before idleing again. A few seconds later another one did the same thing before idleing again.

"We've got movement in the trees!" Spook announced over the coms, she only caught a slight glimpse of something. It was obviously mishapen and biological. She kept her crosshairs trained on the trees, just waiting for all hell to break loose.

"Everyone get ready" Aaron said. "Pick a side and a window and keep whatever's out there, out there." He ran over to the Landing pad and pulled out his BG-M and set it on turret mode placing it in front of him. "Command this is Spartan-283 requesting immediate evac. We have a large enemy force moving on our location. Survivability chances are very low, we need a bird here now."

"Roger Spartan-283 we have a bird prepping and on its way. Try and hold out till it gets there."

Thats when all hell broke loose. All turrets on the building spun up and began ripping the jungle apart. Creatures began pouring out of the jungle, all misshapen and horrifically disfigured. But amid the mass of creatures were several recognizable forms of Flood: Human, Brute, and Grunt carrier forms. The ones with weapons began firing on the compound and anything they saw that wasnt flood.

"Flood? Oh my god, we're all going to die!" The scientist started screaming and wiggling trying to get free of Tavish. "Let me go let me go let me go!"

"You heard the man, Shaft. Let him go, so he can get infected instead of us." Scorch said loud enough that the squirmy scientist could hear him. He pressed his back against the wall to keep anything from sneaking up on him as he leveled his flamethrower on the entrance. "My guns are no good at distance, Scorp. If anything makes it past you guys, they won't get past me."

Once the Flood broke threw the trees Spook immediately began firing. She targeted the larger Brute forms first, her specialized rounds ripping threw their brains at over four hundred yards away. Big, misshapen, hairy Brute monster things began falling like propaganda leaflets. The only time she targeted anything other than the largest forms, was when they began flying around like grotesque versions of Peter Pan.

"NOT GOOD!" Tavish yelled, beating a hole in the window with the butt of his gun and aiming his pistol at the enemies as he cursed his luck; two pistols, ok he stood a chance, but he had the scientist being clamped over one shoulder as well. He began to punch slugs into the crowd, occasionally the weaker things like animals and grunts seemed to drop from the bullets, but he was firing quickly and every reload let the crowd rebuild, and he just couldn't take them down fast enough "Maybe it's the mind downstairs! You made it freak out by putting a bomb on it!"

"Well how would I have known there were more then just him!" Aaron yelled as he pulled out his DHR-5 rocket launcher and fired off two quick rockets. The rockets hit and detonated, sending bits of Flood bodies and a spray of goo. That got the attention of some of the Flood and they swarmed his direction. "This is what I live for." He grabbed ahold of his turret mounted BG-M and let loose. Hundreds of bullets ripped through the oncoming Flood turning them into Swiss cheese and mist.

"It'll be what you die for if we don't do something!" Tavish said, firing off after them as they moved towards Aaron. "Hey, science guy" he said, jogging the scietist to get his attention "Anything we can do to stop them? Kill the flood mind? Kiss it's tentacles? ANYTHING?!"

"No, if you kill the Gravemind they will still kill us. The only way to stop them is kill them all" The scientist yelled over all the guns firing at once. The fear in his voice was very clear as he kept his head down.

"What about reasoning with it?" Tavish asked desperatley, still firing into the distance "It's called 'mind' right? It's got self preservation! We talk to it, convince it that not killing us is in it's best interest, it'll stop them right? Or did you make MORE?"

"Ooooh, I think its beyond reasoning with at this moment." the scientist said still trying to get down and out of the line of fire.

Spook was having to keep on her toes. Every time she found a comfortable position, even though she was invisible some still honed in on her. She was forced to use her pistol on a few occasions, if only to gain the time to reload her rifle.

"Can you think of a better idea?" Tavish asked, gripping onto the scientist tight as he kept firing into the crowd; how many bullets did he have left?

"The only thing I can think of is for you all to keep firing and keep me alive!" the scientist yelled.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen, we have a bird inbound. I need you all to make your way to the landing pad now." Aaron said calmly. He was beginning to get worried as he was slowly running out of ammo and his barrels were at risk of melting from the excessive levels of heat.

Tavish kept firing as they moved backwards, heading towards the place the Pelican would be picking them up. Unfortunatley he knew that soon he'd be running low on ammo, but that was ok because the flood were getting so close that he'd be able to use a thresher effectively.

Scorch didn't like the idea of being first out the doors, but they had their orders and he did have the close combat weaponry and expertise that made him the logical choice for first batter. He kept his flamethrower level and kicked the door open. As they headed for the rendezvous, he let loose quiet a few bursts from his 'thrower. It had a much greater effect on the smaller human forms than it seemed to on the larger Brute and Elite forms. He supposed that was simply a matter of mass though. The human flood stages were far smaller in size and only naturally would burn faster

Aaron switched to his rocket launcher and fired off the other three rockets in the clip before reloading. "Spook! Where are you?" he hollered as he fired a few more rockets, allowing his turret to cool.

"I'm covering Scorch now sir." Spook answered back as she yet again was forced to change her position. "I got in a tangle with some infection forms." They'd been following her around since the last time she'd switched locations.

"Great, help the guy with a flamethrower" Tavish hissed beneath his breath "Oh this is how I wanted to go, girl completely ignoring the trouble I'm in just because I slept with her." He was pumping Thresher rounds into the flood as they got closer, burning and shredding them at the same time; he'd never get the time to reload however, so he had very few shots.

Scorch reluctantly holstered his flamethrower. If he went much longer with it, it was bound to ignite him. The obvious scorches on his armor testified to the fact that he knew from past experience. He grabbed his shotgun and gave it a quick pump before unloading it on some unfortunate Flood

As Aaron went back to mowing down the flood with the remainder of his gun he heard the whine of engines behind him. He risked a quick glance and saw that the Pelican had arrived and was touching down to pick them up. "Our ride is here, everyone get aboard now! Spook, Can you make it or do you need us to get you?"

priest Appeared as if out of no where beside aaron, smeared with gore."Ready to bang out sir!"

Spook had nearly exausted her sniper ammo and had pulled her pistol to continue dispatching variou flood forms "I'll be there, just don't leave me on this rock." she immediatly relocated herself, headding for the pelican as flood continued to try to swarm her.

"MOVE THAT ASS!" Tavish yelled, switching out to his second Thresher and starting to unload that as he backed towards the Pelican at all times "I don't want to see that damaged!"

Priest leaned over the edge of the landing pad, and began pumping round after round of depleted uranium rounds known as "shredders", in to some of the infected creatures scaling the building.

"Can I get some cover fire?" Spook asked "I wasn't exactly expecting flood when we started out on this thing." That was a round about way of saying she'd wished she'd brought a shotgun, "Loading my last mag, fire on the plasma explosion." All of a sudden there was a flash of blue vapor signaling where Spook was telling the boys to aim.

Tavish looked at the plasma flare, then at the approaching flood. If he shot at one the other would remain unguarded. Groaned slightly he reached into his belt, pulled out his deployable cover and chucked it at the Flood. Several units fell, causing a small wave of collapsing flood until the larger ones managed to stand up. All the time he began to pump slow but powerful cartridges into the flood attacking Spook's position.

Aaron couldnt risk turning his gun away from the flood coming at them to aid Spook. More flood had showed up and more bullets and energy rounds found their way to his shield. There was suddenly a loud metallic screech coupled with a human screaming and glass shattering. He looked back to see two flood forms had shattered the cockpit window and violently removed the pilot. "DAMNIT! This just seems to get better and better. Shaft! I need you in that cockpit, get the bird up. We do an organized retreat to the bird and then we pick up Spook and get the hell off the Flood bitten planet."

"AH!" Tavish yelled, smashing a small flood form into the face the the spiked cartridge of his Thresher. He took off running, Scientist still over his shoulder as he ran towards the Pelican; smacking the random Flood who approached. He was getting an aching arm and a feeling that EVERYONE wanted him to do stuff. Now he didn't have to stand ground for others he got good speed actually, managing to climb up and into the Pelican in a few smoothe movements. Dropping the scientist into a seat and blowing a few holes in the flood who had managed to invade, Tavish sat down on the empty driver's seat and immediatley yanked the controls up. The entire thing jolted, shaking flood free of the pelican and taking the two up and away. "Ok I'm in!" Tavish yelled into his mike "Where do you want me?"

Spook noticed the pelican manuver upwards and waited to disengage her cloaking until they where closer to her position, it wasnt too hard though, considering a massive amount of flood seemed to be following a distinctive course of attack towards nothing.

Scorch took the head off an oversized Flood-form that he could only hope was a Brute before he had to reload. As the pelican lifted off, he reloaded quickly and got ready in case they'd start jumping up

Preist was still standing on the platform when the pelican took off.
With split second reasoning he took off running towards spook. After all its easier to pick up two target at one place, rather then two at two."Im meeting up with spook sir!"He said into his comm as he dashed towards the wave of flood that apeared to be following nothing. A shot or four here, a spike stock melee to the face there, and preist had dispatch a couple of infected brutes. The pelican soard over head, and that was his goal, thats all that mattered."Hey scorch..the floods back, are you happy yet?"He asked, reffering to a conversation they had shared back at the mess hall.

"Everyone else get on the pelican." Aaron said into the comms. He pressed the button on the guns handle which retracted the tripod legs. He then began walking backwards spraying bullets into the oncoming Flood.

Tavish shifted the Pelican around, trying to find the Flood free spots near his team mates to pick them up; the open hatchway was clearing flood left and right, thankfully none stayed on long. "Hurry up and get on guys!"


Preist pumped a few extra rounds into the creatures, and leapt onto the pelican. "C'mon guys move!"He shouted into his helmet mic. The shotgun was empty by now, and rather than reload, he swapped out to his rifle, and began fire into the crow of monsters.

Spook was in a dead run, she'd never experienced anything that could detect her while cloaked and their swarming numbers was quickly forcing her to loose her breath. "Don't leave me down here!" She demanded as she did her best to make it to the pelican."

"Didnt plan on it Spook." Aaron said as he stepped up onto the open hatch of the pelican. He quickly slapped his gun onto his back and snatched up the machine gun on the hatch and began cutting the Flood in half. "Lets go pick up Spook."

Scorch holstered his shotgun befre he ran out of ammo entirely, and let loose on the advancing Flood with a stream of searing hot flame from his thrower. "When do I get to say, i told you so?" He demanded to everyone who had heard the convo earlier

Tavish yelled into his mike; a few rocket brute flood were trying to come in the hole in the window now. He was keeping them at bay with the spiked cartridge of his Thresher but he was definatley not having fun. He spun the Pelican quickly, taking the heads off many flood as it pirroted. He was also trying to scan for Spook. "Dammit, drop the cloak Spook! I can't see where you are properly to pick you up!"

"Priest, I need you to join Shaft in the cockpit and help him keep the Flood off." Aaron said as he aquired new targets with every swing and juke of the Pelican. "You think they would have a more Flood proof vehicle by now."He grumbled.

Priest Nodded and pulled out his Combat machette."Dont mind me."He said to shaft, stabbing a flood brute in the face. He grinned sadistically as the creature wailed in pain, falling to the ground. He continued his work, hack and stabbing with his foot long square machette. He pulled a Jackal infectee in through the window, and chopped down on his head."In coming!"He said as he kicked the dead thing down the back of the ship, and laughed to himself as the creature tumbled down the open ramp.

Spook noticed the pelican manuver upwards and waited to disengage her cloaking until they where closer to her position, it wasnt too hard though, considering a massive amount of flood seemed to be following a distinctive course of attack towards nothing.

Aaron felt a heavy thud against is back before the corpse flipped over him and fell into the Flood below. "Hey! Watch it up there." he hollered. He turned back around and tried to find Spook ontop of the building. "Your gonna have to disengage your cloak Spook so we can spot you. Take the Pelican over top the compound, I think the Flood can sniff her out so we need to get her outta there."

"WORST!" Tavish raged into the mic, but not actually at anyone "MISSION! EVER!" He spun towards the place that the flood seemed to be gathering towards, trying to put the entrance just outside the flood's edge while not hitting the invisible Spook.

Spook had no where else to run, the roof was growing smaller and smaller as more flood swarmed towards her. Her heart thundering in her ears and their blood-thirsty screams raging behind her, she couldn't even hear Scorp's order to disengage her cloaking. She was really hoping that there was a nice soft jungle canopy to land in once there was no more roof left for running, but as she neared the edge the jungle dropped away to a river canyon far below. She veered her course, fear of falling nearly outweighing that of the food behind her. They where closer than she'd thought and nearly ran head first into a carrier form, as she attempted evasive maneuvers something slammed into her from behind, knocking out what little wind she had left. Before she could cue her comms they where all over her, foot long spores scurrying across her armor, trying to find a way to break it open, like a long shore-man at a crab dinner. Something cued her comms and the only thing the boys could hear where a few frantic screams and choice explatives before suddenly falling off into static.

"Spook? SPOOK! Answer me god dammit!" Aaron yelled into the comms. He scanned the rooftop frantically for any sign she was alright but the entire thing was covered with Flood. A few Flood began taking shots at the pelican and the ones without guns tired to board it by leaping at it. Most of the jumpers missed and ended up falling to their deaths. "Shaft...take us up outta range of the weapons fire. We will hold for awhile and scan for Spook...then we leave." Everyone could tell by his voice that it wasnt what he wanted to do. He wanted to leap down there himself and wade through the Flood to find her, but then there would be two Spartans down.

Tavish began to fish tale horribly, knocking aside anything that was in his range, clipping flood left or right and shaking free the ones on the Pelican itself. "Sir, if we do not act now then there is no point in scanning! We either get our Spartan out of there while there's a chance she's alive or we blow this place the moment we're safe!" He banked suddenly and circled, the bladed Pelican wing plowed through the soft Flood bodies, mincing them beyond even their recovery in a wide arching circle.

"And how do you suggst we do that when we cant see her?" Aaron answered angrily as he kept firing, trying to down some of the Flood with rockets. "She is still in cloak and the roof is covered in flood, there isnt anything we can do till we find her location."

"The flood are all moving in one direction!" Tavish pointed out, still swerving to free them of approaching flood and to try and knock away as many as he could "Just pop one of the 'breeder' things and follow the small flood, they'll head right for her!"

"All those flood forms'll mask her scan, we'll never be able to spot her with lifescans." Scorch pointed out. He looked down at the mass of festering Flood. "I say we get up to orbit and just drop a bomb. If she's been taken, she's a goner already."

"JUST DO IT!" Aaron yelled into the comms. "Thats an order!"

Tavish closed his eyes, Spook flashing over them in a second; a smiling face that was still locked in his memory. He knew... that by now it was either too late or they'd never find her in time... Sighing heavily he pulled the Pelican away, muttering softly into his mike "Amala if you're alive out there... I'm sorry." It felt like he was killing her himself.

Aaron kept firing shots into the Flood until they looked like nothing more then a mass of writhing flesh. With a sigh he stood up and walked over to where the scientist was sitting on the bench. He removed his helmet and rubbed his face. "Mr. Scientist, can you tell me what in the hell were you THINKING!?" as he spoke the word "thinking" he struck the scientist on the side of the head with his helmet hard enough to draw blood and put the scientist in the floor. "You were trying to play GOD! With the worst thing to hit this GALAXY!" Again, at the end of each sentence he struck the scientist with either his fist, boot, or helmet.

The scientist cowered on the floor curled up in a fetal position trying to fend of the blows the best he could. "I wasnt in charge! I couldnt have done anything if I wanted too! God please stop." the scientist pleaded.

"Oh, I'll stop once my soldier is back on this Pelican." Aaron said as he kicked him again in the gut. "And if she is dead then thats bad news for you." He stopped kicking for a moment and bent over picking the scientist up by the back of his neck and carried him over to the still open rear hatch and hung him out. "Look down there, just LOOK! All that was made possible by you and the work of your colleages. You are no better then those parasites and abominations down there!"

Scorch took a step back and grabbed hold of the railing. "Jeez boss..." He said quietly at how overly dramatic Scorp was getting. Spook could still be alive afterall, she did have a pretty high-class overshield on her. He shrugged though, it didn't really bother him either way. Soldiers died, it was one of the things they were good at. And Spartans? Spartans took out a shit load of baddies when they die, so either way the Flood were toast on this one.

"SARGE!" Priest shouted, pulling Aaron back from the hatch."This isnt going to solve anything!"He stared into the mirrored face plate."We have to go back and get her, killing this worm wont do!"He snarled looking down at the scientist."We need him sir..."He said, keeping his hold on Aaron."He'll get his..But not like this."

Tavish was running a scan of the building now, searching for the place were Spook was lying; the very least they could do is recover the body. She deserved to have something more than rubble as a coffin. And if she had turned into one of the Flood... she deserved peace.

Aaron stared at the scientist a he dangled him over the edge, with a sigh he set the scientist down and pushed him against the bulkhead and onto the bench.

"What are our orders, boss?" Scorch asked him. They were going to save Spook, but the question was, do they take a beat up old pelican or do they come back with better firepower first

Aaron stood silent for a bit longer. He didnt like it when a fellow Spartan died, whether he was present or not, and he especially didnt like it when one died under his command. "Open two broadcasts, have one requesting Spook to respond ASAP and the other one telling the Stratavarius that the mission has met with another hiccup and we will be finishing shortly." he paused again, "Shaft, how's the bird holding up?"

"The bird is fine" Shaft said into his mike, something biting behind his voice as he spoke "I'm opening the broadcasts now. I'll patch the mission one through to you." He glanced at the scanner as it searched for Spook still, putting the connection to her into his own mike. "Spook. Do you read me? Spook we need you to signal where you are, if you are alive. Spook?..." He paused and rubbed his forehead slowly "Amala? Tell me you're alive."

A few moments passed and something very faint registered on Shaft's outer sensor radar and again a few seconds later. Then all of a sudden at least twenty radar indicators flashed on Shaft's hud, all radiating from a central location deep within the base.

"Woah-woah WOAH!" Shaft said loudly, snapping his radio back to the others "We've got MOVEMENT down there, radar's picking up about twenty indicators moving around deep inside that thing. DON'T blow it, I repeat DON'T blow it. We've got survivors... or something." He bit his lip and began to see how deep they all were; maybe one was Spook, hidden among the other approaching... whatever they were.

Aaron was in the middle of the updating Command when he heard Shaft. He immediatly switched to the local channel. "Can you tell if its Spook?" he asked as he walked towards the front to take a look for himself.

The radar indicators where random, reminiscent of a good old fashioned radar-jammer.

"It's random" Shaft said into the mike "Like... like a radar jammer or something. I don't know what's going on down there." He bit his lip, mental gears shifting "Did Spook have a radar Jammer on her? Has she managed to set it off?" That wasn't such a great idea really... considering that might make her harder to find.

"That doesnt matter right now. We know she's alive and thats all that matters." Aaron said with a noticable amount of enthusiasm in his voice. "Tell her to get the hell out of the compound so we can blow it. If we blow it we will take out all the Flood in that area and the Gravemind neutralizing their ability to coordinate. Tell her I am giving her 30 minutes to get at least two miles away for minimum safe distance."

Flicking back to Spook's com he said loudly, not caring she didn't like the name, "Amala, get your ass out of there, we're going to blow the compound. You've got to get two miles away before we can safely pick you up... if you can't move or need assistance right now just... I don't know, throw a flood at us or something."

After a few moments of silence the radar indicators flickered off and stayed off for a moment. They started flickering, three quick flashes and three long ones over and over again. As outdated as the technology was it was clearly Morse code.

"She needs help!" Tavish almost yelled into the mike, a few seconds after he started to plummeting drop towards the roof, so fast the Spartan's feet took off from the ground for a second... and the scientist actually was weightless for a bit longer. "Going in sir, we've got a Spartan down there!"

"Hold on Shaft!" Aaron shouted as they plummeted. "How do you plan on helping her when he have a few hundred Flood milling about. If she cant move away from the blast we will have to wait till the Flood leave or we will all be dead and wont be of any help."

"Sir if we don't act now she's dead!" Tavish said, his mind whirring as he moved in close, but out of the jumping range of the flood "What if... what if I jumped down, drew the flood away so you could find Am-Spook." He stopped saying her name just in time "Blow me a hole in the roof with the rocket launcher, let me jump in and lead the flood away. I've still got loads of ammo left, I can make it sir, at least until the bottom floor, then you'll have to be waiting for me."

"And who's gonna fly this thing if you dont make it back?" Aaron said in a calmer voice. He didnt know if there was any history between the two of them or not but he knew that Shaft was letting emotions cloud his judgement.

"This thing has autopilot, I set it onto the base, you press the button if I don't make it out" Tavish said simply, the ship staying steady as he waited for Aaron to respond. Why wouldn't they DO anything?

"Fine. You grab the Flood's attention and we'll go in and get her." Aaron said reluctantly. "But if that Gravemind sees us then, diversion or not, we are in trouble."

"Really?" Tavish said, and why did he seem so cheery about almost suicide. He pushed a few buttons, twidled a knob and stood up again, starting to load the Threshers with fresh cartridges; he was just lucky he still had enough to last a while. "Remember, look for Spook, then come for me at the entrance. I'm sure you can make it go down by yourself... and if you can't just drop me a line or something."

"You make it sound like we're just grabbing a pizza or something and not wading through a flood of...well you get the point." Aaron said as he turned and went into the back hatch to the other two Spartans. "All right you two, me and Shaft are going to drop down there and get Spook. We need you two to stay on the Pelican and be ready for us. Shaft will show you the autopilot button incase you need to leave with out us. That lever over there will drop a little ladder for us to make it back up here when we're done. Is that all clear?" As he spoke he pointed out everything that needed pointing out. Once done issuing orders he went to the wall and pulled off two shotguns as his big guns would be worthless.

"Yes sir!" Scorch replied, standing at attention. He reloaded his flamethrower and nodded. "Locked and loaded boss. Say the word and you guys'll be comin in hot."

The flashing radar indicators continued, but every few moments they would fade out completely.

"Here" Tavish was pointing to a small green button on the front of the Pelican's panel "That makes you leave, make sure you don't press it right away ok?" He turned back to Aaron "Sir, I should jump down first, into the hole, distract them away before you make your move to find Spook."

"I will comm you when we have her, if you cant get to us then we will come to you". Aaron said as he checked the ammo in the shotguns. "Be careful while in the building, one stray bullet and we all go boom." He looked down at the Flood and then back at Shaft. "On your go."

"Oh... fun" Tavish mumbled to himself, taking a slight run up before launching forward, slamming into the flood on the roof and knocking several flying. He began to pump burning rounds into the surrounding creatures as he righted himself and began to move towards the steps, the only way down into the complex. He kept shooting as he moved, the fire rate was slow but it had tremendous knock back this close.

Aaron watched as Tavish leapt from the bird and began pulling the Flood away. He knew that if he jumped too soon the Flood could see him and then both of them would be in trouble. When there was a significant clear spot behind the Flood he leapt down onto the roof when he landed it cracked the ceiling and put him through it and into the compound itself. "Man, I need to lose some weight." he groaned to himself as he stood up. He quickly made for the access door to the lower levels to begin his search for Spook.

Tavish was panting hard as he ran through the complex; he didn't dare look behind him because he knew that would slow him down. He was just running, finding the least path of resistance; if this meant blasting holes in doors with his Threshers and running through them then so be it. He was gaining more and more flood with every passing second, every flood in the rooms of the complex turning and chasing after him. Thankfully very few had guns.

It was very quite down on the sublevel of the complex. Apparently the Gravemind didnt expect anything to be down here. So Aaron was making it a point to be as quite as possible. He knew he wouldnt be able to get a comm response from Spook so he resisted the urge to call for her over it.

The Comm was rather taken up by Tavish's cursing anyway, a mixture of cries for help, damnings of general people and willing for his legs to move faster. He was running the long way round, only after Aaron called back that they had her would he try and escape. Still he was running out of cartridges in his Threshers, and the last three flood who had popped their heads out to look into the corridor had recieved a spike in the face instead of a bullet.

The multiple radar indicators lit up on Aaron's hud like Christmas lights, signaling that the source of the radarjammer was close. After a moment it flashed it's s.o.s. and went dead again.

Aaron spotted the signal and turned towards what he thought was the direction it was coming from. He had to tip toe past an open part in the systems so that the Gravemind wouldnt see him. As he looked in he saw that there were two Flood currently working on trying to pry free the explosive stuck to the tank. "Oh hell thats not good." he thought to himself. He had engaged a tamper denotator on them before setting them, if someone pried one off without disarming it the bomb would go boom. "Got to find Spook now!"

Tavish kept running, moving up stairs, down stairs, looping as best he could. Three times he actually managed to get to that single meeting spot; eventually he didn't have the choice and had to make his way downstairs. He slammed down the stairs, ripping out the supports with his hands as he made his way down; there was no way back up if you couldn't leap like a gazelle, and down was a rough ride for the flood following.

Aaron slowly rounded a corner, keeping an eye out for Flood. As he entered the room he saw three of them standing around a lump on the floor. He immediately recognized it as Spook. He walked as quiet as he could till her was behind the Flood, taking out the two shotguns and placed the ends of the barrels directly behind the heads of the flood and pulled the trigger sending Flood bits everywhere. He then quickly dispatched the third. Knowing that others would be on their way he quickly commed, "Shaft, I have Spook. Everyone get ready to get the hell out of here.

All of a sudden behind Aaron there was an especially loud !!KABLAM!!, followed by a cascading spray of very fowel smelling blood. Threw a very crackly static came the words "What kept you?" Spook had been using her sniper rifle as a crutch but it slipped out from under her, sending her and her scrounged shotgun crumpeling to the floor.

He could have jumped for joy, could have done a backflip in jubilation, but right now Tavish had to concentrate on running around until Aaron said that they were clear. He hated being bait, but seeing as he was the one with the big ass machines he wasn't good for much else. He just had to wait for the all clear before he could make his own way out.

Aaron finally made his way to the ground floor. With the killing of the Flood guarding Spook more Flood were running into them. He had already thrown down one shotgun that had run out of ammo and was halfway through the second one. "Scorch, Priest, you guys ready to hoist us up?"

"Ready whenever you are boss." Scorch replied over the comm. He was tired of standing around doing nothing on the bloody pelican anyway


"Not to be a burden..." Spook crackled at Aaron "But I think your going to have to carry me." She'd tried making it to her feet but subduing a seething hiss of pain, she slipped back down against one of the walls. Enough blood had seeped between the panels of her armor that it looked as her leg had been painted red by some sort of prank.

Aaron stopped and went back to Spook. "Come on Spook." He said as he lifted her up and put her over his shoulder. "We only got a bit further and then we can get the hell out of here and make this bad memory nothing more then a large scorch marked crater."

"Tell me when you're half way up the climb!" Tavish yelled into his mike, taking another floor down so he was just above Aaron and Spook. It was as if rain had broken through the roofs and was pounding on the ceiling above them, but rain the size of minivans. Hundreds, thousands of footsteps echoed along the corridors as Tavish and his persuers stormed the upper level.

"This is so undignafied." Spook told herself. She noticed flood coming down the coridor behind them and after loosing a few rounds of buckshot told Aaron "We're not alone boss."

"They're faster then I thought they were." Aaron said as he began to run. He wasnt the fastest of the Spartans since he usually carries three times the amount of weight as a normal Spartan, add to that the weight of Spook and his run was very limited. He began climbing up stairs as fast as he could to escape the oncoming rush. "Tavish! Head for the Pelican, we are clear enough now." he said into the comm as he made it to the floor right below the ground floor.

"Right-o boss!" Tavish panted as he sprinted through a door, grabbed a pole, swung around and sprinted right through a wall. As the flood burst through after him he knocked through whatever he could find, walls, doors, one time a one way window was in front of him and he just barreled right through it. There were stairs back here, he knew it. He HAD to get to them.

Aaron made it to the ground floor and had to look around to get his bearings. He eventually located the exit and stormed through it and right into the arms of a pure form in its large shape. "Oh shit!" he said as he backed up. He emptied several rounds into the giant thing but it kept moving towards them. "Scorch, Priest, which side of the damn base are you on?" he said as he ducked under a massive swinging arm.

Spook was running low on shotgun ammo but she was doing well enough to keep the flood off Aaron's tail.

The Pelican swung around before them and the pure form found itself riddled with holes from the ship's mounted turret. "Right in front of ya, boss." Scorch replied, holding up a fist from the cockpit. He wasn't a registered vehicle flier, but it was clear he knew a couple of moves

Spook dropped the shotgun the moment she heard the trigger click and after saying "Can I borrow this? Thanks." snatched Aaron's sidearm to continue covering them from behind.

Aaron smiled under his helmet as the Pelican swung around. "Scorch, drop the ladder so we can get up there. Tavish, where the hell are you?"

"I'm COMING!" Shaft yelled into his mike, still sprinting full out, taking the stairs down to their level three at a time. "I've..." he panted slightly "Got some followers... get up quick."

By now Spook was almost on Aaron's last mag. Her comms where still sketchy but she managed to tell the boys "Leave SSSSKKKK turret SKKKK for me, I owe SKKK mother SSSSKKrs."

"Just hurry up and get your asses in!" Scorch shouted over the comms. "I ain't no pilot, I can't keep this boat afloat for much longer." He pulled back on the trigger and started strafing the building's windows. His HUD allowed him to see where his comrades were, so he wasn't worried about striking Tavish as he moved through the stairwells. He looked around for the button to released the ladder. Finding it, he slammed his fist into it and the locks were released, causing the ladder to roll down the loading ramp and out the back for the others to climb up

The second Aaron grabbed ahold of the ladder and emptied a few more shots into the giant floods face. "Hold on tight Spook." he said as he grabbed the ladder and began to climb up quickly. He swung himself up onto the floor of the Pelican, breathing heavily. "You weigh a lot Spook...no offense...Alright Tavish...your turn."

There were still enough flood for Tavish to keep running around at top speed, little ones, too small to be picked off by the massive Pelican turrets. He turned a corner... and found a massive flood sitting in the middle of the path. "DAMMIT!" he coughed "Who left that there?" He barged through a side door, finding himself in the showers; immediatley he found an area without a shower, pumping the last of his Thresher shells into it before burstng through like some kind of juggernaught. Dodging down a few more doors Tavish managed to make it back onto the path, seeing the door ahead and the ladder swaying annoyingly close. "Almost... almost there" he groaned before launching forward, gripping hold of the bottom rungs and gripping on for dear life. That is untl the flood started to amass at his feet and leap for him. He climbed quickly, hoping that Aaron and spook were much further up than him.

Priest grunted as he began to haul the ladder up manually."Damnit man your a fat ass!"He shouted into his comms. The swaying, and pitching of the pelican was slightly unsettling, or it could have been the idea of the flood getting on this ladder."Lets get some altitude Scorch!"He shouted back towards the cockpit.

Spook only took slight offense to being called heavy, even though she was nearly half a size smaller than Aaron. The moment he dropped her on the floor of the pelican she used one of the 50 cal turrets to pull herself up and prop her good leg beneath her. Once virticle she began spraying the flood below, taking out several as they lunged for the Pelican.

"HEY!" Tavish yelled into the mic as he gripped tight to the ladder, noticing the shells plummeting past him and the bullets smacking hard into the floor so very far beneath him. "LOVE OF GOD! STOP SHOOTING WOMAN!

Spook didn't let up, the flood where so numerable that they had had begun piling on top of each other in an attempt to jump and reach reach the Pelican. Taking care not to shoot Tavish she sprayed as many of them out of the air as she possibly could.

Tavish pulled himself up onto the Pelican, panting hard for a moment before scrabbling up and heading towards the front of the Pelican, trying to get too the cockpit quickly. "Dammit dammit dammit" he groaned, panting hard as he moved this last leg of his stretch.

Scorch moved out of the pilot's seat as soon as Tavish showed up. "Bout time you got here man. I'm not trained in this sort of thing." He slapped Tavish on the shoulder and moved to the back of the pelican. He unholstered his flamethrower and aimed it at the amassing Flood pile beneath them. He pulled the trigger and lit the whole lot of them on fire.

"Ugh" Tavish grunted in reply, coughing and slumping into the pilot's seat. He didn't even wait for an instruction to go, he just started taking off at once, closing the hatch as they moved as he pulled them away from that place. His breath began to level out slowly, his heart starting to beat normally and a small groan leaving his lips "Lets go home..."

Aaron laid silent for awhile before he commed. "Stratavarius, this is Spartan-237. We are all aboard and coming home, only one casualty to report sir." He ignored the comfirmation and looked over at Spook still leaning on the mounted gun. "So...did everyone enjoy themselves today?"

"Sir" Tavish groaned slightly, pushing a few buttons and slumping back into the seat "Would I get courtmarshalled... if I beat the crap out of you right now?" It was an honest question, an honest queary as to whether a beating would have a consequent punishment.

Aaron left heartily before replying. "Ya know its funny, Cause im going to be asking our superiours that same question once we get back."

"Blah blah blah i want the flood to come back.." Derek Said clapping Scorch on the shoulder."how about next time you ask for a tropical mission eh? something with a beach and trees?" He laughed to himself as he walked to a bench in the back of the pelican."Lets go home!"

Once in takeoff Spook Finally let the 50 cal rest, giving the glowing red muzzle time to cool down. "Anyone have any pliers?" She asked settling herself down against the wall of the bay. Her attention had become focused on an armor panel that was sticking awkwardly out of her right leg at an angle. "Or perhaps a tool kit? I lost mine."

"I think there's one on the bulkhead somewhere in here." Aaron said as he pulled himself up into a standing position. Every muscle in his body screamed in protest as he did, he was just glad his helmet hid the grimace of pain that appeared on his face. He planted his fist on the door open/close button for the Pelican and sealed them in for safe zero atmosphere travel. "But the we should arrive at the Stratavarius before you would be able to get any kind of major repairs done."

"You gotta admit I was right though." Scorch said, slugging Priest in the shoulder. "That was a challenge. The Flood are what we Spartans ought to be fighting, not simple Covenant Remnants. I mean, seriously. When was the last time you saw an Elite at the other side of your sights? We're kinda buddy buddy with them! Grunts and Jackals are pathetic in comparison."

"Someone kill that man!" Tavish called out, almost melting in his seat and groaning softly; he was just happy this thing could fly itself mostly. "Lets hope nothing's clinging to the craft... I don't want to infect all the innocent hot chicks back at the base..." he paused for a moment and chuckled gently "Glad you're still alive Spook."

"So am I." Spook said pulling the tool kit from the bulkhead. She pulled a set of pliers from the case and took hold of the problem panel. With a bit of grunting, some profuse sweating and a bit of blood spray she managed to twist and pull the panel free of the meat of her leg. A small pool of blood began to form beneath her but she removed a knife from the case so she could cut away the flap of exo-suit that had begun to stick to her skin, adhered by coagulating blood. "Does anyone have a dressing?" Normally she would have everything she needed, but she'd lost all but her sniper rifle when the flood swarmed her.

"I'm just jealous you guys made me stay with the pelican." Scorch replied to Shaft's insistence that he be murdered.

"Here." Aaron said as he opened the first aid kit on the bulkhead near the pilot's door. He grabbed a roll of gauze and some medical tape and tossed it to her. "That should hold you over till you get fixed up on the ship. The techs are going to be pissed when they see the repairs they're gonna have to do to ya and this Pelican."

"Ohhhh my baby got all scratched up" Tavish muttered as he stroked a hand slowly across the control panel "But at least we got everything out of these alright. How's the scientist doing anyway?"

The scientist sat huddled in a corner of the Pelican shaking slightly and swaying. Mumbling something illedgable under his breat staring at the floor with wide eyes.

"He's alright...may need a few hours with a psychiatrist, but other then that." Aaron said once he spotted him.

Spook dressed her leg and tied the whole thing off with a bow for good measure. In her helmet she attempted a diagnostic of the damage done to her armor. By the statistics her hud gave her, none of them should have made it out alive. She decided to keep that morsel of information to herself.

"Good to know" Tavish mumbled as he settled down slowly into his seat again, feeling the heat coming from his chest motors even through the materials that should be blocking it. Maybe he'd melted them and not noticed... not a pretty idea. "So..." he muttered "you remember me yet Spook?" he let out a small chuckle as he just sat back.

"Nope." was all Spook said, knowing that it would no doubt drive him nuts. Of course she remembered him, on the list of people who had saved her life he was first, followed by Aaron.

"You think Command knew, sir?" Scorch asked Aaron curiously. It was odd that they would send in a team of Spartans for something like this.

"What you really mean to say is: Do they consider us expendable?" Spook said, taking this time to check Baby over for scratches and blemishes. Aside from some flood goo he was fine. "If that's so, then they had to know."

"They gave us charges, told us to 'look for survivors' and get out of there real quick... I think they knew" Tavish mumbled from the driver's seat "I think those ODST's were sent in there blind too. Except the only information they got back is that the flood were killing them."

"Does it matter?" Aaron asked. "Whether they knew or not it didnt change anything. We are Spartans and there are many more of us."

The Pelican swooped into the docking bay of the Stratavarius allowing all the Spartans to disembark. The medical staff wisked Spook away to care for her leg and check to make sure she wasnt infected. Shortly after the Pelican docked the Stratavarius set a course and jumped to Earth and the The Arctic Base.

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Halo C.E. RPG

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