It's been a while since I posted anything in this Library, so I'd thought I would get something out there while I finish up my ODST FF. I might finish my other two FFs, but this will be my focus for now.
PROLOGUE
Blood stained the floors of the forgotten destroyer. The walls were covered in scratches and bullet holes, dead bodies littered the ground. Shadows flickered at the end of the hall. This ship was infected, and it was being taken over. Inhuman screeches echoed through the vacant ship, and the scraping of claws on metal tore through the various periods of silence.
Sergent Mark Richards fired down the hall at the approaching creatures. He heard a click, telling him he had hit the end of his clip. "Cover me while I reload!", Mark yelled as he slammed a new clip into his MA5B Assault Rifle. He looked around at the few survivors, three Marines were able to fight, two sat wounded on the other end of the Med Bay, and a few laid dead on the ground from some of the more ruthless assaults.
The last creature fell dead to the ground, and Mark sunk behind the metal table they had set up for a barricade. He rubbed his shaven head with one hand and wiped it down his face to get rid of his relentless sweating. "Sir, we're runnng low on ammo. We can't hold here forever." an exhausted marine muttered as he checked his clip.
"This is the only safe place on the ship soldier, so unless you can bring us a miracle we ain't movin'" Mark said equally as exhausted.
The Marine nodded and raised his BR-55 Battle Rifle over the table. "Sir they're coming again.." the Marine whimpered.
The screeches returned and the first of the creatures rounded the corner, sprinting full speed towards their position. Mark fired his Assault Rifle and gave a satisfied smirk as the creature fell limp to the ground. A few more ran around the corner, "We can't hold it! Block the door!" Mark shouted as he grabbed one end of the table and tried to tilt it up to cover the doorway. Mark pushed his weight against the table and struggled to keep his balance as three large thuds threatened to knock him over.
Mark slid to the ground, dropping his gun to the ground. "This thing won't hold forever." Mark muttered to himself.
The other Marines checked on their injured comrades, each in bad condition. Mark stood up, even though his body fought his every motion, and he walked over to the Computer console. There was a hull breach, and all COM channels had been cut. They were stranded, alone in this hellhole. Everyone else was dead, and they had to sit and wait for death to take them too. Mark had pondered suicide, but even that wouldn't keep those damned creatures from taking his body.
A large thud came from above them, Mark grabbed his Assault Rifle and raised it towards the ceiling. A dent appeared and continuously grew as the thuds grew closer together. Mark's head beaded with sweat and he chipped a tooth from grinding his teeth so hard. A crack appeared and a mishapen claw ripped through the metal, Mark fired at the source of the crack and a familiar screech followed. Mark yelled to the other Marines, but like a nightmare it seems he had no voice. The spider-like creature rained down from the ceiling, bombarding his allies. The were quickly torn apart and taken over, their blood stained the floor as the creatures borrowed into their chests. Mark shot as much of them as he could, but he quickly was overwhelmed. He felt a ripping pain in his chest, and he watched in horror as the Flood infection form attacked his chest and tried to take over his nervous system.
The Flood had returned, and even the destruction of their Gravemind had not stopped this ravenous infection.
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CHAPTER 1
August 14, 2553; Orbiting Olympus
Olympus is one of the planets the UNSC had looked at for colonization. The largely tropical planet had conditions similar to an early Earth, with large amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere and plant life prospering from the carbon dioxide in the soil. The UNSC's outer colonies had been devastated, which is why this planet was only considered. It was quite a distance from Earth, but with the help of Sangheili engineers the UNSC had been perfecting their slipspace jumps. Their old FTL drives had been rendered obselete by a new Slipspace drive that had 30% more accuracy.
The UNSC Destroyer Achilles' Heel sat in orbit of this planet, and it was accompanied by two other colonization vessels as well as 3 Sangheili ships. The humans quickly tried to strengthen their alliance by sharing colonies. Of course they did not completely forgive the Sangheili, but they had a mutual goal, which was enough for some pleasant moments between species. Commander Justin Grone was the captain of this ship, and he was the naval officer in charge of overseeing the colonization. The bridge of the ship was filled with activity, navigators sat at theit stations making constant adjustments to their current position. Other naval officers and pilots moved about constantly checking on data. Grone watched the vessels move towards the planet, and then various ships were then launched, Albatrosses if Grone remembered correctly. They were refitted to help lay down the larger Colony buildings.
Red lights started to flash in the Bridge, and a Covenant ship exited Slipspace not far from his position. Grone activated the COM, "Shipmaster is this one of yours?"
"No, it must be one of the Jiralhanae."
The Sangheili ships moved to engage the Jiralhanae ship. However the Jiralhanae made no attempt to accept the challenge, they just sat there. Grone shouted into the AI console, "Ready the MAC."
"MAC ready.", the response came, Grone had personally requested a dumb AI. He had problems with the smart AIs, they seemed to be too smart, and Grone was strongly against giving them emotions and characteristics, although they acted more out of logic, these traits drove them to rampancy.
Plasma arced out of the Energy Projectors from the Sangheili ships, and Grone fired his MACs. The Jiralhanae ship began to move towards the planet, however it stood no chance against the combined fire of the four ships. The ship erupted into a sapphire explosion, that ignited the space around it into a storm of light and plasma.
Grone stared at the dying explosion with curiosity, Why didn't attempt to fight?
"Sir you are wanted.", a voice shouted over the noisy Bridge.
Grone walked over to the console where he was being hailed. "Ah Commander Grone, it is nice to meet you."
"Vice-Admiral Danforth, this is a surprise.", Grone replied.
"We need your assistance with a troubling matter.", Danforth said with a certain degree of hesitance in his tone.
"I'd be happy to help.", Grone said.
"We have lost communications with the military base on Nodacrux, we need you to investigate why."
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CHAPTER 2
Achilles' Heel exited Slipspace over a largely green planet. Spores from plant life gave the planet's atmosphere an eery glow. This planet was known for ravenous and large animals, which was why the UNSC didn't colonize it as these creatures were a danger to citizens. The military base on the surface was one of the larger ones constructed for the war. It spanned about 10 miles in total and was deeply entrenched into the ground, with multiple floors.
Grone stared down at the planet. "Send in a scout, we want to know what we're heading into."
Grone sat in a chair staring at a console that gave him a direct feed from a Pelican they sent in. The Pelican quickly breached the atmosphere and came down towards the site of the base, the base was empty and no landing sequence was initialized. Grone started to get anxious, Was it the Brutes?, he thought as the Pelican touched down. The feed switched to a helmet cam on one of the marines, which shaked as the marine put on his helmet.
The marine squad hopped out of the Pelican and quickly surveyed the area. Nothing. The whole place was deserted, or so it seemed at first glance. One marine walked towards the base but his attention was drawn elsewhere, he ran over to a dark spot on the ground. He picked something up which Grone couldn't see from his vantage point. "Sir! We have some blood over here, and a pistol."
This was clear evidence of an engagement, but what actually attacked them? There were no bodies on the ground, only blood splotches that were scattered in various positions around the base. Grone watched the monitor closely as the marines finally made their way to the base's elevator. The marine stretched out his arm and pressed the button to call the elevator. The button flashed in confirmation and a groaning noise came from behind the door, the elevator creaked up and eventually stopped. The doors slowly opened, one marine looked in side then instantly turned around and vomitted. As he wiped his mouth he said, "Can you smell that?" to the other marines.
Another one stepped forward to investigate and as he turned on his flashlight he revealed the source of the odor. A half rotting body was sitting in the back of the elevator, blood covered the floor and walls. One marine stepped in to observe the body, he used the end of his gun to move the bloodied head to the side revealing the cause of death, a bullet hole to the head. A pistol lay on the ground next to the body's outstretched hand.
"Suicide? What happened down there?", the marine in the elevator questioned. The marine that vomitted stood up and walked over to a computer console on the side of the elevator. "Looks like the last time this thing was activated was a few days before we lost contact with this place."
One marine turned his head, "So whatever went in caused all of this."
"Yea it looks like that. But there's no plasma burn marks anywhere or spikes, this is not the work of the Brutes, all I see are bullet holes."
"Rebels?"
"No there would be more bodies on the outside."
"We need to check out what happened down there, activate the elevator we're going in."
A marine clicked a few buttons on the console and something went wrong, red lights started to flash from various lights around the above ground complex and silos on the ground started to open, a digital voice started to broadcast a message, "WARNING: NAVAL QUARANTINE IN AFFECT, ALL ORBITING VESSELS MUST LAND OR BE SHOT DOWN."
Grone heard this and immediately ordered that the ship be landed, he cursed his luck. He needed to get down there fast, as he entered the atmosphere the ship rattled and shook from the speed of entry. Grone sat back in his chair as he awaited the landing. It appeared that things had taken a turn for the worse.
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"Die?"Kurt laughed."Didn't you know?"he told the Elite. "...Spartans never die."