Chapter Two

It had been almost an hour since splitting up with Chase and the spartans weren’t liking it at all. The first thing they discovered early on was that the map that was provided for them was only right about key locations, like the elevators. This lead to numerous times where they were forced to backtrack and take different routes to get to their target. They had been lucky with the first elevator getting to it without any problems and only backtracking once, but the moment they set foot on floor B7 it was like god was making fun of them. They must of explored every inch of the damn floor. They made one mark on any pathway they just entered, but if they were forced to backtrack they left a second mark on the doorway. After what felt like an eternity had passed they finally arrived at the door they’re at now.

The door hissed open as Alfred finished hacking the UNSC console that controlled the forerunner panel beside it. The three of them were currently in a bright forerunner passageway leading to the rendezvous point. Leon and Josh currently had their weapons raised and looking down the path they just came from. Alfred tapped Josh's shoulder, getting him to turn to the door, and raised his weapon the moment the door opened. Together with Leon covering their six, Josh and Alfred checked every visible corner and inch of the room.

“Clear.” they both said a second apart through the comm channel and they all began to advance into the room. On the other side of the door was another UNSC control panel controlling a forerunner one. Leon reached over and hit a series of buttons on it as he passed, shutting the door behind them. Leon turned to Josh and Alfred to see them all ready advancing into the room that was supposed to have the B7 elevator in it, but it didn’t. Instead there was a slightly raised platform that held a lot of stairs all leading up to this very large archway at the top.

“Oh no...”Alfred said barely above a whisper.

“No no no! Where the hell is the elevator and what the fuck is this thing?” Josh asked as the thought of being trapped on the ring was starting to force its way to the front of his mind.

As they walked in Leon took a few mental notes: there was no real cover except at the top of the structure, the room was brighter than anything he had seen so far, and it had almost no distinguishing features besides the structure in the center and a small gap under the platform, showing that it could descend. Without the archway the structure was just over three stories high, but with the archway it easily went over four or five. The stairs that lead up to the archway looked like they circled the entire structure and the absence of a hole in the roof meant it couldn’t ascend.

As they looked around the impossibly bright white walled room Josh stepped in front of them, “Well what the hell do we do know?”

“We secure the room and wait for Chase and the Commander to get here. Then we start getting some answers.” Leon said beginning the long climb up the stairs.

“Answers to what? Unless the he has a secret passageway that could get us onto the surface of this damn ring then its pointless.”

“Shut up and think.” Alfred said as he began following Leon, “Nothing about what’s been going on adds up. Beginning with the quarantine outside, it would be more orderly and people wouldn’t be allowed to leave without a full contamination check. Then there was the elevator. The flood hadn’t spread that far yet and couldn’t of damaged that many power systems, so why did it lose power? Lastly there’s our maps, why are they wrong? Why were we given wrong information about the layout of the labs? Something doesn’t add up.”

“The sergeant as well.” Leon said stopping and turning to them, “Why did we get our orders from him and not the captain? Our com systems were working fine until we came down here.”

“Oh my god, I hate this confusing crap. Can one of you two skip to the point?” Josh asked.

“Someone wants us dead and the captain didn’t give us these orders.” Alfred stated.

“Then why the hell are we down here?”

“Because we followed bad orders, but once Chase gets here with Commander Richards I think there might be a way out of here.” Leon said beginning back up the stairs with Josh and Alfred right behind him.

Little known to the spartans, at the top of the structure was a small man in a dark uniform typing away furiously at some forerunner glyphs on the console.

*****

Chase walked cautiously down the dim hallway, always keeping his assault rifle raised at all times. He had been like that the past hour after dropping out of radio contact with his team. So far the trip had been pleasantly uneventful for which Chase was thankful for. The Commander was supposed to be in a private lab on this floor, but when he got there all he found was a sealed bulkhead at the back of a small office. Said bulkhead also had a small key card scanner to the right side of it and big print above stating ‘WEAPON TEST CHAMBER #7’.

Since he had mediocre hacking skills at best in the human department he turned around and was about to leave but, a file lying on the desk caught Chase’s eye. Soon he began reading/downloading any and all the information that he could. The files he found on the small holo-projected computer not only pissed him off beyond all rational thought, they infuriated him to the point that he punched the bulkhead with all his strength, putting a good sized dent in it.

The files revealed that the scientist here were being misled by a small insurrectionist group co-lead by the very sergeant his team had gotten orders from. Plus the man they were sent to get new orders from was not only the main leader of the insurrectionists, but the one that had convinced the scientists that the UNSC had approved of flood testing. So, by extension, the one responsible for all of this shit.

The plans regarding him and his team were simple enough, assuming the most plausible what if scenario they used to make it was any good at all. They would make fake orders for the spartans to report to someone inside the ring, weather they are there or not, and then cut all power to the elevators leading to the surface. By sending fireteam Ghost underground and out of the way, they not only get rid of some spartans, but stop them from asking what’s going on with the evacuation despite the quarantine. What the evacuation was actually doing was scrambling up the insurrectionists so that as many as possible could escape and go into hiding. It went into much greater detail than that, as well as having an entire folder full of contingency plans for other situations.

There was only one question on Chases mind at that moment though, ‘Where the hell is that scumbag Richards?’

Chase opened the door leading to the 3C junction elevator, but as he walked to the controls something kept bugging him and it wasn’t the fact the map was screwed up all to hell. Something about the elevator was setting off sirens in his head but he couldn’t think of what it was. The elevator was smaller and took up the majority of the small space, or at least the hole where the elevator stopped did. It was a little bit bigger than the spartan was tall and just as wide. It had walls surrounding it on all sides except one on each floor.

Regardless he called the elevator down to his level and only when he heard it getting closed did it finally hit him. The elevator stopped at the seventh floor, but started at the third. Already he could hear the sickly sounds of the floods flesh rubbing against each other as the elevator got closer. He turned to run and get some distance from it, but the door had already shut and they would be on him in seconds. Thinking quickly he turned to the elevator, pulled a grenade off his off his ammo belt, and waited.

....

....

He primed the grenade as the elevator came into view and tossed it on the platform. The spartan was pleasantly surprised to see only five combat forms on the elevator and only one having a gun. The grenade landed near the center of the elevator and exploded just as it came to a stop. Three of them were blown into nothing but pieces. Another one was thrown to the right into a wall as the grenade went off and the last one was propelled by the explosion directly towards Chase. Seeing this he flattened himself against the wall and let the creature hit the door full force, before falling to the ground.

Wasting no time, Chase shot a five round burst into the creatures exposed chest, killing the parasite that had taken control of the body. As he took a step towards the elevator the combat form that had been thrown against a wall in the elevator attempted to get up and attack, but Chase took aim and fired another five shot burst into its chest, killing it.

“Well, that was easy.” he said to himself as he hit the controls on the opposite wall of the elevator entrance. His eyes then shot open as the elevator began to move and he realized what he had just said. He then smack his hand against his helmet muttering a string of curse words as the elevator descended down to the seventh floor.

****

As Leon neared the top of the structure he could hear the sounds of someone typing frantically on a console. Curious he hastened his climb and as he got to the top he saw a single man typing away at a forerunner console as if his life depended on it. He was muttering gibberish as he typed away, Leon only able to make out parts of words and syllables. One thing was clear though and that was the stars and bars that showed he was Commander Richards, because Richards was the only commander on the base.

Leon cleared his throat and began, “Sir, my name is Leon of Fireteam Ghost. We’re here for some answers.” if the man had heard him he showed no signs of it. He just type away muttering to himself like a madman as Alfred and Josh came up the last few stairs.

“Should we be worried he’s insane and messing with forerunner tech?” Josh asked as Richards ignored the new arrivals just like the first.

Ignoring the question Leon walked over to the Commander, placed his hand on his shoulder and said, “Sir, we’re trapped down here until you tell us what’s going on.” the Commander continued typing away, as if oblivious to the armored hand on his shoulder.

Before any more could be said a loud boom echo throughout the room. Even the Commander’s attention was fixed towards the door. He finally noticed the spartans and straightened up a bit, “Spartans protect me from the flood and we might just get out of here alive!” he yelled as another boom echoed through the room. He then went back to typing at the console even faster than he was before.

Now with a common objective Leon began giving out orders, “Alright, Alfred keep out your DMR, your sniper rounds will just go right through them. Josh, do you still have the C-7 foaming explosives?”

“Yeah, I’ve got C-7 and C-12. Didn’t know how much we would need to clear that dig site of debris.” He answered starting to pull off his railgun and setting it aside to reach his backpack.

“C-12! A bit overkill for simply clearing out debris don’t you think?” the shock in Alfred's voice was obvious, “How did you even get a hold of that? One four inch cube of that stuff can level a five story building!”

“We don’t have time to argue, Josh is that stuff inside its protective housing?” Josh looked up at Leon and nodded, “Then that's were its staying. Get out a C-7 canister, were going to give the flood a little surprise. Alfred keep an eye on Richards.”

Alfred nodded as Josh put his railgun on his back, grabbed one of the four C-7 canisters, and followed Leon down the steps leaving the rest of his explosives by Alfred. As the two neared the bottom of the stairs they noticed their motion sensors were lit up red with multiple dots behind the door. Fear began to circulate in Josh's mind. Fear of what happened to Chase, fear of what will happen to Ethan and Hank, and, lastly, fear of what will happen to them if-when that door comes down.

“Josh!” Leon yelled for the second time getting his attention, “Calm down, we’re going to get out of this. We just need to keep our heads and not panic. I know this is our first mission as a team outside of the War Games simulations, but we will survive. Understand?”

Josh nodded his head, “Sir, yes sir... Thanks Leon.”

“Don’t mention it now get those explosives set to blow these bastards right ba-” he was cut off by an explosion on the other side of the door. Shortly after the sounds of automatic weapon fire was heard and a single green dot appeared on the edge of their radars. It was slowly moving forward cutting the red dots down till the sound of the weapon stopped. Four dots remained moving towards the lone green one.

****

Chase looked at the four charging combat forms with a grin. He had killed damn near all of them, including all the little infection form fuckers, with a grenade and knew just how to handle these ones. Quickly he grasped the end of his assault rifle with his left hand and put it on his back as his right hand grasped the butt of his shotgun and swung it in front. One of the combat forms leaped up in the air and tried to come down on him with a mutated right arm, but Chase shot forwards, shotgun in his hands. The first combat form flew over his head over as he charged the remaining three.

He shot his first blast at combat form number two as it got close enough, hitting it dead center. It dropped to the floor dead while number three swung its right arm at him. Chase boosted the shielding at the bottom of his feet to max and slid under its arm while cocking his shotgun, replacing the spent shell with a new one. He then shot the new shell into combat form number four, blowing its entire right arm and shoulder away, and sending it crashing into the ground just like number two.

He slid the rest of the distance to the door on the green gore covered floor, while turning around, and cocking his shotgun while doing so. The two remaining combat forms were charging at him, but it was what he saw on his motion sensor that got him worried and relieved. More red blips were coming in from the left and right passageways at the opposite end of the corridor he was in, but on the other side of the door where two close friendly contacts and a third one at the very edge of his motion sensor.

He pounded his fist on the door three times and yelled, “Open the door!” he then shot his third shell into combat form number two as it got closer, killing it. Its body slid into the door beside Chase, who was looking at the first combat form that had initially jumped over his head. Once again it jumped at him when it was halfway to him. Chase, who was unamused by its stupid jumping, moved slightly to the left outside of its attack range and cocked his shotgun. The moment combat form touched the ground he had his shotgun pointed to its chest and pulled the trigger, painting the wall and part of the door a nice, sickly green color.

The doors then opened to reveal Leon at the door console and Josh holding his assault rifle up checking for any more. “Its about time you opened the door.” Chase said as he cocked his shotgun again.

“You’re welcome, now get in here.” Leon said closing the door as Chase walked through it.

As he looked around Chase noticed that there was no elevator in the room, “So... I see there is no elevator which means that we are fucked because of my stupid ass plan... awesome...”

“We’re all still alive and that's how its going to stay.” Leon said as they waited.

“So what’s the plan or are we just going to keep killing till we run out of ammo?” Chase asked as Josh started to apply the C-7 to the area around the door.

“The Commander is up top fiddling with the control panel to the forerunner archway. Richards thinks he can get us out of here and we’re protecting him.” Leon said as Chase pulled four shotgun shells out of an ammo pouch on his left side.

Chase looked up at Leon as finished a smile spreading across his face, “Where’s Commander Richards now, cause I would really like to kill him.”

“Whoa! What?” Josh asked quickly looking up from the foam explosive in front of him.

“Why? What did you find?” Leon asked.

Flicking on his radio so Alfred could hear as well Chase explained, “I found files in his office that blatantly showed that fucker, Sergeant Miller, and a couple of other ass hats here are insurrectionists, who tricked the scientists here into thinking the UNSC had approved of flood testing.” At the top of the tower Alfred turned to look at the Commander who was still typing away.

“That doesn’t make sense. Why would they send us down here after him then?” Joshed asked while resuming his work with the C-7.

“To make sure we didn’t mess with the lie that is the evacuation outside. According to the files I pulled from his computer, they’re using the quarantine to make people disappear without anyone coming to look for them and the evacuation to scramble everyone up. I didn’t read on after that, but I still got the files here in my helmet.” As he finished, Chase knocked on the side of his helmet.

Silence was all that was heard as what Chase had just said sink in. Alfred was the first to talk, “Okay I say we tie him up the moment he has us a way out of here.”

“We’ll figure all this out once we get out of here. Chase did you get enough evidence to show who the insurrectionists are?” Leon asked.

Chase shrugged his shoulders, “I have no idea, like I said I only read a little bit.”

“Alright then once we get out of here we’re going to get names and a confession all on video.”

“Bro, I like the way you think.” Chase said nodding his helmet in approval. Suddenly the sound of electricity filled the air. All of them looked towards the top of the structure to see electric strikes hitting the walls and ceiling.

“Guys you need to get up here now.” Alfred said over the comm. They all took off towards the top of the structure, Josh leaving behind the still half full canister of C-7 with a little bit leaking from the nozzle.

Alfred looked in awe with Richards at the marvel that was in front of him now. Even the air seemed to come to a standstill. In front of them was a swirling whole of nothingness, silently sucking in the very light around it and distorting the scenery behind it.

“I did it... I stabilized the slipspace field on the other side of the portal...” Richard muttered to himself as he stepped closer to the archway containing the portal, “I’m going to get out of this nightmare alive!” he took off running towards the portal but a single shot rang out and he face planted and slid on the ground. He then rolled over screaming in agony as he looked down at the bloody mess that had been his right calf. He looked up at Alfred who was holding his DMR and pointing it right at him.

“Whoa there pal, you’re not going anywhere till we say you can.” Alfred said lowering his rifle. The Commander’s eyes widened as he realized he had been found out, he then began to crawl backwards towards the portal as fast as he could. “Keep moving, that way the next one can go in your head.” Richards froze at what Alfred had just said.

Richards started curling up in the fetal position on the ground in what seemed like defeat and fear for his life. In reality he was covering up his hand as it made its way to his sidearm, “I’m so close to finally being out of this hell hole.” he said as Alfred began to move towards him, “I refuse to let you stop me!” He then whipped the pistol out and shot a bullet at Alfred. The only bullet he shot as Alfred raised his rifle and fired, not letting the bullet phase him as he knew it would bounce of his shields.

Leon reached the top before the others to see the scene in front of him, “Alfred, what happened?”

“He made a mad dash for the portal. If I had shot a warning shot first he could've made it through so I aimed to injure him instead and then he pulled out a pistol and fired at me. He gave me no choice.” Alfred stated.

As Josh and Chase finally got to the top they saw a dead Richards. Chase gave a low whistle, “Damn Aly, nice shot, but you couldn’t of waited for us?”

“He tried to run, I injured him, and he then tried to kill me.” Alfred said in his defense.

“Whatever you say Aly, whatever you say.” as he finished there was a very loud boom that came from the doorway, “Damn, I almost forgot about them.”

“Okay, we’re going through the portal and getting out of here before they break down the door. Does anyone object to that?” Leon said in a hurry as the booms at the doorway were getting louder.

“Yeah I do, does anyone know where this thing leads?” Alfred asked.

“He did seem pretty confident that it lead to safety.” Josh said as he zipped up his backpack and put it on his back followed by his railgun.

“But safe for who? How do we know he doesn’t have his insurrectionist buddies on the other side?” Alfred asked as Chase walked over and examined the console controlling the portal.

“Would you rather face them or the flood, cause I sure as hell would rather kick some rebel asses.” Josh rebutled. Leon was about to stop their argument, but Chase tapped him on the shoulder and motioned towards the console.

As Alfred and Josh continued their argument Leon looked at the runes on the holographic console, “What am I seeing here?”

“I don’t expect you to understand them as I barely do and I stayed in training for the sole purpose of researching this stuff.” Chase said as he typed away at the console bringing up more screens and adding to the complexity of what was in front of Leon.

“Wait.” Leon looked up from the console to Chase, “I thought you stayed to take the extra CQC classes?”

“No, I finished those long before I took up extra forerunner studies.” Chase said not even looking away from the console, “But its what these symbols mean that scares me.”

“Scared as in staying here and fighting the flood or scared as in finding out there's still footage from Joshes twenty-first birthday party?”

“Second one.” Chase barely said as he typed as furiously as the Commander had.

Leon seemed to straightened up more and turned to Josh and Alfred, who were visor to visor still arguing over to use the portal or not, “Josh, Alfred, lock it down and get over here. Chase thinks we got a bigger problem than the flood.” The voice of their CO got their attention and they were quick to follow his orders.

Chase kept his eyes locked on the screen and made sense of most of the symbols rolling across it. He didn’t even look up to see if they were ready for the explanation, “I’m going to make this as short and simple as possible. Somehow Richards was able to lock on to a signal that isn’t even really there by putting in a set of coordinates for a slipspace jump into this portal. By doing such he’s either the smartest man I’ve met or he was doing something so stupid it actually worked.

“Now if this portal were to be locked onto another forerunner facility I would be getting a steady signal back and we would be able to get out of here, but that's not the case. The fact he was even able to open it fully, but not get back a resounding signal and be able to stabilize the other side is nothing short of a miracle.”

“I thought you said that this was scarier than the flood, so far it just sounds like we’ll be hopping in blind.” Josh said as Chase paused for a moment.

“That should be scary enough on its own, but probably a better death than becoming one of those things.” Alfred said motioning his head towards the stairs leading to the door and the now rhythmic pounding it was being given.

“Chase, are you done or is there more?” Leon said.

“Oh, there’s more alright and this is the scary part. I’m not getting any of the standard radiation signals that normally happen when a slipspace portal is opened, but I am getting a weird energy registration coming in. That means this isn’t a slipspace portal and that some kind of energy has locked it in place and stabilized the other side.” as Chase finished silence settled in and the only thing that made a sound was the constant banging on the door bellow.

“An energy that isn’t forerunner, but can stabilize their portals...” Leon muttered as he digested the new information.

BOOM

They all turned their attention to the doorway at the bottom of the stairs. It had a lot of smaller dents in it from the unorganized pounding the flood were giving it, but the dent in the center that was just made was easily three times the size of the rest.

BOOM

Then another dent, just as big as the last, was made up and to the right of the first. Leon realized they were out of time and knew something had to be done fast, “Chase what is better. Facing the flood and being turned into one of them or facing whatever is on the other side of the portal?”

BOOM

A third dent joined the rest right above the first. “Portal, definitely the portal.” He said and they all began moving towards the portal.

“Alfred, you’re first, Josh is next, then Chase, and I’ll be last, now lets do this before they get through.” Leon said as each spartan gave a nod at his name.

Alfred walked up to the portal, DMR clutched tightly in his hands. He took a deep breath and calmly began walking into the portal. Due to the spherical shape of the portal his head was first to disappear into it, quickly followed by the rest of his body.

Josh was next, but approached more slowly than Alfred, “See you guys on the other side.”

BOOM

“Alright Chase, your next.” Leon said.

Chase took a few steps away from the portal as a startling though came over him. “What if we can’t shut it from the other side?”

“What?”

“I said what if we can’t shut this thing down from the other side. The flood would be right behind us and we wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“Chase come on be reasonable. If something opened it then it can close it!” Leon shouted.

“What if it doesn’t? There’s only one way to be sure that everyone is safe.”

“Chase!” he visibly lost his aggression as he finished, “I can’t lose you, you’re the only family I have left.”

BOOM

“We’re out of time! They’ll need your pathfinder training to survive. Now go!” Chase yelled as he ran past Leon and looked down at the door. It was heavily damaged and bent, but still barely holding them back. After a moments hesitation Leon began walking slowly towards the portal, stopping only when he was one step away.

He turned to take one last look at his brother and the two of them locked eyes. There was a long silence between the two of them, neither able to find the right last words to say to the other. Finally Chase broke the silence, “Yeah know, the moment you leave we’re both going to think of so many better things to say as final words... Tell the guys I’m sorry and... and good luck Leon.”

“Chase you-”

BOOM-CRASH

“Go!” Chase yelled as he pulled the last grenade of his belt and threw it at the open doorway. When he turned back Leon was gone. He suppressed the pangs of sadness and fear that immediately sprang up inside and turned his attention to the console. The grenade exploded at the bottom of the stairs, setting of the C7 that had been set up, Chase didn’t even glance at it. Time wasn’t on his side.

“I’ve got 30 seconds till they reach me... 30 seconds to shut this thing down.” Chase said to himself as he typed away.

****

As Leon emerged through the portal the sight before him was so ridiculous that he couldn’t believe it. Josh and Alfred were surrounded by... by what could only be described as white ponies in golden armor, armed with spears and short swords. Both humans had their own weapons pointed towards a different side of the group. He was at a loss of words and didn’t know what to do, so he did what he was trained to do.

The room they had come out in was fairly large, easily able to fit a pelican vertically and still have a lot of room. Behind everyone and thing were two chairs side by side that looked like thrones, one being a dark blue with a crescent moon at the top and the other was white, possibly ivory, with an image of the sun at the top. Behind that was a wall with stained glass windows that seemed to depict some sort of heroes or maybe their rulers. To the right behind the soldier ponies were tall ivory columns that had dark blue vines on each one, twisting down from the top. It was the opposite with the left side as the columns were dark blue and the vine was the ivory color. There was one thing that stood out above all though. They were completely surrounded, so there was no way to easily escape this situation without getting hostile.

“Chase!” Josh’s said in a hushed manner over the comms getting his attention on back on the spartans, “What the hell do we do?!”

The question caught him off guard and Leon hesitated for a moment, “Just... just lower your weapons. We need to seem as nonthreatening as possible.”

“We’re seven foot tall walking tanks, just how do we look non-threatening?” Josh said keeping his sights trained whichever pony moved.

“Well you can start by lowering your weapon.” Giving an annoyed sigh Josh relaxed the grip on his assault rifle and lowered it and Leon continued, “Alright now we have no way of communicating with them, so anyone have an idea?”

“Does ‘see how long the mexican standoff lasts’ count as a plan?”

“No.”

“Well maybe Chase will have one when he gets here.” Josh said sending a jolt of pain through Leon’s heart. He would have to tell them when they got out of this situation, but not now.

Suddenly the sound a hoof hitting the marble floor reverberated through the room. The front of the armored group in front of the spartans split down the middle, two groups of five joining the others in a second line on either side of them, totaling ten on each side and twenty in all. Leon made a mental note that their armor looked like gold and if it was that their bullets would easily penetrate.

A single pony, in different armor than the others, was all that remained, “In the name of the royal sisters you all are to cease all acts of aggression towards the nation of Equestria immediately.”

...

...

...

Nobody moved and nobody made a single sound. The ponies and spartans were at a standstill. One side was cautious of the bigger and heavily armored creatures and the other was dumbstruck that the ponies could speak english.

KZZZTSH

The abnormally loud lightning bolt made all the spartans turn to the source of the sound and were shocked at what they saw. The portal was in between two pillars of pink crystal and lighting strikes were hitting them on both sides, but it was the developing picture in the portal that all their eyes began focusing on. The inky, darkness gave way as white started to take over and form shapes and colors, an image. In that image was Chase being held in the air by the right claw of pure form.

His left arm appeared to be pinned and his right was holding his assault rifle out and emptying the magazine into the monsters deformed head. No sound was heard from the other side of the portal as it assault rifle spat its last round. With a mighty swing the monster threw Chase at the ground and he bounced towards the portal, but not into it. As Chase began to shakily get up off the ground the pure form charged him.

Josh was a blur as he charged the portal to try and stop the monster from killing his friend, but the moment he touched the portal he was blown back by an unseen force. He soared over the spartans, and the one pony guard, and crashed into the ground just in front of the two thrones.

During this Leon never took his eyes off the scene in front of him as the portal got whiter with each passing moment. He didn’t stop watching even as the monster brought both its arms down onto the back of Chase's helmet, sending him crashing down once again. The pure form struck down on the helmet a second time, shattering the visor and possibly killing the occupant.

Alfred turned away and refused to look as the second swing came down. Instead he chose to analyse the ponies that were watching the events unfold. All the guards looked in awe at the creature as it killed his friend, some with looks of disgust, even some with looks of sorrow despite the fact they didn’t even know them.

Josh had just gotten to his feet as the second blow came down. Chase and him had been the best of friends since before they could walk and to see him go out like that. Despite how hard he tried to hold them back tears began to well up in his eyes.

The pure form began to walk past Chases body towards the portal, seeing more potential victims. The spartans raised their weapons and Josh tried his best to clear his eyes without taking off his helmet as he went to stand beside Leon. The ponies saw the pure form as a threat, but didn’t know what to do as the new captain just stood there and gawked at the monster.

Finally one voice came through the crowd, “Lines of two behind the creatures!” At once the two groups combined into two single file lines behind them.

When the pure form was within ten feet of reaching the portal it looked as if it stumbled, but that was not the case. As it turned violently from left to right to try and throw off its attacker, everyone in the room got a clear view of Chase grappled to the back of the thing. Seeing that it couldn't shake off it's attacker it began to change forms. Big bubbles started to appear all over its skin, its appendages began to shorten, and it fell forward onto the ground. It had taken on a completely new appearance and looked more like a bug than a walking monstrosity that it had been.

Wasting no time Chase shoved his fist straight through the pure form, finally killing it. His victory was short lived though as a combat form jumped over the top of the stairs and charged him. Wasting no time Chase kicked it straight back over the stairs, but only to have two more take its place. Quickly reaching down he picked up his assault rifle and loaded a fresh magazine into it while sidestepping the first swing that came at him.

The image abruptly vanished as pure white was all they could see, but before any of them could even ask a question the whole portal seemed to collapse in on itself. A small white ball was all that remained and everyone seemed to lower their guard.

BOOM!

The small white ball smashed into the ground and exploded with tremendous force. The spartans, in their over eight-hundred pound armor, sailed over the ponies and crashed through the stained windows on the back wall. The last thing they saw as they soured out of the room was a blinding light and the walls beginning to crumble and collapse.

Author's Note

First I would like to take this moment to say I'm sorry for that info dump there near the beginning and that situations like that will be very rare.

Second It will be a while until the next chapter, probably around 3-5 weeks seeing as Battlefield 4 comes out Tuesday.

Lastly I have a question for all of you. Now some of you may have noticed, but I never said their armor colors, at least I'm pretty sure I didn't. Anyways I would like to see what you all have envisioned them looking like. I will be saying what color armor they have next chapter and you, the readers, can have an affect on this, so please comment and let me know. Keep in mind they will all have the same color armor as its a uniform type deal.