Chapter Seven

“Worst idea I’ve ever had...” Chase muttered as he ran away from the main elevator room, putting his armor up to speeds faster than sixty mph, “What the hell was I thinking? Of course the main shaft would be swarming with the things, why wouldn’t it? It’s an easy way to the surface, accessible on all floors, god damn it!”

Chase slid to a stop to turn at a corner, but saw nothing but a maintenance shaft the sentinels use coming down from the ceiling and angling towards him at a ninety degree angle. Throwing caution to the wind, Chase jumped into the shaft and used the same trick with his boots to begin his ascent up the shaft. He could hear the howls from the flood behind him as he moved as fast as he could up the shaft.

‘Please don’t let this thing be flooded with them.’ Chase thought as he looked at the dark corner turn that lead further into facility. Suddenly something latched onto Chase’s back mid step, grabbing his arms for leverage. He slammed his foot against the wall to make sure he did fall back down the tunnel. He was inches away from the turn to level ground, so close he could put his hand out and touch it, but the combat form on his back wouldn’t allow that.

Chase tried to swing his right arm back to elbow his assailant, but as the hit connected another jumped on the same arm. Then another one jumped on his left arm and another wrapped its clammy dead arms around his neck. Chase smacked his head back against one of his assailants and twisted his body rapidly from left to right to try and shake them off, but it was no luck. Chase made a grab for the sword on his right hip, but just as his fingers grasped it, and the magnetic lock disconnected, another of the flood horde grabbed his arm and jerked it back.

Chase felt the handle slip from his grip. A million things went through his mind all at once. Ways to reach his shotgun on his back, the possibility to use his hard light shield to crush the flood and get his sword, even the thought as to what was happening to Ethan and Hank. One thought though, stayed louder than the rest, ‘I will not die here!’

As his magnetic hold to the wall began to give with the added pileup of flood, Chase reached for the ledge with his left hand in one last attempt to save himself. It was so close, but just like with his right hand one of the flood hosts latched onto it and brought it back down. Chase used the momentum from the falling flood to throw it back down the shaft, comically making it hit three more that were jumping up to him.

With no time to laugh and a free left arm, he punched off both of the flood that had become attached to his right arm. Chase quickly brought both arms over his shoulders and grabbed the combat form that had taken up residence. He then threw the thing over his head and into the angled ceiling of the vent.

Chase jumped towards the ledge and was able to grasp it just as the body he had just thrown came back down. It barely missed him and dropped on top of the other flood as they were jumping up the shaft. Using his momentum from the jump, he swung his legs over the edge to his right and rolled into the shaft.

Just as he rose into a kneeling position a large force collided with his stomach, making him roll back towards the drop into the hell he had left. Chase caught sight of his new assailant jumping at him. With reflex kicking in, he rolled under the jumping combat form and retrieved his shotgun from his back. When he saw it go over the edge, the spartan wasted no time and immediately turned and ran down the shaft.

‘Oh man, I wish Hank and Ethan were here with some ammo right now.’ Chase thought as he ran up the slightly sloping tunnel, at a reduced speed of course, since it slightly curved to the right.

After a few more seconds a bright green light flashed from Chase’s right. Looking back, he saw nothing that could of caused the light, but it reminded him of the sword he had lost. His hand shot down to his right hip, expecting to find the empty spot that used to hold his sword, but his hand grasped something else. Using his left hand to holster his shotgun, Chase brought the object up in front of him.

It was the sword he had dropped, he knew it had left his hand after the flood grabbed his arm, ‘Did it relock to my armor?’

Chase put the confusing thoughts concerning the sword out of his head as a voice came in over the radio, “Chase, this is Hank, can you hear me? Your signal just came in.”

“Oh Hank, I’ve never been more happy to hear your hick voice.” Chase answered, putting the sword back on his hip.

“Good to see your awful sense of humor is intact. I’ve got Ethan with me, are the others with you?”

“No, I got them an express ride out of here with a portal we found on the seventh floor.” Chase slapped a combat form out of his way as he continued up the shaft ignoring it’s pain filled howl and the sounds of bones breaking, “I’ll give you the details when we get out of here, where are you two?”

“Right in front of you.” Hank said as Chase rounded the corner to see both of them.

“Alrighty then,” Chase said as he slid to a stop, “I’ve got a small army of flood behind me so if we could get going that-a-way,” he pointed his two index finger to the tunnel behind Hank and Ethan, “-that would be great.”

Ethan step in front of Chase before he could continue down the path, “Hank, hold him.” without question Hank did as he was told and put his arms under Chase’s and locked his hands behind his head, “Take off your helmet.”

Chase was going to protest, but he knew what Ethan was going to do and disengaged to locks on his helmet. Quickly Ethan pulled out a med-kit from off his back.

“When did you pick that up?” Hank asked as Ethan pulled a few things out of the kit.

“Dead guy, floor 3. Bite this.” Ethan stuffed a rag from the med-kit into Chase’s mouth. Before Chase react in any way Ethan jerked out the piece of Chase’s visor that had destroyed his eye. Chase dropped to his knees in pain and Hank got into a kneeling position, the latter still holding the former.

The moment Chase looked up, Ethan used his left arm to hold his head there and sprayed a disinfectant into the wound. Chase tried his hardest to get away from them and the new wave of pain the disinfectant brought, despite that he knew it had to be done. It’s a muscle reaction to avoid pain, but with both Hank and Ethan holding him down, he couldn’t avoid it.

Soon it felt like fire ants were making a home of his destroyed eye socket. It was the bio-foam sealing the wound. Chase’s let out a muffled scream before going limp, his energy practically drained in just a few moments. Ethan put a sterile piece of cotton against his eye before wrapping gauze around his head to keep it there.

When the rag was removed from Chase’s mouth he looked up at Ethan and said, “You can really be an asshole sometimes, you know that right?”

Ethan just nodded and handed Chase his helmet.

After a few moments, Chase claimed to be back on his feet and they began to run back up the path Hank and Ethan had just came down. Chase was at the front with Ethan to his left and Hank at his right. Soon, Chase broke the silence, “You know, I figured you guys would of brought a lot more than just your personals.”

“We did.” Ethan replied keeping his assault rifle raised and watching the path ahead of them.

“We used up our shotguns and most of our grenades getting past the second and third floors. Watch your step when we get near them, it got a little messy.” Hank said, watching the red down pointing arrows on his motion tacker begin to disappear as the spartans ascended the shaft.

Chase nodded his head, “Nice.”

After a about a minute went by, they passed a gore filled piece of the tunnel and a turn off for the third floor. They were all careful not to slip on the blood and pieces of flesh from the flood as they passed by. They did the same as they passed floor two and continued to the exit. Shortly after they could begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel, they had reached the surface.

They all stopped short of the exit as they heard a flood scream outside. Cautiously they all approached the tunnel’s end, weapons raised, ready for anything to jump out at them. Hank had his two SMGs, Ethan had his MA5B, and Chase had his M45D shotgun. Slowly they exited and looked around for any flood forms that could of made the yell they heard.

They moved silently and slowly behind, through, and around the seemingly abandoned buildings that dotted the landscape with the main circle of buildings in the center. The whole area was eerily quiet, as if a hunter was on the prowl and everything but the spartans knew it. Once they reached the edge of the camp and saw the stretch of forest give way to a barren landscape Chase spoke up, “So, how far out did you park?”

“About a mile or two out, why?”

“Just wondering if you actually knew that or if it was going to be another Tibia situation.” Chase muttered as they continued with caution.

“That still wasn’t my fault.”

“You-” Chase was suddenly interrupted as a loud shriek sliced through the quiet that had taken hold of the area. The spartans turned their backs to the wasteland and looked back towards the compound, but nothing was in sight. Without warning, something large landed right behind them and smacked them all in the back, sending them flying into the compound.

Ethan continued with his momentum and was able to right himself before landing on the ground. He slid a small distance before turning back with his assault rifle raised to shoot at the enemy who had gotten the drop on them.

Hank landed on his ammo pack and slid into the side of a concrete building, cracking the surface. He quickly rolled over and stood, his SMGs never leaving his hands, aiming at the thing that had hit them.

Chase smashed through the back wall of a green paneled barracks building. He groggily sat up, and immediately noticed a lack of a weapon in his hands. He looked up and saw it in the clearing a short distance away from... “What, the fuck, is that?”

The creature in question stood twice as tall as the spartans, a good fifteen to sixteen feet high. It had two long, tentacle arms that appeared to be armored, extendable, and ended in pointy little pyramid-like pincers. It’s legs were long and thin, but with how it just attacked them they’re also strong and easily supported the bulky body. Like the pure forms, it had no face, but instead had the feelers from a couple of infection forms in a small, circular, slightly caved in area.

The creature crouched as Ethan began firing at it in controlled bursts, his 7.62x51mm armor piercing rounds bouncing off it’s armored chest. The creature launched itself straight at him at speeds he barely saw. Ethan tried to dive out of the way, but the creature was faster and slammed into his midsection. He went flying and slammed into Chase just as he was climbing out of the barracks building he had landed in.

The thing, standing just a few feet away from where it had smacked into Ethan, took a step towards the two downed spartans. A spray of automatic fire from it’s right made it change it’s mind though. It jumped high in the air and landed behind one of the buildings in the distance, leaving the spartans a small time to regroup.

Ethan and Chase crawled out of the destroyed building they had landed in, both scanning their surroundings as they did so. Hank slowly made his way to them, both his SMGs raised, both a little over half a clip. They moved towards the wasteland again, all thinking of getting off the ring before they had another run in with the creature from a bad Japanese horror movie.

As Chase picked up his shotgun he handed it to Hank, “Check how many shells I got, would ya.”

Hank grabbed it, then gave it right back, “It’s out, ya got more?”

“Nope.” Chase muttered, tossing the shotgun away.

“We’re gonna have ta sprint it to the Pelican. I don’t think we can take this thing with just what we got.”

“Negative, it would be on us before we got the Pelican started.”

“Wait, Ethan, how much juice is left in that Spartan Laser?” Chase said, finally noticing the weapon on his back.

“One shot.” Ethan answered.

“He’s saving it for if we have to take out our own ride out of here.” Hank answered before Chase could ask.

“Okay, so that’s-”

“Duck!” Hank shouted dropping to the ground, the others followed quickly after. A M831 Troop Transport Warthog came flying over their heads and landed on its wheels, rolled twice, and came to a stop on it’s wheels. The only thing that seemed to take any damage was the broken windshield.

“I think that was actually a Warthog.” Chase stated.

“Move!” Hank shouted next before diving to the right of an incoming M808B MBT also known as a Scorpion. Chase dove left with Ethan as the hulking vehicle smashed into the ground, flipped over the Warthog, and blew up. Somehow, the Warthog remained unscathed despite the debris that flew out from the burning wreckage of the Scorpion.

“And that was a Scorpion.” Chase added, standing up.

“I think we could see that.” Hank said, attaching his SMGs to his hips and hefting his modified M247H Heavy Machine Gun out in front of him. Ethan raised his MA5B and Chase activated his sword as they all looked at the flood monster in front of them. It was on top of the concrete building Hank had slammed into, and it was holding another Scorpion tank in it’s left tentacle.

Hank caught sight of Chase’s sword, but Chase answered before he could ask, “I’ll tell ya later. Right now, let’s deal with the shity Japanese tentacle monster.”

“What?”

“Just shoot it.” Chase said. Hank and Ethan were happy to comply. Ethan fired short bursts from his MA5B, while Hank laid down a non-stop spray of bullets. Meanwhile, Chase ran behind Ethan and began to Circle the monster, hoping to either expose it’s back to the other two spartans or get a shot at slicing off one of its appendages.

Chase’s plan went down the toilet as the creature used the Scorpion tank as a make shift shield and once again jumped back and out of range. Hiding itself amongst the broken and/or abandoned buildings, but it was Ethan’s words that sent a chill down everyone’s spine, “It’s stalling.”

“So it’s other friends could get here no doubt. I say we load up in the Hog and fight this thing where it can’t hide.” Chase said.

Suddenly a mongoose came flying over head, barely missing Hank by inches, “Ah hell, ya got my vote. Let’s move.” Hank said as they all turned and went for the Transport Warthog together.

Chase slid across the hood, the contact with his armor making an annoying screech as he did so, and quickly made his way to the driver seat. Ethan then followed into the passenger seat and Hank jumped in the back. With his back against an awful seat, and his M247 propped up on the rear-end of the of the Warthog, Hank said two words that should never be said to Chase, “Floor it.”

The Warthog lurched forward as it’s wheels found purchase on the cracked stone of the wasteland-like area. Chase decided that he would skirt the right edge of the area to give them time to kill the creature stalking them. All they had to do was wait for the creature to attack and-

“Incoming!” Hank shouted before he began shooting at the creature behind them. Chase swerved to the left just before the monster crushed them. A large column of dirt and rock erupted where they were no more than a second ago as the creature tried to stop their escape.

“God damn it Hank, shoot it!” Chase yelled as Ethan started firing his MA5B from the passenger seat.

“What do you think I’m doing!? It’s still got the Scorpion!” Hank’s response was quick and cut off by another wall of bullets raging out of his M247.

“Good, if it keeps a hold of the Scorpion then it could slow it down enough for us to-” Chase was cut off as the Scorpion tank suddenly flew over his head and exploded right in the middle of his path. He swerved left to avoid the wreckage, trying to think of a way to kill the monster before they got to the Pelican.

At the back of the Hog, Hank continued shooting wall after wall of bullets any time the creature got in range. Without warning, the creature suddenly stopped, jumped back away from them, and watched as they drove away. Hank kept his eyes on it as it shrunk away in the distance, “It just backed off.”

“What do you mean it backed off?” Chase asked.

“I mean it backed off, it’s just standing there, not moving.” Hank answered.

“Well, let’s not question it and get the fuck out of here.” Chase said as the Warthog bounced from a particularly large hole.

The air was calm for a few seconds as the spartans drove onward to their destination, but only for a few seconds. A loud deep howl began to reverberate throughout the area, seeming to come from everywhere at once. The sound sent a chill down all of their spines as it got louder, going so far as to make the local wildlife in the trees to their right shoot up in the air.

“Contacts!” Ethan shouted, readjusting his aim for the figures that had shot out of the trees. Hank did the same with his M247, although with some difficulty due to the roll cage over the seats.

“I think those are just birds guys.” Chase said dismissively before something shot out of the forest and slammed into the cracked windshield of the Warthog.

The thing in front of him was easily recognized as a flood host, but it was another Chase had never seen before. It looked close to a mutated rat-bat hybrid, with long legs that were almost longer than it’s body. It’s wings were boney and looked like leather and the skin on it’s back was transparent showing it’s spine whereas the rest of it’s skin was a sickly green. To top it off, as it righted itself and looked at Chase from the hood of the Warthog, it opened it’s mouth to hiss at him and showed off a full set of very sharp teeth. As it took off from the hood it’s legs curved forward and let them see the single sharp talon at the end of each leg.

“You were saying?” Hank commented as the swarm moved back towards the creature.

“Just how long have those been there?” Chase asked aloud.

The swarm that had came out of the forest had begun to follow them in the skies above them, making a wall of flesh so thick Hank and Ethan only saw glimpse of the sky near the edges of the swarm. Hank let loose a small spray of bullets at the swarm, but the distance was great enough that the swarm were able to disperse and avoid the rounds, “What do we do now? Those things are staying out of range of our weapons and I’ve lost sight of the big one.”

“This ring curves up, how did you lose sight of it?” Chase asked as he began pulling away from the forest.

“I was distracted!” Hank shouted as the the swarmers began to group above them once more, the shot at them, “Incoming!”

Chase quickly swerved the Warthog as the bulk of the swarm hit the ground where they had been not a second before. Ethan was the first to fire his weapon and Hank quickly followed as the swarm righted itself and shot after them. It was gaining fast despite Hank’s bullets taking out a great deal of them. Ethan conserved his ammo and shot any that broke away from the main group in small bursts of fire. Soon the swarm began to dwindle to nothing as they were cut down in their attempt to reach their vehicle.

“Keep your eyes open cause that was too-” Hank started before Chase cut him off.

“Don’t finish that sentence!” Chase shouted, “Or do you want something even worse to come after us?”

“There’s the Pelican.” Ethan said, cutting off Hank’s rebuttal.

“Finally, let’s get the fu-” Chase was cut off as something very big climbed on top of the Pelican. Chase was shocked at the sight, the fact it had been smart enough to make a distraction, and the sound of a spartan laser being drawn in his passenger seat. He looked over to see Ethan charging the shot. Fear gripped Chase’s heart, Hank didn’t know what was happening as he was finishing off the last of the swarmers, and Ethan’s only thought was that the flood couldn’t get off the ring.

“Shoot the monster, not the Pelican!” Chase shouted as he saw where the laser was pointing, “Ethan don’t!” the laser discharged and the beam flew towards it’s target.

Time crawled as Chase looked on in awe, Ethan had shot at the Pelican, but the flood monster had jumped in front of the shot at the last second. It’s tentacle arms were crossed in front of it’s chest, then suddenly they fell off at the crossing point and revealed that the laser had left quite the crater in the beast’s chest.

“Chase turn!” Ethan’s words snapped Chase out of his stupor as he saw they had gotten very close to the monster.

Chase swung the Warthog left and pulled on the E-brake as he did so, swinging out the back end just before the Warthog came to a complete stop. The creature let out a large howl of pain as it seemed to just register what had happened to it, a howl that was cut off as multiple 12.7x99mm rounds pounded into it’s newly open chest cavity. It let out a gurgling sound as it fell back onto the rocky, barren ground, dead and defeated.

Ethan jumped out of the passenger seat and proceeded towards the Pelican, the rear hatch opening as he got near. Hank climbed out the back and watched the surroundings for any signs of flood that may be answering to the call the big one had made. Chase put the Warthog in reverse and backed it up to the back of the Pelican, fully intent on bringing the vehicle that had saved their lives with him to safety.

Ethan, meanwhile, had gotten to the cockpit of the Pelican and knew what Chase was doing as he saw the bigger blip on his motion sensor approach. As he sat down into the pilot seat he pressed a few buttons and the magnetic clamps on the back of the Pelican descended towards the Warthog. Chase waited for a solid thump as the clamps connected with the rollcage of the Warthog before exiting the vehicle and moving towards the Pelican.

“Let’s get the hell off this ring, shall we?” Chase said as he joined Hank inside the Pelican. Hank just nodded, taking a seat as the back doors closed on the hellish landscape.

As they began to take off a thought crossed Chase’s mind, “Hey Ethan, you meant to shoot that thing, right?” there was no response, “Right?”

“I got Lasky on comms.” Ethan said over the radio, completely ignoring Chase’s question.

“Lasky? You mean Infinity is here? This should be good.” Chase said dropping the subject and switching off their private team channel, “This is Spartan Chase Blake of Fireteam Ghost, go ahead Captain.”

“Spartan, do you know how close you were to being destroyed with that ring?” Captain Lasky’s voice came through the comm.

“Do I even want to know?” Chase said taking a seat across from Hank and leaning his head back.

“Probably not.” Infinity’s AI Roland’s voice came in next, “But maybe you can answer a few questions for us when you get here.”

“Oh I can do more than answer questions with the data I got.” Chase said with a small chuckle.

“Good, you can start off with where Captain Miller went with his entire ship.” Commander Palmers stern voice came in next.

Chase slowly sat up straight and looked at Hank, “I don’t know about that, but I got names and reports from a great number of rebel sympathisers that operate within the UNSC. First things first though.”

“What is it Spartan?” Lasky asked.

“We kinda skipped breakfast thanks to this whole thing, so...”

Chase heard Lasky chuckle before he answered, “After a full debrief I think we can help with that.”

“Well thank god, crisis averted.” Chase laughed as they ascended into space. Hank joined in and Chase could of swore he heard Ethan give the smallest chuckle. At the back of his mind, Chase thought, ‘Now to find everyone else.’

Author's Note

I tried something new and added some pictures in there with the descriptions, tell me if that was a good thing or just a waste of space.

Okay, community question: If you had to be one of the races on Equis, any of them, which would you be?

Edit: So I double clicked publish and accidentally unpublished immediately after I published it. I know that's against the site rules and I'm sorry, it was an honest mistake I swear.