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Outbreak by gruntkiller99
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Outbreak: Insertion into Hell
Date: 14 June 2004, 4:32 PM
Hi if any of you have read Assault Parts 1-4 that was me under a differnet name. Sorry I never finished it.
Narssesil, Gratonkuf
Covenant Planet
2230 hours
The Chief looked out the window of his HEV pod and saw four others each holding a Spartan. Linda, Will, Kelly, Fred, and himself were on a mission to land on the Covenant military training planet directly below him gather intel and technology, destroy any key buildings, and capture key personnel then hijack a Covenant dropship and have Cortana fly them out to the UNSC cruiser Messiah waiting on the other side of the moon.
"Ten to dirt," said Cortana coolly to the Spartans, "nervous Master Chief?"
"What's to be nervous about it's only what, a couple thousand troops at the least, with little to no intel on landscape or anything else for that matter," he responded without looking up from his gear, "Cortana can you use the Covenant satellites to give me an accurate body count?"
"Yes," said Cortana, "but it could take a couple minutes."
He made sure his gear was all there:
Battle Rifle and 12 spare clips, M90 shotgun and 72 spare shells, SMG with 6 spare clips, a dozen frags, a combat knife, and two canisters of C6 good it was all there.
"Three to dirt," remarked Cortana.
The Master Chief's HEV's metallic skin boiled away revealing the steel cage encasing the Chief and his gear.
And fell to the ground below landing with a thud. A minute later the five Spartans landed on the planet in a perfect V formation. It was snowing outside of the HEV, but that didn't prevent the Covenant from spotting them and sending a welcoming party consisting of six Grunts, four Jackals, and two Elites.
"Contacts, eleven o'clock," shouted the Chief.
Linda who was on the left of the V emptied her clip, dropping two Elites, two Jackals, and a Grunt. John, Kelly, Will, and Fred opened up on the rest of the troops with a series of burst stopping the Grunts dead in their tracks. The Jackals however were veterans and acted the part as they rolled, putting them selves in a position that was almost impossible to get a clean shot. But the Chief found it and dropped one Jackal the other panicking started firing randomly while steadily retreating, but that gave Linda the angle she needed. She rolled to the left and aimed her S2 AM at the exposed skin of the Jackal and fired, Jackal fell onto the snow blood trickling out of the wound.
Damn, they know we're here, but we still have the element of surprise as long as they think we're dead. Now keep moving and pay attention," four acknowledgement lights winked on letting the Chief know they understood.
The Spartan spread out a little more in the wide valley trying to make themselves less of a target for mass fire or grenades.
"Chief you asked for a body count," Cortana said grimly, "It's in the high trillions low zillions roughly the same amount Wellesley scanned on Halo."
"Shit," The Chief whispered, "The Flood! Team we have a snag. You all remember the incident on Reach and where I was, The Flood was. Well the AI at our base scanned the area both above and below-ground the body count is almost the same."
"We need extraction if that's the case," said Fred.
"With what, we weren't given any means of communication strong enough to get to orbit," responded Kelly grimly.
"We're going to need a dropship or something that can go into vacuum," said the Master Chief, "We have to find one but after and only after we have confirmed the presence of the Flood do we abort this mission."
The Chief looked up ahead and saw three boulders in there path. When his team was ten meters away two of them glowed sickly green.
"Shit, Hunters," the Chief shouted as he dived out of the way of one of the pulses.
The other slammed into Fred knocking him back four meters. The Spartans knew it was useless to pepper the aliens with armor piercing rounds, and Fred had the M19 SSM launcher so they had to flank the walking tanks. The aliens' guns glowed again ready to fire another salvo this time directed at Kelly and Will. They evaded the superheated plasma a continued to get in flanking position. The Hunters turned with them exposing there leathery skin to the Chief who had stayed where he was. He rolled a frag between the monsters. Five seconds later the grenade detonated with a thump and both Hunters fell forward, orange blood painting the snow.
Fred sprinted forward just in time to see the walking tanks fall.
Fred swore, "Sorry I missed the party."
"That's okay you got a souvenir," Kelly pointed to his slightly charred chestplate.
The Chief started to leave when he got an idea.
"Spartans, hold position for a moment," the Chief said as he sprinted back to their original kill site.
He grabbed the Jackals shields went back and gave them to Will, Kelly, Linda, and Fred.
"Wait Chief what do you get," questioned Fred.
The Chief slung his Battle Rifle hefted the Hunter's shield and un-holstered his SMG.
"Well now I don't feel sorry for you anymore," smirked Fred.
The MJOLNIR armor was perfectly weight balanced, but now the Chief felt front heavy lugging around the enormous shield. Twenty meters ahead his motion sensors painted contacts, lots and lots of contacts.
"Spartans, delta formation around Linda, I'm the point," the Chief said.
His team's shields made the Covenant hesitate giving the Chief a second to asses the situation. A hundred Grunts, fifty Jackals, twenty Elites, and four Hunters.
John said, "Open fire on the sons of a bitches!"
Outbreak: Hell's Guardians
Date: 15 June 2004, 1:04 PM
Narssesil, Gratonkuf
Covenant Planet
2315 hours
The stutter of plasma rifles and pistols response of an S2 AM, a M19 SSM, and two Battle Rifles filled the air.
A minor Grunt heaved an ignited plasma grenade at the humans and shouted "Grenade!"
John raised his shield catching the well thrown grenade, it exploded and he appreciated the strength of the metal alloy when it wasn't even scratched. Fred's first salvo of 102mm rockets blew two Hunters and five Grunts to pieces. His second salvo hit one Hunter an Elite and a Grunt, the other Hunter roared in rage and fire three rapid plasma bolts at Fred who was at the right edge of the formation. He rolled behind a tree and reloaded. He peeked around, poked his launcher out and fire twice. The first 102mm shaped charge slammed into the Hunter and the second hit five Jackals and an Elite. The Master Chief emptied half of his clip into a charging blue Elite. A scarlet veteran snarled and opened fire at the armor clad human who waited until the plasma rifle over heated and dumped waste, he fired twelve rounds which impacted on the Elite's head and the last two penetrated and flew out of the back of the warrior's skull. The Chief then slammed his shield into the soft ground reloaded and holstered his SMG and un-slung his Battle Rifle. He peered through the scope and sighted a gold Elite, John fingered the trigger was about to fire when a sharp crack resounded and the Elite collapsed in a heap. Three more cracks sounded and three Jackals fell Linda's dead aim was responsible for the damage done. The Master Chief opened up on a group of a dozen orange clad Grunts, they fell quickly under the barrage of armor piercing bullets. He then tossed a frag into a clump of soldiers and it went off with a whump, thus ending the frantic firefight. Behind the piles of bullet riddled corpses was a large rectangular vaguely arachnid structure. He hadn't noticed it through his haste to kill the masses of Covenant soldiers. Now that he did he didn't want to enter, the last time he went into a building such as that he was attacked by relentless waves of infectious flood.
"I think we should check that building out Chief," suggested Linda.
The Chief warned them about the threat of The Flood. "Cortana what are the chances that the Flood will inhabit the structure."
"88 percent chance of Flood inhabitation," responded Cortana gravely.
The Chief sighed, swore, picked up his shield and un-holstered his SMG and continued as point man in their delta formation. They slowly walked down the hill to the structure. A dozen Grunts leaped from their cover, cluster of boulders followed by four Elites. The red veteran Elite fired; a barrage of glassy needles impacted on the Chief's shield and exploded dropping his shield to ¾ charge. He emptied his clip into it and the alien fell. The Grunts opened fire with their own barrage of purple needles. Thirty hit Linda, seconds later they exploded staggering her and causing her last shot to go wild. Will tossed a stolen plasma grenade onto a scarlet Elite's helmet the Elite warbled something just before he was enveloped in a flash of blue light along with two Grunts. Linda picked off the two remaining Elites and twenty-three rounds of AR fire was sufficient to end the short outbreak. The Spartans gathered plasma grenades from the fallen aliens, reloaded, and continued their short walk to the door. It was locked up tight, but Kelly was carrying a standard UNSC lock breaker. Three minutes later the door slide silently open and the armored humans broke formation and entered one at a time spaced out by a meter. They found themselves in a large room filed with Covenant communication technology, but no Covenant guarding it. Strange anything the Covenant deem "important" was usually guarded, but behind the purple COM boxes was a grav lift, they got on and Kelly who was closest hit a button on the holo panel and the lift lurched downwards. There was a pit in the Master Chief's stomach but he didn't dare say this because he needed everyone sharp if his and Cortana's suspicions were correct. At the bottom of the lift was a dozen Grunts and Jackals. Shotgun and AR fire ended the fight before it started. They passed through a door which lead to a hallway the split ninety degrees right and left. Will, Kelly, and Fred went right while the Chief and Linda went left. They passed what the Chief had come to know as a containment cell. It was closed, but John peered through the window and the room was empty. They met with the other half and went through another door. Inside were the bodies of two black ops Covenant strike teams. They were smaller than normal units which made the Chief wonder if there was Flood in here and they had used some of their bodies as hosts. He banished the thought and kept going, after thirty minutes of enemy less rooms the came to a large room which was split in half by a tunnel. A chill went up the Master Chief's spine as he went down into it. There was the familiar door which they went into, but rather than let the door close John put his shield in between the doors keeping them open.
"Chief what are you doing," questioned Fred.
"Leaving a way out," he paused, "trust me."
Suddenly his sensor painted contacts behind the door he just opened. Sure enough pod like Flood forms poured through pushing the shield out of the way. Knowing what they were the Master Chief opened fire at them a hail of armor piercing rounds popped dozens of them. The other Spartans saw him fire and followed suit until they finished the leathery bastards off.
"What the hell where those things," asked Linda.
"The Flood," replied the lead Spartan grimly.
Seconds later another outburst of Flood came this time behind them. They had just enough time to swear and start shooting at the balloon like creatures that hopped, rolled, and leapt at the armor clad humans.
Outbreak: Escape from Hell
Date: 20 June 2004, 12:34 AM
Narssesil, Gratonkuf
Covenant Planet
2427 hours
The next two outbreaks were just the pods, but the third had two "Elite" combat forms. Realizing their threat the Chief shot off their legs. He spun and fired into the wave of infectious forms. Finally after the Flood stopped coming everyone reloaded and asked questions about the Flood.
"Quiet, The Flood are parasitic life forms that use Elites and Marines as host for combat forms," He said pointing to the shambling tatters of flesh lying on the ground. He continued on describing their intelligence, and other traits such as the S2s ineffectiveness because of their rapidly liquefying insides. They took a moment to try to understand it all.
"Let's keep moving we're going to need to if we're going to get out of here alive," said the Chief.
Fred set his C7 on the door out and then took cover inside a containment cell. Five seconds later the C7 exploded blowing the door to pieces. The Spartans stepped out and turned facing each entrance to their position. The Master Chief fired a shot at a combat form that strayed in front of the entrance. They moved out and eliminated half a dozen combat forms and thirty infectious forms. They walked through a door and were in a room, were the Covenant were battling the Flood on the landing below them. They let them whittle each other down before throwing plasma grenades into the scuffle killing the rest of the forces. They crossed the energy bridge and went through another door leading to another Covenant, Flood firefight. This energy bridge was faulty and wouldn't turn on. So they waited until they had beaten each other down to a reasonable amount then they jumped down. The Master Chief fired his M90, the 8 gauge buckshot shells tore the nearest combat form apart. He turned and a found himself face-to-face with a human combat form. It lashed out the tentacles snapped at him like a whip knocking him against a wall. The Chief dropped to one knee, narrowly missing the second blow. He pulled the trigger on his shotgun blowing a foot wide hole in the creature. He saw Fred struggling with a combat form his shotgun lay idle two meters away. The Chief slung his M90 worrying about the scatter gun hitting his teammate in favor of his Battle Rifle and fired three short bursts at the tattered hunk of flesh. Fred grabbed his shotgun and nodded in thanks to John. When he heard a sizzle and saw a ruby red beam of light pop a dozen infection forms. The Chief realized that since the Flood was here naturally Sentinels would be. They would be great helps as long as they stayed unprovoked. The Chief saw Will and Kelly take aim on a patch of the machines and, before he could shout a warning they fired. Four came down under the initial barrage of bullets. The quickly returned fire and now there was no chance of a friendly alliance. Still the Sentinels would focus on the Flood so he focused on the Sentinels. He was looking upwards, aiming at the flying machines when a combat form opened fire, twenty glassy needles impacted upon the Chief then three seconds later exploded, nearly knocking him to the floor. Remembering not to let his guard down lest he wanted the infection forms catch him with his shield down - again. He aimed at what was left of its head and squeezed the trigger and the flood form hit the ground. Just then a carrier form waddled in and exploded under the impact of Kelly's well aimed shots spewing more pods. That ended the real battle and the Spartans popped the remaining balloon like forms and regrouped.
"What the hell were those flying things," asked Linda.
"Sentinels," answered the Chief, "Their job is to stop the Flood from spreading, they're not our friends but they will focus on the Flood before they fire at us unless in self defense." Kelly and Will shifted uncomfortably at their mistake being mentioned, "Now let's move."
He walked through an entrance that's door had been destroyed. Again he split his team and walked through the paths. This time however the cells were open and two combat forms lunged out but fell to the floor under the Spartans' hail of fire. He heard the chatter of automatic weapons and realized the others must have run into opposition. They met at the door and continued into a room that could only be described as chaotic. Flood fired at Covenant who fired at Sentinels who fire back at both sides. The Chief tossed a smoke grenade in and charged forward his movements masked, but that also caused the Grunts and Jackals to fire randomly hitting some of their own teammates. Linda picked off the Sentinels which had no problems firing into the scuffle for they were above the thicker smoke. The Chief battered a Grunt aside and pulped an Elite with the butt of his rifle. He heard an explosion as a carrier form burst knocking Will who had the misfortune of being too close into a Jackal. Will slammed his rifle into it killing the alien instantly. The Chief fired three times at a cluster of combat forms and Kelly killed the last Elite ending the fight. He stepped out of the smoky area and looked for a door it was resting behind a Covenant communication box.
"Chief," Cortana said, "I believe that door leads to the security room. Maybe we can keep the Flood contained for the moment."
The Chief relayed this information and walked through the door there were dozen of infection form in the room. His shotgun boomed and killed most of the leathery monstrosities. Kelly finished the rest with a spray of AR fire. The Chief walked up to the holo panel and inserted Cortana into a slot.
"This will only take a minute," said Cortana coolly.
There was a sudden bang and the door dented in.
"Hurry," said the Chief his voice amazingly calm, "We might only have seconds."
Just then the door caved and hundreds of infection forms poured through. They stopped and looked both ways, there was nothing there. The Spartans sprang up from their cover behind the holo panel's base and sprayed the Flood forms each bullet passing through the holo panel made it shimmer and shake. It took only seconds to kill them all.
"There done, the only way out now is a series of tight winding corridors," Cortana informed them, "Though you'll need to shut down your shields to squeeze through some."
"All of you heard Cortana," said the Chief, "that means watch out for the little bastards."
The Master Chief popped Cortana out of the holo panel and inserted her into a slot at the base of his neck. They exited through a side panel barely large enough for one Spartan. John took point followed by Will, Linda, Kelly, and then Fred. The Chief spotted three Grunts ahead and fired a three round burst into each of them. He kept going without breaking stride, and found another door this one too small to fit through. So he deactivated hi shield signaling for his team to do the same and slid through shoulder first, though he still vaguely aimed his gun forward. They exited out of the small passageway and found themselves in a normal sized room littered with bodies, but not all of them were dead. Eight Brutes and Four Elites aimed at the armored humans the Elites snarling and the Brutes roaring a battle cry.
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