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Rise and Fall of the Flood Chapter 1
Date: 2 July 2003, 11:20 PM

The scientist fell blessedly to the floor, dropping the beam pistol to his feet. He was out of breath from running, running from the flood. He couldn't believe they had gotten loose...the security system in place was old, but...ruthless and quite deadly. But none the less, the Flood had apparently adapted, and overwhelmed the defences, and now, here, in the depths of this fortress world, they were loose. *** The soldiers had stayed to try and hold them back, but 5 standard soldiers were no match for the Flood, nothing was. As a scientist, he had stood behind them, and watched as wave upon wave of infection and carrier forms had come, and no matter how many flood were taken down, more just kept coming, and things got crazy. Soon, all the energy cells had run dry, and they were forced to flee. The scientist had managed to grab a pistol from a tripped soldier, who threw it to him before his body was covered by infection forms. He had split off from the rest in fear of what he had seen next. Blood had spewed from the body of the fallen soldier, and then, his body had risen, armor and all, except...completely mutated by the flood, a brand new combat form, with armor fused into the soft fleshy body of the flood. All 9 feet of the soldier charged, arms raised above its head. It leapt upon a soldier, who fired his rifle at point blank range. The beam tore through the body, slicing through flesh and the armor underneath, vaporiznig innards, and came tearing out the back, leaving burn marks on a nearby bulkhead. The soldier grunted as the dead combat form landed atop him, a dead weight. Bringing his massive strength into play, he threw the body away, and started retreating again. He dropped his now totally drained rifle, and started to sprint. The scientist at this point was running down a side tunnel, sprinting away from them, hoping to find another exit. He risked opening an airlock, being so close to the ring's outer skin, but it didn't matter, he had to get away.***
He pulled the recording device out, and started to hurridly set it up. When it was ready, he started the recording. "Comrades who find this, I am sorry I could not deliever it to you in person, but you must know...the Flood have been released, and by now they are upon the Library. It stings me to know that this ring must be used, but what must be done must be done." he said, pausing at a squirming like noise, scooping up the beam pistol, and sweeping breifly. "Comrades, the flood are coming, you must....GAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" he yelled as an infection form latched onto his head, infecting him instantly. He managed to toss the thing off his head, but he was infected, although without the infection form speeding the process along, he had some time to live. He literally felt it spread through his body, felt his chitinous skin tingle and heat up, felt sweat bead on his thin forehead. He knew he had little time, minutes probably. He picked up the beam pistol and put it to his head. He closed his eyes, and pressed the firing stud. The beam sliced through his head, vaporized his brain, and he fell dead to the floor. But the infection was still in his blood, and soon, be began to twitch, and his body spasmed as the virus spread. His amrs mutated, the left one forming strong whiplike apendages, his muscule mass doubling in size, and his skin beginning to crawl to cover facial features and turn a nasty greenish brown. Then, using already powerful forerunner arms, the new flood drone pushed itself to its feet, and stood, waiting for instructions from a flood overlord, which controled all flood activity within a lightyear. Not only were they huge and hard to find, but nearly impossible to kill, seeing as they were generally the size of a forerunner dregnaught. Instructions came swiftly, and with a final twitch of resistance from whatever was left of the sciencetist, the combat form ran off through the tunnels of the fortress world. ***
The alarm sounded and all the soldiers leapt up in surprise. It wasn't any security alarm, this was the Flood alarm, which meant BIG probolems. The scramble alarm soon sounded, and within minutes, the main gate had a good 50 Forerunner soldiers in a phalnax position, all ready to fire. There was a loud crash, and the giant door seemed to bulge forward. Pops were heard as carrier forms exploded, and the gate seemed to swell outward. Fianlly, with a screeching crash, the door was torn open, and the flood charged. It appeared that they had been multiplying, as combat forms in the shape of forerunner came charging across the ground, arms flailing in fury, followed by carrier forms and infections. The Flood poured from their prison, baying foor blood. But, they were not to happen. Someone screamed "ATTACK!", and the dying began. Beam rifles spewed angry red beams of light, that sliced into the flood lines, causing even the largest of drones to reel backwards, if not incapacitating or killing them completely. The beams sliced open the soft bodies, tore arms and heads from the torsos, and gutted the ungodly race, ripping them to pecies. Beam after beam lashed out to carve them up, but still they poured from the complex, desperate to escape. The soldiers fired and fired, and the flood kept coming. All was in hand, until a foulshot sliced into a carrier form, which promtly exploded, vaulting its compainions far over the heads of the forerunner troops. Once they landed, a good dozen of them popped, releasing a flood of infection forms. The troops turned to deal with that threat, firing sustained beams into the crowd, popping all the infections. But that small distraction was all it took for the flood to react and adapt. Combat forms leapt upon their backs, pinning them down, and infection forms crawled onto their faces, and the screaming began. Fortuantly, to the one soldier smart enough to flee when the carriers got behind them...the screams didn't last long.

Chapter 2
Date: 6 July 2003, 7:02 AM

Ty stood perfectly still. There was a fifty fifty chance that the flood had left the area, and were long gone, or they had left and where not far away...well, there was always the chance that they had all stopped moving, awaiting instructions, and didn't appear on his motion tracker. He peeked through the foliage, and froze. A combat form appeared to be standing by a wall, twitching, seeming to be listening to some far away voice as it growled. Ty thought of his dead comrades, how their lives had been stolen, and how their souls were now trapped within the body of a Flood warrior. He growled slightly in anger, hands gripping his rifle tighter, his chest swelling outward. The flood demon twitched in his direction, searching for the noise it had heared. Ty was beginning to shake with rage, and fiannly, he burst from the swamp, howling a battlecry, baying for blood as he fired his rifle. The first beam sliced into the creatures right shoulder, causing it to reel back from the force of the beam. The second shot ripped into it's stomach area, sending a spray of blood, and doubling the thing over. The third shot tore into it's left thigh, slicing the leg clean off, dropping the creature onto its back, where it struggled to get up and fight back. Ty walked over towards the thing, and kicked it hard, hard enough to cause internal damage, which few species could do without powered armor, and it was hard enough just to make them recoil from a strike much less hurt them. He kicked it and kicked it, and used his other leg when it got a grip on his ankle. He aimed down, and fired a shot directly into its head. The creature spasmed once, and died. Just to make sure, Ty put a few more shots into it and kicked the burnt hole in its head once. And suddenly, he realized his mistake. The motion on his tracker had stopped, and vanished. A few seconds after the flood warrior died, it returned...only headed towards him. He swore aloud, and took off, looking for the nearest way into the breifing area. There was a door nearby, and Ty darterd through it, and whipped around. Raising his rifle, he fired a steady stream of energy, welding the door shut. It wouldn't hold for long, the flood could break it down easily. He ran down the hall, up a short flight of stairs, and into the main hall. Sweeping quickly, he found the briefing room, doors still open from the alarm. He bolted inside, and shut the door, slapping the lock button. He sat down on the table and waited. His motion tracker showed them coming, and soon, his crosshairs were pulsating slowly, indicating nearby movement. It didn't take long for the slowl pulses to become a solid glow. The Flood were now upon the instalation. It took less than five minutes for there to be thumps in the hallway. Ty stood motionless, rifle aimed at the doorway. He figured that if they got in, and there was more than one, he could just jump out the....window...behind...him....and it was to late. A combat form burst through the window at the far end of the room. Ty spun and fired, the beam taking it right in the gut, dropping it quickly. He darted over to the window, a particle grenade in his hand. He took a brief second to aim, and tossed it. The device bounced once, then, it detonated in a crowd of combat forms. Some had time to leap at the window before a wave of white energy washed over them, vaporizing half their bodies or killing them instantly from the force of the blast. Ty made no hesitation in running for the door, quickly opening it, and stepping into the hall. He blasted a flood from behind, the beam slicing the head clean off, so perfect was the shot. Ty smirked, but dashed down to the acess ladder that lead to the lone guard tower on the gate complex. He clambered to the top, and grinned. The flood had spared the heavy pulse cannon mounted on the tower, designed to cover the gate. The Flood had moved back into the main area, at least some of them, investigating the noise and firing and the yell. Ty powered the cannon, and strapped into it, and howled a battle yell as he mashed the firing stud. Large teardrop shaped bolts of sizzling white particle energy tore from the weapon, smashing into the flood ranks. A single hit was enough to take even the largest of flood down, so powerful was the weapon. He fired and fired, until it over heated, dead anyway. He looked down the shaft of the ladder and swore. Combat forms were at the bottom. They couldn't climb, but would prevent him from going down. Eventually, they would adapt and "learn" to climb the ladder, so he had only one option. He slung his rifle over his shoulder, and reached out for the edge of the roof. It took him a few seconds to climb to the very top, but he did make it up there, only after the strap on his rifle snapped, causing it to fall. He was short one rifle, but still had two particle grenades, and his energy knife. The building was huge, and he began to Jog north, towards the vechile yard, across the huge metal roof of the building. Rain began to fall, a trickle at first, and a downpour suddenly. He muttered. At least he had escaped from the Flood...until a combat form leapt up in front of him on the rain slicked roof. It growled and stood there, staring at him. Slowly, it began to walk towards him, growling. Ty thought of his kinfe...it would be suicide in the rain, so would a grenade this close to himself. He cracked his knuckles, and started to run towards it, raising his fists above him. He howled, and was upon the Flood.

Rise and Fall of the Flood Chapter 3
Date: 8 July 2003, 10:53 PM

Ty crashed into the combat form, twin fists crashing down on its head. His right knee came up, slamming into the thing's stomach, followed by him putting it in a head lock, smashing his knee into what was the thing's throat, and leaping forward, the flood landing on its back, an the entirety of Ty's weight crashing donw on the flood's throat, crushing it in. The thing lashed out, throwing him off. Ty rolled over and over and threw himself to his feet. The flood thing leapt up and ran at him, flailing his arms, ready for a kill strike. Ty brached him self, and at the last instant, ducked, spearing the creature, rising to his full height, and falling backwards, dropping the creature face first onto the rain slicked roof, and crushing it with his own weight. Ty quickly got up, grabbed the flood's arms, put a foot square between the shoulders, and PULLED. The Flood spasmed as Ty pulled and pulled as hard as he could. Fianlly, with several loud cracks, he was holding both arms, seperated from the body. He tossed them away, and kicked the combat form twice before it leapt to its feet. Ty slugged it hard in the chest, and kept swinging, forcing it back towards the edge of the roof. He yelled as loud as he could with each punch, driving his fist into the creature's chest, forcing it back and back and back, and finally, off the edge, to a long four story fall. Ty fell to his knees panting, gasping for breath, wiping blood from his jaw. The rain was falling harder now, beginning to impair his vision. He pulled himself to his feet, and began to walk again, still headed for the vechile yard. ***

Ty could see it now. The yard where the vechiles were kept was close...very close, the high walls that bordered it in full vision. It was quite a long jump, but if he got a good running start, he could clear the short gap between the wall of the yard, and the roof of the base. He stopped about thirty feet away from the edge, and inhaled twice. Dropping into a crouch, he breathed in and out a few times, and took off at a dead sprint, running as fast as he can. He let out a howl as he leapt, arcing up into the air. Time seemed to slow down for him as he flew through the air, howling all the while. Then, with a thump, he crashed onto the wall's edge, barely hauling himself up. The wall was a few feet thick, seeing as it served as a foot walk between the four corner towers. Ty ran inside one of the towers, and activated his energy knife now that he was out of the rain, and wouldn't get vaporized. If there were flood in here, he stood a much better chance with a melee weapon. The rain was beginning to pour harder, making defeaning bangs resound through the tower as the rain drops crashed down atop the tower. Ty made it down the stairs, finding mauled bodies below, to mauled to be infected, but they still had their guns. Ty got his hands on a pulse rifle, and scavenged two extra charge packs, struggling not to gag at the sight of his fallen comrades. The pulse rifle was definitly a bounus. A mintuarized version of the pulse cannon he had used so long ago, the weapon provided punch at a fast rate of fire, and its energy consumption rate was quite decent, the best forerunner infantry weapon to date, even if it was hard to produce. Ty put his energy knife away, and stepped into the yard. Vechiles could be seen everywhere. Sentinel fighters...and remote operated sentinel drones, armed with very heavy beam weapons. Unfortunatly, most of the pilots were not infected or dead, and Ty wasn't qualifed to fly them anyway. What he WAS quilfied to drive, was only a good fifty feet away. A personal suit type thing, basiclly a huge powered armor system, with plenty of onboard weapons, and two modes. Ty jogged over to it, made sure no flood were nearby, using his motion tracker, and climbed into the assualt suit. Once he was in, he put his arms into the armor's "arms" and gripped the control yokes. With a few switches, he had the thing powered up, and ready to move. It was tricky, but he managed to hit the mode toggle switch with his chin. Slowly, the armor converted from a humanoid configureation to a small tank. Using the foot pedals, Ty drove slowly though the ranks of vechiles, noticing some were burning and damaged by weapons fire, holes and burn marks in the armor, from forerunner weapons...which meant armed flood. Fortuantly, this praticular vechile came with energy shields, a recently developed technology, stolen from the covenant, the forerunner's warrior servants. Ty rounded the last row, headed for the north exit, and winced as three armed flood turned around. They didn't hesitate for a single second, beam rifles carving into his sheilds, the gague dropping fast. Beams splashed across the screen of light threatening to drop it and slice into his reltivly light armor. But Ty didn't just sit there and get shot at. He squezzed the pulse cannon triggers on each weapon arm, and his vechile returned fire, spraying screaming white bolts of particle energy across his foes, burning angry holes into their fleshy bodies as he bore down on them. As was common, flood had no sesne to dive out of the way when anything large was coming at them. Ty ran them over, a sickening crunch resounding through the vechile. The north gate was closed, and wasn't responding to remote commands from the assult suit. Ty frowned, and tried again. The gate squeaked, but didn't open. He sighed in frustration.
"Alright then..." he said to himself, a self assuring grin rising on his head. Ty squeezed all the firing studs he could at once. The assualt suit lashed out with all the firepower it had. Heavy pulse cannons spewed bolts, long range, high powered beam cannons sliced into the gate, melting though it instantly on either side. The pulse cannons continued to pound into the gate, until finally, something gave out, and the whole thing just collapsed. Ty hit the accelerator, and the assualt suit leapt forward, driving through the rubble into the swamp, away from the flood. Ty opened the top hatch, and yelled in his victory, yelled, and saw the flood begin to pour from the swamp behind him. He frowned, swore loudly at them, and shut the hatch. It was gonna be a long drive back...

The Rise and Fall of the Flood Chapter 4
Date: 3 August 2003, 11:49 PM

Ty leapt from the burning assualt suit, the explosion tossing him in the general direction of the plasma beacon, launching him over the massive wall sorrounding the installation, but dropping him down a good thirty feet to a painful landing. Ty felt his ankle sprain as he crushed it rolling through the fall, but he leapt up and hobbled quickly to the beacon, hurrying to get to the control room for the thing. It wouldn't take the flood long to figure out a way over the wall. He opened the control box atop the installation and with a quick smack of his hand, the station thrummed with power. The first order of buisness was retracting the ramps up to the platform. Ty searched with his helmet interface, and managed to get that done. He heard carrier forms popping, and figured the floor were trying to mimic his vaulting tactic. Only thing was they wouldn't be slowed down by the leg injuries he had sustained. His ankle was sprained, and as he had climbed the ramp, he felt his muscules tear in his right calf, but he kept moving, his armor pumping painkillers and steroids into his system automatically. Ty pressed another control, and the station began to rumble as the plasma fire at the bottom of the firing pit began to restart. A small timer appeared in the top right of his HUD, counting down from ten minutes. That meant ten minutes 'til the first beacon...and about thirty minutes before command sent an investigation. Ty didn't like the odds of his surviving, but it was a chance. Already, the flood was flying over the wall, dead of course, from the carrier forms, but they were getting closer. Ten minutes disappeared, and the first beacon shot into the sky in all its azure glory, lighting up the miserable swamp. Ty expected the Flood to go ballistic, but instead...all their motion shifted away from the complex...which worried him even more. Ty sat down to tend to his leg, which was bleeding from some small, minor shrapnel wounds. ***

Out of nowhere, the sky lit up, and about all the grunts in the covenant base camp barked in surprise. A few seconds later, the commander of the base, an elite in gold armor, darted outside, just in time to catch the second beacon arc into the sky. He barked some orders, and a blue elite darted inside, snapping up como gear, and raising forerunner command. The request for a investigation was approved, and commander elite quickly called upon a banshee team, piloted by spec ops elites, to escort three dropships of spec ops grunts, elites and jackals. It took twenty minutes, and then the small armada of Covenant aircraft was en route, full speed, toward that beacon. ***

Ty squeezed off another burst, clipping the flood warrior, but vaporizing its melee arm, making it no threat, seeing as it was unarmed. He rolled backwards to avoid a swipe from another flood's melee arm, managing to fire a burst into its side, blasting innards out the other side, bits of green blood and bone spraying onto the smooth, rain-slicked metal of the beacon's deck. Ty rolled sideways, firing again, blowing the head clean off another combat form, spraying green blood everywhere. Ty had attached the energy knife to his pulse rifle, ready to use it as a bayonet, which he did at this moment, stabbing it into throat of another flood being which slumped dead on the knife. Ty removed the blade, and green blood sprayed from the gaping wound, splashing all over his sides. He didn't flinch, he kept shooting, blasting another flood warrior that leapt atop the platform. After the signals were under their own power, he had shot the controls out, preventing the flood from getting up here easily by parasiting the control mechanisms down on the ground. But the jump atop the platform was easy for infected forerunners. Ty kept blasting them and slowly walked backwards toward the maintenance hatch, which led to where he would make his last stand, the catwalk over the firing pit. Another beacon shot into the sky, taking a few foolish flood who had tried to leap over the pit at the wrong time, throwing them hundreds of feet into the air. Ty chuckled at such a cruel death, and kept firing, reloading to his second-to-last charge pack, as he stepped back past the control box. He thought he might be ok for a minute, when a group of about tweleve flood soldiers leapt over the side, landing smoothly. Ty didn't waste a shot, he chucked his last grenade, and dove into the firing pit access hatch. There was a rumble and a loud bang as the particle grenade detonated amidst the cloud of warriors. Ty slammed the hatch shut, and sprinted on his damaged right leg, the wounds screaming in protest, shooting long streams of agony up into his spine. It didn't take long for flood warriors to come pouring into the shaft, pulse fire raking up their bodies, burning the flesh, and killing the beings brutally. Ty had reached the bridge, the catwalks over the firing pit. He vaporized the heads of a few more flood beings, and reloaded his last charge pack. The warriors were coming in groups of two and three, and Ty had no probolem killing them at first, until they came from behind...but still he managed to hold them off. Rain poured down into the firing pit, drenching Ty, and making the fast drying flood blood slowly trickle off his armor. Ty ran over to the other side of firing pit, and charged up the tunnel, slicing a few flood soldiers up with his bayonet, and burst onto the deck...to find a semi-circle of flood soldiers, slowly coming at him. Ty did the last thing he could, he jumped, straight over them, using all the strength his forerunner legs could give him, vaulting a good twenty feet over them, landing hard behind them, and finshing off his charge pack into their backs. Unfortuantly, his right leg completely gave out, and the bone snapped loudly, followd by TY screaming in agony. Somehow, he managed todraw his beam pistol, as the flood came closer, aiming it at the nearest form, and slicing a beam through its head. His pistold died about three kills later. Ty had his energy knife in his hand, as he struggled to a sitting position...and was ready to lash out, when a burst of green plasma bolts slammed into the being, followed by a full volley of blue plasma fire, slamming and burning its way into the flood ranks. A few fuelrod cannon blasts exploded behind the combat forms, sending them flying over the edge to the ground below. Ty managed to turn around and see several covenant dropships and banshees coming in, one had made it early, and unloaded its full troop complement onto the deck, spec ops grunts and elites and jackals, blasting away at the floor, three elites dashing over to him. Ty knew he was saved, and finally succumbed to exhaustion, and passed out.

The Rise and Fall of the Flood Chapter 5
Date: 16 August 2003, 8:27 PM

The doctor finally removed the strange device, and the elite captian, gold armor gleaming dully in the surgical lights, shouldered past the doctor. The forerunner high command would be sending an envoy to retrieve this praticular soldier. The Elite envied him, being able to stand alone against the legions of the flood and survive until the end, and obviously going to be promoted. The Elite commander had seen plenty of action in his days...plenty of flood warriors were on his legend, plenty of battles, plenty of planets, and perhaps to many moons. The warrior on the table below him breathed slowly, the healer bustling about at a strange machine. The warrior's name was Ty, or so his helmet read. The Elite had watched the warriors helmet camera over and over. His skills in combat were most amazing, his ability to think on his feet was simply phenomenal, combined with insane marksmanship and agility, this was one of the most amazing warriors the Elite had seen. A small node in his ear clicked, the Elite touched his ear with one finger. "This is Regent," he said bluntly. Another Elite came to his ears. "The Forerunner Envoy has arrived sir, we are greeting them now." one of his field commanders said, engines of a forerunner shuttle setting down in the background, engines whining. Regent swore, and dashed outside to greet the forerunner envoy. The shuttle was large, and it was sorrounded by sentinel drones, with two fighters setting down beside it as the ramp from the shuttle extended. Forerunner soldiers poured from the shuttle...not just any soldiers...elite forces, wearing full cover powered body armor, loaded with weapons. Regent was confused why such soldiers were here at the front...then he saw. An extra tall forerunner, who must have been a good 13 feet tall, robed in black, face hooded, seemed to glide to the ground. Regent saluted stifly. "Your presence honors us master, I was not expecting someone of your stature to grace us with your presence." he said smoothly and quietly, arms folding across his chest as he kneeld. The massive forerunner didn't even acknolwedge him, and went straight for the medical building, opening the door smoothly, and slamming it shut, locks clicking on. ***



The Acolyte stepped up to the sleeping form of Ty, pulling his hood back. He knelt next to the medical bed, and touched a control, sending stimulants into his blood. Ty groaned after a minute, and blinked awake. The Acolyte grinned. "Grettings Ty Nectfist, I see you are well." he said quietly, his voice a mysterious whisper. Ty grunted and looked at him. "Who, may I ask, are you?" he said with exhaustion in his voice. "Forget my name young warrior, it will come to you later. For now, if you can remember, tell me of any...strange sensations you got when combating the demons, anything beyond your marvelous combat senses." he said, excitement creeping into his voice. Ty's face paled a little. This was an acolyte, and he was probably here to be interrogated, and recruited into the society of the Acolytes...which he knew little of...only it was looked upon as a very painful death if you were accepted. Ty swallowed. "Uhm...I can't remember anything sir, the last thing I remember is a grunt shielding me from a demon's attack." he lied. The Acolyte nodded. "Very well, when your memory is better, we shall speak again. For now, you are to be moved to Covenant headquarters on this fortress world for treatment and...promotion. Congratulations warrior." the strange man said before seeming to glide across the floor and leave the room. Ty sighed, and laid back down, but couldn't sleep. The Acolytes had somehow found out about him being able to sense the Flood overlords commands,in a strange way. It happened all the time to forerunner, certian people had an instinct for listening into Overlord psi waves, sent to the warriors of the flood. Ty swore. "Don't think like that, you just got very lucky" he mutterd silently to himself. Out of nowhere, two hunters burst into the room, without armor or fuelrod guns, the beasts looked almost timid, until they scooped up the table at either end and carried him outside, finally putting him back down inside the shuttle that had arrived. They marched swiftly out, the hatch closing minutes later, engines whining as the shuttle lifted into the air. They had given him a window, and Ty could see a sentinel drone rising with the shuttle, in flight configuration, armor covering the few vulnerable spots when it was in combat mode. Something seemed wrong though, because it appeard to be on fire...and then it detonated. There was a shout from the cabin, "GET THOSE FIGHTERS IN THE AIR NOW!" the Acolyte could be heard yelling. The shuttle shoook as it took off, Ty straining to see out the window. Flashes of plasma fire could be seen, and the odd grenade being tossed as well. Ty got the feeling it was going to be a short flight home, as the pilot simply didn't bother with trying to do a vertical take off, he hit the throttle, and the shuttle leapt forwards, gracefully banking into a hard turn, offering Ty a bit of a view. The flood had come, bursting from the trees, armed to the teeth with covenant weapons. They didn't last to long...the covenant were mowed down in complete surprise. Ty shut his eyes, and tried not to think about death.***

))Three Weeks Later((

Ty dove down behind a peice of debre, plasma fire smacking into the other side and the ground where he had stood only seconds before. He peeked around the corner, and ducked back just in time to avoid having his head vaporized. He popped up, took aim briefly, and fired the man portable particle cannon. A small warhead smashed into what was the main entrance of a civillan home, blowing out yet another wall, but taking about 6 flood with it. They were learning fast, developing infantry tactics quickly. Ty dropped the launcher, and pulled his beam rifle off his shoulder, making sure the scope was clean. He burned a small hole in the peice of bulkhead that was embedded in the cold dirt beneath his boots, littered with debree from the heavy bombers that flew over it yesterday. When the hole in the metal cooled, he took aim, the scope uplinking with his HUD in the helmet. Ty fired once, and a ruby red energy beam sliced into a flood's head, vaporizing its brain. Ty moved the crosshairs a little to the left, and fired again, blasting the legs off anther, and injuring the one behind it. Ty fired again, and the next beam sliced into the ribs of another flood, dropping it quickly. Someone came skidding up to him, sliding on his stomach to keep his head down. "Commander Nectfist, the right flank is clear, reinforcments are heading for the left" he panted. Ty grunted "Very well." and fired once more, nailing a carrier form in the knee, detonating it. "And Sir...the covenant strike team is encountering heavy resistance and requesting reinforcements, shall we send a squad?" he asked quietly. Ty lowered the rifle and faced the warrior. "No, our unit will move to reinforce the covenant unit once this area is clear." he said bluntly. The warrior nodded, and rasied his weapon. "Ready sir?" he asked. Ty nodded, and they both yelled, spraying covering fire and running in crouches, headed for an apartment building about nintey feet away. Plasma bolts smashed into the ground just behind them. Ty was overjoyed. It felt so good to be on the front lines again, even being shot at wasn't bad. He dove trough a window, making it safely inside, the standard warrior right behind him...then falling dead as a plasma rifle punctured his back armor plate. Ty looked out the damaged window frame, and saw the biggest flood being he had ever seen. It had four arms, each one had a plasma rifle, and its two legs were like tree trunks, standing at about thirty feet tall, and half again as wide, with a huge torso, that had no visible head atop it. Ty hit the floor as plasma fire poured throught the door way and windows as the giant creature bore down on him. "And here we go again..." he muttered as he primed a grenade.

The Rise and Fall of the Flood chapter 6
Date: 22 August 2003, 1:09 AM

The beast roard, and Ty staggered backwards. He was frozen in place by the sheer sight of the....abomanation...he had to move, had to do something...but all that he could do was say, "oh SHIT!"

Ty dropped as blue beams of superheated plasma from four seperate rifles slammed through the window, the beast amazingly accurate for its size and distance. Ty peeked around the corner, and squeezed off a shot, not having to worry about aiming. The shot sliced into its chest...and Ty instantly knew he was in some SERIOUS trouble...the flood was armored in some way, the extended range beam had only heated the armor plate beneath the sickly brown, green flesh. He pulled up to sit with his back to the wall...as plasma blasts streaked in from the door frame he had peeked out of, blowing small searing hot craters in the dusty, rubble floor. Ty coughed, taking hot, searing coals into his lungs, the air superheated on the spot by the searing plasma. Looking quickly, he belly crawled to a halfwall that hid some simple stairs. Ty got himself to his feet and charged up the stairs, looking, praying for a back window. He found it...in a bathroom, a tiny hole in a wall, just enough to squeeze through. He somehow slid out, dropping akwardly onto his knees, but taking off again as plasma blasts slammed home into the ground a few feet behind him, shots raking up to follow his suddenly hasty sprint down a narrow alleyway.He rounded a corner, and saw a good thirty second sprint away...that the alley ended. Ty had an idea though, as he charged down the alley, he kicked off the ground, his powerful forerunner legs launching him a good twenty feet up into the air at his top running speed. He easily snagged the second floor balcony in this alley, threw himself over the edge...and was very glad he landed flat on his back, as a plasma bolt smacked into the wall below the balcony. Ty rolled sideways into the apartment...or what was left of it. It was just empty, dusty rooms, charred walls, and rubble. Ty climbed out to the main hall, and took off again, going up this time, leaping up through a hole in the roofing into a third story office area, and again onto the roof, the hole that he used obviously the effect of the bombers that blasted the hell out of this city. Ty saw the things head from over the top of the building...and saw it just climb over the building like it was a simple rock. Ty took careful aim, zooming in all the way...and fired once, the first beam slicing into what looked like an eye. There was roar of pain and a spray of green liquid, but other than a breif bit of recoilment, enough to make the beast stagger, but not fall. Ty fired again, hitting the horrid creature in the bursted eye wound he had just made, adding insult to injury. With a little luck, the beam would bass through the bone behind where the eyesocket was and fry some brains.....he wasn't lucky. The shot obviously hurt like a bitch to the thing cause it roared like mad and jumped into the air, crashing down onto a single story building, plasma bolts streaking in at Ty, who was running like hell already. Leaping from rooftop to rooftop effortlessly, his large, powerful forerunner legs clearing short gaps easily, plasma bolts right behind him, as well as a huge, unknown, charging creature that was HUGE, and armed to the teeth. Ty clicked his radio on. "This is commander Ty Nectfist, I need air support NOW!" he barked, sitll charging. A brief pause, then... "A flight of sentinel fighters is inbound commander, requesting coordinates" a womans voice said. "They'll know what to aim at, they CAN'T miss THAT" he snapped, leaping over a volley of plasma fire, spinning in midair and firing a shot at the things head, the beam slicing through flesh but not hurting anything. Ty swore and kept running, praying the fighters made it in time. ***

Ji's eyes nearly exploded. The biggest flood being he had ever seen was pouring fire at a single running soldier, probably commander Nectfist. It was just HUGE, about 35 feet tall, with four arms, treetrunk legs, and a chest to match. As the fighters came in, it stopped firing, and turned to look at them...and poured fire suddenly...taking out the farthest right fighter, Phoenix 7. Ji cursed in anger and sorrow, at the loss of a comrade, and clicked the radio. "Blow that thing into hell!" he roared, the fighters accelerating to full speed, armor shifting into attack position. Ji squeezed the trigger, releasing a huge volley of heavy pulse blasts, screaming white teardrops of death slammed home into the chest of the ungodly flood thing. A few bolts surprisingly richothed off the thing, which meant armor beneath the skin...but after a few seconds of that kind of firepower, nothing would last long. Bolts punched through its chest armor, into its innards, the beast staggering backwards, massive feet punching holes in the streets where it stepped, off balance. The rest of Phoenix Squadron was right behind him, and a flight of particle missles crashed into it, explosions pockmarking the entire torso region of the massive thing, white flashes, incinerating most of the thing's chest...and still leaving it struggling to fight back, missing half its chest, loosing blood by the gallons, nerves suddenly severd, arms twitching and firing the plasma rifles...and one shot was so incredibly lucky, that it hit Lia's fighter under an armor skirt that covered the engines. Lia swore, smoke coming off, as she started to lose control. Ji saw Sy try roll his fighter out of the way...but in doing so...he smashed right into Ji's vessel...who in panick hit his triggers, blasting the only remaing ship in the squadron, as Lia went sailing in towards the city. Something caught fire and exploded, followed by a thump...and another as Ji slumped onto his insturments...dead. ***

Ty watched in horror as Phoenix Squadron blew itself apart...and someone was laughing...someone was laughing...which wasn't possible, he was the only one around here to witness the event...and the flood didn't speak, and any flood would have torn him apart from behind. A spike of pain lanced into his head, and he groaned, crumbling to his knees, dropping his rifle as his hands flew to his temples, moaning as the laughter got louder and louder, and the spike of pain became a supernova, his head exploding in agony. Then the voice came.

"What an amusing display of idiocy. Are all forerunner pilots THAT stupid? Or perhaps it was the fool who was shot down?" a deep rumbling voice in his head asked him, each word driving a starship torpedo of pain into his head, Ty rolling on his sides screaming in agony. "Does it hurt? Do my words pain you, insect? You do not know pain fool, you can never feel the pain I feel, never feel it...and you my little friend, have caused my EXCRUTIATING pain, beyond belief." the voice said. This time, the words didn't hurt, the pain was gone. Ty got to his feet...not sure if what had just happened was real...and instaly fell as his brain exploded in agony, as if particle flamegel had ignited his head...and the voice was laughing. "You pitiful forerunner...can never act fast enough to find people like you...and you Ty Nectfist, will be mine, and mine alone. Your powers will serve ME!" he snapped angrily, the word me causing Ty to scream a little louder.
"I can make all this suffering stop...you won't ever have to feel this again...just join me, don't fight me...join me..." he said, the pain dropping to a headache, Ty not daring to stand...seeing the infection forms all around him. "Don't fight me Nectfist...you can't beat the flood...and even if you had the experience to shut me out...you can't stop the pain." the voice said. As if to prove his point, Ty felt a sharp pain again, that faded instantly. "Stand up slowly, this will not hurt for long" the voice said. "Who...what...who are you?" Ty asked nothing. The voice laughed aloud. "I am the Overlord." it said. Ty turned pale. Now he knew why the Acoltyes were coming, and now he knew...why so many died. A single infection from crawled towards him slowly...starting to gently climb up his armor...

The Rise and Fall of the Flood-Chapter 7
Date: 24 August 2003, 5:14 AM

Ty knew it was over...the infection form had reached his chest, and was staring at him mockingly, no doubt the work of the overlord. Then it was upon him, Ty felt it on his throat...and then it fell, just fell, dead, not moving anymore. Ty was startled, and jumped in surprise at the thing falling. "NECTFIST!" came a loud cry behind him. He turned...and to his great surprise, an Acolyte was standing atop a roof, hand pointed. The infection forms that sorrounded him all just popped at once. Ty didn't know what was going on anymore, the Overlord in his head, the Acolyte appearing everywhere, the Flood trying to infect him and not kill him. He ran at that instant, ran straight ahead, not even noticing the gap in the roof until he smashed into the ground twenty feet below, sustaining a mild blow to his head...knocking him out cold.***

The Acolyte swore, and moved. Nectfist was out, and this was an emergency. In a flash of white, he was atop the building Nectfist had been on, before falling off the roof. "So, its true then...I had my doubts Acolyte, but now I know he's one of you. You make things so easy for me..." the overlord laughed in his head. Tri ignored the flood, and surprssed the voice as best he could, managing to hush the flood overlord into white noise, as he seemed to glide across the rooftop, his robes flapping in the cold wind that had stirred up from the north. He peered over the edge, and saw a balcony...and instantly knew that Nectfist was gone. Tri muttered a curse, and whirled, sensing danger. Four combat forms had leapt to the roof, weilding plasma rifles, and he could sense more coming. "You dare to stand in my way, overlord?" he muttered. It had been awhile since Tri had seen combat, since any of the Acolytes had. He rolled up his sleeves, and bent his knees. The warriors took aim, and opened fire. The shots bruned towards him, and richocheted off nothing into the air. The acolyte grinned, barings his teeth as the flood warriors quickly exhausted the weapons. When the overheated plasma rifles started to melt, they dropped them, and rushed at him, aiming to crush him with their powerful melee combat arms, raising them high. Tri took one step back, and thrust the flat of his hand towards them. The three warriors were sent backwards as if a fighter had ignited its afterburners in their faces, launching them into the sky, smashing them into the wall of another building, the impact snapping their spines on contact. Tri exhaled, and focused for an instant, and vanished into thin air ***

Ty groaned as he struggled to get up, the Flood warrior standing a few feet away, obviously under the direct control of the overlord, whos voice was in his head, ranting on about surrender. Ty somehow got up again, and the Flood struck him again, closelining him in the gut, with enough force to flip him over the demon's arm. Landing him hard on his back. Ty moaned, curling up into a fetal position as the Flood pivoted. It took a step back, and Ty heard the Overlord speak. "Come one forerunner, one more chance, then you are MINE" it taunted. Ty struggled to his feet, blood dripping from his mouth and nose, one eye beginning to swell. The Flood took a taunting step forewards, and Ty flinched, causing the overlord to laugh hysterically. But there were no more games, and the flood leapt. Somehow, Ty managed to get a grip on its arms before he was tackled to the ground, and miraculosly, kept that grip, crying out as he slammed down, spittle raining onto the flood's head. Ty brought his knee up into what was once a forerunners groin, putting all the power he could into it, and watching it have no effect. The Flood knew he was weak, and was simply enduring his meager attempts to throw it off, waiting till it was out of strength. Ty knew it was over...and he was terrified. He didn't want to...be alive like that...he had heard about it...the flood infection painfully mutated your body, and took control of your motor skills, leaving you trapped inside your own body. He didn't want to live like that, wouldn't, it just wouldn't be.

Something changed inside the young warriors mind then, some fury grew deep down in his chest, grew till it was to much, to large to be contained. Ty screamed in rage, screamed for all he was worth, screamed what he knew was his last scream. If he was going, he was not going without a fight, he would NOT submit, he would NOT surrender. The fury kept building and building...and out of nowhere, a massive shaft of white light smashed through the flood's arms, slicing through its torso like an energy knife through a blade of grass, the thick beam vaporizing half the thing's body. The blast not only vaporized the thing, but sent its body spinning through the air, landing far away...and the overlord was screaming in rage. "SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Ty screamed...and the voice vanished. Ty took off running again, dashing through abandoned houses, ruins, cratered streets, running until he just couldn't run anymore, falling face first onto the cold hard floor of an empty apartment. He didn't move, didn't get up. Tears began to fall from his eyes, and quietly, he cried himself into an exhausted light sleep. ***


Tri was...well...PISSED, and nervous as shit. He had felt it, had FELT nectfists attack from miles off, which meant...well he broke himself in, which meant he was in some SERIOUS trouble. It took an extreeme emotional state for those who were...diffrent...to be unleash their abilites for the first time. It was usually fear or fury...and in this case, he had guessed it was both, more on the side of fury, juding from the magnitude of whatever had happened. It did do one thing for him though, gave him
Ty's position. With a bit of concentration, he vanished from the command post.

The scene was gruesome. There was nothing but waist and legs left of the combat form, a MASSIVE pool of sickly green blood puddling on the cold dirt. Footprints left the scene to the west, and Tri slowly follwed the path...he was impressed, the young man had gotten so far on foot. The prints ended inside a building...where Tri saw him, flat on the ground, curled into a ball, tears still dying on his face, hugging his knees to his chest. Tri felt a pang of remorse. He rememberd when he had been "broken in". It was...extreemly depressing, knowing that everything in your life was never going to be the same. Tri knelt slowly, and moved to pick him up...and his eyes snapped open, a fire instantly burning in them, as he yelled a battle cry, sweeping Tri's legs out, and pouncing on him...knife drawn, ready to stab him...and their eyes locked. Tri could see he was delerious, his eyes had a glaze to them, with a fire burning beyond, and even deeper, a wild fear, almost an animal instinct, he was terrified. Tri chose his words carefully. "Ty...its just me, I'm not here to hurt you...I'm here to help you, its ok, theres no flood around...its all going to be alright, let me help you..." he said slow and softly. Ty stood up, and walked to the other side of the room. Tri got to his feet slowly...when Ty snapped. "THIS IS YOUR FAULT! ITS ALL YOU! ITS YOUR FAULT I HEAR THE VOICE! YOU! ALL YOU, YOU MOTHER FUCKER! I'LL KILL YOU, YOU FLOOD BASTARD! DIEEEEEEEEEEE" he screamed, charging. Tri had a mere second to react...and he did...but was a bit to harsh in his reaction. Ty was slammed into the wall, blood flying out of his mouth with spittle, as he fell face first onto the ground, the knife deactivating and slipping away. Tri picked up the small blade and put it into the folds of his robes. He scopped up the body of Ty Nectfist, and they both dissapeard, arriving somewhere very far away from the city, very far away from the front...they arrived in the office of the Grand Magi, leader of all the Acolytes...who promptly called for the medical staff. "You did it Tri, I don't believe it! Is he alive?" the old man asked quickly. Tri nodded. "Yes...for the moment, yes" he said, a medical team with a stretcher bursting in and quickly taking him away. The Grand Magi took Tri in a friendly grip by the shoulders. "Brillant, Tri...you've done it, you've given us all hope. This galaxy still has hope for life yet."



Authors note
This is going to be the last chapter for awhile I'm afraid. My life is going pretty damn horrible, and I don't have the will or the energy to write anymore, so I'm going to take a break and do some reading for a change. If you want to contact me, my AIM name is RokDude0137, or e-mail me, thanks
BlackValkyire

The Rise and Fall of the Flood Chapter 8
Date: 26 August 2003, 3:57 AM

Slowly, silently, Ty drifted on the void, the blackness holding him up, and at the same time threatening to drop him into an eternal fall, straight down, a never ending plummet. At first, he was content, to just drift there in nothing, in the blackness, just drift in the silence and sleep forever...but he wasn't alone...something was here with him. It was calm at first...then he screamed as pain slammed into his head, creeping down his spine. The overlord was here. "You can't hide from me Nectfist, there is nowhere you can go. I am everywhere, and you WILL BE MINE." the beast taunted, laughing evily. Something in the distance..."...heart...accelerating, watch......normally, get the...in here...I...whats goin on with him" a strange voice came. Something cool on his forehead...and he jerked up against the restraints, screaming in brief terror, sparking jumps and swearing from several of the medics nearby his bed. He finally stopped yelling after a few seconds and slumped into the pillows, closing his eyes. So he was safe...he had to be in some sort of hospital, and all medical facilites were not even on the flood controlled side of the ring, which meant he had nothing to fear from the flood...except the overlord, the thought causing him to shudder, sending a chill down his spine. "Pulse returning to normal, adreneliene levels going down, breathing stabalizing." a doctor said in a monotone. "Welcome back Mister Nectfist, thought we were losing you for a moment" the head medic said, walking over so Ty could see him clearly. "How do you feel?" he asked. Ty blinked...it was a good question really...what was he feeling?

The doctor saw his groggy, disoriented stare, and turned to one of the lower medics. "What dosage did you administer?" he asked vexedly. "Uh...5 drops...?" the man said slowly. "IDIOT! ITS NO WONDER HE TOOK SO LONG TO WAKE UP, YOU WERE ONLY SUPPOSED TO ADMINISTER ONE DROP! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW POWERFUL THAT TRANQUILIZER IS!?!?" the doctor snapped. There was a groan from the bed as Ty struggled to sit up. "I feel...fine..." he said, his oreintation returning slowly, the doctor looking alarmed at how fast he had recoverd. "Uh...thats...good, mister Nectfist...very good." he said wide eyed. "Where am I?" he said yawning briefly. The doctor opened his mouth, but someone beat him to it. "Your in the medical wing of the Great Temple of The Acolytes Ty." Tri said, stepping into the room through the curtians at the end of the room. The doctor grunted, and went back to his duties. Ty's face paled, and fires of cold fury ignited in his eyes on the spot. "You..." he hissed. "You, BASTARD!" he snapped, trying to break free of his restraints. "NONE OF THIS STARTED UNTIL YOU CAME AROUND! THIS IS YOUR FAULT! ITS YOUR FAULT I'VE BECOME THIS WAY! ALL YOU!" he roared, the restraints beginning to whine in protest to his immense strength. Tri sighed. "Ty, you know that isn't possible, there is no way that I could have started anything...you were born this way, it was meant to be like this. Now you can fight it all you want, you can try to shut it out...but its not going to go away Ty. I'm here to help you...I'm here to train you." he said quietly, Ty slumping back, fuming. "So we can do this one of two ways Ty...choice is yours." he said, striding from the room. "One condition." Ty spat. Tri turned around, raising an eyebrow. "Once this Training crap is complete...I go back to the front."


3 MONTHS LATER

Hang on...just hang on a little longer...slipping...no, don't slip, no no no nonononononooooooo NOOOOOO!
"GODDAMMIT!" Ty snapped in fury, the small weight dropping. Tri looked impassive. "Try it again...but don't try so hard, just...just do it." he said. Ty grumbled, and pointed to the weight with two long fingers, and lifted it again. That was no probolem, but trying to keep it afloat as Tri applied more and more pressure was difficult. He could feel the pushing already, trying to slam it into the ground. He shut his eyes, sweat again beginning to bead on his forehead as he fought to keep it up. Tri was pushing harder and harder...still harder...and Ty felt his grip loosening. "No...not this time, you're NOT going to win this round," he muttered, focusing hard. The weight suddenly doubled, and he fell to his knees to keep it off the ground, as it hovered mere inches away from loss, defeat again. His teeth gritted out...and he let out a yell, pushing back with all he could muster...and the weight shot into the sky, a thump behind him indicating Tri had fallen off his seat. Ty whirled, grinning like a fool. Tri muttered. "Jeez, take it easy will you?"

Ty laughed aloud, and saw Tri grin, which only made him laugh harder, as Tri's grin broadened, Ty began to suspect something...and the weight took both his feet out from under him. Tri was impressed with his reaction time, he managed to get five rather nasty words out before he hit the ground. It was the Acolytes turn to laugh, as he strode from the gardens. *** With a sigh, Ty turned the water off, grabbed a towl, and stepped from the bathroom in his tiny living quarters. He had to admit, it sure beat "cleanings" on the front, nasty smelling disinfectant chemicals that were sprayed on you combined with water...it cost one nights sleep, because the stench was so horrible, people twenty feet away could smell you. BUt Ty hated not being out in the field, he felt so useless, like he was shirking his duty, it felt so wrong not to be in the thick of a battle, fighting for his life. He smiled to himself as he dressed into his aprentice robes, tossing the towl aside. A few seconds later, he noticed he never heard it hit the ground. He turned to his side...and there was a flood warrior standing against the wall. Ty yelled in surprise, and backed up a few steps. Odly, the thing spoke. "Calm yourself Nectfist, I'm not going to kill you. You do remember you are mine, and the flood take care of their own." came the haunting voice of the overlord. Ty took a second to recover...and figured it was an illusion. One way to find out. In a blur of increidbly fast motion, he rushed the being, smashing his hand into its chest with enough force to dent sentinel armor. Unfortunatly the only thing he dented was the wall to the bathroom. The overlord roared with laughter. "What the hell do you WANT from me?!?" he spat. The overlord just smirked and vanished from the room.

Moments later, Tri burst into the room, a glowing white sword in his hands. Ty was laying on his bed, staring at the roof, the overlord attempting to split his skull with a headache...or so it felt. Tri had been moving VERY fast, he was just slightly out of breath. "Are you alright?" he asked slowly. "So you can feel him to?" Ty responding to the question with one of his own. Tri nodded. "All with the sense can feel it...but when I felt him here...I can see you are alright. "Nice sword Tri...teach me that sometime." Tri just swore and strode out.
Ty could still feel the headache pounding in his skull, and could still feel it when he fell into a soft sleep. ***

In the dream, he was on the battlefield, firing his rifle, dispatching flood after flood with perfect sniper shots.

The Rise and Fall of the Flood Chapter 9
Date: 8 October 2003, 6:36 PM

The dream was getting hazier and hazier, and soon, Ty didn't know why he was still dreaming, he should have woken up. He was dreaming that he was leaving the Acolytes...then, sometime later, he was leaping down with the flood upon forerunner soldiers. Bolts of white light shot from his hands, vaporizing the soldiers, along with his powerful arms and legs, smashing their bones. The line was cut to pecies within minutes...and Ty finally realized that he wasn't dreaming...he had been infected. Instantly, he struggled against his suddenly aparent mental bonds, fighting them with all he could. His flood body only twitched, as the overlord surpressed him directly, a splitting pain coming from everywhere. Ty stopped fighting, and his body started to run off into the night, leading the pack of combat forms. ***

Tri paced angrily back and forth outside the room. It was appalling that the high council should even have to debate wether a rescue was in order, much less take over an hour about it. At last, the chamber doors opened, and a messenger stepped out. "Permission granted" was all he said, before reteating into the council chambers. Tri didn't acknowledge him, he just took off at a run down the hall, almost diving into a nearby lift, sending it to the hanger level. He raced out, tearing off his robes to reveal combat armor and equipment...just no weapons. He sprinted up the ramp of the dropship and grabbed the first seat he could find, slapping his safety harness on. The boxy dropship whined, then rose quickly into the air, shooting off into the sky, being escorted by two fighters.
Tri made sure they were on steady course, and stood up. "Our mission is to find and capture a specific flood...you'll know this flood, because its an infected acolyte...thus no mutations, just skin discoloration and hardening, perhaps some enhanced powers. Don't kill him unless you have no other choice, he is of the utmost importance, we need him alive!" he said to the ASF team, taking his seat again. Though he had confidence in the assembled Acolyte Special Forces team...Ty was very powerful...infection would probablly multiply his powers tenfold...giving him enough ability to take on a wing of fighters, and easily obtain vicotry. Tri knew that they would probablly all die trying to capture him...but it was better all of them killing him, than him killing all the forerunner there were. ***

Tri awoke with a start, a soldier shook him as the dropship set down in the abandoned town, the night and the silence of the place making it rather...creepy. Tri scrambled off, selecting night vision from his helmets HUD. The abandoned city suddenly appeared to be clear as day to him, as he moved forwards into a large apartment building, one of the only standing buildings left in the flood deceimated town. If intellegence was correct, a large group of combat forms that had been harassing forerunner lines would be passing through here on the way to another residential area. It was suspected that an infected acolyte was leading them, from eyewitness reports of ariel recon. So it was here they would wait, and then ambush them. "ETA...twenty minutes, be ready."

Ty wished he knew where they were, his flood body taking them somewhere, passing through a shelled out town. They had just slaughtered a line of covenant troops...though the elite in gold armor had fought valiantly, and like a trapped animal, draining his plasma rifle, then throwing it at a flood, then using a plasam sabre, then futiley lashing out with his arms and legs, even biting them. Ty had cheered him on the whole time, everytime the golden armor clad elite scored a kill, Ty cheered a little louder. It was a sad sight to watch him lose, watching the grunts flee in terror, the jackals be overrun, and the two other elites be shot to death by armed warriors. Now, the group of flood moved swiftly through the darkened town, the stars shining so britely, to either side of the ring. They moved swifty, but after awhile, Ty sensed something...the Flood group stopped quickly, looking around, sweeping with their weapons. Ty sensed it, knew what was happening, and would have grinned. Tri was here, along with 15 other powerful soldiers of some kind, all here for him. Out of nowhere, a HUGE fan of white energy washed over the combat forms, killing them instantly. Ty cheered to himself as 20 forerunner leapt down from the windows of an apartment building, each of the carrying a glowing white weapon of some kind. Mostly, Ty saw spears and polearms...a few had an axe of some kind, but one, only one, had a longsword, and Ty instantly knew who that was. Tri stepped forward as the others circled him.

"Surrender this body, Overlord." Tri said. "You cannot stop us all, we will kill him if we must." he said patiently. The infected Ty cocked its head to the side, and in each hand a glowing white short sword appeared. Tri swore loudly, and the group dropped into ready stances. They waited for Ty to make the first move, and did he ever. He leapt at Tri, who barely parried, rolling/falling to the side, slashing at Ty's legs. Ty leapt up, only to be cracked in the face with the butt of a spear. He rolled to his feet, and the group closed in. Tri was shouting orders in a strange language, but the others seemed to understand. They all ran forward, raising their weapons to strike. Ty's body ran out to meet them head on, spinning like a whirlwind, his two blades sending showers of white sparks through the air as those in range struggled to parry his massive strength. One man with a spear managed to stab Ty in the leg, blood seeping out. Ty instantly concentrated on that man, who wound up with five stab wounds in his chest a few seconds later. An axe sliced into his right shoulder, and the man weilding it was decapitated with a incredible flip over his head, the blade taking the head clean off. Someone was wise enough to duck when they managed to slash him across the chest, his counter attack going wide. Tri looked grim as he charged in, leaping up high for an overhead strike. They were going to have to kill him for sure.

The Rise and Fall of the Flood Chapter 10
Date: 16 October 2003, 12:39 AM

The overlord was NOT happy. Not only were the forerunner beginning to become more drastic and ferocious in every battle, but they were pushing forward towards the caves were the flood had once been imprisioned. Once there, they could use the locator controls to find the overlord himself...and then the Grand Fleet would be all over him, wich meant certian death for not only the overlord...but the entire race of flood within four quadrants. And there was another large matter to deal with...the only captured acolyte was at risk of being captured again, and was losing endurance. A large force of infected forerunner were en route, but would need much time to arrive, a good twenty minutes. The overlord wanted to scream in agony with every parry that Ty's body absorbed...but couldn't, for if he showed signs of weakness, the flood overmind would kill him and assume direct control over all the flood in the area. He winced again as Ty absorbed another blow. ***

Tri roared as his blade flew, white sparks of energy shooting into the night with each stroke of the blades. The duel was fast, furious, and still in a large stalemate. Tri was tired, very tired actually, but he kept up his strength, allowing himself a little fear just to keep the adrenaline pumping through his veins. His breathing was labored, and he gasped for air every time Nectfist took a swipe at him. He barely managed to parry a high slash, rolled to his left, and slashed at Ty's feet. Ty leapt cleanly over, and flipped in midair, and did something Tri thought impossible. The blade of energy was thrown from his hand...wich should have been impossible, because it was made of energy...that came from Ty's body, and once cut off from that...

...and there was no time to finish the thought, only enough to drop to his stomach, then leap forward, tackling the infested acolyte. He was quickly kicked off, but not before obviously knocking the wind out of Ty, who remained still for a second or two before getting up. Tri spun like a tornado through a slow powerful slash. His gleaming white long sword smashed into Nectfist's, causing him to stagger backwards as Tri spun again, this time the opposite way, arcing the blade up a little, aiming for the throat. Ty managed a half dodge, half fall as he dropped backwards, barely keeping his footing. Tri came down with an overhead blow, and was rewarded by warm blood spalshing onto his face as his weapon sliced into the warriors shoulder.

Ty's sudden appearence of low energy vanished as the overlord did something. With suddenly renewed strength, he was shoved aside, and it took a moment to realize that Ty was running, leaping from rooftop to rooftop of the abandoned, shelled out town...while a good twenty combat forms were closing on him, one leaping to pin him. Tri reacted out of nowhere, and raised his hands to cover himself and break the things fall...but instead...bolts of white lightning shot from his fingertips, practically ripping the thing to pecies as a volley of beam rifles would. Severl smoking chunks fell as Tri got to his feet, and took off at a run, not fleeing from battle...but chasing after Ty, knowing that if he escaped, he wouldn't be found again. ***

Each landing was pain, each landing caused a fountian of green blood to splurt from the rather deep shoulder wound. Ty knew that his body had run out of energy to keep fighting with such power involved. So when the other flood arrived, he had just taken off. But the damage had been done, the weapon had damn near taken his arm off, his shoulder blade had a DEEP incision in it, and had nearly been sliced in half. And with how he was jumping and landing hard, it jostled the bone, and send supernovas of pain lancing through his body. It was horrible, to feel everything he did, and not be able to do a damn thing about it. He had screamed at and begged the overlord to let him run, to let him live.

Finally, he had been answered, and now weeped softly in the confines of his prison. But like any prisoner, he had a plan for escape. He knew that the forerunner army was pushing forward hard, and the overlord was distracted. He knew this, because he heard the flood die, the infected forerunner...heard them scream by the thousands. And for every instant he had been trapped in his body, he had longed to scream and be free again. He knew what to do...but when was the probolem. Tri would be following quickly, and not to far behind...if he caught up, Ty would put all he could into regaining control of his body (wich he did regularly each day, and not stop, even if the overlord surpressed him.

The good news was, the overlord would NEVER risk trying anything fatal, so there was only so much he could do. If Ty could withstand the maximum amount of pressure from the overlord for just awhile...Tri would have a chance to finish the job. It would probablly work, especially if the forerunner frontlines pushed forward anytime soon, distracting the overlord even further. It was a sketchy plan at best, but a plan none the less. Ty yelled again as his body touched down on another roof top. ***

Tri saw Ty's body leaping away, and knew it was slowing down. It would only be able to run for so long before its energy gave out entirely, and even the will of the overlord wouldn't be able to awaken it when it stopped for much needed rest. Tri tried a few times to reproduce the lightning effect that had chewed up the flood combat form about half an hour ago now, but got nothing more than a crackle or two. The gap between them was closing, and slowly, it wittled down to a few feet. This is where Tri was caught totally off guard. The flood whipped around in mid air and jumped at HIM. Tri froze for a full two seconds, and was smashed into by Ty, who drove them both through a window of some strange office building.

Tri roared a yell of defiance, and knew he was about to die, when a stroke of luck produced the white lightning again as his arms flailed for a purchase...knicking the already wounded shoulder, but vaporizing alot of the flesh around the wound, causing blood to pour out like mad. Ty was rocked backwards, and staggered into a wall, the flood actually acknowleding the pain by grasping the wound with its hand. Tri didn't have the energy to make a bladed weapon, so he charged and slugged Ty across the jaw, heard bone snap, and followed up with a quick volley to the chest for insurance.

Satisfied that Ty was out cold, at least for the time being, he sunk to his knees to take a rest, finally catching his breath. He fought to control his heart rate, and managed to slow it down, then grabbed a radio from his belt, one of the few devices that acolyte feild soldiers use. "This is Tri. I have him, but not for long, hurry." he said hastily, before snapping the link off. A few minutes later, a whole wing of sentinel fighters hovered over the building he occupied...and literally unloaded into the city behind him, missiles, pulse beams, bombs, the works. Fires ignited, buildings crumbled...and 19 flood were killed in very nasty ways. A dropship floated down to his window, and Tri was relieved to see a full squad of Forerunner Special Forces retrive Ty, tie him up in atleast five ways, and then slowly lead him aboard, posting a guard on both of them. The engines whined, and the dropship shot into the night, the fighters following close behind. ***

The overlord was truly afraid for the first time in his existence. The most important flood being in the entire flood race was unconcious, badly wounded, and captured. Further more, the overlord felt the wounds, and would been sweating...were he not in the cold of space half a sector away from the ring. And now, the overmind was beginning to speak to him, on a daily basis...and he could sense a large power scource nearby...forerunner battleships...and damn big ones two...it was a mircale they hadn't detected him. Things were beginning to look grim. His warriors retreated everywhere, and were mowed down if they were not. The forerunner were fighting with a blind rage, something the flood could never master, especially since they were emotionless. The tide was turning...and it wasn't in their favor anymore.

The Rise and Fall of the Flood Chapter 11
Date: 18 October 2003, 5:45 AM

Something had changed, something was very diffrent. It seemed like he was watching the world through his own free will, not being forced to...wich meant...and Ty sat bolt up in bed, and screamd in agony as the needles in his body protsted the movement, then passed out onto the medical bed. Guards in powered armor, the most advanced infantry technology available, developed by the Covenant, warrior servants of the Forerunner, burst in, and doctors were right behind them. "Holy shit, he sat straight up...I don't believe it...the drugs aren't strong enough increase the dosage." one said while the others bustled about. An alarm went off. "Damaged blood vessels, he's torn some in his arm, others are strained. Seal those torn vessels, and get the infusers out of his arms. WELL STEP ON IT!" the lead doctor snapped at his nearly frozen two companions.

The two soldiers in powered armor were lock still, with heavy, extended range beam rifles aimed right at his head. They were lucky that he wasn't badly mutated, it appeard acolytes and their strange powers prevented them from mutating beyond skin coloration and muscule mass increase, as well as smaller numbers of pain receptors. Ty groaned softly, and the soldiers shifted a little, double checking their aim. They had orders to literally carve him into pecies should he threaten anyone or anything. The surgery would take time, but secretly, they had orders to leave him without the pain receptors and the extra muscule mass. Forerunner high command had told them he was going to essentially be a super weapon, and they had orders to put all sorts of enhancements in him...to adapt him to the newest most advanced type of powered armor the Forerunner were making.

But the doctors were going to take it one step further, and give his cells the ability to regenerate at five times normal speed with enough adreneliene...thus making his wounds heal in the middle of combat, if his armor was breached. He was going to be more than the perfect weapon...he was going to be the end, and the scientists knew it...with the amount of power he possesed, and with the advanced training he was getting to use it, along with conventinal weaponry and the powered armor that now sported energy shields...he would be essentially unstoppable. It was even rumored that since the powered armor enahanced brain functions...that his power would be increased...and there was a possibilty that with time...he might be able to fly.

It was scary to the lead scientists, and Tri had nearly gone ballistic when he found out...he was being confined to quarters...it had taken four acolyte soldiers to contain him in his fury...four were injured, and three were in critical condition. There was no way they were going to arrest him...he would have killed someone for sure, so confinement was enough, direct orders of the Grand Magi...whos political power was growing by the day as Acolyte Regulars moved into the front lines to surpress heavier flood resistance. The Library of this world was now essentially sorrounded by a solid circle, and the Flood were beginning to fight like trapped animals. One or two men had even fallen victim to a poorly placed flood sniper.

The doctors finally began to relax as Ty's vitals calmed down, and the soldiers relaxed for a brief moment, before Ty stired, and they took steady aim again. Slowly, the doctors helped him sit up, so that the needles supplying him with IV, raw vitamins, and immune inhibitors wouldn't tear his blood vessels again. One needle poked into him, to supply pain killers and another to remove the leaked blood. Slowly, Ty became oriented, and noticed the two riflemen. In a harsh, dry, rasping voice, he spoke to them. "Are you going to kill me now?" he said uncaringly. One soldier twitched but they didn't respond, only kept steady aim at his face. Ty looked at a doctor and winced as he pulled a small patch off him. There were bloody holes all over his body, and Ty winced at them, wondering what he had truly been through. "Look at me" one of the doctors said. Ty turned his head, and was injected with something in the throat. He gasped in surprise, and felt a chill as adrenliene slammed through him. The doctor grinned. "Look at your arm!" he said, pointing. Ty glanced, and gasped in shock as the wounds closed before his eyes.***

Tri slammed his fists into the wall again and again and again. When blood began to leak from them freely, he punched harder. When the bones began to bruise, he slammed harder with each punch, denting the wall, and when every bone in his hand was broken, he ignored the biting agony that shot through his hands with each motion, smashing the wall again and again, not caring if everything was shattered. He yelled in roars of fury, feeling a blood lust, knowing what sick things they were doing to Ty without his consent. Every strike of his fist against the wall made the four armed guards outside blink or wince in fear, hearing about what he had done to the soldiers who had tried to hold him back. He had straight punched one in the chest and sent him flying twenty feet backwards with three broken ribs and five cracked ones. One who caught a spin kick went through a window into a thirty foot fall.

Tri finnaly couldn't take the pain anymore, and fell to his knees, screaming in agony at his hands, wich were nothing more than bloody pulps. The pain shot through him and he blacked out suddenly, giving a large, reverberating thump. The guards finally got very curious, and opened the door, stun guns at the ready...to find him blacked out. One sighed with relief and called for a medic.

When he awoke again, the pain was gone, and his hands were fine. Forerunner placed high value on medical technology, and new ideas came out all the time...and one had fortunatly been to regrow bones very quickly...so amputations weren't that scary anymore. Tri put his plan into motion, noticing the doctor was facing the other way. Using his powers, he silenced his footsteps, and slid into the hallway, creeping down. Ty would be in the advanced medical wing, four stories up. The elevator was fortunatly on the same floor, and Tri managed to get out on the third...the fourth was apparently sealed off. It made sense, after all, Ty had been infected.

Tri slipped onto the third floor, entered a small restroom area, and opened a vent cover. Slowly, silently, he crawled to a junction, where he simply leapt straight up and hauled himself over the edge. He crawled to the nearest vent shaft, opened it quietly, and dropped silently to a crouch. He could hear and feel footsteps everywhere, and there were heavily armed soldiers on this level, wich meant motion trackers, and possibly that new powered armor stuff. If you moved slowly, motion trackers couldn't see you, but these soldiers could still hear or see him coming. He was going to have to engage them eventually, and get Ty out of the building...how the hell he was going to do that, he didn't know.

In a half crouch, Tri peeked around a corner. A guard walked past, wearing some crazy looking black armor, carrying an insanely large weapon. Tri shivered. If there was a fire fight, it was quite obvious he was royally fucked. That had been a stationary weapon emplacement...now mobile despite the massive weight and recoil...supposedly, these soldiers could do some sniping with such a weapon. It was a scary thought. Tri was rescourseful, but armored soldiers were made to slaughter ANYTHING, including acolytes. Tri rolled forward to minimize his visibilty, and checked behind him. Ty's room should be 5 wings down. To his horror, the footsteps stopped, and he heard someone say something. "Movement, over that way, condition yellow" someone said.

"Shit" he muttered, slowly opening the door he was infront of and praying no one was inside. It was a chemical storage room, and that meant no where to hide. He heard footsteps outside the door. "Check that room" someone said. Desperate, Tri leapt up, and focused. It worked, and he floated, flat against the roof. The soldier looked in briefly, then closed the door. Holding in a sigh, Tri slowly let himself drift down to his feet. The footsteps moved off, and he opened the door again, closing it quietly. He moved down to the fifth wing, and peeked in the door. Two armored soldiers were facing inside a room, with heavy weapons. Tri slipped into the hall, moving slowly, praying he didn't set off a motion tracker. Doctors were talking to Ty about some sort of cell regeneration when one of the guards had a glowing white blade across his throat. The other guard moved with impossible speed, bringing his weapon up to aim at Tri, who ordered his hostage to drop his weapon.

The man did so, and proving he was not the average acolyte, he caught the weapon in midfall. There was no way he could fire it, and holding it was painful, so he leaned it against his side. "You, put your weapon on the ground and eject the ammunition." he ordered quietly. The man did so, removing the ammunition cell...and threw it with insane speed. It struck Tri in the head, and knocked him out cold. Ty had never said a word, and that was all he could think about as he fell, slipping into unconciousness again...***

Ty wondered why they had covered his eyes and ears for a moment while he stared at his regenerating wounds. It was...and then he saw the soldiers, rearming their weapons, and hauling off a body...it was Tri...and everything hit him. Tri wouldn't DARE take on the odds of just getting up here unless something was VERY wrong. He stood up, removing all the needles and patches and so on. "Tri!?" he snapped. The soldiers didn't react well, they dropped Tri and told him to get on his knees, aiming at his head. Ty didn't like that at all, and something kicked in, he suddenly had a strong impulse to defend himself. He lashed out with insane speed, grabbing the barrel of the weapon and tugging it out of the man's armored hands. The second man was moving fast, and a white pulse of energy blasted a hole in the floor, mere inches from his foot, but the guard paid dearly for it when Ty used the huge particle cannon like a bat, knocking him out cold with a shot to the head. He threw tri over his shoulder, and took off at a run.

The Guards were on him, their armors making them very very fast. Shots kept punching into the corners he rounded, heading for a window that was open, noticing that they were all shut. Finally, he found himself cornered, and gave up, and white lightning arced from his fingers, blasting the window out. Ty dove, and rolled to absorb the impact from falling nine stories, catching Tri in the process. He turned to run, and the armors leapt down after him, firing all the while. Ty sprinted and moved side to side to avoid being hit, when something hit his face. He ran and ran, until he made a huge leap over the compound fence, that the armors couldn't quite make. He ran off into the trees, and set Tri down. There was a large burn mark on his chest...and when he opened the man's tunic, tears formed in his eyes. The particle shot had blown the entire right ventricle of Tri's heart out. He was dead, and there was absolutely nothing Ty could do.

The Rise and Fall of the Flood Chapter 12
Date: 20 October 2003, 3:02 AM

It just couldn't be happening, Ty didn't know if he was even alive anymore...there wasn't any way he cloud LIVE without Tri...as much as he had fought to hide things, Tri had basiclly taken over the father figure role in his life. Now, he was dead, a smoking hole in his chest serving as an ugly reminder that he wasn't ever going to do anything again. Ty howled like a wounded animal, tears spilling down his face as he sunk to his knees, and then to his face, unable to do anything but bawl in the pain that stabbed through his chest like an energy knife. His fists slammed into the ground as he screamed at the world, a scream of rebellion. But soon, the horrible pain was replaced by fury...a blood lust slammed into place, and Ty decided then and there that he would avenge Tri, no matter what the cost. With a sniffle, he spun a gleaming white long sword into his hands. They would pay, and they would pay dearly. Every single person wearing those black powered armors would die. Ty turned and sprinted for the compound.

He made it to the fence, and leapt a good thirty feet over it, landing smoothly and leaping again, smashing through a window on the seventh floor. Guards could be heard running to investigate, and they froze, aiming at him, unsure of wether to fire or not. Ty grinned evily, and rasied his free hand to them, bolts of white lightning arcing out to electrocute them to death. Ty blurred into motion again, his blade slicing each of their bodies into halves, but he was surprised the their armor's gave him considerable resistance. He took note of it and charged down the hall, pleased that an alarm sounded when he darted by a camera. The men in armor would be coming for him, and he would be sure not to dissapoint them. The first three came tearing around the corner, and Ty spun like a whirlwind, decapitating the three of them in one spin. The bodies, and their oversized weapons fell with loud metallic clangs to the floor. Five more men came from behind, Ty ducking just in time to be missed by a particle blast, and he then parried the rest as he charged the men down. With a short leap, he landed behind their small line, and with one broad sweep of the blade, he bisected every single one of them. More men came running, and one damn near scored a hit on him. They appeared on his right, down another corridor, particle cannons blowing gaping holes in the walls. One shot grazed his shoulder, and he winced as pain lanced down through his right side. Ty raised his hand, and a fan of white lightning crashed into them...sending them all flying backwards, and putting them all THROUGH the bulkhead. Ty snickered as a few more came into view, and he zapped them too. As soon as the first standard soldier came out firing, he retreated, leaping out the window, and once again over the perimiter wall. ***

The overlord could tell that the group of battleships was onto him. He couldn't really move, and the dragons that could protect him could do very little against such large ships. Of course, he had his own defenses that COULD, but the forerunner would need to be deprived of their shielding before that would work. The battle group was closing on him at what was probablly their maximum speed. He had sent every dragon he could to intercept them, but forerunner fighters would dispose of the relativly small, snake like creatures that spat spores of corrosive acid. Even now, the fighters were beginning to carve up the dragons, heavy beam lasers and particle cannons slicing them into little more of flash frozen pecies of green gore.
The cruisers and destoryers were apparently charging their main weapons, he could sense the energy build up. It would take much time for such a small group to kill him, but it was inevitable. The dragons were done for within minutes, and the fleet was advancing. The Overlord made ready to defend himself, incredibly long, massive, heavy tentacles emerging from all over his massive body. The fighters came into weapon range, and missiles pricked his sides, causing him little pain, until they detonated, blowing chunks out of his armor like carapace. The last stand of the flood had begun. ***

The ground forces move steadily forward, every now and then taking out a flood or two with some quick shots, there was little resistance left...or so they thought. High command believed that the flood had been to strained to fight the forerunner on so many fronts, and with battle group omega soon to be assualting the overlord its self, there wasn't much time left for the flood. The ground forces were cautious, following armor units, and soon they became bored. That was until flood began to appear more freqeuntly, and then out of nowhere, they were upon the forerunner in all directions. It didn't take long to get a confirmed number from orbital surveliance. Over one million combat forms, backed up by countless infection forms. Beam rifles were firing everywhere, as well as light particle cannons, and tank mounted weapons. But no matter how many they mowed down there were always three more to back it up. Slowly, casualties began to mount. And what was once a full on, cautious advance, was now an ass hauling, fighting retreat. The lines began to break, and it became increasingly difficult to plug holes in the forerunner lines...until finally, they broke through, pouring through the gap like water through an open faucet. It maybe the flood's last stand...but it looked like it was turning into the forerunners last stand as well. ***

Ty had been jogging slowly for hours, donning standard combat gear he had stolen from a sentry at the hospital's main gate, and he had to admit, it was calming to be in uniform with a beam rifle in his hands, instead of in some thin medical robes. He was heading for the front lines, wich weren't to far from the hospital the army had set up nearby, and as far as he knew, the war was almost over...he thought it was true until a flood appeard in his periphiral vision, running at him with it's arms in the air. Ty turned with amazing speed and trap shot the thing in the face, incinerating the head and brain, dropping the creature. He knew something wasn't right, when the thing got back up, its head regenerating. Two blades of energy emerged from it's hands...and Ty knew he was dealing with an infected Acolyte. He dropped the beam rifle, and the long sword was in his hand in an instant as the being leapt. Ty roared in defiance and lept forward to meet his enemy.

The Rise and Fall of the Flood FINAL CHAPTER
Date: 21 October 2003, 7:59 PM

Ty roared in defiance, and the two warriors leapt in unison, and their blades crashed into each other, sparks of holy energy flying in all directions. The impact knocked them both back, and they both pounced again, and the dance began. Ty spun like a whirlwind through all his strikes, slashing at his enemies sides, advancing. The flood parried easily with the two small energy blades, dancing backwards, and suddenly into a full backflip, gracefully landing atop a tree limb. Ty followed by flipping forward, landing on it just as the flood leapt down...firing a fan of white lightning from it's hands. Ty somehow managed to leapt straight up, into the canpoy of the trees, as the limb was incinerated. He came down from nowhere, behind the flood, making a fast jab with the long sword in his hand. The flood rolled forward, sending a paper thin wave of energy at Ty, who just barely leapt over it, and came crashing down atop the flood, who was kneeling to parry the blow, holding it mere inches from what was once the head of an acolyte.

Sparks flew, and the world seemed to fade to nothing but blackness as Ty pressed all the strength he had onto the blade. A sphere of energy began to expand from where the two powers had collided, and was getting larger faster. The sphere sorrounded them as they struggled to kill each other, the blades locked together, their muscules straining. And suddenly, everything went white, and Ty was falling, falling from what he didn't know...until he crashed down into something soft and cold. He opened his eyes, and a world of white was before his face. It took a few disoriented seconds to figure out that somehow, he had gone from fighting that infected acolyte to fields of snow...and then an explosion came from behind him. He turned around, and saw something very few men ever got to see. The fortress world's command shrine. The master weapon was controlled from here, the fate of the galaxy could be changed from here. Ty's sharp tactical mind worked fast. He was behind a charging pack of flood, and slightly above them, on a natural rock bridge. A line of forerunner special forces were some how holding them back, perched atop the third tier, rubble strewn about for cover, as well as a multitude of covenant. Elites were everywhere, using shade stationary gun chairs, but the flood were pressing harder, and more of them kept pouring out of doors and down a waterfall that had once been frozen, but they had blown open the ice to land in it safely.

Ty stood in the center of the natural bridge, and formulated a plan. A long beam ran at a slant from top to bottom of the shrine, ending where the observation tower was. Ty sized it up, and then leapt down onto it, balancing perfectly, grinding down it with his armored boots. Sparks flew, and the flood paused briefly to see what it was...this cost them a good fifty combat forms, and then Ty extended both arms to the sides, angled them down...and rained white lightning upon the ranks of the flood. The energy bolts vaporized them outright, punched fatal holes in their soft bodies, and set them aflame, and they were powerless to counter such a powerfull attack. Ty slid down into a crevice at the bottom, leapt out, and sprinted, as combat forms began to chase him. The long sword suddenly flashed into his hands, and he backflipped clean over their heads, then dove forward, bicsecting one with wide slash. The other two turned, but not fast enough, as Ty took the head and right torso with a diagonal slice, then spun a complete circle to his left to remove the head of a the third. With that, he leapt with all the strength his legs could musted, boosting the heighth with his holy powers, and landed gracefully atop the bridge again. The soldiers cheered as the Tide began to turn, and Ty leapt again, landing among their ranks. But even with all the kills he had just made...he knew the defenses wouldn't hold for much longer. ***

The overlord swung another massive tentacle at the cruiser, and it slammed into the shields, causing them to flare brightly. The vessels were closing to point blank range, holding their fire until the last instant, where nothing would save him. But the overlord had a way out, he had a way to escape...he had tried it earlier...and had nearly been killed by Ty Nectfist in the process...it was amazing what he could do with the dead body of an acolyte, that apparently had once been called Tri. A fighter was taken out by a Dragon, and plowed into his side at more than full throttle, a searing pain filled him as it detonated a few yards into his carapace. The range was close now, and would be point blank in minutes. His tentacles flashed out again and again, massive kinetic energy hammering the forerunner shields. Finally, one destoryer lost it's shileds, and the tentacle wrapped around it entirely, slowly sqeezing it, apparently trying to snap it in half. And slowly, it worked, the hull groaned, and the armor began to snap off. The captain somehow maintained his cool, and ordered all his pinpoint defense weapons to fire on the tentacle until it released or the weapons were melted to slag from overheating. Heavy particle cannons and long range beam lasers tore into tentacle, blowing meaty chunks off it, spraying flash frozen green gore into space. But that wasn't the overlords only defense. The tentacle suddenly sizzled with electricity, wich was conducted through the metals of the hull, electrocuting the crew instantly, killing every single living thing aboard the ship, and rendering it useless. But the range was point blank, and the ships opened up, heavy weapons chewing into the carapace of the overlord, who didn't hesitate one second, and transferred himself to the body of Tri Novaus. The fleet of vessels were surprised that the overlord stopped fighting, and cutloose entirely. The antiproton warheads launched, set for remote detonation, and sliced through the carapace armor of the once massive overlord, and blew chunks of flesh. Regular HE warheads hammered the body along with heavy beam lasers and heavy particle beam cannons, the main armament of any heavy ship in the forerunner fleet. Then, with a cheer of victory, the ships detonated the antiproton warheads inside the ungoldy creature, simply vaporizing the beast from within. They cheered and reported their victory. But on the ground, the battle was just beginning. ***

Ty fired his beam rifle again, the precise sniper shot tearing through four heads, dropping four flood, and melting flesh off the chest of another. Somewhere, a carrier form exploded, and blew the bodies of several leaping flood up to the third tier. There were a good twelve flood in this group, and shot after shot missed them, until Ty raised his palm...and a fan of energy washed over them, dropping their sizling bodies atop other flood, rendering them immobile and helpless. Another volley of particle grenades landed among the tightly packed crowd of flood...and the next second, the troopers were being slimed in green gore, limbs flying through the air as they kept firing, but steadily, the flood advances pushed them back...the fourth tier, the fifth...the main platform, the observation tower was evacuated as the forerunner fled into the control room complex, sealing the doors, and locking what was for many their last energy pak into the beam rifles and particle rifles. The huge doors shook as the flood fought to get them open. Ty was literally soaked in green blood from the immeasurable amount of kills he had from his energy long sword. Quickly, a few elites ran to the where the doors opened, and laid a few of their most lethal plasma grenades, flipping some tiny switches to turn them into mines. Then, they all fled to the control room acess hallway, where there was little cover. The grenades could be heard detonating, and it didn't take long for the last few the elites had to blow up as the flood forced the second to last door. Soldiers in the small nooks off to either side of the hall that were used for lighting cut loose, under the command to "make every shot count" from Ty, who was now the ranking officer.

They mowed down the ranks of flood at first, then the door was fully open, and they poured through, overwhelming the soldiers, who were suddenly finding themselves fleeing into the control room itself. Ty was afraid he would have to carry out the orders the officers had given him should they fall...they had given him a most important object...what was called the "Index" the key to the ring's primary weapon. The doors shook as the flood pounded on it, the soldiers dropping useless weapons, and igniting energy kinves and bayonets. Only 11 men, including Ty were left, and they all knew it was going to be the end. Ty told them softly not to be afraid, and to fall back rapidly, to the other side of the ring around the massive holographic display. Out of nowhere, the pounding stopped, and there was a whistling in the room. The soldiers looked around, but it was far to late. The Overlord dropped down to the ground, and white lightning washed over the warriors, immoliating it. Ty somehow back backflipped down the long path to stand right infront of the control console.

So his nemesis was back, his enemy had come, only this time, it was weilding a gleaming white blade, that looked exactly like the one..that...Tri has used...and Ty howled with fury, his own weapon flashing into existence, as he charged. In the middle of the catwalk, the two warriors collided. Ty swung down hard, the Overlord parried and counter attacked. Sparks flew like a heavy rain storm, so fast and furious was the battle. Slowly, Ty retreated, backing up slowly, his long sword moving so fast that it would have damaged the nerves in a normal person's eyes. He backflipped as the Flood leapt forward, and they fought in midair as Ty rapidly descended towards the gaping hole in the middle of the catwalk. Tri's body suddenly broke off, and Ty extended his arms, catching the edge, and flipping up over it, his body spinning like a top as he landed, the blade in his hands making one solid light trail, like a ring around him as he spun through his slashes, leaping and flipping over his enemy's head, spinning the blade towards his back, when he was back kicked in the gut.

Ty staggered backwards, but recovered quickly, slashing down and to the right, nearly removing Tri's foot, and catching a fist in his jaw instead, losing his balance. To counter, he rolled forward gracefuly, mimicing what he had seen Tri do earlier, a paper thin wave of white energy shooting away from him. Tri easily hopped over, and this time, it was Ty who was on his knees, struggling to keep the blade from slicing through his face. But he knew, that he wasn't going to be able to hold him off for long, he was tired from long hours of fighting back the flood waves. He had one choice, and he had to do it. He rolled backwards, spraying fans of white lightning, and pulled the small spike that was the index from his belt. The Overlord/Tri saw it, and suddenly pressed the attack, full force, launching himself towards Ty, who quickly leapt sideways, arcing over the control console, where he threw the index towards the appropriate slot. But Tri followed, and Ty was suddenly short of one arm. He landed flat on his back, and Tri straddled him when he landed, tip of his blade against Ty's throat. Ty saw the index falling, knew that Tri hadn't seen it...and saw it land right in the slot...the slot that wasn't correct for its placement. Tri heard the thrum of power and turned to look. Ty took full advantage of this, grabbed an energy bayonet he had landed next to, and jabbed it into the back of Tri's throat. Blood splutred, and the once mighty acolyte fell forward. All around the ring, the flood grabbed at the back of their throats, and fell forward, dying. The forerunner cheered everywhere, but little did they know what was happening in the control room.

Ty was dying, he knew it, because he was halluconating. He was seeing something, a strange looking figure wearing green armor that had a golden face plate, walking down the catwalk weilding some kind of rifle, and heading for the control console. The figure pulled something from his helmet, and insterted it into the console. The world went to white, and Ty Nectfist finally slipped into his death.
But the ring was still charging. With the index in the wrong slot, the ring wouldn't send out its massive life ending energy pulse through the galaxy...it would fire upon its self. And only when the sky began to turn black did the forerunner grow curious...then, in a massive flash of blue light, all life was vaporized in one single moment.***

The Master Chief stepped up to the control console and inserted Cortana into it. "Are you alright?" he asked. "Never been better...the wealth of knowledge, so much, so fast...it's glorious" she said. The Chief didn't comment, and wasn't really paying attention, until Cortana said something with fear in her voice. "Get out of here, find Keys, STOP HIM!" she yelled. The Chief took off sprinting...little did he know, that the covenant weren't the only evil on the ring...there were things far worse...and their second chance was soon to be at hand...

THE END


Word from the Author
I truly want to thank all the readers of this series for supporting me in writing it, and giving me the motivation to continue. I'd like to express my utmost thanks to HBO for hosting my fiction. I hope you enjoyed the series, and don't worry, theres a brand new one to come! Thanks again
BlackValkyire

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