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Chapter 10
One bumpy Pelican ride later, the group of 9 Spartans was dropped in a mountain range several miles from the base. After a long and perilous hike up a mountain, Aida told them to stop. "Where's the facility?" Bryan asked. "We're standing right over it." Aida replied grimly. Bryan cursed; they didn't bring tools to excavate an entrance. Just as Bryan was wondering what to do, he and his whole squad were surrounded with golden light and Bryan felt himself being pulled apart, one molecule at a time, then put back together a second later. Immediately in front of Bryan was a box-like floating robot, with a green-glowing eye in the center. The construct spoke to the group, but in a female voice "Greetings! I am two-seven-one Placid Water. I am the Monitor of instillation zero-eight. How may I help you?" Bryan knew instantly who this was, even before the introduction. This construct was a Monitor, the guardian and caretaker of the ring. This robot may have been here for hundreds of thousands of years, just like the first Monitor. It was probably insane. The Monitor was accompanied by several Sentinels, small, hovering, crablike droids that fire heat beams. Bryan finally had the time to see where they were. He looked around and they were in a large, dark hall with lots of pillars, which had markings that seemed to glow, holding the high roof up. "Are you the Reclaimer?" The Monitor asked. "Uh… Yeah, I am the Reclaimer." Bryan replied uncertainly. "Who are your compatriots?" The Monitor asked suspiciously. "We're the other Reclaimers. Ya know? In case he dies." Justin said. "Ah, I see. Very well. What may I do for you?" "We're looking for a machine that could make a sun explode." Katie said. "Do you refer to the secondary fail safe? Why do you need to see it?" the monitor asked "Maintenance inspections are required." Peter thought off the top of his head. "Very well, right this way." The Monitor said and began down the hall, towards a door. But the Sentinels instead went through a nearby hatch. "Where are the Sentinels going?" Bryan asked. "They have other tasks, of course. Did you not you know that Reclaimer?" Bryan chose not to answer, but that didn't bother the Monitor. It just continued and began humming to itself as it led them out of the large hall.
After about an hour walking through small corridors, huge rooms and past more pillars, the team got quite bored. Suddenly Bryan's superior senses picked up a strange noise in the tomb like room they were in. It was an almost liquid like noise, but other then that, indescribable. Bryan knew one thing about this noise though: it was something bad. Several guns' safeties clicked off as the noise got louder. Finally Charlie voiced the question or everyone's mind: "Where's that coming from?" Suddenly a hatch just above them blew open and the Flood was upon them. Infection forms fell and popped on their shields, causing more to pop. "Run! There's too many!" Snipra yelled and the Spartans ran for their lives. Millions of Infection forms followed them, like a tidal wave. The Monitor easily kept pace with the Spartans as they ran at top speed, which as about fifty-five kph. "Oh, how unfortunate. It appears that Flood batches 2b through 7b have escaped and are spreading quickly." "Ya think!?!" Justin yelled. Suddenly, what looked like a group of walking corpse jumped down from a ledge and obscured their path. "Damn! The Flood must have found some Elites to infect!" Bryan yelled as he unsung his shotgun and blew a bowling ball sized hole in the Combat form's chest, who toppled over and hit the floor. Two barks from Justin's BR-55 torn another's arms off and Justin meleed it to the ground. Peter's flamethrower torched most of the Combat forms, which screamed and flailed while they burnt into ashes. Matt's Plasma Rifle boiled the deformed flesh on the mutated aliens and several fell. They kept on running when, suddenly, one Combat form reached out his hand and grabbed Matt by the leg, pulling him down, causing his Plasma Rifle to slip from his grip. While on the ground, Matt drew and fired his SMGs directly in the Combat form's face, killing it for good. But before Matt could get up the Infection form enveloped him. He fired his SMGs futilely, cursed and screamed as his shield failed and Infection forms covered him and one inserted a long proboscis into the back of his neck, puncturing his spine and pumping in Flood biomass. "MATT!" Theresa screamed as she put her hand to her mouth, too horrified to say more.
Matt couldn't hear her, all he could hear was a rushing sound in his ears. He felt another presence in his mind, like an AI. But this presence had only mad desires and cravings for power, money, and sex. All this presence could think of was hate and hunger; it craved for food, never truly satisfied. Matt suddenly remembered when he was younger: his team had spectacularly won a training exercise, their first ever. He had never felt so happy. Suddenly he screamed as the presence ripped the memory from his mind and tossed it into oblivion like old garbage. More memories followed: his first time with a hand gun, his first crush, his favorite music, his first kiss, and his first sunrise on Earth. All were torn from him forever without mercy or compassion. In time, he would be an empty, soulless shell. Eventually, he couldn't even remember his own name or even the special person in his life named Theresa.

Bryan had to pull Theresa along because she wanted to fight so much. She yelled at him to let her go, to let her fight, maybe even to let her die. But Bryan couldn't do that. "Are there any doors around here?" Bryan asked the Monitor. "Yes, seal A43 is still open. I will delay its closure so you may go through." Placid Water replied and speeded on ahead. After 2 minutes of more running with no rest, Bryan could see the door. The Monitor was floating by it, humming to itself as usual. "Get through the door!" Bryan yelled and the Spartans triple timed it with renewed vigor. They all went through and the door slammed shut behind them, crushing 3 Infection forms and stopping the rest in their tracks.
Chapter 11
Bryan couldn't believe it. The op had barely begun and they had already lost a man. Everyone was sitting down, resting. But not Theresa, she was pounding with both fists on the door, wanting to kill the ones responsible for Matt's fall. The only problem was no matter how much she hit the door; it never got a single dent, so she was just wasting energy but didn't care. Justin stood up, walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder. "Relax; he'd want us to finish this op, so save your strength." Theresa stopped, turned around and punched Justin right in his mouth. Justin staggered back for a few seconds from a hit that would have killed a charging bull. Justin immediately pulled back his fist to hit her, but Bryan grabbed his fist before he could launch it. "That's enough. Stand down, both of you." Bryan ordered; Theresa and Justin could disregard an order from a friend, but not a superior officer. Justin regained his composure immediately but Theresa just looked at Bryan with what Bryan could guess was pure anger. After a few minutes the Monitor asked them if they were ready to go. They were so they continued on. After another 20 minutes of walking, they found a large lift the size of a mini league baseball diamond. They got in and it went down with agonizing slowness. When they were down one level, it stopped with a loud 'clunk' and they filed out.
They were in a large garden with plants of all kinds, a pond, and a little waterfall. Suddenly the Spartans could here the whine of plasma weapons and in less then a second they switched into 'combat mode' seeing this foliage only as cover. The Spartans ducked behind the bushes, which made chirping noises when touched and several rocks with strange symbols on them. Inside the main area, a battle between the Flood and a large group of Grunts was going on. The Flood was better at fighting, but the Grunts outnumbered the Flood eight-to-one. Bryan ordered his troops to wait this battle out and they slid behind the rocks and into shadows, unseen. The Grunts actually did rather well, burning the Flood with plasma, impaling them with needles, and blowing them up with plasma grenades. But the Flood didn't value their lives and fought till they died two or even three times, fighting tooth and nail. Soon all the Flood was dead and just as the Grunts started cheering, Justin rolled a frag grenade into their ranks and scattered them all through out the room. A few seconds of automatic fire later and all the Grunts were dead except one, who stood among his dead fellows, unafraid. Bryan and the others stepped out of the shadows and pointed their weapons at the Grunt. This Grunt was obviously special; it wore light blue and silver armor. Bryan could tell from the way the Grunt's eyes were crinkled that he was smirking under his mask. "What are you smiling at, chump?" Justin asked, unconcerned about the alien's lack of fear. "Me am Grunt General, and me gonna to kill you!" The blue Grunt replied with supreme confidence. "And how are you going to do that?" Kaden asked, his rocket launcher pointed at The General's head. "With this!" The Grunt yelled as a gravity lift appeared behind The General from the tall ceiling. Bryan looked up and could see a little point of light, where the grav lift was coming from. Suddenly, what looked like a large purple and blue suit of armor came down the lift. It was about eight feet tall and had an open canopy where the torso would be. The arms looked like they were made from hydraulics with a mechanical fist on the left hand and what looked like a plasma turret built directly into the arm. The legs were also very hydraulic and had cleats for better traction when running. Its cockpit was especially designed to fit Grunts, with a hole in the back for the methane tank to poke out. The General hopped in this monster, using a ladder, and turned it on. The hydraulics began pumping at the Spartans opened fire. But the shield had just activated and the bullets just bounced off, even Kaden's rocket had little effect. The Grunt fired its plasma turret and pink plasma lanced out and splashed the area where the Spartans had been 2 seconds ago. They were now strafing and firing; trying to find a weak spot, but as hard as they fired, the shield never came down. Peter threw a frag grenade at the monster, but the fragments just bounced off. "We don't have time for this!" Snipra yelled as her sniper rounds ricocheted off the Grunt's shield and went in every direction, nearly piercing Charlie's face. "You guys go! I'll distract him!" Katie yelled as she reloaded her dual Magnums. "You can't fight this thing alone!" Bryan said as he tossed another grenade, for all the good it did. "You know I can beat this thing! Get out of here!" Katie yelled at him. "Katie's right Bryan, we only have two hours before the Arrowhead and the Powatan arrive. We need to move." Aida urged. Bryan bit his lip and made his decision. "Monitor! Get us out of here!" Bryan yelled at the box like construct that was just sitting there and watching. "Certainly, Reclaimer." Placid Water said calmly as it opened a door leading out of the room. "Spartans! Pull back! Follow me!" Bryan ordered and all the Spartans, except Katie, broke off contact and followed Bryan and the Monitor. "Where you think you going?" The Grunt General cried and leveled his plasma gun cannon at them. Suddenly several bullets ricochet off his shield and he turned to find the source of the shots, only to find Katie, defiantly pointing her guns at him. "Me going to have fun killing you!" the Grunt General said as he aimed the plasma turret at her. "Bring it on ugly!" Katie yelled as she dodged the plasma blast.

The door sealed behind them and Bryan wished he could be in there helping her fight. But he needed to lead the rest of them to their objective. "Lead on Monitor." Bryan said to the little construct. "Very well, Reclaimer. I wonder how those intruders were able to discover this facility…." The Monitor paused as if thinking "Ah, yes! They got in through access port 4B9, I've been meaning to seal that exit." They continued on for another 10 minutes and then came into a large, circular room made completely of balconies, like an apartment building. But instead of stairs, there were gateway-like teleporters that glowed green. Bryan was so busy admiring the room he was very surprised when a purple beam shot out of nowhere, hit his shield and knocked him flat. He rolled out of the way as another beam hit where he was a second ago. He ducked behind a large rectangle poking out of the ground, there were several on the ground floor where they were every 5 feet or so. Everyone took cover as Snipra and Charlie sniped back at their antagonists. The hostile snipers could only be Jackals. Bryan risked poking his head out and zoomed in on a special Jackal on the 12th floor. Unlike his fellows, who wore grey and blue, this one wore gold and red armor that wasn't too shiny, so it wouldn't be too big a target. This one spotted him and opened fire, but Bryan managed to duck in time. Even after two minutes of the Sniper battle only 3 Jackals had gone down. Snipra has exchanged her S2 AM sniper rifle for a beam rifle and Charlie was scanning the area for more targets that were stupid enough to hold still. They needed to get across the gallery without being sniped, which would be hard since these guys were the best snipers of all the Covenant races. "Sir, do we have any kind of smokescreen we can use?" Peter asked Bryan over the COM. "No, We didn't bring smoke grenades." Charlie answered for him "But I've got something just as good. Move on my signal." "Charlie, are you sure about this?" Bryan asked. "Yes." Charlie said as if he was ordering fate to make this work. "Ok, then. We're standing by for your signal Charlie." Bryan said as he got ready to sprint. "Good, cover your eyes." Charlie said and a click could be heard over the COM. Bryan closed his eyes and he heard the 'Shomp' of Charlie's flare gun firing and the 'piff' as the flash grenade went off. "Go." Charlie ordered and everyone sprinted madly for the way out, which the Monitor was standing by. They crossed almost completely unopposed, but when they were safely through the doorway, Bryan realized that Charlie wasn't there. "Charlie! Where are you?" Bryan yelled over the COM, worried he had been shot down. "I'm fine. Go on without me. I've got to finish what I started." Charlie said which was followed by the crack of his rifle. Bryan cursed, he knew they had to stay back to protect their rear, but he had already lost 3 people from his initial force of 9. They continued on and hoped Katie and Charlie would be ok.

Katie was very annoyed. Her Magnums were out of ammo and she had no grenades left. She was currently hidden in a shadow, with the Grunt general hunting for her and firing into dark corners. Finally the Grunt stopped wasting time and headed for the door the other Spartans had left through. Katie, out of options, smashed her fist into a wall and several wall fragments fell out. She picked one up the size of a D battery, aimed and threw it with all her considerable might. The rock whizzed through the air, bypassed the shield and made contact with the suit's right shoulder, causing it to sway. Then it dawned on Katie, the Covenant made the shield stronger by removing its function to block sub-sonic projectiles like thrown objects and physical blows. Ergo, it could block bullets and plasma; but not, say, a tackling Spartan. Katie made her plan, pulled out a brick sized C-10 charge and armed it with 15-seconds to spare. She charged at break neck speed towards the Grunt's armor. She jumped onto the cockpit, bypassing the armor, and was face to face with the terrified General. "Me no mean to kill you! Me want to be your friend!" The general pleaded. "Stick this up your pipe and smoke it, gas-sucker!" Katie screamed as she ripped off the Grunt's rebreather and shoved the armed explosive down his throat. Katie's last though was that at least she was taking this bastard down with her. Then she and the general were blown to small, burnt pieces.

Chapter 12
The squad of remaining Spartans entered another large room; this one had a large crack through the ground that seemed to go down forever. They spotted a large bridge going across and approached it. But, to their dismay, it was guarded by 5 Brutes. Brutes were large, apelike aliens with enormous strength and reputation for violence. Four of them had Brute plasma rifles, a red, faster firing version of the plasma rifle, and the one in the center was huge, even for a Brute. He must have been 9' 10" tall, had biceps the size of hubcaps, black fur, and a wicked scar along his chest from his right shoulder to his left hip. They had so far not opened fire on the Spartans. Bryan was just about to order them to open fire when Justin put his hand on his shoulder. "Let me handle this." Justin said and walked up to the large Brute, Battle Rifle still out with its safety off in an 'I'm going to kill you' way. "I must tell you, that hair is amazing. Very clean, who does your hair? I was-" Justin didn't finish his smart-ass remark because the Brute back-handed him so hard he went flying into Kaden's arms, who had to drop his rocket launcher to catch Justin. "Fools!" The lead Brute yelled "No one talks so disrespectfully to me and survives! I am Brutanus, the junior Chieftain of the Brutes and you will not pass until my troops and I are dead!" "That can be arranged." Snipra said as she aimed and fired her rifle, whose beam made contact with one of the Brute's head and caused him to take a step back. Then the Brute regained his composure and fired at Snipra, who was too amazed to dodge the first few hits. But she snapped out of it and the battle was joined. Snipra's team had never encountered Brutes before, but Bryan personally had. Once when he was on a defense satellite in New Reach's defense grid and relatively new at being a Spartan, being 25 and getting his armor just the other day, several Covenant ships attacked New Reach and he helped repel boarders. He had encountered several Brutes in a hanger with a few Grunts. Bryan had killed the Brutes, but afterwards spent 3 days in the medical bay from his wounds. Brutes were sadistic, fast, tough-as-nails fighters that didn't stop fighting until they were dead. Snipra fired 3 more beams of her beam rifle into her first target and he fell. Peter activated his flamethrower and a tongue of fire lanced out and hit one Brute squarely in the chest, causing the hair there to catch fire. The enflamed Brute went crazy and charged at Peter, who continued dousing the Brute with fire. The Brute died two feet from Peter just as his gas tank ran out. Kaden fired a rocket and, even though it wasn't a direct hit, sent Brute number 3 flying through the air and off the bridge, tumbling into the abyss below. The last subordinate Brute charged at Bryan, who fired his shotgun at the offending alien. But the pellets were absorbed by his thick skin and he kept going, whacking Bryan in the chest, causing him to slide a distance of 10 feet and nearly going over the cliff. Justin snuck up behind the Brute, put his M6D to the monster's head and fired the whole clip into him, any less and the Brute would have kept going. The Brute fell over dead, leaving Brutanus alone against the Spartans.
Brutanus gave a roar that reverberated off the wall and shook dust from the ceiling and charged in a berserk fury at Justin. Suddenly Theresa threw down her weapon and tore with Spartan speed at the Brute and tackled him like a quarterback tackling a receiver. Brutanus slammed into the floor and threw Theresa off like a blanket and charged at her instead. "Guys! Go!" Theresa yelled as she dodged out of the way, laced her fingers together and brought her hands down on Brutanus' back. "No! You're coming with us Theresa!" Snipra said. "Ma'am, No offense, but shove it up your ass." Theresa replied as Brutanus swung his arm around and hit her square in the chest. "…………Alright, let's go." Snipra finally decided and the other Spartans hurried across the bridge, following the Monitor, into another hallway.

Charlie was nervous, not something that usually happened. He was using the 2x of his scope to find the other snipers, and once he did he switched to 10x to make the killing shot. He had already taken down four of the original ten snipers and Snipra had gotten three. Meaning there were three snipers left. Suddenly a beam hit the wall and inch from Charlie's head and he ducked and made a crouched run for a teleporter. It took him up three levels and he positioned himself again. By memory of where the beam had come from he could tell the sniper was one level below him. He scanned the level and, sure enough, there was the sniper, looking at the level where Charlie had been. Charlie lined up the shot and pulled the trigger, sending a high caliber bullet lancing through the Jackal's head. Two beams automatically aimed at his position as his smoke trail gave away his position. Charlie ducked as the beams struck where he had been a millisecond ago. Charlie reloaded, these four were his last shots so he had to either A.) Kill the snipers B.) Get shot by the hostile snipers or C.) Go for one of the dead sniper's guns. He got to a different position and aimed at another sniper. But the sniper ducked at the last second and Charlie missed. "Damn!" Charlie swore as the other sniper fired at him. Charlie pulled out a frag grenade, pulled the pin and came up long enough to throw the nade at the cowering sniper's position. ½ a second later, there was a 'Whump' as the frag went off and the sniper was thrown off the edge, tumbling to the floor below. Charlie was down to three bullets and had only the Jackal General to worry about. Charlie scanned the area with thermal vision; he hadn't used it so it would be a challenge, but taking down this general was serious, and he shouldn't fool around. His scan showed the general wasn't anywhere, which meant he either had bugged out or…. He was in the only place Charlie hadn't searched. Charlie whirled around and saw the Jackal General trying to sneak behind him. Charlie whipped his rifle around, but the Jackal was faster. The alien sniper rifle fired and, at this range, punched a hole through Charlie's shields, armor, skin and stomach. Charlie doubled over and collapsed, mortally shot. The Jackal got close and checked that Charlie was dead; this was a big mistake. With amazing speed Charlie pulled out his flare gun, put it under the Jackal's chin and fired. The flare didn't kill the general, but it propelled him upward and the alien's skull connected with the ceiling and cracked like an egg hit by a semi, killing him instantly. Charlie fell to the ground and into a pool of his own blood. He only wished he could have had a sniper battle with Snipra, she was a formidable opponent. He also though of the rest of his team: Bryan, his Warthog/Shotgun jockey boss, Justin, the smart-ass, and Katie, the smart girl he might have won over with time. Charlie swore to himself that if his team told him they had failed the op when they died, he was going to kill them. Then he was freed from the tyranny of mortality.

With the Monitor in the lead, the remaining Spartans (Bryan, Snipra, Peter, Justin and Kaden) continued trekking to the device that could save the universe. Peter and Bryan walked side-by-side, not saying anything for a while. Finally, Peter broke the silence. "So, how long have you been a team leader?" Peter asked. "Only a year, but I have learned to trust my squad with my life and they trust me and whatever decisions I make." Bryan replied "I got made a squad leader when my team was shot down on a hostile planet. Our squad leader died, poor Ian, and everyone just turned to me. When we completed our mission, Command recognized my bravery and talent and gave me my own squad." Peter just nodded his head and they kept walking. "We are almost to the device Reclaimers; you had best be ready to make the necessary maintenance check." The Monitor chirped. "Well, we're on the final stretch." Aida said, relieved. "Yeah, that's usually when things collapse under your feet." Bryan replied seriously. Up ahead was another lift, which they took down, but when they got to the bottom, a nasty surprise was waiting for them. When the lift stopped a blob of plasma the size of a football lanced through the air and, even though it didn't hit anyone, everyone's shield's flared from the radiation. Waiting in front of the lift was several Elites, all in black Spec Ops armor. Except one, who had silver colored armor. The silver one was carrying a portable fuel rod gun pointed right at the Spartans and the rest had an assortment of Plasma swords, plasma rifles, carbines and one even had a beam rifle. Bryan's team snapped into action: Kaden fired a rocket, which weakened the Elite's shields and Bryan threw a frag, killing several. The Elites backed up, so they weren't bottle necked at the lift's entry, and the Spartans pressed forward. The combatants were in an impossibly large room or, to be more precise, on a football field sized pillar in an impossibly large room. Lifts of all sizes were on peninsulas all over the platform. Several bodies littered the floor, both Elite and Flood. Bryan was glad the Flood had softened the Elites up for them. "Behind you!" Aida yelled and Bryan jabbed the barrel of his shotgun into the belly of the Elite behind and pulled the trigger, blowing the Elite's guts into nothing. Kaden fired his rocket launcher faster then Bryan had ever seen anyone fire one, he fired the 3 rockets, reloaded in record time and fired again. Snipra stayed behind and sniped, picking off Elite after Elite, Peter bathed the Elites with fire and Justin kicked an Elite where the sweet meats were, knocked him in the chin with his Battle rifle butt, and pushed him over the edge into the abyss and, just to add insult to injury, saluted after the falling Elite. After 2 more minutes the battle was over and only the tired Spartans remained standing. Just as Bryan was about to turn to the Monitor, a blot of plasma shot out, missed Bryan but inches and hit Peter in the chest, taking away his shields and knocking him 12 feet through the air and over the edge. "Snipra!" Peter said desperately. "Peter! Not you too!" Snipra yelled after him. "Don't let me have died for nothing, get them for me." Peter pleaded. Then his vital signs zeroed, just like Matt's, Katie's, and Charlie's had. Bryan turned to see who fired and saw the Silver Elite rise up; he had only been playing dead, and then hit them from behind. The Elite's fuel rod gun had no more ammo, so Silver had to drop it in favor of a Plasma sword. "You humans will not pass alive! Your heads will be severed and presented to the Hierarchs!" The Elite yelled as he ran at Kaden, who couldn't fire his launcher from fear of hurting himself. Suddenly, as The Elite brought down the sword on Kaden, Justin jumped in with a captured Plasma Sword and blocked the blow. "Number one: No one hurts my squad, number two: I've got a score to settle with you, and number three: I've wanted to try out one of these swords." Justin said as he pushed the Elite's sword away from Kaden's face. "How dare you touch a weapon as sacred as our swords of cleansing light! You shall die for this, Demon!" the Elite shouted as he jabbed with the sword and Justin blocked. "I'll meet up with you guys later!" Justin yelled as he slashed sideways and the Elite parried. Bryan, Snipra and Kaden managed to slip by into a lift in the center of the platform and went down, leaving Justin alone with a killer.

To be concluded in Battle Rpoyal part four...

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