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Night had fallen on this part of Halo. The snow seemed to glitter softly in the glow of burning fires, gunfire, plasma blasts, and explosions. Katr' Daksiratt crouched behind a large rock in the frozen canyon in front of the structure containing Halo's control room as he watched the last of Gnashing Teeth Squad being annihilated. There was nothing he could do for them. He could only hold his position and defend the control center. Katr' had stood on the top of the pyramid structure that the control room was on top of before. He had never been inside, but he could imagine what it would be like to stand in such a room. His people had been searching for this place for a long time now, and he was honored to have been one of the first on Halo.
Katr' was a veteran of many battles against the human infidels and had killed many of them with all of the various weapons he specialized in using. He had also killed a number of them with his bare hands, using his incredible strength to crush and break their pitiful bodies. But not all of the humans were weak. There was one, a unique one, that the infidels called the Master Chief. He was here on Halo. That was an opponent that Katr' would be honored to fight. A human that was just as accomplished as he was, if not more so. If Katr' met this Master Chief, he would just have to kill him.
But there were more important matters on hand. The Flood. The abominations. They were here. He could see them swarming over Gnashing Teeth Squad's old position. They had been overrun. He knew that those that had not been killed immediately in Gnashing Teeth Squad were being infected with the Flood virus and those that were dead were being...eaten. Katr' felt a rage, a burning hatred of these creatures rising from the depths of his soul. This rage , this hatred was somehow stronger then his hatred for the humans. He could respect them in a way. They believed in a God just as he did, even if there God was different. He was sure that they were fighting for their God as just as he was. But the Flood, they had no god. They were mindless freaks. He hated the Flood with every part of him. The hatred continued to rise until it erupted from his throat in a viscous snarling roar that echoed throughout the canyon. Katr' drew his plasma sword and activated it. The long, sharp blade glowed to life, pulsing with a killing gleam. Yes, he would kill many Flood today with this sword. He would kill until there were none left to kill or he himself was dead.
Katr' turned to the ten Elites under his direct command and raised his sword into the air. "Fellow warriors, we will not let the Flood have the control center. It must remain in our hands until we can find a way to use it. There are many of us here to fight the Flood. Let us kill them without mercy. We will melt and char their putrefying flesh with our plasma rifles and tear their flesh apart with our needlers. We will kill hordes of them with our grenades. When we run out of power in our weapons, we will rip off their heads with our bare hands and shove them down the throats of their comrades. We will leave the snow stained with their blood. Their blood will run in a stream down the sides of the control center. Or it will run with ours. Warriors, the fate of the galaxy lies in our hands. We must not fail. When we claim victory today against our foes, we will camp here in the center of the valley to give thanks to the gods for keeping us safe and bringing us victory."
The Elites raised their weapons into the air and gave a tremendous battle cry that sounded like the roar of an enraged beast. And they were enraged. They were powered by the furious hatred spawned by watching their comrades die in pain. They were out for blood. And blood they would get.
Katr' turned and looked back at what used to be Gnashing Teeth Squad's old position. The Flood were finishing up and were turning towards the rest of the Covenant troops arrayed in defensive positions in front of the pyramid structure that led to the control room. Two Wraith mortar tanks opened up on the horde of Flood. The huge balls of plasma death pounded into the blood soaked snow where the Flood were feeding. Flood were torn apart in sprays of sick green blood as the plasma mortars exploded. But there were too many of them. More were coming in from another part of the valley. One of the Wraiths switched its fire to these newcomers.
Katr' waited patiently for one of the Flood to get near enough for him to kill with his plasma sword. Around him Covenant troops waited in a rough semicircle around the base of the pyramid. The Flood were getting closer. The two Hunters that were part of the defense team opened up once the Flood got within range of their fuel rod cannons. The horrible bright green projectiles exploded amongst the advancing Flood, killing more of them. But there were just too many. Katr' looked out over the valley and saw that there had to be hundreds of Flood compared to the eighty Covenant soldiers still able to defend the base. The only non infantry support they had were the two Wraith tanks. If the Flood got the upper hand in the valley, then they would have to start a running battle up the winding path leading to the top of the pyramid.
Some of the Flood were close enough for him see clearly now. He could see infected Elites and humans that had been changed into Flood combat forms. There were many of the Flood spore, the little, round, yellow things that were so annoying in battle. Luckily, Katr's armor produced a rechargeable energy field that would protect him from those little bastards. But the Grunts and the Jackals, they would not be so lucky...
He could also see the seed pod creatures that contained the Flood spore within them. They liked to walk right up to an enemy and explode in their faces, often taking down the shields of Elites, and releasing the Flood spore to jump onto the suddenly vulnerable enemy to infect, eat, or kill it. And Katr' hated them all.
Just then, Katr' saw a flash out of the corner of his eye. It took him less then a second to recognized the telltale rocket from one of the humans' rocket launchers. The rocket slammed into one of the Wraiths, ripping open the left side and exploding it in a shower of metal and flames. Katr' was shocked. Some of the Flood had gotten their hands on rocket launchers. And worst of all, they knew how to use them. Katr' had heard a rumor that once the Flood infected something, they were capable of sifting through their hosts' memories for information such as how to load and operate a human rocket launcher or a Covenant plasma rifle. Then, they could spread the information to others who did not know how to use the weapon. In the case of the Flood, that would be the infected Covenant, who did not know how to work the weapons of the humans.
The rumor must have been true because two more rockets roared towards the last Wraith. One missed due to some impressive driving by the Elite piloting it, but the second one hit, damaging the right side of the tank. Damaged, but still operational, the Wraith continued its bombardment. But more rockets appeared. Two more slammed into the front and right side of the tank simultaneously, knocking it out for good. The tank exploded, leaving nothing but a charred, burning hulk to rest on top on top of the snow. Some of the Flood were in range of their weapons now, and a storm of plasma erupted from the Covenant lines towards the abominations. Most of the ones in front went down, but some got up again, missing arms in some cases. The Flood did not seem to feel pain, because they were able to keep fighting even with serious wounds. It was amazing. But they were far from invincible, and Katr' found a certain pleasure in killing them.
The Flood started to respond and the space between the two forces was suddenly filled with crisscrossing plasma fire, bullets, needles, and even rockets. The rockets were the most deadly. They exploded amongst the Covenant forces, taking out any Covenant unfortunate enough to be in the blast radius. The Hunters tried to help by aiming their cannons at the spots where rockets seemed to be coming from, but they could not kill all of them. There was not much anyone could do in the way of dodging. The air was filled with projectiles, and if you dodged a plasma blast, you might walk into a stream of needles. The jackals hid behind their shields, firing their plasma pistols when they could. The Grunts were starting to get hit, some falling backwards from head wounds and some clutching their respirators as they leaked methane into the air from bullet holes. They suffocated and soon died.
All Katr' could do was watch. The one problem with the plasma sword was that you could only attack enemies close to you. He was useless right now, and it only made him angrier. Now the Flood were within grenade range. Covenant troops started hurling plasma grenades into the masses of flood with deadly effect. The grenades seemed to burn with a bright blue fire before they exploded in a bright flash, vaporizing nearby Flood and mutilating others. Some plasma grenades stuck to the Flood, sealing their fates and the fates of those around them. Even though the Covenant forces were killing lots of Flood, it wasn't enough. There were still just too many.
The Flood got within jumping distance and all hell broke loose. While most of the Flood kept on going on foot, many of them used their astonishing strength to leap high into the air, closing the distance between them and the Covenant in a matter of seconds. Two landed in front of Katr' and his Elites. Grinning with the thought of killing these two, Katr' ran forward with his sword raised. His men saw that he was going after one and started shooting at the other. The other Flood was blasted completely away under the combined fire of ten plasma rifles. But the last one was all for Katr'. The thing, an infected human, fired its assault rifle at him on full automatic. The 7.62 mm bullets bounced off of his energy shield, but he noticed that it was weakening the shield significantly. "Time to end that," Katr' thought. He swung his sword, slicing the Flood's right arm off above the elbow in a spurt of green blood. The blade kept going and sliced into the side of the abomination. The Flood staggered back before recovering and coming back at Katr' with its left arm. That arm was lacking the hand that humans had. Instead, it was nothing more than a mass of tentacles that were ferociously strong. Katr' reacted quickly and sliced the tentacles away. Before the Flood could react, Katr' lopped off its head. The head spun away and a fountain of green blood erupted from its neck as it fell.
Katr' roared victoriously so all of the Flood could hear. His first kill of the battle. More Flood came in, in fact almost all that were in leaping range jumped into the midst of the Covenant ranks. It was not going good for the Covenant. The Flood were massacring the unprotected Grunts and using their tentacles and weapons to kill the Jackals. The Flood were dying in masses, but there seemed to be an unlimited supply of them. Katr' reeled back as maybe ten of them landed from their jumps in the middle of his Elites. A fierce close quarters fight broke out. This was where Katr' could kill most efficiently. He fought with a ferocity fueled by his undying hatred even as one of his Elites was knocked to the ground and then infected by one of the infectious forms. Turning, Katr' killed the Flood bastard and then killed the twitching Elite. He would expect any of his men to do the same for him. Better to die than to become one of them.
The Flood were getting the upper hand quickly. The seed pods and the Flood spore had arrived. One of the seed pods exploded next to one of his Elites. The Elite was thrown to the ground by the explosion, his shields all but incapacitated. Before they could recharge, a swarm of waiting Flood spore jumped on to him even as he was trying to crawl away, latching on to him and finding gaps in his armor. They were eating him alive, his blood ran down the sides of his armor, staining it a dull purple instead of a shiny dark blue. He was screaming in pain as they tore at his flesh, inserting tentacles into him and infecting him with their virus. His blood stained the snow as his strength started to fail him.
Katr' cried out in anger and ran over to him. Katr' smashed his plasma sword through the Elite's face, killing it instantly. Then, he smashed the Flood spore with his sword, hands, feet, whatever he could get at them with. He was trembling with anger now. Turning towards the Flood that were overrunning the Covenant forces, he cursed them with the vilest, most insulting words in his language. He cut one completely in half with his sword sending a spray of green blood out over everything near it. Katr' looked down at his armor. It was once a shiny gold, but now, the most of the front and his entire right arm were dripping with the sick green blood. It pleased him to see that.
A call came over the battlenet from the commander, "All forces retreat to the top of the structure! Fall back!"
The Covenant who were still able to respond immediately started up the base of the structure and onto the winding path that slowly climbed to the top of the structure. The control room of Halo was at the top of that structure and Katr' would be damned before he would let a Flood set foot inside of it.
The retreat was a bloodbath. The Grunts and Jackals were too weak too last long against that many Flood. The two Hunters were a little to slow. One of them finally succumbed to its many wounds, its orange blood staining the floor and walls around it. The other Hunter seeing its bond brother die right next to it, emitted a howl of rage and sadness. It decided to stay and make the Flood bastards pay. He lasted five minutes and killed maybe twenty of the Flood combat forms before he was overwhelmed and killed. Meanwhile, the rest of the Covenant forces continued the retreat to the top of the structure.
Katr' looked over the edge of the path and could see all the way down to the bottom. There were only a few Flood moving down there which meant that their numbers were starting to dwindle. But it was the sight of the battlefield that saddened Katr' the most. Where the original Covenant defensive line had been, there was not a single patch of white snow anywhere. It was nothing but a swirl of colors. Purple, blue, a little orange, and a lot of green covered the ground. Bodies lay strewn everywhere. It was horrible to behold. That only hardened Katr's determination to make these Flood pay.
Katr' looked up and realized that they were almost to the top of the tower. The Elite commander and his squad of Special Ops Elites were on the top platform, shooting down at any targets they could see. When Katr' looked back down, two Flood leaped up from the platform below and landed in front of him. Katr' made short work of them with his plasma sword, splattering more green blood on his armor. When they made it to the final stretch to the top platform, the Special Ops Elites rained down needles and plasma fire upon the Flood following them. Katr' turned to look. At least fifteen of the needles stuck into an infected Elite, making it stumble back before they all exploded, tearing the bastard completely apart in a spray of green blood and needle shrapnel. Three plasma grenades landed in the mass of Flood. They then exploded as well, taking out whole groups of Flood.
Katr' grinned. As long as the Flood were dying, Katr' was happy. In fact, the more he saw die, the happier he got. The less of them there were, the better chance Katr' had of surviving to thank the gods for keeping him safe. If they did not spare him, then hopefully he would be honored in the afterlife for his courage and tenacity in battle. That was all that really mattered to Katr'.
When they all finally reached the top platform, Katr' counted the survivors of the eighty defenders from the base of the structure. Three other Elites, one of them from his squad. That was all. Katr' shook his head. By now, Katr' was breathing pretty hard and he was not sure how much longer he could keep fighting like this. At least he now had the Special Ops Elites to support him. If they couldn't stop the Flood, nobody on Halo could.
The Flood started leaping onto the top platform from the platform below and the ramp leading up to it. The Covenant troops fought with a berserker's rage, killing without mercy and without hesitation. Soon, the platform was drenched in blood. But, they soon started losing Elites. The seed pods arrived and so did the Flood spore. You could shoot the pods and explode them before they got to you, and often the explosion would kill a lot of Flood. But even that combined with the plasma grenades was not enough to keep the Flood off of the platform. There were just not enough Elites. Soon, they were backed up against the blast door that led to the control room. The commander turned and hit the holopanel that opened the doors. They then retreated into the wide hallway beyond.
Katr' threw one of his plasma grenades onto a seed pod. They both exploded, killing maybe ten of the Flood combat forms who were stupid enough to be standing next to it. But then, a Flood infected human appeared with a rocket launcher and fired it right at Katr'. He dodged the rocket just barely, and it hit the ground behind him. Katr' heard screams of pain from some Elites, and he turned around to see. The rocket had taken out three of the Special Ops Elites and one was badly wounded. Katr' walked over to the wounded one and raised his sword high above his head. He looked into the Elite's eyes and saw the pain in his eyes. Blood spurted from its mouth as it tried to talk. Katr' had to strain to make out the words, but he understood them clearly enough. "Kill me."
Katr' brought the sword down with all of his might and killed the Elite, slicing its skull open. It died instantly. Sighing, Katr' turned back to the Flood. The Flood with the rocket launcher was loading two more rockets into its launcher, but Katr' threw another plasma grenade. Once again, his aim was true and it stuck to the Flood's face. The grenade exploded, taking out the launcher as well as several Flood around it.
Then, the commander died. He was overwhelmed by Flood spore and combat forms. As the spore were eating him, he pulled out a plasma grenade, activated it, and held it in his hand, biting back against the pain. When it exploded, it vaporized his body and took out all of the Flood around him.
Soon, there were only five Elites left. The others were all Special Ops Elites. There were none left from the valley. They retreated to the next blast door. Katr' hit the holopanel and opened the door. Once again, they retreated. Another Elite died. Then another and another. As Katr' backed up against the last blast door before the control room, he looked at the last Special Ops Elite.
"We cannot let them into the control room." Katr' said.
"We must keep fighting. There can't be that many left." the Spec Ops Elite replied.
And keep fighting they did. They were both covered in blood as the Flood piled up around them. Then, a combat form hit the Spec Ops Elite with a blast from one of the humans' shotguns. The blast took down its shields and wounded it badly. Taking out a plasma grenade, the Elite activated it and stuck it to the front of his armor. Yelling a battle cry that echoed throughout the hallways, he ran forward into the midst of the oncoming Flood. They ripped at him, trying to kill him, but it was too late. The grenade exploded, taking out a whole bunch of them.
Katr' reached out and hit the holopanel next to the blast door. It slowly opened Katr' fighting off enemies with his right hand, pulled out his last grenade with his left. He felt the smooth shape of the grenade and somehow it calmed him. He activated it and threw it onto the holopanel he had used to open the blast door. Katr' ran into the control room and used another holopanel inside to close the door behind him. Five Flood got in before it closed all the way, but Katr' saw the grenade explode, destroying the holopanel needed to open the door from the outside.
Then, Katr' summoned the last of his strength and sliced two of the Flood combat forms in half. They flopped to the floor, spilling their blood out on the transparent material. Drawing on his eternal hatred for the Flood for more strength, Katr' cut off the top of one an infected human's head, killing it in a splash of green blood. The other one jumped into the air and came down on top of Katr', but he chopped both of its legs off with one swing. It landed hard on the floor and Katr' finished it off by ramming his sword through its chest. The last one attempted to shoot Katr' with a captured plasma rifle, but his shields managed to hold out long enough for him to cut the thing completely in half. And it was over. Katr' could hear a faint pounding on the blast door, but he knew that even with the few rocket launchers they had, they wouldn't be able to get through.
Katr' turned and looked out at the rest of the control room. It filled him with a sense of awe. He walked slowly forward, taking in all of the beauty of the room he had never seen before this moment. The transparent floor he was walking on was suspended in the middle of a huge, spherical room. He looked over the rails in astonishment. The transparent material must have been made from some extremely strong material that the forerunners must have had access to. The forerunners had built this place, this ring. He could see what appeared to be a huge holographic projection of the entire ring rotating around him in the center of the room. As he stood by the control panel, he remembered that the tool needed to activate Halo was missing and therefore it could not be used. Sighing, Katr' turned to face the door, knelt on his knees, lay his sword down in front of him, and waited for death.

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