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___________________________________________________________

1505, July 21, 2552 (Military Calendar)
System Designation Classified, Planet Codename Milestone

Gunnery Sergeant McCollum slung his rifle and cracked his knuckles. Before him was one of the four separate control panels in the center of the underground cavernous room. He adjusted his air scrubber mask, then took a minute to look over the control symbols. They were all holographic and of a pre-dominate yellow color.

But something was very familiar about them. They weren't like the Covenant icon usage system, so he couldn't relate them to that. They were just familiar, like he had seen them somewhere. Lieutenant Kren came up next to him, his long rifle pointed at the ground. The two men studied the panel for a moment.

"Ancient Greek symbols?" the lieutenant offered.

McCollum thought for a moment. It was very similar to that, but Greek was not one of his high-points. "Looks a lot like it."

Kren slung his rifle and stared down at the panel. They had to try something, and quickly. He looked at the countdown timer. 0 hr 29 min 44 sec.

He reached out and pressed a symbol that looked like an alpha. The button glowed when he touched it, then flashed twice. He immediately heard a dull growling noise echoing throughout the room. Around him, the Marines of First Squad brought their rifles up and scanned the room.

The noise stopped.

"Lieutenant," came Sergeant Jacobs voice. "Over there."

Kren followed the direction he was pointing and saw an opening in the wall, one that was not there previously. He brought out his binoculars and looked through them. It was on the far side of the room and was no bigger then a standard hallway aboard the USNC vessel.

"Sergeant, go over there and secure it with a team." Kren ordered, stowing the binoculars."

Jacobs and two other Marines cautiously ran towards the opening, their rifles staying aimed at the new opening. Kren turned his attention back to the control panel. Next he saw what look like a beta symbol. Alphabetical order?

He quickly taped the button and it flashed. Another low growing noise could be heard. He looked around to try and spot it, and saw a previously invisible door open near where Jacobs was running to. It was the same size of the first and was ten meters away from it. This new door, as did the first one, vanished into blackness.

Kren watched as Jacobs and the two Marines finally make it to the door. He activated the comm. link. "What do you see?"

Jacobs voice came back. "This door leads to a passage way that continues on a down-grade for as far as my flashlight can see, as does this second door."

Kren sighed. He knew that all of these symbols unlocked a new door, and that all of them probably went a separate direction downward. The new question now was, which door lead to whatever they were looking for?

He turned around and faced the entrance they had come through. The symbols on the walls, the Covenant interest in them, that was the only other place the answer to this question could be.

He started jogging towards it, much to the other Marines' surprise, but they all followed. He got to the entrance and looked down the length of it. The walls were lit with those purple Covenant lights. Damnit, Kren thought. Where to start?

"Sir, what are we doing?" McCollum asked.

Kren started walking deeper into the entrance tunnel. "Trying to find which one of those doors out there leads the right direction."

He looked along the walls, trying to find anything he recognized. The symbols here were foreign to him, but somewhere there must be a connection to those control panels. He started waking faster down the tunnel, looking at the walls. The Marines sluggishly followed the CO, looking themselves for anything that might help, despite the fact that most of them did not know the Greek system.

They got to the turn that lead to the surface. Kren turned around and started looking at the other wall, and headed back towards the large room. McCollum stopped however, and silently stood still. The sergeant quietly stepped forward to the turn that lead to the surface and peered around it. A distance light showed where they had came through, but something else could be heard.

McCollum turned around to face his CO, now halfway back down the tunnel. "Lieutenant."

Kren didn't stop looking as he replied. "What?"

McCollum looked back towards the surface. "I hear gunfire."

___________________________________________________________


Sergeant Galvin fired off his last shot in the clip. The creature had been no more then fifty meters away, and it fell into the mud, joining the dozens of other fallen creatures that now littered the area.

"Grenade!" A Marine yelled, and the pin was pulled. The sniper shielded his eyes as the water twenty meters away erupted into a white wall of water, sending two creatures up into the sky.

Lt. Meyers fired off another burst that sent a creature into the mud. His rifle barrel was hot from the continuous fire, and the three empty clips that lay in the mud in front of him bore testimony to the number of rounds that had left his rifle in the last five minutes. They had killed at least sixty of the beasts, but they were sill coming in mass, and they were getting close.

He slapped a new clip in the rifle and aimed up. The creature was ten meters away from taking out one of his Marines. A three round burst ripped apart its head, and the corpse fell into the mud within an arms reach of the Private's life he just saved. He turned and fired at another threat coming in. There were too many.

"Sir, we need to get an evac now!" one of his fire team leader called back.

Meyers fired again. "Wessern, get over here!"

The comm. specialist jumped up and ran to his CO. Meyers fired again, then looked at the Marine. "Get the Valiant Knight online, tell them we need some support at our coordinates. Also, tell them we need evac in..." he looked at the countdown timer. "...25 mikes."

The Lance Corporal nodded. "Yes, sir."

___________________________________________________________


Kren frowned as he stared at the wall. He then looked back at Sergeant McCollum, who stood by the corner that led to the surface. "Get up to Second Squad and find out what the hell is going on. I want you back here in 4 mikes."

McCollum nodded and ran around the corner.

Kren put his attention back to the wall and continued back towards the large room searching for any clue on what door was the right door. The Marines around him looked for anything that might help, but nothing but silence ensued. Kren looked at the last segment of symbols before they got to the room. Nothing.

He cursed in frustration. This place was a maze, and finding the right way to go was harder then what he was ready for. Not to mention the fact that Second Squad was probably engaging an entire Covenant armada up there. He looked at the countdown.

0 hr 24 min 59 sec. Shit.

He walked into the center of the tunnel and thought. The situation was bad, growing worse, and he had no intel on what to do or what he was even really looking for. This mission was a crap-shoot from the beginning and all the find details that those ONI pukes said at the briefing was quickly coming apart. What the hell were they thinking? He thought.

Kren closed his eyes and put his head back. His frustration was obvious to the other Marines nearby, but he didn't care. What they needed was a freaking specialist who knew what all these symbols were. He opened his eyes and stared at the ceiling of the tunnel.

Crudely etched directly above him was a rough circle with a straight line through it. It looked familiar, mathematically familiar.

"A Theta?" He whispered, staring at it.

He remembered the many math courses he had taken in school, and they had used thetas for trigonometry and calculus. It looked just like that symbol. A circle with a line through it.

He turned and ran for the control panel.

___________________________________________________________


McCollum ripped his mask off and took deep breathes as he neared the top of the tunnel. The sound of gunfire was obvious, as was the booming sound of an S2B rifle. He stowed the air scrubber mask and pulled his rifle to bear as he made it to the top.

He looked out to see Second Squad firing like crazy at an incoming flood of creatures. The creatures that had attacked him and First Squad in the jungle.

"Lieutenant Meyers!" McCollum yelled, running up to the Marine officer who was letting loose a barrage of rounds.

The lieutenant stopped to reload and turned to face the sergeant. "What the hell? Are you done down there?"

McCollum shook his head. "No, sir, but we heard gun fire."

Meyers grunted. "We're being overrun sergeant, I say we can hold them off for another five minutes tops." He turned to fire.

McCollum looked out at the hundreds of dead creatures that lay in the mud, then he saw the hundreds more coming in at them. The sight was frightening, and those creatures were relentless in their assault. It was obvious the Marines would run out of ammo before the creatures stopped their attack.

"What's the status with the evac?" McCollum asked, bringing his own rifle to shoot a creature less then fifty meters away. Three muffled shots brought it down into the mud.

"We called in immediate air support and an evac in 25 mikes." The lieutenant answered without taking his eyes off of the creature in his scope's sight. Two shots to the head took down another creature. "Maybe with some air support we can hold them off long enough, but I don't know. How's progress going down there?"

McCollum fired off a long burst. "Working on it."

Meyers cursed loudly as he stopped to reload. "If that air support is not here in three mikes, we're pulling in."

McCollum nodded and turned to head back under. This was a living hell.

___________________________________________________________


Kren reached out and tapped the theta symbol on the control panel as the rest of First and Third Squads came to a running halt behind him. The Marines were still not sure what their CO was doing, but settled with it without asking questions.

Kren hoped this was it. He knew they were short on time and if what McCollum had heard was right, Meyers and his men at the surface were in a world of hurt. Half of him wanted to take them all out to the surface and see what was going on, but he knew that there was something down here they needed to get, especially before the Covenant find it.

A low growling noise emitted from behind him. He turned around to see another door, on nearly the opposite side of the room from where Sergeant Jacobs was, slide open. He started running for it as he activated his comm. link.

"Jacobs, get over here with your detail."

"Yes, sir." Jacobs replied.

As soon as Kren was close to the door, he motioned for everyone to slow down. He then directed a fire team to cover their backs, and fire team to cover the flanks, and the rest to keep moving forward with him. The passage that lay beyond the door was pitch black, and he couldn't see where it went. The intrigue of finding this cavernous room, an empty Covenant garrison, and now this maze was over. The only thing left that drove him was the will to get whatever it was they were looking for and his men off this rock.

He activated the flashlight on the M7A1. It didn't penetrate as far as he hoped, but it would have to do. He looked down the small tunnel and noticed it came to an end 50 meters away. Great.

"This it, sir?" Jacobs asked, panting.

Kren thought for a moment. "Maybe." He turned to face the sergeant. "You stay up here with the rest while I take a fire team down with me. If we're not back in--"

"Lieutenant!"

Kren turned to see McCollum running from the entrance tunnel.

"Second Squad is being overrun, Lt. Meyers said--"

"By what?" Kren interrupted.

"Those creatures," McCollum took a deep breath, obviously induced by the run. "The thing we were attacked by in the jungle. There are hundreds of them."

Kren cursed, wishing he could remove the air scrubber mask so he could rub his eyes. "Casualties?"

"None so far," McCollum said.

"Sergeant Spencer and Fire Team Alpha will go down with me. Third Squad and McCollum: go to the surface and give Second Squad a hand. Sergeant Brooks and Fire Team Bravo will stay in this room." Kren ordered.

"Yes, sir." Four Marines replied in unison.

"Move." Kren ordered, then turned to the small tunnel before him. He motioned for Sergeant Spencer and his fire team to follow while Brooks and his fire team set up a semi-circle around the small tunnel's entrance. Kren cautiously, but quickly, moved down the small tunnel towards the end. It was barely large enough for him to stand straight up.

As he got closer, he noticed that even though it did end, there was a hole in the floor. He moved up to it and found it barely large enough for him to fit through. He looked down it with the light. It went for as far as he could see. The tunnel was not large enough for him to move around Sergeant Spencer, who was directly behind him, so he couldn't see exactly how far they had gone.

"Give me a rope," Kren ordered.

Spencer passed the word down and within a minute they had a three hundred foot long rope at the hole. Kren slung his rifle and tied it around his waist. The other Marines grasped it firmly as Kren made sure it was all tight.

"One tug is to go, two tugs is stop, three tugs is pull me back up." Kren said. Spencer nodded.

He knelt down next to the hole and squeezed in. His complete weight went onto the rope as he dangled for what could have been hundreds of meters high. The Marines began lowering him down, and his body scrapped along the narrow sides of the hole.

___________________________________________________________


McCollum, along with the men of Third Squad, reached the surface to find Second Squad firing at those creatures. Those hairy beasts were getting very close.

Meyers stopped to reload and saw the newly arrived reinforcements. "Thank god," He whispered and ran over to them. "Third Squad, relieve my men, we're almost out of ammo." Jacobs nodded and deployed his fire teams. Meyers turned to get his own Squad's attention. "Second Squad, fall back to the tunnel entrance." The two squads exchange positions.

"Status of the air support?" McCollum asked, ducking as dirt and mud flooded over him from a nearby grenade explosion.

"They should be here," Meyers responded, loading his last clip. McCollum noticed this and handed over two of his own.

"I thought you said you were pulling in five minutes ago." McCollum said, firing his rifle at two creatures running through the mud at them.

Meyers looked at the sergeant. "Let's just say I thought you could use a little more time."

McCollum nodded. He heard something and looked behind him. It was a slight whining noise. He looked up into the sky.

"About fucking time." Meyers said.

___________________________________________________________


Kren had been going down at least a hundred meters when his body broke out into an opening. He quickly tugged the rope twice and came to an abrupt halt, his legs dangle over complete darkness. He pulled out his rifle and activated the light. He was in a small room.

He tugged the rope once, and he began lowering again. His feet hit the dusty floor and the rope went slack. He tugged it twice, then removed it from around his waist. He activated the comm. link.

"Spencer, do you read?"

There was a thick static. "Marginal, sir."

"Hold your position, I'll be back in five mikes."

Kren looked around the small room. It had no engravings or anything out of the ordinary; the walls were devoid of inscriptions. He turned around and saw a small tunnel leading out of it into compete darkness. He moved for it.

It was a tight fit, but he squeezed through it. It went on for twenty meters, then emptied into another room of the same size. This room had two exit tunnels, each one on opposite sides. Kren cursed, this was not what he needed. He reached into his web gear and pulled out a chemical light. He broke it and threw it on the floor, then picked the right tunnel first. He moved through it and it emptied into yet another room, this one had a single exit. He moved forward, but stopped.

Something was not right. He could not see much in the black room; only where he pointed his flashlight, but he could smell something rotting. This made him very uneasy as his gut told him not to go forward, even though it seemed like the logical thing to do. He slowly looked to the right and spotted something against the wall.

Oh shit. Kren's heart began racing as he recognized the familiar sight of an Elite. His rifle came to bear but it didn't move. Kren then saw why.

Sticking out of its abdomen was a very sharp metallic rod covered in purple blood. The floor around it was also covered with the Elites blood. He followed the bloodstains to the center of the room, where something reflected back off his light.

A trip wire. Crude but effective.

Kren took slow steps back into the tunnel, then turned around and headed for the last room he was in. His heart was pounding hard as he thought about it. This place is booby-trapped.

He got into the last room, illuminated by the chemical light stick. Ahead of him was the other exit. He headed for it, taking deep breathes to calm his heart down. At any moment, something could decapitate me, he thought.
He squeezed through the tunnel and got to another room of the same size. It had one exit, straight ahead, just like the booby-trapped room. He looked around the room and found no corpses, and he did not notice and trip wires. He took a step forward and felt his foot sink an inch.
He instinctively fell backward as wind rush past his face. His rifle clattered to the ground and he could not see anything except for the wall at which the flight pointed. He cautiously reached for the rifle and grasped it, then pointed it up. Directly above him was a shining, sharpened rod that was slowly retracting back into the walls. It had missed him by a mere inch.

He rolled on his stomach and low crawled toward the other end of the room. He found the ext tunnel, stood up and looked back. The rod disappeared seamlessly into the wall. What is this place?

He squeezed through the tunnel and found it to be at least 50 meters long. He cautiously made his way to the end, then found it to empty inside a large room. He stepped out into it; his flashlight couldn't penetrate to see the other end, telling him it was a very large room. He looked up at the ceiling and saw light coming down from a hole. It was a grayish color, and water drops came down through it, splashing into a puddle that was in the middle of the room. He moved forward, checking for anything unusual, then stopped directly under it.

He looked up as water drops splashed against the air scrubber mask. Above him, at least three hundred meters, was the source of the light. It looked strangely familiar.

It was the surface.

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