The Truth of the Rings - A Halo story

Part 11 - Keyes

When the two appeared, each was at a different orientation. Chief was upside down and Floyd was diagonally pointing down. They both fell hard, landing on their back and shoulder respectively. Floyd could hear some babbling in Chief's helmet about coordinates but Chief reached up and smacked it once, leading to what sounded something like "oh... sorry" from a distance.

Once the two got to their feet, they began moving through the ship, and when the term nightmare is used here it's barely an Exaggeration. Only difference was they weren't asleep.

EVERYTHING that could've gone wrong without killing them, did. Multiple times they ran out of ammo, got swarmed and almost killed which left them thanking Christ for their energy shields, walls would explode and cave in on them, doorways destroyed, flaming parts everywhere, and when they didn't expect it to be any worse, Floyd opened a door and proceeded to step through. As each Spartan made their way through, their combined almost 3000 lbs weight buckled the floor of the degrading ship beneath them and the ground shattered, and they fell through the bottom. Falling a good ways, the pair landed in a green fuel of some kind, starting a fight in the flood covered warzone that was the ground. And once again, the pair was put through a massive RINGER of bullshit.

Rapidly approaching the hanger again, the two made sure to step over the hole in the ground by jumping it, and quickly ran their way to the other side. And with that horrible experience out of the way, the carried on. Steady , weapon in hand, the two made their way through the ship. The hanger was the final frontier. Final gauntlet. And the speed at which they made it through was only due to them being a pair. Chief immediately ran inside, sliding down in front of the wall and throwing Floyd up it. As he landed, Floyd drew his handgun and fired at the nearby combat forms. Once they were at least slowed, he reached down and chief gripped his hand, as they made their way up level one. 2 to go. Much further apart is time. Chief drew a shotgun and began cutting a hole through the center of the swarm, trying to Dodge any shots fired at him. Floyd suppressed the crowd with his rifle as best he could, though with the relatively weak rounds to the flood, 60 rounds barely even made a dent in the crowd. Even that dent was immediately gone every time he reloaded. Eventually, they made their way to a large broken part of the wall and made their way up to the next floor. After a long trek of hell, they finally made their way to the final stretch. Each Spartan stepped into the control room and immediately were swarmed by flood, coming out of every door nearby.

The two went back to back, covering each other's weak points perfectly, until Chief managed to clear his side. He crouched down a little as Floyd raised his arms a bit, as they began cleaning one side together. Once it was cleared, Floyd looked at his rifle. Only one mag left. The one he inserted. 60 more rounds.

The two walked up the platform towards the Captains' life sign, looking at a large pillar looking thing the flood had made. It was strange, having multiple tendrils attached to the ceiling or floor, with a large blob they all connected to in the center. The blob was stuck to the ground, with a normal sort of tree root style, Digging partially into the ramp. However, looking at the front of the blob, they learned the horrible truth. The blob had the outline of a man on the front.... The captain had become one of them. Chief bowed his head down and as did Floyd, giving their respect to him. Floyd quickly got on comms, hearing from the Marines calling "This is Sierra 181, what's your situation?"

"Chief we are being overrun! We need help, now, at the FOB!"

"Roger, one of us is en route. The captain is dead but both 117 and I remain. We will get support as fast as possible."

Floyd looked at Chief, as Chief put his hand through the blob and pulled the captains neural link out and looked at it. "I'll head to the Pillar. Help them."

Floyd shook his head. "All due respect Chief, I'm expendable. Your not. Also, they need the best if they are going to survive. This can be recovered, their lives can't be. Hand it here and save them John. I'll finish this. Get them off the planet from the hanger once they are safe and give me a heads up when you do."

John looked down for a second, thinking. He then looked back at Floyd, holding out the link "Are you sure 181?"

Floyd grabbed it and inserted it into his helmet. "Yes sir. I'll see you on the pillar."

Turning around, Floyd headed back for a Banshee, jumping in and making a flight for the Pillar. One AR, one Mag, one man, and one plan. Everything was on his back this time. If it was too early, everyone would Die on the ring. Too late, and everyone would die. Intimidating odds.... But he didn't let himself crumble. Because if there was any time for hesitation, it sure as hell wasn't now.