The Truth of the Rings - A Halo story

Part 12 - The Maw

The Spartan II neared the ship, slowly making his descent in the Banshee. He landed in the first opening he could find, raising his rifle. Slowly, he walked through the ship, looking around at the walls and more so... Corpses. Dead Marines, each with their weapons in their hands. The walls burnt to a crisp. Every marine was behind cover, and only partially burned. And as he looked up... The flood approached. He raised the Marines rifle he found and fought back, cutting through every flood put more weight on his soul, because the more he faced them himself, in a place like this, the more he realized what was on his shoulders. Innocents. Children. Even Soldiers. All burned, infected, dead, brutally tortured. He smacked another with the butt of his rifle, fired at it on the ground, and stomped part of it down. His rage growing with every bullet fired until the rifle ran out, and he threw it aside. When he did he began destroying the flood with his hands. Finally... It ended. He lifted his rifle and put it on his back. Continuing through, he gave every marine corpse a nod of respect. Their charred bodies were of no use to the flood. Too damaged to puppeteer. Eventually he reached the control room, getting to work accessing the main console. Floyd then used the neural Link's access to open the vents for the main Reactor, which when destroyed, would cause a chain reaction. When he did he heard footsteps behind him, whipping around with his rifle in hand.

"Relax man! Same side!" Slowly, a Spartan stepped forward. Unlike the Spartan IIs we know and love, this Spartan was wearing white armor, designed seemingly only to be cheap. He was about 8 inches shorter than the S2, and had an old MA37 on his back. "What are you doing here?"

"Name."

"Alright fair enough. They call me Gunny, I'm a Spartan III."

"One of the IIIs. Hm. Didn't think any survived reach. I opened the Main reactor's venting. I'm going to destroy this ship."

"Oh! Lucky for you, that's what I'm here for. Can't say why but I was going to do that as well. Though, wasn't sure how. Good plan, I'll assist!"

"Wait for my word. There is an evacuation going on as well. Now stay close." Floyd began walking, keeping his rifle in the bottom half of his sight incase he needed to aim quickly. Gunny followed close behind with his on him too.

The two got into their first engagement around halfway, and from then forward, it was almost constant. The two used their rifles to cut through the first wave with ease, having to focus fire on one or two particularly tough forms but completely fine. When they cut through wave one, wave two came from two directions, leaving them to fend for each side on their own. Floyd finished his side rather quickly, immediately switching sides to help with Gunny's side. They continued forward and got to the hallway outside the reactor when wave 3 hit, which came from the ceiling. It began raining infection forms as they fired around the air, careful not to hit each other as they blind fired as many as they could. Eventually they cut through enough to have a moment of silence, and they stepped into the reactor. Gunny pulled out some charges and got to work, putting them on the bottom of each vent, beginning to speak. "So I never got your name big green. Who are you?"

"Senior Chief Floyd 181."

"You say name and rank every time? That's weird bro. I think I'm technically a lieutenant. Doesn't matter, I wasn't supposed to survive Reach. Is Chief here?"

Floyd looked at his text comm as he got one from John. *"Loading Survivors into the hanger. I'll hold here while they leave in case you need an assist."*

"Yes." Floyd blinked his acknowledgement light and looked at Gunny.

"Awww coooool. Always wanted to meet him but I was always busy, and he was always busy, and sometimes they'd say he wasn't around, or I needed to do something but he seems cool. Is he cool in person too-"

"Shut up."

"Jeez alright, too much for you already? Weak willed." Gunny landed behind him and looked at Floyd "Charges set."

"Let's move towards the hanger before det-"

"OOPS!" Gunny held up the detonator and hit it immediately, crippling every reactor and beginning a meltdown.

Floyd immediately took off running, putting his rifle on his back and sprinting towards the hanger. Gunny followed as close as he could but S3s were slower than 2s. Eventually the two reached a room full of warthogs as Gunny jumped into a driver seat. Floyd jumped on the gun and sent a message to John as they drove. *"Start spinning up the engines."*

The two began a long warthog run, firing at flood as they went by. The flood was trying to keep up or stop them, constantly in chase as the two went over jumps or through hallways. Each jump worried Floyd more that they wouldn't make it, the ship beginning to fall in on itself and explode. Finally, they arrived at the Hanger after a long jump, the pair being forced to stop after a group of barriers stopped them at the entrance. Each jumped off the hog and over the barriers, running for the final ship in the bay; a Longswood. The engines were going already implying Chief was inside as they ran in. Gunny yelled to the cockpit as he got in "Punch it!"

The trio immediately flew out of the hanger, following the other transport ships into space where a fleet had amassed for support. Once in space, the trio looked out the window and eyed the ring.

The part they were on exploded, sending a large part of the ring spinning from its place and toward the other side, where it impacted and broke the ring. They each nodded and smiled, Chief looking at Gunny and Floyd as Cortana appeared on the console of the ship. "Halo... It's finished."

Floyd and chief looked at each other, as chief looked at his AI partner. "No. I think we are just getting started."