Five: Purification Via Ruination

The Spartans reappeared inside a large, dark room. For a moment it was all they could do to keep their feet; the disorientation from being teleported such a long way with no warning was nausea-inducing. There were no Flood in the immediate vicinity, which was a plus, but that didn't change the fact that they didn't know where they were. The Monitor thing - 343 Guilty Spark - had come with them, though, and was floating overhead, his "eye" glowing a benign blue that Fred sword he'd seen somewhere before - a dream? One involving Cortana?

He shoved it aside, along with the urge to plug a few rounds into the Monitor's casing; if the - AI? - was made from the same material as the ring itself, it would just be a waste of bullets.

Fred moved to check on the other Spartans even as his motion tracker pinged for attention. There were Flood combat forms ghosting about at the very edge of its range, still out of sight but close enough to be dangerous.

When everyone was steady on their feet, Fred asked the Monitor, "Where are we?"

"Installation Zero-Four. They built it to study and contain the Flood. I am grateful some of their charges survived to reproduce."

The Spartans exchanged glances. Their charges? Whose charges? And survived what?

The AI continued, "But of course, studies of this facility and the biology of the Reclaimers must wait until after the Flood is dealt with. Time is short, and we must collect the Index before the Flood leaves the ring."

That lit a fire under them. When the blue light zipped away, the Spartans followed, gunning for the Flood emerging from the shadows of the darkened hall. Fred hurled a grenade into a knot of infected Elites, sending bodies and body parts flying, and several Stalker Forms whirled on them. Most of them charged, but one did not, instead leaping up onto a large decorative barrier and transforming.

This one was identified as "Flood Pure Form - Ranged Type", which made all the Spartans dive for cover as it started firing projectiles at them, crystalline quills like the Needlers. Linda carefully peered out, aimed, and fired, finally taking it out with a full clip on her sniper rifle. It must have been tough; normally it didn't take her so many shots. But since the rifle didn't seem to work on the actual combat forms - bullet velocity was too high - she could afford to spend a few extra rounds on one target.

Blue Team followed the Monitor into a large cylindrical room, lit by a soft, seemingly sourceless golden glow. The room plunged down below them as well into a bottomless pit, and over that pit, something vaguely cylindrical was locked in a stasis field. "The energy field contains the Index," Guilty Spark explained as he zipped ahead of them, "We must proceed through the Library to reach it. Please, follow me."

Fred was going to ask what the Index was and why it was so important when more combat forms and what looked like a fleshy ball with legs lurched out of an alcove and headed in their direction.

"Flood infected Form - Carrier Type".

A shotgun blast from Kelly explained the name; the ball exploded with the force of a small grenade and spewed Infection Pods everywhere, so they gunned those down too.

And on and on and on it went. It seemed like the Library would never end; even though they knew the Halo occupied a discrete amount of space, it seemed like the Library itself was infinite - and infinitely the same. Though beautiful, there was only so much variation to the clean lines of the structure and the stained-glass quality of its holographic displays.

But at last they reached the pinnacle and descended on the grand lift to where the Index waited. Yet the instant they held it, Spark snatched it from their hands, then teleported them to the Control Room.

There was no sign of Cortana.

"Is something the matter?" the Monitor asked them.

"No, nothing."

"Excellent! Shall we?" The Spartans walked slowly, warily behind the Forerunner AI as he zipped forward to the console. "Unfortunately, my usefulness in this particular endeavor has come to an end. Protocol does not allow units with my classification to perform a task as important as the reunification of the Index with the Core." The Monitor swiveled to face them as they approached. "That final step is reserved for you, Reclaimers."

He offered the Index, and Fred took it. It fit perfectly into a slot on the display, which shivered as if overloading, machinery groaning. Then it all went still.

"Hm," said the Monitor, "That wasn't supposed to happen."

"Oh really?"

Cortana's brilliant form appeared again, now of a height with the Spartans. She seemed more crimson than ever, if that was possible, and her hands were planted on her hips, her stance radiating fury. The data running over her form was so fast it was a blur even to their eyes. She swiped with her hand, and the Monitor fell to the deck with a clang, momentarily offline.

"Cortana-" Sam stepped forward to try and placate her, but she cut him off.

"I've been cooped up in here for twelve hours watching you toady about helping that thing get set to slit our throats!" she snarled, "Do you have any idea what that thing almost made you do?!"

"Yes," Fred answered firmly, "We're activating Halo's defenses to destroy the Flood. That's why we brought the Index to the Control Center."

"You mean this?" The artifact in question appeared in her hand.

Spark hummed back online, then gasped. "A construct? In the Core? That is absolutely unacceptable!"

"Sod off, jackass!"

"What impertinence! I shall purge you at once!" he cried, indignant.

"You sure that's a good idea?" The Index dissolved and was absorbed into her form, its data added to her memory.

"How dare you!" the Monitor protested, zipping closer, "I'll-!"

"You'll what exactly? I have the Index; all you can do is float and sputter!"

"Enough." All four of the Spartans got between the arguing AIs, knowing that with a rampant one in the mix things could go south very fast. "The Flood is spreading. If we activate Halo's defenses, we can wipe them out."

"You have no idea what this place really does, do you? Why the Forerunners built it?" She leaned forward, lip curled into a snarl. "I told you before, this isn't a scalpel. Halo doesn't kill the Flood; it kills their food. Humans, Covenant, whatever. We're all equally edible. A thousand other plans were tried and failed, but the Flood was never a simple infection to be cured and cauterized. The only way to stop it is to starve it to death, and that's what the Halo Array was designed to do: wipe the galaxy clean of all sentient life. If you don't believe me, then ask him." She jabbed an accusing finger at the Monitor.

Reeling with shock, all of the Spartans whirled on Spark. Kelly was the first to speak. "Is it true?" She demanded, voice low.

Spark's casing dipped slightly. "Of course. The installation has a maximum effective radius of twenty-five thousand light years, but once the others follow suit, the galaxy will be quite devoid of life - or at least any life with sufficient biomass to sustain the Flood." He made a gesture that seemed to be him cocking his head in confusion. "But you already knew this. I mean, how couldn't you?"

Cortana returned to Fred's armor almost as abruptly as she'd departed. "Left out that little detail, did he," she hissed over TEAMCOM.

"We followed outbreak containment procedure to the letter," Spark said, starting to get defensive, "You were with me every step of the way.'

"I'm picking up movement-" Cortana began.

"Why would you hesitate to do what you have already done?"

"-we need to go right now!"

"Last time you asked me, if it were my choice, would I activate the rings?" A flock of Sentinels formed up behind the Monitor. "Having had considerable time to ponder the query, my answer has not changed. The ring must be activated."

"Remove us from this place, organics!"

"If you are unwilling to help, I will simply find another. Still, I must have the Index. Give your construct to me, or I will be forced to take her from you."

"That's not going to happen," Fred growled, leveling his weapon at the nearest Sentinel. The other Spartans did the same.

"So be it," said the Monitor, sounding almost sad. Then, to the Sentinels, "Save his head. Dispose of the rest."

The glass panels around the Core provided excellent cover from the Sentinels' beam weapons. For all the UNSC's advances, the beams could still cook them inside their armor; a fate none of them were eager to meet. The Spartans gunned down the floating death rays as fast as possible, rationalizing the use of all the ammo: it would do them no good to save it if they were dead.

When the last of the machines crashed to the floor, they ran for the blast door. "What's the plan?" Fred asked.

"The only way to ensure the Monitor can't find another way to fire the ring is to destroy it," the AI answered, "but according to my analysis, the best course of action is somewhat - risky."

"Meaning what, exactly?"

"We may need another Spartan Team to help us out in the later stages. We'll also need Captain Keyes' or his neural interface, but I'll get to that later. For now, you need to know that an explosion of sufficient size will cut through a number of primary systems and destabilize the ring. The explosion has to be done on a large scale, however - and a starship's fusion reactors going critical should do the job. I'll search what's left of the Covenant battle net for the Autumn's crash site; there was a transmission some time ago saying it had been secured, but that was before the Flood."

"Are the fusion reactors still intact?" Sam asked as they waited for the Sentinels and the Covenant to finish battling it out in the hall beyond.

"Trust me, you'd know if they weren't."

The AI's presence dimmed. Fred ignored it, focusing on gunning down the unfortunates left behind. They rounded the corner and advanced on the final blast door, slowing their pace as they got closer; their motion trackers picked up enemies just beyond.

When the door opened, it revealed that there were guards, but every last one of them had their backs turned. Night had fallen out beyond them, but it was still snowing, muffling sounds from any other foes. The Spartans took these ones out without a sound and climbed up into the structure in front of the door to see what they could see.

Cortana spoke again. "I haven't located the crash site yet, but we need to buy some time. The machines in these canyons are Zero-Four's primary firing mechanisms: three phase-pulse generators that amplify its signal and allow it to fire deep into space. If we damage or destroy them, the Monitor will have to repair them before they can be used. I'm marking the location of the nearest generator; we need to move in and neutralize it."

An arrow and a distance marker appeared on their HUDs. Kelly leaned a little way out to peer up at a ledge jutting out from the cliff wall high above. When she zoomed in, she could just make out a door set into the rock.

She nodded, and the Spartans proceeded down the pyramid, taking out all of the sleeping Grunts in their path before the Elite commanders noticed they were dead. Then Kelly baited the enemy soldiers out, letting Linda and Sam take them out from behind. The sniper stayed at the top to clear the lower levels for her brothers and sister as they descended the ramps, and she rejoined them on the lowest level after a sniping spree.

There were only two Banshees sitting unmanned on the snow, so unless a miracle occurred, only two Spartans would be able to go up to the generator, leaving the other two sitting ducks for any enemy drop offs. They put their heads together to decide who would go up and who would stay down. Fred would go; that was a given because Cortana would be needed, and she couldn't be passed around like a blunt. He told Linda and Sam to stay behind; Sam because his strength made him good for close range fighting, making him Linda's spotter while she took out other, more distant foes, and Linda because her specialty was distance, while inside the facility was likely to be tight quarters.

Sam spotted a rocket launcher on the far end of the pyramid's lowest level and slipped over to claim it before heading out over the snow and into the dark. Two rockets later, and the Wraith patrolling nearby exploded and belched smoke. The detonation in question distracted the other aliens, letting the remaining Spartans get the jump on them and gun them down score they could muster a coherent response.

Fred and Kelly took the Banshees up to the platform and swept it twice before coming in for a landing; it probably saved their lives. An Elite and its cadre of Grunts charged from the hatch just as they started to descend, and Fred veered out of the way while Kelly bombarded them with charges from her fuel rod guns. The Grunts died in the opening salvo, but the Elite dodged around for a short while - before dodging right off the edge.

Cortana snickered softly in Fred's ear.

There were no other foes between them and the generator. Suspicious, but they decided not to question it - for now. "Okay, we're here," said Fred, "Now what?"

"We need to interrupt the pulse generator's energy stream," was the reply, "I've adjusted your shields to deliver an EMP of sufficient magnitude. Oh, and you'll need to walk into the beam to trigger it."

"Roge- wait, what?"

"You'll need to walk into the beam to trigger it," she dutifully repeated, "The EMP blast should neutralize the generator - though I highly advise Kelly go guard the door. Don't need any uninvited visitors interrupting us."

As the Spartan in question went to do exactly that, Fred demanded, "Should? Whose side are you on?"

"Yours, organic. Have you forgotten? Your death is ours." The personality spike sounded almost sullen.

He eyed the machine, its glow so bright that his visor automatically polarized to the darkest setting. Finally, he stepped into the bright white beam - and almost toppled out again when the floor shook under him. The Spartan hurried to disengage when he heard the rattle of Kelly's assault rifle and knowing she was under attack.

The Monitor had sent a handful of Sentinels to try and stop them; Fred took out one that had been "sneaking up" on his sister while she gunned down the rest. Fred briefly worded that their Banshees had been destroyed to trap them there, but there was no need; they were right where the Spartans had left them, and hadn't been damaged at all. They took off and aimed for the firefight below.

A handful of fuel rod rounds took care of their enemies, letting them land on the bridge and rejoin their siblings. "Okay, let's move out," Cortana said over TEAMCOM, "As we get closer, I'll mark the location of the next generator."

Inside the rock wall, heading back out the way they had initially come in, the Covenant and the Flood were really getting into it.

'This is gonna be a long night.'

-------------------------------------------

'Strike the bell, second mate, and let us go below!'

'Look away to windward, you can see it's going to blow!'

'Looking at the glass, you can see that it has fell.'

'We wish that you would hurry up and strike, strike the bell!'

[What is it with you all and sea shanties? I swear, just because we're 'The Flood' doesn't mean we have to stick with the 'water-slash-ocean' theme.]

'They're catchy, Commander.'

[The Black Plague was catchy, but that doesn't change the fact that the Golden Age of Piracy was eight hundred years ago.]

'The blink of an eye for us.'

[Even so. There are catchy modern songs, too.]

One of the twins started blasting "The Song That Never Ends," which earned a sharp [No.], followed by laughter from the others.

[I know I walked right into that one, but if I never heard that song again, I will be absolutely overjoyed.] The Spartan kicked away a Sangheili making a break for the bridge and cut off another's head before infecting what was left. He sent the combat form tearing back down the hall, swinging its tentacle arm wildly.

The Covenant's prohibition against AI was coming back to bite them. While he understood the ban, no AI, no matter how rudimentary, was safe from the logic plague, and they'd also shot themselves in the foot because they had no heavyweight smart AIs to try to override the Hive's control. As a result, the Truth and Reconciliation was almost completely locked down and would remain so until Cortana and Blue Team came for Keyes.

The man in question was locked in the brig with Green Team and some of the soldiers he'd taken with him to the storage facility. Many had "escaped" (been released to make it easier to keep control of the ones they held), and some had been "infected" (combat forms had dragged Ambi out of the brig screaming after he'd treated everyone's injuries to ensure they weren't contaminated with spores). Green Team was in a cell separate from everyone else, their armor locked down. Winter spell was having fun circumventing their attempts to override the lockup; John could hear her tinkling giggles in the back of his mind.

[Nothing too tough, now,] he reminded her, [Cortana needs to be able to get through it as she is now.]

'Understood.'

-------------------------------------------

By that point, Blue Team had made their way to the second canyon and hovered just inside the door leading out, waiting for Cortana to give them the all clear. She had picked up enemy movement outside the hatch, so they had decided to wait a short while to see if said enemies moved off. It was working pretty well so far; they could hear faint sounds of furious fighting involving the Covenant, but it was starting to die off.

When there was only scattered firing, they went through the hatch and found themselves back on the double bridges from earlier. The Covenant held their bridge, while the Flood held the far one. Most of them were dead already, so the Spartans picked off the stragglers as they advanced.

Some of the combat forms from the far bridge leaped to the near one, including at least one carrying a rocket launcher. Blue Team scrambled for cover and fired frantically at those ones, taking them down before any others.

[Yeah, I know that feel.]

They collected the rockets and kept moving, clearing out the Flood waiting for them inside - and the two Sangheili engaging the Flood on the far side of the room. Then they crossed over to the next room and started working their way back out even as Cortana said, "I'm going to contact Alpha Base, tell them what's going on and see if we can't get another team of Spartans to meet us where Captain Keyes is."

"Affirmative," Fred replied as they emerged onto the other bridge, "Do you have his location?"

"I think he's back on board the Truth and Reconciliation, but I'm getting a lot of interference on the CNI transponder."

"Why would the Flood take him back there?" Sam asked, gunning for the Banshees strafing the bridge, same as the Flood further down.

"If I had to guess - they seek escape from this ring. Flight, freedom - they seek to consume all things in the galaxy, as they nearly did before, and they need him to help them fly."

That made the Spartans freeze. "We can't let that happen." Linda's tone brooked no disagreement - not that there would have been any.

"Break the ring and its orbit will falter, fall into Threshold."

"Where the high heat and gravity will destroy it and the Flood," Kelly finished, "Let's do it."

"We'll need to destroy the other pulse generators first," said Cortana.

They redoubled their efforts against the Flood, making their way down to the ground and aiming for the next nav point the AI put up. A Wraith, a pair of Shades, and a small army of Grunts and Jackals stood in their way, but not for long.

They moved through the tunnel from before - the shorter one that had blocked the advance of the tank - and took out the Jackals standing guard. Beyond it they found and overturned Warthog, still functional, and while Cortana walked Fred through a few minor repairs, Kelly made the trek back to claim one of the Ghosts they had left behind earlier. The now mounted Spartans mowed down the Covenant in their way, sending those they missed with the vehicles flying off the cliff edge and plunging down to the frozen riverbed below.

There were two more Banshees on the ground nearby, off to one side of the canyon. Blue Team circled the area, taking out every foe they came across - including a pair of Hunters and a Wraith - before taking the fighters up. This time it was Linda who went with Fred; there were bound to be enemies at the summit, and her almost uncanny accuracy would make clearing them out a walk in the park.

They bombed the Field Marshal and his soldiers, all the Sangheili up top; they had been spared from the Flood by virtue of elevation. The Spartans swept the area once more, then landed on the platform and went inside, where the generator waited. Linda stayed by the door, switching her sniper rifle for her shotgun, while Fred went further in, stepping into the beam once more.

The explosion made him reel in the beam, but he pulled himself free of it and ran to assist Linda against the Flood that burst into the room. Their shotguns tore huge holes in the enemy ranks, and they raced back to the platform. Their Banshees were untouched again, letting them swoop down on the Flood harrying the others. The aerial and ground vehicles ducked into the slowly sloping tunnel and hovered just inside the entrance, watching as the Flood overtook a band of Covenant around a Shade turret.

Cortana piped up. "I've located the Pillar of Autumn. She put down twelve hundred kilometers up-spin, and yes, energy readings show that her reactors are still powered up. However, the systems on the Autumn have failsafes that even I can't override without authorization from the captain. Let's take care of the final pulse generator. And I've received a response from Alpha Base; Black Team will meet us at the Truth and Reconciliation. There's no telling what we'll find there."

All four of the Spartans flashed an acknowledgement - and then remembered Green Team. They gunned the Flood down with probably excessive ferocity, stealing the heavy weapons the creatures had acquired, and continued on, coming to a stop outside the blast door. Sam jumped out to open it while the Banshees circled as best they could in the confined space.

Something exploded on the other side, making them all jump. The door panels ground to a halt in their tracks even as they strained to open the rest of the way. Nothing wider than a Warthog could get through, which meant leaving the Banshees behind. Rather than force them all to cram onto one already over-encumbered vehicle - Warthogs were barely rated to carry two Spartans in full armor, much less four - Kelly hopped down to let Linda take over on the turret while Fred climbed into the passenger seat. With three half-ton Spartans, the Warthog could only go so fast; she was more than able to keep up.

They made it through the cavern and up the reverse slope without anyone falling behind, and Cortana put up another nav point on the final pulse generator. It was somewhere in front of them and high above, meaning they would have to find more Banshees. But there were Covenant and Flood doing battle below the platform, and the Spartans took a moment to rest and watch them fight. In the end they killed each other off, and Kelly claimed one of the Ghosts sitting vacant nearby.

There were more Flood with rocket launchers ahead, if the familiar bawhoosh and explosions were anything to go by; if this held up, they'd have enough for each of them to have one and a full set of reloads. Those heavy weapons made the Flood the victor, though not for long; the combat forms howled and died under a hail of bullets and plasma. Linda picked up more ammunition for her sniper rifle when they passed a Flood munitions stash, and they continued on to the last canyon.

Again, there were only two Banshees, so it was Sam's turn to come.

The Flood was in that section of the canyon as well. Using its chaos as cover, Sam fired two rockets at the Wraith just visible on the far side of the canyon. Both hit, and the tank exploded and spewed black smoke into the dark sky. A second tank emerged from hiding behind an outcropping and began firing at the Flood, which scattered, firing their rocket launchers wildly.

Or what seemed like wildly.

But they took out the tank before it took out them - and then died when the Spartans' vehicles mowed them down. The Warthog and the Ghost took turns gunning for the survivors - including two pairs of Hunters - and then Fred and Sam went up while Kelly and Linda followed below in the Warthog.

The Banshees gunned down the Sentinels trying to guard the platform. There were more of the little bastards inside, but they too were taken out, same as all the others. Fred stepped unimpeded into the energy beam and managed to keep his feet when the ground rolled under him. He tugged himself free, and they returned to the Banshees. "Let's find a ride and get to the captain," he said as he and Sam descended to ground level.

"No, that'll take too long."

"What are our options then?" Sam asked.

"I learned how to tap into Halo's teleportation network in the Control Room, but each jump requires a substantial expenditure of energy. I think I can power each of your jumps with your own armor, but needless to say I think we should only do this once."

"Agreed. Do it."

A brief hum filled the air. Halo's golden teleportation rings appeared around them, and they were gone.