Six: Steel Ruler

Even though she knew the adjustments she needed to make, Cortana still let the Spartans appear upside down on the Truth, both to hide her prior knowledge and for her own amusement. The Spartans crashed to the deck in a heap, and more than a few of her personality spikes snickered. "It looks like the coordinate data needs-"

Fred slapped his helmet, and she obligingly shut up, though a few of the spikes kept snickering. "What's the status of the rest of the ship?" he grunted at her as the team moved down the hall, sweeping every alcove they came across.

"Oh, so now you want me to talk? Typical.

"The Covenant network is in absolute chaos. Their leadership ordered everyone to abandon Halo when they found the Flood, but they were too late. The Parasite overwhelmed this cruiser, and the Covenant are terrified they'll repair it and use it to escape. They've sent in a strike team to neutralize the Flood and prepare the ship for immediate departure."

"And Black Team?"

"On approach in a Pelican. We'll need to find somewhere to link up with them."

The Spartans paused briefly when a Grunt ran by in front of them, chased by an armless combat form, but then gunned both down and kept moving. They mowed through the foes in front of them and headed through the next door - and found themselves on the verge of overbalancing and toppling through an immense hole blown in the floor of the bay. Kelly almost did fall through, but Sam grabbed her by her armor and hauled her back from the edge.

But in the end it looked like they didn't have much choice. More and More Flood were closing in on them from behind, dropping through a maintenance hatch in the ceiling, so one by one, they jumped into the pools of coolant below.

They were met with more combat forms when they emerged, but only a few; judging by all the dead Covenant, there had been a fierce fight not too long ago. They were quickly neutralized, along with all the others as the warriors weaved through the canyons and trudged through pools of coolant (which had the added benefit of cleaning Flood guts off their armor).

A pair of Hunters were fighting to hold the approach to the grav lift against oncoming waves of the parasite, along with a troop of Elites further back. The Spartans held off and let the seemingly endless carrier forms and Infection Pods swarm the blue-armored behemoths, taking them down, before the humans continued their advance. The lift itself was not well guarded in comparison, but the fact that the defense was being mobbed by a dozen combat forms may have had something to do with it.

The Flood decimated the Covenant and were decimated in turn by the Spartans. When the area was clear, Cortana opened a COM channel. "Cortana to Echo Four Nineteen. Blue Team has reached the gravity lift and eliminated all hostiles. You're clear to approach."

"Roger, Cortana. Echo Four Nineteen inbound."

After a minute or so, the Pelican soared over the ridge and swung around to let Black Team hop out and join their siblings. "I'll stay on station for extraction."

"Roger that, Foehammer. Thank you."

The Pelican sealed up and flew away even as the Spartans stepped into the beam of the grav lift and were carried up into the belly of the ship. They were deposited in the cargo bay and headed out through an open door and into the halls filled with carrier forms. Popping one sent cascading explosions through the others, releasing swarms of Infection Pods, which in turn popped on the Spartans' shields and bullets.

A door slid open and admitted them to another cargo bay, combat and carrier forms wandering below. After carefully measuring the distance and gunning down the Flood, the two teams followed Cortana's advice and jumped down onto a Wraith and then the room's floor, saving the time it would have taken to go through the halls.

A side door slid open and spilled more infected Covenant into the room, but the Spartans were already gone, moving through the corridors. When they could, they let the Covenant and the Flood wear each other down, but if the fights dragged on too long, they got involved and put an end to both sides.

But the Flood was far more numerous than the Covenant strike team and could replenish their numbers from their fallen foes. But Arthur-079 noticed something odd about them all. "Cortana, the combat forms - why don't they have any heads? They infect the whole body, don't they?"

"I don't know. You'll have to ask the Flood," she answered. Over a private COM channel, she asked, "John? Headless combat forms?"

"Infecting dead things is a crapshoot when it comes to integrating their memories and personalities. Easier just to cut that out entirely, and let them rest."

"That's fair. Where's Captain Keyes?"

"The brig, with the others. The first one."

"Got it. We're almost there."

"Understood. And Cortana?"

"Yes?"

"I miss you."

A smile came unbidden to her lips. She knew what he meant. "I miss you too."

The Spartans fought their way through waves of Flood to the bridge - which was ominously empty. "Cortana…?" Fred said, sweeping the area with his rifle.

"I'm still reading the transponder signal. He's close by - maybe the brig again? Holding him there until they're ready for him?"

Sam forced their way through a jammed door into another hall, following the path they'd taken earlier when they'd rescued the man from that very ship. There was more Flood between them and the brig, more headless human combat forms but no one they recognized, so they cut them down.

The door to the brig hissed open at their approach - they stopped. The Spartans didn't know what they had expected, but it certainly wasn't what they found.

"Hey! Spartans!" one of the Marines called, making all of the prisoners shoot to their feet and lunge up to the energy barriers.

"Blue Team, Black Team," said Captain Keyes, getting to his feet more slowly than the rest and stumbling a little, "Good to see you."

Kelly bounded over and keyed in the release on the control panel, which also let everyone drift over to Green Team. Fred dropped to one knee next to them. "Cortana? Status?"

"They're alive, if that's what you're asking. No major injuries, aside from some fatigue - their armor's just locked up. It is very amusing. Give me a second."

The four Spartans abruptly went lax from the awkward positions they'd been laid out in, then they stumbled to their feet with the rest. "Thanks," said Joshua, "We've been trying to override the lockup for hours. None of the usual stuff worked." Then, over a Spartans-only channel, he said, "Chief, the Flood - they took Ambi."

There were a few quiet inhales. Cortana stayed silent.

"Took how?" Fed asked as they organized and armed the survivors, "Like those twins?"

"Venera and Kenera," Maria supplied, "and - not quite. Some of the combat forms dragged him out of here. It was…" She shook her head. "Did you see him?"

They flashed a negative on their HUD lights. He hadn't been among the ones they'd fought.

"Sergeant Smith?" Cortana chimed in, "What happened to my John?"

Another negative, this time from Green Team. "He disappeared in the swamp, stayed behind to cover our retreat."

She hissed and withdrew, but called Foehammer to come pick them all up in the shuttle bay. The Spartans explained the plant to Captain Keyes, who transmitted the codes to Cortana with a "Be careful," before following them back through the halls.

A Spirit dropship had arrived with more members of the strike team, along with an escort of Banshees. They worked their way down through the halls and took those ships as well; they hadn't been expecting so many survivors, so there wasn't enough room for all of them to fit on Foehammer's Pelican.

(They hadn't actually been expecting any survivors at all, no matter what Cortana had said.)

That meant they had to make a side trip to Alpha Base. On the way, Blue Team also apprised Keyes of Halo's true function, and he agreed that that made it even more necessary to destroy the ring - and get their people off it first. Major Silva was more reluctant to leave empty-handed, but he yielded when Keyes pushed.

Every dropship they could reach was recalled, and all the Spartan teams were dispatched on lightning raids to steal Covenant ships, which they did, enough to just barely fit all the surviving crew.

Then Blue Team left for the Autumn. She too was overrun, with Flood biomass clinging to the exterior and no doubt threading through the interior as well.

"A Flood Hive," Cortana said quietly, "This is gonna be a long day."