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Attack on ERISTOCK-Part 1: Introduction
Date: 1 September 2003, 1:18 AM

      1235 Hours, December 2, 2552 (Military Calendar)/Earth system, UNSC research facilities, planet Earth, underground testing lab

      The SPARTAN-III's all stood erect in line before Chief Petty Officer Bill Ravok. It had been two years training and equipping them, but, at last, it would pay off. In two hours the SPARTAN's would be aboard the UNSC frigate Hymir and heading for the Covenant planet, codenamed by the ONI, ERISTOCK, yet they did not know it yet, except for their leader, George-218. "You have been given the best the UNSC can offer," said Ravok, "Improved MJOLNIR armor, AI's, better muscle augmentations than the SPARTAN-II's, faster reaction time, advanced HUD/weapon interface. But do you fully understand why? You are the warriors that will save mankind. Shielded by that armor and advanced equipment, you may feel that you are better than the rest of us, yet you are not! You have lost fewer of you comrades than the SPARTAN-II's, felt less pain, so this gift of near immortality comes at a lesser price. But you are not better than me, or any SPARTAN-II, or any marine, you are merely more empowered. Do not forget that! The UNSC has made you what you are, and you have one single duty: protect mankind. You feel pain, you feel sorrow, yet you will choose to ignore them, because you are the protectors. You do not seek glory, only victory. This path of war will be very hard and long for all of us, yet you will not fail. Dismissed," ended Ravok.
      The SPARTAN's filed out of the auditorium, leaving to prepare for boarding the Hymir. Chief Ravok remained standing on the stage. He originally had mixed feelings about the SPARTAN projects, but after seeing their success rate he became an avid supporter. The SPARTAN-II's he respected, they had gone through much pain and suffering and understood what they were meant to do, but he feared that as the process of making SPARTAN's became easier and less painful, they would lose sight of their goal.
      Hopefully there wouldn't be anymore need for SPARTAN's after the III series. The UNSC Admiralty had come up with a plan to carefully place squads of SPARTAN's on strategic locations on ERISTOCK and take the planet. It would be to avenge the fall of Reach.
      Ravok hoped it would work. He had served in many campaigns against pirates, rebels, mercenaries, and the Covenant, yet nothing had been attempted like the one the SPARTAN's were about to embark on. If they failed, humanity would fall in days.

      1450 Hours, December 2, 2552 (Military Calendar)/Earth system, UNSC Hymir, in orbit around planet Earth

      George walked towards the bridge, intending to report in person to Captain Louis Geredar that the SPARTAN-III's and their equipment had all been unloaded from the transport boat. George-218 was a SPARTAN-III, a force that brought terror into battle, slaughtering the Covenant warriors in the name of man. And there was forty-four others like him. Two had died in the process of becoming a SPARTAN, four crippled, and three in a coma for life. They were men and women that George had grown with, endured the process with, but such is the price of so much power.
      George reached the bridge and saluted the Captain. Captain Geredar returned the salute and asked, "What is the unload status?" "Everyone is off and everything is unloaded, sir," answered the SPARTAN. "Good. Chief, inform the rest of the SPARTAN's of our mission. And they damn well better be happy about it," ordered the Captain. "We will be, sir. It is what we live for," replied George. The Captain laughed. "That's the spirit. Tell me, Chief, what do you think about this mission? I mean, do you think you will succeed?" he asked George. "We all mean to win, sir. None of us expect defeat, yet it happens. And we are not trained to accept it. We will win, or we will die," said George, grimly. "I wish we all had your strength, Chief. I fear this war is too much for us, too overwhelming. The Covenant are too powerful and numerous. God willing, we shall see many more of your kind Chief. More SPARTAN's. That is what we need," said the Captain, sighing. "Well, go inform the rest of your men." "Yes, sir!" replied George, saluting and leaving the bridge.

      Private Carmand could feel himself flying...no...not flying...floating, as if the rest of the world was moving around him. There was blackness, a void, all around, and yet not so. Stars flew by, parts of galaxies spinning and turning. Nebulas, in their colorful glory, remnants of destruction, the essence of rebirth, rushed past. Planets flew by, full of life, peaceful animals roaming the lands. It was a world of empty loneliness, yet full of color and creation. Beautiful and treacherous, attractive yet forbidding.
      Carmand had been stationed on the UNSC ship Sentari, but the ship had been attacked by these creatures, indescribable, fearsome creatures. They were white, bulbous creatures, with writhing tentacles. One had latched itself to John Carmand's chest and drove one tentacle deep into his flesh, piercing his spine. And that was all he remembered.
      Yet now space was looming before him, flying past his face. Slowly Earth came into view, and the world stopped moving. "Welcome," said a voice, "welcome, child of Earth."

Attack on ERISTOCK-Part 2:Departure
Date: 4 September 2003, 2:14 AM

      "Welcome child of Earth," said a voice. John Carmand watched a human-like figure slowly appear in front of him. Shrouded by a light blue mist, all that was visible of this figure was a silhouette of his body.
      This newcomer had a deep, rumbling voice, yet kindly and pleasant to hear. He looked like something out of a vague yet wondrous dream. And John waited for that moment when he would wake up and would find himself safe on Earth, realizing that all of it was a dream, but that moment never came.
      "Hello, John Carmand," said the mist creature. John gave a jolt of surprise that this thing knew his name. "How-" John started, until the dream thing interrupted him. "I know many things, John. I know more than your kind will ever know, because I am a Forerunner." "Uh, what's a Forerunner?" asked a puzzled Carmand. "My kind, the Forerunner, are an ancient race that was destroyed many ages before your time," answered the 'Forerunner'. "If your race was destroyed, how are you talking to me?" asked John. "I am not physically talking to you, John. As you should have already noticed, you are not in the physical world. I am talking to you through your mind, now that you have been infested by the Flood. This all is an illusion, yet not so." "The what?" said John, totally confused. The shrouded creature sighed silently, and realized that this was going to be a very long talk.

1453 Hours, December 2, 2552 (Military Calendar)/Earth system, UNSC Hymir, in orbit around planet Earth

      Captain Geredar turned and faced the main view screen, which displayed the blue and green planet Earth. Long had Earth been the home world of humanity, for it had given birth to them. And ever since the early 20th century, Earth had been abused, raped. Prized minerals ripped from it's hide, toxic waste dumped into the oceans, gases released from factories that had worn away the atmosphere, nuclear tests scarring the crust. Currently there was a major attempt to clean Earth up and wastes had been severely reduced or gotten rid of in another manner. Earth was the Temple of Man, precious to every human being. And Captain Louis Geredar would die before he saw Earth fall.
      But now, it was time to leave for ERISTOCK. "Lieutenant Evenka, plot a course through Slipstream to the ERISTOCK system," ordered the Captain. "Yes sir!" replied the tan, thin woman at the Nav station. Jane Evenka was fresh out of the Academy, an all-business, by-the-books woman. "Nionmapan!" yelled Captain Geredar. A hologram appeared in the nearby pedestal, showing an 11th Century European Crusader. "Look, AI's are supposed to have short names," said the frustrated Captain. "So from now on, I'm calling you Richard." "Fine with me," said the AI. "Richard, get all of the crew into cryotubes. As soon as everyone is in cryosleep enter Slipstream space and follow Lieutenant Evenka's coordinates." "Right away, sir," replied the AI.

      George heard his AI say, "You need to get to the cryobay, Chief. Nionmapan has ordered everyone into cryosleep." "But I haven't briefed my men yet," protested George. "You'll be able to brief them after the Slipstream jump, now get to the cryobay."       George's AI had a tendency to be a bit bossy, but George didn't mind. Nicknamed 'Public', the AI, whenever he was given access to a holopanel, appeared as a 20th Century gas station attendant. Public was one of the newer AI's designed for the MJOLNIR suits. He had the ability to load data files from the UNSC net and display them on George's HUD, and play audio and video feeds.
      George walked off towards the cryobays, ordering over the SPARTAN COMM channel, "Everyone get to cryotubes, we've got a Slipstream jump coming up. I will brief you all on our mission after we arrive at our destination." Lights winked on his HUD to show that the rest of them acknowledged his order.

      Field Master Huri 'Ranalamee stood on the top of the hill, watching the human in special armor fight with the daily attack. The human dodged plasma shots with amazing speed, then brought down his enemies in a hail of bullets. After all were dead, the human retreated back into his crashed fighter.
      It was like that every day. A group of Elites, Grunts, and Jackals attacked the crash site, and the human would slaughter them. 'Ranalamee had the impression that this was the human that had caused so much trouble on the Ancient's ring world right before it had been destroyed. The Elite suspected this human was also responsible for the destruction of the ring world.
      But the Field Master had something new that was going to attack the crash site. Five Wraiths and a squad of Banshees. 'Ranalamee was going to stop at nothing to see this human killed.

Attack on ERISTOCK Part 3-The Waking
Date: 9 September 2003, 3:00 PM

2010 Hours, December 12, 2552 (Military Calendar)/unknown location in Slipstream space, UNSC Hymir

      "Captain? Wake up," said the AI Nionmapan, or Richard. "We will be entering normal space in about two hours. Sit up and breathe deep, sir." Captain Louis Geredar pulled himself off of the formfitting gel bed and rolled onto the hard metal floor, landing with a thud. Captain Geredar did not like to be waken from his sleep, especially by an AI. They didn't have to go through regurgitating the cryo inhalant.
      He turned over onto his back and sat up, trying to take a deep breath. He started coughing violently until a long string of clear fluid flowed from his mouth onto the ship floor. "Now, now Captain. Let's try not to ruin the nice floor I just cleaned. Is that how you want to treat you home?" said Richard, appearing on an AI pedestal near the Captain's cryotube, only standing about a foot tall. "Shut up," replied the Captain. "Any more mouthing off like that and I'll be forced to reprogram you," threatened Geredar with a playful smile on his face. "Oh no! Reprogram me! Gosh, I might just have to increase your cryo inhalant amount next time..." said Richard, bending down and looking at the Captain doubled over on the cryobay floor. "No! Sorry I said anything! Just don't give me more of that stuff!" cried the Captain. Richard laughed.
      Louis Geredar stood up and looked down at the AI. "Wake up the SPARTAN III's and my bridge officers. Everyone else can wait a little longer," ordered the Captain. "Yes sir," answered Richard, disappearing from the pedestal. Captain Geredar started walking off toward the showers. Suddenly he slid on the cryo inhalant and nearly lost his balance. Stabilizing himself, the Captain said to himself, "Stuff tastes like crap AND it's a goddamn health hazard."

      George always liked the sleeping part of cryo sleep. It was just the waking up that sucked. He usually had peaceful dreams, imagining he was somewhere besides this hellish war-torn galaxy, just enjoying life. But today, it was different. He was with his mother and father on Reach, having a picnic. He was five then, and he had loved picnics. The grass was a healthy green, the sky clear blue, beautiful green trees stood near their red and white checkered sheet. Birds flew from tree to tree, chirping in the late morning. It was a pleasant spring day on Reach.
      But halfway through his ham sandwich (without the crust, of course) a huge black shape was running towards them, the birds fleeing in front of it. The shape left the grass brown and dead behind it, ripping up trees as it went. His father stood up and planted himself in front of his son, his mother standing beside him. They didn't know what this was, but it would not get George.
      The shape stopped in front of his father and formed into an Elite. The Elite laughed in his deep voice, pressed his plasma rifle against the father's head and fired. George watched as his father's head snapped back, a gaping hole in the center of it. His father's body collapsed to the ground in a limp heap. His mother screamed, but that was cut short by the Elite slamming his rifle deep into her skull, blood spurting from her head. She, too, collapsed into a heap, and the Elite pointed his rifle at George.
      George, suddenly a SPARTAN again, lifted his assault rifle and tried to fire, but he was frozen. Fear had completely taken him over. This was the one enemy George could not defeat. He heard his AI, Public, say, "Wake up George. Wake up! Nionmapan wants all the SPARTAN's awake."
      George slowly opened his eyes and sat up. He wiped some mist from the cryotube off of his visor. The SPARTAN's had all been put into their cryotubes in full armor, in case an emergency arose. His skin itched and burned like hell, but, as Ravok said, he ignored it.
      "If you're ready, we can brief the rest SPARTAN's as soon as they are all awake," offered Public. Public had a normal, nondescript voice. There was nothing particularly special about it. "I will be briefing the rest of my squad as soon as they are all awake," said George. "I will help if I like," retorted Public. George couldn't really say anything to that. There was nothing he could do to stop Public from helping to brief the SPARTAN's, save pulling him out of his slot in George's neck.
      George thought about his dream. He had it a lot, and every time he could not overcome his fear. George found this very frustrating. His training taught him he would fear many things, but he would be able to over power that fear and do his duty. And every time he had that dream he could not do his duty. He also missed his parents every time he had the dream. He had loved his parents very much, and he had been seriously grieved by their deaths. He still had not gotten over that sadness, much like his fear.
      "Chief, are we just going to sit in this cryotube all day, or is this where we are briefing the rest of the SPARTAN's from?" Public asked. George climbed out of the cryotube, his armored feet clanking against the metal floor.

      Private John Carmand was totally confused. Flood? Forerunner? What was all this stuff? And who was this dude talking to him? "Look, John. Your ship was attacked by the Flood. That is what those white bulbous things with tentacles were," said the Forerunner. "One of them infested your body by driving their main tentacle into your spine. My race contained and studied the Flood, researching them for a medical remedy to a new disease. But the Flood were too powerful to contain, and they destroyed us. None of us were infected, just killed. But some of the Flood were loyal to the Forerunner and offered us asylum by partly infesting us. My brain was transferred into a Flood. And now your body has been infected by my host, and I am asking you to help us fight against the ravenous Flood. With my brains and your body we can work together to bring down as many Flood as possible. What do you say?" "Uh, I don't know. This is all very confusing," answered Private Carmand. "Well then, I'll return you to the physical world so you can feel exactly what the Flood do to your body. Then we'll see if you want to help me out or not."

2045 Hours, December 12, 2552 (Military Calendar)/unknown location in Slipstream space, UNSC Hymir

      "Okay squad, listen up. We are heading for the Covenant ERISTOCK system, and we should enter normal space in about an hour and a half," said George, addressing the SPARTAN's assembled in front of him in the docking bay. "We are going deep into enemy territory and we will be inserted in teams onto the planet ERISTOCK to attack and hold strategic locations. If we do our job right and soon enough, the UNSC will send in Marines to take control of the planet. Just remember your training. Now, I need to split you up into groups of five. My team, Command Team, or just C-team, will be me, John-221, Mark-524, Sarah-099, and Luke-334. The rest of the teams will be decided by you. Any questions?"
      Greg spoke up. "What do you mean by strategic locations? Would that be comm bases, military installations, what?" "I have no idea. As soon as the teams are assigned then I am allowed to open the orders file," answered George. "Any more questions? No? Okay." George turned and left to go to the bridge and retrieve the orders file from the Captain.

      Field Master Huri 'Ranalamee was furious. The Wraiths and Banshees that were supposed to arrive to attack the human in the special armor had been delayed. For some reason the leadership decided to postpone the attack. His mandibles clicked menacingly. He did not appreciate delay.

Attack on ERISTOCK-Part 4: Core
Date: 16 September 2003, 2:31 PM

2200 hours, December 12, 2552 (Military Calendar)/unknown location in Slipstream space, UNSC Hymir

      Captain Geredar stood on the bridge of the Hymir, watching through the main view screen as the planet ERISTOCK flickered into view. "Entry into normal space complete, Captain," said Richard, standing at a pedestal near the Captain's holopanel, which was clear glass with light projections of various objects and ship stats. "Good. Lieutenant Evenka, get us into orbit around ERISTOCK; we need drop off the SPARTAN's. Lieutenant Morrurs, remove all weapon safety locks and charge up the MAC guns: we are bound to meet some resistance," ordered the Captain. There were 'Yes sir!'s at appropriate times from the respective officers. Lieutenant Karl Morrurs was a young yet experienced weapons officer, scars ran up and down his face and arms.
      "And Lieutenant Nasian, send a transmission to FLEETCOM that we have arrived in the ERISTOCK system," Captain Geredar said, turning to the COMM officer. Lieutenant Lars Nasian was a large, heavy set man who had just joined up for duty in the Navy. There had been suspicions that he worked as a mercenary before his Navy duty, but no one every proved it. "Yes sir," replied the Lieutenant.
      Soon they would be dropping off the SPARTAN III's then pulling back out into the Earth system. Captain Louis Geredar would be very relieved once they got back home, out of the enemy's territory.

      George sat in the pilot seat of the D77-TC "Pelican" dropship. Sitting in the cargo bay were John, Mark, Sarah, and Luke, the other members of C-team. There were nine other Pelicans in the ship bay, each containing a team of SPARTAN III's. Each of the teams had missions to fulfill, they were just waiting for the Captain's order to move out. George had complete confidence that his men and women would complete their missions and successfully take ERISTOCK.

      Everyone was preparing for their assault on ERISTOCK, yet none of them knew what they were getting themselves into. Public was eyeing some data that, he thought, was very peculiar. One week ago the relativly lightly defended planet had a group of seven prophets land on the surface, and, one day later, defenses increased ten-fold. But Public just pushed it out of his head, figuring it was a temporary thing.

      Mark-524 sat in the back of the Pelican, resting his head against the wall of the cargo bay. Next to him were Luke and John, across from him was Sarah. He liked and respected their leader, George. George was fearless and worked to protect those under his command, trying to earn the trust of his fellow SPARTAN's.
      But Luke, however, Mark was unsure about. Luke very often only worked to protect his own hide, contradictory to the SPARTAN squad-oriented combat tactics. Luke frequently liked to try to provoke George, trying to pick a fight with him. In fact, Mark was unsure on whether Luke would help at all on this mission. But it was not his place to question such things.

      Jaku 'Ilramamee stood at the head of the table before the High Prophets. Seven Prophets made up the Covenant's leadership, and this was the first time in many lifetimes that the entire High Assembly was in the same spot at the same time. Because what 'Ilramamee had found deep in the ground was very worthy of their attention. But now he had to convince all seven of them likewise.
      There were three prophets at each side of the table and one across from 'Ilramamee, each bobbing up and down, staring at the Elite. "As you know, Jaku 'Ilramamee, we are very pressed for time, so speak up, or our time here is wasted," said the Prophet across from 'Ilramamee. "Yes, of course," said Jaku. "Exalted Ones, as you know I was stationed here on Gragudu to search for remains of the Ancients technology. I am responsible for many important finds over the years, and my latest will not prove to be the least valuable." 'Ilramamee rubbed his mandibles together, pleased that he would finally be announcing his latest discovery.
      "Many years ago we discovered several of the Ancients ringworlds, which proved to be very useful in providing us new weaponry and anti-gravity technology. Transportation became faster and more effiecent, ship armor effectiveness doubled, revolutionary plasma weapons were introduced, Slipstream jumps became more precise. But what was only recently found was that housed within each ringworld is a network of weaponry capable of massive destructive power. After we captured and interrogated an AI that called himself '343 Guilty Spark', we knew that an 'Index' could activate the weapons, destroying all sentient life in a vast radius. However, that is not quite correct. Behold," 'Ilramamee pressed a button under the table and a hologram of a huge structure.
      The structure looked like a giant silver pyramid. Protruding from the pointed top of the structure were four elegant, silver strings of light, reaching out to four nearby gold buildings. Grunts and Jackels were digging around the site and carrying things to and from the commanding Field Master's tent.
      "This is the network core. It controls the entire web of ringworlds, giving us access to previously unavailable weaponary options. This is the key to wiping out those filthy humans for good."

Attack on Eristock Part 5: The Covenant's Discovery
Date: 30 September 2003, 2:57 PM

2230 Hours, December 12, 2552 (Military Calendar)/UNSC Hymir, near planet ERISTOCK

      The voice of Captain Geredar came through George's COMM channel. "Alright SPARTAN's, it's time to move. Master Chief, lead your men down to the planet's surface. I will try to draw their fire as long as I can." "Yes sir!" replied George, then pushed his D77-TC Pelican's throttle to one-hundred percent, throwing him into the back of his seat. The other Pelican's holding the rest of the SPARTAN's engine's turned on, following their leader, George. George's Pelican quickly exited the docking bay and was soon putting distance between itself and the Hymir. The ten Pelican's holding the SPARTAN's formed a triangle formation for now, soon they would split up and head towards their own landing zones.
      Suddenly, emerging from the dark side of ERISTOCK, a Covenant destroyer fired at the Hymir. It's plasma torpedoes streaked through the blackness of space. The Hymir desperately tried to turn towards the Covenant ship to return fire, but it had noticed the enemy destroyer too late. The fiery plasma energy hit the Hymir on it's starboard side, boiling away it's armor and igniting released atmosphere. George refused to be distracted; he had a mission to complete.

      It didn't make much sense, but John Carmand had finally figured it out. The creature talking to him was the spirit of a Forerunner, residing in the Flood that infested John. The Forerunner spirits lived in Flood loyal to the Forerunner's original purpose for them. Slowly, they were recruiting an army to gain control over the galaxy once more.
      John was woken up by the Flood mind. The Earth, the Forerunner, and space all disappeared as John opened his mutilated eyes. He was inside a UNSC lifepod, buckled into a seat, surrounded by other Flood combat forms. In the pilot's seat was another Flood, struggling to pilot the lifepod using his ravaged arms. It turned around and growled at the largest Flood in a seat. It growled back and the pilot Flood turned back around. Somehow, John got the feeling he was on another mission, just like old times.

      Captain Geredar knew his ship would never survive the instant the Covenant ship fired. But he would not just abandon it. He had ordered all the crew to evacuate and escape to ERISTOCK's surface. But he remained on the bridge. "Are you sure you want to go through with this, Captain?" asked Richard, the Hymir's AI. "Then men could use a leader if they were able to form a resistance." "Yes, I am," answered the Captain. "I'm not letting another one of the UNSC's warships be abandoned harmlessly. The Covenant should fear our ship's, crippled or not."
      He knew that the Covenant always wanted the information stored away in UNSC ships. The location of Earth, weapons development, special operations maneuvers. He was not going to let them have anything except "a belly full a lead, and a pool of their own blood to drown in". He slammed a clip into a M6D Pistol and put the gun in his holster at his side. Then he put another clip into a MA5B Assault Rifle and put that onto the ground next to him while he put on the toughest armor he could find.

      'Ilramamee knew this discovery would please the High Assembly. "This core allows us to control every single ringworld's weapons individually, along with atmosphere, climate, gravitational pull, orbit, and revolutions," said the Elite. "But we have gained much more than just a vast field of destruction. It gives us access to every single item constructed by the Ancients, giving us a constant video stream of an enormous area. We now know where thousands of human spy satellites and special operations ships are. But one installation inside a moon rather far away showed an unusual amout of activity on the nearby planet, which was previously thought to be too far outside of the human settlements to be inhabited by them. So, after sending out a number of our most cunning spies, I firmly believe we have found one planet the human's treasure most, their homeworld, 'Errth'."
      All of the seven Prophets showed surprise and excitement at this, which was a rare thing. One looked as if he would fall out of the air in shock. "Our spies stole hundreds of documents and captured several of the humans themselves, and after careful analyzation of the documents and the interrogation transcripts, there is no doubt in my mind that this is the planet the human filth have been trying to hide from us."
      "Well it doesn't concern us what you think the conclusion would be," said the Prophet across the table from 'Ilramamee. "We want the facts, and it is still to be shown whether or not we believe your assesment is accurate. We will examine the evidence carefully and shall tell you what our decision is on the next day." "Of course, Exalted," replied 'Ilramamee.

      Field Master Huri 'Ranalamee was livid the support units he ordered were delayed from their original arrival time. Ever since that human in the special armor crashed into the bottom of the valley he slaughtered 'Ranalamee's troops day after day. The Elite wondered how long his soldiers would hold out until the human escaped beyond the valley.
      A low ranking Elite walked up to him. "Excellency, Jaku 'Ilramamee promises the units you requested will arrive tomorrow if the High Assembly's decision is favorable," said the Elite. "Very well," sighed 'Ranalamee. What is the High Assembly doing here? he thought. Whatever they're doing, they had better give 'Ilramamee a good decision, or this human's going to get loose.

Attack on ERISTOCK Part 6: The Boarders
Date: 1 October 2003, 3:24 PM

2249 Hours, December 12, 2552 (Military Calendar)/UNSC Hymir, near planet ERISTOCK

      Captain Geredar picked up his assault rifle and stood up. "Sir, six Covenant boarding craft have attached to empty lifepod docks. They're here," said the AI, Richard, standing on a pedestal near the main view screen. "Okay, stall them as long as you can; I'll get ready," replied the Captain. He walked off the bridge and down the hall to his left, then walked over to a closed blast door on the left. "Sir, they're on the other side of that blast door. They're trying to get through now," said Richard through the Captain's earpiece. "Richard, close the closest blast door behind them so they are trapped in there," ordered Captain Geredar. "Yes sir."
      The Captain walked over to a key pad on the blast door with a red light above it. He typed in a few numbers and the first door began to slide open, dividing into two parts that slid into the ceiling and floor. Through the second door, which consisted mainly of thick glass panels, the Covenant spotted the Captain. The Elites pointed at him and yelled something in their tongue. "Door closed, Captain," he heard through his earpiece.
      Once the first large metal door had slid completely away he typed in a few numbers on the key pad to the second door. It began to open slowly, but he quickly hit the abort key. The door shuddered to a stop. Then he slid his assault rifle sideways into the opening between the two parts of the blast door and pulled the trigger.
      The Covenant panicked as 7.62mm rounds filled the air. Grunts threw down their weapons and ran around with their arms in the air. The Elites tried to return fire, but it was no use; it was two hard to shoot the human through such a tiny opening without being ripped apart by bullets. Suddenly there was a click as the assault rifle ran out of ammo. The Captain threw a grenade through the slot and began reloading the rifle for another bloodbath.

2258 Hours, December 12, 2552 (Military Calendar)/ a UNSC D77-TC "Pelican" dropship, near planet ERISTOCK

      George broke his Pelican away from the group, heading for his landing zone. The ship, it's armor specially reinforced for atmospheric entry, began to violently shake as they drew closer to the planet's surface. Once he had broken through the atmosphere the ship calmed, but then the Covenant began to notice them. "Seven Banshees have lifted off to intercept us at two o'clock," said the AI nicknamed "Public". George pulled up and moved to battle the Covenant's fliers. Once the leading Banshee got in his range George squeezed the trigger, sending a hail of bullets into the alien craft. It exploded into a fireball and the burned out hull fell to the ground, and George turned to the next target.
      He quickly destroyed the attack and landed on a flat patch of land near a valley. "Okay, let's move! Soon there'll be Covenant swarming all over the place looking for us, so the more distance we put between us and here the better. George opened the cargo bay door and Mark, Luke, John, and Sarah climbed out of the Pelican. George got up and opened the door leading from the cockpit to the cargo bay and walked out of the Pelican.
      As soon as his feet hit the ground Sarah yelled "Look!" pointing at the sky. The rest of the SPARTAN-III's looked up. George shielded his eyes from the sun and saw lifepods heading towards the planet's surface, leaving a trail of smoke behind each one. "If we help them then we would have more men and-" Sarah started. "No," interrupted George, firmly. "Our orders are clear. We must not stray from the mission. Time is of the essence." He lowered his arm and started walking towards the valley.

      The lifepod John Carmand, or at least what used to be completely him, was on began to slow down. The other Flood combat forms loaded their weapons and prepared to disembark. John strained his neck to look out the pilot's windshield. They were heading for a UNSC frigate. But what are those strange purple things coming out of it's hull? John thought to himself. Somebody beat us to it. replied the Flood mind.

      Jaku 'Ilramamee, after his announcement of his discovery to the High Assembly, returned to the building set aside for him. He stood erect at the top of the steps leading to the main door. He was one of the lucky few that managed to get their own personal houses at the research area. Since he had contributed so much to their military, he felt he was very much deserving of it. The building didn't look to pretty and it was made entirely out of metal, but he couldn't expect very many comforts from a house built by the Covenant army.
      One of his Grunt servants came out of the building through the servant entrance, which was to the side of the building, and ran over to 'Ilramamee. "What is it Gagap?" sighed the Elite in an exasperated tone. "A message came for you, Excellency," answered the Grunt. "Very well. Get inside," 'Ilramamee ordered. "Right away, Excellency," said Gagap, then he ran off. 'Ilramamee walked over to the main doors and opened them by pressing a button on a light panel on the wall. He walked over to a large holopanel and opened the message. It was from Kura 'Eralamee, head guard to the High Assembly. It read "While the High Assembly decides the importance of your find, it is imperative that the Exalted are very well protected. A human ship exited Slipstream near this planet and launched many small craft down to the surface. It is expected that you will eradicate this threat immediately."
      'Ilramamee was not about to let some of that human vermin interfere with his discovery. "Gagap, come here," said the Elite, not moving his eyes off the holopanel. The Grunt hurried over to 'Ilramamee. "Yes Excellency?" "Send a message to Field Master Huri 'Ranalamee telling him that he will get his support units and more, and after he kills that human he will report to me." He'll get to go on a little hunt for the scum he thought.

2220 Hours, December 12, 2552 (Military Calendar)/UNSC Hymir, near planet ERISTOCK

      "Captain," said Richard, "five more Covenant boarding craft have docked with us." Captain Geredar sighed. "Open the blast door to let them in. Close it after a few of them have entered. I don't want to face all of them at once," said the Captain.
      He had managed to kill all thirty-six of the Covenant boarders using his tactic of shooting them through the blast door, but the Covenant had put up a fearsome struggle. One renegade Grunt had stuck his plasma pistol in through the slot and shot the Captain in the leg, and an Elite had broken Captain Geredar's assault rifle with his plasma rifle. All of the aliens had fired madly at the blast door separating them and the Captain. He wasn't sure how much more plasma burns the door could take until it broke open.
      The Captain shut the first door until it also had a slot through it, then he crouched down so that he wouldn't be visible to the arriving enemies. Slamming another clip into his pistol, his main weapon now that the rifle was broken, he thought he might just have a chance of defeating all the boarders. Perhaps he could then devise a way for the Hymir to escape without being destroyed by the Covenant ship.

      Rila 'Onulamee exited the boarding craft. He looked around. Also on the human ship were ten other Elites, twenty Grunts, and two Hunters. He motioned for the Grunts and two of the Elites to approach with him, the others to follow close behind. He carefully started walking down the hallway they docked to. Turning left he saw a gruesome spectacle. The floor ahead was slick with Elite and Grunt blood, the entire floor was thickly coated in it. Mutilated and deformed Covenant bodies lay everywhere. Yet there was no sign of human casualties, except for a small spot of red blood on the blast door at the far side of the hall.
      'Onulamee charged forward furious at what he saw. The others followed him, and not far behind were the Hunters and eight Elites. He reached the area with blood and continued on, intending to open the door on the other side. Suddenly, halfway across the body strewn area, he heard a beeping noise. Turning around, he saw a blast door closing, separating his team from the Hunters and other Elites. One of the Elites managed to dive through the door before it shut, locking them in the battle area. It's a trap, thought 'Onulamee. He ran over to the door that just closed and pounded his fists on the metal. Then he heard a noise that sounded like 'clink clink clink...clink clink clink', just before his leg ripped off.

      Yura 'Uralamee watched as 'Portalamee dived through the closing doors. "No!" bellowed 'Uralamee. "It's a trap!" He ordered the Hunters to try to pry the door open. He heard a few 'clink' noises from the other side of the door, then he heard two loud explosions and felt the floor shudder. Elite and Grunt screams emitted from the other side, muffled by the door. Then he heard the sound of bullets tearing through flesh and slamming into the door.

      The Captain emptied the clip in his pistol then threw in another grenade. He had a pile of grenades next to him: he was fortunate enough to have raided the armory before the next group of boarders arrived. There was a loud boom and more screams from within the trapped area. The Captain picked up a shotgun, pumped a round into the chamber, then stuck it through the door and fired. He pumped it again and fired.
      He continued to fire his shotgun until he heard nothing more from the aliens. Looking through the slot in the door he saw that all the aliens were dead. "Okay Richard, open the blast door again and let the rest through," he said, then crouched behind the door. He heard the door open, then the steady footsteps of two Hunters. Shit he thought.

**********
Author's Note: I would like to point out the difference between the Flood mind in this story and in The Flood, which you may have already noticed and gone "Huh? That's not right. Flood didn't talk to Jenkins or Keyes. This author's stupid" or something like that. The Flood that has infested John Carmand is a "loyal" Flood, housing the Forerunner spirit, and it created a direct link, on purpose, between it's mind and Carmand's. I doubt Keyes and Jenkins had full access and communication to the Flood mind that infested them. And if that didn't satisfy you, then maybe since it has a Forerunner spirit in it it got smarter. Remember, 343 Guilty Spark said they are very intelligent, despite their parasitic nature.
**********

Attack on ERISTOCK Part 7: John-117
Date: 3 October 2003, 3:51 PM

Deployment +00 hours:20 minutes:17 seconds (SPARTAN-218 Mission Clock)/Surface

      After getting out of the Pelican George and his team had moved quickly into the forest. After ten minutes of walking through it, they came to the edge of the valley. George shielded his eyes as he looked down into the valley. Trees sloped down to the bottom and back up the other side. "Chief, look down there," said Sarah through the COM channel. Sarah was standing to his left, pointing at a spot clear of trees at the bottom of the valley. George, using his helmet HUD, zoomed into the area she was pointing at. A Longsword fighter was sticking up halfway out of the ground at a slant, like it had crashed, and a SPARTAN was hiding behind it. A group of Covenant were slowly coming down the valley towards the fighter. Once they were almost there the SPARTAN burst out from behind the Longsword and, in a matter of seconds, killed them all.
      "Is that one of our men, sir? I don't remember any of us SPARTAN's being given a Longsword fighter," asked Sarah. "No, he's not one of ours," answered George, "And he's not a SPARTAN III. His MJOLNIR is the type given to the II series." "I thought none of the SPARTAN II's were left," said Mark. "The ones that were still alive when the Covenant attacked Reach were either killed on Reach or went missing with the Pillar of Autumn." "Yes, but the fate of the Pillar of Autumn is still unknown, and it had Longswords aboard. I guess he's from the Autumn. Let's go down there and give him a hand," George said. "Yes sir!" replied his three teammates.
      Faster than the SPARTAN II's, they would have no trouble getting to the bottom of the valley in a short time. They quickly set off at a jog down the hillside, weaving their way in and out of trees. Suddenly, after only two minutes, a big blue glowing plasma ball rocketed above the trees ahead then came down a fair distance away. A few seconds later there was a loud explosion and the ground shook. Two more plasma bombs came out of the trees and falling back down. More explosions. "Wraith tanks!" cried Sarah. "Mark, go back to the Pelican and get the crates of M 19 Rocket Launchers and ammunition. Come back quick as you can," ordered George. He didn't think they would need the launchers because this area was supposed to be lightly defended, but twenty-two minutes into the mission and they had already run into artillery. That did not seem like very good evidence of "lightly defended". He motioned for them to continue onward while Mark ran back for the Rocket Launchers.

2235 Hours, December 12, 2552 (Military Calendar)/UNSC Hymir, near planet ERISTOCK

      "Okay Captain, the blast doors are shut again. Be careful, there are Hunters in there," said Richard. "Thanks," replied the Captain. Captain Geredar pulled the pins on two grenades and threw them in through the opening in the blast door. He quickly pulled two more pins and threw the grenades in. Four explosion rocked the floor of the Hymir, then he stood up, sliding his pistol through the opening and pulling the trigger. Soon there was a 'click' as the clip became empty. The Captain rammed another clip into the gun and was about to continue firing when a green glow came through the opening. "Oh shit," said the Captain, taking a few steps back. There were two explosions and a large hole was boiled into the blast door. He had managed to kill the remaining Elites, but he had hardly touched the two Hunters. One stepped through the hole and ran towards Captain Geredar.

      The lifepod John Carmand was on came to a halt as it docked with the human frigate. He loaded a clip into the assault rifle he was carrying and climbed out of the lifepod, along with the rest of the Flood combat forms. The largest of them took the lead and motioned for them to follow him. They past many Covenant boarding craft and turned left. On the far side of the room was a locked blast door, and there was the sound of explosions coming from the other side. The leader pointed at the key pad and one of the Flood rushed forward. He walked over to the wall next to the door and took off a panel of the wall. He began to mess with some wires, trying to unlock the door. The rest of them waited near the door.
      Suddenly the the first part of the blast door began to open. They saw on the other side Hunter climbing through a hole in the other blast door. Once the second part was completely open they ran over to the hole in the next blast door and saw two Hunters rushing towards a human, who was desperately firing his pistol at them. John looked around him and saw almost a hundred Covenant bodies, and a massive coat of blood. But there were no human bodies or blood...

      "Get back you mother f-!" the Captain was cut off by a Hunter's shield batting him into the wall. He slammed against the solid metal. One of the Hunters, who had taken off his fuel rod cannon, rammed his armored fist through Captain Geredar's stomach. There was the sound of metal hitting metal as the Hunter's fist ripped all the way through the Captain's body. Then the giant alien retracted his fist and the Captain slid down to the floor, leaving a streak of blood on the wall, pieces of his intestines clung to the wall. He managed to spit a mouthful of blood at the Hunter before the big metal fist smashed his head flat.

      John suddenly tried to leap forward and get revenge on the Hunters for killing the human, who had obviously killed all these Covenant. The leader held him back, holding on to his mutilated shoulders. It growled at him, and he understood. Wait. Watch. The leader picked up a grenade from the other side of the door. The Hunters had carelessly kicked the human's pile of grenades, and now they were all over the floor were the Hunters were standing. The lead Flood pulled the pin with a maimed hand and threw it at the Hunters. The massive aliens began to laugh, but they were interrupted by explosion after explosion as the grenade set off the others. When the smoke cleared the Hunters were in several pieces.

Deployment +00 hours:23 minutes:37 seconds (SPARTAN-218 Mission Clock)/Surface

      George stopped just before the clearing and looked beyond the trees. The Longsword was no longer recognizable, and the SPARTAN was lying on the ground, trying to pull himself to cover. A few hundred feet away were three Covenant Wraith tanks. George burst out into the clearing, firing his rifle, then retreated behind the trees. Just then Mark came running back, a large crate over each shoulder. He set them down and George hastily opened them. In one were ten M 19 SSM Rocket Launchers and in the other were forty rockets.
      George picked up a launcher and loaded a clip of two rockets. He hoisted it over his shoulder and ran out into the clearing again. Quickly taking aim, he fired at the closest tank. The rocket detonated on the tank's nose and the front of the tank bounced upward, then came back down. George ran back into the forest, and by then Mark, Luke, and Sarah had fully loaded rocket launchers. "Each of you pick a tank and destroy it," ordered George. "Just be careful not to get blown up." "Yes sir!" and they ran off to engage the tanks. George ran over to the SPARTAN and picked him up, carrying him into the safety of the trees. He set the SPARTAN down and took off the II series helmet, which was battered and scarred. After coughing up some blood, the SPARTAN II asked, "Who are you?" "I've got a better question," answered George. "Who are you and why are you out here?" "I'm on a special UNSC vacation, can't you tell?" replied the SPARTAN, then he coughed up more blood and fell unconscious.
      There were three explosions and the other SPARTAN III's came running back. "Is he dead?" asked Mark. "No," answered George, "Hand me a first aid kit." Mark gave him one and George took off the rest of the SPARTAN II's armor and began tending to his many wounds.

      A Grunt came running into Field Master Huri 'Ranalamee's tent. The little alien was obviously very frightened. Blood was seeping out of his environment suit in several places and his methane was slowly leaking out. "Excellency!" cried the Grunt. "Three more humans in special armor! They-they came out of the forest! They destroyed the tanks Excellency! AHHH!" then he ran off half suffocating back to his barracks to get a new suit.
      'Ranalamee jumped up in rage. "What?!" He bellowed. He ran outside. Sure enough, he saw the three smoldering remains of his new support units. He turned around to face the two Elite guards standing at the door of the tent. "Did you rats just stand there while some nasty filth destroyed my tanks?!" he yelled at them. "It's too hot to run down there, Excellency. My armor would get all messed up, and I just polished it too," said one of the guards. 'Ranalamee brought his plasma rifle up and slammed hard into the side of the guard's face. He felt bones break, but he was too angry about his Wraiths to care the slightest. The guard rolled around on the ground bellowing curses on the human scum and screaming in pain. "You!" yelled 'Ranalamee, pointing at the other guard, who flinched, shielding his face. "Get down there and find those humans! Or is it too hot for you?" said the enraged Field Master. "No Excellency!" answered the frightened guard, already halfway down the hill.
      The Field Master ran over to the flat section of land that served as a landing spot for their five Banshees. He ran up to the air control building's door and slammed his fist on it. The door slid open and standing there was the head pilot. "Get all of your banshees in the air and searching for the humans!" ordered 'Ranalamee. The pilot was about to ask "What humans?", but he heard the screams of the guard and thought it better not to, seeing as how the Field Master was furious. The pilot ran off the the barracks where the other Banshee pilots were. He was going to tell them to get into the air and look for humans, and to be fast about it. The Field Master was not in a patient mood.

      Ganu 'Punilamee ran down the hill, scared more of the Field Master than any human he thought he'd find. He still heard his fellow guard's screams drifting down the valley. But then, as he reached the bottom and approached the human fighter, he heard other voices. Human voices. The voice of his pray. He slowly poked his head around the fighter and saw three humans in special armor standing up, another crouching over a human on the ground. He aimed his plasma rifle at the back of the crouching human and...

      Suddenly George was knocked to the ground. Plasma had hit him it the back, but his shield absorbed most of the damage. More plasma shots flew through the air. Mark and Luke took out their assault rifles and snuck up on where the shots were coming from. Mark climbed up and over the fighter, quietly setting his feet on the ground behind the Elite. Slowly he reached into a bag on the Elite's belt and pulled out the Elite's own plasma grenade. Mark tapped the Elite on the shoulder and the alien turned around very fast. "Hey, this yours?" said Mark, and he armed the grenade and stuck it to the Elite's face. Mark ran away as fast as he could. The Elite screamed, then there was a blue explosion and his head was vaporized. The rest of his body flopped to the ground a few yards away.
      Mark and Luke walked back over to George and Sarah. "You alright?" Mark asked George. "Yeah," he answered and continued working on the wounded SPARTAN II. Then they heard the sound of Banshee engines.

Attack on ERISTOCK Part 8: Valley Conquerers
Date: 6 October 2003, 6:15 PM

2245 Hours, December 12, 2552 (Military Calendar)/UNSC Hymir, near planet ERISTOCK

      Richard started the self-destruct sequence for the Hymir, just as he had been ordered to by Captain Geredar. He watched the countdown on the main view screen. 10...9...8...7...6...Countdown Aborted. "What?" said Richard out loud. He tried to start it again. It didn't do anything. He tried the override sequence. Nothing. Suddenly the main view screen changed to a text message from the engine room. Do not destroy the ship. My team will fix the Slipstream drive. The Covenant ship will be taken care of. Richard was puzzled. There were no human or Covenant life signs detected on the Hymir, and there was no presence of another AI in the network. Who could have possibly sent that? Richard thought. He switched the main view screen to the starboard camera. The Covenant ship was moving into position to fire at the Hymir. Boarding party casualties were too high, so they decided if they couldn't have the UNSC ship, no one would. But something caught Richard's eye. A very small craft heading towards the Covenant ship. Richard zoomed the camera in to discover it was a human dropship.

      Kakap slept quietly in a small ball on a Covenant ship. He tired easily, being a Grunt, so rested frequently, as did his Grunt comrades. Finally he got to enjoy some peace. They hadn't gotten much since they encountered the human ship, but now the boarding parties were taking care of it. He dreamt about the cold plains of his homeworld, hoping that someday his Grunt kind could escape Covenant rule and return there.
      A Jackel, Rok, kicked him awake. "Get up you gas sucker! The patrol commander wants to talk to you," he said. Kakap jumped up and ran off in search of Yuka 'Turalamee, the patrol commander. He found him yelling at some Jackels for not unpacking a box of plasma pistols correctly. Kakap ran up to him and said, "Yes, Excellency?" The Elite turned and looked down at the little alien. "What?" he said. "I was told to report to you, Excellency." "Oh, yes, Kakap. I was looking over the records earlier and it appears you allowed a Grunt under your command, named Yanlin, to take more than the maximum amount of methane. Why?" 'Turalamee demanded. "Well...he had a bullet wound from the last battle with the humans and he said he was tired. I-I thought it would be good for him," the Grunt stammered. "I don't allow my specific orders to be disregarded! You, Kakap, will receive absolutely no methane during the next resupply." "B-but that will kill me, Excellency!" cried Kakap. 'Turalamee was about to recite one of the True Sayings, but there was a loud 'THUMP' on the metal wall.
      The Elite turned around and Kakap peered around his leg. Suddenly a large cutting tool poked out of the wall and cut a circle. A large, one foot thick section of the wall fell out, revealing a group of hideous, mutated figures. 'Turalamee, who had read reports and message transcripts regarding the ringworlds, guessed these were the 'Flood'. The patrol commander raised his plasma rifle and fired at one of the Flood. It's body twitched and jerked as it was penetrated by the multiple plasma blasts. It fell to the ground and 'Turalamee moved on the the next Flood, but after a few seconds the body on the ground leapt up and knocked the Elite to the ground. Kakap ran a few meters away and hid behind a supply box. He watched as the Flood pushed a mangled foot against 'Turalamee's neck. 'Turalamee struggled, trying to get free, but the Flood's enormous strength held the Elite down. When 'Turalamee stopped struggling Kakap was struck with fear. He got up and started running around yelling as loud as he could, "Help! Enemies! Kill them! Help me! They got the Elite! Somebody!"
      The Flood hurried to try to shoot the screaming Grunt, but soon a group of Jackels entered the room and mowed down the freakish invaders, using their shields for protection. Soon all the Flood were dead and the Jackels were cleaning up the bodies, paying no attention to Kakap. He ran over to the hole in the wall and discovered that the invaders had come from a human craft that had attached itself to the hull of the ship. Then Kakap got an idea.
      Kakap dragged many crates of food, methane, and weapons into the human ship. Then he ran into the cockpit. He was going to return to his homeworld.

      Richard watched as the Pelican flew away from the Covenant ship, leaving two things behind: a hole in the hull and a nuke attached just below. Atmosphere leaked out of the ship now that the Pelican was gone. Jackel bodies flew out mixed with Flood ones. But after the Pelican had gotten a fair distance away from the Covenant ship Richard realized that the nuke attached to the ship was one of the Hymir's. He had zoomed in on the nuke, matching the serial number on the side with one on a list of nukes the Hymir was equipped with. Then he searched the Hymir databanks for the detonation code. Motes of red light appeared on the Covenant ships side. It was preparing to fire. Richard found the code and sent it. A flash of light enveloped the Covenant ship, making the main view screen to bright for human eyes to look at. When the light faded away the ship was in three pieces and had lost all power.

Deployment +00 hours:31 minutes:22 seconds (SPARTAN-218 Mission Clock)/Surface

      "Tell me I don't hear that," said George. The sound of Banshee engines was growing louder. "We've got it covered, sir," said John. Mark, Luke, John, and Sarah ran out of the forest. The SPARTAN II laying on the ground coughed. He had woken up. "Now that you're awake again, how about you tell me who you are and what you're really doing here," said George. "I'm John-117, part of the SPARTAN II project. I crashed here in my Longsword fighter after I escaped from a Covenant held ringworld called Halo. Now tell me who you are and what you're doing here," answered the SPARTAN II. The sound of assault rifles suddenly filled the air as the rest of George's team attacked the Banshees. "I'm a SPARTAN III, George-218. Me and my team were sent here by the UNSC to carry out a strategic mission." "I thought we were going to take over the planet," Public chuckled. George jumped. He had forgotten about the AI. Public had been silent for so long that George got used to doing things without him. "Strategic mission indeed. Nice choice of words," Public continued.
      "John, can you use our COM channels, or are yours different than ours?" George asked. "They are exactly the same," said a tart, female voice. "You SPARTAN III's aren't that special." "Who are you?" Public cried. "You mean who are you?!" the female voice yelled back. "Alright you two," interrupted John. "This is Cortana." "I'm Public. I didn't know the SPARTAN II's were equipped with AI's, though." "We weren't," said John. "Except for me. Cortana has been with me ever since I got the AI slot installed in my neck." John coughed, this time not so much blood. George handed John-117 an assault rifle. "Stay here," said George. Me and the other four members of my team will clear out the Covenant position ahead. If there's any trouble call for help, and at least one of us will get back here." With that George got up and ran off.
      He jogged up the hill to where John-221, Mark, Luke, and Sarah were pinned down. They were hiding behind a small Covenant building. He ran up to them. "Did you get the Banshees?" he asked John, who was closest to him. "Yes, sir, but there's a group of Elites with Ghosts out there. We would have no problem with them except we left our rocket launchers back in the woods and our assault rifles are almost out of ammo." "I'll do my part, then," said George, and he pulled out his pistol. He stepped away from the building into the open, extending his arm until it was straight. He stood sideways, as to not be hit so easy. Sure enough, there were two Ghosts, driven by two Elites, supported by another three Elites. George aimed at one of the Ghosts and squeezed the trigger. The Elites and Ghosts fired back at him, but they were too far away for their weapons to do a lot of damage. And if a shot did hit, it bounced off George's shields. After George used a whole clip the Ghost exploded in a fireball, killing another Elite nearby. He put his pistol in it's holster and took out a fragmentation grenade, pulled the pin, then threw it at the Ghost. It detonated, but it missed the Ghost, which had moved out of the way, but it killed a supporting Elite. George then rolled back into the cover of the building, and John, Mark, Luke, and Sarah stepped out, opening fire with their remaining ammunition.
      Once the Ghost and remaining Elite had been finished off the SPARTAN III's returned to where John-117 was laying. "I'm sure we just created a good deal of commotion, so we had better get moving as fast as we can. Sarah, help the SPARTAN II, Luke, carry the case of rocket launchers, and Mark, carry the case of rockets," George ordered. He picked up the rest of the equipment they had carried and led the way out of the formerly Covenant held valley.

********
Author's Note: Two things I would like to make clear; the first being there are two Johns in this story. John-117 we are familiar with from the game Halo. The other, John-221, is a SPARTAN III. When writing I shall refer to each one as either 221 or 117 just to make the distinction between the two. The second thing I want to make clear is the environment and time on ERISTOCK. If you were a sharp enough reader you would have realized that the time just before the SPARTAN III's deployment was 2258 (10:58 PM), and they got to John-117 twenty-something minutes later. It is night, but the ERISTOCK moon reflects much more sun than our moon because the ERISTOCK sun is brighter, so it is almost like full daylight all the time on ERISTOCK, which may have been a factor for the placing of the Forerunner's structure. Also, the Elite guard Part 7 said it was too hot. George's team-or the C-Team-landed a little above ERISTOCK's equator. So it is pretty hot on a December night on ERISTOCK. No cold Christmas sipping hot chocolate, cuddled next to the fire for them...
********

Attack on ERISTOCK Part 9: Invaders
Date: 8 October 2003, 3:44 PM

2300 Hours, December 12, 2552 (Military Calendar)/UNSC Hymir, near planet ERISTOCK

      John Carmand walked onto the Hymir's broken bridge. He held his assault rifle out in front of him, wary of enemies. He walked over to the main view screen. An AI appeared on the pedestal nearby. "Well finally someone is going to-" he stopped the instant he got a good look at John. Richard was speechless. He quickly analyzed the creature and found a slight trace of human life in it. "Who are you?" Richard asked, awed at the degree of which this thing had been mutated and still able to move. The creature only growled and walked over to a keyboard attached to the screen. It started to type with obvious difficulty. Letters began to appear on the screen. Slowly Richard began to understand what this thing was trying to say.

Deployment +02 hours:03 minutes:13 seconds (SPARTAN-218 Mission Clock)/Surface

      George's team had quickly climbed out of the valley. The forest became more and more dense and soon light was altogether unable to penetrate through the trees to the ground. John-117 was soon able to walk by himself, who insisted on carry a case of equipment to make up for his temporary handicap earlier. But soon they had to find somewhere to sleep.
      It was hard to find a suitable place, searching in a dark, dense forest, but finally they found an area that didn't look like it had too many trees. Mark got a fire going while John-221 and Sarah left to scout for Covenant. John-117 sunk to the ground, leaning against a tree, and fell asleep instantly. Luke sat down off in a corner where the firelight didn't reach, took off his helmet and stared at the sky. George sat near the fire and searched for his food rations in his backpack. He pulled out some hard bread, which he had at first mistaken for a brick, and began to eat.
      After about five minutes John-221 came back and plopped himself down next to George. "Sir," he said, "can I ask you a question?" "Go ahead," answered George. John pulled out a small remote. It had only one red button on it, nothing else. "I carefully installed several cases of C-12 near the Pelican's gasoline tank and piled the reserve fuel cans on top. Would you like to be the one who gets to blow those aliens to hell, sir? I figure there's gotta be plenty of them swarming around our dropship." "You do it John. You had some foresight," replied George. "Okay," said John, then he pressed the red button. There was a faint 'boom' and the ground shook a little. "Wow. Exactly how much C-12 and gas did you pile up?" asked George, awed. John only smiled and said, "Plenty".
      Mark sat down on the other side of George. "So what is our mission, sir?" he asked. "Public can tell you. I'm going to sleep. Make sure there is at least one person on watch duty. Wake me up when it's my turn," said George. "Yes, sir," answered Mark. George turned off the speakers on his helmet so he wouldn't hear Public and then laid down to sleep. Public told Mark, Luke, and John their mission through the COM channel. "There has been a large amount of activity at a Covenant dig site. They have uncovered a large structure, which we have no idea what it's importance is, but seven Prophets are there currently. Whatever it is the Covenant want it. So our job is to either take over the building or destroy it. Then we will receive further orders."
      Sarah's voice came through the COM channel suddenly. "Hunters! I've got Hunters chasing me and-" there was a loud explosion,"-they seem pretty pissed! They were guarding some gate or something but I don't know how long I can hold them off! There is probably about ten of them!" Every member of C-Team jumped up. Sarah was in trouble.

      Lanyap the Grunt knew 'Ilramamee was not going to be happy at all. Lanyap had to wake 'Ilramamee from his sleep; an urgent message had just come in from Kura 'Eralamee, head guard of the High Assembly. Lanyap ran into 'Ilramamee's bedroom and tapped the Elite on the shoulder, who was sleeping in a chair. 'Ilramamee didn't move. Lanyap tried tapping him again, but nothing happened. The Grunt shook 'Ilramamee. The Elite jumped from his chair and pulled out his rifle, pointing it at Lanyap. The frightened little alien fell back onto the floor with a high-pitched yell. "Urgent message from 'Eralamee, Excellency!" the Grunt cried, then scurried out of the room.
      Worthless little nuisance, thought 'Ilramamee. He walked over to his personal holopanal and opened the message. This time it was a video message. Apparently 'Eralamee was not pleased with him. A large Elite, even by Elite standards, appeared in front of 'Ilramamee. "The last time I contacted you, Ilramamee," it said, "I ordered you to take care of the human filth that landed on our planet. Obviously you have not listened to me, as many groups of humans are now heading toward locations key to our control of this planet. This is the last time 'Ilramamee; take appropriate action to resolve this situation or I will have you relieved of command." I thought I told that fool 'Ranalamee to fix this! 'Ilramamee thought.
      He tried to contact 'Ranalamee many times, but none worked. Finally he contacted Yuza 'Pokalamee, the co-ordinator of every troop movement in the western hemisphere of ERISTOCK. 'Ilramamee established a live video connection with 'Pokalamee. "'Pokalamee," 'Ilramamee said, "I can't reach Field Master 'Ranalamee. Has anything happened to him?" "Yes," answered 'Pokalamee. "I sent you the report awhile ago! He was killed when his entire base was destroyed by a group of humans. And many of the soldiers in his area were killed when the human craft they were investigating blew up. Total casualties are estimated to be over two-hundred in these attacks alone. It seems we are being invaded. There are groups of humans everywhere, resisting all our attempts to crush them. Some of the weaker humans are unifiying and striking back. We don't have enough troops to eliminate them, either. Too many are at your dig site!" Just when he had finally gotten the attention of the High Assembly, 'Ilramamee thought, the nasty human filth have to go and mess it up!. But how could he possibly stop the vermin? Suddenly a little voice awoke within him, You could raise them. They could do it, it said. No, not yet, he thought.
      "'Pokalamee, call for reinforcements from nearby planets. We need to crush this uprising of filth at any cost," ordered 'Ilramamee. "Yes Excellency," said 'Pokalamee. They could do it faster, said a little voice in his head again. But they could get out of control, he thought. No, reinforcements would be best.

2300 Hours, December 12, 2552 (Military Calendar)/UNSC Hymir, near planet ERISTOCK

      Richard understood this creatures plan, at best. But it was madness. No matter how right or good it might be, it would destroy the human race. Richard would not let that happen. But he was only an AI and the creature and the others like him had taken control of the ship. They asked Richard to help, but he would never help their plan of devastation. Somehow he had to stop them...

Attack on ERISTOCK Part 10: Hunters
Date: 14 October 2003, 3:41 PM

Deployment +02 hours:14 minutes:20 seconds (SPARTAN-218 Mission Clock)/Surface

      George switched on his teammate coordinate markings on his HUD. Green arrows appeared over each member of C-Team's head, and above the arrow was a distance reading in meters. George ran off towards the farthest green arrow, Sarah. The rest of the SPARTAN's followed him. Soon he reached her position. She was running through the forest, trying not to be caught by the six Hunters following her. George stopped. He had no idea how to defeat six Hunters, especially since they had left the rocket launchers back at their camp. John-117, the SPARTAN II, stepped forward. "I'll take care of this," he said, then dashed towards the Hunters. One spotted him and charged forward, attempting to bat John with his huge shield. John dodged the shield and the Hunters lurched past him. John whipped out a huge combat knife and sliced the vulnerable orange back of the Hunter. The massive alien gave a cry as it thudded to the ground. The rest of the Hunters charged for him.
      Two of them stayed where they were and began firing their fuel rod cannons at John. The other three rushed to try to hit him. One gave a deep grunt of anger and swiped at John with his giant metal shield. John ducked, the Hunter missed by an inch, then he jumped at the aliens head, thrusting his knife through the exposed orange flesh that was probably his neck. Orange blood spurted from the wound, soaking John's hand. The Hunter gave a roar and threw John off him. The force of the throw severed the remaining skin holding the alien's head on, and it tumbled to the ground, the rest of the body fell backward. John quickly got up and dodged two fuel rod cannon blasts and prepared to meet the next assailant.
      While John-117 was fighting the Hunters, George motioned for the rest of his team to follow him. They quietly ran around the battle, so that they were directly behind the two Hunters firing their fuel rod cannons. George moved to take one giant alien, and he indicated that John-221 should take the other down. John slowly crept up to the Hunter, taking out his combat knife. "This one's dyin' SPARTAN II style," he said. He swung at the alien's orange back, slicing the Hunter in half. Blood flowed over the ground as it's body fell. George then pulled out his pistol and shot the Hunter in front of him in the back. The alien gave a groan then fell forward.
      John-117 sidestepped the next Hunter's charge, then threw a plasma grenade onto it's back. He rolled away as the heavily armored alien exploded in a combination of blue plasma and orange blood. Then he felt a huge metal shield collide with his body.
      George watched as the SPARTAN II was thrown into the air by the last Hunter's shield. George shot the walking Covenant tank in the back, orange blood and a roar followed. He ran through the trees searching for John-117. He found him unconscious and lying next to a large tree. He threw the SPARTAN II over his shoulders and ordered Mark to look for Sarah. Mark found her also unconscious and he picked her up. Then George, Mark, Luke, and John-221 headed back to camp.

      George's team was soon back at their camp. George and Mark put their teammates on the ground. They took off John-117's and Sarah's armor. John was pretty much unhurt, except he would probably have bruises all over his body for a few days. Sarah, on the other had, had a broken arm and many burns. Apparently she had gotten hit by a fuel rod cannon blast just before the SPARTAN II intervened. Mark began tending to Sarah while George walked over to the equipment pile. He picked out a small computer. He turned it on, then pulled the tiny disc that contained Public out of his head and put it in the computer. Public appeared on the screen. "Public, send a transmission to the Hymir stating that we have found a SPARTAN II named John-117 and he has information possibly important to the UNSC and he needs evacuation from ERISTOCK as soon as possible. Make sure only the Captain or Richard can open the file," ordered George. Public went straight to work.

2320 Hours, December 12, 2552 (Military Calendar)/UNSC Hymir, near planet ERISTOCK

      Richard was pondering about how he could stop these invaders when a transmission suddenly arrived from ERISTOCK. Puzzled, he opened the transmission. It read:

      United Nations Space Command Priority Transmission 09895J-10
      Encryption Code: Red
      Public Key: file/public/spartii/
      From: Public, AI (UNSC Service Number: N/A)
      To: Captain Geredar, Commanding officer UNSC Hymir/ (UNSC Service Number: 12508-19937-LG)
      Subject: EVAC NEEDED FOR UNSC SOLDIER
      Classification: SECRET (BGX Directive)

      /start file/
      Captain (or Richard),

      The C-Team here on ERISTOCK has found a SPARTAN II that has information about the fate of the Pillar of Autumn and about huge Covenant ring worlds. This information is possibly crucial to the UNSC, so send evac ASAP for the SPARTAN II.

      Public
      /end file/

      A SPARTAN II, Richard thought. Perhaps he has seen these creatures before... He began to work on a reply.

Deployment +09 hours:00 minutes:57 seconds (SPARTAN-218 Mission Clock)/Surface

      After setting Sarah's broken arm and putting it in a cast, they went to sleep, with one person standing guard for two hour turns. Soon the harsh sun of ERISTOCK was rising and the SPARTAN's began to prepare for their journey.
      First, after getting all of their eauipment packed and distributed for carrying, they marched over to where Sarah had been attacked by Hunters. Orange blood was everywhere, but the bodies had been taken. There were signs in the grass of the Hunters being dragged away. "Sarah, you said something about a gate. Where is it?" George asked. Sarah walked past the battlefield and over to a large patch of grass. She put her one good hand in the ground and lifted up a door, disguised to look like grass. She jumped down the opening. The rest of the SPARTAN's followed.
      Inside was a small, dimly lit room. It was extremly dusty, and huge cobwebs the size of a human's chest filled the corners. In the center of the room was a holopanel. John-117 walked over to it and touched a light on the panel. Suddenly diagrams, maps, information databases, and various other things began to spring into the air. A massive field of holograms lay before them. "Christ," said George, "this is all about the building we are supposed to destroy."

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A Sort-Of Author's Note: I'm sorry this part is short. Frankly, I think the upcoming events belong in a seperate chapter. At least you got a detailed description of a fight with Hunters. Anyway, I'd like to say: go to Seventh Column and check out the chapter 'Halo: Fanfiction Evolved'. It needs more members! If that would be too hard to do, email me, and eventually sometime within the following 24 hours I'll give you the URL. (Y'all are probably sick of my notes, aren't you?)
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Attack on ERISTOCK Part 11: The Four Horsemen
Date: 20 October 2003, 3:33 PM

Deployment +02 hours:31 minutes:52 seconds (SPARTAN-218 Mission Clock)/Surface

      George stood at the holopanel in the room they had found, looking at all the data. It was all information about the structure they had been assigned to destroy or capture. The amount of Covenant interest in this structure was amazing. The area around the dig site alone had ten times the amount on the rest of the planet. Seven prophets were now in the area, and one rather famous Elite called "'Ilramamee". Covenant Grunts and Jackals were working hard to unearth the building, which had been buried under thousands of years of dirt. There were reports of Engineers swarming to the site, ordered by the "High Assembly" to evaluate the find. But why do they want it? What is it? George thought.
      And how can I read this stuff? He took off his helmet. The data, which had all appeared in English, suddenly became a mass of unreadable Covenant text. He put the helmet back on, and it was English again. Odd, he thought, I don't remember anyone telling us we could now read Covenant...

      Luke stood in the back of the room, unnoticed by everyone else. He had known about this structure for a long time. Indeed, when he had last contacted Illyadar Gruenovic he had been told much about it. There was no doubt now that the building he was informed of and the building C-Team was sent to take were one and the same. Now he had to do what was requested of him.

      George began to ask Public, "Were you told anything about the new-" when Sarah gave a yell of surprise. Then he heard Luke's voice behind him, "Drop your weapons, now!" Then he heard the clatter of an assault rifle hit the floor, than two more. "George, drop it!" Luke yelled. George dropped his rifle. He turned around and saw Luke holding Sarah with his arm around her neck, her helmet removed. He was using her as a shield, pressing his pistol against her temple. "Good. Now you die," Luke whispered into Sarah's ear and pulled the trigger. Blood spattered against the far wall and bits of bone slammed flew through the air. Mark yelled and leapt at Luke, but was only knocked back by two rounds from Luke's pistol. Luke turned his gun to face John-221 and the SPARTAN-II. John-221 was scrambling to pick up his gun. George tried to stop Luke, but he fired three rounds at John, penetrating his shields and killing him. The SPARTAN-II jumped at Luke, his combat knife drawn, but Luke ducked and threw his fist into John-117's stomach. George whipped out his pistol and fired two rounds at Luke. Luke rolled away and returned fire. But, preoccupied with shooting at George, he didn't notice Mark come up behind him. Mark took out his knife and drove it into Luke's back. Luke screamed in pain, but was cut off by a bullet penetrating his chest and his throat filling with blood.
      The SPARTAN's that remained alive stood in shock. Blood was everywhere, and three of the UNSC's super-soldiers lay on the floor, dead. Mark put his foot against Luke's body and pulled out his knife and he stood frozen for a second, blood dripping from the blade, then he started beating Luke's body with his knife. More and more blood flowed onto the floor and his armor as Mark furiously beat the traitor.

      'Ilramamee stood at the end of the long table, before the High Assembly once more. The Prophet across from him spoke, "'Ilramamee, we value every find you make. Your worth in this Covenant has no measure, for you have provided us with much of the Ancients sacred relics, and as you stand here today, be assured that you will be rewarded most richly at this war's end. We have thought much about your latest uncovering of an Ancient structure, and hours of meditation have revealed much. We believe your find to be accurate in saying that what you have found is the core to a network of the Ancients weapons. Having said that, we believe that this is not of great importance to us now, as the humans' final destruction is close at hand. But the intelligence that you have given us is unimaginably valuable. Your work here is done, but others have much to do. A fleet will be sent out immediately to destroy this 'Errth', and humanity will be gone forever. Their resistance has proven they are unwilling to be assimilated into our Covenant. But, as I said, you are done. All of the troops in this entire area must be pulled out and should be available for invasion by next week. There will be no more work here, for once the humans are dead, we will have no use for such an array of weaponry."
      The Prophet finished talking and floated out of the room, as did the other six, leaving 'Ilramamee to his frustrated self. Despite the Prophet's assurance that he would be rewarded, he knew he was of no more use to the High Assembly, therefore had no reason to be left alive. He had seen it hundreds of times, Elites in high positions fulfilling their duty and losing their lives. Soon he would be part of the invasion and in the first wave of attack. He roared as he left the room. He was not going to let them do this to him.

      John Carmand knew they were getting close to invasion time. Thousands of new Flood had arrived, all in Pelicans and lifepods, all armed and ready for battle. The loyal Flood were gathering, preparing for a final assault against those that had forsaken the Forunners' realm. Soon all would be part of the Flood empire, guided by the will and spirit of the Forunner. The disloyal Flood would be eliminated, the Covenant crushed, and humanity annihilated. Their plan was glorious. John, for the first time in his life, felt powerful. He was part of something that humanity never was and never would be. He was glad he was a member of the Flood, and he was eager to see combat. He would do it for the Forunner. Humanity's own, turned against them.

0901 Hours, December 13, 2552 (Military Calendar)/UNSC Hymir, near planet ERISTOCK

      Richard wandered around in the Hymir's data archives. He was trapped in the computer, unable to contact anyone, and he had no control over the ship. More and more of those hideous creatures arrived, they were building an army. But for what Richard did not know. Suddenly new data began to scroll in through the command keyboard. He appeared at the pedestal near the main screen and saw a Marine, a real Marine, standing over the computer. "Hey, who are you?" he asked the man. The soldier jumped and pointed his rifle at Richard. He had a helmet that resembled the SPARTAN-III's helmets. He was clad in all black armor, and his rifle was a custom MA8B assault rifle that was only legend in the normal ranks. The MA8B was a commando version of the MA5B. It had a thirty bullet clip, but it had a scope, a launcher, it was able to be taken apart and hidden in the smallest spaces, it was able to fire semi-automatically or automatically, and it had a silencer. The MA8B had been created by ONI for use by Marine commandos. It had been used in thousands of assassinations of infamous pirate leaders and black traders before the war with the Covenant began.
      The Marine lowered his rifle, seeing that it was only an AI. "Where's the Captain," he asked in a low, rough voice. "Dead. As is the rest of the crew I suppose. But how did you get past all those....creatures?" Richard replied. "What 'creatures'?" the Marine answered back. "Look, get me out of here and I'll tell you everything," said Richard.

      Illyadar Gruenovic sat in his office, his feet on the desk and a cigar in his mouth. A tiny bulb hung from the ceiling, barely lighting the room with it's yellow glow. Bugs swarmed around it, banging their heads against it until they were knocked senseless and fluttered to the floor. Smoke filled the tiny room, further hindering the ability to see Illyadar.
      There was a knock on the door. "Come in," said Illyadar in his low, almost tenor-like voice. A tiny man entered the room, obviously frightened to be in Illyadar's presence. "Private Yinders here, sir," the little man said in a high-pitched voice. "The Communications Center reports that our SPARTAN contact within the UNSC is dead. Here is their report," he squeaked, walking over to Illyadar's desk and handing him a folded piece of paper. With a frightened gulp, the Private hurriedly walked out of the room.
      Illyadar opened the piece of paper. Carefully he read read it twice, just to make sure he was not mistaken. He began to laugh a dry, evil laugh. Dropping his feet to the floor, he threw his cigar to the ground and lit another. Twelve years since he had been forced to hide in deep space, taking refuge on a frozen planet long forgotten by scientists. Twelve years since he had begun constructing his revenge. And now he was the chance to rise up once more and destroy his greatest enemy, the UNSC. They had not forgotten him, and they never would, for soon his vengeance would be complete. His red eyes glowed in the darkness. They would regret their attack on his operation. Yes, he could see it now, the destruction of the entire UNSC army and his rise to power.

********
Ah, yes. Finally Part 11 of "Attack on ERISTOCK" has been released. But you didn't care, did you? Anyway, this note at the end has become habit. I'm sorry it took so long to write Part 11. Frankly, I was either to tired, to lazy, or to busy to write it. But I think I have finally written a suitable sequel to Part 10.
Ah! But how was I busy you ask! Well, I'll tell you. My chapter 'Halo: Fanfiction Evolved' at Seventh Column has taken up alot of my time. JOIN IT! I put alotta work into it. (Sergeant B, I understand you can't join. Thanks for reading.)
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Attack on ERISTOCK Part 12: The Uncovering of Illyadar
Date: 24 October 2003, 3:57 PM

Deployment +09 hours:19 minutes:59 seconds (SPARTAN-218 Mission Clock)/Surface

      George stood frozen in shock. Sarah and John-221 had both been killed by Luke, whoose body was now being beaten by Mark. George couldn't believe it. Why? was the only word in George's mind. The SPARTAN's had been like family, why had Luke done this? Suddenly another emotion entered his mind, besides grief, despair. He had lost three members of his team, how was he going to complete his mission?
      John-117 was also shocked. He stared in disbelief at the bodies. Every few seconds there was a muffled, liquidy 'thud' as Mark stabbed Luke's body with his knife. "You mother-fucking son of a bitch! Why'd you do it?! Why?! Damn you! Damn you!" Mark yelled, thrusting his knife into the body one more time, then collapsing on the ground. Mark took off his helmet and stood up. He had an odd gleam in his eye. Kneeling over Luke's body, he ripped off Luke's helmet and reached inside. There was a faint 'click' and Mark pulled out a small rectangular disc. Luke's video storage card. All the UNSC soldiers had chips in their helmets that recorded what they did and, if they died, what happened to them.
      Public broke the silence, "Mark, what is that going to accomplish? You killed Luke yourself, why do you need that?" Mark didn't answer, he just slid the chip into his helmet then put the helmet on his head.
      Mark started the video, rewinding it to the night before they were boarded onto the Hymir. He had seen Luke dissapear for about an hour that night, maybe it had something to do with his back-stabbing. He played it right as Luke left the rest of the SPARTAN's. He watched as Luke walked down a bright hall. He turned left into a maintence corridor and walked for about ten meters until he came to a rectangular hole in the floor with a ladder going down to the dark floor below. Luke grabbed hold of the ladder and slid down. He turned around and walked over to a locked door and punched in a code. The door slid open, and Luke stepped in. The room beyond the door was also pitch black, but there were two eyes dimly glowing red about three yards away, and there was the faint light of a cigar. Luke spoke up, "Luke-334 reporting, Mr. Gruenovic, sir!" "Good," replied the owner of the cigar. "What did the Admiral say?" the Mr. Gruenovic asked, in his low-pitched voice that had a trace of a Russian accent. "We have been ordered to board the Hymir, sir! That is all he told us, sir!" answered Luke.
      Mark was disgusted. Luke was talking to this man as if he were a general, yet he hid in the darkness like an escaped convict. "Very good. Here are the data maps and info on a building I'm interested in. The Hymir is going to ERISTOCK, as you probably know, which is were this building is. The UNSC wants to destroy or capture it, and you cannot allow it. Kill the SPARTAN's that are assigned to taking it. Now get out of here," said Gruenovic. "Yes sir!" Luke said, then he walked out of the room. He passed a man carrying a folder as he walked over to the ladder and began to climb back up to the maintenance corridor.
      Suddenly Mark realized something. He rewound the video until it showed the man with the folder again and he paused the video, then zoomed in on the folder. In blurry red letters it read, "CLASSIFIED: FOR ILLYADAR GRUENOVIC ONLY". Mark now had the bastard's full name, Illyadar Gruenovic.
      Mark turned off the video and looked at George. "Sir! I have the name of the man that Luke was working for! Permission to go kill the bastard, sir?!" Mark asked. "No. We have a job to do, soldier, and we will complete it. Retribution is not part of that. Now let's move, I'm sure the Covenant know we're here," replied George. George climbed out of the hole they had come in through and Mark and John followed. Cortana burst in through a COM channel, "Fifteen Ghosts are headed this way, I suggest we get a move on it." "Come on!" George yelled. He ran off into the forest, heading towards their goal, the structure. He knew they didn't have the firepower to take out that many Ghosts, so they had to out run them.

0928 Hours, December 13, 2552 (Military Calendar)/UNSC Hymir, near planet ERISTOCK

      The Marine commando exited the bridge and held his MA8B out in front of him, scanning for enemies. Seeing that the area was clear, he dashed over to a maintenance corridor. He turned on his flashlight and walked through the corridor for about two minutes until reached the end and came out into a docking bay. The only ship in the bay was the Marine's modified Longsword fighter. He ran over to it and ran up a ramp then puched a button to close the ramp. He then sat down in the pilot's chair and powered up the Longsword. After the fighter's engines fired on he pushed the throttle to seventy percent and the Longsword jerked forward, flying out of the Hymir. After he was clear of the Hymir he pulled the throttle back to twenty percent and then he took out the AI card from his pocket, shoving the card into a slot in the onboard computer. The AI flickered then appeared on the pedastal nearby.
      "Alright, I got you outta there. Now tell me what happened to the Hymir," the Marine said to Richard. "Well, we were right on schedule with the mission. We had launched the SPARTAN-III's and were about to enter Slipstream when a Covenant cruiser crippled us. Since the Captain abandoned the Hymir they figured they could capture the ship records and coordinate information, so they sent a large amount of boarding parties, but Captain Geredar, who had stayed behind, killed almost all of them. He was killed by a pair of Hunters, so I tried to self-destruct the ship, as I was ordered, but something overrode the countdown. Or rather, someone," said Richard. He played a video of one of the creatures walking onto the bridge. "Oh shit," the Marine said. "The last thing that happened was C-Team contacted me to request evac for a SPARTAN II," finished Richard. "A SPARTAN II?!" yelled the Marine. "Yeah," answered Richard. The Marine suddenly turned the Longsword around so that he was now heading towards ERISTOCK. "Send a transmission to C-Team and tell them to give you their coordinates. I'm gonna be the evac," ordered the Marine.

      Illyadar Gruenovic stood up from his desk. He walked out of his command office and walked over to the communications room. Every thing in the underground base had a dim metallic look to it. Illyadar shook the commanding COM officer awake. The officer opened his eyes slowly, then, seeing Gruenovic, he leapt to his feet, snapping a salute. "Yes sir?" he said. "Send a transmission to the fleet. It's time to mobilize: we're going to invade ERISTOCK," Illyadar ordered. The COM officer looked overjoyed when he heard Gruenovic say that. "Yes sir!" he said. Every single soldier in Gruenovic's army were battle-hardened pirates, mercenaries, assassins, commandos, and black traders. All were eager for battle and disiplined better than any UNSC Marine. It was time for Illyadar to strike back; it was the day Illyadar had been waiting for for twelve years.

      'Ilramamee was enraged. He was in control of the planet, not the Prophets! He entered his house, the Grunts jumping to their duty. 'Ilramamee could tell they had been sleeping, but he didn't care. He had bigger things to take care of. "Gagap!" he bellowed. The frightened Grunt rushed forward. "Send a message to all forces in the area that they are to take postition around the Ancients' structure, and all ships are to orbit the planet," he ordered. "Yes Excellency!" squeaked the Grunt. Gagap ran over to a holopanel and began to type. "Yalag!" the Elite bellowed again. Another Grunt ran forward. "Contact Urig 'Kapilamee. Tell him he and his troops should meet me near the High Assembly's building," 'Ilramamee ordered the little Grunt. "Right away, Excellency!" Yalag said then scampered away.
      'Ilramamee exited his building then climbed into his personal Ghost. Turning on the anti-grav engine, he drove off in the direction of the High Assembly's building. They would not take his power from him.

      'Ilramamee turned off the engine and climbed out of his Ghost once he reached the building. Six other Elites in black armor were waiting for him. One stepped forward. "Are we here to kill the High Assembly?" he asked. "Yes 'Kapilamee, we are. It is time we Elites showed them that we are strong, and they are not. We are the rulers of this Covenant. Ready?" 'Ilramamee asked. Six blue plasma-swords burst to life. There were a few 'wort wort wort's emitted from the soldiers. "We are," said 'Kapilamee with an evil laugh. 'Ilramamee signaled for the Elites to stay out of sight from the main door. 'Ilramamee walked up to the guard at the door. The guard was a gold Elite with a plasma rifle. He held out his hand and said, "No one is allowed into the building except for authorized members of the Assembly Guard." 'Ilramamee pointed his hand at the guard's chest then activated his plasma sword. There was a gasp from the guard as his purple blood gushed out of his rib-cage. "Is this authorized enough?" 'Ilramamee said with a laugh and shook the guard's limp body off the sword.
      Jaku 'Ilramamee walked over to the locked door and cut it open with his sword. "Alright, let's move!" he yelled back to 'Kapilamee's team. The black Elites rushed forward and entered the building, throwing grenades at the guards within and slashing flesh and armor with their swords. 'Ilramamee stepped through the broken door last. By then the remaining guards had retreated, leaving 'Ilramamee's team alone.
      'Ilramamee walked over to a holopanel near the door on the far side of the room. He pressed a button and it glowed red. A map of the building appeared, showing the position of the High Assembly. They trying to reach the dock and escape in a dropship. He laughed. "Come on, it's time to catch some rats!" he yelled, slashing open another door and charging forward.

Attack on ERISTOCK Part 13: Perimeter Defenders
Date: 29 October 2003, 9:14 PM

Deployment +09 hours:21 minutes:17 seconds (SPARTAN-218 Mission Clock)/Surface

      As George's now smaller team put distance between themselves and the Ghosts, Public burst into the COM channel. "I've just received a transmission from Richard, but he's not on the Hymir....odd. It says evac is coming for the SPARTAN II. Looks like you're leaving, John. But we need to get to a suitable place for the dropship to land then send him our coordinates. Hold on..." As Public scanned the satellite maps for a clear patch of land, George could hear the Ghost engines slowly getting louder. "Got it! There's an area one hundred meters in front of us. I'll send him the coordinates..." said Public.
      Mark, meanwhile, was not listening to the conversation between George and Public. He was talking to his AI, Xeon. "Surely you can come up with something on this guy, can't you?" he asked Xeon. "Well, I might, except it's kind of hard to access the UNSC records from a Covenant infested planet. Hold on, I've got a connection. Let's see...I'm in. Illyadar Gruenovic... Wow. They have got a lot of stuff here about him. They've been searching for him since 2540," said Xeon. "Why are they looking for him?" Mark asked. "Hold on! It says here he ran a huge smuggling operation, he also built a huge pirate base up in the Armastrose asteroid field. The UNSC managed to almost completely eliminate his operations and were trailing Gruenovic himself until 2540, when they lost him."
      Mark thoughtfully processed this. A once infamous pirate and smuggler had hired Luke to try to stop the UNSC from gaining control of the structure the Covenant had found. Why? he thought. And why the hell did Luke do it? Mark was somehow going to get revenge. Revenge was the only thing on his mind, but he was not about to abandon George and the mission.
      C-Team quickly ran up a hill and burst out into a field of tall brown grass. George unslung his assault rifle and hid himself in the grass. The others followed suit. Slowly the sound of Ghost engines was getting louder. And louder. But another noise abruptly cut in: a Longsword engine. As the Ghosts came rushing out of the forest into the field a Longsword flew down to the field preparing to land, firing it's Archer missiles and 30mm chain guns. Mayhem and destruction was everywhere. The SPARTAN's were desperately trying to dodge the wreckages of Ghosts and the bullets flying everywhere. Soon the Ghosts were destroyed and the Longsword had landed in the field.
      The Longsword's ramp opened and a Marine with all black armor on, including a helmet that resembled MJOLNIR helmets, stepped out of the fighter. In his hands was his MA8B assault rifle. George and the rest of his team emerged from the grass. "Who are you?" George asked, pointing his rifle at the Marine. The Marine answered, "I know who you are, George. And I know who the rest of you are. But where are Luke, John, and Sarah?" "I did not ask if you knew us, for we do not know who you are. Who are you?" George asked again. "I am Karl Morrurs, and I have come to evac the SPARTAN II," the Marine said. George lowered his rifle, puzzled. Where had he heard that name before? Public gasped. "It's the weapons officer of the Hymir. But how'd he get his hands on a Longsword?" The Marine laughed, as if he had heard Public, in fact he had.
      "Yes, I was the weapons officer on the Hymir, but I am not really a Lieutenant. I am an ONI agent, and I was sent to ensure the Hymir carried out it's mission without any snags," Morrurs said. "Well I'd say it hit a snag," burst out Xeon. "The ship got attacked and the crew's probably all dead. Great job. I'm sure that they'll be happy with your report." Morrurs acted like he heard nothing. "Where is the rest of your team, George?" the Marine asked again. "Luke killed Sarah and John before we killed him," said Mark.
      Suddenly there was a loud 'BOOM' as a plasma bomb, probably hurled from a Wraith, slammed into the field twenty meters away from the Longsword. "Get down and into the forest!" yelled George as more plasma bombs were flung into the air. Karl Morrurs jumped away from the Longsword as two plasma bombs hit it and it exploded in a ball of fire. He jumped up and ran after the SPARTAN's. "Come on!" yelled George, and he charged into the forest. The Covenant were sending too many troops after them, so they were going to have to run from the Covenant rather than fight.

      'Ilramamee and his rebellious followers had managed to force their way up the High Assembly's building, now they were standing in the same room with the Prophets and their head guard, Kura 'Eralamee. 'Eralamee was a huge Elite, he could probably kill two normal sized Elites bare-handed, but he was standing before 'Ilramamee with a plasma sword in one hand and a plasma rifle in the other. 'Ilramamee motioned for one of his Elite followers to attack 'Eralamee. The Elite rushed forward, his plasma sword out, but 'Eralamee countered with lightning quick speed, knocking away the sword and slicing apart the Elite in a second. The dead Elite's plasma sword, unpowered, bounced over to 'Ilramamee. He picked it up and activated it, so that now he had a sword in each hand. "Impressive," he said, "but you will not stand in our way. Charge!" The Elites ran forward to attack 'Eralamee. 'Eralamee dodged or blocked the thrusts of their swords, shooting his rifle at them all the while. An Elite screamed as the blue plasma shots penetrated his shields and fried his brain. Another was knocked to the ground when 'Eralamee hit him in the jaw with his rifle. Then 'Eralamee shoved his sword through the Elite's chest and pulled it back out in time to block another attack. 'Kapilamee slashed at 'Eralamee with his sword as 'Eralamee blocked 'Ilramamee's attack. 'Eralamee jumped back, but the tip of the sword cut through his armor and purple blood gushed from the wound. 'Eralamee roared and sliced off 'Kapilamee's head. Purple blood flowed from 'Kapilamee's headless body as it crumpled to the floor. 'Eralamee dodged another attack by 'Ilramamee and he shot at another Elite, the plasma shots penetrating his shields and chewing up his body with ultra-hot blasts. The Elite screamed in pain as he fell backward, clutching his freely bleeding stomach.
      Only 'Ilramamee and 'Eralamee remained. 'Ilramamee charged at 'Eralamee, but the Elite dodged the thrust and smacked him in the head with his rifle. 'Eralamee swung his sword at 'Ilramamee. 'Ilramamee blocked it with his left sword then slammed his right sword into 'Eralamee's chest. 'Eralamee dropped his weapons as his face changed to a display of pain and disbelief, but then quickly reverted to rage, and he punched 'Ilramamee in the face. 'Ilramamee roared at the dying Elite and sliced off his head with his other sword. 'Eralamee's body went limp and collapsed. 'Ilramamee laughed and turned to the Prophets. The head Prophet began to laugh himself, which quickly made 'Ilramamee shut up. "Did you really think you could just barge in here, kill us, then wield the entire Covenant army at will?" said the Prophet. "Then you are gravely mistaken. Every single soldier in the army, down to the last Grunt, knows of your rebellion, so none shall listen to you. As for you..."
      'Ilramamee ran from the room as a wave of needler shots chased him. He ran as fast as he could, killing any who stood in his way. Running behind a corner, he watched the needler shots slam into the wall in front of him and explode. But he had to keep running, they were going to kill him. There was only one thing left to do to. Since he could not have power, he would not let them have the structure. The little voice in his head resurfaced, Release them! They can take the structure and the planet! Yes, only one thing left to do...

Deployment +13 hours:42 minutes:36 seconds (SPARTAN-218 Mission Clock)/Surface

      George and his team, after running for four hours from the Covenant, finally stopped to take a break. It was mainly to give Morrurs a chance to catch his breath, though. The SPARTAN's were ready to keep running, but the Marine was exhausted. They had been running extremely fast, even for SPARTAN's, and Morrurs had trouble keeping up. As far as he was concerned, it was easier fighting the Covenant than running.
      Public broke into the COM channel, "George, the UNSC fleet is expected to arrive in orbit in twenty-four hours." "What fleet?" George asked. "We were supposed to weaken the planet for invasion, remember?" replied Public. Xeon said, "How do you know when they're supposed to get here?" "They sent out a transmission to all the team leaders," Public answered, "Now don't you think we should get moving? Twenty-four hours left and we haven't even gotten within sight of the structure." "You're right," said George, "Alright! Everybody up and let's move!" Mark and John leapt to their feet, ready to go. Morrurs slowly got up with a groan. "Come on! Get up faster soldier! You're in SPARTAN boot camp now!" George yelled at him and walked away with a slight chuckle. "Mark, you've got point. I'll take the rear," George said.
      Mark began to lead the way with the help of Xeon's directions. They quickly left their rest area, running at a very fast pace for the Marine. Still, George could faintly hear the sound of the Banshees and dropships that were chasing them. He clutched his assault rifle tighter and followed the rest of his team. Or at least what was left of it.

      After another hour of nonstop running they came upon a rather large Covenant installation. "Perimeter defense," said Cortana. "They set it up after the structure was uncovered." "Sir, there's no way we can get through there," said Mark, laying on the ground observing the installation. "And even if we did the others that are chasing us will surely have caught up by then. We can't take on that many troops, even if we hadn't lost three of our team." "No, we may not be able to take them head on," replied George, "but we don't have to." He unslung the sniper rifle from his back. Mark and John unslung theirs. "John, move down the right about one hundred meters, and Mark, you go to the left," ordered George. Karl Morrurs just lay on the ground near George, desperately trying to regain his strength before they began to run again. George rested his rifle on the ground and zoomed in on the Covenant building. Hunters were everywhere. Two were guarding every door and dozens more were patrolling the area. A huge wall went behind the building and stretched off into the horizon. Elites and Grunts patrolled on the wall while Jackals stood guard, facing the forest.
      Suddenly there was a far off gunshot and a Hunter fell dead; a faint line of white smoke was fading away from it's body. George took aim at a Hunter and fired. There was a loud 'BANG' and the Hunter fell dead. George heard another faint gunshot and another Hunter fell. George moved his recticle onto an Elite, because by then all the Hunters had put their shields out in front of them. Slowly George and his team began picking off those that guarded the wall. Elites fell screaming from the highest point on the wall as Grunts were blown backwards by bullets ripping through their skulls, and Jackals hid behind their shields, occasionally getting shot in the tiniest place left uncovered. Hunters would sometimes charge at where the shots were coming from, but soon they were killed by a bullet coming from a different angle and a different SPARTAN.
      After about ten minutes of sniping they had eliminated the installation's forces down to a group of Hunters and Jackals hiding behind their shields and some Elites that had managed to find some cover. George was getting nervous. He could hear the Banshees and dropships coming closer and closer. "Alright team, charge!" he yelled through the COM channel. Then he took out his rifle and started to run, but he quickly stopped. He walked over to Morrurs and picked him up, handing him his MA8B. "Move," he ordered, pushing the Marine towards the installation. Morrurs groaned then began to run. George started running again, quickly passing Morrurs, and soon he was almost in range of the huddled group of Hunters and Jackals. "Frags!" George yelled. John, Mark, and George all stopped and took out fragmentation grenades, pulled the pins, then threw them at the bunch of Covenant. Panic took the group of Covenant and they broke. Hunter jumped away from the grenades and Jackals ran away. Three explosions went off, throwing dirt and bodies into the air. "Open fire!" George yelled and the air became full of 7.62mm bullets. Hunters fell under the hail of bullets and Jackals twitched and jerked as their bodies were ripped apart. Blood covered the ground.
      All and any survivors had been eliminated very quickly, but now the SPARTAN's had to deal with a new wave of Covenant. Huge shadows covered the ground as the dropships and Banshees caught up with them. The Banshees immediatly flew in to attack while the dropships began to land. "Onto the wall!" George yelled, and they quickly climbed up ladders onto the wall. Blue streaks of plasma scorched the wall around them and fuel rod cannon blasts shook it. George hid behind a small three foot metal plate extending past the walkway on the top of the wall. The others did the same. One Banshee dived in for an attack and Morrurs stood up and threw a plasma grenade onto the front of the Covenant craft. "Eat that you piece of sh-" Morrurs was cut off by a single blast of plasma cutting through his armor and into his stomach. There was an explosion and the wrecked Banshee fell through the air two feet above their head and crashed on the ground beyond the wall.
      George reached out and pulled Morrurs over to him, behind the plate. Karl clutched his stomach, blood covered his arms. He said nothing, but his face was twisted in pain. George shouted into the COM, "I'm going to make a run for the buiding! Cover me!" Then he flung Morrurs over his back and climbed down the ladder using one hand. Once his feet hit the ground he ran over to the Covenant installation. A door opened, and George ran inside, the Marine over his back. The room was dark with a purple metallic glow. He set Morrurs down on the floor and leaned out of the door, his assault rifle out in front.
      John and Mark had already taken down another Banshee, but plenty more were still in the air and firing at the SPARTAN's. And the dropships had already dropped off their troops and began their trip back home. What looked like one hundred Grunts and Jackals charged forward at the wall, pushed onward by close to thirty Elites in the rear. Strangely, none of them seemed to notice George. George pulled back into the building a few feet and waited for the wave of Grunts to begin their advance on the wall. By then he had an excellent shot at the tightly packed aliens. "Okay," George said through the COM channel, "Throw a frag on my mark!" He pulled out a grenade. "Mark!" he shouted, pulling the pin and he threw it into the mass of Covenant. Three explosions ripped up the Covenant troops, blood and bits of bone splattered all over the wall and bodies flew everywhere.
      George raised his assault rifle and held down the trigger, spraying sixty bullets into the backs of the Covenant soldiers. John and Mark did the same, and the Grunts began to panic. They tried to scramble up the wall, but John or Mark would throw a plasma grenade on their faces or fire a burst of bullets at them. George let his spent clip fall out of the gun. He slammed in a new one and resumed slaughtering the Covenant.
      About two minutes and seven clips later, the group of Grunts and Jackals were almost completely gone. But now the SPARTAN's had a large group of pissed off Elites to deal with. George remembered the rocket launchers they had carried along with their equipment. "Mark," George said, "do you have the rocket launchers up there with you?" "No sir! I left them back in the forest. I didn't think we'd face this many!" was the reply. Damn, George thought. He checked his grenades. He had two frags and three plasma grenades. He pulled them all out. Pulling the pins on the fragmentation grenades and activating the plamas, he threw them at the Elites one by one. John and Mark also threw their grenades. Explosions tore apart the Covenant ranks, ripping apart their bodies and showering those nearby with dirt and blood.
      Despite the SPARTAN's efforts to slow the Elites, the Covenant warriors began swarming up the ladders. George dropped his rifle and pulled out his M6D and tried kill those closest to the top. John and Mark emptied clip after clip into the Elites, but they were getting closer and closer to the top.

Attack on ERISTOCK Part 14: Only the Strong
Date: 3 November 2003, 1:42 PM

Deployment +15 hours:12 minutes:07 seconds (SPARTAN-524 Mission Clock)/Surface

      Mark slammed a clip into his assault rifle and slightly leaned over the wall. He watched as the Elites charged up the ladder. They were already halfway up. Mark brought his assault rifle up to his shoulder and pulled the trigger, holding it down. The closest Elites shields flickered and died, allowing multiple bullets to penetrate his head. The Elite went limp and fell sideways off the ladder and another Elite charged upward. Mark's rifle clicked as the clip became empty. He activated a plasma grenade and threw it onto an Elite, then he pulled back, away from the ladder. He let the empty clip fall to the top of the wall with a clatter and rammed in another clip. Leaning back over the wall, he continued firing at the Covenant warriors. After two more Elites fell off the wall Mark's rifle clicked empty once more. Shit! he thought.
      "John!" he yelled at the SPARTAN II defending the other ladder. John stopped firing and looked at him. "What?!" he asked. "Give me your pistol!" Mark shouted over the sound of the invading Elites. John threw his pistol at Mark and resumed shooting the Covenant with his assault rifle. Mark caught the weapon and pulled out his own. He pointed both at the Elites climbing up the ladder and began firing both pistols simultaneously. Three Elites fell under his hail of bullets before the guns ran out.
      Despite his attempts to stop the Elites, the Covenant managed to finally get to the top of the wall. An Elite reached the top, pushing Mark away. Mark, angered by the Elite, reached out and pulled the alien's feet out from under him. The Elite screamed as he fell off the wall until he smacked onto the ground with a bone-snapping 'crunch'.
      But two more Elites pulled themselves up to the top of the wall and pointed their plasma rifles at Mark. Mark picked up a pistol and leaped at one Elite, cracking the pistol on the Elite's armored skull. The Covenant warrior stumbled backward, dazed from the blow. Mark took the opportunity to attack the other Elite, throwing his elbow into it's stomach and tripping it. The Elite fell onto the ground and dropped his rifle. Mark picked up the rifle and fired several shots at the Elite's head. Purple blood splashed onto the wall as plasma shots ripped apart his brain. The other Elite had recovered and was about to fire at Mark when his knees wobbled and he crumpled to the ground with a groan. John stood behind the Elites body; he had hit the Elite in the back with his rifle, breaking the alien's spine.
      "Thanks," said Mark. John nodded and began reloading his rifle. Mark walked over the ladder and leaned over. There were no more Covenant left. Bodies were everywhere and blood slid down the wall. Mark gripped the highest rung of the ladder and started climbing down the wall. Suddenly he lost his hold and slipped down a few feet before he regained his grip on the ladder. Surprised by his unusual mistake, he looked at the ladder. It was slick with blood. Mark tightened his grip and continued climbing down.
      Once he got to the ground he walked over to the Covenant building. George was inside with Morrurs, wrapping his wound. Morrurs's shirt was nearby, and it was soaked with blood. Morrurs himself was unconscious. "How is he?" Mark asked. "I think he'll be okay. He did lose a lot of blood, but I think he'll pull though," George answered. There was the sound of boots crunching against the ground and John appeared behind Mark. "We've gotta go," John said. Mark and George fell silent, and they heard the faint sound of dropship engines. George threw Morrurs over his back and picked his and the Marine's rifle. "Let's move," he said.
      Mark and John ran back to the edge of the forest and collected their equipment, then ran back to the building. George led them to a door in the wall. After pressing a few buttons on a nearby light panel the door opened. The SPARTAN's ran through the doorway, continuing their long trek to the Covenant structure.

      'Ilramamee turned off his Ghost's engine and climbed out, stepping onto the dry, broken ground. After escaping from the High Assembly's building he had gotten onto the Ghost and rode for hours, until he arrived here, where he stood. A huge building loomed before him. It might have been mistaken for a simple warehouse by a human, except the entire building was purple had a pair of odd looking doors at the front. 'Ilramamee walked over to one of the doors, which opened. He walked through and was greeted by three Elites guarding the next set of doors. One of the Elites stepped forward. "Do you have authorization to enter?" he asked. 'Ilramamee handed the guard a holodisk. The guard handed the holodisk to another guard behind him. "Place your hand here," said the guard, motioning toward a flat plate of purple metal. 'Ilramamee put his hand onto the metal and it began to glow. A sample of DNA was extracted from his hand by the metal plate. The other guard returned and nodded. "You have been granted access," said the guard. The door slid open and 'Ilramamee stepped through.
      Before him was a giant metal wall and large, thick plates of glass served as windows at random intervals. 'Ilramamee walked over to a nearby holopanel and brought up a display of the room beyond the wall. The Flood within were in excellent health, and hungry as hell. 'Ilramamee chuckled to himself. Let us see how the Prophets deal with this! he thought. He reached out and pressed a light button. The first set of huge doors containing the Flood slid open.
      A guard walked up behind him. "May I ask what you are doing, Excellency?" he asked. 'Ilramamee turned around and punched the guard in the face. The guard fell to the floor with a roar. 'Ilramamee put his foot on the guard's chest, holding him down, and held his fist a few feet in front of the guard's stomach. "Do not question me," 'Ilramamee muttered and activated his plasma sword. A blue light flashed across the room as the sword sprang to life, and purple blood flowed onto the floor in a pool. The guard roared again and clawed at the sword, trying to take it out of his mutilated stomach, but only succeeded in slicing off his own fingers. 'Ilramamee let go of the sword and pressed his knee against the guard's neck. He shoved a plasma grenade into the Elite's mouth and activated it, then he grabbed his sword and rolled away.
      The grenade exploded in a flash of plasma, ripping apart the Elite's body. The other guards rushed to attack 'Ilramamee, but they were too far away. 'Ilramamee stood up and pressed another light button on the holopanel. The second set of doors slid open and the Flood were released.
      Infection forms of the Flood rushed out to satisfy their massive hunger. The guards stopped and desperately tried to stop the wave of Flood by firing their plasma rifles. But there were too many Flood; the infection forms washed over the Elites, latching onto their bodies and dragged them to the ground, absorbing their blood. 'Ilramamee dropped his sword and held out his arms, greeting the army of Flood. The infection forms leapt up onto 'Ilramamee's body, and the huge Covenant warrior collapsed to his knees. With a groan he fell to the floor, and he felt a tentacle pierce his flesh and reach his spine. Something invaded his mind, and such was the end of 'Ilramamee.

      Illyadar stood on the bridge of his flagship, the Elekendari. "Lieutenant Uverd," he said, turning to the NAV officer, "pull us away from the dock." "Yes sir!" was the Lieutenant's response, and the Elekendari jerked as it broke away from the dock. "Lieutenant Layuar," said Gruenovic, turning to the COM officer, "send a transmission to the rest of the fleet that it's time to leave." "Yessir!" said Layuar and he started typing.
      The Elekendari was a mighty warship, a destroyer, and one of the last of it's kind. Its sister ship was the famous Iroquois, and the Elekendari was just as powerful as the Iroquois. Illyadar's massive flagship had been stolen from the UNSC shipyards during the Kilana Rebellion of 2538. It served as Illyadar's greatest ship until 2540, when Illyadar went into hiding. But now it was back into duty, and it would lead Illyadar's fleet into war.
      "Alright men, get to the cryobays," ordered Illyadar. "Lieutenant Uverd, pilot a course through Slipstream and lock it into the computer. The rest of you, get moving!" Despite his hatred of the UNSC, Illyadar still ran his army with a rigid military fashion, much like the UNSC. But his men were stronger and better trained. He laughed as he marched to the cryobay. Out of hiding and into glory.

Deployment +15 hours:22 minutes:38 seconds (SPARTAN-218 Mission Clock)/Surface

      George stopped running and set Morrurs down on the grass covered ground. "Morrurs! Hey, Marine!" said George, shaking Morrurs awake. The bloody Marine opened his eyes, "Yeah?" he said. "Come on man! Get up! I'm not going to carry you the whole way!" George said. Morrurs chuckled, then suddenly clutched his stomach in pain. George handed Morrurs his MA8B. "John, how many troops are the Covenant willing to send to hunt us down?" George asked. "Plenty," was the SPARTAN II's only response.
      Surrounding the SPARTAN's were a mass of trees, as was common in that area on ERISTOCK. Silence filled the whole forest; no sound of singing birds, no sound of small animals battling each other for a nut. Nothing moved and nothing made a sound. "Odd," said Mark, "Why-" John cut him off with a loud "Quiet!". John stood still, not moving a muscle. Slowly the sound of dropship engines filled the air. "Damn it! Let's move!" shouted George. "No," said John, "they're not coming for us. They would have slowed down by now." Suddenly the shadows of the dropships fell over the forest and quickly passed on, the engine noise dying away.
      "Where are they going?" Mark asked. "Who cares," said George. "They aren't coming for us, so don't waste time asking why. We've got to get to the Covenant dig site. Public, how many more hours until the fleet arrives?" Pubic sighed. "I'll put a countdown timer on your HUD," he said. Red letters and numbers appeared in the upper-right hand corner of George's HUD. It read: "COUNTDOWN TO FLEET ARRIVAL--22:03.32"
      "Alright men, let's move out," ordered George. C-Team set off towards the structure; Mark helped Morrurs walk, John had point, and George covered the rear. They walked slowly for two hours without meeting any Covenant until they came upon the next layer of defenses.
      John led the way out of the forest; he crept up a treeless hill and barely poked his head over the top. About one hundred yards away was another large wall, stretching once again into the horizon, and a building sat in front, guarding the wall. But there were no Covenant guarding the wall or the building at all. There were no bodies, no soldiers, no blood. Nothing, as if it had been abandoned. John motioned for the rest of the team to come up the hill as he stood up.
      When George reached his side he pointed at the Covenant defenses and said, "There's no one there. Not one single Covenant. No signs of a fight, either. Weird, isn't it? You'd think they'd double their defenses after we broke through the first line, not abandon everything." "Well, let's be grateful for what we get. Let's climb over that wall before some Covenant do show up," said George. George led the way to the wall and gripped the ladder, pulling himself upward to the top. John followed him, then came Morrurs, and next was Mark, who helping Morrurs. When they reached the top of the wall they found the Covenant defenders.
      On the other side of the wall was a huge pile of dead, mutilated Covenant bodies. Blood covered the ground, and there were streaks of blue, purple, and orange blood, showing signs of something dragging the bodies. The SPARTAN's and their Marine comrade climbed down to the pile of dead. Mark kicked a Grunt. Suddenly the Grunt's chest burst open and a large white, bulbous creature leapt at Mark. Mark yelled and hit the thing with his fist. The creature exploded in a cloud of pieces of flesh. "What the hell was that?" Mark shouted. "A Flood," answered John. "A what?" Mark asked. "A Flood. Don't know the details, but basically they are enemies. That's all you need to know. The rest you'll learn in combat, like I have."
      A bullet whizzed by George's face, abruptly ending John's sentence. George spun around and saw something indescribable. What slightly resembled a Marine stood fifty yards away, his flesh was the same color as the thing that had leaped out of the Grunt's chest. Its head hung on its shoulders, held on by a partly severed neck. Its arms looked horrible, one had massive tentacles and the other looked barely normal. And in its hand, this creature wielded an M6D pistol.
      John, without hesitation, took out his pistol and put six rounds into the creature's chest. After the creature had fallen John didn't move and watched the body. As if it was unhurt, the body leapt up and charged at John. The SPARTAN II put another two rounds into it and the creature fell again. This time John put his pistol away. "What was that?" Mark asked. "Another Flood," answered John. "But you just said that other thing was a Flood," Mark insisted. "And it is. They both are. If you hadn't punched that thing and, if you didn't have any shields, it would have cut through your armor and made you into that," John explained, motioning to the creature he had just gunned down.
      Suddenly plasma started flying all around them. The SPARTAN's hid behind the bodies and Mark carried Morrurs with them. John peered over the mass of mutilated flesh and looked for the source of the plasma shots. He saw Flood, lot's of Flood, charging at them. Most were infection forms and infested Elites; there were one or two infested Marines. Most of the combat forms carried plasma rifles. John ducked back down behind the dead Covenant and turned towards George. "More Flood," he said, "and lots of them. Get ready to fight, these guys aren't pushovers." George checked his ammo in his rifle. Sixty rounds, his HUD indicated, a full clip. John took out a plasma grenade, activated it, then stood up and threw it at the closest Flood. He crouched behind the pile again and pulled out his rifle. The ground slightly shook as the grenade exploded and bodies of Flood flew over their heads, smacked onto the wall, and fell to the dirt. "Oh shit oh shit oh shit..." muttered Morrurs as he started at an infested Marine and backed away from it.
      "On my mark we stand up and fire," said John. George and Mark nodded. Morrurs simply kept muttering, "Shit oh fuck damn oh Jesus they gonna pay...." John shrugged and counted silently in his head, 3, 2, 1, "Mark!" he yelled, standing up. He spotted the large group of Flood and fired at them, holding down the trigger, spraying bullets into their midst. Green blood flew everywhere and chunks of Flood bodies flew into the air as George, John, Mark, and Morrurs all fired their assault rifles. After a few seconds Morrurs crouched again to reload, his thirty bullet clip spent, and he began reloading his MA8B. A few seconds after that the SPARTAN's crouched to reload, too.
      Soon, after many clips were emptied, the Flood were all dead, including any that got back up. John stepped out from behind the Covenant bodies and walked into the field of massacred Flood. He bent over and picked up a fragmentation, then held it out in front of him. "Do you know what this means?" he asked George, who was following Mark and Morrurs out of hiding. "Yeah," George answered, "the survivors of the Hymir managed to fight off the Covenant, but not these guys." "Damn," said Richard, who was in Morrurs helmet. "Well, let's get moving. The Covenant will undoubtedly send reinforcements," said George. "Mark, do you still have the rocket launchers?" "No sir," Mark answered, "I left them back at the other wall to help Morrurs. Besides, we'll get there faster if we're less burdened. We only need to carry food, ammo, and medical supplies." "You're right. Good choice," said George. "Thank you sir," Mark replied.
      George marched off towards the forest beyond the wall, knowing they had a long way to go to reach their goal. The rest of his team followed wordlessly, occasionally taking grenades or ammo from the Flood bodies.

      Kuri 'Sulamee stood atop a wall, the second of three defending the newly uncovered Ancient structure. A Prophet hovered next to him, floating in the air as he surveyed the bloody field. A pile of dead Covenant sat next to the wall; beyond that was a mass of dead Flood, spread out over the field. Between the wall and the pile of Covenant bodies were thousands of human bullet shells. "Thus is the devastation of a traitor," said the Prophet grimly. "The Flood now spread across our land like a plague, infecting everything. The once placid wildlife now joins their ranks, aiding the other infected, becoming as dangerous as a human warrior. 'Ilramamee has doomed his own discovery, since the Flood draw ever closer to the Ancient's structure. And now I find that the lines of defense cannot be held against these humans or the Flood?"
      "I am quite sorry, Exalted," apologized the Elite, 'Sulamee. "I have sent out search parties to look for the humans and exterminate them, and I have tripled the defenses at the holy relic and its last wall of defense." 'Sulamee paused as a squad of Banshees flew over head, filling the air with the shrill whine of their engines. "I have sent out groups of our most holy warriors to attack the Flood. They will not be infected, Exalted, they will blow themselves apart before the possibility of infection comes close. I wouldn't worry, they will break the armies of the Flood." "Oh I would worry," said the Prophet, "for your life if you fail. The sacred building must not fall to the Flood." He floated closer to the Elite and brought his face two feet from 'Sulamee's. "It would mean the destruction of us all," said the Prophet in a stone-cold voice. "Of course, Exalted. I shall not fail," said 'Sulamee. The Prophet nodded and hovered away.
      'Sulamee brushed a piece of dirt off his gold armor. He was completely calm, for he was sure the Flood could not break through the last defenses, nor the humans in special armor. The planet would be quite safe, and he would be rewarded.

Attack on ERISTOCK Part 15: One More Time
Date: 12 November 2003, 2:40 PM

Deployment +17 hours:31 minutes:27 seconds (SPARTAN-218 Mission Clock)/Surface

      George glanced at the countdown timer on his HUD: COUNTDOWN TO FLEET ARRIVAL--18:59.33. He quickened his pace. The ERISTOCK sun was setting and the sky was a fiery orange glow. The part of the planet they were on would become darker for a few hours, but the moon would soon rise and ERISTOCK would be close to daylight again. But, regardless of how bright or dark it was, his team would need some sleep. They had fought off hundreds of Covenant and Flood in one day and must have traveled quite a few miles. They still could walk a few more hours, though.
      George was leading the way through the dark forest, Mark had Morrurs arm over his shoulders and was helping the Marine walk, and John was covering the rear. George looked behind him to check on Morrurs. The Marine winced at every step, but smiled weakly at George and motioned for him to keep moving. George shrugged and looked forward again.
      Suddenly John whispered, "Quiet!" over the COM channel. The SPARTAN's and Morrurs froze, clutching their rifles, ready to fire at anything that moved. Suddenly a group of black armored Elites burst out of hiding and attacked the humans. One tackled Mark to the ground, another got his leg blown off by one of John's grenades, two more Elites fell under an abrupt hail of bullets from George. Another Elite jumped at George and caught a rifle butt in the stomach. George threw the alien to the ground and shot it in the head with his pistol. Purple blood splashed onto his armor. John was knocked to the ground by an Elite, but he whipped out his combat knife and stabbed it into the Elite's leg. The Elite roared and shot at John. The SPARTAN II rolled away, got up, then smacked the Covenant warrior in the face with his rifle. The Elite fell to the ground, pieces of his brain seeping out of his broken skull.
      George and John turned to see Mark wrestling with the last Elite and Morrurs sprawled out on the ground. George and John raised their rifles, but they didn't fire, for they feared they would shoot Mark. Morrurs pushed himself to his feet and picked up his rifle, waiting for a chance to help Mark. Morrurs, once the Elite's back was facing him, kicked the alien. The Elite tumbled off Mark and rolled onto the ground. Morrurs pressed his boot against the Elite's chest and pointed his rifle at its head. Ten rounds later the Covenant's face was a bloody pulp.
      Every member of C-Team gave a sigh of relief. Morrurs wiped the blood off his face and tossed his rifle to the ground, empty. He only had brought a certain amount of clips for the MA8B, and now it was completely empty. He picked up the dead Elite's plasma rifle and examined it, as if inspecting it for defects, despite the fact that he knew nothing about Covenant weapons.
      Suddenly there was a loud Elite roar and all the humans jumped. Morrurs looked around and saw an Elite lying on the ground on his stomach, trying to reach his rifle. The Elite was missing his leg and behind him was a trail of purple blood, evidence that he had dragged himself to get his weapon. George walked over and stepped on the Elite's hand, preventing him from recovering his gun. Morrurs pointed his new plasma rifle at the Elite's head. "Let's try this baby out on that bastard's face," he said. "No," George ordered. "He can't do anything to us. Let's give him some food and leave him here." "That piece of shit would kill us if he got the chance," protested Morrurs. George was about to answer when the Elite pulled out a plasma grenade. "Shit!" John yelled and he jumped at the Elite. John's armored boot came down on the Covenant's head a second later, knocking the Elite unconscious. The Elite's finger was a millimeter away from the activation button.
      George reached out and took the Elite's grenade. He searched the rest of the Elite for grenades and other weapons. Once the Elite was decided to be harmless George treated what was left of the alien's leg and set some food on the ground for the Elite. "I still don't see why we can't just blow the thing's goddamn head off," Morrurs muttered. George ignored him and led the way further into the forest.
      After an hour of walking they came within sight of the third wall of defense around the structure. The SPARTAN's and the Marine emerged from the forest and they surveyed the defenses. A huge force of Covenant patrolled the wall and the building in front. A pair of Hunters stood guard every few yards and thousands of Grunts and Jackals stood atop the wall, ready to shoot at any invaders. Among the small Grunts and Jackals were an enormous amount of Shades, manned by black armored Elites. The building was guarded by hundreds of blue and red armored Elites. "Holy shit," whispered Morrurs. "How are we going to get past there, sir?" Mark asked. George took off his helmet and ran his fingers through his short black hair. "I have no idea," he answered.
      The humans sat on the grassy ground for thirty minutes, thinking of ways to get past the army in front of them. But the sound of combat interrupted their thinking. A huge mass of Flood had burst out of the forest fifty meters away from the SPARTAN's and attacked the Covenant defenders. Purple flashes of plasma struck down the Flood as the Shade gunners tried to stop the wave of Flood. The Hunters and Elites on the ground soon found themselves in intense combat; plasma flew everywhere as the Covenant and Flood fought. Occasionally a few plasma shots would fly out over the battlefield and reached towards the sky as a soldier fell, his dead finger still holding the trigger.
      "Mark, do you have any C-12?" George asked. Mark stopped staring at the battle and took off one of the packs he was carrying. He handed it to George and said, "That's all." George threw it over his back and put on his helmet. Then he stood up and ran off towards the battlefield. "Stay where you are!" he yelled back to the rest of his team. Mark tried to follow him, but John held him back. "He knows what he's doing," John said. "Or at least I hope he does."
      George ran towards the building in front of the wall. He pulled out his assault rifle and pistol and shot down any Covenant or Flood that stood in his way. Most of the Covenant and Flood ignored him, though. They were to involved with fighting each other to bother with one little human. He reached the building and ran up to a door. The door slid open and George stepped in. He gunned down the few Elites that hadn't rushed out to fight the Flood and he looked around. He spotted what he was looking for. A large plasma reactor stood in the back of the warehouse sized building. George set the C-12 down next to some critical looking equipment inside the reactor and ran out of the building. He paid no attention to anything that attacked him and ran to where the rest of his team was sitting. He slid to a stop. "Well, let's hope this works," he said. Morrurs started to say, "What w-" when George activated the C-12. The building exploded in an orange fireball, and a millisecond later a huge plasma explosion covered the battlefield. Pieces of Flood and Covenant bodies flew into the air as the blue explosion washed over the fight. When the explosion ended and the dust settled down there were no enemies to be seen, but the SPARTAN's could hear Elites farther down the wall ordering their troops to investigate the explosion. "Let's move!" yelled George. Mark threw Morrurs over his shoulders, who was too slow to keep up with the SPARTAN's, and they ran towards the enormous hole in the wall.
      Once they had made it past the wall they started, once again, walking through the dense ERISTOCK forest. The Covenant structure still lay far away, and it was sure to be heavily guarded. Thus they began the last part of their journey.

      Kuri 'Sulamee walked over to his command post behind the last wall of the holy relic's defenses. He passed the two Elites guarding the door and entered the building. Frustrated by the Flood attacks, he fell into his chair and yelled at a Grunt to get him food and drink. The Grunt ran off, in search of what the Excellency desired. A few minutes later the Grunt came running back, a cup of water in his hands. As he was handing 'Sulamee his drink there was a loud noise, like a huge explosion. The frightened Grunt dropped the glass, which shattered on the ground. 'Sulamee leapt to his feet and dashed outside. He looked to his right and saw, far off in the distance, the smoking remains of part of the wall. Damn it! They've breached the wall! Filthy scum! he thought. 'Sulamee ran back inside his command center and hit a button on his holopanel. "'Ronalamee!" he yelled. A voice responded from the panel, "I'm here, Excellency." "Order all of our soldiers to pull back and defend the structure. Make sure no one gets into that structure!" 'Sulamee ordered. "Yes, Excellency," 'Ronalamee replied.
      'Sulamee ran back outside and turned to a guard. "Do you know how to drive that?" 'Sulamee asked the guard, pointing at a nearby dropship. "Yes, Excellency," the guard answered. "Then get in there and fly me to the dig site. NOW!" The guard dashed to the dropship's cockpit and 'Sulamee jumped in.

      George motioned for the team to stop. The sun had already set and the moon was just now beginning to rise. "We've gone far enough. Let's get some rest. Mark, you've got first guard shift. Wake me up in about three hours, then you can sleep," he said. George and the rest of his team took off their equipment and food and layed down on the ground. Mark listened closely to the noises of the forest. Hearing nothing, he assumed there was no threat and he resumed his guard duty.
      Soon seven hours had passed and the SPARTAN's woke up, ready to continue. Once they had some food and packed up their equipment they set off towards the structure. The forest was quiet while they walked, and there were no signs of Covenant at all.
      Three hours of walking passed without incident and they reached the edge of the dig site. The forest was abruptly cut off by burning piles of timber and Flood bodies. The entire area around the structure had no trees or plant life. The land had been dug up and flattened, so there was no cover anywhere. George stood at the edge of the forest, surveying the structure and the hundreds of Elites, Hunters, Jackals, and Grunts guarding it. "Sir, assuming we actually make it to the structure without getting killed, how the hell are we going to get in? It's not like there's gonna be a fuckin' welcome mat or anything," said Morrurs. George unslung his rifle and brought it to his shoulder. "Let's work on getting there first. The getting in will be easy," he answered. "How is that gonna be easy?!" Morrurs exclaimed. George tossed a grenade at him. Morrurs caught the grenade and looked at it. "That thing looks like it's made out of goddamn titanium, it's not just gonna blow open-" George threw another grenade at him. "Two isn't gonna help!" Morrurs yelled at him. "Look, shut your mouth. Would you like me to kill these bastards or sit here and explain the way we're going to get in the building that we aren't even at?" George said, turning around and looking at the Marine. Morrurs said nothing.
      George turned around to face the structure again and used his scope on his rifle to search for an authority figure. He spotted a gold Elite patrolling what looked like a door to the structure. George placed the recticle over the Elite's head and pulled the trigger. The Covenant nearby jumped when they heard the shot and rushed towards the humans, drawing their weapons. George dropped his sniper rifle and pulled out his M6D. Carefully taking aim, he started systematically blowing each alien's brains out. Mark crouched behind a fallen tree, firing his assault rifle at the Covenant. Morrurs took out his plasma rifle and sprayed plasma fire at the Covenant. John assisted killing the Grunts, Jackals, and Elites by taking out two assault rifles and emptying their clips into the aliens' bodies.
      Quickly a pile of bodies accumulated and the humans began moving across the barren field, searching for trenches and hills to hide in or behind. After the initial attack, the Covenant began to regroup and started attacking in large groups, trying to overwhelm the intruders. But the SPARTAN's continued to slowly make their way to the structure, defeating each attack as they went.
      George jumped into a trench, his teammates following. A second later there was a loud, deep 'THUD' as a plasma bomb smacked into the ground, hurled from a Covenant morter tank. George brought his assault rifle over the edge of the trench and fired at the Wraith. The tank turned and hurled another bomb at George. Then John, Morrurs, and Mark jumped out of the trench, throwing plasma grenades onto the Wraith's hull and firing their rifles. The Wraith exploded in a ball of fire. George scrambled out of the way of the bomb as it descended to the ground. There was another explosion and George jumped out of the trench. The rest of his team were twenty yards away, pinned down behind a hill by a group of Elites supported by Grunts and Jackals. George unslung his sniper rifle and picked off the Elites, then charged forward to assist the slaughter of the surviving minions.
      George ran up to a Grunt and punched it in the face; he could feel the Grunt's bones in his face shatter. Another Grunt jumped onto George's back and tried to drag him to the ground. George shook him off and the Grunt fell to the ground, and George crushed the alien's face with his boot. Two Jackals grabbed his feet while another jumped and hit his stomach. George fell to the ground, hard, and the Jackals started trying to beat and shoot him. His shields flickered from plasma fire as he grabbed one of the Jackals and broke his neck. The dead Jackal went limp and crumpled to the dirt. The other two Jackals backed away from the SPARTAN and hid behind their shields as they fired their pistols at him. George took out his combat knife and a plasma grenade. Activating the grenade, he threw it at one of the Jackals. The grenade hit the Covenant shield and slid to the ground. Frightened, the Jackal turned around and ran from the grenade, trying to get killed by the explosion. But George threw his knife at the Jackal and the blade embedded itself in the Jackal's neck. The last Jackal threw his shield to the ground and ran away, but George picked up his rifle and fired a three round burst into the retreating Jackal's back.
      Suddenly several shadows fell over the dig site. George looked up and saw six dropships preparing to land. "Get into the structure! Now!" he yelled into the COM channel. "Sir, this is the part you refused to dicuss. We have no idea how to get in there," Morrurs reponded. "Shut up and just get in the building!" ordered George. After a few minutes of searching, Mark found a door. It slid open when he approached it, so everyone ran inside. Once George was in the structure and the door slid shut he found that there was no light at all. "Great idea. Let's all hide in the darkest spot imaginable," said George, staring at the pitch blackness. Mark began to say something, but John cut him off. "There are Flood here," he said grimly. "What?! Here?! Now?!" Morrurs asked, fear tainted his voice. "Be quiet and you can hear them," John said. Mark turned on his light and found him face to face with an armless infected Elite. "Damn!" he yelled and put ten rounds into the creature. "Shit. Nice work, now you've gone and alerted every single Flood in here. Everyone, turn off your lights and hide. I'll open the door and hopefully they'll attack the Covenant. The team of humans turned off their lights and searched for places to hide while John crouched near the door, making it slide open. Soon hundreds of infected Elites, infection forms, and carriers rushed by the humans and ran towards the Covenant unloading from the dropships.
      Once all the Flood had passed by the SPARTAN's and the Marine came out of hiding and turned on their lights. Mark started walking further into the structure, but George held him back. "We just watched a large amount of Flood come from there. We don't know what else is hidden in there. Let's stay as far away from potential danger as we can," he said. Mark nodded and stopped walking.
      Suddenly the sound of a MAC shell slamming into the ground near the structure filled the air. "The fleet!" shouted Mark, and he ran to the door, looking outside. A single battered frigate could be seen far out in space above ERISTOCK. Thousands of ODST drop pods began crashing into the surface, free from their long imprisonment on the frigate. One of the pods landed near the SPARTAN's. The front burst of to reveal an infected Marine. "Holy shit!" Morrurs yelled. Mark fired twenty rounds into the Flood and it dropped to the dirt. "Flood?!" yelled Morrurs. "Shit. That must be the Hymir, that frigate. But how the hell did Flood get on it?" said George. "They arrived shortly after you left," said Richard. "More and more kept arriving. I guess they were collecting an army." Another MAC shell crashed into the surface. "Look!" Mark said, pointing at the battlefield. The Flood were fighting each other. "What the hell? John, do you know why they're doing that?" Mark asked. "They've never done that before," he replied.

      John Carmand kicked the front of his drop pod away and jumped out, his assault rifle drawn. He spotted some Covenant fighting a group of unloyal Flood, or Raging Flood. He ran as fast as his mutilated legs would go to the small fight. Once he was only a few yards away he emptied his clip into the group of Raging Flood and Covenant. All of the enemies dropped to the ground under the hail of metal. Carmand turned around and faced the rest of the battle. The Loyalists were fighting the Ragers. Both sides exchanged heavy fire and bodies began to pile up al over the dig site; green blood covered the ground. Revolution was coming to the ranks of the Flood.

Attack on ERISTOCK Part 16: Nothing
Date: 24 November 2003, 1:40 PM

Deployment +29 hours:28 minutes:17 seconds (SPARTAN-218 Mission Clock)/Surface

      George stared in disbelief as the armies of Flood fought one another. Infection forms tried to kill one another, carriers detonated everywhere. And yet there was some organization in this whole battle; it was like there were two forces of Flood and they could identify the difference. He looked back at his teammates. They were all frozen in place, watching the fight. Suddenly a huge bolt of purple plasma streaked down to the ground and vaporized a group of Flood. George looked up at the brown sky and saw the silhouettes of hundreds of Covenant ships. Dropships could be seen descending to the surface, carrying their deadly load of Covenant warriors.
      The Flood continued their battle undisturbed, until the dropships unloaded the thousands of yellow-armored Elites they were carrying. Flashes of blue light sparked all over the barren battlefield as the Elites powered on their plasma swords. The Elites charged into the mass of Flood, chopping, slicing, cutting, and stabbing their way through mangled flesh. The Covenant cut through the Flood pretty easily for a few minutes, but soon the Flood counter attacked. Once again the battle stood at a stalemate as the three armies battled.
      For four and a half long hours the SPARTAN's and their Marine comrade watched the aliens slaughter each other. Bodies covered the ground, Flood and Covenant, yet all three sides kept reinforcing their troops. Flood poured out of the structure, Flood were dropped in pods from the Hymir, and Covenant were carried to the surface in dropships. Bodies fell over top of bodies, blood flowed over blood. Yet after this long time, another force entered the battle. Hundreds of human cruisers, frigates, and destroyers entered the ERISTOCK sky, dropships poured out of them, carrying soldiers to the surface. Thousands of Pelicans touched down on the surface and dropped their loads of human troops, and bullets began to fly into the mass of alien flesh. Longsword fighters swooped low over the ground and dropped bombs over groups of Flood and Covenant. The Covenant ships fired upon the human fleet, and battle began in the sky as well.
      Mark stepped forward, his gun raised, muttering, "Filthy rebels." George held him back. "At least they are not fighting our men, for now," said George. Mark grumbled and stepped back.       For five more hours they watched the battle of four armies as they slaughtered each other. Screams of agony filled the air. Explosions rocked the ground. The sickening sound of bullets piercing flesh was a constant in the backround. George watched time after time as a soldier, Flood, Covenant, and human alike, begged for mercy only to have his body destroyed in a hail of violence. And yet none of the enemies seemed to notice the SPARTAN's hiding in the sturcture.
      Then one final and last group joined the fray: the UNSC. The armada of UNSC ships charged into the weaked Covenant and rebel fleets, ripping apart the enemy ships. Pelicans loaded with UNSC soldiers descended to the surface and the battle intensified. It became a countless number of smaller battles, a pocket of Flood fighting an onslaught of human rebels, an entrenched group of UNSC Marines mowing down charging Flood, a group of Covenant Elites slicing through the lines of the humans.
      Cortana contacted the UNSC fleet, requesting evac. "Negative," was the Admiral's response, "the mission is not complete. We'll send a pelican down with a nuke, get it inside the structure and arm it. Wait...Cortana?!" the Admiral said in disbelief. "Is John there with you?" "Yes, sir. I am." answered the SPARTAN II. "Damn good to hear you! Well, get that nuke inside and get your asses up here!"
      Soon they spotted the Pelican carrying the nuke and they watched it as it neared the surface. The pilot did an excellent job dodging fire from the surface, but when the Pelican was close to it's destination, a plasma bomb smacked into it's tail. The Pelican spun out of control and in a cloud of smoke crashed into the forest beyond the battle. "Oh shit," Morrurs said quietly. "We're going to have to retrieve it. Let's move!" yelled George, and the SPARTAN's charged out of the structure. George sprayed a hail of bullets into a blur of enemies as he spun, rolled, and jumped away from enemy fire. He pulled out his pistol and unloaded six rounds into an Elites head. Then he jabbed his rifle into the stomach of a human rebel, pulled the trigger, and watched pieces of the soldier's spine fly out of his back. George picked up the dead rebel's rifle, now he had two, and pushed further into the battle.
      A cry of pain through the COM channel broke his concentration and he spun around. He saw a gold-armored Elite holding a plasma sword, which was embedded in Morrurs's stomach. Blood flowed down Morrurs's armor as the Marine tried to gasp for breath, his eyes frozen open in shock. Mark, a few meters away, threw his knife into the Elite's head. The alien fell sideways and hit the ground with a dazed look on his eyes. Morrurs fell to his knees then collapsed onto the dirt. George kneeled over the wounded Marine as John and Mark killed any alien dumb enough to come close to the SPARTAN's. Morrurs looked at George with his eyes half closed. His arms shook from the pain and shock, yet he managed to pull a small piece of paper from underneath his armor. He handed it to George saying, "T-tell her I-I will always l-love her. Forever," he gasped. George slipped it into a pouch on his armor and held Morrurs hand. "I will," George assured the dying soldier.
      He let go of Morrurs hand and stood up, picking up his two assault rifles, and the SPARTAN's left Morrurs lying there. John looked back and saw an Elite crush Morrurs's face with his boot. The SPARTAN II felt a twinge of sadness, then turned around and continued pushing through the armies of aliens.
      They fought for ten more minutes and finally they reached the forest. The group of SPARTAN's ran into the dense field of trees, searching for the downed Pelican. About a hundred meters into the forest they found the Pelican, it's crew killed, and they removed the nuke. John strapped it to his back and the SPARTAN's returned to the battlefield. They pushed once more into the fight. George killed Flood after Flood, Covenant after Covenant.
      Another fifteen minutes later and they were only a few meters away from the structure. George ran to the door, and it opened. He ran inside and watched as John ran inside as well. Mark was only a few feet from the door when a plasma bomb hit a Ghost a few yards away. A large piece of metal took Mark's head clean off and the door closed. George dropped his guns in disbelief.
      Suddenly images began to flash before his eyes. He watched his parents pick him up and kiss him on the cheek, he watched as they read him his favorite book, he watched as he read his favorite book to them years later, he watched as he grew up through the years in flashes of memories. Then the images slowed down, he watched as he touched her face. Yes, her. He felt those thoughts rush through his head once more. He felt once more the unending love he had felt for her. He once more felt that blissful feeling of complete happiness. But the heartwarming memory was cut short by the images of her death, of his being kidnapped by the UNSC. Suddenly he was that worthless fifteen-year old kid again with nothing to live for. George let out a scream of pain. The pain of loneliness. The pain of being. The pain of thought. He slowly walked out of the structure as John watched in disbelief. A gold-armored Elite spotted him and ran over to him, then ended George's life.
********
Author's Note: I'm sorry, this is all I can write. I know it's short, I know it's bad, but this is the last part of the series. And my last piece of fanfiction. This took a great deal of effort to write, and I'm sorry if it sucked. I've lost any motivation to write or to do anything. I know you all are probably dissatisfied and don't like this ending, but I don't care.
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