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The Rise and Fall of the Flood Chapter 4
Posted By: BlackValkyire<BlackValkyire@aolcom>
Date: 3 August 2003, 11:49 PM


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Ty leapt from the burning assualt suit, the explosion tossing him in the general direction of the plasma beacon, launching him over the massive wall sorrounding the installation, but dropping him down a good thirty feet to a painful landing. Ty felt his ankle sprain as he crushed it rolling through the fall, but he leapt up and hobbled quickly to the beacon, hurrying to get to the control room for the thing. It wouldn't take the flood long to figure out a way over the wall. He opened the control box atop the installation and with a quick smack of his hand, the station thrummed with power. The first order of buisness was retracting the ramps up to the platform. Ty searched with his helmet interface, and managed to get that done. He heard carrier forms popping, and figured the floor were trying to mimic his vaulting tactic. Only thing was they wouldn't be slowed down by the leg injuries he had sustained. His ankle was sprained, and as he had climbed the ramp, he felt his muscules tear in his right calf, but he kept moving, his armor pumping painkillers and steroids into his system automatically. Ty pressed another control, and the station began to rumble as the plasma fire at the bottom of the firing pit began to restart. A small timer appeared in the top right of his HUD, counting down from ten minutes. That meant ten minutes 'til the first beacon...and about thirty minutes before command sent an investigation. Ty didn't like the odds of his surviving, but it was a chance. Already, the flood was flying over the wall, dead of course, from the carrier forms, but they were getting closer. Ten minutes disappeared, and the first beacon shot into the sky in all its azure glory, lighting up the miserable swamp. Ty expected the Flood to go ballistic, but instead...all their motion shifted away from the complex...which worried him even more. Ty sat down to tend to his leg, which was bleeding from some small, minor shrapnel wounds. ***

Out of nowhere, the sky lit up, and about all the grunts in the covenant base camp barked in surprise. A few seconds later, the commander of the base, an elite in gold armor, darted outside, just in time to catch the second beacon arc into the sky. He barked some orders, and a blue elite darted inside, snapping up como gear, and raising forerunner command. The request for a investigation was approved, and commander elite quickly called upon a banshee team, piloted by spec ops elites, to escort three dropships of spec ops grunts, elites and jackals. It took twenty minutes, and then the small armada of Covenant aircraft was en route, full speed, toward that beacon. ***

Ty squeezed off another burst, clipping the flood warrior, but vaporizing its melee arm, making it no threat, seeing as it was unarmed. He rolled backwards to avoid a swipe from another flood's melee arm, managing to fire a burst into its side, blasting innards out the other side, bits of green blood and bone spraying onto the smooth, rain-slicked metal of the beacon's deck. Ty rolled sideways, firing again, blowing the head clean off another combat form, spraying green blood everywhere. Ty had attached the energy knife to his pulse rifle, ready to use it as a bayonet, which he did at this moment, stabbing it into throat of another flood being which slumped dead on the knife. Ty removed the blade, and green blood sprayed from the gaping wound, splashing all over his sides. He didn't flinch, he kept shooting, blasting another flood warrior that leapt atop the platform. After the signals were under their own power, he had shot the controls out, preventing the flood from getting up here easily by parasiting the control mechanisms down on the ground. But the jump atop the platform was easy for infected forerunners. Ty kept blasting them and slowly walked backwards toward the maintenance hatch, which led to where he would make his last stand, the catwalk over the firing pit. Another beacon shot into the sky, taking a few foolish flood who had tried to leap over the pit at the wrong time, throwing them hundreds of feet into the air. Ty chuckled at such a cruel death, and kept firing, reloading to his second-to-last charge pack, as he stepped back past the control box. He thought he might be ok for a minute, when a group of about tweleve flood soldiers leapt over the side, landing smoothly. Ty didn't waste a shot, he chucked his last grenade, and dove into the firing pit access hatch. There was a rumble and a loud bang as the particle grenade detonated amidst the cloud of warriors. Ty slammed the hatch shut, and sprinted on his damaged right leg, the wounds screaming in protest, shooting long streams of agony up into his spine. It didn't take long for flood warriors to come pouring into the shaft, pulse fire raking up their bodies, burning the flesh, and killing the beings brutally. Ty had reached the bridge, the catwalks over the firing pit. He vaporized the heads of a few more flood beings, and reloaded his last charge pack. The warriors were coming in groups of two and three, and Ty had no probolem killing them at first, until they came from behind...but still he managed to hold them off. Rain poured down into the firing pit, drenching Ty, and making the fast drying flood blood slowly trickle off his armor. Ty ran over to the other side of firing pit, and charged up the tunnel, slicing a few flood soldiers up with his bayonet, and burst onto the deck...to find a semi-circle of flood soldiers, slowly coming at him. Ty did the last thing he could, he jumped, straight over them, using all the strength his forerunner legs could give him, vaulting a good twenty feet over them, landing hard behind them, and finshing off his charge pack into their backs. Unfortuantly, his right leg completely gave out, and the bone snapped loudly, followd by TY screaming in agony. Somehow, he managed todraw his beam pistol, as the flood came closer, aiming it at the nearest form, and slicing a beam through its head. His pistold died about three kills later. Ty had his energy knife in his hand, as he struggled to a sitting position...and was ready to lash out, when a burst of green plasma bolts slammed into the being, followed by a full volley of blue plasma fire, slamming and burning its way into the flood ranks. A few fuelrod cannon blasts exploded behind the combat forms, sending them flying over the edge to the ground below. Ty managed to turn around and see several covenant dropships and banshees coming in, one had made it early, and unloaded its full troop complement onto the deck, spec ops grunts and elites and jackals, blasting away at the floor, three elites dashing over to him. Ty knew he was saved, and finally succumbed to exhaustion, and passed out.





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