Chapter 16 - Chapter 16 - Escape

On an outpost far away from the humans, covenant patrol the surrounding area as weapons, and supplies are dropped off, they work in quick succession, while coming patrols head to their relief stations for rest. The others relieving them head out in the dropships. Jackals can be seen harassing the grunts, but the grunts either run away, or come in packs to fight them as the elite watch the entertainment. The fight is kept physical as they could set off nearby caches. This has gone on near the start of their operations and continues till the great journey can begin.

The surrounding area is rocky and covered in ice, many crevices surround them, while snow drifts down as they go about their duties. Some of the covenant take to sleeping in the crevices, as many of the grunt's sleep in clusters to fight against the cold. Because the grunts can't see how deep the crevices are, they stay somewhat away from the edge as the icy walls provide insulation to keep them warm.

Unbeknownst to them, a group of flood spores traveling the underside of the ring world have taken notice of their presence, through unknown methods, more of them come from deeper within the confines of the ring world, while their prey remains ignorant of it all. Once enough of them were around, they quickly climb up the crevices and attack the sleeping grunts from above. Through luck or by intelligence the grunts are consumed quietly.

After many of the grunts died, one grunt who is light sleeper is startled by the movement of his dying brethren, added on to the pain of the spores failed attack on the startled grunt, he screams. He startles the rest of the nearby sleeping grunts into a frenzy, before the flood pounce on him, bashing him into the wall as the spore digs into its flesh crawling inside. One of the other startled grunts runs to a nearby elite screaming as a spore is attached to its head, in a panic the elite shoots off his plasma rifle in a frenzy killing the grunt instead, as the previous spore turns the grunt into a stunted flood form, it pounces on the elite who bashes it away, while firing his second weapon at the spores. The weapon fire, and the screams alert the rest of the outpost of enemies, they realize the danger and begin to head over as the rest of the turned flood rush at them. 

Some of the elites in the distance notice how many spores are still coming out, they begin to panic, as compared to previous encounters, the flood has also gotten faster in turning their hosts. They quickly notify their superiors, who order them, and the rest of their men to group up, and retreat to their dropships. The leader of the outpost orders everyone else who has yet to hear of the situation to evacuate. He notices the flood grouped up near their supplies, shoots at the plasma caches setting them off near the swarms of flood spores and turned flood groups. This gives them a little bit of time, but he knows that there is still too many of them. He issues orders to his men again, and warns high command what has happened, that the flood is under the surface of halo, and the crevices are their tunnels. 

Before high command can issue orders, he states the outpost has been lost, and to glass the area before it's too late. He cuts off his transmission as the flood begin to fire with their newly acquired weapons, he sees how many of them had fallen, and retreats with the rest of his men back to their dropship. He thinks back to the transmissions they received, and the discussions of the other leaders. The humans warned them, their men warned them, and he wonders whether this place is truly what they are looking for, this is not the relic to the great journey, this ring world is nothing, but a heresy...the great prophet is wrong.

As the dropships continue to leave the outpost, more flood spores come out of a crevice near the remaining dropships, the covenant who are boarding quickly throw their plasma grenades to the edge of the crevice, killing many of the spores, but more still come out. They keep firing from the dropship as it begins to ascend, while a few of the grunts are left behind as they cry out in anger. Seeing that they had been left behind, they shoot at their former comrades, while the spores head over to them. One of the grunts notices another dropship nearby and starts to run towards it with the other grunts following behind, but sadly they are quickly overrun by the flood spores, screaming as they fire their pistols. The spores latch on to them, as their slimy tentacles make their way into their nervous system before ripping a hole in their body to crawl into. The grunts scream in agony as the spores don't bother to silence them, their struggles lessen as their screams die away. The rest of the swarm quickly passes their brethren towards the center of the outpost, few of the covenants remain, as they struggle for their survival. 

One of the remaining group of elites who is close to the center, takes charge, he orders them to take out the flood towards the dropships, this helps the others rally to him, but one grunt is panicking in a frenzy, and quickly poses a threat as the parasite hangs on to it in their midst. He grabs the grunt and throws it to the flood to distract them as its already infected.

The elite orders the rest to hurry as some of his men make sure that the hunters are kept free of the spores, their plasma blasts shredding the flood groups. Their retreat is going well as they detonate their plasma grenades in volleys with the hunters, and as the few survivors, they could not bother with those who were too far gone to save, using them as distractions. 

Calls hailing from high command comes through his comms ordering him to defend the outpost, but the elite roars in anger at high command. He yells at them, telling them that they've been overrun, and can't hold on when they are sorrounded in the open, he cuts communication, continuing their retreat. The elite looks at the rest of his men, and orders the rest of his men to shut off communications when they are contacted instead. He doesn't know if the great journey is here, but he would rather be facing the demon than these abominations.

They finally reach the few dropships left when one of the hunters is ambushed by a swarm of spores, its sibling hunter goes into a rage as it smacks its armored limb into the swarm. The leader notices it, and throws his remaining plasma grenades at them. He knows the hunters are sturdy, and yells at them to board the drop ship after the spores are killed. The hunters calm down as the rest of the covenant keep the flood at bay as they start to board.

One of the two grunts left with them boards after the hunters and mans the plasma gun on the side of the dropship, relieving his allies as they begin to board as well, and fires at the incoming flood. The hunters continue to blast the flood, while more spores begin to attack them from all sides. Seeing that his men are boarded, the leader goes into the pilot seat, and ascends, he closes the dropships sides, when he feels the dropship lurch. Fear overwhelms him as blasting can be heard from one side, he tries to contact them on their comms, but they don't respond. More blasting can be heard as the dropship leaves, he feels the movement of the hunters as they struggle with something inside, he prays that they kill whatever abomination got on board. The dropship finally leaves the outpost, and whoever is left alive, he hopes they have a quick death, than to suffer from the abominations. 

He looks at his screen, the outpost is overrun with them, and he can see the flood groups near the remaining dropships left behind, fear stuns him once again, "By the prophets...."

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