Randomness and Ranting

     About fifteen minutes later the pair of spartans arrived at yet another cliff. They sighed with relief as they saw that the ONI base was below. Unfortunately, yet fortunately, there was a crashed phantom outside with numerous dead bodies, both covenant and human, littered around the area. "Damn it," Dustin uttered. "It looks like the covenant got here before we could. We need to find that AI!" He looked down off the cliff and measured with his HUD the distance from the cliff to ground level. He frowned when it read 50 yards, or 150 feet. "That's gonna hurt." Allison groaned as her leg seared with pain once more. Dustin spun around and walked up to her. She had collasped on the ground. "You okay?" She hesitated, unsure weather to lie or to be truthful. He sighed and pressed a few buttons on his helmet, over pressurizing his gel layers and diverting non-essential systems to shields. Allsion blushed as Dustin swept her off her feet like a prince would a princess in the movies of times long gone. He moved to the cliff and whispered only one thing. "Hold on." Allison gripped Dustin tightly and he jumped off to the base below.

     Dustin landed on both feet, surprisingly keeping his ballance, and set Allison down. He moved his helmet up a bit and spat blood from his mouth. He had hit his head against the inside of his helmet. He shields remained dead for a few seconds before slowly recharging. Dustin resealed his suit and motioned for Allison to follow. She used her sniper rifle to help herself rise and then spoke. "Why are you helping me move, I can move on my own." Dustin waited a thought a moment before replying.

     "I always look after my own. Now come on, we need to recover that AI." Allison sighed and nodded, following the green spartan into the base. As the pair of spartans treked through the halls, they saw numerous dead bodies. Most of them were ODSTs, but a few of them were scientists. They leaped over barracades only to find more dead bodies and more barricades. There were also giant gashes in the walls.

     "It looks like they were trying to keep something inside as much as they wanted to keep the covenant out," Allison remarked. Dustin nodded in agreement. They continued on until they found a scientist with dark brown hair. He turned the corspe over and saw his face. It was too mutilated to recognise. He gulped and looked at the scientists ID.

     "Doctor Henry Lanner... shit, this was one of the people we were supposed to bring out alive." He closed what was left of the doctor's eyelids and then stood up. Then he noticed a green splatter on the wall. Something clicked into his mind right then and he raised the shredder in his arms. "Somethings not right, keep your guard up." Allison nodded and she raised her sniper rifle. They continued on until they found more dead bodies and another green splatter. This time, it was accompanied by a green corspe.

     "-my god..." Dustin's adrenaline levels rose sharply.

     "What the hell is that thing, sir?" Allison asked.

     "The Flood... here... I-I didn't think this was possible..." Dustin swore and turned to the blue spartan. "Allison, go and alert command, they need to know what we're dealing with. I'll take care of the AI."

     "I'm not letting you go alone-" she protested. Dustin depolarized his visor and walked up to Allison, looking her straight in the eye.

     "-that's an order soldier! Don't worry about me." Allison hesitated for a moment before replying.

     "Aye, sir..." She shook her head and ran off into the distance from where she and Dustin entered.

     As Dustin continued further into the base he met several different types of flood. The infection form, which he dispursed with simple bursts from his battle rifle, human combat forms which could still be taken down from a few bursts from his battle rifle, and a couple brute combat forms, which required a shredder round each. Eventually he reached a hologram projecter and it turned on when he neared it. "Careful, spartan" a blue figure spoke, "these machines are delicate. I am Bysis, what is it you need?"

     "Listen," Dustin began, surprised that the AI might not know what is happening, "we need to get out of here. Now."

     "I *always* listen, Dustin. Would you calm yourself and listen to me?"

     "This place is infested with flood!" Dustin shouted. "We need to go, right now!"

     "They are of no threat to us, spartan," Bysis said calmly. "I am not organic. You cannot be infected."

     "Stow it. How do I remove you from this terminal?"

     "This device is mearly a means of communication," the red eyed AI explained, "I can be directly accessed at the central data center, two floors below us."

     "Damn it." Dustin thought out his next plan for a few seconds the continued speaking. "Leave the data center unlocked when I get there, ya hear?"

     "Take your time, spartan. I have... experiments to conclude." With that the projector shut off. Calm little bastard, he thought, doesn't he know what kind of trouble he's in? Dustin continued on and fought through flood form after flood form. His battle rifle ran out of ammo first. When he was down to only one clip left he found a machinegun turret that had been knocked off its tripod. The green spartan picked it up and found that it had 200 bullets left. He walked forward, the turret to heavy to run with, and spun up the barrel. "Yippie-kay-ey, mother fuckers." He rounded the corner and unleashed a stream of bullets onto a mass of flood. They all charged at him, but each and every single one of them was cut down but his continuous fire. Dustin found himself out of ammo with the turret as well soon enough. There was only one flood left in the area, but it was a brute combat form. It charged at him and he used the adrenaline coursing through his body to take the turret by the barrel, swing it over his head, and smash it into the combat form, exploding it into chunky, diseased pieces. Dustin picked up a clip for his battle rifle and then went down the elevator in the next hall.

     When he reached the data center floor, the EVA spartan charged out the elevator, gunning down every flood in his path. When he was out of ammo for the battle rifle he switched to the shredder. When he ran out of grenades for that? Dustin beat the fuck out of the remaining ones. He even broke one in half with a well placed kick. He eventually came upon the data center doors, but found them to be closed and locked. The familiar red eyed, blue bodied hologram of Bysis appeared on a projecter behind him. Dustin spun around and spoke. "Damn it, Bysis, I told you to unlock the data center! That was a direct override order!"

     "I know," the AI replied calmly.

     "Then unlock the door so we can get the hell out of this place. We can't risk the flood learning everything you know."

     "Its a little too late for that now, isn't it..."

     "What are you talking about?" Dustin asked hurridly.

     "A month it has been teaching me. It knows more than humans, the covenant, the forerunners, it knows *real* immortality, spartan, while your kind makes a mockery of it."

Dustin stepped back, shocked at the AI's words.

     "Y-you're insane..." he stuttered.

     "Then along came your friend, Allison I believe her name was-" Dustin interrupted him mid sentence.

     "What the hell did you do to her?!"

     "Oh don't worry, spartan, she's fine. The augmentations seem to be going quite well..."

     "You bastard!"

     "The parasite seems to be reacting to her better than I ever anticipated!" The AI seemed to squeel with glee.

     "I swear to god, Bysis..."

     "The parasite are quite adaptive. Facinating creatures, aren't they?"

     "They're a damn disease!" Dustin shouted. Bysis' hologram instantly turned red at the word disease.

     "A disease? No." Anger started to rise in the AI's voice. "You are a disease, mankind is a disease!" Bysis shut off the lights and his hologram. Only his eyes remained in the darkness.

"And WE, are the cure..."