Sent To Protect and Serve Humanity

Chapter 63: Outbreak

3rd POV

From the very office General Ironwood gave his orders from, Defiance stood idly behind the desk. The Sangheili quietly stared out the shattered window, a somber expression on his face, and watched as the glassing continued.

He had seen this action taken many times before. Perhaps in the more zealous days of his youth, he could've enjoyed it more. The days when he would've fought to the death for the Great Journey. Now? All the Warrior could do is watch in silence as guilt washed over him.

"Perhaps I should've ended my life all those years ago..." Defiance mumbled to himself before taking a deep breath.

He cast his gaze downward, watching as the parts of Mantle that hadn't been glassed yet were blanketed by a horrid green fog, making it impossible to know what was truly going on. Then, he noticed a handful of darkened silhouettes moving beneath it.

"Godspeed, I've got eyes on a potential infected vehicle within the Black Zone." Defiance was quick to radio in. "Pinged it for you."

"Copy that. Dispatching the Retriever." Godspeed's voice replied. "Keep tabs on it."

Just as the sentence came to a stop, the Sangheili watched as a Pelican rose from the fog, bearing all the signs of infection. Then, it was followed by a pair of Bulkheads, both of former Atlesian design muddled with by the Parasite.

"We've got a confirmed sighting! The Parasite has managed to reactivate downed aircraft!" Defiance exclaimed over the radio. He squinted his eyes and watched as several Flood forms were still crawling onboard as the crafts shot toward the island. "It is using the aircraft as landing craft!"

Moments after, he heard Godspeed gave a quick order. "Standby. I am delegating a portion of the evacuation defense to shooting down those pests."

Just as the Admiral finished speaking, Defiance noticed a Saber break off from its squadron in the distance. He listened to the whine of the engine grow steadily louder as it shot across the city's airspace.

However, the Warrior detected an unknown signature beneath the green fog. Then, his two hearts dropped.

BOOM

The Saber was blown out of the sky by an assortment of rockets and kinetic rounds, missing its targets and slamming into the ground beneath the floating island, falling beneath the green blanket.

"By the Gods..." Defiance mumbled in shock. In his mind, he quickly put two and two together, reflecting upon the vessel that crashed into Mantle was indeed a UNSC warship. An obviously Flood infested one at that. It was all but confirmed by the signature he picked up that was coming from the fog. "THE PARASITE HAS AN INFECTED WARSHIP!" He screamed over the communications.

But all that came back was the hum of static.

"Godspeed? Oklahoma?" The Warrior called out, receiving no response. He waited for a moment longer until a message appeared on his HUD.

'Communication Relays are down. Standby while our engineers work to resolve this problem!'

That was when the Warrior knew something must've taken down their entire network in a matter of minutes. His mind began to drift before realizing why those dispatched Sabers were taken down so easily. The Parasite had been listening in from the moment it arrived.

Then, Defiance heard footsteps behind him.

Already being on edge, he quickly swiveled hit turrets to face the wide-eyed synthetic girl that walked up the steps.

"It's me!" Penny quickly raised her arms in defense, gesturing for the alien to calm down.

Defiance cleared his throat, doing his best to stay composed. "We do not have much time, Polendina." He quickly made his way around the desk and onto level ground with the girl. "You are the Winter Maiden, correct?"