Matt-038 (Halo Fanfiction)

Chapter 51: Unexpected Entrance

Author's Note: If you have any tips writing tips, please feel free to comment.

Again, I gratefully accept constructive criticism as a means to help me develop my skills further as a writer.

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Chapter 51: Unexpected Entrance

Location: Covenant Ship Truth and Reconciliation

D +73:34:16 (SPARTAN-II Blue Team Mission Clock)

He wasn't here, wasn't there, wasn't anywhere insofar as Matt could tell from within the strange never-never land of Halo's teleportation net. He couldn't see or hear anything, save a sense of dizzying velocity. The Spartan felt his body stitched back together, one molecule at a time. He saw snatches of what looked like the interior of a Covenant ship as bands of golden light strobed up and disappeared over his head.

Something was wrong and Matt was just starting to figure out what it was—the inside of the ship seemed to be upside down—when he flipped head over heels and crashed to the deck.

They'd materialized with his feet planted firmly on the corridor's ceiling.

"Oh!" Cortana exclaimed. "I see, the coordinate data needs to be—"

Matt got his feet and the Chief did the same. The Chief slapped the general area where his implants were and shook his head. Cortana sounded contrite. "Right. Sorry."

"Never mind that," the Chief said. "Give us a sit-rep."

The AIs patched back into the Covenant computing systems, a much easier task now that they were aboard one of the enemy's warships.

"The Covenant network is absolute chaos," Crystal replied. "From what I've been able to piece together, the leadership ordered all ships to abandon Halo when they found the Flood, but they were too late. The Flood overwhelmed this cruiser and captured it."

"I assume," Matt said, "that's bad."

"The Covenant think so. They're terrified that the Flood will repair the ship and use it to escape from Halo," Cortana said. "They sent a strike team to neutralize the Flood and prepare the ship for immediate departure."

The Spartans peered down the corridor. The bulkheads were violet. Strange patterns marbled the material, like the oily sheen of a beetle's carapace.

The duo started forward but quickly came up short as a voice that verged on a groan came in over heir implants. "Chief, Commander... Don't be fools... Leave me."

It was Keyes' voice.

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"Captain?" Cortana inquired desperately. "Captain! I've lost him."

Neither Spartan said anything further. The pain in Keyes' voice had been clear. All they could do was drive deeper into the ship and hope to find him.

The duo passed through a hatch, noticed that the right bulkhead was splattered with Covenant blood, and figured a battle had been fought there. That meant they could expect to run into the Flood at any moment. As they continued down the passageway Matt's throat felt unusually dry, his heart beat a little bit faster, and his stomach muscles were tight.

His suspicions were soon confirmed as he heard the sounds of battle, took a right and saw that a firefight was underway at the far end of the corridor. They let the combatants go at it for a bit before moving in to cut the survivors down.