Halo: Xenomorphs Revenge

Chapter 5: Explanations of a Saviour

The war cries of the UNSC soldiers and the screeches of the Xenomorphs died down abruptly. Every single life form in the battle slowed to a halt and just gazed at the huge yellow wall that suddenly appeared in the middle of the two sides. Waves of energy ran up and down the wall, and the silence was so absolute that everyone could hear a synthetic-sounding voice say:

“... Which should provide a sufficient advantage over our enemies. Oh my, this is a greater issue than I first anticipated!” The yellow energy dispersed, revealing an army of ODSTs, marines, Sangheili and Sentinels. Adam stared at the UNSC marines, and instantly recognised the leader, who was standing next to a Monitor with a green eye. This Monitor was the owner of the synthetic voice they had heard before. Adam was absolutely befuddled. How did they survive? Why were they all holding Forerunner Weapons? Sergeant Erl’nor cocked his Light Rifle.

“Welcome you Alien sons-of-a-birches, to UNSC two-point-oh. Fifty percent more kick-ass or your money back!” The unexpected reinforcements hadn’t even noticed the Spartans behind them; instead, they formed up and readied their weapons. The Xenomorphs finally recovered and sprinted towards their new enemies. A row of marines wielding Suppressors let loose a torrent of Hardlight at the oncoming force. Then marines with Light Rifles and Binary Rifles and Incineration Cannons fired all they had at their foes. Sentinels charged up their lasers and cut through Xenomorphs everywhere. It was a short and efficient battle; the UNSC won without a scratch. Troy laughed, slapping in a fresh ‘clip’. He finally noticed the twelve humans standing behind him. “Well hello there. Sorry to crash your party, we just had a few toys we wanted to play with,” he told them with a wink, slinging his Light Rifle over his shoulder for emphasis.

01:09
Troy sighed and let the bomb fall from his hands. He turned back to his Fireteams. He wandered over to a corner of the dim room where no one else was. They were all gathered in the middle of the room saying their goodbyes or feebly trying to escape. Calsu stepped out of the shadows and hugged him.
00:34
Troy ran a hand over Calsu’s angular face and sighed. He wanted that face to be the last thing he saw before he died.
00:21
Troy slipped an arm around his wife’s neck, bringing her face closer to his.
00:15
Troy closed his eyes and kissed her passionately. He hoped that if there was a heaven of any kind, he would find her there.
00:00
“Wooh!”

“Haha!”

“Nice Sarge!” Wolf whistles, catcalls and light teasing. Troy’s eyes snapped open. He saw the same confusion in Calsu’s eyes as he broke the kiss. He turned around and saw that every single soldier was staring at them, smiling, laughing, nudging each other and passing comments. Troy blushed and quickly took his arms off Calsu, and shuffled away awkwardly. They were in a brightly lit area of a completely different room. The interior of the new structure was obviously Forerunner, but it was clean and there were no signs of Xenomorphs. A floating metal green eyeball-thingy whizzed into the room. Troy glanced around and realised that every Fireteam under his control were there, and many other strike teams. The room was filled with over a thousand people. Sentinels flanked the Monitor as it flew over to Troy.

“Welcome Reclaimer, I am 547 Patient Blessing, Monitor of this Shield World. It has come to my attention that there is an infection spreading across this planet, not unlike the Flood, yet much more dangerous.” Troy nodded, assuming it was talking to him.

“Yeah...”

“Well good news! You are in the main facility. Here you will find every weapon you need to combat this enemy!” Two large doors Troy had not seen before slid apart, revealing a Forerunner... warehouse was the only way to describe it. It was an enormous room, so large you could have fitted a small Frigate inside. And story upon story of racks filled it from the bottom to the top and everywhere in-between. There were small devices that could probably be manipulated to fit on a Spartan’s armour, dormant Sentinels and so many Forerunner weapons. Light Rifles, Scattershots, Binary Rifles, Suppressors, Boltshots, Incineration Cannons... all there. Many eyes were wide and there were more than a few gasps. Calsu stepped up behind Troy.

“Never have I seen so many Hardlight Weapons in one place...” she trailed off. Troy nodded in agreement. Fireteam Steel’s corporal appeared beside them.

“Well Sarge?” No one in the room had dared make a move.

“It appears we have stumbled across a weapons cache,” Troy announced. “Let’s begin our rearmament!” There were cheers and shouts as everyone barged into the warehouse to get their hands on a high-tech weapon.

“Like children in a confectionary store,” Calsu commented. Troy laughed.

“Yes Calsu,” he agreed. “They are like kids in a candy shop.” Patient Blessing hovered above them.

“Oh my, this was not foreseen,” he murmured in his synthetic voice. Troy chuckled and walked off to find himself a weapon. Quarter of an hour later, they had rearmed themselves and gathered back in the large room. “Reclaimer, we must hurry if we are to save your friends’ lives, they do not have much time!” Troy nodded.

“Okay. Let’s go.” Patient Blessing hummed to himself.

“Please wait one moment while the teleportation unit warms up. Now, I must warn you, the weather pattern generator has been damaged or shut down. Once we have rescued your friends, we will go and fix the problem. For now, I will try my best to change the weather to practical fighting conditions. Now, about your new weaponry, they fire Hardlight projectiles. Hardlight projectiles incinerate any flesh they get fired into enough. Seeing as these aliens produce acid when they are injured, the weapons should incinerate the substance before it can leave the body...”

“And that’s when we arrived,” Troy finished his story, looking at the Spartans and ODSTs expectantly. He had, of course, left out his make out session with Calsu, but he was sure everyone in the fleet would know about it in a couple of days. “I have no idea why the soldiers in the vehicles were left behind though.”

“Well, you cannot expect me to do everything Reclaimer! Those soldiers were outside the structure, in a zone that was temporarily out of my control. Speaking of such matters, we must attend to the damaged generator!” Troy narrowed his eyes at Adam. He looked very guilty as a result of something Patient Blessing had said.

“Umm...” Adam started. “This generator... it wouldn’t happen to be about two clicks south of here, would it?”

“Yes, is there something wrong with that Reclaimer?” Adam gulped.

“Uh... would it, er, be a problem, ahem, if someone had... crashed a tank into it?”

“What?” Patient Blessing spluttered. “But... this is... this is unacceptable! Biometric scans of the new life form show it has next to zero tolerance of cold weather! Without control over those systems, our job here will be made much more difficult!” Troy glared at Adam.

“Okay, that’s enough Tinkerbelle. Exactly how much more difficult is this going to be now?” he asked. Patient Blessing seemed to consider this.

“Well, I could call in support from the Prometheans... but other than that and my Sentinels; there is nothing more I can do to help you!” Troy sighed.

“Okay. It won’t be easy, but we still have a chance. Can you still provide us with transportation?”

“Hmmm... it depends on how quickly you want to do this.”

“Is as quickly as possible an option?”

“Of course! We can eradicate the infection in a matter of days! However, in answer to your earlier query, the more Reclaimers you have scattered around the planet, the less transport I can provide, but the more teams you have scattered, the faster the task and the less risk of the infection escaping.” Troy considered this. It was odd really, he was only a Sergeant, yet he was in charge of the entire war here. Whatever he said next would decide the outcome of this final battle. Humanity and life itself was in his hands.

“Troy, I believe in you. I do not possess the ability to make such a decision, but I have confidence you will not be wrong,” Calsu assured him.

“The Sangheili is right. I did a scan of all the Reclaimers here on the planet, and you are the most worthy to lead this effort. What will it be Reclaimer? We do not have any time to waste!”

“Alright,” Troy decided. “We split up. Quick, easy, efficient.”

“Good, then we are in agreement! I will fetch my Sentinels and Prometheans!” Patient Blessing disappeared in a flash of yellow, leaving Troy to ponder whether he had made the right decision.