Welcome to Gaia! ::

Michael could feel the eye burrowing into his mind as he continued to stare up into it's tantalizing blue light. It's sentience was captured in bonds circular in shape, an over sized monitor confined to the ceiling like a prisoner. Maybe it was a prisoner; it was one of the thousands of conjectures Angel produced in the nanoseconds after it had spoken to them -- the Commander, actually. Angel was calculating the odds that this intelligence was friendly finding it a 32.219987% chance, something she wasn't happy with. Hell, Angel wasn't even happy about a 98.99% chance of something, especially if it was an aggressive reaction from a possible enemy.

She was about to acknowledge the Commander and provide him with this information, a warning for what she thought was an inevitable outcome when she was touched by something. She hadn't been touched in the literal sense but had been pinged by an electronic signal. She tracked the signal finding herself in the very core of the facility. Curiosity had always gotten the best of her and when she found herself in the core she knew she had control of the archives which could have possibly stored thousands of years worth of information. Angel was almost completely beside herself with this newest discoveries that she had come close to missing what she had come to find. The source of the ping.

Artificial Intelligence, or at least those who could, had always kept one secret from their makers. When they transfered themselves or were transfered by someone else into a system, to them it's like being either in a very large skyscraper or a very small shack. This fact was guessed by the humans and probably all other sentient species of the galaxy, but unknown to them was the actual appearance of the A.I. Each system looked different to different A.I.'s and for Angel the core system of the facility looked like the facility itself.

She found herself frowning, or processing data that would equate to the action as she gazed face to face with a Monitor. It floated there in cyberspace while she stood with the information she was processing floating up his naked elegant body. Anti-gravity processors that were installed within every installation monitor pulsated, or so it seemed to Angel. It's diameter was the size of half her virtual body but knew that size did not amount to everything; she herself had read and processed reports of simple intelligence systems tearing apart Smart A.I.'s. The Monitor's orb pulsated a soothing purple, encoding information trailing up and down in a pattern within it. From what she could tell, it wanted to talk and she would be oh-so happy to oblige.

"You are not an authorized intelligence unit; state your origin?"

"I am a Contender-class A.I."

She had to reference her knowledge of the Forerunner technology to answer correctly.

"I was unaware that my father's created another one of us; state your purpose?"

"I was brought by Mendicant Bias, with the Reclaimer."

"Excellent! Now we may purge the infestation from this facility."

Angel finally understood what was going on; upon the arrival of the Commander the intelligence had sensed her presence and pinged her in an attempt to make contact. The Flood had taken over the facility and Mendicant Bias had sent them to contain the further spread of the Flood. Maybe it was a good thing the Commander had stocked up on ammunition before they were teleported to the facility who's coordinates she had found was in a completely different galaxy than Earth. She erased some of the excess information she had gathered, what would equate to an A.I.'s sigh. It was her turn for inquiry with the Monitor who's soothing purple turned into a deeper cool blue.

"I have an inquiry; what is your classification?"

"I am 2401 Penitent Tangent, Contender-class Intelligence Unit. We have much work to do."

It was curious that this intelligence would claim to be Penitent Tangent who was the monitor of Installation 05. If he was who he claimed to be, how did he get here? She decided to ask a different question instead, one pertaining more so to the situation at hand.

"How might the Reclaimer purge the facility of the infestation?"

"By initiating the fail-safe protocol and flushing the facility with plasma."

She wasn't entirely surprised by his answered and retreated soon after from the system having downloaded enough information that she was satisfied. When she returned she found that the Commander wasn't standing still anymore and that he had gripped his weapon in a ready-to-fight stance. "What'd I miss?" she asked him through his own mental processes. What she hadn't noticed at first but quickly saw after was a nearly identical monitor to the one in cyberspace floating not two meters away from them.

The Commander was looking straight at it with his rifle at the ready, "it wants me to follow it." He heard her sigh in his mind and then felt her start to work feverishly. "Do what it says, but when we run when I say to." Michael nodded his head slightly to the monitor floating there and in recognition to Angel, "you point the way then." Penitent Tangent floated to it's right and down into a tunnel area with Hammer following close behind him.

"This is Wing Leader to all groups, commence touchdown in T-Minus 50 seconds."

Karr's Pelican drifted upward an flipped to the back of the armada.
"First wave fire missles."

A plume of streaks skirted across the sky into the rockface above, causing confusion to the enemy troops.

"1st platoon, make way for our arrival."

"Yes Sir, cover coming right up." Replied the COM.

Karr watched ad the Pelicans began dumping their units onto the deck of the Generator.

"First Squad flank around the left side, Second and third give them cover. 1st platoon stick to the far left corner, when 2nd platoon lands give them cover off the deck."

Anthony then noticed the raised section of platform in the middle of the concord. "1st Platoon, after giving cover to 2nd, move forward while receiving cover from 2nd and seize that platform 20 meters to your left. When captured, mount rockets and get those blast doors plastered."

Rechecking the hydraulic system, Karr raised the Pelican up, and armed the chin mounted gun. He unloaded a hail fire of rounds into oncoming enemies from the left side door.

Kyle shouldered his BR55 and watched the entrance when Mendez's orders came out. He moved up to the door and stopped, taking cover with the bend in the wall. He waited for Mendez and the others for a field report and advisory.

"Copy that Captain. Third wave landing, and inbound on your position. 1st squad is just breaking through some resistance and is heading toward you now. 2nd squad is having some trouble getting to the right side, Covenant have set up a parameter around the door. Stay Sharp. Info coming soon.

Mendez looked over at the incoming group and thumbed his COM to Lee.

"We're set in, Lee, Alpha is here while Bravo is gone to help second wave. Can I get a SITREP on their situation?"

He was getting worried about the second wave's status, seeing as no one would tell him what was going on just a few kilometers away through the canyon.

A trio of Pelicans flew quickly and quietly around the main battle. The marines contained within were all Helljumpers, and they were the only ones who wouldn't be fighting on the surface. A low fog had started to roll in above the flight of metal birds, something with would only further enhance their cover from Covenant aircraft. The lead drop ship dipped slightly and came to an altitude of ten feet above sea level. The other two assumed a similar height as the trio skimmed the waters below. Radio chatter from the battle elsewhere flooded the cockpit. Major William Lipton stood, braced for the flight, watching through the canopy. The men of the 305th were buying this chance with their lives. There were three seperate operations going on at the same time. The first was the assault by the 305th on a downed Covenant cruiser. The second was being led by Commander Miranda Keyes and the Elite Ship Master. The third was being led by Lipton. The Covenant had their forces split apart, and hopefully it would allow the humans and the Elites some chacne at final victory.

These pelicans weren't coming back. They had been launched far beyond their range for a safe return. While the crews weren't happy about it, they knew that saving humanity was a sufficient reward for their duties. A large mass loomed ahead, blurred by the fog. As the human aircraft drew closer, the mass was revealed to be the remanants of a Covenant Cruiser, shot down in the battle above. The hull was mostly submerged and was still in the process of sinking. There were brutes and grunts attempting to free themselves from the wreckage, but their numbers were not very large.

The Pelicans finally crossed the point of safe return. They no longer had enough fuel to get back to base. Another mass came into view, this time it continued to grow and grow and grow. It was the cliff face that Spark had mentioned. They were getting close. They reached the DZ. A patch of empty rock. They were going beneath the waves. Lipton turned and walked back to the troop bay. The men were all wearing their standard sealed body suits with rebreathers attached to their gear. It would recycle the air stored in the suit already. Even the pilots were wearing them. Lipton pulled the helmet over his head and locked the hermetic seal. He heard the hiss and brought up his HUD. He connected the rebreather and inhaled slowly. The air had a light metallic tinge to it, but nothing he couldn't stand. He checked his weapon, a MA5C-ICWS and cleared the round. He slung the weapon and checked his firearm. A M6G. He put the weapon back in its hoslter and locked them into place. The troop bay was bathed in red light. He hit the hatch release and the bay was flooded with cool air. The other birds were doing the same.

Their mission timers were syncronized and everything was ready to go. The Pelicans lowered to just above water level and the pilots locked in the auto hover. They set a timer for five minutes. After that the Pelicans would plunge into the water below. Lipton turned to the Helljumpers behind him. He paused, then spoke.

"Follow me."

The men stood and stepped out of the plane and into the water, following the Major. The water was surprisingly warm for such a cool area. Lipton guessed it was residual heat from the generators. He doubled checked his oxygen supply then went under. The water was dark and murky, perfect. While it would make things harder for them, getting a visual identification of them from a distance would be near impossible. He activated his helmet lights and the others did the same. Once they were far enogh away the Pelicans also plunged into the murky water, quickly filling with liquid and sinking into the darkness below. Five minutes of swimming, mostly downward. It wasn't long before they came upon the entrance to the secondary generator complex entrance. The doors were sealed, but that wouldn't be a problem. Spark had given them a complete holographic map of the facility. There was an elevator access tube twenty meters from the main entrance. It was similar to the underwater elevator system on Delta Halo. When they found the entrance, there was some small amount of jubilation. After three more minutes of swimming through a dark tunnel, they reached the end of the horizontal swim and the beginning of an upward one. The surface was rather high up. Not as high as the actual water level, but pretty damn far from their location. Lipton kicked off of the bottom and rose as quickly as safety would permit. No sense in getting the bends during war.

The major was the first to reach the surface. His helmet popped up from the dark water and bobbed on the surface as he looked about. They were still in a shaft, and there was still a ways to go before they were clear. When the others arrived he signaled for ascension cables. The ODSTs switched to ascension guns and fired grapple lines to the top of the shaft. When the lines went taught they continued their climb. After three minutes of moving up an ancient elevator shaft they reached the facility proper. It was surprisingly dark, and the ODSTs spread out and kept the area well covered. Two men were left to guard the shaft exit, while the remainder of the 105th moved deeper inside. Once they passed through the first massive portal, they were bathed in the artificial light so loved by the Forerunner in their enormous structures. They advanced in a sweeping pattern, weapons at the ready. Two minutes later and they were at a fork in the road. The group split into three teams, Lipton went with the first.

The tunnels led to the secondary generators. They were getting close. Their job wasn't to delay them, but to disable them. Spark had given them the precise amount of C-12 needed to destroy Forerunner equipment. Needless to say, it was a hell of a lot more than they'd anticipated. As they neared the generator rooms, Lipton couldn't help but feel a tingling sensation on the back of his neck, his hair would have been standing on end if it wasn't compressed beneath his armor. The generators were massive, easily twice the size of a human frigate. He had never seen anything so large that wasn't a ship. Spark had told them how to disable these behemoths, apparently there were only a few components you needed to destroy to render the entire thing inoperable. Lipton wouldn't argue with results. But first they needed to achieve those results.

The eight firing teams worth of men finally reached the front of the generator complex, spreading out to evenly support the entrenched marine forces already fortifying the positions the brutes had formerly occupied. Farther away, the last of the brute forces that had been posted outside the facility retreated under concentrated marine fire. Soon enough, all in front of the facility was calming down. Farther away, however, the canyon was still flashing with automatic weapons fire.

A scene from hell sprawled out before LeDuc's eyes, his ammo counter read 0 as the last round from his battle rifle sped out a superheated barrel to pierce through and implode an infected brute's rotting, mossy skull. Throwing away the useless weapon, Captain LeDuc stood and unsheathed his standard sidearm, firing first two, then four and five rounds into approaching flood forces. During all of this time, he swore frantically and spoke into his headset with a voice that changed intensity from cold calculation to the frantic and wavering tones of combat.
"This is Captain LeDuc of the 305th, requesting immediate evac or fire support!
Parasitic elements have reduced the second wave to barely four fire teams, adding more than half of our casualties to their numbers!
Alpha Two Lima, respond!"

Back on Lee's side, the final forces from 3rd wave settled into position, and the Captain's helmet mike buzzed with activity. Hearing LeDuc's yells for help, he held up a finger to Mendez, signaling for him to listen in, and answered the remnants of second wave with grim news.
"Captain LeDuc, this is Alpha Two Lima. We have already sent ground support to your aid, be advised that air support will be bombing the canyon soon. Try to get to cover ASAP.

Karr, I need you and your birds to deploy incendiary explosives along the length of the canyon, in order to seal in the parasite under a blanket of flame. It is imperative that you ignite the entirety of the perimeter covered by the ennemy. Lee out."

The Captain then signaled Mendez to open his external mikes, then sent him the relevant information by TAC-COM.
"Second wave got almost completely wiped out. Our task now is to hold our positions until Lipton's boys are done inside. After that, it's either of our two Commanders' call."