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The ODST turned, kicking up a barrel with a single swing, as the green bin silently rolled up, tall like a stack once more. He sat. With a sigh he swung the shotgun across his shoulder, hand on his hip, resting on his sidearm. Awaiting the enemy to come and the dreary briefing that was to come. Well, not truly an officer, but Winter knew his place. No man with a head would say no to letting an ODST listen in, would they? Hopefully nobody was like that, and Winter liked to indulge on his curiosity, he liked to know what was going on. You could never beat anything out of a Hell Jumper, it took more, there was no worry in losing information to the enemy. But the Covenant usually just blasted half your head off without asking a single question.

Anthony say and waited. He watched as from the entrance, marines darted by with equipment.
He checked the ammo gauge on the BR, saw he only had 5 rounds left. What a useless rifle... he threw it over in the middle of the floor.
Suddenly, the offices walked into the room. Anthony darted up from his seat. "TEN HUT!" The gunny hopped to his feet also and the both of them saluted.

The Commander stood.

((Sigh?))

He sat, once more planting his rear end upon the metal tube. Listening, keeping his eyes open.

"Sir, I'm sorry to say, we dont have connection with Lord Hood and his fleet. We do however... have ourselves, and Easy of 105th who should be arriving any second." Anthony said.

Seth glanced at Karr tolerantly, "Then get some engineers to find a control room and see what we can do about establishing a COM link to the fleet. If that turns out to be a no-go then we'll work with what we've got."

Seth again paused to glance at the assembled men, and listen for danger that couldn't be heard.
"But first things first Marines. We need hunter-killer parties, to clean this place out and plug up any holes. Men will need to be equipped with close quarters gear and enough explosives to seal a tunnel."

Seth, thinking about the dimensions of the hallways added "Three to five man teams. Constant radio contact...Someone gets infected..." Seth trailed off, "Kill him." He said it, plain and simple.

The walk into the infested bases' innards had been a cautious one for the 301st Striker's officer corps. The plasma scorched and bullet-ridden hallways of Fox Hole 2 were for the most part nearly empty save for the omnipresent spatters of blood and gore, curiously missing the bodies that usually accompanied the many bodily fluids splashed here and there during the conflict.

Modern warfare was many things. It was fast, it was brutal, and it was certainly deadly, but one thing human fighters had silently agreed to over the course of many centuries was the respect that had to be given to the dead. The complete absence of corpses, various drag marks leading deeper into the base in their stead, was something that a UNSC soldier such as Lee could only understand as a sign of utmost disrespect. Even worse was the fact that the flood apparently infested and reanimated the bodies of the fallen, twisting their appearances into abominations living only for the purpose of homogenizing the universe into a horrid semblance of itself.

Still, a few things were strange about the flood. Even though it was a parasitic creature, it seemed to require a sufficiently large biomass to infest in order for any useful unit to be produced. The occasional hand or human leg lying dessicated on the Titanium-A flooring was enough to confirm the report. Which, thankfully, meant that the flood could not infect anyone through indirect contact with flood cells. It wasn't like an airborne disease, that could wreak havoc over huge expanses without any victims ever meeting the initial host. No, to be infested it took an infection form, a tiny sac of skin filled with flood fluids, and riddled with sharp, piercing tentacles that would quickly burrow the infection form into the host's flesh, then extend and entrench themselves into the local neural system.

Lee almost shuddered as he thought of the process, the feeling of being punctured by the metal rod an aching memory in his gut. His shotgun held in front of him, he continued to scan the surrounding area, not trusting even the reports to be entirely accurate on the area's security. Seth's orders to the marines rung into his ears through his helmet mikes, and the Captain had to once again thank the powers that be for a Lieutenant as competent as Adams. One thing, however, bothered him. Small groups of marines would be easily overwhelmed by the flood's group tactics, then turned against the next UNSC forces to wander into the area. The risk of losing fire teams of men to their own brothers turned into homicidal creatures was too great, and an addendum had to be made to Seth's initially good idea.

"Each team is to keep within fifteen meters of at least two other teams. Don't hesitate to clear rooms with grenades first, we've got plenty in the crates back here. Also, one team should stay to guard the area at every main junction of the base, since the parasite is capable of moving through the air cycling system. Our most up to date base schematics are being sent to each NCO right now."

Lee turned to the Master Gunnery Sergeant sitting just a short distance away.
"Winters, I'm putting you in charge of rigging the proximity sensors at each checkpoint. Take a team of four and grab the crate of sensors over by the weapons dump. Anyone sends out a distress call, and you're on fast response. Get there, and clean up any mess that may be left."

Seth disregarded the part about the COMs.
"Belay the last Gunny." Seth told the ODST quickly.
"They?" He asked zeroing in on Karr's last, "Explain Mr. Karr."

He felt a sinking feeling in his chest, if the flood were organized and knew that Able-Baker was here...this would be an entire different set of problems.