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  • Subject: Haunted, A Halo Story
Subject: Haunted, A Halo Story

REACH 2 ACHIEVE.
Pink but deadly


Posted by: OfTheBloodguard

Posted by: A Fat Bell End
Flood


gore :DYou have my attention.

ROFL! I can't wait till I read up to there!!! :D !!!!

  • 11.09.2011 9:27 PM PDT
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Really nice story. I read everything you've wrote so far in less than an hour. Please upload more

  • 11.09.2011 9:28 PM PDT


Posted by: Mast3rBeta
Really nice story. I read everything you've wrote so far in less than an hour. Please upload more


Will do. Sometime before 10pm tonight, Pacific time, I will do another update. Glad you guys are enjoying the story so far!
By the way, whoever posted the Flood. Gore... I laughed my ass off!

  • 11.10.2011 5:43 PM PDT

REACH 2 ACHIEVE.
Pink but deadly


Posted by: A Fat Bell End

Posted by: Mast3rBeta
Really nice story. I read everything you've wrote so far in less than an hour. Please upload more


Will do. Sometime before 10pm tonight, Pacific time, I will do another update. Glad you guys are enjoying the story so far!
By the way, whoever posted the Flood. Gore... I laughed my ass off!
Lol!!! :D

  • 11.10.2011 7:05 PM PDT

Okay, so I may be a few minutes late with the update, depending on how long it takes me to embolden and italicize my fonts... but for me, this is actually very punctual! So go me, I guess.
Update will be here in a few minutes.

  • 11.10.2011 9:29 PM PDT

Part III: The Hub


(GMT minus three hours, twelve minutes) May 3rd, 2525
Aboard the Covenant cruiser The Implacable Warden:


The hanger was awash with a brutality of starlight, it's silver glow mingling with the wavering light of the expansive energy barrier spanning the vessel's launch bay. It was the only thing standing between two dozen Sangheili and the hard vacuum of space.
The Implacable Warden had settled into a geosynchronous orbit around the gas giant, maintaining a steady distance from the human's installation ever since the Shipmaster had given the order to hold.
A meaningless order, thought Xavi' Quitonmee, a young ranger-class Sangheili. His armor was flat-black, his faceplate reflecting dimly the electric blue light of energy barrier before him. He glowered at the station, from this distance no more than a small blot of light slightly brighter than the body of the world behind it.
He shook his head slowly. Never would he voice such thoughts, yet he could not see the logic in the Shipmaster's decision. He seemed to be almost... fond of them. Throughout his brief years aboard The Implacable Warden, he had seen it. A sort of admiration in the Shipmaster's eyes. The feintest glimmer of respect whenever he spoke of them.
They had begun their campaign against humanity months ago, yet they did nothing to contribute. And Xavi' Quitonmee was not the only soul aboard who felt the same. There was a tension in the air. It was the culmination of months of stagnation. Months of waiting.
And then they heard it. A crackling filled the air; more felt than heard by the boarding crew; and the Shipmaster's voice boomed into the hangar.
"You have my word. Board the human's installation, and learn what you can of the holy Relic. move swiftly, and leave none alive. Good luck, my brothers, and may the Prophets be with you!"
At once, the energy barriers faded to null and six sleek crafts sped out of the hangar toward the pinpoint of light looming ahead.

  • 11.10.2011 9:49 PM PDT

So, I am going to break my new rule again and provide to you a second update, as the first was quite short, and not a whole lot happened in it. Enjoy!

  • 11.10.2011 9:51 PM PDT

(GMT minus two hours fifty three minutes) May 3rd, 2525
Sigma Station's (RESTRICTED-TIER) Mainframe locker


Ethan reached for the door's control panel, his hand hesitating momentarily. He listened. His heart sank as he heard a fierce scratching on the other side.

Reclaimer. I have restored the power in the sectors leading to the station's hub. I cannot promise to you that they will remain indefinitely supplied. The station's generators have taken critical damage and are highly instable.

"Right," replied Ethan uncertainly. It was the only thing he could think to say.
He inspected the small device in his right hand. It was a thin crescent, marked by tiny, geometric glyphs etched in a stark white light. He turned the artifact over, looking for a switch... something to activate the object.
He turned his wrist from side to side. Nothing. He held the object to his visor, inspecting the glyphs doubtfully. Lightly, he flicked his wrist, wishing instantly that he hadn't. In a flash a screen of hard blue energy lanced out of the small handle, striking his visor so hard he lost his balance entirely, toppling painfully to the floor.
He heard the AI chuckling in it's dual-layered voice. Experamentally, he gave his wrist another flick, sending the screen of energy back into the handle. A shield.
Ignoring the AI, he faced the door, silently thanking the lifeless arm on the floor beside him as he approached it.
This time there was no hesitation. A second, ethan knew, could easily turn into an hour.
He flicked his wrist, sendind the crackling barrier of energy surging out of the handle, and pounded his fist aginst the small control panel beside the door.
And saw nothing.
He snapped his head around, surveying the cramped corridor around him. Not a movement to be seen. He shouted back to the mainframe locker, not daring to turn his back to the corridor.
"Where are they?"
Ethan pressed his ears, a mortifying sound answering his question for him. Above him, from somewhere behind the light panels, came a frenzied clicking. It sounded like a thousand insects scrabbling against the interior of an aluminum can.

I have emitted the frequency, Reclaimer. The one my creators used to repel the Flood. Many of the smaller forms have retreated to the ventilation ducts. The others... I cannot seem to find them anywhere aboard the station, at present.

"Great," muttered Ethan to himself. The only thing worse than seeing these nightmares is not seeing them, He realized.
No sense hanging around here until they come back, he reasoned. At least a moving target is a little harder to kill. Though with these nightmares he really couldn't be sure of anything.
He took a breath, gathering his scattered thoughts. He felt light, airy. Judging by the pull, he must be in the first wheel. Gravity was nowhere near Earth-norm.
He looked to the floor, a brushed chrome walkway crisscrossed with a matrix of multicolored lines. Sigma station's version a map, Ethan remembered. Given that the station was essentially a series of homogenized rings, getting lost was almost a guarantee, even to the seasoned vetrans of the station's crew. Everything tended to look the same, bathed in the flat overhead lighting.
Thus the lines. Each color represented a different space. Follow the color long enough and you will find your way to your destination eventually. There were seven total, and Ethan struggled to remember them, his mind fogged with the constant scraping of a million feet just centimeters over his head.
He followed the lines with his eyes. Yellow... Those were the research facilities and observatories. Green represented the cafeteria and rec room (which was essentially a cramped conference room with some folding chairs and a vid screen mounted on one wall). And brown was... Ethan chuckled to himself. Probably the lavs.
The more vital sections of the station had colors dedicated soley to themselves. Light blue signified the medical facilities. Broken red lines led the way to the nearest "choke points," as the crew called them. Essentially they were double-doored airlocks placed at intervals within each corridor, effectively compartmentalizing the rings. In the event of a micrometeor, or some other projectile puncturing Sigma Station's inner hull, automatic sensors trip the locks, sealing the affected area from the rest of the station.
Black and white lines led the way to the corridors, or spokes, that connected the wheels to one another; black corridors leading hub-ward, white leading spin-ward, or toward the "outside" of the station. Each wheel bore the same color code, though, no doubt other wheels had additional colors representing crew's quarters, fitness areas; all of the things the second wheel didn't have.
Ethan focused on the black line. His goal. He followed it until both the line and corridor curved up and out of sight, lost to the strange, reversed horizon of Sigma Station. He drew his sidearm, holding the energy shield aloft, as he made his way toward the inner hub.

  • 11.10.2011 10:05 PM PDT

The tide is turning, brothers! Let us take our kingdom back!

You're pulling in these comments like nobody's business. Keep it coming!

  • 11.10.2011 10:50 PM PDT

REACH 2 ACHIEVE.
Pink but deadly


Posted by: OfTheBloodguard
You're pulling in these comments like nobody's business. Keep it coming!

Rofl!!! >:D

  • 11.11.2011 1:25 PM PDT

REACH 2 ACHIEVE.
Pink but deadly

Finished page one!!! :P lol I'm a slow reader. I like this part: "Kill?...
They are the Flood, Reclaimer. And they are life."

  • 11.11.2011 1:57 PM PDT

Your wish is my command!

  • 11.12.2011 2:02 PM PDT

(GMT minus two hours, thirty five minutes) May 3rd, 2525
RESTRICTED Mainframe locker, Sigma Station, tier one (RESTRICTED TIER)


The room was full of contradictions. Despite the deep crimson lighting and claustrophobic tightness of the locker, the tepmerature read out at well below freezing. It was a tight room, small even for Sigma Station's standards, yet within lie more information than in all of the station's other compartments combined.
And within, lie the station's AI, humming tunelessly to it's self as it analized the elliptical arc and acceleration of the six small craft that were approaching the station. They were Covenant transports, and according to the AI, they would reach Sigma Station in less than fifteen minutes.
It ran through every program and algorithm in it's database three times. Nothing. Not a single solution to the six boarding craft speeding toward them. It frowned, an image of Ethan etched deeply within it's consciousness, and did the only thing it could think do.
It screamed.


[Edited on 11.12.2011 2:05 PM PST]

  • 11.12.2011 2:03 PM PDT

And since that was a very short update, here's another.
I am really glad you guys are having a good time reading the story. Hope you like the way I have ended it. (Which, by the way is not for a little while. Just didn't want you thinking that this was the last update or anything :)

  • 11.12.2011 2:07 PM PDT

Ethan nearly lost it. Wandering the vacant halls of a derelict station, the scratching of a thousand nightmares filling the ducts surrounding him... And now the damned AI had started it's wailing again. His nerves couldn't have been strung any tighter. He wanted to call out; to scream back at the delirious AI. But he dared not make a sound. He could feel the presence of the Flood, teeming everywhere around him. They were in the walls, in the ducts. Inches away from him, yet nowhere to be seen.

Reclaimer.

Ethan cringed. He felt sure the AI could read his thoughts. "What is it?" he asked through clenched teeth.

There is a pure form just ahead... Odd...

"Yes?" Ethan hissed, his lips mere slits.

It appears as if it is waiting for you.

Ethan peered down the hallway, followed it's sloping length until it curved out of sight. Nothing.
"And another thing. Would you please stop your wailing, before I go crazy too?!"

Six Covenant craft are heading toward Sigma Station. I cannot allow them to dock here.

"And that's how you plan to accomplish it?" Ethan narrowed his eyes in a disgusted gesture.

The Flood... If the infection spreads. The Covenant cannot board the station... It is all I can do to delay them.

Ethan shook his head. "And screaming like a lunatic is going to delay them?"

Most likely... No, it will not. But we must try, Reclaimer.

"If you recall," said Ethan, "not a damned one of us bought the whole haunted bit. Why do you think that they will?"
Ethan barked a laugh at the idea. "You know, for something as smart as you are, you come up with some stupid ideas."

Ethan...

It was the voice of the Ancilla again. Gone were the eerie double-tones of the AI, and gone was the melancholic timbre from the Ancilla's voice. When she spoke, a warmth seemed to envelope her words. As she spoke, Ethan felt the impression of a smile.

We are all of us haunted. Deep down, beyond the limits we allow even ourselves to remember, demons dwell.
I catylized the destruction of my own creators. I let the scourge enter me, manipulate me into loving them. I freed them.
Search yourself, Reclaimer. Search your soul. Dig deep into the darkened corners you fear most; the memories you fear to admit to yourself.
Haunted... Is it really such a foolish concept?


Ethan had demons aplenty. Every spartan did. Fractured memories, pushed deep down, unexplored not for personal fear, but out of necessity. A soldier needed to have a clear head, so he pushed his demons away; out of his head to be buried someplace deeper within.
Corrupting his heart to clear his mind. Necessity.
Ethan's head was swimming with thought.
He shook his head, replying simply, "If you say so," and forged ahead, his rifle pointed toward the hideous creature looming just beyond his line of sight.

  • 11.12.2011 2:20 PM PDT

Here is another short update (apparently part three has quite a few of them). I'll try to do two to make up for it ;)

  • 11.13.2011 8:36 AM PDT

(GMT minus two hours, thirty three minutes) May 2nd, 2525
1235 kilometers outside of Epsilon Eridani B's gravity well


"Hold your attack!"
It was the shipmaster's voice, and it didn't sound so much angry as it sounded... puzzled. As one the six sleek craft slowed their approach to Sigma Station, until they were motionless; six additional pinpoints of starlight above the teeming world below.
"Is everything well, Shipmaster?" replied a deep voice.
"That is what we aim to determine before we board their installation, brother," replied the Shipmaster.
A banshee wailing filled the interiors of the boarding craft, sending tendrils of unease throughout the six. Five of the six, at least.
Inside one of the sleek craft, slightly removed from the rest, Xavi' Quitonmee seethed. More delays. More cowardice shown by the Shipmaster in the face humanity. Weakness. At last, he could bear it no longer.
"Why have you stopped us?!", he fairly bellowed into the comm.
For a time, there was slence. All of the six; Xavi' Quitonmee included; felt the weight of that silence bearing down upon them. At last, the Shipmaster spoke, his words dripping venom.
"I would stay my words, Xavi' Quitonmee, lest they be your last."
A smile touched the corners of Xavi' Quitonmee's mandibles, revealing a viscious maw of razor-teeth.
"You are right, Shipmaster. Forgive my insolence."
And with those final words, one small craft sped away from the rest; it's course set to intercept Sigma Station.

  • 11.13.2011 8:38 AM PDT

Alright! Time for some action. Hopefully I did this section justice... I still question whether I got it right.

  • 11.13.2011 8:41 AM PDT

huh... Looks like my last update didn't go through... I thought that I had updated it yesterday. Sorry about that. It'll be up soon.


[Edited on 11.14.2011 8:47 PM PST]

  • 11.13.2011 8:58 AM PDT

(GMT minus one hour, forty seven minutes) May 3rd, 2525
(RESTRICTED-TIER) corridor


Ethan took a shuddering breath, the stale tang of recycled air filling his mouth. His senses were in a state of overload. It was normal to feel this way. Ethan always felt this way before a battle. It was his way of dealing with the situation. His way of processing what others would perceive as fear.
Clear your head. Take something bad and make it useful. Always seize the advantage. If you didn't, you were already dead. He had walked some distance, yet there were still no signs of the Flood. Which didn't, Ethan reminded himself ruefully, mean that they weren't there.
As if in answer to his thoughts, Ethan saw a massive figure appear just on Sigma Station's odd inverse-horizon. He stopped, flicking his wrist tensely. With a hair-raising crackle the blue screen of energy rose, tiny lightning bolts of energy eminating from it's core. He raised his rifle.
As he drew near, features became discernable. And they were frightening. The creature stood almost half again Ethan's height, massive clusters of writhing tendrils breaching it's pallid flesh at varying intervals. It was bipedal, it's wiry legs leading to massive feet, knotted and twisted beyond recognition. It's torso bore two sets of what passed for arms. They too were thin, wiry, and lead not to hands but simply tapered to thin barbs, their needle-points glittering darkly in the light of the station. It looked to Ethan like the body of an insect. A deadly insect.
Ethan shrunk away as legions of the tiny sac-creatures poured out of the ventilation ducts overhead, swarming around the creature's legs. There must have been thousands of them. The sloping floor of Sigma Station was lost in a teeming mass of the creatures, yet they did not advance upon Ethan with the blind frenzy he had expected. Rather, they held their ground, scrabbbling over one another, yet never leaving the massive form's side.
It seemed to be a leader of some sort, thought Ethan to himself. And that implied intelligence. It was a frightening thought. He took a breath and advanced. As he progressed, the form ahead of him began to roll fully into view. And then another thing made him freeze. More than the size of the monster; more even than the legions of spidery creatures surrounding it; Something filled Ethan with a cold horror. The creature's eyes. They were slightly larger in proportion than a human's, yet otherwise, they were startlingly similar. Startlingly alien. The majority of it's eyes were filled with pupils dilated horrifically. No irises could be seen; just thin crescents of white surrounding pits as cold and dark as the vaccuum surrounding them.
Ethan took a steadying breath. It wouldn't do to wait, he realized. And besides, watching those eyes; watching the teeming masses of sac-creatures waiting faithfully beside their leader, a simple fact became painfully clear to Ethan. The nightmare ahead was waiting for him.

  • 11.14.2011 8:54 PM PDT

I'll give you guys another update, although I am pretty sure I had posted all of this before. Well, if I had, this will catch me up. Enjoy.

  • 11.14.2011 8:55 PM PDT

Reclaimer. There is a Covenant craft approaching the station. Given it's vector, there is little I can do to prevent it from reaching us. You must hurry. The corridor leading to the station's hub is ten meters ahead of your current position.

"Just beyond the devil himself," Ethan groused.
Without further delay, Ethan unslung his sidearm and fired a single shot at the creature. Nothing. Not a sound from the creature as the bullet slammed through it's arm, spraying gore onto the bulkhead behind it. The sac creatures writhed horribly, moving like a wave toward Ethan, then fell back as if bound to the massive creature by a force.
Suddenly, the creature's torso dropped to the floor, and it bagan to approach Ethan. It moved slowly, inexorably, and all the while those eyes remained fixated on Ethan.
Ethan shuddered as he watched it's four arms scrabble against the sterile floor of the station; how it's front twisted independantly from it's hind section. In horror, he marveled at how mere seconds before the creature was so human, anatomically. With the haste of fear, he fired a second shot. It struck the creature squarely in the back, passing through harmlessly to meet the station's floor with a muted clang. Ethan shook his head in dismay.
A dismal realization had struck home. His bullets wouldn't do a bit of good against this nightmare. Dismay began to take it's hold as visions of the sickly encounter from earlier flooded into his mind. The feel of rotting flesh giving way to his boot in that cold hanger...
Ethan took a breath and lowered the energy shield before him. An idea had struck him, but he would only get one chance to make it work, if it even would work. He stood his ground, awaiting the dark fate that approached him, and holstered his sidearm. Watching the creature approach, his hands empty save for the lifeless hilt of the Covenant shield, Ethan suddenly felt very naked.
The creature was now just five meters from where Ethan stood, the teeming legions of sac creatures following obediantly behind. Ethan surveyed his surroundings, drinking in every detail, searching for anything that could be of advantage.
Four meters. The creature approached, it's four barbed appendages clasped tightly in front of it's bulk; a horrifying mesh of rotting flesh and cruel efficiency, punctuated by the viscious barbs intertwined before it.
Three meters. Ethan felt his hands quaver, felt the adrenaline flooding into his system like a drug. The creature before him raised it's arms aloft, a look of torment and hunger etched into it's face.
Two meters. The time to act had come. Ethan held the hilt of the energy shield with a death-grip. The creature's eyes widened as it rose to it's full height, those four barbed arms pointed directly toward the figure before them, prone before it's killing strike.
But the strike never came. Ethan launched himself toward the horror with a blinding speed. Yet it was a fraction of a second too slow. Two massive arms swept across his path, battering Ethan to the floor. He slid through the legions of sac creatures, parting their teeming mass as he went. Yet none of them attacked. Stars filled Ethan's head, his vision darkening briefly. He looked up just in time to see the nightmare sprinting toward him, viscious barbs held aloft, flashing angrily under the paneled lighting overhead.
Ethan smiled to himself. Maybe he would get two chances to get it right. Ethan sat upright, bracing himself as the massive form crashed into him with the force of a battering ram. With all of the strength his enhanced muscles possessed, ethan drove his fist into the creature's chest. For a moment, the creature stopped, searching Ethan's visor with those monstrous eyes. It raised it's arms for their killing stroke, it's face twisted in what only could have passed for a demented smile. With an effort, Ethan twisted his wrist, sending forth the blade of energy from it's embedded hilt. It crackled to life with an explosion of gore, tearing the nightmare creature apart from within. Ethan wretched as the rain of flesh and splintered bone ensued, sending the sac creatures into a flurry of movement.
But there was no time to revel in his victory. Even as he rose, Ethan unslung his rifle, spraying blindly into the waves of creatures, now dispearsing. They flooded away from their fallen leader, blanketing the floor, the walls, the ceiling with their pallid mass. spores flew by the millions, darkening the air around him. Air filters whined as Ethan's armor tried to compensate, choked by the billions of particles surrounding him.
At once thay bagan to regroup, the sac creatures crawling atop one another, clamboring desperately to reach him. He could see his goal; A slight depression in the wall, buried beneath a small colony of the horrors.
He sprayed a burst from his assault rifle, cringing as the cluster ofcreatures exploded in a series of hollow pops, dosens more following in a chain reaction of doom. Clouds of the envenomed spores choked the air. Ethan looked toward the opening, gauging his next move, and within a second's time he knew what had to be done.
Ethan slung his rifle and bolted for the door, the sickly feel of dozens of the spidery creatures giving way beneath his feet. As the door neared, he strugled to keep his footing, his boots sliding across the countless dead sac-creatures. The once sterile floor was now a mess of gore and decay. He could feel the creatures clawing at him, clinging to his armor as he sprinted past. The screeching groan of steel filled the teeming hall as the nightmares tore into the seams of his armor. He could feel the razor points of their myriad apendages as they found purchase on his flesh.
Looking up, Ethan saw the dim glow of the door's control panel, just ahead. Amidst the hell in which he was entombed, it was the best sight he could remember ever having seen. He dove forward, slamming his fist into the palm sized panel.
Immediately it sighed open and Ethan rolled inside, carrying with him five of the nightmares, clawing more fervently than ever before. He rolled onto his back, slamming a fist onto the door's opposite control, sealing him into the hub's darkened connecting hallway, alone, but for the five horrors slowly killing him.

  • 11.14.2011 9:01 PM PDT

REACH 2 ACHIEVE.
Pink but deadly

I'm fully caught up now! Yay! Now I only have to wait for new updates!

  • 11.15.2011 6:50 PM PDT


Posted by: hellzg4t3s
I'm fully caught up now! Yay! Now I only have to wait for new updates!


Good to hear! I am copying my next update now. Should be up within the next thirty minutes or so.

  • 11.15.2011 7:33 PM PDT

Ethan jumped upright, slamming his back into the bulkhead beside him, bringing about two satisfying pops as he did so. Three left. As he searched his armor, a stabbing pain in his thigh told him where another of the sac creatures lay. He swatted desperately at the horror, to little avail. Without a second's consideration, he unholstered his sidearm, firing into the undulating ball of flesh. It erupted into a fountain of dark spores, his shield's displays glaring a warning amber.
Ethan pawed at his armor, searching for the remaining creatures. The connecting hallway was lit only by the dim glow of the station's emergency lighting. Everywhere he turned, distorted shadows leered back at him. To his left he heard a soft clicking.
With a breath, he activated his light, turning it onto the wall beside him. Two of the creatures scrabbled up the wall, headed for the ventilation ducts overhead. Two more bursts from his sidearm and the creatures were dead.
With a ragged gasp of air, Ethan realized he had been holding his breath. He wanted to sit. More than anything else in the world, he wanted simply to lay down, relax. Forget the horrors surrounding him, in the safety of the sealed access way in which he stood. But the lifeboats, according to the station's schematics, were jettisoned, and batty as it was, the station's AI was right. The hub was near, and there was work to be done.
Ethan surveyed himself; armor dented, assault rifle slung over one shoulder, and the foul green-black blood of the parasites still casting staccato drips onto the cold grating underfoot from the tips of his battered fingers. He attempted a smile, but what came was a grimace.
No rest for the wicked, he told himself and made his way to the "choke point" ahead; a small, unmarked airlock separating him from the station's hub.

Reclaimer. There has been a contamination inside Bion Sigma. Containment protocols dictate that we move to steralize the affected area. There has been an aborigional species detected within containment.

"What?!" Ethan asked, clearly irritated with the AI's cryptic nonsense. "Give me the station's AI. I don't want the... Ancilla."

My apologies, Ethan. The inbound craft has docked with Sigma Station. If the Flood escape; if so much as one spore is allowed to leave this station...
Ethan. I know what I must do, but I need you to reach the station's hub. Hurry, Ethan.

  • 11.15.2011 7:39 PM PDT