Chapter 42: The End is Upon Us!

Chaos growled. Even though he had fulfilled his goal of possessing his weapon, it was premature. Even though it was a necessary act, there wasn't enough time for the virus to fully suppress her consciousness. As a result, emotions and memories from his hosts mind would float up and they continually pestered him like gnats. He shoved aside a particular memory of the host playing and laughing with a uniformed man. Chaos could smell blood, and he was in a mood to shed some as well.

"Are you sure you don't need help with that?" Tarin asked, watching Williams struggle with the case.

"Yeah." Williams grunted as he tried to work the locking mechanism. "It's really not all that different from a Rubix cube. You just have to manipulate the right way..."

Suddenly, the case snapped open with a hiss as refrigerant gas flowed out of the opening.

"Hey, success!" Williams cracked a smile and pried the case open. Inside were three syringes filled with a viscous green substance and an injection pistol. There was no clue to their purpose except for copious amounts of biohazard symbols labeled all over the case and its contents.

"So what have we got here?" Karla asked, suddenly appearing next to Williams.

Williams hesitated for a second. Just minutes before, Karla looked as if she were about to break down. Now, however, she seemed to have magically regained the calm composure that seemed to define her.

"I have no idea." He replied. "Maybe it-"

"Get down!" Tarin screamed.

Instinctively, Karla and Williams fell to the ground and covered their heads, expecting incoming fire. Contrary to their expectations, fully laden dumpster soared over their heads. It smashed against a nearby wall, spattering the area with rotting garbage and refuse. Tarin and Williams raised their rifles to fire but some unseen force picked them both up and slammed them against the opposing walls of the alley. Karla rolled onto her belly, grabbed her pistol, and aimed. She was shocked to find that she nearly pulled the trigger on her own sister.

"Sam?" Karla stood up in disbelief. "What are you-"

Karla suddenly saw that there was something wrong. Sam's expression was somewhat blank and emotionless, and there was this curious growth on the back of her left shoulder. Before she could make any connections, however something that felt like an invisible truck slammed into Karla's chest. Falling over and gasping for air, Karla tried to figure out just what the hell was going on. Sam, or whatever she was now, slowly made her way towards Karla, a malevolent glow in her eyes. For some inexplicable reason though, Sam hesitated and stopped, giving Karla, Tarin, and Williams enough time to recover from the savage attack.

Chaos howled in rage. Another annoying memory had popped up and destroyed his focus. He shoved aside the image to two girls laughing with each other under a golden sun.

While Sam was distracted, Tarin and Williams took the opportunity to aim and fire their battle rifles. Unfortunately, six zombified Elites leapt down from the rooftops, forming a meat shield for Sam. Two of them bounded towards Tarin and Williams. The remaining four all set their sights on Karla.

Karla fired her pistol at the incoming undead aliens, but the small caliber rounds had little to no effect. Desperate for a weapon, Karla suddenly remembered the plasma sword Holy gave her. She dug the small device out of her belt flicked the thumb trigger. The sword hummed to life in blazing blue glory. Its sudden ignition seemed to drive the incoming Elites back for a second or two. Not wanting to waste a good opportunity, Karla slashed at the closest Elite, cutting it diagonally through the chest. The second Elite tried to flank her, but Karla managed to swing the blade around and completely behead the undead horror. Unfortunately, she put too much power into her swing, and she knew she wouldn't be able to recover in time to block the third Elite.

There was a lound bang and chick-clack of a shotgun, and the third Elite went down in a cloud of blood and vaporized bone.

"I hope I didn't miss anything." Kumi grinned. She turned and began firing at the fourth Elite, keeping it pinned.

Karla dashed forward and skewered the Elite in the belly with the plasma sword. The blade hissed and sang as it ate away at the Elite's flesh, but it refused to die and raised its fist to attack. Thinking quickly, Karla turned her skewering motion into an upward slash,. The fourth Elite came apart like a blossoming flower.

Meanwhile, the other two Elites went down in a hail of concentrated gunfire. Paccone and Leo had arrived to backup Tarin and Williams.

Leo took one look at Sam and backed away in horror, lost for words and unsure of what to do.

It was just open ground between Karla and Sam, who still seemed to be somewhat distracted.

"Sam..." Karla said, inching forward. "Don't you remember who I am?"

Sam stayed silent. Only the humming of the plasma sword seemed to answer the question.

Without hesitation, Tarin, Paccone, and Williams fired several bursts at Sam. The rounds sped toward Sam and then... nothing. It was as if the bullets had literally disappeared into thin air. The only thing that the fusillade seemed to achieve was to snap Sam out of the trance.

"Sam-"

Before Karla could finish her sentence, she collapsed onto the ground, writhing in pain. It felt as if her entire body was on fire. She dropped her plasma sword, which deactivated and clattered uselessly onto the ground.

Paccone, Tarin, Williams, and Kumi tried to come forward to help, but the same invisible force that was smothering Karla pushed them away like a supernova.

That only left Leo to anything about it. He slowly raised his rifle and aimed it at Sam's head.

"Dont' make me do this." He whispered. "Don't make me do this."

Sam turned her gaze at him and he looked into her eyes. He realized that this sadly wasn't the Sam he used to know anymore. He was about to pull the trigger when a nearby mailbox suddenly lifted itself from the ground and flung itself at him. Leo sidestepped and fired, but the move spoiled his aim. Instead of the quick, painless headshot he was hoping for, the round went wide and struck Sam's left shoulder.

The growth on her back seemed to quiver, and an ungodly shriek that no mortal lung could mimic filled the air.

Karla blinked and got up. The pain that was engulfing her was suddenly gone. She picked up her plasma sword and activated it, and suddenly remembered something. It was a risk, but if they could pull it off...

Chaos was aware that the humans were planning something. They had taken cover behind another alley wall, but e could see their mouths moving, and he could seem them pointing to something, but he couldn't make it out. The host thoughts were blurring his focus. He had to spend more and more energy keeping them suppressed. There was something about these humans... some mental block in the host that wouldn't allow him to use her full range of powers. Chaos cursed and raged at his host, and finally forced it into submission. He looked at the group of humans. They all had some sort of connection to the host, so he had to eliminate them quickly. He caught sight of the most dangerous one and focused his power.

Leo suddenly began to hear a faint buzzing in his head. He shook his head to try and get rid of it, but it was still there, in the back of his skull, hanging like a stubborn mold. He tried covering his ears, but the buzzing was now getting louder...

"Are you sure we can do this?" Paccone asked. "I don't see any way out of this besides having to put the poor girl out of her misery."

"Don't you dare say that." Kumi growled.

"Just stick to the plan." Karla said cooly. "Do your parts and we can win this. What's she doing now?"

Tarin peeked around the corner.

"Still seems distracted by something. I say we've got a few more seconds."

"You okay there, Carter?" Paccone asked, seeing Leo somewhat discomforted.

"I'm okay." He mumbled.

"Okay, lets go go go!"

Chaos saw them coming. He had to do it fast. He had to do it now.

The buzzing was getting unbearable now, to the point where it felt like his head would explode. Leo thought he was drooling, and wiped his mouth, only to find his glove covered in blood.

Tarin and Williams dashed toward Sam to draw her attention away from Karla and the others. Sam glanced at them and fired a telekinetic blast that sent them both skidding away onto the street. Paccone, with one of the syringes from the case, lunged at Sam, only to find himself suspended in midair, as if he were floating in water. Kumi tried to come in from behind, but found herself lying in a daze on the other side of the alley. Karla, with the last syringe, managed to grab Sam and almost managed to jab her with the syringe until an invisible hand slapped it away. The plastic vial clattered away and rolled to stop at Leo's feet.

"Leo!" Karla yelled, still maintaining her hold on Sam. "Throw me the syringe!"

Everything seemed to be a blur to Leo now, as if he were seeing everything underwater. He could hear somebody shouting to him, but he couldn't hear the words. That damn buzzing sound was drowning it out. He also felt very fatigued. Maybe if could lie down for a few minutes.

Chaos could feel the human's life slipping away. Just a few more seconds, and one of his biggest obstacles would be out of the way. He concentrated more into the attack, making sure to keep the other humans at bay, and even though one of them had a hold of the host, she wouldn't be able to do anything.

Suddenly, another memory appeared. Of all the times! He saw two children, the host and a little boy with messy brown hair playing a game of 'Marines vs. Pirates'. Chaos screamed in rage.

The world flooded back into Leo's mind like the incoming tide. It seemed so quiet now, and he realized the buzzing was gone.

"Leo! The syringe!"

Karla's shout seemed to snap him back to reality. He looked down and saw the fluid-filled vial sitting at his feet. He snatched it up and threw it. Karla caught it and without hesitation, jabbed the needle directly into the growth on Sam's back. The growth quivered and twitched, as if it were about to explode. Paccone and Kumi then recovered and jabbed their syringes into Sam's neck and thigh.

The growth exploded in a mist of blood and pus, and Sam's eyes suddenly regained their personality.

"Where... am I?" She asked before collapsing to the ground.

Chaos skittered away into the darkness. His plans were ruined, but he was still alive. He would be back to bring vengeance, to destroy, to-

"Well well, what do we have here..." Paccone muttered to himself as he pinned a small, ugly critter under his boot. The balloon-like insect struggled against his foot and tried to wrench itself free. An ugly cruch and a dirty boot marked the end of Chaos.

Elsewhere

"I almost thought we wouldn't make it."

"I had everything under control. Chaos' defeat was inevitable."

"But you know what the price is..."

"I am well aware of the consequences. I believe their well-being is safe in your hands?"

"I've done it before, I can do it again. Ah, Askaard, I was wondering when you would arrive."

"It is time, Scohar."

Mackhall Airbase, Several Days Later

"You understand," The ONI spook said, looking at the assembled Marines, "that everything you saw these past few days didn't happen. Under the ONI Security Act Section VIII, all records of said event are to be classified and all copies destroyed. All participants are under a state of nondisclosure. Anything that violates the NDA will result in a military court marshal. Any questions?"

"Yeah," Pacoone stood up. "Can you just shut the fuck up and let us go already?"

UNSC Freedom

Captain Rogers tried to make himself comfortable in the new bridge seat. The Freedom was now fully operational, and would undergo field trials to test its new systems. It was evident that Freedom was a new ship. A sharp, disinfectant smell permeated every surface of the ship, and the engines had the high pitched "baby whine" that would take numerous cycles of continuous use to eventually transform it into the low hum characteristic of all UNSC ships.

"Sir?"

Rogers turned to his new sensor officer, Ensign Davies.

"What is it, Ensign?"

"There's something weird. I don't know if its because these new systems are faulty, or-"

"Get to the point, Ensign." Rogers sighed.

"All of the Covenant ships have disappeared from the screens."

Rogers nearly gagged. "What!"

"Look for yourself," Davies pointed at the blank sensor screen. "There's nothing out there."

"Joshua!" Rogers summoned the Freedom's AI.

Joshua appeared on the holo screen, displaying himself as a moving chessboard. "Hello, would you like to play a game?"

"Not right now." Rogers answered, "Are the ship's sensor units working?"

"One hundred percent, Captain." Joshua replied coolly. "Ensign Davies' observations are correct."

"Any idea why there's nothing out there anymore?"

"The sensors detected what seemed like multiple Slipspace jumps earlier, but the techs wrote it off as interference from the system's magnetic fields."

"Now why would they all just up and leave like that..." Rogers asked himself.

"I know, it makes little tactical sense." Joshua concurred.

"Sir!" Ensign Walters, the comm officer shouted. "Incoming message from FLEETCOM!"

"Patch it through." Rogers sighed.

"Decrypting." The comm officer glanced at the screen. "Message decrypted."

"Is it authentic?" Rogers asked.

Walters looked at the code and called it out as it scrolled.

"The code is: Alpha Alpha Gamma Foxtrot Sierra Bravo Charlie Bravo Zulu Echo."

At the same time, Roger's first mate, Lieutenant Sink, ran in with a code module. He cracked it open and read out the exact same code.

"Sir, I believe the message is authentic." He declared.

"I concur, the message is authentic." Joshua chimed in.

Rogers nodded and glanced at his data screen.

UNITED NATIONS SPACE COMMAND FLEETCOM MESSAGE

TO: ALL SHIP COMMANDERS

PRIORITY: ALPHA

ALL UNSC SHIP AND FLEET COMMANDERS, UNLESS SPECIFICALLY ORDERED TO, ARE ORDERED TO DROP WHATEVER TASK THEY ARE PERFORMING. IMMEDIATE RECALL OF ALL SHIPS IS IN EFFECT. ALL SHIPS ARE TO JUMP TO COORDINATES ZERO ZERO ZERO. COLE PROTOCOL IS STILL IN EFFECT.

END MESSAGE

Rogers stared at the screen for what seemed like an eternity. Surely this couldn't be real.

"Are you sure that this message is authentic?"

"Absolutely." Joshua and Sink both said at the same time.

Rogers sighed. If this message meant what it thought it did, then God help them all.

"Sink, power up our Slipspace drives, order the Valiant and Fidelity to do the same. I'm sure their captains have received this message as well. After that, gather up as many Marines as possible and load them up into the ships. Joshua, I want you to plot three random jump coordinates using the Cole Protocol."

"Consider it done." Joshua said. "What are our destination coordinates?"

Rogers closed his eyes. There was only one planet with the origin coordinates. The center of all known Human space.

"Earth, Joshua. Coordinates zero zero zero."

Mackhall Airbase

The entire base was in a state of chaos. Sudden orders had just flown in that every single Marine and piece of equipment was to be taken and shipped to the warships for immediate transport. Trucks, heavy lifters, cargo carriers, and Marines dashed around in a massive swarm trying to find their way around. Dozens of Pelicans and their larger cousins, Heron carryalls, filled the air as they ferried Marines and equipment up to one of the three orbiting warships.

"You can't be serious." Karla sighed as she leaned back in the Warthog's passenger seat. "You wake me in the morning, I don't get any decent cup of coffee, and you're telling me that we're moving out?"

"Hey, I'm only doing what I was told." Williams shrugged. "Contrary to what you believe, you are not on top of the world."

"Just shut up and drive, Sergeant."

"Uhhh, Cap?" Williams slowed the Warthog down. "You might want to check this out..."

Karla looked up to see a Marine on the side of the road trying to wave them down. She told Williams to stop the Warthog and waved for the Marine to come over. As the Marine came closer, Karla was somewhat surprised to see that it was Sam.

"Hi Karla- I mean, Captain." Sam blushed. This wasn't the time or place for such familiarity."

"Private." Karla coolly stared at Sam. Good thing Sam didn't remember what happened in the previous few days. It would've been awkward to explain to her how close she came to killing her. "Last I saw, you were registered in the Marine hospital and hadn't been cleared for duty yet."

"I can still use my arm." She moved her left shoulder around a bit, with some obvious discomfort and conceded, "It doesn't hurt that bad."

Karla narrowed her eyes. "The moment I let you onto this Warthog, you're going to be AWOL."

Sam nodded. "I know. I just want to-"

"I know." Karla cut her off. Paccone's face suddenly flitted past her mind. "I remember the first time I got wounded. Get in the back."

Sam smiled and began to make a move to hug Karla. She quickly recovered, however, and merely turned it into a motion to throw her bag into the rear of the Warthog. It pained her, and probably Karla too, to be so restricted by military protocol.

"When we get to the pickup point," Karla continued, "I expect to see your name in the ship's infirmary list."

"Yes Captain."

"And that you stay with your old unit."

"Yes Captain."

"And you go fooling around with that Carter kid until you're a few years older."

"I don't know how to respond to that, Captain."

Karla smiled. "And stop calling me Captain. If I wanted to feel good about my rank, I'd boss around poor Williams here. Oh, and speaking of Williams," Karla turned to her driver, "Any word of this gets out of the Warthog, and I'll personally make sure that ONI disappears your ass."

Williams paled slightly as Sam snickered and responded, "My lips are sealed, Captain."

UNSC Freedom

Leo had lost track of Paccone... again. There were so many Marines and crewmen milling about in the hangar deck, trying to find out where to go. Moving through the tide of bodies, Leo accidentally shoved another Marine to the ground.

"Sorry man." Leo bent down to help up the fallen Marine.

"No problem." The Marine took Leo's hand and hoisted himself up. "Hey, you're with the 81st Marines, right?"

"That's right."

"Hey." The Marine held his hand out. "I just got transferred into your unit. Looking forward to working with you. What's your name?"

Leo shook the Marine's hand and replied, "It's Leonardo, though you could just call me Leo. Yours?"

"Scohar." The Marine said simply.

Leo nodded, cataloguing the Marine's name for future use. He seemed to be a pretty odd fellow. Not too young, not too old, something seemingly out of place about him. But before Leo could linger on the fact anymore, the Marine disappeared within the mass of bodies. Leo sighed and thought about what he had gotten himself into. He had joined the Marines to fight Covenant, not zombies or mutants, or even his own best friend. And now, after that shit storm, he was going back out to fight again at God knows where.

When the pessimism threatened to engulf him, Leo remembered the simple Marine motto, one that had remained true over the centuries. Semper Fidelis. Always faithful. That's what a Marine always had to remember, even if it meant that they would die in the process.

TO BE CONTINUED

PREVIEW OF THE SEQUEL: ALL OR NOTHING

The Freedom banked hard to avoid the Covenant plasma torpedoes. The Covenant warships continued to fire out bright spears of energy in an attempt to take down the Human ship.

"Joshua!" Rogers yelled, clinging to his bridge seat. "How long until we get out of the gravity well?"

"Let's just say I'm powering up the shields now." Joshua said, destroying a knight in his chessboard avatar.

An explosion rocked the ship. One of the plasma torpedoes had found its mark.

"Energy levels are dropping." Joshua announced, swapping his chessboard for checkers. "I doubt our shields will hold for the next hit."

"How about diverting power?"

"The only remaining source of power are the engines, but if we divert power from them, we won't have enough to attain the necessary velocity for a Slipspace jump."

Rogers glanced at his tactical display again. The Valiant and Fidelity were doing their best to hold the Covenant picket formation, but that meant he still had to deal with two cruisers with a ship that had multiple core systems failing in succession. These were not good odds.

However, before Rogers even had a chance to give another order, a fusillade of MAC rounds fired from nowhere, shredding apart the Covenant formation. Rogers blinked in surprise. In some sort of sick coincidence, or divine intervention, another UNSC battlegroup had chosen the almost the exact same random jump coordinates he had. He looked on as the fresh reinforcements annihilated the confused enemy fleet.

Meanwhile, belowdecks, Scohar smiled. They were certainly being watched by a god, or gods, or whatever controlled the fate of this universe.

AN: All I would like to say is thanks to those readers who loyally stayed with the story, even though my inconsistent updates and whatnot. I've learned a few lessons through writing this whole thing, so the next story arc won't drag on as long. On that subject, don't forget to look out for the sequel to Mist!