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[Exterminatus Extremis]

This is where I'll be posting updates on the Story before public release so we can fix stuff up if something was missed or incorrect. Feedback is also welcome.

[Exterminatus Extremis]

Part IV

There was more than one meeting taking place on Reach Station at the time. Sheppard sat at his desk, watching the man before him attempt to stare him down. Admiral Xiong. ONI's pet Admiral, in Sheppard's opinion. The man was irritating, to say the least. Somehow, he'd managed to track down the original mission report from Sheppard's first jaunt through the Rift near the beginning of the Covenant War.
“Why did you falsify the report?” Xiong eventually began. His fists were on the desk, propping him up as he lent over it to glare more intensely at Sheppard. The standing Admiral knew the answer to that, of course. A simple miswritten mission report was nothing to get up in arms about; they were common enough back then, during the horror of that war.
Sheppard gave him a blank stare. “To which report do you refer?”
“So you've falsified more than one?”
“In my line of work, one keeps many secrets. Even more so in yours. I can hardly be blamed for a few intentional errors here and there.”
Xiong tossed a thick bundle of papers onto the desk. “Not one thing in that report makes any sense. Especially how you escaped the city world and got back here. There's no way you pulled all of that off on your own. Who helped you?”
“I believe it's mentioned somewhere in there that my team was with me. Or was the death of five Spartans not noteworthy back then? Ah, but I've forgotten. Spartan's don't die.” He wished that were true.
A simple recon mission. That was all it was supposed to be. Five fresh Spartans, sent to find out what this nebula was doing in the middle of nowhere and whether or not it was a Covenant base. Their small vessel was pulled into the Rift and destroyed. By sheer luck or perhaps by design, the five Spartans survived in a Pelican dropship, which was captured by a ship similar to the triangular one escorting the Ambassador's vessel. A Star Destroyer, it was called.
They became scientific curiosities. The Empire ran all sorts of tests on them after subduing their initial efforts to escape. During a survival test, the first of them had died: Harold. The ship found its way to a gigantic city-world, and the Spartans were taken to a facility underground and subjected to steadily more invasive and painful experiments. The second one to die, Krista, had gone berserk from one of the chemicals injected into her. She destroyed an entire lab, killed eight scientists, six of the white-armored troopers, and strangled one of the Dark Jedi watching the project before she'd found her way into a sealed chamber. They vented out the air.
Not an hour after Krista died and was dissected, something attacked the research facility and summarily destroyed it. During this event, the three remaining Spartans escaped into the city above. They went to ground in a slum somewhere, able to see neither ground nor sky. They'd managed to recover their gear, and their captors had never figured out how to remove the MJOLNIR armor, so they still had that. They existed on stolen food and adrenaline for a month, avoiding groups sent out to find them. Eventually bounty hunters were commissioned as well.
All the while, an invisible entity followed them around, hovering just at the edges of awareness. It was obviously powerful, too. An entire platoon of Stormtroopers had them pinned down in a building once. Whatever the entity was, it attacked the enemy and killed them all in the space of two minutes. When it was done, it deployed a bomb to cover its tracks. The only remaining piece of the troopers was a perfect sphere cut into the ground and surrounding buildings and a rising cloud of superheated gas. It disappeared after that.
It all went even further south after that. A week later, the three wound up in an air chase. Their vehicle was shot down. The third to die: Beth. Sheppard and the single remaining other Spartan, Sarah, were both recovered from the wreckage by an underground Rebellion group. They were nursed back to health in the acrid blue liquid called Bacta. Communication was a severe issue. It didn't matter, in the end. Somehow, the Empire found them and attacked the base. The Spartans were rescued again by the entity, which they identified as B-13 from the inscription on its right pauldron. It blasted through the Imperial attack and flew them to safety under the power of its own armor.
It revealed itself to be a human; he called himself Daniels. Combat Admiral First Class C.T. Daniels. He wouldn't say where he was from or how he'd found them, only that he knew a way they could get back. They had to steal a ship, get off the city-world (which he called Coruscant) and get to an Imperial shipyard where they would find a ship capable of getting them home.
The fourth to die: Sarah. While they tried to steal a ship, a freighter of sorts...Sheppard mentally shook his head. It was best not to remember that death.
“You're evading the question. Even with all of them, there's no way you'd make it back. It says here you plowed your way through one of their cruisers on the way back. And another report from the Marines who found you half-dead on Reach describes an alien vessel lifting off and disappearing into Space.”
“We went around the cruiser when a Rebel fleet attacked and distracted them. The alien vessel was one we stole ourselves. Why it lifted off and left, we have no idea. It might have been some automated retrieval system.” Daniels had been flying it, of course. “What exactly makes you think this report was completely doctored?”
“How would you even know how to pilot one of their ships? Our bests technicians could barely make heads or tails of it with the help of its pilot.”
“Guesswork, mostly. I suppose we—I—got lucky.”
“You're remarkably vague on the subjects of how your teammates died.”
It was Sheppard's turn to glare. “They died fighting to survive in a hostile environment. They died brutally. I think Command wouldn't mind it if I omitted the exact details of my Spartans' deaths. That they know when and how is accurate enough.” He huffed. “What's the point of this, Xiong? You know as well as I do why you're here. How'd you figure it out?”
“I asked around. You weren't completely quiet. You did tell a few people what really happened. Coercion can go a long way. Is he what you hoped to find when you sent that Strabo man to the nebula? Thought he might be waiting after all this time?”
“The way he explained it to me, time is meaningless when it comes to the Rift. He could be waiting on the other side for a signal. It may have only been days. He might have died of old age. And,” he said, somewhat resignedly, “I knew it would happen eventually. I wanted it to be my man, not ONI's, who made First Contact.”
“Why not go yourself?” Xiong asked.
“What, and arouse all that suspicion? Besides which, and I know it's really very arrogant of me to say, but if the ship should have been attacked and destroyed on the spot...I'm more valuable in that instance than a freighter captain.”
“You expected war?”
“When I last saw that galaxy, it was under the control of a maniacal man named Palpatine, not a benevolent Republic and the Jedi Order.” Sheppard tented his hands in front of him on the desk. “It's still possible that he might be waiting for a signal.” The seated Admiral knew, of course, what that signal was. “It doesn't matter right now anyway. What does matter, though, and it's good that you came so I didn't have to hunt you down, is that project ONI has planned for this station.”
Xiong glared ever more strongly. “What project?” Behind his hands, Sheppard smirked.
“Now you're the one playing dumb. But I will indulge you. I speak of the Flood research project that will be taking place on this station to minimize the effects of possible outbreak. It's my understanding that not one, but several worlds have had to be nuked from orbit because of outbreaks from facilities. Seven worlds, I believe the number is? And that doesn't even include the ones you let run rampant, just to see how bad it could get. The Death Worlds, they call them.” Xiong sighed and bowed his head for a moment.
“There is a plan for a project here, yes. I won't say more than that.”
“You don't need to. Like you, I have connections. When does it get here?”
“In a week. We'd hoped by then that you'd have your nose off this station and back to Earth. I'm sure you know how infamous you are to ONI and its affiliates.”
“Oh, you mean that little thing in Africa after the War?”
“Little thing? You blew up Madagascar!”
“Which would have happened anyway from the Flood research project you'd set up there following the Siege of Earth. A week, you say? You're good at timing, I'll give you that. I actually was going to be on Mars in a week, if Strabo hadn't found anything. He did, though.” Sheppard leaned forward, matching Xiong's glare with a grin. “So now I'm still going to be here. Will that be a problem?”
“No,” growled the ONI man. “No, you won't be a problem at all. You can't do anything to stop the project. Not legally.”
“Who said I would try to stop it? Of course, that delivery ship won't even make it to this station, but that won't be any fault of mine. I won't even have to lift a finger.”
“What have you done, Sheppard?” Xiong glared ever more intently. Sheppard just chuckled.
“I haven't done anything. I won't need to, like I said. It's not me you should be worrying about.”
“Who, then? The UNSC won't touch us. Those Independents that live in the outer systems don't have the power to destroy the fleet escorting the delivery carrier. And those aliens don't have a clue what's going on.”
“The Elites are getting fed up with ONI's repeated attempts at Flood control.” Oh, the pun. Sheppard smiled a little wider. “They're already en route to intercept that fleet at its next stop point. Don't ask me how they know where and when that is, I haven't got a clue. Presumably some traitor in your ranks decided it was too dangerous.” At this, Xiong lost his composure, just slightly.
“Damn it, Sheppard! These projects have a purpose! The Flood have amazing biological attributes! Regenerative tissue, ceaseless endurance, total immunity to any disease!”
“Save the disease that they are. The Forerunner race was vastly, vastly more powerful than ours and they were destroyed by the Flood. To my knowledge, we've fared no better in our research.” He frowned now. “How many Marines died, do you think, in that facility on Phobos, when they had no idea what horror they were supposed to be guarding? How many civilians were killed by our own nuclear weaponry on Jericho V's third moon? Miranda, when Hook City was terrorized for months by something lurking in the surrounding forest? Titan, when you people sank a science station into Jupiter to cover up what you'd done. Delta Halo. Madagascar.” The list was longer, but those were the major incidents. “All failures, all resulting in no survivors, all because the Office of Naval Intelligence couldn't keep their paws off The Virus.”
“I was at Phobos. I fought the Flood, I personally destroyed the facility to prevent them spreading. I was one of three survivors. One was an ONI officer who immediately recruited me. The other was a single Flood spore, which was used to start the project over on Titan.” Xiong shook his head, realizing he was about to start raging about the past, which was a fast track to getting shot when working for Section III. “Reach Station is going to be different. We've constructed a section specifically for the project. In the first sign of outbreak, it is hard-programmed to detach and start relaying a hostile IFF signal. Any nearby ships equipped with plasma weaponry, as well as this station itself, would vaporize it completely. Failing that, it would be on a collision course with the star. Foolproof.”
“Famous last words.” Sheppard sighed and reached for his intercom. “This is Admiral Sheppard to the Argonaut. Tesla, what's the current status of the Elite fleet sent to intercept the ONI carrier?” He waited. “Tesla, I repeat, what's the status of the Elite strikeforce?”
“Who's Tesla?” Xiong asked.
“My smart AI, he's running my flagship. Or he was when I last checked in.” He keyed the comm again. “Admiral Sheppard to Reach System Control, what's the status of the Argonaut?” Again, silence. The two Admirals exchanged a look. Xiong was the first one out the door, having already been standing. Sheppard quickly caught up as they raced down the corridors towards Reach Station's control center.
A comms blackout was standard protocol for certain situations where the Navy was involved. These days, none of them were good, and only two of them possible.
Either the aliens were doing this somehow, or someone had identified a Flood-controlled vessel and didn't want people panicking.
==+==
All across the system, communications and sensors were lost. From fighters to Reach Station itself, total darkness reigned. They couldn't see anything electronically. But they had windows. There were few who were close enough to see what was going on. Of those few, even fewer knew of the Damnation that had arrived.
It was one ship, badly damaged. It dropped out of Slipspace at ludicrous speeds over Reach and headed straight for Reach Station. On its way, a massive EMP pulse went out, knocking out communications and sensors all across the system. Ships gunned their engines wildly to get out of its way as it continued inexorably, seemingly straight for the massive man-made satellite. Those onboard the station tried to get the weapons to target it and shoot it down, but nothing was online. They looked on in horror as it sped towards the top half of the diamond. It missed.
Directly behind Reach Station were two very, very important ships: the Ambassador's Mon Calamari cruiser and the Republic Star Destroyer. Nether one had a clue what had happened. Both still had sensors and communications, and they could both detect the incoming vessel. Neither one had a clue what to do about it, however. Eventually the Star Destroyer captain decided it was a threat. The first turbolaser shots missed the fast-moving ship, flying past it. The second salvo tore open its front sections. If one looked closely, they might see gangrenous, putrid gas being expelled from the interior. The continued barrage destroyed most of the front of the ship and knocked it off its path. Just as it began to fall apart, small pods of metal and desiccated flesh shot out of the wreckage and impacted on the Mon Calamari vessel.

[Siddious2RS]

Hm, interesting. But keep in mind I said once that Xiong did not like the Flood project - he was kinda dragged into it by ONI. I have an explanation for it, if you want it.

Pretty good, anyway.

[Exterminatus Extremis]

This is just the start of it, we later find out how much he actually hate's the things. What's your explanation?

[Siddious2RS]

Ah, okay, I like that idea.(Damn it, there should be thumbs up emoticon)

EDIT: You know what? Just, forget the explanation I had here, unless you want it. As long as Xiong hates the Flood project, im fine :)

[Exterminatus Extremis]

Alrighty then. In actuality, besides major events and things that I know need to take place for the end result to make sense, I have very little idea of what I'm going to write. Which is why Pein has been very helpful.

[Siddious2RS]

Lol, thats how I feel about my machinima right now. I only know the beginning(Genesis) and end(uh oh, now it occurred to me it will likely heavily mismatch with yours.) and a few major parts.

Uh, were you responding to the unedited or the current version of my last post? Cuz its seems you could have been responding to the unedited one.

[Exterminatus Extremis]

Eh, works for both, really.

[Siddious2RS]

Ah, okay.

[Darth Zeram]

when to the starwars people come in

[Exterminatus Extremis]

If you've been reading, some already have. As for characters people have created, that would be in the next installment (after Genesis is done.) Like I said numerous times, not much happens in this installment.

[Jago Ballium]

Ludicrous speeds? a referance to space balls?

If corran is to be included and you need something, what he is doing there yadda yadda yadda, I have ideas

[Exterminatus Extremis]

Part V (incomplete)

The crew assumed they were just torpedoes until the bridge began to get reports of something onboard attacking the crew and...changing them. The screams of the dying began to fill the communication lines. The Star Destroyer wasn't sure what to do until it became apparent that they couldn't raise the Ambassador's communicator. They received reports that the cruiser they were supposed to be escorting was being ravaged on the inside by some horror the renegade ship had unleashed. The Ambassador was incommunicado and the Mon Calamari ship was under attack. The Star Destroyer's captain quickly put two and two together.
“What are our odds, people?” the Captain asked his bridge crew. No one could tell him accurately, only that they were surrounded and didn't have room to make a run to Hyperspace. “Alright, we've gone up against tougher things before. To our knowledge, most of their ships don't even have shields. Clear the area around us and fire on that station with everything we've got.”
Turbolasers and torpedo bays across the ship opened up and blew two UNSC frigates to pieces. They had no idea what was happening until it was too late. The next shots were aimed at Reach Station itself.
~~O~~
The conference was interrupted when a Marine in combat uniform entered the room and whispered something to the UNSC Admirals seated there. Eyes narrowed, frowns formed, and they slowly turned towards the Ambassador as the station rocked to an explosion. They stood up.
“We're under attack. Please wait here while we attend to this.” The Admirals filed out, leaving the Marines and the Ambassador with his Jedi escort to try and figure out what was going on. Tambor's eyes were closed and he had a deep grimace on his face. He could feel it. Whatever it was he'd felt before on that ship, it was here, in this system. In fact, it was on...
His eyes snapped wide just in time for the Turbolaser fire to slam into the window and destroy several dozen meters of the station.
~~O~~
“Admiral Huntz, the Star Destroyer has engaged the vessels around it and Reach Station. We can't raise anyone on comms and our sensors are on the fritz. We have no idea what's going on.” The Admiral spoke as he walked, the radio sewn into his lapel relaying his words to the command center of the station.
“Acknowledged. What's the status of the other vessel?”
“Unknown, sir. It hasn't shot anyone yet. The Observation Deck reports that it was struck by torpedoes from an unidentified rogue Prowler that dropped in-system around ten minutes ago, followed by an EMP that knocked out our communications and sensors. The damage appears to be minimal. It's unknown why only the Star Destroyer is engaging. Shall we-” the man on the other end was cut off by shouting voices.
“Destroy that vessel, now!”
“No, stop! Don't shoot them, you'll only make it worse.”
“Stand down, Sheppard. Those weren't ordinary specimens, there was something more dangerous about them. You have to burn that ship before they escape.”
“Xiong is right,” said Leditzky. “They're too great a threat to this whole system. The aliens won't have a clue how to kill them, or what they even are.”
Huntz stepped in. “Someone mind telling me what the hell is going on?” Everyone was silent for a second, then Sheppard spoke up.
“It's Flood, sir. That Prowler was Flood-controlled, and those weren't torpedoes, they were boarding pods. They think it was an attack, and if we shoot them now it will only confirm it.”
“Irrelevant,” said Xiong. “The Flood is too dangerous. That ship is all but lost, and our best bet now is to destroy it before they can take it over completely.” Sheppard began to protest again.
“Everyone, shut up!” Silence reigned once more. Huntz continued, “While we continue debating, that Star Destroyer is continuing to fire on this unshielded station. We can still salvage this situation if we get communications back online. How long will that take?” Another few moments passed.
“Too long, sir. The EMP fried everything. At least an hour.” Someone groaned on the other side of the link.
“What now?” Four Admirals asked in unison.
“That last salvo hit the station dead on. You'll never guess where.” The schematic was relayed to their PDAs.
“Oh, hell.”
~~O~~
“Captain, none of them have fired back.”
“That's odd. What's the status of the Never-Ending Peace?”
“They're trying to repel the boarders as best they can, sir, but the command bridge was overrun. They're falling back to the escape pods and shuttle bays. At last report, there were only a hundred left. The rest are dead or...converted.”
~~O~~
“Get to the shuttles! We've got to get off this ship!” Pilot [NAME PLEASE] yelled to the people passing her. She fired a few shots down the corridor at the advancing mass of horrors. None of them even showed they felt it. Another few shots from her sidearm, and she turned and ran. There were eight of them, all told, who were making their way to her shuttle. The chances of making it in time weren't looking good.
It had all started with those torpedoes. Their first clue that something was wrong was the lack of reports from repair crews. People started going missing from unaffected sections of the ship. Then, reports of screaming. Then they did hear from the repair crews, in the form of shambling, undying things that were once sentient beings. The little ones, that popped, swarmed over the first squad to try and repel the boarders. Then the enemy had guns and the know-how to use them.
When they broke open the sealed blast doors to the bridge, few people on the command crew had the chance to even turn around before they were buried under a mass of the things. After that, the ship started going haywire as life support shut down, then started back up with different settings. The whole place was starting to smell and suffocate.
It had been twelve minutes since the pods first struck the side of the cruiser. In just twelve minutes, the things had overpowered most of the ship and killed or consumed them. There were less than a hundred of the original crew left, and they were all making their way to any means of escape they could find.
A ball of pinkish flame whispered past her head and struck the man in front of her. He screamed and screamed as she ran past, and when she looked back he was a charred pile on the floor. One of the horrors opened its mouth, wider than its original form (by appearances, human) should have allowed by any stretch of physics. A tongue lolled out, dripping acid on the floor as it shuffled forward faster than its broken bones would have made possible. She screamed and ran faster.
The worst part was that they talked. The changed ones, the Infected, they talked using the ruined, bastardized vocal chords of the beings they once were. The effect was terrifying. They weren't true voices anymore, and they didn't say words she could understand, but on some gut level her instincts told her they were speaking. Every time she heard one of those horrible voices she nearly froze with fear. It must have been her imagination, but she could swear she heard deep, dripping laughter at the back of her mind.
She rounded a corner to find a group of Clones kneeling or standing in a line at the end of the corridor.
“Run, you idiots!” she screamed at them. “Blasters won't work!” The Sergeant of the squad only shook his head.
“It's our job to make sure you people get off this ship safely. Go, we'll hold them off as long as we can.” His voice shook, but he didn't say anything more. She nodded her thanks, and continued to run. Maybe, she told herself, if I run fast enough, I won't hear them scream. She heard them anyway.
At last, her shuttle was in sight. Five of them had made it onboard and strapped in. She sprinted up the ramp, checked briefly to see if there were any stragglers, and closed the hatch.
“Beginning primary ignition sequences.” The ship rumbled and lifted off the deck. She saw in the aft camera that the monsters had entered the hangar and were running towards the ship, some starting to make too-high leaps at it.
“Everyone hold on tight. I'm getting us out of here.” Just then, she heard a noise above her head. She looked up at the air recycler cover and watched it shake for a moment. All she felt was terror. Complete, utter terror, as an Infection Form dropped out of the vent and landed on her face.
~~O~~

[Siddious2RS]

Whoo! Nice!

[Exterminatus Extremis]

Part V

The crew assumed they were just torpedoes until the bridge began to get reports of something onboard attacking the crew and...changing them. The screams of the dying began to fill the communication lines. The Star Destroyer wasn't sure what to do until it became apparent that they couldn't raise the Ambassador's communicator. They received reports that the cruiser they were supposed to be escorting was being ravaged on the inside by some horror the renegade ship had unleashed. The Ambassador was incommunicado and the Mon Calamari ship was under attack. The Star Destroyer's captain quickly put two and two together.
“What are our odds, people?” the Captain asked his bridge crew. No one could tell him accurately, only that they were surrounded and didn't have room to make a run to Hyperspace. “Alright, we've gone up against tougher things before. To our knowledge, most of their ships don't even have shields. Clear the area around us and fire on that station with everything we've got.”
Turbolasers and torpedo bays across the ship opened up and blew two UNSC frigates to pieces. They had no idea what was happening until it was too late. The next shots were aimed at Reach Station itself.
~~O~~
The conference was interrupted when a Marine in combat uniform entered the room and whispered something to the UNSC Admirals seated there. Eyes narrowed, frowns formed, and they slowly turned towards the Ambassador as the station rocked to an explosion. They stood up.
“We're under attack. Please wait here while we attend to this.” The Admirals filed out, leaving the Marines and the Ambassador with his Jedi escort to try and figure out what was going on. Tambor's eyes were closed and he had a deep grimace on his face. He could feel it. Whatever it was he'd felt before on that ship, it was here, in this system. In fact, it was on...
His eyes snapped wide just in time for the Turbolaser fire to slam into the window and destroy several dozen meters of the station.
~~O~~
“Admiral Huntz, the Star Destroyer has engaged the vessels around it and Reach Station. We can't raise anyone on comms and our sensors are on the fritz. We have no idea what's going on.” The Admiral spoke as he walked, the radio sewn into his lapel relaying his words to the command center of the station.
“Acknowledged. What's the status of the other vessel?”
“Unknown, sir. It hasn't shot anyone yet. The Observation Deck reports that it was struck by torpedoes from an unidentified rogue Prowler that dropped in-system around ten minutes ago, followed by an EMP that knocked out our communications and sensors. The damage appears to be minimal. It's unknown why only the Star Destroyer is engaging. Shall we-” the man on the other end was cut off by shouting voices.
“Destroy that vessel, now!”
“No, stop! Don't shoot them, you'll only make it worse.”
“Stand down, Sheppard. Those weren't ordinary specimens, there was something more dangerous about them. You have to burn that ship before they escape.”
“Xiong is right,” said Leditzky. “They're too great a threat to this whole system. The aliens won't have a clue how to kill them, or what they even are.”
Huntz stepped in. “Someone mind telling me what the hell is going on?” Everyone was silent for a second, then Sheppard spoke up.
“It's Flood, sir. That Prowler was Flood-controlled, and those weren't torpedoes, they were boarding pods. They think it was an attack, and if we shoot them now it will only confirm it.”
“Irrelevant,” said Xiong. “The Flood is too dangerous. That ship is all but lost, and our best bet now is to destroy it before they can take it over completely.” Sheppard began to protest again.
“Everyone, shut up!” Silence reigned once more. Huntz continued, “While we continue debating, that Star Destroyer is continuing to fire on this unshielded station. We can still salvage this situation if we get communications back online. How long will that take?” Another few moments passed.
“Too long, sir. The EMP fried everything. At least an hour.” Someone groaned on the other side of the link.
“What now?” Four Admirals asked in unison.
“That last salvo hit the station dead on. You'll never guess where.” The schematic was relayed to their PDAs.
“Oh, hell.”
~~O~~
“Captain, none of them have fired back.”
“That's odd. What's the status of the Never-Ending Peace?”
“They're trying to repel the boarders as best they can, sir, but the command bridge was overrun. They're falling back to the escape pods and shuttle bays. At last report, there were only a hundred left. The rest are dead or...converted.”
~~O~~
“Get to the shuttles! We've got to get off this ship!” Pilot Kimberly Hay yelled to the people passing her. She fired a few shots down the corridor at the advancing mass of horrors. None of them even showed they felt it. Another few shots from her sidearm, and she turned and ran. There were eight of them, all told, who were making their way to her shuttle. The chances of making it in time weren't looking good.
It had all started with those torpedoes. Their first clue that something was wrong was the lack of reports from repair crews. People started going missing from unaffected sections of the ship. Then, reports of screaming. Then they did hear from the repair crews, in the form of shambling, undying things that were once sentient beings. The little ones, that popped, swarmed over the first squad to try and repel the boarders. Then the enemy had guns and the know-how to use them.
When they broke open the sealed blast doors to the bridge, few people on the command crew had the chance to even turn around before they were buried under a mass of the things. After that, the ship started going haywire as life support shut down, then started back up with different settings. The whole place was starting to smell and suffocate.
It had been twelve minutes since the pods first struck the side of the cruiser. In just twelve minutes, the things had overpowered most of the ship and killed or consumed them. There were less than a hundred of the original crew left, and they were all making their way to any means of escape they could find.
A ball of pinkish flame whispered past her head and struck the man in front of her. He screamed and screamed as she ran past, and when she looked back he was a charred pile on the floor. One of the horrors opened its mouth, wider than its original form (by appearances, human) should have allowed by any stretch of physics. A tongue lolled out, dripping acid on the floor as it shuffled forward faster than its broken bones would have made possible. She screamed and ran faster.
The worst part was that they talked. The changed ones, the Infected, they talked using the ruined, bastardized vocal chords of the beings they once were. The effect was terrifying. They weren't true voices anymore, and they didn't say words she could understand, but on some gut level her instincts told her they were speaking. Every time she heard one of those horrible voices she nearly froze with fear. It must have been her imagination, but she could swear she heard deep, dripping laughter at the back of her mind.
She rounded a corner to find a group of Clones kneeling or standing in a line at the end of the corridor.
“Run, you idiots!” she screamed at them. “Blasters won't work!” The Sergeant of the squad only shook his head.
“It's our job to make sure you people get off this ship safely. Go, we'll hold them off as long as we can.” His voice shook, but he didn't say anything more. She nodded her thanks, and continued to run. Maybe, she told herself, if I run fast enough, I won't hear them scream. She heard them anyway.
At last, her shuttle was in sight. Five of them had made it onboard and strapped in. She sprinted up the ramp, checked briefly to see if there were any stragglers, and closed the hatch.
“Beginning primary ignition sequences.” The ship rumbled and lifted off the deck. She saw in the aft camera that the monsters had entered the hangar and were running towards the ship, some starting to make too-high leaps at it.
“Everyone hold on tight. I'm getting us out of here.” Just then, she heard a noise above her head. She looked up at the air recycler cover and watched it shake for a moment. All she felt was terror. Complete, utter terror, as an Infection Form dropped out of the vent and landed on her face.
~~O~~
His leg was trapped under something. Smashed beneath a large slab of metal. That should hurt, shouldn't it? His other leg was gone. He saw a boot lying on the floor. Maybe it's his?
David, he thought. Isn't that my name? TX-30C. And that over there is Joseph. Wait. That's Joseph's head. There's something wrong with it. He realized with mounting horror that the poor man's skull had been pierced through by a support beam from the room. Somehow, he himself had been protected by his armor. He was still breathing despite the gaping hole in one wall and the superheated metal at the opposite wall from where the window used to be. There was another hole there, leading deeper into the station. He tried to get up, but realized that it was a futile effort with both legs ruined.
The communicator in his helmet was smashed to pieces which floated around him in the vacuum. No rescue, then. Something in his mind told him he should be worried or panicking right then, but it wasn't heard under the confusion and haze of what had happened. Slowly, it came back to him. The Admirals leaving. The Jedi's face all scrunched up. Then a blinding light approaching the station--
Wait. He was seeing that now. A blinding light. Suddenly, the voice in his head telling him to get up and escape, to find help, stopped yelling at him and quivered in stupefying certainty of the oncoming doom.
~~O~~
It is only by sheer force of will and his connection to the Force that Jedi Master Nikolaus Peshter made his way gasping into the main Engineering section of the Never-Ending Peace. His double-bladed lightsaber was a wreck, only working out of one end. This he held in his right hand, and with his left steadied himself. One of the small ones, the Infection Forms, had gotten ahold of him. He limped on his right leg as his left was a bloodied mess where the probe had entered his flesh.
He felt it, the instant it made contact with his nervous system. A super-sentient being, a hive mind, murderous purpose...but twisted. There was what the things naturally were, and then there was what they'd become. Some unspeakable horror had changed them and made them worse. The “normal” Flood would never have been able to overwhelm them so quickly.
They couldn't be allowed to gain control of the ship, to escape. They had to be destroyed. He lurched his way to the command console normally manned by the Chief Engineer. It still was, though only by his head. Nikolaus pushed it aside with some disgust and typed in the override code for self-destruct. Something smashed into the doors to the large room. He sighed, and pressed the confirmation button just as the doors exploded inward and a mass of the creatures shambled towards him. Looking within, drawing on the Force, he found a calm. And a name.
“Come and get it, Daemons.”
~~O~~
“Captain! The Never-Ending Peace is auto-destructing. They're trying to stop the invaders from escaping.” The Captain of the ISD Freedom looked down briefly.
“Bring us about. Send a message to the Republic. Include a full record of the events here and a warning that negotiations have failed. Tactical, target the main weapons of the station and take them out systematically. Give the shuttle as much time as you can.” The crew complied, knowing they weren't going to be making the return trip through the Rift.
Turbolasers realigned from their targets to lock onto the first of the double MAC systems on the station. Proton torpedoes fired in sequence. The Freedom let loose a torrent of fire into Reach Station as a single shuttle tore out of its hangar and sped away, all but unnoticed by the reeling UNSC fleet. A small cheer went up as one of the large guns was blown off of the station. Engines powered and the ISD moved into a broadside position to circle the station. It never got the chance.
Several dozen plasma torpedoes slammed into its side, damaging the shielding. Plasma-based weaponry all across the station lit up and peppered the vessel until the shields imploded. Then, the two remaining online Magnetic Accelerator Cannons opened up, firing a quick one-two burst. The depleted Uranium rounds punched straight through the Star Destroyer. Internal explosions rippled across it, growing in intensity until the constant stream of plasma the station poured into it weakened it enough for it to shake itself apart.
~~O~~
“You idiot!” shouted Admiral Sheppard as he grabbed Xiong by his collar and shoved him against the wall. “I told you not to fire on those ships. We could have salvaged this. We could have sent a representative, or saved their Ambassador and stopped this from happening. We could have just explained ourselves.” The man had just ordered the station's reactivated weapons free.
Xiong hooked him across the jaw, finally losing composure completely. “Get your hands off of me, Sheppard! You know damn well that that ship would have destroyed this station piece by piece. This was the only option.” He ducked under Sheppard's return strike and moved to tackle the overbalanced man.
“Both of you, shut up!” Huntz and Leditzky had finally made it to the Command Center of Reach Station. “You're making fools of yourselves and the Admiralship in general!” They were ignored.
“You just put us right back where we were twenty-six years ago. We can't survive another war, not against the Republic!” Sheppard rolled from the tackle and lashed out with a foot. Xiong caught it and spun him around, but Sheppard just rolled with it and brought the other foot up. This was caught instead by Leditzky, while Xiong was restrained by Huntz. The bridge crew looked on in amused fascination as the Admirals brawled in front of them.
“Stand down!” This was accompanied by a pistol discharge. All eyes turned to Leditzky. “Send a message to Earth and tell them to get the Navy ready. Xiong and Sheppard, return to your fleets and await orders.” He shook his head as they begrudgingly complied. They all outranked him, he knew, but it didn't matter at that point. “What's the status of the Ambassador's shuttle?” Silence met his question. He asked again, louder.
“Uh, gone, sir. The hangar was hit by a stray torpedo from the...enemy vessel.” Sheppard cringed at the word “enemy.” He'd been afraid of this since Day One.
~~O~~
There were three this time. They sat in a brightly-lit conference room, reviewing data sent back by several observers from the events at Reach Station. Two were very similar to the dark figures in the dark room from before, but also very different.
“This war's started too soon. Someone or something is accelerating events beyond our control,” Three said.
“Who and why?” added Two.
“That can come later.” One. “The how is the important part, and what happened on that Prowler. Where did those specimens come from? Their ONI can't have found a way into the Warp yet. If they had we'd know about it. Someone from our end must have deliberately supplied them with corrupted samples.”
“My Operatives are working on it,” Two put forth. “They should be reporting back with new information within the week.”
“Should we move into the open?” Three asked. “Sheppard will call for your help eventually.”
“Yes. You two will accompany me later, once you've assembled your fleets and settled matters here. I will take the Fist and secure the Rift on the other side, initiate First Contact with the UNSC, and bring the various factions under heel.”
~~O~~
It drifted silently through the dark, shut down to avoid detection, disguised as debris from the destroyed Mon Calamari Cruiser. At the pilot's seat was something that had once been human. Four masses behind it wriggled within from developing sports and Infection Forms. It manipulated a few controls, pulsing the engines briefly to get it moving. These Flood were far more intelligent than their “natural” brethren. Still, however, the faintly-groaning parody of Kimberly Hay was a distended, deformed creature with twisted limbs and a twisted, eternally-screaming face.
The fifth creature in the hold screeched, a high, whining tone, and died. The ship vanished into the Warp.