After gathering up their things and bringing Octavia up to speed, the assault force made their way down the tower and onto the pyramid in the aggressive snow storm.
Vinyl had told Fluttershy that the two missing soldiers, Bulk and Caramel, had disappeared on two separate harvesting trips. Those trips were what had earned them their meals of tree bark, pine leaves, and water from the frozen lake. The Ponies who had been with them when they'd disappeared said they never saw a thing - just heard screaming, found blood, and nothing more. Fluttershy thought it was pretty obvious who the culprits were, and she shivered, knowing that "they" were here.
Further signs of the Flood were the missing bodies on top of the pyramid. A whole lota Covies had died here, but now, not a single body was left. Not only had Covies fallen, but this was also the spot where the great and powerful Trixie had gone to rest. Not even her body remained. It made Fluttershy sick; the thought that Trixie had been resurrected and transformed into the hideousness that had attacked her in the bowels of Halo. She really hoped she wouldn't find her.
When Fluttershy had asked Twilight how to get to the pulse generator, all she'd said was "Pinkie." Typical, cryptic AI. What was Pinkie to do? She was... dead.
Pushing through the snawfall, the sleek shape of an abandoned Covenant Banshee fighter came into view.
Of course! The Banshee that Pinkie had hijacked the last time they were here!
Quietly, Flitter muttered, "Even in death, your friend guides us all."
Approaching the purple aircraft, Fluttershy looked up at it, running her hoof over its smooth fuselage. Her eyes were big, as if she were about to make some sort of big commitment.
The soldiers backed her up, and one of them, Vinyl to be precise, quizzed, "Y'think you can fly that thing?"
Fleur opened her mouth, about to speak words for the first time in forever, but she was interrupted by Twilight. "With me in her head, she can fly anything."
Fluttershy didn't know. She'd driven Wraiths with the AI's guidance, but this was an aircraft. From somewhere, she'd gotten the idea that aircrafts were harder to control. Especially alien ones.
Without a word, she pulled herself in, bringing down the carapace. Some of the squad cheered half heartedly until an increasing drone sounded from the Banshee, and all its exterior lights flicked on. The squad ran away as white dust was raised from the snowy pyramid, Fluttershy getting the Banshee off the ground. Her squeals were drowned out by the shrill, high-pitched engines.
Inside the vehicle, Twilight ordered, "Push the control yoke forward."
Afraid of pushing it too far, the Pegasus trembled, "H... how far forwar - yaa!" Too far.
Like a rocket, the Banshee blasted off, strong enough to create a gust in the opposite direction of the current wind. She'd gone low over the squad, and their manes and tails flapped around.
"Covenant are on the pyramid, and on the valley floor," stated Twilight over the coms. "I want all the Pegasi to join our Banshee in providing air support for the ground troops."
"Piece o' cake," Lightning Dust shrugged.
Derpy became excited at "cake," sticking her tongue out and panting like a dog.
If driving a Scorpion had been difficult, driving a Wraith had been crazy, and if driving a Wraith had been crazy, driving a Banshee had to be the single most barmiest thing ever.
The blizzard was harsh and unforgiving, and Fluttershy could really feel the aircraft get blown sideways.
Visibility was poor too; obstacles only coming into view when she was perilously close to crashing into them. She did have heat vision though, and she could pick out her colleagues advancing heedfully down the structure, as well as the Covenant embarking up it.
For the Ponies on the ground, conditions were bad. Their faces reddened as they walked blindly down the ancient alien architecture, weapons at the ready.
The airborne Pegasi had every right to complain too. It was freezing, and the cold temperature stung every part of their bodies that was exposed.
When the Banshee opened fire ahead of them, they were more than a little afraid, and had to remind themselves that it was on their side. The Covenant could be heard, screeching as the Banshee and the Pegasi tore apart their formation.
Everything was blurred in the snow. Muzzle flashes were easily detectable, especially the blue and green ones that came from the big, flying silhouette. Biped silhouettes on the ground danced on impact and disappeared. As the squad continued their slippery way to the valley floor, they passed the alien bodies, riddled with bullets, plasma burns, or just blown apart by fuel rod projectiles.
"At the left of the valley, there's a passage into the cliffs," drawled Twilight over the radio. "It shall take you up to the ice bridge."
"Acknowledged, Twilight!" responded Octavia, shouting over the howling wind.
Vinyl stayed close to her, catching her whenever she slipped. It was more difficult for Octy than anypony else, what with her missing leg and all.
Hell reigned on the valley floor as Fluttershy and the winged Ponies assaulted the Covenant from the air. Blossomforth's bazooka sent booming rockets into the armoured alien horde, utterly decimating them. It was hard for her to keep herself and that heavy weapon airborne in the gale, but she managed.
The three ground bound Ponies held position, and Fleur de Lis made use of the heat vision scope on her sniper rifle to silence the Covenant soldiers. One of the Elites in the mix was a Zealot; a mighty warrior, but he didn't even know what hit him when a sabot discarding slug caught him in the heart.
"Can you even see what you're shooting at?" questioned the plasma rifle wielding Vinyl, who didn't have a heat vision scope.
Fleur took a break to nod and got straight back to sniping through the mask of snow. After each crack of the rifle, a Covenant scream would answer in kind.
"You're a pretty good sniper," Octavia complimented, eliciting a faint smile from the silent one.
Soaring through the blizzard, Lightning strained the muscles in her wings to fight the major turbulence. If she was having difficulty, there was no telling how the rest of the Pegasi were coping.
"Woah!" she yelped as she was almost clipped by Fluttershy's clumsy Banshee. "Watch where you're going!"
After the Banshee, the sound of sizzling plasma grew louder, and Lightning witnessed a big blue light shine through the storm, arcing in her direction. She quickly dodged the ball of plasma, and bit her lip upon realising what they were up against. Somewhere below, obscured by the snow, the Covenant had a Wraith tank.
"Wraith!" wailed Twilight in alarm. "Get us high!"
Using the control yoke, Fluttershy sent the Banshee fighter into a steep climb, almost smashing into the pyramid.
Like the beginner she was, she levelled off and banked the aircraft around, its engines shrieking like a, well, Banshee. Looking for the biggest blob of heat on her screen, Fluttershy identified the Wraith, and bombarded it with everything she had.
It would seem that the Wraith had heat vision too, and the operator of the thing sent orbs of hot blue plasma arching high up into the blizzard to meet her.
"Dodge right! Dodge left!" commanded the AI frantically.
Fluttershy was terrified as she kept the Banshee diving down towards the angry tank, using the weapons to make it angrier. Plasma corroded its chunky armour, and a couple of FRPs made it rock, but it stood strong and valiant, and as she drew closer to it, she was forced to pull up, bank around, and try again. It reminded her of the Banshees she'd faced when she'd first landed on Halo, and she felt as if she'd stooped down to the Covenant's level.
Preparing for a second strike on the tank, Fluttershy, with plenty of input from Twilight, realigned the Banshee with her target, but before she could move into range, she saw Blossomforth fly ungracefully over the tank, and fire a rocket. The shaped charge hit the ground right at the Wraith's rear, and the prodigious explosion was enough to destroy it.
"That'll keep him warm," Twilight joked dryly.
Blossomforth herself had gotten carried away in the wind, and the only landing she could pull off was a crash landing, straight into the snow. Thankfully, the snow cushioned her, and she shook the stuff off with a "Burrrr."
"Holy smokes, Blossomforth," Flitter spoke with a chuckle. It was nice to see her gradually getting over what had happened to her twin sister. "You alright?" She helped her back into the air.
"I'm fine," the white Pegasus shivered. "Just a little... c-c-cold."
"If only you had fire for hair like Lightning."
"Ugh, that one's got fire for a brain."
"Uh, guys?!" Derpy piped up over the channel, sounding a little spooked. "I... I found something!"
"What is it, Derpy?" inquired Twilight.
"I... I don't know!"
Fluttershy could see Derpy on her screen, so she decided to give her a flyby and see if she could see what she was seeing.
The other Ponies regrouped around Derpy, pushing strong in the gale. A series of responses came over Fluttershy's speaker as they came across Derpy's discovery.
"Eewwww!"
"Oh my gosh!"
"I think I'm gonna be sick!"
Curious, Twilight started, "What is-"
"-Is this your Flood, Fluttershy?!" Lightning interrupted.
"Flood?"
"Urg!"
Octavia took over. "This thing - urg! It used to be an Elite," cough, "But... not anymore. It's all rotten and has tentacles, and it looks like it was armed with a rocket launcher."
"A rocket launcher?!"
Blossomforth muttered in the background, "Surely this thing wasn't alive."
Around the dead Flood form, the Ponies covered their muzzles and gagged.
"Yeah, I can see a rocket launcher, all bent out of shape. There's a couple of reloads too."
"Oh no! If the Flood are here, this is bad!" stated Twilight worryingly.
Having actually faced the Flood first hoof, Fluttershy corrected, "If the Flood are anywhere, it's bad."
"True."
Confused, the AI quizzed the squad, "Where could it have gotten a rocket launcher from?"
"Oh, I guess they forgot to tell you," Octavia started. "We were contacted by Zecora shortly before the storm. She said she was sending reinforcements to help defend the control centre. We haven't had any reinforcements though, and there's been no word about them over the radio."
Frustrated, Twilight grumbled, "Shoot! If your reinforcements have gone down, and the Flood are out there, then... oohh! This is a disaster!"
"Tell me about it," snorted Lightning. "At least now I aint alone in the club for Pelican pilots that have crashed."
Vinyl barked, "No pony cares!"
At a low altitude, Fluttershy soared the Banshee fighter over the team's heads. She failed to get a glimpse of the Flood corpse, but then wondered why she would even want to see it anyway. If she couldn't see it, then lucky her.
"Uh oh. I've just realised something." Twilight's voice was full of fear.
"What?"
"You know how the Flood steal the knowledge from all their hosts? If somepony trained in heavy weapons is infected, they'll know how to use rocket launchers!"
Over the coms, Octavia asked the good question; "What if somepony who knows Equestria's co-ordinates is infected?"
The team were silent in the blizzard, contemplating.
Fluttershy gasped, "Rarity!"
"Oh no! You said the Flood had taken her! They'll know how to get to Equestria!"
Vinyl Scratch stomped a hoof. "We can't let them get there!"
"Too right! We're going to have to move quicker than ever! We have to destroy this ring before the Flood get off it!"
Impatiently, Lightning hovered up off the ground, then set herself down again when the gustiness threatened to blow her over. "Right, let's go then!"
"Get moving, everypony," Twilight directed. "Through the passage. Fluttershy and I will take care of the first pulse generator; should be done by the time you get to the bridge." She then requested, "Lightning, Flitter? A little peg-assistance?"
All together, Vinyl, Octavia, Fleur, Blossomforth and Derpy waded through the white snow, leaving the contaminated Elite behind. The two bazooka reloads were added to the supply, and Blossomforth took the necessary time to reload her launcher. The rest of the brown cases were carried by each other Pony. Even the three legged Octavia opted to pull her weight.
Upon finding the tall Forerunner door in the icy rock face, they passed through it, leaving Fluttershy, Lightning and Flitter behind.
Having directed Fluttershy to fly the Banshee straight up, Twilight took the opportunity to plot and analyse. "Ok. We have three generators to destroy. We can't fly to each one of them because, above these canyons, the storm is much worse. I wouldn't be surprised if it was responsible for the reinforcements crashing."
"Oh, those poor reinforcements," Fluttershy responded wearily, keeping the alien fighter craft in control. "They must be freezing and hungry and scared... or worse."
The winter wonderland was a lot darker now than it was before, telling Fluttershy that it was night. Looking up though, no moon or stars or night sky were in sight; too much snow.
Twilight continued, "I'm really struggling to find the Filly of Autumn. The snow is interfering. I should be able to find her soon, though. As for Rarity, we'll need her to enact the Autumn's self destruct sequence, but you said she was taken by the Flood." She took the AI equivalent of a breather, remembering the curly maned Unicorn. "... What we need is her neural interface. Only with that can we rig the Autumn to blow. I'll try to get a lock on her CNI transponder signal as well, once the snow thins out."
There was no answer from Fluttershy. She was too sad, and too tired.
Twilight sighed apologetically, "It will be over eventually, Fluttershy."
The yellow Pegasus noted how she said "eventually" instead of "soon." The AI's truthfulness was more admirable than the truth itself.
In a vertical climb, the pink maned pilot felt herself hanging within the cock-pit, and she held on to the control yoke for dear life. She knew she wouldn't fall out, but it sure felt like she would. The aircraft braved the battering winds and shooting snow, swaying in the current.
As for the two helpers, Lightning and Flitter, they put maximum effort into flying up through the storm. Lightning Dust was doing pretty well, but the nice one was struggling, and it never dawned on Lightning to help her out.
Eventually, a Forerunner landing platform emerged in the snow, jutting out the side of the cliff. Fluttershy performed a sloppy landing on the platform, denting the Banshee and the silvery material. Snow had settled on the landing pad, and it crunched beneath Fluttershy's hooves as she dismounted the vehicle.
Lightning soon joined her on the landing pad, and after a fair bit of encouragement, Flitter was up there with them. Below, the valley floor was lost in the blizzard. The Ponies on the ground could be getting attacked by one of the three factions right now, and they wouldn't even know. They certainly couldn't hear anything over the raging wind.
"Why does it have to be so cold?" whinged Fluttershy, shivering.
Lightning and Flitter were probably more freezing than she was, and the former muttered through chattering teeth, "Quit being a baby."
Ah, now there's the mean old Lightning Dust she remembered from before.
Slightly upset from Lightning's remark, Fluttershy lead the way into one of those high corridors that was made out of glass and metal. Oh, she remembered this architecture all too well. She remembered the Covenant, and how they'd so ruthlessly murdered Trixie. Fluttershy didn't like it here, nor did she like her cursed fatigue, draining her attention, and she yawned as she proceeded with the other two.
Once the corridor had been traversed, Fluttershy, Flitter and Lightning entered one of those familiar "octagon within an octagon" chambers. The only noticeable difference, and it was very noticeable, was the column of blinding white light racing up from the floor and away into the ceiling. The three Mares shielded their eyes in the intensity of the light, and the air crackled around them.
"I take it that's the pulse generator," Fluttershy guessed.
"Yep," Twilight replied. "Oh boy, how wonderful! It's a shame we have to break it, but we've gotta do what we've gotta do - to save the universe."
"Thanks for reminding me," murmured Fluttershy dryly, feeling the weight on her back. "So... how do we do this thing?"
"I know I say a lot of things are simple, but this really is simple," lectured the AI. "All you have to do, is walk into it."
Fluttershy gulped, squinting at the piercing light. "I... have to walk into that thing?"
"You'll be fine, Fluttershy. I guarantee it."
The nervous Pegasus stepped forward and stopped upon Twilight adding, "It will drain your shields though."
Backing away with a yelp, Fluttershy grated, "You could've told me that sooner!"
"She could've not told her at all," Lightning whispered to Flitter out the side of her mouth.
Flitter didn't react, just adjusted the pretty pink bow she wore in her mane.
"It's ok, Fluttershy. Your shields will recharge almost instantaneously," the AI spoke reassuringly.
Lightning stepped in to offer the opposite of reassurance. "Yeah, just get in there!" She pushed Fluttershy face first into the blinding light of the pulse generator, making her squeal.
"Lightning!" shouted Twilight and Flitter.
BOOMF! A loud noise drummed out of the ray of light, and the whole ground shook. Panicking, Fluttershy scrambled back out of the angry, hissing light and gave Lightning the evils. The orange maned Pegasus didn't react however, just gawped with Flitter at the over-flowing energy that pulsed up into the ceiling.
"That did it!" elated Twilight happily. "We brought the first pulse generator offline! Well done, Fluttershy!"
I'm not the one you should be congratulating.
As her energy shields recharged with a golden glow, Fluttershy could feel her skin stinging, like she'd been sunburnt. She was thirsty too, and she brought up her canteen, only to be reminded that it was empty.
Putting the canteen away, she asked Twilight, "So, where now?"
"To the next pulse generator!" she yelled enthusiastically. "We'll regroup with the others on the bridge and head on back through the facility."
Oh no. The facility. Fluttershy knew what facility Twilight was on about. The one where Trixie had met her fate. And now, she and the survivors of the assault force had to journey all the way back through it.
Sighing, Fluttershy trudged past Lightning and Flitter towards the room's only door, back to the Banshee. However, before she reached the door, something else opened it from the other side.
Sentinels. Sentinels came hovering through the door and into the chamber. Flitter and Lightning took off immediately and opened fire. Those robots returned fire with their deadly, heated lasers, scrawling black lines onto the engraved metal.
As for Fluttershy, she took cover as fast as she could, switching from her shotgun to her assault rifle. Once the spray gun was braced, she joined the other two Pegasi in destroying the Forerunner machines.
There were four of them, and Flitter had already taken down one. Another one was ripped apart by Lightning's MA5B, and the turquoise Mare moved on to the next, flying up and catching it in her hooves. Like some sort of wild animal, she bit pieces off of the alien machine and spat them onto the floor, until it made a whirring noise and lost power. Lightning let it drop, and it hit the deck with a resounding clang.
That left only one, which Fluttershy took pot shots at. In the end, Flitter was the one who brought it down with her acquired needler.
Reloading the alien weapon, she swooned, "I love this thing."
Lightning rasped, "Pffft! It's the fruitiest weapon I've ever seen."
With all the Sentinels taken care of, it was time to move on.
*****
"Waa! Gululululu! Bwah-bwaah!" Making the stupidest noises, Derpy did all sorts of zany things with her face, right at Fleur de Lis.
Like a royal guard, the model Unicorn didn't bat an eyelid, just paced along with the rest of the herd.
"Leave her alone, Derpy," Vinyl demanded, leading the pack through the Forerunner corridor. "She's a robot. She can't interact with living Ponies."
"Don't be silly, Vinyl," chirped Octavia. "Fleur's not a robot."
"She must be. It's the only logical explanation. Why else would she never talk to anypony?"
"Maybe she's just shy."
"Y'know who else is shy? Fluttershy! And I can still hold a conversation with her."
"Well maybe Fleur's shyer than Fluttershy."
"Shyer than Fluttershy? Can you even be shyer than sompony who's got "shy" in their name?"
Octavia giggled, "I'm sure you could if you tried."
Joining in, Blossomforth hinted, "If she is shy, she probably doesn't like being the centre of attention."
"Centre of attention? Before the war, I'd see her posing on the covers of all the top selling beauty magazines in Canterlot! I think she likes attention."
Getting back in Fleur's face, Derpy questioned, "Hey, Fleur! Do you like attention?!"
Scowling, Fleur shoved her away.
"That looked like a no to me," Octavia observed with an unsure look.
Just then, her radio emitted a fizz, which soon morphed into AI Twilight's voice.
"... -ilight to ground team, come in."
Halting, all the soldiers watched as Octavia brought the radio up to her mouth.
"We're here, Twilight."
"We're done with the first generator and are on our way to the ice bridge."
"Alright, we're almost there."
The connection broke.
Octavia shared a nervous glance with Vinyl. The bridge connected the facility they were in now to the facility where Trixie had been ambushed, and a trip down memory lane wouldn't be enjoyed.
Pacing up to the door and hitting the controls, Octavia opened it, allowing the ferocious snow to come billowing in. The freezing air swept across their faces, and their manes and tails blew wild in the howling wind as they forced their way through the weather.
About halfway across the bridge, the silhouettes of Lightning, Flitter and the Banshee faded into view in the snow filled sky. Then a frightened, high-pitched scream faded into audibleness as Lightning and Flitter motioned for the vertically descending Banshee to slow, but it looked like the aircraft had no one controlling it anymore.
"What's going on?!" Octavia gawped.
She and her group started running to the weird scene, Fleur taking a moment to sigh and face-hoof.
Not stopping, Fluttershy's Banshee plunged right past Lightning and Flitter and crashed directly onto the bridge in a horrific, fiery explosion. Fragments of Banshee fountained into the air leaving smoke trails, and Flitter let out an all mighty scream.
"Fluttershyyyy!"
"Oh my gosh!" bellowed Vinyl, wide eyed. "Holy cow!"
Reaching the crash site, they found pieces of flaming Banshee, and much to their surprise, and relief, Fluttershy was sat there quivering. She'd bailed out in time, hit the ground hard, and her shields had to charge back up.
"Oh, phew," breathed Octavia with a warm smile.
Vinyl put her foreleg around the shy to comfort her. "Fluttershy, what happened?"
Twilight was the one to answer. "Rickety piece of junk ran of fuel - can you believe it?! Poor Fluttershy here's traumatised!"
"Traumatised?" pondered Lightning as she fluttered down with Flitter. "So in other words; she's fine. She's fine, people! Nothing wrong here! Let's keep going, save the universe, y'know."
"Hey," grunted Vinyl. "She just survived a plane crash! Cut her some slack, would ya?"
"No pony cut me slack when I survived my plane crash!"
"Because you're an idiot! It was your fault you crashed!"
Stuck in the middle of a much missed argument, the shivering Fluttershy eventually projected, "Um, y-y'think maybe w-we can argue ins-s-side, where... i-it's not so... cold... please?"
The Ponies shut up and helped the yellow Mare back on her hooves, and as a unit, they proceeded into the Forerunner facility.
Making it to an octagonal chamber, the assault force encountered the Covenant, taking up positions. Two Elites and the usual bag of Grunts and Jackals. They had set up shop on the other side of the room, which meant the Mares were in for a little long range combat.
Range was Fleur's friend as she peered down the scope of her S2 AM and sniped the first Elite. She quickly fired a second round at the second Elite, and cursed herself as it evaded and dove out of sight. Taking aim on the lesser Covenant species that weren't really worthy of her expensive sniper ammo, she held her breath and continued firing.
Lightning didn't really get range. Her strong suit was altitude. Death from above. She flew around the room, high above the Covies that were posted on the more visible targets, and made it rain bullets all over them. Grunts and Jackals fell quickly, but some of the bird-like ones were able to take shelter under their ionized plasma brollies and shuffle away.
The one rookie Elite roared as his energy shields flared, and he ran for cover, firing his needler back at the Pegasus. Those deadly pink needles came streaking in Lightning's direction, tracking her like they were being controlled, and the Mare had to pull back to evade them.
"Catch this!" yelled a Grunt as he hurled a plasma grenade as strong as he could.
The explosive came to a drop a mere few feet away, and the Grunt and his buddy had to retreat to get clear of the blast.
The ensuing explosion rattled the whole chamber, and Fluttershy had to put her hooves over her ears.
Lightning soared past her, being chased by a flurry of pink crystal shards. "Get in the game, would ya!"
Lightning was right; she was being a liability right now. None of this whole "oh, I'll never survive" nonsense. She'd fought the Covenant single handed and won, back when she'd found the Flood. She'd also beat them on her own. With that in mind, Fluttershy rose up from cover and contributed to the deafening melody of battle, her rifle vibrating with every shot.
A whole lot'a bullets and a frag grenade later, the UPSC had prevailed, and Covenant corpses littered the chamber floor. Among those corpses were the two Hunters that had been killed when they'd fought their way to the control centre. They brought back the memory of Trixie, who had been carried through the room on a stretcher fashioned out of a Ghost's hood. And that, in turn, brought back the memory of Pinkie.
Speaking of Trixie, they were about to enter the corridor where she'd actually been wounded by the stealth Elite.
"Come on, slow pokes, hurry up!" commanded Lightning, not in her right.
"Hold on, Lightning," Twilight spoke up. "Is everypony ready?
There was a click as Fleur de Lis inserted a fresh clip into her sniper rifle and walked up to join the rest, nodding her head once. No pony else answered, just looked around to see if others were ready.
"Alright then, we may proceed."
Gulping, Fluttershy fell in line with the others, marching on down the narrow tunnel and up to the dreaded corridor that lead away to the left. The central support pillars provided plenty of hiding places for any Covie, invisible or otherwise. They could also hide the Flood, which funnily enough, was even more worrying. So worrying, that it was actually frightening.
Another thing that was frightening, was the fact that the bodies of the stealth Elites that had been killed the last time they were here had vanished. Replaced by huge pools of purple alien blood. There was also vomit, green Flood blood, and some of Trixie's blood that had been spilt from before, plus her armour, soldier saddle and pack.
The Ponies were silent as they tip-hooved across the metal floor, eyes scanning the area for trouble. Fluttershy strained to keep her tired eyes open as she looked carefully for the shimmer of stealth Elites. She couldn't pick out anything though. If there were any stealth Elites, hopefully one of the other, better rested Ponies would locate them.
Making it safely to the other end, Fluttershy realised something: Nothing had attacked them. The corridor had been devoid of threat, unless... She checked behind, making sure nothing had slipped past them. Still nothing in sight.
Octavia sighed and wiped sweat from her forehead. "Phew. That was tense-"
-A roar reverberated from every direction at once, containing a fragmentation and sickness. A roar that Fluttershy recognised all too well, and her stomach roiled as the terrifying sound faded away.
They're here.
*****
Things were a tad bit worse in Pinkie's world. Her left foreleg had been chopped off, but that wasn't the problem. It had been replaced by a big, long tentacle. The cause of the tentacle's growth, as well as every other modification that'd been made to her body, was the problem. She had died, but now she'd come back, and sure enough, she wished she hadn't. She moaned in despair, but it came out fragmented, louder than intended, and mixed with a new, alien sound she couldn't make before. It also came with blood.
Most of her old blood had been flushed out to make way for the new blood, but some of it remained, and it spattered what was left of her coat, hair and armour.
Intruders in the library had set the Flood off, and now that she was one of them, she was forced into a sprint. Three legs and a tentacle weren't ideal for running about on, but she managed. Well, it managed. She was just along for the ride. A passenger in her own vehicle. A prisoner in her own body.
A horrendous Flood outcry blasted around the library, and Pinkie couldn't believe that the vile creatures emitting these outcries were her teammates, nor that some of her teammates were once Covenant.
Regarding the Covenant, they were still the enemy, and they were the intruders. Before Pinkie had been brought here by the monitor, or "Ball Twilight" as she'd called him, the Covenant had staged multiple attacks. Fighting the Flood for possession of something they saw vital. Pinkie knew what they were after. She'd been after it herself. It was her sole reason for being here. But now, someone else had it. Couldn't have been the Covenant, otherwise they wouldn't be here. Didn't matter though; whether the Covenant or the UPSC activated Halo, it would wipe out the Flood, herself included, and put an end to the nightmare.