//------------------------------//
// Chapter 38: Into the Belly of the Beast 
// Story: Once Upon a Time, on an Alien Ring World 
// by Hi World 
//------------------------------//

Under the coolant, Fluttershy held her breath, cheeks bulging. It was a good hiding place, but she knew she'd have to resurface soon for air.

She wasn't the only one going for a swim. She could feel the coolant ripple as numerous unseen Flood forms thrashed and splashed their way through the liquid, climbing up onto the shore and rushing the Covenant. The sounds of conflict were subdued to Flutter-sub; something she didn't know if she should be pleased or worried about. Good, she couldn't hear the horrible noises. Bad, she wouldn't be able to hear if something came running at her.

Something irregular splashed around on the surface, fading into view. Fluttershy could just make out a set of hooves on the thing as it drew closer, emitting clouds of vile green blood as the Covenant shot at it.

Eventually, the beast lost power, and floated on the surface with drooping limbs. In slow-motion, it collided with Fluttershy, and the young Pegasus floundered desperately to get the creature away. She got a terrific eye-full of its ravaged Pony face; split open at the side to make way for a new set of sharp gnashes.

The corpse drifted away, and bubbles began to vent out of Fluttershy's nostrils. She needed air, and she needed it now.
Twilight picked up on this. "Get to the other side of the lagoon, hugging the shore. I'll alert you to any danger."
Doing as the AI said, Fluttershy crept uneasily across the under-coolant floor, trying to keep in the bubbles.

Many sedate steps later, Twilight spoke, "Ok, here's good. Take a breath, be quick, quiet, and don't show your whole head."
Nodding, Fluttershy approached the surface, her lungs pleading for air. She poked her muzzle out of the water, careful not to make too big a splash, and inhaled deeply.

A  deafening shotgun blast echoed up the tightly packed cliffs, followed by the wail of a dying Elite. No more clamour followed, but Fluttershy could just pick up the sound of footsteps running away.
"... Is it safe now?" she whispered, spitting as she accidently swallowed some of the sloppy coolant.
"It is," answered Twilight. "You can get out now."

"Is it safe, boss?" the high-pitched voice of a Grunt echoed, distant and hushed.
It startled Fluttershy, and she glanced around, paddling in the coolant, seeing nothing but shadows.
"It look safe," replied "boss" with a similar, squeaky accent.
A luminous green glow lit up the cliffs to Fluttershy's left, high over a crest.

"Grunts," Twilight grunted. "Be careful."
Nervous, Fluttershy moaned, "I don't want to fight them."
"We're not going to," revealed the AI. "Conflict will only alert the Flood. We'll need to be stealthy."

Fluttershy was good at stealth, even when she wasn't trying to be stealthy. Ponies would often not notice her, hanging at the back of the crowd like a ghost.

Using her quietness to her advantage, she crept away, silent as air, into a narrow canyon.

Before Twilight alerted, "Enemies coming through the canyon," Fluttershy heard gurgling and a heck of a lot of footsteps.
Hiding from the crowd, she crouched behind a rock, watching tonnes of dark forms shamble by, listening to their rumbles and screeches. They were close. Real close. And one actually brushed through her wet mane.

"Sshh. You hear that?"
"Me hear it alright," the Grunts spoke.
The veteran had just come over the crest, overcharged plasma pistol serving as a green torch, when he jumped and squealed in surprise as the horde of Flood went staggering to him.

Letting the overcharged bolt loose, he brought down one combat form, and spun to flee, but was shot dead by a monster with an MA5B assault rifle. His rookie ran like the wind. Wind with a tank of methane on its back. And the Flood followed him all the way into the next canyon.

After the last Flood form waddled past Fluttershy, Twilight hissed, "Ok, go," and the yellow Pony dashed through the tight canyon. It wasn't so much a canyon as it was a crack, and the petite Mare had to squeeze to get through.

When the weaselling was over, she came up onto a ledge overlooking a sizable lake of yet more coolant, bleeding from the dead ship above. Carrier forms marched out of the lake like over-weight soldiers, and combat forms leapt down from a rock arc, all intending to deliver pain and hell to a squad of healthy Covies on the limited patch of dry ground. However, when two of those Covies were Hunters, things were complicated, for both the Flood and Fluttershy.

The two gigantic aliens rotated back to back, handing out fuel rod projectiles to any ghoul in sight. The Elites, Grunts and Jackals held position behind the thick armoured monstrosities, assisting them by taking pot shots at anything ugly. Well, anything uglier than themselves.

Something squelched under Fluttershy's hooves.
"Huh?" She looked down to behold a Flood corpse, twisted and chewed up, sporting gnarly vines and a gaping cavity with bones inside.
It frightened her, and she backed away with a yelp, tripping over something and hitting the dirt with a thud.
Twilight reassured, "It's ok, Fluttershy."
Getting up, the yellow Mare realised she'd tripped over an S2 AM sniper rifle, just laying there, abandoned in the dirt.
"They haven't noticed us..."

*****

In the fray below, the Hunter brothers fed destruction to the hungry horde, blasting them away with their integrated fuel rod cannons. A carrier form got close, but was smacked high into the air, going on a home run.

With the death of every carrier form came the birth of plentiful infection forms, and they scurried up to the biped titans in a wave of tentacles. The ones that weren't shot by the smaller Covies were able to latch on to the Hunters, creeping up their armour and locating the soft, orangey spots of their worms. It became a game of bugs versus bugs as the parasites jabbed at the Hunters with their scythe tipped tendrils, and the Hunters twisted to scrape the disgraces off, with no luck. Vivid orange blood began to squirt from the Covenant soldiers, and individual worms were flung free.

Coming to the Hunters' aid, the other Covies stepped up. Grunts and Elites manually yanked the parasites from their massive brethren, while the Jackals used their expert aim to shoot them off. The Jackals had the best idea though, as the Grunts and Elites were now equipped with the life-absorbers. Life-absorbers that stretched eagerly to claim their pray.

While Grunts couldn't be infected, they still served as a threat and a nutrient to the Flood, and they were all taken out of battle in no time. Of the two Elites, one freed himself from his stinking burden, fired his plasma rifle into an approaching carrier form, mopped up more parasites, and rushed to his fellow's assistance. But it was too late.

Thanks to a mysterious crack of a sniper rifle, the rookie of the two had had his shields drained, and the infection form ripped his chest open and proceeded to worm its way inside. The Elite howled in agony, and then howled an obscene howl that no Elite could make as his head exploded in blood and new tentacles, and an elongated blade burst from his left wrist.

Another sniper round came flashing through the shadows to do nothing to the infected Elite, then a third round punched into the healthy split-jaw's foot, taking his shields out too. Panicking, the veteran limped away, trailing purple blood, shooting back at his transforming friend.

Now that the last Elite had retreated, the remaining Jackals and Hunters fell into disarray, and all hell broke loose. There was no one there to command, so every Covie ended up doing their own thing.

Jackals tackled the infected rookie Elite and used their bare talons to rip him limb from limb, and bloody organs flew into the air. A carrier form snuck up from behind and flopped to the ground amongst them, its bulbous sack inflating like a balloon.

The bird-like bipeds squawked and ran as the weird organism grew to ridiculous proportions and exploded, showering the Covenant with more infection forms. Some of those forms came to perfect landings on the Jackals and instantaneously turned them into mindless space zombies.

Now the Hunters were alone, and they fought like hell to survive the Flood onslaught. Deadly FRPs shattered the rock arc, and huge boulders came tumbling down with plague carriers. One particularly large rock landed right on top of a Hunter, but the alien warrior was strong, and it held the boulder high above its head, putting all the force it could summon to hurl it into the advancing carrier forms. It landed in the coolant with a mighty splash, and started a chain reaction of carrier form explosions.

Crack, rang the unnoticeable sniper, and a weary groan resonated from one of the Hunters. The other Hunter spun to face its bond brother, just in time to see it fall to the earth, dead.

The surviving Hunter let out a passionate cry of sorrow for its fallen comrade, and went into all out beast mode. Its metal shield gauntlet brushed through the Flood. Its heavy boots stomped down on them. And it fired projectile after projectile into the torrent, kicking up coolant and vaporising the misshapen bodies.

Soon, the battle was done, and the last Hunter kept itself braced, checking this way and that. Fighting could be picked up from every direction at once, courtesy of the Flood invading the ship, making it hard to hear if anything was close. This gave it a disadvantage as a yellow Pony head with a trailing pink mane rose out of the coolant behind it.

With all the volume of nothing at all, Fluttershy tip-hoofed up behind the surviving Hunter, shotgun at the ready, and pulled the trigger.

Boom! Orange Hunter blood joined the coolant in painting Fluttershy a new colour. The ground shook beneath her hooves as the spiny mammoth dropped like a rock. She felt bad taking the Hunter's life after all he'd been through, but was doubly proud of herself for coming out on top against the walking tank, even if spines weren't required to do what she'd just done.

Having used up all four bullets in the sniper rifle, she left it back where she found it atop the ledge, hauling only her shotgun and pistol. The pistol Rarity gave her, so long ago.

"Yuk," she moaned, noting the blood and coolant that shrouded her yellow coat.
Like a dog, she shook herself as dry as she ever could, lacking the towel she so desperately wanted.

Taking a drink of water, she accidently guzzled down a bit of Hunter blood that was still on her lips. To her surprise, it didn't taste all that bad. Didn't taste nice either, but still, she didn't feel the need to cough and splutter. Made her feel like some sort of vampire, drinking the blood of fallen Hunters, and a demonic, fanged smile formed in her mind.

Moving on, she pried a plasma pistol from the hand of a dead ex-jackal and kept on walking through the dark warrens.
"You did a terrific job, Fluttershy. Keep this up and we'll be back on board the Mistake in no time."
She just had to reference its name, didn't she.

Neither chaos nor victory soothed her belly ache, but being caught up in a fray certainly took her mind off it.

With a growling gut and a plasma pistol tucked under her saddle bag, the lone Mare wondered on through the darkness, using the flashlight on her shotgun to pick out the rocky passages and bloodied litter.

A rather narrow passage spat her out into an area that curved around a hair-pin outcropping of sandstone, dotted with rocks and a tiny few plants. Another luminous lake of coolant was formed under the Mistake's leaking hull, and Flood came wading through it like soldiers in sludge.

At first, Fluttershy thought they were coming after her, but then she heard the Covenant presence on a hill to her right, hosing the Flood with plasma and needles. Purple plasma came courtesy of the Shade turret that had been set up, and the veteran Elite that'd fled the previous battle was seated at the controls. The Grunts and Jackals fired their plasma pistols and needlers at the emerging mass of mottled flesh, tearing them apart, not really stopping them.

"You know what to do by now, right?"
Fluttershy nodded and hummed, "Mm-hm," prior to ducking down behind a rock and waiting it out.

The clash of the aliens didn't last that long, and Fluttershy peeked up from behind her rock to see a group of Flood standing idle by the Shade, which was now empty. Parasites wormed their way into the fresh corpses of the Elite and Jackals, recruiting them into their mutant army.

Almost startling Fluttershy, Twilight announced, "There's more Flood around the bend. Use grenades to take out this group of Flood, then take control of the Shade turret."
Having just witnessed the Elite Shade operator join the ranks of the Flood, the doubtful Fluttershy enquired, "Um, are you sure that's a good idea?"
"Don't worry, Fluttershy, it'll work. The Covenant already took care of most of them."
Gulping and stepping out from hiding, Fluttershy whimpered, "If you say so."

Upon noticing Fluttershy, the tentacle horrors came staggering over, shrieking in fits of rage. Their shrieks were silenced by two powerful frag detonations, and only two beasties had the fortune to get back up.

On her way to the Shade, Fluttershy blasted an ex-pony in the face, wondering what kind of life that fellow Pony lead before being infected.

In a jiffy, she was seated in the Shade and firing purple devastation.

The second surviving form, an ex-jackal, sprouted a spare limb from the dripping nub of his torn off leg and sprinted for her. He avoided being hit by the plasma, but Fluttershy could still use her shotgun whilst operating the Shade. The poorly Jackal flew apart under the force of the buckshot, and gross green goo splattered the little Pony's face.

Thanks to the ruckus, the additional Flood came surging around the corner, gibbering loud enough to fill Fluttershy's ears.

Struck with fear, Fluttershy's mouth creased at the sides and her eyes widened as she hosed the Flood like they were a huge, singular fire.

Just as lethal against Flood as they were against Ponies, the Shade's purple plasma converted the converted soldiers into nothingness. 

An infected Elite took two blasts, six if you count the fact that each bolt came in threes. The whole upper half of his reconstructed body was engulfed in the sizzling heat and completely melted away, leaving only two sturdy legs. Horrifically, a trio of tentacles fashioned out of the Elite's intestines burst from their base and touched the floor, turning the half-elite into an oversized bug. Fluttershy screamed as she shot it down, as she shot the next one down, as she shot them all down.

Soon, after expending a heck of a lot of plasma, the Flood ended, and Fluttershy was free to dismount.
"Well done, Fluttershy. Keep moving."

Heedful not to tread on any of the mangled and melted corpses that now carpeted the floor, the pink maned soldier rounded the bend and disappeared into the shadows.

*****

Within the bowels of the Flood infested battle Cruiser, the bedlam raged on. Flood and Covenant fought hand to tentacle inside the purple walls of the labyrinth.

Cowering under a bed in the barracks, Fleur de Lis was as silent as ever, praying that the surrounding Flood would just leave her alone already. They sniffed and snorted, hunting for the lone Mare, clambering over the Covenant furniture.

She'd lost contact with Fluttershy not long ago. And as for Lightning Dust, well, she hadn't a clue where she'd gone. None of them were picking up on their radios though, so Fleur presumed the worst until proven otherwise.

Under the impression Fluttershy and Lightning weren't coming back, she decided it was up to her to save the galaxy, so she waited...
and waited...
and waited...
Until...

The Flood chose to forget her and chase some other, Covenant threat in the corridors. Once they were gone, she crawled out from under the alien bed, assault rifle at the ready, and continued to explore.

*****

Back on Halo's surface, Fluttershy was having a ball, but not the good kind of ball. Mutant after mutant came leaping up a drop off, out of the darkness, and one by one, they were humiliated by the terrified Mare and her lethal shotgun.

"That's the last of them," informed Twilight as the final ex-elite flopped at her hooves, its rough skin and lumpy growths standing out in the spotlight. "Jump down. I promise you'll be fine."
After a swig of water, and feeding the shotgun a meal of shells, Fluttershy stared doubtfully into the howling dark where the Flood had just been coming from. Twilight said she'd be fine, so that meant she'd be fine, right?

Didn't sooth her anxiety, but if it meant saving Rarity, she swallowed her nerves and got all four hooves off the ground. She fell for a longer time than she'd expected, and began to scream as the ground never came to meet her.

When it did eventually meet her, she wasn't ready for it, and she crumpled ungracefully into the dirt, taking a chunk off her shields.
"Ow!"
"You ok?"
"Nng... I'll be fine."
She flexed her sore leg, fighting through the pain, just like a real Spartan. Well, she didn't completely fight through the pain. It was hard to ignore, and she limped a little as she traversed the blackened canyon, hoping not to encounter any nasties.

"WRIIEEGH!" shrieked a nasty, soon to be encountered.
It made a shiver run up Fluttershy's spine. Her shields regenerated, and the golden glow shone all over the sandstone.

Another glow came into view the further she travelled. The green glow of coolant. The pink glow of a needler being fired from a ledge above. The purple glow of a Shade turret answering in kind. Yep, the Covenant and the Flood were rowing once more, and Fluttershy hid behind a piece of the Honest Mistake's fractured hull to spectate the fight.

It wasn't long before the Covenant won; the last carrier form detonating next to the Shade turret, flipping it over. The Elite operator was launched through the air and came to a splash in the pool of coolant. When he emerged, he looked an awful lot different. Sprouting tentacles and everything. Guess the Covenant didn't win after all.

Now that the Covenant had been taken care of, the Flood moved on in the direction Fluttershy had to take. The yellow Pegasus gulped, not wanting to follow them.
"Come on, Fluttershy," Twilight whispered. "Look at it this way: Any Covenant up ahead, the Flood will get rid of them for us."
"But then we're left with the Flood," Fluttershy shot back.
"True."
"I'd rather fight Covenant than Flood."
"As would I."
"I'd rather not fight at all. I'd rather we call truce with the Covenant. I don't think I can take anymore war."
"Fluttershy, we've been through this already. The Covenant-"
"-Are not the worst of it. They're in the same boat we are. It's silly that we're fighting each other when we've got the Flood fighting both of us."
"A truce is only something we can dream of, Fluttershy. I happen to know the Covenant aren't willing to form an alliance, even in these dire times. Just another foolish move to add to their list."

The pain in Fluttershy's foreleg had more or less faded, but the agony in her stomach increased with the stress. She groaned, clutching her tummy. Wordlessly, she continued.

"And do you really want to get pally with the guys that destroyed Reach? Our colonies? Our friends?"
Fluttershy didn't answer.
"All those billions of Ponies, just... gone..."
"The Flood will do worse if we don't do something."
"We're doing something now. We're gonna destroy Halo. And the Covenant sure as hay aren't gonna help us do that."
Hanging her head, she sighed, "I guess you're right."

One narrow, winding ravine later, the yellow Pegasus came out into a rather well lit canyon. The reason for the light was plain to see, as Twilight pointed out.
"We're at the gravity lift! This is our way back in!"
Oh, Fluttershy just couldn't wait to get back inside the Honest Mistake!

Contributing to the light, a whole sea of starship engine coolant swirled around the edges of the canyon, making a sort of island in the middle where the purple column of light cascaded over a tall mesa. The Covenant were staging a last stand atop that mesa, and their alien weapons also lit up the darkness.

There was a fourth light source too; the moon. The glorious moon. Just between the Mistake's hull and the sandstone, a patch of starry night sky was visible, along with the moon and Halo's curving ring structure. Fluttershy wondered if things on that section of the ring were as hectic as things on this section.

If Fluttershy had learnt anything from seeing the Flood and the Covenant fight each other, it was to let them be. Wait for a winner and clean them up after.
However, when Twilight alerted, "Enemies behind us," Fluttershy was forced out into the open by a herd of eager carrier forms.

"D'oh, there's no hiding this time! We've been detected!" moaned Twilight disappointedly. 
"Well, what do I do then?!" cried Fluttershy, panicking.
"Get under the coolant," Twilight ordered. "We have no choice but to take a risk."
Holding her breath, Fluttershy dived gracefully into the green liquid. Oohh, I hate risks.

Catching her off guard, an infected Pony swam angrily above her, generating huge splashes and actually coming into contact with her head. Fluttershy would've screamed were she not under-coolant, but the diseased equine must've dismissed her as a rock or something, and it carried on splashing through the fluid and up the shore.

Fending off the abominations, the Covenant bellowed war cries, firing all at their disposal. Plasma grenades detonated with thundering explosions, and Grunts with shoulder mounted FRCs aimed for the ground at the Flood's feet. All the furore was muffled for Fluttershy though, as she continued her slow way under the surface of the luminous green sea.

Coming up to the shore, the yellow submarine gasped for air, and saw a Grunt run by in front of her, two infection forms prodding him with their tendrils.

"Double time, Fluttershy! Up the mesa!"
The epic battle was still underway though, and Fluttershy hesitated. "Bu- wha- the-"
"-You think the Covenant should be too concerned about the Flood to pay attention to you? Let's put that to the test. Join them up there!"
From behind, the carrier forms rose out of the coolant, and dozens of shrieking freaks zeroed in on her location.
"Now!"
All the way up the mesa, Fluttershy screamed.

Galloping on her way, the Flood continued to drop down in front of her, and she frantically blew them away with her trusty shotgun. The Covenant, who were busy tussling with the Flood, came up fast, and one of the Grunts took note of her, firing its little plasma pistol into her blurred legs. Her shields bought the brunt, plus the brunt of an infection form that pounced into her side.

Unintentionally, Fluttershy ended up striking fear into the Grunt, and the diminutive little alien turned to flee, only for an Elite to accidently kick him off the mesa and into the gathering crowd below. That Elite had just ripped one of his infected brothers apart when he noticed the yellow Pony running up to the grav lift that he and his soldiers were toiling so hard to defend. In one swift motion, he drew and primed a plasma grenade and sent it out at her.

Blind with horror, Fluttershy didn't realise the incoming bomb, but she did witness an infection form mistakenly save her life by catching it for her.

Now that she was standing in the Covenant's midst within the column of purple luminosity, she spun around, firing her shotgun into every living thing she saw, wailing on and on as she did so.
"Beam us up, Scotty!" Twilight yelled to the grav lift itself.
Fluttershy, three preoccupied Elites and a Jackal were all that remained on the high mesa, and the tide of Flood came surging around them. The contaminated soldiers leapt high, only to be ended by the healthy ones.

"Um, Twilight?!" strained Fluttershy. "How are we supposed to get in?!"
One of those Elites decided to turn its attention to her, and she blasted it away with her shotgun, braving the plasma bolts.
"The same way we did last time!" the AI answered.
"What did we do last time?!"
"We just stood in the lift and it took us up!"
"Well these Covenant aren't being taken up! Maybe it's broken, or we're in quarantine - waa!"
Randomly, she was lifted off her hooves by an invisible hand, and she watched as the ground and the Covies and the sea of Flood and coolant shrank away.

An infection form actually started to grow close however, as it latched onto her foreleg and squirmed up to greet her blue eyes. With a scared yelp, she was able to beat it off, and her energy shields recharged as she ascended like an angel to the heavens, or in this case, hell.
"Yes! It's working!" cheered the AI. "Rarity, here we come!"

*****

Unbeknownst to Fluttershy and Twilight, someone had let them in via the Mistake's security centre. Exiting the gore splattered centre, Fleur's pink tail whizzed away.

*****

Fluttershy's hooves clopped on the big metal disk that sealed the grav lift. The Covenant below must've been super jealous that a Pony was allowed to enter their home and they weren't. Now that she was back inside the purple tomb, it was time to resume the search for Captain Rarity. She turned off her flashlight and reloaded her weapon.

Like the Truth and Reconciliation, the Honest Mistake's lift chamber was a huge purple area with plenty of room to move about and breathe. Not that breathing felt any good; the whole ship stunk of disease.

Unlike the Truth's lift chamber that had been rife with equipment, the Mistake's was almost completely bare, with only a few boxes, corpses, and Flood infection forms providing a teeny amount of clutter. Those infectors hadn't noticed her, thank Celestia, and the hushed Pegasus snuck away into a corridor as quietly as she could.

"Bad news," Twilight sounded, tripping Fluttershy's heart. "We've arrived in the Flood controlled section of the ship. This is where the thick of the infestation is lurking."
That almost made the young Mare cry, and she buried her face in her hooves. "Oh, oh no. Oh no. Oh no-ho-hoo."

"I'm trying to piece together the ship's layout, but I can't access it's schematics!" Twilight said that in private chat, which was good, considering how increasingly annoyed she was getting. "The Covenant network is a mess!"
Fluttershy groaned, both with concern, and with her never ending tummy ache.
"My records indicate that a shuttle bay should be... here?"
Getting a gander of the narrow Covenant corridor full of dead bodies and massive blood stains, Fluttershy responded shakily, "Sh-sure is one f-f-funny looking shuttle bay."

Sliding open a door, Fluttershy saw a single Flood infected Elite sprint away around a corner. It's disgusting gurgling echoed loudly around the passage, resonating in the frightened Mare's ears.

She paused, numb, not wanting to continue. Wanting to save Rarity. Forcing herself to walk on.
"I lost that combat form's signal as soon as it disappeared around the corner," taught Twlilight as Fluttershy drew closer to the corner in question. "He should be waiting for us as soon as we turn."

The tension built up within Fluttershy, and she quivered with fear.
One... two... three!
Quickly, she jumped around the corner and fired, the sound of the shotgun tearing up and down the corridor. There was nothing there though; she'd just wasted a shell... and alerted someone to her presence.

As if summoned by Fluttershy's confusion, thundering footfalls came charging up from behind, and Fluttershy spun to find the infected Elite running right at her, roaring with rage, screaming with pain.

Letting out an all mighty screech, Fluttershy blew the ex-elite apart, and was subsequently forced to blow him apart again as he attempted to rise.

"How did he do that?" Fluttershy baffled, then corrected, "How did it do that?"
"I wish I had an answer," sighed the AI, glum.

Pow! An electronic buzz filled the corridor, and just like that, the lights were out. If it had been dark under the Mistake, it was even darker inside; no natural light to rely on.

"Oh, shoot!" complained Twilight, slamming her digital hoof.
Fluttershy's nerves were boiling over the edge, and she hyperventilated in the pitch blackness, listening to distant battles... and closing Flood. "Ahh-ahh-ahh-ahh-ahm scared-T-t-twi-light-"
"-Ok, Fluttershy, just relax, ok," Twilight attempted to soothe. "Turn your flashlight on, and we'll be ok."

At the flick of a hard to locate switch, the torch on Fluttershy's shotgun shone bright, illuminating a single Flood infected Jackal limping up to her, mumbling and dragging its blue holo-shield across the deck.
"Gah!" the little Mare yelped, pulling the shotgun's trigger and killing the hideous creature.

A deafening, monstrous shriek tore up the blacked out corridor and tripped Fluttershy's pulse. She darted the flashlight around, mortified, searching for trouble.

"We'll be oohh-kaay."