| abstract
| - On an alien world, routine reconnaissance goes horribly wrong when Billy-G039 is separated from his team and left alone with a superior, hostile force... Billy ran. He was a soldier - fearless, deadly, trained to operate under intense pressure and never crack. A Spartan to the core. He had faced entire armies alongside his team, never feeling a single ounce of fright. But that was then. And whatever that thing was back there, slinking through the night, it had changed all that. “Scimitar, this is Sierra G039, does anyone copy?” Billy practically pleaded into the COM. “Scimitar, I repeat, it’s Billy. Can anybody hear me? Guys...” Still no response. Not static, just no response. Dammit. His thoughts stopped quickly as he heard the horrible, rumbling-shrieking noise once again, reverberating off the trees. Billy didn’t even think twice about what to do: his legs moved on their own, propelling him forward through the jungle once more. His mind raced, the cries of the creature hunting him echoing all around and disorienting the young man further. He tried to focus, forcing his thoughts aside, trying to figure out how to assess the situation. A bit too hard, in fact: before he could notice, the Spartan found himself tumbling down a steep hill, struggling to stay in a relatively upright position. Crumpling to the ground at the bottom of the valley, Billy shook his head, forcing the disorientation out of his mind. Spartan time began to take effect as the adrenaline pushed in even harder. His movements slowing down, Billy’s sense of detail seemed to spark to life, showing every tiny detail around the valley - and revealing the death and decay it was filled with. All around him was a nightmare given form. Bones, blood and half rotted muscles covered the rocky valley, while a strange, meaty moss rolled over the boulders and gravel. And at the far end was a bulbous, pulsing mass, covered in slime and filth. Confused and horrified at what he was looking at, Billy was shocked out of his reverie by the terrifying cry of the beast chasing him once again. Trying to find a way out of the valley, he was at a loss, as the valley walls climbed steeply on all sides. Without options, he quickly holed himself up within a cadre of boulders, double-checking his munitions and readying his weapons. Silence crept in, the darkness of the night pressing in. Suddenly, he saw it: a monstrous thing, bulbous and misshapen like the mess in the valley, six limbs and odd growths all across its body. The head had been split and broken back at an unnatural angle, slime flowing out of any crack or orifice, as strange tentacles across the body licked at the air. The beast walked towards the great mass at the end of the valley, dropped several corpses onto it. Billy, straining to see even with his VISR, could swear he saw UNSC uniforms falling to the ground. He wondered detachedly what it was doing. Then the beast turned toward him. Terrified once again, Billy tried one last desperate time to call for help. “This is Sierra G039… is anyone out there? Anyone?” Silence. The only sound was that strange gurgling, hissing noises coming from the beast in front of him. Cowering in his hole, Billy readied his rifle - if this was to be his end, he would meet it with what little pride he could muster. Quietly, the Spartan thumbed off his safety. The beast stalked closer. Billy raised the gun, setting his sights. The beast stepped once more, then stopped. It’s tentacle stalks twitched, testing the air. Straining his ears, Billy thought he heard a low whistling. And then explosions began pummeling the creature. A burst of COM static suddenly crackled to life. “Hang tight!” Before Billy could process what was happening, explosions rocked the entire valley, napalm burning through the biomass. For a minute, the world seemed to implode around Billy. Then at last, it was over. Struggling to rise out of the rocky rubble, Billy found himself being pulled out by a hand. Looking up, his gaze met with his commander, Viggo, as he saw his other teammates all around him with their operation leader, Riker-012, securing the valley. “Good to see you alive, Billy,” said Viggo, “But no time to waste. We need to get out of here. There’s more Flood where that came from.” Billy wanted to relax. He was no longer alone, which made him feel safe. But he knew this nightmare was far from over.
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