As Sgt. Forge and the rescued ODSTs reach the Firebase, he connects to the Spirit of Fire up in orbit.
"Spirit, any closer on that transponder's location?" Serina answers as Shawn and Captain Cutter are busy figuring out ways to keep whatever is down there from reaching the ship."I'm still trying to confirm Professor Anders' coordinates...a watched pot and all that."
As they finish talking, Serina gets a message from Red Team, who'd been sent after Professor Anders' signal earlier, at least, the closest Serina could get with all the interference.
"Spirit of Fire, this is Red Team. We are 100 meters from Anders' transponder signal... Meeting strong resistance. Seein' some pretty crazy stuff out here, over." Jerome and company are more than happy that Shawn gave them the upgrades when he did; they couldn't imagine the smell of this place.
As they go over a small hill, something jolts the Warthog enough for Jerome to lose control, crashing them into a wall that seemed to pulse as Jerome checked on Alice and Douglas before calling in.
"Hold your position, Red Team. Reinforcements will come to you." Cutter says as Serina marks the map location for Forge, who wastes no time in setting out.
Not ones to sit around and wait for backup, Red Team went to work clearing out the strange creatures that swarmed towards them, coming upon what seemed to be a nest of them, constantly spitting out more.
As they lay waste to the next, Sgt Forge notices the large mountain in the distance move. "Holy shit, it's alive!" Someone shouts as Forge alerts Red Team and the Spirit of Fire. "Not sure what just happened, but the large one just shook like it was hurt." Serina noticed as well, and she chimed in, "Yes - when the colony was destroyed, I registered the large creature weakening."
"We noticed a few colony creatures on the way in. We can weaken the big one by taking them out first. Uploading coordinates." Jerome said as Douglas grinned under his helmet, he loved wrecking things.
As they carved a path through the sickly landscape before them, Red Team noticed how many of the strange creatures swarmed them the closer they got to their colonies. It didn't really matter as the Spartans laid waste to anything that lunged at them.
"I'm buying Shawn a drink after this, maybe two." Douglas said, wiping something off his visor as Alice gave him a look. "What?" He asked, noticing her gaze as she shrugged, "Nothing, just didn't think you'd be one to drink, being underage and all." (A/N- By this point in canon, Spartan IIs are 19 to 20 years old.) Douglas just shrugged, "Gotta get along with the ODSTs while we're here, a few won't kill me."
Jerome stayed out of it but smiled at the thought of sharing a drink with his fellow Spartans. He was going to wait until they were all back together, though, to make it special. He didn't get time to think about that future, though, as they went back to work, clearing the way until Sgt Forge arrived with backup.
As they killed another colony, Serina came over the radio. "One of the colonies has regenerated and the large creature has gained strength." They were too far away by now to deal with it, so Forge called out that they would deal with it, so they kept pushing.
Finally, just as Red Team finished laying waste to the last colony Serina had marked, Sgt Forge had arrived. "About time you guys showed up!" Jerome said as Serina contacted them. "I've lost Anders' transponder - could the creature be jamming the signal?"
"Let's kill it then," Douglas said with a shrug as everyone decided to go with it. As they started attacking the massive mountain of, flesh? Tendrils sprouted out of the ground, swinging at them as smaller forms swarmed around them, lunging at any weak spot they could find.
Forge took the vehicles and stayed mobile as Red Team handled the small forms, though an unfortunate pair of Marines did get grabbed and mutated. Mutated Brutes also showed up, but with Red Team focused on keeping them at bay, nothing got through as the Marines and Warthogs blasted the flesh mountain to bits.
"Yay, all of the creatures are dying!" A Marine shouted as the mountain of flesh collapsed with an inhuman shriek, leaking some unknown fluid as they cleaned up the battlefield, keeping an eye out for any more surprises.
"Serina, report. What's going on here?" "Captain, as soon as that creature died, I picked up a new signal just east of here." As they were talking, a Pelican hovered off the ground for a moment as Shawn jumped out, waving at the pilot who then went to the base to drop of more Marines.
"Nice of you to join us, Spartan!" Forge said as Shawn joined them. "Sorry I took so long, a few probes were destroyed and I had to go collect them, lots of nasty stuff going on around here, no injured right?" He asked as a combat medic came in to report no wounds, for now.
"Anyway, I've compiled a dossier of the creatures we've been dealing with, the Flood." At the mention of that name, everyone felt a deep instinctual revulsion to the word, though they didn't know why.
"When that big one fell, the interference lifted, and we've been able to pinpoint Professor Anders' signal." Forge lit up at that, "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" He said, now anxious as everyone shared glances, "Young love, what a thing." Shawn teased as a few ODSTs cackled, bringing a small bit of levity after fighting such horrific things as The Flood.