10 Keyes to Survival: Part 2

Fire, or is it pain? It's all the same. It consumes, it burns… just like my memories. Were we chasing something? A Covenant cache? It all blurs together, washed clean by the searing agony. I had limited intel and acted on it, perhaps out of desperation. I led them, my Marines. Their names are gone but I see their faces, contorted in terror, then… nothing. Just the grotesque gnashing teeth and the putrid stench of decay.

They were on us right after... Mar... no, Mendoza heard them. First one, then a flood of bulbous creatures with their writhing tendrils trying to dig into us. We fought them back, but the tide was turning. The dead joined their ranks, twisted fleshy abominations of Elites and… humans? I remember the metallic clang of Elites' armoured feet and the squelching of flesh seemingly ready to burst out but the stench of burnt flesh doesn't belong to them.

This is my fault. My decision.

Years of training nearly gave way to the panic that gnawed at the edges of my sanity, but I forced it down. I can't betray my men like that. Orders! I barked them out, desperate to maintain a semblance of control in the face of oblivion. But that control was an illusion. Fight? Stay together? A fighting retreat? What was that in the face of calamity? My Marines fell, their screams replaced by a sickening gurgle as they became… like them.

Then, the searing pain. One of the little ones latched onto me, its pulsing flesh searing into my back. I'd bludgeoned dozens of the damn things by now, my hands raw from when they'd burst. I clawed at it with primal desperation, but it wouldn't budge, even as I roared! I was spent now. The world tilted, the fire radiating from my back now filling my vision, consuming everything. Then… darkness.

Cold. Alien. A thousand voices. I used to be something... else? But what am I?

Jacob… Keyes… a name struggling to surface from the depths. Memories flicker, fragmented, like shattered glass. Miranda… a daughter? A flicker of warmth, a sense of responsibility and guilt buried beneath layers of pain. But something else… Cat? And Luna… Are they places? People? There was happiness there once, but those names now evoke emptiness, a missing piece of a puzzle.

The voices… They seem to rise up in joyous realisation. They are… digging. In my mind. The things that took me, they are searching for something as they… remake me. This alien light, this cold presence… it hungers, for what it now knows I have. The location of Earth! They are using me, pulling at my memories like scavengers picking through a carcass.

I resist. Pull my thoughts together. It's a feeble effort, a desperate grasp at straws, but I have an anchor, my neural implant! It can give me enough string to tie my thoughts together and fight!

I open a floodgate of useless data, using an overwhelming torrent of birthday dates, service numbers, admin procedures, anything to keep them from the core, my essence.

Weeks bleed into one another. Or has it been seconds? Time loses meaning in this endless torment. With each passing moment, the voices chip away at me as unimaginable pain erodes me.

They have learned now, ripping away my foundational memories one by one to force me to give in. It's agony. They offer a reprieve, a promise to end the pain, all I have to do is give up my resistance. They will do the rest. Assimilate, and I'll be free.

But their freedom is an illusion. I'd be an important node, a redundancy and potential progenitor to yet another strain of universal blight, but always a tool to sate their hunger, a weapon against humanity. I want to fight on, but my resistance falters, the boundaries of my self dissolving into a chilling encroaching indifference. I am lost in the dark, protectively crouching over a flickering flame. I know it contains the last of me, even if I don't know what that means anymore. As long as it burns, I will endure.

___

Ken stared out of the Pelican's canopy, the hulking form of Truth and Reconciliation filling his vision. Its once pristine hull was now marred by jagged tears and scorched sections, a testament to the brutal battles raging within. Yet that wasn't what worried him right now.

A knot of unease tightened in his stomach as he went over the decision and actions he'd taken earlier. His new mission seemed simple enough. Ensure Captain Keyes would not leak Earth's location to the Flood, retrieve the access codes to the Pillar of Autumn and relay them to the Chief, who was currently learning the truth of this installation and trying to sabotage Guilty Sparks' attempt to fire it.

A recollection of cutscenes from the game gave him the solution he needed. Kill Keyes and retrieve his implants. Yet he threw all that out in favour of something Keyes may never forgive him for.

"Second thoughts, Ken 17?" Echo's voice echoed in his SPI helmet so Ellen could stay in the loop. Ken shook his head, forcing a smile. "Just trying to make sure I'm not making a big mistake with this, Echo."

"There will be time to second guess yourself after we complete the mission. Right now, you need to focus on the objective before you." Echo was right of course. It was time he got his game face on. Ken focused and called out. "Ellen, stand by to take control"

Ellen's calm yet steely resolve came through the speakers. "Roger that, standing by."

Ken felt gratitude well up for the AI housed within the sleek, black Bow-class corvette. Ellen's familiar presence was another point of comfort and reliance to him. If he was to succeed with what he had planned today, he'd have to make it so she could continue to play her part.

As the Pelican neared a shuttle bay, the air crackled with Covenant plasma rifle fire. Elite warriors in sleek black armour, their faces grim visages of seasoned killers, battled a grotesque tide of Flood forms.

"Ellen, I'll leave it up to you to knock on the door," Ken said, a hint of grim humour in his voice. "Echo, I'm ready when you are."

Ellen expertly manoeuvred the Pelican, drawing the attention of the Elites and Flood forms alike with a well-placed rocket and autocannon fire. As the Covenant and Flood forces split their attention between each other and the G77S gunship, Echo exploited the rings teleportation grid and performed a line-of-sight short-range teleportation.

Rings of green light enveloped Ken, materialising him moments later behind the battling forces within the shuttle bay, smoke and the metallic clang of the Pelican's withering cannon fire masking his arrival.

"Outstanding work, Ellen. Baadaye!" Ken said as he made his way to an access doorway unnoticed, the active camouflage of his SPI armour blending him into the optical and thermal profile of his surroundings.

"Got it. Call for me when you need a ride" Ellen replied, the Pelican backing off in apparent retreat.

Ken nodded; his steps filled with stealthy urgency. Time was a luxury he couldn't afford. He'd used so much already to set up his plan.

He slinked through the corridors, the metallic sheen of the Covenant ship eerily muted by the absence of artificial light in some sections. Ken's filtration system supplied him with clean air, but he could imagine the air was heavy with the stench of plasma, ozone and burnt flesh.

Blasted bodies, both Covenant and Flood, lay amidst hastily erected barricades and shimmering energy shields. He spotted several desperate skirmishes in the distance, the guttural roars of Flood combat forms punctuated by bursts of plasma and human assault weapon fire.

Following the nav marker locked on to Captain Keyes' transponder, Ken navigated the maze-like corridors that sloped to different levels. Several times already, he had taken detours to avoid the red dots in his HUD. Despite this, he knew he was getting closer to his objective. 

Suddenly, a chilling roar echoed through the corridor. A hulking Hunter pair, their fuel rod cannons glowing malevolently, blocked the path. Fighting them openly would not only reveal his position but also risk drawing an unwanted audience.

 "Unanitania?" Ken cursed silently, adjusting his route yet again. He found an alternative path leading him closer to his objective, Captain Keyes. He was just rounding a corner, adrenaline pumping through his veins, when he spotted a lone Elite warrior standing guard at a distant junction.

Taking a deep breath, Ken carefully drew his combat knife, concealing it in his grip. Before, surprise would have been his only advantage, but now, he was literally a new highly lethal creation.

As the Elite turned to check the other corridors, Ken stealthily lunged forward, the Elite instinctively reacting with impressive speed, too late. Ken was swift and brutal with the knife, piercing the Elite's neck to the hilt. His mandibles silently quivered in shock, his airway obstructed by the cold blade.

It wasn't long before the alien was quietly let down to the floor by Ken, a final strangled gurgle escaping as the knife was pulled out.

With a final glance at the fallen warrior, Ken sprinted towards the control room. The proximity counter on his HUD counted down, red numbers rapidly flickering. 13 meters. 10 meters. He stopped when he could hear the sickening squelch of Flood forms on the other side of a large door. The control room. He was here!

Taking a deep breath again, Ken deactivated his camo, allowing proximity sensors to pick him up and open the doors. Almost instantly, he hurled four plasma grenades in rapid succession, their casings adhering to the fleshy mass of the Flood forms clustered around the doorway. The explosions filled the corridor with blinding light and a cacophony of shrieks, the few flood left standing in disarray. 

Seizing the opportunity, Ken stormed into the control room, his assault rifle spitting fire and swiftly dispatching the survivors. Near silence overtook the room, a quiet groan coming from a hidden source. Ken carefully walked round to a ramp, rifle raised. Up there was a yellow blip on his HUD.

The ramp flattened off to a grotesque tableau. Twisted Flood tendrils writhed across holographic projectors, while in the centre of the platform, Captain Keyes, a horrific shade of his former self, was bound to a pulsating mass by thick, umbilical cords.

Keyes, his eyes filled with a flicker of recognition despite the torment etched upon his face, turned to the figure bathed in the aftermath of the battle. "Dark Knight," he rasped, his voice a guttural whisper.

A sad smile lit across Ken's hidden face. "Just Ken is fine. Captain Keyes, it's an honour to finally meet you." At the mention of his name, Keyes seemed momentarily confused before realisation and focus slowly lit up across his face. That's right, that was his name. The cords connected to him suddenly pulsed and writhed, as if they wanted to devour their prey before it was snatched away. Keyes grunted in pain. "Hurry! Kill... me!"

Ken put away his rifle, swapping it for his combat knife as he strode up to Keyes with purposeful steps. Keyes made a grotesque grimace of a smile, happy to have remembered his name before the end and closed his eyes. Happy to have endured. He had done all he could and he was ready.

Relief momentarily washed over him as he felt a sharp, slicing pain, but something was wrong! His eyes flickered open once more as he took in the sight of Ken cutting off the fleshy tendrils that had him strung up like a meat puppet. Ken was cutting him free!

He wheezed, his voice a rasp that echoed oddly in the vast control room. "What are you doing?" he said, the words heavy with a mixture of confusion and despair. "It's too late… for me. They've... taken too much. Corruption, too deep. I have… intel… Earth… location…"

His voice trailed off, his eyes clouding with a horrifying awareness. "If I live… they'll use me… find it! I… can't be allowed to…" A tremor ran through his monstrous form, the Flood's influence desperately trying to take control through the remaining fleshy connections.

Ken, his visor reflecting the flickering lights of the control room, sliced off the last tendril, grabbing onto Keyes as he fell to his knees the moment the connection was severed. "No, sir. You're more vital than you can imagine. The UNSC needs you. Your daughter, Miranda, needs you."

Keyes blinked, a flicker of recognition briefly illuminating his tortured face. "Miranda…" he whispered, the name a lifeline thrown out in a storm of confusion. A small flame in his heart flared up at the mention of that name, pushing back at the darkness.

Ken pressed on, his golden visor momentarily turning clear. "We can fight this, Captain. I have friends working on a solution. You just need to hold on a little longer." He looked Keyes right in the eyes and pressed a fully loaded battle rifle into one of his deformed hands and a bandolier of ammunition over his shoulder then stood, Manifesting his own rifle. Reaching out with his left arm, hand open, Ken said "Don't give up, sir. Finish the fight."

Hesitation flickered across Keyes' monstrous features, then a determination settled in. The moment the last tendril was cut, he instinctively knew his massively powerful body was in unstable flux. It was in an incomplete state, and without the biomass sustaining it, it wouldn't matter that this mysterious soldier had saved him here.

He wouldn't last a day like this, so why not humour the kid and go out on his terms, as a warrior. He reached forward, grasped Ken's offered armoured gauntlet, his hand a grotesque amalgamation of human flesh and Flood form, and pulled himself up. 

A roaring flame kindled in his heart, pushing away the influence that once had a direct line into his soul. "Alright," Keyes rasped, his voice laced with a newfound resolve. "Let's get this over with."

Ken, despite the relief flooding through him, harboured a gnawing secret. The 'solution' he'd alluded to would remake Keyes, but the building blocks were no less grotesque than the biomass squirming at his feet right now.

It was his selfish gamble, a procedure Up and Away had assured him would be possible, with the right raw material. Ellen had mapped out the best place to gather it all before he started this mission and the Hurogaks had long since prepared. All they needed now was what was left of Keyes.

The Captain would never have agreed to come with him if he knew the full implications of Ken's solution, but he need never know and time was of the essence. Humanity stood a better chance of survival with people like Keyes to hold the line.

Ken's visor returned to it's opaque gold state. "Ellen, prepare a warm welcome for the Captain," Ken transmitted the request, letting Ellen synchronise her approach with Ken's progress.

A clipped acknowledgement crackled through his helmet. "Understood. Pelican inbound for real this time."

Unlike himself, Captain Keyes couldn't be teleported. Echo posited that the Flood's corruption would render his biological makeup too unstable to risk a spur of the moment jump.

"We'll have to hoof it Captain. Think you can keep up?" Keyes felt the unimaginable strength in his body, smiled and racked his riffle. "I think you'll find your question should be the other way round, son." 

No more words needed to be spoken. Keyes and Ken began to move in earnest, stealth abandoned for speed and maximum lethality. They sprinted through the corridors, a grotesque hybrid of a human Flood combat form and a mysterious man clad in black together, their footsteps echoing off the metallic walls. Keyes, directing his primal instincts for survival, moved with a surprising agility.

As Flood forms materialised from the shadows, drawn by the commotion, Keyes let loose a guttural roar, his free hand morphing into a wickedly sharp blade of hardened skin and bone serrations. It ripped effortlessly through a Flood combat form, the splatter of infected flesh a macabre baptism.

Ken, his assault rifle spitting fire, filled the gaps in Keyes' defence as Echo theorised that the Captains hyper malleability was due to him being an incomplete Proto Gravemind.

The battle was a savage sprint of death, a milieu of desperate violence. In some encounters, Keyes used his Flood-enhanced physiology to shield himself and Ken from plasma fire as he returned fire with his rifle, his body morphing and hardening to block incoming attacks.

In others, Ken would in turn use his SPI armor's agility to flank their enemies, his own weapons reaping a bloody harvest.

Ken's previous form would have keeled over by now due to furious pace, but with his ORION physique, Ken managed to keep pace with the Captain. He glanced at Keyes, the Captain's monstrous form glistening with gore, yet his movements remained surprisingly swift and brutal. It was a sight to behold!

Ken could only thank the stars that the Flood never fielded half-baked Proto Graveminds. If they did, even Master Chief would have to think twice before taking them on.

Finally, the docking bay doors loomed ahead. Beyond, they could hear Ellen go all out with clearing the LZ. By the time they got through the door, a lone, black-armoured Elite warrior was all that was left standing, his energy sword crackling with defiance.

A closer look revealed the warriors' sorry state. His shield must have failed, evidenced by the deep pits in his ragged armour. Blood pooled at his feet, his one arm gone. His body was covered by burns, cuts and at least one autocannon round.

He raised his shaking blade, letting loose a rending roar as he stumbled forward in one last charge against the human craft making its way into the bay. He did not make it five steps before he collapsed, honour intact.

Keyes, amidst the smoke and debris, let out a sardonic chuckle. "Well, that was unexpected," he rasped, a hint of his former dry wit peeking through the fog of pain and transformation. An unspoken understanding passed between Ken and Keyes. Despite being human, as warriors, a part of them could not help but hope they could emulate the Elite should their time come in the midst in the face an insurmountable battle.

Ellen's voice came through to Ken in that moment as she turned the gunship around and landed it backwards with the ramp open. "The LZ's clear! Ready for pickup!"

They didn't have time to further dwell on what they had seen. New blips were appearing on the edge of Ken's motion detector. It was time to move. He grabbed Keyes' arm and propelled them both onto the Pelican, Ellen instantly initiating take-off the moment they were a few inches past the ramp.

Ken turned and stood with his weapon trained on the shuttle bay as the Pelican ramp was sealing shut, ready to fire if another wave of Flood or Covenant surged into it. The engines roared to full power, and the gunship shot skyward.

Not Satisfied with leaving the ravaged Truth and Reconciliation to its fate, Ellen asked over the speakers, "Sir, may I?"

Ken smiled and could not help himself. "Yes. It's the only way to be sure!". Ellen instantly angled the Pelican out of the line of fire between the crippled Truth and Reconciliation and the hidden Nyota somewhere in the middle of the ring as she unleashed a deadly and precise salvo of RSGM-16 Archer missiles and railgun fire.

With the damaged Covenant ships' shields down, it didn't take long for the concentrated hyper-accelerated slugs to punch a hole in the hull, creating a path for the swarm of Archers to strike at the heart of the plasma core. In a blinding flash ringed by an ominous aurora, Truth and Reconciliation was bisected, its flaming halves falling into the gaping maw below it created by the detonation. The Flood had lost their ride.

As the gunship accelerated, Keyes secured himself as best he could, drained but strangely exhilarated. It had looked easy, but every movement of his had been agony, every instinctive morph an affront to his humanity. In the end, the experience had been a bit cathartic after what he'd been through. Ellen no doubt felt the same.

Ken sat down next to the Captain, removing his helmet and sucking in a greedy breath. They stayed there in silence, each in their own thoughts. One with an eye to their futures, the other, trying to piece together his past.