Halo: Minorca Saga/Chapter Twenty

UNSC COLONY WORLD MINORCA, UNKNOWN ALIEN FACILITY “THE LABYRINTH”, APRIL 2552 [ANOMALY?]

They had been down here for God knows how long, just walking through the depths, moving throughout the utterly gigantic facility.

Strangely, that twenty days of food they had was still fresh.

Jamal pondered the Archivist’s words:  “Time passes differently in the Labyrinth”.

He had been thinking about it for the past few days, or, at least they were days, in his mind.

Maybe the Labyrinth was a time machine. Maybe it acted very similarly to a cryo-pod, preserving the body’s systems for long periods of time.

Maybe they hadn’t jumped a year at all.

All of these questions messed with his brain, keeping him off task and distracting him from the threat that was ever-more looming in the shadows.

It’s first victim had arrived.

It was large, definitely a suitable subject for assimilation.

Smart.

Fast.

Strong.

However, the creature posed one large issue: it was suited in a large combat suit.

More primitive than its old enemies, those long years ago, but formidable, nonetheless.

It crept back into the shadows as more of the creatures arrived, followed by their companions.

Outwardly, said companions looked just like their predecessors, those hundred-thousand years ago, the ones who built this installation and the many like it.

This was going to be fun.

Jamal turned around, battle rifle at the ready, flipping the night-vision sensor on and off, wondering what had been in the shadows.

Something moved… I know it… it had to have been something…

Jamal whipped around, readying himself for a fight when he saw Helen, her calm hand resting on his shoulder.

“You OK? Your vital signs just went out of whack, and you looked scared.”

“I’m fine, I’m fine… really… I’m fine… it’s just…”

“Just what?”

“I saw something move, in those shadows over there.”

Helen turned, and just like Jamal, flipped through her night vision sensor, then through her thermal sensor, picking up nothing.

“I believe you… but there’s nothing there.”

Jamal shook his head, trying to clear it of those thoughts, and then walked away.

Moving further down the hallway, they encountered a battle between those “Sentinels”, and a now unknown hostile.

“Oh my…” said the Monitor, in a state of shock.

“What?”

“They released the Flood!”

“The flood?”

“The Flood! Come, Reclaimers, there is containment to be done!”

He dropped from the wide ceiling, pieces of his rotting flesh falling from his bones.

Before this… long before the end… before they had awakened him… he was known as Caius, a Forerunner warrior.