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Description
343 Guilty Spark

Chapter Four
Though he had failed in protecting his lance, and the Minister of Exobiology demanded his head, Vecr was sent to join a Special Operatives squad in a swamp by order of the Supreme Commander, as he had taken notice of Vecrs uncanny luck.
From what Vecr understood, as he waited once again inside a Spirit, was that a scouting lance had discovered a large construct in the middle of an enormous swamp. There the lance set up a beacon and contacted the Supreme Commander. Since its discovery, only two Spirits had visited the area. One had simply dropped off supplies, while the second carried the Special Operatives Vecr was to join.
It had only been ten units since the last Spirit left when a broken transmission was broadcasted to all cruisers. Though it evoked fear unlike any other in Vecr he continued to replay the transmission in horrid fascination.
“The Scouting Lan-… something. They were trying to ope-… monstros-… We cannot hold them for they are too numer-… use holy fl-… Please send reinf-… immedi-…”

It was then a scream was heard and a loud crunch as the Sangheili presumably fell to the ground. After a short time there was a scraping noise and an ominous voice, echoed heavily.
“I spy an empty casket.”

After that the transmission simply ended.

Vecr replayed the message again and again while looking through the Spirits holo-cams. The swamp was deeply shrouded in a pale mist, with trees of titanic size creating malignant silhouettes. There were thin winding ravines filled with a dark liquid and unusual pod-like plants.
The elite piloting the Spirit broke Vecrs thought process.
“We are twelve units away from the drop zone! Prepare all equipment for landing.”

Vecr gripped his plasma rifle and holstered a pistol on his thigh. He was checking the rifles charge level when the pilot screamed over the com-channel.
“Unfriendly contacts! Taking evasive action, evasive action!”

As the pilot had just finished screaming the order, a thunderous boom was heard that violently rocked the Spirit. Vecr was knocked onto the Spirits floor as it began tumbling to the enshrouded ground. Vecr was trying to regain his footing on the spinning dropship as he heard a painfully loud whine screaming in his air. A sudden interruption in the Spirits uncontrolled descent caused Vecr to slam head first into the Spirits hull. The world became a tumbling vortex as darkness crawled across his vision.

Silence.

Vecr slowly opened his eyes as his senses slowly returned. Unfortunately as his senses returned, so did pain. He had a splitting headache as he attempted to rise. He managed to get to his feet before collapsing onto the steel floor again. Once again, his eyes shut and felt the cold embrace of darkness.

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As if to confirm his theory regarding Covenant activity in the area, it wasn’t long before the Spartan came across a second wreck, a Covenant dropship this time, bows down in the swamp muck. Aside from the swarms of moth-like insects and the distant chirps of swamp birds, there was no sign of life.
Cargo containers were scattered all around the crash, which raised an interesting question. When the transport nosed in, were the aliens trying to deliver something, weapons perhaps, or taking materials away? There was no way to be certain.
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Vecr had heard the slowly fading sound of sloshing water as his mind returned to reality. While he tried to get to his feet the pain felt in his muscles suggested other wise. He sat down slowly on what he guessed was the Spirits bow as the ‘ceiling’ overhead was the cockpits entrance. Vecr reached up and cradled his aching skull. There was little light sifting in from an opening in the Spirits doors. He peeked out tentatively. Nothing.
He looked around and found a plasma rifle surrounded by three grenades. He snatched the rifle and scooped up the grenades, placing them on the mag-belt around his waist. He once again peered through the Spirit bay doors, checking to see if the hostiles that attacked were still there.
Satisfied, Vecr placed his back against on of the Spirits doors and pushed with what little strength he had. His muscles screamed in protest as the door squeaked open. His body burned and he felt a stabbing pain inside his skull as the door suddenly loosened, and swung open. Vecr fell to the muddy earth with a loud thlop.
Vecr used his arms to raise his body up off the wet ground and cursed as chunks of thick, wet mud fell from his crimson armor. As he leaned against the downed Spirit, wiping the mud from his combat harness, Vecr surveyed the destruction. Storage crates laid strewn about and the Spirit had nosed in upside down into the muck. Vecr looked closer and discovered what had caused the Spirits violent halt was a large brown tree. The immense wooded plant barely had a scratch on its crusty brown surface. After resting Vecr decided to scout the area.
“Blasted humans.”
He headed towards a steep cliff covered in thick ferns. It would provide an excellent view of the area. Vecr holstered the plasma rifle onto his thigh and gripped one of the large ferns. It made a muffled crunch as he pulled himself up the muddy bank. As he approached the cliffs loose ridge an alien bird began its annoying call. It hooted again and again, causing Vecrs headache to return. He leaned against another tree at the ridges edge and looked about.
There was a large, sparsely forested and shallow pond from the direction his Spirit had journeyed before its untimely destruction. In the direction the Spirit was heading, was a large metallic pyramidal structure. Perhaps the open area would provide better frequency for contact. He slid down the ridge landing with a wet plop into the thick muck.
Vecr sprinted through the ravine and skidded into the shallow pond making a quiet splash. His booted feet made sloshing noises as he made his way to the tree covered hill at the ponds center. He was halfway there with the swamps black liquid up to his waist when his motion tracker system showed hostile movement to his right. Vecr slid to a stop and looked up a ridges length.
Nothing.
Vecr resumed his path to the ponds center, albeit at a slower pace, when his motion tracker showed hostile movement again. This time on his left. He turned to face the intruder with a glowing plasma rifle. Once again, he was disappointed to find nothing.
Vecr admitted that he was slightly disturbed by the unnatural occurrences shown by his motion tracker. He reached the small hill and opened the clearest channel he could find.
“This is Half-Commander Vecr ‘Xemoree searching for any Covenant personnel. Please respond.”
Static.
Vecr waited on a moss covered boulder watching moth-like creatures flit to and fro. To pass the time, he activated his ocular implants and looked through his Body-count archive. Four hundred and ninety-five total human kills, each he had delivered personally. He started with his first kill and scrolled down staring at the lifeless faces. Each humans moment of death had been captured, tallied, and categorized for future reference.
Vecrs recollection of glory was interrupted by a noisy splash. He rolled of the slimy boulder and leveled his plasma rifle in the disturbances direction. Though there was simply rippling water, Vecr inched his way to the waters edge. He relaxed and lowered his rifle while turning around.
Vecr fell backwards into the thin, black water in shock as he came face to ‘face’ with a sickly yellow monster. Three tendrils coiled about its decaying chest that ended in feathery growths. The fungal monstrosity’s chest heaved up and down in its inhalation. It raised a tendril covered arm in Vecrs direction and let out a loud grating moan.
He immediately fired into the dreadful monsters ‘face’ as it attempted to shuffle itself within striking distance. As the horrid thing fell to the mucky ground with a wet slop, Vecr sighted something eerily familiar.
A four fingered hand.
As the noise stopped echoing in his mind, Vecr walked over to inspect the corpse. He saw that the ‘face’ was not a face at all, it was the chest of some poor beast. The head seemed to have migrated to the other side of the body. Vecr rolled the corpse over and nearly fell again in shock.
“No. No no no no NO!!”
He staggered backwards as he witnessed the victims head. Though horribly mangled and torn, Vecr could see the elongate skull with four tooth-filled mandibles. The watery eyes that stared up at him possessed the same slit-shaped pupil his species had.
“Impossible! How can this be!?”
His already taxed mind bloomed into fresh pain as adrenaline, caused by fear, pulsed through his body. Vecrs widened eyes darted from tree to tree as the hormone made its course. His heartbeat began to thump in his chest, and during the whole ordeal the swamp-bird continued its insane hooting.
Even as he started to gather his wits, his motion tracker was flooded with hostile movement from every direction. He looked to the top of an ancient tree and saw the brief silhouette of another monster. Vecr turned around and saw a fern disturbed as though it were scraped by a body. A shadow on a rock, the splash of water, a tentacle extending from a tree. And all the while the swamp-bird continued its unceasing hoot!
“Damn this place! Damn the humans! DAMN THIS SWAMP!!!”
Vecr began firing wildly into the mist, sending bolts of searing, blue-white plasma in every direction. A shadow moved behind a moss encrusted tree, and Vecr sent a plasma grenade its way. Before he even heard the explosion, Vecr turned to a steep ridge and fired at a moving fern. As a scorched yellow body fell from behind the plant life, Vecr tracked a shadow sprinting across the pond. He fired into its black depths and heard a satisfying splash as something crashed into the shallow water.
Then all was silent.
As Vecr checked his rifles battery, which was at a depressing forty percent, a long, grating screech broke through the mist. The first was soon joined by another and another until it turned into a cacophony so powerful, Vecr covered his still aching head in agony. Suddenly, as though triggered by an unknown switch, more of the vile creatures began flooding over muddy ridges, and sloshing through stagnant pools.
It was then Vecrs restraint broke.
The things soon began running and jumping towards Vecr as he fired shot after shot into the coming tide of enemies, as well as screaming unintelligible curses. He paused to let his rifle cool down as one of the beasts leaped from thirty units right onto Vecrs exposed back. He let out a grunt as the things weight bore him down. As he struggled to come out from under its feet, it raised a tendril embellished hand that came swinging down on Vecrs head.
Had it not been for his shielding, the blow probably would have snapped Vecrs neck. He retaliated by swinging his rifle and smacking the decaying thing off his back and tossing a grenade into its midst as others came scurrying across their fallen comrade. The ensuing explosion sent bits of spongy flesh and green ooze flying everywhere. They made soft plops as they fell into the darkening liquid.
Vecr then spent the better half of a unit firing into the unending mass of shadows, slowly backing away as the tireless creatures gained more ground. When he felt his back against a wall of dirt Vecr decided that this was a fight he could not win. He threw three grenades into he charging monsters midst and scaled the muddy cliff behind him as three disastrous explosions sounded off in unison. Vecr was pelted with raining limbs that made wet slaps as he reached the cliffs edge. Panting heavily, Vecr turned around and looked below. Aside from the hundreds of decaying bodies, there was nothing different in the way the swamp looked. Vecr spat into pit below.
“Worthless monsters.”
He then turned and ran.

Description
343 Guilty Spark

Chapter Four
Though he had failed in protecting his lance, and the Minister of Exobiology demanded his head, Vecr was sent to join a Special Operatives squad in a swamp by order of the Supreme Commander, as he had taken notice of Vecrs uncanny luck.
From what Vecr understood, as he waited once again inside a Spirit, was that a scouting lance had discovered a large construct in the middle of an enormous swamp. There the lance set up a beacon and contacted the Supreme Commander. Since its discovery, only two Spirits had visited the area. One had simply dropped off supplies, while the second carried the Special Operatives Vecr was to join.
It had only been ten units since the last Spirit left when a broken transmission was broadcasted to all cruisers. Though it evoked fear unlike any other in Vecr he continued to replay the transmission in horrid fascination.
“The Scouting Lan-… something. They were trying to ope-… monstros-… We cannot hold them for they are too numer-… use holy fl-… Please send reinf-… immedi-…”

It was then a scream was heard and a loud crunch as the Sangheili presumably fell to the ground. After a short time there was a scraping noise and an ominous voice, echoed heavily.
“I spy an empty casket.”

After that the transmission simply ended.

Vecr replayed the message again and again while looking through the Spirits holo-cams. The swamp was deeply shrouded in a pale mist, with trees of titanic size creating malignant silhouettes. There were thin winding ravines filled with a dark liquid and unusual pod-like plants.
The elite piloting the Spirit broke Vecrs thought process.
“We are twelve units away from the drop zone! Prepare all equipment for landing.”

Vecr gripped his plasma rifle and holstered a pistol on his thigh. He was checking the rifles charge level when the pilot screamed over the com-channel.
“Unfriendly contacts! Taking evasive action, evasive action!”

As the pilot had just finished screaming the order, a thunderous boom was heard that violently rocked the Spirit. Vecr was knocked onto the Spirits floor as it began tumbling to the enshrouded ground. Vecr was trying to regain his footing on the spinning dropship as he heard a painfully loud whine screaming in his air. A sudden interruption in the Spirits uncontrolled descent caused Vecr to slam head first into the Spirits hull. The world became a tumbling vortex as darkness crawled across his vision.

Silence.

Vecr slowly opened his eyes as his senses slowly returned. Unfortunately as his senses returned, so did pain. He had a splitting headache as he attempted to rise. He managed to get to his feet before collapsing onto the steel floor again. Once again, his eyes shut and felt the cold embrace of darkness.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As if to confirm his theory regarding Covenant activity in the area, it wasn’t long before the Spartan came across a second wreck, a Covenant dropship this time, bows down in the swamp muck. Aside from the swarms of moth-like insects and the distant chirps of swamp birds, there was no sign of life.
Cargo containers were scattered all around the crash, which raised an interesting question. When the transport nosed in, were the aliens trying to deliver something, weapons perhaps, or taking materials away? There was no way to be certain.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vecr had heard the slowly fading sound of sloshing water as his mind returned to reality. While he tried to get to his feet the pain felt in his muscles suggested other wise. He sat down slowly on what he guessed was the Spirits bow as the ‘ceiling’ overhead was the cockpits entrance. Vecr reached up and cradled his aching skull. There was little light sifting in from an opening in the Spirits doors. He peeked out tentatively. Nothing.
He looked around and found a plasma rifle surrounded by three grenades. He snatched the rifle and scooped up the grenades, placing them on the mag-belt around his waist. He once again peered through the Spirit bay doors, checking to see if the hostiles that attacked were still there.
Satisfied, Vecr placed his back against on of the Spirits doors and pushed with what little strength he had. His muscles screamed in protest as the door squeaked open. His body burned and he felt a stabbing pain inside his skull as the door suddenly loosened, and swung open. Vecr fell to the muddy earth with a loud thlop.
Vecr used his arms to raise his body up off the wet ground and cursed as chunks of thick, wet mud fell from his crimson armor. As he leaned against the downed Spirit, wiping the mud from his combat harness, Vecr surveyed the destruction. Storage crates laid strewn about and the Spirit had nosed in upside down into the muck. Vecr looked closer and discovered what had caused the Spirits violent halt was a large brown tree. The immense wooded plant barely had a scratch on its crusty brown surface. After resting Vecr decided to scout the area.
“Blasted humans.”
He headed towards a steep cliff covered in thick ferns. It would provide an excellent view of the area. Vecr holstered the plasma rifle onto his thigh and gripped one of the large ferns. It made a muffled crunch as he pulled himself up the muddy bank. As he approached the cliffs loose ridge an alien bird began its annoying call. It hooted again and again, causing Vecrs headache to return. He leaned against another tree at the ridges edge and looked about.
There was a large, sparsely forested and shallow pond from the direction his Spirit had journeyed before its untimely destruction. In the direction the Spirit was heading, was a large metallic pyramidal structure. Perhaps the open area would provide better frequency for contact. He slid down the ridge landing with a wet plop into the thick muck.
Vecr sprinted through the ravine and skidded into the shallow pond making a quiet splash. His booted feet made sloshing noises as he made his way to the tree covered hill at the ponds center. He was halfway there with the swamps black liquid up to his waist when his motion tracker system showed hostile movement to his right. Vecr slid to a stop and looked up a ridges length.
Nothing.
Vecr resumed his path to the ponds center, albeit at a slower pace, when his motion tracker showed hostile movement again. This time on his left. He turned to face the intruder with a glowing plasma rifle. Once again, he was disappointed to find nothing.
Vecr admitted that he was slightly disturbed by the unnatural occurrences shown by his motion tracker. He reached the small hill and opened the clearest channel he could find.
“This is Half-Commander Vecr ‘Xemoree searching for any Covenant personnel. Please respond.”
Static.
Vecr waited on a moss covered boulder watching moth-like creatures flit to and fro. To pass the time, he activated his ocular implants and looked through his Body-count archive. Four hundred and ninety-five total human kills, each he had delivered personally. He started with his first kill and scrolled down staring at the lifeless faces. Each humans moment of death had been captured, tallied, and categorized for future reference.
Vecrs recollection of glory was interrupted by a noisy splash. He rolled of the slimy boulder and leveled his plasma rifle in the disturbances direction. Though there was simply rippling water, Vecr inched his way to the waters edge. He relaxed and lowered his rifle while turning around.
Vecr fell backwards into the thin, black water in shock as he came face to ‘face’ with a sickly yellow monster. Three tendrils coiled about its decaying chest that ended in feathery growths. The fungal monstrosity’s chest heaved up and down in its inhalation. It raised a tendril covered arm in Vecrs direction and let out a loud grating moan.
He immediately fired into the dreadful monsters ‘face’ as it attempted to shuffle itself within striking distance. As the horrid thing fell to the mucky ground with a wet slop, Vecr sighted something eerily familiar.
A four fingered hand.
As the noise stopped echoing in his mind, Vecr walked over to inspect the corpse. He saw that the ‘face’ was not a face at all, it was the chest of some poor beast. The head seemed to have migrated to the other side of the body. Vecr rolled the corpse over and nearly fell again in shock.
“No. No no no no NO!!”
He staggered backwards as he witnessed the victims head. Though horribly mangled and torn, Vecr could see the elongate skull with four tooth-filled mandibles. The watery eyes that stared up at him possessed the same slit-shaped pupil his species had.
“Impossible! How can this be!?”
His already taxed mind bloomed into fresh pain as adrenaline, caused by fear, pulsed through his body. Vecrs widened eyes darted from tree to tree as the hormone made its course. His heartbeat began to thump in his chest, and during the whole ordeal the swamp-bird continued its insane hooting.
Even as he started to gather his wits, his motion tracker was flooded with hostile movement from every direction. He looked to the top of an ancient tree and saw the brief silhouette of another monster. Vecr turned around and saw a fern disturbed as though it were scraped by a body. A shadow on a rock, the splash of water, a tentacle extending from a tree. And all the while the swamp-bird continued its unceasing hoot!
“Damn this place! Damn the humans! DAMN THIS SWAMP!!!”
Vecr began firing wildly into the mist, sending bolts of searing, blue-white plasma in every direction. A shadow moved behind a moss encrusted tree, and Vecr sent a plasma grenade its way. Before he even heard the explosion, Vecr turned to a steep ridge and fired at a moving fern. As a scorched yellow body fell from behind the plant life, Vecr tracked a shadow sprinting across the pond. He fired into its black depths and heard a satisfying splash as something crashed into the shallow water.
Then all was silent.
As Vecr checked his rifles battery, which was at a depressing forty percent, a long, grating screech broke through the mist. The first was soon joined by another and another until it turned into a cacophony so powerful, Vecr covered his still aching head in agony. Suddenly, as though triggered by an unknown switch, more of the vile creatures began flooding over muddy ridges, and sloshing through stagnant pools.
It was then Vecrs restraint broke.
The things soon began running and jumping towards Vecr as he fired shot after shot into the coming tide of enemies, as well as screaming unintelligible curses. He paused to let his rifle cool down as one of the beasts leaped from thirty units right onto Vecrs exposed back. He let out a grunt as the things weight bore him down. As he struggled to come out from under its feet, it raised a tendril embellished hand that came swinging down on Vecrs head.
Had it not been for his shielding, the blow probably would have snapped Vecrs neck. He retaliated by swinging his rifle and smacking the decaying thing off his back and tossing a grenade into its midst as others came scurrying across their fallen comrade. The ensuing explosion sent bits of spongy flesh and green ooze flying everywhere. They made soft plops as they fell into the darkening liquid.
Vecr then spent the better half of a unit firing into the unending mass of shadows, slowly backing away as the tireless creatures gained more ground. When he felt his back against a wall of dirt Vecr decided that this was a fight he could not win. He threw three grenades into he charging monsters midst and scaled the muddy cliff behind him as three disastrous explosions sounded off in unison. Vecr was pelted with raining limbs that made wet slaps as he reached the cliffs edge. Panting heavily, Vecr turned around and looked below. Aside from the hundreds of decaying bodies, there was nothing different in the way the swamp looked. Vecr spat into pit below.
“Worthless monsters.”
He then turned and ran.