The name of the HRP goes here

"...enac..t.. protocol sev..-four-th..e-one. Destruction...organic life...twenty-five miles. ....Traffic... prevent...escape...spread of infected...."

The garbled message makes some sense. In the back of her mind she wish it hadn't. They were in the clear. All they had to do was get Luka and possibly the ghost intruder and get out. I should have tried to find her. I could have stopped her from priming the nuke. She thinks to herself, beating her head figuratively as punishment for letting this oversight happen.

"I'm coming to get you out of there." She says as she returns to her prior rhythm. "You haven't been infected, have you?" She asks, referring to what Luka had said about infection.

"... coming to ... you out ...ere. ... haven't been infected, have you?"

"Negative," Luka replied, "My armour systems are intact enough to prevent airbourne transmission."

Airborne... transmission? Andrea shakes her head and continues her way to the last place she had seen Luka. "That's good. You've followed protocol and you're not infected. Now get out of there so we can all escape." She says, trying her hardest to see why Luka hadn't tried to join back up with them.

"My best estimate is a 20% chance of survival should I attempt to move," Luka said, "It would also endanger the success of my mission, as I would have to disable the entire lockdown, which could lead to further contamination and risks infection outside of the blast zone."

"Something tells me it wouldn't matter if the infection got out on this planet." Andrea says grimly. The covenant most likely attacked the entire planet, not just this base. She lets thoughts of slaughters come to her head easily, but despite these images, she clings on to something worth believing to make the images vanish. "Your survival chance would increase if you had someone there, yeah? You just hold tight, reinforcements are coming."

"If you do make it into the sub-facility, please be aware that you are subject to the official secrets act of 2550, sub-section zero-two-four," She replied, "Failure to adhere to this regulation carries the penalty of death."

"I'll worry about it when we're out of here." Andrea replies dismissively. I'll already have enough paperwork to file She picks up her pace the best she can. She's outrunning a clock that has no indication of time, knowing this she doesn't attempt to check corners. She makes good time and before she knows it she's passing through the set of rooms they had gone through earlier. Just a few more steps and she's back to the hallway near the generator room. She scans the area and finds a door she had not used. Assuming this is the right door, she goes into it.

Before Corbin could get a response out of Teria (if the Spartan was going to answer at all) there was a loud screech of metal, and he turned his head in the direction of the sound to see the hangar doors locking down. "Fuck!" he yelled. Even the Engineer seemed to realize something was wrong, making agitated sounds and waving its tentacles around. "Teria, hate to interrupt....whatever it is you're doing, but we've got a new problem: doors locked down."

"Noticed that!" Teria yelled back. "Bets on the weapon systems working to blow a hole in those walls?" The blue armored spartan exclaimed. The nuclear announcement was...terrifying to say the least, as images of bright destructive fireballs rang through Teria's memory when he tried to remember one. So needless to say, he had no desire to stay near a nuke when it went off. That meant getting on the ship and taking off as soon as possible, lockdowns be damned. He slipped into the entrance way and started making his way towards the cockpit.

"Sounds like a good plan," Corbin said. "Hey, before you take off, I think you're forgetting one thing, Spartan." Glaring at the ship, the wounded Marine yelled "I'M STILL WOUNDED OUTSIDE THE SHIP!"

At his screaming, the Engineer recoiled, floating back as if struck. "No, I'm not yelling at you," Corbin quickly said, as if the alien could understand him. "Yelling near you, sure but not at you."

"And we have Andrea out there as well." Teria replied. "Fairly certain I wouldn't leave you or your alien lover there."

"He's not my lover!" Corbin shot back. Wait, how do I know it's a he? Could just as easily be a she......unless they have no genders. No, no, stop. It'll just be easier, if I think of it as a he, Corbin thought. "Look, my earlier question still stands: should we try and get this thing to help us? He's in the same boat as us when you look at the situation."

Andrea searches the room to find it leads to the sub-level. With a nervous swallow, she takes the only way down which leads into a hallway. She follows this until she eventually runs into a security door. She can see a body lying in front of it, she crouches down to look at it. Blood that had run from his neck had begun to dry up, but there is no mistaking it, this kill was fresh. Fresher than the ones up on top. She shakes her head, attributing this one to Luka's mission and stands back up. She returns to jogging once she passes through the door.

"If you want to have it rub it's grubby little hands all over our tech and weapons, that's on you. I'll tell Andrea you were the one who let it gain access to any nuclear weaponry and the knowldge of how they work when the Covenenant make Plasma Nukes." Teria shot back, bolting up the short hallway towards what could only be described as the piloting room. "Bridge. It's called a bridge, Teria." His mind shot back at him as he slid the doors open.

Andrea continues to advance through the facility. She passed by a checkpoint not far back. She had no idea how far away Luka was or is and she has no idea what might lurk around. Luka had said her survival chance was slim, which means to Andrea that there is definitely something skulking around. She hadn't been fully debriefed on the situation down here, but she knew her orders. Whatever's down here, I won't be killed. She thinks to herself. A strong sense of resolve bursts through her body. As she jogs, she sees something shuffling in the darkness out of the corner of her eye.

Andrea stops moving and turns her headlamp on. She, at first, doesn't register what she sees. The shape is somewhat human, but everything about it screams abomination of life and nature. A soft gurgling sound comes from it as it turns to face the light. She takes in the face of the creature which looks as if it is something that could only be formed out of nightmares. She can barely make out a mangled face that has been through too much to bear. She can hear something behind her, wheezing breaths and the same gurgling she had heard from the first abomination. She turns to see another nightmare looking at her. Instinct kicks in and she grabs her knife and in a quick motion brings the blade into the creature. She expects the sound to be like anything else, but the knife slid in too easily. Like the flesh had rotted from the inside.

She takes a step back as the mutant drops to the ground. Still not completely registering what it is and trying to find some excuse as to what she is seeing, she tries to push forward only to find a wall of horrifying flesh barreling towards her. The only sounds to come from this wall are ones of pain and despair to match the looks on their faces. She takes step back and then another before she turns and begins running from where she had come. "What in the name of Christ!" She yells out, losing her composure. Her hand brushes the area where her grenades are, and without another thought, she takes one, deftly removes the pin and tosses it behind her. She counts the time down, and soon the sound of an explosion overtakes the hallway. To cover herself from the blast, she leaps forward and scrambles to her back to face where the explosion had gone off. A fair amount of the abominations had been cleaned out and the ones that hadn't crawl on the ground towards her.

"This... This is..." She stammers, "What the fuck is this?"

"Geez, didn't know Spartans had nerves to touch," Corbin grumbled. "Sorry buddy, looks like you're on the sidelines," he said to the floating Engineer. He didn't even bother looking for any enemies; the irony was that the thing keeping them locked up, was probably keeping them safe from any Covies that were outside, the hangar doors still rooted to the ground.

A sharp, loud ringing begins to develop in Andrea's ears after the explosion rocked the area. She shakes her head, trying to rid herself of her self inflicted ailment, but she can find no relief. She tries to stagger to her feet. After a couple of stumbles, she manages to stand tall and watch the abominations crawl towards her, unrelenting. She looks into their eyes, only to find horror froze in them. A glazed over look, with no real purpose other than to pursue and subdue those that they can find. She grabs her pistol and begins the cleanup work. The ringing in her ears slowly begins to fade and she picks up a quick walk.

Andrea eventually makes it to an area where a large group of the mutants gathered around and banging on a door. She stands a fair distance away, so they cannot sense her. She pulls her second grenade out, pulls the pin and lobs it at them. A few seconds pass and an explosion creates mince meat out of the creatures. They were intent on getting through that door. Someone must be in there. She rushes to the door and inspects it for damage, it being a security door, it is reinforced, however, the grenade had managed to put a slight dent in it. Or, maybe it was the repetitive banging from the beasts.

As for herself, she goes on comms. "Luka, are you still with me? I think I've found your location." She says as she brings her fist to the door, banging on it a few times for confirmation. "Open the door."

Luka opened the door and allowed Andrea inside, once she was inside, she closed the door.
"How much resistance did you encounter?" She asked as something slammed into the door.

Another slam on the door brings Andrea to twitch slightly. "Hordes of those... things. There was a pod near a checkpoint and another large pod outside the door. Judging by the slam just now, they heard the explosion." She clenches her pistol, a boiling hatred begins to surface. "What the hell have they been doing here?"

"I'm sorry but that information is classified," Luka replied, "How much ammunition do you have?"

With an annoyed sigh at the classified information remark, Andrea checks herself over. "A few more mags and one grenade." She looks Luka over, trying to see any injuries that are apparent past her armor. "How's your mobility?" She asks as she reloads her pistol.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

How much more must he knock. He'd just seen it open.
He slammed his armoured fist thrice more upon the door. It left a small dent.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

If she was in there, he was going to kill her if she ignored the door any longer.

Bang. Bang.

Admittedly, he'd gone off radar completely for a while. Having to ditch his helmet had left him vulnerable to infection, so he'd had to play things slow.

Bang.

Once he'd heard the alert though. He knew it'd had been her. And now he needed to find her and make sure they both got out of this.

Luka looked at a small screen next to the door, identified the newcomer, and opened the door. She dragged him in, and resealed the door.

He punched her. He didn't hesitate. His mailed fist swung out at her face as soon as the door was sealed behind them. What an idiot she'd been.

Luka's helmet prevented her from feeling any pain from the punch, though it didn't dampen the force behind it, causing her to stumble backwards.
"What was that for?" She asked, straightening up.

Andrea moves to the left side of the wall from the door and props herself on it. She watches the two Spartans. She would have leapt into action to help Luka out, but she seemed to know the mystery Spartan just by bringing him into the room. Instead of saying anything, Andrea lets them go with their business uninterrupted. She checks over her pistol to give her something to do.

"OH. NOTHING. THANKS FOR TRYING TO FIND ME. NOOO. LUKA'S JUST GOT TO BLOW SOMETHING UP INSTEAD. YOU FUCKING IDIOT."

He shouted at her. He'd feel bad about it later, he knew. Well. If they survived her actions anyway. Why couldn't she just have come to find him first. He gave a long sigh.

"Under Article twelve of the Office of Naval Intelligence Field Operations Manual," Luka said, speaking mechanically, "If an operatives' unit cannot be reached, the operative must continue the mission, alone, to the best of their ability. Any regrouping must be done during the course of their mission."

"You didn't try to reach me."

He glared at her angrily. He knew what she was like and that there was no winning this argument. She'd always been the same. He didn't know why he still bothered trying to beat some humanity into her anymore.

"Section Eight of the Office of Naval Intelligence Field Operations Manual prohibits the use of communications that may compromise the security of the operation." Luka replied, "We should have a seventy-five percent chance of escaping, if the two of you are willing to attempt extraction."

He gave it up there. There was no point arguing further with her. He'd beat some sense into her later. Perhaps. He finally took some time to actually look at her. Christ. She was a mess. It was a wonder she was still walking around considering.

He didn't let that show on his face. Not that she'd care regardless. He'd spent too many years with her.

"What's the contingency?"

"I'd like to go up in nuclear fire as much as the girl, but I'd also like to live a few more years." Andrea speaks up, still fiddling with her pistol. She'd ask what the new Spartan asked, but she didn't want to sound like some common parrot."

He shoots the other Spartan a glance. Same generation but inferior to her and him.

He gives a slight body motion in Luka's direction, asking a question.

Who's the Spartan?

Luka twitched her pinkie finger twice, indicating that she was friendly, and was assisting on the mission.
"If we are attempting extraction, we should move ASAP."

He blinked once at her.

"Lead then. Give me your rifle. I lost mine somewhere."

That was partly true. In reality, he'd used it to lock a door once it had ran dry on him. Now he just had his sidearm.

"Do you have any ammunition in your sidearm?" Luka asked as she handed the rifle over, "Mine was damaged on the way here."

"Hold on." Andrea interjects, looking up at the two of them. "Let the injured one take the lead? That's idiotic." She stops leaning against the wall. "No, I'll take point. Open the door." She doesn't think about what she is saying, being injured herself. The only thing she does know is that it would be terrible to let Luka lead them through the corridors of hell. Especially with those... things... lurking around.

He holds out his pistol to her after taking the rifle.

"There's six shots left."

He looks over at the other Spartan, quizzically.

"Luka knows where we're going. Regardless of injury."

"Unless you have a different location in mind, I have two soldiers up top with a ship secured." She says. "I also know where we're going." She continues, he cannot see the face she is giving him, but it is one that matches his own.

He gives a small glance to Luka, to confirm his suspicion.

"Hanger doors will be locked down. No ship is leaving this area."

Andrea goes into a brief stint of thought. "Recommended course of action, then? We could just override the door. Any Covenant that come strolling in will be dealt with by the ship." She replies with an uncertain tone in her voice. It's simplistic and dangerous, she knows, but there is always the chance that it can work. She'd have to put faith in Teria and Corbin that they wouldn't fail in their holdout. She'd also have to put trust in two strangers to not get killed or get her killed. She just doesn't want to leave anyone behind.

Luka nodded in agreement.
"Opening the doors can only be done from here, and that carries the risk of a catastrophic breach of quarantine." She said, "According to facility schematics, there is another sub-level. It is only shown for those with clearance of 7 or higher," She looked at her partner, to confirm whether or not her idea was plausible.

He shrugs at her.

"There has to be one. Regulations wouldn't allow the failsafe otherwise."

He looks at the other Spartan.

"Sorry about your friends."

Andrea's lower left eyelid begins twitch as dejection begins to fill her body. "I have no hope for this planet, catastrophic breach of quarantine? What point is there to leave those things in quarantine when the planet has been taken by Covenant? Fine, lead the way." She says, obviously distracted by something.

"One world left to the Infection can kill an entire galaxy. Regardless of who owns it."

He shakes his head at the Spartan. How can she be so blind to the immediate threat here.

Luka opened the blast door and scanned the, thankfully, empty hallway. She moved out and a jog, her leg starting to act up again, as she moved towards where she perceived the bunker would be.

Andrea understands their point. Letting this out in the galaxy would be most likely end it. Worlds would go under just as this one had done, but not of the Covenant. Could she really be so selfish to kill galaxies? At the same token, could she really be selfish to let Corbin and Teria go with the base? The least she could do is try to warn them of their demise. She cuts off her external speakers so the present two wouldn't hear and tries to contact Corbin and Teria. She knows the message will be broken from interference, but she has to try.

"Corbin, Teria, if you can hear me. Things... went a little different than expected. You're going to have try to find your own way out before this place goes up. I'm sorry. I tried."

He followed close behind Luka, automatically keeping in a close formation with her. His movements unconsciously mirrored hers and in a situation like this, it could well save their lives.

Andrea takes their six and moves out behind the one she has yet to get the name of. Cautious movements come from her, but she keeps up with the other two.

Luka automatically made the "Hold Position" motion with her left arm, which resulted in little more than a twitch of what was left of her shoulder, though she didn't have time to rectify her mistake, her pistol trained on a single spot ahead of them.