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The Bane of the Universe: A Metroid/Halo Crossover
Date: 1 March 2003, 1:20 am

Intro

~Previously on Halo~


The reflective faceplate covered the face of the SPARTAN II warrior as he watched the remnants of Halo, the ring world with the power to wipe out all life in the galaxy, go up in smoke, along with an Covenant, Flood, or Marines that were left on it.

The Marines...

Those rough and ready leathernecks were warriors. The best of the best, even if they were only humans. Despite the fact he, a SPARTAN II with a biologically enhanced body and the MJOLNIR battle armor to complement and increase his strength and speed even more, was better than the Marines, they still fought with all they had.

They all deserved a better death than the one they got.

Sighing, he went into a deep slumber as Cortana, the AI Construct, guided the Longsword Interceptor fighter back to Earth.



~Previously on Metroid~


Samus Aran. Bounty hunter extraordinaire.

Even as she let Adam guide her ship back to Federation Headquarters, her mind ponder several things.

”Why? Why would the Federation want to study something as heartless as the X?”

This was something she knew well. The merciless destruction that ensued from the X parasite’s break-out aboard the Biologic Space Lab proved that.

They manifested themselves in the bodies of every creature aboard the ship. Even the body of Ridley became an X host.

Only the Metroids being bred by the Federation were able to hold their own against the X. So was she...for she had saved her life from the X with the injection of DNA from the very last Metroid she recovered from SR388.

”That little guy saved me twice...but still, what is going on with the Federation? There was no reason for them to keep the breeding program a secret from me. So why?”

These questions would plague her as she let Adam co-pilot the ship back to Federation HQ, even as the Dachoras and Electoons slumbered peacefully on the floor of her ship.

----


How are these two related? They are in totally different galaxies, fighting for different purposes. Their gender is different, and they most certainly don’t have the same ship. So how are they in common?

They will find out once they meet each other unexpectedly...aboard one of the other remaining ring worlds of Halo...

But how will Samus get to a ring world that’s in a different galaxy?

That shall soon be revealed.

Part 1-A New Mission/First Contact

~10 Light-Years Away from Federation HQ~

Samus looked through the ship’s front window, watching as the stars passed by, glowing and giving light to an otherwise dark universe.

“Lady?”

Her thoughts were interrupted by the computerized voice of her CO, Adam Malkovich. She turned around and replied, “What is it?”

“A message from Federation Headquarters. They have a new mission for you...”

“And?”

“According to their message, radio waves have been detected that originate far away from a different galaxy. Federation wants you to check them out.”

Samus sighed as she looked at the coordinates. The origin of the radio waves was in a planet near the outer edge of another galaxy over 40,000 light years away. A trip like that would take months.

“Lady, I suggest you place yourself in the cryo-freeze. This trip will take a long time.”

“Okay...” Her eyes turned to the slumbering creatures on the floor. “What about the Dachoras and Electoons?”

“I will pilot the ship and make a quick stop by a one of the Federation’s Space Habitats. They will be fine there.”

“...okay. Thank you Adam.”

Samus stepped inside the cryo-tube and laid against the back of it as the coolant quickly came in, freezing her body into a stasis for the long trip.

----

At this point in time, in a different galaxy...

A gray-haired man smoked from his pipe as he looked at the ring-shaped object with sharp eyes, almost as if he was staring straight through it.

He was Captain Jacob Keyes, and the ship he was on was known as the Pillar of Autumn. He looked over his crew, typing away furiously on their consoles as the radar continuously bleeped with red signals.

Covenant signals.

He sighed as he turned toward the hologram of what appeared to be a purple woman clad in black.

“Cortana, what are we up against?”

The AI construct frowned as she shook her head. “Not too good sir. Three Covenant cruisers. Our Longsword Interceptors are holding their own against the Covenant fighters, but they won’t be able to do a thing against shield cruisers.”

“I know, I know.” He looked away from her at the ring-world once more. Things weren’t looking good.

One option was left.

“Cortana....wake up our old friend.”

Cortana smiled. He was speaking of the last SPARTAN II. John-117, but she kept that to herself. To everyone else, he was simply known as Master Chief.

“Got it Keyes.”

----

~Five Months Pass~

A little spec of light suddenly turned into a ship as it exited light speed.

It was the Gunship of Samus Aran.

Adam’s computerized mind guided the ship carefully...intent on finding the source of the radio waves.

----

The Master Chief winced as he looked upon the ring-world.

One of the many Halos in the galaxy.

And down there were Covenant forces searching for the Flood to destroy them.

Usually, something like this would be a cause for applause among men. However, the High Command of the UNSC worried that in their quest to eliminate the Flood, the Covenant might incidentally let the Flood escape on board one of their ships.

And that would’ve been a catastrophic death knell to the entire galaxy.

Cortana’s voice was heard as he looked upon the artificial world, being conquered slowly by the large Covenant forces, then being pushed back by a Flood counterattack.

“Chief, I’ve accessed the Covenant Battle-net. Things aren’t looking good for them down there. For every victory, the Flood come rushing back with another legion of warriors. Every time the Covenant attack, they lose many of their warriors to the Flood, only to be fighting against them later on.”

The Chief already knew the grimness of the situation. He had encountered them before...on a different Halo. One that was located between the gas giant Threshold and its moon, Basis.

Covenant were conquered and transformed by the Flood. As were the Marines...

He still carried a scar from the whole battle on Halo.

Every single human on the Pillar of Autumn...lost either in battle, or transformed into deformed monsters by the Flood.

He still felt like he was responsible in some way for everyone’s death on Halo. He knew that their lives were wasted in a conflict to gain control of what they thought to be a weapon, but turned out to be the bane of the galaxy.

The Flood.

The ship he was in was an old scouting ship, the Flawless Cowboy. It had been armed to the teeth by the UNSC, and fit with a large MAC gun on the bottom, just in case he had to fight a Covenant cruiser on the run.

Even though the ship was only about twelve times as small as the Pillar of Autumn, it was spacious enough for only him.

However, he wouldn’t mind the company of a fellow human right now.

Alarms suddenly brought him out of his day-dream as Cortana started to panic.

“Chief! Unidentified vessel on our sensors! Origin unknown. Type unknown. A completely alien vessel.”

Bad news. Could it be a new kind of Covenant vessel? That was the last thing he need right now.

“Cortana. Charge the MAC gun. We may need it.”

“Hold on...never mind. We won’t need it.”

Master Chief mentally sighed. This AI had a knack for occasionally ticking him off. “And why is that?”

“It’s only about the size of a standard Pelican dropship. It doesn’t even have the shielding used by all the Covenant’s ships!”

This caused a slight bit of a worry in the Master Chief’s mind. If it wasn’t a Covenant vessel, then could it be the Flood escaping from Halo on a foreign vessel?

When he checked the ship’s trajectory, he gave a slight sigh of relief. It wasn’t leading away form Halo.

Rather...it was heading straight for it.

“Cortana.”

“Got it Chief.” Cortana’s hologram disappeared before the armored Spartan II pulled out her core chip, implanting it in his helmet.

“Alright Chief. Head for the airlock.”

Cortana’s voice rang clear as he made his way to Cowboy’s rear.

----

Adam brought the Gunship to a sudden halt when his radar screen caught the signal of a foreign vessel.

“A foreign vessel. We have officially made eyesight with a foreign vessel.”

He looked at the somewhat clunky design of the ship. It was over a dozen times bigger than the Gunship, but the technology behind it wasn’t as advanced.

“Are the creatures of this galaxy lesser advanced than us?”

As he increased the radar’s range, he caught the signals of several other ships.

“Hmm....plasma based weaponry and defensive shielding detected...it couldn’t be the Space Pirates...”

The Space Pirates were the scourge of Samus’ galaxy. The main antagonists of the Galactic Federation.

Thus far, Samus had dealt them the most damage. She had destroyed Mother Brain twice. She had utterly annihilated their most powerful figureheads, even the almighty Ridley. She had destroyed their base on the planet Zebes, and had completely halted their mining and research of the dreaded Phazon mutagen on Tallon IV.

But as he scanned the ships further, he detected that the personnel on board were of a different origin.

“Interesting.”

His scanners then caught the attention of a small humanoid object slowly flying towards the Gunship.

----

Master Chief carefully directed himself threw the darkness of space as he careened towards the foreign ship.

He only hope there were some footholds.

As he collided onto the ship’s front screen, he grabbed a hold of a metallic tube the moved across the purple hull.

”Chief. I’m detecting an entryway on the ship’s underbelly.”

The Master Chief slowly moved about as he carefully grabbed small footholds on the ship’s carapace. If he moved too quickly, he’d slip and he would be sent flying through space, only to die a slow and cold death.

A fellow SPARTAN II had died a similar fate. His teammate James had been sent flying into space when a Covenant warrior had imbedded multiple Needler rounds in his thrust pack while trying to defend the planet Reach. James thrusters exploded and he had been sent flying through space, only to die a cold death.

He didn’t want the same thing to happen to him.

As he carefully put his hands upon the entry hatch, he carefully moved his padded fingers around, feeling for something to open it.

There.

Pushing the small button, the circular hatch opened, allowing him access. He climbed in and waited as the sealed tube pressurized, bringing back gravity.

Of course, he had to be ready. He took out his MA5B Assault Rifle and pointed the barrel toward the door of the tube.

It slowly opened, revealing the innards of the ship. Cortana’s gasp indicated that this ship was exciting in some way.

“Amazing. The technology on this ship is more advanced than the Covenant’s cruisers! Cloaking technology and propulsion systems unlike any I’ve ever seen!”

The thought worried Master Chief a little. If the one piloting the ship was hostile...

“Please identify yourselves.”

Master Chief quickly turned his weapon in the direction of the voice, which came from the console.

It sounded mechanical and confident. Almost like the Monitor’s...he shook that notion off.

Cortana’s figure quickly appeared from the Chief’s wrist camera. ”First of all, identify yourself!”

“This vessel is my own. All visitors should give their identity if they are to be welcomed aboard.”

Cortana growled and was about to retort when the Spartan II replied, “This is the AI construct Cortana. I’m the Master Chief.”

”Nice going Chief.”

Cortana’s dissent with his decision to reveal themselves was easily known. It mattered not.

“Thank you. I am Adam Malkovich, the pilot of this Gunship. I am interested to see such a fully automated artificial intelligence.”

“And you aren’t?”

The voice chuckled. “No. I am merely the mind of a deceased CO computerized and digitized. I’m living through a computer in layman’s terms.”

Cortana was obviously impressed. ”Living on as a computer? I should say that I’m impressed to.”

The Master Chief looked around the ship. His eye caught a tube holding an armored figure. “Who’s in there?”

Adam’s voice echoed through the small space of the Gunship. “Samus Aran. Bounty Hunter. We came here from another galaxy on orders from the Galactic Federation to investigate radio waves that we received. Here they are.”

Adam began playing them back, and the sounds of rock music from the 1960’s filled the room. Cortana started laughing so hard that her hologram image was kneeling over, laughing without end.

“Oh my goodness! An alien civilization from another galaxy intercepts a radio transmission of the Beatles!”

Master Chief wasn’t as amused. He had never heard this kind of music before, and it didn’t particularly catch his ears. “Is the bounty hunter ready to be awoken?”

“Truth to tell, we’ve encountered extraterrestrials. I suppose now is the time.”

Chilled sub-zero oxygen poured from the tube as a red light was emanated from within the tube. After thirty seconds of the red glow, the armored figure of Samus Aran moved.

Master Chief looked through the figure’s green visor to see a feminine face.

Cortana showed her surpise more vividly when she saw the figure behind the visor. “A girl?”

Adam could only chuckle when Samus quickly jumped out of the tube and put the Master Chief in a chokehold, pointing her Arm Cannon to the helmet. “That’s what they all say when they discover her gender.”

Samus was less than pleased to see a foreigner on her ship. She started charging the Power Beam as she said, “Tell me who you are and why you’re on board my ship.”

The Master Chief sighed as he replied, “My name’s Master Chief, and my little friend is Cortana.”

”Lot more talkative than usual, eh?”

Sometimes he wished Cortana would shut up.

”You little friend 'Adam’ already got to know us bounty hunter. Do you mind if I take a look at your databanks?”

Samus made her chokehold tighter. “Why should I?”

”Because you’re someone from another galaxy, and I’m curious as to what kind of data I can find out about. I’m sort of a historian.”

Samus looked at the green circle on her Gunship’s main console, which blinked brightly, indicating Adam’s agreement. “Very well.” She let go of the Master Chief who got up easily, almost as if nothing happened.

He took out Cortana’s core chip and placed into a small slot near the side of the ship. Several seconds later, Cortana’s hologram appeared on the console, and she looked bright green instead of purple.

This meant she was emotional about something.

“What can you find Cortana.”

”Unbelievable. I can’t believe this! The technology! The history! It outpaces ours and the Covenant’s by a long shot! And I’ve just started!”

All the while, Adam was comparing the Master Chief and Samus Aran with every detail he could find. Their suits were identical in numerous ways, except Samus’ had a greater tolerance for abuse due to her Fusion suit’s technical advantages.

However, the one known as 'Master Chief’...body scans indicated that even Samus’ Chozo blood could make her a match for this green armored alien. His muscle mass was three times as great as hers, and a metal alloy was detected in his skeleton. This person had been biologically enhanced dramatically.

The wonder was that he was still alive.

Cortana’s eyes suddenly went worried and anxious when she said, ”Wait...what is this....Metroid....what the heck? Why are they so similar to the Flood???”



To be continued...


Next time...

The Metroids are revealed to Cortana and the Master Chief, and the horrors of the Flood are revealed to Adam and Samus.

Also, they begrudgingly join forces and land on Halo, intent on destroying the ring-world, and any Flood and Covenant that are on it.


Comments/Criticism?

Chapter 2-Explanation/Touchdown
Date: 8 March 2003, 3:05 PM

Master Chief nearly froze at Cortana's exclamation. Another life form similar to the Flood?

Great. Just great.

He managed to get a look through Samus' visor, and he saw a hint of curiosity on her face. Not surprising. She was probably curious as to what the Flood were.

Adam's computerized 'eye' blinked several times before the hologram of a Metroid in its first form appeared in front of Master Chief and Samus.

The green upper carapace looked like goop to him, but the mandibles jutting down from the creature looked more menacing.

Adam began explaining.

"The Metroid is a life-form that has the distinct ability of draining an organism's energy merely by attaching itself to said organism with its large, razor-sharp mandibles. How it absorbs energy from the organism is unknown, but it is known that it can kill you within a matter of seconds upon attaching itself to you."

Master Chief could see more connections between Metroids and the Flood with every second that passed by.

"Despite the fact its natural energy producing capabilities represent a great opportunity for peaceful projects, it is possible to use the Metroids as incredibly dangerous weapons of mass destruction. They have several forms of metamorphosis, and it only takes one Metroid to annihilate approximately twenty-four armed soldiers before being defeated."

Like the Flood. Master Chief could find them similar in just about everyway except appearance. And even then, they still looked eerily similar.

"But what are these Flood you speak of?"

Samus could have asked the same question. She was curious as to what kind of connection the artificial intelligence had made between them and the Metroids.

Cortana's figure concentrated for a few seconds as she said, "Hold on. I'm uploading data to your ship's databanks. Give me a second..."

After several seconds passed, Adam's computer eye blinked repeatedly as he brought up a hologram of the Flood infection form.

Samus eyed the balloon-like creature with some worry. The mere sight of it hinted toward it being a heartless creature, much akin to the X parasite.

"According to the data the AI construct uploaded-"

"Hey. I have a name you know. It's Cortana."

"...right. According to the data Cortana uploaded to the Gunship's main computers, the Flood are a parasitic life form capable of mutating sentient bio-forms into warriors and fighters. They spread the spores into your bloodstream upon infecting you, and it turns you into a warrior or worker-class Flood within hours."

Samus was a tad worried by this. It was fortunate these creatures weren't existent in her own galaxy, otherwise the Space Pirates would've most likely have gotten their hands on them by now.

"Worrisome. Apparently, they have been found only on a ring-world known as 'Halo'."

"Bingo. And there's several. One of them is down there."

Samus looked out one of the Gunship's side portholes to see a massive metallic ring. Even more impressive was the fact that a miniature world was on the inside of it.

Of course, she had seen Space Pirates transform the innards of an entire planet into a fortress, so this wasn't something new.

"Whose ships are those?" Adam was curious as to whom they belonged to after he picked them up on his scanners.

"Allow me to answer. Those ships belong to an alien group known as the Covenant. They're in a holy war with humans. However, they've stopped attacking us so they could focus on destroying the Flood. The Flood are a greater threat to them than anything the humans can come up with."

"Interesting. And why are you here?"

Master Chief cocked his MA5B Assault Rifle before saying, "We're here to destroy Halo."

"We can't risk letting the Flood getting a hold of a Covenant cruiser and escaping the ring. That's why the United Nations Space Command, or UNSC, has given to us commands to find all of the ring-worlds in the galaxy, then destroy each and every one of them. Plus, with the Covenant down there, it'll not only ease the pressure on the UNSC, but they'll be destroyed when the ring is annihilated as well. Killing two birds with one stone."

Samus nodded. The plan definitely had merit. Although, the Covenant ships would present a big problem if they were found.

There was no choice.

"You're going to have to leave your ship behind in orbit."

John-117 turned and glared at Samus. "And why is that?"

"If we land on the other side of the ring, our ship's will have a 47.5% chance of evading their sensors."

Adam's voice immediately interrupted. "However, this Gunship has highly advanced cloaking technology. Compute the power of the cloaking shields on this Gunship, then factor those in to the equation."

Cortana remained silent as she went over the calculations. Then her shocked eyes revealed that she had been defeated in this computational battle. "After factoring in this ship, our chances of being found drop to a measly 4%..."

Master Chief was impressed. This ship must've had extremely powerful cloaking shields to lower the odds so dramatically.

"What do you say...Master Chief, is it?"

The Chief looked at the computer eye of Adam before nodding. "Let Cortana and me get back to the my ship and hide it."

"Fair enough."

The Spartan II pulled Cortana's core chip out of the Gunship's terminal and prepared to head for the hatch as he gave a piercing glare at Samus.

At the point, it was almost as if they both read each other's minds.

"She doesn't trust me."

----

"He doesn't trust me."

Samus watched as the Master Chief quietly descended through the entry hatch, and it wasn't too long until she could see his figure bounding off the front windshield.

"His battle armor is not too dissimilar to your Fusion suit Lady."

Samus nodded as she clicked a small button on the side of her helmet, switching to her Scan Visor.

She quickly scanned the ship before it moved out of range as it went to hide.

The Flawless Cowboy

This is an old Necron-Class scouting ship, but it has been recently re-armed with technology seen on more recent ships with the United Nations Space Command Fleet. It's underside has been armed with a Magnetic Accelerator Cannon (MAC), which launches a super-charged projectile, capable of piercing cruisers and frigates. It also has twelve missile ports on its sides, allowing it to hold its own against not only capital ships, but small fighters.

An interesting ship. It seemed quite a large ship to handle by himself.

On the other hand, that AI construct seemed quite capable. Perhaps it wouldn't be such a large task.

She checked over her suit as Adam directed the ship towards the Flawless Cowboy, which had hidden on the surface of a desolate moon.

The Gunship hovered over the surface of the crater-laden moon as the Master Chief made his across the rocky ground, placing himself under the Gunship when its gravity lift pulled him in.

Well. Time to get going.

----

John-117 didn't need to hold himself down as the Gunship quickly and quietly lifted off from the moon, setting its direction to the upper-left portion of the ring.

"According to my scanners, enemy activity is the lowest in that sector."

Cortana had quite a knack for knowing where to go next. Although her rambling would occasionally get on Master Chief's nerves, she was a huge help in foreign territory.

Hopefully, this ring wouldn't be any different from the Halo he was on last time.

As he looked out the right sideport, he could see that unlike the last thing, which was mostly coastal, inland, and arctic environments, this ring-world was more desert-like. There were more islands, and the ocean carved a web through what land mass there was.

Whoever controlled the seas controlled the planet.

That's what it would be like in conventional warfare.

"But this isn't a conventional war." The Spartan II checked the readings on his MJOLNIR battle armor. Shields were at max.

He placed a new clip into his MA5B Assault Rifle as the Gunship began to descend through the atmosphere.

----

The palm fronds rustled with the wind rushing away as the Gunship slowly set down in a small clearing in the oasis. It finally came to a stop, landing on the ground with its retractable landing apparatus.

Samus and the Master Chief were set down upon the sandy ground. Samus began scanning the area while the Chief looked around for any Covenant.

"Covenant activity detected about 35 kilometers eastward. The coordinates on this ring aren't identical to the other one near Threshold. We're going to have to find the control room by accessing the Covenant Battle-net...and unfortunately, I can't access it at the moment. We're going to have to board a Covenant ship and download the data ourselves."

Figures. The Chief sighed as Samus walked up beside him.

"I guess we get going."

Samus nodded as she kept her left hand firmly on her Arm Cannon. "I guess so."

"Well you two, let's set in for the long haul."

The wind began picking up sand and dust as they walked into desert.

----

Adam's computer eye watched with a curious kind of glee. He was very eager to see how Master Chief and Samus would work out.

Yes, if only he could find a way to watch them cooperating against the enemy.

He would find a way. He had to.



To be continued....


In the next chapter, Samus scans the intricacies of Halo while the Master Chief scouts ahead. How will the SPARTAN II and the Bounty Hunter do in their first encounter with a Covenant recon group?

And what exactly does Adam Malkovich gonna do?

Part 3-The Incursion
Date: 9 March 2003, 4:38 PM

The Master Chief wiped some of the dust from his faceplate as he moved through the sandstorm along with Samus, who didn't seem to have a need to wipe away any dust from her face. Probably because there was none.

Groaning, he placed his arm in front of his face in an attempt to block the sand, but it didn't do much either way.

Samus didn't seem to be bothered by the sandstorm, as she kept walking along, hand on her Arm Cannon.

The howling winds were interrupted by Cortana's voice.

"Guys, I'm detecting a Covenant dropship lifting off from about 2 miles ahead of us! I suggest we take a different path."

The Master Chief nodded and he began to veer toward the left, but Samus kept walking straight ahead.

"Samus, I suggest you veer off course according to Cortana's instructions."

"If I recall, it was a suggestion and not an instruction."

The Chief sighed. This bounty hunter was either overconfident or arrogant.

"Samus, I ask of you! Change course now! You're heading straight for the Covenant!"

"I know."

"Fool."

The Master Chief shook his head as he kept going in the same direction, hoping that Samus would come to her senses and change direction.

After about several minutes passed, he asked, "Cortana, has Samus changed course?"

"Analyzing....no...she's still on her present course...and she's gaining velocity!"

What in the blazes was that bounty hunter thinking? There was no other alternative but to head for the Covenant position and try and get that bounty hunter out of the mess she was getting herself into.

----

Samus quickly rolled through the sand, zooming at high speed in her Morph Ball form.

This was much quicker than going slowly on foot, and the compact form would allow her to go unnoticed by most normal enemies.

However, a gut feeling told her the Covenant weren't normal.

She quickly got out of Morph Ball form and quietly stepped through the sand as the sandstorm slowly ceased.

She quietly stepped from boulder to boulder as the environment around her began to transform from a arid desert to a more tropical climate. Palm trees dripping with dew adorned the landscape, and rocky mountains were along the sides of the land.

Sure it was pretty, but it would mean nothing if she was spotted.

She quickly activated her Scan Visor, hoping to find anything worthy to scan.

The trees and the mountains could be scanned, but it wasn't worth her time at the moment.

The other figures that could be scanned were more valuable.


Covenant: Grunts

The Grunts are relatively weak compared to other Covenant forces, but they can easily overwhelm in large groups. They are roughly 5 feet tall, and although their armor offers some protection, its prime purpose is to offer the Grunts the methane gas that they naturally breathe on their home world. Armor indicates rank, and lowest to highest is orange, red, and finally black.

Interesting.

As for the other one...


Covenant: Elites

The Elites have a very strong frame and a large muscle mass. They are all roughly around 8 feet, 6 inches tall, and they are brilliant tacticians despite their appearance. They usually serve as commanders of any Covenant forces in the area, and they are the only Covenant unit that pilots any of their vehicles. Armor indicates rank, and lowest to highest is blue, red, black, and finally gold.

Samus could only wander what the other Covenant were like.

She quickly activated her Thermal Visor to pick up how many enemies were in the area.

There were seven small figures, and three taller ones.

So there were seven Grunts, and three Elites.

It was time to get to work.

She rolled back into her Morph Ball form and weaved through all the tress, advancing ever closer to the Covenant enemy.

Her sensors indicated that she was only several feet away.

Now.

She charged her boost ball and zoomed through, planting a power bomb and three regular Morph Ball bombs along her path.

The Covenant were caught by surprise, but they regained composure real quickly.

Some of them managed to dive away from the blast radius of each bomb.

When she quickly unrolled from her Morph Ball form, she looked through her Thermal Visor.

1 Elite was killed. Three Grunts were down for the count.

Time to engage in close-range combat.

She charged up her Power Beam and leapt through the air, shooting upon the Covenant troops.

The Elites looked up and rolled away. A Grunt was taken down by her charged blast which sent the others scurrying away in fear.

The Elites turned around and opened fire with their plasma rifles.

She got hit with some of the plasma, which depleted about twenty-five notches out of her 1st energy tank.

She had 13 Energy Tanks left, so her Fusion Suit's well-being wasn't a concern in this match.

Then she felt a sudden feeling of vertigo as a plasma grenade exploded right next to her feet. The rest of her energy tank was depleted as she regained her composure. The ones responsible were the Grunts, whom had returned to fight some more.

"They're more gutsy than I thought."

She then started locking on to each enemy individually before shooting them with a missile. The Grunts went down without so much of a struggle, but when her missiles exploded on the Elites, she noticed a white-colored field flicker around them before disappearing.

"They must have shields."

She then switched to her Wave Beam, and she began firing the electrically-charged blasts at the Elites.

The Elites' shields proved ineffective blocking the electric charge of the Wave Beam, which paralyzed them upon contact.

Switching to her Plasma Beam, Samus unleashed a horde of molten energy upon the Elites, watching as they slowly burned before slumping to the ground, dead.

"That wasn't too difficult."

She then began scanning the Covenant weapons and the pilot-less Covenant dropship.

----

Cortana's voice beeped through his head as he made his way out of the desert and through the brush.

"Covenant signals are gone. Maybe they defeated her and took off?"

Perhaps. Perhaps not. They would know soon enough.

As the Chief came running out of the thicket of palm trees, Assault Rifle ready to fire, he saw the bodies of dead Grunts and Elites piled up next to the disabled Covenant dropship, and Samus was simply sitting on top of it, looking down upon the Chief.

"Wow. She defeated all of them!"

Master Chief was very impressed. Even though it was possible for him to defeat the same number of Covenant, it would take a multitude of hit and run attacks. But to defeat a Covenant group like that in such a short amount of time was unheard of.

The bounty hunter hopped off the dropship and glared at the Master Chief.

"As you can see, I handle myself just fine."

The Master Chief nodded as he calmly replied. "I can see that perfectly."

"You don't have to be so snotty about it though."

"Next time, don't make such a quick judgment of one's abilities in combat. Now...where do we go next?"

Master Chief could almost feel the fumes steaming off from Cortana. She didn't like Samus very much.

"....the next signals of the Covenant are about thirty miles along this path. Signals indicate that a Covenant cruiser has set up there as a drop-back point for Covenant troops."

The Master Chief pointed towards the pass between the mountains, which were situated in the sand that stretched from the desert.

Samus followed by Master Chief's side, keeping her Scan Visor ready to scan for things.

"Why do you fascinate yourself with scanning?"

Samus wondered why the Chief would ask such a question, considering he appeared to be quite a competent soldier.

"So I can obtain more information that may come in handy later on."

"I only take things as they come, and focus on the now."

"A flawed philosophy."

John-117 glared at the armored bounty hunter, wondering if she just mocked him. "Why do you say that?"

"Information from the present can save your life in the future. It's happened to me before."

The Master Chief reflected upon that bit of advice with some considerable thinking. Samus did have a point, although he did not have the means of scanning things like she did.

He could see what his eyes saw, and react upon it.

However, he did appreciate reconnaissance info...when he could ever get it.

----

Adam was intrigued by the strange energy signals he sensed coursing through the ring-world.

It wasn't the energy of the plasma-based technology.

It was some kind of teleportation grid, spanning the entire ring.

"Interesting."

He had an idea...albeit a risky one.

"If I can tap into the teleportation grid...maybe I can use it to increase the range of my scanners..."

It would take too much power to teleport him. Besides, he couldn't be teleported anyway. So he might as well use it to increase his range of vision.

It would take awhile to work it all out though...



To be continued...



Next chapter, Master Chief and Samus come upon the Covenant cruiser Incursion. They fend off the Covenant troops before taking the gravity lift inside in order to try and find Halo's control center.

And what is Adam trying to accomplish?

Chapter 4-Hunt for the Index
Date: 10 March 2003, 3:14 AM

"You sure this is a good idea?"

Cortana didn't sound too excited at the notion from leaping onto the top of a Covenant cruiser. She had once taken a look in Master Chief's service record, and noticed that the Chief once entered a Covenant cruiser while in space.

It wasn't a very memorable experience for the Chief to be sure.

"I'm sure."

Samus was more confident. She had her Arm Cannon ready as she scanned the cruiser.


Covenant: Incursion

The Incursion is a Shark-class Covenant cruiser, according to the UNSC's classification chart. The ship is shark-like in structure and frame, and it contains a deadly arsenal of plasma-based weaponry. Guided plasma projectiles can be launched from its pods, as well as a powerful superplasma beam capable of ripping any ship apart instantly. The ship also wields powerful shields that take enormous amounts of fire power to destroy. However, the ship can be entered by using a gravity lift, or by entering when its shields go down to let its weapons fire.

"So that's how we get in..."

Samus looked down at the ground. Covenant troops were all over the place. She could see some that were Grunts and Elites, and some were types that he'd never seen before. Unfortunately, they were too far away to be scanned.

But she already had her plan down, and was about to explain it to the Chief when he started speaking.

"We're going to jump onto the ship and get their attention. We'll go in once the ship's shields go down to let its weapons fire. We'll blow a hole open, then find a console where Cortana can find the location of the Control Room."

Samus blinked a few times. Had he managed to read her mind? Or had he managed to devise the whole plan using only intuition and his eyes? Either thought slightly troubled her.

"How did you know?"

Master Chief stared at Samus, his faceplate preventing his face from being seen. Samus had no idea what his face was like. But then again, many didn't see hers either.

"I've had to do this before, except in the vacuum of space."

That was even more impressive. To perform the aforementioned maneuver was one thing. To do the same thing in the merciless vacuum of space was another thing all together. The Chief must have been through a lot, considering how much he apparently knew about the Covenant.

"Ready?"

Samus was definitely ready.

"Go!"

They both leapt off the cliff at the same time, sailing through the artificial atmosphere of the ring-world before landing upon the Incursion's shield.

"Guys. They see us!"

Master Chief looked up at the plasma turret aiming at them. The shields began to flicker as the turret charged, then they dissipated as a blue bolt of plasma was launched at them.

Samus rolled into her Morph Ball form while Master Chief dive out of the way. They were now beneath the shields and on the hull.

Chief could hear Cortana give an inquisitive hum as she saw Samus return from her Morph Ball form. "How do you do that?"

Samus turned to the Chief and replied, "Maru Mari. Morph Ball technology of the Chozo."

"Who are the Chozo?"

"Long story. I'll explain later."

The Master Chief watched as Samus moved closer to the turret, moving slowly under he Fusion Suit. He had a gut feeling that the 'Chozo' might be the key to a lot of mysteries surrounding Samus.

Samus' quickly charged her Wave Beam and shot at the plasma turret, disabling it.

"Try and break through the hull Chief!"

The Master Chief let a grenade roll to a small indentation in the ship's hull, and a few seconds passed before a plume of fire and smoke shot upward as the frag grenade exploded.

When the haze cleared, a hole about one foot wide was there.

Not enough to fit through.

"Let me do the rest."

Master Chief stood back as Samus' Arm Canon converted to her Missile Launcher. She launched a Super Missile at the hole, expanding it by another two feet.

"Let's go then."

Master Chief wished he could see Cortana's facial expressions now. He could almost feel her fuming at being constantly one-upped by the bounty hunter.

They both moved into the hole, carefully touching the floor within the Incursion.

Master Chief looked carefully around the first hallway.

All clear.

He moved further into the hall, with Samus taking up the rear.

As they moved along, Samus noticed how unlike the ship was in comparison to the Space Pirates. Whereas the Space Pirates' ships were dark, cold and gray, the Covenant's ships were a mix pink, purple and blue. Everything about this ship looked...organic.

"I wonder if all of their ships are like this?"

As she saw the Master Chief go around a corner, she then heard the sounds of roaring plasma. Then came the sound of bullet shells. A scream of death followed as the sounds of battle ceased.

She stepped around the corner to see the Master Chief looking over the dead body of a blue Elite.

"According to the data I've managed to pick up, the Incursion's control room should be....there."

A few seconds passed, then a red, triangular mark appeared on the Chief's visor. Below the NAV point was a number that said 500 meters.

"Let's go then."

Samus followed the Chief through several hallways, almost feeling as if the ship had been totally emptied.

As they came around another corner, Samus saw what looked like walking lizards. Some of them looked like walking vultures. And they both carried large shields. She scanned both.

She got the same result from both.


Covenant: Jackal

The Jackals are approximately 5 feet, 8 inches tall, although they usually don't stand at their maximum height all the time. Their senses of sight, hearing and smell are much greater than that of the other Covenant units, thus making them perfect scouts and assassins. Their shields are incredibly strong, but they can be deactivated by plasma weaponry.

Samus didn't have time to think as green plasma burst forth from the Jackals' plasma pistols. She quickly ducked behind the wall, effectively keeping her out of their line of fire.

She then looked at the Chief, who lobbed a grenade at the Jackals.

Smoke enveloped the hall in front of them as purple blood was spilt. The Jackals were dead, and they could continue.

"Sensors are detecting Covenant movement all throughout the ship. They know we're here now."

Master Chief kept his trigger finger ready. Now that they were found, it was going to be a tough job getting to a information database.

----

The frigate was like a blood hound.

Spies had informed them that the Hunter was on a mission to another galaxy.

That was four months ago.

Now they would be entering the unknown galaxy in only a few weeks...but that would not be satisfactory...they would continue travelling in Slipstream space longer than safety protocols commanded.

But it would be worth it in the end.

The Space Pirates were ready and willing to purge the galaxy of all its resources.

All in their efforts to rid themselves of the Hunter.

----

Adam hoped the Gunship would be able to have enough power to let him do this.

"Here goes nothing."

He sent out a signal from the Gunship to the teleportation grid.

If the grid complied with it, he would be allowed access to it.

And it should be able to extend the range of the Gunship's scanners and sensors to every sector of the ring.

Several seconds passed.

A signal returned.

Adam sighed as the grid opened up the gates for him. He immediately increased the sensors' range.

He pulled up a holographic image of Halo, and he looked at all the little details.

He saw the Covenant fighting the demonic-looking Flood in several sectors of the ring-world.

He looked about to see a Covenant cruiser.

Samus' signal was coming from there.

"Be careful Lady..."

----

A Grunt was sent backwards by the explosion. Several rounds of the Needler that the Chief now wielded had struck the Grunt, exploding a few seconds upon contact.

Samus couldn't help but somewhat admire the resourcefulness of the Master Chief. He had run out of ammo for his pistol. So he simply exchanged it for one of the Covenant's weapons.

But now there were more important matters to contend with.

A fully charged Plasma Beam blast came into contact with a group of Grunts.

They were incinerated immediately.

The Chief could care less as to how Samus did it, as long as she did do it. Cortana was less than pleased though as she began to the Chief, and only the Chief.

"If anything, she's a show-off."

"Jealous?"

"Watch it buster. I will take down your shields. Then see how you like it being vulnerable like you used to!"

The Chief sighed as he shot several more Grunts with the Needler. He had to question the AI's personal thoughts at times.

He quickly dropped his Needler and picked up a plasma pistol as he dove behind a canister. The Jackal shooting at him began charging its plasma pistol.

He charged his as well.

He quickly moved out from behind the canister and shot his charged blast.

The Jackal shot his one second later.

Too late.

Master Chief ducked behind the canister again, feeling the heated plasma collide with the canister's front. He was unscathed.

And now the Jackal's shield was gone.

He took out his MA5B Assault Rifle and unloaded ten bullets into the Jackal's mottled and gray skin, killing it in seconds.

Samus hopped down beside the Spartan II as she put her Arm Cannon on the Power Beam mode. "Let's go."

"According to my scanners, the Incursion's control room is just down the hall through...that door."

Master Chief saw a NAV point mark appear over the door. He pointed towards it as he began to walk to it.

The doors opened and out came the enemy that he did not want to see.

Hunters.

The massive, blue-armored titans were like monsters on the battle field.

But Samus took the time to scan one of them.


Covenant: Hunter

The Hunter is the most powerful known fighter in the Covenant's warrior caste. Even though at full height, it is 12 feet high, it only stands at 8 feet during combat to protect its orange, gooey body. A fuel rod gun has been physically welded to its right arm. The gun shoots a charged plasma rod which explodes on contact, and it is currently known to be a rechargeable weapon. The metal shield it carries on its left arm is made of an impervious metal alloy, and its weight turns it into a powerful melee weapon. The Hunter is also quite quick to turn, otherwise its vulnerable back might be exposed to enemy fire.

She had no time to think as a fuel rod gun blast zoomed over her head.

Samus jumped up to a platform above her, risking a glance at the impact zone of the shot.

The canister it hit was nearly annihilated.

She quickly set her Arm Cannon to the Ice Beam function as she tried to get a get shot at the Hunter's body.

As for the Master Chief, he had engaged in a 'cat-and-mouse' game with the other Hunter.

The behemoth would grunt as it charged forward to hit the Chief with his metal shield, but it would miss. Then pains seared through its body as the Master Chief opened fire on its back.

It turned around to charge again.

Dodge. Turn around. Fire. Repeat.

The Hunter gave off its death moan as it collapsed to the ground, dead.

Samus fired her charged Ice Beam.

The Hunter froze upon contact.

Samus leapt form the platform above and shot a super missile at the Hunter's backside.

The projectile hit, and the frozen Hunter was enveloped in an explosion.

Samus quietly landed beside the smoke, looking upon where the Hunter stood.

Then, much to her surprise and horror, a green light began to glow from within the smoke.

The fuel rod blast collided with her mid-section, taking out two whole Energy tanks. Samus was sent sprawling as the Hunter quickly ran out of the smoke cloud and brought its metal shield down upon her, effectively taking out another Energy tank.

3 down, 11 to go.

Then the Hunter stood silent as it collapsed to the floor, a bullet wound in its back. The Master Chief walked over the dead Hunter as he picked Samus up to her feet.

"Do you show any gratitude?"

"Yes. Thank you. Now where next?"

The Chief pointed to the hallway on the far left. They both made their way up the hallway until they reached a room where several holographic consoles were fixed upon a central pillar.

"There it is."

Master Chief took Cortana's processor cube out of his helmet and placed it into the terminal as Samus began scanning the console screens. The main screen blinked red as the Chief pulled out Cortana's processor cube and placed it back in.

"Do you have the location Cortana?"

"Got it. We need to get into a Covenant dropship and fly to the coordinates of Halo's control room. Head back to the hangar."

The Chief nodded as he made his way back to the hangar, with Samus following close behind.

Upon entering the hangar, they saw a Covenant dropship pulling in, letting loose its payload of four Jackals, three Grunts and one Elite.

"Hurry! Get on board!"

Samus launched missile after missile on the Covenant that just appeared as the Master Chief pulled the Elite piloting the dropship off. He placed Cortana's processor cube into the dropship's terminal.

"I'm at the controls. Samus! Get on board!"

Samus launched one last missile at an Elite before hopping on top of one of the dropship's 'wings' as Cortana pulled out of the hangar and flew off into the night sky.

"Okay...we're on our way to the control room."


To be continued...


Next time, Samus encounters the Flood for the first time as she and the Chief set down into a jungle within a valley, where the Covenant are attempting to prevent the Flood from retrieving the one item that activates Halo....the Index.

And why would the Flood want the Index?

To destroy it.

Chapter 3.5-The REAL Incursion
Date: 10 March 2003, 10:29 PM

OOC: Whoops...the chapter 'The Incursion', was meant to be for THIS one...you might as well call the previous one 'Chapter 2.5-Samus One-Ups the Chief'.

Apologies for my stupid mistake.


----



"You sure this is a good idea?"

Cortana didn't sound too excited at the notion from leaping onto the top of a Covenant cruiser. She had once taken a look in Master Chief's service record, and noticed that the Chief once entered a Covenant cruiser while in space.

It wasn't a very memorable experience for the Chief to be sure.

"I'm sure."

Samus was more confident. She had her Arm Cannon ready as she scanned the cruiser.


Covenant: Incursion

The Incursion is a Shark-class Covenant cruiser, according to the UNSC's classification chart. The ship is shark-like in structure and frame, and it contains a deadly arsenal of plasma-based weaponry. Guided plasma projectiles can be launched from its pods, as well as a powerful superplasma beam capable of ripping any ship apart instantly. The ship also wields powerful shields that take enormous amounts of fire power to destroy. However, the ship can be entered by using a gravity lift, or by entering when its shields go down to let its weapons fire.

"So that's how we get in..."

Samus looked down at the ground. Covenant troops were all over the place. She could see some that were Grunts and Elites, and some were types that he'd never seen before. Unfortunately, they were too far away to be scanned.

But she already had her plan down, and was about to explain it to the Chief when he started speaking.

"We're going to jump onto the ship and get their attention. We'll go in once the ship's shields go down to let its weapons fire. We'll blow a hole open, then find a console where Cortana can find the location of the Control Room."

Samus blinked a few times. Had he managed to read her mind? Or had he managed to devise the whole plan using only intuition and his eyes? Either thought slightly troubled her.

"How did you know?"

Master Chief stared at Samus, his faceplate preventing his face from being seen. Samus had no idea what his face was like. But then again, many didn't see hers either.

"I've had to do this before, except in the vacuum of space."

That was even more impressive. To perform the aforementioned maneuver was one thing. To do the same thing in the merciless vacuum of space was another thing all together. The Chief must have been through a lot, considering how much he apparently knew about the Covenant.

"Ready?"

Samus was definitely ready.

"Go!"

They both leapt off the cliff at the same time, sailing through the artificial atmosphere of the ring-world before landing upon the Incursion's shield.

"Guys. They see us!"

Master Chief looked up at the plasma turret aiming at them. The shields began to flicker as the turret charged, then they dissipated as a blue bolt of plasma was launched at them.

Samus rolled into her Morph Ball form while Master Chief dive out of the way. They were now beneath the shields and on the hull.

Chief could hear Cortana give an inquisitive hum as she saw Samus return from her Morph Ball form. "How do you do that?"

Samus turned to the Chief and replied, "Maru Mari. Morph Ball technology of the Chozo."

"Who are the Chozo?"

"Long story. I'll explain later."

The Master Chief watched as Samus moved closer to the turret, moving slowly under he Fusion Suit. He had a gut feeling that the 'Chozo' might be the key to a lot of mysteries surrounding Samus.

Samus' quickly charged her Wave Beam and shot at the plasma turret, disabling it.

"Try and break through the hull Chief!"

The Master Chief let a grenade roll to a small indentation in the ship's hull, and a few seconds passed before a plume of fire and smoke shot upward as the frag grenade exploded.

When the haze cleared, a hole about one foot wide was there.

Not enough to fit through.

"Let me do the rest."

Master Chief stood back as Samus' Arm Canon converted to her Missile Launcher. She launched a Super Missile at the hole, expanding it by another two feet.

"Let's go then."

Master Chief wished he could see Cortana's facial expressions now. He could almost feel her fuming at being constantly one-upped by the bounty hunter.

They both moved into the hole, carefully touching the floor within the Incursion.

Master Chief looked carefully around the first hallway.

All clear.

He moved further into the hall, with Samus taking up the rear.

As they moved along, Samus noticed how unlike the ship was in comparison to the Space Pirates. Whereas the Space Pirates' ships were dark, cold and gray, the Covenant's ships were a mix pink, purple and blue. Everything about this ship looked...organic.

"I wonder if all of their ships are like this?"

As she saw the Master Chief go around a corner, she then heard the sounds of roaring plasma. Then came the sound of bullet shells. A scream of death followed as the sounds of battle ceased.

She stepped around the corner to see the Master Chief looking over the dead body of a blue Elite.

"According to the data I've managed to pick up, the Incursion's control room should be....there."

A few seconds passed, then a red, triangular mark appeared on the Chief's visor. Below the NAV point was a number that said 500 meters.

"Let's go then."

Samus followed the Chief through several hallways, almost feeling as if the ship had been totally emptied.

As they came around another corner, Samus saw what looked like walking lizards. Some of them looked like walking vultures. And they both carried large shields. She scanned both.

She got the same result from both.


Covenant: Jackal

The Jackals are approximately 5 feet, 8 inches tall, although they usually don't stand at their maximum height all the time. Their senses of sight, hearing and smell are much greater than that of the other Covenant units, thus making them perfect scouts and assassins. Their shields are incredibly strong, but they can be deactivated by plasma weaponry.

Samus didn't have time to think as green plasma burst forth from the Jackals' plasma pistols. She quickly ducked behind the wall, effectively keeping her out of their line of fire.

She then looked at the Chief, who lobbed a grenade at the Jackals.

Smoke enveloped the hall in front of them as purple blood was spilt. The Jackals were dead, and they could continue.

"Sensors are detecting Covenant movement all throughout the ship. They know we're here now."

Master Chief kept his trigger finger ready. Now that they were found, it was going to be a tough job getting to a information database.

----

The frigate was like a blood hound.

Spies had informed them that the Hunter was on a mission to another galaxy.

That was four months ago.

Now they would be entering the unknown galaxy in only a few weeks.

The Space Pirates were ready and willing to purge the galaxy of all its resources.

All in their efforts to rid themselves of the Hunter.

----

Adam hoped the Gunship would be able to have enough power to let him do this.

"Here goes nothing."

He sent out a signal from the Gunship to the teleportation grid.

If the grid complied with it, he would be allowed access to it.

And it should be able to extend the range of the Gunship's scanners and sensors to every sector of the ring.

Several seconds passed.

A signal returned.

Adam sighed as the grid opened up the gates for him. He immediately increased the sensors' range.

He pulled up a holographic image of Halo, and he looked at all the little details.

He saw the Covenant fighting the demonic-looking Flood in several sectors of the ring-world.

He looked about to see a Covenant cruiser.

Samus' signal was coming from there.

"Be careful Lady..."

----

A Grunt was sent backwards by the explosion. Several rounds of the Needler that the Chief now wielded had struck the Grunt, exploding a few seconds upon contact.

Samus couldn't help but somewhat admire the resourcefulness of the Master Chief. He had run out of ammo for his pistol. So he simply exchanged it for one of the Covenant's weapons.

But now there were more important matters to contend with.

A fully charged Plasma Beam blast came into contact with a group of Grunts.

They were incinerated immediately.

The Chief could care less as to how Samus did it, as long as she did do it. Cortana was less than pleased though as she began to the Chief, and only the Chief.

"If anything, she's a show-off."

"Jealous?"

"Watch it buster. I will take down your shields. Then see how you like it being vulnerable like you used to!"

The Chief sighed as he shot several more Grunts with the Needler. He had to question the AI's personal thoughts at times.

He quickly dropped his Needler and picked up a plasma pistol as he dove behind a canister. The Jackal shooting at him began charging its plasma pistol.

He charged his as well.

He quickly moved out from behind the canister and shot his charged blast.

The Jackal shot his one second later.

Too late.

Master Chief ducked behind the canister again, feeling the heated plasma collide with the canister's front. He was unscathed.

And now the Jackal's shield was gone.

He took out his MA5B Assault Rifle and unloaded ten bullets into the Jackal's mottled and gray skin, killing it in seconds.

Samus hopped down beside the Spartan II as she put her Arm Cannon on the Power Beam mode. "Let's go."

"According to my scanners, the Incursion's control room is just down the hall through...that door."

Master Chief saw a NAV point mark appear over the door. He pointed towards it as he began to walk to it.

The doors opened and out came the enemy that he did not want to see.

Hunters.

The massive, blue-armored titans were like monsters on the battle field.

But Samus took the time to scan one of them.


Covenant: Hunter

The Hunter is the most powerful known fighter in the Covenant's warrior caste. Even though at full height, it is 12 feet high, it only stands at 8 feet during combat to protect its orange, gooey body. A fuel rod gun has been physically welded to its right arm. The gun shoots a charged plasma rod which explodes on contact, and it is currently known to be a rechargeable weapon. The metal shield it carries on its left arm is made of an impervious metal alloy, and its weight turns it into a powerful melee weapon. The Hunter is also quite quick to turn, otherwise its vulnerable back might be exposed to enemy fire.

She had no time to think as a fuel rod gun blast zoomed over her head.

Samus jumped up to a platform above her, risking a glance at the impact zone of the shot.

The canister it hit was nearly annihilated.

She quickly set her Arm Cannon to the Ice Beam function as she tried to get a get shot at the Hunter's body.

As for the Master Chief, he had engaged in a 'cat-and-mouse' game with the other Hunter.

The behemoth would grunt as it charged forward to hit the Chief with his metal shield, but it would miss. Then pains seared through its body as the Master Chief opened fire on its back.

It turned around to charge again.

Dodge. Turn around. Fire. Repeat.

The Hunter gave off its death moan as it collapsed to the ground, dead.

Samus fired her charged Ice Beam.

The Hunter froze upon contact.

Samus leapt form the platform above and shot a super missile at the Hunter's backside.

The projectile hit, and the frozen Hunter was enveloped in an explosion.

Samus quietly landed beside the smoke, looking upon where the Hunter stood.

Then, much to her surprise and horror, a green light began to glow from within the smoke.

The fuel rod blast collided with her mid-section, taking out two whole Energy tanks. Samus was sent sprawling as the Hunter quickly ran out of the smoke cloud and brought its metal shield down upon her, effectively taking out another Energy tank.

3 down, 11 to go.

Then the Hunter stood silent as it collapsed to the floor, a bullet wound in its back. The Master Chief walked over the dead Hunter as he picked Samus up to her feet.

"Do you show any gratitude?"

"Yes. Thank you. Now where next?"

The Chief pointed to the hallway on the far left. They both made their way up the hallway until they reached a room where several holographic consoles were fixed upon a central pillar.

"There it is."

Master Chief took Cortana's processor cube out of his helmet and placed it into the terminal as Samus began scanning the console screens. The main screen blinked red as the Chief pulled out Cortana's processor cube and placed it back in.

"Do you have the location Cortana?"

"Got it. We need to get into a Covenant dropship and fly to the coordinates of Halo's control room. Head back to the hangar."

The Chief nodded as he made his way back to the hangar, with Samus following close behind.

Upon entering the hangar, they saw a Covenant dropship pulling in, letting loose its payload of four Jackals, three Grunts and one Elite.

"Hurry! Get on board!"

Samus launched missile after missile on the Covenant that just appeared as the Master Chief pulled the Elite piloting the dropship off. He placed Cortana's processor cube into the dropship's terminal.

"I'm at the controls. Samus! Get on board!"

Samus launched one last missile at an Elite before hopping on top of one of the dropship's 'wings' as Cortana pulled out of the hangar and flew off into the night sky.

"Okay...we're on our way to the control room."


To be continued...


Next time, Samus encounters the Flood for the first time as she and the Chief set down into a jungle within a valley, where the Covenant are attempting to prevent the Flood from retrieving the one item that activates Halo....the Index.

And why would the Flood want the Index?

To destroy it.

Chapter 4.5-Hunt for the Index (The Real one.)
Date: 12 March 2003, 3:04 AM

OOC: Please make note that the Space Pirates follow time by means of 'cycles'. This is my interpretation of their time, converted into normal human time.

1 Cycle = 1 Hour
1 Decacycle = 1 Day
1 Terra Cycle = 1 Week

That is my interpretation of the Space Pirate time frame, as it was represented in Metroid Prime.

OOC #2: Gah...this one was supposed to be Chapter 4-Hunt for the Index...apologies for my clumsy mistakes. Hopefully this will be the last one.

IC:

----

The Dropship flew silently through the air, heading for the direction of the Control Room.

"Cortana, how far away are we?"

Cortana's hologram stood silent for a few seconds before answering the Chief. "About over one thousand kilometers to go."

Master Chief tilted his head in thought. Something as simple as that shouldn't take that long for her to figure out. "That didn't seem too difficult for you to spend more than a few seconds on."

"I know Chief. I'm busy trying to crack into Samus' databanks."

Figured.

"Any luck?"

The purple-colored AI shook her head. "Nothing of the sort. Her firewalls are putting up a huge fight."

Any day you come across a firewall that could stop Cortana would be a bad one.

The Chief only hoped that superstition would keep its nose out of his business today.

He switched to one of the external cameras of the Covenant dropship. Samus had gotten in one of the dropship's wings, where Covenant troops usually waited to be dropped off.

Sometimes he wondered whether or not the one behind that armor was human.

Then again, he received the same response from many other's upon their first encounter, so he couldn't argue.

Suddenly, Cortana reappeared again, looking quite panicked.

"Chief. Problem."

"What is it?"

"A large concentration of Flood and Covenant right below us. Radio transmission indicate that the Covenant are trying to prevent the Flood from reaching....give me a sec....the Index."

The Index. Master Chief remembered that little trinket.

"Any idea why the Covenant are after it?"

"Hold on...accessing....they're trying to keep it away from the Flood so that they can't destroy it. The Covenant don't like the idea of activating the ring, but its their last-ditch resort.....and if its activated, all human-life will be destroyed....and the Covenant will only lose a few systems...."

Very bad news. If the Covenant activated Halo, humanity could kiss itself goodbye.

"We'll have to destroy it."

"You want us to land right now?"

The Spartan II glared at the AI.

"Alright, sorry....I found a safe landing zone. Its in a tropical rainforest within a valley. Hopefully we'll have some breathing room before we encounter any Flood or Covenant."

She should hope so. The Chief was ready to fight...

But too much battle would wear even the hardiest warrior down.

----

The frigate suddenly appeared out of the blackness of space.

It's surface was clean, and almost reptilian in structure. The ship's exterior loading docks had an energy field that kept the vacuum of space at bay, allowing the Space Pirates within to prepare themselves for departure.

They had pursued their target at light speed longer than safety regulations required.

But as a result, they were now less than a few cycles away.

The signal was closer now.

The Hunter would soon be found.

The Hunter would soon fall.

----

Adam kept a close watch upon the Dropship as it began to descend.

"Hmm...that valley has a high concentration of sentient life forms. Not a good sign."

He took a closer look, scanning the sector at a higher zoom-in frequency.

It was a battlefield.

Smoke slowly curled as it drifted upward. The pristine rainforest was nearly obliterated by the fire and plasma being spewed from the two opposing sides.

One was the Covenant species that were the apparent owners of the ships surrounding the ring-world.

As for the other side, bio-scans indicated that the life forms were of the same cellular structure as the creature which Cortana sent data to his database concerning it.

The Flood.

----

The palm trees rustled and the dew that lay on its fronds was flushed away as the dropship landed in the small clearing.

The Master Chief disengaged the dropship locks, letting Samus hop out. He then opened the small door and stepped out, putting a new clip into his Assault Rifle.

He was given an extra pack for carrying clips, increasing his ammo total to 1200 rounds.

He'd have to rely on Covenant weaponry once it ran out.

A red NAV point appeared on his face plate's HUD. It pointed at an area over one kilometer away.

"That's where the Index is currently being held by the Covenant. It's an armored installation that the Covenant set up so that the Flood won't be able to reach it. However, the plasma discharging in this area has been massive. Apparently this battle's been going on for a while."

Samus said nothing as she switched to her Plasma Beam and slowly made her way towards the NAV point.

The Master Chief moved along side her from about three meters away. That way, they wouldn't both be caught in crossfire.

It was time for battle.

He could hear the small noises up ahead. They sounded like footsteps. Then he heard a small click.

The sound of Grunts reloading their Needler weapons.

He didn't want to give away his position too soon. In battle, stealth and secrecy was an integral part of surviving as much as strength and quick thinking.

And of course, a big factor was luck. Luck could decide the outcome of a skirmish, a battle, or even a war.

He quietly crouched and aimed through the bushes at the seven Grunt soldiers. They were alert and on the lookout for the Flood.

The little chirping and insectoid sounds being heard throughout the jungle verified that the Flood were everywhere. He could see the fear in the Grunts' eyes. They were afraid.

Fear could be the Executioner or the Savior in battle.

It all depends on how you react to it.

He took out a plasma grenade he had pilfered from the Incursion and attached it to the armor of the closest Grunt.

The Grunt sniffed the air as it heard the sound of sizzling sparks. It looked back and it did nothing else before the grenade exploded, rupturing its life-support system and sending it flying into another Grunt.

The Grunts were now looking at his direction.

He could hear one speak in the human tongue. Another sample as to how much the Covenant understood them.

"He's here!"

Master Chief had been turned into an infamous figure among the Covenant. His presence could change the tide of any battle. They knew it, and so did he.

He dove away from the incoming Needler rounds, diving behind various trees, letting the wood shatter and splinter upon contact with the explosive projectiles.

The sounds of plasma and wailing Grunts filled the air around him. He then stood up, Assault Rifle aimed, and he quickly moved back to where the Grunts were.

Their bodies were incinerated, courtesy of Samus Aran's Plasma Beam.

Such power. He had to admire the bounty hunter's powerful weaponry. That kind of weaponry in the hands of the humans could prove incredibly useful.

Samus said nothing as she began moving on.

Master Chief quietly followed. If anything else, he would get an earful later on from Cortana if he didn't start upstaging Samus.

----

That grenade explosion was all she needed.

It distracted the Grunts long enough for her to torch them with her Plasma Beam.

But judging from Cortana's attitude towards her, she got the nagging feeling that she was being a glory hog.

Perhaps she should hold back a bit.

Or better yet, split up from the Chief and make her way to the NAV point via a different route. It would save her ears from Cortana's verbal onslaught later on.

She quickly launched two missiles to the area two meters in front of the Chief.

She saw his motions through the Thermal Visor and saw that he immediately dived for cover.

Now she could forge her own path to this 'Index'...whatever it was. She did not yet know the true power of the item, and what it unlocked.

She would have to scan it later on.

She heard movement in the area.

She quickly turned her Thermal Visor back on, looking around the foliage with sharp eyes on the lookout.

She saw the outline of the same creature Cortana had shown her aboard the Gunship.

She quickly scanned the strange creature.


Flood: Infection Form

The Flood are a parasitic species capable of infecting and mutating any sentient life form with there spores. The Infection form of the Flood serves as the actually distributor of the spores, which it does by latching onto the intended host with his tentacles positioned on the bottom of the Flood. It then injects the spores into the blood stream of the victim, which slowly turn the victim into a Carrier host or a Warrior host, depending on the status of the life form's internal organs. This life form is capable of fully infecting a group of twenty sentient organisms within the fraction of thirty minutes. Maximum firepower recommended in dealing with this life form.

So this was the Flood.

Judging from what she had just discovered, she didn't want to take any chances.

If she was infected...she didn't want to take the chance.

She quickly switched to her Power Beam and shot once at the Flood.

It popped like a balloon.

She eased up for a moment, but over four dozen Flood Infection forms quickly leapt forward from the bushes and the treetops.

It was an ambush.

Quickly opening fire upon the parasitic creatures, they popped and exploded as they quickly crawled towards her, eager to infect her.

Something like this needed a quick method of extermination.

Samus rolled into her Morph Ball form and laid a Power Bomb as the Flood leapt onto her.

But before they could try to crack through her armor, the multi-colored explosion enveloped them all.

When the light receded, Samus stood, unscathed.

There was no time for relaxation though.

A humanoid figure appeared from between two trees. It looked similar to the Elites, although it had the appearance of the Flood.

She quickly jumped backwards and switched to the Ice Beam, quickly firing an icy blast at the Flood. It froze immediately, giving her time to find out what the heck it was.


Flood: Elite

An Elite that has been infected by the Flood spores. The outer structure of the Elite changes upon contact with the Flood spores. The head is pushed back, as it is of no use to the Flood. Instead, sensory appendages grow out of the upper chest and the lower neck, serving as a biological sonar for the infected Elite. Its hands form long tentacles, capable of inflicting more damage than a normal Elite in hand-to-hand combat. Despite its brutal attack strategy, it is quite capable of wielding a multitude of weapons without any problem.

Samus didn't want to risk it. She quickly fired a missile at the frozen monster, shattering it into pieces.

She quickly moved through the dense jungle as the sounds of the battle loomed all around her. She didn't want to become like that Elite.

In a sense, they were almost as deadly as the Metroids themselves.

----

The Master Chief ducked as he shot several more rounds at the oncoming Flood. The Infection forms proved to be inadequate at defending themselves from the piercing bullets of an MA5B Assault Rifle.

He then quickly rolled and took cover behind a charred and blackened tree that was still standing on the battleground. Numerous Covenant units and Flood had engaged here.

Both of them had to be neutralized.

He quickly lobbed a grenade into the center of the fray.

The Covenant were too busy fighting to see it, and the Flood could care less.

The explosions ripped through the bodies of numerous units, Flood and Covenant alike.

The sight of missiles peppering the battlefield brought some comfort to the Chief. He turned around to see Samus storming onto the battle field, jumping and switching between her Missile Launcher and Plasma Beam every few seconds.

He quickly looked to the left to see an empty Covenant Ghost.

The unit was quick, agile, and it was able to level the playing field significantly once the plasma cannons were at their maximum charge.

He burst out from behind his hiding place and shot at the Covenant and Flood, hoping to at least take them out before reaching the Ghost.

He quickly hopped into the hovercraft, and then he took aim onto the main group of enemies.

He began shooting at them as fast as he could, circling around them to ensure that he wouldn't get caught by stray—or aimed—grenade.

He saw flames erupt from several of them as Samus Aran fired numerous streams of molten plasma at the Covenant and the Flood.

"Imagine what we could do with that weapon."

The Chief knew it was another insult against the bounty hunter. Sure, it would be a nice weapon to have, but he wasn't as sure as Cortana if he could manipulate it as easily as the hunter.

Soon, the battlefield had been leveled. The Chief hopped out of the Ghost as Samus scanned it.


Covenant: Ghost

The Ghost is a hovercraft unit designed for recon and anti-infantry purposes. The Ghost is a light craft, armed with two plasma cannons that are capable of firing repeatedly without having to stop to recharge, due to the coolant liquid that lowers the temperature of the cannons every time it is used. Despite the quickness of the Ghost, its major drawback is the fact that the driver is virtually unprotected.

Samus quickly returned to her Combat Visor as the Master Chief moved on through the forest.

"The installation's only 100 meters away. We're close now."

----

Adam watched closely as the Master Chief and Samus slowly fought their way to the 'Index'.

Impressive.

He knew Samus was capable of defeating enemies in large numbers, and what data Cortana had given him concerning the Master Chief identified that he was capable of the same thing.

The thought of what they could do when cooperating was a scary proposition.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted as the Gunship's radar picked up an incoming enemy frigate from outside the system.

He quickly accessed the cameras on the Flawless Cowboy and took a look at the incoming ship.

The design was all too familiar.

"The Space Pirates...no...."

----

The creature had the appearance of a pterodactyl. But it was ten times as deadly, if not more.

It had been humiliating for him to have lost to the Hunter three times.

This time, he would make sure that wouldn't happen.

His body had been covered with a stronger armor plating, and his chest was now as heavily armored as the rest of his body. That little weakness was out of the way.

His breath reeked with fire, and his yellow eyes could pierce steel if they were weapons. His tail was as long and as sharp as every, but among his new enhancements included a plasma missile launcher...weapons that needed no ammo, but was able to harness the thermal energy naturally produced by his body to create a powerful heat-based projectile.

It was effective, and it was easy to use.

He looked upon the view screens at where the Hunter's signal came from.

Ridley was surprised to see a metallic ring-shaped world. A feat of this scale was similar to when the Space Pirates had completely emptied the innards of Planet Zebes and transformed it into a giant base.

But he was even more surprised to see foreign ships hovering above the ring-world's surface.

The design was biological in structure, and it held a strange kind of predator-like beauty.

However, they were in their way of their objective: the destruction of bioform Samus Aran.

He counted ten ships. Signs of battle were on various parts of the surface.

They would destroy the foreigners, assimilate any useful technology they might have, then move on with their plans.

Ridley glanced back at the tubes holding the pacified Metroids. They had been the first group to be successfully tamed, and since they wouldn't attack the Space Pirates, it was time to put them to use.

Groups of two Space Pirates and two Ice Troopers would take one Metroid onboard the foreign spacecraft. They would destroy all life forms onboard and pilot the ship into formation with the frigate Vol Arion.

A sadistic grin came onto Ridley's face as the transport craft took off from the frigate's docks, blowing open a hole in the side of the alien space craft with plasma lasers and moving on in.

Meanwhile, several more would fly to the actual surface and scout the area out before building an installation to serve as their base of operations.

The Hunter would soon be gone.

----

Cortana suddenly stopped humming as new signals came onto radar.

"Chief, picking up transport craft of unknown origin..."

Great. Now what was going on?

He looked up to see several strangely-shaped spacecraft fly through the atmosphere, slowly landing outside the valley.

"Oh no..."

The Chief turned around and faced Samus.

"What did you say 'oh no' for?"

Chief stared at through the visor of Samus and scanned her face. A strange look came over her as she said two words.

"Space Pirates..."



To be continued....




Next time, the hunt for the Index continues, but the presence of the Space Pirates complicates things! The Master Chief encounters them and the Metroids for the first time (delightful, huh? :P )

Plus, the Covenant also have their first dealings with the Metroids...and it isn't pretty at all...

Chapter 5-The Space Pirate Cometh
Date: 16 March 2003, 12:24 AM

Samus' blood froze as she pondered this latest development.

The Space Pirates were here. They must've followed her.

Now things were more complicated.

"We'll have to be more careful now. Not only are there the Covenant and the Flood, but also the Space Pirates."

----

The Chief wondered if the Space Pirates were tough.

Very tough, according to what Samus was indicating.

The Covenant and the Flood were hard enough. A third enemy faction would prove nearly impossible to hold off.

He could only hope that the Space Pirates were as unfriendly to the Covenant and Flood as they were to Samus.

----

The sharp, high-speed craft zipped through the vacuum of space toward its target.

The Covenant frigate loomed over a desert area of the planet, where it was sending more Covenant forces and supplies to the alien species main base of operations.

It wouldn't be there for long. As soon as the Space Pirates had set up a base on the ring-world, they would conquer it.

The spike-shaped front of the craft easily broke through the Covenant shields, thanks in part to its high velocity. It embedded itself in the side of the ship, ready to invade it.

The three Grunts in that area aimed their plasma pistols.

A floating mass came out. Its green carapace shielded its red innards, and four yellow-gold mandibles jutted out from its bottom.

With a pale and wraith-like shriek, the Metroid latched onto the nearest Grunt.

The little alien squealed and ran about, screaming out of pain and agony as the Metroid glowed red. Soon, the little Grunt collapsed to the ground, dead.

The two other Grunts shivered and blasted it.

Their shots did nothing but bounce off.

They started to run when one of the Ice Troopers came off the ship and blasted them both, killing them.

The two Space Pirates and the other Ice Trooper came out of the ship.

They slowly made their way through the frigate.

----

The eight transport craft hovered only a few feet above the ground as the metal ramps descended to the surface.

Each of the craft held four Space Pirates, one Ice Trooper, two Power Troopers, two Wave Troopers, and one Plasma Trooper.

Each craft held two tame Metroids as well.

The Space Pirates immediately got to work. They brought supplies off the craft.

They carried large containers of important materials.

They carried power converters and containers full of electrical energy to serve as their power source for the time being.

And some containers that they carried held creatures...that had yet to be tamed.

Of course, none of them were un-trained Metroids. They were left on board the Vol Arion.

The Space Pirates couldn't afford it if one of the un-tamed Metroids escaped.

Several of the Metroids and several Space Pirates now began to make their way into the valley.

----

The Master Chief didn't like it.

Something told him that things were about to get ugly in this valley.

He quietly started walking through the brush towards the NAV point, hoping to get the Index and get out of here as soon as possible.

He peeked over a small shrub, looking at the Covenant facility in the center of the clearing.

It was a giant dome, built over the installation where the Index was.

"That's the place. It'll take a lot to get in though."

Cortana had a point. Two Wraith tanks, four Ghosts, and three Banshees patrolled the entire perimeter. Elites and Hunters were positioned behind shield-bearing Jackals, and Grunts manned the Shade gunners.

Samus took this opportunity to scan the Wraith, the Banshee, and the Shade.


Covenant: Wraith

The Wraith is a the Covenant's most powerful ground unit, capable of launching a high-density plasma mortar projectile hundreds of feet into the air, arcing overhead until crashing down on unsuspecting enemies. The Covenant use the Wraith almost exclusively in an anti-infantry role, but its cannon can destroy armored tanks in a few shots. Currently, no humans have found a way to pilot a Wraith.


Covenant: Banshee

This flyer is the Covenant's most versatile unit. Armed with two plasma cannons and a fuel rod cannon, it can annihilate enemy infantry, but its also capable of taking heavy armor. The craft is lifted by two gravity pods that are at the tip of each wing. The Banshee is fast and maneuverable. Although small arms fire can disrupt or disable the pilot, it takes heavy artillery fire to actually destroy the craft.


Covenant: Shade

The Shade gunner used by the Covenant appears to be a light anti-vehicle weapon, but its rapid rate of fire makes it ideal for use against enemy infantry. Its three shafts launch three projectiles of plasma at a time, and it requires no recharging. However, the Grunt or Elite manning the Shade needs support from the left and right for protection.

This was going to be a tough one. The Covenant did not want to take any chances against the Flood.

"Come on Samus, let's go."

"Wait."

The Master Chief looked back at Samus. Why was she waiting now of all places?

"What's that matter? Scared?"

The Chief mentally groaned. Cortana acted too much like a civilian.

"No...listen."

The Chief concentrated on hearing. The strange chirpings of the Flood and the gunfire that was resonating throughout the valley was now accompanied by something else entirely...

A pale shriek.

"Chief. Duck."

The Chief crouched behind the bushes and decided to sneak a peek at what was going on. He used a small fiber optic cable and moved it slowly through the bushes. This way, he could use it to see what was going on.

He still saw the Covenant. Nothing strange was happening.

The shriek was getting louder though.

He then saw all of the Covenant turn their attention to an Elite...which had a Metroid hanging on its head, glowing red.

Several Metroids immediately started flying over the scene, latching onto Grunts, Jackals, Elites, and Hunters.

The Covenant fire their plasma pistols, plasma rifles, and needlers at them.

They merely bounced off.

The Hunters and Banshees fired their Fuel Rod guns at them.

They had no effect.

Even the mighty plasma mortar of the Wraiths couldn't destroy them.

The Metroids moved through throughout the entire clearing, draining the energy from the Covenant forces. Grunts squealed and yelped as the got out of the Shades they were manning and took off into the jungle. The Jackals used their shields to protect themselves as they fled. Even the Elites and the Hunters couldn't stand up to the Metroids. They took whatever vehicles they could take and fled into the rainforest.

Those who stood behind fought as hard as they could. But they all died as the Metroids drained their life force.

The Chief had never seen anything like it in his entire life. It was horrific, yet held a powerful meaning behind it.

"Good Lord....the Metroids...look what they've done..."

The Chief shared Cortana's disbelief. It would've taken him over an hour, even with Samus, to take that installation.

The Metroids defeated them all in mere minutes.

Samus stood back up and switched to her Ice Beam.

"Follow me."

Cortana yelled at the bounty hunter in utter disbelief.

"You have to be kidding! If only seven Metroids can take out an entire legion of Covenant, imagine what they'll do to us!"

"Unlike the Covenant..." Samus charged her Ice Beam as she prepared to make a run for the installation. "I know the Metroids' weakness. Follow me."

Master Chief had no choice but to leap after her as they made a mad dash for the installation.

----

Ridley roared as he flew at high speed through the vacuum of space.

The Covenant had now acknowledged his presence as their frigates, destroyers, and cruisers were being boarded.

Even though they were being destroyed from within, they still fought to the last warrior.

Lights flared forth from the Covenant ships as Ridley flew quickly past them, spewing plasma torpedoes forth from his mouth. The shields of the Covenant ships flickered for a few seconds before dissipating, allowing the rest of his plasma torpedoes to destroy its plasma guns.

It would draw some attention away from the Space Pirates and Metroids that were currently in the ships' innards.

The powerful Space Pirate figurehead then turned its attention to a Covenant destroyer.

A destroyer that had not been boarded.

The blue lights pulsed along its side as plasma torpedoes were launched.

In past confrontations with UNSC battleships, the plasma torpedoes of Covenant destroyers could rip through the hulls of most ships with no problem.

They could practically turn small fighters and inanimate objects into dust with such power.

But Ridley...he had much more power than they realized.

Swooping and swerving in all directions, Ridley dodged the first wave of plasma torpedoes.

He turned his head around to see them arc, then turn around and roar back towards him.

No matter.

With a powerful roar, which could not be heard in the airless environment of space, he shot out a beam of concentrated thermal energy at the plasma torpedoes.

The torpedoes greeted the heat ray like Hiroshima greeted the nuclear bomb.

They were annihilated.

Now Ridley turned his attention back to the destroyer, which now had streaks of red accompanying the blue lights on its sides.

Now they were about to fire a round of plasma torpedoes as well as a wave of plasma lasers.

The projectiles and plasma brightened the darkness of space like fireworks as they sped towards Ridley.

The agile pterodactyl quickly made a stark turn, moving under the belly of the Covenant destroyer.

The plasma lasers were clean misses.

The plasma torpedoes turned around.

Ridley led them on a game of cat-and-mouse before making a flight along the side of the destroyer, then moving around in circles above the ship.

The plasma torpedoes mirrored every movement Ridley made. They circled as sharply as the Space Pirate did.

Then, Ridley began dive-bombing toward the destroyer as red lights shimmered across its hull.

Ridley's course did not change as the plasma torpedoes sped after him.

The shields of the Covenant destroyer gave away as the plasma lasers shot forward at the pterodactyl.

He suddenly started spinning like a corkscrew as he spewed his heat ray out of his mouth. The plasma lasers were deterred as Ridley got closer to the hull of the destroyer.

He then sharply turned away mere meters away from the surface of the Covenant ship.

The plasma torpedoes couldn't turn that quickly.

Explosions erupted from the top of the destroyer as Ridley turned and sped alongside the ship, firing his own plasma torpedoes at the destroyer.

Fire erupted from the side and the top of the destroyer as the destroyer prepare to fire another round of plasma torpedoes.

Ridley gracefully arced and charged at the ship, firing his heat ray through the hull. The shield was now dead as he burst through the hole.

Explosions rippled across the ship's exterior as metal was peeled upward by the Space Pirate's assault.

Ridley began heading back for the Vol Arion as the Covenant destroyer exploded in a fiery explosion of red and orange.

Ridley grinned as he looked upon the other Covenant ships.

Soon, those ships would be theirs.

----

A Metroid shrieked as it attached itself onto the top of a Hunter. The Hunter tried to shake the creature off, but its body eventually succumbed to the powerful energy-sucker.

Shade guns poured plasma onto the Metroids, but the Grunts within them were destroyed by laser blasts being spewed forth from the Space Pirates arm-mounted cannons.

It wasn't long before the Space Pirates had taken control of all the ships they boarded. All the Covenant that resisted were killed. One Covenant destroyer had fallen.

Ridley smirked as he touched down on the exterior dock of the Vol Arion. Security and Science Team Personnel boarded transport craft and boarded the Covenant ships. In less than a cycle, all the captured Covenant ships were in orbit around the Vol Arion.

Now that they were out of the way, they could focus on the ring-world itself.

----

The Metroid was shattered by the missile.

Normally, something like that wouldn't work, but only after freezing them could they be shattered.

Which is what Samus did.

Master Chief charged into the facility as Samus froze and shattered the Metroids one-by-one. She quickly retreated inside the facility as the Master Chief came back, holding a green and black rod.

"Samus, this is the Index."

Samus looked cautiously at the trinket. It seemed odd that something like that would be worth so much trouble.

But then again, appearances were deceiving.

"Let's go."

Master Chief got behind Samus as she charged her Ice Beam.

She opened the door and blasted the four Metroids gathering outside the door.

They then made a mad dash back through the jungle, shooting any rogue Flood or Covenant along the way before making it back to the dropship they hijacked.

Samus quickly sealed herself in one of the wings as Master Chief activated the craft and ascended from the valley.

The sight was now drastically different.

Minor sections of the Covenant and the Flood were still fighting each other, but Metroids and Space Pirates thoroughly began to sweep through the valley. The Flood attacked the Metroids, but to the slight surprise of the Master Chief, even the Flood couldn't penetrate the Metroids' carapace.

At the far end of the valley, all the Covenant forces were fleeing to their fall-back rendezvous point. Where it led, the Chief did not care.

The Covenant dropship moved above the clouds before flying off.

The Spartan exhaled as he removed Cortana's processor cube from his neck socket and placed her in the dropship's terminal. Her hologram appeared a few seconds later.

"Any idea what's going on down there?"

"Gimme a second to access...okay....the Covenant Battle-Net is in absolute chaos. If I'm reading this correctly, the ten ships in orbit above Halo have been compromised..."

Sometimes he wished there was no such thing as the technical jargon many intellectuals spoke.

"Meaning?"

"Nine of them were boarded. All of them were captured and are now in tight formation with a foreign vessel. I believe the Space Pirate vessel is the one they're gathering in formation around."

Great. An enemy able to board Covenant ships and be victorious. The Space Pirates had done in less than an hour what he and the rest of the UNSC forces had tried to do for years...board a Covenant vessel and bring it under their control.

"What about the other one?"

"...a foreign object engaged it in combat. It was smaller than one of our Longsword Interceptor fighters."

The Chief didn't like where this was going.

"The foreign object outmaneuvered their plasma torpedoes, causing them to inadvertently destroy part of the hull. The rest of the destroyer was picked apart by....hang on, let me access transmissions... okay. What seemed like a 'heat ray' and a barrage of plasma torpedoes similar to their own. The destroyer was annihilated. All Covenant on board were assumed dead."

The Master Chief tried to find something to say. He couldn't. A Covenant destroyer had enough firepower to take out four UNSC battleships. For something that small to destroy it like that was unprecedented.

"It was Ridley."

The Chief and Cortana turned over to the intercom where Samus' voice was coming from.

"Ridley? Who in the world's Ridley?"

"Ridley is one of the Space Pirates most powerful leaders. He's a deadly combatant, skilled in both long and short-range battle. He's the only thing I know of that can destroy a whole battleship when he's that small."

The Chief reflected upon the new info. One Space Pirate had defeated an entire Covenant destroyer.

The Space Pirates were bad news.

Suddenly, Cortana yelled out, "Chief! New transmissions picked up from the Incursion!"

"Now what?"

"Chief...the Incursion has just received word of what happened in the valley. They've now confirmed of an approval...an approval of a request they made..."

Please don't let it be what he thought it would be...

"Transmissions indicate that over four dozen ships will be sent to Halo ASAP."

The Spartan slumped back into the chair. It wouldn't be long until this place would become a virtual war zone.

He needed some new info on the Space Pirates...

And he knew where to get it.




To be continued...




Master Chief wants to talk things over with Adam about the Space Pirates, but they get an unexpected visitor!

Plus, the Space Pirates set up camp in the valley as they begin to expand. And they become intrigued upon discovering Halo's little secret...

Chapter 6-343 Guilty Spark
Date: 17 March 2003, 1:49 PM

The Master Chief furiously tried to locate the communication frequency of Samus' Gunship. Despite the data Cortana had given him of its location, the thing was still tough to crack.

"Any luck Chief?"

"No Cortana. Samus' ship has more firewalls than the spooks at ONI."

He was referring to the Office of Naval Intelligence, the UNSC's intelligence division. The guys at ONI were so paranoid at times that they required personnel to spend half of their day going through security.

"That's not something to brag about you know?"

The Chief ignored Cortana as he went back to trying to establish a clear channel with the Gunship. He hoped that Adam Malkovich would be able to give him more information on the Space Pirates and the Metroids.

Soon, he decided to quit altogether. Guess he'd have to wait until he saw the computerized CO in person.

He switched on the com-link to Samus' Fusion Suit and asked, "Any idea what the Space Pirates are up to?"

Samus remained silent for a few moments before replying. "Let's just say that they're bent on conquering the galaxy, using whatever methods they have at their disposal."

The Chief nodded. How come Samus' enemies had so many similarities with his own?

It didn't matter.

He would fight them off anyway.

----

Covenant forces all over Halo were immediately ordered to return to the Incursion.

The Metroids presented a greater threat to them than the Spartan II at the moment.

Slowly, Covenant dropships could be seen in the sky above Halo's artificial atmosphere, flying back towards the rendezvous point at the Covenant cruiser.

Two Covenant dropships flew silently as they neared the location of the valley.

An Elite sitting in one of the wings remained silent as the four other Grunts chattered amongst themselves in their own tongue.

Suddenly, energy beams collided with their dropship. The locks disengaged as the Covenant forces opened fire on the Space Pirate base below.

The Space Pirates had already set up a large base in the valley where the Index used to lay, and right now, Metroids and Ice Troopers were scouring the remains of the valley, searching for any hostile life forms.

The blue Elite roared as it opened fire upon the encampment below with its plasma rifle. Blue orbs of white-hot plasma fell upon some of the Space Pirates, scorching their exoskeletons.

The Covenant were answered with yellow streaks of energy. The Space Pirates fired Plasma Artillery Cannons as the two dropships initiated evasive maneuvers.

It looked like they would make it.

Then the blue Elite brought a hand up to its eyes as a red ray tore through the adjacent dropship, utterly destroying it and sending it crashing into the valley below, swathed in flames.

The Elite looked up and saw the armored pterodactyl.

The same one that transmissions told of...

The one that destroyed a Covenant destroyer single-handedly.

Out of fear for itself, the Elite tossed every plasma grenade it had against the flying Space Pirate. When it ran out, it began firing with every last bit of energy its plasma rifle contained.

Ridley was unfazed.

A few of the Grunts made the choice to leap from their seat, preferring to take their chances than staying up their.

Ridley fired a plasma torpedo at the dropship as the Elite roared with anguish.

The dropship was immediately incinerated by the projectile as Ridley arced around, descending toward Space Pirate Outpost Alpha, their new base of operations.

All the Covenant who leapt from the dropship died upon impact with terra firma.

----

The Chief set the dropship down about a kilometer away from Samus' Gunship. He didn't want to rouse too much curiosity as to where the Gunship was located.

He put Cortana's processor cube back in his neck socket and hopped out of the dropship. Samus was soon right next to him, walking at a leisurely pace.

They continued like this for about a half hour, not talking at all. They progressed through the same sandy desert, but the winds that had impeded their progress the first time through were now gone.

Suddenly, motion sensors detected something.

"Guys, I'm detecting movement inside the Gunship."

The Chief froze for a brief second. Who the heck could've gotten inside the Gunship?

"Proceed carefully Samus...we don't know what's in there."

The Hunter didn't reply. She was probably too focused at the moment.

The Master Chief and Samus slowly edged their way through the small oasis until the Gunship was in their sight.

"Be careful you two...I can't tell what's in there..."

Samus quietly pushed the switch that opened the hatch. There was no light that signified that the gravity lift was operating, which meant either Adam was trying to keep from whatever was inside from getting anything important, or that Adam was...

No. Samus shook her head. Don't think like that.

Samus quietly climbed aboard, her Arm Cannon ready to fire at whatever was on board the ship.

The Master Chief followed suit only moments later, and he had his Assault Rifle ready to fire.

They couldn't see anything.

"Odd...I'm sure I detected something."

Suddenly, a robotic voice interfered.

"And you most likely did."

Samus and the Chief quickly pointed their weapons in the direction of the voice. Their eyes saw a small cube-shaped figure floating in the air. It was made of metal, in the center was one blue sphere, which acted as its 'eye'.

Cortana groaned. The Chief kept his firearms pointed at the thing.

Samus kept her Arm Cannon pointed as she asked, "Alright, who are you?"

The metal object hovered closer as it replied, "I am 343 Guilty Spark, the Monitor for Installation 04, but this is installation 03. I had to abandon the other one due to some..."

The Monitor paused as it looked upon the Master Chief.

"...difficulties."

Cortana then cracked back with her own reply.

"Cut the calm talk pal! How in the world did you survive that explosion?"

"My carapace is made of an incredibly durable alloy. Not only that, but I am afraid that my protocols require that I not be destroyed. So as you see, I have to fight for my existence should it be threatened."

"Shut up! And why are you here?"

The Monitor floated over to the green eye that represented Adam's 'voice' as he replied, "This computerized being contained a great wealth of knowledge that I found...incredibly useful, and surprising."

Adam's eye blinked as he said, "I'm sorry...but he overwhelmed my firewalls."

"It figures. What do you want now?

"Why it's simple really. I discovered that your little friend managed to hack into the teleportation grid, so that he may be able to keep a close eye on all parts of the ring. I looked through his records, and I discovered that you had already retrieved the Index."

The Chief resisted every urge in his body to pull the Monitor apart. He was getting really annoying.

"I'm also intrigued by this new race of invaders. They possess creatures remarkably similar to the Flood, and as such, they've completely overwhelmed the previous intruders. I'm impressed...especially by the flyer. He seems to be their main figure of authority."

Samus gritted her teeth. How dare this thing talk so casually about a vile group of creatures such as the Space Pirates?

The Monitor hummed some more as he said, "But now is not the time for idle conversation. Hand me the Index, so that I may activate the ring. If you don't. I will have to terminate you."

Cortana laughed at this. "How rustbucket? Your Sentinels didn't exactly do the job last time!"

"Perhaps not, but mass numbers should terminate that little problem. Besides, you won't last long with four different factions gunning for you."

And with that, the Monitor teleported away as laser fire peppered the Gunship.

Adam Malkovich's eye blinked as he said, "Over a dozen enemy targets are peppering the hull with laser beams. You'd better hurry and stop them."

With nary a pause, the Chief and Samus were already down on the ground.

The Chief looked up at the cyclopean machines.

Samus took the few seconds to scan them.


Forerunner: Sentinel

The Forerunner are an ancient race of cyclopean machines, but their history to this point is relatively unclear. It is known that they built the seven Halos that lie throughout the galaxy, and they were built to contain the Flood. These are Sentinels, designed to watch over Halo as its security force. Their laser beams are ideal for quickly destroying the Infection forms, but the intervention of the Covenant has allowed the Flood to infect the fallen warriors, thus rendering the Sentinels' lasers almost ineffective against the Flood.

Samus quickly returned to combat mode as the Sentinels turned their attention to them.

The red laser beams erupted from their rotating red eyepieces, which hung about a few centimeters away from the main body of the metal Forerunner.

The Chief caught a bit of the laser energy, and his shields dropped to half before he opened fire on them with his Assault Rifle.

The bullets at first bounced off their energy shields, but the constant fire wore them down until there was nothing left.

Two fell to the ground, collapsing in a smoking heap.

Ten to go.

Samus, meanwhile, was pounding the machines with her Wavebuster. The continuous stream of electric energy burst from her Arm Cannon, slowly destroying one Sentinel at a time.

Six more fell from the continuous attack.

Then, the Master Chief activated a plasma grenade, and threw it on a Sentinel as it glowed a bright blue.

The explosion enveloped the last four.

Cortana chuckled as she opened a private link with the Chief. "50/50. You're improving Chief."

Sometimes he wished Cortana would just be quiet.

"Well the Sentinels are gone...but the Monitor's gonna be busy now. We need to hurry and destroy Halo."

The Chief nodded as Samus kneeled before the wreckage of the Sentinels, to take a closer look at them.

----

The Space Pirates were hard at work now.

They had already plundered the entire valley of its resources, and they were already beginning to set up their security facilities. Soon, the entire area would be under the watchful eye of security, allowing the Space Pirates to move outward through the Ring-World.

Two Space Pirates casually entered large facility, which is built into the side of the valley, going deeper into the ground.

They casually looked around, but that's when they saw terminals around the area...an area covered with green and purple blood.

The Pirates activated the terminal, and a screen of data appeared in front of them.

What they found was most interesting.

They immediately began relaying this data to the Command Center, when a strange hiss was heard in the air.

They immediately turned around to see strange parasites come out of the vents.

They quickly relayed a Priority Alpha request to Command as they immediately fired energy shots at the parasitic life forms, but they were too many.

Lunging upon the Space Pirates, they embedded their long, insectoid 'teeth' through the Pirates' exoskeletons, causing their blood to spew forth until they collapsed to the ground, dead.

Then the Flood immediately began the process of fully infecting them.

----

The Space Pirate security crewman looked at the Priority Alpha transmission.

-TRANSMISSION (PRIORITY ALPHA)
-LOG 01.23.775

-QUARANTINE SECTOR FOUR BY SEVENTEEN ASAP. STRANGE LIFE FORM ENCOUNTERED. BIOSCANS MATCH THOSE FOUND EARLIER UPON SCOUTING THE AREA. EXERCISE EXTREME CAUTION.

-RECOMMENDATION: TWO METROIDS AND A SECURITY TEAM TO LOCK DOWN THE AREA.

-DATA PATCH RELAYED TO RESEARCH TEAM CONCERNING RACE 'FORERUNNER'.

-END TRANSMISSION

The security crewman immediately relayed this information to the head of Security Team Zeta. They would handle this.

But the Space Pirate pondered over the last thing that was sent...'Forerunner'...

He would learn more once the Research Team was finished examining the data patch.

----

The Covenant Armada moved through Slipstream space like a pack of wolves...ravenous, tightly-knit, and well coordinated.

But the Covenant weren't the only ones on the ships.

New orders from the Ruler Caste on the home world had ordered them to salvage any human weaponry that they could...a stark contrast from their previous policy of never laying a hand on a human weapon.

Why the sudden change?

The Flood...the human's projectile-based weapons proved remarkably effective against the Flood.

Which is why they had salvaged much...including what the humans called Assault Rifles, shotguns, pistols, rocket launchers, fragmentation grenades, even the vehicles they used.

And not only that...but as an Elite walked through a hall, he heard the pounding of the other human items they salvaged...

The foul-mouthed human soldiers themselves.

Soon, they would be exiting Slipstream space.




To be continued...




Next time, the Covenant armada returns to subspace flight and prepares for an attack on the Space Pirates! Meanwhile, the Flood attack the Space Pirate facility, Ridley attacks the Incursion, and the Monitor uses all of his power to annihilate the Chief and Samus!

And Cortana finally cracks into Samus' past...

Chapter 7-Assault
Date: 23 March 2003, 2:44 AM

The Covenant armada suddenly appeared in the middle of space, their power systems down due to the travel through Slipstream space.

But in a few moments, all of the power systems were back online.

The predator-like ships then got into formation as they prepared to head for Halo...and the foreign ship that had attacked the previous Covenant group.

Over thirty ships moved towards the foreign frigate, while the other dozen flew on a straight course for Halo.

----

The Space Pirate researcher looked over the data packet with much curiosity. It tapped a few commands on the console, initiating the copying of the data into the main database.

-RESEARCH INFORMATION (PRIORITY BETA)
-LOG 02.2.113

-INFORMATION CONTAINED MAY HAVE ITS IMPORTANCE DESIGNATED BY RESEARCH TEAM ANALYSIS

-RECORD LOG (START/TERMINATE)

The researcher clicked on 'Start'.

-TRANSLATING DATA LOG.
-PROCESSING...

)FORERUNNER LOG XY000Z

)ORGANISM BIOTYPE 'FLOOD' HAVE BREACHED OUR CONTAINMENT WALLS ONCE MORE. INFECTION FORMS DESTROYED. MAXIMUM SECURITY ENGAGED AT THE OTHER CONTAINMENT AREAS.

)PROTOCOLS REQUIRE CLEAN-UP OF SECTOR Z-4. CLEAN-UP COMMENCING IN 0300.

)...

)FORERUNNER LOG XY027Z

)WALLS HAVE BEEN REINFORCED FOR TRANSFER TO INSTALLATION 03. TRANSFER BEGINNING IN 0100.

)...

)FORERUNNER LOG XY273Z

)LANDING ON INSTALLATION 03 WAS SUCCESSFUL. BEGINNING RELOCATION OF FLOOD TO REINFORCED BUNKERS BELOW THE SURFACE.

)BEGINNING TRANSFER OF SEDATIVES TO BUNKERS 1-7.

)...

)FORERUNNER LOG XY734Z

)RESEARCH FACILITIES ACTIVATED. POWER READING AT 67%. ALL SYSTEMS TO BE ACTIVATED IN 0700.

)INDEX HAS BEEN SECURED IN VALLEY FACILITY LOCATED IN SECTOR J-9. INDEX IS TO BE KEPT SAFE ACCORDING TO PROTOCOL 085 UNTIL THE NEXT OUTBREAK, IF AND WHEN IT OCCURS.

)...

)FORERUNNER LOG XY923Z

)TRANSMISSION RECEIVED FROM INSTALLATIONS 01, 02, 04, 05, 06, AND 07. ALL HALOS ARE AT FULL POWER.

)PRIORITY Z COMMAND-ALL WORKER PERSONNEL ARE TO LEAVE ALL INSTALLATIONS IMMEDIATELY. SENTINELS AND MONITORS ARE TO STAY BEHIND TO SAFEGUARD ALL INSTALLATIONS FROM FOREIGN INTRUDERS, AS WELL AS PREVENT FLOOD OUTBREAK.

)...

)FORERUNNER LOG YB726K

)CONTACT WITH INSTALLATION 04 WAS LOST. UNIT 343 GUILTY SPARK, MONITOR OF INSTALLATION 04, HAS COME TO INSTALLATION 03, REPORTING THAT DURING AN ATTEMPT TO ACTIVATE THE INSTALLATION'S PULSE WEAPONS, THE RECLAIMER TOOK THE INDEX AND DESTROYED THE RING.

)ALL SENTINELS ARE TO REMAIN ACTIVE. ALL LIFEFORMS THAT TRY TO LAND ARE TO BE TERMINATED.

)FAILURE TO MEET THESE OBJECTIVES WILL RESULT IN TERMINATION.

The researcher closed the log.

The Forerunner sounded like a highly advanced race.

A research team would have to investigate this artificial world further.

----

Two Metroids floated with predator-like grace as four Plasma Troopers, one Space Pirate and two Ice Troopers examined the cave.

The same hiss was heard as the slowly went into the room...where they saw what seemed like Space Pirates...except sensory appendages were growing out of their necks, and their skin seemed flaky, pale, and sickly.

And large tentacles had grown out of their hands.

The infected Space Pirates whacked at the Metroids with their tentacles, sending them into the wall.

It only served to anger them.

The Plasma Troopers opened fire on their infected brethren and brought them down. The infected Space Pirates collapsed to the floor with what sounded like a gagged roar.

Then, the doors to the far left of the room burst open as tons of the Infection forms, with Flood Elites backing them up, poured out and began to crawl towards the Security Team.

The Metroids shrieked as they latched onto the heads of the Flood Elites. The Flood tried to attack the Metroids, but they couldn't pierce it's green carapace.

The Space Pirates opened fire on the Flood Infection forms, causing them to pop. This started a chain reaction that destroy the ones close to them, and the ones that popped caused the ones next to them to explode.

However, they just kept coming.

The Metroids and the Space Pirates were ordered to fall back.

The three Space Pirates that were still outside had installed the locking mechanism.

The Space Pirates immediately retreated, and the Metroids floated behind them as the Flood tried to get them.

The Security Team had left the cave. The Space Pirates immediately activated the lock.

A metal door slid down to the ground, effectively blocking the entrance. Then energy bars stretching from the center covered the door, locking it down.

They heard the pounding from the parasitic organisms. They continued to pound at the door with incredible ferocity.

They had never seen such ferocity.

Then, they were issued a Priority Alpha Command.

The main facility was under attack!

----

Ridley flapped his wings as he flew through the morning sky of Halo.

For some reason, he admired the fact that there were other species out there that were capable of their feats.

Probably because it gave him the motivation to outdo them.

Ridley's nostrils then widened. He stopped flying forward, his wings now fully extended to keep him hovering with the updraft.

He smelled the same kind of creatures he smelled earlier...

The ones on the two dropships he destroyed.

The Space Pirate grinned as he roared. The sound waves would reach their ears.

They would know that he would be coming.

It didn't matter.

He would kill them all anyway.

----

The Covenant dropship flew silently through the air, hidden by the cover of the clouds.

However, the only ones on board were the Chief, Cortana, and Samus.

"We'll be close to the control center soon. Keep an eye on your motion tracker."

The Chief remained silent as he flew the ship.

Meanwhile, Cortana was attempting once more to access Samus' database.

As she looked at the status of all the firewalls, she nearly felt like owing a favor to the Monitor...

Apparently, he had damaged Adam's firewalls when he hacked into his database.

She was trying to access the database using the teleportation grid uplink that Adam himself had opened up. She noticed that the computerized CO was busy trying to fix the system.

So she sent out billions of pings per second to overload the system.

The incoming data packets alarmed Adam so much that he stopped what he was doing to try and sort them out. Cortana sneaked in, and within a second, she had all the data she was looking for.

She began looking over the data files.

During Samus' childhood, the Space Pirates had annihilated the human colony K-2L, where she lived. She was found and 'adopted' by the Chozo, a highly advanced race with technology that was mind-boggling, even to Cortana. She would have to see it later.

She then began to trace through Samus' life like a set of footprints, watching her being trained in the warrior arts of the Chozo, then she saw a Power Suit being bestowed to her before she went off to the planet known as Zebes to combat the Space Pirates.

Cortana spent four full processor cycles to digest the irony of it all.

John was a young boy at the age of six, living on the human colony Eridanus Two. John, along with 74 other six-year old human children from different human-inhabited worlds, were chosen for the SPARTAN II program to be the United Nations Space Command's super-soldiers...

When their bodies underwent biological enhancements, such as skeleton reinforcement, muscle enhancement, nervous system super conduction to improve reflexes, and other necessary changes for the SPARTAN II program at the age of 14, 30 of them couldn't handle it...they had died.

A dozen more were too mutilated by the process to continue serving in battle.

The other 33 survived, and they went on to become the unit with the best record in active duty...only three were killed in over 200 ground missions against the Covenant, and only one was too injured to continue active duty.

And John, codenamed Spartan-117, had graduated to the rank of Master Chief Petty Officer.

Many years into their military career, John and the other Spartans were give the Mark V MJOLNIR battle armor, equipped with the latest shield technology and neural reflex enhancers.

That was also when John and Cortana first went on a mission. Since then, they were both like glue...Cortana would supply up-to-date intelligence from transmissions, and the Chief would do all the fighting.

Then the Covenant launched a strike on Reach, the naval shipyard colony that was the prime base for UNSC forces and the home for the Spartans.

The Master Chief was the only one who had survived, or at least the only one that she knew of.

She now realized how alike both John and Samus were...their life was changed dramatically at a young age, they were trained in the art of combat, and then given powerful suits of armor to combat their enemies.

Now that she thought about, Samus, figuratively, WAS the Master Chief...of the opposite gender.

"Cortana, we're about to set down."

Cortana snapped out of her thinking process and pulled herself together. "Got it Chief...calculating safe landing zone......there."

Even as the red NAV point that led to the LZ appeared on his HUD, the Chief didn't like the pause in Cortana's speech. "Is something wrong?"

The Chief pulled out Cortana's processor cube and put it in his neck socket as she answered, "No.....nothing's wrong..."

----

The Incursion's alarms blared loudly as their sensors picked up a hostile heading straight for them.

The bioscan signals they sent out identified the figure as the same one that destroyed the destroyer in orbit above Halo.

All personnel were ordered to get to battle stations on the double.

Wraiths and Ghosts were delivered to the surface via the gravity lift. Banshees flew out of the hangars as multiple Shade units were placed in the hangar, on top of the ship, and on the ground.

All the Grunts, Jackals, Elites, and Hunters on the ground wielded their weapons, all of them at maximum ammunition.

They all waited until they saw a small figure zooming in, closer and closer.

The Wraiths, the Banshees, the Shades, and the Incursion all opened fire on it.

If it happened to get in closer, it would be under assault from over three hundred Covenant units.

----

Ridley blinked rapidly as a plethora of plasma-based weapons were launched at him. He quickly made precise maneuvers to avoid the massive plasma beams that were being launched at him.

He swerved to the left in an attempt to get out of the plasma weapons' line of fire.

But when he saw the massive number of Covenant troops, he realized that he had made a grave mistake.

All the Covenant units opened fire on him, and this time, Ridley was unprepared for what he was facing.

Over two dozen plasma shots bounced off his metallic body armor, but he could feel the heat from where the shots hit.

He flew higher into the air to get some breathing room, but he suddenly saw three Banshees flying down towards him, firing their fuel rod guns.

Three green bolts of molten plasma struck Ridley in the face, sending him sprawling.

It took all of his effort to right himself as the Wraiths launched large plasma mortar projectiles at him. Ridley barely dodged them as the projectiles sailed past him, leaving behind faint trails of blue-white plasma mist.

Ridley growled as he remembered the name the Research Team had given them upon intercepting transmissions.

They were known as the Covenant.

Ridley roared loudly as he spewed forth a surplus of plasma torpedoes on at the Covenant units. He then followed up with his thermal-powered beam.

Plasma torpedoes struck the side of the Incursion. The multi-colored battleplate peeled away from where the torpedoes hit. The ones that went into the hangar destroyed the Shade gunners.

On the ground, Wraiths and Ghosts melted and boiled upon contact with the plasma torpedo/heat ray combination assault. Grunts fled to a safer position in the rocky area before mustering the courage to open fire.

Ridley began to speed along the Covenant cruiser's top, taking out any Shade gun emplacements he found.

Then a Gold Elite leapt onto the back of Ridley as he flew by.

Ridley growled with annoyance as the Elite maneuvered to its front before slashing at him once across the chest armor with its blue plasma sword.

Ridley grabbed the gold Elite with his hard, metallic claws.

Then, in an act of bestial rage, Ridley bit across the Elite's midsection with his razor-like teeth. The Gold Elite gave out a cry of anguish before its vitals flat-lined.

As Ridley let the dead Covenant fall to the ground, he glanced at the purple blood that now stained his body...then he saw something that horrified him.

A large gash about one foot in length and seven inches wide was now seen on his breastplate. The Elite's purpose was seen as suicidal, but it was a well-conceived plan on the Covenant's part.

His chest was now a vulnerable target.

Ridley experienced this first hand when a Hunter fired a fuel rod blast at him, colliding with his chest...a pinpoint hit.

Ridley howled as pain danced across his body. His armor was now breached across the chest, and the Covenant were too accurate with their weapons.

He also ran the risk of getting hit by one of the Incursion's plasma weapons. If one of those hit his chest, he wouldn't be surprised if a hole was torn straight through him.

So out of desperation, Ridley retreated, setting a course for the Space Pirate facility.

As he left the firing range of the Covenant weaponry, Ridley was infuriated at what had just happened. Various sections of his armor were burned with plasma scoring, which didn't really do anything, but made him a more vulnerable target nonetheless.

His chest area was the most problematic of his wounds. He needed to get it repaired at once.

----

The Space Pirate facility was now under a Flood assault.

A Space Pirate fell as a Flood pierced its exoskeleton, place its spores within it. Then it was popped by laser fire.

The Space Pirates had the entire facility locked down, and all doors and hatches were secured.

But the Flood were still coming.

Plasma Troopers and Wave Troopers hopped onto the roofs of buildings as Ice Troopers and Power Troopers held their ground against the oncoming swarm.

A Flood Elite thrashed against a Power Trooper with its tentacles, but the Trooper responded by slicing through the infected Elite with its energy scythe.

But before it could do anymore, ten Flood Infection forms latched onto it. The Power Trooper cried out before falling to the ground.

A Flood Elite pulled the blaster out of its exoskeleton as some Flood carried the fallen Trooper away to infect.

The Pirates by themselves weren't going to hold out forever against these numbers.

They issued a Priority Alpha Request to Command, which was immediately acknowledged.

Two dozen Metroids suddenly filled the air...all of them were out, save the several still inside and the two with Security Team Zeta.

The Metroids began latching onto the nearest Flood Elites, draining them of their energy while the Pirates discharged numerous energy rounds against the Flood Infection forms.

Then, one of the Infection forms caught a lucky break as it jumped...and embedded itself into the red innards of the Metroid.

Red blood began to cover the inside of the Metroid as the Flood bit and gnawed on it, sending its spores into it.

The Metroid finally shrieked in agony as it shuddered and fell to the ground, dead as a rock.

A Flood Elite then picked up the fallen Metroid and ran off into the woods surrounding the valley. The other Flood followed suit.

The Space Pirates exhaled, relieved. Their base was still intact, and they had driven off the invaders.

But when the Metroids went back into their containment areas, they noticed that one was missing.

The Flood had taken a Metroid.

----

Laser fire hopped across the dropship's hull as Samus fire her Wave Beam at them from the dropship's wing.

So far, she had counted over two dozen Sentinels...and as she looked at the pyramidal structure stationed on the island ahead of them, there were many more.

The Monitor did not want them to reach the Control Center of Halo.

"It's gonna be hot once we land!"

Cortana had to find another Landing Zone...the Monitor had been waiting for them in an ambush.

The Master Chief had no choice now. He set the dropship down in front of the structure as he jumped out of the dropship and fired at the Sentinels with his plasma rifle.

Samus then jumped forward and made a mad dash for the structure ahead of them. Sentinels poured out of it and the survivors began to creep closer to them.

Master Chief threw his last two plasma grenades at the group in front of him, but even though they destroyed ten, over thirty were still there.

When they had reached the ramp to the Control Center's entrance, over forty Sentinels surrounded them.

"What a way to go..."

The Chief's mind raced for possible ways to get out of this mess.

He couldn't think of any.

"You asked for it..."

The Chief turned his head to Samus, who now leapt forward at the Sentinels...except she was now spinning.

And her entire body pulsed with a colorful glow of energy as she plowed through the Sentinels, tearing them to pieces.

"What in the world???"

The Chief could ask the same question. The bounty hunter seemed to have a never-ending bag of tricks at her disposal.

Samus stopped spinning and bounced off the structure walls, spinning again in the same energy as before.

The Sentinels focused all their attention on Samus, firing their lasers at her.

The lasers deflected off her glowing figure as she tore through some more of them.

Another mistake the Sentinels made was that they forgot the Master Chief entirely.

That is, until he began shooting them with his plasma rifle.

They then turned to him as Samus tore through some more of them.

He throttled one of the sentinels with the butt of the plasma rifle, dissipating its shield before shooting it with his MA5B Assault Rifle.

Bullet holes littered the body of the Sentinel as it crashed to the ground, smoking, burning, and crackling with sparks.

Samus fire her charged up Plasma Beam at the Sentinels, incinerating the last of them.

If it were for anything else, an innocent bystander might've mistaken the whole spectacle for a fireworks display.

Samus sighed as she flexed her fingers. The Chief was impressed, but Cortana was in awe.

"Wha...what was that?"

Samus checker her Arm Cannon as she replied, "The Screw Attack."

"I'm impressed. Do you think it would be possible to have your Suit's blueprints?"

Samus eyed Chief, although she was really looking at Cortana's icon on the Chief's HUD. "Judging from what weapons you use, you couldn't replicate this Suit's technology even if you tried."

The Chief mentally chuckled as Cortana groaned. "Enough. Samus, you need to place explosives at the pulse generators. Cortana will give you the NAV points, and you have to set explosives in the pulse generators...set them to remote detonation. If I'm guessing this correctly, then the explosives will cause a chain reaction, and the pulse generators will explode. That should be enough to destroy the ring."

Cortana paused for a second as she thought over the Chief's plan, then gave a hum of approval. "Your plan checks out Chief. Samus, I'm uploading the NAV points to your visor."

A few seconds passed as three red NAV points appeared on Samus' visor. They pointed to three islands about two hundred meters away from the island of the Control Center...and they were arranged in a triangular formation.

Samus already had the explosives necessary...her Power Bombs. She could set them to remote detonation, and she ran off.

The Master Chief then walked up into the Control Center. The top of the structure held an elevator that went down below the surface. He casually let the elevator go about one hundred meters below the surface before it stopped, revealing a path into a large room.

The room he was now in was spherical in shape, with a small hole on the bottom. In the center lay a terminal, and a hologram of Halo, the rocky planet Herron V, and its moons Rona and Seri.

"Go ahead and put me in the terminal Chief."

The Chief put Cortana's processor cube into the Control Center's terminal. Cortana began the process of installing firewalls to prevent the Monitor from doing anything.

Then, he had an idea.

"Wait."

Cortana stopped installing the firewalls as she replied, "What is it Chief?"

"You know what I'm thinking, right?"

"Of course."

"Then listen."

Several seconds passed before Cortana chuckled. "Genious Chief. Genious. I'll immediately disassemble all the firewalls I set up."

"Good."

"You will tell Samus, won't you?"

"Of course."

As Cortana was working, the Master Chief sighed. After Samus had finished placing the explosives, they would head back to the Gunship and take off. Once they got back to Rona, where the Flawless Cowboy sat, dormant and dark, they would activate the explosives and watch Halo go boom...and he also counted on meeting the Monitor once more.

Once the explosion took place, anyone on Halo would die, and the debris would become a living nightmare for any ships near the Ring-World.

Suddenly, Cortana's hologram came up, a bright green from her normally lavender hue, and she was breathing rapidly.

"Cortana?"

"Chief...you won't believe what I've found..."

If this had anything to do with another secret of Halo, he didn't want any part of it.

"The Covenant transmissions I'm picking up details about prisoners..."

"So? They're probably Space Pirates."

"Negative Chief. These ships had prisoners on board before they even entered the system."

That didn't make sense...unless...

"Are you saying...that there are humans with the Covenant?"

"Bingo."

This presented a problem. He would have to save them before leaving Halo...he wasn't going to leave his comrades here to die. The UNSC needed its soldiers.

The Chief then brought up a communication link with Samus. "Samus? How many generators have you rigged?"

Static was heard before Samus replied, "Almost all."

"Meet us back at the dropship when you're done. We have one more errand to complete before leaving...and I have a new plan that you might want to hear."

"I'm listening Chief."



To be continued...


Next time, the Chief and Samus infiltrate a Covenant destroyer in an attempt to rescue the Marines trapped on board, but will they be able to get past the Covenant?

Plus, the Monitor is not pleased with the Space Pirate's meddling with Halo. In response, he leads a force of Sentinels to defeat them.

Chapter 8-Rescue Op
Date: 27 March 2003, 5:20 AM

Samus floated over the water, her Space Jump providing her limitless flight. This ability was extremely useful for getting to high places.

As she touched down on the main island for the Control Center, she wondered what 'errand' the Master Chief had in mind.

As she pushed her way past the palm trees, she moved into the main clearing in front of the Control Center, where the dropship was waiting, along with the Chief and Cortana.

"Climb on board Samus."

Samus was already locked into the left wing before Cortana could finish talking. She activated her com-link and opened a channel to the Master Chief. "What errand are you talking about?"

The Chief activated the dropship's propulsion systems as they ascended into the blue sky above. "We're heading for a Covenant ship about 700 kilometers from our position. They've got some Marines imprisoned on the ship."

"Marines?"

"The UNSC's soldiers. We're going to save them before we get off of Halo."

Samus didn't reply as she sat back into the metallic chair...wondering when this mission of hers would end.

----

The Space Pirates finally activated the lockdown as Ridley set down inside the facility's parameters.

Ridley swiftly stomped into the Engineering Sector, where a group of Space Pirate engineers promptly began to weld on a new section of battle armor to cover up his gash.

Ridley sighed. Soon, he would be back at full strength.

Alarms suddenly blared out through the room. What was going on now?

Security personnel activated the intercom and yelled out that the security lockdown shield had been overridden...from outside the facility.

Ridley cursed to himself. He looked down to see that only a few millimeters of armor were welded over his wound.

It would have to do.

Ridley stormed out of the facility and moved outside to see dozens and dozens of metallic drones flying about the facility, shooting upon the Space Pirates with red laser rays.

In a way, they reminded Ridley of the Space Pirate Security Drones. The Security drones of the Space Pirates used two metallic limbs to fire rounds of energy orbs, while the actual 'eye' emitted a red laser beam. They were ferocious when provoked, and relentless.

Unlike the tenacious Security Drones, these metallic machines seemed...calm, and at ease. They moved at the same speed at all times, unlike the Security Drones, which varied depending on their target.

But out of all of them, he noticed one strange unit...it seemed like a glowing blue eye.

It seemed to be the leader.

The other drones surrounding it fired lasers at the Space Pirates that tried to ward off the invaders. And the Metroids that were released were unable to sap their energy, seeing as the intruders weren't biological life forms.

Then, the one with the blue eye hovered in front of him.

"Oh. Hello."

Ridley growled at the mechanism's casual tone.

"Greetings. I am 343 Guilty Spark. I understand you've already established a secure residence on Installation 03. According to the databanks I purged upon reaching this facility, your name would be Ridley...would it not?"

Ridley gave a slight nod...begrudgingly.

"But I am not here for peaceful reasons. I have recently classified the organism 'Metroid' as a Class-X Parasitic Bioform. It is on the same threat level as the Flood, and I'm afraid one of them was infected."

Ridley learned of this earlier. A Plasma Trooper had told him.

That Plasma Trooper now was cut in two, lying in a riverbed elsewhere.

"I am afraid that there has been far too much foreign activity on the ring. Now, I am afraid to be the one to say this, but I must terminate all who would dare to step foot on this ring."

Ridley scoffed as he thrashed the Monitor with his tail.

The AI Construct shrugged it off without so much as a dent.

"Oh well. I gave you my warning."

The Monitor teleported away in a flash of orange light, leaving the Sentinels to dismantle the facility.

Ridley growled as he charged at the Sentinels, knocking one down with his metallic talons.

The rest of the Sentinels turned to him and barraged him with laser fire.

This wouldn't have been so bad...if they hadn't focused it all on his chest.

Ridley roared with pain and flew into the air. He cursed to himself as the Space Pirates began to evacuate the facility. The Sentinels pursued various personnel as they scurried to salvage all the equipment they could. All Metroids were recalled into their holding tubes.

Ridley then looked into the sky, searching for the Vol Arion.

He saw the little speck that represented it, as well as the other Covenant ships that had been commandeered by them.

Then, he was shocked to see streaks of plasma being exchanged between them and thirty other specks.

An entire Covenant armada had engaged in battle with the Space Pirates.

This signaled the end for the Space Pirates' endeavors in this galaxy...and Ridley knew it.

Ridley growled as several transport craft began to lift from the surface. They had to evacuate Halo immediately.

But not just yet.

Ridley still had one last thing to take care of.

He roared as he flew off at high-speed, searching for the Hunter.

----

The dropship set down slowly inside the destroyer's hangar. No Covenant troops were on the ground, or in the hangar.

"Odd...unusually quiet for a Covenant vessel."

The Chief nodded in agreement. He stepped out of the cockpit and landed with a small thud as Samus exited the dropship's left wing.

"Hold on...transmissions indicate that most of the Covenant troops had left the ship to scout the area...they've encountered a large group of Flood...including an infected Metroid..."

Samus said nothing. If Metroids and Flood were deadly before...a Flood-infected Metroid could prove nearly unstoppable.

"This is bad Samus. When someone is infected by the Flood, they no longer care for their personal safety. With a Metroid no longer caring for its own safety..."

Samus didn't want to think about it.

"I'm detecting some life forms about 100 meters above us. It must be the Marines."

Master Chief nodded as he quickly opened a door...and he saw two Black Grunts wielding fuel rod guns.

The Grunts squealed as they charged their weapons.

The Chief and Samus dove as two rods of plasma exploded where they had once stood.

The Chief pulled out his Assault Rifle...but he only had 100 rounds left, and the battery on his plasma rifle was running low.

Samus incinerated one Grunt with her Plasma Cannon, while the Chief scorched one Grunt's armor with his plasma rifle.

The Grunts slumped to the pinkish floor as their fuel rod guns automatically exploded.

"Let's go."

The Chief and Samus quietly ran up three floors of the destroyer, until they were right in front of the door where the NAV point ended.

"There...this room."

The Chief kept his weapon ready as he opened the door.

He wasn't ready for what he saw.

The room was five times bigger than the hangar. Two Pelican dropships laid inside, and in one corner of the room laid various kinds of weapons. Along the sides of the room were cells, holding in thirty Marines.

And there were seven Black Elites, one plasma sword-wielding Gold Elite, a dozen Black Grunts, and some Jackals inspecting the weapons. Three Hunters were also in the room.

They turned their attention to the opening door to see a shocked Chief.

"CHIEF!!! DUCK!!!"

He didn't need to be told twice. He quickly ducked as a barrage of plasma cascaded over his head. Samus ducked as well, charging her plasma beam as she crouched down.

The Chief threw a frag grenade into the room, and one second passed before two Black Elites and four Grunts were sent flying by the explosion. They could hear the cheers of the imprisoned Marines.

Samus took her chance.

She leapt into the room, landing on top of a Pelican dropship. She immediately fired a charged plasma blast at the nearest Hunter, cremating it.

The Chief then ran into the room, grabbing the head of a Grunt and twisting its head until a sick, cracking sound was heard. The Grunt collapsed to the floor, dead.

A Black Elite turned its attention towards the Master Chief as he raced for the stockpile of salvaged weapons. He fired scores of plasma bursts at the Chief before it fell to the ground. Samus had knocked the Elite unconscious with a swift thwack in the head with her Arm Cannon.

The four Jackals turned their attention to the Chief. He quickly threw down his nearly empty Assault Rifle and grabbed a S2 AM Sniper Rifle. He immediately rolled behind a Pelican as four plasma bursts scorched the ground where he once stood.

He inspected the Sniper Rifle. It had a full clip.

He quietly crawled under the belly of the Pelican, which was being held in the air by super-strong suspension cables. There was only about two feet and six inches worth of room to crawl through.

"If you're spotted, you're not going to have a lot of room to maneuver."

"I know."

The Chief took aim for the small notch that was on the right side of all the Jackal shields (left if you were actually wielding the shield).

He fired once.

A Jackal went down.

He quickly took aim and took down another.

The remaining two Jackals took notice of his new position and began blasting at him with charged plasma pistol shots.

The Chief quickly threw the Sniper Rifle at the incoming plasma shots. The weapon boiled and melted under the extreme heat of the charged shots.

But it gave the Spartan the chance he needed to make his way out of from under the Pelican. He then looked at his plasma rifle.

He quickly climbed on top of the Pelican and let multiple bursts of blue plasma shot forth from his rifle to the crowns of the Jackals' vulture-like heads.

They collapsed with a groaning, bird-like wail.

The Chief immediately put down the plasma rifle, which was empty on energy.

He looked over the large pile of munitions with a somewhat militaristic glee. It was comforting to be able to use familiar weaponry again.

He picked up old MA5B Assault Rifle and put some new clips in it. For once, he was thankful for something the Covenant had done.

He then picked up a fully loaded shotgun. This powerful weapon could kill anything at close range, even a shielded Elite.

He then glanced back at Samus, who was surrounded by a Hunter, four Black Grunts, and two Black Elites...the last of the Covenant that were in this room.

The Chief took out his shotgun and pointed its barrel at a Black Elite's back.

Numerous pellets busted their way through the Elite's shields and into the skin of the Covenant warrior. The Elite groaned as it slumped to the ground.

This immediately caught the surprise of the other Covenant. The Black Grunts were scared by the Chief's arrival into this standoff with Samus and fled the room, possibly to enlist the help of some reinforcements.

Samus then peppered the remainders of the Covenant forces with Missiles.

The Hunter and the Black Elite were killed.

The Marines let out a whopping helping of applause.

"Looks like they're glad to see us."

The Master Chief silently nodded as he stepped up to the control terminal at the far end of the room. He deactivated the cell fields, giving the Marines their freedom back.

The Master Chief then walked over to the group of Marines, where all thirty of them had gathered in front of the weapons pile. "Who's in command?"

"That would be me sir."

A sergeant then stepped in front of the Chief's vision. The sergeant was a white man with tanned skin. He looked to be about in his forties, but the battle scars on his face hinted that the man was younger than he looked.

After all, war could change you...for better or worse.

The brown-eyed, red-haired sergeant then saluted the Chief. "Sergeant McKowsky reporting for duty."

"At ease Sergeant. Mind telling me what happened to your group?"

The sergeant sighed as he leaned against the wall, clenching his retrieved Assault Rifle. "We were at Sigma Octanus Four, finishing up on repairs to Alpha HQ and Firebase Bravo...we were just finishing up on polishing the place."

The Spartan remembered that battle. The Battle of Sigma Octanus Four, where Admiral Stantforth's fleet of 48 ships battled a Covenant fleet of 20 in orbit above the planet, while the Master Chief and eleven other Spartans took care of Covenant ground forces. Only 14 Marine regulars survived out of the 1600 stationed at Firebase Bravo, Alpha HQ, and the city of Cote d' Azur before the Covenant attack.

He heard the UNSC fleet had driven back the Covenant, but they had only seven ships that were still able to move left at their disposal afterwards. Over twenty ships lost and around twenty disabled in a battle against 20...

Some win.

"When we got to the Munitions Bunker to finish cataloging all the weapons, a Covenant cruiser suddenly flew over us, hovering about a few dozen feet above us...we don't know how they got past our radar, but we engaged them in a struggle. We didn't stand a chance against all those troops...but they salvaged tons of our own weapons...any idea why?"

The Master Chief didn't answer.

"Anyway...thirty of us were taken as prisoners of war...the other fifty were killed in battle. We were thrown into these cells, and the Covenant immediately began inspecting our weapons...but why now? Why bring an entire cruiser to Sigma Octanus Four...just to get some Marines and a bunch of weapons?"

The Master Chief still didn't answer as Samus walked beside him.

"Um...pardon me, but who the heck's that guy?"

Cortana chuckled as Samus turned to face the sergeant.

"For your information, I'm a 'she'."

As Samus turned back, McKowsky fought back a wave of embarrasement. The other Marines simply whistled.

"I'm detecting movement......everyone, get on a Pelican. Designated pilots can get in two of them, the Chief and I will pilot the first one. Get any UNSC and Covenant weapons you can get onto the Pelicans now!"

The Master Chief looked at the hangar door in front of where the Pelican was hanging. The controls to open it were in a different room...and the plasma fire he heard behind those doors indicated that he needed to make a hole of his own.

He quickly grabbed a package of C-12 and began molding the putty-like substance onto the hangar door.

Samus quickly got on top of one of the Pelican's as the Master Chief lighted a fuse. He quickly got into the cockpit of the foremost Pelican as a massive explosion ripped a hole in the hangar doors.

"Activate your engines boys! We're leaving!"

The Pelicans then began to fly forward, ripping the cables out as they did. Two Pelicans carried a Warthog each while the Pelican the Chief was piloting carried a Scorpion tank.

Suddenly, the doors into the large room burst open, and over a dozen Flood Elites burst into the room as the three Pelicans lifted off into the sky.

Sergeant McKowsky blinked rapidly as he looked at the strange creatures. "Chief...what the heck are those things?!"

Cortana's voice came over the intercom.

"THAT, Sergeant McKowsky, would answer your earlier questions. The Covenant took Marine weapons because of their effectiveness against the Flood, and they got you so you could serve as Flood fodder."

The sergeant gulped. He remember reading Master Chief's report on the Flood...he never thought he'd actually see one.

The Marines began to talk and chatter as the three Pelicans flew away from the Covenant destroyer, heading back for the Gunship.

----

Ridley sniffed the air, flapping his wings to keep himself hovering.

He then grinned.

The Hunter was close.

----

The three Pelicans set down in a ring formation around the Gunship. The Marines poured out and stretched, taking the time to breathe in the fresh air.

Samus hopped down from on top of the first Pelican and immediately went inside her Gunship.

"Hello Lady..."

Samus noticed the hint of worry in Adam's voice. "What's wrong?"

"Well...it's Ridley...you know my sensors spread all over Halo...and he's on a direct course for us..."

Samus didn't say a word. Ridley had enough power to decimate everything in this clearing...Marines and all.

She turned on the engines.

"If Ridley gets within 200 meters of the Gunship, take off immediately...I'm going after him."

Adam's eye didn't blink as Samus left the Gunship...this was quite the role reversal...the young bounty hunter was giving orders to her CO.

"Be careful Samus."

----

Samus walked over to the Master Chief, who was just now getting out of the Pelican. The Marines were now getting out some beer that had been placed in hidden compartments within each of the Pelicans' before they were captured at Sigma Octanus. Despite the fact that the whiskey was a bit warm and a tad old, it tasted good to them.

Samus walked over to the Master Chief and whispered in his ear...well, where his ear would be if he weren't wearing his helmet.

His face paled beneath the faceplate.

The Chief quickly walked over to McKowsky. "Sergeant."

The Sergeant quickly put down his bottle of whiskey and stood at attention. "Sir!"

"Get all the Marines together. Spread them out over a radius of ten to a hundred feet from Samus' Gunship at a maximum circumference of seventy meters. Get the Warthogs and the Scorpion tank unhooked from the Pelicans, and keep the dropships' engines on in case things get hot."

The sergeant didn't understand. "Are there Covenant on a course for this place? Or...the Flood?"

The Chief shook his head. "A creature about the size of a Longsword Interceptor, but with enough firepower to annihilate a Covenant destroyer."

The sergeant gulped.

"You have your orders."

Sergeant McKowsky saluted the Chief. "Sir yes sir!" He then turned to the Marines as he picked up his Assault Rifle. "Marines! Drop what you're doing now! Put new clips into your weapons! I want a driver for both of the Warthogs with someone manning 'Old Faithful'! Get out the Scorpion as well!"

By 'Old Faithful', he meant the powerful chain gun fastened on the end of the Warthog. The Marines quickly put away their beer cans and whiskey bottles as they got to their assigned tasks.

The sergeant then looked back to where the Chief was.

He was gone.

So was the armored female that was with him.

----

Samus and the Chief were already five hundred meters away from the Gunship, and they were still en route to Ridley's position.

"So is Ridley as dangerous up-close as he was to the Covenant destroyer?"

Samus looked back at Chief as if he was crazy.

"Of course...he can utilize quite a lot of techniques at close range."

They continued on for another seventy meters until Cortana said something.

"Motion detected ahead of us...moving slowly..."

Samus looked at the area they were in. Two ridges of gray rock slanted down at a 50-degree angle, and in between them was a field with patches of grass and stone figures jutting up from the ground.

She quickly moved to the other ridge, quietly moving upwards as the Chief hid along the stone slabs in the small valley below.

The cloudy mist clouded her vision. She switched to the Thermal Visor.

Nothing.

The Chief examined his Assault Rifle and the plasma rifle he pillaged from the Black Elites in the Covenant destroyer. All full.

Suddenly, a large mass of a heat moved upwards past Samus' field of vision, moving over to the ridge behind her.

She quickly aimed her Arm Cannon at it, ready to fire.

It simply collided with the ridge, before tumbling to the ground and rolling to a stop.

The shape was that of a boulder...except it had been subject to heat recently.

Samus' blood went cold as she realized that she had been tricked.

She quickly spun around in time to have Ridley ram into her like a raging bull with his armor-plated head. The collision was enough to drain three whole Energy Tanks, and the collision itself sent Samus flying until she collided with the gravel on the ridge.

The first collision with Ridley had already made Samus dizzy. The second one knocked her unconscious.

----

Ridley grinned with self-satisfaction as he set down in front of the Hunter's fallen body.

He was one step away from succeeding.

He prepared to bombard the Hunter with a barrage of plasma torpedoes until she was no more.

Then, a blue plasma bolt struck the side of his head.

Ridley growled as he turned to where the blast was from, firing his heat ray. The ray literally boiled away at the mist that was once there, but his target was not there.

He then fell to the ground as a plasma grenade exploded on his back.

Ridley roared as he shook off the explosion. He looked behind him and saw the outline of a figure in green armor standing behind him.

"I don't think you know me Ridley...but I am Master Chief Petty Officer John-117...and I'm ready to go whenever you are."





To be continued...








Next time...

It's the moment you've been waiting for! Master Chief squares off against Ridley in a one-on-one battle! But can the Master Chief succeed in fighting in enemy he has little to no information as to what his weakness is?

As for the Flood, they have infiltrated the Incursion with the help of the infected Metroid! 343 Guilty Spark uses every single Sentinel at his disposal to destroy the powerful Covenant ship before it lifts off from Halo!

Chapter 9-Ridley
Date: 29 March 2003, 3:11 AM

(Little note...it's time for music!)

http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/gba/T_MetroidFusion_Ridley-XBossTheme108.mid

http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/snes/smetbatl.mid
http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/snes/Battle1-2.mid

(Choose whichever of the three Ridley music battle themes you wish. :P )

Master Chief knew from the size of the metal-plated pterodactyl that this would be no easy fight. Clearly, this was the largest opponent the Chief had ever faced.

The Chief dived to the side as Ridley quickly turned around and fired his heat ray at the Spartan.

Ridley snarled as his heat ray missed his mark. He squinted, his yellow eyes seemingly piercing the mist in two as he searched for his target.

Meanwhile, the Chief had hidden behind the same hot boulder Ridley had thrown, so his body would throw off any heat-sensitive vision that...'Ridley'...might have had.

"Any ideas Chief?"

"Funny. I was hoping you had some."

Cortana was less than amused. "Fine then. Just give me a second to see if I can pull some data from what I uploaded from Adam's databanks...just hold him off a little longer."

Master Chief sighed as he readied to shoot some more bursts of blue plasma from his plasma rifle.

Because if Cortana couldn't come up with something in time, there wouldn't be much left of him.

Especially considering the five plasma torpedoes that peppered the surrounding area.

----

The Incursion lurched as a groaning sound was heard. It's purple metal was slowly torn apart as a large army of Flood thrashed against the sides of the Covenant cruiser.

The Flood had recently launched a massive assault on the Covenant cruiser a few hours ago.

Even with all the Wraiths, Ghosts, and Banshees guarding it, complete with a whole brigade of Hunters spread over the area, the ground area around the Incursion was taken.

The Covenant troops that had survived immediately retreated onto the cruiser and prepared to take off.

Unfortunately for them, the Flood immediately leapt onto the sides and the top of the cruiser from the cliff sides and the tops of the rocky hills. They began thrashing wildly against the sides of it as the Covenant ship sent all power to its engines.

Now, a large gash was being ripped open, revealing the reactor room.

A group of twenty Black Grunts and seven Black Elites fired fuel rod guns and plasma rifles at the incoming wave of Flood.

They kept coming as they slowly poured into the ship.

The Black Elites then switched for their other weapons...human weapons.

The Incursion had been delivered a large bundle of human weapons shortly before the Flood assault.

Now, it was time to test their effectiveness in the hands of the Covenant.

Three Black Elites fired scores of armor-piercing rounds from the MA5B Assault Rifles they wielded. The powerful shells easily penetrated the small Flood Infection forms.

The other four pulled out M90 Shotguns. Field observations gathered from the Spartan II's confrontations with the Flood back on the other Halo showed that the 3.5 inch magnum rounds fired from the weapon killed a Flood warrior instantly...but only at close range was it guaranteed.

The Covenant were only thankful they had gathered this info and transmitted the data back to their home-world before the ring-world was destroyed.

So far, they had succeeded in keeping the Flood out of the reactor room. Perhaps they could still drive them away before taking off...

But that thought was shattered when the wails of dying Jackals were heard in the hallway connecting the reactor room to the bridge.

A small, floating organism came into the room. It had the skin of the flood, but the razor-sharp mandibles on the bottom of it were easily identified by the Covenant.

It was the same organism that had eradicated their defenses in the Valley of the Index...except infected by the Flood.

The carapace was still as strong as ever, rendering even the Marines' weapons useless. One by one, the Covenant forces in the Reactor Room fell. The Flood began to spread their spores into the fallen Covenant as the other Warrior forms began dismantling the reactor.

A few minutes passed before a gigantic green explosion ruptured the hull in the Incursion's rear. Smoke began pouring out of the cruiser's exhaust vents as radiator coolant began to leak from the broken hull.

Soon, the mighty ship clashed into the side of the cliff wall, letting the rest of the Flood advance inside.

The surviving Covenant within the ship gathered what weapons they could salvage and locked themselves in the bridge. Grunts shivered as they clutched their plasma pistols. Jackals used their senses to the best of their ability to keep the others from being surprised. The Elites barked orders to the Grunts and Jackals to shoot to kill, while the Hunters stood silent, keeping their fuel rod guns warm.

The siege on the Incursion had begun.

"They got themselves into this...so it is only fitting that it would bring about their demise."

343 Guilty Spark chuckled to himself as over seventy-five Sentinels stood silent behind him, waiting to move in.

"However glad I may be that the foreigners finally received what they deserved, I must prevent the Flood from repairing the damage they caused to that cruiser. If they did, they would once again become the universe's bane...like they were before."

The Monitor floated silently as he remembered how the Forerunner had found the Flood...

Centuries upon centuries ago, the Forerunner, a race of highly advanced machines and electronic-based beings had spread their influence over the galaxy. They had made quite a few enemies, most notably the foreigners that were now trapped within the damaged cruiser.

He remembered the great war that took place between them. He remembered how the war went on superbly for the Forerunner until the enemy—known as the Covenant back then as they were known today—managed to capture some of their old plasma-based weapons.

It wasn't long before the scientific minds of the Covenant crafted powerful weapons from the stolen technology. Full-fledged battles soon erupted between both factions, with the Forerunner's militia, the Sentinels, firing their laser weapons with pinpoint accuracy.

They were answered with a torrential rain of plasma weapons.

After so many casualties on both sides, the Covenant and the Forerunner agreed to a lasting ceasefire...only as long as they didn't cross their territorial lines in space.

Despite the arranged 'peace', the Forerunner and the Covenant never really were peaceful with each other. They just mainly stood out of each other's way.

Still, the Forerunner wanted the planets possessed by the Covenant, but they couldn't risk any more casualties.

Then...when a research team found a planet that was in unexplored space, they set down, along with their escort warships, upon the barren desert lands. It stretched for miles before reaching a massive rain forest that encompassed the rest of the planet's surface.

They did notice one thing upon setting up a defensive perimeter...a town that was completely deserted, save for a few rodents and other creatures of the same nature.

Upon reaching the jungles, they encountered the tiny parasitic life forms for the first time...

The Flood.

They immediately attacked the Forerunner.

The Sentinels launched a counterattack, easily fending off the first wave of the parasitic life forms.

But when scouts identified bodies with similar body composition to the tinier Infection forms, the scientists were intrigued.

Over one hundred of the Flood Infection forms were taken back to the Forerunner home world for research, leaving behind a large battle group of three hundred Sentinels to eradicate the rest of the Flood on the small planet.

However, disaster struck almost immediately when they returned to their home world.

Even though the Forerunner regarded biological life forms as inferior, they still let other organisms use their planets for the purpose of trade and temporary residence.

The Flood broke out of their containment cells and spread into the sprawling metropolis of the Forerunner's planet, quickly sniffing out the biological life forms.

It wasn't long before the Flood had infected all life forms on the planet.

Many clamored for their immediate destruction, but the scientists still wanted to study them.

The military wanted to use them as weapons.

He remembered advocating the decision to use them as weapons against their enemies.

But alas, the final outcome disapproved such an action. The Flood were to be removed from the planet and destroyed.

The scientists would have none of that.

They made a deal...they would construct artificial worlds, with different environments on each, so that the Flood could be detained.

In return, the Forerunner leadership ordered that the artificial worlds be built with a fail-safe device...a weapon that would annihilate sentient life forms.

Why? Because if the Flood had managed to infect an army's worth of sentient life forms, they would've represented a tremendous threat to the Forerunner. The Infection forms were easy to disperse, but the infected life forms, dubbed as 'Warriors', were able to endure their laser weapons for a longer period of time...a dangerous thought, considering that the Warriors were capable of wielding weapons quite efficiently.

So, work began on construction the ring worlds immediately, while the Flood were contained back on the Forerunner home world under heavy security.

A few outbreaks occurred during the four-year construction process, but luckily, few life forms were infected.

The Flood were then relocated to the seven installations strategically placed throughout the galaxy, and they were each individually called Halo.

However, Installation 04 was the one designated to use its fail-safe weapon in a test.

Fearing something might have happened, the Forerunner retrieved a biological life form donning a powerful suit of armor to activate the weapon.

"I remember him quite well."

343 Guilty Spark had dubbed him 'Reclaimer', as he first had to reclaim the Index from a small group of Warrior and Infection Flood as a test to prove his worth.

He had passed, and the Reclaimer activated Halo's weapon.

Even though Halo wasn't at full power at the time, the pulse-wave managed to clear out quite a large number of sentient bioforms within its current range.

What the Forerunner didn't anticipate was the large backlash of disapproval over the activation of Installation 04's weapon.

Several civilizations waged war on the Forerunner. The Covenant took advantage of this time to launch their own strikes against their old enemy.

Many years passed, and the Forerunner's influence began to whither after so many wars. The Covenant, being biological life forms, were able to reproduce rapidly, but the Forerunner's resources began to dwindle as they continued constructing their descendants.

It wasn't long before all contact between the Halos and any Forerunner-possessed planet ceased.

Eventually, the Forerunner finally died out...at least to the Monitor's best knowledge. He hadn't received a word from any Forerunner outside of the Halos in centuries.

Why the Covenant had viewed Halo as a place of religious importance was still beyond him, although it was sort of ironic...the Covenant hoping to salvage ancient Forerunner weaponry, instead stumbled upon what was, as the Monitor had once called them, 'the universe's greatest bane'.

But now was not the time for reminiscing. He had a duty to before.

"Sentinels, move forward and eliminate all Flood that you see. If you find any foreigners, eliminate them as well. We mustn't let the Flood escape the ring."

The Sentinels silently hovered closer to the Incursion. Then, red laser beams lit up the night sky as they clashed against the Flood. At this height, the Flood were unable to attack as the Sentinels peppered them with laser fire.

----

The Master Chief quickly dove behind a rock as Ridley dashed forward, hoping to skewer the Spartan with his sharp, metal-coated nose.

The Chief quickly ran back towards Ridley and grabbed his tail.

Ridley roared as he tried to shake the Spartan off, but the Chief's superhuman strength—multiplied by his MJOLNIR armor—prevented the Space Pirate from doing so.

Ridley suddenly felt wind rushing past his face as he was flipped over. The Master Chief had turned him over.

"Nice one Chief!"

Ridley quickly got back on his feet as the Master Chief's Assault Rifle bullets bounced off his armor...without causing so much as a single dent.

"Um...never mind."

"Now's not the time for your quirks Cortana."

The Chief barely had time to speak as Ridley thrashed the area with his tail, cutting through the rock formations as if they were made of string.

"Cortana, can you find a weakness?"

"Give me a second Chief."

The Chief fired several shots from his plasma rifle, aiming at the abdomen and the chest. Ridley let the plasma hit him in the stomach, but he ducked when the chest-bound shots got close.

"...hmm...."

The Chief quickly fired several bullets from his Assault Rifle at Ridley's head and neck, but Ridley ducked again, covering his chest with his hands.

Cortana noticed this.

"Chief, he seems to like keeping his chest safe...I think that's his weak spot!"

It better be.

The Chief quickly charged at Ridley, keeping a hand on his last plasma grenade.

Ridley grinned. This was his chance.

He pulled his head back, ready to fire his heat ray.

"NOW!!!

The Chief activated the plasma grenade and threw it. It glowed bright blue as it stuck to Ridley's chest.

Ridley fired his heat ray, catching the Chief's side as he dived.

His shields flared brightly as a wave of heat was felt on his side. Without his shields, his armor would've been burnt through.

Ridley looked down at his chest, and his eyes widened as he saw the grenade.

His chest was enveloped in a blue explosion, sending the pterodactyl reeling. He shrieked as he fell to the ground, clutching his chest in pain.

Ridley didn't want to look at the damage, but he did anyway.

The old gash he once had was now two feet wider, and several inches longer as well. What armor remained there was now a smoked black.

He growled and bared his teeth. No more games with this armored warrior.

Ridley leapt to his feet to face the Spartan, but he was nowhere to be seen.

He then felt a large weight fall on his back, nearly sending him down to the ground. The Chief had jumped and landed on top of Ridley.

Roaring, Ridley spun around, shaking the Spartan off. Ridley then began firing his heat ray, accompanied with some plasma torpedoes, all over the battle site.

Boulders and rocks crumbled as the mist was boiled away. Soon, the sky was visible, and Ridley saw his target.

The Master Chief had nowhere to hide now.

Ridley flapped his powerful wings and lifted into the air, flying about into the sky above.

Now that his target had no places to seek cover , and without any mist to hide behind, the playing field was now more level.

He charged away, and then made a U-turn as he prepared to fire a lethal blast.

His heat ray burst forth at the Spartan, who barely rolled out of the way just as he passed by.

The Chief would've cursed if it weren't for his self-control. Now the fight was on a higher level of difficulty.

----

Samus moaned as she pressed her hand against her visor. She had a small taste of copper on her tongue, and a few small splotches of her blood were splattered on her visor.

She blinked a few times and looked around. The mist that was once in the valley was now gone, blast and scorch marks adorned the ground, and bullet shells were strewn about.

And flying above the valley's center was Ridley, who was once more trying to shake off the Master Chief, who had managed to grab onto the Space Pirate's tail and get on his back.

Samus moved slowly, hoping that Ridley wouldn't notice her.

She then prepared to fire a Super Missile...as soon as she could get a decent shot.

----

Sentinels floated calmly through the large gash in the side of the Incursion, looking upon the Flood that were trying to repair the obliterated reactor.

The Sentinels fired upon them with a continuous laser stream, but the Flood reacted quickly, as infected Elites opened fire with Assault Rifles and plasma pistols.

Several Sentinels fell as the Monitor flew in, followed by ten more Sentinels.

"Annihilate them."

The reinforcements backed up the remaining ones, enveloping the parasitic organisms with their weapons.

It looked that the Sentinels would be victorious in this reactor room, but then a pale shriek caught their attention.

343 Guilty Spark turned around to see the one he had previously identified as 'Metroid'...but he detected Flood spores in its structure.

"Unfortunate. With its infection by the Flood, this Metroid is now classified as a Class Z-Parasitic Bioform. As dangerous as they come. Sentinels, destroy it."

The Sentinels obeyed.

The Metroid still came forward, before it shrieked loudly and barged into a Sentinel, causing it to crash into a wall.

The Monitor simply stared at the Metroid as it continually rammed into the Sentinels. He then sighed as he floated away, outside of the Incursion.

"I was right. I did name the Flood a reasonable name...they are indeed the bane of the universe...I must get the Index, immediately."

With a flash of orange light, the Monitor teleported away, leaving the rest of the Sentinels to fight.

----

Master Chief ran as fast as he could as Ridley began diving at him, firing numerous plasma torpedoes.

With a quick strafe with his heat ray, Ridley blocked Master Chief's path.

The Chief's blood froze as he halted. A plasma torpedo blast struck the ground three feet behind him, sending him careening forward.

He shook his head and blinked as he sat up. Ridley hovered over him, preparing to fire a large number of plasma torpedoes at his enemy.

"Chief, I think this would constitute as a 'game over'."

Master Chief wished Cortana would only give him information as much as she practiced her witty remarks.

Suddenly, the sound of a firing rocket was heard.

Ridley quickly turned his head in time to see a large projectile...a projectile that was hurtling toward his chest.

Ridley shrieked as the Super Missile collided with his chest wound. He slumped to the ground as Samus walked over to the Chief's side.

"Need a hand?"

Master Chief grinned as he let Samus pull him up. He shook off his dizziness as Cortana groaned.

"What took you so long?

Samus glared at the Chief, wishing that Cortana's hologram were visible. "I was unconscious. Satisfied?"

A roar reached their ears as they both turned back to Ridley, who clumsily flew away, injured fatally.

The Chief's radio-link buzzed as Ridley disappeared from view.

Sergeant McKowsky's voice was heard over the link. "Chief! We saw some fireworks on our end! What's happening over there?"

"Nothing Sergeant. Enemy target has been dealt with. Prepare to dust off. We're leaving shortly."

The sergeant sighed with content as he replied, "Copy that Master Chief! Out!"

The Chief sighed as Samus began to leave the ridge. The Chef slowly followed behind her, feeling anxious to get home.

----

Ridley growled as he slowly flapped his wings, ascending into the sky. He looked down to measure how injured he was.

Plasma burn marks adorned his armor on all sides, and it was dented with bullet marks in several places. To his surprise, several dents in the shape of hands were seen on his metal tail, where the armored warrior had grabbed him.

His chest was obviously the most fatal injury area. Blood slowly trickled from the garish wound. His purplish-red skin was visible, and the armor was cracked around the wound.

His wings were torn in several places, and they also had some burn marks. He hadn't suffered this much abuse since he had last fought the Hunter.

He heard the droning of engines as the Vol Arion drifted into view. Plasma marks adorned its sides as he dropped onto the external loading dock. Several Space Pirates dragged him inside as the frigate drifted out of Halo's atmosphere.

The Vol Arion's engines flared brightly as it sped past the wreckage of the Covenant warships that had been taken by the Space Pirates. Over fifteen Covenant destroyers, cruisers, frigates, and carriers sped past the ruins of the fallen Space Pirate-possessed warships, pausing only to blast any fragments that remained operating.

Ridley was lowered into a tank full of a cytoplasm-like liquid, which held him firmly in place as sedatives were injected into his blood stream.

Ridley's eyes slowly closed, falling into a dreamless sleep as the Vol Arion jammed their pursuers tracking signals. With a flash of green light, the Space Pirate frigate entered Slipstream space. Their short tenure in the Milky Way galaxy was over.

Only one thought was in Ridley's mind before he drifted into unconsciousness...

Die Hunter...die...



To be continued...







Next time, it's the grand finale. Need I say more?

Epilogue-Farewells
Date: 31 March 2003, 1:28 PM

The Chief sat on the back seat of the Pelican dropship as the Marines began attaching the Scorpion to the Pelican's 'tail'. The Marines were more than eager to get home now, but he knew this was most likely to be the hardest of the Haloes to destroy...due in part to the intervention of the Space Pirates.

After this, the other five should be easy.

But before he would leave, he needed to take care of one more thing...

He walked over to Samus' Gunship, and he let the gravity lift pull him in.

When he entered, he was surprised, needless to say...but somewhat thankful that his plan would be a tad less complicated now.

The Monitor was gazing at Samus, then Adam, and then he finally turned his head to the Chief. "Ah. Reclaimer."

Cortana scowled. "Why in the world are you calling the Chief 'Reclaimer'?"

"I am aware now that you are not the same one that I knew upon the last firing of Halo."

This threw the Master Chief for a loop. Cortana as well. "What are you talking about? Previous firing?"

"Many centuries ago, upon completion of Installations 01-07, we decided to test out their firing mechanisms. We had to enlist the help of a biological organism so that we in case something went wrong, we wouldn't be the ones to suffer the consequences."

"And how does that relate to us?"

"You see, I enlisted the help of a biological organism clad in Class 6-Armor, which looks remarkably similar to yours, despite the fact yours is not as advanced. A simple misunderstanding."

"But then what happened?" Cortana said this with a mocking tone, as if the Monitor were somehow inferior.

"The backlash generated by several civilizations was indeed very great. The Reclaimer fled, and I had presumed he died during the war that took place between the Forerunner and the other civilizations. I was quite surprised to see one of a familiar status, but I had no time for questions back then, which brings me to why I'm here. I need the Index, now hand it over."

Samus looked at the Chief, who nodded back. She then held her Arm Cannon right next to the Monitor as she said, "Why should we?"

The Chief tapped the side of his head, then Cortana sighed as she took on a tone of defeat.

"Fine then, if it'll keep you out of our hair once and for all, then take it. Chief?"

The Chief remained silent as he handed the Index over to the Monitor, who immediately took possession of it in a flash of energy.

"Now, to activate the Installation."

The Monitor teleported away, finally having the Index in his possession.

All was silent in the Gunship before Adam broke the silence. "You do realize that this will mean the end of your race, won't it Master Chief?"

Cortana then laughed harder than the Chief had ever heard her laugh before as she replied, "On the contrary Adam. Samus planted power bombs in each of the firing mechanisms around the Control Center. I simply...'rewired' a few things in the Control Center, so instead of firing its pulse lasers, the power bombs will explode and the reaction that follows will destroy Halo."

"Clever indeed."

The Chief nodded. The plan worked. Now they needed to leave before the Index could be reunited with the core.

Samus nodded as she looked at Adam, then back at the Chief. "You need to get back to your ship."

"What about you Samus?"

"Adam and I are going back. I think we have plenty of information for the Galactic Federation, wouldn't you agree Adam?"

Adam's green 'eye' blinked in approval.

"Well, I should say this is a farewell then," said the Chief.

Samus nodded as she slowly pulled off her helmet, revealing her head. Her blue eyes were sharp and keen, and her blonde hair was wrapped in a ponytail. Her face had an angular beauty to it. In a way, she reminded the Chief of his old teammate Kelly.

And she had some bruises and a small cut on her lip from Ridley's collision with her.

The Chief chose to be courteous as well.

He took off his helmet. His brown hair was ruffled and messy, and his blue eyes were a bit weary from lack of sleep. He also had some bruises on his face, and he had some cuts along his cheek.

He held his helmet in his left arm as he extended his right hand. "It's been a pleasure working with you Samus."

Samus held her helmet with her left hand before shaking the Chief's hand with her other. "The pleasure is mine."

The Chief had a small grin tugging at the edge of his lips for a split-second before he put his helmet back on. He entered the central tube, and slowly descended to below the ship.

Samus remained silent as she sat down in the cockpit chair. "Adam, lift off and prepare to activate the FTL engines.. We're heading home."

"Very well Lady."

The Gunship's stands retracted into the main body of the purple-colored ship, and it slowly lifted into the air as the three Pelicans prepared to lift off.

Samus let Adam drive the Gunship out of the atmosphere as she thought about their plan...she hoped it would work.

----

The Monitor appeared in a bright flash of orange light, right inside the Control Center.

"Now, to end the threat of the Flood in this part of the galaxy."

Despite the fact that protocols stated that he was not to insert the Index into the core, there was no one left to do so.

With a crackle of energy, the Monitor inserted the Index into the core. Green lights appeared in the room before the sound of a machine being shut down was heard, followed by blaring alarms.

"Hmm?" Now what?"

He then looked at three new readouts on the screen, indicating an anomaly in the pulse laser cores. Then, it finally dawned on the Monitor as the Index activated the firing mechanism.

"Clever."

----

Normally, the powerful pulse lasers would emit their wave of energy, which would eliminate all life within its reach.

But instead, the explosion of the power bombs sent the pulse lasers back into Halo.

Blue lights began illuminating the small inlets and intricate geometric figures on the surface of the ring-world, and all of Halo's outlines began to glow blue. In a way, it was like a large jumble of neon lights coming on.

Then, it burst into flames.

The ring-world exploded into a million fragments, annihilating any and all life forms on the surface. Fragments spread outward, colliding into the Covenant ships stationed in orbit above Halo.

Master Chief watched as the ring-world exploded. Two down, five to go.

"Look on the bright side Chief. At least you won't feel so lonely anymore."

The Chief nodded as he leaned back and watched the Covenant ships burst into flame.

As he watched, he thought about Samus.

"She's quite an interesting person...she doesn't take any nonsense, and she's ready and willing to leap into death's jaws. Reminds me of my Spartans."

He pushed the last thought out of his mind. He only wished...that his Spartans were still here.

"I miss you...my Spartans..."

And as their Squad Leader, he still felt that he was in someway responsible for their death...

But he would avenge them...but destroying the Covenant.

----

Samus laid back in her cryo-tube, sleeping soundly as Adam piloted the Gunship on a vector towards Galactic Federation HQ.

"Well Lady, I must say this was quite a trip, even if it was short."

Adam was quite surprised at the similarities between the Master Chief and Samus Aran. They were completely alike, except in the matter of gender and the complexity of each other's armor.

"I wonder what awaits us now... but first, one last thing to take care of."

Adam sent an erasure data packet to the Flawless Cowboy, right as he activated the FTL engines.

"Well, let's go home Lady."

Samus was never seen in the galaxy again.

----

The Flawless Cowboy moved silently through space, with thirty content Marines on board, one Spartan, and an AI...who was very angry.

"AGH!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE HE DID THAT!!!"

The Chief knew it was futile to calm Cortana, but he had to try. "Think about it Cortana-"

"That data packet of Adam's erased all information regarding Samus and anything else about his galaxy! That cheap b-"

"Calm down. I know the information you had would've proven useful for the humans, but what would happen if the Covenant got a hold of it?"

Cortana paused her tirade. Then she sighed.

"You're right."

"There."

"So Chief, what are you going to do now?"

The Chief looked at Cortana's hologram as he replied, "Drop these Marines off on the nearest colony, spend some time in a healing tank, then head for the next Halo."

"You never relax, do you?"

"Not until my mission is complete."

"...do you think we've seen the last of the Monitor?"

"I doubt it. I think he'll be waiting for us on the next ring-world."

Suddenly, the screens and monitors blared wildly as a Priority Alpha transmission came through.

Cortana's symbols that floated over her body halted as she froze. "Oh no...no, this can't be...they've...they've found it..."

"Found what?"

The transmission packet appeared on Master Chief's HUD.


United Nations Space Command ALPHA PRIORITY
TRANSMISSION 05429J-97
Encryption Code: Red
Public Key: file /home-alpha-one/
From: Admiral Roland Freemont, Commanding Fleet Officer, FLEETCOM Sector One Commander/ (UNSC Service Number: 00745-16778-HS)
To: ALL UNSC warships in ALL Human-controlled systems and space vectors
Subject: IMMEDIATE RECALL
Classification: Classified (BGX Directive)

/start file/
Covenant armada en route to Earth. Ships detected at edge of the Sol System, vector Luna-Mars.
ALL, and I mean ALL UNSC warships are ordered to drop what you're doing and regroup at rally point EARTH at best speed.
ALL SHIPS are to immediately disregard the Cole Protocol. They know where Earth is, so disregard it...for now.
Now get back to Earth, ASAP.
/end file/

The Chief fell mute. He couldn't find anything to say.

"Chief...?"

"Well that settles it. You heard what Admiral Freemont's orders are. Get to Earth now."

"Shall I tell the Marines below deck?"

"Might as well."

The Chief sighed as he looked back once more at the destruction of Halo. Many Covenant were destroyed, the Flood were now becoming more of a bad memory to him, and the Space Pirates were long gone.

But now, the Covenant had struck back already. They had found the home planet of all mankind...Earth.

"Well Samus, I only hope you're having a more relaxing time than I am."

He leaned back into his chair as the Flawless Cowboy entered Shaw-Fujikawa space (Slipstream), and in a flash of green light, the Master Chief was off to save the human race from extinction.





The End


Well? What do you think?

And no, this is indeed not the end to the Bane of the Universe...I intend to do a sequel, where the Chief makes a trip to Samus' leg of the universe.

But before that, I wanna give my brain a break with a one-chapter story based on the Marines that fell trying to give the Chief some time to find Halo's Control Room during the Silent Cartographer.

Then after THAT, I want to do a DIFFERENT crossover...this time, a cross of Halo and Mobile Fighter G Gundam!

Then Bane of the Universe-the Sequel, will appear.

And that's it for now.

LET'S GET THINGS STARTED!

Gundam fight all set! Ready...GO!!!

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