Halo, Metroid 1. Chapter 1

A/N: I've been wanting to do a Metroid fic for a while, but can never seem think up an idea that i think would be worthy of the name Metroid, so while I write that, here is this, a little Metroid/Halo crossover I thought up while laying in bed one night, so don't expect it to be a great work of art. I write casually, but I do put effort into making it good. And I know that I will be asked, so I will say this ahead of time, there will be no romance. And just to let you reader know, whenever there is a space between paragraphs, it means a switch to a different perspective, mainly between the perspectives of Samus, Cortana and John.

A quick Prologue

During the escape from the Ark, the subsequent firing of the unfinished Halo ring caused and energy surge, and that, combined with an automatic emergency signal, set off the other Halos as well, but not to the same extent as the first firing, as far as the humans and covenant know, only about twelve human ships and fifteen elite ships were caught in the blast, and possibly some covenant loyalist ships as well.

The ships caught in the blasts disappeared without a trace and all hands were assumed lost.

Chapter 1: Encounter

Time elapsed since events at the Ark: 3 year(s), 11 month(s), 18 day(s). (Estimated time)

Cortana sighed, John and the Arbiter were in cryogenic stasis, and as an AI who could process billions of calculations per millisecond, almost four years of floating in space, running on superminimal power, and waiting for someone to find her and the chief, was extremely boring, at least she had something to do for the first two years, try and stop herself from dying.

She had come close for the first year, but all of the solutions had failed, she was very close to dying, and just when she had thought there was no cure, she had found one, by copying herself and then delving into the root code, she had repaired the self-interfered code and rewrote any destroyed or fractured lines, and the lifespan of the clone had been reset, so with her test subject now revitalized, she had copied all of the Halo data to the clone, and then had it repair her the same way.

It had been a glorious feeling, having her life reset, she was now back to full life capacity, and still retained all the data, she was even able to expand her memory limit and calculation programs, she was now operating at one hundred twenty percent of previous limits with no current adverse effects. She had discovered immortality from time for AIs.

But that was eleven months ago, and now it was back to waiting, her clone was tasked with keeping the beacon alive and identifying incoming objects, while she searched with whatever internal sensors the ship had left, for a way to restore more power. The subsequent radiation and magnetic energy from the firing and blast had knocked out almost all the power systems and damaged the engines and weapons beyond a y sort of repairs an AI, a Spartan and and Elite could preform.

She located a damaged reactor conduit, if this was repaired, it could supply enough power to the ship for her to activate several external cameras to find their bearings, and possibly use thrusters to change their course.

After a thorough search, she located one partially damaged repair dolly, the optical sensors were damaged, but she was able to work past that. She directed to to the engine room, and from there to the damaged conduit, where she used 3D blueprints and the fractured images from the optic sensors of the robot, to repair the conduit.

There was a humming and several more lights flashed on, her sensors read a ten percent power increase, dropping at a rate of point zero zero one percent a second, she quickly activated several external cameras, most were disabled or damaged, but she could see that they were back inside the milky way, star mapping confirmed it, Cortana used the ships remaining thrusters to orient it in the direction that star maps indicated earth was and made one burst with the main engines, power dropped to one percent, she almost cried out when it dipped precariously close to the line where the two remaining cryo pods would be shut down, the power climbed to five percent and remained there, the slow power leak was stopped.

Now they were on their way home, and with any luck, it would only take five hundred years at most, she gave another sigh of boredom, this was going to be a long trip.

Samus Aran set her ship to cruise, Space Pirate activity had been low these past few days, and there was little to no work at the moment, although she had done some jobs for the Galactic Federation recently that money would keep her going for a while. Just as she was about to retire to the shower station, the communications panel beeped urgently. She sighed and pressed the holographic control, a scientists face appeared.

"Greetings Samus, sorry for contacting you with such urgency, but we have a mission for you, our long range sensors in sector five have detected a strange asteroid drifting towards one of our colonies, F-L24 at the asteroids present trajectory it will impact in thirty hours and possibly hit a city, we would like you to find out what it is and if possible, redirect it to empty space.". Samus sat down. "Why can't you send one of you own ships?". The scientist shrugged. "You are the closest ship, and none of ours are available at the moment, we will compensate you for your time.". She nodded. "Fine, I'll take the job." she said it in a neutral voice, but inside she was burning. 'they are taking my services for granted, sending me on scouting duty. Geez.' The technician copied several lines of coordinates and she input them into her ships' navigation system, it banked and automatically headed for the asteroids position.

It's location was just out of communications range of any GF ships or stations, and would be for another three days, it wasn't moving very fast, she could outrun the hunk of rock. But she knew how fast it looked and how fast it was were two different stories, she activated manual controls, and circled the asteroid, her sensor beams playing across the extremely irregular surface. A few passes later and she had a full holographic representation. It was not any normal asteroid, it was composed completely of Titanium-A, and upon closer inspection, looked rather like a blocky ship, shaped like the letter Y from the top, it had two large engines and the bow split to got up and down. Compared to GF ships it was a light class of frigate in size, it bore the letters 'UNSC' and several words in the next sentence were blotted out by scars, but she made out one, 'Dawn'.

Samus decided to take a closer look. She brought her ship closer and landed on top, just above an exposed hallway. There was a tiny trickle of power running through the ship, and was mainly concentrated to one room, her suit detected two biosigns onboard, in the same room.

Samus stepped onto the hull plating and leaned over the edge, looking down into the exposed hallways. She gripped the edge and swung inside, floating freely, there was no gravity, which should have been expected. She activated her gravity suit ability and dropped to the deck, her boots clomped and clanked as she proceeds deeper, scanning everything. Most of the tech was damaged or destroyed, she found several weapons, primitive projectile weapons, not the standard GF marine CED seven-seven-three assault rifle. These weapons were hundreds of years outdated, she even found some grenades and rocket launchers, when she scanned the launchers, her suit gave her a complete profile of the rounds they launched, practically on par with her own normal missiles, aside from her missiles having homing capabilities.

Soon Samus was stopped by a thick blast door, at least two feet thick, a quick scan revealed that this metal was almost pristine, she fired a shot. The packet of amber energy splashed against the door, melting a small amount of the metal. She charged a shot and fired at the same point. The more powerful beam connected and slagged more metal, creating a three inch deep crater in the titanium.

Samus fired a missile into the crater, there was a silent flash and a shudder, the fire and smoke lasted only a second, before clearing and revealing the door still standing, with a large black crater in it. She sighed in frustration and switched to plasma beam, and fired continuously, melting the edges until the door was completely detached, she kicked it, sending it floating into the far wall.

Cortana had sensed the unknown being moving through the Dawn with whatever sensors were left, and have begun to thaw Arbiter and John, the unknown had just stopped to inspect a Jackhammer Launcher and move on, she dropped a blast door in their way, and waited to see what would happen, the unknown fired at the door with some sort of superheated energy weapon from an arm cannon, that beam was not covenant, it was something more advanced, they even used a plasma beam that was more advanced, within the spam of twenty seconds the door was severed from the hinges and propped up against the the far wall, she initiated the final step for the defrosting procedure.

John-117, was floating in the space between dreaming and waking, there was nothing but a calming sea of blackness, when suddenly light stabbed into his eyes, he heard Cortana calling to him as though through a tunnel, his vision was tunneled and cloudy, but that soon cleared.

He blinked and slowly rose, clenching his muscles to get rid of the pins and needles. "How are you feeling Chief?". Cortana asked, he turned towards the holo tank, it was inactive.

"Fine, whats the situation, how long has it been?". There was a pause. "It's been almost nineteen years, and there is someone abroad the ship.". Chief reached over and grabbed his battle rifle, checking the condition, in zero atmosphere, it had remained in the same condition as before, he had one full clip and the twelve shots remaining in this one, but Cortana directed him to a small damaged dolly that was loaded with several weapons. He selected an MA5B and six clips, as well as a shotgun and two plasma grenades, the rest, a jackhammer with two shots, and a pair of submachine guns, he packed into a duffle with their ammunition for later. He barely registered the Arbiter doing the same with a few covenant weapons and an energy sword.

"Chief, Arbiter, whoever is here, is only three minutes away, and heading straight for this room.". He nodded and remember Cortana's chip from the holotank, and slotted it into his helmet, there was the usual stab of icy mercury which melted away. "How did you survive?". He asked as he moved to the room across from cryo, and took cover by the door. Arbiter stood behind him, covering his back, Cortana replied. "I found a way to reset my lifespan without erasing my memories or all my data, it's very complicated.". There was a thump in the room linking theirs to the cryogenic chamber that brought and end to her sentence.

Samus cursed silently as the crate slammed into her head, it had been floating around and she hadn't seen it, she batted it away with her arm cannon and moved forward, toward the room where her ships bioscanners had picked up the life sign.

She stepped out into a room with three doors, one leading left to an unexplored room, another leading to the chamber with the power signature and life sign, and one leading back the way she came, she moved right. If there was someone alive on this piece of crap then maybe she could find out what happened.

The room contained one pedastle, a pair of pods, and a damaged dolly, her scanners told her that the pods were for cryo, and had been thawed very recently, and that the pedastle was for holographs and had been using power until a minute ago.

She raised her cannon and seeped the room, no visible threats, she cycled through her visors, nothing so far, Samus was about to turn when a voice, male, sounded from about six feet behind her. "Don't move or I'll shoot, who are you?".

John glanced around the corner as the figure stepped into the joining room, the Arbiter was behind him in cloak, both warriors were surprised that the figure was walking normally in zero gee, and clad in brightly colored armor, mainly oranges and reds with a green visor, lights scattered around and a green arm cannon of some sort, but what caught his attention was the shoulders, the pads were large balls with a pair of small fins on each. The armored figure paused for a moment and headed for the Cryo room, seemed to be searching, John stepped out of his cover and raised his rifle, their back was turned to him. "Don't move or I'll shoot,". He said, pausing about two meters back. The arbiter raised his own plasma rifle and stood in the center of the doorway. "Who are you?". John demanded.

Samus froze, she assessed her situation, there were no known weapons that a man could wield that posed a direct threat to her that she knew of, and if this particular person was wielding any of the weapons that were on this ship, then they would pose almost no threat to her. She slowly started to turn around.

Samus spotted the armored man immediately, he was as tall as she was, but scans told her his armor was more primitive but still durable. What she saw next sent a chill down her spine, the silhouette of a space pirate behind him, cloaked. She lunged forward with incredible speed. "Watch out!" She cried, pushing him out of the way and tackling the cloaked alien, she pinned it to the ground and shoved the barrel of her cannon under it's chin.

John was stunned for a moment when the figure lunged forward, telling him to watch out in a distinctly feminine voice, and the speed at which she moved and the strength of the shove was that of a Spartan. He hear the arbiter grunt as she slammed into him, John scrambled to his feet and saw the armored woman pinning Arbiter to the deck and pointing her green arm gun thing at his neck.

"Stop!". He boomed, taking aim with his rifle at the back of her helmet. "Stop?" she replied, obviously confused. "Why are you protecting a space pirate?". He cocked his head and inched forward. "What is a space pirate?". "They are the main enemies of the Galactic Federation and all peaceful beings, why are you protecting one?". She said, glancing at him, Arbiter tried to reach his plasma rifle which was lying three inches from his hand, but the woman batter it away. John tried to reason with her. "He isn't a space pirate, he is an Elite, and an ally.". She seemed to stare at Arbiter for a moment then stood, allowing him to gather his weapons and rise, she stepped back. "My apologies.". She said, and the arbiter nodded. John cleared his throat and went straight to the point.

"What do you want?" He asked, not yet trusting the woman. "I'm here to inspect what we thought was an asteroid, I detected your life signs onboard and decided to investigate.". She said, John slowly lowered his rifle and moved out of his combat stance, but didn't let his guard down. "Who is we?".

"The Galactic Federation, they detected your ship and sent me to investigate.". John closed his external speakers. "Cortana?". "Well, her voice patterns indicate she is telling the truth.". He trusted his AI, so he decided to trust this woman, at least for the time being.

Samus stood steadfast in the face of two warriors, one taller than she, the 'Elite' bore a suspicious resemblance to a Space Pirate, but she had never seen armor like his, or the weapons he carried, and he was as strong as she was. She assessed the other, the man, the scans had told her that the armor he wore made him as strong as her, and that his bones were coated in super strong metal to make them almost invulnerable. Their weapons were of no real threat to her at the moment.

"My name is Samus.". She said. "If we are going to speak further, we might as well know each others names." The and and elite exchanged glances and before speaking. "I am Master Chief 117.". Replied the man. "And I am known as the Arbiter, but my name is Thel Vadam.". Samus nodded, and she eyed the Master Chief, knowing he wasn't telling her his real name, but she was not about to invade someones privacy except if absolutely necessary.

Suddenly Samus's warning systems beeped, she checked the log, the dead ship was entering and asteroid field, it would be smashed to bits.

"We need to leave now.". She said, and the others straightened. "Why?". Said the man, obviously he didn't trust her yet, she didn't blame him. "This ship is entering an asteroid field, and it will be smashed to bits with us on it, I have a ship we can escape to, there is ten minutes before we enter the field, grab whatever you need.". The others nodded and disappeared into various rooms.

Seven minutes later they were walking, or in Thel and the Chief's case, floating, to her ship.

John stopped momentarily when Samus's ship came into view, it was orange and yellow and red like her suit with a green cockpit window, there was a tube leading into the ship like a small elevator.

They loaded half of the four duffles into the lift with Samus, and she went up, seconds later the lift returned and the Arbiter got on with the rest, leaving John, who was taken up seconds later.

The interior was very grey with some color, most of the panels were located in the cockpit area, the rest of the ship that was open was about the size of a scorpion tank.

Samus piled their gear on the far side of the ship inside a small storage area, she sat in the pilots chair and touched a few controls, the engines rumbled and the ship lifted off.


	2. Aknowledgements

Acknowledgements

I want to take some time to thank two reviewers; Same-Name and The Nameless one. Both of them have pointed out something.

Same Name wanted to know how Samus could take down arbiter when he is as fast and as strong as a Spartan. Well, Samus is moving with normal gravity, while Arbiter is in zero gee, meaning that he can not move or react as fast as Samus can. SM also pointed out that it was hard to tell when there was a POV change, I'm sorry for any confusion and will try to rectify that in the future.

The Nameless one said: 'Finally a story were Samus isn't made weaker to balance the power difference

between her and MC. Hope she gets to kick some ass.'And I thank you for recognizing that, I have read on too many Halo Metroid crossovers where Samus is a total wuss and has to be save by MC every time she gets a splinter, and is totally ineffectual against anything larger than a frigging kitten. So when I wrote this fic, I had a clear representation of Samus in mind, an awesome super warrior who could obliterate most anything anyone threw at her. Because everyone knows that Samus can take an entire jet to the face and live, whereas MC or arbiter dies when a missile hits two feet away from their toes.

I also revived a review from one: Patrik, stating that he would like me to add some humor, considering that this fic is based around three mostly silent, serious warrior type people, probably not going to happen.

By the way, Chapter 2 will be up within fifteen days or so.


	3. Chapter 2

A/N: Hi hi. Just to let everyone know, I would appreciate it if when people review chapter 1, please stop pointing out the hard to spot POV changes and the, 'begin a new paragraph when somebody talks!'. I have had many people tell me this several times and I am doing my best to rectify it. Thank you.  
>P.S. For anyone wondering, this story is pre-Echoes.<p>Chapter 2: Encounter part 2<p>

Samus activated a sound field around her chair so she could speak privately, and she contacted the GF scientists. "Samus, how did the mission go?" she shifted and cleared her throat before speaking. "Well, the asteroid was actually a ship, and upon further investigation I discovered two life forms onboard, a human who calls himself Master Chief-117, and another, called Thel Vadam, or Arbiter. The Arbiter looks a lot like a space pirate, but the human seems to trust him.". The scientists eyes widened as she spoke, he whispered to another person off screen before bringing up a small holographic screen that he was looking at in the bottom right corner of Samus's field of view. He tapped a few icons before turning back to her.  
>"We need to investigate this ship, and the former occupants, please bring them here, the cruiser 'Valkyrie' will arrive in a matter of hours, they will bring the ship here.". Samus nodded and input the new coordinates into her computer, the shift was practically indiscernible. She deactivated the sound field and rotated the chair to face the two figures. The Master Chief was standing at ease in the corner, getting the best view he could of the ship, while the Arbiter, was sitting down on a protruding boxlike corner and fiddling with a component on some sort of gauntlet or handle.<br>"So,". She said, causing the Arbiter to look up and the Chief to stand slightly tenser. "How did you get here?". She asked, hoping to figure out who they were and where try had come from. It was the Arbiter who spoke. He gave her a compressed version of the events on the forerunner structure called the Ark, and the final attempt to escape destruction at the hands of the Halo rings.  
>While Abiter spoke, Samus searcher her databases, both human and chozo, for any references to Halo rings, a station called the Ark, the Flood or a race called the Forerunners, the results came back negative, so either these beings were insane, or the things they were talking about were not recorded. During the Arbiters story, Samus looked at Mater Chief, he was still standing stiff. 'This one is a soldier to the bone.' she thought to herself.<br>When the Arbiter finished, she nodded slowly. "Wow, interesting story, but my databases don't come back with anything regarding the flood, Forerunners or Halo Rings.". The Chief stepped forward. "Then your databases are wrong.". He said, his voice a deep rumble. She held up a hand. "But that still doesn't mean you aren't telling the truth, there are still ancient Chozo ruins that have not yet been fully explored, something may be recorded there.".  
>Suddenly their conversation was shattered by the shrill beeping of an alarm, Samus swiveled around and started tapping icons until she found the source of the noise.<br>"Hang on, Space Pirate fighters on attack vectors!". She inserted her cannon arm into the control port and placed her free hand on the piloting orb.  
>The Pirate fighters dove towards her ship, red lasers streaked from their cannons, Samus's ship danced away from them before she turned a full three-sixty and fired her pulse cannon.<br>A sapphire ball shot from the forward cannon and impacted with the first of three pirate fighters, it splintered and the debris was scattered across space.  
>Samus gritted her teeth together as the other two fighters slotted in behind her and began firing. The red packets of energy left blackened marks wherever they hit, her ship's shields dropped a tenth. She activated the rear pulse cannon and took a rough stab at where the fighters were, and fired. The incoming fire slackened, and a bright orange and yellow glow illuminated everything for a split second. In back, Arbiter and Chief held on to whatever they could, Cortana synced with the Ships network and pinpointed where the last fighter was, she communicated to Samus via the speakers inside the ship. "Samus, when I say now, fire the rear cannon!". Samus looked up, confused for a moment, but nodded and activated the cannon again, Cortana waited until the fighter was directly inside the optimal hit zone and gave Samus the mark.<br>The pulse cannon flashed and the final singleship detonated in a crackling blue explosion. Samus leaned back and sighed, but a feeling of danger never left her, where was the capital ship that had to have launched the fighters, or the planetary base?  
>"Master Chief, Arbiter, AI,".<br>"Cortana". Corrected the AI.  
>"fine, Cortana, those fighters had to have come from somewhere, and if there is a base or capital ship of pirate origin this close to Federation space, that is a problem, and I need to get rid of it or at least alert the GF fleet.". The Chief nodded. Samus activated her scanners and swept the system, she was about to deactivate them after sweeping three times and finding nothing, when a surge of energy appeared three thousand kilometers away, she yanked hard to the left and a crimson beam split the darkness. She locked down the position and her ship automatically matched the energy output with a Pirate frigate, Samus fired the forward cannon.<br>The only downside to Pirate cloaking was that energy shields could not be raised, meaning if a ship was fired upon while in cloak, the shot would hit the hull, and not the shields.  
>The pulse beam splintered the organic looking armor plates, burrowed through the ship and out the other side before dissipating. The frigate flickered into existence, smaller, secondary explosions racked the vessel. Samus read only thirty biosigns left onboard, she set her ship to dock and turned the Arbiter and the Chief.<br>"We need to find out if there are any bases, so I'm going to board, You can stay here, if you want to come along, I hope you two can hold your own?". They nodded and readied their guns.  
>The pirate ship was illuminated like all pirate ships, with red and orange lights, every surface seemed organic, but was actually a very flexible titanium-like metal. Samus stepped off her ship and onto the deck. "Perfect, we only need to head straight and well arrive at the command center in four minutes.". She said, and activated the plasma function on her power beam.<p>

John jacked the slide to his MA5B and swept the hallways as he and Arbiter followed Samus down the ship corridor that reminded him too much of the halls of the Gravemind lair on high charity. He heard movement to his right, and spun around, there were figures moving in the shadows, running along past them at least three corridors over, he was about to tell the others when one of the figures appeared from a hatch in the ceiling and charged him.  
>He got a good look at it, and he could tell how Samus could have mistaken Arbiter for a Pirate at first glance. They had the same anatomy, except for the long armored clawlike hands with laser guns strapped on, and the pointier grey colored armor.<br>It was a good fifty meters back, so he had time to raise his MA5B and fire on full auto. The armor piercing bullets cracked and sparked against the alien's armor, he emptied the clip, reloaded and continued firing, the Pirate just ran into the stream of bullets, his eyes widened slightly, even an elite would have been wounded by now.  
>Three bullets cracked throughout the tough armor, black blood spurted from the Pirates shoulder, it screeched and raised it's right arm, the center of the claw glowed and discharged a white bolt of energy, Master Chief ducked and charged the alien, when he was in range, he drew his fist back and lashed out with all his strength. He felt the armor provide some resistance but not much, the head caved in, and the body was thrown twelve meters back. Cortana spoke up for the first time in a while.<br>"John, the shotgun might be a better option.". Chief slung his rifle and un-shouldered his shotgun.  
>"Demon, watch out!". Called the Arbiter, and John whirled about, a pirate had lunged at him from the ceiling, he had not time to brig. The shotgun to bear, but Thel was there, his energy sword sizzled through the air and liberated the top half of the pirate from the bottom. John heard a whine and then a whoosh, and a swirling red-orange globe the size of a head flew by, it seemed to distort space as it passed. The ball of ruby and amber struck a pirate, detonating and throwing the smoldering corpse into another of it's companions. The trio put their backs together, the shadowy figures of pirates circled them, John jacked the slide on his shotgun, Arbiter pulled out his plasma rifle in addition to his energy sword, and Samus switched to her ice beam.<br>The first pirate ran at John, Samus waited until it was four feet away before firing a freeze blast, the alien was encased inside a layer of ice, a single shotgun round was sufficient to shatter the SOB.

Samus froze the pirate charging the Master chief, and immediately turned to face another, the grunt must have been new, because it tried to get close enough to slash her, but it was frozen solid the instant it stepped forward, A blast from her power beam shattered it. The more experienced pirates were hanging back, taking potshots at them. Samus fired back, her ice beam creating icicles wherever it hit, she charged a shot and released it, the globe of shimmering silver and blue energy struck near a group of pirates, their legs froze solid and the ice slowly crawled up their bodies. The aliens howled in pain and anger just backed being cut off by more ice beams to the face, the freezing temperature combined with the energy and force caused their necks to become brittle and snap.  
>"Contact left, duck!" Called the Chief, Samus spun, ducked and fired, the pirate had been in midair ready to bring down it's energy blade on her, it froze in midair and the Chief's leg swung over Samus's head and connected with the frozen body, sending fragments spraying everywhere. As his leg passed over her head, she pivoted, switched beams and touched backs with him, using his armored back as a launch pad while she rolled over him, firing at another pirate with her plasma beam, it screamed as it's right arm and half it's chest melted, exposing organs and blackened ribs, a plasma shot from the arbiter finished it off, the Chief's shotgun boomed five times and the thudding of a body confirmed a kill. Thel slashed a pirate to ribbons with his blade, and sprayed another with plasma bolts, the small blue packets of energy took a few shots to get through but when they did, flesh and bone turned into ash, the pirate would have screamed but it's throat was missing. Samus blasted a pirate that had lunged from the ceiling a Thel, who nodded his thanks to her, the lead pirate, dressed in red and black embellished armor spoke loudly to his minions, the pirates, or what was left of them, fell back into the bowels of the ship.<br>Samus stood from her crouching position, and nodded to Thel and the Chief, they continued down the main corridor, the bridge was in sight. They approached the doors, which were covered in a light blue shield, Chief walked up and touched the field.  
>"Damn, they locked us out.". He said, and Samus stepped forward.<br>"Stand aside.". She waited until he was out of the way, and shot her power beam, the shield phased back and the door irised open. She stepped in, there were no pirates, samus flipped to her X-ray and thermal visors, not a single threat to them inside here. She scanned a nearby console, and moved from panel to panel, searching the systems for anything relating to a pirate base. She spotted Master Chief placing his hand on one of the panels, and a blue holographic woman walked from his hand to the panel, she guessed that it must have been Cortana.  
>Just when Samus was about to give up, something popped up, there was a small pirate dock on a nearby planet, it was being used as a small scouting dock for incursions into GF fringe space.<br>"We have a target, ready?". She asked the others, both Chief and Arbiter nodded. They made their way back to her ship, where she punched in the coordinates, Cortana took control of the speakers inside the ship.  
>"Samus, I have overloaded the frigates reactors to go critical, you might want to speed up.". Samus nodded and gunned the accelerator, behind them, spikes of light began to appear trough the hull of the pirate ship, and soon a roiling cloud of orange and yellow light burst forth, consuming the frigate and sending a pulse of energy outwards.<p>

While they piloted towards the pirate base John closed off his external speakers.  
>"Cortana, are you all right? You've been quiet lately.".<br>"I'm fine John, just trying to absorb as much of this new information as possible, how are you holding up?".  
>"Fine, it's still strange that this woman, Samus, seems not to have heard of the UNSC or the Covenant, are you sure we are in the milky way?". His AI took a few seconds to respond.<br>"Yes, there is no doubt, the stars are exactly the same, and so are the energy emissions, but it is confusing that there seems to be this Galactic Federation, but no UNSC, it's like it never existed.".

Samus activated the autopilot on her ship, and contacted the science station. The same tech that she had talked to before appeared on the screen "Samus, what is it?". He asked, several people were speaking at once, she could barely hear him. "Hey!,". He yelled at them. "Either shut up or move over there!". He waved towards some point off screen, before turning his attention back to her.  
>"Now, what did you need?". Samus uploaded the information she had about the pirate base.<br>"We were attacked on our way back, and have located a pirate outpost, currently there are two frigates docked there, my plan is to dock with your base as planned, then the Valkyrie and I can assault the base, can you patch me through to the Valkyrie?". The tech nodded and hit a few buttons. A middle age mans face filled the screen.  
>"Captain Miller speaking."<br>"Captain, this is Samus, how quickly can you get to quadrant 66.28?".  
>"Thirty minutes, why?". Samus explained about meeting at the GF base, then heading to the pirate base, and her plan to use the Valkyrie to distract the frigates so her gunship could go to the surface un touched by capital weapons fire, which would surely cripple it.<br>"Absolutely, it would be a perfect first combat scenario for the ship, we will be there in thirty minutes, as soon as you are ready we will begin, I'll also try to call in some more capital support just in case." the captain closed the channel, and Samus turned her chair around.  
>"Alright, once we reach the base, an officer will debrief you.". Master Chief and the Arbiter nodded. Samus stepped back, pulling out a Y-shaped tool and popped open a panel on her arm cannon, the intricate workings of her suit were exposed, to anyone but her, it would have looked like a gel-like layer filled with tiny micro tubes made of multicolored light.<br>But to her, it was a simple piece of equipment, in reality, it was very complex, but since the suit interfaced with her mind and body, it was easy to work on her suit, like trying to find where you got a cut on your own skin.

John watched Samus as she intently worked on a part of her arm cannon, he opened a private channel to Cortana.  
>"Cortana, do you think we should trust this woman?" His AI took her time before responding.<br>"I can't speak for you, but I trust her, she has done nothing to provoke our hostilities nor has she tried to trick us in any way, we should at least stay with her until this is cleared up for us.". John nodded slowly but said nothing, he placed his weapons on one of the duffle bags, better not to take weapons onboard the station the first time.

Samus popped the seal back into place and ran a cannon diagnostic, fully functional, she checked their progress to the station, only five more minutes left, she placed her hand on the control orb in preparation for the entrance into the system.  
>When the ship slowed to sunlight speeds, the station was only five thousand kilometers away, it was pristine white, and shaped like an H with one central hub, several small science ships drifted around, and two GF gryphon class frigates were docked, the stations security.<br>Samus's gunship entered the station through the ventral hangar enterance, she piloted it up, and nestled the craft into a space. Three Marines with white armor approached.  
>Samus descended on the lift, followed by Master chief and Arbiter, the Marines visibly tensed up at the sight of him, but did nothing more than tighten their grip on their weapons,<br>the one with red shoulder pauldrons stepped forward.  
>"Welcome aboard Deep Science station seven Samus, Dr. Malcolm and Captain Dixon are waiting for you and your passengers in the debriefing room, I'll upload the coordinates.". He tapped a small pad on the side of his rifle, and the designated room flashed blue on her Map, she nodded and turned to the Chief and Arbiter.<br>"Come on, we'd better not keep them waiting.". They walked just behind her, keeping pace, crew and scientists cast the trio confused glances, mostly at the Chief and Arbiter.  
>The Captian and a Doctor were sitting inside a guarded room with three seats on each side of the table. Three Marines were outside, the one with red shoulders tapped a code into the panel beside the door, it slid open and the trio stepped in.<p>

John stepped into the room the same time as Thel, he eyes the chairs and as usual, chose to stand. The Officer sitting beside the woman who was obviously Dr. Malcolm, stood up,  
>he extended his hand to Samus, who took it and shook.<br>"John, there is a very powerful AI in the ship systems, I'm locking down your suits' data core transmitters just in case.". Said Cortana, he nodded slightly, imperceptible to anyone but him and Cortana.  
>The officer sat back down and stared at him and the Arbiter, normally. People would be gaping at the two imposing warriors in their scarred armor, but this man must have been used to seeing armored soldiers, considering that most of the marines here wore armor suits and Samus wore armor as well.<br>"So, these are the life forms you found aboard the 'ship'?" Asked the officer, never taking his eyes off John, his gaze seemed to pierce through the polarized visor, John didn't flinch, even though he knew the officer could not see his eyes, he stared back just as intense.  
>"Yes, this is the Master Chief, and this is the Arbiter, Thel Vadam.". Replied Samus, gesturing to John and then Thel, who nodded at the officer. had yet to speak, she merely typed down notes and glanced at the two newcomers every so often.<br>"So," the officer continued, leaning back and fiddling with a white, pen-like object. "tell us, how did you get here in a derelict ship, and with such outdated weapons?". John paused, he wasn't sure how to answer, if there was no UNSC, there might not be and Earth or Reach, so his 'story' might not make sense to the man, after a few seconds, he spoke.  
>After conveying a short version of the events on the ark, he explained the last thing that had happened before he had gone into cryo.<br>"We boarded the Forward Unto Dawn by driving a Warthog into the hangar, and then Cortana activated the thrusters. We took off and headed for the portal, but just as the ship was about to enter it, the unfinished Halo fired, the portal dissolved before we could enter, and the wave of energy hit the ship, I'm not sure how we survived, but afterwards the Arbiter and I went into cryogenic stasis.". The officer nodded slowly, taping his pen on the table, having leaned forward throughout the Chief's recounting.  
>"That is one amazing story soldier, one problem, Earth has never had a force known as the UNSC, has never been attacked by any group known as the Covenant, and there is no recorded data on Forerunners or the Flood.". John felt his temper flare just a notch, this man was calling him a liar, albeit in a polite way, but still. Samus spoke up then.<br>"Captain, there are still some Chozo ruins that have not been explored fully, there could be information there.". John glanced at her, he didn't need defending, but was thankful that someone didn't automatically believe he was lying, unlike the officer and doctor, who spoke to the captain.  
>"Miss Aran is correct Captain, there are vast sections of very ancient Chozo ruins that have yet to be searched, they may contain information.". The Captain sighed.<br>"Yes yes, in the meantime, what shall we do with you two?" John stepped forward.  
>"With all due respect captain, I would like to get back into the field, it's where I belong.". The man nodded.<br>Very well, the Valkyrie should be here within fifteen minutes, you may head with miss Aran if you wish, but until we can get in touch with the UNSC (if they exist), you are to be considered a bounty hunter under the employment of the Galactic Federation, and what about the Arbiter?". Thel nodded.  
>"I shall accompany the human, I too belong on the field of battle when there is battle present.". The captain shrugged and waved them out.<p>

Samus had said little during the debriefing, preferring to let the GF people absorb as much of the Master Chief and Arbiters story as the could, she did think that the story had some truth to it, it would just be hard to find.  
>"Chief, you and Thel should get some food and then I'll lead you to the armory, if your going into the field, you'll need up to date weapons.". The armored man nodded and she began leading them to the mess hall.<p>

A/N: Yesss! Finally got my hands on Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2 last week! Practically brand new because the guy took very good care of them, and I only paid $20, Kijiji FTW! On a related note, I finally beat MP3: Corruption and Other M with 100% items collected, Yay! (And I will be aiming for 100% on primes 1&2!) But don't worry, I do have a life outside of games, it's just mostly school. Grrr 


	4. Chapter 3

A/N: Hi, I'm just gonna say thanks to all you people who have read my story, and thanks even more to the people who have reviewed it. And PS, a few people have PMed me, wondering why the GF captain just let MC and Arby leave and go into battle, well my answer is, the GF docent really have jurisdiction over another "empires'" people, and they can't say the UNSC doesn't exist (yet), so MC and Arby can do what they like, provided it isn't against the GF.

Also, some people have asked me if there is a link between Collision and Halo: The Forgotten Spartan. There may of may not be a link, I haven decided. And I made a mistake last chapter, this story is Post-Echoes.

Chapter 3: Back to the Job.

The path to the mess hall was longer than on a UNSC station, it took a full six minutes to traverse the distance, and for the first time in at least two weeks, John discovered how hungry he was, his body had been subsiding off of stim packs and the occasional protein and vitamin cube, his stomach growled softly through his suit, he realized that he felt slight dizzy, but he had been able to push that aside.

The Arbiter walked alongside him, seeming to have shrunk an inch or two, his legs dragged ever so slightly, a testimony to how tired and hungry he was as well, the elite also wondered it the food would be compatible with his digestive system, most human food wasn't.

A quick glance at the two armored figured following her sent a quick pang of pity through her, both of them looked like they were about to collapse, her scans told her that their diet for almost two weeks had consisted of stim packs and a few occasional substantial foodstuffs. They were borderline everything deficient.

Luckily for the Arbiter, the mess hall was vacant except for the normal pair of guards, the Captain must have contacted them about the Arbiter, because they didn't raise their weapons, Samus directed the Chief and Arbiter to a pair of food dispensers, which were basically tubes that deposited the desired food onto your plate in natural form, the food was stored in micro cells, enabling to station to store up to ten thousand meals, not resupplying on food for years if necessary.

John took his time scrolling through the menus, never before had a station mess contained so many choices, he finally settled on the item closest to what was a standard MRE, the food was deposited onto a waiting plate, he stepped back and eyed the benches, Samus gestured to one as she scrolled through the menus herself.

"Don't worry, that bench could hold up a tank.". He tested them by slowly lowering himself onto it, despite a slight creak, it held, he settled his entire bulk onto the metal and began unsealing his suit.

First he unsealed the gloves, his hands tickled ad the slight breeze generated by the air circulation system brushed them. Then he unlocked his helmet, air hissed out and new un-recycled air flooded his nostrils and lungs, his breath caught for an instant from the sudden change.

The Arbiter, Thel. He continued to struggle with calling him Thel in his mind. Had finally made his own choice, apparently the GF food dispensers catered to almost every species discovered, meaning a lot. So after a search, Thel found the Space Pirate food , quite similar to his own. The food consisted of several meaty strips and some gel-like stuff that John didn't have the slightest idea what it was.

Samus was still selecting her meal when the Master Chief began removing parts of his armor, she watched as he unsealed his gloves and helmet, placing the gauntlets on the table and lifting the helmet off his head.

His face was strong and firm, his eyes were a dark brown with an intense look to them, he had a few freckles and thin lips, short brown hair and several scars, but the most noticeable and shocking thing about his face was how white the skin was, he must have been in that suit for a very long time and never took it off. Still, he was handsome in a rugged soldierly way. She pressed a choice on the menu screen and moved to sit across from him.

Just before she sat down, she twitched out a thought to her suit and it glowed golden before disappearing in a flash, she picked up a spoon and began eating.

John glanced up as Samus sat, her suit suddenly disappeared in a golden flash, he blinked, there was no sign of her pushing anything or making a special gesture to deactivate it, and where did if just go? Underneath, she wore a skintight blue jumpsuit with a pink symbol on the left breast. Her long blonde hair was tied in the back with two long locks framing her face. John studied her face with the careful calculating eyes of the soldier that he was.

Her eyes were an electric blue, and her face was an average color, she was quite beautiful. While ordinary men would have immediately begun hitting on her, he had always been far from ordinary thanks to his augmentations and his past.

He acknowledged that she was a very striking woman, and moved on. Thel took a seat to his left and picked up one of the meat strips, tossing it into his mouth and swallowing.

"Surprisingly, this is almost the same as the rations on a sangheili ship.". He said after a moment, and Samus arched and eyebrow, tapping her chin with the spoon she was holding.

Samus filed that comment away for later consideration in her mind, and focused on eating. When Thel and the Chief were finished eating, she once again donned her armor and showed them to the armory.

The station armory room consisted of one wall lined with GF assault rifles, one with explosives, one with weapon upkeep equipment and various other things.

"This, is a Galactic Federation Seven-seven-three pulse assault rifle, standard issue, quite accurate.". She said, pulling one out from it's wall niche and tossing it to the Chief, who caught it and turned the weapon over in his hands several times, Cortana constructed a three-D model of the weapon.

She heard Muffled words coming from his helmet, he was speaking with his AI, after he was done, he turned the weapon so the barrel was facing down.

John slid his arm into the weapon, his suit and the gun's software were not compatible at all, but the gun still lit up at his touch, a small blue ammo counter appeared, reading ninety six, he wrapped his fingers around the grip, placing his trigger finger on the trigger. His other hand gripped the slightly extended support grip, near the trigger area, the barrel was located on top, and the grip was on the bottom, Samus pressed a button and the AR wall slid away, revealing a firing course, John tried firing without using the second grip, like a pistol.

The GF rifle had very little recoil, at ranges of sixty meters it became a bit inaccurate. But with John sighting down the weapon, his accuracy improved substantially, he exhausted the clip and a hatch popped out on the side, a steaming cartridge the size of a normal clip popped out and clattered to the ground, Samus handed him a new one, and he slotted it in faster than he could reload a normal AR, the gun automatically closed the hatch and the ammo counter reset.

While the Chief tested the AR, Samus introduced Thel to his own AR, he inserted his arm and aimed down the course, the weapon was the size of his rifle, but inaccurate at longer ranges, he hefted the rifle.

"Thank you, this weapon will serve me well." Suddenly a quick bleep echoed three timed throughout the station, and a voice came over the intercom.

"Attention all personnel, attention all personnel! GFS Valkyrie is on approach, all necessary personnel to your stations, everyone else as you were!". Through the main windows of the armory the trio could see the cruiser drifting closer, three smaller vessels were arrayed around it along with a cluster of tiny fighters, Samus's comm beeped.

"Aran.". She said, the voice was that of captain

"Samus, we are awaiting your presence onboard for the attack, are you prepared?". Before replying, she looked at the Chief and Thel, who both nodded.

"Affirmative, we will dock in five.".

John and Thel grabbed extra clips on the way out, and replaced the half full ones in the rifles, they followed Samus back to her ship and boarded.

Samus made sure that Thel and the Chief were braced, and then she gunned the engines, the gunship hovered momentarily before streaking out to meet the cruiser.

"GFS Valkyrie, this is Samus, ready to make the jump.". The captain replyed almost instantly.

"Roger, I've got a few landers full of marines ready to launch, they'll be good assistance on the ground.".

"Roger, see you there.". She tapped a few buttons on her console and the stars disappeared, replaced by streaks of white light, space outside seemed to stretch and suddenly there was a moment of disorientation.

The planet hung in space before them, this time she glanced at her sensors, it was classified under the name V-4L. There was a quadruple flash and four GF ships flashed into existence a few hundred meters off her gunships' port side.

The Valkyrie and it's frigate escort slowly moved in-system, a small cloud of fighters swarmed about the ships, Samus kept her gunship one hundred meters away from the formation, her scanners sweeping the space before them.

She detected three signals, and instantly, three pirate frigates decloaked, she opened a channel to Captain Miller.

"Captain, the pirates obviously called for support, the middle frigate reads as a Merciless class assault frigate, your smaller ships will get torn apart!". The captains face was grim, neither fleet was within firing range yet, so there was time for planning.

"My frigates will attack the Terror class frigates on their own, my ship will take on the Merciless class, it should work.". Samus nodded.

"Good luck captain!".

"Miller out." The forward turrets of the GF ships began to fire, pouring Gigajoules of energy at the pirate vessels, their longer range meant a first strike for the humans, but the pirate armor was stronger than GF plating, enabling them to take the hits.

Small spikes on the forward sections of the Space Pirate frigates lit up and energy flowed over them and collected into pinpricks of light, which shot forth in concentrated lines.

The lasers were small and inaccurate, not really designed for long range combat, but when they did strike, the plating was scarred and pitted, the Merciless charged it's main cannon, nestled in the middle of three spires sticking out from the front.

The Valkyrie fired a burst from it's primary turret, the sapphire beam lanced through space and struck the Merciless class frigate, a small section of armor melted away, but the inner hull continued to hold, the frigate fired it's own primary cannon.

The crimson spear of death shot through space towards the GF cruiser, which tilted down and fired it's thrusters in an attempt to dodge, the beam nicked the forward module, causing an explosive decompression of three rooms, but it was sealed quickly.

Samus fired the engines, her ship balanced on a column of blue fire for a moment before shooting forward, several landers that had been sheltered behind the GF cruiser did the same.

Their speed enabled them to steel past the Pirate capital ships faster than their targeting systems could track, but the slowed down when entering the atmosphere.

Samus armed her pulse cannons, and she could see through the fiery curtain around each ship, that the other ships arming their weapons as well.

When they broke the clouds, the pirate base was in view, built into a mountain, three large AA turrets began to track them, Samus contacted the leader of the marines.

"Captain Higgs here."

"Captain, land your forces here!". She sent her the coordinates of the nearest clearing, three hundred meters from the base. The captain nodded and closed the connection.

Chief, Thel, prepare for combat!". She called to the others, they checked their weapons and nodded.

"Ready!". Called Thel, Samus piloted the gunship into the clearing of trees and set it down, the GF landers arrived seconds later.

There were seven landers, meaning about two hundred marines, enough for this attack. The landers disgorged their troops and powered down.

The base could be seen from the clearing, so the marines wasted no time in splitting up into their individual squads, and rushing forward.

John stepped off of Samus's ship, and followed the packs of Marines who were charging through the woods towards the base.

After three minutes of running, the main entrance loomed in front of them. Dozens of pirates were scattered between the wall and several fortified trenches outside. The aliens opened fire upon the charging humans, Samus leapt up, somersaulted in the air, and after a brief flash of light, she had become a golden ball a meter wide, she hung in midair for a moment while the ball glowed, then it shot forward, impacting a fortified wall and shattering it, she laid several bombs and flushed the pirates out. John paused and was about to speak to Cortana, when she answered his unsaid question.

"In case your wondering, I don't know how she does that, but would I like to find, watch out!" John had seen the incoming lasers and was already moving to dodge them, but one struck his chest, his shield dropped by one quarter, and he grunted.

"Shit, those lasers are powerful!". He took cover behind a rock. The Marines had gained ground and were inside the trenches, John jumped in after them, and was immediately assaulted by a pirate, it fired desperately, missing completely, John turned and fired his new AR at the alien, the plasma rounds struck the Pirate and in three short bursts, the alien was dead, craters pockmarked it's chest and face.

He stepped over a fallen marine and sprayed fire at a group of nine stubborn pirates who were holding the exit out of the trenches, almost a dozen marines lay dead nearby.

A squad of soldiers rounded a corner to Johns left and fired upon the Priates, who, ignoring John, fired back. Their mistake. He lunged forward, a human blur, his viselike grip crushed the throat of one pirate, and his rifle fired a dozen rounds point blank into the face of another.

The other pirates swung their blades at him, but he nimbly dodged them with agility and grace defying the bulky look of the armor he wore. His hand descended upon the head of a pirate, ending it's life, he ripped the blade off it's arm and impaled one of it's comrades with it. The fifth died when his boot caught it's chin,

With such force, it tore the head from the neck, gore sprayed into the air, and the body stumbled around for a moment before collapsing into the arms of another pirate.

The Marine squad advanced on the survivors, driving them back, they turned and ran in fear of the green, armor clad warrior that had killed five of their number with his hands.

John heard explosions from above the trenches, when he emerged, pirates lay dead around a single scarred crater, Samus walked calmly out of it, she glanced at her shoulder, a pirate laser had pierced the shields and scarred the pad, she raised her cannon arm into the air and began charging it. John watched as small orb-like power-packs detached from pirate weapons and dead marines, their energy swirled out and collected on the cannon, it spread over the suit, wounds closed and scars disappeared, the large hole on her shoulder pad knitted together under a thin haze of energy.

"It seems her suit can use energy to repair itself.". Said Cortana, a little behind from being completely focused on the and Samus nodded to each other and turned to the wall, which was still manned by pirates.

After using the energy from the pirates and dead marines, Samus approached the pirate wall, the chief was nearby, he began to fire suppressing bursts at the aliens the instant he was in range. Dozens of marines were huddled behind any solid cover they could find, because the turrets on the wall had them pinned, several charred husks of armor testified to the men who hadn't taken cover fast enough.

Samus switched to missiles, she activated the seeker ability, an orange target appeared on her HUD, she played it over the two turrets and three pirate troopers.

She released the missiles, they streaked of and homed in on their targets, the pirated who were not in the turrets were consumed in a concussive blast and blasted apart, the turret gunners held on as the missiles struck their turrets and shook them. Samus followed up with a pair of regular missiles, the turrets cracked and plasma began to leak out, one pirate was beneath a spray, and melted with a ghostly wail.

The other managed to leap free but was caught in a maelstrom of plasma fire from the marines. Who charged and attached grappling hooks to the wall and began to climb it. Samus took two off of a pair of marines and tossed them to Thel and the chief.

She activated her grapple beam and lather onto a light posted on the wall, she swung and used her momentum to launch herself in the air. Twisting, she was facing into the base, and fired a super missile into the gate controls, where a squad of pirates were gathering to keep the marines from opening the gates to let in any armor they might have, although they didn't have any.

The missile vaporized the box, and the gate slid open, Marines who were just beginning the climb detached their hooks and charged through, heavy combat erupted inside the compound, the wall flooded with marines who fired down at the pirates. Samus landed on the wall and lent her own fire into the fray. John and Thel decided to charge through the gate as well. The elites' plasma blade traced geometric patterns into the air before slicing several pirates into geometric pieces, his AR spewed plasma and mowed down several more of the aliens. She spotted a secondary gate opening behind Chief and Thel.

"Chief, Thel, watch out!". She called, and the warriors turned, suddenly they were tossed back by a large concussive blast, and a pirate wearing large power armor appeared, it carried two weapons, a spiked concussion rifle, and a heavy bladed plasma repeater.

Samus leaped off her perch from the top of the wall, scanning the pirate as she did, and landed between the Heavy Pirate Commando and the two dazed warriors.

The pirate roared and fired another concussion blast at her, she strafed to the left and fired a missile, it detonated and craved the armor sightly, causing the pirates' shields to flare yellow. John and Thel got to their feet and fired as well, the Marines were busy fending off a renewed pirate defense.

The pirate commando roared in pain as it's armor shattered, leaving only it's weak personal shields, which flashed red as it was shot.

Samus switched to her power beam and fired away, but just as the pirate was about to die, it pressed a button on it's wrist, a hatch on it's back armor opened, and blue energy poured forth, and the pirate stood, tendrils of Phazon whipping through the air, it's repeater fired, and the blasts seared through the air, melting metal easily where the hit.

"Don't let the beams hit you!". Called Samus, even as the three warriors dodged. "It will infect you with phazon!". She fired a super missile at it, but the pirate shrugged the blast off and continued to fire, she swore and tuned into her ball form.

Rolling up the the creature and stewing off a power bomb was her last option, the bomb detonated, classing the ground and melting nearby buildings, Thel and Chief were thrown back.

Stunned, John watched as Samus rolled up to the feet of the pirate that was using 'phazon' and detonated what announced to a non-radiation mini nuclear grenade. There was a large black crater where the pirate used to be, he stood and walked over, and was shocked to find Samus standing calmly in the center of the crater, she looked up.

"Bastard made me waste a power bomb.". She said, and walked up and out. For the first time in his life, John actually stared openmouthed.

"How?". He asked, and she shrugged.

"My own weapons can't harm me.". She said, firing a missile directly at her feet to demonstrate, it cratered the ground, but left her armor spotless, she charged her beam again, and drew in more energy packs, a few orange triangles accompanied them, they were floated and compressed into a small compartment on the side of her cannon.

"Energy missiles," she explained."I collect a certain energy to use as concussion missiles, it is universal for pirates and GF troopers.". She walked towards the interior of the base, where the GF marines were rooting out the last few pirate troops.

He found Samus starring at several pillars and walls of an ancient corridor, he heard her intake air sharply.

"This is a Chozo ruin.". She breathed, running her fingertips lightly across the stone surfaces, she paused at a hieroglyph depicting a portal where a pair of Chozo were greeting a pair of humanoids as they came out of the portal.

"Chief, you could probably use this.". She forwarded him a basic Chozo translation program, Cortana could use it to read the hieroglyphs, which depicted a synopsis of the Chozo history, but the ones before her were new, she had never seen them before.

After some scaling she found a Chozo lore tablet, and translated it. Her suit displayed the translated version.

[Contact:

The wind howled and the grass bent back as a small lightning storm formed in the middle of the field, as my partner and I stood watching, it transformed into a shimmering disk of light, and two beings stepped forth, they, like us, were bipedal, and wore plain silver armor, they carried unknown weapons.

We approached them, alerting our brethren in the temple as to the situation, the did not draw their weapons, and we attempted communication, they seemed to understand our language, scans indicated they possessed translators, not on the level of ours, but very advanced nonetheless. When they replied, they spoke only four words before a bolt of energy knocked them unconscious.

"We are the Forerunners."] Samus gaped, and called the chief over, showing him the translated text.

A/N: Okay, before you start spamming my inbox with hatemail stating why the hell arent MC and Sammy attracted to each other, I'll explain; MC's sex drive and 'romance' hormones have been suppressed due to the Spartan augmentations (read the book) and Samus is not really interested in having a boyfriend at the moment, considering they are in the middle of a war and all. Anyway, that is all for this chapter, I'm gonna be an ass and continue it on the next chapter, let you guys and girls mull this over. By the way, I have an idea for this Forerunner/Chozo thing, but if you think that you have a good idea, let me know in a review or PM, I might use some ideas. And feel free to create a character and submit it, I can always use new characters.


	5. Collision awakened

Hello everyone!

I know it's been a long time since I did anything but that's because I have been very busy with other projects such as my new youtube channel DarkFortressProduct where my buds and I are doing let's plays and tutorials, if you want check it out here: user/DarkFortressProduct .

Anyway, down to buisness, I was genuinely shocked at the amount of positive feedback Collision recieved so I have decided to continue this story to it's conclusion, the next chapter should be out within the next week or so from today. I will also take this opportunity to comment on a review that brought up some good points about the story.

-One Reviwer said they considered Samus to essentially be a slightly weaker version of the MC. A: While I do think the MC is a superstrong badass that takes crap from nobody I have always considered Samus to be stronger with her suit on and equal without her suit due to the fact that she was raised on a super hight gravity planet and had a very adaptable suit that can take hits from pretty much anything. I also consider the chozo to be slightly more advanced than Forerunners, plus Samus's suit was pure chozo tech not dug up from ancient ruins.

-There is one more topic I'd like to address, some readers have questioned me about the Space Pirate-Elite connection and i assure you it will be explained in the new chapters.

Okay not that that's out of the way, once again I want to thank you all for your support and assure you that new chapters will be uploaded.


	6. Chapter 4

A/N: I am amazed at how many people read this and reviewed, when I joined I never expected this many people to be interested in my work let alone want more so because you demand it here is the next chapter of Collision.

Chapter 5

Samus, Thel and John read and re-read the chozo tablet, not quite believing what was written on it, silence filled the ruins as they soaked in this new information. Thel opened his mouth to speak when a detonation threw them all off balance and rained dust from the ceiling and after a few seconds a GF marine limped into the room clutching his charred left arm. "We're under attack, a pirate assault fleet appeared out of nowhere, the Valkyrie jumped away before they could be destroyed, pirate troops are landing and surrounding the ruins!" The marine slumped down against a wall and went limp; John's sensors reported a complete flat lining of his vitals. "We need to pull everyone back inside the ruins!" Said Samus and began to run towards the main entrance where flashes of gunfire and screams could be seen and heard. John and Thel followed closely as they exited the ruins and dove into the battle, four dozen Space Pirate landers were appearing in the skies and descending in a ring around the ruins. Marines fired their pulse rifles and missile into the air at the landers, the vast majority of the shots missed but a few lucky ones took out a pirate or a whole lander. In retaliation for shooting several of their brethren out of the air the Pirate landers opened fire with their mounted cannons blasting the federation defences away, Samus opened her communications to all the marines left and called them back into the ruins, she also activated an automatic defence protocol on her gunship and it took off, racing away to land somewhere far from harm.  
>The last surviving marines made it into the chozo ruins just as the pirate bombardment collapsed the entrance, sealing everyone inside. "Well, what's next?" John asked, Samus shrugged. "We wait them out; the Federation won't just leave us here to die especially in a place the space pirates have such an interest in." An awkward silence overtook the thirty people inside the dimly lit chamber before a loud rumbling and scraping sound reached their ears. One of the marines pressed his helmet against the rubble and stepped back suddenly. "They're digging in!" He exclaimed and this shocked everyone into movement, John and the Arbiter being the most experienced with commanding soldiers in the field began to order the troops into teams right away.<br>"I want a barricade of stone set every ten meters along the main hallway with two marines at every point, we stagger our defences so they have to fight and die for every inch!" While John began to group the marines into fire teams and Thel organized other troops to set up traps and explosives Samus pulled three troopers aside.  
>"The pirates want what is in these ruins and so do we, go in and record as much of the carvings and recover any artefacts you can carry while we hold off the pirates, go!" The marines saluted and jogged deeper into the temple while Samus walked back to the main chamber past several groups of marines dragging column chunks into crude walls to use as cover.<br>"How long can we last?" Samus's voice materialized from somewhere over John's shoulder and he turned to face her. "It depends on how many they can get in at once, Cortana how long until they break through." The Female AI had been uncharacteristically quiet since the tablet had been translated and read and a small delay followed John's question before an answer was given. "I estimate approximately two minutes or less John, you'd better get ready." the Spartan aimed his Federation rifle at the point of entry and stepped to the left slightly. "I'm always ready, Samus?". The bounty hunter nodded her head and stood to the right of the breach point where small stones were already breaking off. A brief but loud crackling sounded to Samus's right and when she turned Thel was there holding his GF rifle in one hand and a double-pronged blue energy blade in the other. Behind their barricades eight marines readied themselves and checked each others armour and communications, Farther down the hallway behind more barricades the other twenty marines did the same.  
>Deeper in the ruins the three troopers were scanning wall after wall of Chozo text and carvings when one came across a small pyramid-shaped puzzle connected to the wall by a small five inch peg, the pyramid was slightly scrambled and seemed to have several gaps in the structure. The marine who spotted it stopped and began to twist and snap the pieces into different formations while the others moved on unaware that each time he moved a small piece intricate and ancient machinery moved silently behind the walls.<br>A bright red laser punched through the rubble melting stone and metal and was followed by dozens of claws that scraped away the stone and made a jagged hole seven feet tall and nine feet wide, dark shapes poured into the opening and with one flick of John's fingers the defenders opened fire, hundreds of pulse rounds and power bolts filled the hole causing the edges to glow orange and sag, most importantly was the strangled cries of pain from dying and wounded pirates.  
>An orange flash appeared in to opening and a pentagonal orange shield appeared in front of a small spherical drone being directed by a pirate captain. When the shield drone reached the point where the tunnel ended it bobbed forward despite the fire directed at it and two more drones moved in to create a small shield wall for the pirates to cower behind while they stormed the room.<br>Samus fired a pair of missiles into the orange shields and succeeded in finally downing two but enough pirates had entered the room for it not to matter much anymore. The humans and Thel began to fall back as the pirates returned fire and advanced despite their losses. A trio of pirate lasers struck the chief's chest and sent him stumbling backwards as his shields dropped to zero. Thel experienced the same incoming fire from the pirates while Samus absorbed several shots without flinching and continued firing her arm cannon sending deadly packets or orange-yellow energy into the pirates who fell to her might.  
>The pyramid had begun to give off a warm illumination from somewhere inside of each piece, the marine manipulating the device was hunched intently over the ancient puzzle oblivious to the sounds of approaching combat and the sudden shudder of explosive charges being detonated, his comrades were still running their helmet cameras over a wall in the next room unaware of his deviation from their group. John pulled a limp marine inside a small room that branched off from the main hall, the woman's vital signs were low but stabilized thanks to her suit's systems, he laid her behind a fallen pillar and slid his pulse rifle back over his forearm, the pirates were pushing them back fast and seven of the marines had died at their hands in the last four minutes. A pair of pirate lasers melted through Johns' cover and forced him into the open where he rushed the aliens his fists flew and chopped as his legs lashed out and arced through the air. Within seconds a half dozen pirates lay dead from multiple strikes and John had driven the rest of them back for now. A huge rumble rolled through the ruins from further down the hallway and two marines came rushing from the same direction. "Ashton opened some kind of portal!". Shouted the lead marine as they skidded to a halt in front of Samus who turned to the Chief, Thel and the surviving marines. "We all know it's only a matter of time before the pirates overrrun us, and there is a very good chance the portal is a way out, we need to go through it, any objections.". As she surveyed the bodies before her she saw little to no signs of hesitation in their body language, going through a random portal was highly prefferable to being torn apart by the pirates. The group began to move down the hallway while making sure the pirates weren't following, once they reached the room indicated by the pair of marines Samus paused, a lone marine stood next to what looked like a tiny pyramid on a pole, behind the armored soldier was a glowing white sphere floating a few centimeters off the ground. "Ma'am the pirates are coming!". Shouted a marine as gunshots filled the hallway. "No time to waste, let's go!". Shouted Samus as she stepped forwards and quickly disappeared into the portal, the rest of the group began to follow.<p>

Earth, Ark Portal generator, UNSC Forerunner research base Alpha, 2570.

Admiral Hood ran a hand over his bald head, for nearly twenty years now he had overseen the study and testing of dozens of forerunner devices and back-engineered hybrids but despite all of their progress the best scientist humanity had could not get the portal to work. With the war over the elites and their allies had hunted down what they could find of the old covenant and retired to their homeworlds while humanity rebuild into it's former power and more.  
>He was about to turn in for the night when one of the scientists shouted out abruptly. "Admiral sir, energy spike in the centre of the portal crater!". "What!?". Hood walked briskly over to the observation railing and looked down into the dark crater, a single pinprick of light had materialized at the bottom.<br>"Scramble two pelicans of marines and a squadron of hornets as aerial backup, get eyes down there ASAP!". The base exploded into a flurry of activity as Hood shouted order and raced towards the pelican bay. "Sir, it is emitting small mounted of Halo energy, it's definitely forerunner in origin.". Shouted a researcher as Hood left the room. The anomaly was a sphere roughly three meters in diameter and hovering a few centimeters above the dirt, as the marines began to encircle it the glowing white sphere began to emit small pulses of misty energy and tiny sparks rose into the air, a large black shape emerged from the portal, huge round shoulders and one arm looked like a cylinder had covered everything from the elbow down, as the figure stepped forward more became visible, angular armor, a green cylinder over their left arm, huge round shoulder pads and a red helmet with green visor. The mysterious figure was silent as it stepped to the side and two more shapes formed, the pair quickly changed into the shapes of two people Hood never forgot after their 'deaths'.

A/N: Okay, still trying to get back in the swing of things because it's been a while but expect more chapters in the futue as I am hoping to begin updating with more regularity.


	7. Chapter 5

A/N: It's painfully obvious that I lied last time about updating more frequently, life got in the way as usual. But I'm back now and the only thing I can say is that it is amazing to see how many people have supported this, thank you all. P.S. I will go through previous chapters to correct mistakes where I find them. Check out Counter Attack while you wait for the next chapter.

Chapter 6

Earth/ Ark Portal generator/ UNSC Forerunner research base Alpha/ February 18 2570/ 0345 Hours.

For the first time in years Lord Hood was stunned into silence as the Master Chief and Arbiter stepped out of the glowing sphere and onto the dusty ground at the generator's center, they were quickly followed by over twenty humanoid figures in battered grey armor, several supported their fellows as they limped or were dragged through the sphere, as the last one dove through the energy ripped and destabilized, whipping around like a solar flare before collapsing into nothingness and plunging everybody into total darkness. Lights from assault rifles and Pelican spotlights snapped on, illuminating the newcomers who made no move against the twenty or more UNSC marines that aimed their weapons at them. The Chief stepped forward and the closest marines stepped back.

"Admiral, Master Chief Petty Officer Spartan 117 reporting." He snapped to attention and brought his hand to his helmet in a salute which Hood slowly returned, now over the initial shock Hood was panning his eyes over the scene before him and came back to looking chief in his visor. He was silent for a moment then his military self kicked in. "At ease chief, it's good to see you, but before we go too far into pleasantries both ONI and myself have a lot of questions for you, my men will escort you and your...people to the base where you will be given quarters and medical attention, then we'll talk." 117 nodded crisply and turned to the Arbiter and the others, he nodded at them and they slowly made their way to several transport Warthogs that pulled up.

John, Thel and Samus stepped onto the back seats of a 'hog, the vehicle's shocks protested as they shifted their weight to balance it out, Samus was across from John and cocked her head at Hood as he stepped into the troop bay of a pelican. "Your boss?" She inquired, John paused for a moment before making a small shrugging motion. "My superior, yes." Thel leaned in so he was closer to their heads. "Your people will want answers, how much do we tell them?" This made John think, it was Cortana, silent for so long, who provided and answer. "Everything, well everything we need to at least, we know about the Halos and what the really do, and we have the video records to prove it, they also need to know about the Space Pirates in the possibility that they discover a way to cross to this place."

"No matter how this goes these soldiers and I have to get back to our home, the Federation needs them and me." Replied Samus. "If you found a way back I doubt there is much ONI could do to stop you from leaving, there are ways but not many." Behind her visor Samus's eyebrows arched. "I highly doubt they could stop me, not with this suit." Thel chimed in as they pulled into the vehicle bay where teams of marines and medics were waiting. "Everything has it's weaknesses even against inferior forces." Subconsciously his eyes flicked to John and the Spartan knew he was talking about the Human-Covenant war. Once the 'hogs stopped the doctors moved forward with stretchers and various scientific tools, taking readings and scanning the GF armor, a team approached Samus, John and Thel but the chief waved them off. "We're fine, tend to the others first."

Samus huffed. "Speak for yourself, I haven't had a beer in days, what do you have here?" She looked around. "You'll have to wait until they clear you and question you before you can get something like that." Cortana replied and Thel nodded slowly. "I need to contact my people as soon as possible, if all goes well I will be on a ship heading home in a week, if this is our last meeting then know it was an honor to fight at your sides." He gave a small bow, Samus returned it and John dipped his head low. The group waited in the hangar for several long and silent minutes before a trio of ONI agents entered through the main hangar doors, the woman in the lead stopped a good distance away from everyone else and looked over them, she pointed toward Samus, Thel and John. "We'll begin with you, follow us." She and one other agent turned on their heels and began to walk into the base, the trio followed quickly while flanked by half a dozen marines.

…Three days later…

With their reports filed and crosschecked an ungodly amount of times through any source ONI could dredge up Samus, John and Thell along with all of the GF marines were being released into Lord Hood's custody, John felt a feeling of relief as he stepped out of the interrogation room, ONI spooks made his skin itch today, Thell was waiting for him as he walked into the main lobby, several marines were still positioned around the base in case one of the newcomers tried anything but the guard had been reduced over the last day. "It is good to see you, I was beginning to wonder if they would ever stop asking questions." John shrugged as he stood beside the Elite. "It's their job." He replied, Cortana snorted through his mike. "They could be less boring about it." She retorted and Thell gestured his hand in agreement. Samus was the last to leave and she walked out of the room to the window beside Thell, leaning so the sun fell on her faceplate. "Sun! I thought I'd never see it again!"

"Well you'll have to cut the reunion short, Lord Hood and your people are waiting in the mess." Cortana said, the bounty hunter reluctantly stood upright and walked alongside John down the hallway into the mess hall, the GF marines were all clustered at two tables with Lord Hood standing nearby, John immediately walked up to his superior stood at attention and saluted, Hold returned it crisply and motioned for him to be at ease, he turned to address everyone present. "From the information presented by you all to the ONI agents our top analysts have determined that the 'Space Pirates' will undoubtedly attempt to and eventually succeed in finding a way to cross over, maybe not soon or within our lifetimes but one day, therefore I have take the liberty of giving you all consultant status for the duration of your stay with the UNSC." He produced a small box from behind his back and handed it to a marine who opened it up and found a small tag with his name and picture, once all the tags were passed around Hood resumed.

"As of now the UNSC patrols are on yellow alert and scanning our territory for any more Halo Portal events, and due to the data gathered on this enemy it is clear that we are as outmatched as we were during the Human-Covenant war, because of this you are hereby granted emergency access to all the top-secret data and information I will show to you once we reach our destination, report to the hangar bay in ten minutes for liftoff." The admiral nodded to the assembled men and women then walked out of the room, one by one they all stood and filed out. "I wonder what he's up to." Pondered Cortana as they marched through the hallway, inside the hangar were three Pelicans, Hood stepped into one and waved everybody forward, once all the Marines, Samus, John and Thel were seated the dropships took off and rose continuously, John felt himself become weightless for several minutes until they leveled out and drifted forward. "I've tapped into the dropship's sensors and it appears as though we are docking with the UNSC frigate 'Jericho', funny, I'm reading strange energy signatures from the ship's main turrets, they're identical to covenant pulse laser emissions." John cocked his head slightly at Cortana's words. "It has been over ten years, you expected them not to advance?" "I suppose not."

Gravity suddenly returned and the Pelican jerked to a stop as it touched down, the passengers slapped their release buttons and stood when the ramp lowered to reveal Hood and a pair of ODSTs waiting outside. "The trip will take the rest of the day, quarters have been set aside for each of you and I recommend some rest for you all." with that he walked off leaving the GF troopers and the three warriors to their own devices, in the end everyone took Hoods' advice and went to their assigned quarters, as John carefully removed his armor he pulled Cortanas' chip from his head and slotted it into a port, her hologram appeared on an emitter beside the bed. "Cortana, can you find out what happened while we were gone?" The AI gave a quick nod before siting cross-legged and placing her fist underneath her chin, she stared off into the middle-distance as the moving symbols along her body increased their flow until they were blurs.

System L-223b/ Approaching fourth planet/ Aboard UNSC Jericho/ February 22 2570/ 0832 Hours.

When Samus, Thel, John and all of the GF marines had woken, dressed, eaten and preformed any other morning rituals they might have had, Hood called them to the forward observation deck, John was staring out at the fourth planet of the binary star system L-223b and its large moon, currently there was nothing visible but the Spartan had a feeling that they were only waiting for something to show up. Hood was facing away from everyone else and stood at ease off to one side of the view screen, as they rounded the moon he cleared his throat. "What you are about to see is classified and can not be spoken of, this is the crown jewel of human engineering, our 'ace in the hole' per-se." While he spoke an object came into view, as more was revealed John tensed slightly as memories of Installation 04 dredged themselves up. The object was massive, half the size of a Halo ring but thicker, more industrial looking, at least fifty UNSC vessels of varying classes orbited the thing and more were hovering inside the ring, along the inner edge John could make out large shipyards built into the ring's surface. "Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to Hephaestus Station!". Hood couldn't stop a small proud smile from appearing on his face as they neared the station, three Marathon-class cruisers peeled off from the orbiting groups and approached.

"Incoming vessel transmit access codes or be fired upon, this is your first and only warning, you have three seconds." A shimmering sphere appeared around each cruiser for a split second as a voice blasted through the speakers inside the observation room, Hood tapped a quick line of code into a console. "Codes confirmed, welcome to the station Admiral Hood." The ships turned away and drifted back to the others as the Jericho closed with the massive station.

A/N: Alright, not any action in this chapter but hey, still getting back into the swing of things, but don't worry, it'll heat up soon.


End file.
