Gone Glacial

Sorry for the delay! Camping, Homework, moving, snowboarding, broadband collapse twice…

Yeah…

I am going to change the Master Chief age. He's roughly forty one when Halo begins but I'm going to make him twenty eight.

I don't own either Halo or Metroid, or Disneyland for that matter…


'Blurry…'

The thought flittered through his head for a moment, just long enough to be recognised, before it was swallowed by the cloying blackness clogging his mind.

After what could have been an infinitesimally long period of time awareness returned. He tried opening his eyes, but was foiled when his heavy eyelids refused to cooperate.

'Tired…'

The highly intelligent thought seemed to dance in his mind like a hairless, multi-coloured gorilla. Something buried deep in his subconscious gave him the impression that he was someone who didn't really get tired.

Natural survival instincts began to kick in, albeit with the speed of a snail under anaesthesia. He couldn't protect himself when he was imprisoned within his own mind. And so he began some mental exercises, although he couldn't actually remember where and when he had learned them because his current mental state was the equivalent of sludge. The exercise he chose involved focusing on the nerves in his appendages and feeling his way deliberately until he either reached the end of the limb or lost concentration and had to start again. It tripled as a self diagnostic, brain jump-starter, and as a concentration strengthener. He started on his right leg, but only managed to get halfway to his knee until the strain forced his already exhausted mind into another coma.

Time passed. How much he didn't know, time really meant nothing in the abyss of his slumbering mind. After numerous attempts he had managed to sense both legs, and his peripheral sense began to develop allowing him the reassurance of physical reality, although he still couldn't command his body to do anything outside his mind.

'Must. Wake. Up.' His sluggish thoughts had begun to come together with increasing speed, and with that came self awareness.

'Floating? Water?'

Before any more enlightenment could come to him unconsciousness pounced once again.

Thought once again flared in the timeless void. He could still feel the slight ebb and flow of the viscous liquid in what he, he surmised, was floating.

'Must test left arm…' He couldn't help but feel a miniscule sense of pride over his completion of an entire sentence, whether it was grammatically correct or not.

He finished the sensing of his left arm in what was most likely only a few minutes.

'Wake up. Dammit.' He was close, he knew it. His peripheral sense had developed a buzz, almost like the electronic whine a T.V. makes.

Something was happening. Something was…

There… A twitch…

'My toe! It moved!'

For the longest time now he had been sending feeble electronic signals to his body trying to get a reaction, and they were finally being detected. His body was wracked by gentle spasms, as long underused muscles flexed and clenched uncontrollably in an attempt to get much needed blood going.

His eyes flickered. It was only for an instant, but it was enough. The room, if that was indeed what it was, was only softly lit, but the tiny glow was enough make it feel like his eyes were being stabbed by white-hot needles, each one the size of a car.

'Fuuuuuuck…' The gentle mental groan bounced around his aching head as he struggled to stay conscious.

'Not now, I'm so close.'

The vibrations caused by his muscles had reached his shoulder, and was currently travelling down his right shoulder.

Then it stopped.

Then a huge wave of pain literally exploded out of his elbow joint, shredded its way up his arm and assaulted his psyche.

Out of reflex his eyes shot open, but the pain brought on by the light was dwarfed by this new attack.

He brought his right hand up in front of his face. Or rather… didn't.

Through his blurred vision he noticed something float away from his face, but of course he didn't really notice it, because he was to busy staring at the abused stump which was apparently his arm.

"Holy Fuck!"

He yelled, or at least tried to, but for some bizarre reason bubbles came out of his mouth instead. Before he could ponder this he inhaled reflexively, and promptly passed out from the miscellaneous liquid he filled his lungs with.

Different P.O.V.

Samus stared in astonishment as the human gawked at the remnants of his right arm and bellowed something. Unfortunately for him, when he had swung the remaining half of his right arm to his face, he battered away the oxygen mask that was keeping him breathing whilst submerged.

A look of surprise briefly covered his face, flowed by a glazed look as he was knocked out by the mixture he was inhaling.

As his vitals spiked and dipped the med-bot in control of his treatment sent out emergency signals, alerting the resident doctors and nurses about his condition.

Just as the warning bells began to ring the door flew open and C'Laar rushed by in a blur.

While she dodged around, activating certain functions on the med-bot in an attempt to get the patient stabilised. Samus, standing to the side, watched her efforts with a little bit of anxiety. Despite the human being in the care of the most technologically advanced being of the age, she could still worry about his condition. It was still pretty bad.

One thing that puzzled Samus was where the nurse had been all this time, since she had finished her conversation with N'Tyko hours ago.

C'Laar seemed to appreciate the repercussion her absence could cause because she was hopping along from foot to foot wringing her hands. The med-bot had been given its orders and they had to stand by and let it do its job. Just as it began drawing the fluid from his lungs, utilising a long needle pushed down his throat, more medical personnel began flooding in through the door as well as a certain individual that Samus most certainly did not want to see.

'K'Hala!' Despite the silent snarl she emitted her face remained passive.

Physically, K'Hala was quite average. Short of stature, covered in dark brown plumage with reasonably sharp claws and a beak of normal length was pretty much all that described K'Hala's outside appearance. However it wasn't his outside appearance with made him stand out.

The Chozo stalking into the room seemed to emit an aura of control, one that made others lower their voices and give him at least one and a half metres of personal space at all times. Piercing black eyes seemed to sweep the room and yet not look at anyone in particular. However, eventually his eyes settled on C'Laar and narrowed. He could put a lot of expression into a simple stare for the object of his scrutiny seemed to flinch violently.

"C'Laar? Why were you sleeping?" His voice was light and cheery but seemed to make all the other Chozo stand at attention. He strode forward and the medics filling the room parted in front of him like an ocean. He stopped before the female and stared up at her face, and even though, in regular Chozo fashion, she was quite a bit taller than her male counterpart, she seemed to shrink until it seemed like she was looking up at him.

"S-Sleeping? I was not I assure you."

"Ah, but I distinctly remember you having a doze outside this very room. I remember because I walked past on my way to my lab and saw you there."

C'Laar began to look frantic, "I was just having a rest whilst S'Amus," she gestured in Samus' direction, "had a discussion with N'Tyko."

K'Hala raised an eyebrow. "Really?" His voice was filled with sarcasm, "Because I do recall you sleeping in the exact same spot as I was on my way back from my lab, three hours later. Did that discussion last three hours?"

"I…I don't know." Her distress was obvious, both through her use of contractions and her stammering.

K'Hala's eyes narrowed.

"Exactly!" He hissed.

He turned his back on her. The scientist then looked at the forgotten Thirteenth, who was currently lying on the now dry floor of the tank.

"My assistant will talk to you later about you painful disregard for protocol"

C'Laar bowed her head. "Yes, O'Hala."

Samus gave a jump and her eyes flickered from O'Hala to C'Laar and back again.

O'Hala seemed to have noticed her shock, and grinned mirthlessly.

"Oh, S'Amus, obviously you did not know of my promotion. The promotion that happened roughly around the O'Icun's death. Highly convenient do you not think?"


I'm REALLY pissed at the moment. I have a bad haircut, just got bands on my teeth, our broadband provider is fucking around and my I-pod is screwing up too. I wanna go on a jihad against Telstra.

This story has gone way off course. But it's better this way. Originally I had it that Samus found the Chief in a Cryo tube, and once he awoke and his arm snapped off he nearly beat Samus to death with it before he passed out from blood loss. Funny how these things turn out heh?

Also, further on in the series I'm going to ask for your ideas for the occasional filler, but more about that later.

Onward!

(If Onward is too corny tell me and I'll stop)