Samus was mad.

Since talking with the Chief about what had happened between them earlier in the day, it opened the floodgate to them discussing past relationships. There was no reason for him to throw her last assignment in her face. There was nothing between her and the partner she'd taken along.

As they flew to the cave, it was quiet in the ship.

The Chief hated the silence. If he'd had his way, he'd be HALO jumping into a hot drop zone than braving the silence with Samus. He knew it was stupid to bring up the men in her life. It was her business and not his, but he felt threatened by it.

"We are approaching the landing site," Adam said, cutting the white-hot silence like dry ice.

It startled her. She jumped when he said it.

"Thank you, Adam," Samus replied.

The Chief sighed. Finally mustering the gumption to say something, all he could force out was, "Let's do this." It was a veiled attempt at motivation.

Samus walked to the air lock without responding. Undoubtedly she saw it as still having the upper-hand in the fight.

Before the Chief could follow, the console beeped. He turned around to check the source. It was Cortana, still mute.

The display read, "There's a high level of Flood activity inside that cave. And I still can't pinpoint any Metroid lifesigns." The screen cleared. "Be careful… John."

The Chief smiled. Cortana was pleased she could finally see the smile. "Thanks. See you soon."

Cortana thought to herself, "At least he didn't say goodbye."

Getting his mind back on Samus and the situation at hand, he went through the air lock and went through the hatch. From his vantage point on the top of the ship, he could see Samus walking into the cave by herself.

He jumped, landing hard, he ran after her, saying, "Samus! Wait!"

Samus stopped, jerking around to meet the Chief head on. "What? Think I can't handle myself? Think I need a partner to hold my hand on every mission I take?"

The Chief stammered, unable to respond.

Samus railed into him again. "Because I'm damned good at what I do. Bounty hunting may have been outlawed God knows how many years ago, but I can still hold my own in a fight, damn you."

"I'm sorry!" It was the only thing the Chief could blurt out. Somehow, he knew it wasn't enough.

She was red in the face, absolutely livid at the Chief's earlier insinuations. How dare he question her sex life—or, what he didn't know, apparent lack thereof. Her anger probably made her a little more headlong going into the cave. She didn't have the cool head she normally had when approaching a potentially dangerous situation.

She pulled a scanner from her spandex suit and began scanning the inside of the cave. The Chief followed behind her in silence with her puny emergency pistol in his hands. He wanted to tell her he was sorry, but somehow he knew he needed to stay quiet until she cooled off.

Still scanning the cave, Samus led them deeper and deeper into the dark, following the Chozo energy signature through the geologic stratum.

It had gotten to the point where they were so deep in the cave there was no more discernable light from the entrance. Samus didn't have a flashlight. Neither did the Chief. The only thing she could do was turn around her scanner and use the dim light from the display to light their way. For the Chief, it was too creepy. For all they knew, the Flood or Metroids could be skulking in the dark around them.

It stayed dark as they stumbled in silence. They reached a room that seemed to be totally alien in the cave. There was just enough light from the scanner to show it was a kind of metal and in proper geometric proportions. Finally feeling that he could contribute to the conversation, the Chief said, "It looks consistent with Forerunner technology."

Suddenly, the room filled with light, illuminating the area around them. On the walls, there were windows to a larger room with a large energy stream in the center. But that wasn't what fascinated them. In the back of the small room was a large bird statue, holding two chests in its talon-like limbs.

"Chozo…" Samus muttered.

Respectful of Samus' find, the Chief stayed back and watched Samus approach the statute. She opened the left box and her eyes widened.

"What is it?" the Chief asked.

Without turning from the find, Samus simply said, "It's a bomb. More specifically, a tri-cobalt device. Enough power to destroy a planet."

The Chief seemed relieved. "Or one damned big ring." He wanted to acknowledge his curiosity and ask about the other, but knew he'd better keep his mouth shut.

Samus opened the opened the other box and blurted, "Oh hell yes."

The Chief, finally feeling bold walked up next to her and put his hand on the small of her back. "A pile of metal?"

Samus grinned, seemingly totally finished with her bad mood, and said, "No silly. It's armor. Corbomite armor."

"Oh," the Chief said, happy for her, but unaware of the extreme significance she was attributing to this new armor.

She turned to him and said, "John, a bomb does me no good if I don't have a deployment device. A suit."

Thinking to himself, "Isn't it kind of unsafe to put a bomb and its key in the same room?"

"I was augmented by the Chozo. Only me or a member of the tribe can open these cases," Samus replied, integrating herself into the new suit. "It was built to withstand the impact of the tri-cobalt device.

The new, cold steel-blue suit covered her from head to toe, but was very different from her Varia suit. The helmet looked similar to the Chiefs, but the armor itself was sleeker than how he'd seen her clad before.

She took the bomb and put it behind her back. It integrated into the suit, disappearing seamlessly into her person.

"Are we ready?" the Chief said, kind of jealous he didn't have new armor.

Before Samus could respond, she looked through the glass and saw the Flood swarming beneath them. "Yeah. We really need to get out of here."

Master Chief half-heartedly touched the Chozo statue and said, "See ya, bird man." He didn't know, but before he knew it, the Chozo statue began to shake—pieces of stone began to shake free of the bird emerging from its geologic binding.

"You woke it up!" Samus cried, charging her weapon with the missile port open.

"I didn't mean to!" the Chief exclaimed, angry at his idiocy.

The bird came to life, standing massively over them, screaming like a crazed hawk. "Shoot it!" Samus screamed.

Firing wildly with the emergency pistol, the Chief seemed to be drawing its fire. Samus' aim was true, hitting the Chozo in the back with a super missle, blasting a hole in its body.

It fell to the floor with a thump, blood running at their feet.

"Let's get out of here!" Samus ordered, moving toward the door.

Suddenly, the amassing battalion of Flood beneath them started to wail. Then, there was a voice.

"Genius race with eyes unclouded,

On this ring, my family not crowded.

Chozo mystery now unshrouded."

A pure form Flood crashed through the glass and drank the Chozo's blood. The Chozo corpse erupted to unholy life, the hole in its body closing on itself.

The pure form didn't seem interested in Samus and the Chief who were too horrified to move. An infected Metroid flew into the room and attached itself to the Chozo. The giant bird then split into two complete Chozo entities, then four, screaming wildly in the process.

"It's the Gemini Phazon," Samus said, pulling the Chief's arm to leave.

They turned away, running from the room as fast as possible. Samus led the way, her new light scope in front of them lighting the way.

The Chief turned around mid-run to see if there was anything behind him. He could see nothing, but heard the familiar slimy sound of the Flood. Suddenly, he tripped, falling behind. "Samus!" he cried.

"John!" Samus said, turning to see the Chief as his body was consumed by the oncoming horde of Flood.