Chapter 21

The room was decorated quite well, there was red carpet on the floor, silver steel walls, large windows, fluorescent lights on the ceiling, and the desk far in the back. They all walked towards the desk, and when they got there, Master Chief sat down in one of the chairs, Samus in the other. The Marines stood in the back and saluted, the Police Officers doing the same thing. The President sat there, studying them. They all did the same thing. The President wore a tall, green hat that seemed to have a point at the top, and a green and white robe. His skin was purple, but he looked somewhat humanoid. Master Chief couldn't help but think that he looked a bit similar to a Prophet.

"Hello, Mr. President."

"Hello, Samus. I'm not sure we're acquainted, sir. Your title?"

"SPARTAN-117 John, Master Chief Petty Officer of the UNSC Navy."

"Ah, an Earth soldier." The President stood up, his voice raised. "You are aware that we are at war!"

"That's what we wanted to talk to you about, Mr. President. We both were on the Command Ship Olympus when it was attacked by Covenant and Space Pirates. Our respective enemies are now working together, and we had to work together to fight them. So we want to ask you to call off this war."

"The Olympus? Is that the explosion in the sky earlier? The Olympus was shot down?"

"Self destructed, actually." Master Chief said. "By Dark Samus."

"Damn. It seems now that Dark Samus is allied with the Space Pirates getting her hands on Phazon is not his only objective."

"But now the Space Pirates and Dark Samus are working with the Covenant, making it that much worse." Chief said.

"You keep talking about these Covenant. Who are they?"

"They're a group of alien races that share a single religion, believing that special ringworlds called Halos hold the key to their enlightenment, when they actually contain and hold at bay a deadly alien race called the Flood and are meant to be used as a weapon that would destroy all life in the galaxy to starve out the Flood. We've stopped them before. But the reason this pertains to you is because the first time Samus and I met, the Pirates and the Covenant fought, and Samus and I had to team up to fight both of them. Now for some reason they've teamed up."

"The Federation and the UNSC as divided entities cannot fight this huge army, especially not if they are still warring." Samus went on. "So we'd like it if you went over to the United Nations on Earth and convinced them to join you."

"Hmm…I understand. But I am not so easily persuaded to join the enemy."

"With all due respect, sir, the enemy of my enemy is my friend." Samus said.

"Really? Are you my friends?" The President slammed both his hands on the desk as he snapped at Master Chief. "Because I received report not too long ago that you were sent to attack the Command Ship Olympus to thwart my attempts at making a treaty."

"But sir, when the Covenant and Space Pirates came, we—"

"How do I know you're not making this up!"

Samus and Chief looked at each other and said nothing. They looked at the window behind him, and saw something purple coming towards them.

"Does that answer your question?"

"What?" The President looked behind him, and saw it too. He ducked, as the Banshee crashed through the window, glass falling everywhere, most of it near where the President was. Marines covered their faces, Samus and Chief firing at it as it came back around trying to kill the President.

It shot a fuel rod, which barely missed the President's face. Samus shot a charge beam at the banshee, and it exploded, with an Elite falling out. Chief managed to catch it by the neck and threw it down on the floor in front of the desk.

"It's still alive." Chief said.

"Why are you working with the Space Pirates?" Samus asked.

"The—Alliance—was formed for Insta—lation—8." It moaned.

"Why would the Pirates want Installation 08?" Chief said.

"The reason it was kept away from our knowledge was that it contained Phazon, which if released could spawn something horrible."

"Worse than the Flood?"

"The—what?"

"The FLOOD!"

"The Parasite…these are them, but they are not. They corrupt you…on the inside and out. Make you no longer human…make you one of them."

Chief looked at Samus. Samus nodded. Chief picked him back up and threw him through the hole where the window used to be. With an "ARRRGH!" the elite was gone.

"Now there's blood all over my new rug!" The President said. Everyone looked at him with scorn.

"That must be it. Something must have happened that combined the Flood with Phazon." Chief said.

"If that's true, then the Space Pirates are going to want to utilize them…"

"And the Covenant is going to believe that with the Phazon Flood out of the way there's no danger in activating Installation 8. Simple 'you scratch my back, I scratch yours' mentality."

Chief and Samus looked at each other, then they looked at the President.

"Mr. President! Please! We need to you to go the United Nations and form an alliance with Earth!"

"Then we need to send our best soldiers to Installation 08 to stop the Covenant and Space Pirates before they release something horrible!"

"You don't have to tell me twice!" The President said quickly.