The group fought the Omega for nigh twenty minutes. After mopping up more of the Omega's small Trooper aids, Samus turned her X-ray visor on again and fired at the Omega. John watched the Super Missile fly above his head, to a spot close to him. He fired the pistol at it. Plasma fire and a rocket converged on the spot.
There was a roar as the Omega Pirate was forced from its hiding. The flames in its eyes began to die down.
"Chief, move!" Samus shouted instantly.
John backed away as the Omega started to tip over. However, his legs barely responded. He had been hit with four more of the shells, and accidentally waded into Phazon. Kelly, who had been able to dodge the Omega's attacks for the most part, rushed to John. She was ten meters away, but crossed the distance in a few strides. She was about to shove the Chief out of the way when the Omega collapsed on top of them both.
«C'Jinlor!» Samus exclaimed and rushed over to the Omega's corpse. The three other Spartans followed her motions. The Omega's body began to boil liquid Phazon.
"Stay back!" Samus ordered. The Phazon at that level was dangerous. Only her suit could take it. The Hunter edged towards the body. She remembered being crushed by its tons of weight many years earlier. The only reason she had survived was because her Chozo made suit had been modular enough to absorb the Phazon and be corrupted by it. That had given her the same suit she wore now. However, John and Kelly did not have the luxury of a Chozo Power Suit.
Samus moved one foot into the pool of Phazon that was quickly congealing. She charged her Power Beam, turning her Power beam into a Phazon Beam. Silver whirled around Samus as the energy powering her suit was sent into a frenzy. She fired her cannon onto a nearby wall as many times as she could. Perhaps this could allow her to get Kelly and the Master Chief out of the pool, which was quickly receding. The Phazon evaporated after thirty long seconds.
Samus rushed over to the two Spartans lying on the ground. She watched them, unable to make out movement for their breathing. Samus heard Anton say "No...John...Kelly," and then something else. Samus crouched down and placed a hand on the Chief's shoulder and then she looked at Kelly.
After several painful moments they began to stir. Samus watched them move, on edge. The Phazon could have corrupted their minds. Her right hand tightened in the cannon, waiting for the signal from her brain to open fire on them.
It was Kelly who spoke first, "What. The. Hell. Happened." She wasn't expecting an answer from any one; in fact, she was painfully unaware that there was anyone around her. Fire burned through all her muscles. Kelly was grateful for the pain, however. It meant that she was alive. But was John? She looked towards the Chief and saw that he was sitting as well.
John looked at her, having gone through the same line of thinking that she had. He had barely heard what she had said. He shook his head to tell her that he didn't know. Then the Chief looked around, first spotting the other Spartans, who were watching him and Kelly very carefully, obviously concerned. Then he twisted to the other side and saw Samus. Her visor was not as opaque as a Spartan's, so he saw the worried look in her eyes and the furrowed eyebrows. Then a smile of relief broke onto her face and she sat back, chuckling.
Samus stood after a moment. She had just noticed their suit coloration. It was black now instead of green. A wonderful matte black, just as inky as her own suit. She offered a hand to the Chief since Kelly was already getting to her feet. Samus helped John up and then looked at Kelly, fully intending to answer her question.
She fixed a scanner on Kelly, it confirmed her theory. "Your suits have been corrupted by the vast amounts of Phazon that was in the Omega Pirate. I don't know the full effects of the Phazon corruption, however, so be careful about taking hits. When the Chozo modified your suits they must have given them the same modular nature as mine. Phazon's corrosive though, so I'm going to need you two examined thoroughly once we get back to the Migration."
"Correct." Adam said, "Cortana is giving your suit as thorough a diagnostic as she can right now, and it's taking all of her processing power." And then he added, "Fortunately, you both are very lucky."
"So how are we getting out of here?" John asked the AI.
"Good question. Samus, use your thermal visor."
Samus did as she had been told and noticed the hot spot that appeared on an otherwise plain wall. She then fixed her scanner on the point. "Bendiezium, damaged by the fight." She said. "Scanners say it's got a transporter behind it. Would explain how the Pirates and Covenant set that guy up without dying down here."
"Correct. Flying Pirates could have made it up and down without mishap, but they aren't very bright. Other Pirates and even Covenant would have had to set the Omega's pod in here, they would need a way up." Adam said, "And no, I didn't tell you to jump down on a hunch, Lady."
"Thanks for reading my mind, Adam." Samus muttered and walked over to the bendiezium covering and changed to her morph ball form, and planted one of her Power Bombs. The flare of white light destroyed the cover on the transporter. It was a doorframe that was covered in green shielding.
Samus walked through it first. She appeared on the top of the ledge, where they had jumped down. She used her thermal visor to double check for alien activity. Then she whispered over TEAMCOM, "All clear."
One by one the rest of the Spartans appeared on the edge. They all looked around, raising their preferred weapons to clear the area. At that momentary pause Samus finally took the time to glance up at her shielding, down to only four tanks. She had to be careful.
"Alright," Samus said. "Shall we?"
John nodded with a certain stiffness. His injuries were great, he noticed as he looked over the team's stats on TEAMBIO. Fred was covered in second-degree burns and had a broken wrist. Linda had escaped with only burns. Anton had a broken arm, burns, and pulled muscles. He and Kelly were covered in the greatest burns and had dangerously low blood pressures along with some broken bones. Even Samus had taken some injuries, half her ribs were broken and her left shoulder was displaced, but she had gotten away without any burns.
They still managed to cleverly beat all of the forces they came across on their way down the complex, the conventional way. When they came across a hunter pair in some lower rooms, John was hit almost dead on by their fuel rod cannon. His shields sustained the blast and still remained a hairsbreadth. Then the charge came back to full in less then a second, almost instantly.
Minutes later they came to a small data room with a holographic projection of the ring world. John walked towards it. He knew that this was the map that they had worked so hard to get to.
"There." Cortana said, "That's the Silent Cartographer."
"How do we activate it?"
"I don't know." Cortana said.
"You've got a knack for this stuff, Chief." Samus told him, "Better then me at any rate. You want to give it a try?"
John walked forwards and activated the holographic display.
"Analyzing." Cortana said, delighted, "The Control Room's there." She highlighted a part of the map on everyone's HUD. "It appears to be some sort of shrine."
The entire group turned around and made their way back up. They all once made the mistake of entering a room they had just cleared, to find it full of invisible Pirates and Elites. The ensuing battle brought them all a spike in adrenaline. By the time they were reaching the exit of the underground area, Samus was on her last energy tank.
They got back into the LRV and John drove them back to the beach head. Samus fell to the ground once the magnetic railing was shut off. Her shielding was completely gone and her armor had taken a great deal of punishment on the way back. She walked at a toddler's speed to the recharge station. The energy beams whirred to life and recharged her energy tanks and undid some of the damage on her suit, however she was still almost ready to collapse. There was a brief fight while they waited to dust off.
In a minute the drop ship was waiting for them, collecting the LRV and the recharge station. The nine armored humans scrambled aboard the ship. Samus leaned back in her seat, unable to doze off due to the pain in her side. She could ignore it, and she had taken worse, but she would still need medical treatment.