(Summary, T was ejected from his home planet of Earth as per his request. Figuring he could find a better place to exist elsewhere in the cosmos he took everything he considered to be of value to him. Now he is finding himself in a crisis that could affect the universe. Inspired by Metroid, the Ed Hunters and by extension the metroid prime games.)

Chapter 1 - Out of one hell, into something worse

Location: Cape Canaveral

Time: 13:00 local

Date: December 12, 202X

A rocket stood erect as a group of people pushed a large capsule toward its main bay. It was a sunny day, though the event that was going to occur in the next hour was anything but happy for some. A second cart followed the first group, carrying many objects for the first burden. They all loaded up into a freight elevator, pushing their burdens into the primary shuttle.

Inside the first load was a young man, frozen in time. His skin white as snow due to the liquid nitrogen having flooded the interior, the human inside preserved. The second containment unit had a variety of items, most of it belonging to him. Each item that could be broken was placed in special cases to absorb any shock or shake that could risk the integrity otherwise. This launch served a two-fold purpose. The first was getting a preserved human out of the solar system for the first time. The second, more personal to the individual currently preserved, was to escape Earth and its poor elements. As much as he hated goodbyes, he sent a message to his best friend in secret. To everyone else, he ignored the requests politely, or outright told them to go to hell. He willingly stepped into the capsule and demanded to be frozen. Still, after the successful freezing process, and subsequent loadup of the shuttle's cargo, some did show up a few miles away from the launch site.

Once the capsule and possessions were loaded up, which included a vast collection of media for him to still recall his roots, the shuttle was shut tight and a course was set that would lead the vessel out of the solar system, safely. It was programmed to evade danger, but since it was untested, the technicians were not sure if the shuttle would be able to perform evasive maneuvers.

The countdown has begun.

Time ticked away as the prechecks began for the launch. Once all was green, they began the startup sequence.

5 minutes until launch. A few certain people were either watching the event live or had shown up close enough to the launch pad to get a good view of the rocket before it disappeared.

One female looked at the rocket but showed no emotion. She held her significant other's hand as she recalled the frozen individual. Her only thought was this. 'It's my fault.'

Launch time.

The thrusters roared to life, spewing hot fires as the tower restraints disconnected. It had begun to ascend, accelerating to escape velocity and beyond. Soon, the flare of the rocket disappeared and the sounds of the thrusters went silent. The launch was a success. But it would be a long time before the shuttle made it out of the solar system.

Time ticked by, but the items as well as the frozen individual remained untouched by it. The shuttle was dark inside to save power, save for some switches. Once every 10 years, it'll phone back to Earth while it's still in range.

However, fate had seen this launch. And she had a plan for the individual. His life would be harsh, but he would adapt. There would be enemies to attack him, but he would be triumphant. She would wait awhile, let him have his seemingly eternal rest amid the chilling void. It would be a very long time before he would open his eyes. And the world he once knew, if he remembers, will be long gone.

_

Days turned into weeks, weeks to months, months to years, years to decades.

A century had passed since the shuttle had escaped the influence of the sun. The shuttle had not encountered very much trouble. The burdens inside had not moved, and the cryogenic tube had remained stable. The vast space surrounding the shuttle was awesome, but he would not enjoy it. Not yet. The sun was but a distant beacon now, slightly brighter than the other stars given its distance from the shuttle. Earth wasn't even visible, nor were the other planets. It was a lonely day in the shuttle, but T would not have it any other way.

Much time had passed, to be exact the counter stopped after the 100 thousandth year. The shuttle picked up a distress signal from another region of space and began the process of thawing the lone human to try and interface with the signal.

Lights flickered on before the tank hissed. The thawing process took a few minutes as the male began to wake. He was coughing once he became conscious. His voice unusable, his would-be yell that signified of his wake came out a raspy exhale, dotted with minute vocal movements. He was beyond sore. Everything hurt. And because of the lack of gravity, he was floating, nude as the day he was born. Luckily the heater was on in this stale air. The hatch opened, releasing him to the rest of the shuttle. Oxygen supply was nominal. A drawer hissed to his left, showing a set of clothes. A pair of briefs and a NASA issued jumpsuit.

T took his time getting his muscles to wake up after millenia of being frozen. His mind still hazy, he wasn't too sure where he was or why he was floating. He just kept hearing a muffled alarm and some message he couldn't comprehend being repeated. He slowly got dressed in his clothes and noticed a black hair tie floating by him aimlessly. His shoulder blade length blond hair floated in his view and he sighed, putting his hair up by mere instinct, it was slow going since his muscles were still warming up. He floated through the shuttle as the alarms became clearer in his ears. Feeling grumpy from waking up, the chill still in his bones and the fact he was very hungry, he tried yelling out at the alarms to shut them up. His voice was still gone, but nothing a drink of water won't fix. Coming up on the console at the front of the shuttle, he rubbed his eyes to clear them. Finding the switch to turn off the alarms he flipped it, and sighed as silence reigned in the shuttle once more. Letting himself have a few minutes rest, he closed his eyes, letting his mind drift on the questions now surfacing in his mind.

His train of thought was derailed by the rumble in his stomach. Sighing once more, he looked around for any food storage, still not comprehending that the shuttle was floating toward a planet, and more specifically, a large alien vessel. He looked around, still in a daze before another drawer hissed before him. A hot meal was served from some freeze dried food. The contained food floated toward him and he took it. It was mostly liquid filled pouch, with a water bottle. He ate the food and squeezed the bottle with the opening in his mouth. With food and drink now in his belly, he could think a little clearer. He sent the disposable items into a lidded trash bin. It wouldn't help to have garbage lying around. The fact that he was floating in zero G would take only a moment to hit him. When it did, it hit him like a ton of bricks.

The alarming prospect jarred him from his half-hazy mental state before he rushed to the front of the shuttle as quickly as he could. He hit the pilot chair somewhat hard but gripped it to keep from floating away. He looked out and saw space.. a shapeless nebula in the background. Much closer was an amber colored planet with a blue atmosphere. In the middle of it was a pretty large crater.

"Holy shit..." his first intelligent words he uttered since before his big freeze. Then his eyes noticed 2 ships, both alien in design, but to him vaguely familiar.

One ship was very large, with dark greys and blacks and a few orange lines blinking on and off in long intervals, like the red lights on a cell tower. The smaller ship, and more eye catching, was orange. But from his angle of approach and the distance separating the two vessels, he couldn't make out the details; he did however, have a sense of ominous foreboding settling in his heart.

The shuttle lurched to the right a little, making T hit his head a bit on the side of the chair's headrest which surrounded him in a way a reinforced racing chair would in a car. "Ouch..." he rubbed his head. A small asteroid passed harmlessly by the shuttle's left wing before going on ahead and crashing into a part of the larger ship. The rock split apart on impact before the fragments headed toward the large terrestrial planet before them.

The shuttle made to park near the structure. But with no way to actually connect to and dock with the larger ship, he would need to go outside. A light flickered in his view. He looked to it, seeing it was a comm signal key. With nothing better going on at this time, he clicked it on. A language he didn't understand filled the lonely shuttle. "...well shit. Light years from earth most likely. I guess I can't be surprised that English hasn't come around..."

Sighing, he starts the process of manual control. The fuel level wasn't high, but it will do. The shuttle moves to a position where he can make a good jump. However, his clouded memories of his past were starting to surface. "Wait. Why do I remember this place? I have never been here before." He mused to himself as the shuttle neared the derelict frigate. When the shuttle got closer, he made out the details of the smaller orange ship. "I'm dreaming... there is no way in hell I am here..." He put on the brakes just enough to stop the shuttle over the platform directly above the portion of the platform nearest to the door.

He opens a comm channel to the orange craft. "If I'm right.. this is gonna get ugly fast, or get uglier faster..." He muttered to himself. He cleared his throat before speaking in a clear voice. "This is NASA exploration shuttle Halcyon, does anyone read?" Nothing but static was his response. He repeated his statement. "Pilot of the orange vessel, this is NASA exploration shuttle Halcyon, do you read?" Still more static. He hung his head low, his pony tail followed the motion of his head slapping lightly on top of it. A sigh fills the cockpit. "Damn it..." he turned off the communication module. "Well, won't get anything done floating around like crap in a sewer. I wonder if those eggheads packed me a suit my size." He rotates the shuttle over the platform of the docking bay, where the shuttle's topside could open up toward the platform. It was a risky venture, but he did not have a lot else to do. He stabilized the craft so it would not keep moving around relative to the frigate. The shuttle was now positioned 10 meters above the platform, close enough to make the short trip but not so much that the shuttle wouldn't have time to evade the frigate if it started to move toward the shuttle.

He floats over to a clear containment unit that held a space suit inside. The process took him 10 minutes to suit up since he was still a little tired from his hypersleep; the helmet was lowered over his head, and snapped to the suit "I feel fat in this damn suit... what I wouldn't do for something sleek.." he muttered to himself. He would be getting his wish soon but he would be working hard for it.

Once he was sealed into the suit and had a hand gun and knife attached along side a wrist computer just in case he needed to pull the data he will inevitably find on the ship, he went through the airlock and went on his first space walk. The weapons were included in his possessions' manifest at the behest of some military commander whose name he didn't bother to remember. Thoughts of his home planet drifted into his mind. The people he left behind... her.. the ultimate reason he left.

The very thought of that woman brought up feelings of fierce anger. The white hot anger he felt burned him up. He closed his eyes.

He shook his head to clear his mind of such detestable thoughts, memories that had no point to be remembered. He was presumably far away from Earth and likely everyone he knew is either dead or has forgotten about him. He seemed to drift slowly into the doorway. A set of holograms lit up to his left but he gave them only a quick glance before proceeding. He faintly remembered them to be the active statuses of the various decks on board the ship. Pulling himself along the walls, the hatch behind him slowly closed, an indication that it was in disrepair, though he did not notice due to the lack of noise beyond his breathing. "...this is Orpheon... fuck. At least that general or whatever had the foresight to pack me a gun for the trip... though I'll need to strip a pirate of its armor and weapons to be of any threat to those that lie within." T said to himself. He got to the other hatch and hit it hard enough to make it open up. His suspicions confirmed of his current location, marked by the presence of 2 floating dead parasites. "Yep... ET confirmed ya dickheads... would have rather stayed in cryo.." he pushed himself to the panel and tapped on it until the room repressurized. He promptly fell to his knees and hands with a thud as the gravity was restored. He fell to the side having experienced gravity for the first time since he was frozen. The wrist monitor confirmed the presence of oxygen and that it was safe to open the suit. Sitting up to get his bearings, he opened the helmet and instantly the regret of the action set in. The stale muted air of the shuttle was a spray of a lysol can compared to the stench now filling his nose. "Yep... definitely should have stayed in cryo. Where's that bounty hunter when you need her?" He muttered to himself, his voice filled the room. He took his time removing the suit and setting it next to the control panel before taking up the pistol, additional magazines stored in the suit and a combat knife. He then strapped the device to his wrist feeling he would need it soon. At least with this, he would have a method of dealing damage. He sat against the cold metal wall, the distant groans of the ship filling the room. The hatch he came through sealed itself with a clicking lock. "...at least the ship is at least smart enough to make sure the door stays shut." He started his stretches to try and wake his muscles up. It took him 15 minutes to do so as he started getting used to the smell here. The parasites laid on their backs, long dead from spending who knows how long floating in a vacuum. He continued his stretches until he felt well enough to move on further into the depths of this ship.

He punched the next hatch again, disrupting the field and allowing it to open. He steps forward, not really feeling all that well. His mind was working feverishly but he forced himself to remain calm. He was not going to lose his damn mind just because he is in a science fiction setting that could potentially kill him.

...

A trio of parasites ran in a platform under him. "Christ!" He yelled. "Ok..relax, relax.. they are weak in very small numbers." He sat down as the hatch closed behind him. "Ok... thinking time. You're on a ship, that is absurdly familiar. There are labrador sized bugs crawling around. All you have is a knife and a pistol with about 18 rounds per magazine. And you have absolutely no way of phoning the planet you fought so hard to escape. The lady who was supposed to be here handling this is nowhere to be found and everything is most likely fucked up... which means she is likely dead and you have to take up her mission loads. Fucking fantastic." The ship shook a bit as something roared in a distance. "And who knows how long this ship's been floating around... probably longer than 6 hours." And of course, he was well aware of the danger in this ship. He got up and set the safety to off on the firearm. "With any luck, I might be able to salvage some weapons from the bodies." He snuck to the next door and hit it hard enough with his punch to disrupt the field. It hurt him a bit but the door opened half way before jamming.

He crawled through and took aim from his position on the catwalk. In the middle of the room was a deceased parasite queen. "Wasn't this room supposed to be on fire?"

There was smoke coming from the half charred corpse in the room. Then it hit him. The odor coming from the body caused him to retch. "Augh! Fuck my life that stench!" He yelled closing his nose. "Not even that old fart back on earth took a shit that smelled this bad."

T felt a headache coming on but he forced himself to deal with it. Sighing again, he looked around and didn't see the parasites in this room. The bodies of the pirates were already eaten through, leaving only their tattered weapons and armor. At least some convenience was allotted to him. He started with the first 2 pieces, one near the creature's ass end, and the other under one of the creature's steel tipped feet. He cobbled together a wrist blade on his left arm and a blaster on his right. The armor was limited in protection but at least his chest was no longer vulnerable. He took in extra power cells for the weapons and stowed them in his pants pockets. "No visor... won't know if I am low or not..." It was shoddy work at best, but given the dire shitstorm his shuttle brought him towards, it was better than what he brought with him. "Wonder if those other injured pirates croaked.."

He tested the wrist blade and it turned on. He swung a few times before turning it off. The 3rd pirate found near the creature's head was also gone, its armor was burned too much to be of use. As for the fourth pirate, he took aim but saw the lack of the blazing eyes on it. He got in just shy of 1 meter and took aim with the blaster. He fired 3 shots destroying its head. "Dead for sure." He raided the body for more power cells, weapons, and armor. At the very least he would have a spare for what he felt was inevitable for when this ship started to explode. The hull groaned around him as he finished his line of thought. He finished strapping the extra armor and gear to his back and he continued on his way. This next door opened with a little more ease as he simply shot it with the blaster rather than punch the door. The door here didn't struggle this time and he walked on through. The wall of debris clicked in his mind. Had he been controlling the Hunter here, he would have used the charge beam but since he lacked a power suit of his own, he would need to improvise. He called up his wrist blade and carved a nice big hole for him to crawl through. He struggled a little due to the armor and the spare he was lugging around but he managed to get through. He grunted as he drug himself up to his feet. He was still a bit tired from his recent thaw, but pushed through the grogginess. "Maybe a nap would be good... aw who the fuck am I kidding? The parasites on board would probably eat at my legs." But the concept of a quick nap was rather welcoming. He would either have to go back the way he came to the safety of his shuttle or take the risk of napping in one of the likely infested rooms. Sighing again, he shot the door before him, and watched it open. Like the last one it opened with no issues, however, beyond the door way, he saw a pair of parasites booking it into a low hole in the wall and his memory clicked. This was the map station on the frigate. Hearing the snarls and cries of the parasite pair going quiet, he took his cue to follow the same path, leaving his spare gear in the corner. He crawled through the hole slowly. "I wonder how I could use morph ball.." he muttered to himself as he crawled through the vent. He managed to make it to the other side and moved to sit against the wall. He felt better as he shut his eyes. He yawned deeply as his body shuddered a bit from the cold metal wall. Removing his armor but leaving on the blaster and blade, he let his muscles relax. He dare not open a comm channel here in case anyone was listening that shouldn't be, he did however tried to scan through the frequencies to see if he got anything. So far, only static was heard. Turning off his radio, he tucked his knees to his chest as he moved to the corner toward the left of the vent. He could see Tallon IV out the window of this room. Exhaustion was setting in and the temptation to sleep was growing stronger. His eye lids grew heavy and he moved to lay on his back. His last thoughts before letting sleep held him ran through his mind.

'I wonder if they're happy...without me...'

The lone human on board a broken ship of horrors laid on a cold indifferent floor, with only the sounds of the monitors and the random intermittent groans of the ship to be used as comfort. Surprisingly, sleep came easy. But the coming nightmare would only be the start of his troubles.