Samus Aran's Ship-Year 2557, Somewhere in Space
Samus sat in her ship, wondering what to do or where to go. She was forced off of a Pirate falgship-or so she thought-by mere Space Pirate infantry units-or at least that is what she thought. They weren't Space Pirates by exact species or any kind of antagonistic force that she knew of. And all she wanted to do was slay Phantoon. Why? Phantoon has comitted a crime long ago that cannot be forgiven now. It has much to do with phazon. The thought of Phantoon comitting a crime that seems more Ridley-ish made her sick and think about Ridley. She didn't want to think about him right now, though. Phantoon was the current criminal, number one on the list of the GFS's Most Wanted list.
She pressed four buttons in her ship, and it showed a map of the current galaxy she was in. Her target was most likely the Pirate Homeworld, but perhaps she could try the center of the galaxy, the Solari Truna, as named by the Chozos. She pressed the Solari and her ship blasted towards the center of the galaxy, simply searching for Phantoon.
Soon, Samus came across another frigate. It was abandoned, as far as she knew, and had phazon spread across its surface-perhaps the inside, too.
"Space Pirates," she whispered to herself. She mashed some buttons and turned towards the frigate, hoping that she was right. If not, then a helpless race was just extinguished due to a near-unharnessable substance. It was time to figure out which.
Runai Trutlau-Year 2557, Somewhere in Space
The Arbiter's ship was attached to Ridley's flagship, so they allowed Ridley to fly them to the destination-which was Earth.
"Pardon, Ridley, but how exactly does Earth have to help us? We were only here to say greetings to the humans," the Arbiter said. Ridley turned from his seat that was stationery in the control deck of the Space Pirate flagship.
"No particular reason." The ship drifted closer to Earth silently with some quiet little rockets sliding their way to Earth. It would probably be another half-hour until they entered the atmosphere, though.
"So tell me, Arbiter. Why have you come to greet the humans?" Ridley wondered, fidgeting with the controls.
"It's...complicated..." the Arbiter replied. He bowed his head and closed his eyes.
"Arbiter, I am Ridley, one of the most intelligent life forms, perhaps. I'm all for complicated," Ridley said.
"Well, to start, we Elites were against the humans. We were in an organization known as the Covenant. We were sided with other creatures of other races: the Grunts, the Hunters, the Jackals, and the Brutes. I'll tell you a profile on those later. But what happened was this: There is a sacred ring the humans call a "Halo." The Halo was built by an ancient race known as the Forerunners, and the Forerunners have made nine rings total. The rings are large, and contain the attributes of a planet on the inner side, and mechanical machinery on the outer section. The Halo was built to be used as a weapon of mass destruction to terminate a parasite that can wipe a whole species out in one sweep known as the Flood. We Covenant had strict Hierarchs, called Prophets. Three of them: Truth, Mercy, and Regret. The Hierachs wished to drive the rest of the Covenant to follow a Great Journey. This was a "Journey" that was to be fulfilled to follow the Covenant's religion. As it turned out, the Prophets were merely trying to fire the rings in a suicidal attempt to annihilate the whole Covenant. Though they had failed, the Elites were driven out of the Covenant. The other Elites were the only ones to believe me, so the Jackals, Hunters, Brutes, and Grunts all stayed behind and tried to kill us, calling us the traitor. We should have believed the Heretics, who may just have not been Heretics after all. We were forced to side with the humans to slay Tartarus, the Brute leader. We succeeded and stayed allied with the humans to stop our enemy-the Prophets. I was joined with the Spartan 117, or Master Chief, as the humans called him. Unfortunately..." the Arbiter paused.
(keep in mind I made him stop talking so I won't spoil the ending to Halo 3 for you all)
Ridley raised his head.
"Well. Good answer. It is a benefit for you that your reason is good for joining forces with the humans, otherwise I would've killed you within the next micro-cycle," he said. The Arbiter gulped. This guy was strict.
"Why do you despise the human race so intensely?" the Arbiter asked. Now it's Ridley's turn to tell his story.
"It was year 2314. A group of humans formed together to form an intergalactic defense team known as the GFS. Me and my Space Pirates are criminals, don't you know. We didn't like to steal, however. We use a totally different method of comitting crime similar to stealing, though. We search the universe for things that will make our army bigger, better, stronger, and have the best defenses. Our first stop was a lonely but dangerous planet called SR388. There, we have not only found the chemical Glomintosin in which I used for a project, but we had found a deadly species as well-Metroids. We harnessed the Metroids, and they also served as a sacrifice to give life to my project. The Metroids did turn against us, though, and spread out. The GFS learned of this, and they sent someone new, yet capable to stop our plans-Samus Aran. But I shan't jump ahead. I killed Samus's parents long ago, in year 2529. I then destroyed Earth once and for all. Just before Earth exploded, however, Samus's mother handed her baby to the Chozos, knowing that the world would implode soon. The Chozos got away, and raised Samus. They taught her discipline, how to kill, what enemies would pose a major threat-they even included me on that list. Though they called me the Black One. Samus grew up and joined the GFS as a Major Bounty Hunter. Nearly right after that, I sent Phantoon to destroy a major defense the GFS had contained. Phantoon succeeded and retreated back here, and they sent Samus to try and stop us. She entered Zebes, which also is the planet the Chozos raised her on, and had slain the many natives. She entered the depths of Brinstar and nearly killed Kraid, so I called him in for him to retreat. She then zipped down Norfair and injured me with those heavy-duty Super Missles of hers. She then entered Tourian and had slain Mother Brain, both my creation and the reason of the Taridian parasites' existence. We attracted her to her ship after so, and she took her suit off, only her uniform on. My Space Pirates shot her out of the sky in the nick of time, and she fell to Chozodia, another section of Zebes. Her suit got damaged, so she was forced to enter the Pirate Mothership and infiltrate our base we dug up in the Chozo Ruins. She was sneaky to get past us, but we had found her and almost killed her many times. She made it to our base in the Ruins and somehow found her suit and upgraded it. Then she had to go in and kill my previous project I built as a guard-Robotic Ridley. She destroyed the sentry bot and escaped Zebes just before it exploded, but little did she know that we had escaped as well. After that major conflict, we had some other major conflicts, but this one started it all. What makes me despise her so is that she is one person-yet we always seemed to have lost. That can get annoying," Ridley finished. The Arbiter did listen to the whole explanation, but what caught his attention most was Earth. It was gone? But how is it right there?
"How is Earth imploded, yet it is right there?" the Arbiter asked.
"Glad you asked..." Ridley said.
Earth-Year 2557, Rocky Mountains, Colorado
The seven survivors ran into their homes and grabbed guns. They were ready to go out and slay the odd-looking creatures that brought in Phantoon from beyond. They ran out, and they were stopped by a man.
"Get the heck outta the way!" a different man yelled.
"No. You aren't properly armed," the man said. He was obviously a marine five years ago.
"Yeah, right. Assault rifles and battle rifles...what could be better for a basic weapon?" the man asked.
"This is a serious situation. Basic weapons should only be used as a last resort," the marine said. He walked over and kicked a wooden box open nearby the bar. He picked up a weapon that would kill any creature in one shot as far as they knew-a rocket launcher. He picked it up with all of his strength, and loaded it.
"Oh, my God," the man said. The marine started up the foothills nearby to get to the larger mountain.
"Come on," he yelled from far away. The other six survivors ran over with him.
Runai Trutlau-Year 2557, Somewhere in Space
Ridley inhaled.
"You see, it is actually very complicated. I, as you know, have a deep desire to kill Samus Aran. I have been watching the rest of the human race fighting you, and watched them, and watched them...So I have spied on them, and I knew they would be looking for Earth after their war was over. They would come back to Earth, settle in, and I'd give them five years of liesure and no war, no conflict, just peace. They really didn't know that they were near the Pirate Homeworld during the final destruction of the second Halo, so, while nobody was looking, I developed an illusionary panel that is really small, and orbits my Pirate Homeworld. It made my Pirate Homeworld look like their Earth. The real Earth is destroyed, but they don't know that. Not this group of humans. They are really standing on my Space Pirate Homeworld. I gave them five years to rest and relax, not worry about war, but during that time, I watched them. I did so that way I could identify their strengths and weaknesses so I could annihilate the GFS, and destroy these group of humans as well. I may drop the last part because of your relationship with them. Then again, maybe not," Ridley explained. The Arbiter narrowed his eyes and thought hard.
"Now that I think about it, humans mean nothing to us now. I remember that Lord Hood saying he can't forgive us for what we did to his race before. Due to so, we may not be welcomed, and we perhaps will be killed upon surfacing and merely greeting them," he said as he huffed in anger.
"Well, we may as well still go to the Pirate Homeworld, or the illusionised Earth, so we can check up on Phantoon," Ridley noted. The Arbiter nodded assuringly.
Unknown Frigate-Year 2557, Somewhere in Space
Samus put on her suit and laddered out of her ship. (Although the entrance/exit is a liitle shaft that sucks her in and spits her out) It was the abandoned frigate. She was going to try and avoid the phazon spread around the frigate, but this ship was nearly engulfed by it. She jumped past a large puddle of blue phazon, and knocked the door down to the airlock. She walked in and saw nothing more unusual than tiny bugs feeding on the sparking wires that plopped out of the walls, floor and ceiling. No phazon in this room. She ran down to the door and shot it. No reaction. She slammed the door with her gun. No reaction. She looked around, hoping she hadn't have to leave. There was something fishy about this frigate that was abandoned. Her scanners insisted so. She looked at the corner and saw a large, bitten through hole. She could probably morph to Morph Ball and roll under it. She did just that. Wires dangled from inside the ripped up tunnel. She reached the end of the tunnel at a small hole that spat her out into a large chamber with large, harmless parasites climbing around the walls. Samus transformed back and looked below her and was shocked.
"Water?" she wondered. A large pool of water was in front of her. It was mysterious, and probably dangerous-because, well, you know that Metroid can get creepy. She jumped across a gap and landed on another platform, only to learn that no door was at the end of the chamber. If any possible way to proceed, it would be one way and one way only-underwater. Boy, Samus is lucky that her Varia Suit allows her to go underwater without suffocating. She jumped in and sank slowly, towards the bottom. When she reached the bottom, she noticed that there was a door there-thank God-and, to make things worse, (not like they were bad to begin with) there were Grenchlers at the bottom, hybernating. This wasn't good. (Those who beat played Metroid Prime 2 should know what Grenchlers are) She walked slowly and quietly, over to the door. She shot it, and it opened slowly. She walked past the doorway, only to find more Grenchlers. These were asleep as well, but on top of that, there was a giant, spiky, green thing latched to the wall. Samus hadn't a care that the creature was there. She knew it wasn't Phantoon. She swam quietly up to the surface, and pulled herself up to the platform. When she got up, she saw something disturbing.
"Oh, my God," she said.