Space Pirate Homeworld-Year 2557, Empire Entrance
The Arbiter stared off into the storm. It was at its worst right now. He wondered why neither he nor Ridley was hurt from the green droplets-but Spartan and Samus was. It was a mystery yet to be solved. But not the highest prioritary mystery to be solved right now.
"I have terrible news I believe you may not want to hear. My Elites are trapped in the building over there," the Arbiter broke the silence as he pointed at the colosseum building he was recently in.
"That is where Phantoon most likely is. We need to check it anyway," Samus said.
"But, Ridley just said-"
"Elite, listen! Ridley has lied over what he'd do for the humans thousands of times. I doubt he will stop now," Samus snapped.
"We need a plan," Master Chief said.
"Any ideas, Chief?" Cortana asked.
"Yes. Samus will search for Phantoon in the palace in one wing, while the Arbiter and I will go set his Elites free of the Space Pirates. If we have no luck, we will switch wings." Chief said.
"Let's go," Samus said. "But be careful of the acid rain." The Arbiter ran up the hill and stood at the entrance, and Samus and Chief followed. Samus hacked the door, and it opened. Cortana opened a different door, and Chief ran halfway in.
"Come on, Arbiter!" Cortana yelled. The Arbiter looked at the unconscious body of Ridley, on the ground, pelted by the acid rain. Once he noticed the body move slightly, the Arbiter immediately ran in.
"We must hurry," the Arbiter said.
Space Pirate Homeworld-Year 2557, Space Pirate Empire Wing 6fA
"Ridley just moved out there." Chief and the Arbiter ran up a staircase and found a new weapon on the ground. It looked a ton like a Brute Spiker. Chief picked it up and started to fire it. Little green pellets shot out and exploded when it hit the floor.
"That is a Battlehammer. Or, that is what Ridley called it," the Arbiter said.
"Is it deadly?"
"Yes," the Arbiter replied.
"Good," Chief said. They ran through a door and heard some footsteps. Master Chief went to the side of the wall and put his back to it, almost unnoticable. The Arbiter hid behind the doorway as well. Chief peered over through the doorway and saw a Space Pirate. It was coming this way.
Crap, Master Chief thought. The Space Pirate walked through the door, and immediately the Arbiter pounded it hard onto the ground. The Pirate fell, guts pouring out. Ouch.
"Why did you do that?" Master Chief asked. The Arbiter looked at him. The Arbiter kneeled, and brushed his hand on the Pirate's back.
"Backside sensors. It would've seen us once it got by us," the Arbiter said. "I don't really think we want anything to see us in here."
"Good point. Continue," Chief said. The Arbiter ran through the doorway, and Master Chief followed suit. This was a big room, but, luckily, no Space Pirates in sight. The Arbiter walked slowly ahead.
"Wait!" Cortana yelled. The Arbiter paused.
"What is it?" he asked.
"Yank me," she said to Master Chief. He pulled the microchip from behind his head and placed it on the ground. Cortana's computerized body walked out. She snapped her computerized fingers, and red lasers appeared across the floor. The Arbiter was a few inches from the closest one, so he jumped back.
"Have we almost called in a squadron of Space Pirates?" the Arbiter asked with his deep voice.
"No-" Cortana touched the laser. She was an AI so it couldn't set the alarm off. "No, actually. The alarm would just sound, and the one stupid enough to stomp on the laser will be overstabbed by hundreds of spikes, shooting out of the wall," Cortana explained. The Arbiter looked around.
"Are they watching us?" he asked.
"No. But if Ridley was awake, yes. He has eyes that can hack everything artificially, meaning he can hack the things to see what would happen, while in truth, the object of technology is untouched by any force."
"So that's why he could identify my cellular structure," the Arbiter said. Master Chief walked up.
"Any ideas what did this to him?" he asked, pinching the Arbiter's arm slightly. Cortana squinted.
"He appears to have the least reactive isotope of the chemical phazon, which is a chemical highly reactive to carbon," Cortana said.
"Spartan...a human did this to me," the Arbiter said, turning to Master Chief.
"How so?"
"A marine was corrupted by it. How, I do not know. But he sent a phazonide tentacle out to me. Now, I'm infected. It's like a more gradual Flood," the Arbiter replied.
"Right only this is a chemical. It can't be stopped as far as our knowledge takes us," Cortana said. The Arbiter ran over to a wall that led up to another floor.
"Come. I believe my Elites are this way," the Arbiter said. He clawed into the wall with his phazonide arm, and pulled himself up with his unaffected arm. Slowly, but steadily, the Arbiter managed to get himself up onto the floor above.
"Clear," Master Chief heard the Arbiter say, and he grabbed some machinery that stuck out and pulled himself up, too. He had already put Cortana back into his helmet. Chief stood up, and saw the purple sky with acid rain. Beyond a large wall Kraid sat, sleeping.
"Careful, Spartan. That green creature does not die from mere gunshots," the Arbiter said. The colosseum was abandoned: the Space Pirates were too busy in a different chamber. They walked and saw a gap in the wall, in which Master Chief looked down and saw Kraid. Near Kraid was a white body of an Elite with a spike driven through it.
"Arbiter. Is that...the shipmaster?" Chief asked. The Arbiter looked out and stared at the white armoured Elite as well.
"Ytrian didn't deserve to die so harshly," the Arbiter said quietly. "Come." The Arbiter and Master Chief walked down into a different room, and noticed that they were on a large glass hallway that hovered above a squadron of Space Pirates that had jetpacks on their backs.
"By the Prophets," the Arbiter whispered, to where Chief could hear.
"I'm thinking we have to sneak," Cortana said. The Arbiter nodded and walked out. Slowly, he creeped on the glass hallway. Halfway through, he noticed a gap in the hallway.
"Get over here, Spartan," he said over to Chief. Master Chief creeped over slowly and noticed the gap as well.
"Crap," Master Chief said.
"I will go first." The Arbiter jumped across the gap silently, or, it was silent, until the Arbiter accidentally lost his balance, and fell, his armor making a Clank! on the glass. He got up and brushed himself off, and looked out of the glass. The Space Pirates were staring at him.
"Yugata!" the commander of the squadron called, and the Space Pirate's jets rocketed blue fire, and they started to fly towards the glass. They were going to shatter it.
"Spartan! Jump!" the Arbiter yelled. Master Chief took a quick look at the approaching fiends, and leaped across the gap as well. He landed more gracefully than the Arbiter did, and they took off and ran. They were lucky enough to escape the room before the glass shattered and the Space Pirates flew in and chased them like bees would. The Arbiter pointed up a wrecked staircase, and Chief ran up, Arbiter following him. The flying Space Pirates were gaining. They ran up the staircase, leaving some stairs falling. Why the staircase was wrecked the Arbiter had no idea. They ran up and entered a large room. The room sort of looked like it was designed for a Space Pirate Major.
"Perhaps Ridley's throne?" the Arbiter suggested.
"You're wrong, Arbiter," a voice said. The Arbiter looked around him. Nothing.
"Cortana! What was that?" Master Chief asked. The voice laughed in a ghostly manner.
"I'm not sure," Cortana replied. The flying Space Pirates hesitated to continue any further once they reached the top of the stairs.
"Who are you?" the Arbiter called. From behind the Arbiter a large, round monster with two short tentacles appeared, its eye in its mouth. The Arbiter looked behind him. Nothing.
"Where are you?" the Arbiter called.
"I am in your mind, Arbiter," the voice said. The Arbiter looked over at Chief.
"Do you think it could be Gravemind?" he asked. Chief shrugged.
"Behind you!" Cortana called. The Arbiter looked behind him, and so did Chief. There was the monster.
"Who are you?" the Arbiter demanded, extending an Energy Sword.
"I? I am Phantoon," the voice said and laughed out loud.
"And your friends are gone," Phantoon added. He then disappeared and levitated over his throne. Krumarai walked out, assault rifle ready.
"Spartan! That is the human that did this to me!" the Arbiter said.
"I do not mean to hurt you, Arbiter," Phantoon spoke slowly and ghostly. "I am here to do something that your Prophet could never do-finish the Great Journey."
"That's preposturous! The Great Journey is a fraud," the Arbiter said.
"Is it?" Phantoon asked. "Or was the Prophet trying to lead the Covenant to peace?" The Arbiter narrowed his eyes.
"You sound just like him," he said.
"Now you are the one who sounds preposturous. I am here to help you, Arbiter," Phantoon said, and disappered to be behind the Arbiter. The Arbiter turned around.
"Don't tell anyone, but...Ridley is here to hurt you. I am a traitor," Phantoon said. The voice of Phantoon this time was echoing. He was using telepathy so only the Arbiter could hear it.
"I'm going to fire the rings, Arbiter. And you will enjoy the feeling of death, and going to eternal paradise," Phantoon hissed in the Arbiter's head.
"No! No! Get away from me!" the Arbiter yelled. "Get out of my head!" The Arbiter looked up, and Phantoon looked stumped.
"What are you talking about? Are you insane?" Phantoon asked to where everything could hear it. The Arbiter was angry. Phantoon turned to the Space Pirates. "Dismissed," he said. The Pirates left. They have to obey the Pirate Major. Phantoon floated over to the Arbiter.
"I cannot let Ridley hear of this," Phantoon said. He was levitating the Arbiter upward. The Arbiter was starting to choke.
"If he does by your mouth, Krumarai will have your head," Phantoon said, and dropped the Arbiter. He disappeared, and this time he didn't reappear. Krumarai stared at the Arbiter for a second, and walked backwards, until he was out of sight.
"What was that all about?" Master Chief asked, staring at the Arbiter.
"He is going to fire the rings," the Arbiter said.
Space Pirate Homeworld-Year 2557, Space Pirate Empire Wing 7hY
Samus already twisted around many corners and corridors. She didn't sneak like what Chief and the Arbiter did: she killed every Space Pirate in sight, no matter how hard the wave was. She ran down a staircase, killed a few more Space Pirates, and ran into a room. The room had a giant wall in it, with about twenty Space Pirates surrounding it. There was something on the other side. Without being noticed yet, Samus rolled into Morph Ball and laid a Power Bomb to decimate the the numbers of the Space Pirates. Now, there was enough for her to simply stand and fire. The surviving Space Pirates started running at Samus, and she unrolled and started to fire the Flamethrower. (Those who have not played Metroid Prime at all, the Flamethrower is a Missle combo mixing the Missle with the Plasma Beam, which burns foes) The Pirates fell over and died. Samus immediately ran to the other side of the wall. She looked down, and there were Elites on the ground, three of them decapitated, the other two standing, armorless, looking just plain exhausted. Samus gasped.
"What did they do to you?" she asked.
"Horrible, horrible things..." one of the two said. Now she believed Master Chief and the Arbiter about the Elites not being Space Pirates-their unarmoured bodies look nearly nothing like one.
"Wait...aren't you the demon that attacked our ship randomly?" an Elite asked. Samus blushed, not like anyone could see it.
"Well, yeah," she said, and scratched the back of her helmet embarrassed.
"What by the Prophets are you doing here, then?" asked the Elite, Tura, narrowing his eyes.
"I'm here with...your leader...and we are searching separately. I'm trying to find Phantoon-" Tura immediately started to have his head hurt. No one knows why, but he was moaning. The other Elite looked at Samus.
"Phantoon?" he asked.
"Yes, Phantoon," Samus said. "The Space Pirate Major that comitted a crime, long ago," she added. The Elites raised their heads.
"No, he is about to commit another," Tura said.
"What's that?" Samus asked, ready to kill Phantoon.
"He is going to fire the sacred rings, the task our Prophets failed to complete," Tura said.
"Then you should be happy," Samus replied.
"No. The Great Journey is what the Prophet called it, and he failed to finish it for the Elites and the Covenant. The Great Journey is a fraud. It was a suicidal attempt the Prophet took, and he almost did, but we were lucky enough he didn't.," Tura explained.
"I still don't get something. What is this ring supposed to do?" Samus asked.
"We'd rather stop it so we don't have to tell you," Tura said. Samus turned around.
"Come on. We need to find the Arbiter," she said. "And John."
"Who's John?" the other Elite asked.
"Spartan 117." The two Elites were still stumped.
"You'll know him when you see him," Samus said. The two Elites looked at each other, shrugged and followed Samus. They went to the crossover hall and waited. About six minutes later, Master Chief and the Arbiter ran down from the side opposite of where the Elites were.
"Good! You found...most of my brothers," the Arbiter said sadly.
"Where are the others?" he asked Tura.
"Executed. By the Space Pirates."
"Vile, hostile creatures!" the Arbiter yelled. "We must kill Ridley to end the Space Pirate Empire once and for all," he added.
"You can't kill Ridley just like that," Samus said, snapping her fingers under the italicized word. "It takes time. He lived for centuries, and the only way to end his life is when his sixteen-century life span is over," Samus said. "We can send him dormant for so many weeks. That's it."
"How many centuries has he lived?" Master Chief asked.
"Only about seven," Samus said. Ridley is old, huh? "A normal Space Pirate soldier dies of old age by around three-hundred, but earlier by any other cause," she added.
"Kraid will live approximately ten centuries, Draygon six centuries, and Phantoon..." Samus paused.
"What about him?" the Arbiter asked.
"Well, Phantoon is already dead," Samus said.
"He is going to fire the sacred rings," the Arbiter said.
"We have already informed her, Arbiter," Tura said.
"We have to go stop Phantoon," Cortana told out. Everyone nodded and walked out. A giant, winged creature was on the balcony ahead of them.
"Stop Phantoon from doing what?" it asked. The Arbiter narrowed his eyes.
"Ridley," he said lowly and quietly.