Space Pirate Homeworld-Year 2557, Empire Entrance
"What is Phantoon doing that I'm not helping him on, Arbiter?" Ridley asked. The Arbiter opened his mouth to speak, but closed it immediately.
If Ridley learns what I'm doing by your mouth, Krumarai will have your head. That thought Phantoon had telepathically told the Arbiter haunted him so. But he had to tell Ridley. Ridley wouldn't be the one to kill the Arbiter, and the Arbiter was already dying from consumption of phazon. What could be worse than that?
"Phantoon...is going to fire a set of rings that will kill all sentient life with in galactic range. Without you. He is going to try to kill all of your Space Pirates..." the Arbiter finally had the whole idea snapped in his mind. Phantoon was already dead, and the phazonide minions were a chemical, not sentient life. If Phantoon fired the rings, the Space Pirates would be out of the picture, and he would create a new race of beings completely consumed by phazon. All life would bow to him. This was all a harsh plan to get respect from all intelligent existence.
"Arbiter! Are you awake?" Ridley snapped.
"Phantoon is going to kill your Pirates purposely, so he can create his own race of phazon-consumed creatures, and he'd be bowed down to. He is going to kill everything, and go to a different galaxy to spread phazon! It all makes sense now..." the Arbiter said. Ridley was stumped.
"That was probably the most intellectual thing you've ever said since I've met you, Arbiter. And yes, it does make sense, except for the ring part," Ridley said. "Where did you get rings from?" The Arbiter opened his mouth, but Samus reached out and cupped it.
"If you come along, we can explain," she said. She regret saying that, but they may just need Ridley to stop Phantoon. Ridley sighed, and shook his head.
"Aran, Aran, Aran...Are you asking me to join forces?" Ridley asked, laughing. Samus looked embarrassed, and again, no one knew.
"Yes..." Samus said. Ridley laughed in screeches.
"Not likely," he mumbled, and extended his wings. Ridley took off into the distance, and flew out to space. Strangely enough, Ridley can breathe in space. Samus sighed.
"Well, he's gone," Chief said.
"But isn't it odd how he didn't attempt to kill us? After all we've done?" the Arbiter asked.
"Yes," Cortana replied. "Too odd." They ran down the hill to Samus's ship, and nothing was there.
"Oh, no," Samus said. "Ridley crushed my ship."
"We're going to have to hi-jack a Space Pirate flagship," Chief said. He looked at the Arbiter.
"Just like old times?" he asked. The Arbiter nodded. If you played the Halo games, you'd know that you can jack Ghosts, Wraiths, Banshees, etc. from enemies, leaving the enemies undefended. Well, what Samus, the Arbiter and his Elites, and Master Chief were going to do was similar. The only difference is no one is driving the vehicle while they jacked it. They ran back up the hill and into the Empire, and it was quiet. Maybe the Space Pirates believe Phantoon and followed him to the Haloes. Even so, the Space Pirates were still bad guys. They had to stop them. Samus jumped into the cockpit of a Stinger, which was the kind of vehicle she stole to escape from Zebes before the original Space Pirate Mothership exploded. Luckily, the Stinger was big enough for all five of them and more. She fidgeted with the controls, and it started up. Master Chief looked into the window and saw a thump pointing up.
Stolen Stinger-Year 2557, Space Pirate Homeworld
"We're good," he said. The Elites nodded, and got into the cargo hold of the Stinger.
"This is strangely similar to what happened to us. What we are doing," the Arbiter said, sitting on a bench.
"No, actually, it is slightly different, and not by the identity of the crminals," Cortana said assuringly. The Arbiter looked up.
"How so?"
"Well, the Prophets were going to fire the rings and kill theirselves. They had a deathwish, and they wanted to take everything with them. Now, Phantoon is trying to build a loyal civilization of phazonide organisms, which can't die unless it can somehow be terminated. The phazon, I mean," Cortana explained. The Arbiter lifted his arm up and looked at it.
"Then, maybe, we can cure me of this, before I become one of them," he said. Tura looked up at the Arbiter.
"I forgot to ask, but...how did this happen to you, Arbiter?" he asked. The Arbiter looked at Tura.
"Well-"
"Phazon. He was infected by the least reactive isotope of the element/chemical phazon. Phazon is extremely reactive with carbon, which is in all living organisms. In fact, the Arbiter was lucky not to die. My suggestion is, don't touch him," Cortana explained. The Arbiter lowered his head slightly.
"A human did this to me..." he said, doubtfully. "But it is no longer human. Phantoon changed him. Now, it is basically a walking chemical..." the Arbiter said. He looked up at Master Chief. "The human was one of him," the Arbiter mumbled, pointing at Master Chief. Master Chief held up his hands.
"Hey, don't look at me. I didn't bring phazon into the universe. I was trapped in a capsule for five years," he said. "I really doubt a capsuled superhuman could cause such a disaster."
"I've picked up some more information on the Halo," Cortana said.
"What about it that we are not aware of?" the other Elite, Huta, said.
"Well...this one is slightly different. It'll take Phantoon more than just pressing a button and inserting the Index into it to fire the rings. He needs one more piece of equipment: the Memory," Cortana explained.
"Then why are we worrying over this?" Tura asked.
"Because Phantoon knows where to find the Memory. Only problem is, I don't," Cortana replied. A sudden force pushed down on the passengers.
"What was that?" the Arbiter asked. They suddenly heard a quick but shrill beep! and Samus spoke over the intercom.
"We have left the atmosphere of the Space Pirate Homeworld. We will probably get to the Halo in about one hour. Oh, and thank you for choosing Stolen Space Pirate Intergalactic Airlines," she joked. Unluckily for her joke, Master Chief was never taught a sense of humor in his vigorous training in his childhood as a Spartan, and the Elites never understood human jokes. Samus sighed and switched to auto-pilot. About one-minute later, the passengers heard another beep, but it wasn't as annoying. The green door of the Stinger that led out into the main deck twisted open, and Samus walked in.
"If you guys are hungry, the...kitchen...is just through the door and to the right," she said. Master Chief slowly got up.
"I could use a bite," he said and walked out. They wouldn't be seeing him for a while.
Halo-Year 2557, First Area
After many hours, Ridley finally landed on a deck on the Halo. He flew much faster than Samus and the Elites did. As he docked, he noticed it was quiet. He looked up. Nothing but an ice world, much like Phendrana Drifts. But it wasn't. Ridley had no idea what the design of the Halo was, but he smelled Space Pirate. He knew he was in the right place. Now was time to figure out what Phantoon was doing that Ridley didn't know about. He stood up on his two hind legs and strided down the titanium catwalk on the Halo.
"Tch! Some super-weapon. This is more like a planet!" Ridley said aloud. His deep, occasionally screeching voice echoed among the mountains. Ridley sighed and kicked a door down that normally would be locked. (The colors on it were red; that means locked) After his successful door break, he tucked in his large wings and dropped down to all fours. He then crawled through the small doorway, just barely fitting, and made it into a building. Once he realized the ceiling wasn't 17-feet tall, Ridley stayed on all fours. Good thing he still had his phazon breath armed-he always does.
Ridley was lucky to have harnessed the stronger isotope of phazon-the odds were against him when he first had it injected, but, unfortunately for the Galactic Federation and all of its allies, Ridley managed to beat the odds. How? He had something that Samus, Master Chief and him had all their life. Luck. Ridley had survived about seven failed encounters with Samus, being badly injured every time, and yet he was still alive, and still trying. Like Samus said: the only way to kill Ridley is when he reaches his life-span's end. What they could do is isolate Ridley by deep-freezing him and waiting for seven more centuries. But would that be worth it? Would that work? Play Metroid Fusion to find out.
Ridley melted a door with his lava-hot flame breath-he could separate between phazon and fire-and crawled through out to an exit. Now, he could stand again, on his two hind legs. So he did. It was a cold land ahead; it was a large range of icy mountains. Wouldn't stop Ridley. He extended his wings and launched into the air and propelled against the wind in order to proceed. This base was here-maybe there were others on the Halo? Who knows. Ridley beat the strong wind current that forced against him; with large wings like his, this was possible. Ridley kept his well-developed eyesight switching sight locations constantly. No base was found for miles. Ridley did, however, see something dreaded among the Covenant, Elites, and UNSC alike. Of course, he mistook it for a Taridian. If it would wipe out a whole species, why bother trying to approach it? Yet another stupid question to ask.
It has been three hours-and Samus had lied. The Stinger wasn't there just yet. But anyway, Ridley was at a decent looking base on a tropical island. To Ridley, the Halo was like an exact copy of Tallon IV. Ah, the memories. The horrible, horrible memories. He docked on a beach and saw a lone Space Pirate waddling along the sand. Ooh, goody! It's interrogation time! Ridley extended his wings and dashed at an unimaginable speed towards the Space Pirate. As soon as Ridley got to it (which was in about one second...or less?) he grabbed the Pirate and wrapped his claw around the struggling alien. Ridley spoke in a language only the Pirates understood.
"Oit krutali Phanoton?" he screeched, which meant ' where is Phantoon?' in Space Pirate language. Startled, the Space Pirate mumbled lowly.
"Hu yat!" he said, which meant 'up there!' and pointed up towards the top of a cliff, where a titanium building was. Ridley threw the Pirate to the ground and rocketed up to the top. You may be wondering why the Space Pirates don't form a revolt against Ridley for actions like that; Ridley had a deadly weapon in which never failed him other than on Samus: red phazon. Ridley stopped flapping and stretched his wings slightly beyond the muscles in the wing lobes' limit: that's Ridley's way of landing. He slammed on the ground and stood up on his hind legs. Two Space Pirates of the elite squadron were guarding the door into the base. Ridley walked up to them, cool, calm, and collected written all over him except for his face. He stopped in front of the guards, and they looked at him strangely. These were most likely clones-Space Pirates who are the same age and same appearance as the original one before it was cloned, but they lose the original one's memory. Ridley sighed.
"Meeee, Riiidddllleeeyyyaaa," Ridley said slowly and sarcastically. One of the guards snapped into awake mode and opened the door. Apparently the other was a clone and the original just forgot. Ridley fell to all fours and tucked in his batlike wings, and then he carefully crawled through the door. Once Ridley's spiky tail slipped its whole way in, the Space Pirate shut the door.
This was an extraordinarily large titanium outpost. It was so large, Ridley could stand on his two hind legs. He could even fit Kraid in the main deck for cryin' out loud. As he walked in, Space Pirates froze and stared. After a few seconds, they went back to what they were doing. This was good-it means a majority of them are not clones. We wouldn't want that. Ridley asked a few Space Pirates how to get to the main chamber Phantoon was in, and they directed him. Ridley twisted around a corner and bumped into someone so loyal to him before that Ridley grew slightly enraged.
"Weavel? Why are you here?" Ridley asked, stunned. Weavel can speak English, so Ridley had to switch languages.
"Don't you know? Major Phantoon is going to fire these rings and destroy the Galactic Federation's forces!" Weavel replied. Ridley shook his head in total doubt.
"You fool! He is going to kill you and the others as well!" Ridley said. Weavel simply shrugged. He had the right to do that in front of Ridley: Weavel plays a major part in the Space Pirate Hierarchy.
"I guess we'll just have to wait and see," Weavel said, kind of not scared that the galaxy's sentient life could be at stake here. Ridley sighed a screechy sigh.
"Dismissed," he said, and Weavel extended his plasma sword and crossed it against his chest: that is the Cybernetic Space Pirate's way to salute. Weavel then walked off. Ridley zipped his way through corridors and towers, and yet even if he hit a Space Pirate to the ground, they all knew he was in a rush.
Halo-Year 2557, Firing Altar
"How on Enrekeita do you work this thing?!" Phantoon yelled off into the large room, and his ghastly voice echoed. Krumarai stared at him. Phantoon turned around and glared at Krumarai, the phazonide minion. (Do keep in mind some non-dialogue is also said by Phantoon, like his point of view, kind of. I did this because he's a ghost)
"Well? Why aren't you calculating coordinates?" Phantoon screamed. Krumarai shrugged and ran over to the database and let blue phazon slide through its ridges. Phantoon is pretty slow, eh? Surely he would've played the Halo games, right? Eh. A map appeared above the overrun system, and it said coordinates like the closest planets...if the asteroid belt nearby will hit them...there was a Stinger gradually approaching them...
What? A Stinger? Ooh, goody! This is really good! Now we have more Space Pirates coming in! Phantoon quickly told Krumarai to greet them in case they're spies. Krumarai ran out just as so. Phantoon fidgeted with the destruction sequence of the Halo. Let's see...we need an Index to slip in here...and we need a...what's this? A Memory? Great, yet another item to obtain.
"Need a little help, Phantoon?" a deep voice called. Phantoon turned around and saw a ticked off Ridley, complete with a blue phazonide shield and the Space Pirate version of a needler.
"Tsk tsk tsk...I'm already dead, Ridley," Phantoon said in a taunting way. "If I wasn't, how could I do this?" and Phantoon just disappeared and reappeared behind Ridley.
"Such an old trick, Phantoon. Give it up! What are you aiming to do to my Pirates?" Ridley screeched. Phantoon made a ghastly laugh.
"That Arbiter's head is my trophy," he whispered. Ridley heard him.
"Your trophy? He is my target after I finally slay Samus!" Ridley said. Phantoon floated over to the control panel, and Ridley followed.
"I am going to find the Index with ease...and then the final obstacle shall only be tracking the Memory down!" Phantoon said. Ridley's eyes turned blood-red, still with no pupils.
"Do you even know what you are doing?" Ridley said, angered. Phantoon laughed again. That meant yes. Phantoon laughed again.
"A better question is...can you stop me?" Phantoon taunted. Oh, now it was on. Ridley was T-I-C-K-E-D off. It's amazing how easily you can anger a super-intelligent genius seventeen foot tall batlike winged chemical spitting dragon, and did I mention leader of a near unstoppable group of invaders? I'm not sure if I did, (sarcasm used) but the sentence I had just spat was a mouthful. Ridley shot a few upgraded needles from the Space Pirate Needler. No effect. Duh. Ridley dropped the Needler and dashed at Phantoon way too fast for Phantoon to disappear in time, and Ridley slammed his sharp claws into Phantoon's one eye, which was in his mouth, and Ridley hit full-force, nail tip first. Ouch. Phantoon moaned horribly, and disappeared in time to recover. He wasn't...er...re-dead (not referring to those creepy zombies from Zelda: Ocarina of Time) yet. Ridley busted a door down, and fell until he caught a titanium balcony. He climbed himself up and perched, looking down. Perfect, Ridley thought. He saw the Elites with MC (that refers to Master Chief for those who don't know) and Samus, fighting Krumarai. Typical. Well, Ridley thought, both of us are for the same target. What the heck. He swooped down quietly-the fray was too loud to hear Ridley land behind the phazonide minion. Everyone but Krumarai took a quick scared glance at the tall Ridley, who put a claw's finger over his mouth. Okay, freaky. Now the protagonists were stunned. Ridley hacked (the coughing kind of hack) and spat up red phazon over the blue phazon in Krumarai. The red phazon covered the blue, and Krumarai melted to the ground, no blue left. Ridley lowered his head down and slurped the red phazon on the ground. MC looked at the Arbiter, who just shrugged in response.
"I just did you fools a favor," Ridley said. "And I'm about to do another."
Samus was stunned. Okay. I'm starting to think my mind was just corrupted by phazon, she thought.
"And what favor is that? Putting us out of our misery?" the Arbiter retorted. Ridley laughed.
"Believe me, I so rather to do that than what I'm going to do. Have you imbeciles heard of...say, an Index?" Ridley asked. MC and the Arbiter looked at each other, and so did Tura and Huta.
"We detonated two of these other rings. Of course we know where the Index would be!" the Arbiter yelled.
"Where may that be?" Ridley wondered, sounding serious. There was a pause.
"The Library," Cortana announced. Ridley was stumped again. Someone else hasn't been playing the Halo games. Cortana knew what the green colored eyes Ridley had on meant.
"The Library is where you find the Index," she said. Samus held two fingers to her helmet: she was recording this stuff down. Commander Kiva will surely want to hear all this. Ridley looked at the Stinger.
"Use the Stinger. I'll stay out as you fly; I'll fly and turn the lock down to the Library," Ridley said. MC nodded and ran in as well as Samus, Tura, and Huta. The Arbiter looked at Ridley in disgust.
"Give me the approximate time you'll turn on us," he demanded. Ridley smiled deviously, showing his razor white teeth, and drooling red phazon. Then he noticed the phazon infused onto the Arbiter's arm and face-it was worse now. Now, the Arbiter's mouth was corrupted, as well as a portion of his ancient silver armor that shone gold in the sunlight. Ridley then focused back on the Arbiter's demand.
"Arbiter...that would be against my nature to reveal something like that. I might not turn on you. Phantoon is on my bad side right now," Ridley screeched. The Arbiter, his eyes narrowed, pointed at his face-the corrupted part.
"I'll fix that depending on if you follow what I say, and take some consideration into my ideas," Ridley told the Arbiter.
"Come on, Arbiter!" the Arbiter heard Huta say. His eyes narrowed, the Arbiter turned around and walked into the door to the cargo-hold of the Stinger and glared at Ridley as it slowly shut. The Stinger revved, and the blue fire blast out of the propeller. Ridley watched as the Stinger rose into the air. Once it was somewhat far away, Ridley rocketed into the air and was already caught up with the jet speed vehicle. My advice: never challenge or accept a race challenge from Ridley.