Piggy yawned. Being such a fat cat, that was likely to be the highlight of his morning. Then again, that was more of a relief than anything to Agent Devan Reynolds of the United Space Intelligence-Gathering Network. After all, motion sickness was his Achilles' Heel, and his weekly supply of medication was just barely enough to tide him over as he spent almost every one of his waking moments reeling through video after video of recorded footage and taking notes on the behaviors of "Subject Samus Aran". Of course, the lab boys just had to come up with a camera they could hide on the tag of a pet collar. Typical, they were too busy being geniuses to think of just hijacking any or all of the already existing cameras in the establishment. He had pointed this out to Command, but that got him no where. It turned out that USIGN had somehow signed itself into a contract with these boys that required every agent to use at least one of their gadgets on every mission, and this was the gadget they had picked for him to use. It was almost as if they took some kind of sadistic pleasure from tormenting him so.

It was bad enough when he was assigned to this particular subject. The Chozo had been "kind" enough to give USIGN the necessary equipment and access to tap into the audio and video feeds from her "Power Suit". He had found himself frequently reminded of old home videos, if said videos were to ever be from the perspective of an Intergalactic bounty hunter who frequently performed extreme feats of aerobatics and fought off alien scum for a living. Of course, such an interesting person became a "person of interest" for USIGN. This meant more heat on Devan. If he were ever to botch this job, he would likely, no, definitely never get a second chance to botch any job ever again. It would be the end of his professional life forever, and he would be lucky to work at a convenience store once it was all over. Nevertheless, it was the excitement that made it bearable. The thrill of going on all of these adventures was enough to make the constant nausea okay, but then, she had to go and get infected with that blasted parasite. Of course, the suit had to be removed, and Devan had to be discreetly inserted within the Federation's ranks in order to monitor her until USIGN could clever up another way to keep an eye on her. Unfortunately, Devan's insertion took much longer than expected, and he arrived just in time to rescue Samus and her ship from two incoming Federation battleships. With no experience in the field, Devan was forced to rely on his observations of the only field agent he had ever seen, James Bond. In hindsight, Devan understood only too well how entirely stupid that choice had been. Samus immediately shot down his attempt at a subtle advance, and so he instead came off as a pathetic romantic. Following that, things got awkward in a hurry. His notes had to be kept secret, so he frequently had to hide them in various locations. Of course, this meant that his notes would sometimes be lost to the void of space, and he would have to rack his memory in order to rewrite them. Even worse, Samus didn't buy, for one second, that he was a sergeant in the Galactic Federation Marine Corps. So, in a moment of both total idiocy and genius, he explained that he was working for another military, the United Space Intergalactic Navy. Only later did he realize that this made his fictional Navy the only one in the galaxy to include "sergeant" among its ranks. Fortunately, Samus didn't seem to catch on to this, but she nonetheless maintained her suspicion, making Devan's job that much harder to keep secret. By the time the two of them landed on the first inhabited planet they found outside of the Federation's expansive grasp, a bustling little backwater world known as "New Reach", Devan had just about had enough of Subject Samus Aran. Of course, he couldn't let on to this, or he would risk blowing his cover, which meant no more paycheck. So, their separation was much more amiable than he would have honestly liked.

This brought him to today, sitting in a dark room in USIGN's smallest branch, looking through a camera hidden on a tag he didn't inscribe that rested around the neck of a cat he didn't give her. Fortunately, he had finally caught up with the live feed for the day. Unfortunately, this meant he couldn't fast-forward again until lunch, which was four hours away. Monitoring Samus' new house was a waste of time compared to what he was watching before, but with a new suit came new security, and it wasn't like USIGN could just knock on the Federation's doors and ask for the security codes to Samus' new suit. Technically speaking, USIGN didn't exist. Besides that, Samus had probably changed them all anyway. So, unless she was careless enough to divulge that information somehow at home, the cat was all they had. Consequently, there was not much to record, but he was nonetheless required to as good as glue his eyes to the screen. More than anything, he wished something interesting would happen, like maybe a home invasion.

Just then, the front door opened. Finally, something was happening! The alarm hadn't gone off, so whomever opened the door clearly knew the code. Samus could not have returned this soon. Had Samus made a friend? No, Samus never made friends, not since that Adam Malkovich guy died. So that meant this was a break-in. Things were going to get exciting. Maybe he would kidnap this dumb cat, and Command would finally let him hack into the house's other cameras. That would certainly be a fun break from this monotonous hell. A man Devan had never seen before entered the house with what appeared to be a bag of cat food. His catnapper theory was looking brighter and brighter by the second. The man walked toward the cat, reached out his hand, and gently gave it a quick pat on the head. This light pat was enough to shake the collar around, and Devan had to hurriedly pop a few pills before the motion sickness could grasp his insides. In the time it took him to locate, acquire, and swallow the pills, the man had stood up and grabbed a bowl from one of the cabinets. Now, he placed it beside the water bowl that Samus had left and was about to fill it with food when...

"Hey! What are you doing?" Adam shouted, well, as much as a floating, metal sphere can shout. The man jumped a little and stood with a start, holding the cat food at his side. By this point, the UNSC patch on the man's jacket became apparent to Devan.

"It's okay," the man replied. "I'm Commander Raymond Jones of the United Nations Space Command Navy." That's right, he was that Commanders Jones guy from the video chat. Well, Commander Jones had neglected to answer Adam's question, and Adam was clearly not about to have any of it.

"Good for you, now what are you doing in this house?"

"I'm here to feed the cat, Sam-I mean Ms. Aran asked me to feed it for her until her mission was over." Devan could tell from the look on Commander Jones' face that he had hoped to do more than just that. Maybe he had been thinking of giving himself a free tour.

"Her mission, you mean the one that doesn't officially begin for another three days?" Adam had pierced a hole straight through Commander Jones' logic, or so Devan thought.

"Well, that's not entirely-" Commander Jones began, but he was cut off before he could finish.

"Just leave the bag and go. I'll take care of it," Adam ordered. Commander Jones gripped the bag a little tighter.

"What if I said no?" If Adam had a body, Devan was certain he'd be grinning right now.

"Then I can set off the alarm, simple case of breaking and entering. How's jail time going to look on your service record, Commander?" This time, Commander Jones grinned. It was an eerie grin that spread from ear to ear. Something told Devan this fight had just become two-sided.

"Go ahead. I'm sure the authorities would love to know how two aliens got through their security grids without going through their beloved immigration process." It was a bluff, and even Devan could see right through it. If the alarm were to be set off, the UNSC would lose a valuable asset, and that would look equally bad on a service record, if not worse. Adam began to offer his insight into this, but Devan could not hear him over the stupid, lazy cat, who had just noticed the bag of food, purring away. Great, just when things were getting good, the cat has to ruin everything.

"Would someone just feed the damn cat?" he groaned. Suddenly, everything froze. Commander Jones was staring in fearful awe at the cat. A lump fell through Devan's throat and straight into his stomach. There was no way; nobody could be that stupid.

"Did that cat just... talk?" Devan was mortified and furious at the same time. How could anyone be so stupid as to include two-way audio communication in a surveillance device? When would it ever be necessary to talk to the person on whom one is spying? His career, no, his life was over, and it was all because of those blockheads in the lab. At least he could take solace in the fact that he wouldn't be going down alone. Commander Jones leaned in toward the cat. This scared Devan even more. If Jones got too close to the tag, he might see the camera, then Agent Devan Reynolds would definitely be a thing of the past.

"Did you..." Commander Jones seemed to be asking the cat. "Did you just talk?" A single hope fluttered into Devan's heart, but he only had one shot at this, so he had to be careful. No, careful wasn't a strong enough word. He had to be perfect.

"Yes," he responded. "I am a talking cat. Feed me." Devan held his breath, waiting for the end, one way or another. Commander Jones reeled back, caught himself, and turned to look at the steely, stoic sphere that represented Adam.

"Did you know about this?" He whispered a little too loudly. Adam's reply speedily swooped in, almost too conveniently.

"Yes, it's a recent invention of mine. I've been experimenting with human/animal communication."

"But you're not-"

"Stow it," Adam cut in. "Just feed the cat and leave." Commander Jones hastily obliged, leaving Adam and the cat alone. Devan sighed a breath of relief. The sphere closed in swiftly on the cat. It's sole, purple "eye" filled the screen with unbearable light. Devan could not help but look away.

"You are an idiot," he chided.

"Hey, don't blame me. I'm just a ca-"

"I'm not talking to the cat. I'm talking to whomever's job I just saved over there at USIGN." How did he know about USIGN? From what Devan had managed to find out on the flight to New Reach, this Adam was formed from the preserved mind of the real Adam Malkovich, a Commander from the Galactic Federation Army. Certainly, the real Adam had been lauded as somewhat of a genius, but USIGN was nothing if not adept at secrecy, excepting this most recent incident. "You're, no doubt, wondering how I know about you and your little secret club, right? Well, I'm guessing USIGN forgot to mention whom it was you were replacing when they assigned you to Samus."

"Wait, you mean you-"

"That's right. I was Samus' first overseer back when I was... alive."

"That's got to be weird to say," Devan commented in a moment of bravery.

"Less so over time," Adam divulged. "Now, I assume that the reason you're using this cat rather than tapping into Samus' new suit is that you can't. So, I'm going to make a deal with you. If I give you all of the necessary access codes, I want to never hear another voice coming out of this cat again."

"I'll take that deal," Devan replied excitedly. He was going to get his front row seat to the action again, and he didn't have to sit through any more hairball fiascos. Even if it meant more pills, it was worth it. The sphere turned away, but returned upon his call. "Hey, wait! What happens if Samus checks the security footage and hears all this?"

"You forget," Adam countered. "I am Samus' security system. We had a 'mysterious power outage' right after that pathetic excuse for a commander left. Any more questions you want to ask before I send you the codes and fry your stupid cat cam?" Cat cam, that was clever.

"Just one," Devan answered. "Your personnel logs detailed the circumstances of your death quite clearly, but there's something they don't mention, given this recent discovery about you."

"And that is?" Adam urged him. There was almost an impatience in his tone.

"When you made that sacrifice on the Bottle Ship, was it all for the job, or had you really come to care that much for Samus?" There was a brief pause. The eye of the sphere began to drift a bit, as though Adam had lost focus for a few seconds.

"Who said it couldn't be both?" Adam's focus returned, and the eye pinned itself at the cat cam again. "All right, sending codes in three... two... one... bye." The screen went black, and the Mail Board on the other side of the room lit up. There was a single message from Adam Malkovich, Agent of USIGN, K.I.A.

Hey all, it's your author here. I figured I'd put a little footnote in my first milestone chapter. I just wanted to thank all of you for your support so far through all this time. I'll be the first to admit that four years is a long, long time to wait for five chapters of a fan fiction, and I don't see the pace getting too much quicker anytime soon, though I won't be going on another three-year hiatus. That's just not happening.

I'd also like to encourage all of my silent readers to go ahead and comment. Your reviews are what keep me writing this thing beyond my own love for these two franchises, and not just the words of praise. Constructive criticism is equally appreciated, as I can use it to improve for later chapters.

Finally, I'd like to apologize for writing yet another "action-free" chapter. I promise, the action is coming, and it will be well worth the wait. If you've been loving every sentence of this plot-driven section, then that's awesome, but if you're biting your nails and waiting for the action that is the epic collision of Samus and the Master Chief, this is me throwing you a bone.

Thanks again for all the support, and I'll hopefully be treating you to another little footnote in chapter 10, which, on the current schedule, is due sometime in the next five years? Ha ha, just kidding. Plus, I am striving to make the chapters longer while keeping them both bearable and well-organized, so there will hopefully be more that has happened between now and then than what has happened between chapter 1 and now.

Peace.