Author's Note

Let's keep this rolling.

Uploaded

10/03/2022

LEGEND BELOW

"Chief, that's not a good idea..." = Normal speech.

''You're you, don't let it control you...'' = Normal thoughts.

Chapter 3

Still adrift on the Dawn/Rescue or enemy?

Rated-M

M rating for blood, eventual mentioning of gore and other body parts, language, and certain anatomy that hasn't yet come into play...

She can't panic, she needed to keep a level head. If she didn't, she was going to put everyone in danger.

That being said, it just felt like too many things were happening all at once. Were she a lesser woman, she would've broken down in a full blown panic attack by now. It wasn't the worst thing that she was part Metroid, she'd come to that conclusion back when she was running through the halls of the B.S.L in orbit above SR388.

But it was different now. She wasn't only Metroid in part, but it was now cemented as part of her, and what's worse, is that her body was aware that she was the last of her kind and didn't hesitate to attempt to make her make more.

Never in a million years would she have ever expected that she'd end up carrying infant Metroids inside her.

And the most terrifying part?

She couldn't bring herself to hate them. Even if she tried, she just couldn't. She'd never been pregnant with a human child before, so she had no way to know if this was how normal human women reacted to unwanted pregnancies.

It was strange, thinking about it now. As she was right now, she was exactly what that corrupt branch of the Federation wanted all along. A breeding program that would give them Metroid's, with a mother who would control them with the intellect of a human mind behind them.

That was the planned operation proposed for the Bottle Ship. Unfortunately for them, she had thoroughly ruined their plans. If those people ever caught wind of her as are was now…

Well, if anyone in the galaxy caught wind of what she'd become, and what she was carrying, she'd have the whole galaxy all over her.

If the Space Pirates caught wind, they would stop at nothing to capture her and use her for a mass breading program. Experiments and torture would be all that would be left for her should that happen.

If the Federation caught wind, she'd likely be forced to retire to Federation Headquarters for quote unquote protection from her transgressors. It would just be a public excuse to prevent her from falling into the enemies hands, and she knew that. She could expect to never see the light of day again, for either reason, forced into captivity by whoever captured her first.

It was that thinking that led her to believe that she was in no rush to return to her dimension. But this new one held no familiarity to her, and felt as cold and dangerous as her previous one.

She felt like she was stuck in limbo, with each dimension posing significant dangers to her.

Either she find a way back home, and likely live on the run for the rest of her life, lest she become an unwilling breeding slave for the rest of her foreseeable future. Or she stay here in this dimension where she was likely to get caught up in this mass genocidal war between the members of Humanity and this apparently all powerful alien collective known as the Covenant.

The only saving grace of living here was the fact that no one knew what a Metroid was, and therefore didn't understand their potential as weapons of mass destruction. She likely wouldn't be hunted down here due to her existence.

All of this was useless speculation, because none of it mattered unless she could find a way off this god forsaken ship and to humanity. From there, she'd figure out where to go next.

Because if help didn't arrive soon, there was only two futures that awaited her. She lose her cool and attack the Spartan out of desperation for food, or she doesn't, and her future children attack the Spartan out of desperation.

Either way, it doesn't look good…

"Chief, something is wrong."

"Something has been wrong since you woke me." The soldier responded.

"Besides that. Our course has been changed." The blue woman stated. The Spartan blinked, approaching the map terminal. The image displayed the derelict form of the Forward Unto Dawn drifting through the rough map they had of the space surrounding them. Their course up until recently had been rather straightforward, a line moving slowly in one direction forever.

But it had changed.

And now, their course was drifting towards the planet they were currently approaching.

"Is the Gravity of the planet is strong enough to change our course?" He asked. Cortana shook her head negative.

"That's not it. That shouldn't be possible for a planet of its size."

"That's not natural."

"Tell me something I don't know." She retorted.

"Could the planet maintain a gravitational controller strong enough to alter the course of your starship?" It was Adam that spoke up, interjecting his way into their conversation.

"I-It's possible… But that would mean…" Cortana muttered, deep in thought.

"The planet is occupied." Chief concluded.

"Is it one of your own?" Adam asked.

"No. That would be impossible. This far out here, humanity has not ventured before." She said.

"Then what do you propose it is? Would it be this Covenant you speak of?"

Neither the Spartan nor his companion had anything to say. They were just as lost as he was.

Hopefully, with some luck, it would turn out beneficial…

She sat there, propped up against a wall, on the entire opposite end of the desolate frigate, half awake.

She'd been sitting there for hours, doing nothing but stare down at her midsection, x-ray visor equipped. She couldn't help herself, intrigued and at the same time horrified by the three unborn Metroid's packed inside her womb. She'd been watching them all wriggle about for hours, trying to keep her mind grounded in her reality.

Something that had terrified her more the the idea of having to birth and raise these creatures, was the idea of birth. It would be the most vulnerable she'd ever been, and she had no idea who she'd turn to for help. She was alone on this ship, and Adam couldn't help her in this regard, not physically.

It was the unknown aspect that had scared her more then anything else. It was her inability to properly prepare for the future that had upset her on a deeper level, and left her feeling helpless.

And she hated that.

That being said, if Anthony saw her now, hand pressed to her armored belly like some young new mother, he'd be laughing his ass off.

She ignored the tear that trailed down her cheek, too absorbed in thought to care. She laughed quietly at the image she conjured up of his jovial face grinning down at her. She always hated him for that, the way that he was always towering over her, no matter what suit upgrades she wore, he was always taller then her.

And she always hated how he treated her like a woman, never talking to her like she was some legendary being of godly stature. How he always smiled at her and never let rank or old feelings get in the way of how he'd treat her. How he'd call her stupid names, like Princess or what not, despite the fact that she was the single most powerful known being in the entire galaxy.

How he treated her with respect and friendliness despite being a Bounty Hunter who'd abandoned the Federation and all her old companions due to her selfish desire to do everything her own way. How he never held that against her, despite how everyone else did.

And she hated how she wished above all that he was here right now…

She pressed her face into her hand, taking a deep shuddering breath.

''Look at me… Getting all emotional.'' She thought sharply, glaring inward at herself. She wanted to put all the blame on the new hormones rushing through her body due to carrying the unborn Metroids, but she knew that it wasn't all that.

She was tired, emotionally drained, physically exhausted, and starving.

She felt like she had enough reasons to justify her mood.

But then there was still that part of her that judged herself for shedding a tear at all.

After all, the legendary Samus Aran, defender of the galaxy, never cried…

She wasn't allowed to…

An entire week had passed since the Bounty Hunter had introduced herself to the Spartan. Due to a rapidly rising safety issue, and issue that she herself posed, she had kept her distance from both the Spartan and his and her own A.I.

She had wanted to tell Adam about her pregnancy, but she was afraid of what he'd say. More then that, she did not want to raise concern about the situation that was happening.

She knew that she couldn't keep it a secret forever, because in the short span of a week, the three had grown considerably within her. If she ever removed the Power-Suit, her stretched belly would be evident to all who'd look. She didn't feel like she was close to birth, but it was just enough to be evident. Despite that, if she could keep it a secret until rescue arrived, no one would have to know.

But if rescue didn't arrive in time, or at all, they were going to have a major problem in the near future. One thing she didn't have to worry about was food or water, seeing as her body seemingly ran on nothing but nourishment gained from the things she absorbed. It was that and her chozo warrior training that had allowed her to ignore her hunger for so long.

But she couldn't ignore it any longer. She could feel the infants inside her screaming for food, and she knew that she had to get something, otherwise they may end up feasting upon her.

She didn't want that, and so, she'd begun looking for a new power source. Something, anything, that would give her the energy she so sought. The material of the ship itself gave off so little that it was negligible, incalculable, that trying to do so would only waste her time and energy.

Something she did recall upon recollection, was the plasma weapon the Spartan had given her. If she could find another item like that, she would be better off then before.

However, not long into her search, something happened. The entire ship shook beneath her, metal groaning and creaking. A red pervasive light sped through the ship, seemingly scanning everything within range.

Lights and surrounding systems began malfunctioning the moment it happened, sparks sent flying. Immediately she was on alert, her hunger temporarily forgotten in leu of the more pressing matter at hand.

Could it be their rescue…?

Not willing to stand around and wait to find out, she hightailed it back to the terminal room where the Chief was likely waiting.

A short run later saw her rushing into the room, sliding to a stop across from the Spartan. He looked distressed by her sudden and rapid approach, but ignored it for the more pressing matter.

"What was that?" Samus asked, staring at the super soldier from across the holographic display table. Before he responded, Cortana appeared on the terminal, looking visibly distressed.

"A high intensity scan, I-It doesn't match any known patterns." She exclaimed.

"Is it the UNSC?" Chief asked.

"No, I don't think so." She responded.

"Do you have any way of seeing what is outside?" The Spartan asked urgently.

"The observation deck! It's directly above us." Cortana exclaimed. Samus didn't stick around, turning in her heels as she ran out of the room.

Not willing to stand around, Chief quickly gathered Cortana back into his suit systems. He also took hold of Adam, clamping his container to the magnetic clamp on his back plate.

With that all done, he whipped out his Assault Rifle and took off after her. He ran into the next room, only to slip and slide into her as the gravity of the ship wavered.

She toppled over as his immense weight plowed into her, and she reflexively reached up to grab him to push him off.

But he was fast, reaching up to clamp his hand around her wrist, stopping her short. Her claws dinked his visor, her shaking hand having come far too close for him to feel comfortable. She was strong, extremely strong, to the point that it was actually a bit of a struggle for him to stop her.

"Samus. Get ahold of yourself." He grunted, refusing to let her go until he was sure she wasn't going to lash out at him. He could feel her glowing hand sapping his shields, even when not touching him.

Before things could escalate, the gravity returned and they both collapsed to the floor. The Spartan quickly put distance between them, but that was all it seemed that she needed to regain control.

Deciding to not bother harassing her about it, he turned his attention towards their current objective.

"Let's move." He grunted, turning towards the elevator shaft. He waited to a get a motion of response from her before daring to turn his back.

She shook her head, hand to her visor as if assaulted by a sudden headache. Nevertheless the she stood to her feet, moving ahead of him for the elevator shaft. She scaled the walls of the shaft with relative ease, especially for someone who was supposed to be weakened.

Nevertheless, he caught up to her, reaching the top of the shaft. As he did, he saw her leaning against a heavy metal door, the panels locked shut.

"That leads to the observation deck." Cortana spoke up.

"There are multiple presences behind this door. Not human." Samus spoke, turning a glance to the Spartan. To his surprise, he saw her visor, which was usually red, appear orange. However, her sharp and serious words got his mind running rapidly.

She could see through walls, or perhaps some hyper advanced thermal sensors of some sort? If so, this could work out heavily in their favor.

"Height?" He asked just as quickly.

"Large, nine feet tall, and five feet tall." She responded clearly. "Tall one's are armed with two handed weapons. Small, one handed."

"Covenant." He said decidedly. "I don't know how they got on this ship, but this may be our chance at escape." He looked up, locking gazes with her. "Are you any good in a fight?"

She wanted to snap at him for asking such a stupid question, but she thought for a moment. He was referring to her current weakened form, and not judging her experience.

"Yes." She responded resolutely.

"Good." He grunted, before turning his attention inward. "Cortana?"

"Right!" She chimed. Not a moment later, the door that had been sealed shut was unlocked. It was likely that the A.I. had access to it.

Chief aimed his weapon through the door, crouching down low. Just up ahead of the door was a long walkway, at the end had an Elite Major seemingly attempting to override some kind of control system. He had three separate platoons of lower ranking soldiers surrounding him, although on the lower level of the room.

"There's no way we can get him without alerting the others. I'll draw too much attention." Chief commented quietly, turning his attention to the Bounty Hunter.

She stared at him silently, not saying a word. Were he a lesser man, he'd have gaped in surprise as the green armored space alien turned nigh invisible before his very eyes. It was only his advanced eyes given him by his Spartan II body enhancements that he could still make out the vague form of her silhouette.

She didn't stick around, using quick and quiet steps to approach the Elite. The alien aggressor never saw her coming, and didn't have time to shout in alarm before she clamped her hand around his mouth.

All it managed with its strength was the chance to look her in the eye as she sucked him dry. She felt her eyes threatening to roll up in her head, the sensation of having that hunger finally somewhat satiated was elating. It felt so good, so rewarding, so filling…

She wanted more…

She wanted them all…

She was hungry for more!!

Chief watched from a safe distance as the Elite Major's body turned a dull life gray, powered armor suit and all. When she appeared to be done, the Elite turned to dust, fading as the air flow of the ship passed through.

"Big one's dead, run away!!!"

Samus blinked in surprise, snapping out of her stupor. She turned around to eye the source of the scream, spotting a short gremlin looking creature.

She seemed to have missed that one…

And now they were all alerted…

No point in going in quiet now.

She snapped her cannon forward, firing off a Missile that completely obliterated the alien in one impact. It also alerted everything in the room to where she was.

"Samus! Get out of there!" Chief shouted from down the hall. The Bounty Hunter jumped out of the way as the spot she was in was immediately lit up with plasma fire, sending slag and shrapnel everywhere. She landed in a slide, spinning around to eye the remaining enemies in the room.

And for a moment, everything just froze. She felt her dna screaming at her to go crazy. Everything before her wasn't an enemy…

No…

It was food…

''N-No, get a grip on yourself!'' She mentally barked, retreating to the Spartan as more plasma fire reined down upon her. She slid behind the cover of the doorway, tossing a glance at the Spartan.

"What was that?" Chief asked, glancing at her arm cannon.

"A Missile."

"Do you have any more in there?"

"Plenty."

He didn't know how she managed to keep more in the small space of her cannon arm, but he'd take her word for it.

"Good. I'll pull their attention, you take them down." He said, pulling out a grenade. She nodded, crouching down low in preparation to rush in after him. He poked his head out, quickly taking stock of the location of the group closest him. He was immediately assaulted with plasma fire, but he ducked back before anything hit him.

His eyes narrowed. He pulled the pin, tossing it right at the feet of an Elite. The explosion took them by surprise, long enough for him to rush in, spraying them down with Assault Rifle rounds. It was enough to take down the one Elite, and stun the others. He pulled a second grenade out, tossing it at a group of grunts. The chaos he caused was enough to distract them all for him to slip behind the cover of a wall.

With her chance in sight, she rolled around the corner, all eyes still on the Chief. The barrel of her cannon charged up with a clear energy, as she took only a brief moment to lock onto every enemy in the room. The moment she did, she opened fire. A massive barrage of missiles exploded from her cannon, all chasing after different enemies as if they had minds of their own. The entire deck shook as more then twenty explosions rocked the ship all at once.

"Clear!" She called out. Chief stepped out of cover, taking a moment to observe the results of her attack.

Nothing remained, everything having been blown away.

"Chief… how did she…?" Cortana muttered from within his helmet, stunned by the complete annihilation of the Covenant in the room.

"I don't know. I've stopped putting it past her at this point to surprise me…" The Spartan muttered, quickly making his way to the control panel. As he managed to work it to get the observation deck blast windows open, Samus disappeared. Without even looking, he saw flashes of pink light up the room from somewhere behind him.

By the time he got the system to respond to him, the bodies that had lined the floors of the room had all been turned to dust.

He felt a cold realization hit him. She was fast, faster then he was, faster then any Spartan ever.

For the Hunter, she had no hesitation on feasting on the bodies. She got lost in the pleasure, her mind overjoyed to finally have all that energy she'd been craving for so long. With every body she took, she felt that much lighter, all her aches and old wounds fading as she gorged herself on the surplus.

She felt her babies inside her rejoice at the abundance of fresh energy, finally having that which they had craved for so long. Forgetting for a moment that she wasn't alone, she placed her hand on her belly, glancing down, feeling the unborn Metroid's bounce in response to the presence of her hand.

Unbeknownst to her, the Chief was watching her from his position atop the observatory. He didn't give her strange reaction much thought, turning his attention back to getting the blast windows open.

After she was done, she only felt hungrier then before.

But, she didn't feel like she was going to go crazy anymore, the wild urges finally giving way to her will, if only by so much.

Wisely, she still kept a hard distance from the Master Chief, lest it explode out of her control again.

She turned her attention to the blast windows behind her, watching as they opened.

"If we're lucky, then we've only stumbled across a rouge salvation squadron." Cortana chimed in out loud.

Unfortunately, as the blast windows opened, her prior claim was blown away. Outside the windows was a literal fleet of ships, all Covenant.

"Or we've stumbled across an entire Covenant fleet…"

Following her words, two separate Covenant drop-ships approached, surrounding the observation deck.

"Landing craft, flanking us!" Cortana urged.

The Spartan turned around as he heard Samus land behind him. "What's your plan?" She asked.

"Can you do that attack again?"

"Yes, but not when being shot at."

"It's about to get busy in here. Make your plans now people!" Cortana snapped. Chief spun around, eyeing the two Phantoms that hovered just outside the ship. In just a few moments they were going to breach the hull and more enemies were going to pour in.

"I don't have any grenades left." He stated.

"Here." Samus pulled her cannon up, pulling out a blue tipped Missile. She tossed it to the Spartan, the man catching it out of reflex. "I'll handle the one." She said dismissively, stepping off of the deck, landing below as she turned invisible once more.

He watched her go for a moment, before he turned his attention to the drop-ship to his side. The moment the hull was breached, Covenant began pouring out. Deciding to put the woman's weapon to the test immediately, he tossed it full strength at the center of the opposing fireteam. The explosion caught the lowly Grunts off guard, and they alongside their Elite leader were momentarily frozen in a flash of ice.

At least, those that weren't hit by the attack were frozen. Those hit exploded in a frozen display of gore and blood. That was the thought he had while jumping into the fray, spraying those remaining with the full clip of his rifle. The Elite, although stunned, attempted to fight back. But too slowed by the ice in his way, he couldn't stop the Spartan from stabbing him to death via titanium knife.

He stood up, cleaning his blade. Across the room he saw flashes of pink light up the walls, followed by the sounds of screaming. Not a moment later Samus walked around the corner.

That's when he took notice of her appearance. She stood taller now then she'd been during her time here. Her pained weakened slouch was gone, her labored breathing had vanished, and she no longer limped with every step she took.

She looked alive for the first time since he'd met her.

"Chief! The Cruiser!" Cortana's horrified scream tore both him and the Bounty Hunter from their momentary lapse. They had but only a few moments to turn to the blast shields, spotting the Covenant Cruiser charging up massive plasma rounds, attacks that would be moving straight for them in only a few moments.

The Dawn had no chance of blocking nor absorbing the damage that the plasma would inevitably do.

"Chief! We need to get out of here!" Cortana exclaimed, panicked.

"The escape pods!" The Spartan urged, turning on his heels as he rushed back out the door. Samus was hot on his heels, but the doors to the escape pods were locked shut, melted by shrapnel.

"Stand back!" The Hunter shouted. Without time to wait for a response, Samus blew the damaged door away with a ship shaking Super Missile. Chief was quick to run in, approaching the first pod available. Within seconds of his control, the pod was up and running.

Samus stepped into the enclosed space behind him, but, she wasn't fast enough to react to what used to be the ship behind her being torn away as the plasma mortars ripped the Forward Unto Dawn apart.

It all happened so fast, there was no way she had time to respond. The Chief's boots magnetized to the floor below him, his firm grip on a support beam preventing him from being sucked out into space.

Samus, standing at the door of the pod, was not so lucky. Her feet were swept out from underneath her, helmet covered face smashing into the ground as the air in the escape pod rapidly fled, pulling her along with it.

"Samus!" The Spartan shouted, reaching out to her. The Bounty Hunter couldn't even manage to reach for him before she found herself twenty feet from the escape pod, floating through space alongside the rest of the debris of the ship. "Damn!"

Not a second after she'd been sucked out, the doors to the pod shut closed, the systems that remained in action firing the pod far from its docking center.

They'd managed to escape the ship before it was torn asunder…

But she had not…

Chapter

3

End