Author's Note
...
Uploaded
05/27/2023
LEGEND BELOW
"Chief, that's not a good idea..." = Normal speech.
''You're you, don't let it control you...'' = Normal thoughts/Receiving coms.
Chapter 19
"Would you watch me die?"
Rated-M
M rating for blood, and language.
Music of the day
Metroid Other M - Final Mission Resolve
With the first particle cannon in a million pieces, falling deep into the desolate ravine it once hovered above, Gypsy Company was able to push forward on the assault without fear of being wiped off the map.
Samus stood atop the front of the Mammoth, defending it with more then liberal use of her vast arsenal of weapons, turning any ground forces that threatened her or the UNSC vehicle into molten slag, or bloody smears on the surface of the planet.
As for the rest of the Spartans, and the super soldiers of fireteam Castle, they were right by her side, manning the many Rocket turrets mounted on the sides of the vehicle, and offering their aid wherever possible.
Although, some did stumble in awe when witnessing the stunning destructive power the Bounty Hunter was capable of dishing out, humbled by her devastating power.
Thankfully, with her on their side, they were able to steamroll their way through the canyon, leaving the scar of war on the land as they went.
Eventually they reached the second cannon, and it too was wiped off the map. Not long after, they were set upon by a new unknown Covenant vessel that had temporarily disabled the Mammoth.
Chief offered to handle the ship himself, but Samus was already on it, leaving the defense of the Mammoth to him and the other Spartans.
Sensing the danger that this new ship put them all in, she had her children stay by the Chief's side, aiding him in combat and keeping them safe from the more threatening enemy.
Without having to worry about collateral damage, Samus was quick to tear the ship apart from the inside out, but not before the pilot decided to try and send her off the cliff with him.
A foolish decision, what with the fact that she could practically fly.
Nevertheless, with the last threat out of the way, the Mammoth powered through to the end of the road, only to come upon a roadblock that would prevent it from going any farther.
But it didn't matter at that point, as they were close enough to the command center that they could all hoof it on foot to their objective.
Most of the Spartans were to stay behind and defend the Mammoth while the group of the Master Chief, Samus, and the Spartans of Castle Team made their charge to the inner depths of the command tower.
The Forerunner facility was built deep into the depths of a mountain, most of its halls buried underneath. The only entrance was hidden in a canyon that Covenant had already begun placing their troops in, a foolhardy attempt to stop them.
They'd managed to fight their way through the Promethean forces that tried in vain to stop their advance, bursting down the doors to the center built into the side of the canyon.
With the group of them charging forward, nothing was able to halt their path of destruction.
Upon reaching a large spacious elevator train, they began their descent into the deepest depths of the tower, the sounds of the world outside entirely deafened from them now.
Blue lights seemed pervasive throughout the underground tunnels of the ancient Forerunner Tower, hard light bridges and walls made of a material that mirrored glass, but was resoundingly durable.
The farther they descended, the darker it seemed to get. Until they were immersed in total darkness, most of the facility offline.
Save for the particle cannon controls.
"Keep your eyes up." Samus muttered, casting her red gaze towards the other Spartans. "Something about this station is interfering with my systems, my radar controls are offline." She warned.
"Ours too." Ernst commented, casting his gaze her way. "We lost contact with command once we passed through the second floor."
Samus' eyes widened slightly. "You don't have contact?" She questioned.
"No. Why?" The gray Spartan muttered, turning his gaze to her questioningly.
"I do. However I am unsure of its reliability the further we go." She clarified.
"We won't be long. The control terminal shouldn't be much farther." Chief spoke up, reloading his assault rifle. The gun clicked in his hands, ready to continue unloading lead into whatever opposed him. "Samus, can you bring up the rear. Make sure we aren't being followed. Something isn't right about this."
The Chief's words were a shared sentiment, one everyone there understood.
They'd been fighting for their life up to this point, facing off against hordes of Covenant and Promethean's, almost like an unending wave of targets thrown their way.
And yet, after facing such a nonstop barrage, after breaching the tower, everything came to a halt.
No enemy forces were spotted nor encountered within the dimly lit halls of the ancient Forerunner structure, nor did it seem like they were being followed by their attackers once inside.
"This must be a trap." Samus intoned, almost to herself. Although the statement was something everyone was already thinking, they couldn't place what kind of trap it was.
A simple ambush of Covenant soldiers?
Promethean's waiting to appear and wreak havoc?
Or something different entirely?
Whatever it was, it didn't sit well with her.
Upon arriving at the basement level, they were met with even more lifeless halls.
Samus's eyes narrowed, thinking for a moment. If anyone was going to follow them in, there was only one entrance. And if the plan was to prevent their escape, it would be done there at the elevator.
"Chief, you all go on ahead. I'll guard the elevator." Samus called out.
The man in green paused, turning to look at her.
She could sense his question, and responded accordingly. "If they're going to lay in wait for us, this elevator would be the place they'd do it." She explained.
The Metroids all cooed in response, floating around the elevator opening in waiting.
"We won't keep you waiting long, Ma'am. Once we get the particle cannons offline, we'll be headed back your way." Dunlap spoke up, nodding to the woman.
Samus looked his way, nodding.
Nothing more was said as the Spartan battalion charged forward into the tower, making a beeline for the terminal controls.
With them out of the picture, Samus began scanning her surroundings.
With the layout of the facility, there was nowhere to hide that would allow her to ambush anyone that would have followed them.
For a normal person anyway.
She looked up, jumping until she reached the ceiling. With her Spider Magnet, she clung to the ceiling of the tall building, hanging high above the elevator doors. Her children hovered beside her, all out of sight.
Barely a minute passed before the doors below her opened again, and wouldn't you know it, a Covenant hit squad came tiptoeing out, all clad in their invisible cloaking technology. In the darkness of the halls, she could only barely make out their forms.
She'd have to resort to using her thermal visor to battle them, but she was loath to do so what with its drawbacks in combat. For use against cloaked foes like these, it made their forms visible, yet blurry and hard to read. But the visor was Space Pirate technology, and it was easily prone to overloading, which could blind her if it wasn't shut off fast enough.
Twenty cloaked Elites stepped off of the elevator, all armed with advanced armor-suits and energy swords. This enemy would be difficult for the Spartan squad to face against, especially in such a setting as this one. Even for her, having used quite a bit of energy during the journey here. She didn't want to risk having an all out brawl in this setting, not with her children beside her.
However, she didn't plan on letting them go any further.
With just a thought, she activated her Phantom Cloak, a more advanced version of the type of cloaking technology that the Covenant used.
Then she dropped, completely silent as she landed behind the Elite that was to bring up the rear.
She found out that her favorite part of Covenant cloaking technology was the fact that it masked the sounds the user made, including their gasps of distress when she clamped her hands around their maws, turning them to ash as she absorbed them entirely.
The first one had died, and none were any the wiser. She stalked forward, one by one absorbing their attack force, silently taking them all out.
However, perhaps one of them actually had a brain somewhere in their head, as eventually one turned around, just in time to witness the tenth Elite fall to her hand.
Their reaction was unanimous, roaring in anger and they charged her with their energy swords.
She appeared out of her cloak, swinging with a devastating uppercut that threw the first energy sword from the Elite's hand, leaving him momentarily defenseless. She snapped forward, grabbing the disgruntled alien by the face before she made use of her super strength and spun her hips, swinging him in his entirety and throwing him into his companions, taking a plentitude of them to the ground with devastating force.
However, a few of them broke off, charging at her from different angles, blades glowing dangerously. She was tackled from behind, sent rolling before one of them pinned her to the ground.
A blazing blade of energy was suddenly lodged where her head used to be, the Hunter having used her Flash Shift to appear twenty feet away to avoid the attack. She spun to her feet, aiming her canon forward to begin firing off plasma beams.
She was suddenly aware of another beam sword slashing across her back, her shields flaring to absorb the damage. She spun around in a spin kick, cracking her heel across the face of the elite, snapping his neck in half and sending his crumpled body into his companions.
A kick to the back of her head sent her reeling, stumbling onto the cloaked body of another Elite. Before she could regain her place, she was kicked in the abdomen and sent sprawling across the floors, head spinning.
She tucked her arms in, rolling a farther distance before she kicked up to her feet, spinning around to fire off a Super Missile that obliterated the alien foolish enough to engage face to face.
''Samus, what's going on back there?!'' The chiefs voice echoed in her helmet, voice spotty. It was apparent to the Spartan some distance away that something had happened, as the explosions were echoing throughout the tower.
"Busy!" She hastily responded, before jumping backwards to avoid a three way attack from the silent assassins. She responded with another barrage of her Super Missiles.
When she landed on the ground, her backside was slashed again by an energy sword, the invisible elites having been hiding in the shadows in wait for her to land.
Her HUD flared in response, the continuous damage she'd been sustaining draining her energy shields quickly.
Before she could jump away she was grabbed and pinned down, face to the floor as two Eiltes held her down, stabbing at her back armor. Her shields stopped the attack again and again, but that wouldn't last forever.
She hissed, transforming into her morph ball to roll away and escape. Once she'd gained adequate distance, she unformed, spinning around and began unloading an endless slurry of plasma their way, completely blanketing the hallway with advanced beam technology.
The Eiltes tried to dodge, but were unsuccessful with the straightforwardness of the terrain, and were unable to escape her attack.
The muzzle of her cannon smoked as she stopped firing, breathing heavily for a moment as she readjusted her footing.
"All clear." She called out after a moment, breathing heavily.
''Copy that. Samus, we need you up here. Something is going on with the Chief, w-we don't know what happened. He's in a trance, there's this energy field that has a hold of him, we don't know what's going on.'' Estey quickly explained over coms, sounding distressed.
"On my way." The Hunter responded quickly, turning to run down the hallway. With the danger cleared for the time being, her children were quick to follow after her.
She rounded a corner, sprinting loudly down the halls, uncaring for stealth at this time. Ahead was another long straightaway, yet she was ready for another surprise at any-
"Huh?!" She dived backwards, quickstep dodging as a Promethean Knight Captain appeared before her with his energy lance in hand, the blade coming inches from connecting with her.
Landing on her knee she took aim at the foe, already charging up another beam shot. As she let the blast go, she was suddenly aware of the three other Knights that had appeared from behind her, hard light shields in their hands.
Then the ground beneath her began to shift, the floor quickly retracting into the walls, leaving only a molten void beneath her.
They weren't worried about the Spartans, they were vying for her alone. She was the biggest threat here, and the Didact must've finally realized that.
And now he must've been trying to take her down once she was alone.
That's when the entire tower began to shake, bombs echoing out across the tower complex…
Ten minutes had passed since the assault force left the Mammoth's side, infiltrating the canyon and beyond that, the Forerunner facility.
Upon their departure, Lasky ordered the Mammoth and the remaining soldiers to retreat from the site, making a distance between them and the battle. The Mammoth was damaged from the battles leading up to this point, and would need to be returned to the Infinity of it was to be repaired.
The captain already had emergency evacuation Pelicans in route to retrieve the assault force once the particle cannons were offline.
Everything was going okay, until a lone Covenant Ceudar-pattern heavy corvette appeared, flying in over the Forerunner facility.
Then came the plasma bombardment mortars, the ship seemingly intending to level the entire Forerunner control outpost, uncaring of who or what may be down there.
"Shit, assault team, get out of there now! You've got a corvette razing the entire facility! Mammoth controls! Fire on that target! Take it down!" Lasky shouted commands, running below deck as he rapidly contracted the Captain. "Infinity, we've got a situation here! A corvette just appeared, it's making a suicide charge at the base. The assault forces are still inside!"
In the distance, the sounds of plasma mortars leveling the canyon could be heard echoing across local coms.
''Commander, get the hell out of there. Take out that ship and get my Spartans back to me!'' Del Rio snapped, his voice muffled over the sound of the Mammoth's mini Mac taking pot shots at the Corvette.
"Negative Captain, the area's too hot! We're stuck here!" Lasky exclaimed.
The corvette was relentless, throwing everything it had at the Forerunner facility, turning it and the surrounding canyon into slag. In nothing short of a minute, the entire assault force, the Master Chief, and Samus were going to be buried underneath a literal mountain of rubble.
The Mammoth's mini mac cannon fired back to back, the very moment the next round was loaded in it was fired, rapidly overheating the gun in an attempt to stop the Corvette before it was too late.
But it was already too late.
The mountain began to crumble atop the facility, and the facility too began to cave in on itself. Not only that, but they'd gained no response from the forward assault team.
If that wasn't enough, the Corvette was shot down from the mac, but it's smoldering carcass came crashing down right into the tower it had been trying to flatten…
''Assault team, get out of there now! You've got a corvette razing the entire facility!'' Lasky's voice echoed across the Hunter's coms, before his voice cut out.
''Samus, what's going on?!'' Ernst shouted.
"It's a trap! They're going to take us all down with the command outpost!" She called out, jumping to the side to avoid the Knight as it lunged for her. Her children rushed in behind her, taking on the three Knights that had tried to pin her.
''We've got the particle cannons offline, Samus, get out of there. Cortana hacked a portal out for us, move now!'' The Master Chief's voice echoed out in her helmet, voice tight.
"Righ-" She responded, before a blinding explosion slammed into her backside with the force of a train, sending her sprawling across the floors, the fading energy of an Incineration Cannon round fuzzing out behind her. The damage took a chunk of her shields, and completely overloaded her thermal visor.
She screamed in pain as her eyes were blinded before her suit's emergency systems deactivated the visor before any more damage was done.
She struggled to her feet, the attack having knocked the wind out of her with the amount of kinetic force it held. She finally stood up, only to turn around as the Knight Captain slammed his lance across her face, throwing her to the side again.
She spit blood, her feet kicking up sparks as she skid to a stop, glaring daggers at the hyper advanced Promethean warrior that stood before her.
She was done playing around.
That last attack hurt, and her vision was blurred from the visor overload.
And now she was pissed off something fierce. "I've had it with you!" She snapped, losing her cool for the first time since the battle on the Infinity.
The Knight roared at her, raising his hard light gun up at her. She leaned forward suddenly, Flash Shifting right up on the Knight. She slammed her claws into its chest, throwing her weight around until she mounted it, wrapping her legs around its neck to prevent it from shaking her off. Instead of trying to absorb it, which would take too long especially when she was being shot at by the other knights, she shoved the muzzle of her cannon to the back of its head, unleashing the charged plasma shot she'd prepared.
With it dead, she didn't hesitate to command her children to run ahead, rejoin the Master Chief. It was getting too dangerous here, and they could fly.
Although hesitant, they did as commanded and flew on ahead of her.
She could feel even more of those devastating incineration cannon rounds flying her way again, and had no intention of getting hit. She Flash Shifted to the side to avoid another direct hit, but nearly fell into the rapidly approaching pit as the ground fell away beneath her.
Below her was the molten river that ran underneath the entire canyon and tower, and while she was sure she could survive, she wasn't interested in being down there when the Covenant buried the entire tower from above.
She sprung into action, her legs burning as she ran as fast as she could, Speed Booster not possible to use within the tighter corridors of the collapsing structure.
''This whole tower is coming down around us, move your ass!'' Ernst shouted.
She huffed as she put some distance between her and the collapsing floor, running around another turn in the structure.
The entire hallway where she just was suddenly collapsed as the mountain that the facility was built underneath collapsed in on top of it, plasma from a starship weapon system flying down into the halls.
She tried to not let that get to her as she ran, thrusters on her backside propelling her forward.
She rounded another corner, completely ignoring the rapidly spawning Promethean's that were all appearing before her, sacrificing themselves in an attempt to stop her before she could escape.
Far ahead she could see the exit, support beams that held up the ceiling collapsing as the Covenant bombarded the facility and the canyon in its entirety. Her children had already escaped, the particle cannons were permanently offline, and they were now in the perfect position to begin planning their assault on the Didact and his Covenant forces.
"Come on!" The Chief, standing with a foot of the portal urged, holding his hand out to her.
However, the very ground between him and her suddenly gave way, falling into the lava lakes far below. She stumbled to a stop, the ground beneath her falling away as she lost her footing.
She tried to initiate a space jump, but without any sort of forward and upward momentum, all she could do was fall.
"Samus!" The Chief shouted, reaching out to her.
As she fell into the void, the entire facility collapsing all around her, she calmed herself and took her aim, right at the Spartan across the gorge. She fired, the Grapple Beam launching out across the gap, locking onto the Spartan's forearm.
"I've got you!" He grunted, running back through the other side of the portal, beam attached to his arm.
She was yanked forward, flying across the gap as the world seemed to fall apart around her, right for the portal out, pulled along by the beam extending from her arm cannon.
She sighed, nearing it now, she was seriously going to take a day off once she was done with this mission. By now, she deserved-
And then the portal closed, and everything seemed to stop.
Her eyes widened in horror as she passed through where the portal was only half a second prior, flying forward with her momentum killed as the entire floor of the facility collapsed into the fiery abyss down below.
Then she fell, instinctively throwing her right arm forward to fire off a grapple beam the avoid falling into lakes of fire beneath her.
But nothing happened.
Her grapple beam hadn't malfunctioned…
No…
That wasn't the case at all…
For…
She no longer had a right arm to use the beam in the first place, a bloody stump stopping partially down her bicep displaying her missing limb…
Her eyes widened in horror, as she fell into the flaming abyss below, the Forerunner complex crumbling in on top of her.
And she was out of time.
The only part of her that made it through the portal was her arm cannon.
The world seemed to freeze for her, eyes impossibly wide as she watched her only chance of escape crushed underneath the rubble and ruin of the facility, the dying carcass of the covenant corvette coming careening in through the ceiling above, aiming to flatten her and whoever else had yet to make it out.
Everything seemed to slow to a crawl in those moments, mind searching every possibility, every inch of everything she was looking at for a chance to escape, for a way out of this nightmare she'd suddenly and violently found herself in.
But…
There was nothing, nothing at all she could do. Even, should she manage to avoid the ocean of lava below, she'd be crushed by the crumbling facility above alongside the corvette which vied for her life. The controls that powered and created the portal that Cortana used were crushed, flattened underneath hundreds of thousands of tons of metal, stone, and ancient technology.
She wondered in that moment if this was what Anthony felt when he was knocked into the lava pits in the Bottle Ship, faced with death, life flashing before his eyes. She couldn't help but realize that she may never see him again, never see her children again, never see John again.
There was no escaping her fate now, and there was nothing she could do. The only closure she had was the fact that her children had made it out before her, and were safe by John's side.
Even…
Even if she were to die here, her life to end at the bottom of this fiery mountain, her children would live on without her.
But her legacy would end. The Chozo were gone, what remained of their artifacts inside her armor, the last remnants of a now lost race all lay with her. And now…
Now they were going to die with her…
Chapter
19
End