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Description
- Forerunner Keyship Dreadnought -

- Outside of the engine room -

- Present -

Samus and the Master Chief turn around as the door closes behind them. The Arbiter apologises through the COM link.

"Forgive me my brothers..."

Cortana expresses her annoyance. "Great, now how are we going to blow this place up if the room is buried??"

The Arbiter receives a message from the commander aboard the Shadow of Intent, and he relays it to everyone.

"You must all know that the Flood have regressed to their Feral stage, they are out of control. We must glass the planet immediately. Therefore I suggest we evacuate."

"What about this ship?" asks Samus. "Are we just going to leave it intact and vulnerable to enemy hands?"

Nobody knows how to respond. Around the Chief and Samus, Flood Pods burst and Infection Forms appear en mass. Combat Forms charge towards them as well.

Samus and John stand back-to-back. The Chief fires his Assault Rifle at the Infection Forms and punches through the chests of Combat Forms with his fist. Samus combines her Power and Plasma Beams to rapidly fire small bursts of heat. This proves effective and the Combat Forms catch on fire and burn to pieces before they reach her.

The Master Chief reloads and fires some more when a Ranged Form starts firing its carbine spikes. He readies a grenade when a Metroid appears and clamps onto the Pure Form and absorbs its life energy.

"Metroid!" he says to his comrade.

"Switch!" she says and the two of them exchange firing positions.

Samus aims at the Metroid as it lunges towards her. She fires an Ice Beam and it freezes in place. Firing a Super Missile and it shatters to pieces.

The Chief throws a Spike Grenade up to the ceiling where a Tank Form is about to charge under. It detonates and rains hot spikes down on the Flood monster. Its hide manages to hold, however the blast stuns it. Another Metroid appears and grabs onto the hulk's back and drains it.

"Switch." he says and they switch around again.

While Samus deals with the Metroid, the Chief reloads his Assault Rifle again and fires short controled bursts at the many Infection Forms that are popping out of the pods. When some get hit, they burst and that causes a chain reaction and many burst along with the others.

"I have a solution..." says a weak voice over the COM.

"Rtas?" asks the Arbiter, surprised that his comrade is awake.

"Go to the bridge... and plot a course that takes the ship into this system's sun."

Cortana is quite impressed with his solution. "It's perfect! Even if the ship survives, the heat transfered to the interior will incinerate all traces of the Flood. I must ask though, how did you come up with that idea?"

"I've..." he takes a deep breath. "... done it myself... before."

The Chief fires at a Combat Form using an Assault Rifle, then quickly collects ammo and returns to Samus.

"The bridge is two stories above us. If we're going to do this, we'd better hurry."

Samus nods, and the two of them start running through the infected corridors towards where John knows is an elevator. They get a COM from Kelly.

"Chief, we'll secure an escape route for you."

John remembers the Metroids, and asks her. "Do you have any Freezethrowers?"

She hesitates... "Negative Chief."

"Then I'm ordering you and the others to evacuate this ship."

"Sir..." she begins to protest.

"Under no circumstances are you to violate this order. Get out of here and return to the Leviathan."

"... Yes sir!" John can detect her reluctance.

They arrive at the elevator. The door opens and a stream of Infection Forms fall out. John fires at them and they burst into pieces. A Pirate Combat form is present as well and it swings its left arm at him. Its scythe and whip tentacles deplete his shield completely. Before it can swing again, Samus grabs its left arm. She uses her Power Grip to break the scythe and the tentacles with it. It raises its pincer rifle at her, but John grabs the sensory appendages in the chest and pulls the controlling Infection Form out, and smashes it against the wall.

They enter the elevator as John's shield recharges and they rise up towards the upper deck.

When the door opens, three Metroids wait just outside the elevator. Samus charges up her Ice Beam as they struggle and shriek to get all three of them inside, and she fires at them. They freeze in place. Samus glances at the Chief.

"You might want to get behind me."

He complies as she steps forward and fires a Super Missile at them. The explosion destroys all three of them. Samus is immune to her own attacks, and therefore she uses herself as a shield to protect the Chief from the explosion.

They step out of the elevator and run towards the bridge. Once inside, the Chief approaches the main helm control panel while Samus keeps the room secure.

"Chief, allow me..." Cortana concentrates. "Ok, I've set this ship to launch and enter Slipspace once it exits the atmosphere. I can program it so it'll take off after a certain time. How much time do you think we'll need to escape?"

"Three minutes" he says.

Samus glances at the door and she turns to face them. "I could weld that door shut to prevent any of the Flood from comming in here and override the controls."

"That won't be necessary as I..." she realises the circuitry for the locking mechanisms have been fried.

The Chief glances at Samus then faces the control panel again. "Four minutes." He taps the holographic controls and a countdown appears on their HUDs.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqjO0N…

They run out of the room and the door closes. A torch burns from the tip of Samus' Arm Cannon and she starts from the bottom left of the door and works her way up. John crouches and covers her.

A Combat Form holding a Shotgun leaps towards them. It aims at Samus' back but John grabs the weapon, pulls it out of its grasp, aims and blows the corpse to pieces. He drops his old spent Shotgun and keeps the new one.

Samus is halfway done. The Chief fires his Shotgun at a Brute form, killing it and collects an Incendiary Grenade. He uses his new grenade on a Stalker Form that's approaching them. It catches on fire and burns to death. Then he switches to his Assault Rifle and fires at a mob of Infection Forms.

She stops as she's finished. Then they run towards the elevator, firing at anything in their way.

"There should be a hangar a few floors above us." John says as he throws a frag grenade at a group of Combat Forms. The blast destroys them.

When they arrive, the door opens and they see the lift is gone. Along the walls of the shaft are Ranged Forms aiming at them.

John tries turning on the elevator, but the controls aren't responding. Samus looks at the Ranged Forms and gets an idea. She leans out of the shaft and fires Ice Beams at them, freezing them into solid blocks.

"Look, we can safely jump on them all the way up to the hangar. I'll freeze them again so they don't thaw out."

John considers telling her that it's suicide. They'll slip and fall; however, Cortana speaks her mind.

"This is crazy... I like it."

Samus jumps onto one frozen form. She turns and leaps towards the next one. She aims down and freezes the forms she's already used. John looks at the countdown timer: 2:13 left. He jumps onto the ice block that is the Ranged Form and, to his surprise, it wasn't all that slippery. He jumps onto the next one.

Samus freezes a few more above them, and keeps moving. John follows behind and Cortana asks him.

"Do you think she's done this before?"

She refreezes the forms below her for the Chief and he leaps onto the next one. He doesn't answer her and focuses on making sure he lands his feet on frozen Flood.

They keep this up until they arrive at their destination. Samus aims at the door and fires a Super Missile, blowing the door apart. She spin jumps onto the ledge, turns and holds out her hand for the Master Chief.

He almost loses his balance as the Ranged Form under him shakes, trying to break free of the ice. He jumps towards Samus and grabs her hand. She pulls hard, trying to lift two meters of heavy armor with one hand. John grabs the ledge with his other hand and together he pulls himself up.

0:24 left

They sprint down the corridor. More Flood and Metroids attacking eachother in their way. Without slowing down, Samus freezes the Metroids and John pumps his Shotgun and fires at every Combat Form they pass. A few Carrier Forms blow up and cover the floor with Infection Forms. They run through them, bursting as their boots land on them.

"Chief, we've got a Pelican all set and waiting for you." he hears a woman's voice over the COM.

0:00.

The ground under their feet shakes as the Dreadnought's engines ignite and the vessel starts to quickly rise above the ground.

They pick up the pace and arrive at the hangar. Inside is a Pelican facing the exit with a Warthog attached to it. Helljumpers and Hellbringers are holding off any opposition comming at them. Some of the Flamethrower units are actually carrying modified Freezethrowers, and they use them to freeze the attacking Metroids. ODSTs with Jackhammers fire rockets and blow up the leeches.

One of the Marines sees Samus and the Chief and waves to them. "Sir! Get on board so we can get the hell out of here." He says before firing his SMG at approaching Infection Forms. Outside of the ship, John can see them about to rise above the clouds.

He run towards them and fires at some more of the Flood. The Marines and Flamethrower units return to the Pelican and climb in. John sees Samus hanging behind.

"Get in!" he says.

She shakes her head. "I'll command my ship to pick me up. GO!" She says as she types into her Arm Cannon.

The Chief enters the cockpit and says to the pilot. "Get us out of here."

"Roger that Chief." she says as she and her co-pilot seal the troop bay, activate the thrusters and they fly out of the hangar. John can see Samus' gunship flying towards it.

He leaves the cockpit and looks out the hatch in the troop bay. He sees her gunship flying out of the hangar and he exhales the breath he was holding.

The Dreadnought continues its ascent. Higher and higher. Once it breaks orbit, it enters Slipspace and disapears.

"Chief, come into the cockpit and take a look at this." says the pilot.

John walks back inside. He looks at the pilot and she points to a radar contact quickly approaching them. He looks straight ahead of them and sees...

"Oh shit... Ridley."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDP9oC…

Meta-Ridley roars and flies above and past the Pelican, scratching the hull with his claws.

"What is that thing?" the co-pilot asks.

Ridley flies after the Pelican and fires homing missiles from the launchers in his body. They spread across the dropship.

"Fuck!" curses the pilot as she tries to hold the Pelican steady.

"Multiple impacts. Hull integrity at 20%." says the co-pilot.

Ridley flies towards the front of the dropship. He lunges his tail through the glass and impales the co-pilot. The tail slides out of him as he slumps forward and his helmet hits the switch that opens the hatch to the troop bay. Several ODSTS and Flamethrower units that aren't strapped are sucked out into the air.

The space dragon reaches into the cockpit, grabs the pilot, pulls her out and throws her away.

With no pilot, the Pelican starts to spin out of control. John climbs into the seat and tries to steady the ship; but Ridley drops onto the roof of the dropship and the force sends them downwards. He opens his mouth and fires a beam of plasma and sears off the port wing. John is trying hard to steady to the ship without breaking the stick he's holding. Ridley laughs and does the same to the other wing.

Suddenly Samus' gunship slams into him and knocks him off the Pelican. Inside the cockpit, she glares at Ridley and arms her ship's missiles. The wing prongs open and fire at the Space Pirate. They explode on him and forces him to fly away.

She guides her gunship above the rapidly falling Pelican and activates her ship's Grapple Beam. The projector on her ship's belly fires the beam and attaches itself to the hull of the ship. The thrusters on her gunship ignite and she tries slowing down the Pelican's fall.

Out of the blue, Ridley tackles Samus' gunship, disabling the Grapple Beam in the process. The Pelican resumes its rapid descent.

John can see the ground quickly approaching. "Brace for impact!" He says to whoever's still alive in the back.

The Pelican slams into a field. The landing throws the Chief out of the cockpit and he lands several meters away. Rolling and sliding across the grass, he finaly slows down and comes to a stop.

He lies on his back for a few moments...

"Chief?" asks Cortana with concern in her voice.

He slowly regains motion and, just as slowly, returns to his feet.

"Nice landing." says Cortana sarcastically.

The Chief would chuckle if he wasn't still dazed. He manages to start walking towards the crashed Pelican. Once he reaches it, he walks around and sees the Warthog is detached. He sees it on its back not too far away. He looks inside the troop bay, then hangs his head. The Marines are all dead.

"Chief!! Behind you!"

He turns around, looks up and sees Ridley dive bombing towards him.

Samus steps in front of the Chief and aims up at Ridley. A ring stretches out from the tip of her Arm Cannon and elongates till it's bigger. A blue sphere of energy charges up in her cannon. Ridley's eyes widen. She fires her Zero Laser.

The giant beam of energy hits the space dragon. Nearly consumed by the blast, he screams in pain as he is forced by the laser's power back into the sky along with the energy. The beam continues to rise up with Ridley in tow.

Samus kneels and types into her Arm Cannon. Sending her ship off the ground and into the air. She transfers her remaining and reserve tanks into her personal energy shield, and her suit disapears.

She stands up in her Zero Suit and looks at the Chief. He indicates her ship with a nudge of his head towards it.

"Why didn't you take your ship?" he asks.

"Only I can board it, and I'm not leaving you behind." she replies.

The Chief says nothing as they walk towards the Warthog. He flips it over and takes a look at it... Of all the vehicles he could have ended up with, in front of him is the modified Warthog he used during the trek through the desert. He looks through the compartments and sees that N'tho and Usze have stored some of their own weapons in it.

"John... look." says Samus as she points to the east.

He looks and sees a beam of plasma firing down onto the planet. They both look around and see more cleansing beams igniting the lands in the distance. The heat changes the color of the sky.

Not wanting to waste any time, the Master Chief climbs into the driver's seat and starts up the Warthog. Samus takes the M41 LAAG and sweeps their surroundings. Together they drive off towards the south, away from the glassing beams.

- - -

A charred, smoking figure falls down from the sky and crashes into the ground. From the cloud of dust caused by the landing, a clawed hand reaches out and grabs the earth. Another one appears and they pull the burning form of Ridley along the ground. The projectors creating the field between his wing bones are destroyed.

He stumbles upon one of the Marines that fell out of the Pelican. He grabs the corpse and tears off the flesh with his teeth. It tastes horrible but he can't stop eating.

After he finishes with that body, he continues to crawl his way along and finds another dead Marine. He reaches with one hand and starts tearing off the metal armor from his body and his head. He devours the horrible human flesh and keeps moving.

He arrives at the Pelican crash site and starts eating the bodies inside. The more flesh he consumes, the more his body stops smoking. An organic membrane starts to grow from his wing bones.

Holding the corpse of the co-pilot in his hand, he sees tire tracks and glares in the direction the Warthog drove off to. Ridley holds up the body in his tight grasp and bites off the head.

Description
- Forerunner Keyship Dreadnought -

- Outside of the engine room -

- Present -

Samus and the Master Chief turn around as the door closes behind them. The Arbiter apologises through the COM link.

"Forgive me my brothers..."

Cortana expresses her annoyance. "Great, now how are we going to blow this place up if the room is buried??"

The Arbiter receives a message from the commander aboard the Shadow of Intent, and he relays it to everyone.

"You must all know that the Flood have regressed to their Feral stage, they are out of control. We must glass the planet immediately. Therefore I suggest we evacuate."

"What about this ship?" asks Samus. "Are we just going to leave it intact and vulnerable to enemy hands?"

Nobody knows how to respond. Around the Chief and Samus, Flood Pods burst and Infection Forms appear en mass. Combat Forms charge towards them as well.

Samus and John stand back-to-back. The Chief fires his Assault Rifle at the Infection Forms and punches through the chests of Combat Forms with his fist. Samus combines her Power and Plasma Beams to rapidly fire small bursts of heat. This proves effective and the Combat Forms catch on fire and burn to pieces before they reach her.

The Master Chief reloads and fires some more when a Ranged Form starts firing its carbine spikes. He readies a grenade when a Metroid appears and clamps onto the Pure Form and absorbs its life energy.

"Metroid!" he says to his comrade.

"Switch!" she says and the two of them exchange firing positions.

Samus aims at the Metroid as it lunges towards her. She fires an Ice Beam and it freezes in place. Firing a Super Missile and it shatters to pieces.

The Chief throws a Spike Grenade up to the ceiling where a Tank Form is about to charge under. It detonates and rains hot spikes down on the Flood monster. Its hide manages to hold, however the blast stuns it. Another Metroid appears and grabs onto the hulk's back and drains it.

"Switch." he says and they switch around again.

While Samus deals with the Metroid, the Chief reloads his Assault Rifle again and fires short controled bursts at the many Infection Forms that are popping out of the pods. When some get hit, they burst and that causes a chain reaction and many burst along with the others.

"I have a solution..." says a weak voice over the COM.

"Rtas?" asks the Arbiter, surprised that his comrade is awake.

"Go to the bridge... and plot a course that takes the ship into this system's sun."

Cortana is quite impressed with his solution. "It's perfect! Even if the ship survives, the heat transfered to the interior will incinerate all traces of the Flood. I must ask though, how did you come up with that idea?"

"I've..." he takes a deep breath. "... done it myself... before."

The Chief fires at a Combat Form using an Assault Rifle, then quickly collects ammo and returns to Samus.

"The bridge is two stories above us. If we're going to do this, we'd better hurry."

Samus nods, and the two of them start running through the infected corridors towards where John knows is an elevator. They get a COM from Kelly.

"Chief, we'll secure an escape route for you."

John remembers the Metroids, and asks her. "Do you have any Freezethrowers?"

She hesitates... "Negative Chief."

"Then I'm ordering you and the others to evacuate this ship."

"Sir..." she begins to protest.

"Under no circumstances are you to violate this order. Get out of here and return to the Leviathan."

"... Yes sir!" John can detect her reluctance.

They arrive at the elevator. The door opens and a stream of Infection Forms fall out. John fires at them and they burst into pieces. A Pirate Combat form is present as well and it swings its left arm at him. Its scythe and whip tentacles deplete his shield completely. Before it can swing again, Samus grabs its left arm. She uses her Power Grip to break the scythe and the tentacles with it. It raises its pincer rifle at her, but John grabs the sensory appendages in the chest and pulls the controlling Infection Form out, and smashes it against the wall.

They enter the elevator as John's shield recharges and they rise up towards the upper deck.

When the door opens, three Metroids wait just outside the elevator. Samus charges up her Ice Beam as they struggle and shriek to get all three of them inside, and she fires at them. They freeze in place. Samus glances at the Chief.

"You might want to get behind me."

He complies as she steps forward and fires a Super Missile at them. The explosion destroys all three of them. Samus is immune to her own attacks, and therefore she uses herself as a shield to protect the Chief from the explosion.

They step out of the elevator and run towards the bridge. Once inside, the Chief approaches the main helm control panel while Samus keeps the room secure.

"Chief, allow me..." Cortana concentrates. "Ok, I've set this ship to launch and enter Slipspace once it exits the atmosphere. I can program it so it'll take off after a certain time. How much time do you think we'll need to escape?"

"Three minutes" he says.

Samus glances at the door and she turns to face them. "I could weld that door shut to prevent any of the Flood from comming in here and override the controls."

"That won't be necessary as I..." she realises the circuitry for the locking mechanisms have been fried.

The Chief glances at Samus then faces the control panel again. "Four minutes." He taps the holographic controls and a countdown appears on their HUDs.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqjO0N…

They run out of the room and the door closes. A torch burns from the tip of Samus' Arm Cannon and she starts from the bottom left of the door and works her way up. John crouches and covers her.

A Combat Form holding a Shotgun leaps towards them. It aims at Samus' back but John grabs the weapon, pulls it out of its grasp, aims and blows the corpse to pieces. He drops his old spent Shotgun and keeps the new one.

Samus is halfway done. The Chief fires his Shotgun at a Brute form, killing it and collects an Incendiary Grenade. He uses his new grenade on a Stalker Form that's approaching them. It catches on fire and burns to death. Then he switches to his Assault Rifle and fires at a mob of Infection Forms.

She stops as she's finished. Then they run towards the elevator, firing at anything in their way.

"There should be a hangar a few floors above us." John says as he throws a frag grenade at a group of Combat Forms. The blast destroys them.

When they arrive, the door opens and they see the lift is gone. Along the walls of the shaft are Ranged Forms aiming at them.

John tries turning on the elevator, but the controls aren't responding. Samus looks at the Ranged Forms and gets an idea. She leans out of the shaft and fires Ice Beams at them, freezing them into solid blocks.

"Look, we can safely jump on them all the way up to the hangar. I'll freeze them again so they don't thaw out."

John considers telling her that it's suicide. They'll slip and fall; however, Cortana speaks her mind.

"This is crazy... I like it."

Samus jumps onto one frozen form. She turns and leaps towards the next one. She aims down and freezes the forms she's already used. John looks at the countdown timer: 2:13 left. He jumps onto the ice block that is the Ranged Form and, to his surprise, it wasn't all that slippery. He jumps onto the next one.

Samus freezes a few more above them, and keeps moving. John follows behind and Cortana asks him.

"Do you think she's done this before?"

She refreezes the forms below her for the Chief and he leaps onto the next one. He doesn't answer her and focuses on making sure he lands his feet on frozen Flood.

They keep this up until they arrive at their destination. Samus aims at the door and fires a Super Missile, blowing the door apart. She spin jumps onto the ledge, turns and holds out her hand for the Master Chief.

He almost loses his balance as the Ranged Form under him shakes, trying to break free of the ice. He jumps towards Samus and grabs her hand. She pulls hard, trying to lift two meters of heavy armor with one hand. John grabs the ledge with his other hand and together he pulls himself up.

0:24 left

They sprint down the corridor. More Flood and Metroids attacking eachother in their way. Without slowing down, Samus freezes the Metroids and John pumps his Shotgun and fires at every Combat Form they pass. A few Carrier Forms blow up and cover the floor with Infection Forms. They run through them, bursting as their boots land on them.

"Chief, we've got a Pelican all set and waiting for you." he hears a woman's voice over the COM.

0:00.

The ground under their feet shakes as the Dreadnought's engines ignite and the vessel starts to quickly rise above the ground.

They pick up the pace and arrive at the hangar. Inside is a Pelican facing the exit with a Warthog attached to it. Helljumpers and Hellbringers are holding off any opposition comming at them. Some of the Flamethrower units are actually carrying modified Freezethrowers, and they use them to freeze the attacking Metroids. ODSTs with Jackhammers fire rockets and blow up the leeches.

One of the Marines sees Samus and the Chief and waves to them. "Sir! Get on board so we can get the hell out of here." He says before firing his SMG at approaching Infection Forms. Outside of the ship, John can see them about to rise above the clouds.

He run towards them and fires at some more of the Flood. The Marines and Flamethrower units return to the Pelican and climb in. John sees Samus hanging behind.

"Get in!" he says.

She shakes her head. "I'll command my ship to pick me up. GO!" She says as she types into her Arm Cannon.

The Chief enters the cockpit and says to the pilot. "Get us out of here."

"Roger that Chief." she says as she and her co-pilot seal the troop bay, activate the thrusters and they fly out of the hangar. John can see Samus' gunship flying towards it.

He leaves the cockpit and looks out the hatch in the troop bay. He sees her gunship flying out of the hangar and he exhales the breath he was holding.

The Dreadnought continues its ascent. Higher and higher. Once it breaks orbit, it enters Slipspace and disapears.

"Chief, come into the cockpit and take a look at this." says the pilot.

John walks back inside. He looks at the pilot and she points to a radar contact quickly approaching them. He looks straight ahead of them and sees...

"Oh shit... Ridley."

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDP9oC…

Meta-Ridley roars and flies above and past the Pelican, scratching the hull with his claws.

"What is that thing?" the co-pilot asks.

Ridley flies after the Pelican and fires homing missiles from the launchers in his body. They spread across the dropship.

"Fuck!" curses the pilot as she tries to hold the Pelican steady.

"Multiple impacts. Hull integrity at 20%." says the co-pilot.

Ridley flies towards the front of the dropship. He lunges his tail through the glass and impales the co-pilot. The tail slides out of him as he slumps forward and his helmet hits the switch that opens the hatch to the troop bay. Several ODSTS and Flamethrower units that aren't strapped are sucked out into the air.

The space dragon reaches into the cockpit, grabs the pilot, pulls her out and throws her away.

With no pilot, the Pelican starts to spin out of control. John climbs into the seat and tries to steady the ship; but Ridley drops onto the roof of the dropship and the force sends them downwards. He opens his mouth and fires a beam of plasma and sears off the port wing. John is trying hard to steady to the ship without breaking the stick he's holding. Ridley laughs and does the same to the other wing.

Suddenly Samus' gunship slams into him and knocks him off the Pelican. Inside the cockpit, she glares at Ridley and arms her ship's missiles. The wing prongs open and fire at the Space Pirate. They explode on him and forces him to fly away.

She guides her gunship above the rapidly falling Pelican and activates her ship's Grapple Beam. The projector on her ship's belly fires the beam and attaches itself to the hull of the ship. The thrusters on her gunship ignite and she tries slowing down the Pelican's fall.

Out of the blue, Ridley tackles Samus' gunship, disabling the Grapple Beam in the process. The Pelican resumes its rapid descent.

John can see the ground quickly approaching. "Brace for impact!" He says to whoever's still alive in the back.

The Pelican slams into a field. The landing throws the Chief out of the cockpit and he lands several meters away. Rolling and sliding across the grass, he finaly slows down and comes to a stop.

He lies on his back for a few moments...

"Chief?" asks Cortana with concern in her voice.

He slowly regains motion and, just as slowly, returns to his feet.

"Nice landing." says Cortana sarcastically.

The Chief would chuckle if he wasn't still dazed. He manages to start walking towards the crashed Pelican. Once he reaches it, he walks around and sees the Warthog is detached. He sees it on its back not too far away. He looks inside the troop bay, then hangs his head. The Marines are all dead.

"Chief!! Behind you!"

He turns around, looks up and sees Ridley dive bombing towards him.

Samus steps in front of the Chief and aims up at Ridley. A ring stretches out from the tip of her Arm Cannon and elongates till it's bigger. A blue sphere of energy charges up in her cannon. Ridley's eyes widen. She fires her Zero Laser.

The giant beam of energy hits the space dragon. Nearly consumed by the blast, he screams in pain as he is forced by the laser's power back into the sky along with the energy. The beam continues to rise up with Ridley in tow.

Samus kneels and types into her Arm Cannon. Sending her ship off the ground and into the air. She transfers her remaining and reserve tanks into her personal energy shield, and her suit disapears.

She stands up in her Zero Suit and looks at the Chief. He indicates her ship with a nudge of his head towards it.

"Why didn't you take your ship?" he asks.

"Only I can board it, and I'm not leaving you behind." she replies.

The Chief says nothing as they walk towards the Warthog. He flips it over and takes a look at it... Of all the vehicles he could have ended up with, in front of him is the modified Warthog he used during the trek through the desert. He looks through the compartments and sees that N'tho and Usze have stored some of their own weapons in it.

"John... look." says Samus as she points to the east.

He looks and sees a beam of plasma firing down onto the planet. They both look around and see more cleansing beams igniting the lands in the distance. The heat changes the color of the sky.

Not wanting to waste any time, the Master Chief climbs into the driver's seat and starts up the Warthog. Samus takes the M41 LAAG and sweeps their surroundings. Together they drive off towards the south, away from the glassing beams.

- - -

A charred, smoking figure falls down from the sky and crashes into the ground. From the cloud of dust caused by the landing, a clawed hand reaches out and grabs the earth. Another one appears and they pull the burning form of Ridley along the ground. The projectors creating the field between his wing bones are destroyed.

He stumbles upon one of the Marines that fell out of the Pelican. He grabs the corpse and tears off the flesh with his teeth. It tastes horrible but he can't stop eating.

After he finishes with that body, he continues to crawl his way along and finds another dead Marine. He reaches with one hand and starts tearing off the metal armor from his body and his head. He devours the horrible human flesh and keeps moving.

He arrives at the Pelican crash site and starts eating the bodies inside. The more flesh he consumes, the more his body stops smoking. An organic membrane starts to grow from his wing bones.

Holding the corpse of the co-pilot in his hand, he sees tire tracks and glares in the direction the Warthog drove off to. Ridley holds up the body in his tight grasp and bites off the head.