glad all you guys like the story!
Oh, as a note, if you think Toph was overpowered in Chapter 2, and killing two Hunters with her bare hands would definately make you think that, I assure you that I was working within her limits. Physically, she is no stronger than your average physically active 12-year old. But her unique form of blind, vibration-sensing earthbending allows here to find the traces of minerals in metals. Hunter armor, though alien, is probably metal, so therefore will have traces of its original ore form in it, which will allow Toph to crumple it like paper. Just wanted to clear this up.
Yays! Next chapter!
CHAPTER 4
Smoke rising from a bunker is never a good sign. But that was what the Master Chief and Kirby, not Toph because she’s blind, were looking at. The bunker had a huge hole blasted into it, with plumes of acrid black smoke pouring out of it. UNSC Marines were scattered around the breach, all of them dead.
The Master Chief quietly reloaded his assault rifle. This was a close quarters situation. Next to him Kirby did the same.
“Hey, Chief.” Toph asked the Chief, not turning her head to face him. “Is it metal or rock in there?”
“Uh…it’s steel and concrete.”
“Eh, good enough.”
The trio quietly made their way to the bunker’s facade. It was deathly quiet.
Master Chief jumped through the breach. Kirby and Toph followed him. The soot-blackened, rubble-filled hall was strewn with bodies.
The hallway made a sharp left turn before it exited in one of the bunkhouses. The cots were all knocked over, some with dead marines still in their sleep-ware slumped over them.
“Chief, go over to that one.” Cortana pointed him to a marine whose HUD was still active. “Hook me up.” Master Chief inserted the AI chip into the dead soldier’s helmet for a second and then pulled it out and reinserted it into his own.
“Here’s the video feed from his HUD, recorded at 13:24.”
The Chief’s HUD switched to video-playing mode as he watched it from that soldier’s eyes.
“Diet Dr. Pepper! They broke through the barricade!” The soldier yelled as he laid down some suppressing fire on the dino-from-hell that had smashed its way through the mess-hall tables that had been shoved up against the door.
“Fall back to the Delta Barracks! We can hold off these Locusts from there!” a commander out of the helmet-cam’s vision yelled. The soldier turned around and ran through a door at the end of the hall. The video feed bounced around wildly, the soldier’s panting drowning out the gunfire. He ran into the barracks they were in now and grabbed a sniper rifle, turned around, and downed a Locust who was coming through the breach in the barricade in the next room. The radar showed three other snipers in the room with him.
An insect-like screech shrieked over the speakers. The soldier turned around to see a bipedal insectoid thing with a huge blade on one of its forearms in the doorway. Its carapace was mottled orange and blue, its eyes were compound, and its jaw was split, much like an Elite’s.
“What the HELL?” The soldier screamed before he shot it with his rifle. Within a second four more had jumped into the room. There were a few flashes of purple before the screen burst into static and went black.
//:Video feed…lost
“Hmmm. There’s nothing in the Covenant databanks to suggest a unit called a “Locust” or one of those bug things.” Cortana mused. “This is bad. The Covenant must have joined forces with the Locust, if that’s what they’re called, and what ever the hell that other thing was. And they must have really wanted to clear out this bunker personally.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” Master Chief began to go into the mess hall.
An ear-splitting shriek rang out. Chief turned around to see another one of the bug-things crouched in a dim corner on top of one of the remaining erect bunks, blade extended. The thing jumped at the Master Chief, but only got half way before a pillar of concrete flew up and smashed it against the ceiling, splattering its remains all over the room. After a second, Master Chief wiped the innards off his visor and moved on.
“Gee, thanks for saving my life, Toph. Don’t mention it, Chief.” Toph said condescendingly before moving on.
The mess hall was, unlike the rest of the place, quite clear. All rubble and bodies had been moved to the walls. In the center was a shallow pit that had been dug through the floor. At the bottom of the pit was a circular lift elevator. In the middle of it was an orange hologram of a flat disk and an arrow pointing down. Master Chief, Kirby, and Toph jumped down into the pit and onto the lift. It didn’t move.
“You’re supposed to step into the hologram.” Cortana instructed. Master Chief did as she said. The lift hummed to life and began to sink.
The lift dropped down for at least a minute. The only light the fluorescent ones built into the sides of the tube at regular intervals.
The lift stopped in the corner of a large room. The trio walked off and looked around at their surroundings.
The room was lined with tubes and pipes filled with a glowing blue liquid. Glowing computer consoles dotted the floor. The lights were on, but few, making the room rather dark and gloomy. It was definitely not made by the UNSC or the Covenant: It was much more…practical. Ordinary. Not a military facility. On the far side of the room was a large glass window looking out on a gigantic pit with numerous caves leading off in all directions and many other such rooms on the sides. Robotic mining equipment was hard at work in the pit, harvesting the same glowing blue substance that was in the pipes. In the center of the room was a thick column with dozens of flashing holographic symbols on it and ringed by more computer screens. A figure that was not Covenant, Locust, or bug stood with its back to the trio, inspecting a computer screen.
The figure turned around. Who, or whatever it was, was clad in a sleek orange, yellow and red suit of armor. The shoulder protectors were large and spherical, the helmet with a green visor. The right arm was converted into a silver cannon, which was now pointed right at the trio. Master Chief and Kirby raised their guns, Toph threw herself into a ready stance.
After about a half-minute of staring down the trio, the figure lowered its arm cannon. Reaching up with its other hand, it pressed a button on the side of its red helmet.
The figure was a young human woman, with slender features and long blonde hair that hung to her shoulders. The trio relaxed and lowered their weapons.
“Good to see some live humans again.” She said. “And whatever that thing is.” She pointed at Kirby. “Everybody upstairs was dead when I got here.”
“And why exactly are you here?” Master Chief asked.
“Oh, I’ve been tracking a certain Space Pirate fleet for months now. It seems that this place is one of their old phazon mines and they came back to claim it.” She shook her head sadly. “The guys who built the base up there had no idea that one of the largest phazon mines anywhere was right below their feet. Would’ve helped them if they did. The old slug-throwers they used could’ve been quite effective if they had phazon payloads. They might not have all died if they had.”
“So what attacked the base?” Toph asked.
“Space Pirates. Seems they’ve teamed up with a few new friends. From what I’ve scanned off the bodies up there, they’re called the Covenant and the Locust Horde. Seems that they’re supplying a good load of phazon to the Covenant, and I guess that the Horde is just along for the ride.”
“So, are gonna go smash some heads or just stand here talking all day?” Toph butted in. The woman laughed.
“My opinion exactly.” Her helmet reappeared. “My name’s Samus Aran, by the way.”
“Toph Bei Fong.”
“Master Chief Petty Officer John-117. And that’s Kirby.”
The creature in question walked up to Samus, sneezed out another one of those yellow stars, and swallowed the bounty hunter. Samus picked herself up off the floor and looked at the pink thing who was now wearing an oversized version of her red helmet.
“You’re a weird little creature, you know that?” She said, unable to hold in a chuckle.
Enjoy.