Soldiers of Legend Pt 10

    Raiden's eyes snapped open and he tried to sit up.  However, when he did, his body flared with pain, so he winced and lay back down.  Looking to his sides, he saw a door on his right, and it opened to reveal Sunny.  "Sunny?" "Jack!  Snake, Uncle Hal!  Jack's awake!"  Raiden waited for a moment before he saw Otacon and Snake appear.  He was surprised to see them here, and even more surprised at Snake's face.  "Snake…?" "Yeah, what is it?" "Your face..." "Oh, long story short, we were sucked into another dimension, according to Samus and Otacon, and the portal reversed the aging..."  Raiden raised an eyebrow, but decided it was unimportant.  Then Gray Fox looked in, making Raiden attempt to grab his blade.  He failed, but Snake looked back and saw Fox.  "Raiden, meet Gray Fox, one of my oldest friends..." "What?" "You attacked me, what did you expect me to do?"  Raiden felt one part stupid, one part curious about the man who looked like him, only more exoskeleton.

    As Raiden went through these thoughts, two beings were outside the ship.  One was flesh, one was code, and both were connected to each other through the suit the flesh one was wearing.  "Cortana…?" "Yea, Chief?" "Is this a friendly ship?" "I think so..." "You think so?  I thought you knew just about everything..." "Well, I haven't been here long enough, okay?" "Fair enough..." "So, what is your brilliant plan this time?" "I thought I might just go up and knock, does that sound good?" "Well, it's not exactly subtle, but it isn't threatening, either..." "Is that supposed to be a yes or no?" "I'm saying that you need to decide either way.  Use my information how you want, okay?  Just remember there are two of us in here..." "I'll remember" The AI rolled her eyes and watched as John-117 stood up.  She was wondering how he had ever snuck anywhere.  He weighed two tons, was 7'2", mainly thanks to the MJOLNIR armor he was wearing, and made so much noise that she could swear he could drown out a Scorpion Tank.  Stopping at the ramp, he waited for a moment, something telling him to do so.

    As the man reached the ramp, Samus had already detected him.  Her suit in need of repair, Otacon volunteered to greet the man while everyone waited to see his intentions.  As the engineer approached the door, Sunny joined him against his wishes.  Pushing the proper button to open it, he then looked down to see a man in a suit that reminded Otacon of Samus's, but his was more attuned to military regulations than personal preference.  "Hello, I'm Dr. Emmerich, this is Sunny, and can I help you?" "Maybe, do you know of the UNSC?" "I'm sorry, I don't know of any group called that..." "Oh, well, could you give me a ride to the headquarters in this thing?" "Do you have the coordinates?" "Yeah, well, I don't, but Cortana does" "Cortana?" "Do you have a holographic projector?"

    Otacon looked towards Samus; she nodded and walked over, grabbing Snake on the way, much to his chagrin.  "Yes, my ship does" "And you would be?" "Samus Aran, you would be?" "Spartan Super Soldier #117, Code Name Master Chief, real name, John-117" "Alright, you can come on inside..." "Who's the other guy?" "Oh, well, he can explain it better..." "Les Enfants Terribles Infant #2, David Winters, Code Name - Solid Snake, Aliases - Plisken and The Legendary Soldier" "Right, you don't look all that legendary..." "Well, you can't see what I've defeated before because it's behind that cliff wall" That Spartan shrugged and walked up the ramp.  Cortana was worried that the ramp might break, but it didn't even bend, so she guessed that it was for more than just leaving the ship.

    "So, you were to very first actual Cyborg Ninja?" "Indeed, during Shadow Moses, I called myself Deepthoat, in reference to the Watergate Informant..." "Yeah, I read all about it and about you, Snake, and Liquid Snake fighting one another..." "What about us fighting each other?"  Liquid was leaning against the door frame when they turned around.  "Liquid..." "What?" "He asked me, not you..."  While Liquid and Fox argued for a moment, Raiden was trying hard to stop blinking.  "Excuse me, Liquid Ocelot..." "Uh, it's Liquid Snake..." "Wait, what?" "Snake already explained it to me, so I'll explain it to you.  Ocelot used therapy and nanomachines to meld my persona onto him.  He wasn't me at all, just thought he was.  I'm the ORIGINAL Liquid..."  Raiden took all this in, still confused, and just simply nodded.  "Liquid!" "What, brother?" "We have... a guest..." "Ah, Fox, we have a new arrival!" "Right, I'll be back soon enough, or if you can, come on out..."  As the first Cyborg Ninja left, the fourth attempted to sit up again.  It worked better this time, allowing him to get to his feet, but he had to use his sword in its sheath as a cane.

    Fox came out just in time to see the Spartan pull the chip from his head.  He handed it to Samus, who placed it in the projector.  Cortana popped up after a few moments and said, "Finally!  This tech is more advanced than I thought it would be!" "Come on, Cortana, the coordinates..." "Right, right, uploading them now" While the construct uploaded the coordinates, Raiden came walking out.  "Raiden, are you healed enough to be walking?" "I'll be fine, Dr. Emmerich...  And these two would be...?" "I am John-117, this is Cortana..." "Hello, Um..." "Raiden...  My real name is Jack, but I prefer to be called by my codename..." "Okay, Raiden" Samus walked over to the controls of her ship, and upon getting the coordinates, she put them into her computer and told it to auto-pilot.  Heading back, she found Sunny asking John-117 a million questions, with Snake grinning and Otacon trying to get her to stop.  Finally, Cortana said, "Sunny, is it?" "Uh-huh" "How about this instead, rather than bothering the Chief, wait until we get to the UNSC HQ.  Then, you can ask all the questions you want, okay?" "Okay!"  Happy, Sunny ran off, with Gray Fox in tow.

    As Samus's ship took off, two massive cruisers arrived overhead.  "What the-!"  Were Samus's choice words as they came into view.  Before she could try and pilot away, she was hailed by them.  "I apologize for the sudden entrance, but we are looking for a certain person..." "Okay, who and what are you?" "I am Thel 'Vadam, Arbiter of the Sangheili..." "Okay, who are you looking for?" "The Spartan, also known as 'Master Chief'" "John-117?" "I believe that was his original designation..." "Okay, hold on, I'll be right back!" She ran out and found the Chief looking out the window.  "Master Chief?" "Yeah?" "I've been contacted by one of those ships and it has a being on it calling itself the Arbiter of the Sangheili" "The Arbiter?  Let me talk to him..."  Bringing him to the communications screen, she said, "Here he is, Arbiter" "Arbiter, good to see you, again" "Indeed, Spartan.  I'm guessing you are heading to the human Headquarters?" "Yeah, why?" "We have already been there, we were supposed to be on guard duty until you were found..." "Okay, well, lets get back there" "Indeed, we will be flanking you.  Lead on, Spartan..." "Samus, go ahead and fly for the base coordinates..." "Right"  As the ship flew forward, the two Sangheili ships followed close beside, keeping themselves as barriers between Samus's ship and anything that was harmful.  As they left the canyon, Snake told Samus to retrieve the rest of the people from the Nomad.

    Sniper Wolf was looking out the back when one of the Sangheili Cruisers came into view.  She instantly panicked, not expecting such a thing to approach at such a speed.  As Samus's ship landed, Psycho Mantis contacted Wolf through his powers.  Calming her, he had her bring everyone to the ship.  Upon boarding the ship, Samus wasted no time and took off again.  Punching in the coordinates, the ship blasted away from the planet with the Sangheili Cruisers staying with her perfectly.  Samus, after putting the ship in auto-pilot, began to wonder just what they were getting into...