Metroid: The Unofficial Novelization
by Victorio Osaria
Hello, and long time no see! I know I've been gone for a while, but I've been having a lot of stuff happening and it's giving me severe writer's block. So I decided to give myself something new to write to get my creative juices flowing. I know I might be angering my Persona fans with this, but I'm having trouble continuing that one (don't worry, I fully intend on continuing it). Besides, I've always wanted to tell my own version of the Metroid story, and if there was ever a Metroid movie, I feel this is how it should be done. There are changes to be sure, but I want to put in as much of the main Metroid lore as I can without making it feel congested (just think of it as an alternate universe, which it technically is because it's fanfiction). I might fail doing that. In fact, I might have already failed. I might just be beating myself up too much. But at least I can say I put effort into this and I hope you might enjoy it.
PS: If you think 'Ridley' is a name to be taken seriously for a giant space dragon, I think you're kidding yourself. Just watch Other M and hear Samus scream his name (on another note, I don't hate Other M- I think it's a decent game, just a terrible movie).
Chapter 1: Invasion
"SR388? You want to send that thing over there?"
"Yes, Mr. Aran. We wish to send the Metroid to this planet in order to maintain the natural order."
"'Natural order?' You said it yourself that these were your people's own creation. How is it 'natural' to send a biological weapon to a planet completely filled with wild animals minding their own business?"
"You have read the report about a new species on the planet, correct?"
"Yes, yes, Old Bird, I know-the X-species are ruining the ecosystem. But sending in something worse won't make anything better."
"There is no need to worry; the Metroid is only bred to feed on the X-parasite."
"But what if the Space Pirates find a way to weaponize them? They've already launched a threat to the Galactic Federation that they're going to steal the X and send it across the galaxy. Putting your little monster into a trade vessel to this world is going to give the Pirates an even more dangerous weapon!"
"The Metroid was programmed by Mother Brain herself: it cannot be weaponized by evil hands. It is also illogical for the Space Pirates to make such an obvious threat: the Federation already has all of SR388 guarded by half of its entire fleet-they cannot invade the planet and steal the X for their own purposes without putting danger to themselves. The Metroid is here to eliminate the smallest threat of the X ever escaping."
"It just makes me uncomfortable that a peaceful race like yours would make something that translates to 'the ultimate warrior.' Something that can destroy something as dangerous as X on an ordinary trade vessel is making me more than a little nervous… I still can't believe the GF approved this."
"Your opinion is noted. But rest assured, the Chozo only have the best interests of the galaxy at heart."
"…I'm sorry, Old Bird. Even for a friend, I can't sign this order. It's too big of a risk for me. You'll have to find another trading planet willing to do this for you: K-2L isn't mailing your Metroid to SR388."
"I see… Understandable." Old Bird's beak turned to the waist-high egg on his left, capsuled and sitting on a mechanical cart. He tweeted to the android proxy moving the cart. "Mother Brain, return the subject to the ship, please."
The humanoid robot nodded, and pushed the cart out of the sliding door.
Rodney Aran stared at the departing robot in fascination. "So the actual Mother Brain supercomputer is housed on Zebes?"
"Correct."
"I find it amazing how this robot is controlled by a force that's several millions of miles away."
"Indeed. Mother Brain is composed of mechanical and organic parts, allowing for the efficient processing power of the most powerful supercomputer and the creativity of sentient life. She made the proxy android herself."
"Interesting." And frightening, he thought. Such self-awareness and creativity in a supercomputer has lead to disastrous rebellion every time the GF attempted to make an organic supercomputer, but it seems the Chozo got it right this time.
"So how is little Samus doing?"
Rodney was glad his Chozo friend tried to clear up the tension. "She's in the play room a couple levels down, no doubt smashing little toy soldiers with Ridley."
"Who is this Ridley?"
"Oh, it's this little stuffed dragon she likes to play with. I came up with the name—I like 20th century Earth movies. Want to go see her? She'll be overjoyed to see you again."
"I would be happy to see how much she has grown. I even brought Zebetite rock candies for her."
"Oh, she'll love those. Lord knows I do." He looked at his watch and found that it was time for him to call it a day. "Well, Old Bird. You're lucky you came here at all to have this meeting; this is my last day as CEO. I'm retiring."
"Is that so?"
"Yeah, I'm moving out of the colony so I can settle down with my family. Maybe I might teach Samus a few things about reality, and not mollycoddle her like Virginia does." He slid out a small electronic suitcase from his desk. "I'll be heading to the private garage now and see if my ride's fully charged so my family and I can leave for the next star system."
"I hope I get to see you again, Mr. Aran."
"I'm sure you will see us again, Old Bird. By the way, meeting's over. Call me Rodney."
"Very well, Rodney."
They both left the CEO room and exchanged some idle conversation as they walked through the crowded hallways of the trading center. Eventually, they would meet their separate ways at a fork.
"Samus and Virginia are a few floors down. Make sure to take the public elevator, all right?"
"Affirmative."
"Take care of yourself, Old Bird."
As the Chozo left, Rodney moved about towards the direction of the private elevator when he noticed a strange sight: the Mother Brain proxy was several feet in front of him, heading in the same direction as he.
The Mother Brain proxy trudged through the steel hallway, moving with extreme precision as she avoided bumping into various human and alien workers commuting to various workplaces, and she would still make it to her destination with several minutes to spare. But her destination was not Old Bird's spacecraft—Mother Brain had very different plans.
She headed down several levels by way of elevator, reaching the secure private garage via skilled hacking of the elevator's mainframe, and to give herself more time, she absorbed all of the main power to the elevator and left it in reserve power; that way the elevator would have to move much more slowly if someone wanted to use it. She pushed the cart through the doors and into the large metal sector, where vehicles hovered peacefully, charging their fuel batteries. This parking area conveniently had no Federation-sanctioned messaging checks—devices planted in populated areas that would scan a subject's online messages for any suspicious activity. Mother Brain was free to contact her secret allies.
MB: SR388 invasion ruse successful. Minimal Federation protection to trade colony of K-2L. Will leave Metroid egg in private garage for General to receive. Proceed to invade colony.
"Didn't know that there were stairs too, huh?"
The proxy shifted, turning to see the face of Rodney Aran with a blaster pistol. Within a few moments, the proxy's robotic head was blown apart with molten shrapnel flying in different directions.
Rodney pushed the Metroid cart beside his vessel: a large, but sleek green vehicle not totally unlike a 21st century Earth muscle car. He opened the trunk and found that there was enough room for the Metroid to fit in along with his own belongings.
Maybe this really is better in my hands, he thought.
He gasped when he heard an explosion several feet away, and saw a large hole in the ceiling making way for the light of the surface to break through. He heard the cackling roar of a dragon flying above.
A short-haired human girl sat alone in the trade center's playroom, mimicking noises of a dragon as she smashed a stuffed toy into a set of plastic soldiers. Her mother, Virginia Aran, watched the little girl from outside the door. There were few people in the facility that had children, and Samus was the only child in the building.
"Samus, dear, " called Virginia to her 4-year-old daughter. "Someone wants to see you."
Samus perked up when she saw the familiar feathered face of her surrogate uncle. "Old Bird! You're back!"
The old Chozo grunted when Samus leapt onto him, then laughed. "My, little one! You have grown so much since I last saw you!"
"What did you get me?"
"Ha! Humans have such material desires! Well little Samus, I brought you something special."
Old Bird reached into his cloak and handed the little girl a strange-looking red rock.
"What's that?"
"It's candy made from Zebetite ore. Your father loves these."
Samus felt wary. Despite having encountered so many different alien species, she felt hesitant at trying an exotic delicacy.
Virginia laughed. "Samus, don't be picky."
Samus took a piece from Old Bird's talon, and licked it. Right after one lick, she let it melt in her mouth and sucked on it. "It's good!"
"You see, child?" said Old Bird. "Just because something appears to be strange or frightening, does not mean that you should always be afraid of it. Good things come of trying new things."
"Thanks, Old Bird!"
"You are most wel—"
Old Bird felt the floor beneath him shake, accompanied by a faint boom from outside.
"What was that?" said Virginia.
"Mommy?" Samus dropped the candy and clung onto her mother's leg.
"It's coming from outside!"
Old Bird ran out the playroom door to look out of a window. What he witnessed was absolute destruction and chaos: grunt soldiers reducing the security fleet into piles of ash. Civilians mercilessly and indiscriminately slaughtered as blood in shades of red, green, and purple painted the streets. In almost every direction, there was an explosion, from plasma grenades or ignited afloraltite one cannot be sure of. The trade colony of K-2L was no match for the combined might of stolen Federation and Chozo technology coupled with the terror that is the Space Pirates. Old Bird was overtaken by fear; not merely for his own sake, but for the sake of the galaxy, the Metroid egg, and his human friends, especially young Samus.
"Quickly, Mrs. Aran! We must reach your husband's vessel immediately!"
"Why? What's wrong?"
"The Space Pirates have come."
"Space Pirates!? Oh God…"
"Space Pirates are real, Mommy?"
"Hush, dear. We need to go to your father now."
"But Ridley—"
"Leave Ridley behind."
Virginia was holding Samus in her arms as she followed Old Bird into the elevator.
"You'll need a pass key to open the private elevator." She briefly put Samus down to give him a small blue card.
Old Bird pushed the card into the slot, and the elevator doors opened. Samus held her mother's hand as they all went inside of it.
"Rodney's private garage should be on level B2."
Old Bird pushed the button in question, and the elevator began to move. But the droning hum and the slow speed only worsened Virginia's fear.
"Can't this go any faster?"
"This elevator is on reserve power, Mrs. Aran," said Old Bird as he looked into the elevator's mainframe CPU. "Someone was here before us, and hacked it to slow down its use."
"What…!?"
"Oh dear, and I may have an idea of who did it…"
"Who?"
Old Bird observed the mainframe closer, and confirmed the handiwork was done by his proxy assistant; Mother Brain has turned renegade. He sighed. Years of trust and reliance on this supercomputer, and she betrayed the Chozo, her own creators.
"We must learn deal with the speed, unfortunately. There is nothing else we can do."
"Oh God…"
Samus merely looked back and forth between her mother and Old Bird, utterly confused and naïve. Virginia held her daughter tightly and sobbed.
"It's going to be okay, baby… it's going to be okay…"
Samus didn't know why her mother was crying, but she hugged her back and smiled. "It's okay, Mommy. There's no such thing as Space Pirates."
Virginia gasped. What would her daughter think if she found out Space Pirates were actually real? Would Samus run away like she's supposed to, or would she still think that this is some sort of childish fantasy and try to fight back by herself?
"What have you been teaching your daughter?" said Old Bird.
"Shut up."
Old Bird was taken aback, for he had never seen Virginia like this before, nor had she ever spoke ill towards him. Yet despite his lack of knowledge in some human customs, in a way, he understood her response. Humans are strange, yet beautiful creatures. I must protect this family at all costs.
After a while, the doors finally opened, but the garage was found the same way the surface had appeared: in ruins. The wrecks of space cars riddled the steel pavement, with fires from ignited battery acid and fuel gauges lighting the support columns in a burning orange color. Virginia stood in horror at the sight, shielding Samus' eyes from the flames.
"Mrs. Aran, where is your husband's ship?"
"I… I don't know."
"We must find it as soon as possible!"
They ran from parking space to parking space, avoiding falling debris and the occasional explosion of a car. They passed by a large hole in the ceiling—large enough to fit a vehicle through—which channeled light from the surface into a concentrated circle in the ground. Space Pirate vessels could be seen flying in the sky through this hole.
"Mrs. Aran, I believe I have found our hacker." Old Bird pointed to the decapitated android lying on the ground.
"Good riddance."
Knowing that Mother Brain herself was stationed on Zebes, Old Bird simply shook his head.
"What does it look like, Mrs. Aran?"
"It's… It's somewhat big… and it's very sleek and green."
"My eyes cannot detect the color green, unfortunately."
"You'll know it when you see—oh my God, no…"
Old Bird pushed the family back when they saw something in the distance: a gigantic winged beast with scales the shade of purple was several feet in front of them. It had a long, sharp whip of a tail that looked like it could pierce titanium with ease. Its claws stretched out in the length of a claymore, stabbing every vehicle it could grab. Old Bird noticed that this was no mindless beast causing wanton destruction: it was looking for something, and thankfully it wasn't him or the Aran family, for it didn't notice them.
"Mrs. Aran, where is the vehicle?"
"…It's near that monster…"
Old Bird turned to see a sleek, but large spaceship beside the creature. "By the spirits…"
They backed away at first, but then the young Samus looked at the creature more closely, and saw something familiar in it. She broke away from her mother's grasp and ran towards it.
"SAMUS!"
"Mrs. Aran, get away!"
The dragon-like beast heard the cry and shifted its gaunt neck around. It saw the human child first, then the mother, and the Chozo. It roared, but then stopped when it saw the child move towards it without fear.
"Samus, get away from that thing!"
"It's okay, Mommy!" She giggled. "It's only Ridley!"
"…What?"
What foolishness is this child thinking? thought Old Bird. He then saw that the beast hadn't immediately attacked yet. In fact, he could say the beast was… surprised. Surprised that a small child would approach it.
"Ridley, do you wanna play with me?"
The beast blinked, then looked at both Virginia and Old Bird. Old Bird then confirmed that the beast had understood the child, as it had nodded and shifted its jaw in what seemed to be a smile.
"See, Mommy? He won't hurt us because he's my toy!"
The creature's eyes scowled, then it growled in what appeared to be annoyance. It looked at Virginia, then back at Samus as it smiled again.
"Samus get awa-*urk*!"
"VIRGINIA!"
Samus saw a spear-like object go right through her mother's stomach. Being the naïve chile she was, she had no idea what the red water coming out of her mother actually was. Despite this, Samus stood dumbfounded and shocked in utter terror.
"Ridley… Why is Mommy…?"
Old Bird watched as the life of Virginia Aran slowly left her body, and blood trickled down her cyan bodysuit. He turned to the beast Samus dubbed 'Ridley' and saw it open its jaws and make a noise that was undoubtedly laughter. The beast was aiming for Virginia. Old Bird realized he was right. This was no mindless beast—he was a sadistic monster.
'Ridley' tossed the body aside like a useless bag of tainted meat. He was having fun. He then aimed his tail for the child, saving the Chozo for last.
Old Bird leapt forward. "Samus! Run!"
Just as the blade of his tail was inches away from Samus' head, the monster winced in pain when he felt a burning force upon his head. The tail only managed to cut Samus' hair when he turned around to see a former prey still alive; bloodied and barely standing, but still alive.
"Get away from her, you bastard."
"Daddy!?"
"Rodney, you still live!"
Rodney grasped the gaping wound in his stomach, pulling the trigger on the dragon as many times as he could before he would drop dead.
"Old Bird! Get Samus into the car and leave this colony as soon as you can! Hurry!"
Old Bird complied and grabbed Samus. Rodney distracted the monster as much as he could, but while his blaster pistol had quite a lot of stopping power, it unfortunately did not have enough force to really damage the monster enough. Yet Old Bird carried Samus and pulled through, and went right between the creature's legs and to Rodney's vessel.
The monster tried to eliminate the escaping prey, but he was occupied in trying to kill the human. For someone who was injured, Rodney was being very slippery.
Old Bird began putting Samus in the front seat and beginning to drive as fast as he could through the large hole in the ceiling; in-vehicle safety was not the priority.
"Old Bird, what about Daddy!?"
"I am sorry, little one. But we must leave him here."
"NO! I'm not going!"
"Samus, do not be a fool!"
Samus was too weak to open the door herself, and she found herself stuck inside a floating cage, flying away up through a rabbit hole and watched in mortification as her father finally met his end at Ridley's hands.
"DAD!"
Rodney choked, spitting out his own blood onto Ridley's face. The monster growled back at him, holding the human in his bloodied claws. In his last moments, Rodney's blurry vision caught a glimpse of some loose fuel from a destroyed car. He saw Samus and Old Bird had escaped safely. Finally, he aimed his pistol at the fuel, slowly pulling the trigger.
"…You killed my wife, you son of a bitch. But you sure as hell won't… kill my daughter…"
Samus lost sight of the trade center as the car flew higher and farther. Old Bird still flew beneath the buildings, hoping not to be seen by approaching Pirate ships. He was hoping to find shelter until the invasion passed, and then he would be able to make his way back to his own ship. Suddenly, an explosion erupted from the base of the building, ruining its foundation and causing the metal tower to fall and crumble, crushing various Space Pirate infantries and ships as it did. This bought Old Bird more cover, but there was now no chance of the K-2L trading colony of ever surviving: its main hub and the surrounding buildings were in shambles.
"Engage autopilot," said Old Bird, and the car flew on its own. It reached a tuft of forested land, secluded and hidden from any other Space Pirate patrols. He parked the car and carried Samus out. Knowing that Rodney and Virginia were planning for a long trip, he checked the trunk of the car. Sure enough, there was food, some clothes, and several packs of water. But there was also something unexpected: the Metroid egg was also in the trunk, housed in its capsule. It seems that Mother Brain brought the Metroid to the garage to give to the beast and Rodney was not planning on letting that happen. You were right all along, my friend. Right all along…
Samus sobbed. "Will I… Will I see Mommy and Daddy again?"
Old Bird was despondent, holding a talon upon the little girl's nape. He then gave into sympathy, held the child in a feathery embrace, and prayed to the spirits that Samus would find a home…
But if no one else would take the child, then he certainly would, even if he had to argue his way with the other Chozo to do it.
The Earth Colony of K-2L was left with no other survivors.