Log 1: Briefing
Staying still was a new thing for Samus. Though she did have a house on Earth, she rarely stayed at it for more than a week. In the past she'd stop by to do maintenance on her ship between missions and then be on her way soon after.
Did she hate the peaceful planet? Of course not, but the city wasn't something she was used to. She was more acquainted with being alone on distant planets risking her life than she was being around people. She guessed it came with being a Hunter, or perhaps it just came with being Samus Aran.
At the moment she was on a public transport to one of the government-owned hangars. She sat in her seat, looking out the window as the pristine, white buildings flew by. She wasn't used to something like this. Then again, considering what happened after the lab incident, she was lucky things hadn't turned out worse for her.
The transport stopped with an automated voice signaling the destination. This was Samus' stop. Stepping onto the platform, she made her way through the bustling crowd to the government hangar five blocks away. Most people would be winded by the time they got there, but to Samus it was a light jog at best. The guard at the gate let her through almost without needing her to flash her I.D., Samus having been coming here quite frequently.
The hangar was enormous, to say the least. Several Federation flagships could have fit in the place with room to spare. A couple fighters were here under maintenance, the many engineers and mechanics hustling around machinery with sparks flying.
"Figure ya'd come 'ere right about now, Sammy."
Samus turned her head toward a somewhat short (though Samus made everyone seem short) man with graying hair and neatly trimmed mustache. His blue jumpsuit was thoroughly covered in machine lubricant and his face was smeared with grime. Samus grinned.
"Guess you're used to seeing me around, eh, Cale?"
"Well, after a straight month o' you comin' 'round I would I'd be used to it. I swear, I shouldn't even be lettin' ya do this."
"The ship's locked out anyway so it's not like I can hijack it. Hacking has never been my thing anyway."
"I guess, but when the damn thing doesn't have anything wrong with it it's not like yer gonna find anythin' to do."
Samus took off the blue denim jacket she wore, exchanging it for a spare jumpsuit and tying her long hair back. Her ship was docked at the far end of the hangar, its purple scheme and odd shape making it stand out amongst the other fighters and ships. Samus opened one of the panels and began examining the inner working of the ship.
Frankly, the old man was right in that the ship was in perfect working order. However Samus couldn't exactly "relax" that easy. Maybe it was a habit from planet-hopping for so long, but she never could stay still. She was always up and about doing something whether it was maintenance on her suit or ship or doing exercises (last time she checked her record for sit-ups was five-hundred in five minutes). Every now and again she'd visit the Dachora and Etecoons at the wildlife center. The little chick seemed to growing quite fast.
Samus looked inside the guts of her ship with a flashlight, trying to see any sort of abnormalities or malfunctions. As expected, she saw nothing amongst the series of cables and circuits. Slinking her head out, she went to a nearby computer hooked to the ship's diagnostics. The readout was saying everything was fine, no computer viruses, no leaks, no short-circuits, nothing. She sighed, giving the impression she wasn't satisfied.
"Nothing wrong again, eh Ms. Aran?"
The smart-mouth comment came from one of the more fun-loving mechanics, a guy a few years Samus' junior named Li. He handed Samus a cup of coffee which she graciously accepted.
"Yeah." Samus took a sip out of her cup.
"You're flying her or anything. You're just getting too anxious having to stay in one place for so long."
"Well excuse me for not being lazy."
Samus took slumped in a chair close to her ship frowning at the energy she had spent getting her to do a superfluous maintenance check. This wasn't like her this wasn't like her at all.
"I toldja ya weren't gonna find nothin'." old man-Cale was grinning.
"Amused at my futility, eh?"
"Come on now, I don't laugh where things aren't needed, missy. Just sayin' ya coulda done somethin' else with your spare time."
"I have nothing but spare time."
And did she ever. The incident at the BSL had caused quite the uproar with the Federation. Having a station that cost who knows how much self-destruct in orbit was a cause for concern, not to mention it contained a lot of valuable research data as well as caused irreparable damage to SR388. Samus was lucky they hadn't thrown her in the brig but instead grounded her on Earth. Still, she wasn't exactly happy in the four months that had passed since then. Needless to say, she was growing increasingly anxious.
"Ya know, maybe you should get out more. Gorgeous girl like you shouldn't be cooped up in her house all the time."
Samus wondered if Li was hitting on her. Draining the rest of her cup in a single swig, she crumpled it up and threw it in a trash can some yards away. It landed perfectly, like a basketball. She shed the jumpsuit she wore and removed her hair tie.
"It's been awhile since I've been in the city, okay? Besides, lazing around my house isn't much different than lazing around the city."
"Er, I don't quite get it. AH!" Li got rapped on the head by Cale. The old man just frowned.
"C'mon now, don't be pryin' now. If Samus wants sit 'round, that's 'er business."
Samus smirked at the old man who winked in response. Tossing her jumpsuit away, she donned her jacket again and walked out the hangar.
Samus tossed her head, her long, blond hair whipping in the wind. She honestly felt like she had yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that, and…okay, she had wasted a few weeks. She really couldn't stand sitting still for so damn long. An entire month of not being able to do anything she wanted and on top of that worrying about her sentence was just too much damn stress.
"So, this is where you were."
Waiting at the gate was a man wearing a black suit. He was rather plain-looking, his brown hair being slicked back and his brown eyes had no particularly intriguing feature about them. His most interesting possession would have been his car, which was a sleek-looking blue vehicle. Samus would have thought him to be military, but his hairstyle and choice of vehicle screamed "political slave". Samus placed her hand on her hip.
"You were expecting me?"
"Well, I did try to call you several times. Then I remembered you don't carry around a mobile communicator." He stuck his hand out "James Bellic."
Samus merely waved his hand away. She didn't want to get too friendly with someone that was here for…less than enthusiastic reasons.
"So, they finally came to a decision?"
"Yes, Miss Aran, however, we should discuss this somewhere that's not in public." He opened the door to his car "Hop in, what's your address?"
"347 Yokoi Boulevard."
After adjusting the seat to accommodate her height, Samus leaned back without fastening her seatbelt. Bellic set the car to auto and punched the destination into the GPS system. Bellic took a cigarette out of a pack, offering one to Samus who bluntly refused.
"Okay," Bellic lit the one in his mouth "the whole reason this happened was due to the incident at the BSL station. The entire place was overrun by a viral enemy known as X and the only survivor was you. However, to prevent the spread of said entity, you initiated the station self-destruct sequence which promptly destroyed it and set it on a collision course with the nearby SR-388."
"…I'm well aware of what I did."
"Well, needless to say, a lot of people were not happy with you. In fact, quite a few wanted you to be detained in prison for awhile. Some even threatened a life sentence or the death penalty. And may I add this isn't the FIRST time you've been known to make rash and reckless decisions on Federation missions? It's in your file that you held your superior, Adam Malkovich, at gunpoint and you let your emotions get the best of you quite a few times during missions. As well as the Metroid sample a few years ago."
"Look, will you stop these roundabout semantics and just get to the point already?"
The car stopped, the pair of them having reached their destination. Bellic put his cigarette out in the car's ashtray. Samus stepped out of the car and went into the lobby of the building.
"Which floor are you on?"
"The tenth."
Samus did the honors, punching in the floor number as they rode up. She was getting quite pissed at this Bellic guy. She could take orders, but explanations that could make an article in the Extranet news annoyed her to no end.
The door opened with Samus stepping down the hall to her room. She swiped her security card and stepped inside with Bellic behind her.
Samus' apartment was a bit sparse. It contained the same furnishings it had when she moved in and didn't have much more. It wasn't sterile, per se, but it seemed unusually bland for someone in their late twenties. Samus slumped into a chair, crossing her legs. Bellic stood.
"Well, so you mind finishing what you were talking about?" Samus was getting impatient. Bellic leaned against the wall, pocketing his hands.
"Well, quite a few people spoke on your behalf, though it was your CO that had the most input. It said your actions, though extreme, were quite logical given the highly unusual circumstances."
"And about the bioweapons research?" Samus' eyes narrowed.
"Ah yes, we are looking into that. Apparently your CO's programming has locked out his commander's identity. We're investigating, trust me. Anyway, your record of having helped the Federation many times despite being a Hunter also helped. As such, no further punishment will be given. Well, after one condition is made."
Samus sighed. She knew there had to be a catch so she leaned forward, resting her chin on her hands.
"Go on."
"We realize the situation was hostile and strange, but the BSL was a huge investment that took YEARS to make. Investors in the program still need some closure and the only way to compromise is that we send you on another mission to show that you're competent."
Samus sighed. Great, so this was just some way for her to risk her ass for the Federation again. Oh well, at least she had something to do now. Running her hand through her hair, she looked at Bellic.
"Alright, so what's up?"
"I'm sure you've heard of an accident at one of the genetics labs a month ago, correct?"
"It was all over the news, so there's no way I couldn't have heard about it. There was an explosion so big it blew shrapnel straight into the city."
"Well, the culprits were Space Pirates. That lab was doing research for the military and stole the data." Samus gave Bellic a funny look at that phrase.
"Nothing…unsavory I take it?"
"No, no, no, nothing like that. What worries us is that we don't what data they stole as they fried all the backup data as best they could. They also took some gene samples, though with the lab in such a mess we can't figure anything out. Considering how immoral their system is they could turn something harmless into something nasty."
"So basically play 'fetch-woman', eh? So just get your precious data back and I'm free to go."
Bellic took out a disc from his jacket and tossed it to Samus.
"That's the gist, but you'll also be having several people looking after you."
"Alright who are they?"
"One of them is on that disc. You should be well-acquainted."
Samus eyed the disk in her hand. If she was correct on what Bellic was implying, then Adam was on that disk. She glanced at him again.
"And who are the others? Some other soldiers that bark me orders?"
"That I wasn't privy to so ask your automated CO. I have to help with things over at the lab."
Bellic took his leave, telling Samus that she was to ship out in the morning. Samus slumped deeper into her chair. Being sent out another mission was typical for politicians. At the very least she could see an old friend again.
Samus took the disc Bellic had left and shoved it into the drive on her computer. A bit of humming occurred and then she was face to face with a black screen with a green line across it. Most would think the computer broke, but it was just Adam booting up.
"It's been awhile, lady."
Samus smirked, apparently Adam's nickname for her hadn't been forgotten.
"So, looks like you and me are in for another spell."
"Yes, Mr. Bellic is quite the professional, isn't he?"
"I hate go-betweeners."
"We have bigger things to worry about. One of them is your partner."
"Partner?" she wasn't doing this alone?
"Yes, in addition to General Greil being our overseer you're to be assigned a partner. A Hunter named Amre Tcino."
That wasn't a name that rang a bell. Samus had met a lot of Hunters before and knew of quite few, but Amre Tcino didn't sound familiar at all.
"Who is he?"
"Amre Tcino, age twenty-nine. He was apparently a colonist whose family was killed and became a Hunter soon after. He specializes in stealth and particle sabers. Most of his missions are classified, so I can't tell you his record. I have a psych profile, but that's not like meeting the man himself."
"So, a hatchet-man. That's more of an assassin than a Hunter."
"I suppose. You're also not going to like the next bit; he already went ahead to Asgard and we can't contact him."
"Great, so first I have to find out if he's alive before I can be acquitted, eh? Already this is a pain."
"And the one causing it isn't you. Quite the twist."
XXXXX
Samus couldn't sleep much, which confused her as she never had much anxiety before a mission before. Maybe it was because she had been grounded for a third of a year, but for some reason her mind was just unable to shut off. She spent most of the night unable to sleep. She just lay there, thinking about what would happen.
About an hour after dawn Samus awoke even though she only had about four hours of sleep. She wasted no time getting ready. In ten minutes she was already on her way to the train station. The trip seemed faster than it had the past month, though maybe that was because Samus was going to the hangar to go on a mission and not to superfluously examine a ship that had nothing wrong with it.
When she arrived at the hangar, Samus saw that her gunship was out on the landing area. No doubt the military already told the workers about the ship being ready and had it rolled out for launch. Unsurprisingly, Samus saw old man Cale standing in front of the ship. He waved to Samus.
"So, looks like she's ready ta stretch 'er wings again."
"Yeah, birds shouldn't be on the ground. This girl's been waiting to fly."
Cale smirked and went on his way, no doubt having to get various other ships fixed up. Samus boarded the gunship and slid Adam's disc into the ship's drive. In no time, the ship was running and humming with machinery waking up after a long sleep.
"Well, this is familiar territory." Adam was doing some routine maintenance checks.
"Yeah, it is."
Samus heard Adam, but her attention on a black case sitting on the floor. Inside was her "other self" as she called it. She flipped it open, seeing a blue outfit that had previously been confiscated.
"So, it must be rather interesting to be separated from your suit for so long."
"Yeah, I can't remember many times where I wasn't in it for as long as this." Samus' boots fell to the floor unceremoniously.
"I suppose it's more personal for you than most. After all, that was a suit personally given to you by the Chozo."
"Adam."
"Hm?"
"Do you mind?"
Samus was only in her undergarments now. If Adam had been human, he would have blushed with embarrassment. He accessed the ship's system and shut the door between the back area and the cockpit. A few minutes later, Samus walked out in her full glory.
"How do I look?"
"As you always do, lady."
Samus gave Adam a smirk before readying the ship . Samus felt comfortable now, her Power Suit on and in her ship. The engines roared like a primordial beast and flared open. Hovering above the surface of the landing area, Samus pulled the ignition lever for the ship which shot off into the early morning sky.
Cale, who had been at the main hangar's front door, gazed at the ship that became little more than a shining speck in the sky before vanishing. The smirking Cale waved.
"Ya'll come back now, Samus."