Uprising

by Robert Blake

The prequel to the Huntress series. The story of Samus Aran

1The Huntress:

U P R I S I N G

Editor's Note: I did not write this story or series, the original author was GieGie who used to reside at Metroid galaxy. There are eight stories including this prequel; the series itself is unfinished and i have been unable to ever find out if it was finished due to the fact that the original site it was posted on is no longer up and also i am unable to contact the author, however i am uploading the copies i do have in the hopes that fans of Metroid can read this great series, please R/R and if i get some positive feedback then i will upload the rest.

p.s. if anyone does find the rest of the series somewhere or makes contact with the author please inform me.

Author's Note: This is a prequel to "The Huntress Series". "Uprising" is another tribute to "Metroid" which is owned by Nintendo.

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The trees moved quickly from side to side while the man rustled through them frantically. He was sure he would loose it in this dense jungle but somehow he'd been found, and now he was running for his life, running in fear of the thing following him. No one had ever found him here, NO ONE, and he was so shocked that someone or something finally had that he didn't know what to do.

Darryl Lonson was from the Planet Alaron VI, standing at 7 feet with skin of a deep orange-reddish hue and long hair to match. His eyes were yellow and he sported a few nose rings, which in the society on Alaron meant he was a grown man.

For several years now he'd had several bounties on his head because of the illegal things he'd done. He'd stolen money, raped and abused women, and had even killed children if it meant getting his way. Once he'd killed a woman's young son to get her to cooperate with him and give him what he wanted. Darryl was an unscrupulous man who cared for no one but himself, and the frightening thing was he'd gotten away with what he'd done, he was equipped well enough to do as he pleased when he pleased without any consequences. People heard his name and shuddered, that was how well he'd become at taking what he wanted. No one would stand up too him, no one, that's how scared of him everyone was.

That's also why he'd never been caught on a bounty. Many had tried to find him, but he was far too good at hiding. Also, he'd killed many of the hunters that had come after him, and because of this, it was hard to find anyone to take the job.

Darryl lived on a planet in the Lavidia system called Narceon. It was a primalistic planet without many civilized territories because of the fierce creatures that roamed its surface. It was mostly a humid jungle without much open space, and therefore it was an ideal location for someone such as Darryl Lonson to hide when the going got rough.

He had no idea what this thing was chasing him now, he only knew that it had been able to get the drop on him while he was minding his own business near his ship, and beat the hell out of him until he was able to free himself from its grasp and run off into the jungles. His heart hammered inside his chest as he wiped the blood from his nose and mouth, a crack in the skin on his forehead also trickled the dark green blood.

All he knew was that he'd been grabbed from behind and pushed forward into his ships hull, which caused him to injure his forehead, then he was swung around and in his blurred vision he saw in the darkness something which looked to be a soft green glow, menacing, before a fist hit his nose, hard, encased in metal. His head jolted back with a hard force, whatever this thing was, it was strong. Then it hit him again, and Darryl could feel some of his teeth loosen, even fall out of his mouth.

From there, he'd fallen back, and slowly pushed himself over, getting to his knees before something rammed into his side hard, breaking one of his ribs. He had to get out of there. Despite the pain he felt, his adrenaline kicked in and he got up, running away as quickly as possible through the dense trees, trying to see the best he could in his frantic state. He tripped over a high laying root of a tree and fell, looking back as he continued to work his was back to his feet and though he didn't see anything behind him, he wasn't going to stop, not yet.

He knew there was a cliff ahead that he could jump off of and into a large lake below. That should hide his tracks well enough until he could hide himself properly from this thing chasing him.

As he got closer to it, he tripped once again, this time over a rock and flipped forward, sliding down a slope and off the edge of the cliff he knew was there. He tried to stifle a yell, and went down swiftly, crashing into the water and trying his best to stay above the surface, letting the current sweep him towards the passage into the river where he would work his way out.

Now he felt safe...for the time.......

The metal boot fell to the ground with a heavy thud, followed directly by the knee. The metal was an orangish yellow color, and at the top of the boot near the knee the metal came into a long point. On the sides of the calves were dimly glowing green lights, and a left hand came down into the soil slowly, moving the metal covered fingers through the soil, grasping it, and pulling a handful of it up. Then the movement stopped as in the distance could be heard more shuffling and a slight cry that faded out as soon as it started. After the sound dyed out, there seemed to be a loud splash of water but it was blended into the sound of a roaring waterfall. As soon as it was quiet again, the hand moved forward and held out the dirt to be scanned.

Several scans from behind a visor drew out points in the soil, scattered about, that contained DNA traces. The computer listed what these scans showed and began to match up the DNA to that of an Alaronite. Lonson had definitely come this way.

The knee pushed off the ground and the boots moved forward quietly, stepping over roots and stones until they reached a slope, and they stopped.

The tall being stood there looking towards the waterfall ahead which roared loudly, and down into the lake below, seeing it turned off into a river at a certain point. The red chest plate moved out some, and the sound of air hissed from the vents below the dimly glowing green visor of the being that looked upon it.

The helmet moved to one side slowly, and then back, before it turned away completely and walked off.

Darryl floated through the water slowly and reached out, grabbing a tree branch that was dipping down into the water from a tree that had fallen over long ago. He grunted and pulled himself up, crawling onto land and looking around to get his bearings. He'd let himself drift for a while before he'd finally pulled himself from the water, and once he saw that no one was around he closed his eyes and laid his head back on the soil, attempting to rest for a minute and come up with his next plan of action.

As soon as he did so, an arm came down and grabbed the clothing on his shoulder, pulling him forward, his face meeting that of a glowing green visor, the same visor he'd seen before.

"Peek-a-boo," came a warped mechanical voice, and Darryl gasped, grabbing the hand to remove it from his shoulder. His other hand went to his side to grab the blaster there, but before he could complete his actions he found the end of a cannon directly held into his face.

Darryl held up both his hands and the being before him let go of his shoulder, reaching to his side and grabbing the blaster. Holding it up before Darryl's face, the hand crushed the end of it and threw it to the side. "What are you," Darryl asked loudly, breathing heavily.

Long moments of silence passed while he listened to the air hissing from the vents of the helmet so deadly close to his face now. "I was sent by a woman you beat and raped. You also killed her son and took all the valuable belongings she possessed. Do you know who I'm speaking of?"

"I'm not sure," Darryl said, and a metal fist rammed into his cheek, knocking more of his teeth out. He spit out the blood and teeth, groaning in pain.

"Does that jog your memory?" Asked the warped voice.

"Yes, it does," he said in anguish. "Damn you, you knocked out my teeth!"

The fist grabbed his shoulder and he found the cannon being rammed into his chest. Falling back and gasping for breath he heard, "Don't talk unless I say so, you're going to be missing more than teeth when I'm done with you."

"Y-yes sir," Darryl said very quietly.

Then the being stood up, and leaned down, grabbing Darryl's shirt once again and it began dragging him across the ground towards a tree. Darryl stayed quiet as it stopped and let go, then spoke, "Get up."

Darryl worked his way to his feet slowly, and in a frightened voice asked, "What are you going to do to me?"

"I wasn't paid to kill you," it replied, "But for what I was paid to do, you'll be begging me to kill you before it's over with."

He watched the being stalk by him slowly, watching him constantly. Darryl gasped out, leaning against the tree as all he felt like doing was laying down now. He knew he had a fractured sternum from the blow he'd received to his chest just now, and he could barely manage to stand there on his own. "What were you paid to do?"

The look of fear in his eyes, despite his past, was one that would make anyone's heart well with pity, maybe even forgiveness of what he'd done. But the cold metal clad hunter before him didn't give him an inch, not even a second thought, and what followed the question he asked, an answer without words, was too gory for any normal person to want to see or know.

Besides having his head rammed into the tree several times, being nearly strangled and having his leg held out only to be broken in half by a heavily armored arm, what the final thing that was done to Darryl could not compare with the rest. Precautions were taken to keep Darryl awake as well and not let him be rendered unconscious.

Darryl wanted to scream, thought he was, but the pain he felt was so excruciating he had no idea if he did or not.

The hunter knew though, and thought he sounded like a pitiful child wailing while he slumped over. "That's what I was paid to do, along with the beatings I've given you, which to say the least are nothing compared to what I could've done." The armored hunter stopped for a moment before it stepped away from the man writhing in agony on the ground, and then said, "The animals will smell your blood soon enough and come to finish you off."

"No," Darryl cried out, "Please, don't leave me here! Kill me first please! I can't live like this! Don't let them get me!"

The being continued off then, leaving the begging, ruined man on the ground. The hunter had done what it was paid for, and now it would leave to collect on its final pay. It felt no remorse or pity for the man it left behind, only cared for what its job was and to see to it that it was completed.

A day later in a busy pub on a planet named Aines, word had spread quickly of Darryl Lonson's death. Many of the men he knew couldn't believe he'd actually been caught and killed on a bounty, and no one knew who the hunter was that had completed the task, but many had an idea on who'd given the bounty.

Garret was a simple man who only cared for two things. Seeing that his family was taken care of and making sure he personally could provide for them. Living on a planet known for it's seedy people and activities didn't make that an easy task, especially when his sister was violated and his nephew was killed. So he'd taken out a bounty on the man who'd done it, offering to pay whatever the hunter wanted in return for disposing of him. He was disheartened that no one would take the bounty at first until someone he'd never seen had come along.

This metal clad bounty hunter not only seemed like he could get the job done, but also that he could probably wipe out an entire army if he set his mind to it, and Garret was relieved when he accepted the job.

As Garret walked into the pub silently to have a seat in his usual spot, and get his usual drink, he couldn't help a small smirk, though he tried to hide it from view of others because of what he was smirking about. Darryl Lonson had gotten what he deserved.

"Garret," he heard another mans voice. Garret sighed softly and looked back, seeing another regular of the tavern approaching him.

"Can I help you?" Garret asked quietly, scratching his brown beard a little.

"Yeah, you can help me. And my friends."

Before Garret knew what was happening, he was surrounded by several men, all of them looking as if they were severely angry over something. The one who'd originally approached him grabbed his shoulders and lifted him into the air, as Garret was a skinny man at best, and didn't weigh all that much. "Who'd you hire to kill my friend asshole?"

Garret blinked a few times, and said, "I don't know what you're talking about! I don't have any money to hire someone, and you know that, but if I did have it, I sure as hell would have!"

"Don't lie to me boy," the man snarled, "That just makes me even angrier."

Many people around the bar knew Garret and each other, which is why the man had called his name in the first place. Garret had seen him several times himself, but he didn't know exactly what his name was. Nor did he know that he was Darryl Lonson's friend. "Like I said, I don't know what you're talking about."

One of the other men pulled out a blaster and held it at his head, while the man holding him asked again, "You remember anything now, or are we going to have to beat it out of you?"

The armor clad hunter had been sitting quietly in the back of the room. Everyone had gotten quiet to see what would happen between Garret and the others, and now even less people were paying any attention to the hunter. Garret hadn't even noticed the hunter himself, he was too busy trying to figure a way out of this mess without revealing he'd been the one to give the bounty.

"Time's up," the one holding Garret in the air said, "Now you're going to..."

Before he could finish, he saw Garrets eyes move behind him and to someone standing there. So he lowered Garret, yet still held onto him, and looked back. Standing there, very close to him, was the armored clad hunter, the glowing green visor seeming to stare at him menacingly.

"What the hell do you want?"

The hunter was silent.

"Are you deaf? I said," and before he could finish, a hand gripped his throat and lifted him into the air. The hunter held him there, and the others backed away. One of them foolishly fired off their blaster, which hit the hunters leg, but was reflected off of it. The hunter looked at him and lifted the cannon on its right arm, firing a powerful blast which knocked the man over halfway across the bar. He landed on some tables, breaking them, and though he wasn't dead, yet, he was rendered unconscious.

Then the hunter looked back at the man held in the air with one arm alone and aimed the cannon at his head. The man sniveled, gasping out the words in a choked voice, "What do you want!"

Garret had slipped away and watched the scene from behind the hunter now. Then he heard the warped voice the hunter possessed saying, "I want you to tell all your so-called friends that I am the one who killed Darryl Lonson. My name is Samus Aran."

The man couldn't reply, the grip on his throat was too strong. After the hunter was satisfied the man would do as he was told, the left arm holding him was pulled back and he was thrown across the bar, hitting the wall hard. He gasped for breath, still choking, and the hunter named Samus Aran turned away from him, not sparing him a second glance.

Garret watched and said, "Thank you so much."

"I didn't do it for you," the hunter replied, and left the tavern.

Samus had followed Garret to the bar for a reason; Darryl Lonson had friends and they would most certainly try to confront him. Once they did, Samus would intervene and tell them who'd killed their friend, and they would spread the name further than it had previously been known. So simply put, Samus Aran was getting some exposure.

The room was filled with loud music and boisterous laughter, as well as talking and such, though it was more like shouting because of everything going on. It was a busy pub, that was for sure, located on a public space station orbiting a very small planet in the Margides system. The pub, named Lunar's Lounge by the regulars that frequented it, not only served the best drinks in the galaxy, but also hosted a variety of games and of course, casino's.

Del Gregir, a man who had a short temper when things didn't go his way, sat in a room overlooking the bar area, where men and women flirted and drank, and the band played a futuristic style of heavy metal music. Del owned this pub, and had become a wealthy man because of it. He sat behind a large window overlooking the pub below, which was typically a large one way mirror. There were others in the room with him, chatting amongst themselves until he asked, "Has there been any word from our employee?"

Everyone shutup. The pale skinned, long dark haired man turned around in his seat, rubbing his fingers together slowly. One of the other men in the room, a Margadian which was a species who were about 4 foot tall and had green skin and yellow eyes with a human like body replied, "No, we've heard nothing and as well we know the bounty hasn't been completed yet."

Del had hired a bounty hunter to destroy files on Lunar's Lounge that detailed the more secretive things Del had been operating there. To make a long story short, Del Gregir loved weapons, all kinds of weapons, and he'd been operating secretly to harvest illegal weapons and sell weapons illegally as well. The Galactic Police had been investigating and so Del had issued a bounty of 10,000 credits to any hunter capable of completing this job. Once the files were destroyed, the investigation would have to be started over and that would give Del plenty of time to hide his tracks better.

Del drew up his lips in a sneer, a look his friends knew he got when he was about to become angry with something. "It's been a week. Why hasn't it been completed yet? And why haven't we heard from our employee?"

The Margadian shook his head, "The truth is we can't locate the bounty hunter you hired. You knew yourself when you hired him that he was the best of the best, and so I don't think he would want to be bothered while he was on a mission, which makes it difficult for us to locate him."

Del rammed his fist down onto the table top. "I don't give a damn what this hunter wants, he works for me and like any boss, when you don't report to work, you don't get to work, so like it or not this hunter is, for lack of a better word, fired."

"A good decision," the Margadian agreed. "I will advise however that if the hunter returns, he may become a bit upset."

"Then he'll have to deal with it in his own way."

Silence prevailed the room and everyone returned to what they'd previously been doing.

She sat at the bar silently. Wearing a crimson colored body suit with a long black trench coat and a pair of shades on her eyes that were a dark red in color while the strobe lights flashed, reflecting off of them, she pushed her long blonde hair over her shoulder. For a while she'd been eyeing the room above the pub even though all she could see was a reflection of the room below, but she knew the owner sat in there, and in a moment she'd be going to see him.

She took a long swig of her drink, finishing off its contents when a guy walked up behind her, "Hey baby, what's going on?"

She ignored him and sat the now empty glass down. The music had gotten soft enough to hear, and the man knew she had heard him.

"I said, what's going on," he repeated, and reached out to touch her shoulder while she wasn't looking.

"Don't touch me unless your left handed," she spoke.

He was surprised at how she knew he was reaching for her, stopping his right hand in midair and pulling it back. "Why's that?"

"Because you won't have a right hand to use anymore if you touch me."

The man blinked for a moment and then held both his hands up, backing away, "Fair enough," then he shook his head and left.

The bar tender heard what had gone on and he grinned some, "My kind of woman."

The woman smirked and turned her back to the bar, watching the room again. It was time to go up and see Del Gregir.

The woman was escorted in without much trouble. Especially not when she told them that she knew the location of the bounty hunter and had been sent to give a progress report on the bounty being pursued.

The Margadian that had been speaking with Del earlier escorted her in and he said, "Sir, this is Rilana Morine. She says she's come to give a progress report on the hunter we hired and she will only speak to you."

Del turned around in his chair slowly and looked at the sandy blonde haired woman standing before him wearing the long trench coat. This was probably the bounty hunters woman. "Good evening Ms Morine. I have to say I'm disappointed that Aran couldn't make it himself to give me a progress report."

He motioned for her to sit down but she declined and instead leaned against the back of the chair facing him. She didn't smile or make any outwards gestures to him. In fact she remained quiet for several long moments before she started speaking. "Well he's a very busy man."

"Indeed. He's not that well known as of yet in this part of the universe, but soon I'm sure his name will be all over the galaxy."

Again she didn't make any comment or expressions on his words. What a pompous man. His demeanor alone set him off from others that he was not a person to be trusted or to be let loose in any type of civilized society. She only wondered why no one else knew that. Laws, she thought. The reason he had been given freedom was because the law had to find him guilty of crimes he'd committed, the law had to work out first.

If Samus had it her way however she would put him in jail simply because of the way he was looking at her. She'd come here tonight under the false pretenses of being some woman named Rilana Morine, but she was indeed the bounty hunter he'd hired a week ago. The reason he didn't know it was the same person, or even that he was actually a she, was because of an advanced piece of armored technology she wore called the power suit. It not only disguised her true identity, but it also gave her much added strength as well as protection, enhanced vision, and one of her favorite things, was equipped with a powerful cannon arm built onto the right arm of her suit.

This was not the first bounty Samus had taken by far. She'd done plenty of things for plenty of employers, some of which she'd killed after she'd received her pay because there was a bounty on their heads as well. This bounty had been a rather interesting one however.

Samus had found out many, many things about the man sitting before her now. She'd found out he was, despite the lack of a better word, ignorant to the way the Galactic Police worked. Therefore he'd been very sloppy about his dealings in illegal weapons, and the files Samus had found and copied were to say the least far more detailed than she was sure Del wanted them to be.

"That is of no consequence," Samus said. "What is however is the report I'm going to give you. Now either shutup and listen or I'll break your neck, understood?"

Del was somewhat surprised. A little girl who wanted to play rough? He grinned, "Well then, proceed Ms Morine."

Samus continued, still pretending that she was this Rilana person, "Samus has found all the files you've wanted to be destroyed, yet he's hesitated simply because of the amount of information on them. Simply put, Mr. Gregir," she said the name sarcastically, "Your ass has been pegged."

Del raised an eyebrow. Samus pulled a chip out of her trench coat then and placed it on the desk. "Look at it. There's all the information the Galactic Police have on you now."

Del reached forward and inserted the chip into a computer sitting on his black desk. As he did so, Samus said, "When you make your next weapons pick up tomorrow night, you'd best be wary of the ones supplying them."

Del had a very surprised look on his face. "This is good," he spoke, "However, Rilana, Aran must not care for you very much, or he's incredibly stupid because I know he knows the codes of a hunter, codes they follow very closely to keep themselves from being found, and simply put, that is to make all important interactions with employers themselves."

"Get to the goddamn point," Samus interrupted him. She knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Well, since he's not here to give me this information himself, and I do not know you, that means he won't get his pay, I can't trust you, and therefore I think I should just kill you."

Samus rolled her eyes behind the dark red shades she wore and said, "Oh, is that all?"

The margadian standing at the door moved to pull out his weapon, but before he could get his hand on it, Samus threw her trench coat to the side, grabbed the rather large energy rifle that was holstered on her hip, and aimed it at him. He held his hands up in the air.

"There's something else you should know Del," Samus spoke then.

Del sighed softly, "And what is that?"

"Samus also found out there's quit a large bounty on your head, so needless to say, he'll be coming for you next."

Del grumbled and stood up. Samus pulled the other weapon off her opposite hip and aimed it at him as well. The energy pistol charged up and she said, "Don't move or I'll take you out and claim the bounty myself."

"Why not?" Del asked.

"I didn't want to deprive Samus of using his cannon on you."

Del nodded slowly, and his eyes went to the right, behind Samus who had her weapons in both hands aimed out, one at Del and one at the Margadian. When his eyes went behind him, Samus sighed softly, hearing a weapon charging up at the back of her head.

"Drop your weapons woman."

Samus rolled her eyes a little and let go of the weapons while Del chuckled and walked towards her, leaning down and picking the weapons up. "These are nice. If I'm not mistake, this type of energy rifle, a 54-37S, is illegal? How much did you pay for it?"

"250 credits," Samus responded, as if she were taking a walk in the park with him.

"Oh, you should've come to me. I sell them for about half that."

Samus leaned in closer to him, "It's ok, you see, I souped that one up to get my money's worth."

Del looked it over and noticed what she'd done to it, adding 2 more beam settings, one which was strong enough to kill with one blast. He nodded and looked at her, "I'm impressed. Such a shame you can't put your talents to better use."

"Just out of curiosity, how long have you been smuggling illegal weapons anyway?" Samus asked in a semi-curious manner.

Del smirked a bit, "I wouldn't call it smuggling, it's more of a trade than smuggling, but for perhaps 5 years now," he replied. "Does that answer your question?"

Samus tilted her head to the side in a small nod, "You must be good at it then since you've only just now been pegged."

Del raised an eyebrow, but he didn't say anything further. Then he looked at the man standing behind her, "Dispose of her," he said and started to walk to the door. "I'll be looking forward to seeing Samus Aran again, it should be interesting."

Samus raised a brow and watched him walk out, then heard the man behind her saying, "Good night sweetheart."

"Goodnight indeed," Samus replied, and faster than he could keep track of she moved to the side before he could fire his weapon and grabbed it, then grabbed the back of his head, ramming it into the hard metal of the weapon he held. His grip loosened and Samus pulled the blaster away, turning around and shooting at the Margadian standing at the door who'd just turned around and pulled his weapon, while she walked nonchalantly towards the desk Del had been sitting at.

After the Margadian drew his last breath and fell to the floor, Samus reached out for the chip she'd given to Del and put it back in her pocket.

The man she'd hit in the head shook it off and came towards her then. She aimed her weapon and he stopped.

He stared at her, wondering if she was going to fire, feeling fear welling up inside him. Samus just grinned and lowered it, and he took a long breath, sighing in relief.

Then Samus shook her head and aimed once more, firing while he held his hands up as if to beg her not to. The blue blast of energy hit him in the chest, and he fell backwards onto the floor. Samus shot again to finish him off.

"That's the bad thing about women, we have a lot of mood swings," she muttered to the now dead man laying there. Then she started to hack into the computer to pull up Del's accounts.

She'd found his codes before she'd come to "see" him, and as she hacked into his account, she used them to authorize a sizable money transaction into her own accounts. "You're going to pay me one way or the other," she mumbled.

After she was done taking what she pleased from him, she walked towards the doors, picking her weapons up and putting them back in their holsters on the way.

Just then they opened and about 10 men, all armed, came into the room. "There she is," one of them yelled, and Samus figured there was probably some type of surveillance device hidden somewhere in the room.

Samus just smiled at them and then took off towards the window that overlooked the bar area below. "Hold your fire!" The same man yelled as they aimed. He didn't want any suspicion drawn to them from anyone by shooting at someone.

Then Samus jumped towards the window, shielding her face as it broke and the glass fell to the floor below, people screaming and running away. The band stopped playing.

Samus fell towards the floor, her feet drawn under her as she landed and rolled to the side. Then she pushed herself up quickly and looked back up at the window, seeing the men looking down on her.

"Go get her," the leader said and pushed one of them down. Samus watched him flip onto his back falling through the air and land, cringing when he did so. Then she shook her head and took off towards the exit, seeing 5 police officers at the other end of the corridor. Looking back, she saw Del Gregir's flunkies coming from the bar.

The police were running towards the bar, and when the flunkies that were chasing Samus saw them, they slid to a stop.

Samus knew more police would be on the way now, and she started to get an idea for how to get out of there without getting caught. There was an alert on the station now, and no doubt everyone was going to be questioned as to what happened.

Two of the police stopped while the others ran into the bar area, and one of them said, "What happened?"

"This woman killed two of my friends sir," the thug leader spoke.

Samus pointed at herself. "Me? I'm afraid you've been mistaken. Officer, all I know is that I was standing in the bar and suddenly, the window broke because he threw a man out of it. Go in there, you'll see him on the floor."

The officer looked up and contacted the police in the bar area, "Is there a man laying on the floor?"

"Yes, and he's been badly injured. It looks like he's taken a nasty fall."

The officers looked up and they started to arrest the one who'd been leading the group chasing Samus. "Look upstairs!" He yelled, "You'll find two more bodies with energy burns on them!"

"That's enough for now, don't worry, we're taking her into custody for questioning too."

The other officer began to escort Samus down the corridor, who was pretending to be upset. "I don't know what he's talking about, I swear!"

"It's alright miss. We'll find out what's going on, don't worry."

Samus nodded slowly and looked down at his belt, seeing the shocker he had which was used to render violent suspects unconscious.

After they boarded the elevator shaft Samus looked at the policeman and smiled sweetly, "Thank you so much for your kindness. I was just trying to have some fun tonight and suddenly this happened. I have no clue what that man was ranting about."

The policeman returned the smile. He was relatively young, maybe 18 or so, and Samus stepped towards him, wrapping her arms around him in a hug.

"It's ok," he tried to reassure her, but went a little wide eyed at how Samus was rubbing herself against him. He smiled a little and placed his hands on her hips. Then he looked confused as he felt the weapons there. "What the hell?"

Suddenly he felt an energy burst move through his side and he stiffened. While he'd been preoccupied with what Samus was doing, she'd grabbed his shocker and stuck it into his right side. She pulled her face back to look at him, totally expressionless. Then she pulled the device away and he fell over, passed out.

Putting the device back on his belt, she stated the destination to the computer and went towards the docking bay.

The police had been securing the docking bay, as no one had been allowed to leave or board the space ship until they found out who had killed the two men in Del Gregir's office and who had injured the other.

One of the policemen looked towards the elevator shaft as the doors opened, but no one stood inside it. Signaling the others as he spotted the downed officer laying in the shaft along with a trench coat laying on the floor.

"He's not dead, someone used the shocker on him," one of them said as they checked him out.

Samus listened to them. She'd opened the emergency hatch on the top of the elevator climbed up on top of it. Once she was satisfied they'd found the man she'd knocked out and were going to take care of him, she began to crawl up through the shaft slowly until she could find the crawl tube. She was certain the space station would turn on their bio scanners at any moment to locate any life forms on the station, and she would be spotted without her suit inside the elevator shaft. So she had to make it out of there as soon as possible.

Once she found the door and opened it, she crawled inside, moving towards the area just above the docking bay where the transport pod was located that she'd used to board the space station. Her power suit was on that ship, which was simply a second class transport pod, used for navigation throughout cities and short distances in space.

Some of the police continued to patrol the area, unaware of the woman moving quietly from the tubes in the wall towards her ship as Samus had come out near the floor, hidden by other larger ships in the docking bays.

Then she to her transport and opened the door silently, getting inside of it, waiting until no one was around before she did so.

The bio scanners were turned on just before Samus had gotten into her pod however, and one of the policeman received a signal, "Sir, someone's in the docking bay who is not registered personnel of this station."

The docking bay doors began to open as soon as he was alerted, and the engines on the pod came to life as it lifted into the air and began to exit the space station.

Samus picked up all kinds of signals telling her to return to the docking bay immediately or they would open fire on her. She knew the police would come after her personally as well in their shuttles, but she didn't listen to them.

Some of the men stood back while the other Police took off after the renegade pod when it didn't heed warning, and one of the policeman asked, "Did you get a lock on the person's identity?"

"Sir, I've tried multiple times but there are no identity files for this woman whatsoever. Either she's some kind of criminal mastermind or she's working for some agency in the government I've never heard of."

The police shuttles chased after the pod and caught up to it because of the pods lack of speed capabilities. "Transport Pod, please respond. Come with us peacefully and do not force us to open fire."

They waited but no signal. "I repeat for the last time, return to the space station or we will use force."

Then the shuttle shook. Looking at the scanners, the policeman said, "We've got a gunship coming out of cloak just above our shuttles. Hail the gunship and tell them to take a different route."

At that time, the gunship moved in behind the police shuttles and began to target them

"It's locking weapons, break off pod pursuit."

The police shuttles then left to take evasive maneuvers from the gunship which was now firing its plasma cannons at them, yet was missing.

Samus piloted the pod away then, moving it towards a moon of the planet the space station orbited that was uninhabitable as it had no atmosphere.

The gunship tailed the shuttles closely which were trying to get on the offense but had no luck in doing so because of the gunships fast movements.

"I don't think whoever is piloting the ship is trying to kill us, only scare us." They'd been fired at numerous times but had never been hit, "Either than or he's a terrible shot."

Then just as suddenly as it had appeared, the gunship cloaked and disappeared from all their scanners. The police shuttles came to a stop and one of them reported, "I can't find it on my scopes, did it cloak?"

"Negative. It was probably someone who was only out to scare us off, maybe someone trying to help the woman in the transport pod. Performing a sensor sweep now of the system to find the pod."

A few moments later the same policeman reported, "The pod is located on the second moon of this planet. I'm not reading any life signs, yet it appears to have landed safely and is operable."

The police moved towards the moon then, making it there about 3 minutes later after the gunship had broken off its attacks.

The police decided to tractor beam the pod back to the space station, believing the woman on the pod was trying to hide from them there until they'd stopped looking for her and then leave.

They entered range, hovering about 10, 000 feet from the surface and started to engage their tractor beams. "Sir, the gunship has returned."

Not far from the police shuttles port bows the gunship came back into view and opened fire on the pod below them, totally destroying it.

Before the police could take action, the gunship cloaked again and they had no clue what happened to it. It's cloak was far too sophisticated for them to track through as it didn't scramble their sensors like most cloaking devices, instead it disappeared totally off their scopes as if it had never been there.

"It was probably a space hunter after our target. That explains why they attacked us because whoever it was wanted the money for the bounty."

Samus listened to them from her seat behind the controls in the gunship. The darkness surrounded her, and all that was seen was the glowing green of her visor and from the small lights on her chest plate. Her visor, which was shaped in an ovular V shape seemed to leer menacingly at whatever her helmet pointed towards to look at. The vents just below the visor made a hissing sound as air was exhaled through the shaft and Samus began to pilot her gunship away from the moon, satisfied that they would not be looking for her now.

She'd feigned her own death, but this wasn't the first time she'd done so. Now the police wouldn't be looking for this woman anymore, and Samus Aran, the armored bounty hunter, would still be free to roam about as she pleased without the police annoying her every second of every day. Samus had used her suit to remotely control her gunship, sending it a signal to follow the shuttles and do what was called "feign fire" on it, which was to target the ships, but to fire on coordinates just off the ships hull, missing it. That would cause them to become more concerned with their own safety than with catching the pod, which they did. Then after Samus had landed on the surface of the moon, she'd adorned her power suit and signaled her gunship to cease fire and return to her location.

Once her gunship had landed on the moons surface, she boarded it and waited for the police to arrive so they could witness the destruction of her pod and believe she was dead.

The truth was that Samus hadn't meant for her meeting with Del Gregir to have become so intense, but sometimes these things happened. Her life wasn't predictable, and never had been. But because of that, she'd learned to deal with any situation and come up with ideas on how to get herself out of trouble as the situation arrived.

Now she would go collect her bounty on Del Gregir. It was too bad he had no idea what was coming for him.

Del Gregir had taken a shuttle to the planets surface. He'd been questioned on the space station, but he hadn't witnessed anything, therefore he was telling the truth when he'd said he had no idea what had happened. He told them about the woman, Rilana Morine, and the police had done a check on her. There was no record of a Rilana Morine fitting the description of the woman he'd given, but either way the police had witnessed the destruction of her pod and knew she was dead anyway.

Del believed Aran had killed Rilana because of her sloppiness. He was still clueless to the fact that Rilana actually was Samus Aran.

With the information Del had received from Rilana, he knew that suppliers of the illegal weapons he was going to be receiving were under cover galactic police officers. However, none of his thugs knew this and so he would send them to pick up the equipment. They were loyal to him as well, and if they were ever caught they would never give up his name.

Del Gregir was in the clear, or so he thought.

It was a little later on in the evening that the police had arrested Del Gregir. They'd received a feedback from an anonymous source that was a recording of Del Gregir admitting that he had been smuggling illegal weapons. When Del heard this, he knew Rilana had somehow recorded their conversation, but how he had no clue.

They put him in holding, a force field-enclosed cell on the detention block of the planets police headquarters.

Del had sat there quietly for several hours before he heard a familiar sound. The sound of air hissing through a ventilation shaft and he looked through the force field to the other side of the cell. He could see the dimly glowing green of a visor and he tilted his head, "How the hell did you get in here?"

"I have my ways," came a mechanically warped voice.

Del nodded slowly, "Aren't you worried about surveillance?"

"No."

Then the tall hunter stepped from the shadows, the suit with a red helmet and chest plate, and yellow and orange body plates glinted slightly in the dimly lit room. On the right arm was a cannon attached to the suit, and Del looked it over for a moment. From the edges of the cannon, 4 latches opened up and he heard the warped voice coming from the suit ask, "You were interested in my missile launcher right?"

Del nodded a little.

"I think I'll give you a demonstration."

"What are you going to do, shoot the force field until it collapses? The guards will be in here long before you complete that task."

"I'm not going to shoot the force field, I'm going to shoot you."

"Good luck," he mused then.

Then Samus entered in some coding to the panel beside the force field and it was deactivated. Del looked up quickly.

"Oh, and don't worry about the guards. It will be a while before they realize the surveillance to this room has been deactivated as well, and also that the doors are locked tight."

Del stood up quickly and Samus waved her left hand at him to calm down. "It's alright Del, you have nothing to worry about."

Del looked at her un-trustingly for a few moments until he felt a little better.

After he seemed to calm down a bit, Samus nodded, "There now. Don't worry, I'm going to make this as quick and painless for you as possible."

Then she raised up her cannon arm and aimed it at him. Del's face contorted as he slowly started to yell loudly, and Samus fired a missile right into his gut, blowing a hole through it.

The man waited in the alley quietly. He was on planet Aines, a planet that was outside of the federations control, and known for it's abundance of seedy people and supplies of devices deemed illegal in Federation Space.

Lights shined from the signs above buildings, but the light barely made its way in between them where he stood waiting.

Finally he saw who he was waiting for, the armor clad hunter making his way slowly towards him. Once Samus was within earshot, he said, "I heard it on the news that Del was killed after he was taken into holding." Then he handed a chip to Samus who took it in her left hand and nodded slowly. The chip contained the authorization codes for her to access his account and receive her payment for his death. Then Samus turned around to leave.

"Maybe I can hire you for something else," he asked.

"I don't think so." Was Samus' only reply as she made her way back to where she came from, her gunship, which was in a landing port not too far from where they'd met. With all the money Samus had just gotten from her last two bounties, she knew her young friend Jillian would be taken care of for a good while longer now.

She wouldn't take 2 bounties in a row from the same employer. Usually if someone even asked that they were trying to get the hunter into trouble and collect a bounty on them their selves. Samus wasn't going to fall for it. Either that, or they were incredibly stupid. Most hunters would kill someone for asking to do a second job, that is, depending on what the job was.

Samus had been hunting for a very long time now. After she'd lost her family, and had nothing else she could turn to, she went to hunting to keep herself alive and earn some money. She was well equipped for it, and she found it suited her well. Especially since she couldn't use her equipment for what it was truly meant for.

She'd been able to establish a very good reputation as well, despite what Del had said a few days ago. He had no clue what went on in the world of hunters. In fact, Samus had become very feared to many people, especially outside the federations space. No one knew if she was human, a man, a woman, or even a cyborg robot, but she'd been called robot on several occasions, or cyborg hunter. That wasn't very far from the truth.

Samus was a human woman yes, but she also had been enhanced with cybernetic implants which could possibly deem her as somewhat of a cybernetic creature. But that wasn't totally true either as cybernetic creatures could not live without their robotic parts. Samus could.

Once she'd boarded her gunship and left Aines' atmosphere, she set in a new destination, Planet Inia, to see her yong friend Jillian, an orphan she'd found on a moon of Delron. At the same time she started looking for a new bounty to hunt. It wasn't long before she picked up a signal from Galactic Federation headquarters itself stating that they were in need of the best hunter in the known galaxy for a large assignment. The message had not been sent to her specifically, but it had been relayed through several channels which they believed she may use, so therefore they were looking for her in particular. They simply didn't know where exactly to look.

Samus was surprised at this, to say the least, and she considered doing it right off the bat for simply curiosity of what was so urgent they needed the best hunter in the galaxy for.

After a while, she received the information. It had been well coded to prevent anyone else from finding out what was so important, and once Samus found out what the bounty was for, she accepted it not a second later.

She'd never heard of Metroids before, and wasn't sure what they were, however she did know what Space Pirates were, and she did know where Planet Zebes was, and she had always hated Space Pirates with every fiber of her being, and she always would.

So Samus would go to Inia to see Jillian and then report to the Galactic Federation headquarters on Earth to be debriefed on the situation and what all the bounty entailed. For the amount of money they were offering her for it, she knew it wasn't going to be a simple job.

The young lady of 15 years of age lay on the couch asleep. She was a light sleeper and therefore heard the door when it opened. She lived in an apartment building where she also worked, so the apartment she lived in had the price cut back a bit, but her paycheck wasn't anything anyone could live off of alone. The apartment itself was nice, not too large, but bigger than a 15 year old needed.

As the door opened, Samus walked into the living room, unsuited, and sat down across from the girl, who was Jillian, one a chair that was next to the couch. Jillian sat up quickly and went to Samus, hugging her tightly. Samus patted her back and said, "Are you hungry?"

Jillian shook her head, "No, I just ate, you?"

Samus nodded some, "Yeah, a little. I got more money to put in your account. It should be enough to take care of you for the next 5 months. Remember what I told you about keeping enough to pay for the rent?"

Jillian nodded.

"Then multiply that by 5, and use the rest if you want for clothes or whatever. Or you can just save your paychecks and use that."

Samus shrugged a bit and stood up, careful not to make Jillian fall, who let go and watched her walk into the kitchen. "Is something wrong Samus? You seem a bit more talkative than usual."

Samus prepared herself some food in the kitchen, and it was quiet for a few minutes. Finally, she re-emerged eating a sandwich and motioned for Jillian to sit down. Jillian nodded and did so quickly.

Samus looked over at her, swallowing some of the sandwich she'd bitten off and said, "I've just accepted a mission from the Galactic Federation."

Jillian's eyes went wide. "What kind of mission?"

"It's classified, but I won't be back for a while if my guesses are right."

Jillian frowned some, "You're rarely ever here to begin with."

"Don't worry, with the money I'll make from this, you'll be taken care of for a long time."

Jillian sighed and threw her arms over her chest. "I don't care about that, I want you to be here to take care of me, not the money. What if you die? Then what?"

Samus grumbled some, "Then I won't die," she said quit bluntly.

Jillian sighed, but couldn't help asking, "You promise?"

Samus looked at her seriously and nodded, "I promise."

"Can you at least tell me where you're going so I will know and won't worry?"

Samus sighed some and nodded, "First the Galactic Federation headquarters on Earth to be debriefed, then Planet Zebes."

"Debriefed?"

"Yes, that's what the Military calls being told what a mission is about and what you're supposed to do," Samus explained.

"Oh," Jillian nodded. "Wait, there's a lot of police around there, they won't arrest you will they?" Jillian knew some of the things Samus did was against the law.

"No Jillian, I'll be wearing my suit, and they don't know my true identity, plus they don't have Samus Aran, the suited hunter, charged with anything."

Jillian nodded again, "I guess you've got this all planned out and I'm worrying for nothing then."

Samus nodded, "I do and you are. For a fifteen year old, you seem to do an excessive amount of thinking."

Jillian grinned, "Well someone between us has to," and stuck her tongue out at Samus.

Samus rolled her blue eyes some, "I see. You're starting to become a smartass too."

"That just makes you proud."

Samus smiled for the first time since she'd arrived. Jillian didn't get to see her smile too often, and she grinned because of it. The truth of the matter was that despite the fact that Jillian had known Samus for about 2 years now, she still didn't know very much about her. Whether it was intentional or not, Jillian had no clue, but she didn't push anything with Samus. Samus seemed like she didn't care to speak of her past too much, and while that pricked Jillians curiosity, she respected Samus and her privacy too much to prod about in it.

"There's a guy who works in the food stores who's been giving me funny looks," Jillian said out of no where.

Samus looked towards her quickly, "How old is he?"

"About my age, maybe a little older."

"If he tries anything beat the hell out of him." Samus said quite seriously. She might not act it all the time, but she viewed Jillian as her family, a sister, maybe a daughter seeing as Jillian depended on her, but it wasn't a mother daughter relationship. Samus of course let Jillian do what she wanted, as she was rarely there to stop Jillian, something Samus regretted, but couldn't do anything about. Even still, Samus knew Jillian well enough, and knew she'd never do anything irrationally. Jillian was level headed, and ambitious, not wild and unruly.

Jillian sighed some, "I'm not your Samus, I can't beat the hell out of anyone who just pisses me off. He's cute after all, I just wish he wouldn't look at me so," she paused for a second, "Obviously."

"I see," Samus said, "Well, if he tries anything I'll beat the hell out of him," Samus reciprocated.

Jillian rolled her eyes some, "How? You're not going to be here. You won't even know unless I say something."

"I have my ways," Samus said, "Believe me, I have my ways."

Jillian looked at her quickly, "No Samus, don't."

Samus raised a brow, "Why not?"

"You'll scare the hell out of him! He'll never look any ANYONE for the rest of his life!"

"What exactly do you think I'm going to do?" Samus asked nonchalantly.

"Put your suit on and go down there to find him?"

Samus chuckled a little, "No, I'm not going to need my suit."

"Samus," Jillian said somewhat pleadingly and trailed off.

Samus couldn't help herself from smiling some and she stood up, walking to the door. "Come on."

"What," Jillian asked and stood up.

Samus opened the door without saying a word and walked out, going towards the elevator lift. Jillian followed, her height compared to Samus' only reached Samus' shoulders. Samus looked down at her, "Don't look so grim Jillian, you look like you're going on a death sentence."

"Well I'm scared of what you're going to do."

Samus smirked, "You have no reason to be."

As they walked into the lobby, some people waved to Jillian who smiled in return, and several women wearing bikinis made of materials that seemed to shimmer walked past them on the arm of a man whom was most assuredly enjoying their company. Samus watched them for a moment and snorted while she made her way past with Jillian and went to the dining room, where Jillian served food.

They walked into the elaborated decorated area where large windows overlooked the ocean near by and Samus took a seat. Jillian sat across from her and asked, "What are we doing?"

A server came up to them, someone with the same job Jillian had and said, "Hey Jill, who's this?"

"This is Rilana," Jillian said, knowing to always call Samus Rilana when they were out in public.

Samus nodded her head to the server who then spoke, "Oh, your aunt. Rilana, I just wanted to say that you're so cool."

The server, who probably wasn't much older than Jillian, seemed to be genuine in her words. "I wish my parents would let me stay alone all the time. Oh well, what can I get for you?"

Samus looked at Jillian for a moment and then said, "Actually I'm not very hungry. I just thought I'd come down and spend some time with my niece."

The server nodded, "Alright, I'll be around if you change your mind."

As she walked off, she gave Jillian a smile and a little wave, and Jillian smiled back, before turning back to Samus. Before she could speak however, the server came back to the table quickly, "I forgot something. Christan is in the back, and he was asking where you were today."

Jillian let her head fall onto the table. The server chuckled and said, "He's got it bad. You should go say hey to him."

Then she left again to go do her job and Samus smiled some at Jillian. "You see," Samus began, "One way I work when I'm looking for someone is to just let what happens happen."

Jillian groaned.

"Damn I'm good," Samus muttered to herself and Jillian looked up as Samus stood.

"Where're you going!" Jillian sputtered.

"Oh, I thought I'd take a better look around the kitchens."

Jillian stood up and grabbed her hand. "Please Samus, don't embarrass me!"

Samus patted her hand and said, "It won't be so embarrassing," and she looked towards the kitchen doors when they opened, and a young man walked from behind them. Samus sat back down, "Is that him?"

Jillian sighed and nodded. "Yes, that's him."

As soon as Christan caught site of Jillian, he continued walking towards his table but bumped right into a counter, the corner of which hit his inner thigh. She bent over some and groaned in pain.

Samus put a hand on her mouth to stop her laugh, but she couldn't help her snorts of laughter. "He's cute," she said, "Clumsy, but cute."

Christan looked back towards Jillian, his cheeks red with embarrassment, and he went on about his serving. Once he was done, Samus had been watching him quietly, waiting for him to finish, she raised her hand up and motioned for him to come over. Christan looked around to see if it were him she were looking at and when he realized it was he made his way over.

Jillian glared at Samus for a minute and then muttered, "I should've kept this to myself."

Samus gave her a pitiful look and once Christan arrived he said, "Can I help you?"

Samus shrugged, "I just figured I'd get to meet all of Jillian's friends before I left. She said she knows you."

Christan nodded, "Yeah, I know Jill. You must be Rilana?"

Samus nodded. Jillian just muttered, "Hey Chris."

Chris smiled some, "Hey Jill. Are you off today?"

Jillian nodded a bit. "Yeah, until the boss finds me, then he'll ask me to work."

Christan snorted some, "He does that a lot, I know."

Jillian didn't mind working, but she was horrified when she heard her bosses voice calling her name. "Jillian, can I talk to you a second?"

Jillian knew she'd have to leave Samus with Christan, and giving Samus a knowing look, she stood up, hating this all together. "Yes, I'm coming."

As Jillian left, Samus pushed the chair beside her out with her booted foot quickly, causing Christan to jump. Then she said, "Sit down."

"I need to get back to," Christan started.

"Sit!" Samus interrupted.

Christan sat down quickly.

About that time, the server girl came by and said, "Hey Rilana, you change your mind?"

Samus looked at her and spoke, "Actually yes. Give me a Bergeon Rum and Cantin'Sil mix. Don't water it down, I like it straight."

The server blinked a few times and then nodded, "Ok," as she walked off. What Samus just ordered was something not many people could stomach without it being severely watered down. Even then they didn't drink it much because the watered down taste left something to be desired.

Christan raised a brow and then looked at Samus, "You do know what those things do to you right?"

"Do you?"

Christan cleared his throat. He'd tried one once. After the second drink he was too wasted to know left from right, and then passed out. It was the worst hangover he'd ever had. "Yes ma'am."

Samus smiled, "I've heard a bit about you since I've been back."

"Like what," Christan asked.

"Well, Jillian told me that there was a rumor you like her a lot, is that true?"

Christan shrugged, "Yeah, I guess."

Samus gave him a hard look. Christan swallowed, "Yes, it's very true."

Then Samus smiled, "I see. Have you made any moves?"

Christan swallowed some. "No ma'am."

Once more Samus gave him a hard look. "Yes ma'am, I've asked her out several times. We even had a serious talk once, but she's really shy."

Samus raised a brow at him, "Really shy?"

Christan swallowed, "Yeah, I mean she wouldn't let me come see her regularly."

"And just why do you want to see her regularly?"

Christan shrugged, and Samus watched as her drink was sat down before her. She picked it up and said, "You know I'm rarely ever around don't you?"

Christan nodded slowly.

Samus then began to drink the green liquid slowly, downing the entire glass. Christan cringed some. After all the contents were gone, Samus sighed some and looked at him, "Let me tell you something," she began. "If I ever hear that you were in my apartment with Jillian alone, I'll find you and rip off your arms, understood?"

Christan blinked. She'd sounded do deadly serious, his eyes were wide open. "Yes ma'am," he stuttered.

"I don't have a problem with you liking my niece but if you ever hurt her in any way, I'll hunt your down like a Larg and you won't like what I'll do to you."

A Larg was an animal often hunted for its skins, as well as the meat was used in foods. Christan nodded again quickly. Then Samus smiled. Jillian had come back over to the table and said, "I have to work now." Her voice caused Christan to jump up out of his chair.

"It was nice meeting you Rilana, and I have to get back to work now myself, I'll see ya later Jillian," he said quickly and walked off.

Jillian watched him and then looked back at Samus who handed her glass back to the server, declining a refill. "He never calls me Jillian, damn it Sa...," she stopped herself, "Rilana, what did you say to him?"

Samus just shrugged some with a little smirk and stood up, "Nothing, I simply told him to behave," she paused and tilted her head once, "In so many words."

Jillian groaned, "God."

Samus placed a hand on her shoulder. "Jillian, don't worry about it, I just did you a favor, he'll be easier to control now."

"But I don't want to control him," Jillian muttered.

"My young friend," Samus spoke, "You have much to learn about men and women, and why women must be able to control them."

Jillian stared at her for a moment and then grinned with a laugh. Samus smiled for only a moment and then her face went back to its usual expressionless demeanor. "I have to go now."

Jillian nodded, and reached out to hug Samus. Samus just patted her back some and then said, "Don't worry about me, I'll be fine."

"I hope so," Jillian mumbled and let go. "I'll miss you."

Samus turned away from Jillian without giving her any admission to what she'd just said. Jillian watched Samus walk out of the dining area and sighed softly. She never understood why Samus always seemed to distant to her. She just couldn't understand it.

Then she turned and went off to work herself.

"I still don't see how hiring a bounty hunter will help this when we've sent entire military teams and haven't heard from them since they arrived," the man spoke.

"Like it or not this is the presidents orders," Jon Levinson, a military captain spoke. "It's likely we won't hear from the bounty hunter again, but from the reports on this hunter, and the skills he possesses, we don't even believe he's human, so we may just have a chance."

About a week ago, a military space station had been attacked and their securities breached. The space station, named F3-27, was a secret base of operations which cataloged the findings on a new discovery, a creature called a Metroid. The creature was discovered about a month earlier, and so far there was little known about them. A parasitic life form, the Metroid was ovular in shape, it's main body transparent, with 4 tusks located around an orifice on the bottom of the creature. Three or four nuclei could be seen inside the creatures body, like red bumpy spheres connected to veins inside the creatures body. They floated throughout the air, lifted by some unknown force, and whenever they moved a dim trail of a blueish green glow could be seen about their bodies whenever they moved. They were predators, latching onto their prey using the tucks and drew out their preys energy, killing them in the process. The way this creature killed baffled scientists. It drew no blood, no body fluids, no tangible type of substance, yet whatever they drew the victims could not live without.

Scientists believed it was some type of energy, perhaps the same type of energy which powered the minds facilities, such as consciousness, but they weren't 100% sure. Mostly, at these early stages of studying the creatures, it was mostly just speculation.

They also knew that after being exposed to beta rays for a period of 24 hours, the Metroids would multiply and split into two. They'd done several tests to see if the beta rays actually harmed the creatures in any way to make sure if this was a safe method of multiplying them or not. The reason they wanted to study these creatures was because within them, they had found enormous potential for energy production.

That's when they were attacked. The Space Station wasn't totally destroyed, but all the Metroids that were there had been stolen, as well as several ships had been attacked and their Metroids they carried were hoarded from there as well.

The thieves were a race of creatures known as Space Pirates. The Galactic Federation had put up with this race before several times, but since the discovery of the Metroid creature, the attacks had increased almost tenfold, and the Galactic Federation Police had been rendered helpless in their struggled against them.

The Space Pirates hoarded items for themselves, they stole technology and other things, and used them against the Galactic Federation. When they stole the Metroids however, the Galactic Federation knew they had to put a stop to it. Who knew what kind of productions they would be able to accomplish with such a deadly, yet still promising creature.

So the Federation sent military teams to Planet Zebes, a world which was located far outside the Federations Space, and though little was known of it, the Federation had tracked the Pirates back to that location. They sent military teams to recover the lost Metroids and hopefully put a stop to whatever was taking place on the planet. However, after 2 weeks, and after 3 teams had been sent, none of them had been heard from since their landing.

It had become increasingly obvious to the President of the Galactic Federation on this matter that they were going to need the best in the known universe. The only question was who was the best.

There had been reports recently of a bounty hunter known only as Samus Aran who mostly took bounties outside federation space, and only very few times had ever been spotted within it. They didn't even have a proper picture of this hunter on file, but from what had been reported this hunter was said to be able to do things no human could do.

Because of the reclusiveness of this hunter, it had taken the Federation over a week to get in contact with him, and they were pleased to receive a positive response. They were now expecting arrival within the hour for the Hunter to be debriefed.

Captain Jon Levinson was the one who would be debriefing this hunter, but the President, a human named E. Senning, was going to oversee the debriefing.

They stood in a meeting room located in the Galactic Federation Headquarters on planet Earth, having just received the word of the hunters arrival.

Levinson was speaking with the president when the doors behind them opened and into the room walked two Cadets, one on each side of the metal armored hunter between them. Levinson raised a brow, as did President Senning.

Since Samus Aran had no valid identification cards, she couldn't present any proper ID to them, therefore they didn't do an security checks on Samus to make sure it was indeed Samus. From the looks of this hunter, Captain Levinson wasn't sure whether he wanted to ask either. But he did, "You're Samus Aran I presume?"

No response.

"You're dismissed Cadets," President Senning said, and walked to the doors, securing them after the cadets left.

Samus didn't move. "If you're apprehensive about being in a military stronghold, then don't be. We have no charges against you."

At that, Samus walked towards some computer terminals near by. President Senning shook his head when Levinson gave him a look suggesting they should stop her. Senning was too interested in seeing what this hunter would do.

Samus began to access a few files, scanning the terminals for information, specifically the access codes. Once she had those, she began to hack into their systems to find out all the information they had her on, and promptly she deleted it.

Senning stepped forward then as he saw what she was doing, and said, "Why are you deleting those files?"

Samus then began to download some information. Senning was getting a little impatient. "Don't worry," came the mechanically warped voice from the hunter, "I'm only accessing the information on this mission. It will serve me better if I have cataloged files of it."

Senning nodded slowly, "And why are you deleting the only information we have on you?"

Finally, the hunter turned around and faced them. "Because it is obsolete. Anything you think you may know about me you don't, and anything you have collected on me from other sources is also inaccurate. I've taken very careful steps to hide my identity, therefore anyone or anything you may get in contact with about me will not know the truth."

Senning nodded slowly. "I see. Then perhaps you would like to elaborate on yourself? Tell us anything we may need to know."

Only the air hissing from the vents sounded as Samus drew breath. Senning waited patiently for an answer, and finally Samus said, "The truth is you're not on a need to know basis, I am. Now, may we get down to business, or perhaps I should just leave."

Senning sighed somewhat and let the hunter have his way for now. "Levinson, if you will please?"

Levinson nodded and walked towards a monitor where he drew up maps and star charts, as well as a cataloged map of Planet Zebes that they knew contained many errors, but was the most up to date information they had on the planet so far. He began to explain the mission to her, about Zebes, and about the Space Pirates as if she had no clue what anything was. The information on the Metroids was what she listened to the most. "Once a Metroid latches on, we don't know how to get it off. However, we also don't know if they will affect you or not, seeing as we don't even know of you're a machine or a person wearing armor."

Samus decided perhaps they should know a little more about the person they were sending off on this mission, so she spoke, "I'm human."

Senning blinked and looked a bit confused. "If you're human, then how have you done some of the things you do? We've heard you can turn into a little ball at will."

Samus rolled her eyes behind her visor some, "I have cybernetic implants that allow me to do various things you cannot." Then she paused for a moment and looked at Senning, "Come here."

She had to prove it to them. They didn't seem to be inclined to believe her if the way they were looking at her was any indication. Senning was a bit hesitant as he walked closer to her and stood there. For a brief moment he thought he could see eyes behind the visor, and he looked a little harder. Then he saw them look to the side, and he was startled when the hunters left hand grabbed his shirt and began to lift him into the air with one arm. "Alright," he said, "You've proved your point, I believe you."

Samus sat him back down on his feet. He straightened out his clothes and then said, "Well, with your being human, we'll need to give you a physical examination by some of our doctors, make sure you're not carrying any diseases or the like, and vaccinate you as well."

Samus shook her head, "No. I'm not going to see any of your doctors, I'm not getting vaccinated, I certainly do not need that, and also, I'm quite disease free, I can assure you."

"It is federation policy Mr. Aran," Levinson spoke. "We need records."

"For what exactly," Samus said quickly, her helmet moving to look in his direction quickly.

Levinson grumbled for a moment. Senning held his hand up to stop him and took over. "It's not that important Mr. Aran. Simple medical records is all he meant."

Samus didn't move for a few moments before Senning finally let Levinson continue with the mission. He continued by saying, "Your objective, Mr. Aran, in this mission is to infiltrate the space pirate holdings on Zebes and destroy the Metroids there. Once this is completed you need to report back here with your findings and debrief us on the activities that took place."

"How resistant to weapons are these creatures?"

"Very," Levinson stated. "We still don't know any easy way of killing them, and it takes a lot to kill them with some of our most powerful weapons. We hadn't studied them long enough before they were stolen to know for certain."

"You mean to say that you have no more of these creatures nested in another one of your secret bases somewhere," Samus asked sarcastically. "I find that hard to believe."

Levinson just cleared his throat and said, "Either way, we haven't had the time to study them properly to know for certain."

"What about the prior teams sent there. If I find any survivors I mean."

"You're objective is not to rescue anyone. We believe them to be dead. If you do come across survivors however, send a signal to us and we will send teams to bring them back to Galactic Federation Space."

"Interesting," Samus mused. "So I kill the Metroids, any Space Pirates who try to stop me, and send a signal to you if I find survivors. Is that it?"

Levinson nodded, "Once completed you return here to report back to us. Any information you can gather on your activities will be of use to us as well."

Senning was silent for a moment before he finally said, "Do you think you're really up to this challenge?" Then he looked towards Samus.

Samus looked back at him, the visor glowing in a menacing way, the cannon attached to the right arm of the suit seeming powerful simply to look at. Tall and intimidating, the hunter didn't speak at all, and Senning finally nodded, "Nevermind."

"For security issues we'll be sending a team to follow you to Zebes. They will not make landfall, but will only be there incase you fail or incase you find the survivors you asked about."

Samus nodded slowly once and Levinson said, "Meeting adjourned. You will receive payment upon the success of this mission."

Samus listened while they spoke and once all was done she headed towards what would be the pinnacle of her career as a bounty hunter.

The abyss. The black hole. I fell in long ago and won't ever find my way out. Too many events have barricaded me inside. Too many tragedies. What light I see isn't an exit. It's simply another chance to redeem myself, but in whose eyes I do not yet know. Those chances don't offer me freedom either. They simply curse me even more to be lead farther inside this hole that will not end.

I thought I'd found freedom once, when I was a child. I was mistaken. Pain is my teacher, and its lessons are powerful and demanding. It taught me, yet it denies me any chance of freedom every second of everyday. It has forsaken me. Therefore I will forsake anyone who tries to cause it.

I'm not inherently violent. I have simply been forced to react to situations that will allow me to be no other way. I do not evoke death and destruction, they evoke me. My life isn't the sum of a random equation, I am what I am for a reason. Acceptance has to be my ally. Without it, I wouldn't be able to survive. It was meant to be.

I look back on my life, and on who I was, who I am now, and with some joy I can say I have no regrets. That is the only thing that allows me any comfort. The only thing that allows me any peace. All that matters now is survival. That's all.

There is no rope leading out. There's no trap door to find, no map to show the way. And here I am, in the middle of it all. Piss me off and I'll drag you in with me. I have nothing left to loose. My name is Samus Aran. This is where you'll find me.

The End