Samus was tired. She had just finished a major obstacle run through the Galactic Federation Training Ground. She was back on the third Galactic Federation planet, (simply called Prime III,) after helping the Luminoth regain their homeworld of Aether. Pretty much since then, she had been constantly training to keep her body in top shape. As she exited the chamber that held the last obstacle, a giant training robot, (reminiscent of Thardus from TalonIV,) her comm pack vibrated. She instinctively reached up and was about to press the transmit button on her helmet, when she realized that she wasn't wearing her suit. She had been training for weeks without it in order to strengthen herself physically, without the suit augmentations. She sighed and holstered her tweaked GF issue blaster and pulled the comm pack out of her pocket. She put it to her ear. "Hello?"
"Hello Samus, I hope you're doing well?" It was the GF President.
"Sir yes sir, just completing some training" Came Samus' reply. She was a little miffed that the GFP was calling her; he was the most superior in rank on the Prime planet chain. Usually her only calls came from GF General 12, and he was one of her only superiors in rank on this planet.
Apparently, her voice showed her confusion because the GFP's next words were, "at ease Samus, you sound confused, I better explain myself. You see, I've been watching your progress since Zebes, and it is simply amazing, I would love it if you graced my presence on Prime VII, I have a very interesting proposition to make. I await your arrival." With those parting words, the comm ended, not even leaving Samus any time to reply.
Not that she could, she was too awestruck. Prime VII was the planet of the elite GF soldiers. Though she was one of the tops in her planet's area, the area of Prime VII had the most elite troops that the GF could train. The troops were assigned to planet according to their performance on the field. Since Samus was the only Bounty Hunter the federation had, she was put on Prime III just to test her mettle. She doubted, though, if she could even best a GFT from Prime IV in combat, the planets were divided by that much of a skill gap.
Nevertheless, whatever she felt would have to be pushed aside, because when the GFP called you, there was no delay. She quickly shook her head, pulled up her comm, and issued a short set of orders to her ship's autopilot. In less than 30 seconds, her ship was in front of her. She quickly boarded and set the autopilot for coordinates XF124SE25, the exact coordinates of the GF presidential bunker on Prime VII. She double-checked the controls and the coordinates. Good, ETA would be about 15min. As she left the cockpit to the back of her ship, where her so called "room" was, she was deep in thought.
Why had the GFP called her? Had she violated some sort of actions on Aether? But…no, the GFP had said he was impressed with her ability, so what could it be? As she opened the hatch that led into her ships' storage bay, she eyed her suit, preserved in a shaft of light. The Light Suit was a gift from the Luminoth after she had restored energy to the Great Temple. It was her favorite of suits, gleaming white on the outside, with a cozy light material on the inside. It put a lot less strain on her body than her old Varia Suit, which was really heavy. But she only donned the Light Suit in battles, or when she was chasing a bounty, which was a lot less frequently since the Aether incident. She usually put on her Varia Suit whenever she was training; it helped to tone her body.
Now as she looked from her Varia, to her Light suits, she couldn't decide which to put on to meet the GFP. She certainly couldn't go like she was now, all sweaty and dirty. She looked at the approaching Prime VII and decided to appear her best. She walked up to her Light Suit and tapped a few hidden buttons on its chest plate. The suit seemingly relaxed, it would be ready to don in 2min. She quickly shed her outer clothes and stepped into the shower in her room. No matter how advanced the universe got, there was nothing as relaxing or as refreshing as a cool shower. Two mins later, she stepped out into her storage bay and called for a fresh under suit that would regulate her entire bodily systems, such as heartbeat, respiration etc. When the servant drone arrived with the under suit, she quickly grabbed and donned it. Walking to her Light suit, she opened a hatch on the back and slid in.
As the suit was adapting to her body rhythm again, the ship's onboard computer proclaimed "Prime VII ETA 1min." As the suit finished it adjustments, she felt a vibration that signaled that the ship had entered the atmosphere. Sure enough she felt a soft thump a few seconds later, which was followed by her ship's computer's voice, "Arrival on Prime VII from origin Prime III, exactly 14mins and 37secs. Good luck Samus."
Samus grinned; she had rewired the ship's comp to say that after every landing. As she went into the cockpit to reach the exit hatch, she grabbed two missile-paks from the mini storage. She inserted them into her cannon and stepped into the exit hatch. As the hatch elevated her to the top of the ship, Samus wondered how the Planet of the Elites looked.
In the GF presidential bunker and army base, all was chaos. The techies had received word of a new Space Pirate base somewhere in the area of Prime VII. The good part about it was that the Pirates had not yet started their business with their Metroids. The SP's were known to always bring a few Metroids bred on different worlds with them so that they could do experiments on the species.
As it was now, according to the techies, the Pirate's had just barely started moving their weapons in. One of the SP weapons that had the most impact on the GF Army Base, (or so the reports were,) was the development of an extremely dangerous plasma arm cannon, much like Samus' but at least 10x more powerful. The only good thing about this was that there were small but traceable residues left in the air wherever the SP's tested it. The residues would have been apparent to the proper equipment anywhere in the Prime system.
That is what the techies were working on: radar that could trace the plasma residues left in the air. They had just finished the programming in the main research chamber, when an urgent call came on their monitors. It was the GFP, "how is it going down there?" He bellowed from the monitors.
"Sir, it is going very well sir, we have finished the programming of the main computer and when we finalize the ion tracers, we will be ready." Reported the main techie.
The GFP looked pleased. "Great, I want this radar ready when Samus arrives. We must not let the Pirate scum anywhere near our GF planet chain. GFP out." The monitors went blank. The techies went back to finishing the ion tracers.
As Samus beheld the first view of the Elite Planet, she saw nothing of remarkable distinction. It was almost the same as Prime III, only bigger, much bigger. She clambered off her ship and as soon as her feet touched the ground, her comm signal started to flash in the corner of her visor. She knew it was the GFP, so she reached up and pressed the transmit button. "Samus, glad to see that you could make it, I'll be waiting for you at my bunker. Start heading towards Prime coordinates 52E6. In the meanwhile, I'll brief you on your current mission." Samus looked at her visor's coordinate display: 35E9, she would have to walk a good 5 miles through the underground access tunnels. She started walking towards the east.
The GFP's voice came on again, "Samus, we have received word of a new Space Pirate base." She let out an audible gasp and started running towards the coordinates, there was no time to waste when it came to the SP's. GFP again, "seemingly it is a new base, they have developed a new weapon system very similar to your arm cannon, but at least 10x more powerful, and they are bound to try and set up a manufacturing plant on their base. Undoubtedly, they will try to use Metroids, and different varieties as well. We believe that there is no time to waste and since you know best about dealing with the SP's, we are assigning you as captain of a team of the most elite GFT's. Once we…"
Samus cut him off, "sorry sir, I appreciate the backup, but I do my best work alone. I know you'll understand, since the risks I take during my missions are too great to be shared, I will be the only one to launch an assault."
"Very well Samus, I trust your abilities. Once we have received the signal from our techies in research, we will advise you of where the base is. GFP out." As the comm ended, Samus arrived at a huge nexus. It seemed that points were connected through a series of pressurized trains. She looked for any sign of a train leaving for the presidential bunker, thankful that she didn't have to walk the five miles. She saw one and boarded it quickly, and within 2mins, the train had arrived. As Samus departed from the train, she quickly ducked into a map station and downloaded the entire map for Prime VII. With that done, she called up the best route to where the Main Research Center was located.
When she arrived, no one, apparently, noticed her. They were all focused around a large holo-sphere. This sphere depicted the Prime Chain and all the other planets and moons in it's proximity. A voice rang out, "GFP sir, we are ready to turn on the tracking signal."
The GFP responded from a giant monitor, "I would have you all proceed, but wait until Samus arrives."
"I'm here sir." Came Samus' reply. All the techies turned to look at her, and suddenly a spontaneous round of applause broke out. Nobody cared that she wasn't the strongest soldier, nobody even cared that she wasn't a soldier. The applause broke out because she was the Prime Chain's most courageous and heroic asset. Everybody knew of Samus' exploits on Aether, that was one of her best missions.
Samus was blushing behind her visor; she was glad that she had decided to take her suit. She walked up to the lead techie and said, "Well? Fire it up! We're gonna fry some Pirates!" The room burst out in applause and cheers again, even the GFP on the giant monitor looked pleased. The techie hit a few switches and pushed a few buttons, and finally the machine started to hum. Inside the sphere appeared a large ball of light that was concentrated in one area.
The techie said, "Once that ball condenses, we'll have confirmation of their new planet." Everybody was focused intently on the sphere as it began to shrink.
It hit the GFP first, "OUT! EVERYBODY OUT EXCEPT SAMUS! NOW!" Everybody ran for the door, their curiosity waning from the rage in the GFP's voice. Samus was focused on the ball of light that was shrinking rapidly. "Samus, zoom in on that ball." Samus did as she was told. The camera zoomed in on the ball, and around it appeared the Prime Chain. Suddenly the ball shrunk to become a pinpoint on the holo-map. The GFP let out a groan. The Pirates' new base… it was on Prime VII.
"Sir, I'll depart at once when I find out where on this planet they've started to build." Samus hit a few switches and the whole planet of Prime VII became visible, all the bases, all the landmarks were visible. Samus let out a gasp. The new base was being built under the Main Research Core.
"But how…?" The GFP said, but the room was empty, Samus had bolted for the Main Research Core. The GFP turned off the comm signal. Back in his room, he was pondering over this weeks events'. Troopers were being reported missing all over the place; this explained a whole lot he thought to himself. Let's hope Samus can take care of this.
Samus was racing through the corridors of the bunker and finally she arrived at a locked door. No one was permitted, except for the GFP; this could only be the Main Research Core. She tried her suit's manual override on the door… it didn't work. She looked around, and readied a super missile. She stepped back and fired. The whole corridor shook and the door was blasted inwards. She stepped through the smoke and into complete darkness. She turned on her night-visor. She had developed this new visor herself, it took less power than any of her other visors.
When she saw the room, she was too dumbstruck to respond. Around the Main Core, there was a trench, no not a trench, a gaping hole, she inched her way towards it. When she peered over the hole, she felt a shove and before she could turn around, she was falling into the new Pirates' base on Prime VII.
Samus landed with practice expertise. Even though she was pushed, it was a rather sloppy push; Samus had easily been able to reposition her center of gravity so that she landed on her feet. As she looked around, she saw nothing of much distinction, there was a door leading to the right and one leading to the left. These doors were covered with a low-level energy blast shield. This could only mean one thing: creatures, possibly hostile. Samus cursed herself for only taking two missile paks. She had wasted half of her supply opening the door to the research core.
She switched to her regular power beam, and blasted the door on the right. The shield dropped and as she stepped up to the door, it opened. Ah, an ammo room, how convenient. She refreshed her missile supply and left. This time, she blasted the door on the left. She stepped through and almost fell off a cliff. As she looked onto this new room, she was amazed. The Pirates had already managed to carve out this huge chamber. But what really got her eye was the giant elevator shaft in the middle. The door had led her out onto a cliff apparently overlooking a giant transport chamber. The walls were covered with arrays and monitors. The whole chamber had that infirmary room look. In fact, it looked not like a transport chamber, but a prison…
Samus realized this too late. The cliff she was on started to drop rapidly, and it revealed itself to be a local elevator. She looked up at the door that she had entered through, and for a second time this day, she cursed herself, not for missing her chance to escape this chamber, but from the fear of not knowing what was going to happen next.
As the elevator hit the ground, Samus looked for cover. That enormous elevator shaft must have been for transporting one huge beast, and she didn't want to be in its way if it chose to come back up. She secured herself firmly behind a stack of crates making sure that she had a clear view of the shaft. From her wedged perspective, she would be able to see the entire opening of the shaft, but the thing inside the shaft would not be able to see her; a perfect position to hide.
Samus paged the GFP. The signal to the base wasn't able to get through. So she instead relayed a message to her gunship. Her ship could pick up any signal coming from her suit's comm pak wherever she happened to be. She said into her radio: "This is Samus, log 4873P1. Message relay to GFP at Presidential Bunker, Prime VII coordinates 52E6. Sir, I have managed to find myself in a rather sticky situation, I am stuck in a giant chamber directly below GF Gamma Command Center. There is a shaft here and it seems to be an elevator shaft, for what purpose I am unclear on, but I believe it is a transport for a creature, possibly hostile since it is in Pirate property. I am going to scope out the premises. In the meanwhile, I believe you can send down forces through the hatch directly under point 25FXV of the Gamma Command Center. I suppose you can send down troops ASAP… for your own reconnaissance purposes, I can handle myself. Samus out." As she clicked off her comm pak, she opened a remote compartment on her arm cannon. She relayed instructions for her ship to deliver this message to the GFP.
With that done, she inched her way out from behind the crates. Since she hadn't seen any activity with the elevator, she decided it was safe to explore. The chamber was too big for her to scope it out with just one glance. She looked across and saw a bunch of computer monitors. It looked like a good place to start. As she walked to the monitors, she looked down into the shaft. It was indeed an elevator; the guide rails were clearly visible. She strode quickly past the shaft and went straight to the monitors.
As she arrived, she immediately plugged her suit into the system. Now as she looked over the data that was pouring by in volumes on her visor, she had to curse again, this time at the Pirates. It seemed that they had managed to procure some Ing DNA from Aether. That wasn't even the worst part. All the Pirate logs that she had read so far spoke about a major flaw in the DNA… there was no safeguard genome. This meant that the DNA could make copies of itself at an amazing rate, with no flaws and absolutely no limit. This explained the size of that elevator.
The last bit of data seemed the most interesting to Samus though. It seemed that the Pirates had also managed to tame the Ing specimen that they had "cultivated." They spoke of immense progress with the weapons system that they had literally integrated into the body of this particular Ing specimen. They had dubbed this creature the Plasma Ing, hence the techie 'plasma arm cannon' theory.
Samus had downloaded enough data about the Plasma Ing. She disconnected her suit from the system and went back to the stack of crates. This time as she passed the elevator shaft, she could hear a grinding noise… as if the elevator was coming up… "Crap." She ran to the crates and started filing through the Plasma Ing's data, knowing that she now had no choice but to fight. She sorted through its vital info and landed on what she needed, Pirate logs that described the only weakness on this enormous beast: concussive blasts on it's mutated heart. She had struck gold. As the grinding grew louder, she stepped out from behind the crate.
The creature finally showed up as the elevator found its way up to the top. The Plasma Ing was a giant mutated snake-like beast. It was covered in seething black Ing particles. The head was crowned with lethal horns, and as it reared up to get a better view of Samus, she saw its belly. Its heart was completely visible through the thin skin on its underbelly.
She aimed and let loose with a volley of seeker missiles. No dice, the Ing slammed its body down and the missiles bounced off its pulsating black body, knocking a few pieces of its armor off. The creature roared and then the most unexpected thing happened. A few particles of its knocked off armor started to pulsate. Suddenly they seemed to explode in familiar green and yellow flashes. Samus seemed to recall the incident in the B.S.L. Research Station. Green and yellow…
"X virus!" She exclaimed, dodging as one of the X flew by her. This really was getting too confusing for her likes: first Space Pirates, then Ing, and now X? As she was dodging the few X that were flying about, she trained her charge beam on the Plasma Ing. As it reared up to strike, she let loose a super missile, it made contact. The beast roared as its delicate chest cavity was torn apart by the extreme concussive blast. Black Ing matter mixed with blood spewed everywhere and as Samus watched while dodging the X, the Ing matter simply dissolved, having no host body to control. Now there was only one problem left, the X.
As she watched the few of them that were chasing her, she happened upon an idea. She readied her ice beam and started running in a pattern so that the X would clump together while they were giving chase. Once she saw a good opportunity, she fired an ice spreader blast. The helpless X were caught in the center of the blast, they all froze and fell to the ground. She quickly blasted them all with seeker missiles, shattering them very efficiently.
Once she was done surveying the mess that she had made, she shook off the gore that was covering her suit and walked over to the elevator. It was time to do some exploring.
The GFP was en route to Gamma Command Center with an enormous amount of troops behind him.