Part 1: Capture
Last Day on Planet M33 (Day 1):
"You fool! Don't touch the grid!"
Too late.
It overloads, exploding; the power in the room goes out instantly. I hear the shattering of Metroid tanks and dive off the platform, away from them. I hit the ground running, abandoning my brothers to their mistakes. I sprint across the room, diving through the door at the last second; it's automated closing silencing the scree-ing of the Metroids, and the cries of their victims. There's a reason for all our precautions. "Metroids are not pets!" At least I wont be put in danger from their stupidity again. By this time the security teams have arrived. They run past me, ignoring me, and get ready to go into the rapidly freezing room. I walk away, to the troop commander, to get a new assignment; giving no more thought to what just happened.
We will be moving out by tomorrow, and there's not enough time to salvage a few loose Metroids, so they will be terminated. I look at my surrounding: broken air conditioners, cracked computer screens, dirt and grime everywhere, the smell of dust and old cobwebs. This base has become obsolete, its production level has plummeted, and therefore the Space Pirates have no more interest in this planet. So we run before trouble shows up. I smile. I like running. Keeps me alive. Keeps me away from those idiots who would otherwise get me killed.
Day 2:
I've been assigned to the scouting ships. They're fast, agile, with enough shielding to escape an engagement with your life. My kind of ride. I fly through space at blinding speeds, making sure the fleet's departure will be a safe one. It looks to be. The squad leader sends the O.K. back to command, and a few minutes later the fleet is in space, ready to warp. It's not much of a fleet: one capital ship, three corvettes, ten troops ships, thirty-two fighters, and our four scout ships. Suddenly, another fleet appears. It is the Galactic Federation. I don't take the time to examine their forces, I run. I don't want to risk my life for this dilapidated junk heap of a fleet. The ships charge each other; their forces are not evenly matched: the Galactic Federation has almost triple our number, and they are our better in technology as well.
I don't look back, a few more seconds and I'm away. Warping far away. Running.
Day 3:
Space. It's so vast, infinitely so. Yet, out of all the places I could have ended up, I end up here. Right in the middle of a Federation convoy! They don't notice me right away, but as soon as they do they think I'm hostile. I hit the thrusters, ducking and dodging past the large cargo carriers and the small gunships and their fire. I take a few glancing blows, but my shields hold. I'm almost out of the convoy, but now the gunships have amassed behind me. I have ten seconds until I can warp. The gunships let loose a continuous barrage of fire, and I'm forced to dodge again. I swerve down and to the left, but one lands a direct hit on my canopy. The starfield spins; I desperately grip the control stick, trying to stabilize my ship. It takes another five seconds to do so, but luckily my spiral has put me out of range of the GF's guns, and far away enough from the convoy to warp. It takes another second to activate the warp drive; the stars blur, and then disappear. I'm away. This time I don't wait for it to deactivate automatically, I don't want to run into any more trouble. I stop in the middle of nowhere, taking a moment to catch my breath, to calm my nerves. Now it's time to look for somewhere safe to go…
Day 5:
After a day of searching and wandering I've landed on the planet Covvust. It's a habitable planate with a medium sized population, mostly located in or around Covvust City, and so far everything is going fine for me. I have no desire to go back to the Space Pirates, to dangerous. Besides, I've already got a good amount of money, stockpiled from all those years of loyal service. I scoff, remembering that past. I think I can settle down now, at least for a little bit.
Day 6:
I'm not used to all this free time.
I try to find something to do, something interesting to do. But after an hour of searching through this small city the only things that caches my eye is the weapons shop, but they only have small, self-defense, arms, nothing compared to what I had been using, and a small pub, "Framter's." I waste an hour in the place, and although it was intended to serve "non-humans" I don't quite seem to fit in; people keep glancing at me, giving me odd looks. Maybe that's because those of my species are notorious for being Space Pirates. My entire nest once served as Ridley's personal guard. But then that whole incident on Zebes—was it only six months ago?—with Samus Aran ended my carrier prematurely; I was punished, demoted to a lowly grunt, for being the only survivor, or as the acting commander put it: "Treason and desertion."
Sorry for having the brains to realize that going up against a man that took out the entire crew of commander Ridley's personal ship, and then a mechanized version of the commander himself, will definitely be an utter failure. I thought I was doing my duty by getting out as soon as the alarms started going off. I even managed to send off Ridley's coordinates so that the medics could save his burnt ass. Now he's enjoying a nice long sleepy time, awaiting a robotic suit so that he can try to get a small scrap of his dignity back, or has he meekly managed to say: "…get revenge on Samus Aran!" If two of you didn't stop the guy in the first place, what makes you think a slightly stronger you will! I scowl and take another sip of the ale the bartender gave me. It's the cheapest on the menu, but it's better then anything I ever got as a Pirate, even as one of Ridley's top men. But it could have been worse. Had I not had such a high starting point, I would have been executed without another thought. Thought, now there's something our commanders could use a little more of. I finish my ale and pay the tab. I think I remember seeing a public, xeno-friendly, gymnasium towards the center of town. I go there and see if there's anything to do, and luckily there is. I waste the rest of the day in there, trying to think of where to go from here.
Day: 10
I think I'm beginning to like this place.
I slowly walk down the street, ignoring any odd glances that get thrown my way, heading for my new job at the spaceport, loading and unloading ships. It's not nearly as exiting as my previous job, but it's something to do, and the dock manager is very pleased with my work, even after only a few days of it. He should be, I am stronger then any normal human (they seem to be the majority everywhere), but close enough physically to operate their machinery, and I am a diligent worker, all Space Pirates are; Although most also lack higher brain function.
But something's been bothering me. I keep seeing this one human: female, blond. She always seems to be pretending not to notice me, but I can tell she's been keeping an eye on me; she's stalking me. But why? Maybe she's a bounty hunter? But am I really that important to anyone? I think I'll start sleeping with my gun next to my bed. Maybe it's time to run again.
Day 11:
Another explosion. The right side of the desk I'm using as cover is blow away by a missile. A wall is behind me, my assailant in front; I'm trapped. I gather myself and leap, taking her-for it must be the woman who was following me-by surprise. I land behind her and spin, putting all my weight into one punch. I can hear my hand breaking as it contacts he orange power suit, but I don't care, I'm fighting for my life. She staggers back, I manage to buy myself another second by firing a missile at her; it makes contact. Then I'm running.
I race down the stairway of the hotel that I am (or I should say was) staying at, and race out the front door towards my ship. I'm almost there, halfway across the courtyard, but the bounty hunter leaps off the fifth story window of my room and lands in front of me, cutting me off. She is hurt by the fall. This delays her, but I am too far away to do anything. I raise my weapon and use the "overload" setting in a last-ditch effort to incapacitate her. A heavy-duty-missile flies out at her, but she has fired a missile at me as well. I can do nothing but feel fear in the quarter of a second it takes to reach my body. It strikes my upper hip. I fly backwards, into the side of the building. I hear my scull cracking as it contacts the wall, pulled back by inertia. I can no longer feel my legs. A sharp, burning pain in my arm is quickly replaced by a vague agony as a second missile tears it off. I black out for a few seconds.
Apparently, I am worth more to her alive then dead: I return to consciousness, lying on the ground, and I can see that my HDM had little to do with her ceasefire; her suit took almost no physical damage. But I cannot move at all. I am paralyzed.
The hunter approaches.
"Damn...I can see why the GF wants you. You're good." Her hand descends from her helmet to tap a command into her arm cannon. That action…this suit…why does this all seem familiar?
An orange ship appears in the distance. It is getting harder to make out details; my vision blurs.
"You...who...are you!" It is hard to even speak. But I'm not dying. All this running has made me weak. But I will get stronger. I will have revenge for what has been done to me!
"I'm Samus Aran. And you, Weavel, are my first bounty."