Chapter 1:- Prologue

As she sat, scraping the dirt off her helmet, she thought about what had happened in the last few months. She thought she would die more than once. But that's part of the job description. She thought that she wasn't being paid enough, but seeing her own victory over her foes was a sort of an added bonus. Intergalactic credits, even in vast amounts couldn't buy new gizmos for her specially made suit. She was an individual, with her instincts and reflexes keeping her above the advanced technology of some of the other hunters out there.

"Will reach destination in T minus 1 hour."

She stood up and stumbled across the junk littered around the floor. "I've really gotta tidy this stuff up." She made it across to her personal quarters and started to get back into her Varia suit. She carefully put the helmet in place and raised the visor. She made her way back to deck and prepared to use manual over ride as the beautiful blue, white and silver marble that is Airenroc loomed ever closer

"Decreasing speed, raising shields to enter atmosphere."

Samus eased the controls of her hunter class gunship like Captain Falcon handles the Blue Falcon. When not on another mission she would visit Mute City to catch a race or two. She enjoyed imagining what they must feel but she also realizes that thrills they encounter are nothing like the adrenaline pumping things she's been through.

Samus had never got used to the flame that engulfs the ship as she descends close to the planet. Like a speeding comet she descended closer to the clouds.

"3000 feet." The reverse thrusters came to life and the flame died away, and the city of Karinia came ever closer.

"50 Intergalactic credits to leave your vessel here Ms Aran. Would you like to stop here?" The voice came fairly suddenly, but was friendly and welcoming. Samus replied in the affirmative and manoeuvred her Ship onto the shining platform. "Transfer of credits complete. Have a nice stay Ms. Aran."

The air was warm. The sky was clear. The three moons, each a pale blue disc of craters and cracks slowly moved around and across the horizon. Samus shielded her eyes as she turned around. Her visor was up and the sunlight dazzled her with its amazing green glow.

Samus found her way down and on to the path that leads to the great hall of warriors where she had been called especially for a certain task. Then path was littered with what seemed to be restaurants and shops galore. "Later, Samus. Later," she told her self when she saw a chocolate covered cream filled substance ready to explode. Business before pleasure was her motto, Apart from shoot to kill.

Although it was a standard procedure call out, Samus couldn't help feeling that she was going to be embarking on an epic and ultimately important mission. Some children looked up at her and she stopped and looked down at them. Although not exactly the tallest female around, her suit made her seem so much bigger than even some of the tallest males. They looked up at her, giggled and ran away. Youth. Where curiosity kills the cat. If she had been talking to any man, even a superior, he would have felt threatened, even if only slightly. But these kids just thought she was funny. If they knew what she could do they would be scared out of their tiny minds.

She smiled to her self as the kids ran over to look in the windows of some shops. She didn't have an amazing child hood. It all went past in a blur of red lights. At least she hopes it was light. Every memory fuzzy, but still... "Stop!" She had to stop thinking about her past. If she went in search of that she could no longer be a bounty hunter. The main characteristic of any bounty hunter, assassin, and criminals alike, is nothing to live for. They do what they do for thrills and cash, revenge and something to tell the… "You're doing it again, Samus!"

The Halls loomed into view, Glowing with an interesting yellow tinge that would dazzle any tourist. As only a few know, the yellow tinge is a force field to unwanted people. The only way in was through the gates and that wasn't easy with out pass or ID. Every one swabbed before entrance to check they were themselves.

The gates. The statues carved out of colourful marble and metals, and are the most incredible statues to date, all over 100 metres high, all representing warriors, saviours, and legends of old, surround the building like guards protecting there king or country. In this case it would be planet. The two "guarding" the gate both wore dragon like armour, but one had a sword as big as itself and the other an axe and a mug.

A rather thug like security guard took one look at Samus and felt the hairs stick up on the back of his neck. After a few seconds of umming and arring, the guard finally managed to splutter out "wh- what's your business here?" Samus brought a piece of paper from a pocket like compartment on her thigh and stuffed it into the guards' hand. "Ok, every thing seems to be in order Mrs… Ms Aran," he corrected himself after a dirty look from her face, "I- I just need to do the DNA swab."

Samus bent down so her face was within arms reach of the guard. Still having to reach, the man stuck a toothpick sized, fluffy ended stick in Samus' mouth. He quickly withdrew it and wiped it onto a glass plate in a machine against the wall. After a few seconds, Samus' un-helmed, head appeared rotating on a monitor screen. The computer flashed up to get the guard to do a visual check.

"Could you please remove your helmet, Ms Aran?" Samus obliged, and with a quiet popping noise pulled of her helmet, brushed her hair out of her face, and looked straight into the guards face. The guard stared at her in awe at such beauty for several moments until Samus gave a loud cough and looked up towards the sun. This seemed to bring the man back to his senses and he looked around at the monitor and back at Samus. " Well everything seems to be ok. Your free to enter." The security guard pressed the accept button on the computer and, with a quiet hiss, the gates opened. The helmet back in its place, Samus moved through the gates into the Halls of Warriors.

She walked towards a small podium and pressed a certain button upon it, a hole appeared in the wall, and Samus stuck her power beam into it. A face flash up on her visor and told her she needed to be in the Cyan sector, and Samus acted accordingly to the directions given by the slightly bored looking hologram. She came to a massive white corridor with light blue Diamonds in a pattern across the floor and walls. The ceilings had amazingly detailed paintings of old epic battles. She guessed that she had to go through the big, similarly patterned doors to find the people she wanted.

She found her self in a large chamber, like a lecture theatre. Many hundreds of different creatures, some alien, some cybernetic and others were sat looking impatient and uncomfortable. Samus noticed an empty seat and decided to take it. Almost as soon as she touched the chair, a small, blue smartly dressed man with a long blonde beard appeared from a concealed door behind the lectern in middle of the room. He greeted his amassed audience.

"Hail hunters from around the universe!" Many hands went to buttons switching on translators as the man had spoken in earth-speak: common.

" I bring news of a great fortune that might be brought upon one of you bounty hunters. A certain power is rising that will threaten everyone, everywhere. Space Pirates are growing in strength, faster and more than ever before. With their dangerous, new technology they threaten the very existence of the universe!" There was a lot of general murmuring after this statement.

"We, of the Halls of Warriors, have gathered you today to give objectives and the prices on the heads of many people. They are all Space Pirate officials or Allies to the space pirates. Information on these targets is being transferred to you all now. As you can see there are many targets, and most need to be brought alive. This should be obvious as we need to get as much information on them as we can." Samus saw something glint nearby their bearded host, and as quick as it appeared it disappeared.

"We have ideas of where these places are and if you would like to contact anyo…" The mans head fell to the floor, shortly followed by his body. The blood spattered crowd stood up as one to see what had happened. Everyone was looking around and pushing and shoving.

Samus noticed someone rushing out of the door. Was he trying to get a head start? Or something more sinister? She decided that she did not want to find out what would happen in the hall and chased after the stranger.

Was the death by decapitation of the head of the hall of warriors a distraction for where this person was going? Samus kept at an undetectable distance from this supposed hunter and continued to follow him (it?). She brought up a hologram map in her visor then locked onto the strange beings signal. A profile came up, confirming that it was male. Then a symbol, well known within the brotherhood of Hunters, came up next to his portrait picture. It was the Dead or Alive symbol. It means, if you haven't guessed it, that whoever it is has a bounty for either dead or alive on they're head.

He was on the list downloaded from the Halls mainframe! Special Agent Gaste, a Space Pirate spy, known for stealing information from the Galactic Federations military data archive, and lots of other jobs.

He had found his way outside the door to the shield generator door. A warning flashed up on Samus' HUD.

"Cloaked fleet of unknown origin approaching Airenroc."

Samus had realised what was happening before she reached the end of the warning message. This pirate was going to shut down the generator and dispel the force-feild so that this "cloaked fleet" could infiltrate Airenroc and the Hall of Warriors.

"Contacting all military and security personal in the area. Code Red. Space Pirate fleet approaching."

" How do you know this, Miss Aran? Miss Aran? Uh, sending a group of security to your aid Miss Aran! Is there anything we can do to stop the approaching fleet?"

"Get people to any anti-air defence and gather forces nearby the Hall of Warriors!"

"Right away!"

While Samus was watching all the information and transmitting the warning, she missed seeing Agent Gaste getting into the shield room. The door was closing when she realised. She would have to hurry and catch up if she is to stop the pirate from sabotaging the shields. She dashed into the shield room and followed the yellow spot that was the pirate on her mini-map.

She cursed, as the dot got slowly more and more ahead of her. "There's only one thing for it!" Samus increased her running pace and dived head first in to the floor, and before impact could be made, she had transformed into a knee-high ball. This technology, the morph ball, makes nearly all other hunters jealous. Most people who try to copy the effects of the morph ball where decapitated, splattered, or had their skeletons crushed. Samus' Chozo technology is seemingly not just technology. There's something else about it. If everyone else modern technology from recent years cannot perform things like Samus' suit, why should 50 year old Chozo technology work like it, and still work like it.

Samus gave chase with her boosts, yet another piece of technology that is desirable. With ease she caught up with the pirate, who had found his way into the secure part of the generator where the shutdown is aloud. The door had shut after he hacked his way in, and one of the few pieces of technology Samus lacks in her suit is hacking equipment. Something she left behind in her ship. Lucky for her, a small, just taller than knee high opening in the wall lead to the maintenance tunnels through to the generator, so she could just change course and find he way to the generator. Avoiding pistons and jets of fiercely hot steam, she shot out into the generator core.

Back in her back in her upright form, she switched on her thermal visor only to be blinded. Everything was white hot apart from the ground and the walls and completed blinded her. Quickly, she set her visor to X-ray vision mode. This was another lucky coincidence, as she saw a fuzzy figure pointing a gun her way that she did not see with her normal or blinding thermal visor. "Call his bluff," she thought to her self, she began circling around the shield generator power core.

This opponent was a proffesional, turning only enough to see out of the corner of his eye. She came only a few feet away from him, swung her arm cannon his way (he didn't even flinch) then turned back again, and took a single step back the other way. She saw him exhale a silent sigh, and then she struck.

Taken by surprise, Gaste only had time to exclaim "balls" before Samus had attached her grappling hook and threw him into a nearby wall. Collapsing to the floor, his cloak was deactivated, but before he could even get to his knees, Samus had pinned him to the floor.

"Argh! GERROFF ME!"

"Do you yield?"

"Huh?"

"Nevermind, its time to cash in on your head special agent Gaste."

"Hah, it is too late! The pirate fleet has already entered the atmostphere of Airenroc."

"But the shield isn't down, what do they hope to achieve against the Federations AA and infantary?"

"We arnt afraid of any federation technology, but your right the shield isn't down." He aimed his gun with his free hand at the power core, and before Samus had a chance he had fired and all hell broke loose.

Feel free to review and message me but dont be too harsh if you have harsh words to say.

I have ideas and a little written for my next few chapters, but any ideas will be noted and accepted.

Thanks for reading

Kronkle