Chapter I

The Galaxy is a vast place. The realm of the Galactic Federation alone covers thousands of stars, holding millions of planets, satellites, and other life bearing phenomena. No one knows precisely how many forms of life live out there, but they were all similar. Bipedal creatures, limited in life but busy in nature, constantly building. The children of stars, clouds of synapses formed in gaseous radiation, drifting through the cosmos. Planetoids of crystal, pondering it's own existence as it's body morphs over eons. Life was infinite in its manifestations, each one unique even as it shared the fundamental title of "Alive".

And yet, despite Life's plentiful nature, there still exists anomalies. Things which, even in the wide swept arms of the Galaxy, were never supposed to exist. Meeting points in space and time, intersecting with places perpendicular to them dimensionally, and sometimes dragging things through. A hiccup in the universe, like a computer drive holding the remnant of deleted files within a buffer. The odds of a living being surviving such a transfer were so small that the latest model of the Federation's cyber brains could not even calculate the number of zeroes required.

Within it's casing, the anomaly opened it's eye. It had been beaten, broken, ripped from space/time in the most brutal way possible. And yet it still clung to life to life with the furious grip only one of it's kind held.

The anomaly raged, declaring new oaths of vengeance that echoed within it's very DNA. It did so for days, it's unintelligible screams broadcasted for all the universe to hear.

About a month later, the merchant vessel Princess of Nightfall diverted from their supply run to find the source of interference to their navigation system. The ship was never seen nor heard from again, all hands were lost, and it's disappearance was blamed on Space Pirates by the corporate owners.

-/-

Sometimes, Samus Aran would shut down all non-essential systems besides her radio, close her eyes, and listen the universe. The steady beeps of the comm buoys transferring yottabytes of data between planets, the heartbeat of the universe at work. The chittering of encrypted data between starships. All the small little processes that were always there, but never noticed. It helped to keep perspective on exactly how large the galaxy was. On how small her own grief was in comparison.

It had been two months and Samus still wasn't ready to touch the second Zebes incident. A lot of old wounds had been opened, and she had taken some new hits along the way. Her childhood home was gone, destroyed in a final act of spite against her, and worst of all, Mother Brain's death had given the bounty hunter no closure, just another ache. So much death and destruction, caused by an insane copy of a corrupted Aurora class supercomputer. The baby...

Samus shook her head. She had promised herself she wouldn't go down that particular road. Emotions like that were not conductive to her job. Tears hardly went with the image of the unstoppable god of death that had formed around her, and in the bounty hunting world reputation was everything. It would only slow her down, make her sloppy, and potentially get her killed. What she needed was work, something to throw herself into.

As if on cue, a green light on the console in front of her blinked on, and her time to brood was over. Samus clicked the display, which unfolded to a familiar face. She let a small smile come to the corner of her mouth. It had been years, but she would never mistake this man for anyone else. "Sir."

"Samus." Adam Malkovich said, his voice matching his protege's in it's brevity. The two stared at each other for a moment. Samus's former commander looked just as tired as Samus felt. "I need your help."

It took a lot for Samus to hide her shock. "Sir?" If the Commander was asking for help, then that meant things were very bad. He'd only done it once in the whole time she had served under him in the Federation Marines, years ago. Determination filled the bounty hunter's eyes. She would not let him down. "What's the situation?"

The screen lit up with information. "Six days ago, we lost contact with Oulio III, a class VIII planet at the border of Federal Space. The Federation assumed it was solar flares, and sent a squad of technicians to assist in repairs. They reported that the planet was in flames, shortly before losing contact." His face was unreadable, but Samus could see through that facade.

Taking in the data, Samus slowly nodded. "You want me to investigate." It wouldn't be the first time she had been through the aftermath of an attack. Space Pirates had a nasty habit of booby trapping planets whatever mutants they forgot to pack back up when they were done with pillaging and burning everything. Learning to always keep an eye open when you were on the ground was an essential skill in her trade.

"Officially, Oulio has been classified a Space Pirate attack. But the data doesn't add up. The Space Pirates are still reeling from the previous incident. Unless our data is way off, they don't have the manpower to raid a planet of that size, especially without someone getting a distress signal off. And they definitely wouldn't stick around in Federation Space for that long." Adam met her eyes. "I want you to find out what the hell we're up against. The Federation can't take another Phaaze incident on our hands. Get in, search the colony, try to find out what caused the attack, and then get out of there."

Samus could see a smile tease her mentor's face for less than a second. "Any objections, lady?" Their old banter, a mark of respect that only he could give without sounding sarcastic. An indication that their bond was still there.

The bounty hunter saluted. "No sir." Without another word, Samus ended the communications. Looking at the ceiling, she spared one more moment to fill herself with every negative thought she had harbored. Then she breathed them out, releasing herself from them as best she could. In the place of Samus Aran, grieving mercenary, sat Samus Aran, ultimate warrior of the Chozo. It was time to work.

The gunship hummed as it's engines powered up. Spinning on it's axis, it launched towards it's destination. The Hunter was on her way.