Authors Notes:

Thank you for reading my first ever "published" short story :)

Content Warning: While I have attempted to write for a T rating in order to engage the widest audience possible, my artistic vision required me to take a liberal interpretation of T.

This story contains frequent reference to strong expletive language; as befits a bunch of freaked out space marines. I have abbreviated the objectionable words so as not to offend. My story also contains some gruesome, if not exactly gory, descriptions of human remains and episodes of intense violence against (non-anthropomorphic) Space Pirates. There are a few brief descriptions of injuries and violence towards humans, including the use of shoulder dislocation in self-defense, and (laughs to self) a "well intentioned" testicular assault in Part 2.

You will find no shortage of character deaths in this story and some of these have emotion laden death scenes but fatal injuries are never described in any detail. If any of these things bother you please do not read further. Otherwise please remember that these artistic techniques are not the focus of the story but are only there to help illustrate the environment and the personalities of the characters, enjoy!

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A Note to Hardcore Metroid fans: This story was inspired principally by the Metroid Prime games and by the Aliens movies that heavily inspired the whole Metroid franchise. It probably conflicts with the officially published media, which I only became fully aware of in the course of writing this story. My thesis for this FanFic: Samus Aran can be more than just a killing machine or a heroic stereotype. I wanted to explore what must have been the most dramatic period in our taciturn heroine's life: finding herself a double orphan in a strange culture she barely remembers, trying to find a voice of her own.

I welcome any and all reviews, but would particularly appreciate any stylistic pointers or comments. I am a science/maths student (as may be apparent from my tech descriptions) and am not used to writing in a literary style. This is kind of my way of dipping my toes in the waters of creative writing. If I get good feedback from this project I would really like to apply what I learn to my next big project: an original sci-fi saga based on themes of trans-humanism, maths/sci metaphysics, philosophy, and religious apocalypticism that I've been gestating for the better part of a decade. Who knows, it might even be professionally publishable (I can dream can't I). With great excitement I await your feedback.

Now the main story:

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Metroid: Sacrifices

At a far edge of the galaxy a GF assault shuttle cruises purposefully through the outer reaches of Federation space. Inside the main crew compartment a recon-assault squad of space marines play cards to pass the time; except for one. One of the players gets up and asks the loner if she wants them to deal her in. The pair of intense blue eyes behind the visor rise to meet his. His pulse wavers. His eyes water from the intensity of her gaze; a fevered sweat breaks across his brow. He cannot endure that cold, silent stare much longer: like staring into the frigid abyss of death. Unnerved, he shakes off the fatal hand that is tightening around his heart and returns to the circle of card players.

"What her problem?" the marine asks to no one in particular.

-

Commander Adam Malkovich coolly looked up from his hand of cards. "Who? Lady Aran? No problem." He replied.

The Commander was a career marine through and through, a grizzled veteran who was not about to take sh** from the grunts under him. His years of combat experience had taught him command presence. His tactical brilliance was innate. After twenty-six years in the service most of his buddies had retired or moved on to desk jobs while he was still taking on combat missions. Now pushing 50 it was a miracle he was still fighting with all his original limbs, let alone the better part of his youthful good looks.

Malkovich surveyed the pathetic band of misfits under his command: Nathaniel Frost, a decorated officer who had surrendered the privileges of rank to join Special Recon; and as cool under fire as his surname implied. "Doc" Robert Van Buren, former field medic now well studied in exobiology and non-human physiology as well. Jason "Jumper" Avirez, savant pilot and electrical engineer, also competent in information warfare. Brutus "Wrenchman" Chen, combat engineer, demolition expert, and Corps wrestling titlist. The troublesome "Frags" deChevalier, as uncouth and foulmouthed a marine as had ever existed but a born brawler and survivalist. And Rico Jagar, "The Kid," a multiple diploma carrying wiz-kid rookie from some backwater planet. Wants to be a certified GFMC field geologist some day but right now is just trying to pay off his college loans. In the ordinary infantry these men would have been exceptional; in Malkovich's Special Recon they were raw meat.

And then there was Samus Aran: the Lady… his Lady; undoubtedly the most phenomenal and mysterious marine in the entire Galactic Federation. Although Adam didn't like to shower her with too much praise there was no question that he was grooming her to be his successor. She had been entrusted to him straight out of academy and they now had three years of working history behind them. But to call this elegant woman in Marine Corps power armor his protégée would have been self flattery.

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Malkovich took a deep breath and addressed his squad, "Gentlemen, Lady Aran is mute, she will be communicating with us exclusively through tactical sign language during this mission. Is that understood?!"

"Sir, yes sir!" shouted the troops.

Frags glared at her for a few moments then blurted out, "So what's wrong with her then?"
"I told you nothing's wrong with her," retorted the commander, "and if you have a problem with that, marine, I'll bust you back to the infantry right now!"

Doc butted in, "Commander, he has a point. Speaking as squad medic, if she's mute because of a medical issue it might be important for me to know."

Adam sighed, "In that case I'd say it's probably a psychological factor."

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Why had he brought a rookie team on this mission? Sure it looked to be a cakewalk and the new squad could use the practice but the veterans are so much less aggravating.

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"To be honest, I don't know myself. She just appeared out of nowhere about four cycles ago, graduated Marine Academy in four months with all-time record scores in every category, then got handed over to me. No f***ing paper trail at all"

"Wow! Where in space could she have come from that there were no GF records?" The Kid piped in.

"Hard to say," intoned Frost, "but I hear some of the Recon vet's think she might be a survivor of the massacre on K-2L." The compartment was enveloped in silence for a moment. No human in the Galactic Federation would ever forget the horrific event that had started this war.

"God, that explains it!" exclaimed Wrenchman, "She would've been just a kid when it happened. I was in the second division planet side; all those burned, half eaten bodies baking in the sun as far as the eye can see. It was enough to make anyone…"

"She can still hear you, you know." Jumper interjected.

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Adam sighed inwardly, "Look you half assed excuses for professionals, all you need to know is she's the very best—irrespective of her…peculiarities. If we run into trouble you'll just be glad the Lady's here to drag your sorry carcasses back home."

"You expecting trouble, Commander?" asked Doc. But before Adam could respond the intercom blared to life, "Commander Malkovich, we are approaching the target."

"Ok maggots look alive!" barked the Commander, "Remember your briefing: Command lost communications with the Astra Maru XIII three days ago. It's a small colonial mining ship: no deck plans registered in the GF databases, which is part of why they've called us in. Intel' points to some sort of emergency. Primary objective is to assure the safety of the crew. Second, secure the ship, render assistance and bring her back to port. Third, we try to determine what caused the anomaly. No excuses, no mistakes, the job gets done and we all come home. Got it?"

"Sir, yes Sir!"

The intercom again: "We've got visual contact. She looks intact. I see two, NO three boarding pods!"

"Space Pirates!" whispered Frost, "12 to 18 raiders by the sound of it."

"Filthy f***ing bugs!" added Frags.

"S.R. Commander, thrust pods on the boarding craft appear to be blown. Looks like they were determined to take her." Comm'ed in the pilot. "We'll dock at the starboard escape-pod bay: doubt they'll be prepared for that."

"Good work shuttle…. Alright pansies, time to earn you salaries. We breach and clear on my mark. Samus takes point. Any objections My Lady?" Samus flashed her C.O. the OK sign. "Good. Helmets on, safe-locks off gentlemen." Adam chided.

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The assault shuttle swooped in shallow and fast for the ship's starboard bilges. The pilot counter-burned hard and glided in towards the end of the bay, where the mining ship had discarded the extra escape pods it wasn't legally required to carry. The shuttle latched onto the side of the ship with magnetic grapnels and deployed a hermetic gangway to one of the life boat ports. Behind this improvised airlock Commander Malkovich took his place third in formation after Samus and Frags. There was a sharp rap as the passage explosively pressurized from the other side, then the shuttle's doors slid back.

"Breach and clear! GO! GO! GO!"

Samus leapt into the mining ship like a cat and in a split second scanned the space for targets. The hallway was clear. Apparently unaffected by the odd angle that the shuttle had docked she charged for the door at the end of the hall, draining its weak energy shield with a pulse from the microlaser on her plasma rifle.

These empty passages were practically shooting galleries. She raced for the end of the corridor and flattened herself against the corner. As the rest of the squad rushed through the door the taciturn young marine signaled a stop—all clear. Adam caught up with her moments later, trying to hide the fact he was slightly winded.

"Damnit Samus you need to stay in formation! Not everyone can run-and-gun like you can, Lady…. (pant!) Shuttle, this is Malkovich, we have secured the insertion point. Please advise have you been able to establish a data uplink with the ship?"

"Wait a moment… yes! We've got data feed. The stream is pretty corrupted… but… There! Commander, we've locked on to the crew's biotags…. all negative life signs." A murmur of disappointment rippled through the squad.

"Where is the nearest signature?"

"About 15 degrees to the right and 60 meters distant from your current position. Inclination up about 5 degrees." The shuttle reported back.

"Squad move out," barked Adam, "staggered formation!"

-

Samus shouldered her plasma rifle, a fearsome micro-rocket equipped elite forces special, and broke cover. Her bright eyes glowed with same cold fire that had so unsettled Frags on the shuttle as she marched for the curving ramp at the end of the hallway, shadowed by the rest of her squad. The ship was rocked by a small explosion and the lights sparked and flickered but the steely eyed marines were un-phased. The ship shook again and the lights went out, casting the passage ways into complete darkness except for the eerie glow of the emergency foot lights. They blew past a blocked right fork with barely a glance. Doc stumbled over some fallen debris as they finally entered a low chamber still decorated with a few intact holo-refractive displays—5 meters to go.

Samus gave the signal to fan out and search the area. Immediately the room was lit up with crisscrossing spindles of their red laser scopes. Samus hugged the left wall and Adam the right while Frags took the center line. Had they not been rebreathing pressurized air they would have smelled the rank fumes of decay.

One of the displays sparked, then shattered with a flash of light, illuminating broken ceiling panels, smashed cargo boxes, and a disturbingly proportioned mass slumped against the far wall. Frags tentatively bent forward to approach the motionless figure.

Another flash of sparks glinted off a silvery carapace uncoiling behind the corpse's ear.

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Frags recoiled in terror as a gore stained creature launched itself at his face, metallic fangs spread wide! Adam deftly brought his rifle to his ear and fired a single shot. His aim was dead on but his round was second to reach the target. Samus' bolt streaked across the room, whizzing mere inches from Frags' face, and splattered the fanged terror against the wall a fraction of a second before Adam's exploded against the opposite wall. Frags stumbled backwards and shredded the corpse with a withering barrage of fire.

"Hold your fire!" Adam shouted. He lit up a torch and shone it on the frantic marine. Then he turned it on Samus. "God Damn it Aran, line of fire!" Samus tuned her back to him and pouted: a woman scorned. In the adrenaline of the moment Adam felt a surprising impulse to slap her across the face. Luckily another marine decided to bait his wrath.

"Holy Sh**! That was a wild shot!" whistled Jumper.

Adam rounded on him, "I don't recall asking for an assessment of the Lady's marksmanship Marine! Try to undermine my authority again and I'll have you court marshaled. And you:" he shouted at Frags, "pull yourself together! S.R. troopers don't sh** themselves just because a little f***ing bug tried to f***ing bite them!"

"Oh come on Chief even you have to admit that was an amaz…" But the Kid gagged mid sentence as Doc shone his torch on the copse reclining against the wall.

Apart from the pulverizing effects of Frags' plasma blasts it looked like someone had attacked every inch of exposed flesh with a melon baller. Inside the hundreds of gaping holes something had laid hundreds of fleshy, putrid eggs.

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"Parasites!" Doc spat.

"You three," Adam pointed to The Kid, Frost, and Samus, "guard the entrances. Let's take a moment to collect ourselves and figure out what's going on in here. Jumper, try to get the lights back on. Doc, what's your assessment of him?" he motioned at the dead crewman.

"There's so much damage it's hard to say whether it was a parasite that actually got him. Practically every ship in the quadrant has them of course but I've never heard of an infestation this aggressive."

"How long do we have until those things hatch?"

"Not long, but it will be several days before they're big enough to bother us."

Jumper pressed a keypad and the lights popped back on. Doc turned the ghastly body over and tried his best to cover up the face.

Adam radioed their transport, "Shuttle, we have located the crew member in the inventory station, looks like an engineer. Deceased. Tell Command to send another shuttle with hardened body bags and fumigation equipment."

"We copy Squad."

-

Frags had gotten up and was pacing angrily around the inventory control room. Adam sidled up to Frost and Samus.

"How's the road ahead look?"

"Not good." Frost zapped the door open, "Looks like a structural bulkhead collapsed into the passageway." He wedged his power armor against the giant slab of metal and shook it violently. "And it feels like it's jammed against something. It's going to be hard to shift."

"Wrenchman take The Kid with you back to the shuttle and bring up the plasma cutters and electrostatic jacks."

Samus held up a fist: the signal to halt. Her eyes closed in concentration. Her GF power armor began to glow bright orange, then in a flash of light it dissolved away and was subsumed by a totally alien armorsuit. An electric hum shook the room as the new suit sprang to life, a shining construct of metallic amber and red-gold plates with fluorescent green accents and large shoulder pauldrons. Her entire right forearm was encased in some sort of exotic energy weapon.

The suit glowed again and collapsed into a sphere barely larger than a beach ball. The ball rolled towards the bulkhead and in a blinding burst of heat somehow squeezed through a hole about half its diameter. There was a loud clang and Samus reappeared, lifting the enormous slab of metal with one hand and wedging it into the ceiling.

A few of the marines, even Adam, gaped in astonishment and The Kid stuttered, "That… that suit! That's Chozo power armor isn't it."

To everyone's surprise Samus answered back, although her voice was inert and synthetic, "Yes, the Chozo found me abandoned in the wilderness long ago. They raised me as one of their own. This armor was their legacy bestowed on me."

"My Lady, you can speak now?"

"The suit interprets my words and renders them in your language."

The Kid appeared overcome with enthusiasm, "Wow! So how did you do that thing you did morphing into a ball? And what's that thing on your arm?... Miss Aran?"

-

The amber clad warrior turned her back to him and signed for the squad to form up. "Orders Commander?"

Malkovich was shocked out of his wonderment. "Right! My datalink shows the next biotag is just a few decameters down this hallway. We proceed with clearing the ship and accounting for the crew. Carry on in staggered formation. Any objections Lady?"

Samus flashed him the OK sign and wordlessly rushed down the hallway she had just opened. As they passed into darkness again Adam heard a chorus of primal screams issuing from the space ahead of them. Samus fired three resounding shots that lit up the narrow hallway with orange fire. The Lady pressed on unphased, rushing the marines past three glowing blast marks ringed with green slime and parasite fragments. They rounded a corner and were met by the blue glow of two doors illuminating a small foyer. Malkovich wordlessly signaled for Samus, Jumper and Frags to follow him through the first door on the right while the rest guarded the one at the end.

Adam drained the door and the four of them rushed into a partially illuminated holographic map chamber. They quickly searched the small room for threats.

"Clear," Adam announced, "Jumper start uploading these schematics to our netlink."

As Jumper was working Samus joined him behind the console. A soft green, holo-like projection suddenly emanated from her visor and began scanning over the holograms and data screens.

"I have now uploaded the map data to my armor's neural net. Engineering and all sections aft of the main hold are depressurized. Equipment bays and crews quarters are sealed by internal damage."

Adam smiled in amazement. "That's an impressive trick. Thank you Lady! Jumper keep working on that uplink."

-

Frags tapped him on the shoulder, "Sir, permission to speak privately concerning special operative Aran."

Adam felt a tinge of annoyance, "You have a closed line, speak if you will."

The marine paranoidly ushered him to the far corner of the chamber and snarled, "Sir that b*tch almost blew my f***ing head off back there! And now she's traded her GF armor for some f***ing bird man power suit and is hacking this sh** hole faster than f***ing Jumper can. You still f***ing think we can trust her?"

Anger surged through Adam's brain. "Listen up Soldier!" he snapped, "That girl is the best damn killing machine in the entire f***ing Federation. I've been putting my life in her hands for the last three years. If she wanted us dead she should have done it long ago. So get over yourself; start praying she doesn't have to save your ass again."

"You may be willing to entrust yours to some half spacer freak, Malkovich, but I look after my own ass; and I want it as far from that b*tch as possible."

"Fine, from now on you stay with The Kid in the back!" Adam shouted at him. He felt the rage boiling up in him again, "Your tenure in S.R. is over Frags! As soon as we get back to Command I'm sending you straight to court marshal: mutiny is a hanging offense out here Frags! You Hear Me Soldier? Your Ass Is Mine!"

The marine rounded on him and Adam put his hand on his bayonet, but his assailant was stopped dead by Samus' cold stare. The brutish leatherneck quaked in his boots and staggered out the door.

"The uplink is finished" Jumper offered timidly.

-

Malkovich took a few deep breaths to calm and focus himself then he marched out of the map room with Samus and Jumper in tow. He gazed imperiously over his fraying squad.

"Gentlemen, we have acquired a map of the ship, so we know the next crewmember is in this next room: astro-geology. There's going to be a little switch up in the entry order from here on out: I'll be taking second from Frags and Frost will take over third position from me. We've determined that much of the ship is blocked off or uninhabitable, so I think things may get a little more dicey in these next couple of rooms. But at least we won't have to deal with a drawn out chase 'round the ship that might turn into a battle of attrition. If there's a fight to be had let's fight hard and smart: kill those Pirate bastards and get the f*** home. Right?"

The troops offered up a rather mixed "Sir, yes Sir!"

"My Lady, I leave our next entry in your capable command."

Author's Note:

Thank you for reading part 1 of this 4 part short story.

As of now I have finished writing through Part 3, which concludes the mining ship horror story arc, and plan to upload these chapters at two week intervals over the next month.

So…

Next: Part 2

In which the battle with the Space Pirates begins and everything goes to hell for Adam and his poor rookies.