- Chapter 1 -

- Farewell, Ceres -

I instantly threw my gunship into a sharp turn and jammed it to full throttle. I flew manually; setting an automatic course would consume precious seconds. The few asteroids around Ceres worked in my favor and weren't in my flight path. My target was the center of the station, and no time was wasted getting there. As soon as my ship docked, I immediately headed down the elevator that lead to the most blue inner rooms I had ever seen.

The first thing I noticed was the lack of damage and any signs of disturbance. Still, I proceeded down the platforms utilizing a balance between cautiousness and haste for fear of the inhabitants' safety as well as my own. As I approached the only doorway, the shielding removed itself, and I saw again what I assumed to be a line of incubation pods along the back wall. My feet almost automatically leaped down the small set of stairs for the space on the floor just beside the slightly elevated platform. As they finished their job and crouched for me, my arms also accessed their muscle memory and took aim for the corners and crevices of the room, ready to eliminate any dangers they may conceal. Once I had scoped out that side, I progressed along the platform, staying ever vigilant. The next room may contain the attacker, I thought to myself. As a combatant, the danger is always looming just around the corner unless otherwise proven.

I followed protocol for single-soldier intrusion and aimed at the far corner of the ceiling once more, then dashed and turned to face the corner formed by the low ceiling I was under moments ago and the higher one. My gaze peered through the sturdy framework to my left at more incubation pods. It was a staircase room that lead to a lower level, and I kept my actions and emergency situation mindset as I proceeded into the next room at the bottom of the flight.

Death. It was the state of a middle-aged woman in a lab coat on the floor directly in front of me. I grew tense and gripped my arm cannon tightly with my left hand for higher accuracy in what may have soon become a battle. My pace slowed, and I steadily progressed. The shattered glass tube in the center of the testing room suggested this was the scene of the crime. Had the Metroid gathered its strength and escaped? No, the body was fully fleshed. If the Metroid had killed her, there would be nothing but dust of her remains. Had another specimen broken loose and―no, the incubation pods were intact without the slightest sign of damage. Just what had happened here?

I stopped my mind from thinking on the topic further. Come on, Samus, I thought. This is an emergency situation. There was an attacker that was possibly still present, and from the looks of the scene, it had some form of intelligence beyond that of a wild beast. Killing without rampaging and moving about without any direct signs of a trail were evidence of a conscious thought process not wanting to waste much time. The situation also suggested the attacker's swift movement by having no lights flashing or alarms sounding. None of the station's supercomputers seemed to be functioning either, so it may have either cut the power intentionally or blindly damaged an electrical circuit.

These thoughts raced through my mind in order to deduct what type of enemy I would be dealing with if we had an encounter. I took a few more steps to find two assistants also dead on the floor. One's positioning suggested he didn't die instantly. Poor soul. I walked up a few more stairs to the next door, ready to do battle.

I entered a simple corridor lined with blue framework along its sides. I picked up some speed, somehow knowing the assailant would be in the room connected to the door at the end. As I began to step toward the door, I took a deep breath to calm myself and prepare. I inched forward the smallest distance to open the doorway, and when it opened, I took two giant steps to gain momentum and leaped into the next room!

I assessed my surroundings as quickly as possible. Looking up, I saw the room was quite vast vertically compared to the others. To the sides I saw completely vertical walls that didn't change in their horizontal position at any point. Below me there was a basic flat floor and—the Metroid! Good, it was still in a container. It hadn't escaped! I landed near the creature and double checked my surroundings to ensure my first assessment's accuracy. I moved over to the door again for a second point of view. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, I started toward the Metroid once more. My plan was to retrieve it, leave with it quickly, deliver it directly to Galactic Federation Headquarters, and report what I had seen so a further, more thorough investigation could be carried out. That was Plan A. Plan B was a bit trickier and more dangerous. I was unaware of this fact until I was forced to create it just a few feet before reaching the Metroid's container.

A small, solitary source of light appeared about 10 feet above the last specimen of an extremely dangerous alien species as it let out a few weak cries and expanded and retracted its fangs in what seemed to be an attempt to communicate with me. I stopped and tensed myself again. The space between the two once held nothing but air, but a silhouette quickly revealed its form. The source of light was one of the eyes of the leader of the Space Pirates.

"Ridley!"

. . .

The dragon belted out an intimidating roar from his long beak, showing his razor-sharp teeth and piercing me with his flaming yellow eyes. The noise echoed, but only for a moment. That moment seemed to exist outside the realm of time. Our eyes locked. I could have sworn I killed the beast back on Zebes, and my surprise instantly covered my face. He noted it and sent back a look that seemed to say, "No, I am not dead yet!" In that second, words were useless. Our unique relationship evolved beyond such forms of communication years ago. We had an entire conversation in silence concerning past events, the attack on Ceres, and his plans for stealing the Metroid. The facts were there. I knew all I needed. I aimed my arm cannon directly for his head and steadied my left hand's grip. The battle was on.

Ridley jetted into the air, gripping the Metroid container tightly with his talons. I fired off a few weak shots from my basic Power Beam. After eradicating the Metroids on SR388, I gave up my newfound abilities. I thought them unnecessary for future endeavors now that the galaxy was safe from the species' destructive powers. Finding myself in a battle for the last of their kind with Ridley wasn't something I had anticipated, and I was quickly regretting my decision.

He took the shots, probably to simply show himself that much superior and invincible to my current weaponry. Ridley retaliated by firing super-heated orbs of fire from his mouth, a tactic I had never considered possible until our first encounter on the nearby planet Zebes. I dodged. We had just begun our battle in a fashion that had become somewhat traditional. We knew each other's strategies and abilities far better than any other, and our precision in maneuvering and expertise in timing and execution were on par. I had managed to narrowly defeat him in each of our battles, but each time my resulting condition and fighter's instinct force me to treat the next battle as a life or death situation. That's because they are.

I rapidly moved in on him in an attempt to turn the fight into a battle of agility and stamina. My arsenal was extremely limited, so I had no chance of simply overpowering him. The abilities of those on a high level of combat expertise are very good, but ours specifically reach beyond that standard. No human could hope to fight the beast with this tactic under normal circumstances, but I have Chozo blood coursing through my veins. This and the fact that my Power Suit was delicately crafted by the Chozo to further enhance my physiology made the strategy possible. Receiving and training in this suit was the unleashing of my true potential, and I was using my progress's fruits against an enemy that is both a leader of the most vile intergalactic force known and a direct nemesis of peaceful civilization.

The fiery sparks from the flames bounced around the room, some catching on my visor and obstructing my vision for a time. Ridley launched a fully physical attack and rammed himself against the doorway in an attempt to crush me against it. He succeeded. Agility was one thing, but speed and blunt force are another. More fire came, and his signature tail came into play. He swirled it around playfully as if tempting me to engage him once more. I kept my wits about me, stayed back, and played the long-range fight card. I fired several times, and not a bullet went astray. He was still bragging through his combat style, more specifically through the lack thereof. My beam could hardly do any harm, and we both knew it. Ridley continued to toy with his prey, and I dodged as needed. Most would consider it an attempt to provoke, but we both know I'm not one to take bait. It was just a simple insult, but I still didn't appreciate it.

I kept firing my only weapon, my only form of attack. Eventually, I began to see my meager offense taking its toll. His blood began to boil; his adrenaline began to rush through his veins. I could almost swear his skin itself was changing color from its usual gray to a fiery red. His aggression heightened, and his frustration became very noticeable. Ridley stepped up his game, but he still wasn't using anywhere near the power he had.

Before long, I was able to rattle his posture just enough to get him to drop the Metroid capsule, but only for a short moment. In a way, I had won this battle, but it was merely a prelude to what would soon ensue. Ridley clasped the Metroid again before it hit the ground, nearly breaking the glass. The Metroid let out a few more terrified cries as the dragon reared to his right and made room for a mid-air runway. It was his time to exit. I was still able to stand well enough, but he quickly launched himself. He brushed against my armor, and that force combined with the rushing wind his movement generated threw me against the wall just under the door as he busted a hole in the adjacent wall and broke himself through to the space outside.

Ridley had escaped with the Metroid.

. . .

I watched as he flew off, but I didn't have time to grieve the defeat. I made the decision to chase after him, not knowing what quite to do, only that I had to do it.

Flashing lights! Sirens! As I headed for the door, a computerized voice came over the system and monotonously said, "Self destruct sequence activated. Evacuate immediately." I knew Ceres had given me even more incentive to move quickly than vengeance—self preservation. A timer displayed on my visor indicating there were 60 seconds until the very ground I was walking on became unrecognizable debris floating through the vast darkness of space.

I sprinted at full speed down the hallway and waited for the door before me to open. The waits to come were going to be a chore. In the next room with the shattered testing tube, I realized the lifeless bodies I was sidestepping would never get a proper burial, but I could still avenge their deaths. I kept on into the stairwell. The timer read 00'51"20. Smoke and pipe steam began puffing and shooting from the floors and walls. I somersaulted my way up as fast as I could despite the obstacles. I was taken aback on a few occasions, but I made it into the room with the elevated platform. Adding to the steam was falling debris and shrapnel from the ceiling. Apparently some preliminary bombs were set to detonate and weaken the structure before the main one. This was done in order to ensure complete destruction and make recovery of any data or hardware by enemies utterly impossible. However, it also made it very difficult for those inside the colony to escape in emergencies. In a way, I was glad the three victims I had seen earlier had gone fairly quickly. With only 00'34"47 left, their rescue would not have been feasible. The heat, panic, and forceful metal would have made their deaths unnecessarily gruesome. I stayed low and ran along, the falling plating mercilessly wailing upon my head. My helmet somewhat suppressed the blows, but the trauma still made its way through with a significant amount of force.

As I exited, I leaped up through the doorway and onto the lowest platform to speed up my escape as best I could. I heard an explosion just behind me and turned to see that the door had been the most recent victim of the destruction sequence. Any sooner and I would have gone alongside it. The artificial gravity module was now malfunctioning, and the room was swaying shakily along axes it was never meant to travel upon. I exerted more effort than before, and my human instincts were preventing my mind from properly calculating the necessary trajectories to land on the next platform. Steam blasted me from the edges of each, and my timer read 00'26"13. I had to move it.

Halfway up the shaft, my foot slipped across the higher platform I was jumping to and forced me down to the one below it. No! I thought as I shifted my posture for the jump I had already cleared once. I have to keep moving. There's no other way to get out of here! I finally made it to the elevator's yellow platform, and the timer stopped at 00'09"13. I was and still am confused as to exactly why. It could have been a suit malfunction, a connection error with the colony's system, or any other technical glitches.

But my mind wasn't on figuring that out. It was on escaping as quickly as possible. I rose through the elevator shaft, leaped into my ship, manually aimed it for the exit, and boosted the thrusters to a level that surpassed the most lenient of safety standards. Distance between my ship and the colony had hardly grown when a plethora of explosions went off simultaneously, including the larger, structure-destroying ones. Debris had already begun to fill the space around the colony, but a main mass was still present. A flash of yellow light shot out from the mass and gave the space's darkness a blinding illumination for a few moments. Chunks of metal and framework shot out in all directions with an almost incomprehensible force, and some came flying toward my gunship. Luckily, only a few made contact, causing minor damage (mostly the body, nothing essential), and the only problems I had were a racing heart and a bruise or two on my head from the collapsing ceiling I ran under less than a minute ago.

The valuable space research colony Ceres had been completely obliterated. Command is not going to like this.

My mind jumped back to the thought of Ridley stealing the last surviving Metroid. I settled back in my chair hoping for some amount of relaxation, but my body tensed again when I was entering in the coordinates to my next destination. The plan was to chase Ridley down to the one place I knew he was heading—the space pirate base on planet Zebes.

- End Chapter 1 -