Samus's log: It's been four months since the destruction of the pirate base on Zebes. A few days ago, a Piratean distress signal was intercepted over Tallon IV. I was… intrigued, to say the least. What could have been happening to those pirates that would cause them to believe death by me would be a pleasant alternative? Somewhat curious, I decided to investigate.

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Samus's ship landed on the docking bay of the Orpheon. It seemed in decent condition, though all of the escape pods appeared to have been jettisoned. She entered the frigate, and activated the airlock. After air had entered the room, she was allowed entry into the main hull. Inside was a horrid site. There was a massive corpse lying in the center of the room. It had been dissected. It was at least as long as Ridley. Examining it, she noticed a bluish liquid seeping out of one of the incisions. She tried to scan it. But nothing came up. She touched it, and it almost burned through her suit. She made a mental note to not touch it. She looked around the room, and saw a half-dead pirate. She ran over to it. It was missing most of the lower half of its body, and parts of the intestines were hanging out. She pointed her arm cannon at it.

"What the hell happened here? What's going on?"

"We… we found a new energy source… Phazon…"

"What is "Phazon"?"

"It's… a… radioactive… tried to… experiment…" His voice petered out as he died.

Samus thought to herself about what the pirate had said. What was Phazon? What were the pirates doing with it? She guessed that Phazon was the blue liquid seeping out of the corpse. She further examined the lab, hoping something would give her a clue as to what the hell was going on. When she found nothing, she moved on to other parts of the frigate. The next room was rather empty, more pirate corpses. Same thing in the next room, and the room after that. The next room, however, yielded surprising results. It was the generator room. It was still running, and at optimum capacity, too. The only problem, however, was the huge nest built around it. A large creature crawled out of it. It was of the same type as the corpse in the science deck. Samus scanned it.

"Samus, that's a member of the Parasite species, most likely in the queen stage of development. Its genetic makeup seems to have been modified by the use of some as-yet unidentified radiation."

"So what should I do?"

"Well, it doesn't seem to be attacking you, so I would recommend finding a way around it."

The Parasite Queen smashed one of its massive claws down on the deck. Samus barely made it out of the way.

"On second thought, I recommend killing it as quickly as possible."

"Can do, computer."

She fired a volley of missiles at the beast. Some hit their mark, some hit the nest, and some hit the generator. Eventually, the giant Parasite had taken more than it could bear and fell. Unfortunately, it fell into the generator core. The generator, powered by nuclear fusion, could no longer sustain itself, and shut down. This started a chain reaction which activated a self-destruct sequence. Samus had seven minutes to get out. She ran. On the way out, she passed by a sector of the frigate that was unmarked. Even though she knew better, curiosity got the better of her, and she investigated.

"Computer, can you hack the pirate systems to get me some info on this sector?"

"Of course, Samus-hacks systems- This is the officer's quarters. It's empty, save for a lone bio-reading. It's really the only way out now, seeing how an explosion has blocked off the science deck. "

She explored the officer's quarters. It wasn't much. She couldn't find the bio-reading, though. Then she heard a strange sound, like metal scraping against metal. She looked around to find its source, and saw Ridley. Or, to be more precise, a mechanical version of him.

"Ridley… I killed you. I saw it."

"It's "Meta Ridley", now, Samus. What you see before you is the miracle of Piratean science." He flexed one of his mechanical arms. "I feel ten times stronger than I ever felt in my old body."

"Why are you still here? Why didn't you evacuate with the other pirates?"

"I felt I could adequately solve our little "infestation". Seems you did it for me. Thank you."

"I don't have time to fight you now, get out of my way."

With that, Ridley left, and Samus continued her escape. Unfortunately, there was trouble. A large blast of electricity hit her in the back, shorting out parts of her suit.

"Computer, give me a status report."

"Your suit is running at 25% efficiency after that blast. Your Ice Beam, High-jump boots, missiles, bombs, and Varia suit upgrades are all missing. Remaining upgrades are as follows: Morph Ball. I'm sorry to say, but you might be in trouble."

After that incident, Samus made it out in time, and got in her ship. She took off immediately. Upon liftoff, however, she saw Ridley breaking out of the frigate and flying off towards Tallon IV.

'Computer. Set a course for Tallon IV. I'm following Ridley."

"As you wish, Samus."

She set the ship on autopilot, and let the computer take her down to the planet.

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Meanwhile, on Tallon IV, in a control room somewhere in their main base (The Phazon Mines, subsector C)-We see Trooper 1210 overseeing operations. He is conversing with another pirate, his acting second-in-command, and head of the military branch of the security forces, General 3910.

"So tell me, 3910, why is nothing going on schedule? It's been four months. So far, all we can say is that we've lost contact with the Orpheon, Kraid's reconstruction is going poorly at best, and mining operations are slowed down unexplainably. And Command'll be sending a representative soon-What do we tell them?"

"I'm so sorry, my lord, but I don't…"

Trooper grabbed the pirate by his throat and lifted him up over his head.

"I don't care about excuses, General. Just tell me-what are we going to tell High Command?"

"We"-he gasps for air- "We tell them that it'll take at least another month before things are fully up to speed."

Trooper released his grip and let the pirate fall to the floor.

"That's all I needed to hear, General."