Samus groaned, slowly picking herself up inside her ship. This landing had been way worse than the one back on Aether. That one she at least remembered, unlike the one she just had. But she guessed that's what she got, for installing a new type of engine into her ship, which was designed by Space Pirates of all Xenos. Well, it wasn't like she had much of a choice. Either she stayed on the planet, waited until her ship self-repaired itself and face off a lot of Pirate reinforcements, which had been very tempting, but their warships probably just would have shot her from a distance. The other option had been changing engine units for a short amount of time until she was back in Federation territory. Luckily the whole point of the pirate station had been to research in ways to improve their ships. So, she took the second option. Stealing one of their engine units, designed for Interceptors. Not that different from a Hunter Class Ship's engine. Normally.
Clearly, the engine had at least some design flaws, hence why Samus crash landed on this planet. Whatever planet it was. Her ship's computer was still obtaining data for the damage report and the only thing the Hunter could see outside the window was rubble. The hybrid probably needed to remove some of that rubble and possibly do some outside repairs. Since she was already inside her Varia Suit, Samus opened the hatch on top and went outside.
The first thing that came into her vision was a street with every vehicle in sight being flattened. As crazy as it sounded, from the looks of things her ship had jumped on every single car on the street, before finally coming to a stop...where exactly? Looking behind herself, Samus found the destroyed wall, which once undoubtedly was part of the larger building that had a broken neon sign, saying: "Bill's cars. Prizes from out of this world." And of course, inside the building the rubble had fallen down on some more cars.
'Great'. The hunter thought to herself.' I'm pretty sure the insurance companies are going to place a bounty on my head this time.'
Jumping down her ship, Samus firstly inspected the damages on it, using her scan visor. Luckily the damages were only on the hull, as well as some cables. The power could be easily rerouted until the damage on the cables was repaired. But that and the previously mentioned damage on the hull made it impossible for Samus to leave the planet, less she risked her ship being ripped apart while leaving the atmosphere. Not that she planned on leaving. For once it didn't appear like she landed on a hostile planet, but a Federation Planet. The design of the buildings suggested it was inhabited by humans, though everything looked strangely retro. Another thing that was strange was that so far there was not a single person near her ship to check what the fuck actually happened.
Deciding to keep her suit on, for the time being, Samus returned to her combat visor and simply walked down the road. She came to the first crossroad, where she noticed even more retro stuff. Like the cars parked on the side for example. She wasn't too fancy on that kind of things or knew a lot about them, to begin with, but even she recognized an old timer when she saw one. And there were a lot of them. Also, there was a little shop, which sold all kinds of electronic equipment. None of it was holographic and looked like stuff that was found nowadays in museums.
'Is this some kind of old lifestyle experiment? Yeah, right. With my luck, I probably traveled through time. No, that's stretching it a little. Pirates aren't smart enough to build something like that.'
'But seriously, where are the people? My radar isn't showing anything.'
Samus walked further down the road, glancing at the various buildings every now and again. For a while, she believed that this town was just a set up by some history organization or other to show tourists around. That was until she came across something that didn't fit at all.
In the middle of the road, some sort of pod had been dropped onto it. The impact had been strong enough for the green, metallic object to put a whole in it. The hunter once again activated her scan visor, analyzing the unknown object. The results were worrying, to say the least.
-Xenotechnology: Trap Pod. The pod is designed to be dropped from outer space and onto a planet. Structure design can easily withstand the turbulences of entering the atmosphere. This pod is empty. Only small amounts of a biological substance are left, which is gaseous until it comes into contact with skin of any kind. It then becomes somewhat comparable to a spider net, releasing sedatives through the skin of the victim, making it transportable.-
It at least explained the lack of people around town, but not why this town looked like a picture from a museum. But that didn't matter to the hunter anymore. Someone was abducting people in the area and that someone would soon learn how the inside of her arm cannon looked like. She continued her journey with a lot more caution, her arm cannon constantly raised and her finger ready to pull the trigger on anything that moved.
She came across a parking lot, where she finally encountered the first humans. All of which were trapped inside a green net of some sort. From the position the body was in, it looked like the person was caught by the substance while trying to run away. The rest of the bodies offered a similar story.
'I can't help them now. I need to secure the area first.'
All of the sudden, Samus could hear shots being fired in the distance, which was followed by an explosion. Not losing a second, Samus simply followed the smoke which floated into the air, as well as listening to the shots being fired. She was unfamiliar with the sounds of the shots, thus the hunter was unable to identify the weapon types that were used. Jumping up a small building, Samus soon enough found what she was looking for and at this point, she really shouldn't be surprised. From her vantage point, she could see the parking lot where two groups were exchanging shots at each other. The first was a group of humans wearing some kind of brown armor and using projectile weapons of all things! Projectile weapons! Those were from the stone age!
Whereas the other group, which consisted of little gray bipeds and suit wearing humans used weapons that shot green energy. Both parties used the cars as cover, which was kinda stupid in the hunter's opinion since those things tend to blow up pretty fast. And indeed, a well-placed shot from one the suit wearing men hit the car close enough to the fuel tank, starting a rapidly growing fire.
"It's gonna explode!" One man in the brown armor shouted. He and another person, quickly ran behind the other car, while ducking under the enemy fire. Just as they reached the new cover, the car exploded, metal parts flying in every direction. One of it was the engine cowling, which flew straight into Samus' direction. Reacting quickly, she raised her arm cannon and shot the metal plate out of the air. This action, of course, caught the attention of everyone on the battleground. The suit wearing men pointed at her and the brown armored soldiers, immediately pointed their weapons at her.
"X-Rays coming from behind, they're flanking us!" A woman with a rocket launcher on her back shouted. Before any of the humans could open fire, one of the men did, shooting green bolts at the hunter. She dodged, of course, her senses being far more developed thanks to the Chozo DNA. At the same time, she unleashed a barrage of Power Beam shots towards the man, who ducked back into cover. Frankly, his allies now opened fire too and Samus found herself once more in her career jumping from side to side and dodging deadly shots. Some of them hit her, doing a fairly decent amount of damage. Thanks to her special connection to the suit, Samus slightly felt the burns, as if the shots had hit her skin.
'Heat based weaponry. Good. The Varia suit is made to withstand heat.'
Samus responded the hostile fire with a missile, which she had aimed at a parking truck. The resulting explosion perfectly ripped two of the men apart. To the hunter's surprise, some sort of green, blue gas was left in the place where the man used to be. It reminded Samus of the puffers, which the Space Pirates loved to use from time to time. Three more of the grays and two of the men were left. Two of the grays did something Samus had not seen previously. One of them was pushing its head forward, creating some kind of violet energy, which directly floated into the head of the other one. The hunter had no idea what that was supposed to do and quite frankly she didn't want to find out.
Jumping off the building, Samus dodged another barrage of ongoing fire. In mid-flight, she shot another missile at the gray guy, who send the energy to the other gray guy. The guy hid behind a wall, but quite frankly this didn't save him from the explosion. For some reason the other gray guy dropped dead for some reason. Samus made a mental note of this but focused on the remaining enemies. She ran up ahead, which most people would call suicide, but her armor could take the beating. All the way up, she charged her beam and once she flanked her enemies, she shot one of the men in the head. He died, releasing the gas. What Samus hadn't realized was that she was in range of the gas. She immediately jumped backward, but to her delight, she noticed that the gas wasn't doing any damage to her. However, the ongoing fire from the other two enemies was! Samus jumped up high, using her boost jump ability and bombarded her enemies with shots from her cannon until only the gray guy was left. It let out some sort of scream, before running away. Samus didn't lose track and used the opportunity to scan the little guy from behind.
-Morphology: Sectoid. Genetically created food soldier, equipped with very light plasma weaponry. Brain implants enable mental communication and psionic enhancement.- *1
Samus deactivated the scan visor and killed the last Sectoid with a well-placed shot. The little alien dropped to the ground, a few of his tiny fingers twitching before the body went completely limp. The results of her scan visor bothered her, though. She didn't have much experience with psionics. Making a mental note to read the entire scan report later. After all, she still had an area to secure. Not to mention she needed to free everyone from these green nets and finally, she needed to find the base of operations of her new opponents. Oh and the other humans. She almost forgot about them, were it not for the four orange dots appearing on her small radar. She quickly spun around, aiming her arm cannon at the humans, who in return had already their own weapons raised. Samus realized they easily could have gotten a few shots on her, but they didn't for some reason. The humans wore the normal soldier attitude expression that Samus had seen during her days as a Federation Soldier. However, she could also see the fear in the eyes of the entire squad, something that was not good at all. Soldiers needed to keep their emotions in check during an operation, no matter what happens. Worst case scenario the squad could get wiped out.
Before she could get any further with her thoughts, a message displayed on her HUD.
-Energy signature located. Enemy ship escaping immediate area.-
"Fuck!" Samus swore out loud, startling the soldiers. She took her arm cannon up close and pushed the button to call her ship. The motion alone caused the soldiers to shoot at the hunter, but her suit could take the damage. She just jumped up a garage, when she heard the engines of an unfamiliar ship. She just glanced up at the right time, to see a roundly shaped ship taking off into the sky. Luckily her own ship wasn't too far behind. Using her Grapple Beam, she easily got on her ship and got inside from the top hatch. Once she was sitting in her chair, she took over manual controls and chased the purple disc-shaped ship. However, she soon discovered that she had some trouble controlling the ship. One of her sub-displays showed a damage report, but as of now she didn't have the time to read it. The computer voice didn't seem to work either for some reason, but that was trivial at the moment.
The enemy ship tried to get away, but despite the damages, Samus's ship was still faster. The same went for maneuverability. When Samus shot her rockets at the enemy ships, it tried to dodge and granted only one missile hit the hull, but it was pretty close calls. Samus readied another barrage of missiles. The enemy ship took a sharp turn right, trying to get behind the bounty hunter, but ultimately failed. Still, Samus was sure she lost a chunk of her own hull, after copying the maneuver. Her system was just locking onto the target when there was an alarm sound and her radar popped up, showing a second ship closing in fast! Reacting quickly, Samus activated all the rockets, intending on getting rid of one ship and then escaping from the other. It was a precaution measure, seeing as her ship probably wouldn't withstand a direct hit. Unfortunately, the hunter wasn't aware of the range the second ship's weapon had. There was only a moment for her to register the incoming shot before everything went south. Multiple screens went static, equipment exploded and the red emergency light switched on. Desperately Samus steered the controls, trying to get at least a somewhat of a soft landing. It went just as well as one might imagine. The last thing Samus saw was a road coming closer and closer. Her last thoughts were that she probably should have activated the morph ball.
"Central, this is Big Sky. We have visual over the crash site. Orders?"
"Big Sky, Commander speaking. Land and secure the site. The recovery team is on its way."
Back at X-COM HQ, the Commander, Central Officer Bradford, Chief Scientist Dr. Vahlen and Chief Engineer Dr. Shen were rewatching the footage, recorded by the various cameras from their own troops' armor. At one point the Commander pressed a button, stopping the footage. The picture now showed the new alien they encountered, its arm cannon pointed in the direction of the camera.
"Any thoughts Shen?" the Commander asked.
The old engineer readjusted his glasses. "Normally I would say: from what I have seen so far, it is highly unlikely that it is an automated robot. The motions of this alien were much too fluid to be an automaton. However, there was this "ball mode" it went into. If a person were inside, while the armor changed...well, let's not delve too deep into that."
The Commander nodded. "Bradford, any ideas why this particular alien or robot alien device helped us to kill the aliens?"
"Hmm." Bradford crossed his arms. "Given that the aliens have attacked us without any warning, this robot might be the leftover defense force of another planet the aliens invaded and is now running on automatic mode?" the man shook his head. "I'm not sure, though. For all we know, this robot might be a scout of another alien party and soon we'll be facing another alien threat."
"Mhm. Vahlen? Any ideas for future research projects?"
The doctor shook her head. "Not until I had the chance to examine everything for myself, though I think in this case Dr. Shen might be more helpful, than me. Robotics isn't exactly my field of expertise. However, I am particularly interested in that arm cannon. It somehow shot multiple rockets, but I don't see where those rockets would fit in. I wonder if they're somehow built inside the cannon, though given that it is a robot, which suspiciously has some human semblance, they might be stored or build inside the main body."
"I see." The Commander nodded. "Inform me once the cargo arrives. Central, contact the Council. I'm sure they will be interested in this new development."
"Understood. Patching them through to the situation room."
"Thanks, Bradford. I'll be going then. Vahlen, Shen, make sure your teams are ready to examine the equipment. And if the robot is still functioning, make sure to put it into the quarantine bay."
"Understood." the two doctors answered.
The Commander let out a sigh, as she entered the situation room. She never liked talking to the council, mostly because they always thought she could have done a better job. Every failed mission was blown up to monstrous proportions, every successful mission had at least one "but-comment" coming from the speaker. And she didn't even want to get started thinking on the subject of negotiations for additional funding. X-COM was the first and last line of defense, yet X-COM only had enough money to buy themselves four aircrafts against an entire alien fleet? Someone, please explain the logic to her for this.
The screen already showed the "face" of the speaker or what was visible of the bald headed man and he didn't hesitate to speak up, once she came into view.
"Good day, Commander. We have received the initial report on the operation in Britain. We're pleased to hear the operation was a complete success, without any losses. However…"
'Here it comes again.' The Commander thought to herself.
"...multiple members of the Council have expressed their concerns about this new alien, your men have encountered during this mission."
"Well Speaker, at this point in time I know just as much as you do." The Commander spoke openly. "We at least assume it is some kind of robot from yet another alien species, possibly an enemy to our current enemies, but that is all speculation. The robot chased the enemy alien ship with its own but was eventually shut down. Right at this point we're recovering the craft, along with the robot. Estimated time until they arrive is two hours. We'll have more information, once we have actually taken a look at everything."
"I see. We're looking forward to your full report. And if this...other alien really belongs to a faction that is an enemy with "our" aliens, it might open new possibilities in this war."
"Our enemy's enemy is our friend?" The Commander asked rhetorically. "I can already tell you this will not sit well with our troops."
"As you said, for the moment this is all simply speculation, never the less, you should stay vigilant. If we're really dealing with a second alien faction, it might just make our work all the harder. The council will need to further debate the possibilities until it comes to a decision in this matter."
"I see." The Commander nodded. "I will keep you informed of our progress, as usual. While we're at it, you can tell the Canadian Council that his country will have satellite coverage by the end of this week."
"Very well, Commander. And remember, we will be watching."
The screen went black as soon as the communication was cut off. The Commander turned around and headed out of the situation room. All in all, it could have gone far worse. Of course, it probably didn't go far worse, because the Council Members had yet to find something to criticize the mission. She didn't know what was up with those politicians, seeing as the entire world was at stake. But as long as they didn't interfere with her work, they could complain as much as they wanted. As long as they didn't drive her insane anyways.
Two hours later, the Commander and Bradford watched with great interest as the orange wreckage was slowly brought down the hangar. It hung on four metal wires, which in return were attached to four specifically designed choppers to transport cargo such as this. It took them around twenty minutes to properly land the beaten up spacecraft, but once it was done, the wires were detached by the X-COM personal and the choppers flew.
All things considered, the ship was still in a fairly good condition. The cockpit window was destroyed, the robot having been thrown out after the crash land. As for the robot itself, well the lights were still on, but it was unresponsive to anything. Deeming it somewhat broken, it was brought to the alien containment for safety measures. As for the rest of the ship, the back of it had a huge hole, presumably from getting shot and generally the hull was full of dents. But all in all? It looked like with proper repairs it would be able to fly again one day.
Chief Engineer Chen was inspecting the craft from up close. The Commander could see his mouth moving up and down, as he silently muttered things to himself while taking notes on his tablet.
"Chen looks like a schoolgirl going to Prom Night," Bradford commented.
"Can you blame him? This is the first time we've been able to actually bring an entire alien craft home. I'm surprised Vahlen isn't jumping at the opportunity to-"
"AHH!" The Commander's musings were interrupted, when one of the workers screamed all of the sudden. On instinct, she and Bradford drew their pistols and aimed at the ship, which had now lights sprouting around it! Actually, those weren't lights, rather they were holograms!
-Main power, restored.- said an automated female voice in plain English, coming straight out of the ship. -Auto-repair-function online.-
Shocked, yet at the same time curious, Shen approached one of the holographic screens. He watched it in fascination for some time, until he dared to press one of the "buttons".
-Invalid command.- Came the robotic voice once again, surprising everyone in the hangar, though not as much as the first time. The hangar crew began to murmur among themselves and X-COM guard personnel began aiming their weapons at the ship, despite guns probably being useless against an alien aircraft. At least two of them had the brains to get their hands on some rocket launchers and aimed those at the ship. Whether they were trained to use them or not, was not an issue as of now.
"This is the Commander. Send a Strike Team to the Hangar. We got a situation here."
"This is Central to Dr. Vahlen. Moria, are you there?"
"I am here Central. Do you require anything?" came the voice from the small communicator.
"We have a situation at the Hangar. Long story short, the ship is online and uses some kind of auto-repair. What's the status of our 'guest'?"
"Do not worry Central. Our guest is safe and secure in alien containment. In fact, it looks like it is done rebooting its own systems."
"Good to know. I'll send a Strike Team down, just in case. If this thing also has those 'auto-repair' functions, who knows what might happen."
"Understood, Central. I'll keep an eye on this particular specimen."
When Samus consciousness returned, her brain felt like it had been turned to the stuff they served at the cafeteria in the GF Training Facility. She was blinded by some light shining upon her, but luckily her armor's computer noticed this inconvenience and adjusted it's shading.
As soon as her vision was fully restored, the first thing Samus did was raising her arm cannon and checking if her Suit had lost multiple functions...again! Luckily at least this time all of her suit's standard functions were still available to her. Sighing in relief, the hunter got up rather awkwardly and scanned her surroundings. With her eyes, mind you, not her visor.
The first thing she noticed was the giant window right in front of her and human scientists standing on the other side of it. Next to that she saw was that she herself was in a rather small room, a prison cell if you will. Curious and slightly shocked, the hunter scanned the glass in front of her. It was made of specially reinforced glass, though nothing a few Super Missiles or a Power Bomb couldn't handle. An escape route confirmed, Samus inspected the scientists on the other side of the wall. There were five of them and all of them looked at her with an equal amount of fear and curiosity. All except one. There was this woman with a short haircut who looked at the hunter without showing any kind of emotion. She was holding a tablet with one of her arms while saying something to the other scientists.
Samus didn't know what exactly was going on, why those humans had trapped her inside this room, but she hoped this was a simple misunderstanding. They all had the same symbol on their uniforms as the soldiers had back at the small town. It didn't look like any of them belonged to the Federation. An independent group, perhaps?
In any event, Samus decided it was better to open a communication channel, rather than breaking out. Last time this happened, she almost caused a political incident. She pressed a few buttons on her arm cannon, silently wondering why her captors didn't deactivate the thing or at least tried and soon had various communication channel option on her visor. All of them only had minor protections against intrusion for some reason, as such, it didn't take long for her suit to connect with the various communication channels and then filter out the lead woman, who was now looking on one of the screens.
"Can you hear me?" Samus asked through the communicator. The woman seemed a little startled but soon pressed the button inside her ear.
"Yes, this is Dr. Vahlen. Who is speaking?"
"The one you locked up over here," Samus answered. Immediately this Dr. Vahlen person spun around and stared wide-eyed at the armored hunter. Her colleagues were confused by her behavior, but she ignored them.
"You?!" she asked for confirmation.
"Yes. My name is Samus Aran. Now, I have not the faintest idea why you locked me up, but I would appreciate it if you would let me out or at least tell me why you have locked me up."
"Quite simple, 'Miss Aran'." Samus could hear the air quotes. "Your kind so far has given us no reason to trust you. Quite the contrary actually?"
"My kind?" Samus repeated, confused. She took off her helmet, revealing her face to the scientists, who all gasped in surprise. "I'm a human myself," she stated as a matter of fact. However, Vahlen wasn't satisfied.
"A nice trick, but we have already seen that your kind is rather well versed in genetics and thus you can recreate human bodies to some extent."
'Really? Didn't those guys at least check my ID or something? Hmm, from the looks of things there is a war going on on this planet and somehow this war has turned the people here xenophobic. At least the woman here is clearly a xenophobe.'
"Then why don't you simply take a DNA sample of me and look for yourself if I'm really not a human?" Samus asked. "I'll even take off my armor, so you won't have to fear me shooting you."
"And what gives us the reassurance you won't kill us in some other matter?" asked the doctor in return.
"I did help your own forces back in the city." Samus pointed out. "I could have easily got rid of them, but I am not a mindless murderer."
"And what if this was just your plan? Infiltrating our facilities-"
"That's enough Vahlen." Interrupted a new voice over the intercom. "Miss Aran, I am the Commander of this base of operation. If you want to get out of your cell, here are my conditions. You will take off your armor, kneel down, put your hands on your head and let yourself being subdued, including being sedated and give us access to your ship and I mean complete access."
Samus frowned. "You're asking a lot...Commander. And yet, you haven't even given you my name."
"My name is of no concern to you. Comply or we will kill you. It is simple as that."
On cue, a team of armored soldiers entered the facilities in front of Samus, everyone equipped with minimal protection and outdated weapons.
"I hope you are aware that I could just break out and kill everyone standing in front of me," Samus told the Commander, putting her helmet back on.
"So you fail to comply?"
"So you risk your subordinate's life?" Samus countered. "I'm sure you're at least smart enough to notice that your equipment is rather lackluster compared to mine. I would hate to do this, but I won't hesitate to kill them unless I'm at least told as to why I have been imprisoned."
There was a silence on the communication for a while. Patiently Samus waited for anything to happen until finally, the so-called Commander spoke up again.
"How about a compromise?"
"I'm listening."
"You take off your armor, give us a DNA sample of you, while being supervised by a Strike Team 24/7. You will also submit yourself to Questioning and in return, we will let you out. If you do anything suspicious, you will be shot. Does that sound reasonable?"
'This is probably as far as we will get.' Samus thought to herself. 'I'd rather not kill them all, but I'll be extremely vulnerable without my armor. No matter how agile I am, a shot in the head will kill me. Maybe I can…'
"How about, the armor stays on and I'll give you access to my ship's logbook."
There wasn't any critical military information stored in the logbook. The data and blueprints of her weapon, suit upgrades and all of her GF data (with exception of the things that were public knowledge) were stored elsewhere on a separate hard drive. Through the logbook, the humans here would hopefully see that she indeed was not a threat and was even ready to help them.
"Give us a few minutes." Came the answer.
Samus nodded out of habit and waited. She noticed the scientists in the room in front of her were now all standing near the exit, ready to run. The military members were all in what little cover they could find and had their guns pointed at the window, just waiting for Samus to break out. From an outsider's perspective they at least looked like they thought they could handle her. But really, if worse came to worst, she could just blow up the entire facility in two hours, if she took her time and then proceed to blow up the planet in at least a week. She had a disturbingly good track record of doing the latter.
Eventually, the Commander reconnected to Samus.
"Alright, Miss Aran. I trust you since you helped my men out in the field."
"Thank you, Commander." the hunter began typing on her arm cannon once again. "There, your men now should have access to my ship and it's logbook, but only the logbook. Tell them to look after the blinking console. And only the blinking console. Also be careful of any exposed parts around the back of my ship. I recently needed to exchange the engine and...let's just say it has given me some trouble as of late."
*1) Sectoids are very weak on their own and are mostly used as small scout groups. Each one is equipped with plasma pistols, which have a small fire rate. The weapons self-destroy upon the death of the owner. DNA scans show that these creatures were made by someone, rather than being born. They lack the organs to for normal reproduction. Electronic implants are operated into their brains, which allow the Sectoids to communicate with each other as well as strengthen each other, by creating a psionic link. However, the implants do not react well to the link being forcefully broken. If the sender of the psionic stream is killed, the implants of the receiver will short circuit, damaging the host's brain in the process, thus killing said, host.