Assault on Metroids
The story of the Federation attack on SR-388
Luke Aran
The cold wind slapped at Private Adams' face as the Federation troop transport lowered to the surface of SR-388. He looked at the barren plane below him, wondering how the hell anything could survive down there.
With a resounding clunk that held a tone of finality, the dropship touched down; and the members of the 54th armed infantry unit disembarked. With a jaunty wave, the pilot called, "see you in a week!" And lifted off.
Easy for you to say, he thought to himself. How in God's name were they supposed to kill all the goddamn metroids on this god forsaken lump? It was a suicide mission, and someone obviously had him blacklisted. Maybe that man he had won a new suit from. Does it matter? Someone wants me dead, who cares who?
He studied his team mates. The Wall, a heavyset man in large looking armor. He always had a plasma beam charged. The Demo, a demolitions trooper responsible for knocking stuff down and making things go boom. The Freeze, with his freeze gun and cool attitude towards everything. And finally, himself. The Rookie. This was his first mission, and so far, it looked bad.
"Alright, men. Get your gear packed and let's move out. Rookie, I want you in back. Got it? You cover our asses if anything nasty starts following us. Demo...keep track of the metroid counter. And Wall, I want you on point."
Freeze's voice crackled over the team channel, and I glanced at the metroid counter as Demo walked by. 48. Lotta metroids. This was gonna be a fun trip.
"So. Who brought the s'mores?"Asked Wall. We laughed, relieving some of he tension of being on a SNR mission
"Uh oh. We've got a wall up here. There's space behind it, but I dunno if Demo can handle it." I heard Freeze over the comm, and hoped he wasn't joking. To be honest, the thought of seeing an omega metroid scared the piss outta me. The sooner we left, the better.
Demo shoved to the front and clamped a charge to the wall.
"Get down!" He called through his open visor. "You don't wanna get hit by this baby!"
About three seconds later, the world exploded.
Chapter 2_
I awoke to the sound of labored breathing beside me. Grunting, I rolled to my side... And froze.
There was a red streak on the ground, and Demo was lying at one end of it. Horrified, I scrambled to my feet.
"Demo! What's going on?" I shouted, although I feared the worst. My fears were confirmed when I walked over and felt for his pulse. Nothing. He was already hard and cold, so I judged that I had been out for at least 24 hours. I heard a rustling behind me, and Freeze sat up.
"What happened?" He asked, struggling to his feet. I motioned towards Demo's corpse. "Jesus," he muttered. At that moment, my scanner chimed in.
"Subject shows terminal wounds near his head and chest, probably caused by shrapnel and shock from a nearby explosion."
"Damn," Wall said, waking in time to hear the depressing autopsy. "I always knew he'd kill himself."
And so the first fatality occured.
About 20 minutes later, we found a large central cavern filled with lava. "Looks deep," commented Freeze. "Wonder why its here?"
Suddenly, we were rushed by a metroid, which was quickly frozen by Freeze. Wall pounded it with missiles and it exploded into tiny shards.
"There you go kid," Wall said. "Metroid killing 101."
The ground started shaking and I fell on my ass. "What the hell?" Once it stopped, I brushed myself off, stood, and turned to my squadmates. The first thing I noticed was that they weren't moving. The second was that they had dropped Demo's body...somewhere. And the third was that the lava was gone.
"What...?" Freeze turned to me. I shrugged.
Now that Demo had been cremated, we moved much faster... So fast that Wall took an unplanned swim. Slipping off the cliff, he dropped 2 important items: the missile launcher, and the Metroid counter. "Shit! Why are we going so damn fast!" Asked Freeze. Taking the metroid counter, I followed him across a narrow bridge into some sort of ruins site.
At the entrance, we were immediately stumped by a sign in an ancient language. I pulled up my scanner, and waited for the message to translate.
Chapter 3
"Inscription appears to be approximately five thousand years old. They also appear to be of Chozo origin.
The material in which the writing is inscribed contains a high concentration of Brinstone. Readying translation."
After a good ten minute wait, a text document appeared on the screen of my scanner.
'Be aware that only authorised personnel are allowed into the storage facility. All non authorised persons shall turn back, or risk death by plasma turret.'
Freeze looked at me grimly. "Well," he said,"let's get cracking."
It was 06:43 when it happened.
"Look out!" Freeze cried, slamming into me. I cartwheeled through the air, hitting the ground as a scream echoed through the caverns. Freeze had been pierced by a stalagtite, which I had dislodged in my inattentive rush toward the exit. I knew he was dead, as small parasites had already clustered near the wound. In less than an hour, there would be nothing left.
"Screw this," I muttered. I glanced at the metroid counter as I picked it up. 40 metroids remained, and I was improperly equipped to deal with the threat. I started towards the surface.
By retracing our steps, I was able to make it to the surface without any trouble. I returned to the small base camp we had made, and settled in for the long wait ahead.
38 March
The transport never came. I had known that we weren't expected to survive, but I was depressed that they had left us for dead without a check.
As I wandered the barren surface of the planet, I could hear sounds that scared the living shit outta me. I was also running low on food. This was gonna get interesting. Taking a flamer that we had brought, I turned the dial to lightly charred (locker speak for 'killed and cooked in one burst) and started in.
June 1
I'm in deep shit. The bounty hunter Samus Aran touched down on the planet...and incinerated the water purifier. Luckily, the metroids aren't scaring me anymore. Last time one tried to come up, the lava raised. I felt an earthquake, however, so maybe its down again. I sincerely hope she completes her mission... And fast. I've accidentaly locked myself in her ship, and I don't know how to start it. After seeing her cool gadgets and haveing the GFeds betray me, I'm thinking its time to desert and go bounty hunter.
June 3
The hunter has lifted off... But I think I hear a metroid in here somewhere. I hope we get where we're going...and fast.
After a mere 13 hours we reached our destination, and I left the ship and handed in my resignation notice. I'm going to shop around for some ships, and then its a hunter's life for me. I wonder what that device I took from her ship does... I guess I'll find out soon.
[/book one]
More to come soon, in book 2: Identity.
