The Flood.
A story by Ridley's Guardian.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything I'm writing about. So get on with the reading!
"Warning, unknown weapon within firing range" An automated warning sounded, awaking the occupants of the small, Hunter-class Gunship.
Samus awoke with a start and walked slowly over to the console, rubbing her eyes. She leaned on the desk and studied the screen. A large, ring-shaped object appeared on-screen, along with several alien markings.
"These markings…. I've never seen them before. Computer – Translate."
The computer began to decipher the markings on-screen, but to no avail.
"Perhaps… Perhaps I should investigate this thing then. Computer, set a course for this, this thing. I wanna get up close and personal."
The various instruments began humming as a course was plotted for the object.
Several minutes later, the Gunship touched down on the surface of the ring. Samus suited up and disengaged the airlock. She walked slowly out of her ship, arm cannon ready. What Samus saw surprised her. Strange alien corpses littered the small, snowy valley. In some places, the corpses – some small, all of them different – were piled up to 4 deep. Samus examined one of the larger corpses, careful to avoid the smaller ones.
The large creature had mandibles similar to a Space Pirate, but this was no Pirate creation. It's mouth was split into four sections, each lined with jagged fangs, and four huge teeth at the front, probably for ripping flesh. The creatures armour was segmented, allowing for easy and fluid movement. It's 4-Fingered hand carried a strange plasma weapon – One which Samus thought she had seen before somewhere. It stood roughly 8 Feet tall, easily dwarfing Samus, who stood a good 6 foot 5.
Her attention was drawn to the creature's chest, which had been burst outwards, almost like a grape exploded. She removed her Arm cannon, freeing up her right hand, and pried the Creature's ribs further apart. She inspected the creature's insides, or lack thereof.
"This thing… It's insides are missing. Odd. Perhaps I should take it back to the ship for study?" Samus mused. She shook the thought and got up again. Samus replaced her Arm Cannon on her Right arm, and picked up the strange plasma weapon in her left.
"Little unwieldy… But I think it'll do." She said to herself. A low growl echoed off the walls of the Valley, and Samus looked around for the source. It was hard to tell, as the sound bounced off the walls. She touched the end of the Plasma rifle on the side of her helmet, activating her Echo Visor. According to the Visor, the sound originated from what appeared to be the entrance to a building. Samus walked over to the building, Arm Cannon ready and set to the Power Beam.
The sound got louder, amplified by the Echo Visor as Samus got closer to the location. Inside the building's entrance, Samus activated her Combat Visor and switched on a light amplifier in her Visor, illuminating the dark entrance.
Again, there were bodies and blood everywhere. Samus heard the low growl again, and fumbled for the trigger of her as yet untested weapon. She found the small, super sensitive trigger, and aimed outside. She pulled the trigger lightly, and a short burst of super-heated plasma erupted from the mid-section of the weapon. The blue bolts lanced outward at a pace not seen with conventional human energy weapons. Samus let go of the trigger, and pulled it again, this time harder. A concentrated burst of larger blue bolts flew outward, some striking the walls, others flying out into the open before dissipating into small blue specks. Samus eyed the plasma weapon with envy and slung it at her side, freeing up her left hand to steady her Arm Cannon. The sound of the Plasma Rifle reverberated off the walls and echoed down hallways, and possibly alerting whatever was waiting deeper into the building.
Further into the building, a headless creature carrying a huge, archaic M249 Machinegun heard a high pitched sound and began walking towards the source, followed by many other deformed creatures carrying various weapons. Some were missing limbs, while some of their heads were pushed back, so they were hanging off their necks by a thread of rotted flesh.
Samus heard the sound of shuffling feet and drew her weapon, ready for anything. The sound picked up pace, and a low grinding sound, the sound of metal on stone followed the footsteps. Samus switched on a light amplifier in her helmet and looked around, exploring the building for any signs of life. Samus found that the further she went into the building, the more corpses she found, and the worse for wear they were. Some were in various stages of decomposition, while others were relatively intact, and only just beginning to break down.
One body Samus came across was completely mutilated. It's chest had exploded outwards, it's arm missing, leaving bloody stumps and it's legs were not much better. It's head was the worst though. It looked like it had been ripped clean off, but when Samus turned the corpse over, she saw the missing head. It was hanging on by a thread, pushed back like a toy fallen into disuse. She shuddered and dropped the mutilated body. It landed with a wet thud, and the head fell off completely.
"These things… what are they? I'm not liking this one bit. Maybe I should leave now."
Samus was compelled by her curiosity to explore further into the building, and get to the bottom of the mysterious and apparent deaths of all these things. Humans and aliens littered the whole of the ground floor, making it hard for Samus to land a step without slipping on blood or bodily fluids. On the other side of the room not far from where Samus was, a small light blinked green. Samus decided to investigate the light.
It turned out that the light was actually a lift signal for an apparently operational lift. Samus hit the "call" button, and shortly after, she heard a dull thump as the lift arrived.
The doors slowly grinded open, and one of the seemingly dead creatures was standing bolt upright with a small but deadly-looking rifle in one hand. The other hand was deformed into several deadly looking barbs. The creature levelled the barbs at Samus' head and fired. She instinctively jumped to the side and snapped off several quick shots from her Power Beam. Samus grabbed for her Plasma Rifle and looked around quickly, asserting any extra threats. She only saw the creature standing in the lift for around 2 seconds, before it leaped straight at her and swung the rifle like a deadly club. The weapon connected with Samus' head, sending her flying into a wall. She left a small dent in the stone wall before hitting the ground and slowly getting up.
The blow had been that severe that it had actually damaged Samus' combat systems in her helmet. The screen was full of static, even as Samus tried her various different Visors.
Dark Visor: Nothing.
Echo Visor: Nothing again.
Scan Visor: Again, nothing.
X-Ray Visor: Still nothing.
Thermal Visor: An extremely distorted picture, then nothing.
Samus slammed the helmet in frustration, and then some of the static disappeared. She tried her Dark Visor again. Although there was a lot of static, Samus could see some of her surroundings. She cycled through her different visors again. The Echo Visor gave an almost crystal clear picture. Samus wasn't used how the Echo Visor worked. It definitely wasn't suited for Combat. Nevertheless, Samus had to rely on it as she fought this strange monster.
The environment around her pulsed with various sounds. Some of the closer sounds were intensified. This must be a side-effect of the Echo Visor, Samus thought to herself.
She didn't have much time to re-gain her bearings, as the creature was in her face in almost an instant. This time, instead of swinging the rifle at Samus' head again, it aimed the rifle right at Samus' forehead. A split second before it pulled the trigger, Samus fired a concentrated burst of Plasma into it's abdomen. The creature dropped, and Samus fired a few shots from her Arm Cannon into the thing to make sure it was dead.
Samus looked down at the creature and shook her head. Hitting the side of her helmet once more, Samus tried the Combat Visor. It still had some left-over static, but she could see clearly now.
After that small encounter, Samus had made up her mind. She would set a distress beacon tuned to the Federation's frequency, and let the Fed's elites handle the situation. Samus trudged back to her Gunship and hit a button near the landing gear. A small ramp descended downwards and allowed her to get into her ship. Another of the creatures rolled down the ramp, leaving a bloody trail as it fell out of her Gunship. Samus jumped and fired a charged shot from her Arm cannon, all but annihilating the creature. She sighed and made her way slowly to the fore of the ship before closing the ramp and disengaging the landing gear, leaving the ship to hover in mid-air for a few moments before finally lifting off.