52
Spring days are pretty, Samus thought. Too pretty to be summoned to do the kind of work she was probably here to do. The building in front of her was a nondescript egg carton like many of the other government buildings in New New York. It defied the day with its stern demeanor and hard lines. Walking towards the door she noticed that unlike the others, however, this building had no name on it. Walking in she checked her chronograph and noted that she was a little late. Inside she spotted the receptionist, a mousy woman who asked if she had an appointment. "Yes, I got this card" Samus said, fumbling in her purse. The woman behind the desk waited patiently until she located the card and showed it to her. The woman lean forward "Your two o'clock is here, sir"
Bright dead lights shone in the office. All the technological advances in illumination and still the government bought the hardest, most uncomfortable light. The office was economical and neat. The desk was clear, a first for Samus who was used to seeing bureaucrats with clutter and Chinese fire drill in the background. This office looked liked it had just been set up and awaiting the staff to fill the cubicles thought the door behind her. She looked out the window and watched as other buildings with other bureaucrats scurried about like a hive of humanoid and not so humanoid ants scurry about their business.
"Ms. Aran, how good to finally meet you"
Startled, she swung around to see a man the chair behind the desk.
He was a nondescript man. He wore a dark suit with his brown hair in a crew cut, his eyes a cold blue-green, his skin pale almost translucent. He spoke in an odd manner his commanding voice raspy, morose.
"Nice to meet you, Mister…" She trailed off
He smiled. "That's not important right now, but you may refer to me as agent or sir if you like." He had a strangle tendency to emphasize his syllables and change his pitch at odd moments.
"Okay, Sir" she said respectfully. This guy didn't look threatening, but something about him suggested a very good reason to be afraid.
He smiled a little wider "What is important is that you done some fine work in the past, and we need someone of your talents"
"What's the job?"
"Something I think you will find very interesting."
Five hours later
Samus read the file again, starting to believe her good luck. A big contract, fifty-two heads at base rate of one hundred twenty thousand for the numbers. Numbers, as in cards. An old gimmick at this point, but a bounty hunter always had use for cards. Faces were five million, and one hundred million for Aces. Then there was the Main target. That unlucky joker was worth one billion to the Galactic Federation. She also got something she could do without, namely "help". Some wigged out government assassin and a servant of the goddess Palutena. Two mouths that eat her profit margin and months of headache trying to collect their expenses from some CPA with a serious superiority complex. She read on, finding the joker. The big tamale of this bounty was a revolutionary named Ganondorf Dragmire. He first showed up trying to incite revolution on a backwards planet known as Hyrule some two galactic decades ago. Since then he gained more far reaching ambitions, even going so far as to pick up the pieces of the Space Pirates (Samus glowered at this) and formed a gang with his old tribal supporters and various local interests.
Aboard the patrol craft Discovery
"So why don't we just take him out?"
"Snake, you know we can't do that. Even if we knew where he was, his affiliates would still be running around. Taking him out would only sever their ties to each other and make it even harder to get them."
"Also most of his affiliates are currently attacking Federation citizens and destroying massive amounts of property."
Snake sighed, exasperated. Things were never simple. Years of fighting had tired him out although no one seemed to believe that.
Mei Ling smiled at him. "Well, it's not like you had anything else to do."
"Doesn't mean I want to do this." Snake growled.
"You are a soldier, Snake" Campbell scowled "And don't start with that "I race dogs now" garbage. The first thing you did after Shadow Moses Island was start a international group to hunt down Metal Gears for whom the only way you get things done is by having you sneak around and kill people. Now, you say that is a necessity, I say that is convenient excuse."
Snake seethed. That old argument was a powerful one, one he still hadn't a counter to.
Sky Palace
The Hall of Judgment
Angel Land
"For your sake I shall forbid the locust to raze your crops and the vine in the field shall not be barren, with joy you shall draw the water of salvation, bring forth food so my house is filled with it and let every good man and righteous woman feast for seven days."
Chorus: "Your will be done, oh Lady of Mercy"
Palutena smiled benevolently. Her flock was singing her praises and faith illuminated every heart. True their numbers were smaller then in some other times, but they were more vibrant then ever.
After they left to attend to her orders, Pit stepped in "You wish to speak to me, oh Light of Existence?"
Palutena exhaled slowly, the previous gaiety gone "Pit, My flock is in trouble. Many beasts wander the stars sowing troubles and discord. I require that you go forth and slay them."
Pit swelled at the hearing of this, his pride grown immensely. The Goddess herself entrusted him with this mighty task.
"Yea shall have assistance."
Pit stiffened. Any glory gained would have to be divvied, if he got any at all.
Palutena looked at him sadly. Any other time his young courage and pride was hearting. But in this task, it could get him killed. "Listen well young warrior, your skills are great but you are not invincible. These beasts are numerous, their skills are also great, and their weapons deadly even to you. Work with the people you are assigned, they have experience far wider then yours. They will need you to help them as well."
Pit nodded. Her wisdom could not be called into question. If she knew he needed help then he would be the fool if he tried going it alone.
"This task is so important, I shall give you the Wings of Icarus, The Arrow of Light, and the Mirror Shield. Use them well as they are not exactly common."
Pit's eyes widened "An honor I shall strive to be worthy of" He gasped, kneeling.
Smiling, Palutena reached over and patted him on the head. "You are one of my most faithful servants, Pit," She cooed "I would be most upset if something were to happen to you."
Pit beamed, his face the picture of delight.
Two Galactic Standard days later Aboard the Federation Frigate Steadfast
Samus surveyed the group in front of her. It didn't look good. Her support was the Steadfast, an aging tub that looked like it's best years were behind it. Its crew was veteran, which was nice, but that came with officer staff that a stick permanently stuck up it's neatly uniformed butt. Her "partners" (shiver right there) was guy who looked like he had seen the bottom of too many cheap whiskey bottles and another guy who looked like an extra out of Julius Cesar. She was the only one with her own ship, and that meant she was going to chauffeur these jokers around. A company of marines straight out of basic rounded out these little party lead by a real fierfek of a man named Lieutenant Gorman. They, at lest, had their own transport. Samus understood that she led the mission, but someone apparently forgot to give Captain Dallas and Gorman that memo.
"I don't how youse bounty hunters do things, but this ship does by the book!" Dallas yelled. "That means we don't just go jumping into hot near space, guns blazing!"
"I didn't suggest that, Captain," Samus biting back every word "But we can't pad foot around. But rapid insertion is just that, rapid. That means jumping a closer then you might be used to."
"And how do you suggest we deal with any near space defenses?" His nasally New York accent cutting into her ears.
"I'm not saying jump right into point blank range, just not line distance. Dradis will pick up any fighter patrols and you men look like they can handle the sort of thing we will be seeing."
"Arrêt quereller! You been arguing since we got here!" Gorman interjected. "Bon Dieu, give it a rest! Look here, this discussion is going nowhere. Let's start with what we know, who is first up on the block?"
Samus took a deep breath. "The first up is the Clubs." The Holograph in the center of the room light up and displayed various data about the Clubs. "The clubs are members of the Koopa Army. Led a giant turtle named Bowser, they have been terrorizing Mushroom World for about four years now. They weren't much of threat until about two months ago when they launched an all out coup that captured the capital and decapitated both the monarchy and the elected government. The Federation government is trying to keep this under wraps, but the galactic media is starting to get curious."
Snake spoke up "What are federation assets in the area?"
Samus motioned and the screen showed a tactical map of the planet and it's system "Six heavy cruisers, two fleet haulers, about four, five hundred fighters, holding line distance. They are trying also to avoid a bloodbath most undoubtedly result if they just tried a ground siege. We can hook up in geo sync over this island here," The map zoomed in on an island whose distinguishing feature was a tall and narrow mountain with a lake about half way up. She pointed "and meet with a local band of ethnic separatists known as the Yoshi."
"My family used to have a Yoshi!" a marine exclaimed.
"Yeah, you are going to want to keep that secret. They apparently take offense at the notion." Samus retorted dryly, "At any rate, they hate this Bowser with a passion. They have agreed to shield our entry and lead us to the number two, an unpleasant fellow who goes by the name of Big Bomb-omb." A picture of him appeared under Samus's finger, she expanded it and summoned up his information. "We don't know exactly where he is, but the Yoshi mentioned something about a nearby mountain range. We need to take a lot of supplies or secure what we need OSR, because we can't come back after we land or the locals might get suspicious."
One deck officer asked "What keeping them from just massacring all of them right now?"
"Good question, Intelligence thinks this guy Bowser believes that would undermine his legitimacy as king. As it is, the government is engaged in long distance hostage negotiation but we think his ultimate goal is permanent absolute monarchy over the planet."
"So is this op to kill to capture?"
"Federation says they prefer capture, but if we can't, they understand."