In the depths of the long-dead, derelict spaceship, something floated mid-air, patrolling. The eternal darkness did not bother the security robot, the ever-enveloping silence only a good thing in its mind. Small, perhaps, but disproportionally heavily armed and armoured, it was designed to protect a large merchant vessel, take on any threat of Space Pirates or whatever else would have assailed it, and despite the fact that the crew was dead (it had killed the last one himself) and it was free of its bounds, it was not programmed to feel or imagine, and could not see any better way to spend its eternity than this. It would not be found wanting: any threat towards the ship will-
A missile struck it from behind, sending it reeling in a cacophony of noise and flash that it had not seen for decades. Another flew towards it, but missed, before it managed to turn around and open fire at the cowardly attacker. A spray of hot plasma lit up the corridor, but the opponent, a power armoured humanoid, dodged skillfully to the side and approached, firing another missile. It struck its target head-on, but the robot's front armor was tougher than rear, and it could take several more: it recovered more quickly this time around, resuming its plasma fire.
Samus Aran cursed silently as she saw how little the missile had hurt the mechanical creature, ducking as she was fired at and charging forward. It had been her last missile: she did have more than the five she had already used, of course, as well as a slew of heavier equipment that could have easily torn this creature apart. But she did not need them. She would not. Instead, she rushed straight at the robot, jumped, and successfully grappled it and brought it down along with her.
Its plasma cannon had been turned elsewhere and rendered useless, but, as she found out when the powerful electrical current ran through her power armor and opened up a bunch of warning messages, it had other means of defending itself. Ignoring the messages - as well as the slight tingle that was passed through the armor and to her body - she made several attempts to down the struggling robot: her basic arm cannon would not penetrate its shell, even at close range, and pounding it against the walls did not yield much results.
"Trouble?" She heard someone ask through her radio, breaking her concentration for a moment and nearly allowing the robot to go free once more.
"None!" Samus responded. She briefly thought how convenient a Super Missile would be in this situation, but quickly shook the idea off her head. Despite the very noticeable lack of harm her current armament did to the security robot's tough outer armor, she did have one last idea to be used before she would ask. She grabbed it with both hands and pressed it tightly against her chest plate, then crouched.
Half feature of her suit, half her own biological function, the Morph Ball can be an impressive for those that are not familiar with it already. Squeezing a six-foot-tall human being into an orb the size of a football is generally considered impossible, but Samus Aran manages this just fine. Other than the obvious advantage of allowing her to enter spaces too tiny for an adult human to even think of exploring, it had the significantly less used feature of applying intense pressure to anything left inside, as the suit and her body struggles to eliminate every bit of air and empty void in order to allow her to maintain such a small size.
Roughly three seconds later, Samus got back up once more, letting a single piece of scrap metal, half of a pin needle in size and yet much heavier than it would have looked, fall back on the metal floor with a resounding clang. She gave herself a moment to catch breath, then looked around, finding herself to be in a corridor with an unexplored door to her left. A door that was leading to a very specific part of this ship, one she was intentionally avoiding...
She checked her map system. Everything else in the ship had indeed been explored, some unknown technology had been salvaged for the Galactic Federation, but the main prize still eluded her, and there was still a large unexplored part left in the ship: it had several doors leading to it, but the map did not tell much of it because she had not explored deeper. This door was heading to the same direction.
Worse still, the most recent reports indicated that a fellow bounty hunter named Weavel had discovered the ship and boarded, and he would not have anything against exploring the last bits of the ship, reaching the main reward before her. Samus did not particularly like him, but she did not wish to fight him in her current state, and if he found her here, he would certainly wish a fight: Weavel absolutely hated her guts, and hated even more because she refused to acknowledge his silly feud (it had been just a regular tuesday for her).
There was no choice left. She opened the door and, much as she was afraid, was immediately greeted with a blast of incredibly hot air, that warmed her up straight through her suit. There had been a critical reactor breach in the area, flooding large parts of the ship with radiation and nuclear fire. It in turn had melted large parts of the metal hull, creating puddles of molten steel here and there. She sighed, and, very reluctantly, opened the link.
"...Adam?"
The response arrived almost without delay, which annoyed her infinitely. "Yes?"
She braced herself. "Permission to apply Varia Suit upgrade?"
"Ooohhh!" She groaned: he sounded incredibly smug and self-satisfied, having clearly been expecting this for rather a while. "So, what I have in my infinite wisdom authorized for little miss Samus's use is no longer adequate, hmm?"
"The situation has changed. Large parts of the ship are unavailable without extensive physical injury, unless upgraded. Furthermore, a fellow bounty hunter has entered the ship and may access the core before we do."
She did not usually speak so formally, even during missions, but Adam had enjoyed the idea and insisted. "So, you would like Varia Suit?"
"...Yes. I think it would be all I needed."
"Say please."
There came the two words she was so afraid of. And the tone was even more arrogant and complacent than she had been afraid of. She hesitated for a long time.
"...Well?" He demanded. She sighed.
"...Please. I would really like the Suit."
"Hmm..." He spent some time thinking. According to the map, Weavel had gone to explore upper regions, but seeing how she had already looted it as well as wiped out all the opposition, he would not spend there long. "We-e-ell... I am not particularly impressed with your request. It does not sound like you really meant it..."
"Pretty please?"
"With sugar on top?"
"With sugar on top."
"Much better!" He exclaimed happily. "But of course, you were expected to be able to complete this mission with the equipment you were authorized. That is very... naughty... of you."
"I suppose..." She rubbed the forehead of her helmet in exasperation.
"Say it."
Again a long moment of hesitation. "I am... I am a naughty little bounty hunter who cannot appreciate the equipment the command staff granted her, and must constantly disobey and question their intelligence by asking more."
"Ve-e-ery good. And when you return, you will be disciplined for this."
"...Yes. I will be. Very much so. Now, may I please have that suit."
This time it was Adam's turn to hesitate. Samus groaned. The other bounty hunter was descending lower, approaching her slowly.
"...No, I think not."
"What?"
"I think," she could taste the syrup dripping from his words, "that the equipment you are authorized to use right now is perfectly adequate. In fact, I am ordering you to enter this area right now, and salvage what you can for the Galactic Federation. Any objections, lady?"
"..." She took a long, deep breath. "You... you incredible, smug bast-..."
"Samus..."
She groaned again, but stopped the rant before it could begin. "I apologise... I was out of line on that one. You were in the right." She remained silent for a moment, then added: "...No objections." The door opened once more, and she entered, ignoring the intense, searing heat that struck right through her power suit, as well as the numerous warning signals of several suit functions threatening to fail, including life support. She struggled to breathe as she explored the ship further, descending lower and avoiding patches of liquid metal. The feeling of helplessness, however, as well as giving herself up so thoroughly to the whims and commands of a male, evoked a different type of heat in her.
They had a safety word, of course (Mother Brain), but despite numerous potentially life-threatening situations such as this one, it had never been needed. And, once she got out of here, it would be her turn to authorize equipment. She quite looked forward to it.