"Our sensors are reading you're near the frigate class ship now, Samus. Is it in view?"
The Hunter reached up and slid her visor into place, adjusting the controls of her ship and sighing almost inaudibly. The Command had a habit of asking more questions, stupid ones at that, than Samus wanted to answer.
"Affirmative. The ship is in view, I'm moving in for a landing now." She confirmed, taking the ship's controls in hand to make a manual landing.
"Landing confirmed. Once you're inside, we'll..."
"Requesting radio silence... the Space Pirates are incredibly advanced technologically and can probably sense the ship is here. There's a good chance they'll attempt to tap into my communications lines." Samus interrupted, a slight smile touching her lips. There was a long pause from the Command's end, then a new voice over the communicator.
"Ms. Aran, we've lost several good bounty hunters to the Pirates in that sector. We can't take any chances losing our best to them too..."
"Chief, there's a reason I'm your best." She flipped the communicator off, closing her eyes briefly. "Sorry... I'm not about to let these Pirates get to me... or Metroids. Or Ridley, or anything else they might want to throw at me." She stood from her chair, pressing a few buttons on her right arm that activated her beam cannon. She took a breath and cleared her head. It was time to start the hunt...
The outside defense mechanisms were far too easy to disable making something in the pit of her stomach let her know something wasn't right here.
/But that's why I'm here,right?/
The first set of doors opened with a blast from her cannon, the interior hallway dimly lit by several arrays on one side and a set of flickering lights.
/Definatly not good./
She kept her hand on her cannon more for a sense of security than any practical need, her eyes flickering from side to side. She paused to scan the arrays, scanning the door and shooting it to enter the next room
There were no signs of life... bodies everywhere, a huge, massively brutalized creature in the middle of the room, fire and live wires from broken equipment blocking one side of the room. Samus startled, turning her beam quickly to point at something that burst from a grate. She frowned to herself. It looked like an oversized bug of some sort, a plated insect with a long tail and mandibles. It looked at her, then hurried towards the massive creature's body, tearing into it and beginning to devour chunks of it's flesh.
She scanned it...
"... Parasite." She murmured. "How the hell did it get so big?" She began quick scans of the room, finding several half eaten Space Pirate corpses, about five in total. Before leaving the room, Samus casually dispatched the parasite with a single, well aimed charged shot, frowning at the body of the creature it had been eating through the heat radiating from her cannon.
/Can't risk it getting any bigger./
The door slid shut behind her, and as she continued into the next hallway, she paused, her ears picking up the sound of some sort of defense turrets coming online.
"Finally." She breathed, smiling and ducking around the corner. Two turrets, one in each corner above the door, blinked on red warning lights and began to charge shots, Samus smirking as she blew one away with a missile, the other firing in her direction before she took it out with her charge beam. Her heart was pounding now. This proved something other than parasites still lived on this gods forsaken ship. Samus moved forward through more empty rooms before coming upon one of the main research labs, something inside her once again letting her know something here wasn't right.
There were no sounds from inside but the gentle hum of computers running at minimal power... it made her heartbeat and her shallow breathing seem altogether too loud. She worried for a moment that anything still alive in here might be able to hear it. But her scanners told her, like every room before it, this one was empty of the living. She gathered data from the computer regarding experiments, malfunctions and a substance found on the planet below, something called Phazon...
A noise from a platform above her made her spin, cannon out once more, but she saw it was nothing more than a Space Pirate, badly injured, that gazed at her with a doomed look in its eyes through the glass railing of the platform above.
/Might as well.../ Samus moved up the catwalk towards the pirate, careful not to take her eyes off it. Even a badly injured Pirate could work it's arm blaster.
"H-hun... ter..." The Pirate gurgled in it's own language before slumping to the side, the light flickering from it's eyes. Samus made sure it was dead... she wasn't here to take any chances. The next door indicated it would take her to the main lab, her lips pulling into a tight line. That must have been where the now deceased pirate had dragged himself from... She was sure whatever had killed it couldn't have gone far.
/Here goes.../
Several living pirates were in this room, as well as a living but badly injured mutant parasite. The parasite was attempting to eat two space pirates that fought it at close range, not having much luck as several more pirates bombarded it with fire power. The Parasite suddenly spewed boiling acid all over the Pirate's at close range, dissolving their bodies as their final, gurgling cries escaped them. Two other Pirates behind the parasite were splattered against the wall of the lab by it's thick, powerful tail, the remaining Pirate, a flying one, letting out a rage filled shout and spinning out of control towards the beast to destroy it before it could do anymore harm.
Samus watched this ensue curiously. The massive damage to so many of the Space Pirates must have been due to them succeeding in destroying these beasts. Keeping them alive was out of the question, however... Samus hurried off to the next lab after data gathering, eager to finish the mission and leave. Something about here still wasn't sitting right, and she had no desire to spend anymore time on the frigate than she needed to.
However, nothing could prepare her for what she was to find in the lab just beyond the doors to her right.
Tanks lined the walls. Tanks stood in rows in the middle of the room. Computers monitering vital signs and containing data on the specimens were everywhere, and several Space Pirates were lying dead on the floor. Samus' eyes narrowed as she looked around, her heart pounding ever harder. Her eyes fell on a lone, still very much alive Space Pirate standing at a computer console, her beam cannon coming up to train on it.
"You would be most wise to put that beam cannon down, Samus Aran."
The Space Pirate's words were very articulate, as if it spoke so she could understand, spoke as if speaking to a child.
"Now... why would I want to do that?"
/And why am I not just blowing a hole through this thing's head?/
"I have deliberately set the ship to self destruct very soon. There is too much to lose here to enemy hands. I did not anticipate your arrival so quickly, Samus Aran." The Pirate looked over it's shoulder at her, it's features no different than any other Space Pirate's. Samus began to charge her cannon, and the Space Pirate grit it's teeth. "It does not matter how much you see, or hear, now. I just thought I would give you something. Consider it a going away present." The Space Pirate hit a button on the console with one long finger, one of the tanks nearby draining, a light slowly coming on inside. Samus kept her charged beam on the Space Pirate.
"Metroid?" She asked, her eyes not moving from the Pirate either.
"No, Samus Aran... Metroids have proved to be useless against you. We have chosen to do something far more impressive to something far larger than a mere metroid."
"I'm getting impatient and starting to get one mighty itchy trigger finger." Samus snarled. The Pirate turned to face her, holding out it's hands to indicate it had no weapons.
"Just take a look, Samus Aran..."
"Don't move an inch." She lowered her beam cannon, moving sideways towards the tank so she could still see the Pirate. Her eyes flicked away from it, and she did an effective double take.
In the tank, she saw a human man, eyes closed in simulated slumber, burn scars on one shoulder that bore injection scars as well. His skin was pale from being kept in the tank for so long.
"We were going to use him as a weapon against you... He took in the Phazon so very well..."
Spinning suddenly, Samus blasted a hole through the Pirate's chest, watching it fall with silent satisfaction.
"Sick bastards... You couldn't be satisfied until you defiled a little bit of everything from my world, could you?" She snarled again, lowering her cannon and looking back at the tank, the chief's words ringing in her ears.
/Some good hunters... He must be one of them. They aren't killing the hunters, they're capturing them!/ Her eyes flickered closed for a second as she approached the tank, her breath catching slightly. /You should kill him. Who knows what state his mind is in.../
She ran her metal clad fingers over the front of the tank, her eyes taking in the man's features. High cheekbones, toned muscles, flat stomach and strong looking hands... he seemed so familiar to her.
/I can't afford to play babysitter./
But she knew very well she couldn't leave him there either. He wasn't just another creature, he was human.
/Make a decision, Samus... you're running out of time./ The lights flickered as if to make the statement that much more urgent, and Samus drew in a sharp breath, her fingers moving over the console in front of the human's tank. In a few seconds, the tank opened and Samus found herself helping the human down, supporting him.
"Let's go." She murmured, hurrying out of the lab with him in tow. As she entered the lab prior, the ground began to shake.
/What now?/
The ship was set to self destruct any moment, and she had no time to play these games. However, she changed her mind upon seeing the massive parasite that was crawling up the middle of an empty stasis tank in the middle of the room. She cursed under her breath, setting her human cargo gently on the ground in a sheltered area. She knew she couldn't move fast enough to get past this thing carrying him. She had to fight.
From the look of this particular mutant parasite, Samus figured it was the Queen Parasite. Her body was swollen with acid sacs, her double sets of mandibles glistened with corrosive saliva, four legs kept her held vertical in the tank, and a long, long tail with a nasty stinger at the bottom curved underneath her.
/I wonder if the Pirates regret creating those things.../
It was a passing thought... Samus charged her cannon and fired a warning shot at the parasite Queen, getting it's attention.
"Over here, you slobbering fiend! Bet I look pretty tasty to you..."