Samus sucked in a sharp lungful of air as the drop-pod bucked violently and sent her stomach up to her heart. She glanced left and right at her crew, illuminated by an ominous red light and clad as she was in the latest Power Suits, with there sleek appearance, wide shoulder plates, and menacing blue-green visors. Each of her four fellow warriors wore custom colors, she in an orange and red suit while her companions boasted black, pink, and green shades. Their code names were respective to the color of their suits.
Out of the lone viewport she saw their objective, the assault ship of Fox McCloud. The bastard had been making hostile approaches for some time, now it was clear that he was up to something. Behind it planet Zebes, her home, hung like a fiery ochre jewel against a dark canvas perforated by pinpoints of light.
"Target acquired," she announced into the comm beside her chin, "Distance is six point five kilometres. Prepare for drop." Samus could feel rather than see the others tense. Space jumps were effective but dangerous. It was an aspect of her job she'd always hated.
She took a steadying breath, "Three," the door locks hissed open, vacating the interior of oxygen, "two," the drop-pod rattled and a high pitch whirring pervaded the vessel, "one!"
The doors slammed open and they were sucked into the vastness of space. Samus' HUD lit up, giving her more readouts than she cared to pay attention to and highlighting obstacles she should take care to avoid, such as drifting space-rock and wandering pockets of gas.
The first thing she took note of was their speed, which was already at an excess over 200 km/hr. She altered her course to avoid a clump of debris and clicked her jaw in a way that told the suit to start powering up its arm-cannon.
5 kilometres.
Samus corkscrewed around a violet hued cloud of gas. The gut-wrenching manoeuvre caused her vision to wane but her suits life support kicked in and brought her around. She risked a quick glance behind her in time to see Green barrel through the cloud. His visor flickered and went dim.
"Damn," she swore. The suit loosing power meant that its bearer had lost consciousness.
Four kilometres.
Pink, a childhood friend of Samus', was closest to Green, she saw his suit power down and shifted her weight so that she was gliding towards him. Samus looked ahead to see a cluster of space-rocks rushing up to meet them.
"Come in Green," she said in an authoritative voice honed by years as a commanding officer.
No response. The cluster was getting closer by the second. Pink had almost reached him but was forced to veer away in order to prepare for evasive manoeuvres.

"I won't be able to get to him in time Red," she said apologetically.
Why hadn't his life support system jolted him awake?
"Dammit Green! Answer me!" Samus spun multiple times as they rocketed through the cluster.
Green couldn't respond, he had become a quickly receding fireball.
Two kilometres. The charge of her arm-cannon read 80%.
There was no time to mourn his loss. She could see their enemy, a species from Corneria called Red Foxes, preparing to meet them on the ships hull. They wore suits of their own, sharp in appearance except for the clunky transparent dome over their lupine heads.
"Activate repulsors," her voice was colder than the emptiness of space.
Several knobs opened of her suit and emitted small but powerful jets that began slowing her descent.
One kilometre.
The assault ships gun placements flared to life and began peppering the rapidly approaching figures with red lasers.
Almost there. A ping sounded, letting her know that her weapon was at full capacity.
They hit the hull hard enough to leave dents in the metal. Samus ducked and rolled as a laser bolt whizzed over her head. She skidded to her feet and leapt over the fox who had shot at her. In mid-flight she activated a discus shaped grenade and tossed it at him. The fox was nimble enough to avoid the brunt of the blast but the shockwave knocked him off his feet. Samus caved his skull in.
Black had activated his plasma blade, an armament fitted in place of an arm-cannon, and was slashing through the enemy ranks like nobody's business. Pink was bringing up his rear, covering his back when needed and finishing off the foxes he might have missed.
Samus glanced up and caught glimpse of an efflux trail. She followed it to its source and scowled, an Arwing was banking around the ship's aft wing. She thought about using her arm-cannon to bring it down but decided against it. Instead she somersaulted backwards, placing a fox between her and the Arwing just as it released a volley of greenish bolts. She held out her arm-cannon as if to fire on the fox, he threw up a energy shield and involuntarily deflected the Arwing's bolts right back at it. The bolts ripped into the cockpit, sending the Arwing spiralling out of control. Samus revelled in the Arwing's demise until she saw it's trajectory.
It was careening straight for Pink.
Ice gripped her heart, "Jennifer!" she cried, using her friend's real name in a temporary lapse of panic. Jennifer looked up seconds too late. Samus had to watch in horror as her friend was reduced to a visceral smear on the hull.
Samus choked down her gorge and felt hot tears well up in her eyes. The fox who had inadvertently destroyed the Arwing wrapped her in a choke-hold and squeezed. She introduced his groin to her heel, turned, and unloaded her fully charged blast of superheated plasma point blank. Plasma was meant to melt metal and vaporize flesh, but it could have been argued that the poor fox wasn't vaporized so much as he simply ceased to exist.
Rage drew a red curtain over her vision. Jennifer, the woman who had been with her through thick and thin, who she had flown countless flight simulations with and who'd spent late nights with her working on their suits, was gone. She fought blindly, giving absolutely no quarter. Vaguely she saw Black fighting on the outskirts of the bloody swathe she had wrought, and then suddenly she was face to face with him. It was over.
He gave her a cautious nod, "I'm sorry Red," his voice was truly sympathetic.

"We need to find a way in," she said instead of acknowledging his sentiment.

"What about the bay the Arwing came out of?"

"Ya," she said. "Black, when we get in there, I don't care what you do as long as you stay out of my goddamn way. McCloud is mine. Understood?"

He nodded.

"Lets go."