Loneliness. A cold dark planet in a cold dark system far away from prying eyes. And with Crateria as its mask, there was no reason to think it harboured anything more than sad isolation…
Rain.
A soft continuous patter of acid rain, falling from clouds the colour of dirty ash.
Zebes wore a mask of hard etched rock and dark foreboding caves, a jagged welcome to any passing visitors. Or the rare bounty hunter. And the Hunter hadn't really been expecting anything overtly fancy when her gunship, a flash of blinding gold on a desolate gray plain, came in for a noisy landing. No. The vista of lonely alien rock that greeted her on arrival was exactly what she had been hoping for: a cold dark place to match her cold dark heart.
With nary a word or a sound she exited her ship.
The hollow clink of rain echoing inside her helmet was a calming noise and for a moment she closed her eyes. She heard nothing else. For one blessed moment, her poor fractured inner world was at peace; a fiery mind ablaze with hatred and agony lulled into temporary sleep by the gentle voice of an ancient planet. For one blessed moment, she was human. There were no Space Pirates, there was no Ridley, and she wasn't a bounty hunter. She was Samus Aran, and she was happy.
Behind a visor of muted green, she smiled.
But her happiness was cut short by a soft tinny beep from within her helmet, a harsh sound of technology that turned the gentle rainfall into something annoying. The smile fell in favour of an expressionless mask, and once more Samus Aran had become the Hunter. There was no hesitation in her movements. Following the new blip on her radar with mechanical precision she began the hunt.
And it was thus the sound of rain and far off thunder ceased, and the Hunter entered a world of soft shadows and softer noises, a place where it seemed as though time had come to a shuddering stop and nature continued on its slow relentless course without a care. If it weren't for the energy doors nestled between dripping wet rock it would have been beautiful, in its alien way. But the Space Pirate structures somehow seemed to blight the landscape, and the Hunter felt a cold hatred well up in the back of her mind.
A sudden hurried scuffling broke her from her thoughts, and looking up she saw a cluster of ground dwelling trilobites scurry away at her approach, disappearing into the stone walls as though they were not made of flesh and bone but of water and air. Once again she caught herself smiling and quickly rid herself of the expression. She was here to destroy the Space Pirates and recover the Metroid hatchling, not smile girlishly at such trivial things as the soft patter of rain or the fright of some local fauna.
No. She was here to destroy. And destroy she would.
The downward journey began with one emotionless step.