Metroid: Origins
Summary:
The discovery of two ancient and unidentifiable ships in the UPC-357GG1 system leads the Federation on a hunt to find their origin before the Space Pirates can use these new ships' power to take over the galaxy.
Fic Rating: T/PG-13 for Violence and Language
Chapter Rating: K+
Warnings: Spoilers for all released Metroid games.
Disclaimer: I do not own Metroid, any affiliated characters, stories, places etc. This story is a non-profit venture and was not written with the intention of making money.
A/N: This is my first story in something like 2 years - and my first Metroid fic - so I'm probably a bit rusty. Con-crit and any hints or suggestions are defiantly welcome. On this chapter: It's really a prologue, but for the sake of not going insane when it comes to chapter numbers on the drop-down menu I'm just leaving it as Chapter 1. None of these characters are major or recurring.
The Terran ship Ionian exited hyperspace just outside UPC-357GG1, a small unexplored, planetary system on the outskirts Galactic Federation territory. For those in the bridge of the star ship it was a sight to behold as they passed by the six beautiful gas giants, each surrounded by their own mini-system of moons. However, the Ionian was on a search and rescue mission, so admiration of the aesthetic beauty of the planets would have to wait.
"Have we got a clear lock on the distress signal?" asked Captain William Lockheart to his communications officer.
"Affirmative sir. It's near the third planet from the sun, the signal seems to be coming from the smallest moon," she replied bringing up a hologram of the planet - moon highlighted - for the crew to see. Lockheart nodded and proceeded to open up a communications link with the Galactic Federation outpost that had alerted him of the signal.
"This is the Earth Ship Ionian reporting to Galactic Federation outpost on Kerkon V. We have identified the location of the mysterious distress signal," reported the Captain.
"Thank you Captain Lockheart. Can you send us a constant visual stream?" reported the squid-like entity on the other end of the line. The Captain nodded in agreement and instructed the crew to activate the sub-light engines.
Lockheart sat back in his chair and contemplated what they might find. The distress signal was broadcast in most Federation languages and several unknown dialects. It was obvious that a highly advanced race was sending this message, quite possibly the chozo; although he would not admit this to his crew just yet. If so, the more urgent question was: What could make a chozo ship send out a distress signal?
"Captain we have a visual of the moon," informed someone from the deck, breaking William's thought. "But the scanners are picking up more than one ship on the surface."
Projected in the centre of the bridge was a hologram of two separate, and distinctly different ships, both of which were suffering severe hull damage. Results of the initial scans were presented to Lockheart on a hand-held computer device. It seemed that only the passengers on one ship managed to survive.
He re-opened the transmission with the Kerkon V outpost and sent the data to the overseer on the other end. Hopefully the federation databanks would be able to determine the origin of the ships.
"William, we have discovered something very interesting…" he paused. "It would seem that ships of this design are not on any records."
"Not even out-dated records?" asked Lockheart.
"I've run a full search of the database and cross-compared with all available informatio…" but before the overseer could respond, the transmission ceased. Lockheart looked around to see if any of his crew had made the move.
"What's going on?" he called, rage filling his voice.
"Sir it would seem that our transmission is being blocked," answered the communications officer, frantically typing at her post. She froze for a moment, a look of horror spreading across her face. "Sir we have a Code Black. I repeat; Code Black. A Space Pirate vessel has exited hyperspace just outside the system." The hologram changed to a map of the system, showing the location of both ships. Readings showed that at the current rate there would be an encounter within five minutes. Suddenly another blip appeared on the hologram; another Space Pirate ship had emerged. Everyone turned to look at Lockheart.
"I think it would be safe to assume that we would have an exceptionally low chance of success if we stay and fight. I believe our best course of action is to try and get out of the system, send a message to the Kerkon V outpost make a jump to hyperspace as quickly as possible," he instructed. But as he concluded, two more ships appeared on the hologram. Unlike the other two, both of the newcomers were destroyer-class ships which meant they were heavily armed and very effective at eliminating threats. It was quickly becoming obvious that there wasn't much hope of escape. It was then he made his decision.
"Lieutenant," he said, addressing his second in command. "I would like all of our hyperspace capable shuttles launched, however they are not to engage the enemy. Their mission will be to carry as many passengers as possible to the nearest safe-zone and to alert the Federation to what is going on. To fly them pick our best pilots. The remaining crew will remain on-board. We will try to escape, however it does not look like we will succeed. Send out the order immediately, we have about 3 minutes until we engage the enemy."
Lockheart turned away from his crew to stare out the window at the sun of UPC-357GG1, admiring the last vista he would ever see…