The sky is a haze of endless purple poison. The never-ending silence here would drive anyone insane. But there is no one here. Except for Samus. Samus and the Ing. All the previous heroes, all the Luminoth who fought, are dead. Just like everything else in Dark Aether.
Occasionally, an echo breaks the silence. The echoes... they can be heard moving...upwards. It is not quite possible to tell where they're coming from. It's been over one Earth-month since Samus landed on Aether. It feels like six.
Will I ever get out of this place?
This Dark World journey has lasted about eight days so far. Over an entire Earth-week since Samus has last seen light.
So lonely...
There is a quiet grunt nearby.
So tired...
The five-legged Ing creeps closer. Samus comes to her senses, but it's too late.
Wait, what's that.."AAH!"
The Ing is already in it's gas form, surrounding Samus. Two sharp legs reach out of the gas and pull Samus down, binding her. The suit starts to corrode from this contact. While held down on her back, she can do nothing to attack the strong Ing. Samus is in a death-grip and her suit is being destroyed. The Ing's legs speed up the corrosion where they're gripping her sides. Dark Aether's atmosphere is deadly, and hole in the suit would mean fatal exposure.
Samus fires her grappler at the ceiling. The beam of energy makes contact and pulls Samus free. She turns upside down and slams into the ceiling. With powerful boosters she launches herself back at the Ing, light cannon charging. Back in it's beast form, the Ing uses three legs to lunge itself up at Samus and gives her suit a huge gash before she can fire. After slamming face-first into the ground, her visor is full of static. The Ing is approaching. Fast. Unable to focus or see, she gets up and fires reckless blind shots.
A grueling grunt of pain echoes through the sky.
The static clears. Samus sees the warrior charging full speed. She fires again; dead-on. Light peirces the Ing. It's bleeding life-energy but it won't stop. Aggression and fear overcomes Samus. Nothing has ever been this scary before, and death had never been more real. From her arm cannon is unleashed a massive combination of light and missles. The Ing Warrior falls a few meters short of reaching it's prey. Samus doesn't stop. She obliterates the body with all her rage until its remains evaporate by whatever twisted physics make it do so.
Samus looks down at her side.
Oh no... NO!
There is a small gash in the suit, going all the way through.
She holds the spot with her hand as she coughs from the atmosphere and stumbles away as fast as possible. The closest portal chamber is too far. Dark Aether's poison...is leaking into the suit.
