Part 1
Samus Aran's gunship exploded out of its warp-drive with barely a whisper of sound. Seated comfortably in the cockpit, Samus smoothly activated the communications channel with the Galactic Federation's Admiral Rockford on the control panel extending from the roof of her ship.
"Admiral. I have arrived in the uncharted space without resistance."
"Well done." Replied Rockford. "Continue investigations as you deem fit. As you are charting further territory for the Federation, be sure to conquer all opposition with an initial peaceful attempt, and then by whatever means possible." He paused, the silence giving meaning to his unspoken words. "Good luck, Aran."
Samus closed the communication channel and slowed her ship to a stop, carefully taking in her surroundings with the eyes of a hunter. All her years of experience as a bounty hunter had honed her solo investigation skills, and so, when Samus had been offered a chance to become a forerunner to a newly discovered corner of the galaxy, she had declined the recommendation of leading a Federation squadron, and set out by herself-something she was used to, and also preferred.
As she gazed across the millions of stars, a large, gray planet caught her eyes. Samus narrowed her eyes and set off towards it, commanding her ship to make a quick scan of it as she went.
"Planet unknown in the scope of the Galactic Federation database. 72% is covered in snow, the other 28% consisting of fragile caverns and ice flows. Exploration of this side is not recommended. Snow side of planet reveals signs of an advanced civilization. Caution suggested for contact."
Samus was surprised to find advanced life so far out from the Federation, but headed towards it anyway, hoping that the place was long since uninhabited. Out of precaution, she activated her ship's concealment shield-the Chozo technology would prevent her from being discovered by any unfriendly locals. She headed towards what looked like a large, metal tower, and landed her ship a fair distance away, in case of resistance. She took a final glance from the cockpit, and exited through the lower door of her ship. As soon as she was fully lowered out of her gunship, Samus activated her scanner. It revealed nothing of immediate interest, informing her that the ashen-coloured snow had corrosive properties that would easily eat through any human, though it barely even registered on her hazard warning meter.
'So this place isn't going to be able to be inhabited by any human settlers then.' She mused. But even though the planet wouldn't be a stable homeland for the human race, Samus still had to go on, in case there was anything valuable to be mined or, in this case, taken. Rising up in the distance, the metal tower was bigger than she expected-certainly not built by any humans. It was too far away for her to scan and so, senses on alert for resistance, she began to jog towards the behemoth structure.
Soon, Samus could just visualize the base of the tower-and it wasn't uninhabited after all. At first, her mind immediately linked the creatures there to Space Pirates. There were squat, standing on two legs, and their bodies had a mottled, reptilian appearance. Samus narrowed her eyes, and her visor obliged, zooming in on the creatures. No, not Space Pirates. These were thicker in the limbs and face, and didn't have their weapons melded to their arms, as the pirates did. They were also brighter coloured, and lacked the pirates' thinner, more defined features, instead looking blocky, with dog-like faces. She tried to scan them, but even though she was zoomed in, her scanners couldn't read them just yet. Samus noted that there were twelve of these smaller ones standing around the base of the tower. However, Samus was sure there would be more than these insignificant-looking creatures guarding the tower. Flicking to her thermal visor, she could make out half a dozen other creatures standing on the ramparts, and another again higher up on a solitary ledge. Again, she magnified her image of the beings on the battlements. Her heart thudded painfully as she saw the tall, bird-like creatures and mistook them for Chozo. She gritted her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut for a second, then, working her face free of emotion, opened her eyes and looked again. They were bird like, but were definitely not the beings of her foster race. Their muscular forearms and vulture-like heads were of an entirely different species, she was sure. Relaxing, she looked up to higher, to the last living thing on the tower. It too was a bird-like alien, but judging from its lengthened weapon and position, it was acting as a sniper.
Samus zoomed out again, and came to a decision quickly. Judging from the formations of the hostiles, they were not going to peacefully accept Samus, or the Galactic Federation for that matter. They were an obstacle, and so had to be removed. Besides, their uncanny similarities to Space Pirates gave Samus a very bad feeling-and she had learned to trust her instincts.
Samus coolly shifted into attack mode, calculating her best chances of taking the enemies. Since she couldn't scan them, she had no idea really of what they could do, and she hated taking on foreign opponents without knowing what she was up against. So first, she had to get close enough to scan them. And to do that…she had to take down the sniper. Samus bit her lip as she considered how to do it. None of her weapons were particularly suited for sniping-in fact, they were quite useless, as they all fired huge, brightly-coloured shots that moved…well, not slow, but not as quick as the federations sniping gu- oh. Of course. Samus suppressed a smile and moved quickly back to her ship, entering it and exiting just as fast-except now, she was carrying a Galactic Federation sniping rifle, left behind by her comrade Anthony Higgs when he had last travelled in her ship. She ran back to her scouting spot and prepared to fire it,
"Damn." She muttered. While Samus was perfectly capable of firing the rifle, having trained in the Federation's Army for many years, to accurately aim and fire it required her to raise to eye level, and use both hands-something she couldn't exactly do with an outward-jutting helmet and an arm cannon. Samus was acutely uncomfortable with removing her suit, but what had to be done had to be done. Samus concentrated, and her helmet, arm cannon and left hand cover melted away, revealing her blue Zero Suit. This suit too provided protection from the acidic snow, but not for as long as her Varia Suit would. The cold unexpectedly hit Samus in the face, and she wrinkled her nose, disliking being exposed to the elements so suddenly. Raising the rifle to eye level, she centered the locator on the small blob she knew to be the sniper. She drew in a deep breath, held it…and fired abruptly. The rifle made a small cough, but no greater noise, which Samus was grateful for. To her satisfaction, she saw the creature jerk and collapse into a heap on the platform-if it had fallen sideways, the enemies would have been alerted. She tossed the rifle aside and the remaining parts of her suit materialized again, cutting off the chill on her face. Now, it was time to do what she did best.
She sprinted towards the tower, staying low until she was about five hundred meters away. She was currently in the shadow of a small mound of ice, but all potential cover halted as she got closer to the tower. But now, she was close enough. She raised her fingers to her temple, and began to scan the smaller beings first.
"Creature is of unknown origin to any Federation or Chozo database. It appears to be equipped with a plasma gun, but lacks the range and precision of your own. Creature does not appear to be particularly physically advanced, but numbers indicate that it is likely to be used as the grunt force of its own military. Caution recommended, but not vital."
Samus smirked, likening them to the lightly-armed Space pirates who often faced the misfortune of going up against her. She then moved her scanner up to the bird-like creatures, her pace quickening reflexively.
"Creature is of unknown origin to any Federation or Chozo database. These creatures are armed with reflecting shields similar to that carried by Space Pirates. They are also equipped with long-range plasma guns. Caution recommended."
A sense of ease flowed through Samus as the scanning was complete. She switched her arm cannon to her most potent beam, the nova beam. She wasn't going to take any chances. An idea forming in her mind, she slipped into morph ball mode and rolled around the ice flow, away from the sight of the grunts. She travelled around until she was positioned directly in the line with the grunts, which seemed to be communicating with each other in a series of short squeaks and barks. Samus stood up, adrenaline buzzing through her veins. She began to charge her cannon, and an emerald ball of glowing plasma formed at its tip, green sparks spitting off it like a fire. Before any of the grunts could react, she released the shot, which blasted towards the first grunt and hit it square in the side of its chest, killing it instantly. But that wasn't the end of it. Due to its unique properties, the nova beam slammed through three more of the grunts before finally fizzing out, eating away at their armor and skin. Frenzied howls burst from the pack and Samus sprinted out, another charged shot already prepared. She rolled as a flurry of the grunts own plasma shots whizzed by her, and released her shot into the head of the closest grunt, which opened its mouth to scream, only to have its entire head melt. The bird-like creatures were screeching, and began to fire down on her as well. Samus, realizing she had to finish the grunts before she could take down the birds creatures-she decided to call them raptors- switched to her plasma beam, the one she had collected on Tallon IV. This one shot streams of molten lava instead of traditional plasma, something Samus was about to abuse. She winced as several of the raptor's shots struck her, but her shield held up well. Two grunts charged her, the others hanging back, weapons raised to fire if their comrades failed. Samus stepped in to meet them, ducking under the first one's outstretched blade and firing point blank into its stomach. The grunt squealed as it erupted into flame. Samus shoved the burning body at the other grunts, blocking their fire for a few moments, which was all she needed to sidestep the next grunt and slam her arm cannon into its skull with all her might, smashing its head in. She whirled around, her cannon fully charged, and combined the fully powered molten shot with her missile stock. Flames forcefully spewed from her arm cannon, and she swept the flamethrower across the line of grunts, setting the lot on fire and dazzling the raptors, who were still firing on her. The grunts howled, running around in circles, and Samus used their panic to aim her seeker missiles onto the pack. The projectiles burst from her arm in a swirling array, and each one found its target.
With no more grunts to contend with, Samus moved onto the raptors, which had recovered from their temporary blindness and were preparing to shoot. She switched to her ice beam-her flamethrower had terrible range-and fired small shots of sub-zero ice at them, and watched in satisfaction as several of her shots froze over the limbs of four of them. They screeched in rage, and the two who had avoided her attack leapt down, shields at the ready. Samus threw out her grapple beam, and latched onto the nearest ones shield. With a vicious yank, Samus ripped it off, smashing it to the ground. The raptor looked momentarily stunned, and Samus quickly did the same to the other, but this time, whipped the shield across, smashing the shield into the others' beaked face. It squawked, and Samus, switching back to her nova beam, fired several shots into its torso. The creature wailed as its body burned away, and Samus turned back to the other, only to see it firing its own gun at her. Activating her boosters, Samus flipped backwards, and her shields rippled as the shot glanced by. She twisted in midair, and fired again, taking out the raptors legs. It screamed, so Samus sent her next shot right into its mouth, choking it-silencing it. The remaining four on the battlement were still trying to free their limbs from the blocks of ice. Samus, seeing an opportunity, changed back to ice beam and, combining it with her missiles, fired her ice spreader. Immediately, all were frozen sold in a hunk of glistening ice, and Samus automatically fired a devastating super missile, shattering the ice and the remains of the creatures inside.
Samus stood among the bodies for a few seconds, savoring the silence, when the thick bolted doors at the towers base groaned, and suddenly swung open. Two huge, reptilian creatures in armor sprinted out towards Samus, so fast she had no time to even contemplate scanning them. Her warning sensors screamed as the first one raised its gun and fired a bolt of plasma at her-much, much faster than that of the grunt. Samus barely had time to sidestep it before the creature fired again, this time aiming where she was about to move to. The shot slammed into her, and to her shock, she immediately lost three quarters of one of her energy tanks. Samus snarled and went back on the offensive, dodging the strike of the second reptile and firing a semi-charged shot at the nearest one. A glowing silver blue skin seemed to shimmer into existence as her shot hit the reptile, and then it faded away- her shot hadn't even harmed it. Nevertheless, the creature looked surprised, and Samus guessed that she had just taken a good chunk out of its own shield. The elites-for surely they were the backbone force of whatever this army was – separated, standing on both her sides and making it impossible to fire at both at once. Both simultaneously raised their weapons and Samus leapt high into the air, and then space jumped left towards the elite whose shield she had weakened before, activating her Screw Attack. Deadly arcs of electric energy spun around her as she spiraled towards the elite, and it snarled as it raised a mammoth hand to bat her away. And then she hit its shield. The creature shrieked in rage as the deadly energy of the Screw Attack seared through the damaged energy screen and then, much to its surprise, sliced through its hand. The elite behind Samus roared and started towards her, but it was too late. Samus uncoiled in mid air and bought her charging power beam down into the gaping mouth of the screaming elite-and fired. It convulsed and made a horrible gargling sound before keeling over backwards, dead. Samus spun around to the last elite and, not giving it a chance to react, quickly switched into morph ball mode and boosted right into its shield. It held, but the elite was thrown backwards by the kinetic force. Seeing an opportunity, Samus unrolled and sent out her grapple beam towards the elite, activating the grapple voltage feature. She latched onto the shield, and greedily began to absorb the energy, watching in satisfaction as her shields recharged. The elite, quickly realizing what she was doing, stumbled up and attempted to grab onto her grapple beam, presumably with the intentions of yanking her around with it. But Samus didn't give it the chance. She yanked her arm cannon backwards, retracting the beam, and activated her boosters, propelling herself towards the creature. She landed on top of the damaged shield and prepared to unleash a charged nova blast. But the elite, sensing that its shields might not hold up, swatted her off with surprising speed. Samus managed to avoid the worst of the damage, but her shot skated off its shield as she flew sideways, and the beam cut a burning line in the ashy snow. The elite, not wasting its chance, unsheathed a deadly glowing energy blade and rushed at Samus, who was still airborne. Samus acted on instinct, switching to her wave beam. A shot of purple electricity arced towards the elite as her feet touched the ground, and the creature snarled, raising the blade to block the shot, barely two meters away from her. And then, as Samus suspected, the wave beam fizzled along the length of the blade, which sparked violently-and died. The elite froze, and made a noise of utter disbelief as its deadly weapon suddenly turned into no more than a metal sword. Samus flicked back to her nova beam and sent a barrage of shots at the elite, which bellowed in fury as its damaged shields winked out. It aimed its gun at her and charged, firing off a volley of plasma shots in a last ditch attempt to take her down. But Samus, having activated her plasma beam again, boosted upwards, charging a deadly molten shot. Several shots grazed her shield, dipping it down, and she lost an energy tank as she fired the scorching shot at the elite's firearm. It screeched as the gun fizzled and melted into its skin-and was silenced as Samus blasted it a second time in chest. The flames exploded over the elite's body, and it roared a death cry as its armour and flesh seared. Finally, it dropped into the snow, its charred face fixed in a ghastly snarl.
Adrenaline rushed through Samus' body as she waited. But no more enemies attacked her-at least not yet. Samus exhaled and turned towards the door of the goliath tower. Clearly, there would be more of these enemies inside. But what on earth were they? Samus walked over to the elite who she had shot in the mouth-its body was less damaged, and so would be easier to examine. As she activated her scanner, she noticed that she had lost one and a half energy tanks. She still had eight full ones left, but she hoped she would get a chance to recharge them.
"Creature is of unknown origin to any Federation or Chozo database. It has suffered severe head and throat trauma, as well as damage to its left hand. Although unrelated to any known Space Pirate forces, it does share slight physical resemblance to the Elite Pirates of the great Phazon Crisis. Enemy possesses a plasma rifle, energy shield generator and an energy sword. Caution highly recommended."
Curious. Now that she looked, it was true there was a resemblance to the elite pirates of the Great Phazon Crisis. But she was certain they had all been eliminated-by her personally. Any resemblances had to be coincidence. Whatever these things were, Samus hoped there were more answers in the tower. She approached the door and scanned it, trying to hack into whatever was keeping it whatever they were, they were either internal, or invisible to all her visors. Samus tried again, this time examining what the door was primarily made of. Finding that it was laced with denzium, Samus slipped into morph ball mode and rolled up to the door, making sure she was directly in its centre. She quickly sprang up with the morph ball jump, and released a power bomb. The almost nuclear power of the blast spread slowly in a spherical radius, ad Samus quickly rolled backwards, not wanting to be crushed by the doors. There was a thunderous crash as the doors were blasted clean off, cracks spider webbing across them as they smashed into the ground. The snow around the entrance was vaporized, as were the bodies of two grunts that had fallen in front of the door. Samus uncurled and looked at the destruction she had wrought with a cool satisfaction. The corridor ahead was, for the moment, obscured with particles of metal and dust. Samus activated her thermal visor, and winced as the heat marks left by her bomb seared across the screen. She quickly switched to her X-ray visor. Although not as good for identifying enemies, it allowed her to see through everything-walls and all. And to her surprise, she saw the outlines of two of the raptor creatures hiding just on the edges of the entrance. Surprised by their bravery-or stupidity-, Samus changed to her nova beam and stalked forward, her combat visor alerting her to the exact position of the two creatures. Three paces from the doorway, she heard the one on her left give a hushed, nervous chitter.
Taking that as her cue, she boosted forwards, rolling and came up, firing a blast of burning lava at the raptor that had made the noise. It screeched and stumbled left, and her beam burned a smoldering line into the wall. She heard the raptor behind her aim its plasma gun, and in close quarters, Samus had no time to charge up any effective shots. She lunged at the stumbling raptor, grabbing its muscled left forearm with her right hand, and twisted it around so that it was between her and the other raptor. The firing raptor quickly jerked its gun, and the shot it was about to fire into Samus instead hit the wall. Wasting no time-who knew if they would eventually shoot through each other- Samus bought her arm cannon down hard onto the raptors elbow. It wailed as it crunched and snapped, and Samus shoved it forward into the other raptor-which abruptly shoved it back. The raptor in the middle yowled as it was pushed back and forth, and Samus, wishing to end the game, brutally shoved her arm cannon lengthways under its beak, grabbed the right side of its head with her left hand and snapped its neck. It crumpled, and not giving the other one the chance to retaliate, she rushed towards it and, ducking under its clawed swipe at her helmet, rammed her bulky shoulder into its gun arm, which crackled as it was crushed under it. It screamed and slashed at her again with its good hand, dropping its gun. Samus merely blocked it with her cannon, and, twisting it so its arm was pinned in between her arm and torso, she brought her elbow down, snapping its other arm. It opened its beak to scream again, and Samus grabbed its throat, her fingers digging into the scaly flesh as she rose. With a yell she slammed its head into the wall, again, and again, and when she saw blood spatter out the back of its head, she ground it into the wall and dragged it sideways, leaving a bloody streak upon the tarnished surface as its corpse fell.
Samus was now breathing heavily, and a part of her wondered why she was getting so worked up. The answer came clear to her-these creatures' resemblance to the Chozo was messing with her head, causing her to lash out in anger. At what, she wasn't sure. She straightened up shakily, determined to return things to normal. She checked her energy tanks-only a fraction of them lost during that particular tussle. Her hazard warning meter was still reacting to the acidic snow outside, and her missile count was 165 out of 200. What concerned her most was her enemy radar. A cluster of orange dots were showing up, and seemed to be located beyond the next doorway, only three meters away from her. Samus wished she could find some sort of database to hack into so she could find out why so many alien species were communing together. She was confident she could manage her foes on the other side of the door, but it wouldn't hurt to be careful. She looked around hopefully for something she could drain to restore her energy, but these raptors weren't carrying energy shields like the last ones, and the little room was bare. Well, at least she could restore her missiles. As Samus activated her Accel Charge, her thought flickered involuntarily to the Baby. Her last mission on the Bottle Ship had dredged up memories she had wanted to forget, and now she was keen to further shove them into the back of her mind. Now wasn't the time for morbid reminiscences. There was a soft 'ching' as her arm cannon was fully restocked and, switching to her nova beam and breathing in deeply, she approached the softly lit door. It slid open with a hiss, and Samus entered the room. It was far bigger than the previous, the grey metal walls stretching hundreds of meters into the air. There were a few block-like structures scattered around, each one about seven feet high. Another doorway was situated at the far end of the room. And standing between her and the doorway was a mixture of about fifty grunts, raptors and elites, all roaring-wanting her blood.
"Damn."
Samus vaulted over the square block and dropped down onto the last grunt who was feverishly trying to pull a grenade from its belt. It looked up and snarled, in a last ditch attempt to make a stand, but Samus was too damn irritated to care. As it began to release the pin, Samus curled her hand into a fist and backhanded the grunt with all her strength. The grunt made no sound as its neck snapped, and it crumpled to the ground, its twisted head glaring up at her blankly in death. Samus quickly stepped out from behind the block, checking with her X-ray visor for any remaining enemies. But to her relief, there were none. Samus shakily leant against the nearest wall, unsteadily observing the destruction she had wrought. She had used the nova beam the most, vaporizing the limbs and heads of the smaller grunts and burning the bodies of the raptors and elites. She had also found that boost-balling into the grunts and raptors an effective way to crush their torsos and appendages. The elites had been more trouble to deal with, their shields proving irksome to dismantle. Her ice spreader had been useful in stopping their movements, and she had managed to trap their arms and legs in ice before shattering them with missiles many times. The bloody splinters of ice around the room were evidence to that. Her wave beam had also helped paralyze the movements of the raptors and grunts, and she had completely abused her missile stock, firing off so many super missiles in the battle she had only 65 left. She had sustained some serious damage, and had only five of her ten energy tanks left. She had had absolutely no time at all to absorb the shields of the elites, and now there was nothing left at all for her to scavenge. She pushed off from the wall, rolling her shoulders to try and ease the stiffness. She hoped she had taken out the bulk of the enemy forces in this massacre, because she was really getting tired of these guys.
Samus activated her X-ray visor again, checking beyond the next door, but nothing moved. She walked up to it, but to her surprise, it didn't open. She tapped it with her hand. Still nothing. She quickly scanned the door. It had been jammed in position - whether from the fighting or on purpose, she wasn't sure. However, it seemed to be pretty flimsy. Samus rocked back, and then launched a powerful push kick at the door. The door screeched and bent inwards, leaving a gap between itself and the doorframe. Samus grasped it firmly and, with a jerk, ripped the door out of its opening. She whirled and tossed it far, the door landing on one of the far right walls. There was a ramp leading upwards and, sensing no enemies, Samus walked cautiously up. The ramp continued for a while, and when she reached the top, Samus calculated she had climbed about forty stories. Through the next doorway there was a single hanging catwalk across the length of the room which joined onto a walkway that lined the outer wall. Several other catwalks hung above her, all leading to other, higher walkways, and there was a single door across the room. About one hundred meters below her was floor. No creatures in sight. Samus began to walk across the catwalk when suddenly, a muted thump sounded from behind her. She whirled around, arm cannon poised. The sound seemed to have come from below her, in the previous room. Surely she hadn't missed an enemy? Or was one of them alive, and moving about?
'No, that's impossible.' Samus thought to herself. 'I finished the job back there. 'Which means…there is something new here.' She activated her X-ray visor, but the structure of the metal walls prevented her from getting a clear picture of what was in there. But there was movement. Whoever this new enemy was, they were certainly going to come this way. Samus looked around again, and spied one of the catwalks above her had a nice looking metal handhold on it she could use. She shot out her grapple beam, attaching it firmly to the handrail. Samus swung upwards and outwards, landing on a higher walkway. She walked around until she was above and to the left of the doorway she had been heading towards. There was a metal column supporting the pathway above her, so she hid behind it, still keeping an eye on the creature through the column with her thermal visor. She waited, and listened. The footsteps were quiet, almost too soft for her to make out. Immediately, she saw the figure. Samus frowned as she studied it through the cylinder of metal. It wasn't one of the creatures she had fought before. This one looked about her size, and was bipedal too. The outline was bulky-perhaps some sort of armor. As the figure stopped at the doorway, it peeked around- a decidedly human action. Samus' mind was racing. Was this a human? Or just another, more cautious enemy? Probably the latter, as the only humans here would be from the Federation, and they knew she was here, and so also knew not to interfere. Samus' whirling thoughts froze as the figure, apparently having decided it was clear, slipped though the doorway, hugging the wall. The figure looked around, checking out the walls, floor and roof. Samus saw them preparing the cross the catwalk, so she switched back to her combat visor, curious but cautious as the prepped her nova beam and peered around the column. Suddenly, the figure began to sprint across the catwalk, the heavy footfalls resounding throughout the structure. For a second, the speed of the creature shocked her-it was just as quick as she was, maybe faster than her while she was in her Varia Suit. But then she took in its appearance. An olive-green suit. Bulky chest plating. And as it ran, a flash of yellow visor. Weavel!