Ridley gets closer to me and the little alien this time. I always know I'm dreaming but yet I can never prevent or avoid the events that lead up to him catching me by surprise. I've fought Ridley and clones of him many times and by now I am consciously unafraid but in my dreams I am still that little girl who witnessed her parents being killed by him. I would like to think that the X-Ridley, the X-Parasites who took the form of Ridley, was the final incarnation of Ridley I'd ever fight but in my heart I knew that this wasn't true. The Space Pirates ability to clone and genetically manipulate species is almost unparalleled, and with Ridley being their most powerful soldier it is inevitable that I might come across him again. Ridley spews a fire ball aimed at myself and the little yellow rodent. The last thing I feel is the heat of the fire ball warming up my suit before I wake up.

I look out the front window of my ship and I can see the planet now known as LV-426 getting closer and closer. My rest in the sleep pod did nothing to assuage my fears of what may or may not have happened on this planet. The one thought that constantly reappeared was a dark one that made me selflishly question the motives of the Aurora Unit. If LV-426 was unknown to the Galactic Federation then how did the AU manage to pinpoint the distress call? A planet with technology so advanced that it has been able to remain hidden until now and yet they were able to send a distress call that is leading me to them. I push the thoughts of a set-up out of my mind. If the Aurora Unit was trying to kill me it could have done that months ago but yet it didn't. Once more I was pulled out of my thoughts but the voice of the Aurora Unit itself.

"Samus, I have pinpointed the exact location of the origin of the distress call. I cannot provide you with any map data but I will send the coordinates to your visor so you can trace the source. I have also transmitted the coordinates to your ship to set you down as close as possible. As said before, I have no idea what you will encounter down there so get to the point of origin as quick as possible and report. I will analyse whatever data you might find and then will further guide you in what to do next. I will also try hide the interception of this call but Samus, as the heads of the Galactic Federation personally control my functions it is implausible that I will be able to hide this message from them for long."

With the end of the transmission I understood completely the gravity of the possible situation. The AU wants me to hurry because it knows that the Galactic Federation will be sending a ship here as soon as they find out about the potential situation. To discover a new planet filled with a potential new species is a dream for the Federation, but to catch me too in the same movement would be even better. The Galactic Federation army is well trained but if even a portion of what I suspected about LV-426 turned out to be true then the army would not be at all prepared. They were unable to stop the Phazon threat and MB's plan for revenge. I know already that it is up to me to save them from any possible harm, especially if this turns out to be a Space Pirate planet.

My ship enters LV-426's atmosphere and I make my final preparations. The view of the planet confuses me slightly. It is a mountainous wasteland. There is no sign of civilisation anywhere. It is possible that the civilisation is underground but the parallels between this planet and Zebes are already haunting. Without landing my biggest fears were unfolding before my eyes and yet I know that I can't turn back. As my ship draws closer to the ground I begin to pick out something that is decidedly different from the rest of planet that I've seen so far; the remnants of what looks like a ship.

My ship lands and I know it is time to go. With a quick swipe of my hand against my Zero Suit I feel the familiar safety surround me and within moments I am clad in my Power Suit, the final gift given to me by the Chozo. The Chozo are a race of bird-like aliens that took me under their wing, metaphorically, after they saved me from the Space Pirate attack as a child. They infused some of their DNA with my own and gave me the training and the suit that has made me the warrior I am today. I get out of my ship and without even checking the coordinates I already know my destination is that ship I saw earlier. I am immediately struck by the deadness of the planet. No flora and no fauna. Just rocks and mountains. Still, experience has taught me that nothing is ever safe. I keep my arm cannon out as I head towards the ship. Instead of feeling relieved that there is no sign of anything threatening I just feel more dread. It is strange that there is not even tiny insects. Is it possible that this planet is nothing more than a rock that the ship crash landed on? If that was the case then what happened to cause the ship to crash in the first place?

The ship grows in size as I get closer to it. It is jutting out of the ground and bares the resemblance of a "U". I cautiously climb up the little hill expecting to be met by an enemy target but upon reaching the top I realize that again there is still nothing. The ship is gargantuan. I estimate it to be two-thirds the size of the Bottle Ship. Little did I know that the exterior of the ship was nothing compared to its interior. The exterior was cold and mechanical, like any ship but the inside was organic, like a living thing. Or something that was once alive. Skeletal like walls looked as if they had been decaying for a few decades and the living tissue like floors were just as bad. Something about the ship struck me odd, judging by the amount of decay there is no way the distress call could have been sent recently. A thermo-nuclear strike would explain the lack of life and the level of decay found within the ship. But, what was going on here that might have resulted in a nuclear strike? I remember on Elysia, the Aurora Unit devised a plan to break the protective barrier surrounding the Leviathan Seed. Before the destruction of Phaaze it is unknown just how many planets were infected by Phazon. I know by now that it is purely conjecture but I can only hope that if there is any danger here that I'll be ready for it.

I now follow the coordinates given to me but as I pass closer to the point of origin I notice that there has not been a single sight of any crew member, dead or alive. The dead gray causes the ship to blend together until I finally reach something out of the ordinary. There is a large mound coming out of the ground and the coordinates I've been given say that the origin of the distress call is at the top. With three jumps aided by my Space Booster I reach the top of the mound no problem only to finally be confronted with a surprise. A large control panel is raised in the air but it's not the control panel that interests. Sitting at the panel is the skeletal remains of a large, unknown species. I estimate the species to be close to 8 meters but in its current state it is impossible to accurately predict. I switch on my Scan Visor and scan the corpse. There is nothing at all that bears any resemblance within the Galactic Federation's archives that matches this alien. Hopefully the AU will be able to discover something on it. I search the alien's body and notice something peculiar, its ribs are broken but the bones are pointing out. As if something burst out of its chest. An injury like that would be fatal to nearly any species. I would have to keep my thoughts about what happened to this alien until I checked the ship's log. After a few minutes trying to get the control panel to work again I realize that it is futile. This ship and all of its power is long gone. It seems that I would have to check the rest of the ship and try find out myself.

I scan the rest of the large room from the top when my Visor picks up something unusual. A few feet from the control panel there is a large hole, large enough for me to fit through. As I saw nothing else before this room it seems like a good place to start. I jump down through the hole and land on a hard organic floor. The floor I'm on seems to be some form of raised platform but I can't see what lies beneath as a thick layer of mist envelopes the floor. I kneel down and wipe the mist away, the shock of what I see knocks me off my feet. Eggs. Hundreds and hundreds of eggs. My initial reaction and my reason for falling is that the eggs are very similar to Metroid eggs. I have to make sure. Maybe my fears that this was another Zebes were incorrect, what if this was another SR-338 -homeworld to the Metroids. I jump into the pit and get close to the eggs. I have to make sure. I'm in no danger as I learned from the Metroid hatchling that Metroids view the first humanoid they see as their mother. They are loyal and, as I sadly learned, they would give their lives to protect what they called "mother". As I get closer to the eggs, one in particular, I notice that they are larger than those of the Metroids. I take a scan for the AU maybe it could tell me what species these eggs belong too. Could these be the infant stage of the larger alien I saw above? Before I had time to form any more theories the egg closest to me opened up. I jump back and aim my arm cannon at the egg. If whatever is inside the egg is hostile then I'll be ready for it.

I wait for a minute but nothing happens. Nothing comes out of the egg. Considering everything else I've seen so far is dead, why should these eggs be any different? I slowly edge closer towards the egg, I'm sure the AU would like to know what kind of species lies inside. One step further and I'm caught completely unaware! Something jumps out of the egg and lands on my helmet. I try to pull whatever it is off my helmet but the sounds of my suit going into critical damage distracts me. I feel my strength draining and then I collapse, unconscious.