The ship filled my viewport as I took the gunship through a second flyby. It was obviously a space frigate, though it did not appear to be a warship. There were no visible gun turrets or missile batteries. And the gunship's sensors did not pick up and tracking systems. But oddly enough, there were no signs of an attack. No debris, no bodies…a ship this size did not get jumped without the attackers leaving something behind.

"SAAR, do we have any record of this ship?"

"None listed, Samus Aran."

"Are we picking anything up from the ship at all?"

"Signs of life have been detected throughout the interior of the ship, Samus Aran."

I breathed. There were survivors, then. They would have answers. "Find me a docking bay and set us down."

"One moment, please."

The autopilot kicked in as SAAR piloted the ship towards the frigate. After a few minutes, SAAR found a suitable place to land. The ship shuddered as it entered an artificial gravity field, and then came to a hovering stop at the edge of a gangplank.

"Docking completed."

"Run a diagnostic on the Varia Suit."

"One moment, please."

From what I could see, the gangplank moved about ten feet up the dock to a force field gate. Standard security for pretty much every ship made these days. The gate was a security checkpoint that was typically manned by two or three guards. This one was deserted, though. The guards probably left to deal with whatever had assaulted the ship. The force field was still up, though. But that was not a problem. The override switches could be activated from my position.

"Systems diagnostic commencing. Missile Launcher, online. Charge Beam, online. Morph Ball, online. Morph Ball Bomb, online. Grapple Beam, online. Heads-Up Display, online. User Interface, online. Diagnostic complete. No error has been found."

"Then let's go."

The exterior hatch opened. I vaulted through it and landed on the gangplank outside with a heavy thud. Obviously, the artificial gravity was meant for a more durable species. But it was nothing the Varia Suit could not handle. I rose up and surveyed the area.

"SAAR, communication test."

"Testing."

"Received."

One of SAAR's best features was wireless communication powerful enough to be picked up from thousands of miles away. The engineers told me it was foolproof, but I always checked it before leaving on a mission. Better safe than sorry. SAAR could update me with any information I needed. In my opinion, that more than made up for his quirks.

"SAAR, tell me about this gate."

"There are four override switches hidden inside the field generators."

"Onscreen."

The generators appeared through my visor display as SAAR showed them to me. "You will not be able to manually activate them. However, pinpoint shots from your weapon should be more than adequate."

"Scan for other gates and have the switch locations ready for me." I lined up my beam cannon on the first switch and fired. Sparks flew as the beam penetrated and destroyed the switch. Three shots later, the force field sputtered and disappeared. I smiled and moved forward. There were more gates like the first just ahead, and they were dealt with accordingly. After a while, we came to an airlock door.

"There is an energy field covering this door," SAAR told me. "It requires beam shots to open."

I nodded. More standard technology. The airlock opened with a hiss, then a roar as air vented into deep space. I stepped inside.

"You have entered an emergency evacuation area," SAAR said. "Caution: the environment is unstable."

I frowned. "Advice?"

"Maintain Varia Suit lockdown."

I rolled my eyes. The Varia Suit was always locked down. "Thank you, SAAR."

"You're welcome."

I activated a nearby console and ordered the airlock to pressurize. Once atmosphere had been restored, the far door opened. Another corridor led me to another beam door. That one proved stubborn; the mechanisms were faulty and made activation slow. But when it did open…

"SAAR, what I am looking at?"

"Improper query. Scan and upload information."

I'd stepped into a room full of the honeycomb holes one normally found on ships with escape pods. All the pods had been jettisoned, but what had made me pause was the massive creature lying in the middle of the room. It was obviously dead, which I felt was the only redeeming quality of the thing. The massive set of mandibles on its head and the razor-sharp tips of its legs told me this thing was a predator. And a big one. I obliged SAAR and had my Varia Suit scan and send a picture to him.

"Morphology: Unkown. High levels of radiation detected. Proceed with caution."

"No touching." I gave it a once over as I slipped past it. "Roger. No problem."

"SAAR advises Samus Aran to give SAAR live feed from the Varia Suit camera."

"Sure thing." I tapped my wrist and activated the key input hidden there. I typed in the command code. "Done. Reading?"

"Yes, Samus Aran."

"Let me know if you pick up anything."

"Yes, Samus Aran. SAAR advises Samus Aran to inspect the unknown life form for analysis."

I impatiently stared at the dead creepy thing, letting SAAR collect his data. "Samus Aran. Analysis shows incredibly large muscle structures surrounding the jaw area. Fluid sacs containing acid have also been detected."

"Lovely." Yes. Very happy it was dead. The Varia Suit did not handle acid well, and this thing was big enough to swallow me alive.

A scuttling noise caught my attention. The HUD registered movement along the wall to my right. I swiveled and raised my arm cannon, but put it down when I caught sight of the source. It was a much, much smaller creature, similar in appearance to the larger one behind me. "SAAR, scan."

"Morphology: Parasite. Interstellar vermin. Travel in swarms. Indigenous to Tallon IV, a single parasite is harmless to larger life forms."

I cocked my head and watched the parasite. It was kind of cute.

"However, they tend to travel in large groups, swarming over potential prey. Such swarms can be dangerous."

Ah, there's the rub. Nature was never cute. I fired a shot to the parasite's left and sent it scurrying away. "SAAR, were these the life signs you detected?"

"Yes. But there are larger forms deeper in the ship. Different."

"Direct me."

"There is one other door leading out of this room. Take it."

I found the door easy enough. But next to it was a panel of computer screens. I could see the word "pod" flashing faintly across the screens as I went to inspect it. The computer was damaged, probably from whatever that thing was, but I found a keyboard and beginning scrolling through the info. I begin trying to find where the escape pods launched to. Escape pods were not meant for interstellar travel, so the only place they could have gone would be to the planet surface nearby. If I found them, I found the survivors.

Bingo.

Wait.

"SAAR, run data check for 'Tallon IV Research Facility'"

"No file found."

Bad Samus. SAAR didn't have it because that was a name the ship owners had given a privately owned structure. But then again, why research facility? Why not "base" or something?

"SAAR, are you picking up transmissions from the planet?"

"No, Samus Aran."

"From the ship?"

"No, Samus Aran."

Giant, never-before-seen bugs and an unknown "research facility" on an uninhabited and dying planet. That didn't sound legitimate at all. "Scan the ship and run it through your library for any similar ships on record. We're not proceeding another foot until I know what this kind of ship is used for."

"One moment, please."

While I was waiting I went to inspect the bug. It was at least twenty feet long from head to tail. The front legs were longer than I was tall. Burns covered most of the main body, mainly the chest cavity. They looked like they had come from blaster fire. I walked around the room to the other side of the monster and noticed the pile of rubble it was laying on. A cursory inspection revealed a hole about ten feet up the wall behind it. The edges looked fused and melted.

So. Whatever this thing was, it had broken through the wall to get through to this room. Since it was so obviously a predator, it may have come in after the escaping crew, where it was terminated. The crew then made their escape to a home base planet side and left the ship here. A ship this size was not just left, though. Whoever owned it would be coming back for it.

"Information retrieved. Ship is a modified research frigate, containing onboard laboratories and facilities designed for scientific pursuits. They are widely used by government-funded schools and other establishments as places of learning, but are readily available on the civilian market."

Someone was working on something here. Worse case scenario, an experiment went wrong and the crew was forced to evacuate. Most likely scenario, something caught fire and someone panicked.

Negative. I gave the bug another look before leaving the room. I was probably dealing with a worse-case scenario here. "Proceed as planned, SAAR. Let's search for survivors. We'll head down to Tallon IV if we find none up here."

"Yes, Samus Aran."

SAAR led me deeper into the ship, past sparking machinery and rubble-filled hallways. Occasionally I could hear sounds through the wall, ceiling, or floor. More parasites moving through the ship, judging from the HUD readings. They were not the creatures I was worried about. I was more interested in figuring out what the dead thing in the other room was. Where it had come from? And why it was here, so far from any wilderness whatsoever? And more importantly, were there any more on board? Because anything that could melt its way through a denzium wall was something I preferred to avoid. I did not get this far in the galaxy by running headfirst into danger.

"Life signs ahead."

I stopped. "Say again?"

"Life signs ahead, Samus Aran. In the next room."

I fired a burst into the beam door and stepped inside. And stopped.

"Wow…"

Right in front of me was a tube, stretching from floor almost all the way to the ceiling. The floor was a good twelve feet below me. I was an upper level overlooking a large laboratory. A destroyed laboratory. Broken glass covered the lower level. I looked around and noticed a second tube, similar to the first, only broken. All the glass was scattered around the tube. That told me it had been broken from the inside.

And from seeing the second giant bug-thing inside the first tube, I got a pretty good idea about what had broken out. Hanging suspended inside its prison, the monster drifted in some sort of fluid, with what looked like a hose coming from its mouth and leading up into the ceiling. Probably an air supply. I walked forward to get a closer look. The bug suddenly turned its head and looked at me. The thing was alive.

"Life signs found."

Now he tells me. "SAAR, is this the same kind of creature we found earlier?"

"Yes. It also shares appearances and anatomy with the parasites located inside the ship."

"Is this part of the normal parasite life cycle?"

"No."

The creature turned away. "Subject is being held in artificial hibernation," SAAR said. "Low life signs detected."

"SAAR, designate this animal as 'hyper-parasite' and scan for others like it."

"Entry added to logbook. Beginning scan. One moment, please."

The level I was on extended to the far side of the room. I walked along it, looking over the room. At the base of the tube, monitors gave what looked like readings of some sort, though from my vantage point I could not make any of the words out. I did, however, find a holograph of the hyper-parasite displayed on a nearby wall and went to inspect it.

It did not just go over the finer details of the hyper-parasite. It showed me what appeared to be the entire parasite life cycle. The parasites gave live birth, hatching from eggs and developing as embryos inside the mother's body. They grew larger as they fed, growing up to three feet long before becoming mature enough to mate. It was surprisingly interesting. I scrolled through the data, wanting to learn more.

The fluid sacs around the mouth enlarge after mutation…

Wait, what?

...This allows for increased production of corrosive bile.

"Scan completed. No 'hyper-parasite' found."

"SAAR, analyze this data."

"The file details parasite mutations, Samus Aran. These mutations occur when the parasite is exposed to an unspecified compound."

After mutation, the carapace of the larva becomes more rigid. The primary legs of this creature possess galvanized tips, allowing it to penetrate any known alloy.

"Did you say mutation, SAAR?"

"Yes, Samus Aran."

"Artificial mutation?"

"Yes, Samus Aran."

Combat mutation applications are complete.

This was sickening. I whirled around and went back to the hyper-parasite. "SAAR, did you pick up radiation from this creature? Like you did the last one?"

"Yes, Samus Aran."

I went through the room, searching for more holographs or consoles. I found one, barely working, also mounted on the wall. I went to it and begin browsing.

Specimen, Cell A. Transference of Phazon batch 0081.0 complete. Readings normal.

"SAAR, run a search for 'Phazon'."

"No data found."

"SAAR, run a scan for any radiation levels matching those of the creatures we've found."

"One, moment, please….scan completed. Radiation detected in the lower levels of the ship, near the reactor core."

"Show me the quickest route to that location."

My visor lit up with the image of a map. There was a blue trail leading through the multiple hallways of the ship, but the room I wanted was highlighted and had a nice, big arrow hanging over it. I closed the map and moved further on. Now I was more determined than ever to find a survivor. I wanted to know exactly who was conducting these experiments and why.

All life was sacred. Life was not meant to be tampered with by anybody. I stepped into another room just in time to here, "Enemy contact."

I dove backwards as three balls of energy slammed into the spot I'd just been standing. I swung my cannon around the corner and began launching suppressive fire. "SAAR!"

"Enemy is an automated turret designed to fire on movement."

I yanked my cannon back as the turret returned fire. Those blasts weren't too strong. The Varia Suit would be able to deal with them just fine. I did a quick three-count and stepped back into the room, activating my missile launcher as I did so. The turret fired directly into my chest, but the shots splashed harmlessly on the suit's shielding. A small beep sounded as I got a missile lock. I fired, and the turret disappeared in the explosion.

"Enemy destroyed."

Automated turrets were not standard technology. Only military groups had those. "SAAR, is this a Federation ship?"

"Unknown. Not likely."

If this room was protected by illegal technology, then that meant there was something in here worth hiding and protecting. I looked around. There were more computers here, lined around yet another experiment tube. But this one…

It looked like the other hyper-parasites I had seen. The jaws hang open as it limply flopped around in its containment, propelled by an unseen current. I could see an exposed ribcage with great strands of flesh hanging off of it. What looked to be its internal organs followed behind the body. The entire creature was glowing with a faint blue color. What little skin remained intact was covered with lesions and blisters.

"This is horrible…"

"This specimen has been horribly mutated. There are no life readings."

I went to the monitors. Unlike the others, these were functioning perfectly. Yes, whoever ran this ship wanted to make sure this room stayed untouched, or at the very least salvageable. I picked one at random and switched it on. When it was done booting up I seleceted a promising looking file and clicked it.

"Access denied. For authorized personnel only."

"SAAR, hack this file."

"Begin decrypting sequence."

From my index finger extended a male USB port. I slipped into the computer and let SAAR do his thing.

"Space Pirate data decoded."

"What - !"

Zebes has fallen. All ground personnel are presumed dead, killed by the Hunter clad in metal or in the subsequent destruction of the underground facilities…

It couldn't be possible. And yet, there it was. This was a Space Pirate ship. "SAAR, make a record of this."

"New entry added to logbook."

Our research frigates Orpheon, Siriacus and Vol Paragom were in orbit at zero hour and managed to retreat. Frigate Orpheon is now docked at Vortex Outpost. Orpheon's cargo appears to have a 100% survival rate; metroids are healthy but on restricted feeding schedules due to uncertain supply status. We are ready to begin research on the metroids and other promising life forms. Security status remains at Code Blue; no signs of pursuit from the Hunter.

So not only had three Space Pirate ships escaped Zebes, but this one escaped filled to the brim with metroids. I had yet to find any metroids or Space Pirates, though. More than likely, after sending the distress beacon the Space Pirates had packed up and left for this so-called Tallon IV Research Facility. Which meant I was now orbiting another planet full of Space Pirates that were probably still mad about Zebes.

This was bad. I pulled up more data and found what looked like a file of a recording. With a simple key command, a voice sounded from the monitor.

"Phazon Infusion, Stage One. Parasite larva diagnostic: Mass, 1.2 meters. Length, 0.5 meters. Cell structure stable."

Details of an experiment? Maybe this would reveal what happened here. "SAAR, make a record of this."

"Yes, Samus Aran."

"Phazon Infusion, Stage Two. Introducing mutagen into tank, Phazon Batch 0732.C. Phazon Infusion, Stage Three. Mutation initiated."

The voice was drowned out by a loud screech. Probably from the creature. I winced. It sounded like it was in pain.

"Phazon Infusion, Stage Four. One standard hour has passed. Larva diagnostic: Mass, 14.5 meters. Length: 40.3 meters. Infusion analysis: Specimen exhibits…incredible strength and body mass increase when exposed to, I say again, Phazon Batch 0732.C. Bioform pain tolerance levels at 13% and holding."

I heard another shriek. "Phazon Batch 0003.H has increased the acid production in the saliva ducts of other parasite larva, so we will use it begin the next infusion sequence - "

The scream graduated to a furious roar. "Cell structure failing! We're losing the specimen!"

"Jesus…"

"Specimen cell structure is failing. Batch 0732.C is not compatible with specimen's DNA. Terminating infusion sequence."

The roars grew louder and louder. Now I could hear loud bangs and thumps, as well as frantic yelling. It went on like this for several tense moments. Until…

"Termination complete. We've lost the specimen."

I looked up at the dead parasite. "Biohazard waste removal may begin in three hours. Phazon radiation readings must be reported to deck commander before batch disposal."

I pressed one hand against the glass. It was cold to the touch. I could feel it through my suit.

"I'm sorry this happened to you."

"Samus Aran, you must move on."

There was an elevator that went up to the second level. I took it and, with one final look at the parasite, exited.