Chapter III
Adam Malkovich was not an easy man to shake. An old soldier to the core, Malkovich had fought from one end of the Galaxy to the other, defending the Federation from the many threats to it's borders. And yet as he listened to his protege's report, he found a chill in his heart. This wasn't another rising of the Space Pirates, or the Kriken finally making a push. This was a whole new threat, an unknown enemy which had given the greatest warrior in the galaxy pause. It was all but one of his nightmares as a military commander come to life.
Still, it was his job to remain unflappable in any situation. "Continue." he calmly stated to the view screen, fighting down his the shiver in his guts with iron will. He needed every bit of information possible, and Samus was the only one who could give him it. He would just have to roll with the punches until then.
-/-
Samus rolled out of the way of some sort of beam as her suit went into overdrive. This was combat, something she had been trained for since her rebirth. Something didn't have to look dangerous to kill you, it only needed the firepower, something this thing had plenty of.
"EX-TERMIN-ATE!" It seemed this thing was chatty. It shouted even as it fired it's weapon repeatedly at Samus, throwing away beams like they were candy. Only Samus's speed kept her ahead of the trashcan's arc of fire. "YOU-SHALL-BE-RE-DUCED-TO-COMPO-NENT-ATOMS!" A boaster too.
"Good luck with that, buddy." Samus thought as she dodged underneath a volley of ion fire. Of course, the bounty hunter was firing back. Super heated plasma dissipated against the creature's shields, briefly becoming visible as it coiled around the creature. Her standard beam seemed ineffective against whatever this thing was packing. The shield was also messing with her scan visor, blocking any attempt to hack into it's system.
This strategy was not working. Samus could practically feel the creature analyzing her even as she analyzed it. She estimated she had ten seconds before the creature could compensate for her speed from current observation. It was time to change the game.
Without warning, Samus switched to missiles. She fired three of the projectiles directly at the creature, the force of the impact sending it reeling. When it slammed into the wall, it seemed the creature had finally stopped... only to begin firing again. "EX-TERMIN-ATE!" the mechanical voice cried, filled with rage.
Samus aimed a little to the right, and fired.
-/-
Samus looked a little the right of the viewscreen as she clutched her side. She had not been as careful as she could have been, and a few of the shots had hit their target. Normally that would have been a problem, but the hits ate through her shield the way very few things could.
Or was it her? Had she lost what she was when she had left Zebes for the final time? She had shattered the Space Pirates so thoroughly that they may never recover. She had slew the killer of both of her families, Ridley, that black dragon who had survived so much. And yet the revenge had been ash to her mouth. Samus had failed her mission. She had committed genocide, and her one chance of redeeming herself from the fact had died to save her.
Samus shook the thoughts from her head. There wasn't time to dwell on her pain, not with a threat such as this right at their front door. Looking back at Adam, Samus returned to the task at hand. She highlighted the relevant data from her suit's sensors as she continued her report. "As I was saying, it displayed vulnerabilities to extreme cold..."
-/-
A freezing stream covered the creature as the tank vented it's contents. The immense flow of frozen materials overwhelmed even the creature's shield, as frost began to compromise it's surface. Samus's eyes flashed from behind her helmet, as her guess had payed off. Even it's rate of fire began to slow down as near absolute zero temperatures coated it's body.
MacCready had lured it here for a reason. Somehow, he had intuited that the monster was vulnerable to extreme temperature, and had brought it here to kill it. Unfortunately, he had only worked out the first step before he died. Immobile did not mean dead, you had to finish the job with high explosives before they thawed out.
Samus began step two, firing a barrage of missiles at the monster. Weakened by the cold, the shots began penetrating, it's casing beginning to crack. Meanwhile, her scan visor began working, giving Samus partial schematics of the creature. The trashcan surface was merely a suit for a controlling intelligence within. Armor, much like her own in many ways. But she needed more. Her scanner touched the computer systems...
Something happened which had never happened before. The system attempted to back-hack her, and even managed to get a foothold. Probes, just as powerful as her own Chozodian data crackers, began infiltrating her system. Immediately, the suit went into autistic mode, isolating the infected systems like a circuit breaker in a lightning storm. The HUD of Samus's visor went dark as it began to reboot.
Samus winced in pain as several ion rounds slammed into her shields, but kept firing. All the while, the creature ranted at her. "EX-TERMIN-ATE! EX-TERMIN-ATE!" it screamed, it's rage increasing as it's casing became more and more damaged. The gun stick finally gave, blown off by the rapid fire explosions. The unknown device opposite it was soon to follow. Finally, the front of the casing simply disintegrated.
Samus let up on her barrage, as she looked upon the tentacles mass of flesh in the pilots chair of that miniature tank. She could hear it's wheezing for breath in the cold air, struggling to hold onto life with furious anger. It's eye glared at her with a malice that she recognized. Rage, the type that filled your whole being. The same rage which had filled the bounty Hunter during her private war against the Space Pirates. The same rage that had gripped her in the depths of Tourian, as she watched the creature that had once been her teacher as a child murder the baby Metroid in front of her. It was chilling, to be on the receiving end of such a gaze.
"THE-DA-LEKS-SHALL-ANN-HI-LATE-YOU! INFER-IOR-WRETCH! THE-FIRST-SHALL-BURN-E-VER-Y-MICRON-OF-E-VER-Y-PLA-NET!" it raved, even as it was dying. It required dedication to scream out propaganda when the simple act of breathing could be fatal from the extremity of temperature.
"At least I know what to call them." Samus thought. The reference to the "First" didn't sound good either, this thing was not alone. It wasn't even a leader. She needed to get this data to Adam.
"ALL-WILLBE-REMADE-IN-THE-IM-AGE-OF-PER-FECTION! THE-DA-LEK-EM-PIRE-HAS-RISEN-ONCE-MORE!" Definitely not good. Her (admittedly currently limited) database made no references to any Dalek Empire, but anything which could produce this fanatic was something that was definitely a threat to the Federation.
Time slowed as a realization hit Samus. "Wait! Fanatic..." she thought. Her eyes widened. This speech was just buying for time. Her newly reactivated scan visor confirmed. Massive heat build up, a self destruct device. Wasting no time, Samus fired a missile at the Dalek and turned to run.
"EX-!" which was all the monster got out before becoming paste courtesy of Chozodian firepower. However tough it's mechanical armor was, the creature within was vulnerable and squishy. Now for the hard part.
She had slowed down the trigger, not stopped it. But fortunately, if there was one thing Samus was good at, it was escaping exploding complexes. Weaving through the maze, the Hunter made her way to the exit, jumping over obstacles and charging through walls on her way. The building was about to be gone anyway, and the debris might dampen some of the detonation's bite. Finally, the light of her gunship hovering just outside the door was visible.
This could be close.
-/-
"How are the repairs coming on my ship?" Samus asked the federation engineer as she walked out of the conference room. Malkovich had left to report her findings to the Federation Military Counsel, leaving her to her own devices. In the aftermath of the "Dalek"'s power core detonating, she had limped her gunship to a Federation satellite for repairs. They were doing the best they could for an isolated station, but...
The detonation had been unusually potent. Her shields had been blown out stopping the worst of it, and in general the ship looked beaten to hell. One of it's thrusters was simply gone, another heavily damaged. Portions of the weapon systems were heavily damaged, and it was missing chunks of it's aft.
Samus sighed in frustration. The way she went through these things was troubling at times. It cut into a large portion of her credits to fix them up, and the modifications were not cheap either. Chozo technology was difficult to replicate at the best of times, and these certainly were not.
After several minutes of chipping in to the work load, a technician ran up to Samus. "An urgent message for you." he chattered, his body language filled with fear.
"Another attack?" Samus asked. The gunship wouldn't be ready until the end of the day, and she was not looking forward to a melee with more of those things.
The technician shook his head. "It's... It's a Space Pirate vessel. Asking for the Hunter, ma'am. That's you, right?"
Samus, for once in her life, let her shock show on her face.