Metroid: Lambda Squad 2
Chapter 4
After waiting two hours for the shuttle and getting ourselves picked-up and transported back to the Federation base of operations, we were back at our bunker, sitting on its stoop with Katrina by our side. We were waiting for Samus quietly, as she struggled to pull several strings to get Katrina back to the military, to our side. How she was doing was beyond us, but we prayed endlessly that she would succeed, and waited anxiously for any responses.
It was already night-time, but we weren't in our beds sleeping. We didn't want to give up on Katrina as well as whatever tricks Samus has up her sleeves to pull those strings. By that time, we were too exhausted, our eyes heavy, our urges to yawn strong, and our bodies too slow to move.
"Guys," Katrina said to us.
"Any problems we can alleviate," Eric said to her.
"I'm scared," Katrina replied.
"Don't be," Billy said back to her.
"I'm just saying," Katrina responded. "What if Samus fails at convincing the Federation officials? Instead of serving in the military to atone for my crimes, they might put me in a Federation prison for the rest of my life, or even execute me!"
"Look," I said to Katrina. "We're just as scared as you about your fate, and we're constantly wondering what solution Samus has to help you control your powers, as well as how we can deal with Mother Brain herself."
"So," Joseph continued, "I suggest you shut the Hell up and keep your thoughts to yourself."
"Forgive me," Katrina apologized.
"Don't bother apologizing," Joseph responded.
"As much as I'm not into Joseph's arrogance," Jenny said to Katrina, "I kind of agree. You haven't done anything wrong, and it's normal that you're scared. It's common for every person in the galaxy to be scared."
"But," Katrina said to us, "how would you feel if I were imprisoned for life or executed for killing people with my powers and using Samus's metroid DNA to clone a metroid army? Surely, you wouldn't want that!"
"Don't worry about us," Billy responded. "In fact, don't bother worrying at all. We know Samus. If she can save the galaxy many times over and nearly sacrifice her life to save ours when we were five-years-old, then surely she might pull some strings to get the military to help you atone."
Katrina would think silently to herself for the moment, and after a minute of thinking, she would then respond with, "Thanks."
"You're welcome," I responded.
"It's her," Mariana said quietly, looking to her left.
"What is it," Alexis asked her, as all eight of us stood up on our feet and looked to our left, discovering Samus walking toward us. As Samus arrived and we faced each other, Alexis would continue, "So, did you succeed?"
"It took several long, slow hours of convincing," Samus said, "but I've managed to succeed."
"Yes," we excitedly said in unison.
"But," Samus said, catching our attentions, "there's a catch."
"What catch," I asked.
"During my conversation with the top military officials," Samus continued, "whom I used to work for until I left for the bounty-hunter business, I told them about the solution to Katrina's uncontrollable powers, as well as a way to disconnect your Mother Brain cells from Mother Brain herself. On Knolia IV, where I sent six of you to collect anti-metroid weapons in an ancient chozo armory, there were also two more chozo-developed devices you've missed, devices that I apologize for not telling you in the first place."
"And those devices are," Eric asked.
"A chozo hacking-device," Samus continued, "and chozo psychic implants. I couldn't tell you about them because six of you didn't have Eric and Katrina at the time of the Doleous incident, and you, the original members of Lambda Squad, weren't skilled with machines or psychokinesis yourselves, either. If I gave away even the most basic-to-use hacking-device in the entire galaxy to any of you besides Eric, you'd be dead before you could learn how to hack a machine with one while under-fire. As for the implants, they're meant for psychics like Katrina, nobody else like the rest of you."
"They're the same as Eric's hacking-tool," Katrina said, "and those military implants they used to give me to moderate my powers before my discharge, right?"
"There's a difference," Samus continued. "Eric's hacking-tool, which he received and trained with in military school, is just a low-grade basic tool with limited wireless range, built to just open locked doors and safes and give him too limited an access to any nearby computer; Eric is a rookie, after all, and therefore can't be entrusted with a more advanced hacking tool until much later on in his military career. Meanwhile, the psychic implants Katrina was given to moderate and reduce her psychic powers were too weak, because Mother Brain genetically-altered Katrina to be so strong a psychic, that not even the most advanced military implants, let alone years of training and genetic surgeries, could help her control her abilities. I don't know how Mother Brain got the genetic-surgical procedures to make Katrina's psychic powers too strong even for her to control, but if you don't get those mechanical chozo implants, your new friend is as good as either imprisoned for life or executed. As for that chozo hacking tool, fail or refuse to retrieve it, and Mother Brain will constantly attempt to possess you for the rest of your lives until she succeeds."
"You haven't described to us what those chozo devices even do," Joseph told Samus.
"I'm getting to that part," Samus responded. "I know the chozo because I was adopted and raised by them on Planet Zebes, ever since Ridley and his army of space-pirates invaded my home-world and killed my parents. Before their inevitable extinction, they used to be the galaxy's most technologically-advanced race, and not just with anti-metroid guns. During their time, they also built Mother Brain to be their most advanced AI in galactic-history, and even went far as to implant her brain cells into their soldiers, so that they could share each other's thoughts and senses, and therefore work as more cohesive units, with Mother Brain monitoring them and providing them with vital combat information."
"Sort of like us," Jenny responded. "I guess that explains how Mother Brain used to control us, and how we can share each other's senses and therefore work as a team better."
"Mother Brain was a computer," continued Samus, "and her brain cells were all mechanical and electronic. They would wirelessly transmit information between Mother Brain and each chozo soldier, to allow them to instantly develop different combat-tactics and respond to certain situations in nanoseconds, just like any other hyper-advanced computer in the galaxy. As for the chozo with psychic powers, like any other psychic person in the galaxy, often when he's given those powers, whether at birth or through genetic surgery, he lacks the ability to actually control them because of their immense power. So, the chozo developed mechanical psychic implants to regulate each of their psychic people's powers. The side-effect was that those powers would be weakened by the implants, but hey, if I were a psychic, I'd rather have weak powers that I can control than strong powers that I can't control. The psychic implants, today, were based off of that chozo technology, only not as any good or advanced."
"That was when Mother Brain went rogue," Eric said, "that the chozo would develop that hacking-tool that's infinitely more advanced than my beginner's tool, right?"
"Unfortunately," Samus continued, "yes. When she went rogue, she also enslaved any chozo troops that were implanted with her cells, turning them against their own people. So, the galaxy's top chozo scientists, out of desparation, built an advanced and overall dangerous hacking-tool, with technology capable of breaking the link between Mother Brain and her cells within her slaves' heads. They didn't mass-produce these tools and only built one, out of fear that the more common they are, the more likely it would fall into the hands of a dangerous space-pirate or other galactic criminal. I'm saying it's the most dangerous hacking-tool in the galaxy, because it can hack to any advanced computer system, like weapons and defenses, at any range, regardless of how high each computer's level of technology is or how far away it is from the tool. It helped them disconnect Mother Brain's cells within her slaves from Mother Brain herself, but, being the advanced super-computer that she was, she found an enormous series of alternate solutions to bring the chozo to extinction anyway, such as breeding metroids, another one of the chozo's creations."
"Why couldn't they use the hacking-tool to deactivate Mother Brain," Jenny asked.
"They were desparate and running out of time," Samus continued. "Mother Brain, on the other hand, had the capacity to learn and grow like any organic being in the galaxy, such as the chozo, except she does so more quickly than any other computer. She evolved in ways the chozo didn't expect, and eventually developed herself into something so advanced that not even their chozo hacking-tool could save them. All it could do was disconnect Mother Brain from her cells and a galaxy-wide variety of other things, but not hack into a rapidly-evolving Mother Brain herself."
"So the most 'advanced' hacking-tool can't help us combat Mother Brain," Joseph replied. "Some solution to our Mother Brain problems."
"Mother Brain has lived for many years since she destroyed the chozo," continued Samus, "and so far assimilated herself into four bodies, including the smaller one she's in right now. She grew too advanced even for that one chozo hacking-tool to actually hack into her systems, but that doesn't mean it's useless. As soon as you head to Knolia IV and collect that chozo hacking-tool, you must use it to disconnect yourselves from Mother Brain while seeing if you can still retain your connection to rest of yourselves. Mother Brain will no longer have any control over you, but after that you're on your own, with nothing but your chozo-built guns and Katrina's chozo psychic implants to help you combat Mother Brain anytime she wirelessly assimilates herself into a much larger, more advanced body, hidden somewhere on some random, unknown planet in the galaxy, waiting for Mother Brain to possess it."
"The main point," I asked Samus.
"I told the Federation military's higher-ups, including your Commander Sonia, the same stories of those two chozo devices I told you right now," Samus continued. "So, we made a deal: They'll allow Katrina to join the military, atone for her crimes, and gain those chozo implants to moderate her powers, if those chozo implants actually work. Otherwise, if they fail to regulate Katrina's psychic powers as I said they'd do, they'll have her executed for the Rendalion VI High-School Massacre, and using the baby metroid's DNA inside me to clone an army of metroids to invade the galaxy. Meanwhile, Eric gains the hacking-tool but only uses it to release your connection to Mother Brain, nothing else, considering Eric's past-life as the 'Man-Hacker' as well as his rookie status. After that, they confiscate the chozo tool and imprison it in a safe, where nobody could touch it."
"Fair enough," replied Katrina.
"But your ship's at your house," Eric said to Samus. "How can we head to Knolia IV again to collect those chozo psychic implants and chozo hacking-tool if there's no means to get there?"
Samus would take a small key out of her coat-pocket and pass it on to one of us, as she continued, "Don't worry. I've rented for you a ship and everything, to head to Knolia IV to find those chozo-built devices. You might also need chozo-built guns for your new friends, Eric and Katrina, from the same armory you used to go to. It's at the parking-lot where I left it, and if you can't find it, just press the button and your ship will make a loud noise that you'll follow."
"Thanks, Samus," Alexis replied, "I guess."
"However," Samus said to us, "before you go, make sure you get some sleep. You've been staying up all night waiting for me, and you need your rest before you head out to collect that hacking-tool and those psychic implants."
"Yes, Samus," Billy responded, as we got into our bunkers, changed into our sleeping-clothes, washed ourselves up, and went to bed, waiting for tomorrow, when we would search for those chozo-built devices that could help us stop Mother Brain, and help Katrina control her psychic powers.