Chapter 7

As the creature's squeals vanished, Samus felt the tram begin to slow down. When it came to a complete stop, she saw that she was now before a large room filled with a strange biomass that covered all the walls and pulsed with life. Dozens of large eggs filled the room, covering both the ceiling and floor wherever space was available. As if sensing her presence, their tops opened, releasing clouds of spores and numerous worms as well as small swarms of insect-like organisms. As they began to swarm towards her, Samus hit the tram switch once again, leaving the creatures far behind.

A sudden impact shook the tram, nearly causing Samus to fall to the floor. Looking out the tram window, she saw the residue of what remained of a wall of biomass begin to slide off it as more walls of the material could be seen ahead. The tram slammed through the walls, until it finally came to a stop at its destination. Exiting it, she then turned around and activated the tram once again, sending it back down the tunnel she was just in so that it would halt anything that had decided to follow her down it.

Moving onward, she encountered no resistance for some time. This came to an end when, while turning a corner, she saw several infected marines, or 'hybrids' as Scott had called them, walking down one of the hallways, some of them carrying similar eggs to those she had seen a short while ago. Waiting for them to move on, she froze when one of them stopped and looked in her direction. Holding her breath, she waited for it to then walk on and then made her move. Quickly boarding an elevator she needed, she hit the switch so as to get to the floor that Scott was on.

Now on the correct floor, she started to step out when several bursts of fire whizzed by her. Getting only a brief glimpse, she saw four hybrids near the other end of the room, using a pile of crates for cover. They had set up an ambush, and she had walked right into it.

Waiting a moment, she then leapt out of the elevator, firing several blasts from her plasma beam as she did. She managed to ignite one of the hybrids who then collapsed onto the floor in a writhing heap. The others barely gave notice to their fallen companion, though one said, "You are free." At this time Samus had now taken cover behind a crate, waiting for a clear shot. When she suddenly heard them closing in on her, she slammed her foot against the crate, causing it to knock one of her assailants over. Without skipping a beat, she fired a missile directly into the metal crate, causing it to explode in a mass of shrapnel that shredded what remained of the hybrids.

As she stood up, she watched on as the one and only intact worm detached itself from its host and attempted to slither off. Raising her foot, she brought it down with great force and crushed it with a satisfying splat.

The sudden sound of metal tearing caused her to turn around, just in time to see the massive mutant parasite from before, or one just like it, rip its way out of the floor and then charge her. The blow caught her off guard and sent her flying backwards, after which everything went black.

Regaining consciousness, Samus grabbed the side of her head as she looked about. She quickly saw that the creature had apparently decided not to pay her any attention, and was instead busy tearing into the corpses of the dead hybrids. Momentarily confused due to she believed they were on the same side, she scanned it while it swallowed a severed limb. The creature, while definitely along the same genetic lines of its smaller brethren, had a few modifications that separated it from them, such as a faster metabolism. She didn't need her scanner to tell her that it had a thicker exoskeleton, nor to tell her that its mandibles and claws would easily tear her apart. Her scanner did tell her, however, that it was somehow rapidly breaking down and then reconfiguring the biomatter it ingested into unidentifiable organic masses.

At this time it had finished the last of the corpses, after which it did something Samus had not expected. Raising its relatively thick tail, it revealed its soft, unarmored underside that resembled a mass of worms woven together. The flesh appeared to bubble for a moment, and then suddenly one of the smaller mutated parasites popped out of it, followed by dozens of its brethren. Only a foot in length, they quickly retreated down the nearby hole from which the bigger one had originally emerged from.

Now realizing that she was dealing with some sort of breeding unit, she slowly took aim, but her target noticed the motion. Letting out an earsplitting screech, it charged forward, forcing Samus to leap out of the way in order to dodge it. As she hit the ground, she fired several shots at its unprotected underside, causing the creature to squeal in pain. Undeterred, however, it lashed out with its tail and knocked Samus backwards into the room's central column, shattering a flickering panel of Xerxes. As exposed wires fell out of it and swung beside her, an idea came to her.

Firing several shots that merely bounced harmlessly off the breeder's carapace, they served only to anger it further. Letting out a screech, it charged forward just as Samus intended. Leaping over it, she heard it crash directly into the column. As it broke through the large amounts of circuitry that ran throughout it, it received a massive electrical shock that tore through its unprotected body before the ensuing explosion of the column tossed it backwards, temporarily stunned.

Not wasting the opportunity, Samus fired away at its exposed underbelly, damaging the soft flesh that made up it. Coming to, the breeder screeched and got back on its stomach. It then threw back its head and let out a longer howl that echoed throughout the area. Within seconds, Samus could hear the skittering associated with the ensuing arrival of the dozens of mutated parasites that were coming to protect their mother.

As they crawled into the room from every possible entrance, Samus fired away, but for every one she killed, many more would soon arrive to take its place. Realizing that the situation was quickly deteriorating, she knew she would have to act fast in order to survive. A risky idea occurred to her, and turning towards the breeder, she charged it. Leaping over the piles of dead corpses and dodging the parasites that leapt at her, her arm cannon began to reconfigure itself as the breeder opened its mandibles wide, ready to bite through its assailant. As it lurched forward, she caught it by surprise by shoving her arm cannon down its throat. As it gagged for a moment, she sealed its fate by firing a super missile directly into its guts.

A dull boom resonated from within the breeder's body as sprays of thick blood squirted from numerous cracks that rapidly formed all over its carapace. As it's abdomen exploded in a mass of gore and its head slumped forward, dead, the surviving parasites instantly squealed in pain and then fled the area. Victory was hers.

Pulling her gore covered arm cannon out of the bloodied mandibles of the beast, she was assaulted once more by the telepathic voices. "You have killed the Queen Mother. Her voice is now forever silenced from our chorus. Why have you done this? Your actions continue to confound us. However, we still grant you a place in our unity, though you should not test our hospitality. It is not infinite."

As the voices faded once more, Samus grabbed her head as the pain they left behind remained. Once it had passed, she checked the ship's map that she had scanned earlier and then headed towards the room where Scott said he was holding out within.

As she passed through a pair of doors, pools of dried blood unsettled her, especially with the thoughts of whom it belonged to. Stepping over several hybrid corpses and dozens of parasite corpses, she then passed through the final doorway where she saw Scott, or more accurately, what remained of him. Lying in the center of the room, his midsection and lower body gone, and on either side of him rested the bodies of the large fleshy humanoids like that of the one she had fought before, though these ones were riddled with energy burns, implying that he hadn't gone down without a fight.

Though his death disheartened her, what truly concerned her was the fact that he appeared to have been dead for some time, and that this room had been the location of his final stand. Suddenly, to her surprise, the room's lights went off as the door behind her sealed shut.

At that moment, an ominous cybernetic laugh echoed throughout the entire room.