Renegades
Space was always cold. Home to some and hell to others, it was an endless sea of nothing. In the middle of that sea she stood. Watching as one life after another rose before her and lifted into the darkness above. No one could see it like she could, the detail of the faces as they passed her, all of them innocent, and behind every one of them stood a Space Pirate.
Samus screamed out from behind her helmet and lunged for them, but missed every time, falling onto ground that seemed not to exist, yet it was there. She fought endlessly to get at them, wrestling with herself and the ground which she hit so endlessly, until one grabbed her from behind and ripped her helmet off. Its foul cold hands encased her cheeks as it turned her head to the side and broke her neck, a loud snap sounding and echoing in the darkness, until that darkness consumed everything everywhere.
"SHIT!" Samus sat up from her bunk on the ship and rolled out of the bed, clad in only a tank top and a pair of white shorts. Jillian had heard the commotion and came in to find Samus lying on the floor, breathing heavily.
"Samus, are you alright?"
"Don't touch me! Don't touch..." she trailed off and pushed herself up, making her way to the sink in her small quarters, drawing water and splashing her face with it. She rubbed her eyes and looked up at her face reflecting in the mirror, staring at it. It stared back.
Jillian jumped, shocked as Samus turned and rammed her fist into the wall. The wall actually bent somewhat, but Samus's hand had suffered more from the blow than the wall did. She didn't cringe in pain or pull back however, even as blood began to pour from her knuckles. "I sincerely wish you weren't here right now."
Jillian grabbed a few clothes and said, "Why not, so I won't see you like this? I've seen you have nightmares before, remember? You're not scaring me."
She took Samus's hand gently and began to wipe the blood away as a tear trailed down Samus's cheek. Jillian looked up at her, having never seen her cry before. She was even more surprised when Samus pulled her closer for a large hug. Jillian simply patted her back and rubbed her hair gently, as if she were her mother.
"Yes, I remember Jillian, but you've never seen me vulnerable. I don't like it," she whispered, and actually found her first smile in a while.
Jillian looked up just as she smiled and returned it, saying, "Well, I won't tell if you won't."
Samus started to chuckle as she opened her mouth, but was cut off as the entire ship shook. "What the hell was that?"
Making her way to the monitor, the ships scans detected two vessels of about the same size off the port bow.
"Space Pirates?" Jillian asked.
"No, renegade bounty hunters. These guys do everything in groups and go against all the rules of a hunter."
"Hunters have rules?"
Samus grinned sheepishly, "Not really, but there is a certain etiquette in different areas. These guys basically conform to their own etiquette if you get my picture."
Jillian nodded and stumbled as the ship took another blow. Raising her shields, Samus turned to her weapons systems and locked on to the vessels, firing one shot and destroying one of them totally.
"Well that was simple," Jillian said as the other ship began to retreat.
Samus shook her head and plotted a course to follow the retreating ship, saying, "Nothing's ever simple. These guys came after me for a reason and I want to know what it is."
Jillian nodded, unable to help the fact that she was excited. She had started to think Samus was full of hot air about it not being safe to travel with her, but now she could see otherwise.
The scans indicated the ship was from a region near an ice world called Syfia. The world had undergone a permanent ice age due to its suns turn to a dwarf star, and nothing on the planet had survived save, perhaps, bacteria of some type. It had always been rumored there were activities going on beneath the surface of the planet, but Samus had never had a reason to care in particular. Maybe now she'd find out.
The ship, which couldn't travel as fast as Samus's gunship, was easily followed, and sure enough it led them back to Syfia, and began to enter the atmosphere.
"Don't they know they're being followed? Or are they incredibly stupid?"
"No, and yes. I have a cloaking device on my ship which causes it to be remiss in scans and also in visuals. You can thank the Chozo for that bit of technology."
"Thank you Chozo," Jillian said with a grin.
Samus couldn't help but smirk, and followed the ship all the way down to the surface almost, settling in a valley of icy hills not too far from where the ship had landed. She stood and went to go get her power suit on as Jillian asked, "Ok, what do we do now?"
"We don't do anything. You stay here, I go check it out. I don't know if there's any oxygen on this planet or not and I don't have an extra spacesuit, so sorry, but you're not coming this time. Too dangerous anyway."
"Aww man," Jillian grumbled and sat down in the cockpit as Samus emerged a few minutes later, fully armored.
"I don't know how long this will take Jillian, but I can guarantee your safety here. So stay put. If you get hungry use my replicator."
Jillian rolled her eyes slightly and muttered, "Yes ma'am," as Samus exited the ship.
The skies were filled with some type of electrical lightening, though it didn't seem to interfere with Samus's radar. The only thing that was interfering with anything was the damn snow blocking her vision. But she wasn't too worried because nothing was around, and cautiously made her way to the ship which had attacked hers earlier. Slowly she approached it, looking upon the back hull, and long spider like legs reaching out from it which it was sitting upon. She scanned it for life signs, but detected nothing. Only a small heat signature showed up in her infrared visor, and she checked the x-ray to find a door hidden beneath the snow, recently used. Making her way towards it, and opening it, she slowly looked inside to find some sort of elevator shaft as she looked for a way to activate it, and pressing a large red button on the wall, felt it shake some as it began to descend downwards.
Soon, she emerged into a room that had been dug out into the underground of the surface, and surprisingly enough, she found that there seemed to be a subterranean market going on. Neon lights lit up signs above small bars and shops, written in all types of alien and human languages. She stepped off the platform as a few people made their way by her and into a shop, sparing glances her way as if they weren't frightened of her, but curious as to who she was and why she was here.
Perhaps they were outcasts of society, simply living out their lives in an underground world away from the rest of society. In any case, Samus didn't care. She was only curious as to find out who the hell had attacked her and why. But where to start?
As she walked forward, she decided to check out one of the bars. Maybe she'd get a few leads there.
As the door opened, the smell of alcohol filled Samus's nose through her helmets vents, and she didn't particularly care for it too much. She liked to drink, yes, but she didn't like the smell of it.
Already attracting attention, she watched as a large man stood up and began walking towards her. She prepared herself for the worst and looked up at him, even at her height, watching as he came closer and closer until he spoke in a rough voice not even a mother could love," No weapons allowed. You're going to have to leave it outside, leave yourself, or I'm gonna have to throw you out."
"Is that so?" The warped voice spoke mockingly through the helmet. "Then I suppose I'm just going to have to show you what this weapon can do."
The barbaric looking creature, with a smell more foul than a rotting carcass, growled, "You'll sincerely regret it."
"I don't think so," the hunter mused as the beam charged, held straight at his head, particles of energy being sucked into the base of the canon like a vacuum.
Even that didn't seem to scare the creature as he grabbed the canon quickly while the blast went off, diverting it towards the ceiling. The hunter ripped it from his grip and drove the end of the hard gun into his gut, knocking the wind out of the man as he backed up and reached for the other arm, but was quickly avoided, and faster than he could track, ended up behind him with the canon pointed to his head, using the left arm to hold onto his back so that the helmet was level with the back of his head. Whispering into his ear, the warped voice sounding as if it were evil itself, "I have missiles in this canon, now, do you want me to test them out on you, or would you rather answer a few questions? Either way, I'll find out what I need to know, and I won't think twice about killing you."
"Alright...damn it, alright! I just needed to see what type of person you are, if you are a person. You're new around here and I run most things down here. So I have to lay down the laws."
"Do your laws include harboring renegade hunters?"
"I don't know what you're talking about, but I can see you're a hunter yourself. In fact you look like a very skilled hunter and I might have a job for you. I can pay very well."
"Save it for later, asshole, you run things down here, and I tracked a renegade hunters ship here, a ship that attacked mine, and I want answers, not in one second, now, or you're going to be short a brain and a head."
"Don't be like that, just let me explain. I don't know about any renegade hunters, no, but people always come and go here, the ones who know about this place anyway. If you want, I can lock down the elevator shaft, it's the only way in and out, that way you'll find who you're looking for."
Samus nodded, "Alright then. But do it now, if I can't find who I'm looking for, I'm coming back to see you," and she let go, stepping back from him, his mere stench about to make her sick.
He nodded and went off to do as he said he would, while Samus stepped out of the bar to watch him, just to make sure he did so. Soon, the clamps could be heard locking down on the shaft, and Samus diverted her attention to the people around, looking at each of them wondering if the renegades could be among them. Somehow, she doubted it though. Just then, she felt a surge of electricity hit her from behind. She cringed in pain and fell to her knees. Her visor was filled with static, and she knew she had to start moving otherwise she'd be shot again. Pushing herself forward, she turned around and looked back just as the visor cleared, seeing a man who looked as if he had all the money in the world. He was clean, well shaven, and carried a large gun with him, though not as big as hers.
Charging up her beam, she kicked a table over onto its side and let the blast off towards the man who'd shot her. She ducked down behind the table as another shot came her way and she groaned. She didn't want to kill him just yet, if at all possible, for she wanted to know what this was about, but she would kill him if she had to.
"I'm going to kill you Aran, I don't care how well equipped you are. Your day has been marked, and that is today!" she heard the man yell.
"Right, like I haven't heard that before," she muttered to herself and flipped to her x-ray visor to see through the table top, seeing that he was indeed approaching, yet slowly.
She only had one chance at this, otherwise she'd have to kill him, and she took it, standing quickly from behind the table and firing off three small bursts from her canon at his weapon and his leg. The first missed, as she didn't have time to aim, but the second two hit on target, the first hitting the weapon, causing it to overload and malfunction, the second hitting his leg, causing him to fall forward and hit the ground. His lack of armor was a huge weakness on his part. She watched him as he collapsed to his knees, yelling in agony and holding his leg where her blast had hit him.
She pushed herself up and walked over to him, lifting him up with her left arm and slamming him against a nearby wall. "Who wants me dead? Who sent you to kill me? You're too stupid to have wanted to kill me yourself."
The man cringed in fear and agony and, taking deep breaths, he said, "I don't know who they are, but they offered to pay me an enormous amount of money for your death, or capture, either way. Some sort of pirates or something."
Samus became even more enraged as the larger man, who led the underground market, came up behind them and listened. "I want to know exactly where and how they found you, every detail, from how much, to what you have eaten since then, EVERYTHING!"
Samus's grip tightened on his neck as he gasped for air. "I run all types of jobs for outlawed groups of the federation. I'm pretty well known in the underground world, and I was called on by these pirates to kill you. I've heard your name before, but I didn't know you were this damn advanced; otherwise I wouldn't have taken the job. They offered me ten thousand and paid me five thousand in advance."
"Where are they," Samus said calmly and held her gun to his head, saying if you don't tell me, you're dead.
"Not far from here, 10 light years. If you let me go to my ship I can get the coordinates."
"I don't think so. I think I'll kill you now and get them myself."
"No! Please! Here, take this, it will give you access to all my records and databases." He pulled a small card out of his pocket and handed it to her. She let him fall to the ground and picked it up, scanning it. It was a memory chip, something used often on older ships like his. She looked down at him and said, "I knew we could come to an agreement. Don't let me see your face again, because if I do, you won't have much of a face anymore, understood?"
The man nodded vigorously and started trying to tend to his wounded leg. Samus turned around to walk off only to be confronted by the large man who'd bothered her earlier.
"So you're the legendary Samus Aran? Word is there're bounties on your head all over the galaxy. Why are you so interested in this one?"
Samus looked at him blandly from behind the visor of her helmet and stated, "Because no one's ever been stupid enough to try and collect one of them before."
The barbaric looking man howled with laughter as Samus walked off, and he called out, "You're always welcome back Samus, if you ever need anything or want to know more about this place. I only hope this type of thing doesn't bring you back here next time, saying there is one."
"You never know, anything's possible." She found she actually kind of liked it here, besides the fact that she'd been attacked and everything. It seemed to be quiet, humble, and not at all decorated or fancy like most places she'd been. Plus it was hidden, and she knew that if she hadn't even heard of this place before, then it was hidden very well.
As she ascended the now open elevator, and exited to her ship, she found Jillian waiting inside for her. "That didn't take long. Did you get what you came for?"
"And then some," Samus replied removing her helmet and sticking the memory chip into her data banks to download the information. "Turns out they were sent by the Space Pirates."
"No shit!" Jillian exclaimed as Samus got her ship into the air, high enough to target the renegade's ship through her scopes and fire off a missile at it to destroy it once and for all. "I can't believe I didn't kill that bastard who was stupid enough to try to kill me. He's not in good condition though. And if I ever see him again, he's dead."
Jillian nodded her head at that, knowing Samus would be true to her words. As the data downloaded into the system, she took a look at it, plotting a course for Inia as she did so.
Reading the information, she found out that the man who tried to kill her was actually a pretty accomplished hunter in his own, unorthodox way of doing things. He'd collected on over 500 bounties, and counting, his name was Jerod Tagis. He was a 37-year-old man with a dead wife and child, killed while he was working as a policeman for the Galactic Federation. Since then, he quit his job and did work as a bounty hunter against the Federation because of his personal vendetta against them.
There were all sorts of information on the bounties he'd carried out and the people he'd carried them out for. The last was the Space Pirates and information on her. Finally it ended with this bounty not being complete. But it gave the coordinates of where he'd received the bounty from and how he'd been able to track her. That was the shock to Samus and she stood up quickly, facing Jillian, who looked at her in alarm. She'd read the information too.
"You're going home now, Jillian. No arguments. It's not safe with me any longer."
Jillian didn't argue, simply nodded fiercely and replied, "How far away is Inia from here?"
"An hour and a half in warp." Her voice seemed to trail off, and there were a few long quiet moments between them, only the sound of the ventilation system of Samus's helmet sounding as she drew breath. She wanted Jillian to be out of here. She wanted to be alone, totally alone. She walked to the doors of her small quarters and stepped inside, shutting them behind her. Jillian didn't follow, knowing better. It wasn't everyday you were betrayed by the Galactic Federation, and Samus had just been seriously deceived.
Go ahead and review, tell me I'm an idiot or a blockhead, I wont be updating for probably a week so I won't see it until then. See if I care, this will just have to hold you over.
