They docked on Docking Bay 4 and raced to the Aurora Chamber as quickly as they could. However, upon reaching the Flag Bridge, they heard chaos in the Ready Room. "I don't know what to make of this," Ghor muttered as he looked back and forth from the Aurora Access to the Ready Room. "I'd hate to say it, but we have to split up."
"Awlright, fun!" Gandrayda giggled as she skipped to the ready room. Ghor shook his head and opened the door to Aurora Access. He became shocked at the sight before him: several Marines were strewn across the floor, a huge black puddle situated in the midst of them. Cautiously, Ghor stepped around the bodies and the puddle and onto the lift. Once he stepped into the hologram, the puddle formed into an unknown life form that proceeded to crawl after him. As soon as the lift made contact with the upper platform, Ghor was pulled forward as the life form stretched its limb in an attempt to grab him. "Thanks for the save, Samus," Ghor stammered.
"Yo what the hell was that?!" Rundas nearly screamed.
"I… don't know…" Ghor stuttered as he got to his feet. He didn't dare to peer down to the other platform for fear that he might get snatched up. "Well we have to do something before that thing thinks about getting to the Aurora Unit—
"Uh, Samus?"
"WHAT."
"Not to make matters worse but uh…. there's a puddle up here too…"
"Shit!" Samus screamed as she turned around and dodged the elastic grip of yet another creature composed of the black liquid. "Two of them!" Ghor exclaimed, a frightened nature about him. "Exactly how many of these things are there?" Rundas asked as he accidentally shot the creature and froze its leg. Samus' eyes widened with excitement. "No way!" She whispered, staring at the creature as it detached its leg from the frozen mass of ice and regenerated.
"Ffffuck," Rundas grumbled. "Did you see that?"
"Hmmm… Since the creature is composed of liquid, it is easy to disable simply by freezing it all over… but then, to ensure its disposal, we'd probably have to double-tap."
"Double-tap?" Samus asked.
"It's always safe to be sure, Samus. We're killing it via the plasma beam. Take something frozen and instantly expose it to a very high concentration of heat and it shatters," Ghor said to the hunter. Samus's eyes lit up as soon as she understood what Ghor was hinting at. The creature let out a deep groan as it swung its elastic arms at the hunters. They backed up with each lethal swing, and Samus accidentally stepped into the hologram and the lift began to descend to the lower level, where the other (much larger) creature was. She jumped back onto the upper platform—but barely made it—and nearly fell down to the lower level. Luckily, Ghor was there to save her. Ghor grabbed hold of her hand, struggling to pull her up to the platform. "Your… Varia Suit is heavy, Samus," the cyborg stammered as he tugged at her wrist. The creature prepared to attack them once more, and Rundas was aware of this. "Guys!" he screamed as he spun around to face them. "It's getting ready to attack!"
Rundas nearly threw himself on the other two after having dodged the creature's attack, sending the three hunters plunging to the lower level—where they had to deal with the larger creature.
"Great job, Rundas," Samus muttered sarcastically as she stood up to face the monster.
"Oh shush," Rundas grumbled as he brushed himself off. "Golly, how are we going to combat this behemoth, eh?"
"The same way I planned," Ghor answered as he sized the creature up from afar.
"It looks kinda…"
"Slow…"
"I totally agree, Sam," Rundas said, tilting his head.
And though the creature looked slow, it was the complete opposite. It roared and hissed, quickly extending its arms in an attempt to grab hold of one of the hunters. Samus squealed and tucked herself into the morph ball, rolling off to the side as the creature's hand collided with the nearby wall. "Rundas, freeze that thing now!" she yelled as she exited morph ball mode. Rundas created a path of ice and he surfed it, freezing the creature to the best of his ability from the bottom up. He was smacked off the ice and thrown into the wall, but not before he aimed a massive ice projectile at the creature's head that froze the rest of it completely. Without hesitation, Ghor and Samus destroyed the frozen life form with their weaponry. The creature shattered into many pieces, and the hunters interpreted it as a sign of the behemoth's defeat. They made the right call. Now all that was left was taking care of the thing upstairs and Gandrayda. "I'll go take care of Gandrayda—not that I think she needs any help," Ghor said to his allies as he hurried to the Meeting Access. Samus pondered in deep thought as she stepped into the hologram on the lift, Rundas right behind her. "Damn, uh… so what are we going to do, eh?" she asked. "Ghor's the one with the plasma beam."
"I say we take this fucker out on our own," Rundas replied straightforwardly. Again, he was anxious to get rid of the trouble. As the hunters stepped onto the upper platform, they noticed that the creature was attempting to get into the Aurora Chamber. "Sorry my man, that's for authorized personnel only," Rundas said as he completely froze the fiend. Samus charged a shot to be sure she'd do absolute damage and fired it at the mass of ice, shattering it with ease. "That was lame," Rundas grumbled as he looked around Aurora Access. "Wanna know what's even funnier?" he suddenly asked Samus after a short period of silence.
"What?" Samus asked as she poked at the lifeless Trooper.
"We always end up with each other. We're always… alone," Rundas said, looking at Samus. The hatchling continued to poke at the Marine. "Unless you wanna count this guy in, then we're technically not alone," she said. The Trooper finally regained his consciousness and sat up, rubbing his head slowly and staring ahead. "Wh… goodness what happened…?" he asked dizzily.
"You fell," Samus lied as she helped him get to his feet. She didn't want to tell him the truth flat out for fear that he wouldn't believe it or he would over react. Rundas pointed at her. "Oh yeah, she's l—
"PFSHUSH," Samus whispered with force. Rundas looked away and tried his best to whistle. He failed at it.
"I thought you'd do something by now," Ghor muttered to Gandrayda as they both stared at the technicians from a safe distance. "I thought I was too!" Gandrayda exclaimed silently. Ghor brought his hand to his face. "So uh… what we gonna do?" Gandrayda giggled. Ghor shrugged his shoulders. "That substance inside them can be frozen, but… Rundas isn't here and he might end up freezing the technicians and calling it 'self defense' like a moron and… I don't want that," Ghor grumbled.
Gandrayda giggled at the thought of Rundas doing such a thing. She nearly squealed as the door suddenly opened and Rundas and Samus stepped in the room. "Hey guys, we're here to he—
"Rundas shut up," Ghor whispered, waving his hands frantically.
"What? Is this how you thank your pal Rundas for stopping by to help you fuckers out? This is the thanks I get. The thanks I get!"
As Rundas ranted and raved, the technicians finally noticed the Hunters and let out deep, intimidating growls. And Samus, even though she didn't want to say it again, had no choice but to say it. "Great job, Rundas!" she wailed as the technicians approached them quickly.
