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Chapter 8 Part 2

Fox (Arrival at Fortuna)

The ship pulled into orbit around the planet. I couldn't have said that I was surprised that something fishy could possibly be going on down there. Fortuna was vastly unexplored aside from surface scanning. Almost all of it's wildlife was deemed too dangerous to think to set up any kind of a settlement on it-I wouldn't want to live on a planet filled with dangerous man-eating plants. In the past, Andross had used the dense surface vegetation and teeming life to hid a number of covert operations during the war.

"Maintain maximum distance orbit, shut down the engines and all non-vital systems." I said, "We can't risk being spotted if there is something here." I instructed and the ship went dark, save for the terminals and minimal lighting.

"Alright, let's see if we can spot anything from up here." I said, "Scan the surface."

"No extraordinary activity detected." R.O.B. stated, "Though the dense jungle cannot be properly penetrated from an orbital scan."

"If we fly down there, we can get more accurate readings." Falco said, "But we would be putting ourselves out in the open where someone could see us."

"To complete our task, a close range surface scan is necessary." R.O.B. said, "There would be a higher chance of reaching the surface undetected with only one individual."

I noticed Falco had been practically staring at R.O.B. nonstop this whole time. I didn't get what was going on or happened with them but I didn't question it at the time, there were bigger things to worry about then.

"Well, then I'll go." I volunteered.

"Are you nuts?" Slippy and Falco said at the same time.

"If there is something down there this whole thing will be-" Falco tried to protest, but I cut him off.

"Well, unless you have a better idea. We need to do this."

"What if..." Samus spoke, making us look at her, "...What if there was a way to disguise yourself as something that would be overlooked? Like a meteorite?"

"...Well, unless you can find a rock that flies, I don't think we could do that." Falco said.

"Wait a minute..." Slippy trailed off in thought.

"You have an idea, Slippy?" I asked.

He nodded, "Yeah, I think we could do that. If we temporarily attach some scrap metal to an Arwing and drop it from orbit while it's offline, it could easily be passed off as just a small asteroid or a piece of debris."

We all sat there thinking Slippy's idea over. It definitely beat just flying in there and praying that you don't get spotted by whatever was down there.

"I calculate that there would be an 92% chance that an incoming pilot approaching in such a manner would be overlooked." R.O.B. added in.

Turning to Slippy, I placed a hand on his shoulder to get his attention, "So how are we gonna do that?" I asked, and he smiled after a second.


Falco

While we were all making our way to the hangar bay, I caught up with Fox and tapped his shoulder, "Hey, can I talk to you for a sec? Alone?"

He looked to Slippy before nodding, "Sure." And we went a little ways away and around a corner,"What is it?"

"Something is up with R.O.B."

"What? What makes you say that?"

"He's been acting a little funny ever since we left the station at Corneria." I explained, "Disappearing at first a couple times, wandering around, and then he just recently flat out lied to my face when I was questioning him."

He raised an eyebrow, "What happened?"

Taking a moment, I explained briefly what had happened in engineering a few hours ago.

"..." Fox didn't say anything. Rubbing his chin, he spoke, "...That's certainly not like him. What do you think we should do?"

"I dunno, but I've just been keeping an eye on him."

"That might be all we can do for now is to just see what happens. Let me know if he does anything else." And with that, we returned to the others.


? ? ?

Again...Once again, I felt life being forced to flow through me. My mind felt ready to burst as my eyes opened and I screamed in agony. Each time was more painful than the next, and I always thought after that I couldn't have experienced more pain. But I was wrong every time.

"He's alive. It worked!" I heard a voice say close by.

Restraints that were holding my body down were released and slowly, I sat up. Almost immediately, I was surrounded by Science Team members who all wielded various tools that measured something about me and my vital signs.

"I don't think he'll survive another procedure like this." One said to another, showing him some readings, "The cells have degraded more so than the last time."

After they were done, they seemed to agree that I was fine and backed away from me.

I held up my arm and looked at it, it was made of some kind of metal with wires running through the insides the same seemed to be the case for the rest of my body, "...Hhhow much of mmme isss leffft..." I choked out, my voice even sounding dry and hoarse.

Two of them looked at each other before one spoke up, "Er, w-well...In terms of what is still organic...Y-your brain, lungs, and your heart are the only parts of you we could save." He said nervously, looking like he was expecting me to destroy him at any moment, "Everything else is fully supplemented by cybernetic-bionic replacements."

I looked at my arm again, seeing that it now was just a machine following my command. My real arm was gone. Every time I've been brought back, I've felt increasingly more hollow inside. But each time brought me closer and closer to my goal: To extinguish my enemy.

After that, I soon found myself before my leader. There, I was presented with a weapon I did not know could exist. A weapon of inconceivable power. A weapon that would mean the end of our enemy—my enemy. The end of Samus Aran.


Fox

We were finished, and my Arwing looked like a hunk of garbage now. It was completely covered in a shell of various pieces of metal that we had ripped off of the inner walls of the Great Fox.

The plan was that I would be dropped in from orbit powered off and enter the atmosphere posing as a small meteorite that would land in the ocean. The metal shell would protect me from burning up in the atmosphere and made me just look more like a rock from space. Once I hit the ocean, there were makeshift charges beneath the shell that I could remotely detonate to remove any portions of it that didn't get incinerated during entry. After that I just start up the G-Diffuser and only power up the engines. No shields or weapons systems or even comm systems because those could easily give me away. Stealth was of utmost importance here.

"Alright, Fox. Climb in and we'll get this show on the road." Slippy told me.

"Are you sure this isn't going to kill me?" I asked as I climbed into the cockpit.

"Don't be so worried." He said just as I was sealed in.

"Right...don't worry." I muttered to myself, putting on my head piece.

"Alright, Fox. You ready?" Falco's voice sounded in my ear.

"As ready, unwilling, and unprepared as I'll ever be." I said sarcastically.

"Heh. You're the one who volunteered to do this, just remember that."

I felt the Arwing being moved and I was approaching the hangar doors.

"Good luck." Was the last thing I heard before I was free falling towards the planet.