Chapter 10:
Samus made her way down the corridor and followed her map to the penitentiary. Along the way, she encountered a dozen more Air Defense Drones which were armed with missiles, likely of the anti-personnel fragmentation variety. Not wanting to give the robots a chance to fire their missiles, Samus shot the robots from twenty meters away with her Power Beam. Orange blasts of energy erupted from her cannon and instantly struck the Air Defense Drones, shattering them with single blasts. In less than six seconds, she had cleared the area and moved forward, leaving nothing but small pieces of metal in her wake. As she moved on, she encountered more defenses that consisted of Missile Security Robots, and even some bipedal humanoid defense robots. She proceeded to scan the humanoid defense robots, her scan reading, Morphology – Security Android Trooper (SAT). This security robot is bipedal, and highly modular, allowing it to be outfitted with a wide variety of weaponry and defenses. This versatility makes it a popular supplemental tool for the Galactic Federation Army, Marines, and security forces throughout the Federation.
After finishing the scan, Samus looked at each of the robots and found that they were armed with arm cannons of some sort, likely a knock off of her own arm cannon. She surmised that they were likely armed with variants of her own beam weaponry. This belief was confirmed when the robots leveled their arm cannons on her and opened fire. Green plasma beams that looked like helixes and waves erupted from their arm cannons, indicating that they were using the stacked beam weapon system that she had used on her Fusion Suit and during both her Zero Mission on Zebes, and her return mission to said planet. She quickly dodged to one side, managing to avoid the initial enemy fire, which was slower than the beam weaponry of her current arm cannon. She returned fire with her own Plasma Beam which, while not having the phasing nature of the Wave Beam utilized by the stacked beams of the robots, had significantly more raw power. The SATs were felled with little more than single blasts, the metallic security robots clattering on the ground as they hit. Next came the Missile Security Robots, and they did not last any longer than the SATs. Single Plasma Beam blasts were more than sufficient to blow them apart, leaving nothing more than smoking treads upon their destruction.
She made her way past the scene and closely followed the yellow line laid out on her map. As she continued, her threat sensors indicated that danger was approaching when red lines appeared on the upper border of her HUD. She stopped and took cover behind a small wall outcropping. She peered from around the outcropping and saw two figures Federation Army Troopers approaching. She could hear their muffled voices echoing from their helmets as they approached and she managed to get a glimpse of them. They seemed to only have the standard loadout of their projectile assault rifles and freeze guns. She quickly ducked back behind the outcropping and listened to their conversation. "Man, this posting suddenly stinks," the first trooper whined.
"Quit your whinin', Grayson," the second trooper scolded. "You should be thrilled that we weren't stationed on Earth in New York or on the assault force that's gonna capture Japan."
"I was, until the other Orbital Rings started to explode one by one. They say that Samus is on this Ring. If that's true, then we're dead. Every station she steps on winds up getting' blown to hell."
"Not all of them," the second trooper corrected. "There was an Alimbic station that didn't explode after she stepped onto it. And it's not like she's any better with planets."
"Yeah she is," the first trooper countered. "Earth, Z-1A, Aether, and Tallon Four haven't exploded yet. Plus, there have been other planets that she's landed on that haven't blown up that I don't know the names of. But on stations, she's death. Want proof? Look at what happened to Orbital Rings One through Seven. It's only a matter of time before this Ring goes, too."
Samus could barely suppress a laugh as she listened to the troopers' conversation. A part of her smiled with pride at the fear that the first trooper had of her whenever she stepped onboard a space station. She could not help but notice that he was, in essence, correct. Every station that she had ever set foot on, save for an outpost in the Alimbic Cluster, had eventually been destroyed. Research Facility 777, Space Lab Moreau, Biologic Space Labs Research Station, the Orbital Rings; the list went on. Her mind then switched back to the mission at hand. She peered around the metal outcropping and saw that the two soldiers had turned away. She ducked back around and switched to her Ice Beam. Once she had done so, she emerged from behind the metal outcropping and fired two uncharged blasts at the unsuspecting troopers. They did not know what hit them as they were frozen solid. The bounty hunter rushed past the two frozen troopers and ran down the corridor before they managed to defrost, their armor managing to keep them alive. By the time they had thawed, she was long gone.
Samus soon entered another sector of the Ring and found herself looking at a gauntlet of Halberd-class defense turrets. She immediately jumped into the air and performed a Screw Attack, floating in the air down the corridor. While this slowed down her movement, she was practically invulnerable to the massively powerful turrets that were zeroing in on her. Any turrets that were in her flight path were instantly annihilated. The other beams that managed to hit her merely bounced off of her Screw Attack shield. After thirty seconds, she had made her way past the gauntlet and was out of range of the turrets.
Once she cleared the gauntlet of defense turrets, she found herself much closer to the penitentiary. Checking her map, she was only a few dozen meters away. She saw a large window to her right and went over to take a look out into space. She looked out and to her left and found a large metallic structure jutting out from the main superstructure of the Ring. She figured that that was the prison. Wasting no time, she proceeded towards the prison when she came face to face with two old adversaries standing outside the set of doors that led to the penitentiary. She recognized the bounty hunters from her last encounter with them in the Alimbic Cluster. They were Noxus and Spire.
Noxus was a Vhozon, a blue-skinned bipedal being with long, thin, multi-jointed legs, and thicker arms with a head that looked like it was covered by a helmet, despite it being his real head. His primary weapon was the Judicator, an Ice Beam-like weapon that when charged, sprayed at short range like buckshot fired from a shotgun. It could even freeze opponents. Uncharged shots could ricochet off of walls to hit its target should he not have a clear line of sight against his opponent. His alternate form was called the Vhoscythe. She remembered that it was performed when Vhozon pulled in their arms and legs and spun around in a top-like manner. In fact, they looked like spinning tops in their Vhoscythe forms. For offense, a long, scythe-like appendage could be extended to attack or defend against enemies. She remembered that Noxus was one of the two bounty hunters that had not sought the "ultimate power" in the Alimbic Cluster for evil purposes. His purpose was to keep it out of the hands of evildoers. The other one who sought the power for other than evil purposes, besides herself, was the bounty hunter standing next to him: Spire.
Spire was a Diamont, a silicon-based lifeform that was incredibly strong and made of a silicon-based rock. His body looked like it was covered with rock, and had yellow glowing magma-like structures protruding from it like spikes. His left hand also had a ball of energy over it. His primary weapon was called the Magmaul, a grenade launcher that launched magma-like grenades that bounced along surfaces and walls and exploded after three seconds. When charged, it could fire a much larger projectile with a large blast/splash radius and could set targets on fire should they be hit by said weapon. His alternate form was called the Dialanche. To use it, Spire transforms into a spiked ball that can roll up walls and travel through lava without suffering any damage. For defense, the Dialanche can produce two rock "arms" that detach from the ball and orbit it, inflicting tremendous damage to whatever they touch. However, their range was quite limited, and as such, the Dialanche was more of a defensive alternate form, however, if Spire were able to trap an opponent against a wall, he could quickly tear into them with his Dialanche. When she had encountered him in the Alimbic Cluster, he had been searching for the "ultimate power" to aid him in the search for the fate and/or location of the rest of his people. Unlike many other bounty hunters, he, like Noxus and Samus, only took just missions. To see him working for Cyrus was quite saddening, especially when several other heroes, such as the Star Fox Team, were working with that criminal. Both of the bounty hunters took aim at Samus and charged their respective weapons.
"Lower your arm cannon and surrender at once," Noxus commanded. Spire merely stood by; ready to support his comrade. "If you do not surrender, we are authorized to use deadly force in order to stop you," he continued.
"You don't have to do this," she pleaded with them, trying to get them to stand down. "You know that I, like you, fight for justice. If Cyrus is successful in accomplishing his goals, at the very least, Earth will be destroyed. That will doom six billion plus people to their deaths." She then stared directly at Noxus. "Does that sound like justice to you?"
"Earth defected from the Galactic Federation," Spire countered. "It was once one of its most loyal members, but when the refugees of Daiban sought sanctuary on it, they were turned away."
"Only after it was discovered that Elric was using the refugee ships to smuggle Watchmen to Earth," Samus countered. "Before the deception was discovered, Earth had kept its doors wide open. Even after it was discovered that Elric was using the refugee ships to smuggle his agents to Earth, it still kept its colony and resource worlds open to refugees and settlers. Even the Jovian moons and Titan were open to refugees."
"That is of no consequence anymore," Noxus stated flatly. "Earth got what it wanted. It has a human as the leader of the Galactic Federation…"
"A known criminal," Samus countered again. "I wonder what your highly touted sense of spiritualism and justice is saying right now."
This cut to Noxus's heart. He seethed and hissed, "Enough talk, Samus. Now we fight."
With that, the Vhozon opened fire on Samus with his Judicator. A wall of ice erupted from his arm cannon mounted on his right arm and streaked towards Samus. Samus immediately leapt into a Screw Attack and the wall of ice splashed harmlessly against her shield. At the same time Noxus opened fire, Spire did so as well. A large plasma grenade-like blast of magma erupted from his Magmaul and splashed harmlessly against Samus's Screw Attack shield. She then somersaulted towards Noxus, forcing him to dive out of the way of her rush, to the right. As soon as she overshot her target, she immediately uncurled herself and immediately extended her Grapple Lasso from her left arm towards Noxus. The purple beam lashed out at the enemy bounty hunter and managed to make contact with him. Spire took this opportunity to try to attack Samus again, but she managed to jump out of the way of his magma grenades, which detonated beneath her feet. She switched to her Ice Beam and charged it as Spire fired another shot, which managed to score a direct hit on her suit. Her shields flared and she saw thirty units of energy vanish from her current Energy Tank. She then began to activate her Grapple Voltage and drain energy from Noxus, turning her beam blue, replenishing her own in the process, while she charged her Ice Beam and prepared to fire an Ice Spreader against Spire. Once the Ice Beam was charged, she unleashed her Ice Spreader from her Arm Cannon. The massive blast of ice shot towards Spire at a much higher speed than she had remembered and Spire was unable to avoid the blast. The expanding blast of ice struck the Diamont squarely in the chest and detonated. Ice expanded across Spire's chest out towards his limbs until he was completely encased in ice. Samus checked Spire's life bar and found that had lost a third of his health in that single Ice Spreader blast, and continued to lose more for every second he was frozen.
Noxus's eyes went wide at the fact that Spire had lost almost a third of his health in one attack, and was continuing to lose health at an alarming rate. However, there was little the Vhozon could do for his comrade, save for attacking Samus with his Judicator. He charged his Judicator and then unleashed a wall of energy towards Samus, hoping to freeze her solid or, at least, force her far enough away from him so that her Grapple Voltage's connection to him would be terminated. She sidestepped his short-ranged ice wall and let it sail off into the distance and dissipate ten meters away. Her sidestep was not enough to disconnect her Grapple Voltage, though, and she continued to drain Noxus of his energy. He glanced at his own HUD and found that she had drained almost half of his health, and the drain was not slowing. Seeing little choice, he simply targeted Samus with his Judicator and fired uncharged shots at her head. Unlike her previous suit's defenses at the time of her mission to the Alimbic Cluster, though, the defenses around the head of her current suit were just as strong as the defenses around the rest of the suit. In addition, for each hit that he inflicted on Samus, she merely recovered the health by draining it from his suit. And he was unable to inflict more damage with his weapons per shot than she was able to recover from draining his own health.
Samus used this chance to concentrate on the thawing Spire. The ice around the Diamont bounty hunter was beginning to crack and thaw, drops of water were already falling from the main ice form and steam was rising. However, Samus would not give him a chance to do so as she charged her Ice Beam again and let loose a Charged Ice Beam shot. The ball of ice streaked towards the already frozen hunter and struck him, reforming the ice prison and reinforcing the ice sheet that was already over his body. The Ice Beam drained the equivalent of almost two thirds of a whole Energy Tank from Spire, and the freezing ice surrounding his body continued to drain health, as if Spire were trapped in a freezing environment without any protection to speak of. While he was frozen, there was nothing he could to do attack Samus, or help out Noxus, who was having enough trouble against Samus as it was.
She then refocused on Spire, who was doing his best to break the connection between Samus's Grapple Voltage and himself. He ran away from Samus as quickly as possible, firing Judicator blasts towards the hunter, who did little to avoid them except for when he had charged them. Samus easily kept up with her quarry and continued to drain him of his energy. Noxus was getting desperate now and decided that it was time to break out his missiles. Unlike Samus's missiles, his missiles did not have homing capabilities and were completely dumb fired. He unleashed a missile against her and the impact immediately forced her backwards, taking off ten units of energy from her suit. This attack was sufficient to allow Noxus to flee far enough for him to break himself away from Samus's Grapple Voltage. Unfortunately, he had lost more than three quarters of his energy, and Samus had locked onto him and was charging a Super Missile. She fired her missile at Noxus, who was still recovering from having his energy drained and, thus, did not see the Super Missile approaching. By the time he saw the missile, it was already too late for him to dodge and he was forced to take the full brunt of the attack, which knocked him backwards and knocked off more of his health. Noxus landed a few feet away from his launch point and fell in a heap. While he was getting back to his feet, Samus charged another Ice Spreader blast and unleashed it at a thawing Spire. The Ice Spreader blast struck Spire and refroze the Diamont rock solid once more. Samus checked his life bar and found that it was now down to less than one quarter of his original health. She suspected that if the ice did not take him out of the fight before he thawed, then her Grapple Voltage could finish him.
Turning back to Noxus, she raced after him and fired a normal missile at him. The missile streaked after the Vhozon and struck him in the back as he was returning fire towards Samus with his own missiles. The missile blast knocked him off his feet, forcing him to transform into his Vhoscythe form and try to speed away from her. However, Samus had closed the distance and fired a purple beam from her Grapple Voltage. Her beam managed to latch onto Noxus's Vhoscythe form and she began draining the remaining energy from him. Since he had nothing left to lose, Noxus charged towards Samus and attempted to extend his scythe-like appendages and launch an attack, but before he arrived, the last of his energy was drained from him and he immediately transformed back to normal and collapsed onto the ground, unconscious.
Samus immediately disengaged her Grapple Voltage from the fallen bounty hunter and turned back toward Spire, whose life bar was at critical levels. She noticed the ice beginning to crack and thaw around his body. She approached him and eventually, the ice shattered. Once it did, the Diamont merely stood there, panting but not raising his arm towards her at all. Spire then fell onto the ground and lay there, his threat neutralized. Samus then went over to him and proceeded to grab the Diamont and drag him over to the nearest escape pod. When she arrived, she opened the door and shoved the unconscious Spire into the pod. Once she was done, she went over to Noxus and dragged him over to the escape pod as well. Once she had pushed him into the pod, she closed the hatch and pushed the eject button. The escape pod was then ejected into space and rocketed away from the Orbital Ring and the Earth.
Once she had dealt with the two bounty hunters, she proceeded to make her way towards the penitentiary. She approached the door but it did not open. She looked over at a small keypad and retinal scanner to the right of the door and immediately activated her Scan Visor. Scanning the controls, her visor was able to hack into the computer and the door proceeded to open.
Upon entering, she encountered a long line of cells that lined a corridor wall behind a small room with several consoles. Two of the consoles were occupied and upon sighting Samus, the occupants rose to face her. One, a male was a Simian, while the second was a Star Elf female. She instantly recognized the two who rose to meet her, for they were bounty hunters, like her self. The Simian male with brown hair and dark skin that stood at over seven feet in height and was heavily muscled was Cylock, a notorious bounty hunter that was known for killing his quarry as soon as bringing them in. The female Star Elf with blond hair and blue eyes was named Marda. She looked like a taller, thinner version of Samus save for her two pointed ears. She, unlike Cylock, was not known for her ruthlessness, but was more known for her ability to seduce information out of males, making her perfect for espionage missions. Cylock was clad in a large suit of armor with only his head being revealed, while Marda was dressed in much lighter clothing, leaving her arms much of her legs bare. Despite the lack of clothing, Samus suspected that she was wearing a personal shield generator of some sort. She tested that theory by scanning Marda. Much to her surprise, the scan read, Morphology – Marda. Subject is a Star Elf that hails from the planet Midewan. Marda is a well-known bounty hunter that often seeks jobs that involve espionage and the search for, and capture of, other fugitives, rather than fighting large armies. Subject is currently armed with an energy pistol and Lightning Sword. Subject is wearing light clothing that is more useful for the seduction of males than for combat.
Yeah, I got that, Samus thought when she read the scan. Still, she was surprised that Marda was not dressed for combat and that she did not at least have a personal shield generator. She then scanned Cylock to see if he was hiding any weaponry that was not already visible. His scan came back, Morphology – Cylock. Subject is a Simian that hails from the planet Jamoru. Cylock is known for taking difficult and dirty jobs where he will be forced to face off against multiple opponents. Subject is wearing a powerful suit of battle armor that, while is armored heavily, lacks any type of defensive shield. Subject's weapons consist of a plasma cannon and energy rifle.
Samus had expected him to have heavier weaponry. She had heard of these bounty hunters before but had never had the opportunity to meet them until now. The two bounty hunters approached her and Cylock spoke first, ordering, "Surrender now or die, Samus. We have authorization to terminate you on sight."
Marda then spoke with a smile, saying, "It's two-on-one, Sammy. If you're smart, you'll…" but she never got a chance to finish her sentence, for Samus immediately fired an uncharged Wave Beam blast at her. The trio of undulating pulses struck her in the chest and electricity sparked across her body as she fell to the floor, crying out with the hit writhing in pain as she fell. With merely one shot, she was out of the fight. Samus instinctively moved to her left as a purple plasma pulse sailed by her head, missing her by scant inches. She focused on Cylock and charged her Wave Beam. He managed to get one more shot off from his plasma cannon, which missed Samus, before Samus returned fire with her charged Wave Beam. The blast struck Cylock in the chest and lightning arced across his armor and body. He gave a shout as his armor shut down and lightning arced across his body, and he fell down to the ground, at the very least unconscious, possibly worse.
Once the two bounty hunters were out of the picture, Samus went over to one of the consoles and hacked it with her Scan Visor. Once the computers were hacked, she managed to get information on all of the prisoners that were confined onboard Orbital Ring Eight. She had known from the Ring's main computer that Earth President Jonathan Richardson, General William Hastings, and Captain Douglas Jay Falcon were confined here, but she was surprised to find a large number of prisoners of war and political prisoners who were opposed to Cyrus's rule also being confined in this ring as well. She then checked to see if there were any prisoners that actually deserved to remain in confinement, for she did not want to release any known murderers. As she had expected, there were none. Once she had finished going over the list of prisoners, she proceeded to unlock all of the cells.
Once she unlocked all of the cells, she went over to the fallen bounty hunters and gathered their weapons. She noticed that the sword worn by Marda was a lightning sword. She was glad; for she knew that the freed prisoners would need every weapon they could get their hands on. She then went over to Cylock's armor and disconnected the plasma cannon from the armor's socket. She activated it to make sure that it still worked. Once it turned on, she fired a blast in order to make sure that it was undamaged. A blast of purple plasma erupted from the cannon and gouged a massive hole in the wall a few meters away. She smiled. The cannon was functioning perfectly. Before leaving, though, she gathered the bounty hunters' communicators as well and deactivated them. Once she had gathered the weapons and other important items from the fallen bounty hunters, she made her way down the corridor as the prisoners were walking out of the corridor and beginning to make their break for freedom.
Samus quickly spied Jonathan Richardson, a forty year old man that stood at about six feet in height with brown hair and green eyes; William Hastings, tall a man of about fifty-five years old with graying dark brown hair and blue eyes; and Captain Falcon a tall man that wore a form-fitting uniform that had his head and eyes covered with a helmet and visor, coming towards her, along with thirty-six other prisoners, all of them human. She was surprised that the prisoners were allowed to wear civilian style clothing, along with Falcon being allowed to keep his uniform, blue pants, blue formfitting armor, and a red helmet with a golden falcon symbol emblazoned on it. As the prisoners approached, she handed the first four prisoners weapons. She handed Captain Falcon an energy pistol, a burly looking Caucasian male the plasma cannon, President Richardson the energy rifle, and General Hastings the Lightning Sword. They then ushered the rest of the escaped prisoners into the room.
Once everyone was assembled, Samus went over to a console and brought up a hologram of the map of Orbital Ring Eight. Everyone stared at the image, for there were several locations that were marked on the map. The location that got the most interest from the party was an armory that was located a mere twenty meters away from the prison. "That's our first stop," President Richardson said for everyone there. The other prisoners nodded. "If we're going to escape from this place, we'll need appropriate arms and armor."
"I'll lead the way," Samus volunteered.
Jonathan Richardson then directed, "Captain Falcon, you, Lieutenant O'Brien, and General Hastings are with me. We'll be fighting alongside Samus on the way to the armory. General Hastings, you're on rearguard for our little group, though. You've got the sword, which is not the best weapon for ranged combat, but it's better than nothing. If you see anything, give us a call and we'll come help."
"Understood, Mr. President," the general replied.
Before leaving, though, Samus did one last thing. She ushered the prisoners away from the consoles and proceeded to fire on them, disabling each of the consoles, shorting out their circuits and rendering them unusable. Once that was finished, she led the way out of the penitentiary, followed by President Jonathan Richardson along with Lieutenant O'Brien, then Captain Falcon and General William Hastings.
Once they reached the corridor, the group immediately ran into a dozen Galactic Federation Army Troopers, along with a few Galactic Federation Marines. President Richardson went over to Samus and told her, "These troopers are conscripts and former prisoners that were scheduled to be executed. They consist of known murderers, rapists, mob hitmen, etcetera."
Samus suppressed a grin. Finally, she could cut loose against a group of "Army" and "Marines" without killing anyone who was good. She did not bother to use her Wave Beam or Ice Beam and immediately switched to her Plasma Beam. She opened fire on the Marines first, felling them in two and three uncharged shots, while President Richardson, Captain Falcon, and Lieutenant O'Brien focused on the Army Troopers. The Army Troopers fired towards the escapees but were unable to find their mark as the escapees took cover behind Samus and various outcroppings from the wall. Richardson, Captain Falcon, and O'Brien opened fire on the troopers and tore them to shreds. Within seconds, the battle was over. When the battle was over, they used hand signals to indicate that the path was clear. Before moving on, though, the escapees poured over the corpses of the fallen Army Troopers and Marines and took their weapons. Once sixteen of the escapees were armed, they joined Samus, President Richardson, and General Hastings up front and proceeded down the corridor.
After traveling a few dozen yards, the group encountered two Air Defense Drones. The drones were promptly drowned with energy fire from Samus, President Richardson, and Captain Falcon. After dealing with the drones, they continued down the corridor where they encountered some Security Android Troopers that were equipped with arm cannons. The SATs opened fire on the escapees, but failed to hit any because the escapees, who were trained Galactic Federation Marines and Army Troopers, quickly dove behind cover, and returned fire. The metallic bodies of the SATs made them more resistant to the energy-sheathed bullets fired from the assault rifles that had been plundered from the Galactic Federation Army Troopers that had fallen to Samus and the others, but Samus's Plasma Beam and the energy weapons that had been taken were more than sufficient to breach their chassis. The robots fell amid the hail of energy fire and bullets without managing to fell a single prisoner. Once the shootout had ended, they continued on their way, unable to make use of the arm cannons that had been integrated into the SATs.
The group continued to make its way down the corridor until they came across a soldier that looked to be some class of Techno Soldier and froze. Samus looked forward at the soldier and called to everyone else, "Stay back! I'll handle this!"
"Do it," Captain Falcon called reiterated. "These things are tough," he warned, remembering his own encounter with Techno Soldiers one year ago. His strongest punch had not even fazed a Techno Lord. The others followed the advice of Samus and Captain Falcon and retreated back around the corner. The armed prisoners, the President, General Hastings, and Captain Falcon covered the unarmed prisoners and made certain to be on the lookout for any reinforcements that the Techno Soldier might have brought with him.
A little further down the corridor, Samus and the Techno Soldier stared at each other. The bounty hunter could not help but notice that the Techno Soldier seemed to have much lighter armor than the Techno Knight that she had faced earlier, and only two shoulder-mounted cannons with no energy projectors on its chest. However, the Techno Soldier also carried a staff, rather than the short sword and dagger that the dossiers on the Techno Serf and Techno Squire said they used. She activated her Scan Visor and the scan soon showed up on her HUD, reading, Morphology – Techno Serf. Techno Serfs are the lowest ranking, and most numerous, of the Techno Soldiers. Armed with only a single close combat weapon and two shoulder heavy plasma cannons, these soldiers are nowhere near as strong as their more powerful brethren. However, their lighter armor and smaller weaponry makes them more mobile and able to utilize cover in an urban environment. Serfs still have the same vulnerabilities to the Wave Beam and Screw Attack that their superiors possess.
Hope came to Samus as she realized that this was the weakest of the Techno Soldiers and, while the Serfs were undoubtedly still powerful, her fears that the fight would threaten the escaped prisoners was lessening. Unfortunately, her scan did not reveal what lifeform was inside the armor. She did not know whether or not she had to be careful not to harm the occupant, or if she could afford to go all out in taking him down. The Techno Soldier soon made up her mind for her as he took aim with his staff and pointed one of its blades at her. The blade of the staff glowed and Samus took that as her cue to go evasive. The staff then unleashed a blast of pulsating blue energy. The Serf's aim was off and the staff's blast missed the bounty hunter by at least a few feet. Samus returned fire with her Wave Beam and fired a volley of uncharged blasts at the Techno Serf. The blasts struck the armor and spread out in arcs of lightning upon impact. Scanning the life bar of her opponent on her HUD, though, she found that the Techno Serf had suffered no damage at all. She had not expected it to. She then began charging her Wave Beam as the Techno Serf began opening fire with his shoulder-mounted plasma cannons. She ran towards a metal outcropping and dove behind it as the first of the plasma blasts was being fired. The first few blasts missed Samus and sailed past her, gouging holes in the floor several meters in diameter, and blowing out the floor, revealing the deck below. One blast, however, managed to connect with Samus and sent her sailing through the air. However, she noticed that only ninety units of energy were lost from the blast, indicating that the cannons were far weaker than the blasts from a Techno Knight. Still, she could not afford to take too many direct hits from the plasma cannons of the Techno Serf. She then rose and fired her charged Wave Beam at the Techno Serf. The blast struck the Serf in the chest and electricity played across his armor. Checking the Serf's life bar, she found that only about a tenth of the life bar had been drained by her Wave Beam blast. She knew that she would need to do more damage in a big hurry, for the blasts of the Serf were still quite capable of damaging the entire area and if there was a hull breach, if the emergency force fields were offline, it could spell disaster for the escapees.
Samus quickly considered her options for dealing with the Techno Serf. Option one was to use a Power Bomb to destroy the armor. That carried the risk of hurting the other escapees that were hiding not too far away from the fighting. Option two was to try the Screw Attack. While that would be able to inflict damage, she did not know how long it would take, and she had hoped to already be on Earth's surface at the moment given how quickly she had managed to destroy Orbital Rings One through Seven. Thinking about her strategy, there was a third option that could prove to be quite damaging to the Techno Serf, but a lot of things had to go right.
She began by turning and calling back to the others, "Retreat down the corridor!"
Captain Falcon, President Richardson, and General Hastings each realized what she was likely going to try when she called back to them and they called back to the others, "Get back! We have to give her as much room as possible!"
The other prisoners obeyed them and began to run. While they were retreating, Samus avoided another blast from the Serf's staff. She retaliated with a Charged Wave Beam blast that scored a direct hit on the Techno Serf. Another tenth of the Serf's life bar was depleted, but it was not enough for Samus. She then decided to flee the Serf and ran down the corridor as quickly as she could until she activated her Speed Booster. The Serf had no idea what she was planning and decided that it would be best to wait and see what her plan was, rather than chase her down and take advantage of the fact that she was retreating. Once her Speed Booster had activated, she quickly skidded to a halt and turned around. Seeing that the Serf was not pursuing her, she charged back towards him. Her charge caught the Serf off guard and he began firing wildly at her with his shoulder-mounted plasma cannons and staff. None of the energy blasts managed to connect with Samus, though, and she managed to activate her Speed Booster before the Serf could evade her. A field of energy then surrounded the bounty hunter and she then skidded to a halt. After skidding to the halt, she lunged forward and propelled herself at supersonic speeds towards the Techno Serf.
She struck the Serf directly in the chest and knocked him off his feet. The Serf gave a grunt as the two sailed through the air. Eventually, the Serf landed on the ground and both skidded to a halt. Samus looked at the Serf's life bar on her HUD and found that he had lost all but a tenth of his life bar. Seeing this as her chance to end the battle, she charged her Wave Beam once more before opening fire on the Serf. The Serf tried to rise but found himself unable to do so. Samus then leveled her arm cannon at him and let fly. The single Wave Beam blast struck the Techno Serf squarely in the chest and electricity arced across his body for a few seconds. One the electricity died down, the suit of armor began to crack into its component pieces and it fell off of his body, revealing a human male in his late twenties to early thirties with bright red hair and green eyes. Looking at the man, Samus recognized him as the notorious criminal, Rand Excer. Rand looked up at her and grinned. "Good job, hunter. It looks like you've beaten me," he told her in a sinister tone. "But don't get cocky. The N'Kren and the Ylla have some pretty nasty gear and power. For example, try this for size."
He then produced a grenade and pressed a button on his watch. "This bomb produces a vaporization field that will destroy you and everyone within a one hundred meter radius. Time to say…" but Samus never let him finish his sentence, for before he managed to activate the bomb, she annihilated him with a volley of blasts from her Wave Beam and her Plasma Beam.
Once the fight was over, she scanned the corridor to make sure that there were not more enemies. Once she was sure that the corridor was clear, she called over to everyone, "It's clear everyone. Let's go."
The escapees then proceeded to form up behind Samus and followed her down the corridor and towards the armory. Checking her map, the armory was only a hundred meters away.
Meanwhile, in the orbit of Aphros, Admiral Dane stood inside his ready room onboard the G.F.S Olympus, flanked by Commander General Adam Malkovich, Old Bird, Gray Voice, and U-Mos. They looked at the long-range scans that were being performed by the advance task force that had taken Mars. So far, the reports were spot on with what Samus had told him. Seven thousand ships were currently stationed over Earth, with three thousand ships being held behind the shield produced by Orbital Ring Eight. They read over the reports from their spies on the planet and found that the fleet was being coordinated from the ground via the Radio Tower, and the Heavy Defense Platforms were firmly under the control of the Galactic Federation. They soon read the reports that Cyrus had already begun his offensive on Japan and that it would only be a matter of time before his troops managed to take control of Sinnoh and Johto. And once that happened, then it would not be long before he managed to find the fabled Sinjoh Ruins and put his plans into motion.
"He's getting close to his goals," Adam said, looking at the incoming reports.
"I know," Admiral Dane said.
"We must do something soon," Old Bird said. "We can't afford to simply stand by and watch as Cyrus gets closer and closer to accomplishing his goals. If his plans really do involve the destruction of the universe, then we have to act."
"Indeed," Gray Voice agreed. "I can already sense that things are changing. The Chozo Ghosts are very agitated at the moment."
"How many ships have we managed to assemble, so far?" U-Mos asked.
Admiral Dane looked down at his reports and said, "So far, we have managed to call up three thousand starships, with another three thousand in reserve and coming as we speak, but we have had to take them from other key worlds and sectors, including Aliehs Three and Corella Five. This means that those worlds will only be left with skeleton fleets at best, along with their own defense platforms for defense. They won't last against any type of concerted assault."
Cyrus won't launch an assault on any of those worlds," Adam said flatly. "He only has one concern: Earth. Everything in this civil war has been about the conquest of Earth. Now that he has it, he won't let it go. He'll call in every single starship in the Galactic Federation if that is what it takes for him to keep the Earth."
"You can count on the Chozo to aid you in this battle," Old Bird and Gray Voice declared in unison.
"And the Luminoth as well," added U-Mos.
"Excellent. Thank you," Admiral Dane told them. That would add another hundred ships to the fleet. It was not much, especially when compared to the number of N'Kren and Ylla ships, but every ship they could get would help. "Now, that only leaves the information that we've got on Earth. So far, Orbital Rings One through Seven have been destroyed, but Eight is still intact. That means that there is still a shield protecting Earth." He turned to Old Bird, Gray Voice, and U-Mos, and asked, "Can your ships breach that shield and/or destroy Orbital Ring Eight if worst comes to worst?"
Each of the ancient aliens nodded. "We can," they said in unison. "But it will be costly and time consuming. We would lose much, if not all, of our fleet in doing so."
"I see," Admiral Dane said, considering his options.
Adam went over to him and said, "Sir, we have to go now. Cyrus is getting too close to his goals. If he succeeds, it's all over for everybody."
"Samus may still be able on that ring and be able to destroy it. If we go too soon, that ring will tear our fleet to shreds. Besides, Samus is still onboard. I don't want to risk killing her until we have no other choice."
"I know," Adam replied. "And the possibility of potentially killing Samus weighs heavier on me than you will ever know. But I also know that it is what she would want given the situation and the consequences should we fail. We have to go now and stop Cyrus before it's too late. Every minute we spend here is one minute that Cyrus gets closer to his goal."
Admiral Dane considered what General Malkovich was saying and eventually, he admitted, "You're right, Commander General. Tell your troops to get ready. We're going to take back Earth."
"Yes, Admiral," Adam said, saluting Dane. Admiral Dane then returned his salute and Adam left the ready room. Admiral Dane soon followed suit and proceeded to make his way out of his ready room and down the corridor that led to the bridge of the G.F.S. Olympus.
Admiral Dane stepped onto the bridge of his ship and looked out over the rest of the bridge crew. He then looked out the window at the rest of the fleet. Three thousand ships had already been assembled. He soon saw two subspace windows open and a hundred Chozo and Luminoth ships emerge from the windows. With that, Admiral Dane told the communications officer, "Lieutenant, open a channel to the rest of the fleet."
He waited for a second and a beep sounded, prompting the officer to report, "Channel open."
Admiral Dane then took a deep breath and said, "I've not been one for great speeches, so I'll get down to the point. We are going to Earth to take back humanity's birth world from a corrupt regime. I would have much rather taken this action when we had fully recovered from our recent losses and while Earth was not so heavily defended. However, Cyrus is not leaving us any options. Either we go now and stop him, or we sit back and watch as our universe is destroyed. I'm certain you all know by now what Cyrus's true goals are and how his so-called perfect universe will be made from the ashes of the current one. We cannot allow that to happen. To that end, we shall stop him…or die trying." He then turned to his helmsman and navigation officer and told them, "Lay in a course for Mars. We'll try to draw away some of their forces and force them to engage us there before going straight to Earth."
The officer soon reported back, saying, "Course laid in, sir."
With that report, Admiral Dane ordered, "Jump!"
As soon as he had given the order, a subspace window opened, and the fleet jumped to Earth.