Chapter 10
Fox
I found it strange that I never even saaw a hint that would indicate the presence of the vicious wild life of this planet. I trekked for what must have been for several hours, easily three miles distance, into this dense jungle and never encountered anything besides the more docile flora around me. At any rate, I was glad that I didn't have to deal with that, but at the same time, I found it gave me a deep, foreboding sensation that I tried to ignore while I ventured back to the shore. I couldn't help but stay on my toes though.
I pulled back the last of the foliage between me and the beach to reveal an unpleasant surprise: My Arwing. Or to me more precise, the condition it was in. My vehicle, my only way off this planet, was gone. The only sign of it was the prints left in the sand where its landing feet were and the conspicuous trail that indicated that it was dragged away further down the beach to the south.
"No..." I whispered, glancing around the area before looking back to the beach. I noticed footprints all over the place, the footprints of bipedal creatures by the way they looked, "Damn it..." I knew then that I definitely wasn't alone. I wasn't sure if it was the Zebesians but I knew that a group of somebodies were down here and that they stole my way out of here, "...Alright, where did you take it?" I followed the trail in the sand, but was careful to not go out onto the beach and stayed hidden in the foliage as best as I could. I didn't know if whoever they were were watching and waiting for me to come back. I didn't know if they already had eyes on me though either…
I pressed my earpiece into my ear with a finger as I went, "Come in, Great Fox."
I said, but got no response, "Great Fox, do you read?...ROB? Falco? Anyone? Are you there?" I let out a frustrated sigh. I assumed that I wasn't reaching them due to interference and kept moving. I wasn't sure what I was going to do at this point, all I had on my mind was to see where they took my Arwing.
After a while, the tracks lead sharply into the jungle and I started having a harder time following them but I managed. Eventually, I was lead to something strange: The tracks suddenly stopped. Disappeared. Confused, I knelt down to examine the end of the trail closely. And that's when I saw it, a shimmering in the air in front of me.
I stood up quickly and decided to test something out by kicking some of the soil on the ground forward. It went a short ways before it suddenly vanished, right at the point where the tracks suddenly stopped. Biting my lip, I stepped forward and reached my hand out. My hand was suddenly gone, but I could still feel it. Stepping into whatever this was revealed that I passed through what was some kind of cloaking field. There was a structure ahead of me that had a huge door covering its front. The tracks continued on towards that door.
There was a terminal next to the door that I started to make my way towards to see if I could find out more before I heard footsteps rapidly approaching. I turned to look but nothing was there, but the footsteps continued. I fired my blaster rifle at what seemed to be nothing and was suddenly taken down by an invisible force. I was pinned to the ground and I immediately felt a heavy blow to the side of my head and I blacked out.
Samus
"T-Minus 20 minutes until reactor meltdown. T-minus 10 minutes to evacuate to minimum safe distance."
Falco and Slippy caught up with me in the engineering reactor control room as I was trying to access one of the terminals. When they got there, I turned to them, "I can't get in, something's wrong with the terminals, they've been tampered with." I told them as Falco inspected one himself.
Slippy's eyes lit up, "We can still try the main reactor computer. It's down in the reactor chamber." He said before running off to take the lift down from the control room, Falco and I following.
"T-Minus 15 minutes until reactor meltdown. T-minus 5 minutes before meltdown can no longer be reversed."
I noticed when we got down there, that the reactor seemed oddly calm for being minutes away from self-destructing. I pushed that thought aside as we got to the main reactor computer Slippy talked about. Falco went up to it and logged in, only for Slippy to suddenly push him to the side and frantically start tapping keys on the terminal's keyboard, breathing heavily and sweat dripping from his forehead from what I guessed was the run down here.
"...What the-?" Slippy suddenly said in surprise, leaning closer to the screen, "The reactor...it says it's fine!"
"T-minus 10 minutes until reactor meltdown. T-minus 5 minutes to reverse reaction.""Then care to explain why the system says otherwise!?" Falco shouted.
"I don't know!" Slippy said before he ran over to the reactor and pulled a maintenance panel off and began examining the internal systems, "Help me out here, maybe?!" he called and Falco ran over to him.
I went around the other side, looking at the reactor, feeling that something was off about all of this. I wasn't sure what I was looking for though...
"T-minus 5 minutes until reactor meltdown. The time to safely reverse reaction has expired."
"NO!" I heard Slippy shout out.
"Damn it! I'm not going to die on this hunk of junk!" I heard Falco next.
It was then I saw something odd. I wasn't sure what yet but I started climbing up the side of the reactor core to reach it.
"T-minus 30 seconds until reactor meltdown."
I had reached it. It was some kind of device physically attached into an exposed conduit. I began messing with it, trying to figure out how to get it off.
"T-minus 10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1…."
I finally gave up and just grabbed the device and ripped it out of the conduit. And the count down, the alarms, everything stopped.
"Whoa. What happened?" I heard Slippy say down below, "Everything just-ack!" He was suddenly cut off.
"Hey! What's the big idea?" Falco suddenly shouted. I heard a shot go off and then the sounds of a scuffle and then a thud, "Arrgh! Get off me, jackass!"
I jumped down and quickly ran back around the reactor to where the sounds were coming from, my arm cannon raised and ready to kill. I was met with four other individuals. Three males and a female. All each a different species of the Lylat system and equipped with rugged gear that would make them bounty hunters like me or mercenaries. I had never seen them before. One of the males, he looked like some sore of black feline, had Falco pinned to the floor as he struggled to get out from his hold. Another, a reptilian by his looks, had an arm around Slippy's neck and a blaster pressed to the side of his head.
"Well, well, well. There she is. You were quite the elusive one, Samus Aran. But it was so much worth it to go through the trouble of tracking you down." What seemed to be the leader of the group, a gray canid, his left eye covered with some kind of eye patch. He and the other bluish canid both raised their weapons in response to me and the feline placed his own to Falco's head too.
"Stand down, now." I ordered, charging up a shot.
"No, you stand down. Or your friends here will die."
"Don't listen to 'em! Kick their asses!" Falco shouted, trying again to get the feline off of him.
This was a very bad situation, "What do you want?"
"All we want is you, Samus. Someone's placed a very, very pretty price on your head. Someone being your friends back in Galactic Federation space that is. Looks like you really pissed them off. They've got a very long list of charges against you." He said with a smile.
Just as I was dreading. The Federation is still looking for me. I imagine I could easily get out of this situation...but I wasn't going to risk and sacrifice Falco and Slippy's lives to avoid capture. I lowered my arm cannon, "I will go peacefully." I said, "So long as you do not hurt them."
"You have my word. All we want is you." he said, "Now, take off that armor." He instructed and I did as I was told, "On your knees." I got down and he then nodded to the blue one, "Go do your thing, Krystal."
'Krystal' as she was called then put away her weapon and walked over to me. She and behind me. She took my hands and I felt them bound behind my back. I didn't see what she did next but I felt something attach onto my back and then a sudden, sharp pain like pin pricks that dissipated as soon as it came. The power in my suit suddenly drained. I couldn't activate it anymore. "Alright. Get up." She then said, taking me by the arm to help pull me up before she gave me a small push to get me going.
"Nicely done, Samus. Thank you for the cooperation." The leader sneered as he followed us out, "Before you know it, you'll be 'home' again in no time."
"...Don't count on it." I muttered in a low tone. As soon as I could, I would be making an escape attempt.
TO BE CONTINUED
Author's Note:
Well here it is! Chapter 10 just like I promised and just in time for the beginning of the holidays. I hope I haven't been keeping you waiting for too long those of you who have been waiting. I'll try to be a little faster for chapter 11 next time but I can't make any promises, sorry. Please review and tell me what you think. Feedback is invaluable to me. Thank you.