Chapter 12:
The Chimera jumped out of warp an hour later and reappeared ten kilometers away from the troopship G.F.S. Loki. P'Fash looked out the bridge window of his frigate and saw the breaching pods and boarding transports leaving the troopship, heading towards the station off in the distance. P'Fash also noticed that the massive troopship sitting in his ship's direct line of fire. He looked over to his weapons officer and a report from the officer soon came forth, "Sir, I read that the Federation ship's shields are down and its weapons unpowered!"
"All forward batteries open fire!" P'Fash shouted at the top of his lungs. "Disable that ship at all costs. Target its weapons, shields, and warp drive! We can't risk letting it raise its shields, charge its weapons, or escape!"
The Chimera caught the Loki with its pants down as it opened fire with all of its forward batteries almost immediately upon exiting warp. Blue pulses of energy lanced out from the weapons batteries of the Chimera and streaked across space, finding their marks on the hull of the troopship Loki at nearly the speed of light. Armor plates of the Loki melted and vaporized under the weight of fire unleashed upon it by the Chimera. The melted pieces of hull congealed in space and formed globules of gray as they floated away from the stricken ship. The rear weapons batteries were the first to be annihilated under the massive weight of the frigate's fire. Next, the shield generators were destroyed. Small bulges on the hull were instantly destroyed as the generators were pounded by massive pulses of bluish-white plasma. After that, the warp drive was targeted. Lances of blue plasma lashed out at the troopship's warp engines and gouged massive holes into the engine walls of the ship. The warp engines automatically cut off in order to prevent the energy from bleeding into the rest of the ship and destroying it. In addition, a line of explosions soon erupted from the middle of the ship's hull as a plasma conduit ruptured. Equipment, crewmembers, and troops onboard the Loki were ejected into space as the hull ruptured near inhabited areas of the ship. P'Fash nearly grimaced as he saw the equipment float out into space. He had few transports of his own to retrieve any of the lost equipment and as such, he had wanted to keep as much of the equipment onboard the Loki intact as possible.
On the bridge of the Loki, sparks erupted from consoles on both the bridge. The occupants of the consoles screamed as sparks erupted from various consoles, killing or injuring the unfortunate crewmembers manning them.
"Casualties!" Captain Bridges bellowed as he witnessed the crewmembers unfortunate deaths as the hands of the sparking consoles.
"We have casualties coming in from all over the place," a female Fleet Trooper replied. "We have damage to our engines, shields, and weapons. I don't know how long we can…ahhh," she cried as sparks erupted from the officer's console as the ship lurched from another weapons strike and Captain Bridges glance back and saw the female Fleet Trooper lying on the floor, horrifying burns covering her face and hands.
Captain Bridges rose from his chair ran to the internal sensor station to see the extent of the damage done to his ship. Sparks had erupted from the console and killed its occupant moments earlier and thus, the bridge was down a man. He looked at the readout and growled. It did not look good. The console read, Warp drive offline. Shields down. Rear batteries destroyed.
"Damn," Captain Bridges swore. They were sitting ducks. At least he had maneuvering thrusters so he could turn and fight, but he knew that with the kind of damage his ship had already suffered, his chances of victory were slim. He turned to his communications officer and commanded, "Send out a distress signal! We need reinforcements! Get the transports back here now! We need some cover from that Space Pirate ship!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Helm, come about and get our bow to that Pirate frigate. Weapons, target their own weapons systems and fire everything we've got! We have to disable their weapons systems!"
The Loki then came about and went to face the bow of the Chimera, but it was too slow since one of its maneuvering thrusters had been destroyed in the Chimera's initial barrage. The Chimera was able to maneuver out of its firing arc and soon unleashed the finishing blow on the Loki. A ball of lightning erupted from the forward prow of the ship and streaked towards the Loki. The Loki was in no condition to attempt to evade the lightning ball, and did not even try. The ball promptly struck the Loki and electricity arced across the ship. Just then, the lights began to flicker on the ship and after a few seconds, simply shut down. The sublight engines went dark and the entire ship seemed to have been drained of its life.
On the bridge of the Loki, Captain Bridges flung himself away from the console he was occupying as lightning erupted from the console. Several other officers on the bridge were less fortunate, being electrocuted as the systems of the ship shorted out and the ship went dark, their cries echoing through the bridge. "Report!" Bridges cried over the din of explosions and other cries.
An officer soon reported in, saying, "I can't make contact with any other sectors of the ship. We've gone completely dark."
"Do we still have life support?"
"Barely, sir," came the response. "But other than that, don't ask for much. We're dead in space with no way to call for help."
Captain Bridges swore. He knew that there was little that he could do now. His ship was now completely defenseless against the Space Pirate frigate. Despite his ship's advantage in size, the fact was that most of the troops had been placed onboard the transports and boarding pods that were being launched against Research Facility 777 meant that his ship was unlikely to be able to repel enemy boarders unless the transports and boarding pods managed to return to the ship in time. Just then, he watched as one of the boarding pods exploded in the middle of space. Then, a second one exploded, then a third. He then saw several flashes of blue light flashed near a fourth pod before one of them vaporized another pod. Then, suddenly, a torrent of blue plasma fire lashed out at the remaining boarding pods and transports. "Crap," Bridges swore, "they're picking off the boarding pods and transports. Are they going after the station too?"
He did not know whether or not the Space Pirates were interested in the station, but he knew that his ship was helpless against the frigate, and that it was not destroyed. That meant that at the very least, the Loki was a target for the Space Pirates. Just then, the lights came on once more. The consoles also lit up.
"Auxiliary power has been restored, sir," the tactical officer called out to the Captain. "But communications is still down."
Captain Bridges swore again. That might not have been so bad, but given the damage the ship had suffered in the initial attack, there was little that they could do to defend themselves, and without being able to call for help, unless a miracle happened, they would be eventually be destroyed, or worse. He then went over to the unoccupied sensor console, stepping over the body of a fallen officer, and checked the sensor screens. The screen depicted the Space Pirate frigate making its approach to the crippled troopship. Blue energy pulses still erupted from its guns, targeting the few remaining boarding pods that were making their way to the station. However, the Pirate frigate had ceased firing on the crippled Loki. Now he knew what their plan was. They were going to board the troopship and hope to take it over. And with most of the troops having been slaughtered when the boarding pods and transports had been destroyed by the frigate en route to the station, they would likely be able to take over the ship and possibly repair it enough for them to jump the ship out of the system. He could not allow that. He soon went over the internal ship comm., which had just been restored, and activated it. He then spoke into the speaker, saying, "All personnel, we are about to be boarded by Space Pirate invaders. You must hold out against the Space Pirates no matter the cost." With that, he deactivated the comm. He then went back to his chair and went over to the keypad and typed in a series of commands into the pad. He wanted to ensure that all command codes were transferred to his station and that the Space Pirates would not be able to hack them. After a few seconds, he had managed to secure the main computer and waited. He hated having to wait, but he knew that there was no choice. He had to wait, for only he could activate the autodestruct sequence and have it be on a silent countdown. He knew that the surviving crewmembers would be defenseless against the Space Pirate Troopers, and that even the few Army Troopers still onboard would not be nearly enough to stop the Space Pirate boarding party. He knew that the end would come soon.
Back on Z-1A, the Space Pirates that had crashed their transport back onto the planet were setting up defenses around their transport in order to ward the imminent attack by the Galactic Federation. While the Pirates knew that there was no realistic way that they would manage to defeat the attacking Federation forces, they also did not want to go down without a fight. After all, they had a great deal of information on them…information that if it fell into the wrong hands, would set back their operations and plans even more than the destruction of their base on Zebes had. Onboard the crashed transport, a Pirate Commando, the highest-ranking Pirate on the ship, was ordering the troops to set up barricades and set up chokepoints where they could cause the Federation forces to bottleneck so that they could inflict severe losses on the Federation forces.
"Come on you swine!" he bellowed. "Set up those crates. We may not be able to beat back the attacks forever, but we can inflict heinous losses on them in the fighting!"
Just then, an explosion rocked the ship and the door that was the entrance to the ship was reduced to shrapnel, which was propelled inside of the small ship, knocking down one of the Militia and piercing him in the process. An armored figure strolled into the ship and promptly shot a Charged Beam blast at the fallen and dying Militiaman, annihilating the Pirate. The Pirate Commando swore at the sight, for he was facing off against none other than Samus Aran, the Hunter.
"Take her out! Kill her!" he cried frantically, but as he was screaming his orders, Samus had fired two missiles at the surviving Pirates, killing two Pirate Troopers. The rest of the Pirates quickly hid behind the crates, but Samus was not concerned. She targeted the crates and fired Charged Shots to destroy the crates and reveal the Pirates. She then targeted the other Pirates and switched to her Wave Beam and fired on them. The uncharged shots struck the Pirates and merely a few shots were sufficient to stun each Pirate and short out his armor. The rest of the Pirates still fired on Samus, but Samus managed to avoid their fire by ducking behind some gray metal crates. Samus emerged to fire on the Pirate Troopers, stunning and even paralyzing her enemies, wanting to make sure that a few were kept alive so that they could be interrogated by Admiral Dane and the Galactic Federation. She noticed the Commando in the rear, firing his EMP grenade and she rushed to the rear of the transport to escape its blast radius. It was then that Kreatz, Mauk, and Adam appeared to assist her. She did not need their help to finish off these Pirates, but she did not mind their appearance either. They could take down the rest of the Pirates while she dealt with the Commando.
Adam, Kreatz, and Mauk quickly opened fire on the remaining Pirate Troopers using their freeze guns, knowing that the freezing effect might not be fatal for the armored Pirates, but would disable them so that their threat would be neutralized. Five Pirates were quickly frozen in rapid succession while Samus went to engage the Pirate Commando in a quick battle. It was quick, for Samus wasted no time charging her Wave Beam. She fired the three charged projectiles and they streaked towards the Pirate Commando, who was busy targeting Samus with his EMP grenade launcher and energy projector. Before the Pirate could fire, though, the Charged Wave Beam blast struck the Pirate and disabled his suit and its weaponry. Samus fired another blast from her Wave Beam just to make sure that he would not get up anytime soon.
After the battle, Samus checked out the cargo compartments to see what the Pirates had stolen from the colony and the Chozo dig. When Samus opened the compartments, her eyes went wide at what the Pirates had obtained, for inside the compartments, she found the Plasma Beam, the Space Jump and Screw Attack upgrade, the Speed Booster, and the Power Bomb upgrades. This technology would have been incredibly useful to the Pirates if they had managed to leave the planet with it. Samus began to wonder, and worry about, what technology the Pirates may have managed to make off with in their raid, for she knew that at the very least, Ridley, his Heavy Assault Transport, and its escorts had managed to escape the planet. She did not know that the escorts had been destroyed during the Galactic Federation's arrival and that Ridley's ship was one of the only transports to escape. She knelt down and integrated the upgrades into her suit.
Once the upgrades had been integrated into her suit, she went over to the stunned Pirate Commando, who was beginning to awaken and tore off his EMP grenade launcher. She then ripped his helmet off and grinned, though her own helmet hid her grin. She leaned over the Pirate and asked in a cold voice, "Where is Ridley?"
"I don't know," the Commando responded. That only got the Pirate a punch to the gut with Samus's arm cannon, which was already charging to unleash a Charged Shot.
"Wrong answer," Samus seethed. "I'm going to ask you again. Where's Ridley? Where did his ship jump to?" The plasma from Samus's Charged Plasma Beam was beginning to burn its way through the Pirate Commando's armor.
"I don't know, honest!" the Pirate cried frantically. "We broke away from Ridley in order to draw the Federation fighters away from his ship! The frigate jumped away before Ridley's ship could be taken onboard! This ship can't track Ridley's transport, only the frigate!"
"That's not good enough!" Samus cried as she leveled her cannon at his face and was about to fire her Charged Plasma Beam at the Pirate Commando and annihilate him.
"Wait!" came Adam's cry. "Don't kill him!"
"Why not?" Samus asked in a dark tone, glaring back at Adam.
"Because he can lead us to the Space Pirate frigate, which may be able to track Ridley's ship," Adam responded sagely.
Samus's expression toward Adam softened. She then turned back to the Pirate Commando, her helmet hiding her menacing grin. "Adam just saved your life…for the moment. Now, you're going to tell us how to track your mothership."
"No," came the Pirate's condescending reply. Samus merely grinned and charged her Plasma Beam once again. Adam, Kreatz, and Mauk also approached, pointing their weapons at the Pirate Commando. Samus then punched him in the gut with her left fist, and then touched her arm cannon to the Pirate's cheeks, letting the plasma burn them.
Seeing that Samus's beam was fully charged and that she was pointing it at his head, and that Adam and the other two Federation soldiers were doing nothing to stop her, the Pirate decided that his survival was more important than his loyalty to the frigate crew. After all, he knew that the frigate could not track Ridley's transport. And in a way, he wanted Commander P'Fash to pay for abandoning them, and Ridley, to the Galactic Federation. This would be his revenge.
"Yes," the Pirate Commando eventually said, acquiescing to Samus's wishes. "Hunter, on the command console are the controls for the long-range sensors. These sensors can track this transport's mothership," the Commando explained. "It was designed so that we could make our way back to a mothership should we suffer damage and send a direct encrypted signal to it. Normally we'd wipe the data from our computers, but your attack took us off guard. Besides, I want some revenge against P'Fash for leaving us here to die." He made certain not to mention Ridley's name in who he wanted revenge for, since he knew about Samus's past with his leader.
Samus and the others then went to the console and brought up the long-range sensors. Immediately a small map of the galaxy appeared on a small holographic display. The image then went forward, as if it were a ship flying into the galaxy. Samus immediately activated her Scan Visor so she could download the data to her logbook and then transfer it to her ship's computer. The display then showed the location of Z-1A, located near the edge of the galaxy. It then shifted to a few stars closer to the edge of the galaxy and showed the location of not only the Space Pirate frigate, but also showed several other blips as well. Some of the smaller blips disappeared. Adam took a look at the display and his eyes flashed in recognition.
"I recognize that spatial region," he blurted.
"What is it?" Kreatz asked.
"That's the location of Research Facility Seven-Seven-Seven," the general responded. "It is a facility where the Federation does research on various lifeforms. It was commissioned by Chairman Elric two years ago, just after his inauguration as Chairman, which came not long after the Phazon Crisis, after former Chairman Keaton was assassinated. It is considered to be quite controversial and more than a few elements inside the Federation on several planets have tried to have it shut down." He took a closer look at the facility and noticed that there was activity near the station besides just the frigate and another vessel. "There's activity going on onboard the station," he observed. "There's no way the frigate would have stopped to engage another ship there, especially given the damage that the frigate sustained, unless there was something that they wanted on the station." He turned to Samus and told her, "Samus, we have to get to that frigate. I have a bad feeling about all of this."
"I'm on it," Samus responded as she left the console and went to leave the ship so she could call her own gunship.
It was then that the rest of the Galactic Federation Marines arrived onboard the ship. They saw Samus leaving and parted so that she could leave. They then went boarded the ship and found Kreatz and Mauk subduing the Space Pirate captives. Mauk looked up and when he saw the Marines, he shouted, "Clear!"
The Marine commander, a Major, responded by sarcastically saying, "Obviously."
Behind the Marines, Admiral Dane came walking onto the remnants of the ship. He looked around as the Marines assisted Kreatz and Mauk in capturing the Pirates and their leader, herding them off the ship, but not before stripping the Pirates of their armor and weapons. Admiral Dane approached Kreatz, Mauk, as well as Samus and Adam, who were coming down to meet him. "Status," he asked. "What did you find?"
"We found the location of the Space Pirate frigate," Adam answered. "It is near Research Facility Seven-Seven-Seven. We fear that the Space Pirates may be trying to take the station."
"Then we must stop them," Admiral Dane told him.
"I can get us to the station," Samus interjected. "If the frigate has suffered damage, my ship may be able to finish it off."
Admiral Dane looked over at Samus and said, "I thank you for your courage and willingness to take on this mission, Samus, but I would rather take the Olympus to the station and take on the frigate rather than hope that a single gunship can exploit a weakness in the frigate's hull due to previous damage."
"But my ship can reach it faster than the Olympus can," she insisted. "Trust me. I can do this. I'll also clear out any Space Pirate forces on the station. Besides, with all due respect, sir, your ship is needed here. Without the Olympus, Z-1A is defenseless should another force come and launch an attack on it."
Admiral Dane considered what Samus was saying but was still skeptical. It was then that Adam Malkovich told him, "She's right, Admiral, on both counts. Her ship is fitted with anti-capital ship missiles. If the frigate has suffered as much damage as I think it has, her gunship can take it down quickly if she manages to launch a surprise attack. And this colony is defenseless without a ship standing by in orbit to intercept any attackers. The Space Pirates showed that. And with the Chozo technology found here, this colony could hold a great deal of important technological finds that the Pirates might not have found during their taking of the colony."
Eventually, Admiral Dane was convinced and said, "Fine. You can go, Samus. Just make sure you come back alive."
"She will, Admiral," Kreatz told him, immediately volunteering himself for the mission, alongside Samus and Adam. It was not long before Mauk also volunteered for the mission as well. Samus smiled as her friends volunteered to join her for this mission. She could not help but think that there was going to be more to this mission than she originally thought. She was suddenly glad that she had all of her weapons and the Speed Booster, Space Jump, and Screw Attack. The group then made its way off the ship.
Once off the downed transport, Samus activated her Command Visor and summoned her gunship. A few seconds later, her gunship appeared and descended from the sky and landed next to the group. Once it had touched down, Samus boarded the ship, followed by Adam Malkovich, Kreatz, and Mauk. Once they were onboard, the hatch closed and the ship immediately took off into the air. Once it was a hundred feet into he air, its nose pointed straight up and rocketed into the sky. It was not long before the ship had managed to reach outer space. Once the ship had reached space, Samus activated the warp drive and her ship jumped the warp.
Onboard the frigate, Chimera, MB waited as the frigate approached the Federation troopship. She could already sense her new army onboard Research Station 777 and was eagerly anticipating taking the frigate to the station for repairs once the Pirates had taken over the Federation troopship. She knew that the Pirates would not miss this beat up old clunker that by all rights was stranded here. Heck, even if they knew that she was onboard, chances were that they would love her plan and help her execute it. The problem was Ridley. While he hated the Galactic Federation, she knew that there was no way that Ridley would join in on her plan. He had had too many bad experiences with Mother Brain in the past to be able to trust anyone, or anything, associated with her. In addition, she knew that these Pirates were terrified of Ridley, and without a Mother Brain form plus cybernetic humanoid body, she did not have the power to take on Ridley in a direct battle. Granted, he likely did not have the power to destroy her either, but he could collapse her body into its component nanites fairly quickly. And if he did somehow manage to find a way to inflict real damage on her, then she would be in trouble. In fact, the only reason Mother Brain had been as powerful as she was was because her body was being fed power from the core of the planet Zebes. While she was still powerful in close combat, she would need powerful weaponry in order to become a true threat to Ridley and to the Federation all by herself.
She watched her console screen and checked the status of her ship. The ship had two fighters and a single transport ready to go. Her eyes flashed at the sight of the transport, which was warp capable. This was perfect. Heck, she would not need the frigate at all. She could use the transport's own warp drive as a basis for building a warp drive onboard the research facility. It would be even better if it were an instantaneous movement drive like those used by some of the Precursor Races. She quickly took another look and saw the frigate closing in on the Federation troopship. The frigate was siding up alongside the Federation ship and she knew that she had to act fast. The Pirates would overrun the Federation ship quickly and the Captain of the Federation ship, if he knew his duty, would deny the Pirates the ship and their lives by setting the autodestruct of the troopship, which would also take out the frigate in the process since the frigate was currently unshielded. She ran from the console and made her way towards the fighter bay. She did not have a lot of time, plus, the Pirates would not miss the fighter. She merely needed to assimilate the schematics of the Pirate Transport, and its warp drive, into her memory banks. Once that was done, she could infiltrate the station, take over its Aurora Unit by downloading herself into it, and then use the station to get her revenge on the Galactic Federation.
Onboard Research Facility 777, Commander General Leroy Cutter and his psychic assistant, Clarice, made their way to the emergency hangar bay. Cutter knew that Platoon 07 and Samus Aran were hot on their tail, but that the bioweapons would slow their progress significantly. Since Clarice was with him, though, he did not have to worry about falling under attack from the various bioweapons, for her telepathic abilities could direct them away or cause the bioweapons to see them as allies. He merely marched forward at a brisk pace, with Clarice struggling to keep up. All around him, various bioweapons from Ghalmanians to Kyratians, to Gigafraugs parted before him, as if they were making way for their king. Once he was past, they resumed their normal activities, mainly getting in the way of Platoon 07 and Samus. He had a feeling that the platoon and Samus would be able to take them down without too much difficulty.
It did not take him long to reach the emergency hangar bay. Upon reaching the doors that led to he bay, he slowed his pace and allowed Clarice to catch up. He still needed her power in order to ensure that he would reach his escape craft unharmed. Before entering the bay, he looked back at the young woman and asked, "Clarice, what is happening outside?"
Clarice closed her eyes for a moment and then opened them before answering, "There is a damaged Space Pirate frigate outside the station. The Pirates managed to disable the G.F.S. Loki and are proceeding to board the starship. Our way should be clear."
"You mean, my way, right?" General Cutter asked suspiciously.
Clarice did not know what he meant, so she turned and asked, "What's that supposed to mean?" She quickly found out when pain shot through her brain as a quarter inch sized hole was burned into her chest. Her eyes went wide as she looked down to see the hole that had been burned into her chest. She gasped for air, having one of her lungs punctured and her heart damaged by the energy blast. She soon collapsed onto the ground, gasping for air, struggling to relieve herself of the pain when she looked up at General Cutter, holding a smoking energy pistol in his hand.
"Didn't see that coming, did you?" he asked sarcastically as he shot her once more in the head. He then turned and entered the emergency hangar bay so he could get to his Arwing and escape this station. It did not matter what the Galactic Federation found now. He knew that Chairman Elric had sold them all out when the projects on the Bottle Ship were exposed. Now, he had to escape once more and go into hiding until this all blew over, or Elric was exposed and impeached by the rest of the Council. If Elric were exposed, then he would be happy to testify before the Council to get his revenge on Elric for selling him out.
In another part of the station, General Mansfield and his troops led the "prisoners" from the Control Bridge back to the Hermes. They were walking down a corridor when they came upon the remains of Platoons 05 and 06. The bodies of the troopers looked like they had been eaten alive, with a number of them having been reduced to rags. They then heard a series of roars from up ahead, as well as a human scream. Suddenly, the human scream went silent, as did the roars. Mansfield knew that bioweapons were coming, and told everyone, "Get ready, men. We've got a lot of bioweapons headed our way."
"Do you want us to try to avoid killing them?" one of the troopers asked, knowing that their mission relied heavily upon the bioweapons taking out the Federation Council and Elric for them to gain power.
"Hell no!" Mansfield replied. "You can't stop these things without killing them. It's kill or be killed, soldier!"
"Yes, sir," the soldier replied sheepishly as he turned back ahead and waited for whatever approached. Soon, the enemy force appeared from around the corner. This force consisted of a large number of powerful bioweapons, most notably Rhedogians and Kyratians. Chamolos gasped at the sight and stammered, "What the…Those aren't supposed to be here! They're supposed to be confined to Sectors One, Two, and Three!"
"Yeah, well they're here now!" one of the troopers responded before aiming at one of the Rhedogians and firing on it. The bullets bounced off of the skin of the Rhedogian and the creature powered up its laser attack in response. General Mansfield, knowing that it was a hopeless battle, cried into his radio, "All members of Platoon 07, Samus, fall back to the Hermes at once! We're under attack by bioweapons and we need help now!"
Anthony's response soon crackled in, "We hear you General and we're on our way."
"I copy and am on my way," Samus echoed.
"Get here soon," the General yelled, "or there won't be anyone to save!" As General Mansfield uttered those last words, the Rhedogian unleashed has laser attack upon the soldiers and General Mansfield. Mansfield, Chamolos, and a number of troops were vaporized as the laser swept over them. The Rhedogian then swept its arms towards the other troops and knocked them back to the ground and to the bulkhead of the station. It subsequently unleashed a volley of missiles at the surviving troops, who were wise enough to start to use their Freeze Guns on the creature. Unfortunately, that did little to save them from the Rhedogian's missiles, which detonated among their ranks and killed most of the remaining troops in an instant. With no troops left to defend them, Drayka and Eiden fled back the way they came, hoping to find somewhere where they could hide before trying to get back to the Hermes. It was not to be, for the bioweapons quickly overtook them and proceeded to devour them, amid the screams of pain and anguish unleashed by Drayka and Eiden as they died.
Onboard the G.F.S. Loki, the few remaining Galactic Federation Army Troopers were standing near a chokepoint that they had set up on Deck Five, close to a Space Pirate boarding ramp that was being extended from the Chimera and cutting its way through the hull, waiting for the inevitable to happen. They knew that the Space Pirates had attached their boarding ramps to the ship and were cutting their way through the hull. It would only be a matter of time before the Pirates arrived at their position and engaged them in battle. They had ordered the evacuation the area of all non-trooper personnel, but they knew that there were still some Fleet Troopers still at their posts in the quarantined areas. After a few seconds, they heard an explosion off in the distance. They had come. The sounds of energy fire echoed through the corridor as the Pirates boarded the ship. A few human screams were heard as crewmen were mercilessly cut down by the boarding Space Pirates. Then, the screams and whines of energy fire suddenly ceased. After that, only the sounds of footfalls echoed throughout the corridor. And by the sound of things, they were getting closer, which caused the Army Troopers to be on edge and ready to engage anything that peered its head around the corner. After a few moments, one of the Pirates, a Militiaman, appeared in the corridor close to the chokepoint. The Army Troopers immediately opened fire on the Pirate and shot him down, his carcass falling backwards, riddled with bullet holes as it hit the floor. Soon, there was a roar of rage and then, another Pirate Militia member came around the corner; and he, too, met his friend's fate before getting a shot off. However, soon Space Pirate Troopers were beginning to appear, and these troopers were much more heavily armored and shielded than their Militia brethren. The Federation Army Troopers unloaded their weapons into the Pirate Troopers, but the Pirates were too heavily armored and the bullets bounced off of their shields for the most part. Only one Pirate was felled, and that one by a plasma grenade tossed at him by one of the smarter Army Troopers. It did little good for the Trooper, or the rest of his squad as almost all of the Army Troopers at the chokepoint were ruthlessly cut down by the endless stream of blue energy fire unleashed against them by the Pirates as they flooded into the corridor. The few surviving troopers quickly fled back down the corridor, only for two of them to be shot in the back as they ran. The Pirates then gave chase of the Army Troopers as more and more Pirates flooded onto the ship in order to secure and take it over.
Commander P'Fash regally boarded the ship from a boarding ramp and looked over at the two Pirate Troopers that had secured the area. He looked down at the slain human crewmen that were at his feet and bellowed, "Come, let us inspect our new starship!" With that, Commander P'Fash marched forward, stepping on the as many crewmen as he could in the process, hoping that there would be some wounded survivors that he could finish off himself.
On the bridge of the Loki, Captain Bridges watched from the security console as his ship was rapidly being overrun by the Space Pirates. The markers indicating the remaining crewmen and Army Troopers were quickly going blank. They were falling like snowflakes during a blizzard. He quickly checked the sensors and found that the Space Pirate frigate was firmly attached to the starship and that most of the Space Pirate crew had already boarded his ship. Good, this meant that the Pirates would not be able to get off the ship and detach their ship from the Loki, even of they had managed to detect the self-destruct protocols being activated.
Bridges went over to his chair and typed a few commands in on the keypad in order to activate the autodestruct sequence. The screen soon read, Two officers needed to activate autodestruct sequence. Captain Bridges smiled. He was a fairly skilled hacker, and with his command codes, he could overcome any security measures put in place on the troopship. He would not let the Space Pirates get this ship and its equipment. He quickly typed in a new series of commands and the screen's message said, Awaiting final command code for two-minute silent countdown. Captain Bridges typed the code into the computer and pressed Enter. Now, all he could do was wait and make peace with God, for in two minutes, he would be dead. After all, he designed the command codes on his ship so that his autodestruct sequence could not be overridden at all: not even by him.
Meanwhile, Samus Aran's gunship hurtled through subspace at breakneck speeds. She had wanted to get to the Space Pirate frigate as quickly as possible so that she could try to track down Ridley's transport before the trail went cold. During the hour or so Samus's ship had been traveling through subspace, she took the time to read some of her logbook entries that she had downloaded on the planet Z-1A. She was astounded to find that the planet was the sight of the first battle between the Chozo and a race known as the Magic Lords, or Dragon Lords as some had taken to calling them. The Chozo had been forced to retreat, the power of the enemy was so great, but they soon fought a subsequent battle on the planet with help from the Luminoth, N'Kren, and Ylla. With the help of the other three races, they had defeated the Dragon Lords and reclaimed the planet. After the initial encounters, the Dragon Lords had waged a full-scale war against the Chozo Alliance in a war known as the Magic War, which ultimately led to a Chozo Alliance victory, and the near extermination of the Dragon Lords. She also read about how the Chozo and the other races in the alliance had met and what technologies they each contained that was unique to each individual culture. It was interesting to say the least and made certain that she would take more time to read it when she had more free time. Right now, though, she had to focus on finding Ridley's transport and finally ridding the galaxy of the evil space dragon once and for all.
Once Samus was finished reading the entries on the Magic War, she quickly checked her sensors and the countdown clock to see how close they were to the Space Pirate frigate. She checked her displays and saw that the frigate had not moved. She also read that her ship would arrive in a few minutes. She looked back at Kreatz, Mauk, and Adam and saw that they were checking their weapons energy levels, in addition to their armor for damage. She then returned her focus to the countdown timer and saw that she would be two minutes away from her destination. She looked back once more and called, "We're about two minutes away from the frigate, everyone. Get ready." The others became more alert and readied themselves for whatever was about to come as the seconds on the timer ticked away.
Back on the Chimera, MB assimilated the blueprints of the frigate's warp drive and the instructions on how to cobble one together on a station and jump it to Daiban, just over Galactic Federation Headquarters. If everything had gone according to plan, she would land the station right on top of Galactic Federation Headquarters. MB knew that the chances of success were slim, but that did not stop her from trying. If anything, it would give the Federation something to think about. Once she was finished with the data download, she rushed down to the hangar bay in order to get a hold of a starfighter or transport so that she could escape this doomed frigate. She could feel that enough time had passed that the Galactic Federation starship was about to be overrun, and likely destroyed by its captain. "Time to go," she said jovially as she arrived at the hangar bay and entered.
Inside the bay, there were still some transports left that could take her off this ship, and to the station. She ran to the first transport in the line and boarded it. The transport was small, only about twelve to fifteen meters in length. It was not a good combat vessel, but it could hold more than thirty Space Pirates, which could really make a difference in a ground battle. She quickly entered the cockpit and started the ship. She then closed the cockpit and the lights flashed on, signifying a sparsely furnished ship with a gray interior, and the engines fired. After a few seconds, the ship proceeded to lift off from the floor and she turned her transport and flew out the open hangar bay doors speeding away from the Space Pirate ship before the Federation ship self-destructed, and tore apart the Chimera in the process.
Onboard Research Facility 777, General Cutter performed a final check on the systems of his Arwing fighter. So far, everything was in order. It was equipped with three Nova Bombs, powerful explosives designed for use against capital ships, but could also be used against fighters and transports in a pinch as well, and a single laser cannon. Once he saw that everything was ready to go, he powered up the fighter and proceeded to lift off. Once he was off the floor of the station, he hovered and turned to face the hangar bay doors. He then flicked up a red cover on the firing button and proceeded to unleash a series of green laser blasts against the hangar bay doors. The blasts burned through the doors and blew them out into space. Debris from the bay rushed out into space as the hangar bay decompressed. Cutter let the rush of air push his fighter into space, where he powered up his engines and thrusters, and proceeded to flee the station. The others could fend for themselves.
Meanwhile, on the bridge of the Loki, Captain Bridges waited silently as he counted down in his head the seconds before his ship exploded. He could hear the sounds of fighting outside the bridge doors. The whine of energy blasters and the rattle of gunfire echoed behind the doors, but he knew that it would make no difference in the grand scheme of things. Soon, the gunfire went silent and he knew that the last of the crew had been killed. Still, it did not matter to him, for in five, four, three, two…and then the end came, a second sooner than he had anticipated.
Samus Aran's gunship emerged from warp a few thousand kilometers away from the Space Pirate frigate and the much larger troopship. Samus, Kreatz, Mauk, and Adam stared out the window as the recognized both the frigate, and the Federation troopship it was attached to.
"So it was attacking a Federation troopship," Kreatz said, almost in disbelief. "What the heck were they thinking? A small frigate crew shouldn't be able to take over a Federation troopship with its full complement."
"Maybe they don't have their full complement onboard," Mauk offered.
"Then why go after the ship in the first place?" Kreatz asked.
Samus soon heard the impact of debris. She glanced around outside her window and saw pieces of metal zooming past her cockpit. They appeared to have once been a transport or a boarding pod of some sort. This did not escape Adam's notice, either. "The troopship had deployed its troops before the frigate arrived," Adam concluded. "Without its troops, a troopship is quite easy to capture."
Samus then checked her instruments and saw that there was a power buildup in the core of the Federation troopship. The sensors indicated that this buildup of power was abnormal. Samus quickly realized that the core was going critical. She immediately took the controls and made a sharp bank to the right, which prompted a, "Hey, what are you doing?" from Kreatz.
Samus did not answer as she continued to accelerate as far away from the Space Pirate frigate as possible. "Hey, the frigate's that way!" Kreatz told her, pointing towards the back of her gunship. As she sped away from the frigate, she noticed a ship emerging from one of the hangar bays of the frigate. It sped away from the Pirate frigate, just as she was doing, as the Federation troopship exploded in a dazzling display of light and fire. Metal was flung from the epicenter of the explosion and tore into the Space Pirate frigate stationed right next to the troopship, piecing its metal skin and emerging from the other side of the ship. The blast wave of the explosion also pelted the frigate with debris that tore through the unshielded ship's hull and within seconds, the Space Pirate Frigate Chimera exploded as well.
Debris from both ships flew past the cockpit of Samus's ship as she angled her ship's deflector shields to the rear in order to protect her ship from the debris being flung through space by the explosion. Kreatz and Mauk's eyes went wide at the sight of the explosion. "What the…? The ship exploded!" Mauk stammered.
"But why? Why destroy the Federation ship while they were still attached?" Kreatz asked.
"They didn't destroy the ship," Adam explained. "The captain of the troopship activated the self-destruct specifically to prevent the Space Pirates from capturing the vessel and its equipment."
Samus listened to the conversation and looked downcast and a scowl crossed her face. She had figured all of what Adam was saying, of course. Despite the fact that the Pirates were denied a Federation troopship, and the rest of their lives in the process, she was still perturbed by the loss of the troopship and frigate. First of all, the Federation troopship had thousands of troops onboard. If the entire complement were lost, that would mean the loss of almost ten thousand troops. And chances were that they had died what may have been needless deaths. Second of all was the fact that with the frigate gone, there was no way to track Ridley's ship. The trail was now cold. She clenched her fists and almost growled. Ridley had escaped her, and there was no way she could track him before he launched another attack against another Federation colony.
Samus then checked her sensor displays and saw that a Space Pirate Transport had fled the frigate just before its destruction and was now heading towards the station off in the distance. Samus banked her gunship so she could follow the transport. She hoped that the transport might have some information on Ridley's whereabouts. And even if it didn't, she still wanted to get rid of any remaining Space Pirates before they could call any of their brethren in and alert them to the space station that looked ripe for the picking.
Onboard the transport, MB was focused on making her way to the research facility without being detected by anyone onboard. She was not close enough to detect the bioweapons onboard, much less control them, but she knew that they were still onboard. She checked her sensors and saw that two Galactic Federation transports had attached themselves to the hull of the station in two different parts of the station. She grimaced. That indicated a Galactic Federation presence onboard the facility. This could complicate things in the short term. Still, she was not too concerned. Their presence merely meant that she would have to be more careful, and that her plan would likely take longer to accomplish. She could still handle them. After all, she did have the bioweapons onboard the station. Their defeat should not be too difficult. The only possible problem would be the off chance that Adam and his allies had returned to Samus and they had come to finish her off once and for all. Still, of all of them, only Samus likely had the tools to be a threat to her.
She then caught something on her rear sensors and out of the corner of her eye that she had not expected to see, and was hoping was not what she thought it was. She used her cybernetic vision to look behind her and found an all too familiar-looking gunship following her starship. She recognized the ship as the same ship that the soldiers who came to help Adam used to get onboard Sector Zero of the Bottle Ship. It looked like a ship that was owned by her greatest enemy: Samus Aran.
She instinctively glided her fingers across the console as she deployed the twin-linked energy cannons of the transport, which rose from the top of her transport. She had the cannons swivel back to the rear and then zeroed in on the gunship. She could detect the ship's pilot raising its own shields and beginning evasive maneuvers. She grinned. She had all of the information of Mother Brain on Samus Aran. She knew how Samus thought, and how she fought. She knew how she would maneuver her vessel in order to evade her transport's incoming fire. She followed the ship's maneuvers and opened fire, sapphire blue pulses of energy erupting from her ship's energy cannons.
Samus Aran's gunship shook from the impact of the weapons fire. Kreatz and Mauk took their stations next to Samus and behind her. Adam also did what he could to assist her in this unexpected firefight. Kreatz manned the sensor displays and Mauk handled the primary weapons. Mauk had already deployed the energy cannons and began returning fire to the hostile Pirate transport. "Shields down to eighty percent!" Kreatz cried. Another energy strike rocked the ship. "Sixty percent! Samus, you'd better do something fast. That ship has some powerful weapons."
"And strong shields, too," Mauk echoed. "I'm pumping a lot of energy fire into that ship and its shields are only down to ninety percent."
Samus then angled the shields forward, pumping as much energy into the forward shields as the capacitors could handle. Kreatz looked at her in shock and blurted, "What are you doing? What if some of the debris from the destroyed ships hits us or they hit our aft?"
"We have to shoot down that transport now," Samus retorted. "That ship has a lot of firepower for a ship its size."
"I agree," Adam said, nodding. "Someone's been modifying it greatly."
Samus then proceeded to deploy the missile launchers. She switched to the so-called air-to-ground missiles. These missiles were stronger than her anti-fighter missiles, but were still able to shoot down transports should she have the need to do so. She locked onto the transport and after the tone was steady, indicating a positive target lock, four missiles were unleashed upon the transport as the enemy ship continued to fire.
MB checked her sensors and quickly saw the four missiles heading towards her transport. She cursed as she realized that there was little that she would be able to do to avoid them. Despite being so-called air-to-surface missiles, they had the same maneuverability as any air-to-air missile and were more than powerful enough to destroy her small transport. She figured that her best bet was to abandon ship. She knew that she had the firepower to destroy Samus's ship with her guns, which she was still using to fire on the ship. She only hoped that her ship could do so before the missiles reached it and destroyed it. She soon put on a space jump pack then opened the hatch and jumped out of the ship just before Samus's missiles reached her ship and hit. Upon being hit by the missiles, MB's transport exploded into a thousand tiny metal fragments. The android floated through space towards an unknown fighter as Samus proceeded to make her way towards one of the hangar bays onboard the station. She merely smiled at the sight, for she now had control of the bioweapons onboard the station. As such, she alerted them to the presence of intruders coming onboard their station. She then returned her focus towards the unknown fighter and floated towards it, hoping that she had calculated her path correctly so as to land on the fighter. Hijacking it should be no problem for her.
Onboard his Arwing fighter, Commander General Leroy Cutter proceeded to fly away from the station. He knew that he was defeated. His hopes for taking over the Galactic Federation and usurping Chairman Elric's chair were dashed. All he could do now was flee and hope that the Federation did not search too diligently for him. With Chamolos and the others captured, they should have what they desired in terms of the information on the illegal bioweapons programs that were in development. He looked out his cockpit to see if anyone was pursuing him and noticed Samus Aran's gunship approach him and the hangar bay of the station. He saw that the ship was different from the ship she had used to search for him and stared at it for a moment. He wondered what was going on, for he knew that she was already onboard the station and had disabled the security systems of the station. Still he did not let his curiosity get the better of him. He did not want to risk engaging an enemy that could destroy him.
He proceeded to bank his fighter away from Samus's ship when he felt his fighter shudder. He soon noticed the form of a young human woman lying on his cockpit window. Cutter did not know that this was MB, the AI unit from the Bottle Ship, for he had never seen MB's android form before. MB drew back her left arm and her fingers joined together to a dagger-like formation. She then shoved her hand through the cockpit canopy, the canopy glass cracking and shattering at the point of impact. Her hand surged through the cockpit glass, stopping a mere foot away from his body. She then withdrew her hand, taking most of the cockpit canopy along with her hand. The air and heat rushed from the fighter as she immediately climbed into the cockpit and unstrapped Leroy Cutter from his fighter and tossed him into space to suffocate and freeze to death. She then took her seat in the cockpit and slowed the fighter, swiveling it to target the freezing body of Commander General Leroy Cutter. With a single burst of laser fire, she vaporized his body. Once the general was dealt with, she swiveled the craft once more towards the station and flew towards it.
She quickly flew around the perimeter of the station and as she did so, eyed another ship, the G.F.S. Medusa. She zeroed in on the ship and once she had locked onto it, she proceeded to destroy it using a Nova Bomb in order to create an opening for her fighter. The bomb flew directly towards the Medusa and once it struck the ship, it exploded in a massive wave of energy. First, a blast wave emerged from the center of the bomb and once it had expanded, a second energy wave formed that appeared to be in the shape of an atom. Once the energy waves dissipated, she noticed that there was a hole twice the size of the Medusa in the side of the station. She then piloted her fighter through the hole created by the explosion of the Nova Bomb and boarded the station.
Once onboard, she proceeded to land her fighter on the ruined floor of a massive hallway and then jumped out of the cockpit. Once she had jumped out of the fighter, she proceeded to draw out a bomb that she had stolen from the Space Pirate frigate and strapped it to the fighter. It pained her to have to destroy such a fighter, but she could not leave any weapons for her enemies to use against her. She then fled the scene and made her way towards the computer core of the ship as the fighter exploded.
Meanwhile, Prime Samus Aran carefully guided her ship into the small hangar bay that the unknown fighter had emerged from. The ship soon entered the bay. As she did so, her ship's sensors alerted her to the fact that the bay was depressurized. While she would be able to handle that just fine, she was not so sure about Kreatz, Mauk, or Adam. She went back to Adam and the others and told them, "The bay's depressurized, so you'll need some space suits in order to survive the trek onto the station."
"That won't be a problem," Kreatz and Mauk assured her as helmets formed around their heads. "Our suits have built in helmets and environmental systems of their own."
"How about you, Adam?" Samus asked. "Do you need a helmet? My ship has one in the rear compartment."
"Thanks, Samus," Adam replied as he went to the rear compartment to get a helmet that seemed to be designed for his armor. He made a note to ask Samus where she got such a helmet once the mission was over. He then put on the helmet and he proceeded to follow Samus, Kreatz, and Mauk off of the ship.
Just as they stepped off the hatch, a stream of plasma melted through the ceiling above them and rained down onto Samus's ship. The plasma stream quickly melted its way through the hull and Samus cried, "Everybody, run!" as she began to rush towards the exit to the hangar bay and onto the station. Samus was the first to the doors, followed closely by Kreatz, then Mauk, and finally Adam. Seeing that Adam was the last of the group to leave the small bay, she went back and pulled Adam through just as her ship was about to explode. The doors clanged shut just as Samus's gunship exploded. The quartet rushed away from the door as metallic shards of metal pierced the door, but were luckily still embedded in the door. The group hurried down the corridor as they felt the rush of air leaving through the small hole in the blast doors that protected the hangar bay. After a few corridors of running, they felt as if they were far enough away to be safe from any decompression effects. They were just about to breathe a sigh relief when Adam Malkovich's eyes went wide. Samus noticed his expression and asked, "What's wrong Adam?"
He did not respond at first. It took both Kreatz and Mauk asking him the same question before he responded, "She's here," in a deathly voice.
"Who?" Samus asked, not knowing whom Adam was referring to.
"MB, a Federation android version of Mother Brain," Adam responded.
"MB?" Kreatz blurted. "But she's dead! We destroyed her on Sector Zero onboard the Bottle Ship!"
Mauk's eyes showed just as much shock as Kreatz's. Samus, however, had not encountered MB before and did not know the history between MB and Adam, or of Kreatz and Mauk's encounter with the android, but she knew exactly who Mother Brain was. She knew how dangerous Mother Brain could be, even if she were restricted to an android body. And Samus doubted that things would be as simple as they seemed. "We have to destroy MB…no matter the cost," Adam insisted.
"Lead the way, Adam," Samus responded. Kreatz and Mauk looked a little surprised.
"Don't take her lightly, Samus," they warned. "MB is no slouch, and if she survived Sector Zero's destruction then she is likely made out of nanites or something like that."
"Then it's a good thing I've got the Wave Beam," Samus answered, switching her arm cannon to the Wave Beam. She then proceeded to follow Adam, with Kreatz and Mauk bringing up the rear.
In the emergency hangar bay, a clone Ridley looked down at the burning wreck of Samus Aran's gunship and grumbled. He did not detect any trace of Samus or her friends. She and the others must have managed to evacuate the ship and bay before his plasma had destroyed the gunship. He jumped down into the depressurized bay and examined the wreckage, just to be sure. Two other lifeforms quickly followed him, one an Adolescent Ridley, and another, a Little Birdy, Ridley's juvenile form. Upon seeing no trace of Samus, he let loose a roar before rocketing into the air and searching the ship for more creatures to devour. Suddenly, he felt the pull of another mind trying to control his. He fought against its control and issued another roar. He would not be controlled, ever, and proceeded to fight off whatever force was trying to control him. With that determination, he proceeded to wander the ship in search of his prey.
