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The guild embassy on Thibtralea Major wasn't much to look at inside or out. A squat red rectangle tilted towards the edge of the plaza, barely worth noticing when it was located so close to one of the capital's towering 500-story megaliths, and the inside brought to mind the architecture and sanitation of a far less important world than this one.
But none that seemed terribly important to the varied mishmash of bounty hunters, tall and short, young and old, as they slowly drifted in from all across the stars, each of their different gunships docking at the main spaceport before they made their way across the grand plaza to it.
What was really important was that they had a bar. A bar and kitchen, both of which saw extensive use throughout the day before everyone had settled down, Ghor celebrating their victory by once again creating his famous stew to go along with a platter of grilled narbonil tails and the distillery's worth of drinks ordered.
Once everyone she knew was there, Samus took up a spot on an upraised portion of the room that might have normally served as kind of stage. Among so many tall, armored hunters, it took a moment for everyone to see her, but when they saw her, the room gradually quieted down. She wore her drab green military fatigues instead of her zero suit, but no one here would mistake her face or hair. She was still the only human in the entire room, a rarity for this planet.
"Mission accomplished", she began simply, pumping a single arm in a universal gesture of victory. "The thousands of people on that convoy we that rescued have safely reached their destination, and spread the word. We're not dead. We're not beaten. And we'll take any job, no matter how dangerous."
"For the right price, of course", Locus finished, creating a chorus of laughter from the gathering before them. The young slicer hunter still had much work to do to get his ship back in working order after Ridley trashed it, but he actually preferred that to the kind of dangerous work hunters were usually called on to do.
"Well done", Ghor echoed the sentiment in his mechanical voice from behind the counter. "All of you. You have all performed well, and done our late guildmaster proud. I calculate that we have struck a blow to the space pirates that they shall not soon forget."
"Oh, they might", Gandrayda piped up cheerfully from behind a circular table with at least ten different types and colors of alcoholic drink arrayed in front of her. Despite this, she didn't seem to be showing much signs of slowing down just yet. "They are pretty stupid, after all. It's up to us to keep reminding them until they figure it out."
Dominating the floor with her large size, Xan-Fei stepped past several hunter cadets to speak to her formally. "Matriarch. I have made contact with the Federation authorities. I have explained what happened to the BHG station, and to our comrades."
"Good", Samus nodded back. It would be foolish of them to try to conceal what had happened from the Federation. What mattered was that they'd made it clear that losing the BHG station wouldn't stop them from serving as their shield, their armored champions. "How did they react to it?"
The niritanian hunter's tail chittered. "Their reactions were... varied, Matriarch. Many reacted with horror, others concealed their smugness. Of course, I am not well-versed in reading humans."
"It's fine", Samus assured her. That had been pretty much the reaction she was expecting. While most of the Federation's leadership were happy to utilize the guild's services, some in the higher echelons of the service disliked the entire concept of relying on non-humans that they didn't directly control to accomplish their objectives. They would be happy to see the guild lose some of its power and authority, and no doubt begin pushing their 'alternative solutions' anew.
Let them, she thought. As long as the hunters kept performing their missions, then there was no need for anything else. No 'weapon' could replace a skilled, thinking hunter. They'd proven that. "...Thanks. I'll speak with them in person later."
"As you command, Matriarch."
She grimaced. The insectile hunter's insistent use of that title continued to amuse Gandrayda and the others, though Samus had to admit it didn't annoy her quite as much as the changeling hunter calling her 'Sammy'. "The tech crews will be arriving two cycles from now", she continued on. "They'll be installing the systems and projectors necessary to create a proper training simulator, similar to the one we had on the BHG."
"Can we not install simulation TA127?", one hunter cadet called to her from the back, again eliciting some drunken laughter.
"Sure thing", she replied in good humor. "We just got the database backup sent to us from the surface installation before it was evacuated and shut down. I'm sure with that data, we can invent a mission even more annoying than that one for you."
More laughter, though some of it sounded nervous that they might actually go through what she was suggesting. "That being said", Samus went on more seriously, "remember that this place wasn't originally designed for that. None of these little hole-in-the-wall offices were. They'll be undergoing some major renovations to make them bigger, give us all some more elbow room... but these will primarily be placed to service and train cadets, not graduated hunters. I'd recommend that you only come here during emergencies for the time being. It's going to be crowded at first, until we're up and running."
The fact that she couldn't even see the exit door through all the gathered hunters was proof enough of her words. For the time being, the rush of a successful mission had them in good spirits, but before long their instincts- instincts that were just like her own- would kick back in and they'd be actively pushing each other away to get some space. There would likely be more than one fight, especially with alcohol so readily available.
"I'll be here, monitoring the installation." And building my gunship. Again. "Mission offers won't be relayed through the guild servers any longer. I'll be asking them to be sent on a direct channel that goes out to all licensed hunters. This means", she studied them closer, trying to make clear the seriousness of her next words, "that hunters can't stake claims on missions any more. Anyone is welcome to take them. All I ask is that you remember the Hunter's Laws when pursuing a target; if you ever find yourselves in competition for one, you are not to sabotage or attack the other hunter. In any way."
"I thought you said that the Hunter's Laws didn't apply?", teased Braskei, one of the more impudent cadets.
"They do now", Samus replied firmly, regarding the unruly of the crowd with the frigid eyes that had cowed her greatest enemy. "We're back, and we're still following all the rules set down by the guildmasters before us. If I hear about anyone breaking those rules... I will deal with them myself. Ask Ridley how that might go for you."
Good-natured amusement gradually replaced itself with a twinge, a ripple, of genuine fear. She had already uploaded the record of her fight on GY4192, and some of them had gone and watched it more than once. The reaction of most of them had been nothing but a general increase in the fear and respect even to their 'acting guildmaster', though Rundas had remarked 'it's a pity you were unable to finish him off'.
The tall phrygisian hunter had remained silent for the entire session here, merely watching her with an impenetrable lack of signs as to how he was feeling about how the mission had gone. Once she was done outlining the new rules for the reborn hunter's guild, Samus went to him, something telling her to keep her power suit on when she did.
"...I'm sorry about your brother."
The round black helmet hardly moved. "There's no need for apologies, Samus. He went out doing what our father wanted of us. 'Justice will prevail' and all that stuff, right?"
"Right", she sighed. Even now, the hunter's people remained 'cold' in every possible way. "What are you going to do for a ship?"
"My people have already contacted me", he explained. "They've offered to construct a new one, on Phrygis. However, for the foreseeable future I'll be stuck here."
"I could arrange for a rental", she offered. "Until that ship is ready."
But he waved the offer away. "My people will bring me home. I have to attend the rites first. You understand."
That, she knew, was the closest thing to an accusation that she had been responsible for getting Geras and Rygda killed that she would ever hear out of the taciturn hunter. Even knowing that casualties were inevitable in this line of work, her own sense of guilt and regret would be harder on her about it than Rundas ever would. Can't forget the fallen, even if we eventually move past them.
Grey Voice and Adam had taught her that much. "If you need anything..."
"I don't need anything." He breezed past her towards the exit, chilling the air around him with his step. "Not right now."
Braskei offered them all a general toast to Zillic, and then bit by bit, the party began to break up and follow after the stoic phrygisian. Hunters would stay for the stew, for a few drinks, or perhaps more than the few, sharing stories of all the times they'd spent together on the BHG station, whether as cadets or returning graduates. When they were done, they would reluctantly make their way out, the ones who didn't have gunships seeking out their own living accommodations for the night. The day after, barring the possibility of a cataclysmic hangover, they would be heading back out, seeking new missions and new profits to pursue.
Samus was honestly surprised at how it took before Gandrayda took her turn. Her ten thin, tall glasses were all nearly empty and she did seem tipsy as she sidled up to the counter, but that much beverage would likely have had far worse effects on any solid being.
"Great fun, Sammy", she slurred, taking a seat. "Knew y'could do it."
Samus snorted. Somehow, the idea of punching the changeling while she was in this state seemed wrong. "It's not done yet. There's still a lot for me to take care of if we're really going to revive the hunter's guild from the blow it's taken."
"Boring bureaucratic ssshit", she mumbled into an empty glass that wasn't hers. "Y'should jus... leave it t'Ghor n' Locusss!"
Samus arched a brow. Despite all her earlier dislike, she couldn't quite hate Gandrayda when she was like this. "I did think about making Ghor the guildmaster, actually. He said he would be fine with it. He's very accommodating that way."
"Great, let him take care of-"
"But", she cut in quickly. "It's not his responsibility. As soon as I made my bid and took control, it became my responsibility. Jumping out now would be no better than what Xan-Fei was going to do."
The niritanian was actually there with them still, but made no comment or movement at the words. She merely studied Samus' expression, calmly testing a glass of something thick and green.
"I don't have a gunship yet anyway", Samus lamented. "I'll be stuck here for a few weeks more at least, getting mine built. I might as well make myself useful in the meantime."
"Aww", Gandrayda moaned. "You're still sooo... no fun! Daaaamn Balkovich."
"That being said", she went on, turning back to Xan-Fei's dark eyes, "I have no experience in running any kind of business. If I want to do this with any kind of confidence, I need someone who does have experience at this kind of thing to help me."
Finishing her glass, the enormous niritanian's tail rattled lightly and she smiled back, her set of fangs poking out. "It would be my highest honor, Matriarch."
"Good." Samus carefully kept her slight discomfort at that title out of her face. I mean seriously, does she not know that humans can't lay eggs like niritanians? And even if I could... A life of luxury is the exact opposite of what I want.
What I want, the words came back to her, bringing with them an ironic smile to her lips. How long had it been since she'd actually considered that question? What I want... is to bring justice. To save the galaxy from the space pirates. From any other hostile life form which might harm innocents. There are trillions of sentient beings out there who wouldn't stand a chance if we- the Guild and the Federation- weren't here to protect them.
"Thish's great!", Gandrayda proclaimed wildly beside her. "Three of us, we'll whip this sorry bunch inna'shape! Heard wha'Locus said? We the scariest bitches in'a whoooole galaxy!"
Staying resolutely calm, Samus leaned back. "Your ship wasn't damaged, Gan. You can resume the hunt whenever you want to." Though hopefully you'll wait for that buzz to wear off first. Either way, you're not leading any part of the guild.
"Suuure", the changeling scoffed, jabbing one finger up at the ceiling. "Cadet rate, wheeee! Give all m'damn creds t'you."
Sighing, Samus took out a tiny datacard and palmed it onto the counter. In her state, Gandrayda took a few moments to recognize what exactly it was, but when she did...
"Sammy... y'serious?"
"Deadly serious", the other hunter confirmed. "If only because it's better for us to have you out there, chasing down targets like I know you can, than back here pestering cadets to amuse yourself. You're now a fully licensed hunter. Congratulations."
Changeling bodies were, of course, incapable of producing tears. They could create tear ducts, but not the moisture for them. But for just a moment, she saw a brief ripple in those impenetrable, invisible shields of sarcasm and feigned self-love, no doubt aided by the drunkenness. "I... Well... Um... You... Thanks, Sammy."
"Don't forget", she continued. "The guild covers a smaller percentage of collateral expenses with licensed hunters. Now, you actually have to pay for some of the damage you cause."
The statement of fact was delivered brusquely, almost nastily, and the changeling got the message loud and clear- she didn't want any further kind of friendship than what little they already had. "Starsss... You still a mean bitch, y'knowww?"
"She was merely reminding you of the truth", Xan-Fei told her with much more open disgust. "The time has finally come for you to stop behaving like a hatchling, and start acting like a true hunter."
"Don't waste your breath", Samus snorted. "That one will never grow up. Not in a thousand solar cycles. I'd be happy to be proven wrong though."
"Not gettin' me... tha' easy."
Her point amply proven, Samus rose from her seat, both of them following after her without being asked. I'll have to arrange a more private meeting with Xan-Fei later, she decided. Try to learn as much as I possibly can from her about how to run the guild until my ship is complete. And maybe try to get her to stop acting so subservient to me. I don't like that.
Not in the being that I hope will take over the guild for me afterwards, once things have settled down.
But for now, the elderly niritanian's presence was kept professional and subtle, just the way she liked it. She kept herself paced behind Samus at a safe distance, like the kind of enormous bodyguards that crime bosses liked to employ... which for better or worse, the hunters' guild sometimes resembled.
The being they approached now was even larger and more intimidating than those bodyguards. Torrask sat behind his table, placated into sticking around by the offer of drinks on the house. Only now did the reason for it become apparent, and despite having a fair number of empty glasses in front of him he didn't look nearly as tipsy as Gandrayda; just dismissive as he ever looked. "Got another speech to get out, human?"
"No", Samus discarded the gentle humor she'd treated the other hunters with, returning to the grim lines she'd carried for most of her time on the BHG. "But you need to come with me, Torrask. There's a special assignment."
"Special assignment?", the gargantuan hunter chuckled, clacking a pair of enormous green-tinged mandibles together as if savoring another meal coming up. "What if I'm not interested?"
"Our Matriarch has given you a mission, hunter!", Xan-Fei scowled, her sharp claws clenching up in an indignant fury that would have been amusing on a less powerful being. On her, it actually felt comforting, knowing that such a being had her back. "You are honor-bound to follow."
"Your Matriarch", Torrask joked, lazily stretching a pair of spiked appendages out. "Me, all I see is a puny human."
"Don't worry", she admonished. "It won't take too long."
Though his reluctance and disdain felt like a physical presence in the air, the giant did eventually rise from his seat, lumbering after the others out through the main lobby and into a new room, locking the bubble hatch door behind them. This one was empty for now. It had been used to store weaponry and fuel canisters, but Samus had ordered it all cleared out to make room for when the large sim computers and projectors arrived.
Before that however, it could be used for a different purpose.
"So. What's the assignment?"
Samus stared back at his proportionally tiny black beetle eyes, all traces of cheer gone from her now, replaced by the ice-cold resolve that had brought down Ridley. "You have to answer for what you did on the BHG."
After reading his records, she knew the big hunter wasn't nearly as dimwitted as he acted, though he could certainly play that part convincingly as well. "Wha? What do you mean? I fought. Killed lots of pirates."
"You did", she agreed. She had seen those recordings too. It had been interesting for her, going back over the recovered footage and seeing how each hunter had acted to try and save their home. It had hurt to see Shiel and Ridley from a different angle, knowing that she was the one responsible, but she'd managed in the end. "But I'm talking about before that. Someone sabotaged the hangar bay while I was working on my gunship. Vented it to space. Nearly killed me."
"Nearly killed me", Gandrayda chipped in, sounding much less reserved with her own anger. "Everybody thought I did it."
"Yeah? So?"
Samus looked into the ceiling and sighed. Why am I not surprised? "I spoke with Locus privately, after the mission. He confessed that you made him alter the footage of the corridor so no one would see you do it."
Finally, they'd gotten through. The brute's natural armor plating flexed dangerously, gathering around him like some kind of living energy shield as he released a grunt that sounded like a corroded warp engine dying. "...Little rat. I'll pull his legs off and watch him waddle."
"You will do no such thing", Samus corrected him, her steadily rising anger a match for his own. "He's already gone from this world, off to get his ship repairs done. And as of right now, you are no longer part of the guild. Your license is terminated."
Momentarily thrown by that statement, Torrask guffawed deeply. "Which means no hunter laws, human."
"No hunter laws", Gandrayda snickered, rubbing her glowing hands together in anticipation, which had apparently burned away her earlier drunkeness. "Instead you got Federation laws, big boy. If you try taking a swing at any of us- at any licensed hunter- you're lookin' at five, maybe ten solar cycles in a Fed penitentiary. Maybe you can say hi to that bitch Colibray for us."
"Also, no more ship", Samus dropped the revelation swiftly, watching the brute begin to choke and sputter. "I checked the records, and it turns out you had the guild construct your ship for you, for a lump sum of credits... credits which I will now return to your account. That means it's our property. Xan-Fei said she would find a use for it until her own ship gets fixed up from the battle."
"I shall", the hunter beside her promised, one front leg tapping the floor. "Such a vessel could easily carry fifty regular-sized passengers. Perhaps I shall open a transport business to help renew our funds?"
His protesting roar sounded similar to his grunt, but far louder in the confined room. "That's my ship! You keep your filthy human apprendages off of-"
He broke off, seeing the curved barb of Xan-Fei's tail within inches of his face. To Samus' inner amusement, even she seemed to want to join this unspoken contest see who could look the angriest. Only Gandrayda remained sanguine, though even her words sounded unusually bitter, her arms folded crossly: "Always knew you were a jerk. But I thought you knew better than to mess with me."
"You will not harm our Matriarch", Xan-Fei insisted, withdrawing her tail a notch. "Not if you wish to leave this room alive."
Pulling away until his back hit the wall, Torassk let out a disgusted laugh. "Wow. You really did the Federation proud, eh, human? You're not here for two months and you've already got the whole damn Guild eating out of your hand. You've even got those other two fems ready to die for you. They need to give you a raise. They do pay you for this, right?"
Refusing to be baited, Samus shook her head sadly. "This has nothing to do with the Federation. The only jobs I-we- take from them are official missions. This is about hunter's laws, and what happens when someone breaks them."
"I wouldn't die for Sammy." Realizing that her statement lacked her usual absolute confidence, Gandrayda smirked back. "I might take a plasma shot to the gut for her, but then again, my kind heal real fast."
"The Matriarch held our guild together when it was about to disintegrate", Xan-Fei professed, neglecting to mention that she had been the one doing the disintegrating. "Her skills and ruthlessness are a rare gift that will only benefit us, bring us greater profits. You are simply too thickheaded to recognize that."
Ruthlessness. Samus hid her own light smile at the other hunter's praise. There was that word again, a word that the young orphan girl who grew up on Zebes hadn't ever dreamed would be applied to her.
But it was true. It had taken utter ruthlessness to bring Xan-Fei to heel, to defeat Ridley in battle. Zillic had been ruthless. Running the hunter's guild properly required that she be ruthless. So did being an effective hunter.
If that was what her goal required, then that was what she would be.
But Xan-Fei was right about the rest of it as well, she saw. Torrask saw none of that. All he saw was what he'd always seen whenever he looked at her. A 'puny' human less than a tenth of his size, her thin body lacking in any kind of natural defenses like the kind he, Ridley, or Xan-Fei had.
If the fight she knew was about to begin didn't cure Torrask of this notion, then nothing would. But it no longer mattered. Either way, he would be cast out of the guild and imprisoned for his crime, whatever credits he had saved up going back into the guild coffers and used to rebuild it into what Samus had planned.
The other possibility- the one that he might actually defeat her- never crossed her mind for a moment.
"Don't help", she advised her allies, summoning her power suit to her. "I'll take this one on my own."
"So that's why you didn't drink anything", Gandrayda remarked shrewdly beside her. "Not even for the toast. You wanted to be completely sober for this."
Torrask took the bait, bellowing and charging as soon as he saw the familiar glow surrounding her body, trying to sneak in a shot before her suit was done forming. Exactly as expected.
There weren't any surprises in the next five minutes either.
Metal. Round, embossed cylinders of bright metal, hissing pistons and other machinery. The steam from brackish green pits of acid rising up to coat surfaces then drip off bit by bit.
Ridley remained only dimly aware that he was being led down, all the way down into the industrial heart of Tourian, the Mother Brain's chosen control center for Zebes. That could be partly blamed on the powerful painkillers he'd been injected with, but with what awareness he could manage he suspected a far more relevant reason for it.
Not that knowing of it did much to help. The salving grafts they'd laid upon his flesh, gray streams of glossy hardened slime designed to completely cover and seal his wounds, draining away the lost blood and flesh, were useless against the deepest injury of all.
Deeper than fried cartilage, deeper than broken wing bones, deeper than a lost eye...
Human. A human. A mere human. A young human woman so tiny that I could use her as floss for my teeth. She... She...!
A mechanical whirr from the lift snapped him out of it, and he realized they were now directly in front of the Mother Brain's main defense grid. A set of transparent living barriers suspended between cylinders were all that separated them now, though they were supposedly far more difficult to penetrate than more conventional types of energy barriers. At the slightest threat to them, the rest of the room's powerful defenses could deploy, making it nearly impossible to reach the massive glass bottle that held the living brain itself.
They'd hooked it up to every security and communications system on the planet, but now he'd been selected to be brought directly before the organic supercomputer, only parted by the set of mottled transparencies.
Next to the first one, one of the pirate troopers gave him a supportive salute, trying to cheer him up. "Hail to the Cunning God of Death!"
Then he was burning, burning up from an invisible, unquenchable fire deep within that blazed out of control and drove him forward directly into the pirate, feeling his claws close around the other being, exerting, breaking bone and flesh and organs until the unfortunate trooper was literally falling apart in his hands like a broken marionette.
That felt so good that he turned, screeching, seeking out another pirate trooper and repeating the same action again, this time more slowly, savoring the lovely feel of the bones cracking under his strength, strength reaffirmed, jaws biting down and ripping the head free before feasting on the torso beneath until there was nothing left there recognizable as a living being-
Ridley, the urgent telepathic voice of the Mother Brain brought him back to reality again. It was a voice that was fully artificial and seemed to revel in that fact, making no effort to feign softness like its counterparts did when interacting with others. If you continue to pointlessly kill our troops, I will stop you. You will not enjoy that.
The fact that he nearly apologized showed him, more than anything, just how badly the human hunter had wounded and humiliated him. Another thing to take out of her hide. "The surviving bounty hunters... ambushed us."
I am aware of the actions that led to this point. I have summoned you to provide analysis as to why they happened. The hunters took great pride in their ability to fight, and unity from their station. I calculated that destroying both should have broken their will to fight. Clearly, I have miscalculated.
Instinctively, he reached one bloodstained claw up towards the festering socket that Samus Aran had left him.
A replacement eye is already being cloned from your backup genetic material. It will be ready for you in three cycles. Speak.
Which means another week of getting it to work properly. Trying to shrug off the physical and mental wounds, the pirate lord growled low. "...I thought your plan would work. I even made sure to personally challenge and kill as many of the hunters as I possibly could."
Yet they did not break as I had calculated. According to our sources, the hunters have already begun expanding their embassies on various major Federation worlds such as Thibralea Major and Knessis V. Those bases will not be easily destroyed. The Guild has been reduced, but remains a severe threat to us.
"Because of an unknown factor", Ridley spat, trying to speak its language. "Something neither of us knew about until I got there. There was a new hunter cadet there at the BHG, a human."
A brief pause, letting him know he'd caught the living machine's attention. Humans have become bounty hunters in the past. They have always fared poorly and died easily. Elaborate.
"This one was... different", he hissed, reluctant to go into too much detail, yet already knowing that the Mother Brain would never let him off with anything less than a full report on what had happened. It thrived on detailed, precise information, particularly after a mission didn't go the way it had calculated. "She was stronger than the other ones. She... had a special power suit. One of a kind."
Is this human so skilled in engineering, that she is able to create a power suit greater than any other we have seen? If so, we should capture her and make her a slave.
Ridley grimaced. He'd seen how Mother Brain could do exactly that. It had developed several efficient methods of chemically lobotomizing the brains of most sentients so that they would only ever do as commanded by their overseer, while still retaining most of the skills that made them desirable. The same methods had proven effective on various animals as well, such as Rhaddnars, Kihunters, and Warp Hounds.
Now that would be a satisfying fate for Samus Aran... Except for the fact that he wouldn't be the one to do it to her, and afterwards he would have to keep on seeing her face. A face drained of all hope, malnourished and prone to drooling, but still...
"She didn't build her suit", he explained. "From what I could tell, it was made by the Chozo."
Another impressive silence from the organic supercomputer as it processed this, with no input other than the occasional flashing light or bubble from its defensive acid pits.
Are you certain of this?
"Nearly. Her suit used demolcularization technology for both weapons and mobility. Everything we know about the Federation says they're still lightyears away from cracking that, no closer than we are."
Impossible. The Chozo are all gone. I have run countless scans of this planet, to ensure that the purge was complete. No Chozo lifesign was ever detected departing from this world.
"No Chozo lifesign", he emphasized. "This suit was passed on."
Impossible. The Chozo would not dare to place one of their weapons in the hands of a human. To them, humans are but squalling infants.
Momentarily just as fazed as his master, Ridley stared into a stretched claw. Smirked. "I have it. Perform a decontamination procedure on me, and save the debris."
The brain wasted no time, commanding more pirates- more nervous-looking ones- to escort him to a large decon chamber. The flat, grid-shaped radiation fields tickled him slightly when they passed over his wounds, but he knew them to be completely harmless. If anything, they would help reduce the chance of his eye socket getting infected before the replacement was ready. For him, it was a much more pleasant experience than showering would have been.
Decontamination complete.
"Stating the obvious", he remarked, some of his old spark returning after the cleansing. "Scan all the extracted material that isn't shed drakkari tissue. Unless we're unlucky, you should find a small trace of human blood there."
Even with all that processing power, the scan required another brief pause for the brain. Then, a tone of most un-robotic incredulity. Human plasma detected. It is...
That, in turn, caught his attention. The Mother Brain hadn't trailed off like that in all the time he'd been in its service. "What?"
It is... This is a previously-unknown hybrid cellular structure. Fascinating. A perfectly-bonded mixture of human and Chozo cells. It could not have been detected by a normal scan for Chozo or human genetic material.
"She spit on me", Ridley explained, trying to break its sudden reverent awe for its former masters. "Glad I could use that against her."
This human is a hybrid!
"Calm down, Mother", he advised, more amused than anything at having to say such a thing. "Perform a planet-wide scan for any traces of that genetic material."
You do not command me, Ridley. It sounded stiffened, more indignant than he had ever heard, though he could tell the scan was already in progress, all the various systems they had build here on Zebes working in concert to find any trace of that blood. It was the logical thing to do, after all.
Several traces detected, it decreed at last. Hunter Samus Aran has been on this planet before.
"The shrines?", Ridley asked more as a courtesy than anything. He already knew the answer.
All traces located around the Chozo ruins, it confirmed.
So that, he deduced, was where their new enemy had grown up. Before the Mother Brain had taken over Zebes, before it had calculated that the Chozo were the greatest obstacle to their triumph due to their ability to read and alter the future. The ruins that remained of their civilization were lifeless tombs now, yet more than once a squad of pirates had mysteriously disappeared from that area, never to be heard from again.
Whatever the reason, the brain's commands resumed the harshest of mechanical tones, grating shrilly in his head. So long as a single living trace of the Chozo remains, it renders all my calculations on future conquests unreliable. Unpredictable.
This unpredictability cannot be permitted. Samus Aran will not be made a slave. She must die. She must.
"I thought so", he agreed, sweeping his tail along the metal floor to test it, make sure there weren't any fractures remaining after the medical team of the cruiser had done their best to set the bones and patch them up. At least it had been merely his eye that was lost- his tail would have been far more difficult to properly replace and get used to. It was a symbol of pride for his people. "I'm going to train now. Then, I'll kill her."
I shall recall all our active duty vessels to Zebes, the Mother Brain decreed as if it hadn't heard him. They will all be refitted with genetic scanners, allowing them to locate and converge on Samus Aran. She cannot survive the full power of our fleet.
"That is your decision to make, of course", he advised carefully. "But she was the one who breathed new life back into the hunter's guild. If she remains on a core world like you said, even we can't reach her without losing most of our ships."
She must die!
"Yes", he agreed patiently. "Yes, she must." It was passing rare to see the Mother Brain so intensely focused on anything, never mind the death of a single human. If he didn't know better, he might have interpreted it as fear. "But I've seen her in action. She is a warrior, greater than any of those other hunters. I'd wager all the credits I have that I'm the only one who can defeat her. Anyone else will fail."
Silence. For once, it seemed to be considering his words carefully. You are our greatest warrior. No other has ever defeated you in battle before now.
"No one else ever will", he vowed wholeheartedly, descending slightly until the tip of his head nearly brushed the floor in a bow. "And she won't, not ever again. This, I promise you."
Promises are irrelevant. But you shall have your chance, once you are healed.
"That", he acknowledged with a fanged smirk, "is all I ask."
His escort didn't dare speak as they brought him back up out of Tourian, through the strange mishmash of artificial tunnels and naturally-occurring caverns until he could feel the familiar welcoming heat of Norfair enclose him like a hug.
The pits were naturally-occurring lava here, not some chemical concoction like in Tourian. This close to the pulsing molten heart of Zebes, no enhancement was necessary to create a heat close to that of his home planet. The creation of his lair had involved, among other efforts, the removal of protective rock surfaces around them, to let that sweltering scent flow freely around them. Without proper thermal protection the contingent of pirates assigned to his lair would have found it unbearable, but not him.
To him, it was home.
"...My God?"
Turning at the nervous sound, he laid his grip around the one who had dared stay behind and call out to him. However, the Mother Brain's earlier warnings- and the knowledge that it wasn't really his fault- prevented him from squeezing. Instead he merely drew his head in so close that the pirate could smell the sulfur of his breath and flinch from its rankness.
"Don't worry, I won't kill you. I need you to be my messenger. Got it?"
"O...O... Of course, my God."
"No", he growled, squeezing slightly until he heard the young one cry out in pain. "No. That's my message. You need to get it out, to every trooper on duty. Under no circumstances am I to be referred to as 'The Cunning God of Death'. After the next three cycles, anyone who calls me that... I will kill. Slowly. Painfully. Regardless of whether Mother likes it or not. Do you understand?"
"I... I...I...!"
For a moment Ridley figured the young one had simply lost his mind out of crippling fear, but then he realized he was at a loss as to how to address his master after having used that grand title for so long. "You may address me as 'Lord'. Spread that around, make sure everyone knows it. You have three cycles, remember."
"A-as you wish... my Lord."
The pirate must have set some new land speed record getting out of there, and finally he was left in peace, the only noise the bubbling of the lava.
And the mad roaring in his head. The one that had been there since GY4192.
A human. A human. A little human. Impossible. Impossible.
Yet the truth of what had happened couldn't be denied. No excuses. If he'd only known back then... he would never have spared her back on the BHG station. He would have stayed as long as it took ensure the hunter was dead, proton bomb or no.
And so long as that defeat remained on his record... he had no right to use his title any longer. He'd had his warrior's pride, his undefeated record, his absolute faith in himself, that he was the one thing in the galaxy that that he could rely on.
Then Samus Aran had taken it all away from him.
She must die, he thought, echoing Mother Brain's own less emotional decree. And I have to be the one to do it. Only me. I have to correct my mistake. I have to train, make sure I am ready.
But how to do it? The last time he'd trained properly had been on his home world, sparring against his own people. Only another drakkari adult could provide a proper challenge- his handful of disastrous attempts to train with the pirate troops under his command had proven that well enough. But there was no possible way he could get his hands on one. Mother Brain would never allow such a wasteful mission to capture one from the homeworld, to say nothing of the amount of resources that would be needed just to contain one safely.
The winged pirate lord mulled it over for several minutes in blissful solitude, pacing his chambers. Then, he stood, activating a thermal-proofed computer terminal.
While his prowess as a warrior was unmatched by any in the known galaxy, he was no engineer, no scientist. But he certainly knew enough to use a terminal to reach out to one more skilled in those fields.
In mere seconds, the trace went through, and he beheld on the screen another reptilian species. This one was the exact opposite of a drakkari in terms of appearance however- he was hideously bloated where drakkari were lean, green where they were purple. Three glowing red eyes stared back into his single one, briefly reminding him of the late guildmaster Zillic.
"Commander Ridley", the other pirate lord acknowledged in a calm, deep basso voice- again, the opposite of his own. "I read the reports. You have my deepest sympathies. Your new eye will be ready for you very soon, I promise."
"Commander Kraid", the drakkari nodded back respectfully. Despite his skills, this one was always humbler, and easier to get along with than Mother. "Actually, I wanted to make another request of you. I intend to train for my next battle against the hunter who..." Momentarily unable to speak, he saw Kraid nod and knew the point had been made.
"I intend to prepare for the battle ahead", he repeated, getting back on track. "But I find myself lacking a suitable sparring partner."
Placing a wide, angular claw around his bulbous chin, his fellow commander narrowed all three of his eyes in shrewd consideration. "Yes, I suppose you've never needed to until now, have you? Our mighty champion, greatest of all drakkari. I could certainly arrange something. We already have sufficient qualities of your genetic stock on hand to-"
"No", Ridley cut him off irritably. "No. No clones. Their bodies might be suitable, but their brains are still useless, barely above an infant. They're only ever useful for harvesting replacement organs."
"You'll hurt his feelings", Kraid sounded despondent, a rare emotion from a being who had repeatedly shown himself to be nearly as merciless as Ridley himself was. "You should come over to my lab in Brinstar and see him for yourself, I believe he is starting to show some significant signs of cognitive improvement."
"So instead of an infant, your clone is now on the same intellectual level as one of our troops", Ridley observed bitingly. "Congratulations. I still have no idea why you even bother."
"It's the only way to figure out how to cure that flaw in the process", Kraid proclaimed, long scaled talons spreading over his bulging white belly pouch. "Some day, I will understand how to fix it, find out what causes the mental degradation... but that's for later. Do you have a better idea for a training partner?"
"I do", he grinned back cruelly, hitting a few buttons. "I've transmitted some specifications to your terminal now."
Professionally observing the data as it panned out on his screen, the other pirate lord blinked in fascination with what he was seeing. "Hmmm... Crude, but that's to be expected of you. Very large. Standard parts, like those found on minnows or freighters. A mechanical duplication of your form instead of a biological one?"
"It will be easier to repair between matches", the drakkari warlord remarked. "And whatever AI matrix you can grant it will be far superior to any clone brain. I understand it will take some time to build?"
"At least twenty-five cycles", Kraid admitted. "I have other projects on hand for Mother which take priority over even your needs. Then there's testing, calibration..."
"I will wait", he promised in an amazing show of self-control for his usual. "I am to be granted 'shore leave' until my replacement is ready."
"Oh, I doubt he will ever replace you", Kraid joked back before remember who he was dealing with, and more importantly, why. "...I'll begin redesigning immediately then. Out."
Seeing the screen dissolve, the drakkari slid away and chuckled to himself. More than once he'd heard the joke about Kraid's genius brain actually being located inside his enormous stomach, like a niritanian's. But his fellow pirate lord had always been so helpful and accommodating to him, no doubt because he'd been commanded to be so by Mother Brain. He was, perhaps, the closest thing to a 'friend' he had.
But even Kraid would never understand the hatred that gripped his heart now, which burned more deeply than any flame in all the galaxy. It coursed all the way through his veins, boiled his leathery skin, made his bone joints itch uncontrollably, made his empty eye socket twitch uncontrollably and his wings flap restlessly.
Samus Aran will die, he told himself firmly to quiet his body's unconscious reaction to the memory of all that had been taken from him by the human. I will kill her. No matter how many times it takes, no matter how long I must wait for it... I shall hear the hunter's dying screams. Destiny. My destiny.
Only then, when his enemy was broken and ashes and gone, would the universe bear witness to the unbridled glory of the Cunning God of Death once more.
Until that time, he would rest, and dream of revenge.
- One Year Later -
The skies of Thibtralea Major were unusually bright and blue this morning. While normally the planet was affected by a disproportionate amount of rain, today seemed the perfect day to skip on the public hoverskiffs provided and walk to work.
There was, Samus Aran considered, a certain amusing, almost childlike irony in her walking among the milling crowds of the capital city's civilians, a thriving population approximately 88 percent human, without anyone knowing the true nature of her job. For once in her life, she could pretend to be a normal being. To them, still wearing her loose-fitting green fatigues, she must have appeared to be just another Federation work drone, too pretty, young and unmarred to be a field officer.
She had no desire to disabuse them of that notion, and always kept to herself on the way to and from her destination. The guild embassy had finally seen its lengthy renovations completed, now expanded to roughly twice its original size, featuring a combat simulator for the cadets as well as living quarters and a more robust eatery than a mere bar- something that Xan-Fei had been all too happy to grant access to non-hunters in order to increase their profits. A scanner beeped as she wandered in the main entrance, now able to use an external escalator to get up to the second level more quickly.
Despite all these sleek new additions, Samus had never once called for anything like a private office to be installed. That would have been a waste. It was more convenient to just use datapads, and travel in person where necessary. Essentially, her rented living quarters outside the embassy was her office, one scarcely the size of her room on the BHG.
Instead, she simply took in the new changes before taking a seat in the lobby. Or she would have, if she hadn't already seen herself there.
"Back already?", she called out.
The copy wasn't quite perfect. It still wore her zero suit, and had slightly shorter hair. But the instant it heard her voice, there was a flash of neon and a shift and then Gandrayda stood before her.
"It was too easy", the changeling snickered. "Pirates have been running scared ever since you humiliated Ridley. They barely put up a fight. Boring."
"Humble as ever", the guildmaster joked before reluctantly welcoming her back. "The new recruits are coming along well. We even have a new tholidian."
"Nothing special about that", Gandrayda dismissed the report. "The old BHG had tholidians under every rock. And it didn't even have rocks."
"I didn't know them as well as you did", Samus nodded back. "Actually... I was thinking that he reminded me of the kid. You know, Shiel."
"...Huh. Y'know, we never did award the credits for that betting pool, did we?"
"We'll play it safe and say I won."
"Sounds fair."
She didn't have to check to know that the changeling hunter would be headed back to the bar. Without so many hunters clogging it up it was a much cleaner place, though Gandrayda seemed intent on changing that with the large drinks she ordered this time.
"So", Samus said when they were seated. "Who told you?"
"Locus", Gandrayda snorted. "Kid can't keep a secret to save his life. He's gettin' better at the whole fighting thing though."
Today, Samus had decided well in advance, was to be her last day here. After an uncountable number of mistrials, redesigns and refits, the Chozo was completed, and fully functional. She could wander the stars once more, warp jump to any system she wished.
"I'll be staring as an independent hunter. Xan-Fei will become the permanent guildmaster", she remarked. "As she wanted to do from the start."
"Did you finally get her to stop calling you Matriarch?"
"What do you think?"
They both laughed into the table. Easily, now.
"Honestly, I think that she preferred the current arrangement", Samus admitted. "The second-in-command. Less pressure to make things work right, but enough authority to boss everyone else around. But she didn't protest my decision either."
"Of course she didn't", Gandrayda teased, carefully shifting only her vocal chords to copy Xan-Fei's older, husky voice. "Anything for you, Matriach."
"I've made it very clear", she countered, "that she isn't to give me any preferential treatment. I'm just another licensed hunter now, taking missions on my own time. Same as you."
"As you wanted from the start", the changeling hunter repeated. "I could never picture you working in an office, Sammy. That's not what you're made for."
"No arguments there", she agreed. "I don't usually like taking orders. And I don't like people taking orders from me. I don't deserve it. And when do, and they die because of it, then that's on me. It's better this way. I don't have to worry about the guilt, and the guild doesn't have to worry that I'll forget to sign a form and accidentally bankrupt us."
Gandrayda giggled. "C'mon. You never got the temptation to take out some of ol' Zil's creds, buy some super fancy dresses, head to one of the big casinos and pretend to be a noble for a few nights?"
"Never."
"You're still as allergic to fun as ever", she sulked.
"And you're still a childish brat." Taking a long sip of her own concoction to defuse the tension, Samus shook her head. "That money is the seed. It's there to help equip and train new hunters. To make sure that there's always new hunters coming in, and to make sure they're trained by the best of the best. This business, as you know, has a lot of... turnover."
"No kidding." Despite their grim words, the disaster at the BHG had remained their single greatest loss. Since then, only a handful of hunters had been reported deceased or missing, no different from how things had been under Zillic or the guildmasters before him. Conversely, recruitment was up from what it had been, due to greater ease of access. Near as she could tell, her strategy had worked. For now.
"Then", the changeling asked, shifting tone in a way that had nothing to do with shifting her body. "Maybe... you'd like to celebrate it some other way tonight?"
"I was planning on ordering a bottle of sparkling Thibtrian", Samus mused. "I always wanted to try one of those, and Kiedan told me they're really good when they're made fresh here. Strong, too. I couldn't finish it all in one night of course, but I wanted to at least try some."
"You asked Kiedan about good drinks and not me?" She sounded hurt. "Eh. Sparkling Thibtrian is pretty good, I suppose. Haven't tried any in a while."
Samus stared back at her, eyes wider than she could remember before narrowing back into mild annoyance mixed with shock. "You're serious. You're actually serious about this. You do remember the part where I hate you, right? The part where I punched you? Threw you into a wall?"
"That was a year ago", the changeling dismissed her incredulity with a handwave. "You've grown since then."
"And you haven't grown at all."
"But I do remember." Though she appeared to be sidling away slightly, the expression on her glowing face suggested something else entirely. "I remember when I saw you. When I realized that you weren't just some ordinary human. When you defended me. When you saved the guild. When I realized that you... you were the one fleshbag in the galaxy that caught my interest."
"Try again", Samus countered. "I've read your mission reports. I'm far from the only one to, as you put it, 'catch your interest'."
Undeterred, the pink hunter smiled back impishly. "That's just business, Sammy. Getting idiot fleshbags to drop their guard so I can take what I need from them and bag the target. Especially if they're the target. This, Sammy... this is the first time I've really wanted this, from anyone. So..."
The acting guildmaster shut her eyes tight, and for once Gandrayda was unable to read her reaction. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not that way."
"I know. That's not a problem." The bright energy around her flashed, her mass shifting in front of Samus' eyes, becoming a deliberately handsome, athletic young blond man, the first traces of a beard on his chin. Only the naked hunger in his lightly glowing eyes marked him for what he truly was. "You forget", he spoke, a relaxing, gentle voice designed to set people at ease. "I can be anything you want me to be. Anything."
"No", Samus repeated without hesitating.
The changeling shifted again, taking on rakish dark hair, reserved eyes and a tall build clad in blue marine armor supporting a face that was immediately familiar, stunning her into silence.
"What about this?", the near-perfect simulacrum of Adam Malkovich asked in his halting voice. "Could you love this?"
"Get out of that", Samus ordered, feeling the old anger rising and fighting to stop it from making her lash out. "You aren't him. Don't pretend to be. Ever."
When she looked back, she was back in her regular form, a pouty, disappointed look on her face. "You're no fun at all. That's the problem, really. I just can't resist."
Samus took a deep breath.
It's not her fault, she reminded herself. Her people have completely different ideas about love, about when it's okay to be intimate with someone. They have no qualms about taking on other forms for it. To them, it's just something to do for fun.
Still, that meant she was going to have to shut this crazy idea down a bit harder than ny of the other crazy ideas Gandrayda had put in front of her and Xan-Fei over the last year.
"The fact that you took on his form", she started, trying to be gentle, "shows just how little you know about me. The fact that you want to start it off like that... But even if you weren't who you are, even if you were the most noble hunter I ever knew... I'm just not interested in a relationship, Gan. Not with anyone. Not right now, at least. The mission is my passion."
"If you say 'destiny', I swear..."
She didn't. She had already made her point clear.
"It's not fair. Here you are, with the tightest little body in the galaxy..."
"That's the problem. If you just want the body, you could find another one of your kind and have them transform into me. I'll have no part of that."
That, she determined, was the end. She had braced for more, made several other reasons beyond a flat 'no', but now she saw there was no longer any need for it.
Apparently, she wasn't the only one who had changed over the past year, all prior evidence to the contrary.
"I'm not sorry", she emphasized in a tone that suggested otherwise. "But, if you're actually serious about this, if you search the galaxy... then I'm sure that one day, you'll be able to find someone who's just as crazy as you are."
"But I don't want someone as crazy as I am", the other hunter sulked. "I want you. No one else."
"Well, you can't have me. But I will give you a going-away present."
That perked her up slightly. "What is it?"
She revealed the datacard, patiently allowed Gandrayda to study it until she glowed and let out a savage cackle. "The Czarnian!"
"He's finally been spotted", Samus nodded eagerly at the mention of the rogue hunter. "Some backwater world near the Tivus sector. Explorers saw him. I was going to go bag him myself, but I got a call this morning about a different mission."
"A mission more important than this?!"
"Actually?", she shrugged innocently, "It might be. But I know you'll have more fun with this one than I will."
"That", the changeling chuckled, "goes without saying. Payment ready?"
"That's right. 3 million credits, payable. Ready as soon as you bring back genetic and recorded proof of his death", Samus nodded. "Don't even try to capture this one alive, Gan. Every report I've read says he's as dangerous as he is insane... So you two should get along great. We'll be putting this one out on the general channels tomorrow."
"Giving me a head start", Gandrayda considered, palming the datacard. "Knew you liked me after all."
"No", Samus repeated firmly. "This is... Let's just call it a payment for services rendered. Though you should certainly wait for others to support you if you don't feel like you can do it alone."
Naturally, that idea earned only scorn. "Geez. It's like you don't even know me. Relax, Sammy. I'll collect this traitor's head in no time."
"Don't call me that."
"Make me."
There it was again, swelling up. The annoyance that had been her constant companion in most of her interactions with the changeling hunter, the only one of her kind who had ever joined the guild. The only one who had ever felt enough empathy for others to bother.
Samus realized then that she had no need to worry about her surviving the mission. Gandrayda would survive, just to spite her.
And yet, after what they'd gone though, she couldn't quite bring herself to hope for the opposite result. Hate her or not, she was still a hunter. A comrade.
She put all remaining thoughts of the other hunter, both positive and negative aside, waiting for the Federation emissary to arrive and not having to wait for long.
The man's features were incredibly bland, even to someone used to dealing with hundreds of sentient species. Tanned skin with a rounded face that she supposed was somewhat attractive, but beyond that he looked like he'd been built in a factory, bearing with him a small case full of datacards.
"Not exactly the best first impression", he joked, "having me meet you here. Luckily, we've already done our research on you. Samus Aran. Acting head of the hunter's guild. Former star marine private in the 14th legion under commander Malkovich."
"No longer", Samus corrected him. "As of tonight, I'm no longer guildmaster in any capacity. So, whatever mission was so blasted important that you couldn't just transmit it to us the usual way, you can give to me to handle. I'll take care of it."
Hopefully, her energetic voice wouldn't betray just how eager she really was to stretch her legs and get back into the field again.
"As you wish", the envoy shrugged, opening the case on the table. "My original design was to request that you contact your best hunter for this job."
"You have her", Samus claimed, idly checking one of the cards. Mostly files on a recently-discovered planet, it looked like, accompanied by diagrams of various local wildlife there. Some real ugly critters.
"Bold", the envoy steeped his fingers politely. "I thought that you would be. Yet, we haven't had a single true mission from you on record yet. You did one in an apprenticeship under hunter Geras before his demise, yet after that... nothing. I dearly hope you're not exaggerating your capabilities, miss Aran. We don't joke when we say that this mission requires the very best."
"I've been busy", she pointed out. "But I'll file this one with Xan-Fei before I go, just in case she thinks someone else could do better than me. What's the job?"
Secretive as befit his job, the envoy seemed reluctant to actually speak the details of the mission, only opening up when she started fiddling with another one of the cards. "Several cycles ago, one of our scout ships intercepted a space pirate cruiser. It had completed a raid of a recently discovered planet on the border of known space, one that the survey teams had designated SR388."
More curious now, she tapped the card again. This one didn't have information on the newly-found planet.
It was another one. One far too familiar to her, that left her skin crawling.
"This... this is data on planet Zebes. Pirate central."
"Yes. Because we derived from their records that this was not the only pirate vessel assigned to raiding SR388. They made it a priority assignment, shortly after capturing several specimens of the planet's apex predator."
"Another try at turning local animals into their servants", Samus growled, flashing back to her tour of the hideous bio lab on Aengea Minor. "They never learn."
"Yes. Only, this creature is far beyond any Rhaddnar or Warp Hound. This creature's destructive potential is beyond any we've ever encountered. They are small and airborne, yet durable to the point that no recorded weapons test has been able to inflict lasting damage on them. Their offensive capabilities are equally lethal."
Tapping the card again, she brought up a new file, an illustration. A gelatinous, amorphous green dome, transparent enough to easily see the red triple nucleus housed within. Three wicked-looking prongs dangling down from the main body, forming a maw similar to many annelid species.
"The prongs may look standard", the envoy went on, "however, the pirate tests show that they have considerably more power than most predators, even capable of penetrating galdezium armor."
"Nasty", Samus agreed, studying the strange green blob with fascination. There was something... "But they'd only be a threat to smaller creatures, right?"
"No", the envoy's voice turned as cold as her gut. "That's the terrifying part. Those prongs are also capable of absorbing... well... for lack of a better term, our researchers have begun to refer to it as 'life energy'. It does not drain blood or marrow or mental capacity, yet somehow when the drain is complete, the victim becomes a dead gray husk, one that turns into sand as soon as it is touched."
"So these are flying, indestructible parasites that can penetrate most types of armor and kill their targets in moments", she exhaled, her anxiousness only building with each step. "That... is seriously bad."
"Worse, miss Aran. Because when they absorb enough 'life energy', they become a chrysalis and undergo a metamorphic phasing similar to the Kesharan cicada-king, becoming even more powerful. At the moment, our only further data here refers to a possible 'Alpha' stage beyond the larval one. The initial 'baby' stage is also capable of dividing under certain conditions due to its powerful mutagenic properties. Ether way, this is a weapon we cannot permit the pirates to get their hands on. Even our initial simulations show that just one of these could clean out an entire Federation outpost with no losses, since there is no recorded method for terminating them."
"And they already brought a shipment back home to Zebes to be tested on and weaponized", Samus finished for him, her face grim and growing grimmer. "So you need someone to go to Zebes, and wipe them out."
"Correct. The sooner the better. This is a priority mission, and yet..."
"And yet, even if you sent in a team of hunters, if would accomplish nothing", she recognized just as quickly. "If these things are so important, then they likely have most of their fleet on standby for just such an attack. We'd be slaughtered before we ever got down to the surface. What about your fleet? If this is really that important..."
The envoy shook his head. "Too slow. The main attack force would require at least five cycles to provision and organize, and that much effort would certainly telegraph our intentions."
"Then you need a stealth approach for this. One agent. Someone who knows their way around the planet, who can make their way in unnoticed, and kill these... these...?"
"Pirate research data refers to them as 'Metroids', miss Aran."
"Right." Again, it felt like she'd heard the name from long ago, in some distant, dream-like memory she wasn't sure was even real. Destiny. Going back home to Zebes, after all this time...
"Your award for the completion of this mission will be a sum of fifty million credits."
She spat out her drink. That was the largest bounty she'd ever heard of, even going back to before Zillic's time. "F-fifty...? You're serious about this?"
"Completely", the envoy nodded, and though he clearly had a lot of practice concealing his emotions she could sense his trepidation. It matched her own. "If that amount is not enough, I am authorized to raise it further. The very future of the galaxy may lie on the success of this mission. It must not fail. You understand."
Snatching up the data cards so they didn't get wet, Samus stared back into the illustrated one. At the strange 'Metroid' parasite. Into the triangle of red dots that had awakened something in her, something long forgotten, buried...
Then she'd lost it, unable to remember clearly. It didn't matter. Not now. Despite all the fear and risk this mission entailed, despite the sensation of an entire galaxy's fate sliding itself into her shoulders almost like it belonged there, like it had always belonged there... she had become completely tranquil. Calm. Destiny. This... this is mine. I've been waiting for it.
"I understand", she nodded back, already summoning her power suit to her and sending the activation signal to the Chozo. "I'll head out immediately."
I suppose, she considered, I couldn't have asked for a better 'zero mission'.
A/N: Finally done. I might submit this to AO3 later, and would appreciate any suggestions for a revision before I do, perhaps adding some more scenes to the early times on the BHG.