Chapter 6: Norion Razer
Norion:
Jacob gleefully perforated another space pirate, playing with his food by shooting one limb off at a time with a single round before ending the crustacean's suffering with a shell through the torso. Non-existent difficulty aside, he had to find some way to keep himself entertained while escorting Samus around while she did the Federation's busywork. And... that was up until Ridley showed up, and then Dark Samus putting in an appearance at the planetary defense controls to infect Samus and the other hunters with phazon.
He mumbled to himself. "Hmm, do I try and stop that?"
Possible 'jerkass' implications aside for even considering Not doing so, he considered it a valid point. And he figured going forward he'd have to think about the 'should he or shouldn't he' with saving or preemptively killing someone in the normal 'plot.' Dim knowledge of Prime 3 as he had, he still knew that the infection would result in the deaths of every other bounty hunter involved, naturally excluding Samus. So, despite harboring what he felt was a perfectly justified loathing of the Galactic Federation and allowing the other three to strike blows, did he want to allow them to die so they could all get their licks in before he or Samus killed them?
He mumbled to himself again, more comfortable saying it aloud than stewing it over in his head. "Fairness to me, I don't really know any of them. So I have nothing in the way of attachment to consider."
It struck him as rather hilariously unfair, in a meta way. He knew Samus, he'd known and adored her as a kid long, long ago before he even became a Jumper. He was attached and invested in her survival, prosperity, and happiness. He'd fleetingly met these other three today and didn't give a rip… Then again, after over 1000 years collectively in the grim darkness of the far future he was probably very, very desensitized to the deaths, even horrific deaths, of people he didn't know. What was that quote from… Stalin? 'One death is a tragedy, a million is a statistic?' Bottom line he would say that… He just didn't care? That was a horrible mindset for an aspiring Hero to have...
He slowly looked around at his surroundings, noting the three-piece in similar architecture. "That makes three, right Samus?"
He was answered with a backwards nod as Samus started manipulating the console, her visor glowing green as the suit did the complicated programming shit for her. That, came across more condescending that he would have wanted it to, especially as it was inside of his own head. He certainly wasn't a computer slash coding whiz to start throwing verbal punches at someone for letting a program do it for them…
A thought occurred to him, which he mumbled aloud. "Wait, Ridley is supposed to show up on Norion, right? This is the third generator she's supposed to activate, and then it's right to the control system to shoot down the Leviathan. So where is the big lizard supposed to-" A loud shriek came from above, and he turned his head to the sound to spy Ridley camping in the girders over the generator console. "Oh, there. I guess that makes sense for a second flunky boss."
He smiled and had a momentary, delightful, flashback to Tallon IV and his vicious murderizing of the flying lizard-chicken…
Norion: Third Generator
Samus Aran silently watched the progress bar on her visor creep along, alert but, relaxed given the presence standing at the door some feet behind her. Much like on Aether the actual danger she'd been in since Jacob had opted to glue himself to her hip had been largely negligible. That obnoxiously powerful gun of his tore through space pirates, shields included, like so much paper and hulled their drop-ships in only a few seconds of sustained fire. And given his apparent immunity to the crippling flaw of projectile weapons called 'ammunition,' she was just assuming at this point that he had some justification for that, she'd been able to prioritize keeping herself out of harms way. Naturally, with the boisterous wrecking ball at her side, both accessing and activating the generators had been simplicity itself up to the current moment. Locked doors were only locked when you couldn't smash through them… as were walls, for that matter.
The idle thought occurred to her, 'I hope the Federation isn't going to take it out of our pay for the damages to the complex…"
Secondary point to Jacob's 'brute force' approach, bullet craters were everywhere they had tread across Norion. And given the penetrating power of those bullets, that could easily be something like a ten-digit repair bill. Things were different on a planet where the surroundings actually mattered, the structures mattered beyond sentimentality or history. For that matter, Jacob's gunfire could have even compromised the planetary defenses they were trying to activate. Which, she was dearly hoping otherwise.
In the middle of her thoughts, just as the progress bar for the activation capped out, a horrible screech echoed through the chamber. She recognized it instantly, but still jerked her gaze upwards to see Ridley leering down at her with that ever-present vicious, bloodthirsty grin-
Jacob's voice bellowed out in the chamber. "HEY, bird brain!"
She saw Ridley's gaze snap to the chamber door, as did her's nanoseconds later. Jacob had removed his helmet and was gazing up at her mortal enemy with a savage, terrifying grin on his face. In the very same instant Jacob worked the bolt on his gun, producing an abnormally loud 'clack clack.'
Jacob took three steps forward, eyes completely fixated upwards. "Long time no see! It's been so long since I returned to you just a fraction of the suffering you've passed out to the galaxy." He spread his arms, holding the large gun with one hand and making a crude 'come hither' gesture. "Come on! From mounting your head on your own tail spike, I realize that I missed the perfect opportunity to feed that spike down your throat! Gimmie the chance to correct that, at least try and not look like a little bitch!"
Ridley took all of half a second to process the call-out before turning around on the upper section of the room's generator before bolting away with a rough shriek that screamed 'NO' in every way apart from literally. Wires and debris fell like leaves as Ridley scampered away up the chamber, presumably towards the hole in the roof the space-dragon had used to enter the chamber.
Having genuinely never seen Ridley fleeing in terror, even in the face of death at her hands, she dragged her gaze back to Jacob, whom was staring up after Ridley with a look of profound disappointment etched on his face. Belatedly, he commented upon Ridley's retreat. "Well fuck, I was looking forward to that." She was no longer surprised to learn that Jacob somehow knew what was going to happen before it happened, but she was slightly surprised when the large man's mood flipped in an instant. "Oh! Right, I can just do that!" Grinning, albeit slightly apologetically, which was confusing, Jacob spoke to her. "Ok, so, I'm about to do something you might find disturbing. Closing your eyes or not is up to you in three, two, one-"
With a slight miscommunication she figured, going on 'one' instead of 'after one,' she was 'treated' to the sight of Jacob's body violently and horrifyingly warp, crunch, elongate, and grow still further in the space of a single second to replace the understandable-yet-overdeveloped human body with a towering black and red, four-armed, chitin-loaded, insectile monstrosity that looked to have the equivalent of anti-tank cannon's in place of a lower set of arms. Crackling with a miasma of deadly-looking electricity, the Jacob-beast belted out a roar that shook the metal of the entire chamber before vaulting up and tearing after Ridley using the giant scythe-blades he/it had for upper 'arms' as crude pitons.
Shaken, confused, and completely beyond feeling ashamed of admitting terrified, she swallowed a leaden lump in her throat that offered only the most minute of relief. "What IS he?"
*Indescribable Horror: Few words could accurately explain what the sight of you does to the hearts of even brave men. You are terrifying on a primal level, striking fear in the hearts of all who see you, no matter your form. This fear, and any other amount of terror or intimidation you may cause beyond the level granted by this ability, will always manage to affect someone as long as they have the capacity to feel fear. No matter how brave a man is or how much he has seen, or even what unnatural drugs or magicks lay on his mind, he will shake at the sight of you as the fear that emanates from you does so on a psychic level as well as a physical level. Beings such as unfeeling robots or servitors are not subject to your fear as they do not feel emotion at all. *
Norion:
Jacob gleefully tore his way across the rooftops of the Norion complex, scattering both Federation and Space Pirate forces alike in his wake as he doggedly pursued Samus's nemesis. Given that he had spent his last stint in the 41st millennium, immediately prior to his current excursion in Metroid, as the overarching psychic hive mind of a Tyranid invasion instead of actually using the Hive Tyrant alt-form he'd paid for it felt really good to cut loose and rampage as he had directed large-scale for the entire campaign of galactic omnicide. Ordering Hive Tyrants on different planets simultaneously to wade into the thick of it really didn't measure up to doing it himself, and freely barging through both present factions that he didn't care for firing his dual Impaler Cannons as fast as they could cycle at anything he wasn't going to trample was the grand old time he'd been missing. Of course, that was a secondary concern to catching up to Ridley, whom currently had the advantage of flight. Were he a 'normal' Hive Tyrant it was unlikely that he'd be able to catch up or even drop the space dragon with ranged fire given his quarry's speed.
He grinned, potentially difficult as that might be to notice for an onlooker, as he charged through a squad of Pirate Commandos and fried the lot of them passively with the field of bio-electricity surrounding him. Just as he kicked off of a barricade and then an in-flight Pirate drop ship he cheered to himself, in the privacy of his own mind, 'I'm a Hive Tyrant that knows PARKOUR!"
Roaring in triumph as he sailed through the air, finally gaining enough ground on the fleeing Ridley to make a good shot, he brought the weapons on his lower set of arms to bear and fired, aiming for the delicate joints on Ridley's wings. Combined with his absurd accuracy, and the self-correcting nature of Impaler Cannon projectiles, the shots struck true in perfect unison. Both of Ridley's wings were completely ripped off from the first joint outwards, sending the space dragon crashing to the 'ground' with an agonized screech and a brilliant shower of ichor.
Blood-lust boiled up within him. 'That's right, try running from me now you sick fuck!'
A little voice in the back of his mind said something along the lines of 'said the pot to the kettle,' but he didn't pay it much mind as he stomped over to pounce on the fallen Ridley's back, striking down with his bone-scythe upper-limbs to pin Ridley to the floor through the forearms. Samus's nemesis howled in agony as his bio-electric field cooked Ridley to the point of smoking over the span of four seconds. He raised his scythe-blades in unison for the killing blow, only to feel a dull poking sensation from his lower torso.
Curious, yet unbothered, he glanced down to a sight he really should have expected. Ridley's extremely flexible tail had twisted around and speared itself into his abdomen. Unfortunately for Ridley, brilliant tactical maneuver it might have been, the spike on the end of the dragon's tail had only managed to dig half a foot into his obnoxiously over-armored carapace. Points for effort, but, ultimately a wasted effort. Although given the fact that he presently didn't happen to have proper hands, he had unfortunately robbed himself of the opportunity to make good on his threat and 'feed Ridley his own tail.' Although, at the idea of 'feed' and him currently using the body of a Tyranid, he got a rather poetic idea…
It was only after he bit Ridley's head off and swallowed it did he remember that the space dragon had previously eaten Samus's parents, and at one point mocked Samus by pointing out that he had absorbed their DNA or something by addressing an arm or such as 'her parents,' being the sadistic monster that Ridley was. And given that Tyranids essentially did the same with 'biomass,' he'd just eaten Samus's parents… In a fucky, messed up kind of way.
Morosely, he commented to himself. 'I should probably, really not bring this up to Samus.'
Additionally, now that the thrill of the pursuit was wearing off he remembered that Samus would probably have made it to the Defense Tower or whatever it was called and regrouped with the other hunters, just in time for Dark Samus to crash the party and infect them all… And he was probably way the hell off on the other side of the planet given the length of the chase…
Norion Defense Spire:
Samus Aran stared at her dark copy, arm steady on her arm-cannon, steel in her heart to the point she was almost willingly ignorant of the other three bounty hunters at her flanks. Dark Samus had gotten in a cheap shot when all of their backs were turned, but they'd recovered. It was time for payback, and fitting that, she was actually mildly glad Jacob wasn't here at her side. Comforting as his presence was... putting aside for the moment that his presence actually was comforting, she felt a touch trivialized by the ease with which he destroyed all the opposition that was usually a dire threat to her. Thrashing her evil clone here, with whatever support the other hunters provided, would do a lot to reinforce the sense of self-worth that had been so violently brutalized on Tallon IV... and trivialized since then on what she imagined would have been enormous endeavors that she 'should' have done.
Both parties involved, Dark Samus verses her and the other hunters, lingered, frozen in a tense stand-off. The first to move gave the other the first counter-move, after-all. And, irritatingly, she understood that her clone had inherited her tactical acumen. And that was on top of what she now understood was her own corrupted power suit supercharged with phazon. Having been denied the opportunity to engage Dark Samus on Aether, all she had to go one was Jacob's sketchy, second-hand explanations... And he really hadn't done a good job of that. It was, for instance, highly unclear what of her items Dark Samus had access to. And she certainly wasn't about to risk scanning the phazon aberration in front of her right now to check. That would require her to take her arm away from her weapon and destabilize her aim if-
Off to the rear-left of the room, several yards to Dark Samus's right, Jacob crashed through the wall. "I'm here! I made it!"
She looked. Of course she did what with the giant man's explosive entrance. She was certain that all the other bounty hunters took their attention off of Dark Samus, to their immediate punishment. Some gnawing, sickening impact struck her square in the chest. And as her feet lifted from the ground she viewed the world around her in slow motion. Blue, thick, phazon-lightning had erupted from Dark Samus's weapon and lanced her, Rundas, Gandrayda, and Ghor in the chests. Jacob's arm flash-mutated into the weapon his giant bug-form had been using and fired, spearing Dark Samus so hard in the chest the dark clone flew backwards out the same window 'she' had entered through. And, at the end of it, her back folded against the same console she had been attempting to use to bring the planetary defenses online with. Most sensation left her body, save a hollow, aching void in her chest cavity.
Jacob stormed across the room and knelt over her, pausing only on his way 'down' to smack the console and finish the job she'd started, before putting an suddenly-human again, armored gauntlet over her middle. "Well fuck, this was supposed to go different." His helmet melted away, leaving an earnest gaze staring into her fading vision. "Sorry Sammy."
She didn't hear if Jacob 'corrected' himself on using that, 'pet-name' of hers. If she'd had the capacity to respond, she would have dismissed the correction. Fine somehow with him using it.