Chapter 7: Acuar
During the briefing next morning, Samus and Houston ready to go, and Ridley was forbidden to go with them. But all was not lost. Laguna looked like he didn't have any sleep last night (which he didn't'), and was frequently looking over his shoulder or behind him. The whine of Samus charge beam made him jumpy, and he became annoyed with Keaton.
Keaton finished briefing them on the
end of their vacation.
"Right.
Down to the mission. You all know of the pirate attack on the Fine Arts Festival
3 days ago. Apparently, it was identified by Laguna here that they were after
Leslie Gentes to kill her. We don't know why, but Laguna will explain on the
way if you wish.
"
You three are going to Acuar with Miss Gentes. There you are to eliminate the pirate
control on the planet and it's capital city, Atlantis. She will accompany you
to learn from the help the Federation has to offer, and will assist you in
getting access to the city. From what she told us, the city is deep beneath the
waters' surface, and has only three entrances, two that are available to us.
That is all."
Samus and Houston understood it all
and were expecting a good luck from Keaton, but he didn't go on.
Laguna coughed roughly, "What about my
promotion chairman?"
Keaton
went bug-eyed and he finally remembered.
"Oh, yes. Thank you Laguna. Just
recently, due to Laguna's superior behavior at the Fine Arts Festival, and for
saving it as well, he had been promoted to Lieutenant and will be commanding
the mission as well as issuing orders to both of you for the good of the
mission. But above all, Miss Gentes leads the way and makes the decisions."
Laguna didn't catch that last part too
well, and, as if on cue, Leslie Gentes, in full dress, stepped onto the docking
elevator as the doors opened. That's odd. I didn't know this was an
elevator. I didn't even feel us moving at all. Samus thought after she
greeted Miss Gentes with a short bow and handshake. Houston was used to this,
and gave Miss Gentes his best hearty hello and handshake yet. Leslie was
charmed by this, and then paid her attention to Keaton. The elevator then
shuddered, and it seemed as it something had fallen on top of it in the shaft.
They paid it no heed.
Keaton
waved them farewell, and found himself mysteriously shoved into the ladies room
outside the docking bay. It was like someone pushed him in, but no one was
there – just him and the elevator. He clumsily got up and pushed the button;
the door opened to a completely flattened elevator box.
* * * * *
The
flight was uneventful for Samus. She got really tired of tales of Laguna saving
this planet, and that. Of Laguna owning the first cell of energy produced from
a metroid. Of Laguna saying how much he like the architecture of the city of
Atlantis.
Apparently, Miss Gentes was too. She
had lived through a lot of lawyers and ambassadors that wished to trade with
her planet, they but were rejected because they sucked up to her too much. She
learned to ignore those kinds of people, and did the same with Laguna.
This greatly annoyed Laguna, and he
soon stopped talking and had a faint fiery glow in his eyes. "Not long now…" he
whispered.
They
finally reached the planet's surface, and the system's sun was shining on the
waters and made it look so pure and crystallic. But the city could not be seen
even with the sun being right over it. The only part of the city was the
landing bay that floated on the surface. Samus and Houston were not allowed to
bring their ships, (since Keaton figured Laguna's was enough), and he landed it
with precision. Miss Gentes was surprised.
"I didn't know you had reserved a
parking space in my city! That's very talented of you to think ahead so much."
She exclaimed.
Samus and Houston heeded to his, and
their support to Laguna's betrayal was growing stronger. Maybe he had this
all planned out. Samus figured, and she charged her cannon with missiles,
super missiles, and power bombs, since this was going to be a rough time
getting in. Houston had done the same, and Miss Gentes was awed at the raw technology
Samus had acquired on Zebes. Then the passenger hatch opened and they all
climbed out.
It
was dead silent on the docking bay. All except for the sound of the waves
splashing against the sides of the barge. They all walked slowly towards the
elevator hut in the center of the landing bay. Laguna foolishly ran forward and
shot a missile into the doors, and hopped in the elevator. He went down without
saying anything and left them at the surface.
"Wait!" Samus shouted. It obviously
didn't help, since Laguna was gone and probably on his way to saving the world
by himself.
"How rude! He just blasted the
property of my city and ran ahead without my say-so. If you ask me, I don't
trust him anymore. He could be planning all this just to trap us. Oh, what's
the use, nobody will believe…"
"Hey!
You think he's the spy too?!" Samus and Houston shouted in unison.
"What?!
You too? Goodness, I guess he isn't so good at hiding his work is he? Thank you
for supporting my cause, Samus, Houston." Leslie Gentes said, and was about to
hug them all when hordes of space pirates flooded out of the elevator, now at
surface level.
Samus and Houston unloaded on them
with their wave beams and covered Miss Gentes by putting her between them.
Back-to-back, they slowly made their way to the elevator. Once inside the shaft
of the elevator, the doors would not close and the pirates were beginning to
focus their energy in the doorway. All seemed lost.
Then a large hellfire explosion
blasted through the pirate ranks and a loud roar heard outside. In a matter of
seconds, the entire army of pirates was taken out. Samus, Houston, and Miss
Gentes looked outside the elevator, expecting Ridley to pull off a cheesy joke,
but he wasn't there.
"Maybe the King of the Seas showed
mercy to us…naw." Miss Gentes started, but then remembered the eradication of
the polar krakens long ago. The elevator controls worked finally, and the doors
closed slowly.
Though Samus could have sworn she had
seen a pair of glowing, yellow eyes at the end of the landing pad. But the
transparisteel walls of the elevator showed a grand undersea world of living
creatures. It was all too much to
describe. "Wow…" Houston said in amazement. "This is beautiful!" said Samus.
"Yes, our city gets a lot of tourism
from this planet, as well as our heavily defended military installations deep
on the ocean floor. Even the strongest laser cannons can't reach the depth of
our city. Wait 'till you see it. You'll just love it. And you'll then
understand how important this planet is to the galaxy." Miss Gentes sighed and
reached into her only dress pocket.
She pulled out a missile rifle, just
small enough to conceal in her dress. Samus was astonished that such a peaceful
woman would carry missiles just like hers around with her.
"Then again, planetary assaults and
assassinations are common, and this is only a fraction of my anti-terrorist
arsenal. So, like I was saying, let's get back the city! Let's kick some pirate
ass!"
Samus felt relieved that they now
weren't protecting some helpless civilian now, and that they had another weapon
on their side. And a confident person holding it at that.
By
now, the elevator had gone go so deep that all the water around them had gone a
deep, dark blue. But a bright light shining below them promised them a good
time in their visit at Atlantis.
The
city was amazing beyond words and comprehension. There were crystal towers and
skyscrapers, transparent glass tubes of roads and highways looping around the
city. Grand towers and palaces dominated the core of the city, and several
donut-shaped layers of glass separated the levels of the city itself. Even the
nature around the city seemed to grow in harmony with it.
As they reached the ocean floor, the
actual landing station was on the edge of an abysmal cliff. It seemed like
hundreds of thousands of miles of glass tubing roads to get to the city. When
they got off, they stepped onto a catwalk above a large aquarium housing some
very big fish.
"WELCOME TO ATLANTIS LOADING STATION.
PLEASE MAKE SURE ALL YOUR BELONGINGS ARE WITH YOU AND PLEASE STEP INTO THE
MONORAIL AVAILABLE TO YOU AND ENJOY YOU STAY AT ATLANTIS. THANK YOU, AND HAVE A
GREAT DAY." Said a monotonously computerized voice from the nearby speakers and
it seemed to Houston as if he was waiting in line for some Disneyland ride.
They all stepped onto the front monorail car, and they sat in the front row of
seats.
Once everyone was on, the doors
closed, locked, and locked with the air pressure. Then it sped off to the
glowing city.
"Where actually is the city?"
Samus asked as she dared to look down.
"It's on a crystalloid alloy pillar
that stand 200 miles high from the bottom of the abyss. It's literally on
stilts, but its location in the center of the abyss makes it hard to attack, on
the monorail is the only way to reach it."
Samus shivered as she looked back down
the bottomless abyss. She didn't want to know what lay at the bottom. Neither
did Houston. Miss Gentes smiled at them and closed her eyes as she went to
sleep.
Hours later, they arrived just outside
the city. They all jerked awake and charged their weapons as they prepared to
meet Laguna and his goons.
The
doors opened, and the gang opened fire.
There
were what seemed to be millions of space pirates waiting in ambush in front of
the loading dock. Deck by deck, Samus, Houston, and Miss Gentes made their way
to the heavy gates of the city. The gates seemed a mile high, and before
Houston could manage a futile knock on the door, they all passed out cold.
Chapter 8: Ridley
As soon as Ridley watched in astonishment as Laguna and the space pirates brought in Samus, Houston, and Miss Gentes and closed the massive steel doors on him.
Now Ridley had helped them up to that
point, now he had to get access to the city. Only the Federation could do that.
Only Keaton.
Ridley
reluctantly flew all the way back through the glass tubing and too the landing
bay on the surface. He took off faster than a lightning bolt and zoomed to the
Alpha Centauri space station. He didn't have high hopes.
* * * * *
Samus
woke up with a bad headache. She remembers the charge up to the city gates, but
then something hit her that made her pass out. By then, she noticed she still
had her suit on, and everything was operational.
Houston, too, was just waking up and
looking around.
"What…what
happened? Where are we?" Houston asked, dumbfounded.
"I
guess they took us prisoner into the city. And a pretty creepy cell at that."
She
looked around; all the walls of the prison cell were transparent glass, and a
giant aquarium surrounded them. But the water was all dark.
Then Samus spotted the crumpled body
of Leslie Gentes.
She
helped her get up and held her strongly. Miss Gentes woke up shortly after. She
had a sick look on her face.
"Ohhhh…they put us in here…" she
moaned and she passed out again. Miss Gentes was on her home planet, and here
home city. Why she wasn't comfortable with this place was probably for a good
reason.
Before Samus could think this out, the
lights came on in the cell, and she could see bit further into the aquarium.
She wasn't expecting what was to come next. She turned around and screamed.
* * * * *
Ridley
came within the Alpha Centauri Station boundaries. On his Federation comlink
implant, he heard the Federation Docking Bay controller contact him.
"Incoming
being, please state your purpose at the Federation outpost. Answer quickly or
you will be gunned down…" he went on. But Ridley interrupted. "I know, I know,
this is Ridley of the Federation Special Forces. Now let me in to see Chairman
Keaton. NOW."
The officer onboard stuttered.
"Uh…Ridley? He he…sorry…"
The
officer cut was cut off sheepishly and the bay doors in docking bay one opened.
As soon as Ridley landed on the bay floor, Keaton and Hardy, along with about
fifty troops were in front of him.
"Chairman Keaton, forget the welcome
and listen to me! Samus and Houston were captured along with Miss Gentes! But
what you're about to hear may not convince you…but please send a fleet to get
them back; Laguna is leading the pirates and has captured the Acuarian city!
We've got to…" Keaton interrupted, "detain you, Ridley. You have missed
interrogation and violated more than a dozen Federation rules. You will be sent
to a detention cell for dishonesty, failure to attend an interrogation, and
unnotified resignation of the Federation and for assisting the space
pirates. Take him away." Keaton ordered the troops on Ridley, but only about
thirty survived the first attempt to capture him, which ended in a big
fireball.
"Idiots! Stun him from a distance!"
Keaton yelled as he raced back towards the elevator, away from the growing
danger. Hardy stood in the middle of it, and was all he could do to avoid
fireballs and stun beams. Ridley hit the brunt of the shots, and fell down like
a rock.
This is unreasonable. Keaton has no
proof of Ridley's betrayal and he goes along according to his ego and high
hopes. There's more going on at Acuar than Keaton knows about. If only someone
could prove it. Hardy thought as he watched the remaining soldiers haul in
Ridley. Then he jumped up in excitement. I got it! I've got to tell
Keaton…no, no, no…that will only get you in trouble too. I need some political
power, here…
Hardy felt great desperation as he hoped some light would dawn upon the subject for Keaton.
Hardy knelt in the bay, alone, and
prayed for the safety of Samus, Houston, and Leslie Gentes.
* * * * *
Samus
had never seen a shark so big in her life!
The
giant fish behind the glass walls was almost three times the size of her own
ship! And its mouth wide open as it rammed the glass made both the cell shake
and her body with it. She stopped screaming when the shark got an electrifying
zap and the glass didn't get a scratch at all.
But
what made this place so terrible other than a safe encounter with a
leviathan-like shark? She never understood this until Miss Gentes awoke and
looked around. This time she wasn't afraid of the shark behind the glass.
She said quietly, "Are we still here?
What are they doing to my city?"
She
then thought about what she said, and frowned. "I hope Ridley is ok…"
Samus whirled around to face her.
"What do you mean? He's still at the Federation outpost. He didn't see any
action here, and doesn't even know about us…" Miss Gentes calmed her. "That's
where you're wrong Samus…you see, Ridley was with us this whole time as we
fought our way to the city gates. He snuck out using his cloaking ability and
saw us get captured. He should be on his way to the Federation outpost by
now…but that Keaton…he'll be hard to convince and the grudge he holds against
Ridley…I hope everything's alright…" as the cell's lights brightened, the gang
could see a platform near the top of the ceiling.
"I wonder what that's for…" Houston
mumbled and only had time to feel a little wet. Samus felt it too. "Hey, guys,
does it seem a little damp in here to
you?" He asked. Miss Gentes went pale and Samus answered, "Uh…yeah, it actually
does…why would it fell wet when the floor's only…" she got that far. The floor
of the cell was flooded with water!
Up to their ankles with water, they
all panicked and Miss Gentes went ghostly white. "We're in the personal purging
execution chamber. This is where the most violent criminals are killed by the
great shark as their death sentence. This room will be nearly flooded by the
end of the hour.
Samus got the picture, and without
speaking, picked up the large Miss Gentes in her arms and Space Jumped to the
high platform at the top of the room. Houston followed suit.
"So how do we get out of here?" Samus
breathed heavily and rapidly.
"The
only way out from here is through an underwater passageway deep in the shark's
lair. It leads to the surface and an adjacent docking bay. But we have two
problems: the big shark knows we're here, and two: it's three miles to the
surface. I can't hold my breath that long…"
"But with my breathing filter, and can
spare some air and breathe it out every once in a while for you to intake as
your mouth can be next to the breathing filter. But the shark is a
problem."
Without
thinking, Houston jumps into the flooded cell, now halfway full. He came to the
surface. "Hey guys! The floor isn't open to the aquarium yet! We can wait just
around the floor doors and sneak out behind the shark as he comes in!" He
paused and looked back. "Hurry! The doors are starting to open!" Miss Gentes
took a deeper breath than all her opera performers and winked at Samus.
They both jumped in and swam to the
edge of the bay doors. When fully open, the grand shark came in, head first,
and entered the room. Miss Gentes let out a muffled scream. Then they moved
out. Samus and Miss Gentes first, followed by Houston with a charged plasma
cannon, frequently looking behind him. The shark was wagging about and had not
even turn around yet.
It was pitch black in the dark water.
Samus could see easily with her gravity suit, and Houston followed her
everywhere. Then Samus spotted a hole depression in the far corner of the wall
near the blind side of the cell's wall. Samus freaked out big time: the shark
was facing them, and his mouth like a void as large as the Kihunter Master's.
Houston didn't need a signal. Both of them hit their turbojets on their air
tanks and propelled like torpedoes to the hole in the wall before the shark
could get out of the cell, and all he'd need to do was turn right and he'd
block their way out.
To plow the way, Houston fired several
dozen of his super missiles. They caught the shark in the mouth, and it was
knocked back into the cell; blood and bubbles flooded the entryway to the cell.
They couldn't see into the cell with
all the bubbles!!!
Samus
had used half of her reserve tanks and switched to normal tanks as she got
weary of propelling at 60 mph. Under these circumstances, anyone would crack.
Houston reached the hole first and
guarded the entrance to it turning right to see the shark in hot pursuit. This
time it was mad and out of the cell. Samus and Miss Gentes squeezed in the hole
and propelled up the long, three-mile chimney to the surface. Houston turned
his back on the shark and lost his grip on the side of the hole, he spun
aimlessly and desperately fired his grappling beam at anything sight.
He hit the shark's nose and dived
straight into the void. Before the fish knew what had happened, Houston, inside
the shark's throat, aimed and fired. He flew out of the shark's mouth and into
the hole. He landed just inside it and laid a power bomb in the opening for the
fish. Then he propelled upwards, waiting for the explosion.
The
fish had seen its prey swim into its mouth. And before it could chew its prey,
it flew back out.
It chased after it to the hole in the
wall, and it briefly saw a light flash.
* * * * *
Laguna
had enjoyed flushing Samus and Houston with their pride and joy down the
shark's lair. Before he could call his chief lieutenant, he felt his office
give off a great rumble throughout the city. Power lines went out and he was in
a dark and shaking room.
* * * * *
Houston had hit the hole right next to
the city's main power supply, next to the shark's lair. The rocky walls gave
way to the explosion and the power generators exploded, liquefying the shark.
And when he thought he had done his job with just that. The rising shaft of air
bubbles exploded up the shaft and blew him, Samus, and Miss Gentes to the
surface in a cramped, yet powerful geyser. Before he could enjoy it, he and he
others broke through the surface and were launched onto the docking bay floor.
Space pirates ran for their lives before the wet and weary bounty hunters, and
Samus, Houston, and Leslie Gentes exchanged hugs and handshakes. Everyone was
safe and well.
After
drying their clothing and recharging their armor, the group started to approach
the docking bay doors. The docking way was rhythmically bobbing up and down
with the geyser adjacent to it on the surface. The opened for them, but not in
their favor.
Laguna and dozens of space pirates
opened fire at Samus and the gang. Samus grabbed Miss Gentes and power jumped
over to the nearest structure that looked like a barricade. Miss Gentes
understood, and took out her missile gun. She opened fire on a space pirate
closing on Samus' back.
Samus
glance back, winked at Miss Gentes and dodged her way through the pirate crowd.
She nailed everything in her way to Laguna, who was aiming terribly at her,
missing every shot.
She
fired a single missile at him and it hit easily, since Laguna didn't move
around at all. He was hit, and knocked to the ground. Samus shot him with a
charged ice beam.
"OK!!! EVERYONE HURRY UP!!!" she
yelled at her friends.
Miss
Gentes and Houston answered by sprinting right down the center of the docking
back – blowing up everything in their way or reach.
Miss Gentes made it past Houston and
didn't stop to decide which ship to be as their getaway vehicle. She hopped in
the fastest and sleekest, though the smallest. Samus understood her goal and
gave Miss Gentes a thumbs up. The speedy starfighter hovered off the platform
and rocketed off to the atmosphere for Federation reinforcements. Samus and
Houston picked a moderately sized cruiser with sufficient armor. They hopped
in, Houston driving, and Samus standing on the exterior deck to fire at
anything to close to them.
The heavy and armored ship sped away
from the docking bay and onto the surface of the water, skimming it with hover
technology. Several pirate patrols came into their line of sight, and Samus
blasted them.
What she couldn't deal with was the
massive battleship that lumbered around the corner of the docking bay. Samus
fired a Super Missile and it hit dead on. It did nothing. Then Houston did a
trick of his own.
He piloted the hovercraft to a nearby
rock formation. With all the luck built up into the ship's engines he could
muster, he drove up the natural ramp and flew right over the battleship, and
then they were free from attack or any enemy range. Except for the sea mine
they hit shortly after landing.
The
explosion threw them both out of the hovercraft and sailing into the air.
Samus
woke up in the remains of some sort of massive shipwreck. What seemed to be the
remnants of an old luxury liner she had been thrown into a destroyed tanning
chair on what was the top deck. Houston was lucky enough to land in the old
swimming pool and woke up quickly.
She could not speak well, for the pain
in the back was so much that she could barely move. Houston bent over her and
took her helmet off to kiss her as she fell off to sleep.