Samus finished towelling off her blonde shoulder length hair and dressed in a comfortable robe before settling down to her quarter's computer terminal. While waiting for it to log into the ship's communications relays, she picked up a holo of her foster parents. It activated and a ghostly image floated in the air, showing two adult humans and herself as a young girl. She then adjusted her grip into a very awkward configuration, and the humans' image shimmered into those of Chozo. It was 'different' to say the least, living with parents who were of a species that don't exist anymore. Samus chuckled at herself; she had punched Zerana in the beak out of fright when the motherly Chozo tried to comfort her that dreadful morning. The couple had gathered whatever material from the Aran household that was still intact, and whisked Samus away from the ruined colony, implicitly adopting her as their own child.
For the next seven years, Samus travelled the galaxy with them in their ship that was disguised as a light freighter. The Chozo themselves used synthflesh coverings and holoshrouds to make themselves appear human while visiting populated areas. They would set down on a planet and take Samus exploring the various cities and communities, training her observational skills and the ways of the galaxy. Soon Samus could navigate herself through the streets and back alleys without difficulty despite her age. On long trips between planets, Koolan instructed her in technical and problem solving skills. It was amazing what Samus learned from them, more skills and knowledge, some that one could never learn from any education institute. If there was something both Chozo focused their teachings on, it was for survival.
"Surviving means being able to identify the situation you are in, to take stock of the resources at your disposal, and to make use of them in the most efficient manner." Zerana had said. They had taken Samus to a frontier planet at thirteen, and camped out in the wilderness for six months with minimal equipment. That was when Samus learned to hunt…
A chirping noise from the computer terminal interrupted her reminiscence, signalling the reception of a new message. Samus put down the holo back on her desk and brought up the letter, then stifled a gasp of surprise.
"Dear Samus. Congratulations on your new posting, the Special Forces should be a new challenge for you to undertake. We are very proud of you and wish you luck and good fortune in the future. As always, be aware of your surroundings, and remember what you have learned. We will try to keep as much contact with you as possible, but know that our love for you will never diminish with space or time.
With blessings, Koolan and Zerana
P.S. There should be a package of those… cho-ko-late chip…cookies that you love so much dropped off at your door at the same time this message is received. Don't eat them all at once; the ingredients are quite hard to come by.
Samus heard a muffled 'thump' from outside and got up to open her door. Sure enough, a small plasteel container had been unloaded by a service droid as it rolled down the corridor. She smiled and shook her head in amazement as she took the package inside and cracked the cover; even after so many years, the Chozo never failed to surprise her. Samus had wondered why it took inordinate time for that message to appear on her terminal, the computer must have been waiting for the droid to get into position to bring her this delicacy. She munched on one of the cookies and allowed the sweet sensation to ripple across her tongue; perhaps this was one way her foster parents were trying to compensate her for having to leave.
Immediately after rescuing Samus, the Chozo transmitted the report of K-2L's unfortunate end and requested a break from their duties. Apparently the Chozo Conclave thought highly of Koolan and Zerana and granted them seven years. When their vacation ended, Samus was sixteen and was eligible for entry into the Olympus Grand Academy of Earth where she would be able to continue her studies. So a false background was forged, stories memorized and a tearful farewell was bidden. The Chozo promised to stay in touch with her as much as possible and gave her an emergency comm frequency to transmit on, but warned that real contact will be impossible in the future. Their relationship with Samus had to be kept hidden from both the Federation, and the Conclave. This need for secrecy meant that only short messages (and perhaps lines of computer code needed to reprogram a certain service droid) could be exchanged and infrequently to reduce the chance of being tracked. Samus understood the necessity, they couldn't stay on vacation forever, but it still felt to her deep down that she had once again been orphaned.
Life for Samus at the Academy wasn't exactly fun either. After gallivanting around the galaxy, she couldn't stand studying from a datapad or even books from the old archives. Other students on the campus were only concerned with scrabbling for marks and hounding professors for an extra decimal point. Not being able to spew forth jargon and terminology from five different sources was viewed as intellectual poverty. Samus saw it all as a giant hot air factory. What point is it to know all this stuff if you don't use it in the real world? She had wondered. So when a recruiter for the Federation Star Marine Corps showed up at the end of the year, she signed up immediately.
Although technically a year younger than the minimum age, Samus proved her skill and determination to the recruiter who agreed to accept her. Another year after training, Samus was deployed on her first mission, and now she was part of the elite of elites. She was doing something useful that those dataheads could never…
Samus' thoughts came to another halt. She frowned, as her teeth seemed to encounter a foreign object within the cookie. She extracted a small orb; the size of one of the chocolate chips, furrowed her brow in puzzlement, and then noticed the letter continued. She scrolled another line and read,
"P.P.S It was Zerana's idea to plant a stun capsule in the first cookie to see if you still are attentive. Hope you managed to find it, if not then the numbness will wear off in another hour. The rest of them are safe to enjoy.
Samus chuckled and got to her feet; Chozo were ever vigilant. Thinking it might be a good time to meet the rest of her squadmates, she put the container under her arm and headed towards the Sigma lounge.
***
Sitting in an office of an underground building, a man punched at his console, typing out orders. He checked his large hologram of the galaxy, zooming in on different sectors, examining various deployments and judging distances. Satisfied with the result, he finalized the orders and downloaded them to a datacard. Two weeks, the timing should be perfect. He then called his secretary.
"Lena, go run this down to communications and have them transmit it on encrypt derra four." he said, handing her the datacard. "Yes sir." She replied, taking the card and walked out the door.
Shes a bit dull and slow witted, but competent and loyal enough, the man thought as he brushed at his general's rank insignia and turned back to work.