Chapter 2
The Investigation Begins
Samus brought her ship out of stealth mode as she came upon the Orpheon. She had been scanning the ship from a distance but could not get any signs of major activity onboard. The scanners picked up a few small life forms and two massively bigger ones but there seemed to be no activity within. The Orpheon's radar had failed to pick up Samus' ship and Samus could clearly see that something was wrong. One dead giveaway was the wide- open docking station that seemed to be functioning erratically. Debris floated along the sides of the frigate indicating signs of external or possibly even internal damage to the ship. Samus brought her ship down on one of the docking platforms and rose out through the topside hatch.
The docking station seemed to be physically intact with force fields going on and off around the passageways. Computer consoles showed static or other garbled characters and Samus couldn't tell whether it was the pirate's language or just computer errors. She jumped down from the ship and walked toward a force field separating her from the rest of the docking bay. Four red marks on the posts indicated emergency override points. She aimed at them and shot her arm cannon at each blowing them up. The force field deactivated and Samus continued through. Another force field stood in her path to get to the entryway for the frigate. The six-override points on the posts were in operable. She turned to a nearby console and turned her scanner on. She began trying to decode the characters on the screen and eventually she came back with a command list in English. She selected the override option and the six dots became active whereupon she destroyed them deactivating the force field.
Once inside the Orpheon, Samus could see the extent of damage to it. She wondered who or what had caused the problems on the frigate. She cautiously entered the next room where debris floated lazily across the small passageway. A console indicated after scanning that the air lock needed to be engaged before she could continue. She quickly activated the air lock and continued through into the emergency evacuation area. A dead Space Pirate was sprawled across the catwalk; its spine had been severed in its mid back meaning a slow and painful death. She stepped over the body and noticed a very large creature lying mauled and dead in the center of the room. A fowl stench filled the room emanating from the burning of its hide. Samus didn't recognize the creature and slowly made her way around it stepping past a few other dead Space Pirates. The escape pods had all been dispatched and force fields separated the room from the frozen elements of space. Along a console at the other side of the room a Space Pirate leaned up and shot at Samus, hitting her in the shoulder. With no damage done Samus promptly killed the pirate with her own beam. The console in front of here contained physical aspects of the dead creature. She entered the next room to find herself in another passageway. A few parasites scrounged around the remains of a Space Pirate. In the Biohazard Containment room, Samus came across a console running creature analysis and report logs.
Samus scanned the console to find that the information was encrypted. When asked if Samus wanted the code decrypted she answered yes and the computer began decrypting the information.
"Pirate Data: The Fall of Zebes. Log: 09.992.3 Zebes has fallen. All ground personnel are assumed dead, either killed by the Hunter clad in metal or in the subsequent destruction of the underground facilities. Our research frigate Orpheon, Siriacus and Vol Paragom were in orbit at zero hour and managed to retreat. Frigate Orpheon is now docked at Vortex Outpost. Orpheon's cargo appears to have a 100% survival rate: Metroids are healthy but on restricted feeding schedules due to uncertain supply status. We are ready to begin research on the Metroids and other promising life forms. Security Status remains at code blue: no signs of pursuit from the Hunter."
Satisfied with the decryption, Samus moved on scanning a nearby console to activate an elevator. Once onboard it rose up to the next deck. Samus could make out the shape of a very large creature being held in a containment cell under stasis. Just around the corner Samus ran into a very much alive Space Pirate. The pirate was just as surprised to see her, as she was it. The pirate lifted its arm to fire its Galvanic Accelerator Cannon but Samus was too quick and unleashed a missile at it. The creature blew to pieces making Samus' presence well known to any other pirates that might still be around. She could here a creature's foot tapping on the metal walkway coming near her, a garbled mumble coming from the creature as it approached. Samus waited patiently for the being to walk the corner where she quickly destroyed it with another missile.
Samus entered into the Deck Beta Transit Hall and walked into the room-sized elevator. It activated and Samus watched the gear ground against the wall as it slowly made it's way down. As it stopped with a jolt and the door opened, a defense turret appeared on the other side of the door and began firing in Samus' direction. She dodged the oncoming attack and fired her arm cannon at it taking it out. A pirate fell from the ceiling to confront this new threat and was quickly laid to rest. Samus scanned the console on the wall hoping to unlock the bay size door in front of her. Instead though, a hologram appeared just above the floor indicating the need for a key. The hole was just big enough for Samus' morph ball to fit into, once in the hole with the morph ball, the door slid open. The next room was identical to the one she was in and she repeated the task of destroying not one, but two turrets in this room. She again scanned the symbol, which in turn indicated the need for the spherical key. Samus promptly rolled into the hole and the next door slid open.
A sign just inside of the door indicated that Samus was entering into the Reactor Core. The room was lit by a red glow coming from the upper and lower quadrants of the room. A huge cylindrical shaft was built into the middle of the room extending up and out of site. The same was true when you looked down into the shaft. A force field seemed to be rotating around the shaft in order to keep objects from falling either in or out. The radiation levels were fairly high and Samus assumed it to be the cause of leaking lines that hung from the ceiling. A loud roar caused Samus to turn back toward the cylindrical shaft where she found that on the inside of the force field, a huge creature climbed down into view. The being was very rotund with stick-like legs jutting out from its underbelly. The head of the creature resembled that of the creatures seen in "Star Ship Troopers". Samus was taken aback in surprise as the creature tried to break through the force field. The energy-generated field held up but the generators running it began to overload against the opposing force. This caused the spot where the creature hit to make a hole. Samus backed up and turned her scanner on and scanned the being.
"Morphology: Parasite Queen This parasite female has been genetically enhanced by unknown means. A weak spot has been detected in this creature's mouth. Use your auto-targeting to acquire this new target. Scans indicate the presence of a potent mutagen, of which the origins are unknown. Creature exhibits the ability to fire weapon-grade blasts of energy from its maw, a trait not present in the standard parasite genome. It appears the pirates have begun a bioengineering program, with considerable results."
Samus armed her cannon and shot at the creature but the force field just bounce the shot back at Samus. She tried the same with a missile only to have it explode with no effect. She turned toward the generator and took it out with a charged shot causing the machine to overload and grind to a stop. The force field momentarily shut off before reactivating. Apparently the pirates had backup generators to run this thing. Fortunately, the power from the back up generator did not completely power the force field causing a long vertical hole to appear in the field as it rotated around the shaft. Samus took advantage of the weak point in the field and began firing at the creature. It roared in response watching Samus fire her weak weapon at it. The force field began to receive interference, closing the hole Samus had been using. She ran around the room trying to spot another opportunity but couldn't find one. The creature reared its head back and began blasting a green energy beam toward Samus.
Samus quickly ducked the beam amazed that such power could come from the creature. The hole began to reform in the field and Samus again went at the creature, this time with missiles and charged power shots. Eventually the creature began to get weaker and weaker until a missile blew the beings skull open. It screamed in agony and began falling down the shaft. It tried to hold itself on the edge but an explosion below caused the creature to loose its grip and fall into the blackness of the unknown. The force field deactivated and the radiation level within the room began to rise rapidly.
A female computerized voice came over the ship's intercom, "The self- destruct sequence has been activated. Evacuate immediately." The voice began giving off times starting at seven minutes and counting. Samus quickly ran for the only open door available and jumped up a set of stairs, taking out auto defense turrets on the way. A huge explosion rocked the ship throwing Samus to the ground. Samus continued into an elevator and activated it and it began ascending up much to Samus' relief. Once out she came into another passageway before entering into the Main Ventilation Shaft. Samus quickly ran down the huge shaft, and then the parasites appeared, small irritating creatures from the same species as the Parasite Queen. Samus quickly shot at them collecting the energy and missiles they left behind. She ran into a side shaft after reaching a dead end and rolled into her morph ball. The downward angle of the shaft allowed the morph ball to roll faster then Samus could run. She quickly navigated the ventilation shafts before popping out into Section E where a huge turbine engine compressor bludgeoned down the corridor. Samus had to wait for the machine to back up before she continued. She followed it down, hoping there was a side passage before the turbine began its voyage to the other side of the room. A side passage shortly appeared and Samus dove in as the compressor flew at a great speed back up the chamber. Samus didn't want to think what would have happened if she hadn't found this passage. She came out into a room and blew away the defense turrets.
"Three minutes until explosion."
Samus entered into an extremely large room, the Biotech Research Area 2. The glass ceiling showed the stars and a sliver of the nearby Tallon IV. Iron beams ran across the top where she could grapple across the water in a pooling crater in the middle of the room. Samus scanned over the beams looking for a strong point that would hold her weight when she came across another creature. The general of the Space Pirates, Ridley, was perched on the far iron beam looking down at Samus. Small flames poured from the grooves in his mouth. Ridley looked different this time. His wings were not his own, but instead were made out of some type of skin with metallic bone-like arms to hold them together. This all wrapped around over his shoulders connecting to a device implanted on his chest. His entire body was shielded by metallic armor fit to his skin.
"Samus", the former red dragon hissed angrily before raising his head and bellowing an angered roar. "Why won't you just die?" Before Ridley could continue another explosion occurred, sending iron beams and debris falling from the ceiling. Ridley lost his grip and began to fall before taking flight up and out of the ceiling screaming back, "Enjoy the ride."
Samus was shook out of her shock by another explosion. She quickly grappled across the room and ran through the accompanying hallways. She ran across a glass bridge between rooms and an explosion forced Samus to look back as the glass bridge broke away and the air began sucking out into the vacuum of space. Samus was slowly being pulled toward the mauled bridge when an explosion thrust Samus in an elevator, smashing her suit hard against the wall. Samus rose to one knee when a huge electrical wave of energy exploded in the room. The door shut, relieving Samus of one problem when the rest began. Her suit began to malfunction sending messages to Samus' visor that all of her enhancements had either been damaged or disabled. Samus tried to get them back online but with no avail. She activated the elevator and began moving up. The Varia suit enhancements fell of leaving Samus with nothing more then her power suit. All of her arm cannon abilities were destroyed as well as her grappling beam. She cussed to herself and exited the elevator, making her way through a maze of tunnels until she came out into a familiar hallway. She deactivated the air lock, which quickly opened up, and she ran out to the docking station. She looked up in time to avoid being knocked out by one of the metal force field posts. She dodged it and started running for her ship. From the corner of her eye she saw Ridley flying toward the planets surface. She quickly jumped aboard her ship and entered the hatch. With the ship running she backed away from the Orpheon as the massive frigate began falling apart. She turned and followed Ridley toward the surface of Tallon IV.
Samus brought her ship out of stealth mode as she came upon the Orpheon. She had been scanning the ship from a distance but could not get any signs of major activity onboard. The scanners picked up a few small life forms and two massively bigger ones but there seemed to be no activity within. The Orpheon's radar had failed to pick up Samus' ship and Samus could clearly see that something was wrong. One dead giveaway was the wide- open docking station that seemed to be functioning erratically. Debris floated along the sides of the frigate indicating signs of external or possibly even internal damage to the ship. Samus brought her ship down on one of the docking platforms and rose out through the topside hatch.
The docking station seemed to be physically intact with force fields going on and off around the passageways. Computer consoles showed static or other garbled characters and Samus couldn't tell whether it was the pirate's language or just computer errors. She jumped down from the ship and walked toward a force field separating her from the rest of the docking bay. Four red marks on the posts indicated emergency override points. She aimed at them and shot her arm cannon at each blowing them up. The force field deactivated and Samus continued through. Another force field stood in her path to get to the entryway for the frigate. The six-override points on the posts were in operable. She turned to a nearby console and turned her scanner on. She began trying to decode the characters on the screen and eventually she came back with a command list in English. She selected the override option and the six dots became active whereupon she destroyed them deactivating the force field.
Once inside the Orpheon, Samus could see the extent of damage to it. She wondered who or what had caused the problems on the frigate. She cautiously entered the next room where debris floated lazily across the small passageway. A console indicated after scanning that the air lock needed to be engaged before she could continue. She quickly activated the air lock and continued through into the emergency evacuation area. A dead Space Pirate was sprawled across the catwalk; its spine had been severed in its mid back meaning a slow and painful death. She stepped over the body and noticed a very large creature lying mauled and dead in the center of the room. A fowl stench filled the room emanating from the burning of its hide. Samus didn't recognize the creature and slowly made her way around it stepping past a few other dead Space Pirates. The escape pods had all been dispatched and force fields separated the room from the frozen elements of space. Along a console at the other side of the room a Space Pirate leaned up and shot at Samus, hitting her in the shoulder. With no damage done Samus promptly killed the pirate with her own beam. The console in front of here contained physical aspects of the dead creature. She entered the next room to find herself in another passageway. A few parasites scrounged around the remains of a Space Pirate. In the Biohazard Containment room, Samus came across a console running creature analysis and report logs.
Samus scanned the console to find that the information was encrypted. When asked if Samus wanted the code decrypted she answered yes and the computer began decrypting the information.
"Pirate Data: The Fall of Zebes. Log: 09.992.3 Zebes has fallen. All ground personnel are assumed dead, either killed by the Hunter clad in metal or in the subsequent destruction of the underground facilities. Our research frigate Orpheon, Siriacus and Vol Paragom were in orbit at zero hour and managed to retreat. Frigate Orpheon is now docked at Vortex Outpost. Orpheon's cargo appears to have a 100% survival rate: Metroids are healthy but on restricted feeding schedules due to uncertain supply status. We are ready to begin research on the Metroids and other promising life forms. Security Status remains at code blue: no signs of pursuit from the Hunter."
Satisfied with the decryption, Samus moved on scanning a nearby console to activate an elevator. Once onboard it rose up to the next deck. Samus could make out the shape of a very large creature being held in a containment cell under stasis. Just around the corner Samus ran into a very much alive Space Pirate. The pirate was just as surprised to see her, as she was it. The pirate lifted its arm to fire its Galvanic Accelerator Cannon but Samus was too quick and unleashed a missile at it. The creature blew to pieces making Samus' presence well known to any other pirates that might still be around. She could here a creature's foot tapping on the metal walkway coming near her, a garbled mumble coming from the creature as it approached. Samus waited patiently for the being to walk the corner where she quickly destroyed it with another missile.
Samus entered into the Deck Beta Transit Hall and walked into the room-sized elevator. It activated and Samus watched the gear ground against the wall as it slowly made it's way down. As it stopped with a jolt and the door opened, a defense turret appeared on the other side of the door and began firing in Samus' direction. She dodged the oncoming attack and fired her arm cannon at it taking it out. A pirate fell from the ceiling to confront this new threat and was quickly laid to rest. Samus scanned the console on the wall hoping to unlock the bay size door in front of her. Instead though, a hologram appeared just above the floor indicating the need for a key. The hole was just big enough for Samus' morph ball to fit into, once in the hole with the morph ball, the door slid open. The next room was identical to the one she was in and she repeated the task of destroying not one, but two turrets in this room. She again scanned the symbol, which in turn indicated the need for the spherical key. Samus promptly rolled into the hole and the next door slid open.
A sign just inside of the door indicated that Samus was entering into the Reactor Core. The room was lit by a red glow coming from the upper and lower quadrants of the room. A huge cylindrical shaft was built into the middle of the room extending up and out of site. The same was true when you looked down into the shaft. A force field seemed to be rotating around the shaft in order to keep objects from falling either in or out. The radiation levels were fairly high and Samus assumed it to be the cause of leaking lines that hung from the ceiling. A loud roar caused Samus to turn back toward the cylindrical shaft where she found that on the inside of the force field, a huge creature climbed down into view. The being was very rotund with stick-like legs jutting out from its underbelly. The head of the creature resembled that of the creatures seen in "Star Ship Troopers". Samus was taken aback in surprise as the creature tried to break through the force field. The energy-generated field held up but the generators running it began to overload against the opposing force. This caused the spot where the creature hit to make a hole. Samus backed up and turned her scanner on and scanned the being.
"Morphology: Parasite Queen This parasite female has been genetically enhanced by unknown means. A weak spot has been detected in this creature's mouth. Use your auto-targeting to acquire this new target. Scans indicate the presence of a potent mutagen, of which the origins are unknown. Creature exhibits the ability to fire weapon-grade blasts of energy from its maw, a trait not present in the standard parasite genome. It appears the pirates have begun a bioengineering program, with considerable results."
Samus armed her cannon and shot at the creature but the force field just bounce the shot back at Samus. She tried the same with a missile only to have it explode with no effect. She turned toward the generator and took it out with a charged shot causing the machine to overload and grind to a stop. The force field momentarily shut off before reactivating. Apparently the pirates had backup generators to run this thing. Fortunately, the power from the back up generator did not completely power the force field causing a long vertical hole to appear in the field as it rotated around the shaft. Samus took advantage of the weak point in the field and began firing at the creature. It roared in response watching Samus fire her weak weapon at it. The force field began to receive interference, closing the hole Samus had been using. She ran around the room trying to spot another opportunity but couldn't find one. The creature reared its head back and began blasting a green energy beam toward Samus.
Samus quickly ducked the beam amazed that such power could come from the creature. The hole began to reform in the field and Samus again went at the creature, this time with missiles and charged power shots. Eventually the creature began to get weaker and weaker until a missile blew the beings skull open. It screamed in agony and began falling down the shaft. It tried to hold itself on the edge but an explosion below caused the creature to loose its grip and fall into the blackness of the unknown. The force field deactivated and the radiation level within the room began to rise rapidly.
A female computerized voice came over the ship's intercom, "The self- destruct sequence has been activated. Evacuate immediately." The voice began giving off times starting at seven minutes and counting. Samus quickly ran for the only open door available and jumped up a set of stairs, taking out auto defense turrets on the way. A huge explosion rocked the ship throwing Samus to the ground. Samus continued into an elevator and activated it and it began ascending up much to Samus' relief. Once out she came into another passageway before entering into the Main Ventilation Shaft. Samus quickly ran down the huge shaft, and then the parasites appeared, small irritating creatures from the same species as the Parasite Queen. Samus quickly shot at them collecting the energy and missiles they left behind. She ran into a side shaft after reaching a dead end and rolled into her morph ball. The downward angle of the shaft allowed the morph ball to roll faster then Samus could run. She quickly navigated the ventilation shafts before popping out into Section E where a huge turbine engine compressor bludgeoned down the corridor. Samus had to wait for the machine to back up before she continued. She followed it down, hoping there was a side passage before the turbine began its voyage to the other side of the room. A side passage shortly appeared and Samus dove in as the compressor flew at a great speed back up the chamber. Samus didn't want to think what would have happened if she hadn't found this passage. She came out into a room and blew away the defense turrets.
"Three minutes until explosion."
Samus entered into an extremely large room, the Biotech Research Area 2. The glass ceiling showed the stars and a sliver of the nearby Tallon IV. Iron beams ran across the top where she could grapple across the water in a pooling crater in the middle of the room. Samus scanned over the beams looking for a strong point that would hold her weight when she came across another creature. The general of the Space Pirates, Ridley, was perched on the far iron beam looking down at Samus. Small flames poured from the grooves in his mouth. Ridley looked different this time. His wings were not his own, but instead were made out of some type of skin with metallic bone-like arms to hold them together. This all wrapped around over his shoulders connecting to a device implanted on his chest. His entire body was shielded by metallic armor fit to his skin.
"Samus", the former red dragon hissed angrily before raising his head and bellowing an angered roar. "Why won't you just die?" Before Ridley could continue another explosion occurred, sending iron beams and debris falling from the ceiling. Ridley lost his grip and began to fall before taking flight up and out of the ceiling screaming back, "Enjoy the ride."
Samus was shook out of her shock by another explosion. She quickly grappled across the room and ran through the accompanying hallways. She ran across a glass bridge between rooms and an explosion forced Samus to look back as the glass bridge broke away and the air began sucking out into the vacuum of space. Samus was slowly being pulled toward the mauled bridge when an explosion thrust Samus in an elevator, smashing her suit hard against the wall. Samus rose to one knee when a huge electrical wave of energy exploded in the room. The door shut, relieving Samus of one problem when the rest began. Her suit began to malfunction sending messages to Samus' visor that all of her enhancements had either been damaged or disabled. Samus tried to get them back online but with no avail. She activated the elevator and began moving up. The Varia suit enhancements fell of leaving Samus with nothing more then her power suit. All of her arm cannon abilities were destroyed as well as her grappling beam. She cussed to herself and exited the elevator, making her way through a maze of tunnels until she came out into a familiar hallway. She deactivated the air lock, which quickly opened up, and she ran out to the docking station. She looked up in time to avoid being knocked out by one of the metal force field posts. She dodged it and started running for her ship. From the corner of her eye she saw Ridley flying toward the planets surface. She quickly jumped aboard her ship and entered the hatch. With the ship running she backed away from the Orpheon as the massive frigate began falling apart. She turned and followed Ridley toward the surface of Tallon IV.
