Note: Well, nobody seems to really care about this, but since I've decided
to write it for myself, I'll continue to post new chapters here. Anyway,
the action finally starts up near the end of the chapter. It's light, but
should get bigger, bader and more gruesome in future chapters^_^
=====Chapter 3: The Mission==========
With a loud note the elevator stopped and the doors slid open. Samus quickly recovered herself, unwilling to allow anyone to think she was weak. The room the elevator opened into was a rather large reception room. There were several large, leather sofas with a few people sitting on them in front of two desks with a suited woman behind each. Each woman had a headset strapped to their heads and were chatting away while typing furiously on holographic keyboards in front of transparent monitors. Samus was surprised at how calm they looked, based on the noise coming from their desks. Samus was recollected by now and she led Gloval between the desks to the large doorway to the HQ main office. The two women started to protest, but Gloval waved his hand to indicate that it was okay.
The doors opened on a round room with a large table in the middle. There were several highly decorated and aging men around the table. Molov was sitting at the head.
"Ah, good for you to finally join us," Molov announced, standing. "We expected you to be here many hours ago." Samus said nothing and took the closest chair on the opposite side of Molov.
"I got held up," Samus told him offhandedly with her fingers templed against her chin. "What's the situation."
"Don't fall back to your smart ass attitude with me!" Molov said sternly, his face turning tight and clenching his first. It was obvious he was holding back extreme anger. "Remember, you owe your freedom to me. The rest of these kind gentlemen wanted to throw you in jail for that little fiasco back on BSL. Thankfully for you, I understand how valuable you are to us and I was able to change their minds. You know you've never even thanked me?"
"What's the situation?" Samus repeated exactly the same as before after a brief silence. Samus held back a small smile as she watched Molov nearly explode. Oh, how she loved to torment him.
Molov slammed his fist against a button on a panel built into the table, then sat down and took a deep breath. A small section of the ceiling silently pulled back and a needle-like object was lowered a short distance. It began to hum quietly as several small section lit up. The point began to glow and a holographic image of a dark orange and ringed planet appeared above the table. It rotated slowly. A large debris field was floating in one area away from the rings. "This is Cerrius V, home to the five thousand Federation citizens of Colony SC-997."
"What's that?" Samus asked, pointing to the debris field in mid orbit over the planet. Molov pressed another button and the hologram zoomed in on the debris. It was obviously large pieces of a destroyed space station of some kind. Some parts were closer to the planet than others and were beginning to fall and burn up.
"That was the colony's check-in station," Gloval explained. "It was there before the colony was built as a research facility-"
"-but it was retro-fitted when we decided to build a colony on Cerius IX," an very old looking man interrupted. He had the same uniform as Molov, but with about three times the medals, ribbons and bars. "After the colony was build it was used as a processing station to register new colonists."
"Yes," Gloval continued. "Thank you. We received a partial emergency message a few days ago that the colony was being attacked. As far as we know that station was hit first, since it had the only communications equipment powerful enough to travel all the way here to HQ." Molov pushed a few more buttons and the hologram view quickly traveled through the wreckage and down onto the surface of the planet. There was a large complex of structures covering a large section of the planets northern continent. As the view got closer it became apparent that the vast majority had suffered extensive damage and almost a third of the complex was completely leveled. Samus was shocked at the level of destruction leaned forward instinctually to try and get a better look.
"No way," she said slowly. "There is no way the X could have done that." She leaned back into her chair, still quite shocked. "My God."
"God had nothing to do with this," Lukov said, shutting the hologram off. The needle retracted back into the ceiling and the panel replaced itself. "We assumed it was pirates and sent a full platoon to check it out, rescue survivors and retaliate. But they were all killed. The cruisers and drop- ships were completely destroyed. No survivors." The entire room got a sudden air of sadness and regret. But after a short silence another of the old men around the table leaned forward in his chair.
"All we know is that we got a message from one of the ships saying it was the X," the old man said. He was also more highly decorated then Lukov, but not at much as the previous, unnamed speaker. "The message wasn't long or detailed enough so we don't know exactly how they know it was the X. We are currently assuming that the X killed and mimicked all the soldiers sent to the colony and flew the drop-ships back up to the cruisers and destroyed them from within." Samus sunk into her chair and leaned on her elbow.
-This is insane-, she thought. -The Metroids never even caused this much damage. But then again, the Metroids were discovered and stopped before they could do any harm. The appearance of the X was completely unexpected. Could the Metroid have caused this much damage? I guess we'll never know. Of course, the only reason I'm even questioning it is because I killed the Metroids. Damnit, was that the right thing to do?-
"Samus?"
Samus came out of her daze and realized that Gloval had come over and stood next to her, looking at her with concern.
"Yeah, I'll do it," Samus said with a sigh. "But no promises. If they can destroy cruisers now even I may not be strong enough to stop them. You may just have to give up the planet and hope they don't find a way to get off it. Or you could just destroy it and put an end to another species."
"We'd rather keep the planet intact this time," Molov said sarcastically. "We've lost too many planets as it is in recent years." Samus resisted the urge to tell him what she thought with a single finger, but gave him a sarcastic smile back instead.
"Well, you will be there to keep me out of trouble anyway, right?" Samus said back to him. "I believe you said that you were coming with me?" She leaned back in her chair with a smile. "Just you and me; slaughtering monsters. How romantic," she said with an air of whimsy.
"Not quite," Molov said, not enjoying Samus' mockery. "We'll be accompanied by a special tactical team."
"Fine," Samus said glumly, getting out of her chair and picking up her jacket. She didn't like the idea of working with others - they tended to get in the way - but she didn't feel like fighting with Molov right now. "I'll fly my own ship along side you and your troopers' ship and we'll meet up at the planet. We can work out where to land en route."
=====
Samus returned to her ship and sat in the pilot seat for nearly an hour, waiting for Molov to get his troops ready. She began to think about herself - about her new situation. She never imagined that she'd have to fuse her body with one enemy to fight another. She didn't want to think about it, but it was all she could think about. Whenever she was alone all she could think about was the X; and she was alone a lot. She drifted into a light sleep for a while longer until her comms beeped at her. Gloval's face appeared on the screen.
"We're ready," he said. "We're leaving from a bay on the other side of the station. Meet us out there and we'll head out."
"Roger that," Samus replied. "I'll be there in five minutes." She turned the monitor off and headed to the rear of the ship to suit up.
She stripped to her leotard again and stood in front of her suit. It still seemed alien to her. She kept telling herself that it was just an adjustment she'd have to get used to. It was just as powerful as the old one after absorbing the SA-X, but it didn't get the old look back as she hoped it would. With more than a little uncertainty and nervousness, she opened it up and got inside. Once it closed, the inside below the helmet expanded slightly so that it touched every inch of her body - a little too tightly in some areas - which was something her old suit hadn't done; she guessed it had something to do with it being more organic and having greater maneuverability. Suited, she walked back to the cockpit and flew her ship out of the station.
As Samus rounded the station, Molov's ship came into view. It was a behemoth of a ship that utterly dwarfed Samus'. It looked more suited to carry thousands of troops on an assault, not a single team on a rescue mission. The sides were straight, but angled sharply at the top and bottom, then angled again to make a flat surface. The sides and top angled slightly in the front to make a beakish bow, but there was a hollow in the bottom of it. Situated in that hollow was a massive cannon that extended beyond the beak. Several smaller - but still large in their own right - turreted cannons dotted the top and bottom of the ship as well. It was just about the most menacing thing Samus had ever seen, next to the Queen Metroid anyway. But Samus supposed that was the point, being a military ship and all. The words "Heaven Forge" were painted in large black letters on the side.
Samus navigated her ship underneath it to get a view of the whole thing. The first thing she noticed was that, unlike the top of the ship, the entire underbelly wasn't a flat surface. The front was, but the rear half sat higher up. Samus saw a docking bay ringed with lights in the center. She assumed this section was higher up to protect it. Deep in the shadows behind the docking bay, Samus could also see several domed hatches, but couldn't fathom what they could be for. Nor did she care really.
-Well he certainly likes'em big-, Samus thought as she came out on the other side of the ship and reached for her control panel.
She opened a channel with his ship.
"I'm here," She said. "Let's get this over with."
"You're less enthusiastic than usual," Gloval stated.
"Gloval?" Samus asked, a bit shocked. "I didn't know you were coming along."
"Oh, did I forget to mention that?" Gloval asked rhetorically, a smile on his face. "The brass wanted me to take temporary command of this ship for the mission. It's Molov's ship, but since he'll be on the surface I get to manage things for the duration." Gloval looked both excited to be command of the ship and jealous that it belonged to Molov.
"Don't worry, friend," Samus said comfortingly. "I'm sure the Feds will give you an even bigger toy sometime." Gloval laughed loudly.
"Let's hope," Gloval said. "But let's not waste the day hoping for things. We have colonists to save."
The Heaven Forges gigantic engines powered up, slowly pushing the ship forward. Once it got up to cruising speed it went to warp and Samus followed suit. Her ship was on auto-pilot so she just sat there and turned the mission over in her mind. She tried to think of what to expect, but it was very hard to do that on any mission in her line of work. She almost fell asleep again. She slowly opened her eyes and looked out the window. Warp travel was filled with many bright lights and flashes. There was an unusually large flash and her eyes reflected on her visor briefly. It was the same effect as the mirror back home all over again: She felt a presence within her grow and press against her entire body from within, like something was trying to get out. The effect only lasted the length of the flash, but it felt like an eternity. As much as she hated to admit it even to herself, she was afraid. She refused to open her eyes again and tried to get some sleep. She did manage to drift off, but her dreams were nothing but convoluted images. Not really nightmares, not really anything that could be classified as a dream. Samus awoke with a start, knowing that something happened, but not what it was. She hated that feeling. Her comms beeped again. That sound was starting to annoy her.
"What?" she asked somewhat harshly after turning the monitor on.
"We're here," Molov told her.
"Okay," Samus said, getting a grip on her controls. "I'll head down and scout ahead. I'll call you after I've surveyed the area."
"Very well," Molov said. "But you'd better be quick about it!" Molov snapped as he severed the communication link.
"Jackass," Samus said to the blank screen.
=====
Samus steered her ship through the planet's cloudless atmosphere and landed carefully in a large clearing near a cliff overlooking the colony. She remembered her landing at the station and made sure to do it more carefully. She hovered over the spot and eased off on her thrusters. The ship lowered slowly and landed without too much jarring. Samus exited the ship and dropped down to the ground. The gravity was pretty heavy here. Her visor beeped a little and informed her it was about twice Earth normal gravity. Samus immediately headed for the tree line to take care of any potential ambushes.
As she entered the trees, she heard a strange chirping noise. She turned, but it stopped. She cautiously looked around, arm cannon ready to fire. The chirping returned; behind her. She quickly turned just in time to see the point of a spike flying at her face. With no time to fire, Samus dodged the attack, but spun around quickly to fire. The needle-shaped creature with bug wings curved around to make another pass on Samus. She fired several times as it did so, but the yellow spheres of energy missed, hitting the ground and trees. Squinting in concentration, Samus aimed just as the creatures finished making it's turn-around. In her visor a square appeared over the creature. Several question marks flashed in the corner over a line that connected to the square. With a thought, Samus quickly cataloged the creature as a 'Buzzkill'. The question marks were replaced with the creature name. Samus now fired a final shot; it hit the Buzzkill directly, bursting it open. The heavily damaged body crashed into the ground where it immediately began to dissolve. A small green blob exited the corpse. Samus already had this enemy cataloged: it was a basic X parasite like she had fought on the BSL station. The blob drifted aimlessly for a moment, but then charged directly at Samus. Her first instinct was to jump out of the way, but she quickly remembered that she didn't have anything to fear. The X parasite hit her directly in the chest. It immediately began to dissolved over the front of Samus' armor. After a brief moment, it disappeared. Samus felt a sudden rush of some kind of sensation as she absorbed it. She had forgotten about that feeling and it took her by surprise; it almost hurt. She was immediately reminded of the first time she felt it back on the BSL station. In her distraction she didn't hear some leaves rustling behind her.
A buzzing sound alerted Samus to another enemy. She spun around and saw not one, but three more Buzzkills flying at her furiously. Samus snapped the end of her cannon open and launched a small missile at the center beast. It was a direct hit and destroyed the target instantly. One was caught in the blast and was sent spinning into a tree with a loud crunching sound, but the third dodged the blast and zipped past Samus, unharmed but disoriented. Samus reached out and punched the beast with her left hand as it passed. It fell to the ground and she blasted it point-blank. She quickly absorbed the X before it could escape before turning around to finish the rest off. The rest were taken care of without any more difficulty.
After not finding any more enemies in the trees, Samus began walking along the edge of the cliff over looking the colony, but still kept an eye on the trees. As she walked, she heard loud, quick footsteps like a herd of animals coming up the pass to the cliff from the colony. Samus could feel them coming closer at a rapid speed. She knelt down and prepared to fight. Just as she did so, a small herd of thick, low beasts with two legs and large mouths filled with sharp teeth rounded the corner from the pass and charged directly at her. Like with the first Buzzkill, a square appeared around the lead beast along with the flashing question marks. After cataloging the beast as a 'Bulldog', Samus charged her cannon to fire, but remember that at this distance the X would be allowed to either escape or reform before she could get a chance to absorb them. Samus allowed the beasts to get close, then leapt into the air just before they reached her. They passed under her, but screeched to a halt and fought each other for a position directly under their intended prey. Samus smiled as she unleashed her charged blast onto her foes as she fell back down onto them. The massive energy blast destroyed nearly half of the beasts, injured many more and plain scattered others. As she hit the ground she quickly absorbed as many X as she could. She quickly dispatched the rest as quickly as she could, but not before one of the X snuck behind her and reformed into a Bulldog.
The reformed X rammed it's head into her legs and knocked her over. She rolled over and tried to get her gun pointed at the beast, but it opened it's large mouth and chomped onto her gun before she could get it aimed. It climbed up on her body with her gun still between its jaws. It was squeezing with an increasing intensity on her weapon - obviously trying to break it. It's great weight was giving Samus difficulty breathing. It got above her face and dropped large drops of sticky drool onto her visor. With an audible grunt, Samus brought her left arm over to her right side and pulled it back quickly, dragging her spines across the beasts' lower jaw, splitting it open. It roared in pain and released it's grip on her gun enough for her to pivot it and bring the end of the barrel down into it's throat. Her blast ripped it apart from within, throwing large chunks in every direction. The X flew away from her before she could get up, but Samus kicked it while she was still on her back, causing it to melt over her foot.
Samus lay on her back for a moment and stared at the sky. She was getting tired of these life or death situations; even if it was for the sake of the galaxy's security. She would have liked to lay there for a while, but she knew she had to rescue the civilians. Satisfied that the areas was clear, Samus returned to her ship and called Molov down.
=====Chapter 3: The Mission==========
With a loud note the elevator stopped and the doors slid open. Samus quickly recovered herself, unwilling to allow anyone to think she was weak. The room the elevator opened into was a rather large reception room. There were several large, leather sofas with a few people sitting on them in front of two desks with a suited woman behind each. Each woman had a headset strapped to their heads and were chatting away while typing furiously on holographic keyboards in front of transparent monitors. Samus was surprised at how calm they looked, based on the noise coming from their desks. Samus was recollected by now and she led Gloval between the desks to the large doorway to the HQ main office. The two women started to protest, but Gloval waved his hand to indicate that it was okay.
The doors opened on a round room with a large table in the middle. There were several highly decorated and aging men around the table. Molov was sitting at the head.
"Ah, good for you to finally join us," Molov announced, standing. "We expected you to be here many hours ago." Samus said nothing and took the closest chair on the opposite side of Molov.
"I got held up," Samus told him offhandedly with her fingers templed against her chin. "What's the situation."
"Don't fall back to your smart ass attitude with me!" Molov said sternly, his face turning tight and clenching his first. It was obvious he was holding back extreme anger. "Remember, you owe your freedom to me. The rest of these kind gentlemen wanted to throw you in jail for that little fiasco back on BSL. Thankfully for you, I understand how valuable you are to us and I was able to change their minds. You know you've never even thanked me?"
"What's the situation?" Samus repeated exactly the same as before after a brief silence. Samus held back a small smile as she watched Molov nearly explode. Oh, how she loved to torment him.
Molov slammed his fist against a button on a panel built into the table, then sat down and took a deep breath. A small section of the ceiling silently pulled back and a needle-like object was lowered a short distance. It began to hum quietly as several small section lit up. The point began to glow and a holographic image of a dark orange and ringed planet appeared above the table. It rotated slowly. A large debris field was floating in one area away from the rings. "This is Cerrius V, home to the five thousand Federation citizens of Colony SC-997."
"What's that?" Samus asked, pointing to the debris field in mid orbit over the planet. Molov pressed another button and the hologram zoomed in on the debris. It was obviously large pieces of a destroyed space station of some kind. Some parts were closer to the planet than others and were beginning to fall and burn up.
"That was the colony's check-in station," Gloval explained. "It was there before the colony was built as a research facility-"
"-but it was retro-fitted when we decided to build a colony on Cerius IX," an very old looking man interrupted. He had the same uniform as Molov, but with about three times the medals, ribbons and bars. "After the colony was build it was used as a processing station to register new colonists."
"Yes," Gloval continued. "Thank you. We received a partial emergency message a few days ago that the colony was being attacked. As far as we know that station was hit first, since it had the only communications equipment powerful enough to travel all the way here to HQ." Molov pushed a few more buttons and the hologram view quickly traveled through the wreckage and down onto the surface of the planet. There was a large complex of structures covering a large section of the planets northern continent. As the view got closer it became apparent that the vast majority had suffered extensive damage and almost a third of the complex was completely leveled. Samus was shocked at the level of destruction leaned forward instinctually to try and get a better look.
"No way," she said slowly. "There is no way the X could have done that." She leaned back into her chair, still quite shocked. "My God."
"God had nothing to do with this," Lukov said, shutting the hologram off. The needle retracted back into the ceiling and the panel replaced itself. "We assumed it was pirates and sent a full platoon to check it out, rescue survivors and retaliate. But they were all killed. The cruisers and drop- ships were completely destroyed. No survivors." The entire room got a sudden air of sadness and regret. But after a short silence another of the old men around the table leaned forward in his chair.
"All we know is that we got a message from one of the ships saying it was the X," the old man said. He was also more highly decorated then Lukov, but not at much as the previous, unnamed speaker. "The message wasn't long or detailed enough so we don't know exactly how they know it was the X. We are currently assuming that the X killed and mimicked all the soldiers sent to the colony and flew the drop-ships back up to the cruisers and destroyed them from within." Samus sunk into her chair and leaned on her elbow.
-This is insane-, she thought. -The Metroids never even caused this much damage. But then again, the Metroids were discovered and stopped before they could do any harm. The appearance of the X was completely unexpected. Could the Metroid have caused this much damage? I guess we'll never know. Of course, the only reason I'm even questioning it is because I killed the Metroids. Damnit, was that the right thing to do?-
"Samus?"
Samus came out of her daze and realized that Gloval had come over and stood next to her, looking at her with concern.
"Yeah, I'll do it," Samus said with a sigh. "But no promises. If they can destroy cruisers now even I may not be strong enough to stop them. You may just have to give up the planet and hope they don't find a way to get off it. Or you could just destroy it and put an end to another species."
"We'd rather keep the planet intact this time," Molov said sarcastically. "We've lost too many planets as it is in recent years." Samus resisted the urge to tell him what she thought with a single finger, but gave him a sarcastic smile back instead.
"Well, you will be there to keep me out of trouble anyway, right?" Samus said back to him. "I believe you said that you were coming with me?" She leaned back in her chair with a smile. "Just you and me; slaughtering monsters. How romantic," she said with an air of whimsy.
"Not quite," Molov said, not enjoying Samus' mockery. "We'll be accompanied by a special tactical team."
"Fine," Samus said glumly, getting out of her chair and picking up her jacket. She didn't like the idea of working with others - they tended to get in the way - but she didn't feel like fighting with Molov right now. "I'll fly my own ship along side you and your troopers' ship and we'll meet up at the planet. We can work out where to land en route."
=====
Samus returned to her ship and sat in the pilot seat for nearly an hour, waiting for Molov to get his troops ready. She began to think about herself - about her new situation. She never imagined that she'd have to fuse her body with one enemy to fight another. She didn't want to think about it, but it was all she could think about. Whenever she was alone all she could think about was the X; and she was alone a lot. She drifted into a light sleep for a while longer until her comms beeped at her. Gloval's face appeared on the screen.
"We're ready," he said. "We're leaving from a bay on the other side of the station. Meet us out there and we'll head out."
"Roger that," Samus replied. "I'll be there in five minutes." She turned the monitor off and headed to the rear of the ship to suit up.
She stripped to her leotard again and stood in front of her suit. It still seemed alien to her. She kept telling herself that it was just an adjustment she'd have to get used to. It was just as powerful as the old one after absorbing the SA-X, but it didn't get the old look back as she hoped it would. With more than a little uncertainty and nervousness, she opened it up and got inside. Once it closed, the inside below the helmet expanded slightly so that it touched every inch of her body - a little too tightly in some areas - which was something her old suit hadn't done; she guessed it had something to do with it being more organic and having greater maneuverability. Suited, she walked back to the cockpit and flew her ship out of the station.
As Samus rounded the station, Molov's ship came into view. It was a behemoth of a ship that utterly dwarfed Samus'. It looked more suited to carry thousands of troops on an assault, not a single team on a rescue mission. The sides were straight, but angled sharply at the top and bottom, then angled again to make a flat surface. The sides and top angled slightly in the front to make a beakish bow, but there was a hollow in the bottom of it. Situated in that hollow was a massive cannon that extended beyond the beak. Several smaller - but still large in their own right - turreted cannons dotted the top and bottom of the ship as well. It was just about the most menacing thing Samus had ever seen, next to the Queen Metroid anyway. But Samus supposed that was the point, being a military ship and all. The words "Heaven Forge" were painted in large black letters on the side.
Samus navigated her ship underneath it to get a view of the whole thing. The first thing she noticed was that, unlike the top of the ship, the entire underbelly wasn't a flat surface. The front was, but the rear half sat higher up. Samus saw a docking bay ringed with lights in the center. She assumed this section was higher up to protect it. Deep in the shadows behind the docking bay, Samus could also see several domed hatches, but couldn't fathom what they could be for. Nor did she care really.
-Well he certainly likes'em big-, Samus thought as she came out on the other side of the ship and reached for her control panel.
She opened a channel with his ship.
"I'm here," She said. "Let's get this over with."
"You're less enthusiastic than usual," Gloval stated.
"Gloval?" Samus asked, a bit shocked. "I didn't know you were coming along."
"Oh, did I forget to mention that?" Gloval asked rhetorically, a smile on his face. "The brass wanted me to take temporary command of this ship for the mission. It's Molov's ship, but since he'll be on the surface I get to manage things for the duration." Gloval looked both excited to be command of the ship and jealous that it belonged to Molov.
"Don't worry, friend," Samus said comfortingly. "I'm sure the Feds will give you an even bigger toy sometime." Gloval laughed loudly.
"Let's hope," Gloval said. "But let's not waste the day hoping for things. We have colonists to save."
The Heaven Forges gigantic engines powered up, slowly pushing the ship forward. Once it got up to cruising speed it went to warp and Samus followed suit. Her ship was on auto-pilot so she just sat there and turned the mission over in her mind. She tried to think of what to expect, but it was very hard to do that on any mission in her line of work. She almost fell asleep again. She slowly opened her eyes and looked out the window. Warp travel was filled with many bright lights and flashes. There was an unusually large flash and her eyes reflected on her visor briefly. It was the same effect as the mirror back home all over again: She felt a presence within her grow and press against her entire body from within, like something was trying to get out. The effect only lasted the length of the flash, but it felt like an eternity. As much as she hated to admit it even to herself, she was afraid. She refused to open her eyes again and tried to get some sleep. She did manage to drift off, but her dreams were nothing but convoluted images. Not really nightmares, not really anything that could be classified as a dream. Samus awoke with a start, knowing that something happened, but not what it was. She hated that feeling. Her comms beeped again. That sound was starting to annoy her.
"What?" she asked somewhat harshly after turning the monitor on.
"We're here," Molov told her.
"Okay," Samus said, getting a grip on her controls. "I'll head down and scout ahead. I'll call you after I've surveyed the area."
"Very well," Molov said. "But you'd better be quick about it!" Molov snapped as he severed the communication link.
"Jackass," Samus said to the blank screen.
=====
Samus steered her ship through the planet's cloudless atmosphere and landed carefully in a large clearing near a cliff overlooking the colony. She remembered her landing at the station and made sure to do it more carefully. She hovered over the spot and eased off on her thrusters. The ship lowered slowly and landed without too much jarring. Samus exited the ship and dropped down to the ground. The gravity was pretty heavy here. Her visor beeped a little and informed her it was about twice Earth normal gravity. Samus immediately headed for the tree line to take care of any potential ambushes.
As she entered the trees, she heard a strange chirping noise. She turned, but it stopped. She cautiously looked around, arm cannon ready to fire. The chirping returned; behind her. She quickly turned just in time to see the point of a spike flying at her face. With no time to fire, Samus dodged the attack, but spun around quickly to fire. The needle-shaped creature with bug wings curved around to make another pass on Samus. She fired several times as it did so, but the yellow spheres of energy missed, hitting the ground and trees. Squinting in concentration, Samus aimed just as the creatures finished making it's turn-around. In her visor a square appeared over the creature. Several question marks flashed in the corner over a line that connected to the square. With a thought, Samus quickly cataloged the creature as a 'Buzzkill'. The question marks were replaced with the creature name. Samus now fired a final shot; it hit the Buzzkill directly, bursting it open. The heavily damaged body crashed into the ground where it immediately began to dissolve. A small green blob exited the corpse. Samus already had this enemy cataloged: it was a basic X parasite like she had fought on the BSL station. The blob drifted aimlessly for a moment, but then charged directly at Samus. Her first instinct was to jump out of the way, but she quickly remembered that she didn't have anything to fear. The X parasite hit her directly in the chest. It immediately began to dissolved over the front of Samus' armor. After a brief moment, it disappeared. Samus felt a sudden rush of some kind of sensation as she absorbed it. She had forgotten about that feeling and it took her by surprise; it almost hurt. She was immediately reminded of the first time she felt it back on the BSL station. In her distraction she didn't hear some leaves rustling behind her.
A buzzing sound alerted Samus to another enemy. She spun around and saw not one, but three more Buzzkills flying at her furiously. Samus snapped the end of her cannon open and launched a small missile at the center beast. It was a direct hit and destroyed the target instantly. One was caught in the blast and was sent spinning into a tree with a loud crunching sound, but the third dodged the blast and zipped past Samus, unharmed but disoriented. Samus reached out and punched the beast with her left hand as it passed. It fell to the ground and she blasted it point-blank. She quickly absorbed the X before it could escape before turning around to finish the rest off. The rest were taken care of without any more difficulty.
After not finding any more enemies in the trees, Samus began walking along the edge of the cliff over looking the colony, but still kept an eye on the trees. As she walked, she heard loud, quick footsteps like a herd of animals coming up the pass to the cliff from the colony. Samus could feel them coming closer at a rapid speed. She knelt down and prepared to fight. Just as she did so, a small herd of thick, low beasts with two legs and large mouths filled with sharp teeth rounded the corner from the pass and charged directly at her. Like with the first Buzzkill, a square appeared around the lead beast along with the flashing question marks. After cataloging the beast as a 'Bulldog', Samus charged her cannon to fire, but remember that at this distance the X would be allowed to either escape or reform before she could get a chance to absorb them. Samus allowed the beasts to get close, then leapt into the air just before they reached her. They passed under her, but screeched to a halt and fought each other for a position directly under their intended prey. Samus smiled as she unleashed her charged blast onto her foes as she fell back down onto them. The massive energy blast destroyed nearly half of the beasts, injured many more and plain scattered others. As she hit the ground she quickly absorbed as many X as she could. She quickly dispatched the rest as quickly as she could, but not before one of the X snuck behind her and reformed into a Bulldog.
The reformed X rammed it's head into her legs and knocked her over. She rolled over and tried to get her gun pointed at the beast, but it opened it's large mouth and chomped onto her gun before she could get it aimed. It climbed up on her body with her gun still between its jaws. It was squeezing with an increasing intensity on her weapon - obviously trying to break it. It's great weight was giving Samus difficulty breathing. It got above her face and dropped large drops of sticky drool onto her visor. With an audible grunt, Samus brought her left arm over to her right side and pulled it back quickly, dragging her spines across the beasts' lower jaw, splitting it open. It roared in pain and released it's grip on her gun enough for her to pivot it and bring the end of the barrel down into it's throat. Her blast ripped it apart from within, throwing large chunks in every direction. The X flew away from her before she could get up, but Samus kicked it while she was still on her back, causing it to melt over her foot.
Samus lay on her back for a moment and stared at the sky. She was getting tired of these life or death situations; even if it was for the sake of the galaxy's security. She would have liked to lay there for a while, but she knew she had to rescue the civilians. Satisfied that the areas was clear, Samus returned to her ship and called Molov down.