THE LONG AWAITED UPDATE!!! YESSSH!!! :D :D :D Darnit, I am so happy about this. My writer's block is gone!! :D :D :D Anyways, I'm glad about it. Most of this was done Friday night, so sit back and enjoy the ride!! MAN I love this song…
SONGFIC NUMERO SEIS: "Not Falling" by Mudvayne
SCENARIO NUMERO SEIS: The Space Pirate Frigate Orpheon
Chapter Six:
Not Falling
~~~
Samus's heart was pounding in her ears as she stepped onto the eerily silent docking platform of the frigate. A distress signal coming from a vessel in orbit above the planet Tallon IV had led her here. And now she gazed at it in awe. The dusty, brown-colored Tallon IV contrasted heavily against its cold, black, metal satellite. Bright orange beams scattered across from one part of the docking bay to the other. They were barriers, Samus assumed, which would stop anything from falling out into space. Well, Samus wasn't that stupid. Still keeping a fair distance from the perimeters, she deactivated the two force fields that separated her from the entrance into the frigate.
When she entered the next chamber, she had to suppress a small grin. Scattered across the corridor was a number of small pieces of debris, and they were floating in the air. It was the pressurization chamber, and the doors wouldn't open until the pressure in that room was normal. A quick bypass of the security system, and the pressure in the room was of an equal status with that in the rest of the frigate as she stepped into the larger room beyond the hatch.
She stood still for a moment, waiting for her eyes to get used to the smoke and darkness. It was a medium-sized room, with a very large something lying dead in the middle of it. It looked like an insect-type creature, surrounded by fire, and green blood pooled out from underneath it. Something scampered over her foot, and Samus looked down quickly. It was, unbelievably, a smaller version of the dead creature, and it ran in front of her to join its brethren in devouring a smaller corpse. The body in question was sprawled across the floor, its back impaled by one of the large insect's legs. It was not another insect, but had two legs, two arms, and a hard black exoskeleton. It was the body of a Space Pirate.
Always, known in all my time,
A little left of center now…
Reflect as I realize that
All I need is to find the middle pillar path
To sit like the sun by a star in the sky and just be.
Sinners, casting stones at me
Samus started when she realized this, and her eyes darted across the room, looking for any visible signs of danger. Seeing none, she walked slowly across the room, blasting the Parasites with her cannon as she swept past them. When she passed a few escape pod holders, she activated her Scan Visor and analyzed them. The pods were all gone; the last one had been ejected six hours before she arrived.
'Six hours with that thing on board…' Samus looked over her shoulder at the large parasite. 'Nobody could possibly be alive.'
A light red laser burst across the nose answered her question. Samus jerked back, turned around, and fired a few quick bursts at the crumpled figure across the room. It let out a groan and slouched over. On full alert now, Samus crept up to the Space Pirate and examined the body. Both its legs were broken and there appeared to be a number of acidic burns on its body. Samus gave an involuntary shudder and walked down the nearby corridor into the biotech lab beyond.
She barely got two steps in before a white-hot laser burst from a wall and hit Samus full in the chest. She recoiled, looked up, and dodged another beam before sending a missile straight at the Auto-Defense Turret, exploding it with a huge crash. The Hunter froze, in case the noise attracted the Pirates or something worse, but nothing happened. She turned her attention to the consoles on her right, on which one was glowing brighter than the others. It was a piece of a Pirate Log. She walked over to the console and read:
I... I stand… not crawling… Not falling down
I... I bleed… the demons… That drag me down
I... I stand… (for nothing) not crawling… (the center)
Not falling down… (of calms within the eye)
I... I'll bleed… (for no one) the demons… (but myself)
That pull me down… (for me and no one else)
"Zebes has fallen. All ground personnel are presumed dead, either killed by the Hunter clad in metal-" Samus raised her eyebrows and gave a little chuckle; they were talking about her,"-or in the subsequent destruction of the underground facilities. Our research frigates 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…"
Samus pulled back in shock. Metroids?! Didn't she destroy them all on Zebes?! If that piece of Pirate Data is true, then apparently not. For a moment, fear crept into her heart, and she looked around for any signs of a Metroid. Finding none, she walked around the large septic tank that held a horribly disfigured Parasite that looked like the one she had seen earlier, and took the activated elevator to the balcony above. She was greeted by Space Pirates firing upon her, but a couple missiles and a charged blast easily dispatched them. Turning around to make sure nobody was following her, Samus crossed the balcony and entered another corridor.
Goodbye, sunshine, I've put it out again,
Sun, I'm over. Personalities conflicting,
I don't need you, or anyone but me,
I'll just be living my own life
I feel my glowing center grow,
She dodged another defense turret's attack and sent a missile flying at it. Stepping over the charred pieces of metal that were once part of the turret, she activated a nearby switch. A translucent blue doorway slid open, revealing an elevator car. Samus stepped in, the door slammed shut, and the elevator creaked to life, beginning a slow descent to the center of the frigate. At the bottom, it jolted to a stop, and the door slid open. Samus stepped out of the elevator, but jumped back as a Space Pirate landed in front of her. It roared and shot at her, but she dodged the attack and sent a charged shot flying straight through its skull. The pirate roared and collapsed, dead.
Samus took a deep breath and looked around. She was on deck Gamma and, from checking her uploaded map, the reactor core wasn't too far away. The only visible problem was how to get there. Looking around the room, Samus's eyes rested upon a small metal device in the middle of the floor, and a control panel on the wall to the right of her. Activating the panel was easy, and when she did, the small mechanism came to life. A holographic display hovered a few inches above the ground, taking the shape of a small sphere that looked to be about a meter in diameter. Samus walked onto the device, and mentally activated the Morph Ball feature in her suit. A small metallic sphere dropped onto the device, and a heavy door split into four parts and retracted into the threshold, revealing a large, orange-tinged room beyond.
Infecting… I feel alive
Shovel dirt over lime, plant it in myself
To sit like a seed under covers of earth
And just be
Sinners, pointing fingers at me…
Cautiously, Samus walked into the room, taking note of the various Pirate carcasses scattered across the passageway. When she reached the end of the ledge overlooking the core, Samus felt an odd motion as the end of the platform slowly lowered her down into the center of the reactor core. Samus's head jerked up as she heard a motion coming from above. It was one of those mutated Parasites!! (That figures; Samus had seen three stasis tanks in one of the labs. One still had its specimen, and two were broken) It crawled down the energy core, and roared at Samus, spewing green saliva from its mouth. It dropped into the core, but didn't fall; instead, it hovered as part of the shield around the core turned from orange into neon blue.
"What the-" Samus managed to shout out before she was hit by an acidic green blast that came from the Parasite. "Damn it!!" She grimaced as she felt the blast begin to burn into her suit. In rage, she fired a missile at the Parasite, but it hit the blue part of the shield and glanced off.
"Double damn!!" She cursed again, and activated her scan visor.
"Parasite Queen: Parasite female, genetically enhanced by unknown means."
Samus looked up, and when the Queen fired that energy again, she nimbly jumped out of the way and launched a charge beam. It flew straight between the two blue parts of the shield and hit the Queen.
"Yes!!"
I... I stand… not crawling… not falling down...
I... I bleed… the demons… that drag me down
I... I stand… (for nothing) not crawling… (the center)
Not falling down… (of calms within the eye)
I... I'll bleed… (for no one) the demons… (but myself)
That pull me down (for me and no one else)…
"Okay, you damn thing…" Samus quickly fired another missile, doing greater damage to the Queen, who roared in anger and fired that green energy blast.
So it continued, with the Queen firing her blasts, and Samus dodging and returning the hit. Until, towards the end, when Samus dashed out of the way of a blast, she tripped over a stray piece of debris, and she collapsed on her side, hitting her shoulder hard.
The Parasite Queen turned, spotted her defenseless prey, and opened her mouth, preparing a large blast. Samus noticed this, and readied her charge beam. She let it fly, and instantly rolled out of the way before the acid hit her, melting the place her head had been before. But the Queen Parasite felt the impact of the charge beam, and reeled backwards before collapsing into the core.
"Oh great…" Samus walked up to the edge of the core, and leaned backwards as the Parasite Queen weakly climbed over the edge and roared at her one last time before collapsing, causing a massive surge in the core. Soon, the message dashed across Samus's screen:
"Reactor core critical. Evacuate immediately."
Come play kill…
(Refuse my body, refuse my shadow)
Stone cold will…
(Refuse to lead this, refuse to follow)
"Oh for-" Samus began, and tore out of the reactor core like a bat out of hell.
She ran along the he entered a large room, but held herself back as she noticed several pirates blasting at the third Parasite Queen, which had broken out of its stasis tank and was on the rampage. A nearby explosion killed them all, and reminded Samus she had a limited amount of time. The Hunter climbed up a pile of debris onto a balcony, and leaped through a ventilation duct. For a few minutes, she ran silently along the ventilation shafts, stopping only to blast the small Parasites that obstructed her path. When she entered another bluish-tinged room, she sighed with relief, thinking she was alone. But the sigh was caught in her throat when she heard a familiar roar echoing from above. Almost dreading what she was going to see, she looked up, and instantly raised her gun, aiming it at the big metallic dragon that was perched on a rafter above.
"Ridley…?! How…?" Samus narrowed her eyes as the dragon leered at her, spread its giant, transparent yellow wings, and crashed through the roof, sending heavy chunks of metal crashing down.
Samus shook her head, looked up, and noticed two grapple points that hung over the water filled pit that separated her from the exit. She raised her left arm, and an electric blue beam shot out and attached itself to the nodes. Grappling across, she landed squarely in front of the exit and rushed through.
Bitter pills…
(Refuse to feed this, refuse to swallow
I feel godless)
Come play, come play…
(Test me…)
In the elevator shaft, disaster struck. Samus had activated the elevator to Alpha deck when she heard a rumbling from behind her. She turned around, and was slammed against the far side of the elevator shaft. When she regained her equilibrium, a message flashed across her screen, stating that all the main functions in her suit, save the actual suit and her energy beam, had been disabled. So she was basically a sitting duck if Ridley decided he wanted to pick a fight…
He ambushed her as soon as she ran out of the frigate. Ridley flew straight up from underneath the docking platform, circled a few times as if he was taunting her, then flew towards the planet, Tallon IV.
"Computer!!" Samus shouted as she leapt into her ship. "After that dragon!"
The ship took off and cleared the frigate just in time. The countdown reached zero, and the frigate was ripped apart. Samus's small spaceship was caught in the shockwave, and everything that wasn't latched down was scattered across the bridge as the ship spun out of control. Samus found herself screaming as she was thrown violently against the wall and everything went black.
I... I stand… not crawling… Not falling down
I... I bleed… the demons… that drag me down
I... I stand… (for nothing) not crawling… (the center)
Not falling down… (of calms within the eye)
I... I'll bleed… (for no one) the demons… (but myself)
That pull me down (for me and no one else…)
Aaaaaah… Ghost Ship… Damn good movie. :D Regardless, please review now that you've read!!