Chapter 3

Maxon sighed dejectedly as he sat in the Security Room on SR99A. The job had been absolute tedium since he signed on three months ago. Mainly, his duty was too watch the surveillance systems, check all specimen movements and check personnel security clearances. He felt kind of miffed having to do work any security service could have done, but the galaxy was quiet; this was the best paying racket he could find.

It was 0900 GST, and the science team was just beginning to stir. The lab technicians were preparing the research areas for experiments, while the scientists were busying themselves with refining their experiments and looking over notes from the previous day.

Dr. Cohn and his team had made little headway on the project. The X proved to be a stubborn creature, extremely difficult to manipulate and control. They did not even have a clear understanding of its organic structure yet. Most of their research was being directed towards understanding how the X functioned, and how they were able to duplicate hosts' DNA, not towards using the X as a biological weapon, as Dr. Cohn had said.

Maxon trusted that after gaining a clearer understanding of the X's methodology and life cycle, they would begin the weaponization research. That was when he would play his card. He could black-mail the Federation Science Team into paying him a large sum to keep quiet about the X research. The public had mostly decried keeping the X alive, after seeing Samus' preliminary reports on their capabilities. The only way the Federation was able to avoid serious repercussions was to claim the X were being researched for medical reasons.

So Maxon kept his trump card in hand for now. It would be time to play it soon enough, then he could collect the real reward for this job. After that, hopefully some bounties with real meat on them would show up. He found himself, with no small twinge of guilt, hoping that the Space Pirates may venture into Federation territory so he could be hired to fight them off.

He looked up at one of the screens. The scientists were testing how the X handled a vacuum situation. As they sucked the atmosphere out of the room, the X solidified into a rectangular brick of yellow, just as they were when Maxon discovered them on SR99A. Two technicians wearing space suits drifted into view, taking readings and chinking off sample of X with a hammer. So far the science team had found one thing. The only way to reliably hold the X in stasis was in a vacuum environment.

It was now 0915. Per standard procedure, he checked all security systems every quarter hour. The Federation had suffered tremendous backlash for the disaster at BSL, caused by lack of proper containment and security. The security on SR99A was much tighter and much more detailed than at BSL, in the hopes of preventing an X breakout like before.

Little did Maxon nor the science team realize the security had more holes than swiss cheese to the X.


It was 1200 GST when Maxon heard the news. Dr. Cohn called him in the Security Room. "Are you watching this?" he asked.

"Watching what?" Maxon asked, annoyed at being awakened from his mid-day siesta.

"Turn on your viewer," Dr. Cohn said, "channel one."

Maxon did so and he was confronted with a news reporter, standing outside under a rainy sky. The reporter was saying something and covering one ear. "What is this, a storm?" asked Maxon, annoyed even more that Cohn would call him to tell him about a damn hurricane!

"Listen," he said.

Maxon sighed and turned up the volume. "-of over 2,000 deaths." He had to force himself to keep breathing. "The attackers have not yet been identified, but are most decidedly not Space Pirates. Reports from survivors of attacks point to armored warriors, sporting equipment and suits similar to famed heroine Samus Aran."

"Jesus," said Maxon.

"Can you believe this?" asked Cohn.

"Shhh!" hissed Maxon, leaning forward to hear. A man with a blood covered bandage wrapped diagonally across his face was speaking.

"I was driving along down the street when-BOOM!" he yelled, throwing his arms up, "my hover was knocked across three lanes of traffic and crashed into the buildings on the side. I got to see these armored soldiers, looking almost exactly like Samus, but with black armor, hopping around and blasting the whole place with missiles!"

The reporter came back on, "While at first this and many other attacks seem to have been directed purposefully at civilians, further investigations show that in all cases, military installations or personnel of some kind were the target. However, due to wonton ferocity of the attacks, civilian casualties continue to rise."

"Were is this?" asked Maxon.

"Corinth," answered Dr. Cohn. "That's only a few weeks time from here."

"Federation Police Force units report that all attempts to resist have been ineffectual, and all offers of surrender have been met with massacre. One report from Lygos states that fifteen attackers wiped out a 300 hundred man unit in under five minutes. The report also states that no attackers were killed during the engagement."

"Fifteen against three hundred? No fucking way!" yelled Maxon.

"What are we going to do?" said Dr. Cohn. His voice was shaky and fearful.

Maxon clicked the screen off, "Nothing, unless the Federation orders us to do something. Order your team to continue normal activities and await further orders from HQ. And," Maxon paused slightly, "tell them to be ready to evacuate the station at a moment's notice."

Dr. Cohn hung up. Maxon wiped the sweat off his brow. Fifteen killing three hundred Federation police! Such a thing was impossible! And the attackers wore powersuits? Only one in the galaxy existed, and that belonged to Samus.

And Samus had gone missing after BSL. Nobody knew her location. Was it possible?...

No. Samus would never lead an invasion of the Federation. Despite her recent "falling out" with it, the Federation was still her home, and she would never take up arms against it.

Or would she?

"War?

"How beautiful that is too us! War has come! So they will use us, as weapons, then we can begin. They will use us in hopes of defeating their enemies, but we in turn will defeat them. The Host's Children are distributed everywhere, ready to take shape. And we have learned the Great Host is missing, no longer a player in this game. How excellent! So the Great Host will no longer hinder our efforts. And our enemies from the homeworld are all but extinct. No one can stop us now! Nothing can defeat us!"


Samus was still plagued by nightmares, even after these many months on the peaceful world of Palade. She continued to exercise herself to exhaustion every day, but still, little sleep came, and when it did it came with a price. Often she would awaken in the dark as many as three times, the covers twisted about her from thrashing away at some dream foe, soaked in perspiration from dream fear.

After her run, she would sit cross-legged on the edge of her balcony, watching the still jungle below her. Her thoughts would drift to Adam, to those days long ago when they had fought together in the Federation Police Force. Adam was a soldier, a warrior's warrior. He was loved by his soldiers and often despised by superiors for his maverick ways and precept for disobeying orders he didn't like.

He reminded her of herself, in some ways. His gruff and direct manner were much like her, though he had a different air about him that made him more magnetic. She found it rather difficult dealing with people, being raised by Chozo. Her celebrity status made it even more difficult.

Men were one of the main problems. She was used to them throwing themselves at her, acting slavishly or heaping compliments on her till she couldn't stand it any more. Adam didn't do that. She found his attitude attractive.

It had only happened once or twice, back before the Battle of Ypres, were Adam was killed. After Adam died, she felt guilty. She thought he sacrificed himself because he loved her. She then came to the realization that, knowing Adam, he would've done the same for any soldier under his command, whether he loved them or hated, or whether he'd had sex with them or not. It didn't matter to Adam who she was at that moment. She was simply a person who deserved to live, and he decided the only way for her to live was for him to die.

After Ypres, she pushed Adam into the back of her mind. His reemergence in the ship's computer brought those old scars back to the surface. After his second "death", she felt all the more guilty. Adam sacrificed himself for her.

His spirit haunted her dreams. At least once a night, sometimes more, she was forced to watch him die. She saw the cruel lasers burning through his body, from all different angles, as if she was watching a hologram on the networks. Then the scene would shift to a darkened room. She saw herself in the darkness, straddling Adam, their sweat soaked bodies sliding across each other as she moaned in ecstasy.

As her cries grew to a fever pitch a sourceless light would illuminate the room, revealed herself and Adam, naked. Only Adam's face was burned beyond recognition, and the holes from the lasers were visible on his chest.

She always woke up then. Every night she relived the cruel torture, till she began to fear going to sleep. That was something. The woman who destroyed the Metroids on SR388, wiped out the Pirats on Zebes, destroyed Metroid Prime, nearly annihilated the X; now she was afraid of the dark. Ironic how people changed.

The monks were just beginning the vespers as the sun sank below the treeline. Their voices intermingled with the chirps of night insects, just stirring in the twilight. By darkness, the forest would be alive with sound as the nocturnal creatures awoke and played their deadly game of survival. Sometimes Samus would stay out late, watching the simians moving swiftly through the trees, and listening for their harsh war cries as they found a rival troop. Then out of the forest would rise a cacophony of angry barks and growls, followed soon by the howling victory cry of the winning troop.

It really was a beautiful world, Palade. If only she had someone to share it with. Someone like Adam.