Chapter I: Stowaway
The comm buzzed yet again. This time, fed up with trying to ignore it, I punched the terminal hard enough to cave in the electronics. A warning light went off telling me that, surprise, the comm system was inoperative. I smashed that as well.
"You shouldn't be doing that, Lady," Adam said. "You'll end up in more trouble than you already are."
"I get that a lot," I said. "Frankly, I don't give a damn anymore. The X and the Metroids are now totally extinct."
"Well, not completely. Not technically the Metroids anyway."
Adam was right. The Metroid-based vaccine used to save me from the X at the beginning of this mess had altered my DNA dramatically. I was now, in effect, part Metroid. Even my suit reflected this. My Chozo Power Suit had allowed me to perform feats that the Chozo could do naturally, but this new Fusion Suit makes those powers my own. The suit itself even has the abilities of Metroid tissue. Instead of power conduits running power from my energy tanks to my arm canon, the energy travels through my suit's skin.
"My scanners have picked up a group of Federation ships heading to intercept us," Adam said. "Given our lack of response to hails, they're most likely going to try to capture and board the ship."
That didn't surprise me. SR388 was the second planet I'd destroyed in my career. The first had been Zebes after a long struggle against the Space Pirates. While aboard the Biologic Space Labs research station, I'd not only battled against the X parasites and the SA-X, but I had uncovered a secret Metroid cloning program. One of the SA-X had seen to that lab's destruction.
Now, sure that my troubles with the X were finally over, I allowed myself to relax in my flight couch. By the time I was even aware that there was an SA-X in the cockpit, it had already ripped my helmet off and fired a missile into my screaming mouth. Adam's voice spoke urgently as I awoke from the nightmare.
"Lady, I'm picking up movement in the starboard engine service corridor. I can't see how it's possible, but I think it's an X."
I immediately sprang from my flight couch and raced to the service hatch. The door slid open and I dropped down to the service corridor. I headed starboard, my suit generating a faint glow for me to navigate with. Soon, I could hear the sound of something moving. Whatever it was, it sounded at least as heavy as a human. I rounded the corner into the engine service area. I charged my beam and moved cautiously through the darkened hall.
I could now distinctly hear the sound of four limbs hitting the deck plating. The X was definitely mimicking a human and was crawling on all fours. My light suddenly swept over something that quickly pulled out of sight. I followed the movement and was very much surprised by what I saw. The X was in the form of a naked woman with long blond hair. I aimed my canon and was about to fire when the X turned its stolen face to look at me.
"Please, don't shoot me," my own voice said from the woman on the deck. "Please. I don't want to die."
I stood there, frozen, on the spot. This wasn't just an X. This was an SA-X. I stared into my own face as the parasite wore it, cowering on the floor. I stared into its eyes and saw something I couldn't explain. There was not only fear in its stolen mimicry of my eyes, but something else that kept me from pressing the firing control in my canon.
Before I could snap out of this shock and fire, the ship suddenly rocked from an impact. The jar of the collision threw me off my feet. The SA-X scrambled away from the light. All of a sudden, the access hatch from the outside of the ship blew inward, and a team of Federation soldiers raced in from an umbilical corridor. I was being boarded.
"Samus Aran," one of the troops shouted, "remain where you are. You are under arrest for the destruction of the BSL research station and the planet SR388. Power down your weapon and cast it aside."
I rolled my eyes. If I had wanted, I could have reduced every member of that squad to vapor. Their arm canons wouldn't so much as scratch my Fusion Suit. Instead of doing as they ordered, I set my canon to its ice missile setting and turned to follow the SA-X. The lead trooper fired a warning stun bolt over my shoulder. He told me they would open fire if I did not desist.
"I don't have time for this," I shouted as I kept going.
"Fire!"
A barrage of arm canon shots pounded at my armor. Not a one of them did any real damage at all. However, they did use one thing I didn't expect. The crackling waves of a grapple beam suddenly ensnared me. I fought the beam off without much difficulty, but the soldiers continued wrapping their beams around me. With great effort, the soldiers managed to drag me to the floor.
"You don't understand!" I screamed. "It's an SA-X! It has to die!" I continued to struggle against the beams, when one of the men jabbed a gaseous tranquilizer injector into my rebreather tubes. It took only moments for me to black out.
I awoke in a stark detention cell, aware that my Fusion Suit had retracted within me. Naturally, I had been stripped of my helmet, energy tanks, and arm canon. I was lying on a blue bunk facing the yellow force field that served as the cell's door. As I stood and went to look outside the room, a Federation sentry peeked around the corner.
"She's awake," he said. Another, older guard looked in from the other side of the force doorway.
"Tell the commander we're on our way," the second guard said. He tapped a few nodes on the control terminal, and the shimmering barrier vanished. "All right, Ms. Aran," he said, "time for your debriefing."
I charged the sentries and unleashed my Fusion Suit. The second skin flowed over my body covering everything up to my chin. It enveloped my arms and hands, and slid into place down my legs to my ankles. I struck the older guard off his feet before he could think about firing. I grabbed the younger one by the throat as I saw the squad of twelve heavily armed soldiers waiting outside the cell.
"Drop him, Aran," the squad leader said.
"Or what?" I sneered. The guard's strangled voice tried to speak in my grip as he tried in vain to fight me off. I was suddenly aware of a tingling sensation in the arm with which I held him. I looked at him and saw that the color was draining from his face. His struggling was growing weaker with each passing moment, and I realized that the tingle in my arm was his life energy.
I threw the guard aside, shocked by this new power. The squad leader was saying something, but I could barely understand him through my shock.
"...your armor or we will open fire. Do it now!"
I only looked up and clenched my fists. Three of four charge beam blasts caught me in the stomach and chest and hurled me back into the cell. The force field sprang back up immediately. I retracted my suit and climbed up onto the bunk. I was in shock. It was one more Metroid power revealed to me. I, like Metroids, had the ability to absorb the life energy of other beings.
The comm buzzed yet again. This time, fed up with trying to ignore it, I punched the terminal hard enough to cave in the electronics. A warning light went off telling me that, surprise, the comm system was inoperative. I smashed that as well.
"You shouldn't be doing that, Lady," Adam said. "You'll end up in more trouble than you already are."
"I get that a lot," I said. "Frankly, I don't give a damn anymore. The X and the Metroids are now totally extinct."
"Well, not completely. Not technically the Metroids anyway."
Adam was right. The Metroid-based vaccine used to save me from the X at the beginning of this mess had altered my DNA dramatically. I was now, in effect, part Metroid. Even my suit reflected this. My Chozo Power Suit had allowed me to perform feats that the Chozo could do naturally, but this new Fusion Suit makes those powers my own. The suit itself even has the abilities of Metroid tissue. Instead of power conduits running power from my energy tanks to my arm canon, the energy travels through my suit's skin.
"My scanners have picked up a group of Federation ships heading to intercept us," Adam said. "Given our lack of response to hails, they're most likely going to try to capture and board the ship."
That didn't surprise me. SR388 was the second planet I'd destroyed in my career. The first had been Zebes after a long struggle against the Space Pirates. While aboard the Biologic Space Labs research station, I'd not only battled against the X parasites and the SA-X, but I had uncovered a secret Metroid cloning program. One of the SA-X had seen to that lab's destruction.
Now, sure that my troubles with the X were finally over, I allowed myself to relax in my flight couch. By the time I was even aware that there was an SA-X in the cockpit, it had already ripped my helmet off and fired a missile into my screaming mouth. Adam's voice spoke urgently as I awoke from the nightmare.
"Lady, I'm picking up movement in the starboard engine service corridor. I can't see how it's possible, but I think it's an X."
I immediately sprang from my flight couch and raced to the service hatch. The door slid open and I dropped down to the service corridor. I headed starboard, my suit generating a faint glow for me to navigate with. Soon, I could hear the sound of something moving. Whatever it was, it sounded at least as heavy as a human. I rounded the corner into the engine service area. I charged my beam and moved cautiously through the darkened hall.
I could now distinctly hear the sound of four limbs hitting the deck plating. The X was definitely mimicking a human and was crawling on all fours. My light suddenly swept over something that quickly pulled out of sight. I followed the movement and was very much surprised by what I saw. The X was in the form of a naked woman with long blond hair. I aimed my canon and was about to fire when the X turned its stolen face to look at me.
"Please, don't shoot me," my own voice said from the woman on the deck. "Please. I don't want to die."
I stood there, frozen, on the spot. This wasn't just an X. This was an SA-X. I stared into my own face as the parasite wore it, cowering on the floor. I stared into its eyes and saw something I couldn't explain. There was not only fear in its stolen mimicry of my eyes, but something else that kept me from pressing the firing control in my canon.
Before I could snap out of this shock and fire, the ship suddenly rocked from an impact. The jar of the collision threw me off my feet. The SA-X scrambled away from the light. All of a sudden, the access hatch from the outside of the ship blew inward, and a team of Federation soldiers raced in from an umbilical corridor. I was being boarded.
"Samus Aran," one of the troops shouted, "remain where you are. You are under arrest for the destruction of the BSL research station and the planet SR388. Power down your weapon and cast it aside."
I rolled my eyes. If I had wanted, I could have reduced every member of that squad to vapor. Their arm canons wouldn't so much as scratch my Fusion Suit. Instead of doing as they ordered, I set my canon to its ice missile setting and turned to follow the SA-X. The lead trooper fired a warning stun bolt over my shoulder. He told me they would open fire if I did not desist.
"I don't have time for this," I shouted as I kept going.
"Fire!"
A barrage of arm canon shots pounded at my armor. Not a one of them did any real damage at all. However, they did use one thing I didn't expect. The crackling waves of a grapple beam suddenly ensnared me. I fought the beam off without much difficulty, but the soldiers continued wrapping their beams around me. With great effort, the soldiers managed to drag me to the floor.
"You don't understand!" I screamed. "It's an SA-X! It has to die!" I continued to struggle against the beams, when one of the men jabbed a gaseous tranquilizer injector into my rebreather tubes. It took only moments for me to black out.
I awoke in a stark detention cell, aware that my Fusion Suit had retracted within me. Naturally, I had been stripped of my helmet, energy tanks, and arm canon. I was lying on a blue bunk facing the yellow force field that served as the cell's door. As I stood and went to look outside the room, a Federation sentry peeked around the corner.
"She's awake," he said. Another, older guard looked in from the other side of the force doorway.
"Tell the commander we're on our way," the second guard said. He tapped a few nodes on the control terminal, and the shimmering barrier vanished. "All right, Ms. Aran," he said, "time for your debriefing."
I charged the sentries and unleashed my Fusion Suit. The second skin flowed over my body covering everything up to my chin. It enveloped my arms and hands, and slid into place down my legs to my ankles. I struck the older guard off his feet before he could think about firing. I grabbed the younger one by the throat as I saw the squad of twelve heavily armed soldiers waiting outside the cell.
"Drop him, Aran," the squad leader said.
"Or what?" I sneered. The guard's strangled voice tried to speak in my grip as he tried in vain to fight me off. I was suddenly aware of a tingling sensation in the arm with which I held him. I looked at him and saw that the color was draining from his face. His struggling was growing weaker with each passing moment, and I realized that the tingle in my arm was his life energy.
I threw the guard aside, shocked by this new power. The squad leader was saying something, but I could barely understand him through my shock.
"...your armor or we will open fire. Do it now!"
I only looked up and clenched my fists. Three of four charge beam blasts caught me in the stomach and chest and hurled me back into the cell. The force field sprang back up immediately. I retracted my suit and climbed up onto the bunk. I was in shock. It was one more Metroid power revealed to me. I, like Metroids, had the ability to absorb the life energy of other beings.