Part IV: Invaders
I accessed my fighter's computer regarding the ship that was attacked on its way to Ceres II. Once I knew where the ship was attacked, I told the navigation system to end my jump at those coordinates. Fifteen minutes later, the fighter gave me a thirty-second warning before the jump ended. Leaving a jump could be very disorienting. I tightened the harness in the flight couch, and braced myself. The fighter came to a lurching halt in the middle of a debris field.
I started scanning the area for jump drive signatures. Aside from those of the destroyed ship and my own, there were five signatures that would have been consistent with capital ships. No signatures small enough to be from a one-person vessel like Adam. I did notice that the exit jump signatures were headed toward Ceres II. I reset my destination for Ceres II and jumped.
Ceres II orbited the planet CR423. At least it used to. I arrived at CR423 to find another debris field. I scanned the area. Three of the five capital ships I'd detected the jump signatures of before were orbiting the planet in a group. One of the ships was on the planet's surface, and the remaining one had been destroyed in battle with the station. I found its wreckage near that of Ceres II. The mysterious attack ships were unlike anything in the Federation database. My fighter's proximity alarms started blaring. I was under attack! A squadron of at least two hundred enemy ships were on an intercept course with me.
I took evasive action, but the other ships were unbelievably agile not to mention fast. It took them a mere twenty seconds of firing to disable my shields. I quickly released my harness, and got ready to jump. As another volley of fire tore my fighter to scrap, I fired the ejection control for the cockpit and soared out, unprotected into space. I threw my weight, putting myself into a spin and activated my Screw Attack. The energy that crackled around me shredded twelve fighters as I somersaulted through them. The squadron broke formation as I began to plummet into CR423's atmosphere. The energy from my Screw Attack protected me from the friction in the planet's thick atmosphere.
As I plummeted toward the ground at thousands of kilometers per hour, I charged by beam. I fired one charged blast at the large lake I was falling toward, the recoil slowed me considerably. I continued to charge and fire, shedding a hundred kilometers per hour with each blast. I only needed to slow down enough to control my Space Jump ability. Once I had control of it, I continued slowing my fall with timed Space Jumps until I finally was only thirty meters above the water. I twisted my body around and dove into the deep, cold water.
As soon as the water slowed me as much as it was going to, I fired a charged Ice Beam directly below me. I rode the newly-made iceberg until it broke the surface of the water, when I leaped across the lake onto the solid ground around it. It wasn't a bad landing, really. Especially considering that I'd done it without a ship. Just as I was starting to feel relieved at my escape, an explosion not two meters away from me threw me onto my side. I looked up and saw the squadron soaring down toward me, forming a huge strafing attack pattern.
"On damn."
I started to run immediately. Hundreds of explosions tore at the ground behind me as the ships' blasters fired relentlessly. My Speed Booster finally kicked in and I accelerated to a much greater speed, leaving a dust cloud trailing behind me. I chanced a look over my shoulder and saw that the fighters were still gaining on me. Another ten seconds and I'd be history!
Suddenly the ground fell away beneath me. I tumbled and rolled down a steep slope into a system of catacombs. In the dim light my Fusion Suit began to generate, I suddenly found myself face-to-face with one of my attackers. It stood a good two and a half meters tall with shining black armor all over. A razor-edged blast shield was mounted on it's left arm, and it wore a wrist-mounted blaster. It shrieked and fired. I took the blast full in the chest and toppled onto my back. It removed another weapon from its right thigh and blasted me in the stomach with a even stronger blast. The alien loomed over me and raised its blade-shield.
As the blade whistled though the air toward my throat, I raised my arm canon into the weapon's path. My weapon exploded, throwing the creature off of me. I sprang onto its chest and fired a blast into his chest plate. The armor superheated and started to glow red. I immediately fired an Ice Beam shot onto the hot armor, causing it to crack open. I thrust my hand into the hole and onto the creature's skin. I let out a cry that frightened me afterward as I drained the alien's life away. Its body crumbled to dust inside its armor.
I stood up and was about to head deeper into the cave when something in the back of my mind began to tingle. I realized it was one of my new Metroid instincts giving me an alarm. Food. X. I turned toward where I could sense the presence of the parasite and found myself facing the SA-X once again.
I accessed my fighter's computer regarding the ship that was attacked on its way to Ceres II. Once I knew where the ship was attacked, I told the navigation system to end my jump at those coordinates. Fifteen minutes later, the fighter gave me a thirty-second warning before the jump ended. Leaving a jump could be very disorienting. I tightened the harness in the flight couch, and braced myself. The fighter came to a lurching halt in the middle of a debris field.
I started scanning the area for jump drive signatures. Aside from those of the destroyed ship and my own, there were five signatures that would have been consistent with capital ships. No signatures small enough to be from a one-person vessel like Adam. I did notice that the exit jump signatures were headed toward Ceres II. I reset my destination for Ceres II and jumped.
Ceres II orbited the planet CR423. At least it used to. I arrived at CR423 to find another debris field. I scanned the area. Three of the five capital ships I'd detected the jump signatures of before were orbiting the planet in a group. One of the ships was on the planet's surface, and the remaining one had been destroyed in battle with the station. I found its wreckage near that of Ceres II. The mysterious attack ships were unlike anything in the Federation database. My fighter's proximity alarms started blaring. I was under attack! A squadron of at least two hundred enemy ships were on an intercept course with me.
I took evasive action, but the other ships were unbelievably agile not to mention fast. It took them a mere twenty seconds of firing to disable my shields. I quickly released my harness, and got ready to jump. As another volley of fire tore my fighter to scrap, I fired the ejection control for the cockpit and soared out, unprotected into space. I threw my weight, putting myself into a spin and activated my Screw Attack. The energy that crackled around me shredded twelve fighters as I somersaulted through them. The squadron broke formation as I began to plummet into CR423's atmosphere. The energy from my Screw Attack protected me from the friction in the planet's thick atmosphere.
As I plummeted toward the ground at thousands of kilometers per hour, I charged by beam. I fired one charged blast at the large lake I was falling toward, the recoil slowed me considerably. I continued to charge and fire, shedding a hundred kilometers per hour with each blast. I only needed to slow down enough to control my Space Jump ability. Once I had control of it, I continued slowing my fall with timed Space Jumps until I finally was only thirty meters above the water. I twisted my body around and dove into the deep, cold water.
As soon as the water slowed me as much as it was going to, I fired a charged Ice Beam directly below me. I rode the newly-made iceberg until it broke the surface of the water, when I leaped across the lake onto the solid ground around it. It wasn't a bad landing, really. Especially considering that I'd done it without a ship. Just as I was starting to feel relieved at my escape, an explosion not two meters away from me threw me onto my side. I looked up and saw the squadron soaring down toward me, forming a huge strafing attack pattern.
"On damn."
I started to run immediately. Hundreds of explosions tore at the ground behind me as the ships' blasters fired relentlessly. My Speed Booster finally kicked in and I accelerated to a much greater speed, leaving a dust cloud trailing behind me. I chanced a look over my shoulder and saw that the fighters were still gaining on me. Another ten seconds and I'd be history!
Suddenly the ground fell away beneath me. I tumbled and rolled down a steep slope into a system of catacombs. In the dim light my Fusion Suit began to generate, I suddenly found myself face-to-face with one of my attackers. It stood a good two and a half meters tall with shining black armor all over. A razor-edged blast shield was mounted on it's left arm, and it wore a wrist-mounted blaster. It shrieked and fired. I took the blast full in the chest and toppled onto my back. It removed another weapon from its right thigh and blasted me in the stomach with a even stronger blast. The alien loomed over me and raised its blade-shield.
As the blade whistled though the air toward my throat, I raised my arm canon into the weapon's path. My weapon exploded, throwing the creature off of me. I sprang onto its chest and fired a blast into his chest plate. The armor superheated and started to glow red. I immediately fired an Ice Beam shot onto the hot armor, causing it to crack open. I thrust my hand into the hole and onto the creature's skin. I let out a cry that frightened me afterward as I drained the alien's life away. Its body crumbled to dust inside its armor.
I stood up and was about to head deeper into the cave when something in the back of my mind began to tingle. I realized it was one of my new Metroid instincts giving me an alarm. Food. X. I turned toward where I could sense the presence of the parasite and found myself facing the SA-X once again.