Chapter 2: Derelict
Samus woke up and immediately appraised the situation. She was still in her ship, which didn't seem to have any visible damage, which was good, but the "hmmmm" noise the engines made while powered up was gone, which was bad. "Adam?" she said, "Is there any major damage to the ship?".
"There's almost no major damage, but the engines are offline and will be for about a day and a half."
Upon hearing this, Samus silently cursed to herself, then got up. Her head felt like there had been an elite pirate dancing on it, implying either some kind of EMP blast that interfered with the electrical energy in her brain, or simply that she had been thrown into a wall. Checking a small clock, she noted an hour or so had passed. Samus took a quick look out the front of the ship, which showed her a docking bay, with nothing in it. "They must have some kind of tractor beam..." she murmured to herself, then left the ship.
The first thing Samus noticed was that if she was in a Space pirate station, then there was something wrong. There should've normally been 5 or 6 of them in the docking bays working on the ships and equipment. Probably more, since her ship had been found. But there was no one in the bay. The second thing Samus noticed were several irregular patches of a strange, dry, brown substance on the floor. She guessed it was some kind of dust or mold, though that was odd because some types of mold could literally eat steel into nothing and would be exterminated the second it was found. It couldn't be dust, because it was only on about 7 patches on the floor, so what was it? Wondering this, Samus noticed a computer terminal. She scanned it quickly, but it had been shorted out from more of the strange brown stuff and the only words she could make out were "Delta metroid escape" and "Level 6 lockdown". This was even more disturbing. A level 6 lockdown was typically a sign that there was something on board that had killed at least 60% of the crew. When active, the remaining crew were to move to one part of the ship (usually the control deck) and guard it against whatever was onboard. "What happened here...?" Samus wondered aloud, before moving through a hatch into a hallway.
Instantly she noticed something even stranger than what she had seen before. Aside from more patches of the brown stuff, there were several long slashes in the wall. It was as if something had taken a sword and hacked 6- foot long scratches into the wall for no reason. Moving onward, Samus walked into a larger, open room, which had several banks of computer terminals in the walls. Scanning several, Samus found most of the computers had either had their data wiped, been shorted out, or destroyed. One she found had some statistics for the ship:
-Entry 6024: crew numbers
Crew maximum: 10,000 (roughly)
Crew on board before incident: 8,631
Crew current: 57
Crew unaccounted for: 8,574 (believed dead)
This shocked Samus even further. Something had killed nearly everyone on the station. She noticed another computer, which had a large amount of unintelligible gibberish, except for one small section of text:
...raasgsahrjvdmhjgerja-he Delta Metroid appears to be evolving faster than anything we have ever seen; nearly one major evolution every 6 hours. At this rate, it will be nearly invulnerable in a week. Preventative action may inv-euavnjnaigeaolz...
Wondering what "Delta metroid" was, Samus glanced at the other computers in that section. Most were in the same state; covered in gibberish with small breaks in the text with information that was useless to her at the moment. She walked down towards the other door to leave the room; all the other computers only had random bits of text-if any- on them. She walked into one of the strange brown patches, which sucked at her feet as she stepped out of it.
Suddenly, she came to a realization.
The brown stuff on the floor and walls wasn't dust, rust, or mold of any kind.
It was blood.
Samus woke up and immediately appraised the situation. She was still in her ship, which didn't seem to have any visible damage, which was good, but the "hmmmm" noise the engines made while powered up was gone, which was bad. "Adam?" she said, "Is there any major damage to the ship?".
"There's almost no major damage, but the engines are offline and will be for about a day and a half."
Upon hearing this, Samus silently cursed to herself, then got up. Her head felt like there had been an elite pirate dancing on it, implying either some kind of EMP blast that interfered with the electrical energy in her brain, or simply that she had been thrown into a wall. Checking a small clock, she noted an hour or so had passed. Samus took a quick look out the front of the ship, which showed her a docking bay, with nothing in it. "They must have some kind of tractor beam..." she murmured to herself, then left the ship.
The first thing Samus noticed was that if she was in a Space pirate station, then there was something wrong. There should've normally been 5 or 6 of them in the docking bays working on the ships and equipment. Probably more, since her ship had been found. But there was no one in the bay. The second thing Samus noticed were several irregular patches of a strange, dry, brown substance on the floor. She guessed it was some kind of dust or mold, though that was odd because some types of mold could literally eat steel into nothing and would be exterminated the second it was found. It couldn't be dust, because it was only on about 7 patches on the floor, so what was it? Wondering this, Samus noticed a computer terminal. She scanned it quickly, but it had been shorted out from more of the strange brown stuff and the only words she could make out were "Delta metroid escape" and "Level 6 lockdown". This was even more disturbing. A level 6 lockdown was typically a sign that there was something on board that had killed at least 60% of the crew. When active, the remaining crew were to move to one part of the ship (usually the control deck) and guard it against whatever was onboard. "What happened here...?" Samus wondered aloud, before moving through a hatch into a hallway.
Instantly she noticed something even stranger than what she had seen before. Aside from more patches of the brown stuff, there were several long slashes in the wall. It was as if something had taken a sword and hacked 6- foot long scratches into the wall for no reason. Moving onward, Samus walked into a larger, open room, which had several banks of computer terminals in the walls. Scanning several, Samus found most of the computers had either had their data wiped, been shorted out, or destroyed. One she found had some statistics for the ship:
-Entry 6024: crew numbers
Crew maximum: 10,000 (roughly)
Crew on board before incident: 8,631
Crew current: 57
Crew unaccounted for: 8,574 (believed dead)
This shocked Samus even further. Something had killed nearly everyone on the station. She noticed another computer, which had a large amount of unintelligible gibberish, except for one small section of text:
...raasgsahrjvdmhjgerja-he Delta Metroid appears to be evolving faster than anything we have ever seen; nearly one major evolution every 6 hours. At this rate, it will be nearly invulnerable in a week. Preventative action may inv-euavnjnaigeaolz...
Wondering what "Delta metroid" was, Samus glanced at the other computers in that section. Most were in the same state; covered in gibberish with small breaks in the text with information that was useless to her at the moment. She walked down towards the other door to leave the room; all the other computers only had random bits of text-if any- on them. She walked into one of the strange brown patches, which sucked at her feet as she stepped out of it.
Suddenly, she came to a realization.
The brown stuff on the floor and walls wasn't dust, rust, or mold of any kind.
It was blood.