Chapter 4- "A minor problem..."
Samus breathed a sigh of relief. The thing she had just seen she SUSPECTED was the Delta Metroid (though she wasn't sure) she did NOT want to fight. She guessed it had been whatever had killed the eight thousand or so space pirates on the station, and she didn't want to fight something that could kill eight thousand space pirates and have no visible wounds. Noting the small control pad, Samus quickly looked over it, noting that three of the decks (2, 3, 4) were all restricted. Hitting the button for "research deck", Samus leaned against the wall as the elevator slowly started moving...
...Then suddenly one of the blades of the creature sliced through the door and into the floor, stopping it. Samus looked in shock; the thing had to be incredibly strong to hold the elevator down with one arm (or leg, or tail). A second blade appeared at the top right corner of the elevator and began slicing the door in half. It was trying to get in!
Remembering a small piece of technology she had recently acquired, Samus began charging up her missile launcher.
The thing finished cutting the door and half, and ripped it off using only one hand, Samus noticed with some shock. Releasing the blade it had holding the elevator, the creature jumped in...
...and got a diffusion missile in the face. It was blown back across the room by it, and appeared to be frozen, and the elevator started up rather slowly. The thing got up just as the last frame of light from the previous floor vanished below the door frame, and Samus- again- breathed a sigh of relief. She was now on deck 13, moving up to deck 16- the research deck. Checking the small clock in the corner of her visor-she'd only been on the ship for about an hour- she waited. Deck 14... 15.... suddenly, in between floors, the elevator froze. Samus groaned; the same thing had happened while she was on the BSL. This time, however, she shot a hole in the ceiling of the elevator and jumped out.
She immediately knew why the elevator had stopped. Somehow, the corpse of a space pirate had gotten sucked into the sides and had jammed it. Rather than taking a while to get it out and start the elevator back out, which could possibly let that "thing" climb up the side of the elevator shaft, slice into the elevator, and find her again, she decided to space-jump up to the door to the 16th deck.
Samus immediately noticed that while on the other deck had been minor- slashes in the walls, the blood patches, destroyed computers- the damage here was incredible. Gigantic areas of the wall had simply been sliced until you could almost see through them, the lights were tinted red, and the floor was entirely covered in the dry blood she had only seen in patches before. Walking along, Samus continued noting the damage, when a small question that had been bugging her suddenly hit her again- where were the bodies? Eight thousand and a half (about) space pirates had died here, yet she had only seen the one body in the elevator shaft. The "thing" had no mouth, so it hadn't eaten them, so where were they? The questions kept adding up; Samus hoped she would find SOME answers here.
Samus walked into the main research area, and nearly vomited. Here were the corpses- at least 400 of them- sliced into several pieces each- strewn all over the floor. Even through her suit, Samus could smell a horrible, rancid scent of death and decay. Wondering how ANYTHING could be so relentless, she looked for any computer terminals that had useful information, or some evidence of what happened. Only one had some information, saying "There is a minor problem in the Delta Metroid holding container, recommend immediate transfer to restricted zone". Minor problem indeed, it had resulted in all but about a few dozen of the crew dying from it. Samus walked across the room, avoiding the corpses whenever possible, until she came across a door leading to a long hallway. A blood covered note on the wall stated "Lab door labels are being replaced, due to accident (check log 2952)". There had to be about 4 dozen doors here, and she wondered how long it would take to search all of them. Then she noticed each had a small symbol, obviously representing what was inside each of the labs. Walking past them, she looked quickly at them- a radiation symbol, a black brain, an exploding gem, a Metroid inside a triangle, a- wait, what?
Samus stopped and looked at the door with the Metroid symbol. If she remembered correctly, the symbol for the word "delta" was a triangle, and the word had something to do with threes or triangles, though her headache was interfering with her thought process.
She opened the door and stepped inside.
Samus breathed a sigh of relief. The thing she had just seen she SUSPECTED was the Delta Metroid (though she wasn't sure) she did NOT want to fight. She guessed it had been whatever had killed the eight thousand or so space pirates on the station, and she didn't want to fight something that could kill eight thousand space pirates and have no visible wounds. Noting the small control pad, Samus quickly looked over it, noting that three of the decks (2, 3, 4) were all restricted. Hitting the button for "research deck", Samus leaned against the wall as the elevator slowly started moving...
...Then suddenly one of the blades of the creature sliced through the door and into the floor, stopping it. Samus looked in shock; the thing had to be incredibly strong to hold the elevator down with one arm (or leg, or tail). A second blade appeared at the top right corner of the elevator and began slicing the door in half. It was trying to get in!
Remembering a small piece of technology she had recently acquired, Samus began charging up her missile launcher.
The thing finished cutting the door and half, and ripped it off using only one hand, Samus noticed with some shock. Releasing the blade it had holding the elevator, the creature jumped in...
...and got a diffusion missile in the face. It was blown back across the room by it, and appeared to be frozen, and the elevator started up rather slowly. The thing got up just as the last frame of light from the previous floor vanished below the door frame, and Samus- again- breathed a sigh of relief. She was now on deck 13, moving up to deck 16- the research deck. Checking the small clock in the corner of her visor-she'd only been on the ship for about an hour- she waited. Deck 14... 15.... suddenly, in between floors, the elevator froze. Samus groaned; the same thing had happened while she was on the BSL. This time, however, she shot a hole in the ceiling of the elevator and jumped out.
She immediately knew why the elevator had stopped. Somehow, the corpse of a space pirate had gotten sucked into the sides and had jammed it. Rather than taking a while to get it out and start the elevator back out, which could possibly let that "thing" climb up the side of the elevator shaft, slice into the elevator, and find her again, she decided to space-jump up to the door to the 16th deck.
Samus immediately noticed that while on the other deck had been minor- slashes in the walls, the blood patches, destroyed computers- the damage here was incredible. Gigantic areas of the wall had simply been sliced until you could almost see through them, the lights were tinted red, and the floor was entirely covered in the dry blood she had only seen in patches before. Walking along, Samus continued noting the damage, when a small question that had been bugging her suddenly hit her again- where were the bodies? Eight thousand and a half (about) space pirates had died here, yet she had only seen the one body in the elevator shaft. The "thing" had no mouth, so it hadn't eaten them, so where were they? The questions kept adding up; Samus hoped she would find SOME answers here.
Samus walked into the main research area, and nearly vomited. Here were the corpses- at least 400 of them- sliced into several pieces each- strewn all over the floor. Even through her suit, Samus could smell a horrible, rancid scent of death and decay. Wondering how ANYTHING could be so relentless, she looked for any computer terminals that had useful information, or some evidence of what happened. Only one had some information, saying "There is a minor problem in the Delta Metroid holding container, recommend immediate transfer to restricted zone". Minor problem indeed, it had resulted in all but about a few dozen of the crew dying from it. Samus walked across the room, avoiding the corpses whenever possible, until she came across a door leading to a long hallway. A blood covered note on the wall stated "Lab door labels are being replaced, due to accident (check log 2952)". There had to be about 4 dozen doors here, and she wondered how long it would take to search all of them. Then she noticed each had a small symbol, obviously representing what was inside each of the labs. Walking past them, she looked quickly at them- a radiation symbol, a black brain, an exploding gem, a Metroid inside a triangle, a- wait, what?
Samus stopped and looked at the door with the Metroid symbol. If she remembered correctly, the symbol for the word "delta" was a triangle, and the word had something to do with threes or triangles, though her headache was interfering with her thought process.
She opened the door and stepped inside.