Author's Note: This is my first ever fanfic, yay! I've played every game to date in the Metroid Series (excluding Zero Mission), and I have completed Super, Prime and Fusion, and thus have all the plot knowledge that comes from completing those. I have tried my best to keep in continuity with the series, but if I make a mistake feel free to correct me :). Speaking of which… please tell me what you think of my work!
Only this story is mine, all else belongs to the good people at Nintendo.
Anyway, on to…
Chapter 1: A Saga Begins
Space. It stretched on endlessly, the eternal darkness dotted with distant stars, nebulae and comets as if the cosmos itself was being torn apart by millions of tiny pinholes leading to another place. You could see an incalculable distance, perhaps even beyond the bounds of explored space, into realms where man had not yet tre-
There was a wave of dissipating blue energy and a noise like the spitting of a wet candle as a pea-sized asteroid was destroyed by the ship's collision protection field.
Samus jerked her head back from the cockpit window in reaction, then sighed heavily and settled back into the chair of her Hunter craft. It had been an un-eventful few months, with no contact from the Federation, and Samus herself was in no hurry to deliver herself to the people who may or may not still be livid about the destruction of a planet under research and its orbital space station, not to mention the hordes of potential bio-weapons onboard. They would most likely ignore her claims of an enormous danger involved, one which necessitated the destruction of SR388 and its nearby Federation assets. They would surely have her head.
And so Samus had reasoned. Due to this, she had been completely starved of work for some time now, and with her bank balance rapidly dwindling she had wondered how long she could keep up her traits of righteous bounty hunting.
Samus' head drooped low as she prepared to slip into a restful sleep, but she jerked awake once more as a slow but shrill and high-pitched beep emanated from the ship's control panel, accompanied by a pulsing red light. This could only mean one thing. An incoming transmission.
"Message Received - Priority: Urgent" spoke Adam, the ship's recently acquired AI. "The message appears to be emanating from an entirely automated source on a mining colony world nearby. The sender of the message is not stated, and the subject line mentions an urgent call for help to any freelance mercenaries in the area… want to hear more?" Samus merely nodded, quite aware that the AI had no way of seeing her, since her ship was not fitted with automaton cameras. However, she had also known the AI well enough to know that the details would be filled in whether she was interested or not. She could swear the real Adam had not been like that… maybe it was that the personality had been slightly changed in the conversion, or the conversion wasn't entirely accurate, or maybe it was just the mellowing effect time has on memories. It hardly mattered. Besides, her mind was already ablaze with speculation into what could have befallen the planet at hand. She was well acquainted with the details of the planet, having gone through the local data banks of her ship several times in an attempt to alleviate boredom.
It was a fairly uninteresting rock, a standard oxygen and nitrogen atmosphere, continental landmasses making up 40% of the planet surface, the remaining 60% being underwater. It was a fairly large planet (small planets did not warrant the effort of constructing mining colonies, and were usually left deserted, or mined by mining ships), roughly 115% that of the galactic average size.
A few seconds later, Adam engaged the holographic projector. Quite why though was not clear, as there was no apparent video feed, which was quite normal from an automatic source, as was the tinny, lifeless voice that began to ring throughout the ship.
"This is an automatic broadcast to… (There was a slight pause, presumably when a separate sound file was opened to put the appropriate word into the sentence) all freelance mercenaries… (Another pause while another data file was selected) within a 5 deca-cycle radius of planet… (Pause) MU725. Our planet is in danger from… (Another pause for file selection, but instead of the usual disjointed speech, a piercing howl of electronic agony rang throughout the ship, causing Samus to flinch in her seat and clap her hands over her ears. Presumably, the data file with the appropriate voice was corrupted.)…we request your immediate assistance in dealing with this matter. A reward of… (Pause) 600,000 Federation credits have been offered to every mercenary who plays a significant role in the elimination of the danger. Map data with recommended insertion point, tactical data and data concerning the threat at hand follows on data bank transfer ports 2450, 2770 and 2590. End Transmission."
600,000 Federation credits for each helper! It was a veritable fortune, and instantly gave Samus a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. What could have possibly motivated the inhabitants of a dirt-poor mining planet to offer such a gargantuan reward to any number of lowlifes looking to make a quick living and having some fun killing things in the process? What unknown force was laying the planet to waste? Samus opened the appropriate data ports and waited a few seconds for the data to transfer.
"Adam, bring up the tactical data on the threat." Samus requested, and immediately wished she hadn't. Another wail of computerised torture echoed through the ship as the horribly butchered contents of the file were processed.
This struck another chord of unease deep within Samus. Why was it that every electronic reference to the horror that was besieging MU725 was garbled beyond repair? Why was it that the transmission had been sent by an automatic system, rather than by one of the colony's inhabitants?
"…Fine. Adam, bring up the map data that was transferred" said Samus, bracing herself for another cyber-scream. None came… the file was untouched, and began to display normally on the holographic projector.
This raised yet another question about the situation. The threat data appeared to have been selectively damaged, rather than mass destruction wrought upon the data banks, which was the norm in these cases, as specific file deletion could only be performed with full administrator access to the system, or perhaps through pain-staking manipulation of the components of the data banks themselves, but this was near impossible, as miniaturization techniques had reduced the size of one file's physical storage space to sub-molecular proportions. The holographic map was poorly detailed and did not display the interior of any of the numerous large complexes that dotted the planet surface, though Samus had expected nothing else.
"Adam, add the recommended landing point to the map." Sure enough, a red circle appeared on the hologram, centred on a point in the Northern Hemisphere.
Samus turned the situation over and over in her mind for a few minutes, before finally issuing another order.
"Adam, plot a course for MU725. Take us down at the recommended landing point." A red line showed the approach directory the ship would be taking to… a point around 10 KM east of the recommended landing spot?
"Adam, what is the reason behind your disobeying the recommended path of action from my employer?" inquired Samus.
"Long range sensor scans indicate a large amount of activity in close proximity to the co-ordinates given… in order to avoid risk of being overwhelmed by large numbers of an unknown foe, I have calculated a safer destination point." replied Adam, in its usual stale tone. "And besides, you of all people should know about disobeying the orders of an employer…" Samus decided not to argue, or to comment on the AI's strangely human response.
Samus winced as the ship's thrusters swung the ship around at lightning speed to head to the new destination.
All that was left for Samus to do was to prepare her mind and body…
Author's Note : Done! Chapter Two is already well underway, whether it gets finished or not depends on the kind of response I get :)