Chapter 3
Firepower flew across the darkening hallway creating the effects of a strobe light going off at a party as the lights in the space station began to diminish. The burning smell of flesh stoutly choked the air within the narrow corridor as the crewmembers of Atlass286 ran for their lives screaming in agonizing horror. The space station's mechanical army of repair drones had been turned against their superior beings and they hovered down the hall firing their lasers at the defenseless crew. A few lightly armed Galactic Federation Police officers tried to stop the drones but they were greatly outnumbered and in essence the fire fight between the two forces seemed to be one sided in favor of the massive army of drones. One of the attackers stood out from the rest though. This being was clad in a blue armored body suit outfitted with an arm cannon. The being walked surely down the hall picking off the unarmed and armed without a second glance. This armored being was the cause for all the discord on Atlass286; it was the one that reprogrammed the drones to assault the people on the station.
As if it knew it was being watched, the being walked up to the nearby camera and glared into the lens, its green visor reflecting the fire fight around him into the camera. It raised its arm cannon and shot the camera out, leaving the audience staring at a static filled display. Lana looked over to the next monitor that showed the same corridor from further down, a look of revulsion and disbelief at the merciless slaughterer that so effortlessly strolled through the hallways relieving people of their lives crossed her face. As the being walked closer to the next camera, Lana tapped the monitor glass and sat back perplexed.
"That suit.I thought ours were.", Lana began before taking notice of the shocked expression on the SA-X's face. Samus' eyes reflected a deep sorrow that Lana had never before witnessed, not even in the eyes of her real mother.
"That's.that's Houston's suit!"
"What!?" Lana looked back at the display astounded. "What do you mean Houston's suit?" Lana asked, looking for some type of clarification.
"I never told you he had one. I left your father lying in the tunnels of Zebes after I found him dead. I was going to go back for his remains after I had rid myself of the Mother Brain, but the planet was destroyed before I could make it back to him. He was a bounty hunter.like me", Samus began turning away from her daughter as the tears began to form in her eyes. The memories were painful, even for the SA-X. Though she had only spent a few years with the youthful bounty hunter and their occupations kept them from seeing each other, when the two were together, they were inseparable. After following Ridley back to planet Zebes in a veracious wrath to reclaim the Metroid hatchling, Samus came upon Houston's corpse. The additional distress and pain had sent Samus into a frenzy and she had vowed retribution against the Space Pirate force from that point onward.
The SA-X continued, "Houston and I were very competitive when it came down to who the greatest bounty hunter was. At that point in time, Houston did not have a power suit and the Chozo refused to build one for him. I was stronger then him and he was particularly envious of my power suit and its abilities. A few months later, when I had lost my memories, I was hospitalized. Houston took that opportunity to snag my power suit and construct one of his own using my design and was even able to replicate some of the Chozo's sophisticated technology. In the end, he had managed to recreate one of my earlier power suits. However, he didn't build the armor strong enough and in the end.he proved to be the weakest of us." Samus wiped a tear from her eye before returning her gaze to the monitor. "The only problem with this picture.the suit's color is wrong. When I left Houston's body, the atmosphere had changed its color from blue to silver. This armor is an exact replica of Houston's suit if it isn't the original. It's not the fact that the suit still exists that bothers me, its who is behind this that pulls in the back of my mind."
Lana and the SA-X quickly fast-forwarded through the pandemonium that ensued on the monitors until slowly one by one, the monitors blacked out. The slaughtering had not stopped at that point but there was no video to tell the story any longer. Lana uploaded the video to Adam and waited for there next order. "What do you think happened to the bodies?" Lana asked trying to bring the subject back to its original objective.
"I don't know. The bodies could have been locked into a corridor or dumped into space for all we know. It would be too much trouble to check out the entire station." Samus brought the video feed back up onto the screen and froze it. "Our question is, where did it go", Samus asked pointing to the armored being frozen on the screen. "Who or whatever this thing is, is what the Galactic Federation will be after."
"Lana? Samus?" Adam came on over the COM link. "I have forwarded the video footage back to the GFP headquarters, though they probably already have it. When the station came back online I came across an active radio signal being transmitted to a Galactic Federation Space Station in the Maipass galaxy. If this line was active before the station came under attack, then Tokonto Station, the one in the Maipass galaxy, might have a clue as to where the being went seeing that power was on after all video feed was cut off. We will proceed to Tokonto Station and see if they have any information for us, that will give you ladies a chance to rest and relax while we are there."
"That sounds like a prudent course. We are on our way back to the ship", Lana said.
"Good, I will have our course set immediately", Adam replied promptly before the line went silent. Lana and the SA-X left the security room and quickly made their way back to the ship.
.|.
Adam quickly departed from Atlass286, leaving the blood painted walls and empty hallways to keep their horrible story to tell to others. Upon entering the ship, the SA-X distanced herself from Lana giving the impression that she did not want to be bothered. Lana complied with her silent demands and kept her distance, allowing Samus to struggle with her own memories. Lana occupied herself by taking the power suits to the back room where she could refill the energy tanks and check the status of each suit of armor.
Lana and Samus were both summoned to the cockpit before reaching their destination, Tokonto Station. "I have been trying to analyze data from Atlass286 to determine what exactly the researchers were studying. As you know all to well Samus, the Galactic Federation has a predisposition to try and revive Metroids from extinction, and have successfully done so, in order to try and harness their powers. However, I couldn't find anything dealing with Metroids or the X parasite anywhere. As a matter of fact, I found no information whatsoever on the station. Suspiciously enough, before the station was brought down, a signal came from GFP headquarters requesting all the information be copied to their own servers before the Atlass286 servers were deleted."
"Do you think they were up to something?" Lana asked questionably.
"I've looked up Atlass286 in the Universe Addressing List to try and find a description of the station's objectives. In accordance with the Space Research Treaty of 2020, all research stations have to provide a thorough explanation of their experimentations. This was to alleviate the tension of nameless experiments to be used for war and easy recognition that such experiments as told were being performed and nothing more. It seems that with the discovery of the Metroid species, the Galactic Federations has once before covered up their experiments and that was on the B.S.L station. However; the B.S.L station had the justification of studying the failing ecosystem of SR-388, Atlass286 has no description whatsoever in the U.A.L."
"Interesting indeed", Samus whispered, pondering the string of events laid before her. "As Lana asked, what do you think?"
"My theory? Based on the specifics presented to me, the command to delete sensitive documentation on the experiments is nothing atypical. That would be a standard procedure during an attack, but to entirely wipe out the entire information database AND alter the UAL to no longer describe the station.I think we have another conspiracy."
"That's really none of our business though.right?" Lana asked looking between the monitor screen and Samus. "After all, we were only hired to establish why the station had lost contact with the rest of the universe."
Samus smirked, "My dear child.you still have a lot to learn. Of course, depending on what the cover up is will determine if we should pry any further into this matter. We will have to inquire on Atlass286's objectives when we arrive at Tokonto Station. I have a feeling we've stumbled across something.something that I can yet to put my hand on."
"I'm inclined to agree with you Samus. Something just doesn't seem right with this whole disappearing space station story. Be on your guard."
Firepower flew across the darkening hallway creating the effects of a strobe light going off at a party as the lights in the space station began to diminish. The burning smell of flesh stoutly choked the air within the narrow corridor as the crewmembers of Atlass286 ran for their lives screaming in agonizing horror. The space station's mechanical army of repair drones had been turned against their superior beings and they hovered down the hall firing their lasers at the defenseless crew. A few lightly armed Galactic Federation Police officers tried to stop the drones but they were greatly outnumbered and in essence the fire fight between the two forces seemed to be one sided in favor of the massive army of drones. One of the attackers stood out from the rest though. This being was clad in a blue armored body suit outfitted with an arm cannon. The being walked surely down the hall picking off the unarmed and armed without a second glance. This armored being was the cause for all the discord on Atlass286; it was the one that reprogrammed the drones to assault the people on the station.
As if it knew it was being watched, the being walked up to the nearby camera and glared into the lens, its green visor reflecting the fire fight around him into the camera. It raised its arm cannon and shot the camera out, leaving the audience staring at a static filled display. Lana looked over to the next monitor that showed the same corridor from further down, a look of revulsion and disbelief at the merciless slaughterer that so effortlessly strolled through the hallways relieving people of their lives crossed her face. As the being walked closer to the next camera, Lana tapped the monitor glass and sat back perplexed.
"That suit.I thought ours were.", Lana began before taking notice of the shocked expression on the SA-X's face. Samus' eyes reflected a deep sorrow that Lana had never before witnessed, not even in the eyes of her real mother.
"That's.that's Houston's suit!"
"What!?" Lana looked back at the display astounded. "What do you mean Houston's suit?" Lana asked, looking for some type of clarification.
"I never told you he had one. I left your father lying in the tunnels of Zebes after I found him dead. I was going to go back for his remains after I had rid myself of the Mother Brain, but the planet was destroyed before I could make it back to him. He was a bounty hunter.like me", Samus began turning away from her daughter as the tears began to form in her eyes. The memories were painful, even for the SA-X. Though she had only spent a few years with the youthful bounty hunter and their occupations kept them from seeing each other, when the two were together, they were inseparable. After following Ridley back to planet Zebes in a veracious wrath to reclaim the Metroid hatchling, Samus came upon Houston's corpse. The additional distress and pain had sent Samus into a frenzy and she had vowed retribution against the Space Pirate force from that point onward.
The SA-X continued, "Houston and I were very competitive when it came down to who the greatest bounty hunter was. At that point in time, Houston did not have a power suit and the Chozo refused to build one for him. I was stronger then him and he was particularly envious of my power suit and its abilities. A few months later, when I had lost my memories, I was hospitalized. Houston took that opportunity to snag my power suit and construct one of his own using my design and was even able to replicate some of the Chozo's sophisticated technology. In the end, he had managed to recreate one of my earlier power suits. However, he didn't build the armor strong enough and in the end.he proved to be the weakest of us." Samus wiped a tear from her eye before returning her gaze to the monitor. "The only problem with this picture.the suit's color is wrong. When I left Houston's body, the atmosphere had changed its color from blue to silver. This armor is an exact replica of Houston's suit if it isn't the original. It's not the fact that the suit still exists that bothers me, its who is behind this that pulls in the back of my mind."
Lana and the SA-X quickly fast-forwarded through the pandemonium that ensued on the monitors until slowly one by one, the monitors blacked out. The slaughtering had not stopped at that point but there was no video to tell the story any longer. Lana uploaded the video to Adam and waited for there next order. "What do you think happened to the bodies?" Lana asked trying to bring the subject back to its original objective.
"I don't know. The bodies could have been locked into a corridor or dumped into space for all we know. It would be too much trouble to check out the entire station." Samus brought the video feed back up onto the screen and froze it. "Our question is, where did it go", Samus asked pointing to the armored being frozen on the screen. "Who or whatever this thing is, is what the Galactic Federation will be after."
"Lana? Samus?" Adam came on over the COM link. "I have forwarded the video footage back to the GFP headquarters, though they probably already have it. When the station came back online I came across an active radio signal being transmitted to a Galactic Federation Space Station in the Maipass galaxy. If this line was active before the station came under attack, then Tokonto Station, the one in the Maipass galaxy, might have a clue as to where the being went seeing that power was on after all video feed was cut off. We will proceed to Tokonto Station and see if they have any information for us, that will give you ladies a chance to rest and relax while we are there."
"That sounds like a prudent course. We are on our way back to the ship", Lana said.
"Good, I will have our course set immediately", Adam replied promptly before the line went silent. Lana and the SA-X left the security room and quickly made their way back to the ship.
.|.
Adam quickly departed from Atlass286, leaving the blood painted walls and empty hallways to keep their horrible story to tell to others. Upon entering the ship, the SA-X distanced herself from Lana giving the impression that she did not want to be bothered. Lana complied with her silent demands and kept her distance, allowing Samus to struggle with her own memories. Lana occupied herself by taking the power suits to the back room where she could refill the energy tanks and check the status of each suit of armor.
Lana and Samus were both summoned to the cockpit before reaching their destination, Tokonto Station. "I have been trying to analyze data from Atlass286 to determine what exactly the researchers were studying. As you know all to well Samus, the Galactic Federation has a predisposition to try and revive Metroids from extinction, and have successfully done so, in order to try and harness their powers. However, I couldn't find anything dealing with Metroids or the X parasite anywhere. As a matter of fact, I found no information whatsoever on the station. Suspiciously enough, before the station was brought down, a signal came from GFP headquarters requesting all the information be copied to their own servers before the Atlass286 servers were deleted."
"Do you think they were up to something?" Lana asked questionably.
"I've looked up Atlass286 in the Universe Addressing List to try and find a description of the station's objectives. In accordance with the Space Research Treaty of 2020, all research stations have to provide a thorough explanation of their experimentations. This was to alleviate the tension of nameless experiments to be used for war and easy recognition that such experiments as told were being performed and nothing more. It seems that with the discovery of the Metroid species, the Galactic Federations has once before covered up their experiments and that was on the B.S.L station. However; the B.S.L station had the justification of studying the failing ecosystem of SR-388, Atlass286 has no description whatsoever in the U.A.L."
"Interesting indeed", Samus whispered, pondering the string of events laid before her. "As Lana asked, what do you think?"
"My theory? Based on the specifics presented to me, the command to delete sensitive documentation on the experiments is nothing atypical. That would be a standard procedure during an attack, but to entirely wipe out the entire information database AND alter the UAL to no longer describe the station.I think we have another conspiracy."
"That's really none of our business though.right?" Lana asked looking between the monitor screen and Samus. "After all, we were only hired to establish why the station had lost contact with the rest of the universe."
Samus smirked, "My dear child.you still have a lot to learn. Of course, depending on what the cover up is will determine if we should pry any further into this matter. We will have to inquire on Atlass286's objectives when we arrive at Tokonto Station. I have a feeling we've stumbled across something.something that I can yet to put my hand on."
"I'm inclined to agree with you Samus. Something just doesn't seem right with this whole disappearing space station story. Be on your guard."