Chapter 11
The Kossbass Knew Who?
Lana and one of the fox creatures sat around a table on Lana's ship; Lana was tinkering with the small translating gadget the fox creatures had given her. Though she couldn't understand Chozodian as well as she should, she knew she could get Adam to make the translator work between English and the fox creature's language. Lana placed the device in a little box and it buzzed to life, the glass front revealing a small laser cutting away at the translator. The laser stopped and a green light came on indicating Lana could remove the device; the creature with her watching gawk eyed. Lana put the translator on, "Can you understand me now?" She asked, the little gadget creating a series of clicking noises and whines. The creature looked back confused, obviously not understanding a word the bounty huntress was saying.
"Let me reload the program, maybe it will reset the communication chip. I'm also going to load on a different translation program; this time an older version and one that might contain their language", Adam said. With a few quick commands a few minutes of waiting, the translator came back to life and she tried again. "Can you understand what I'm saying?"
The creature nodded its head and replied, "Yes!"
"My name is Lana Aran", she said holding out her hand in friendship.
The creature replied, "I am Langheart. It is nice to finally be able to communicate with you Lana Aran." The creature reached its hand out and shook it firmly, "You know of the Chozo?"
"I am the daughter of Samus Aran, a human who was transfused with their blood by orders of Old Bird, one of the tribal leaders of the Chozo."
"Old Bird", Langheart said more to himself then anyone else, throwing the name around in his head, "He was one of the tribal chiefs when our two tribes use to communicate with each other."
"He is no longer alive", Lana said.
"We are sorry for your loss."
"Lana, what happened to you", Adam asked her. Lana began her story, starting with the cave and ending with her waking up in the cave with the fox creatures.
"What happened to the SA-X?" Lana asked when she finished her side of the story. The thought of where Samus was had been tugging at the back of her mind the entire time; she worried for her safety.
"The SA-X is missing Lana. When you both disappeared into the cave, I lost both of your transmitting signals. I did; however, find that a very small craft left the planet but there was no indication that the two of you were in it. I began to worry when that ship went by and I locked onto its transmitter frequency; we should have no problems tracking it down. I decided I would wait here for a few days in hopes that one of you would begin transmitting again, and the only reason I decided that was because I found traces of beings in a valley, but not knowing the advancement of their technology, I wished not to interfere. It was on the third day that I picked up your faint transmitter and was finally relieved. I had hoped that the SA-X was with you, but that obviously is not the case", Adam recalled before asking a question to the fox creature, "What is the name of your people?"
The creature responded promptly, "I am of the Kossbass clan." A few commands scrolled on one of Adam's many console screens before a likeness of Langheart came on screen.
Adam read, "The Kossbass clan is an advanced civilization much like that of the Chozo. They tend to use technology only to make life easier on them. There civilization is thought to be extinct but according to history, their technology has taken them farther into the universe then anyone has yet to explore. The Kossbass do not normally wage war unless prompted by opposing threats; the tribe of Kossbass' have no enemies and declined the offer to join the Galactic Federation as did the Chozo and for the same basic reasons."
"That is a very accurate description. Yes it is true our clan has diminished slightly, but there are still a great deal of us left. We are only a small group on this little planet, sent here to watch over our sacred ancestral grounds. We use to hold conference with the Chozo and our scientists worked together for some time, that is until the Chozo made plans for their destruction."
"What are you talking about?" Lana inquired confusingly.
"The Chozo made plans to create a creature that could harness energy...", Langheart started but Lana cut him off.
"You mean their "ultimate warrior" the Metroid?" Lana asked. The Kossbass shook his head yes. Lana sighed, "I know all about that. My mother spent the majority of her life trying to destroy the species and in the end, what tried to once kill her, saved her life. We both have the DNA of Metroids running through our blood as well."
"So they did manage to create that thing. We stopped communicating with them after they made their decision. We did not want to endanger our people with such a dangerous creation. Though we did not leave with bad relations, we have not heard from them since that time. Many of our older clan members remember a time of great enrichment when we traded technologies with the Chozo and many of their weaponry was spawned from plans similar to ours."
"So was the power suit one of the deviation from your plans?" Adam asked.
"Possibly. We do possess a type of power suit and it is likely they perceived the idea from us, but I do not recognize the technology of the suit itself."
"I see", Lana said, "You may recognize Samus' suit better then mine. My suit was built by duplicating the technology from the Chozo's. Samus' suit had been infected by a parasite and had to be surgically removed from her body; unfortunately for her, the suit was also tied to her life systems and when she awoke, she found that the Galactic Federation had built her a suit much like hers; the suit you found me in", Lana explained.
"Speaking of your suit", Langheart said, "I believe we have completed repairs on it. Though the material is not readily available here, we implemented our own metal and recovered what we could from yours", the Kossbass turned and called over one of its friends. "Go and bring me the power suit please", Langheart asked before turning back to Lana. "You will find that we've also added technology of our own to help you out." The Kossbass came back in the room with the suit of armor. The Fusion suit was no longer blue and yellow like she had been so accustomed to. It now shone brightly like a new piece of equipment, its glittery silver finish playfully shining light around the room. The oval-like areas that use to be yellow, now dark blue matching the steel were still there, but they transitioned with the suit better, giving a more aerodynamic feel. The suit itself was no longer as slender as it once was, but was a little more bulky, and the helmet had been redesigned with a new respiratory system and the helmet actually matched the slenderness of the suit. "We successfully replicated the abilities that were already implemented into the suit. We've also added a powerful homing beam; the wave beam doesn't quite lock on, as it should. The homing beam is an electrical beam much like the wave beam, but it locks onto the neurological readings of any being that has a thought process. If you are shooting at an inanimate object, it will fire in a straight path."
Lana removed the robe she had been wearing to reveal her jump suit; the blue had begun fading from the fabric when it was exposed to the harsh waters of the river. She slipped her legs into the power suit and could feel the suit adjusting to her body. She moved around the cabin of the ship and commented, "This feels like it responds slightly faster then before."
"Yes it should, our chip technology has always been slightly more advanced then that of the Chozo's and during battles, you should be stronger. We used a different set of physics when calculating the human to suit power magnification abilities. Heavy weights, falls and blows shouldn't jar you as badly as it use to", Langheart replied, "but that doesn't make it invincible by any means."
"Adam. I need that lock on the ship that left this planet. I have a feeling that the SA-X has been taken by this Houston X-Parasite", Lana said and then turned toward Langheart, "Langheart. I cannot thank you enough for your hospitality and help. When we finish with this vile life-form, I am going to return to claim my father's corpse."
"Lana Aran, the Chozo have put great faith in the hands of a being other then their own, and I am more then sure they are proud of your heroism. Please, be not a stranger to us for together, we can rebuild what were once two great civilizations. May the strength of our two civilizations grant you the power to resolve this evil." Langheart offered out his hand toward Lana who grasped it in return.
Lana waved at the Kossbasses as they exited the ship and began walking back to the safety of their lairs. Lana waved from the bottom of the elevator before the disk of light enshrouded her and rose up into the bottom of the ship. The thrusters immediately began to rev up and the rush of air from beneath the ship blew away the surrounding snow creating a miniature blizzard that engulfed the ship from view temporarily before it rose above the cloud of whirling snow. Once a few hundred feet in the air, the main engines fired up and the ship blasted out of orbit, leaving the remnants of its exhaust snaking along the sky like a snake, illuminated in bright pink as the setting sun barely shone through the fading ever present clouds.
Onboard, Lana instructed Adam to pull up the coordinates of the escaping ship; the computer did as asked and within a few quick minutes, a familiar name came across the screen. "Atlass286", she murmured to herself, recalling the recon that Samus and her had done; the images of blood stained walls and stairwells still vividly fresh in her mind. What is so important about Atlass286?
"Lana. I just intercepted a transmission from a nearby Galactic Federation battleship. It appears that they are currently engaged in a battle with the Space Pirates, and oddly enough, this escapade is taking place at our destination. Will you be lending assistance to the Federation?"
Lana thought for a moment. Her last two encounters with the GFP had resulted in imprisonment and a short battle. Someone, or something was against the bounty hunters and she replied to Adam, "No. I think I will let the Federation deal with their own problems."
"Your main objective then is the possible retrieval of the SA-X and the disposal of the HA-X?"
"That is correct. I am going to try and keep from crossing their paths which shouldn't be to big of a problem", Lana said locking her arm cannon into place as the ship approached the space station.
"I have a lock on the ship as well as multiple locks on space pirate ships and Federation ships. I will dock in the cargo bay, there are no ships located there and its probable that no forces from either side are there", Adam said bringing the ship around to the bottom of the multi-tiered space station.
"Atlass286...this is where this all began and I hope this is where I can end it."
"Good luck Lana. If you need anything, let me know."
"Very well Adam", Lana replied as the ship landed within the cargo bay.