Chapter One – Echoes of a Soul
She was dead tired. Who wouldn't be? After 48 hours of terror, without so much as a five minute break, she deserved a vacation. As a precaution against ambitious assassins, she stowed a charge pulse blaster within a concealed leg pocket. As she stepped from her gunship to the surface of Iena Colony, nobody would guess that this young woman was the most renowned bounty hunter in the Galactic Federation. The light of Anteromina Sepri, a white dwarf star, shined brilliantly, giving her hair a heavenly sheen. The woman reached into her pocket, pulled out a datapad, and entered the words: "Samus Aran, out."
Samus spent most of the day in her customary suite, sitting on her bed and thinking. She had never been the social type as a child, and the extermination of her homeworld, K-2L, hadn't helped her situation. If only the elders were here… she thought. The Chozo had taken Samus from her ravaged home, infused her with their blood, and raised her as their own. Taught by the savants of the mysterious race, she became powerful, so strong she earned herself the ancient armor of a Chozo warrior, specially fitted to her form. They had changed her. She was their child.
But the Chozo were a lost people. Even before the invasion of Zebes, or the cataclysm of Tallon IV, they were dying out. Now, it was quite possible that she was the only one with their noble blood. She had fought – on land, in space, even within a timespace anomaly – against the ones who had caused the downfall of the so-called Masters of Space. The Space Pirates, always growing and changing, were her mortal foe.
The alert of an incoming message awoke Samus from her reverie. She looked about and, persuaded that her location was secure, brought out her datapad. There were two high-priority messages. One read 'GF News Update', while the other simply stated 'Hatchling'. She opened the former and began to read:
"This just in. In an alarming and puzzling move, the Swords of Gamesh, a rebel group within the Anteriomina Sector, has invaded the colony world of Iena. Typically a quiet section of the Quadrant, a fierce onslaught ensued in the Sepri system just minutes ago. All contact with the planet has been lost, and the worst is feared. In other news…"
Samus leapt from her bed, barely catching the datapad. She had to get out; if the rebel faction discovered that she were here, they would almost certainly retreat. Unfortunately, the distinctive Chozo power armor she fought with was still on board her gunship.
Cursing her bad luck, Samus opened her suite door, leapt through, and dashed down the 19th floor corridor. A guard rounded the corner; he was knocked back down the hallway he came from, grunting in pain from the pulse shot. Samus shot out a window at the end of the hallway, jumped through, and used her pistol to glide down to the nearest building. Landing softly, she continued on, toward the rounded dome of the spaceport. She consulted her datapad: three miles to go.
Taking a somersaulting leap, she reached the next building. Unfortunately, she was no longer alone. Three men, each with a red-handled silvery sword, were posted atop the apartment, apparently to eliminate any survivors. She charged up the pistol she carried, then discharged it at her nearest foe. He toppled off the building and into the streets. She followed up with another charge shot to the chest of her second pursuer, who toppled face first against the hard concrete roof.
Samus yanked the trigger back multiple times, but to no avail. The intense heat of two consecutive charge blasts had melted the barrel into a completely useless position. She threw it down in disgust, and proceeded to drop a small plastic device into a grill beneath her feet, causing an explosion to rip the roof open. She jumped again, landing in the middle of the hole the resulting blast had created. The armed rogue dropped down after her, intent on her destruction. In one movement, Samus opened a drawer, drew out a steak knife, and sent if flying into the thug's skull.
Content with her work, Samus exited via the front door and proceeded to the spaceport. Only after she had donned her armor and taken off did she read the second message on her datapad.
She gasped, and read it again.
