I apologize for the delay in updating this story. While I feel certain none of you wish to hear about my personal problems, I will state this much in my defense: massive ice storm. That having been said, I will say very little about this chapter, only that it is the first of a number of shorter chapters that I apologize for (in terms of length, nothing else).

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Chapter 15: Fallout

"Hello, everyone! This is John 'Johnny' Johnson, for Universal News. Make sure to stay tuned until 10:00, Terran Time, for our exclusive interview with the maker of the box office hit 'Things That Go Boom.' But now, the current news.

"The standoff at the Bounty Hunter Headquarters has continued, nearing forty hours total. As of this report, neither party has moved. For those of you who may not have been keeping tabs on the situation, the Galactic Headquarters for all bounty hunters was assaulted by a large force of Galactic Council troops.

"Representatives from the Board, a select group of administrative bounty hunters, have made various comments. They appear to vary from outraged to speculative, and two members of the Board said they fully intended to cooperate with Galactic Council requests. Several could not be reached. Because the Board is not a ruling body, it cannot make executive decisions for all of the bounty hunters in question.

"The Galactic Council has made no official statement on the situation, and no explanation for the attacks has been offered. Those who have been approached about the attacks have refused comment. Next, we'll discuss-

"This just in! An earthquake on Aidni IV struck several major cities and death tolls are being estimated between twenty and twenty eight million. Next, we'll discuss the latest in the world of pop culture, as a popular diva will enter her eighth marriage with-"

Samus shut off the screen and flopped back on the floor. Forty hours... such a long time to wait...

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Carefully Mr. Divel drummed his fingers on the edge of his desk, making the only sound in his quiet room. Just the pace to seem contemplative, but not so much as to seem impatient. His eyelids were just slightly lower than normal, indicating that his attention was fully on his guests, though drawn elsewhere by his all-important duties.

Two men before him droned on about the economy flagging. Figures rushed through his head like water, none of them new to him. Unemployment rates. Poverty lines. Death by starvation totals. Minimum wages. He knew everything they were spouting.

Had he been asked to repeat what was said to him, he could have done so in an instant. Never the less, Mr. Divel's mind was distinctly wandering. There were things far closer to him than economics currently developing. Against his advice, they had gone into the Bounty Hunter Headquarters shooting.

Already there had been heavy casualties. The average bounty hunter was, after all, far better equipped and trained than the soldiers under Galactic Council control. Because the specimen they needed was on board, wiping out the station was not an option. If they had intended to do so, however, he would have put his foot down. He was almost completely certain the station was illegally outfitted, and that there were heavy warships hidden nearby. An assault of that kind could cause a minor war. Anything that unified all the bounty hunters on one side had to be avoided at all costs.

Perhaps, however, they could be successful. The bounty hunters were split and disorganized, many of them working with the Galactic Council forces. While the facts he had received were sketchy at best, he knew that neutral troop death tolls were low, assuming you didn't count civilians, and the target had not been found.

But it was only a matter of time. He knew for certain that the target was incapacitated on the station itself. No matter how many troops he had to throw away, he would get his hands on it. When they had begun there had been hundreds of scientists and three stations... now he had a pile of corpses and three broken wrecks. Their accomplishment would come into his possession.

No matter what.

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Leaning back and yawning, Veronica stretched for a moment. Pulling off the gloves of her bio suit, she slipped a nail file to hand and began carefully working at her nails. Keeping them nice was such a terribly difficult thing to do in her profession. Frowning at them, she toyed with the idea of getting a nail job done when she had the time.

Not now, of course. At the center of the Galactic Council camp, she was relatively safe, or at least they thought they were. Knowing all the bounty hunters she did, however, it was unlikely anywhere on the station was completely safe. There had already been a hacking attempt that could have been dangerous, but she had gotten the Galactic Council boys to blow out power to the station.

It was annoying not having proper lighting, but the generators were working fine. Most likely the scattered groups of bounty hunters on the station had generators as well, but there was no way they could work through the station. Explosives, on the other hand...

Shutting the nail file and slipping it back into place, Veronica replaced her gloves. Lightly touching the sides of her helmet from the outside and commanding it from within, she detached the head protecting portion and set it aside. Finding a brush, she began working through her luxuriant black hair.

Now the most dangerous thing was dying of boredom. There was simply nothing to do. No one was moving or making any attempts. Other than a few minor skirmishes, everyone had more or less holed up into their own areas. About half the HQ was controlled by Galactic Council troops and the bounty hunters aligned with them. The other half was divided into different groups of bounty hunters, almost like a city was divided by gangs.

She didn't mind the wait too much, however. It gave her a chance to tidy up, after all, and she desperately needed that in her profession. Some yahoo was probably going to start shooting sometime soon, but she had enough of a meat shield around her that she'd be ready by the time they got very far.

Meanwhile, she had more important things to do.

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Slowly Samus' eyes flickered open. The ceiling. A moment later her mind was completely alert, all the recent events in place and considered, completely ready to act. Waking up without her bio suit on was strange... she hadn't slept without it for years. As a bounty hunter one could never be too careful.

But last night she'd decided that it really didn't matter. If someone arrived while she was sleeping, she'd be dead before she could wake whether she wore armor or not. Getting a perfect night's rest was her highest priority. Today would probably be long and difficult.

Sitting up in her makeshift bed, hair falling around her face disorderly , Samus took a moment to reorder her thoughts. After destroying the rest of the bounty hunters, she'd quickly made her way to an upper portion of the HQ. There had been a few brief but intense fights, but not with anyone capable of matching her. Overall, she still had a reasonable amount of power and ammunition left. While she had been sleeping she'd let her bio suit recharge anyway.

It was fortunate this place still hadn't been tampered with. This compartment had originally been built into the station in a few meters of space that didn't officially exist. The intent had been to hold smuggled goods here until they could be taken elsewhere. Almost any sensor would miss it, and there was no obvious door, making it a nearly perfect hiding spot. But the bounty hunter who'd built the place had died on a run, and Samus had taken it before anyone else noticed.

Pushing aside the sheets, Samus quickly moved across the room to her bio suit, which was lying against the wall darkly. Only wearing a standard grey full body suit her feel extremely vulnerable. Not something she wanted to extend by any means. It took something very important to get her out of her bio suit.

Locking the metal over her, Samus let the system fuse itself together and come online. Next it was most important to get her priorities straight. Highest on the motivations list was to get out of the Bounty Hunter HQ before the situation exploded, following closely by blowing away everyone responsible for Project Darklight. That didn't help much, though.

Her suit hummed softly and Samus got to her feet, still considering. At the moment she was low on supplies, firepower and information. She'd sustained pretty heavy damage in all of the fighting, too. Given those circumstances, she decided to first get back to maximum strength and then figure out where to go next. Most likely the Galactic Council forces wouldn't dare attack the station with Tal and their own troops on it, so she had time enough to prepare.

Flipping through several vision modes, Samus determined that no one was nearby her room. Pressing a hidden panel, she made the doorway shift open and slid outside. Closing and locking it behind her, she quickly moved down the hallway. Just in case, she brought all of her weapons online.

Mentally bringing up a map of the station, Samus determined the best point for her to repair her bio suit. Several floors down, unfortunately. Perhaps it would be best to find the abandoned core shaft, the HQ had long since switched to safer methods of powering the station, and fly down it to the proper level. Anyone could be in the space in between.

By instinct more than any sensory equipment, Samus halted before moving around a corner. Something was definitely there. Changing to heat sensing mode, she determined that there were two people between her and the door she wanted to enter. One was crouching just around the corner, and from his position she guessed he was manning a mounted gun of some sort. The other was sitting in a chair in a corner, guarding the door, most likely with another weapon.

Narrowing her eyes, Samus backed up slightly, then glanced to the side. Perhaps...

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Coughing, the guard continued to stare down the corridor, watching for anyone intending to encroach upon their territory. There hadn't been any action for quite some time, so they'd brought the watches down to only two people. They were carefully spaced so no rocket could take out both of them.

Wiping off one hand at a time on his pants, the guard held his grip on the automatic gun tightly. The instant he pressed the trigger the corridor before them would explode with plasma fire. Anyone coming around the corner or from the opposite direction would be killed instantly. Even a bounty hunter's armor would take heavy damage from something like that.

Behind him, the other guard yawned heavily. His other hand clutched his pistol tightly, ready to pick off anyone if he had a chance. But since the other guard could mow down anyway approaching, his job didn't matter that much. Whatever the captain said, though.

He didn't notice the fiber wire as it slid through the air, and felt it on his neck too late. The next moment he slumped in his chair, no more than a corpse. Behind him, orange armored hands slipped back into the wall soundlessly, the fiber wire retracting. Moments later a laser knife quietly cut away more of the wall and Samus stepped through.

Stepping noiselessly behind the guard, Samus slid an arm beside his neck. The needle emerging from her arm pricked his neck, and he gave only a slight gasp before slumping against the large gun in front of him. Pulling back the needle, Samus again stood, moving for the door. It was well locked, but not well enough.

Inserting a chip into the computer system, Samus retracted one of her guns. The metal around her hand pulled away, leaving her fingers free to manipulate the door controls. Moving past the security systems, Samus opened the door calmly and set it to lock itself when it closed again. In moments she was gone.

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Two bounty hunters stood on securely mounted platforms in the core, carefully watching. Not only were they completely vigilant, both were using infrared and energy sensors as well. If anyone so much as used an electric razor near the chamber, they'd know it. If anyone stepped into their sight, they'd see them immediately.

A bolt snapped on one metal sheet in the core shaft, and some plating fell toward the floor far beneath. Both resisted the urge to look up and instead glanced about for any intruders attempting to take advantage of the momentary distraction. The core shaft remained as silent as the grave.

Slowly Samus shifted downward, letting herself down hand over hand on the fiber rope she'd attached above her. It'd taken only a momentary noise to dig the end into the floor of the walkway above her. Now she was slowly moving down in the shadows, dropping lower. Coolant was pouring through her system, masking her body heat and bringing it down to room temperature.

Getting beneath another platform, Samus reattached the rope to it. Tying it in a careful knot, she prepared to continue letting herself down. Only one floor, now, and the door was shrouded in darkness. Best to leave nothing behind. Putting a hand through the meshing of the walkway close by, Samus severed the fiber wire above her with a knife, letting it fall away-

Abruptly one of the bounty hunters jerked his head down, sensing a soft noise. Lights blazed from his suit, eating away the darkness. There was nothing near the walls, nothing visible. Everything was exactly as it should be. Narrowing his eyes, he continued watching for other intruders.

Breathing a silent sigh of relief, Samus emerged from the small panel directly beneath the bounty hunter's position. Making sure the rope was solidly attached, she swung from the center toward the outside of the cylinder. As softly as possible she caught herself on the side, wrapping her legs around a pipe.

Upside down, Samus began forcing the sliding door open as slowly as possible. It was difficult work, but the bio suit was strong enough to push it open. Use of the doors mechanics, after all, would immediately alert the bounty hunters above. Getting a crack large enough for her, Samus dropped in and landed noiselessly.

Cutting off the fiber rope, Samus let it fall and hang down in the power core. They'd notice it eventually, but not soon enough. That had burned all the fiber rope her suit carried... just barely enough. Closing the door behind her, Samus moved down the corridor.

A slight smile appeared on her face. The right floor, now; forty meters and counting down...