"hellflamenarf" did a tour de force of the review section, which I suppose I am grateful for. To answer questions: yes, Samus needs to eat; for the purposes of this story the Chozo do not exist (as I said earlier, this is more based off the original games). Because all bio suits are made by human technology, any given set of suits can be equal.

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Chapter 16: Making Do

Sensing something walking toward them, the fighters at the door immediately tensed up. The sound of weaponry humming was audible as all brought their guns online. Wordlessly the bounty hunters trained their guns toward the source of heat that was approaching them. Whatever it was, it was making no effort to hide itself.

Someone in an orange bio suit stepped into the corridor in front of them and stopped. There was a long pause as neither party said anything. While there were friends approaching, the bounty hunters had been alive long enough to know that friends and enemies were not that far apart. It could be anyone.

"State your name and business," the leader of the group of guards eventually barked through his bio suit.

"Samus Aran," the orange bio suit answered. "I want to get to the repairing zone. Is it still operating?"

"You don't get to ask any questions. Not now."

"Can you let me through?"

"You probably don't know, or at least you pretend you don't." The leader's finger tightened on the trigger inside the arm of his bio suit. This conversation was making him nervous. "This area is completely secured, it's one of the few safe zones."

"Safe for whom?"

"Any bounty hunter who isn't with the Galactic Council or one of the mercenary groups. If," he drew the word out suspiciously, "you're even a bounty hunter."

"My license," the figure explained, very slowly moving to pull something from a pouch. Bringing out a small card, the intruder tossed it toward them. Checking that it wasn't a bomb, the leader signaled for one of the other bounty hunters to pick it up.

"It looks authentic," he reported back. "Don't have the equipment to tell if it's forged."

"Hey Miss Aran," one of the other bounty hunters abruptly called. "You wanna go on a date?"

"Burn in a thousand hells."

"Yup, that's her."

Sighing, the leader of the group lowered his gun. He wasn't too familiar with Samus, but he was certain she wouldn't have sold out to the Galactic Council. She was certainly above joining one of the many renegade groups of bounty hunters stealing whatever they could find. Though he wouldn't admit it, he felt safer with her on their side.

Samus moved forward, ripped her identification from the other bounty hunter's hands and was allowed through the door. Pausing at the entrance, she briefly flipped up the visor to look the leader in the eyes. He flipped up his own visor, revealing him to be an older man with a shadow of white stubble.

"How safe is this area, really?" Samus asked in a low voice.

"All the entrances are guarded like this," he answered. "There are several ships cloaked nearby that will destroy anything that tries to attack this station from without. Someone shut down the computers, so there's no danger that way. Unless someone could break through one of the doorways, there shouldn't be any problems."

"And what all is inside this safe zone?"

"Old Bart is still repairing and restocking suits as needed. There are a few quarters we've managed to protect that people are sleeping in. Other than that, someone set up a bar. Things are really pretty relaxed, though everyone takes their turn at the doors. In all actuality, the Galactic Council doesn't have to go through us to get where they're going, so I'm not that worried about them. It's the toughs that bother me."

"Ah." With that Samus moved through the door. It slid shut behind her in several blast proof layers. In this area she was probably safe from being directly attacked, anyway. But nowhere on this station was safe. Not the way things were now.

There wasn't anything left here, anyway. The HQ was in such chaos it was useless to her and Tal was dead. She might was well take all that she needed and get out as soon as possible. Getting her own ship would be another challenge, but she'd take one step at a time.

It soon became obvious this area was far more relaxed than the rest of the station. People were acting basically normal here, going about their business as if they weren't in a war zone. She received and did not return a few nods from various bounty hunters that recognized her along the way.

Nothing much had changed, however, so she soon found her way to the repairing station. It was surprisingly slow, though not empty. A fair number of bounty hunters were lounging about, hands on weapons she noticed, but none of them seemed to need any repairs. Behind the counter a large man was leaning back in a swivel chair, snoring softly.

"Bartholomew," she mercilessly woke him up. Grunting, he glanced about slightly confusedly for a few moments, then his gaze focused on her and narrowed.

"Samus. Good to see you're still alive."

"I thought so too. You still running repairs?"

"Yeah."

"We need to talk," Samus told him, lowering her voice a few notches. He appraised her from beneath bushy eyebrows, then nodded and got to his feet. Jerking his head toward a back room, he swiftly vanished into it. Sliding around the counter, Samus followed.

"What are you doing this time?" the mechanic demanded the instant the door closed behind her. His arms were folded, though his expression was open enough. Samus sighed.

"I'll be honest with you... I'm ditching the Headquarters outfit altogether. There are some more important things going on at the moment."

Sighing heavily, Bartholomew put one hand to the wall and leaned against it, gaze unfocused. For the first time in her life, Samus realized that he was old. His hair wasn't grey, and he still had muscle, but there was something in his expression at that point that made her understand.

"This isn't going to be good, is it?" he asked, glancing back at her. "I haven't left here since the attack, so I only know what I've picked up from others."

"Things are bad," Samus agreed grimly. "Something in the Galactic Council bureaucracy is corrupt, and someone with a lot of military power is attacking. There's been some illegal covert operations for some time now. A bunch of the bounty hunters are on their side. Headquarters might not stand this attack."

"I see." Shuddering slightly as he straightened, Bartholomew kept his eyes closed for a moment. When he opened them, they were hard. "I'll make do in any case, and I have back up plans. The question is what you're going to do."

"Repair and restock my bio suit," Samus told him. "Upgrade it with everything you can. I don't care if it's legal, or if it's owned by someone else. If it's better I want it. I'll pay you whatever you want, up to the maximum in my legitimate account, which may not be considered legit much longer."

"If you say so," the mechanic responded gruffly. Back to his old self. "I'll transfer the funds from your account first and then get right on it."

Nodding to him, Samus unlatched her bio suit and moved out of it. Immediately after she stepped away toward the door. A voice brought her to a halt with her hand upon the door.

"And Samus... the next time I see you, you had better still be alive."

"Count on it," she answered him, glancing back over her shoulder with the slightest of smiles. "I can't die yet."

Wiping off the glass and carefully replacing it, the bartender shifted to another glass and glanced over his shoulder. Everything was pretty much the same out there, and no one seemed likely to do much of anything. Cleaning the next glass, he set it down and glanced again, only to find someone sitting directly before the bar.

Blinking, the bartender lay his cloth over one arm and turned. A woman. Later twenties. Long blond hair. Bounty hunter's attire, minus the bio suit... holy crap!

"Samus Aran?" he asked incredulously.

"No really," she returned sardonically. "What is this place?"

"That question doesn't have a short answer," he warned.

"I'm not asking for one."

"Alright, then. Once the bounty hunters got together enough to clear out this area, and a few dissenters got picked off, they set up perimeter defenses," the bartender explained, leaning on the counter with one hand. "Not everyone had to guard the place, so everyone else started getting bored and restless like. We found this place and converted it to a bar, and now mostly everyone hangs out around here when they aren't busy."

"You serve things other than drinks?"

"What we found lying around. Rations and the like."

"I'll take that, whatever it is." Samus tapped a grey chip onto the table lightly. "Cash, I trust?"

"But of course. Give me just a moment."

It was longer than a moment. Getting her meal and not complaining, Samus began methodically chewing her way through it. The only real point of eating at the moment was for sustenance, so she couldn't have cared less what it tasted like. At least at this point no one was bothering her, which was the best she could hope for given the circumstances.

Bart had told her it would be a good ten hours before the modifications would be complete. Given the number of modifications he'd be doing, that probably meant that he was working on her suit immediately. Which was fine with her, but left her with ten hours and nothing in particular to do with them. There was nothing to do here, but she didn't want to try too much without being properly armed.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Miss Aran." David's voice. Abruptly leaving became a far more attractive option. "Imagine finding you here."

Turning away slightly, Samus became intensely focused upon her food. Ignoring the cold shoulder, David sat down on the stool beside her, rapped for a drink and then glanced over at the side of her head. Refusing to respond, Samus waited and hoped he would grow bored.

"Just got back from patrolling the area surrounding the safe zone," David said; a pathetic attempt at being casual. "Someone has to make sure no one attacks, after all, so everyone can stay safe in here. Had to take out a few troops, but it wasn't much of a problem. Those Galactic Council types really don't know how to fire a gun. Not that they could have stopped me anyway."

Then the bartender approached and took David's order, during which time he mercifully stopped talking to her. Mentally Samus snorted, watching him from the corner of her eyes. Did he honestly think he could impress her? Even assuming his story was true, she could still have killed him a dozen ways before he could begin to move. But he had mentioned Galactic Council forces... and she did need information...

"So, anyway, I was wondering-"

"Actually, I found your previous story fascinating," Samus interrupted, looking at him directly. Enough to distract him and make him stop thinking logically. "What was that about Galactic Council forces? That sounds pretty dangerous."

"Yeah, well, I was up to the task." Moron. Friggin' moron. "They had set up a little base thing not so far from here. Of course, I didn't see the need to fight them at the moment." Or didn't want to get himself slaughtered. "There were a few advance forces I ran into, four or five bounty hunters." Most likely three soldiers on break, if even that. "Not too much of a problem, though." Get to the point, dammit.

"Exciting," she commented, sarcasm in her voice barely detectable. "Where'd this happen?"

"Oh, around the C8 block. They set up camp there. If they didn't run away from me, that is." Finally; the information she was wasting this much time and dignity for. Her hand almost blurred as it slipped into a small pocket by her leg.

"I'll have to here more about it... later," Samus responded, leaning toward him just slightly. In the same moment her hand unobtrusively passed over David's cup. Gulping, he gave her what was supposed to be a suave grin and took a heavy drink from his glass. Excellent timing.

A few minutes later Samus stood up swiftly. David's head was resting against the bar, apparently in a drunken stupor. It hadn't taken much to knock out his system. In any case, she had the information that she wanted now, and no more reason to waste her time here. Subconsciously she shook her head. Moron.

Swiftly Samus moved through the corridors, locating the area in question. David's information was accurate enough, anyway, there were Galactic Council guards in the corridors even before she reached C8. Slowing to a halt before reaching the first wave, Samus considered her options.

It might be possible to break into the area like this, but she didn't want to risk it. Most likely there were other bounty hunters nearby allied with the Galactic Council. Getting past ordinary soldiers wouldn't be a problem, but she didn't want to fight anyone serious without her bio suit. She had two low-caliber plasma pistols on her, but that wouldn't be enough if she had to fight someone in heavy armor.

Sliding just slightly around the corner, Samus glanced toward the next corridor. As she had expected, there were a few guards. If she could avoid killing anyone it would probably be for the best at the moment. Instead moving around to another entrance, Samus discovered that this one was a rather large hall.

Surprisingly, there didn't appear to be very many guards in the room. One of the two doors had none, actually. Narrowing her eyes, Samus considered the situation more carefully. Both doors were at the end of corridors that branched off from the main room. From this angle, it wasn't possible to see into the corridors at all...

Closing her eyes, Samus concentrated on the situation. She really wished she had her bio suit at the moment, so she could check, but that simply wasn't possible. Instead she could only work off the psychological. Let's see... if I were a hidden guard, where would I hide?

Guards around one of the doors, none around the other. That meant it could either be a trap of some sort, or there were other soldiers hidden nearby it. Focusing about the room, Samus abruptly noticed something shifting. There were a number of plants on display in one corner of the room, opposite the first corridor. Something green within them was a slightly wrong color.

Now that she was looking for it, the bio suit jumped out at Samus. So the other guard was somewhat camouflaged, aiming to snipe anyone going for the corridor. Not a bad plan, but poorly executed. Slinking out of her corridor, Samus broke along the wall and into the bushes with almost no sound. No one started shooting, anyway.

Prowling through the thick vegetation, Samus moved around to behind the other bounty hunter. This one wouldn't be easy, that was certain. Unarmed, it was pretty tough to take a bio suit out of commission without raising very much noise. If the other guards got suspicious, the gig was up almost instantly. Going in shooting was probably a bad idea in this situation.

Watching the area surrounding the corridor carefully, the bounty hunter was completely unprepared when a foot smashed into the back of her knee. With a slight cry she dropped instantly, though even as she hit the ground she was whirling to fire with both arms. Before she could pull the triggers, both of her guns were pushed out of the way and a leg smashed into the side of her head.

Kicked off her feet, the bounty hunter sustained no damage but had her visor driven directly into the dirt. Whirling on her unknown attacker, she fired blindly, unable to see past the dirt on her visor. Had she hit? Where were they?

The bounty hunter flipped up her visor, just in time to get a glimpse of the barrel of a gun in her face...