Chapter 4

"What did you do to piss off the federation this much?" Ridley asked, his crescent head looking over his shoulder at Samus, who walked behind him through the forest.

"I blew up a space station," the hunter muttered, clutching her pistol tightly. Ridley had given her back her under suit, but she still felt so naked, so vulnerable. She really wanted to shoot him, but doubted her pistol would do anymore than piss the dragon off.

"You," he cackled. "Little space cadet got disgruntled with her boss?"

"Federation was cloning metroids," she said solemnly, not proud of what she'd done. "Then they were goanna clone the X."

"I've been on life support for the past few decades. Forgive me if I'm not up on current affairs."

"Um," she muttered. Why lie? she thought. "The X was a race of parasites. The metroid were their natural predators. When I killed the metroids off, the X ran rampant. They could've destroyed the galaxy."

"Wish I'd thought of using the X. They sound pretty dangerous," Ridley chuckled.

The dragon's tail suddenly swept behind him, catching Samus under the arm and knocking her to the ground. He turned and fired his rifle, the bolt of energy lancing through where the hunter had been mere minutes before. Behind her, a soldier slumped to the ground, a smoldering hole through his armor that had destroyed his heart. Rolling to her feet, Samus fired at another soldier who had failed to surprise her. Ridley continued his own assault, while swiftly taking cover behind a tree. Blast and laser tore away at his defense as he hurriedly reload his rifle. He wasn't sure when Samus joined him behind the cover, but with her there he got an idea.

"Cover me," he snarled over the roar of lasers.

"What?" Samus screamed, not daring to move from her safety.

"I'm trusting you," he grinned as he folded wings behind his back and began to crawl beneath the dozens of lasers. For a moment, the hunter thought of shooting him, or better simply running. But instead she abandoned her cover and fired, just to be sure the soldiers attention stayed on her.

The battle ended as briefly as it'd begun. Ridley appeared behind the soldier and fired. When they turned to slay him, Samus continued her assault. And in a moment of bright, flashing lights, the soldiers all fell.

Ridley trampled over a dozen corpses, plucking what ever arms he could unearth. He handed Samus a new rifle and nodded approvingly, before stalking past her and continuing on his way. When he had passed, she looked over her rifle and, satisfied it would at least hurt the dragon, she lifted it to her eye and took careful aim. Her muscles tensed, her finger itched, the scar on her belly began to ache. Her shoulders slumped and the rifle fell to her side. Quietly, she followed after the dragon.

Hours later

From her place of hiding in the woods, Samus let a stream of profanities escape her lips. The strange soldiers had found her ship and now an entire army was surrounding her best means to escape this rock. "Give me my suit," she said to Ridley, who was crouched beside her.

The dragon snarled.

"I can contact my ship's AI through my suit."

"And I lose my collateral."

"Trust is the basis of any relationship," Samus muttered.

The dragon looked out towards the ship, and the hundreds of armed humanoids, all cradling rifles. Reluctantly, Ridley relinquished the sack that he carried. In moments, Samus had entered her second skin, and in an instant, her eyes were swarmed with numbers and words as information passed over her visor. Her suits system was so integrated into her consciousness; all she had to do was think the message she'd send to the AI, and it was done. Slowly, the ship's guns slowly lowered and began to crank and crackle with life, confusing the soldiers who had spent hours trying to break into the ship's advanced computers. Realizing what was happening, some of the men tried to run. They were far to slow.

When the weapons had ground to a halt, the last of the soldiers had fallen to the ground in a pool of their still warm blood. While Samus glided across the battle field, timidly followed. He slowly cocked his rifle and stiffened his tail; both would be necessary for a victory over the fully armed hunter. Samus spun and lifted her cannon to Ridley's chest, the ships weapon's focusing on him as well.

"Now," she whispered. "Throw away your weapon."