The final chapter. The end. I don't know if anyone is reading this, because the stats page of my profile isn't showing any hits :(. Anyway, I may make a sequel or I may not. Either way, the end.
Chapter 6
The Federation had a base on this planet, the front of which was barricaded with fenced and, Ridley assumed, underground mines. The back was to a canyon wall, which meant attacks would have to be full frontal. Or so the soldier thought.
Working very slowly and by the cover of night, Ridley and Samus made their way down the canyon's wall. Many times the hunter looked down to the ground, expecting the soldiers to notice her and open fire. As they were, she and the dragon were completely vulnerable. And yet, just as Ridley had said, the soldiers never noticed them.
Finally, the hunter and the dragon reached the ground. Silently, they slipped between buildings, sneaking past oblivious soldier with ease. Samus was silently amazed that such a large creature as Ridley was able to move with such stealth, yet not a single soldier noticed them.
The base's hanger was simple to reach. Ridley cut a hole in the thin metal wall itself, the blade making a low creaking noise. When he'd worked a rather large opening, he slipped into the darkness. Samus following, and wishing she had her visor, which would allow vision in even the darkest of conditions.
A beam of bright, burning light lanced through the black and blinded Ridley and Samus. In her daze, something wrapped around her neck and she felt the cold steel of a pistol on the temple of her head. When eyes finally adjusted to the blinding light, she saw that Ridley had his rifle trained on her. No, she realized. He wasn't aiming at her, but the man who taken her hostage.
"Ridley," her captor said. "Last time I saw you, you were raiding one of our bases. You and your pirates."
The dragon didn't speak. He didn't move. He just held his rifle.
"Throw away your weapon or I'll blow her brains out."
Ridley chuckled. "The human. She means nothing to me colonel. She was just another gun for a time. Now that I have a ship, she's useless."
"Well then. Fire away," the captor laughed, his hot breath giving a sickening sensation as it touched Samus's bare skin.
"Let her go and you may leave. All I wanted was a ship."
Now it was the colonel's turn to laugh.
The dragon lowered his rifle to the floor and kicked it away. The colonel threw his hostage to the ground. Before Ridley could move, he was shot in the shoulder, then stomach and knee. The colonel fired at the dragon's tail and arms to assure no retaliation. The colonel loaded a new clip into his pistol and pushed the muzzle to the dragon's head. "I'm not one to fuck around Ridley," he cackled. "Go to hell where you belong.
BANG!
Smoke rose from the rifle's hot barrel and disintegrated into air. The colonel looked down at the wide, bloody hole in hiss chest and collapsed.
Samus slowly rose to her feet and slung the rifle over her shoulder. Her powersuit complemented her natural strength, so it wasn't hard for her to lift the dragon and help his broken body onto a ship. She started the engines and broke through the hanger's roof. Before any of the remaining soldier could board, their ships and give chase, Samus was nothing but a speck in the stars.
"I'll drop you in the out rim," the hunter said. "You should be able to get a transport to where ever you like from there."
Ridley weakly nodded. The human had, perhaps purposely, missed any of his vital organs to prolong his suffering. Never the less, the pain was immense.
"Thanks," she muttered. "For everything." Why he didn't kill her when she'd been taken hostage, she didn't know and she probably never would. Perhaps Ridley held some sort of respect for her. Perhaps she had proven herself in battle and gained her worth. And maybe, just maybe, she held a similar reverence for him.