Chapter 3: Not Alone

"Sht" Samus said as she leaned against a wall out of breath. She was deep in the city now, the girl Samus took chance after had lost her in narrow allies and sharp turns the city provided.

"Fck!" She cursed aloud again in frustration before reaching under her helmet. Samus cleared her throat, "This is Samus. Alright… better do this now." She cleared her throat again and took in a gulp of air; she didn't want too sound out of breath on the record. "Okay, from what I gather I'm on an older model space station, an O type station, and unregistered one. It seems abandoned, just me and what may be a child or holoframe or something; I haven't checked the whole station there may be others. In the station's spear there was sign of struggle,20 or so human's dead, there were space pirates, maybe Nubians. The spear is decompressing, we'll be loosing orbit once that-- Wait, what's that."

Samus could hear a beam cannon discharging, no two. She continued, "I hear some action maybe some one else is here. I'm checking it."

The sounds came from what a few blocks south. She took of in that direction; as she neared when a large blast shook her to the ground. "Wow…" Samus whispered as she picked herself up off the ground and regained her sense of balance. Glass from surrounding massive buildings showered down around her. Smoke billowed from behind a building into an intersection just ahead. Samus pointed her beam cannon ahead, still a bit shaken up from the explosion. In the smoke she could see a figure moving, backing away from the explosion's origin defensively. Samus didn't fire, but she didn't lower her cannon.

The figure suddenly jumped from the veil of smoke and into Samus' view. Black armor was all she could make out before another explosion went off, this time close enough to knock Samus backward. Instinctively she let the force of the blast push her upper body back, she used the momentum to throw her feet above her then behind; her toes met the ground first then her knee. The buildings swayed slightly above her and more glass speckled around her this time a bit delayed from the fall.

"What the hell!" Samus lunged forward from her crouched position towards the road's junction and its new crater. The black armor was gone, but that was at the back of her mind now, it wasn't the cause of the explosions. What was became Samus' current priority. A blast that strong could knock over sky scrapers if the placement was right. That was something that couldn't be chanced; it could mean a whole sector going.

Samus neared the intersection and jumped into the smoke facing the east same direction as black armor before her. The smoke didn't impair her sight much but she didn't see anything that registered as a threat. Her movement slowed as she quickly scanned the surrounding buildings windows for any sign of an attacker. Samus didn't see anything, she continued across the street out of this attacker's line of sight and any immediate danger.

Samus quickly checked her surroundings then knelt to take a quick breath. The suit was definitely getting harder to move. "I'm not getting paid enou—" She caught herself and smiled briefly.

Samus entered the closet building, the one on the south east corner of the intersection. It was a commercial building, an empty one. No dry wall up yet, just the bare bones of the place. Samus made her way to the stairs.

"Alright this crap is getting weird; someone else is in here with me. A person in a black armor suit, a holoframe couldn't support weight like that. Someone—something is trying to take him out with a missile launcher. No, an energy launcher, I didn't hear anything until the explosion. Um." Samus paused for a second to check what floor she was on; the 5th she continued up. "From what I'm seeing this station isn't even in use; no cars on the streets, the buildings I've seen aren't finished. I still have no idea why or how I'm here." She paused again. "Sht. Damn hunting guild. Damn suit." Samus reached for the button under her helmet and pushed it. "Stuff happened." She let go.

Samus left the stair well at the tenth floor. Like the first floor this one was open and empty, the northern windows we all blown out. Samus heard another explosion go off to the west.. This time it wasn't close enough to do damage though. "What is going on here?" She asked herself as she neared destroyed windows. Again Samus served the eastward down the street still nothing, to the west she saw smoke rising over some of the smaller buildings. She turned, headed again for the stair well, but something was there waiting for her.

"So, it was pirates."

A pirate entered the open space in traditional pirate armor. Blade-cannons mounted on each of its long arms. His torso covered in a think layer of dark green metal, intended to deflect wounds to vital organs, the limbs in a heat resistant black plastic, just enough to keep the pirate breathing without an atmosphere handy, and yet still provide mobility; what space pirates were known for.

Samus raised her cannon and began firing. Her shots connected but the pirates shielding nullified any damage. The pirate returned fire forcing Samus to take cover behind the buildings support pillars. Another muffled inaudible swear left her lips. Samus quickly peaked out from behind her pillar fired two shots then retreated again. There were two of them now; pirates always came in large numbers. That was their other claim to fame.

"Sht!" This time the pirates probably heard her. Samus charged her beam cannon, her fist clenched tightly around the trigger. She ducked out, aimed, fired and ducked back in. There were five now and they were beginning to surround her, and with her suit this weak there wasn't much Samus could do. She pushed off the pillar and made a run for the northern windows, she'd jump to the next building and work out a plan from there, or at least that was the plan. A laser caught her back. The force of the blast knocked her off balance, and though the suit itself stopped the beam from going through her she could feel the suit melt into her skin. She cringed in pain. The window was coming up fast, she wouldn't make the jump A bit of the unbroken glass shattered as she stumbled through it and began her decent.

"Shit. This is gonna hurt."