Whodunit? The murder, suicide, disappearance, etc. of Adam Malkovitch is argued by Samus. Keaton and Hardy never win arguments so they just sit there and get argued at. NO FLAMES TELLING ME THAT BIT WAS NOT IN ENGLISH PROPER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (It wasn't meant to be, or at least that's my excuse)

Also, I will tell you again, I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING FROM THIS FANFIC! DO NOT SUE ME; ALL YOU WILL GET OUT OF IT IS AN ANOYED SOLICITOR.

From now on capitals mean someone is shouting

Chapter 5: Great Fox, Elysium and Wildfire

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S DEAD?" shouted Samus at the worried looking Chairman Keaton and hungry looking Chief Officer Hardy "What happened?"
"What do people normally mean when they say dead Samus?" asked Hardy in a calm voice. Samus could tell he wanted this over ASAP; Hardy was never calm unless he wanted a sandwich.
"Well," started Samus, "I wonder. There is a slight chance that you mean the absence of life, but I wouldn't put money on it." Keaton was about to interrupt when Samus gave him a piercing glare. He gave up trying before he even started. "OF CORSE I KNEW YOU MEANT THAT HE WAS DECEACED!" An officer that just walked in was almost deafened. He left in a hurry. "What I wanted to know is do you have any information on how he died, who did it and why?"

Samus was finding it hard to simmer down since her phone call two chapters ago, so when Keaton called her to a 'discussion' between Hardy and himself, she didn't bother.
Hardy was about to say something but changed his mind and instead put his hand to his mouth.
"What is it Hardy?" said Samus, somewhere between a raised voice and a shout.
"Nothing, Samus." he snapped, although not quite as angrily as the verb implies.
"Spit it out Hardy." ordered Samus to her superior. Hardy quickly swallowed the bit of tuna mayo sandwich that he found in his pocket a few seconds earlier.
Samus had not meant the sandwich, but now it was gone Hardy was more loquacious

"Samus. We had been trying to call Malkovitch for half-an-hour but his radio was engaged. Our scanners picked up signs of life on his ship that were not dissimilar to that of a Space Pirate or rather a group of about ten of them. We also scanned a small ball of energy near the Pirates. We got through to him as soon as you hung up. All we heard was the start of an explosion followed by his sub-space radio going dead. At the same time our scanners picked up a blast of energy from the small ball of energy. It must have been EMP or something similar as our scanners would not pick up anything from that area for a good five minutes. When we finally got our scanners working for that area again there was just an empty ship with no trace of life remaining other than one hominid corpse. We were unable to tell if it was human."
"Oh," said Samus, who was now much calmer, "have you sent an..."
She was successfully interrupted by Keaton this time, "...Away team? No we were hoping that you would lead one to investigate." Samus didn't look pleased. "There is a bounty on the technology the Space Pirates used against your late friend if that helps you make up your mind."
"And you have salvaging rights to anything you find on your assignment." butted in Hardy.
That was an easy choice for Samus. Stay at home on her ass doing nothing watching Steven Erwent's Space-Croc hunter, or getting paid for a small investigation followed by a possible chance of avenging a friend's death. But within a few seconds a revelation occurred that forced her to change her mind. She remembered that her hotel room TV was still broken.

Read chapter 3 again, about half way down you will understand.

A few hours later, Samus and a 'specially trained' group of interested volunteers walked into SR3Alpha21's main spaceport in a place called 'New Houston' in New Texas. Samus insisted that they just go to her ship and take it and a few Federation ships from nearby and leave. But Hardy was better at insisting. Honestly, the things that man does to give the Federation a bit of publicity.

Samus took her ship, which she still hadn't named yet, and the other ten took two of the Fed's best ships; Great Fox and Elysium. Samus decided now was the time to name her ship; she had, after all, had it for over ten years now. She named it Wildfire, after its colour, flame orange.

Samus lead the way with Wildfire, and Great Fox and Elysium followed. Elysium was named after the eleventh planet in the Sol System (that's where Earth is), discovered in the late 22nd century. Great Fox was found in the Lylat System with all her crew dead.

It took them two hours to reach SR3Beta63's orbit, where Adam's ship was, motionless like a spy satellite. It should have taken half-an-hour, but when Samus noticed that she had some super-missiles left, she decided to go via Tseldania. She had no super-missiles left when they reached Adam's ship.

"Great Fox, Elysium. This is Wildfire." Samus reported over the radio. "Primary life scans detect nothing out of the ordinary. Atmosphere scanners indicate a high level of methane gas. Suit up everybody. We're going in."
Samus did a quick scan of the planets surface for life, but found none.

Once in the ship, Samus and team split up looking for tell-tale signs that would help understand what went on here. The crew of Elysium went to look round the cargo bay where the pirates were first seen. Samus and the crew of Great Fox searched the cockpit. No one had brought any weapons other that Samus.

Surprisingly, the ship seemed as if nothing had happened. Samus looked around the cockpit and saw the one corpse that Hardy told her about and made a note in her log book. "Arrived safely at the ship. No sign of life. Found the corpse. It's Pirate."
One of the crew of the Great Fox summoned Samus over to have a look at something. On the scanner's control panel was a note. A note which Samus recognised as being written in her hurried handwriting. It read "Scan coordinates: x1023432y2352145z1230241." Samus typed the coordinates into his scanner-imager and was greeted with a hologram of the Theta-Region. What Samus did not understand was the one star and it's Earth-like planet that kept appearing for a short time every so often in the very centre of the hologram.

A few hours later...

The crew of the Elysium arrived at the cockpit just after Samus sent for them.
"Anything?" Samus asked, not expecting anything.
"Nothing, other that the remnants of an explosion." was the reply she got.

Samus decided that they had seen all they needed to here. They had taken a few photos, copied some data from the ship's computer, retrieved the black box and carried the corpse to Wildfire to be taken back to the Federation labs. There was nothing left for them to do here.

Samus was doing a few preliminary tests of her Wildfire's scanners ready for the complete scan of the Theta-Region. (Don't ask me for the coordinates again, I can't and won't be bothered to type them in again.)

Suddenly, she received a distress call from the Great Fox.
"Samus," cried the voice on the other end, "we have just been invaded by Space Pirates. Requesting backup..." The line went dead.
Samus quickly put Wildfire's defences on 'anything-that-moves-other- than-Samus' mode, and ran outside towards the Great Fox.
The door opened and Samus expected one of the crew but was instead greeted by a Space Pirate. She charged up her last super missile and decapitated it before it had a chance to draw a weapon.
"Why the Great Fox?" Samus thought to herself out loud. Then it hit her, the black box and ship's data were on the Great Fox.
She rolled into a ball and boost-balled all the way to the cockpit, where the crew should have been with the precious cargo. It was empty. The ship's auto destruct warning read 0:10.
She quickly placed a power bomb at the front of the ship. 0:03. The bomb just made a hole big enough to fit through. Samus escaped and ran for her life. 0:00. Samus looked round just as the ship exploded. It was like a blue giant going supernova, in miniature. She was almost hit by a flying piece of the ship but ducked just in time.

Samus saw the four Starwings flying away from the Great Fox. One of the definitely had cargo. There was no point chasing, the Starwings were faster than Wildfire, and Samus knew it. Only Elysium was fast enough to chase after the Starwings.

Samus ran towards Elysium, but before she was close enough it was ripped to pieces by its auto destruct. Samus couldn't believe it; five minutes ago stood two of the Fed's best ships. Now there was just a gaping hole in the temporary docking platform and what was left of the ships was now orbiting the systems star, in ruins and forgotten.

Wildfire had not been touched. It was too antipirateive to let any Space Pirates in.

Antipirateive adj 1: Pirate proof (the ship was ) 2 A person or thing with an extreme dislike for pirates. Copyright Britt&iccer Inline Dictionary

So that's it for this chapter.
Join us next time for the next exciting instalment, Chapter Six, the one after five. Will Link have explained to him the mysteries that he was presented with?
Then next chapter, will the corpse prove anything?
What is with the note in Samus' handwriting?
And what will she find next time she performs a scan of the Theta- Region?

Coming soon to a chapter near you...
The reason the story is called X-OVA!!
(P.S. if you read carefully, the Xing-Ova will come sooner.)