CHAPTER 3: HOT PURSUIT

Hunter Log 3839
Those bastards. I'm going to find out who they are and make them pay. I'm sure that, as hunters, they had visited that station many a time for repairs on their own crafts. Why attack an installation independent of the government and military? Did they know I was there? Or was there something else they didn't want leaving?

The ship that attacked the station was an Emerald Class. The lowest class of battleship commissioned by the Confederation. The Confederation Military decommissioned all of them about 40 years ago, citing inefficient armor for combat situations...a fixable problem in my opinion. This ship, seemed to have fixed that problem. Instead of the normal grey-blue plating that covered the hull, this one had a flashy yellow-green hull that changed from your point of view. The shape of the hull was also different. A more efficient, more aerodynamic armor system smoothed the craft over from stem to stern, bearing a striking resemblance to a shiny rocket or a bullet...I've never seen anything like it.

In all of my encounters with the Space Pirates, I've never seen one of their space vessels...and I guess this is standard design for their crafts.

Here's my chance to look it over up close...

Samus out...
The ships both slowed to a mid-space hover, the larger unaware of the smaller ship following it. Slowly, Samus had her ship near the underside of the Emerald Class and attach to it like a remora clinging to the belly of a whale. The hatch slid open to reveal a waste hatch on the battleship.

"Well, if this is what it takes..."

Then Samus looked to her right...

"What...no..."

Bearing itself before the battleship stood a cluster of large planet fragments. At the center was what looked like a smooth and shiny ball bearing with what looked like massive grappling beams extending in five directions. At the end of each beam was a section of the planet. On each section, there was an inconceivably large metal plate. Upon further inspection, there were Space Pirates clinging to each metal surface, seemingly fixing fractures in the plates. Around the five main parts of the planet were smaller chunks of earth being pushed this way and that by small propulsion engines...evidently unplanned breakages of the main sections. From what it appears, the planet was meant to be able to explode, but was also meant to be repaired fairly easily.

"Zebes..."

Before she could finish her thought, Samus felt the battleship begin to move. She quickly slipped back into her ship and sealed the hatch. She had to stay close to the battleship or she would be detected. She input the command to move with the ship and she sat back to "enjoy the show".

The ships moved together toward one of the planet fragments. The closer they came, the better she could see the violet-blue rock surface of the planet she had become so familiar with...she also began to make out the activity on the surface...pirates...everywhere. Definitely not the place to land.

A quick scan of the area revealed an energy bridge reaching out toward one of the smaller fragments. The surface appeared quiet and bare. That would be the point of entry.

"Grady, enable the cloaking device, we're going to the fragment at the end of that energy bridge."

"Aye, ma'am."

Suddenly the cockpit of the ship went pitch black, and the ship disappeared from sight. It slowly drifted towards the small rock and carefully landed on the surface. If any dust was kicked up, her location would be given away. The touchdown had to be just right. A minute yo-yo effect was the sign of a successful landing.

"Grady, scan the surface and area for surveillance. I want to assure I won't be spotted when I get out."

"Ma'am. Nothing aimed in this direction, ma'am. You're clear for exit."

"Thank you, Grady. I'll see you later."

"Counting on it, Ms. Aran."

The hatch opened and Samus popped out of the ship like a jack-in-the-box. She landed on the surface and stayed crouched. She scanned the surface quickly and found an air lock about ten yards away. She dashed towards it and stopped next to it. No bells and whistles, just a round swivel handle. Samus reached for the handle.

Just before her hand could touch the handle, it began to turn by itself. Samus stood up alertly and moved to the back of the hatch. It opened toward her and the space pirate poked his head out. He looked around on the surface and saw nothing. Then he looked up...face to face with Samus. Before he could make a noise, Samus made one for him. She crashed a fist down right in his face, making him slide down the ladder, hitting his head rung by rung PUNGPUNGPUNGPUNGPUNG! until he hit the bottom with a thud.

Samus jumped into the hole and landed next to the pirate. Broken jaw, snapped neck...yeah, this guy was gone.

"There must be some significance to this small rock for them to build a bridge to it," Samus thought. She cautiously began down the corridor amidst clusters of pipe work spewing steam at unsecured junctions. Once she came to the end of the corridor, she stopped. It opened up into a rather large room that seemed to pulse with blue-green light. She peered around the corner and saw a room filled with capsules that resembled cryo-tanks...but were filled with effervescent liquid...and contained different kinds of creatures... There seemed to be no extra activity in the room, so she proceeded with caution.

The room was massive. Approximately thirty tanks lined the walls, and eight tanks were spread throughout the floor. Small control panels were at the base of each tank. The tanks themselves varied in size and height, ranging anywhere from about 13 to even 35 feet high, and anywhere from 6 to 20 feet in diameter. In the larger tanks, normal size space pirates were hooked to breathing systems and seemed to be suspended lifelessly in the bubbling liquid. In the smaller tanks, other space pirates drifted much the same, but energy would pulse though the viscous substance intermittently. Different colors in different tanks...strange.

A noise...a sliding door...hide. Samus quickly dashed to a corner where there was a nook between two wall tanks and a space behind a floor tank. In walked what seemed to be a space pirate...but it looked somewhat different than the ones Samus had faced in combat. It was black with light blue patches here and there. Instead of primal claws, this one had distinct digits, four of them, lacking an opposable thumb, but having what looked like a dew claw. It began walking from tank to tank, recording information or notes in what looked to be an electronic notepad. Every few tanks or so, he would make a growling or grumbling sound, then move on. He began to get closer to Samus, but she didn't want to kill this one...she wanted to study it and see why it was different from the rest... She began to scan her immediate environment. She looked directly above her and saw a shelf-like structure above a row of tanks, shielded to the inside. That's where she needed to be.

After the "scientist" pirate finished his inspection, he let out a noise that sounded much like a loud belch, then left the same way he entered. Samus wearily jumped down, assuming that the coast was clear. She walked about the tanks once again. She peered into one closely...and the pirate moved. It made Samus jump backward, stumbling into another tank with a loud CLANK! . The sliding door flung itself open and the "scientist" pirate entered the room, immediately spotting Samus. Both paused in a temporary silence, then the pirate made a screech in a pitch that made Samus squint her eyes. Quickly she fired a shot at the "scientist", but he leapt out of the way. The shot hit a tank and reflected away...only to hit another tank. The shot pinged around in the room like a ball in a pinball machine. Samus and the "scientist" hit the floor to avoid the shot. After a few seconds, Samus began to hear cracks. She looked up to notice that activity was taking place in each of the tanks. The sound must be disturbing the pirates inside. The shot finally hit a control panel and absorbed into it, causing it to short and explode in a cascade of sparks.

The pirate inside the tube fell forward and through the glass wall, onto the ground. Upon hitting the floor, the pirate made sharp gasping noises with its eyes about as wide as they could be. From time to time, it pulsed and convulsed with yellow energy. In a few moments the gasping stopped and it begin to stand.

From behind Samus, the "scientist" screeched at the other pirate and got its attention. The yellow pirate dashed at Samus and swung with a massive claw. Samus jumped to the side and punched the pirate in the face. The punch landed on the side of the pirate's head and stopped. No movement. It didn't even faze the pirate. Quickly, Samus jumped backward and away from the pirate. Both were seemingly in shock. The pirate couldn't believe it wasn't hurt, and neither could Samus.

The pirate jumped at Samus and tackled her. It made a hissing sound and raised its claw above its head for a killing blow.

"Look down." Samus instructed the pirate.

It looked down just in time to see her arm cannon in its torso before it was blown off of her and onto the catwalk above. Samus jumped up and pursued the pirate on the catwalk. The pirate lie on the floor with a hole in its torso, convulsing. After a few screeches, the pirate began doing something Samus had never seen...healing. The hole bubbled and filled back up as the pirate came to its feet once again. Samus heard what seemed to be a laugh come from the pirate as he began to recoil to strike again.

Samus began to charge up her cannon.

They jumped at each other and met in mid-air.

"Let's see if you can heal this..."

Samus released the charged shot in the face of the pirate. When they landed, the pirate was still standing, but behind him, Samus noticed the head land in a splatter of yellow. The pirate's arms reached up and grabbed Samus' shoulders, but then slipped and fell to the floor. The head and body began to boil into a yellow liquid that seeped through the gaps in the catwalk. What didn't run through the catwalk boiled away into steam and vanished.

What kind of new creature was this...and how many are there?

Samus went through the door the "scientist" exited through during the battle. In the next room was the energy bridge. Samus began walking across the bridge and heard something behind her. She turned to see the "scientist" holding onto a lever. She knew immediately what that lever did.

He flipped the switch and the bridge began to disengage. Samus had to run. She began dashing as fast as she could toward the next fragment. The end of the energy bridge quickly in her pursuit. The closer she came to the next fragment, the closer the edge of the bridge came to her. Suddenly she lost her footing and began to fall, but before she did, she launched her grappling beam toward the end of the tunnel. It went into the tunnel, but she continued to fall. Finally, the beam struck something and Samus stalled, hanging between the two planet fragments.

Not a good place to be...