CHAPTER 7: GONE FISHIN'

Hunter Log 3844
Hmm...I never knew I could look so good.

Those clones were something else...something other than smart.

That blast really packed a punch. It's stronger than the standard energy blast.

If the other bounty hunters are helping the pirates, then I'm sure they've come up with some strange combination to make some very lethal weapons.

Well, I guess there's only one way out of here, and it's time to go there.

Samus out...
Samus checked over her suit for damage. There was none, but she felt like someone had swung a bat into her ribs. That was no normal blast.

Since the clones were evidently formed from water, it was beyond Samus how they could have had energy weapons. This was an entirely new technology.

Samus shrugged off the thoughts and prepared to enter the water. Before she did, however, she noticed one of the lockers on the wall had been punctured by one of the energy blasts. Inside was a small gray device about the size of a spark plug.

It was a gravity simulation adaptor. A piece of equipment used by bounty hunter for underwater combat and exploration. That would come in handy.

Samus grabbed the adaptor and inserted it into her chest guard. Her suit circuitry hummed and then her visor donned a light purple tint. One look at her reflection in the water showed the full effect of the adaptor.

The rest of her suit had changed to match the tint of the visor. The yellow areas of her suit had changed to a dark violet color to display the gravity simulation.

"Time to go fishing..." Samus said to herself as she entered the water.

The water inspired a cooling effect on Samus' suit and caused a cramping in her injured ribs. She gritted her teeth as her suit began to equalize the temperature. Before long, she was comfortable and could move freely in the water as if she were on land.

She moved forward about 20 feet and the corridor opened up into what seemed to be a massive lake bottom. Fish teemed in a reef-like structure above. Crabs and other bottom feeding lifeforms crawled and slithered across the hardened sediment floor. Samus continued walking along what seemed to be the bottom of a deep trench.

Despite the depth, it was rather well-lit at the bottom with an exception being a cave at the end of the trench. Nothing could be seen inside but darkness. Above the cave were step-like structures, obviously engineered so pirates could get to the top of the reef.

Samus approached the cave, but as she did, she was struck by something so quickly; it sent her spinning in a barrel roll before she landed on the ground. As soon as she hit, she began to glance around. A giant eel was zooming straight for her, mouth open and teeth bore.

Samus rolled to the side and tried to blast with her ice cannon. It simply froze on the end of her cannon and fell off in a chunk that floated toward the surface.

"Well...that narrows things down a bit." Samus said sarcastically to herself.

The eel turned sharply and struck at the floating ice chunk.

"Well well...driven by motion...I think I can handle this."

The eel chomped at the ice chunk furiously until there was nothing left. It then looked around for another target...to its right.

It zoomed toward another moving body. It struck. An explosion.

The eel recoiled and hissed. It had just bitten a missile.

Samus chuckled to herself. This creature was a little bit of comic relief. This time she fired a missile first, then a slower super missile behind it.

The eel struck at the missile and caused another explosion. Shortly after the first explosion, a second, much larger explosion was heard. Both were dull thuds in the water, but the second one actually threw Samus to the ground from the shock waves.

As the air bubbles rose, they revealed the damage done to the eel. After the first missile, it must have angled to the side and the super missile had struck it in one of its eyes, vaporizing it, as well as that side of its face.

The eel's head was now half-skull, half-face. It sensed the movement of the sediment from the ground and struck at it.

In a split second it was right upon Samus, but she fired a single super missile directly into the throat of the beast, halting its motion.

The eel immediately began to vibrate and finally exploded into a cloud of red and gray chunks. The beast's blood caused a fogging of the water and the pieces of flesh rose toward the surface. As they did, many carnivorous fish from the reef converged on them, devouring them before they floated too high.

Samus marveled at the cycle of life...but not too long. She began to scale the steps leading to the top of the trench.

After a few minutes, she had made her way to the top. Thirty yards away stood the massive Confederation wreckage of CV-10962.

It was originally a scientific exploration vessel sent to identify the inhabitants of Planet Zebes and study them. What it found was a batch of Space Pirates led by a massive brain that just couldn't seem to stay dead.

The ship did brandish something that Samus had not seen before. A hole about forty feet in diameter had been blown in the hull of the lower decks.

Samus proceeded cautiously toward the ship, keeping her eyes locked onto the hull breach. Something suddenly emerged from the hole.

It was Draygon! The proud king of Maridia. It swam slowly out of the ship, screeching and howling. It turned over on its back, squirting its caustic gray goo and swinging its massive tail.

Behind the massive sea-creature, nearly a dozen mochtroids shot out of the ship in pursuit.

The energy sapping lifeforms swarmed the monster. It began to roll in a fashion similar to a crocodile with its prey. It eventually spun quickly enough to throw the parasites off into the water. Draygon then spotted Samus and screamed.

Samus dashed at the large mutated crayfish with missiles blazing through the water. Many struck and exploded on Draygon's soft underbelly.

It howled again, but in response, it covered its vulnerable spot with its many arms and legs. The remaining missiles impacted the limbs and exploded, causing minimal damage.

By this time, the mochtroids had recovered and once again swarmed on the massive crustacean. It wailed as the mochtroids' tentacles slipped inside its plate armor on its back. After a moment it once again exposed its stomach.

Samus launched five super missiles at it and all five connected. Draygon belched a small load of gray goo and air bubbles as its eyes strained, blood vessels thickening. The beast's motion slowed and halted, but the mochtroids remained locked onto it.

Instead of floating to the surface like other sea life, it began to sink to the bottom, mochtroids and all. They pulsed and pulsed with more and more energy until Draygon's corpse began to turn a dull brown. The mochtroids finally released and the once great king of Maridia crumbled and dissolved into the water.

The mochtroids hovered closer to Samus, who readied her cannon. They hovered closer, but not a single mochtroid touched her. They simply lingered around her, then swam off into the trench.

Were the full from their feast, or was there something larger in scope going on than what was obvious? Was there a war going on between the pirates and the metroid race?

This could be an unexpected problem...or could it be a blessing?