CHAPTER 10: TOY SOLDIER
Hunter
Log 3847
The room at the far end of the
tunnel from the dome must have been an energy harvesting station. The
pirates are seemingly draining the Chozo of their life energy to
accomplish something.
Since this dome is where the harvesting is done, then the door must eventually lead to where the Chozo are being kept.
It's time to fry some pirate.
Samus
out...
Samus stepped over the body of the
dead pirate and exited the dome. A narrow hallway declined for easily
100 meters. Samus wearily made her way down.
When she came to the landing at the bottom, the room opened up into another massive chamber. Inside this chamber were four massive tanks, similar to the ones where she had encountered the "scientist". The only difference was that these were easily five times that size.
Samus entered the room and looked at the tanks. They were filled with a light blue liquid that only displayed a shadow of what was inside...and it was massive.
Samus moved around the room looking at the tanks. Four massive tanks holding four massive bodies. That's not a good sign.
Samus heard a clop! from her left. She turned to face the noise...it was a bounty hunter...
The hunter was clad in a green and blue armored suit. It seemed to be a little more heavily armored than Samus.
It took a step backwards, then charged toward Samus.
Samus dove behind a tank and readied her charge cannon with an ice beam shot. She turned and aimed to her left.
Soon she felt a massive slam on her back, between her shoulder blades. The hunter had leapt over the tank and landed on her back. It stuck its arm out and activated an energy knife that shot out from its wristband.
Samus rolled, knocking the hunter against the tank and jumped up. The hunter reeled for a moment, then chased after Samus. It jumped and grabbed Samus' ankle, causing her to fall.
It raised its energy knife, attempting a slash at Samus' leg, but she turned and blasted the charged ice shot directly at the hand with the knife. The shot connected and immediately froze the entire arm of the hunter.
Samus heard a scream from the hunter. She escaped the grasp and stood as the hunter clutched its frozen limb. Samus kicked the arm as hard as she could, and it shattered into fleshy and armored shards of frozen matter.
A shriek of massive pain erupted from the hunter as blood began pouring out of the arm socket. Samus reached down and disengaged the hunter's helmet. Inside was the beautiful young face of a teenage girl. She was crying, but trying to hold back under witness from Samus. Her brunette hair was matted to her head from the sweat caused by the injury and fight.
Samus removed her helmet as well. The girl gasped.
"Shoot first, ask questions later?" Samus asked with an eyebrow raised.
"Why did you do that..." asked the girl, sniffling.
"Shoot or be shot, kill or be killed...you remember that, don't you?" Samus inquired.
"I had just started when this whole thing went down...my father forced me to come along. They told me to kill you or they'd treat me like the big bird looking things..." replied the crying girl.
"Your father...so this thing is much bigger than just a rebellion. There really are unwilling fighters here... Where are the Chozo? The birds?" probed Samus.
"They're in a huge yard that looks like a prison...they're on the surface...I...I...don't want to...die here..." pleaded the girl.
"You'll be alright, just hang on." Samus said, denial not evident in her tone. The girl had lost too much blood already. She lie in a massive puddle that covered at least six square feet.
"H-help me...please..." whispered the girl, tears pouring from her eyes.
The girl huffed and whimpered a few times before relaxing her head into the puddle. The color and life faded from her face and eyes as her remaining tears trickled down her cheeks and mixed with the blood on the floor.
Samus sighed, then replaced the helmet over the girl's head.
She replaced her own helmet and began to exit the room. As she neared the door, she heard hurried footsteps coming down the hall. They were not the odd pitter-patter of pirate steps...they were human.
Samus quickly coiled next to the nearest tank and waited, watching.
Another hunter entered the room, but was taken aback by the obvious scene in the middle of a puddle of blood. An evident "NOOOOO!" was heard from the hunter as it ran to the dead girl.
It removed its helmet, revealing a man...probably the father.
"I never should have forced you to come...I never should have...you were everything...everything to me...now...I have nothing..." cried the man. Suddenly he quieted, though. He shot a glance toward the tank Samus was behind.
He had some kind of device around his head that had a lens over his right eye.
"Come out slowly..." he said toward Samus.
"How can he see me?" Samus thought. She relented, however, and emerged from behind the tank.
"Did you do this?" asked the man with obvious anger on his face.
Samus said nothing.
"I asked you a question! Did you do this?" he persisted, pointing at the corpse.
Samus remained silent.
"You're going to pay for this! You'll pay with your life!" the man erupted with a face red as a cherry and eyes full of fire and hatred.
He donned his helmet and placed his hand on a panel close to the wall.
The tank closest to Samus began to shudder and blue liquid began to seep from the bottom. The glass rose to the ceiling. A massive foot stepped down, almost crushing Samus. An immense roar filled the room.
The massive creature resembled a pirate, but was much bigger. It had energy pulsing through its body. Samus started to run.
An energy blast caught her in the back and made her turn to face the source. The man had shot at her and pursued her. His open palm met her chest plate and slammed her against the wall.
"This beast is going to take pride in dismembering you...just like you did to my daughter...except he'll finish the job..." sneered the man.
"If I'm going to die, just tell me one thing," Samus demanded.
"What do you want?" asked the hunter.
"What is that thing?" Samus inquired.
"THAT, my dear Samus, is an Ultimate Pirate, infused with the power of the Chozo. In the beginning of the experimentation, we tried to infuse the pirates with the actual blood of the Chozo...the results weren't exactly favorable. But we finally managed a way to extract the energy of the Chozo and feed it directly into the tissue of the pirates. While it still killed some, it worked remarkably for others. This is one of the others." lectured the hunter.
"Well then, you might want to get out of the way, then." replied Samus.
"Huh..." the hunter blurted as he turned to see a gigantic claw zooming toward him.
The claw connected and flung the hunter against the far wall. He tried to get up, but couldn't get past his knees.
Samus now stood eye to shin with the beast. She simply looked up at him and waited on him to move. It began to glow and pointed its palm at her. She knew it was the time to move. She dashed to the left as a beam erupted from the beast's hand. The continuous blast followed behind her. She dove as the beam traveled over her head and melted four machines that lined the wall.
The room began to shake as the other capsules began to open. The rushing blue liquid carried the dead body of the girl to the side of the room. Three more Ultimate Pirates emerged.
The hunter finally regained his composure and ran toward the large pirates.
"Get her, get her! That's Samus!" he yelled.
One of the Ultimates reached out and grabbed the hunter. It studied him, then tossed him to another Ultimate. It shook him a bit, then spoke in pirate language to the others. It then tossed the hunter into the air and all four Ultimates unleashed a blast on him. He was incinerated upon contact.
The Ultimates all laughed in a monstrous cacophony, then turned their focus to Samus.
She dashed directly toward them. As she neared, she noticed all four charging their beams.
She unleashed a super missile at the first Ultimate, which struck him in the chest. The explosion prompted him to blast, he missed, however, and struck one of the other Ultimates, dissolving a leg. When the second Ultimate fell to the ground, it let its beam fly, connecting with the head of the third one. Its body collapsed, lifeless, to the floor on top of the second Ultimate.
Two down, two to go.
The first and fourth Ultimates now remained, and were still able to fight. Samus fired three successive plasma shots at the fourth Ultimate. The connect each with a shoulder and the chest. It screamed and rushed at Samus, as did the first.
She dodged the hand of the first Ultimate, but the fourth snatched her up from the ground. It looked at the first, and tossed Samus into the air.
She knew what was coming...and waited. Before long, the blasts came toward Samus. She shot her grappling beam toward the top of one of the tanks. It connected and she retracted it, pulling herself out of the way of the blasts.
The two powerful beams struck the ceiling and caused it to crumble and fall in one section.
While their hands were nimble, the Ultimates lacked moving speed, and were crushed by the massive fragments of steel and rock that fell from the ceiling.
Samus landed on the ground and caught her breath.
In a small arena, there would be no escaping an Ultimate.
It's time to find the Chozo.
