CHAPTER 6
HUNTER
LOG 3857
Wonderful. They think I killed
Marcusson. On top of that, I've invited the bomber into my ship and
I'm taking her to Orpheus. It seems like an invitation to be led in
to slaughter. But when have I ever been known to refuse an invitation
like that?
There is still something about Lita that seems to be beyond my comprehension. I still can't place it, and it's going to bother me until I find out what it is...
Samus out...
"Ma'am, I'm picking up strange
readings from the site of the Alpha Combine,"
"Define strange, Grady," Samus said.
"Not overly human, ma'am. None of the ships are from the Confederation, and all seem to be running off of a power source unknown to my scanners,"
"Not overly human? Does that mean you are picking up human readings?"
"One, but it seems faint. Do you want to keep the course for Orpheus?"
"Keep course, and run under cover. I want to see them without them seeing us," Samus said.
"Affirmative. Initiating cloaking system,"
"You have a cloaking device on this thing?" Lita asked.
"A personal touch. It comes in handy," Samus answered.
Before long, the remains of the combine came into sight. Three massive flagships surrounded the station in a triangular pattern. The stern MAC guns of each ship extended, glistening in the light of the stars. At first glance, Samus thought the MAC guns were engines. The design was one she had never seen before. Three MAC barrels were clustered together. The combination of the three would equalize the firing time allowing for at least one cannon to always be ready.
"That is an ingenious design, three MAC guns..." Samus trailed.
"Actually, there is a flaw. Think about it. With the guns in close proximity to each other, the heat generated by one will transfer to both of the other cannons. The chances of all three being fired completely and accurately in one round are very slim," Lita explained.
"That's interesting..." said Samus as they moved past the installation.
"Approaching the Orpheus base, ma'am,"
"Take us in easy, Grady. Let's see if we can find another docking point around the one we used last time," Samus said.
The ship swooped in and passed the hole that was blown in the decks.
"There," Samus pointed.
Grady took the ship in and docked to a port directly below the previously visited deck.
"Put this on, just in case," Samus told Lita, handing her a compression helmet and suit.
"Yeah...just in case," Lita acknowledged as she donned the equipment.
"Or you could suffocate in the vacuum of space," Samus chuckled.
"That would suck..." Lita cracked back.
Samus and Lita exited the ship onto a loading deck. Large metal containers lined the walls of the dimly lit room. The two ventured into the blue-grey shadows to search the room.
"Now you said you knew how to turn the lights on in here, right?" Samus asked.
"In theory," Lita replied.
Samus stopped and stared at Lita.
"WHAT? It's not like I've actually been here before," Lita blurted with her hands on her hips.
Samus shook her head and continued on. All of the containers looked to be sealed shut, and upon closer inspection, there seemed to be no exit. Samus knew there had to be a way out.
"This room looks too perfect," Lita remarked.
"What do you mean?" Samus asked.
"This station was abandoned in disarray. Everyone was in a hurry to get out of here when the virus got out of control, do you really think anything would have been left in such pristine condition? I don't think so. There's something weird about these containers," Lita explained as she walked around, knocking on the metal boxes.
Lita progressed around the room, hearing the same uniform clang! clang! from each box, until she got to the back wall. A few boxes over, she received a thud! thud! .
"It's this box," she announced, "We've gotta move it,"
"I'll take care of it," Samus said, aiming her arm cannon at the box.
Lita ran behind Samus as the front face of the container exploded into shards around them.
"That was high quality stuff. My blast would normally carry all the way through...and look, there's a door inside the box," Samus said as she rubbed the blown edge with her hand.
"If I'm correct, this door should lead us into the maintenance deck," Lita said.
"You sure seem to know a lot about this place," Samus remarked.
"I promise, I've studied it up for years," Lita said defensively.
Samus simply turned and opened the door. Stale air and dust rushed out. Samus smelled it through her ventilator. It was dirty and moist...and something else...
"Listen, things will go a little faster if I go on ahead. I'll get the lights on here in a few, so wait up on me here," Lita said as she ran off into the dark room.
"Wait, Lita," Samus said as she grasped for Lina's arm.
All she heard were fading footsteps in the darkness...and she was alone again. Of all the bells and whistles her suit had, Samus didn't have a flashlight. She had to rely on instinct in this chamber.
She proceeded cautiously with one hand stretched out in front of her. After a few steps, her hand rested gently on a surface. It was curved, cylindrical...about the width of her shoulders. She tapped on it. clang! clang! Metal.
Samus turned a quarter turn to her right and began forward again. This time, she was halted at her waist. She bumped into an object. Her hand fell slowly trying to find the top of the surface. It was flat. Maybe some kind of a table. She ran her hand to the side slowly and brushed against a few items. One jolted as Samus drew her hand back. The item swirled on the table and settled back on its base. That was a glass container...
Maintenance deck?
Samus reached directly to her left. Another cylindrical object. plink! plink! Glass. Samus turned toward it.
Suddenly, there were a few strobes, then intense light. Samus squinted, trying to adjust, then looked in front of her. She jolted backwards, tripping over a rolling chair and collapsing to the floor with her arm cannon aimed back in front of her.
"Saaaaamus! I got the power running! I...what are you doing?" Lita yelled, running back into the room.
Samus still lie on the floor, breathing hard, aiming at the containment vessel in front of her.
"Come ON, Samus. It's just a Geemer," Lita said nonchalantly.
"It's not supposed to be there," Samus said.
"Not totally. Remember that working culture of the virus that was studied? It came from a Geemer, not a human. The infectious reactions occurred too quickly in humans for scientists to harvest a working sample, but once they discovered Geemers on the nearby SR-390 dying off slowly, they brought a few back to study. From the first Geemer, they harvested the most complete culture of the virus, unfortunately, after tainting the Geemer DNA, the virus became airborne...which resulted in the demise of the Asteroid Base at Orpheus," Lita explained.
"Studied it for years..." Samus uttered under her breath.
"By the time they could get a good sample, it was too late. Still, the strange thing was the fact that the virus was unable to be traced in infected human specimen...it's like it disappeared," Lita scrunched her brow.
Samus got up.
"Since you know so much about this place, do you know if it has a way to listen to com waves?" Samus asked.
"There should be. I think I remember finding a wavelength interceptor back when the Galactic Federation...uuhhh..." Lita stuttered and turned around.
"What about the Galactic Federation?" Samus asked.
"The interceptor is over here. I'll see if it still works," Lita said as she rushed to the back of the room.
Samus stood confused. Lita wasn't making sense with all of her ramblings. It's impossible that she would know so much about Orpheus at the age she was. Even though she was scarcely younger than Samus, there was no possible way. As far as Samus knew, information as detailed as what Lita knew had died with the scientists after the epidemic.
"Hey Samus, check this out! It's a systemwide broadcast, some political hoo-ha," Lita announced.
...we grieve the loss of President Marcusson.
May he rest in peace.
As the lawmaking body of the Confederation,
we feel that it is best to allow it to die along with our leader. By
a unanimous vote, we have determined that it would be best if another
federation were formed to replace the one that existed before
President Marcusson's tenure. May I announce to you the reemergence
of the Galactic Federation!
Thunderous applause erupted from the crowd in attendance.
"Wow, sounds like a big deal," Lita said with very little interest.
"It might be even bigger than that. I'm not sure what's going on, but things are getting a little strange, even for my taste," Samus said.
Suddenly the two felt a vibration. The waves knocked a beaker from the table. The glass shards skimmed across the floor toward Samus and Lita. They watched as the pieces bounced on the floor, then settled as the vibration's effects were no longer felt.
"What was that?" Lita asked.
"Someone is here...and I'll bet they just knocked," Samus said, readying her arm cannon.
Samus took off in the direction Lita had gone to reach the power.
"Hey, wait! Don't leave me here!" Lita screamed.
"Stay there! You didn't mind being alone earlier!" Samus yelled back.
Samus passed through corridor upon corridor as she ran through. Each corridor was about fifty yards in length, with opening chambers between each section. It became painfully evident to Samus that Lita was very wrong about this being the maintenance deck when she approached the last chamber before a door. Samus skidded to a halt.
Deja vu wouldn't quite be the term to describe what stood in front of Samus.
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It looked like the actual containment unit from the Ceres station. Identical in every way, especially the broken glass. Why was this here?
"Aww crap!" Lita said after she had caught up with Samus.
"You're going to explain this after I get back. Now stay here, I mean it," Samus said with a hint of anger.
She proceeded through the door and up the stairs inside. When she rounded the landing, she heard something and stopped. A slight hissing noise could he heard from the top of the stairs.
Samus ascended cautiously with her cannon aimed in front of her. When she topped the stairs, she saw a single entity.
It was humanoid, but definitely not human. Its 'skin' was entirely black, and looked smooth to the point of a shiny quality. Its posture was a bit slumped, but it still easily stood six and a half feet tall. Its eyes were a glassy yellow, but still had a human structure with an obvious iris and a rounded pupil. It had fleshy projections from its head that fell from its skull ranging in lengths from just below its jawbone to halfway down its torso.
Samus froze.
The two simply traded looks for what seemed like minutes.
Suddenly the creature opened its mouth and wrought a blood curdling roar. Its teeth were bestial fangs, seemingly able to rip even the toughest flesh.
Samus wasted no time opening fire. She shot an energy beam directly at the creature, but with catlike agility it dodged and rebounded off the wall. It rolled on the floor, then dove at Samus with outstretched claws. Samus sidestepped and dropped an elbow on the creature. As it fell to the floor, it slashed as Samus' side.
The screeching noise resounded inside Samus' helmet, causing her to squint.
As soon as the beast hit the floor, it swiveled and knocked Samus to the floor. It then jumped on top of her and tried to slash at her head. Samus caught the claw with her hand and blocked the other arm with her cannon. The two struggled for a bit until Samus rolled up and grabbed the monster's head with her feet. She slung it backwards and rolled up off of the ground.
By the time Samus had reached her feet, the creature had done the same. This time the beast screeched loudly, then dove at Samus again. Just as it was reaching Samus, it was knocked out of the air by a blast.
When Samus turned her head, she saw Lita standing at the top of the stairs with a smoking laser pistol.
"We've got to get out of here!" Lita yelled.
Samus nodded, but her attention quickly shifted to the hallway, where a platoon of the shadowy creatures rounded the corner. Something was wrong about one of them...its posture was different...it just didn't feel the same...what...who could that be? Was it human?
"Come ON! I've got the ship ready!" Lita screamed.
Samus snapped back to reality. She backpedaled and turned around running.
Surprisingly, Lita could keep up with Samus. Not many normal humans could accomplish that task...and how did she know how to operate her ship?
They flew down the corridors and back into the bay. As they reentered the ship, Samus barked orders.
"Grady, disengage the docking system. Ready defense systems. Get us out of here NOW!" Samus yelled.
"Aye, ma'am. Calm down, please,"
As the ship was pulling away from Orpheus, the creatures reached the bay. One of them dashed and jumped toward the ship. The autoguns came alive and peppered the creature with high velocity rounds. The monster absorbed a few of the shots, but soon succumbed to the flurry of bullets. Ripped flesh and discolored blood drifted outside the docking bay.
Most of the remaining beasts let forth a primal howl for their fallen comrade, but one simply stood and stared at the departing ship.
