CHAPTER 7

HUNTER LOG 3858
Those beasts didn't seem like beasts at all. Something about them was different from any monster she had encountered, even the space pirates. There was something more to their bestial appearance. They couldn't have been in the station previously...unless there was another secret to the facility. I'm still skeptical as to how Lita gained her knowledge of the Orpheus station. There is no literature available that is as detailed as the knowledge she has of the facility...

Samus out.
"Okay, spill it," Samus said to Lita.

"Spill what? I'm not about to confess to something you don't know about yet," Lita rebutted.

"All of it, tell me," Samus ordered.

"Well, as you may have guessed, the Orpheus installation was more that a simple research facility. All kinds of stuff went down there. There was the testing on the virus, aptly named Orpheus, but there were also many other tests. To the public, the facility was strictly known as a scientific research habitat for struggling researchers, but in reality, it was a testing facility for the military. Besides the virus, which was going to be used for biological warfare, the station also harbored a few metroids. At the time of the release of the virus, the higher-ups in the military had been pressuring the scientists to develop equipment and weaponry derived from the powers of the metroids. In the end, the scientists rebelled and..." Lita explained.

"They released the virus. They didn't want their work used for the destruction of anyone, human or beast. They were very virtuous in dying to uphold their beliefs..." Samus remarked.

"And the military, in league with the government, denied them public status as martyrs in return. How's that for benevolent?" said Lita.

"That's an interesting story, and very moving, but it still doesn't tell me what I'm need to know. How do you know all of this?" Samus probed.

"I told you, I studied..." started Lita.

"No, I don't buy that. There's no source of literature or otherwise that you could have accessed to obtain that kind of information. There's more to you than just brains. What kind of athletics did you do at the academy?" asked Samus.

"Athletics? You mean sports, well I didn't really...I didn't think I..." Lita stuttered.

"Come on! You kept up with me! I'm not a normal human. I..." Samus started.

"You're infused with Chozo blood, I know," Lita interrupted.

"If you know that, then you know what I'm asking," Samus said.

"I have Chozo blood, too," Lita said with her head down.

"You...how?" Samus responded in shock.

"It's a long story. This is not the time for it. We've got to figure out what's going on, and trust me, I should be the least of your worries," Lita said, lifting her head.

"Ma'am? We're being followed,"

"Followed? Isn't the cloaking engaged?" Samus asked.

"Yes, ma'am, but they're still managing to follow us, somehow,"

"Who is following us?" Samus inquired.

"It's one of the battleships from around the Alpha Combine...it's coming out from behind Orpheus! "

"What kind of readings are you picking up, Grady?" Samus asked.

"That's strange. I'm picking up all kinds of human activity now...on all of the ships,"

"That IS strange...why now and not earlier..." Samus asked herself out loud.

"This wasn't supposed to happen...I got there too late..." Lita said.

"What are you talking about?" Samus asked Lita.

"Nothing, nothing. It just wasn't supposed to happen this way. If I had finished that monster, then the rest wouldn't be after us," said Lita, slamming her hand down on a console.

"Hey, easy on the equipment. It's nothing we haven't encountered before. Taking on alien flagships is what we do," Samus said wryly.

"Well you're not going to outrun that thing, so what are we going to do?" Lita asked.

"Who says we can't outrun them? Grady, ready the warp drive, and while you're at it, aim us into the Chi sector," Samus ordered.

"The Chi sector, ma'am?"

"I'm with him, the Chi sector? There isn't anything there? What the heck are we going to do there?" Lita asked.

"Trust me," Samus said, bracing for the change in speed.

Lita was thrown back in her seat as the ship slammed into hyperspace. In the reverse viewscreen, Samus noticed a small flash, then the flagship appear on their flank. She had expected this. Several points on the bow of the flagship began to glow green. She had expected this as well.

The flagship attempted to fire its forward plasma cannons. The pulses screamed forward toward Samus' ship, but midway to their destination, they seemed to stall out. In reality, the blasts didn't stall, they simply weren't traveling at a high enough rate of speed to overtake Samus' vessel. In less than a second, the plasma slipped backward and into their origins, exploding on the front of the flagship.

"Heh, very nice..." Samus chuckled, "Grady, what bodies are going to appear at our destination in the Chi sector?"

"I'm not sure, in my database, I show a lava planet, but on my scanners, I pick something up that has temperatures vastly lower than the coldest comet on record,"

"I was counting on that. Take us down on that planet, geographic coordinates 93 degrees, 10 minutes, 33 seconds latitude, 36 degrees, 7 minutes, 12 seconds longitude," Samus said.

"Plotted, arrival in two minutes,"

"Eh! You been here before?" Lita asked.

"You have your secrets, I have mine, but no, I haven't exactly been here before," Samus said, turning to Lita.

"Haven't exactly been here? What, have you been here 'in spirit' or something? Come on, how do you know the coordinates?" Lita asked, complete with air quotes.

"Know the coordinates of what?" Samus asked immediately.

"The b...HEY!" Lita started.

"You know, too, don't you?" Samus theorized.

"Well...well everybody knows about the base on Lavalos-3..." Lita tried to rationalize.

"Yeah, everybody that was involved in the raid on LC-269," Samus said sternly, staring Lita directly in her pupils.

"I've been there and searched the base. I harvested info from deep inside the lair, and it was quite historic. They had designed a grid..." Lita started.

"I know. I was in the raid," Samus said.

"Then you...you worked with Commander Adam Malkovich?" Lita exclaimed.

"Yeah, you could say that..." Samus trailed.

"Tell me, what was he like? Was he as brave and as skilled as all of the books and reports say?" Lita asked with a giddy tone.

"Don't let the reports fool you. There will never be a man greater than Adam Malkovich. I owe him my life...a debt I can never repay," Samus said, bowing her head.

"I see..." Lita said, respecting Samus' feelings, "so he's why you do what you do?"

"Not totally...I have...other reasons," Samus said.

"Approaching Lavalos-3, otherwise known as LC-270, directing for coordinates, ma'am,"

"Take us in. Flash the distress beacon three times, then shut it off. They'll know who's coming," Samus ordered.

Grady guided the ship into the blizzard-like conditions of the planet. The beacon pulsed through the airwaves exactly three times, then paused. Within seconds, lights erupted from beneath them and landing pad lights illuminated the destination. The ship shuddered for a moment, then went silent.

Samus and Lita quickly dashed toward the only visible door as it opened revealing a well-lit interior.

"Hurry up! Get in here!" yelled a man tending to the entrance.

"Oh my GOD, I didn't think it could get that cold!" Lita said in a raised voice.

"I thought you said you had been to LC-269," Samus started.

"Not when the grid was up, geez, it was a heck of a lot warmer than this," Lita popped off.

"Well, well, if it isn't Samus Aran, the little understudy of Commander Adam Malkovich," a man said from down the hall.

Samus' head raised, "Anybody but Alan..."

"Sometimes I wonder why he didn't just let you go off and kill yourself," Alan said, standing easily a head over Samus.

"I get it, Alan..." Samus said, proceeding past him.

Alan reached out and grabbed Samus' arm.

"No, I don't think you do. Because of you, we lost our commanding officer, the best dn commanding officer the Federation ever had, and what do you do to show your gratitude for his sacrifice? You quit the forces and register as some freelance bounty hunter! You're just some aimless rogue running around doing whatever for the highest bidder! Where's your allegiance to the Federation? Where's your pride? Where's your sense of responsibility? Why aren't you honoring Commander Malkovich's memory!" Alan yelled.

Samus threw off Alan's hand.

"You have NO IDEA of the burdens I carry! Who are you to say I have no pride and no sense of responsibility? Adam went above and beyond what was expected of him, and he deliberately disobeyed direct orders to stick to the mission. Adam saved the Federation because he chose to help me...I and I alone bear the burden of his death, you have no business trying to make me feel any worse," Samus rebutted.

Alan pushed Samus against a wall.

"You arrogant little bh! Listen to yourself! Saying that you're the reason the Commander became a hero! And what makes you think that you're the only one that can bear the burden of his death? He was our C.O., too! Our loss was just as great, if not greater than yours. You had no regard for anyone's life, even your own! Why should you even care?" Alan retorted.

Samus sent her knee into Alan's crotch, sending him crumpling to the ground.

"He died at my cost, and I will be paying that penance until the day I leave this place. My responsibility is to do what he would have wanted. My pride isn't in the ornamental decoration of the armed forces. I don't desire rank or appreciation for what I do; I simply do it because it's right. You might try that the next time you sit idly by while someone else rushes to the beckoning of the Federation," Samus said as she continued down the hall.

"Uhghhhgh, I'm...guh...I'm not done with you, Samus!" Alan coughed.

Samus and Lita entered a room down the corridor. It had two beds, a closet, and a bathroom.

"So we plan on staying a while?" Lita asked.

"Just long enough to rest," Samus said abruptly.

"Who was that guy?" Lita inquired.

"He was in my unit with Adam..." Samus turned away.

"So Commander Malkovich..." Lita started.

"I'd rather not discuss that," Samus entered the bathroom and locked the door.