Nat Hayes hurried through the tunnels, feeling heartened. He must have beaten them, mustn't he? They were all the way back at the clearing looking through the wreckage of his ship for him, while he was well on his way to a more easily defendable, and more importantly locatable, location. The Federation agent quickly glanced around the cavern he was in, listening hard. When he was certain there were no signs of life he sat down in a corner to get his breath back. This wasn't so difficult, was it? He could get used to these one-man missions, there were lifelines everywhere for those resourceful enough to look for them.

He checked his force field generator, still ten or twenty minutes worth of energy on there, no trouble whatsoever. He was about to set off again when he froze, was that a noise? The soldier strained to listen, and then shrugged shoulders and carried on. There was no way they'd be on his trail yet, surely…

Samus looked through the green tinted visor of her battle suit at the surface of the planet.

"What a dump" she complained, manoeuvring her ship into a hovering position as she looked down at the barren, rocky terrain far below.

"Co-ordinates have been confirmed, this is the location" said Adam.

"Life-signs?"

"Not from this range"

The bounty hunter looked over the monitor screens in front of her and frowned. Something wasn't right, the readings were inconsistent.

"Adam, can you show me a full view of the planet?"

"Certainly, just give me a moment"

Samus stared at the image and saw that the same side of the planet always faced the sun. Half of the surface was desolate rock and ice, the other half was covered in volcanic mountains.

"Surely nothing can survive for long on there?" she asked Adam.

"If you will look at these locations, Lady" the image on the screen rotated and zoomed in "there is a thin strip of jungles and caves between the two faces of the planet. This is most likely where our target will be found"

"Then that's where I'm headed". Samus closed down the monitors and swooped down towards the planet's horizon, where she could now see a dim red outline against the grey-blue rock below her.

On the floor of the cockpit lay Harvard's package, so far undiscovered.

"Sorry sir, the signal was lost"

Harvard was fuming, and now noticeably shaky. All of their attempts to contact Samus so far had been unsuccessful.

"She's getting further and further away, Harvard." said Leon Peters, who was sat nearby in deep thought "Her communication systems just won't be up to picking up such a weak signal"

"Then we at least have to send a squad after her" Harvard turned to one of the staff, "How soon can we get a squad ready?"

"Well, to load supplies and alert the –"

"No!" Leon almost shouted, "If Samus Aran can't beat it, sending regular soldiers would just be manslaughter"

"Well then what do you suggest we do, Peters?"

"I'd tell you if I could get a chance to think for five minutes!"

"You really think that there's any way she can go there and come back alive?"

A thought seemed to strike Leon and suddenly his eyes gleamed "Imagine if she could bring back a sample of the Levitas. The advances in research could be phenomenal!"

Harvard rubbed his eyes while he tried to formulate a response to this. "Peters, she's going to face a Levitas. We'll be lucky if it sends us a sample of Samus. Can you get your priorities right for a moment?"

"You don't understand, a sample of Levitas DNA would –"

Harvard cut him off "Listen to me, Peters" he waved a hand at the ceiling "Samus is somewhere out there beyond help, Nat Hayes is probably dead already, are we just going to let her die?"

Leon blinked then looked at Harvard "She's not… completely beyond help."

Samus landed the ship just outside the caves, on the dark side of the planet. "So, what's the mission, Adam?" she asked, a wry smile playing about her lips.

"You know the drill, lady. Get down there and get rid of anything that gets in your way." Adam answered "And don't forget to look for agent Nat Hayes as well."

"Roger that, Adam" Samus saluted him as the hatch opened and she climbed out into the cold alien world. The bounty hunter looked around at the terrain while she got used to the feel of the battle suit again. Hopping down from her ship, now in the familiar hovering position, she sighed contentedly.

"It's been a while"

Authors Note: Hope you're all enjoying this, leave some feedback if you can and remember, criticism is much more useful than praise (although not as nice). Expect a longer chapter next, featuring the start of the action! Until Next Time...

OzGuR