Dark Mystery

"Looks like the one I found near Tallon IV during my first mission there," Samus said as they disembarked their own ship and boarded the Pirate frigate's exterior platform.

"Not a good sign," Jake replied.

They moved cautiously, senses alert for any sign of life, hostile or otherwise. The only thing they encountered on the platform was security walls and a handful of automated turrets. Samus was glad to have Jake by her side, though she kept thinking of having him in other positions as they moved towards the frigate's main door.

"When we get back," he said into her mind with a chuckle, sending Samus an image of what he had in mind for her.

"We better hurry if you expect me to wait until we're back on my ship," she responded mentally, focusing on her own mental image in the hopes that he would see it.

They reached the doors after a few short minutes of maneuvering around destroyed sections of grating and wrecked ships. Samus and Jake took up positions on either side of the door, readying their weapons. Jake hit the button for the large door with his elbow, charging Wave energy into his suit in case anything was waiting on the other side. His eyes went wide as he beheld the interior bay.

"What the fuck happened here?" He asked aloud as he beheld the extent of destruction inside.

"Look," Samus said, pointing towards a set of deep gouges into the metal walls.

Jake recognized them immediately as claw marks, though the creature possessing them must have been enormous. They entered slowly, eyes scanning every surface in sight.

"Scan whatever you can, I'll cover you," Jake said, surprising her.

As she scanned whatever she could find in the room, she remembered that Jake had once held the rank of Commander among the Federation's military force, and that he had founded the Research Hunter Division. Samus scowled as none of her scans yielded anything to help tell them what happened or what the Pirates had been up to. She turned to look as a bright light filled the chamber, surprised to see the source coming from a crate that Jake had just opened.

"What are these?" He asked her as he found a pair of tongs to lift out a crystal that glowed brightly.

"It looks like one of the Luminoth's light crystals," Samus said, scanning the object to confirm.

"Are they dangerous?" Jake asked, letting out a sigh of relief as Samus shook her head.

Jake let out a sharp gasp as he touched the crystal and its light flared even brighter, vanishing into his hand as its light faded. His Power Suit now gave off a faint glow similar to the crystals'.

"Are you alright?" Samus asked as she ran to him.

"I think so," Jake replied as he stared at his now empty hand.

"Wait, if that was a light crystal, then these Pirates were on Aether and likely have an active operation there," Samus exclaimed.

"To hell with what happened here. The Luminoth helped you before, we should be helping them," Jake said.

"Go on ahead to the ship, I'll be there in a minute," he added, charging his suit with plasma energy and making it form an orb between his hands.

Samus made a run for their ship as soon as she saw what he was doing, wanting to make sure they'd be able to escape the blast. She had just fired up the main engines when the door they had entered exploded outward, a dark figure trailing behind it. She gasped as she recognized the figure as Jake, his stance combative as he skidded to a halt.

"Get off the platform!" He shouted through the comm link to her ship.

She was about to ask why when she saw the massive Space Pirate lumber out through the hole in the frigate, it's form more grotesquely mutated than the ones they had encountered on Tallon IV. She gasped as she saw bits of its body that resembled their leader, Ridley. She couldn't help but wonder what the hell the Pirates were up to if they were making such creatures as she guided the ship a short distance above the frigate.

She watched in awe as Jake clashed with the creature, battering it towards the edge of the platform. With a kick infused with Wave energy, Jake sent the mutated Pirate sailing into open space before rapidly charging a massive amount of Plasma energy and firing it at the Pirate, incinerating it completely. He leapt towards Samus' ship, charging another blast of Plasma energy to fire at the Pirate frigate. Jake fired the charged energy from the rear hatch of the ship, the beam tearing through the frigate with ease. As soon as the hatch closed behind him, Samus sped her ship as far from the blast as she could.

"Well, that could have gone better," Samus said as they put more distance between them and the frigate's wreckage.

"At least we got back to your ship quickly," he answered after he removed his helmet, disengaging hers as he spoke.

"We still have a while before we reach Aether," Samus said hurriedly as she switched on the autopilot and stepped out of her Power Suit, grabbing Jake by the hand and leading him to her cot. Their cot now, Samus thought to herself with a smile as she watched Jake step out of his own suit to pick up where they had left off before the frigate neared.