XXII. Daiban
"Torchar City, this is Samus Aaron. Respond."
Samus, Joanna, and Lara stood facing the view screen, most of which was taken up by the looming shape of an earth-like world glowing brightly against the backdrop of a star-filled sky. Almost as soon as they entered Galactic Federation space, they knew something was wrong. The usual checkpoints didn't hail her ship to confirm Samus' identity and registration. Eventually, Samus hailed them. No one answered her hails…at first. When she did get a response, it was always the same. Screams, explosions, static…chaos. They passed by debris floating freely in space. Sometimes bodies would float by with signs of burns, lacerations, blunt-force trauma, depressurization, and even metroid attacks. Now they were orbiting Daiban, attempting to hail the capitol city's main space port. No one answered. Adjusting a frequencies, Samus tried again.
"This is bounty hunter Samus Aaron in orbit above Planet Daiban," she said, enunciating clearly, "Does anyone read this transmission?"
The planet hung silently before them. The sight and the surrounding silence sent chills up the women's spines.
"How populated is this planet?" Jo asked quietly.
"Fifty-trillion," Samus replied. "This is Samus Aaron-"
"It's no good, Samus," Lara interrupted. "They're all either dead or unable to communicate. They may not even exist yet. The only way to know is to go down there."
Samus breathed out a hard breath and pressed a button on her console, causing two chairs with harness straps to fold out of the wall.
"Strap in," she said.
"Out of the skillet and into the raging inferno," Jo muttered.
Moments later, they were tearing through the atmosphere, Creto feeding Samus a constant stream of reports on anything out of place. They were definitely in the right century, or close to it. There were multiple life signs inside and outside of buildings, few power generators online, structural damage on nearly every building, and, worst of all, metroids roaming the streets in multitudes.
They landed, not at the space port, but directly in front of the entrance to the GF Headquarters central hub. The women unstrapped themselves and stood. Samus activated her new suit while Joanna and Lara checked their clips. It was fortunate that Creto had plenty raw material stored away which was normally used to manufacture missiles for Samus' suit. Samus had one of Lara's bullets scanned and, within twenty minutes, replicated enough bullets to fill all their clips and have plenty left over.
"Com check," Samus stated, tapping some buttons on her console.
"I read you." Lara replied as Jo activated her lenses.
"Roger," Jo replied. "Do you have video?"
"Affirmative," Samus said. "Take a look at this."
The two ladies looked up at the viewscreen to see the schematic of a creature that looked to them like a carnivorous jellyfish.
"This is a metroid," Samus told them. "We're bound to encounter them. They're usually three or four meters in diameter. Hitting them with massive, successive explosions is the only way to kill them. If you freeze it, you may be able to shatter it, so be ready with your freeze guns. These are other forms they may take. Watch out for this last one. It's a queen. If you encounter it, don't try to take it on. Just get out of there and report its existence."
"You expecting us to get separated?" Lara asked her.
"Just preparing for the worst," Samus answered. "Actually, If you hadn't accomplished what you had back on Tallon Four, I wouldn't even allow you to go in there. I always expect not to come back from missions like these."
"Well thanks for the pep talk, coach," Jo shot at her. "Why don't you just blast the place to smithereens from above. That way we kill your metroids and take out the time device at the same time?"
"We don't know exactly what's happened here," Samus answered, "This could have nothing to do with the time device. It may not even be here. And there may be survivors who need our help. However, if it is here, it's likely to be in the research facilities located underground. They're shielded. My best weaponry wouldn't be able to penetrate it."
"Figures," Jo replied.
"Anything else?" Samus asked.
"Oh no," Jo said. "Let's all go and have a jolly good time."
Samus ignored Jo's biting sarcasm and moved to exit the ship.