Two chapters? Well, as I mentioned earlier, I finished the last one a while back and I finished this one yesterday. I'm already partway done with the next one, I apparently found a lot of inspiration very quickly. I can't explain it because even I don't fully understand the cause. I've got some ideas, but I'll keep those to myself. Not to mention a lot of enteresting stuff stops happening in this chapter and it becomes a glorified fetch quest, albeit one with good puzzles.

Chapter 8: Sector 3 Revisited

"The boiler in Sector 3 is overheating. The cooling unit is offline. You have six minutes before it explodes and destroys the station."

"How can the AI be so calm?" we ask Samus.

"Don't as, RUN!"

We charge up the elevator of Sector 5, down the hall, and into Sector 3.

"Ke nari ivin'yc, shuk'yc!" We shout at the elevator, which isn't moving any faster than usual. Not surprising.

"What's that mean?" Samus asks while its still moving.

"Move vaster, useless."

"Makes sense, RUN!"

Not even the X creatures have decided to leave. If anything they're more determined to kill us. We run through a series of halls, almost on instinct, barely checking the map and using rooms we've never been in before. Samus opens a door and a blast of heat emerges. We immediately throw up a shield around ourselves to prevent damage. Samus runs through a few more rooms, dodging crocodile wallhuggers, parrots, and fireballs that shoot out of the lava below us. Eventually ew make it to the boiler room, which oddly sin't warm at all. We dispel our shield and drop into the control room. A scientist stands, pressing buttons on the colsole, raising the temperature faster.

"What are you doing?!" Samus shouts, "Are you insane?" When the scientist doesn't respond, she fires a missile at him. He grunts like an X and dissolves into a shielded Core X. We remember how to kill this type, waiting for it to open its ehey while dodging its attempts to ram us. It opens its eye and fires a large bolt of energy. We dive out of the way, but Samus seems to be almost panicked. "Composite!" The shot hits the wall behind us and explodes.

Pain. That's the first thing we notice when we come to. We must have only been out for a few seconds, since Samus is still battling the Super Core-X. Sparks of energy flicker at the edge of our vision as we regain our feet. The Super Core-X turns towards us, opening its eye. We growl a curse and fire an anti-armor round right into its face. "Sooran, shab! Suck on that!"

The Core-X dissolves and Samus absorbs the remains. We race up to the console and place our hand on it, sending probes of energy into the network. "Come on, come on, where is it? Okay, and… SCRAM!" We set a bit in the system. The cooling modules come online with a whoosh and the boiler slams into an emergency shutdown.

Samus test-fires her new beam. It fired a ring of energy as tall as she is. She charges it and fires a ball of energy that explodes on impact, "Good, it looks like a hybrid of Spazer and Diffusion. Very useful. Why did you scram it instead of just turning on the cooler?"

"The AI's estimate was a little off. Just turning on the coolers wouldn't have saved the station," We start to flip switches, bringing the boiler back online safely, "Now, let's go report in..."

"Odd. The X could have destroyed the station, and all X on-board. Maybe they thought you're a danger to X elsewhere. Either way, I detect life signs on the habitation deck. I've restored power to the main lift, go find these survivors."

We hurry up to main deck, following the map to the designated location. We have to use some of the crocodile wallhuggers as platforms on the way up with Samus's Ice Missiles.

Samus looks through the window of the habitation deck. "I think I know these, but I'd have to be certain. How do we get past this gate?"

"Not sure, there isn't a button on this side. Let's try dropping down," We burst out a block of the floor and fall down to the second of three levels. We place our hand on the wall and release a pulse of telekinetic energy. "Okay… this block can be destroyed with bombs, we think there's a tunnel linking the first and third 's a block beyond this chunk here that requires boosti – Hey!" Samus speeds past us, already guessing and crashing through the speed block in question. She drops to the first floor and enters the tunnel. We follow her and climb the tunnel using crocodiles as platforms some more. She steps onto the console on the third floor, opening the habitation deck and the gate.

"Etecoons and Dachoras," Samus muses as we go down the elevator, "I've met these people before. I hope they're safe. I wonder how they got here..."

"So the survivors weren't human… most unfortunate," The AI beings, We bristle at the comment, but the AI ignores us. "We can now confirm the death of all crew members… I hoped it wasn't so, but I've got proof now. The X probably only infected the crew for knowledge, they're too weak for battle. Samus, go to Sector 5, Power Bombs are ready."

"Good," Samus responds with… is that a hint of excitement?

"You sound happy," we comment once the AI disocnnects and we're heading to the elevator.

"Power Bombs? I've been looking forward to getting these back."

We quickly head back to the arctic sector…

We're running through a room in Sector 5 when a loud whooshing sound and shadow pass by the glass back.

"What's that?" We ask Samus.

"No idea… No, it can't be! Stay alert, if that's what I think it is we're going to have trouble if we meet it."

We get to the data room without incident and Samus downloaded the Power Bomb data. We leave the Data Room and fall down the vertical shaft. We re-enter the room with the first pulsating blob… and it's gone.

Repair complete: All visual filters online

"Oh, good, so that's ready," we comment.

"What's ready?" Samus asks.

"Our X-Ray and EM sensors are online," Our visor turns gray and we look around, "And that looks like a Power Bomb symbol. Think you could do something about that?" We throw up our heat shield and Samus drops a bomb on the floor above the location we indicate. The bomb clicks down from three and releases a massive shockwave. The block identified is destroyed.

"Impressive," we comment, "Quite impressive."

The two of us fall down the hole and go through another door… and vault over a divider just in time to avoid being spotted by the SA-X. Samus prepares to drop a power bomb to destroy the wall across from the divider.

"No!" we hiss, "That divider is made entirely of power bomb blocks, it'll see us, let us try," We pop up and bomb out a block our visor indicates is weakened. We quietly roll through and out a door on the other side. The SA-X doesn't hear us. We travel through another chamber, Samus using a Power Bomb to both destroy the floor of the top half of the chamber and reveal a Power Bomb tank. A few rooms later Samus used a Power Bomb to destroy a large green Barrier X, but the return to the navigation room was otherwise uneventful.

"Samus, return to your ship immediately. I have important information." The AI prompts as soon as we connect and signs off.

"That was abrupt," we comment.

"Yes, we'd better follow its orders," Samus confirms, "In my experience, when officers don't explain themselves, they're either doing something illegal or there's no time to explain."

We race to the main deck elevator… and the power goes out. Our visor flashes to green and Samus's helmet begins to glow.

Samus says what we're both thinking, "This… could be a problem."