Renick's ship watched the hyperspace lanes. Unpowered, floating in the endless black of space. The ship wasn't nearly as badly damaged as anyone thought it was. A few broken circuits here and there, maybe a hull breach where it wouldn't matter. It was fully functional, and had been for years. It rotated slowly at a fixed rate. An unnatural fixed rate. It had been doing this since Cenir left it there three years ago. Yes, he had lied to Samus. Not much of surprise considering much of what he had told Samus was a lie. But what was lie and what was fact? Cenir wasn't sure of it himself.

Inside a power-suit of his own, he watched Samus as she traversed the great distance to the IBHA station on the HUD of his visor. A line was drawn between her location and destination, and was shrinking at a rapid rate. Soon, she would be locked into his cause, and forced to work to his ends. After all, manipulating people was what he did. Even Samus had fallen for his deception, despite her misgivings about him.

Nobody is ever completely immune.

Cenir concentrated on the beings aboard the IBHA station. All of them were confused over his disappearance. He felt the search teams looking for him aboard the station, but not in the surrounding space. He would go undiscovered until he called Samus to him. Good.

One hour passed, and nobody saw her. A second hour passed, yet still she remained hidden. Samus' ship sat on it's side, landing gear clamped to the outer frame of her old quarters. The window was gone, which worked to her advantage, and there didn't seem to be any sign of recent use; another advantage. But why had she been sitting there for two hours? Simple, Samus wasn't in the ship. She was pulling herself along the surface of the station, looking for a significant place to surprise them. Using her X-ray visor, she was hoping top find a corridor, or room, loaded with Kriken. She would then breach the wall, and let the vacuum do most of the work for her. Unless, of course, their exoskeletons protected against that. In said case, she could always blast her way through. Not as easy, but equally effective.

Finally, she came upon the perfect spot. It was a research lab, from the objects strewn about the room, with twenty-six Kriken working on a strange device. Maybe it was the Phazon Reactor. That would be ideal. But things are rarely ideal. Not wanting to waste time, she started grinding through the hull. It was thicker than she had originally thought, and would take longer to get through than expected. That was a bad thing. If she took too long, they would hear the sound vibrating through the hull, and possibly sound off the alarm. Samus increased the speed of her spin. While she spun, she caught a glimpse as one scientist looked up from his work, studying the point through which she was about to break in.

Poor guy. She thought was she tore into the room, shredding the observant Kriken. There was a moment when everything seemed to slow down, and she could see the expressions of surprise on the her enemies' faces. Well, the way they whipped their heads around was what really betrayed surprise(Kriken faces are impossible for humans to read). Then they were sucked out the hole, one by one falling into darkness. But one Kriken stayed behind. His legs were set into the floor to anchor him against the escaping air that tried to pull him with it. His floating head stared at Samus with a lone eye, studying her, and assessing the potential threat she posed.

So, they can withstand vacuum.

For a moment, each stood their ground, legs spread wide like cowboys in an old western. At the same time, they brought their weapons to bear on each other. An arm-cannon loaded with a standard power-beam, the other a deadly sniper weapon of perfect accuracy. Charging their respective weapons, they began circling around the room, which was now free of air, so each moved a little more smoothly than normal. Tension built between the two, it was a matter of who would shoot first, and if the targeted would dodge. Both hoped they would be victorious.

Samus thrust her left hand foreward, grabbing the enemy with her grapple-beam, and pulled him towards her. The Kriken, his wits still about him, released his weapon's charge harmlessly into the floor. Or at least it should've been harmless. The air from the chamber below came rushing through the hole and into the vacuum, blowing him out of Samus' grip. He attached himself to the ceiling, and looked down at where Samus stood, a ball of pure energy glowing from the tip of her weapon.

For a moment, they stood motionless, each studying the other. Then, without warning, the Kriken warrior lunged forward, it's sharp tipped arms aimed forward at her face. Samus blocked the blow with her hand and arm-cannon catching it in the chest, and threw the insect to the side before blasting it with the charged bolt. Or, at least she attempted to blast it. The Kriken was on his feat again, and out of the way by the time her attack fell on the now unoccupied space.

Samus looked around for where he might have gone to. But she saw nothing. She walked around the room's perimeter, hoping to spot the warrior, but only saw what had already been in it. That and some Triskellion tracks in the carpet.

Wait...!!

Samus jumped out of the way just in time, as a flying red blur wizzed by her. Upon hitting the ground, her finger spasmed and fired a super missle into the floor, throwing her across the room. Samus, a little stunned, picked herself up off the floor, only to be thrown back down again a moment later by the red blur of a Kriken.

A warning flashed on Samus' visor. Her missle rack had been damaged. She brought the arm-cannon up to her visor for a visual check. Sure enough, there was a large chunk missing, exposing the gloved hand within.

Damn you. She thought at the Kriken. That wasn't going to be easy to fix. Especially if she wound up dead. The Kiriken made another pass at her, but she caught it this time with her left hand. It's Triskellion form allowed it invisibility when motionless, as well as a speedy and deadly attack.

It tried to resist her hold by pushing away. Samus countered by pulling on it. She jammed the nozzle of her weapon into it's face, and tried to fire. The Kriken stopped resisting unexpectedly and pulled itself to her. The arm-cannon slipped away from it's head, and the Kriken shot past her shoulder, damaging the right shoulder-guard. A warning about life support failure displayed itself on Samus' visor, as well as a countdown until her air ran out. Six minutes. She had to end this, fast. It had the advantage, but Samus wasn't dumb enough to continue the fight.

Wishing she didn't have to retreat, Samus ran towards the door. The Kriken followed.