Chapter Seven
"Cool," Samus remarked to herself, inspecting her Arm Cannon carefully. According to her Visor display, her Arm Cannon's shock absorbers were up to the task of handling heavier firepower once more.
As this occurred, she stood at a place deeper in the forest, a place simultaneously welcoming and foreboding. A rock facade stood before her, nicely framed by the invasive vines and thick foliage. Strange, but to Samus, vaguely familiar, carvings adorned its weathered and cracked surface.
SCAN VISOR DATA: Scan complete. Chozo script translated. Scan data recorded to Logbook for further review.
It read,
"We, the Chozo, land here on this planet for the purpose of civilizing this land and taming its resources. We detected no indigenous sentients, but if we missed them, we wish to inform them that we mean no harm. In recognition of this event's rarity and stunning beauty, we have decreed in our charter that all actions made upon this paradise are to be for the mutual gain of both our race and this planet's pristine biosphere."
She returned to the present, spotting a hexagonal door in the facade underneath the carvings. A shot from her Power Beam proved the way to energize the door, and it slid neatly into the rock surrounding it to admit Samus into the area beyond.
The tan and brown stone continued into this expansive plaza; unfortunately, so did the invasion of nature. Large portions of the walls now served as boulders on the floor, the rock platforms hadn't aged any better. She surmised this room had once been three floors, with the solid slab of floor she stood on being all that remained of the top floor. Below her, reaching the length of the room, were the pieces of the second floor that remained attached to the crumbling walls. The collected rubble lay in a heap below, forever obstructing whatever was unfortunate enough to be down there.
Samus hopped off the top platform to the pile of rubble. From here, she observed an area on the bottom free of debris, and another door in the wall facing this free area. Another Power Beam shot energized this door, too, allowing her entry into a dimly lit hallway. The door slid shut behind her, revealing the only illumination source as the cracks in the ceiling letting in the sunlight. Hurriedly, worried said ceiling could cave at any moment, she ran to the other end, opening this door as well.
Another room greeted her here, a circular one this time. The far side of the room was occupied by a stage-like platform. Facing it, showing signs of heavy damage, were a series of descending concentric rings that occupied the rest of the space. Above, the roof had seemingly vanished, leaving only small chunks of what Samus guessed was a dome-like ceiling. More carvings graced the back wall of the stage area.
SCAN VISOR DATA: Scan complete. Chozo script translated. Scan data recorded to Logbook for further review.
It read,
"Our settlement has grown to triple its original size. Thus is the plentiful bounty of this planet, and why we must preserve it as we preserve ourselves. We can only hope for more good things to come for us, as we shall work at them and cultivate them. We can only hope for our descendants or anyone else that stumbles upon this planet to do the same."
Two more doors, one on each side, branched from the back wall of the stage platform. The one on the right failed to open with shooting, and a Missile proved ineffective in breaching it. Samus gave up and shot the left door, which slid open for her, leading her into the next area. This similarly large room expanded to the left of her, occupied almost entirely by ruined stone slabs.
SCAN VISOR DATA: These articles appear to be simple furniture for a small gathering. The carvings on the table indicate the most respected elders met here.
Then, on a tablet upon the table,
SCAN VISOR DATA: Scan complete. Chozo script translated. Scan data recorded to Logbook for further review.
And lo,
"We expand out from our new home here, ready to see what else this planet holds in store. We have found leftover runes from what could be a former indigenous race. We fear they are long gone, and pity we could not make an alliance with these people for the good of us both."
So there are more ruins, Samus wondered to herself. Apparently the Chozo found ruins left behind just as we found theirs.
Another exit, again shoot-to-open, took her to another ruined courtyard. This time, however, it featured some foreign objects of what appeared to be Galactic Federation origin. Scaffolds bridged the gaps between floor remnants. Floodlights graced the edges of the floors at intervals, their power cords snaking to a small metallic box that Samus could see was some sort of generator. More cords reached from it, receding into cracks in the walls to parts unknown. Apparently the Federation had just started taking interest in this place as an archaeological dig site.
Samus noticed the computer readout next to the generator. A note taped to the dead monitor read, "This Fuel Cell died on us and trapped some of our men deeper in the Ruins. The doors are without power, and unless they can get the old Chozo power generation systems back online, which is highly unlikely, we'll have to hurry to requisition another from HQ.
Without hesitation, Samus quickly tapped into her Suit computer a mission objective. "Further exploration of Chozo Ruins impossible without door power. Find a good Fuel Cell and bring to these coordinates."
A gap in the ceiling seemed to be the quickest way out, but none of the scaffolds reached high enough to reach it, and Samus didn't want to overstress her Space Jump right away. Instead, she backtracked. Heading back through the meeting hall and the auditorium/stage, she stopped back at the hallway with the precariously weakened roof.
SCAN VISOR DATA: This roof panel is made of Talloric Alloy. Aging and natural growth have weakened it significantly."
Without hesitation, Samus rolled up into the Morph Ball form, setting a Bomb to jump up to the ceiling, followed by another to destroy it. Rolling out of the way just in time, she avoided the collapsing mound of dirt and rock that now filled the hallway. She could still see, and make her way to, both of the doors, but the dirt formed a makeshift ramp for her to walk up out of.
But she realized, just as she disengaged Morph Ball, that she had done more damage than immediately evident. The repair progress bar for her Bombs flashed in her heads-up readout, and had dropped noticeably. "Damn," Samus exclaimed, "I'll have to be more careful next time."